Easter Eggs For Everyone!

Neither Steve nor I have family close, so Easter doesn't end up being a big celebration around here.  But I'll never miss an opportunity to color eggs!

Steve's eggs.  You'll see, clockwise from top, his Seasonally Inappropriate Christmas Egg, Turtle Egg, UCLAegg, Kidd (MacDougall) Egg, Galaxy Egg, and in the middle (for me), U of IL Egg.

And mine.  At the top is my attempt at a Starry Night Egg, then from left to right, my Eggquality Egg, the pink egg my Grandma Peggy requested, (Kidd) MacDougall (I googled the MacDougall tartan) Egg, a flower you can't see well, and a rainbow egg.

Closer-up version of the Starry Night egg.

This is how you improvise a plaid egg.  Electrical tape for the win.

And the Kidd MacDougall eggs together.

Today is also Grandma Peggy's birthday, so we had an afternoon Skype date with everyone who was over at my parents' house.  Technology is fabulous!

37 Weeks

Okay, this kid can decide to be born any day now.  Really.  Operation Get Baby Out is on.  Spicy food, pineapple, long walks... will any of it help?  Probably not, but I'm willing to try.

You might remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that I desperately needed a haircut.  Well, I got it!  And... it's a wee bit shorter than I'd been imagining.  Ha.  Y, who has been cutting my hair for years, hadn't known I was pregnant, and I hadn't known she's getting married in May.  We were talking about babies and weddings and she just kept snipping away!  I was hoping to be able to throw my hair into a ponytail for labor, but that won't be happening now.  Oh well!  Her haircuts always grow out nicely, so I'll just have to wait for that.

This week, we graduated from Prepared Childbirth.  So... I guess we're certified Ready.  We practiced diapering and swaddling, learned how to give a bath, care for the umbilical cord, and soothe an upset baby with the Five S's: Suck, Swaddle, Shhh, Swinging, and Side/Stomach.  We'll see if they work.

Since we got pregnant (and because we're not naming the baby until we meet him), Steve's been on the hunt for the most ridiculous names possible.  His latest?  Obidiah Juan.  Obi for short, obviously.  Unlike one of our actual names, which has a potential pop culture reference I think (hope) is too obscure to cause a problem, that one will probably still be going strong for years to come.

You're welcome, Kidd MacDougall.  (And you're welcome that Kidd MacDougall will also not actually be your name.)

36 Weeks

I should almost call this 36 ½ Weeks.  I usually take my picture on Thursday morning, Friday at the latest.  Hello, Sunday!  36 weeks really feels like the countdown now.  Four weeks to go.  Less than a month.

This week's childbirth class was on C-sections and postpartum care.  I'm glad it ended with postpartum care, or I might have had more nightmares.  They showed a video of an actual C-section, and... I closed my eyes a lot.  Let's just leave it at that.   Ugh.

And because I so very badly do not want a C-section, of course my doctor's appointment this week would have gone the way it did.  My OB has fully admitted that, after 16 weeks, their ultrasound machine is not the most exact in getting measurements.  (The baby's head took up the entire screen, so I can see how measuring the whole baby might be difficult.)  She recommended I go back for one more 3D ultrasound early in my 37th week to get some more accurate measurements.  However.  She measured the baby (by head and tummy) at seven pounds and with a head diameter of 9 centimeters.

There's still a month to go!  I asked how much larger his head is likely to get, and she said, "I'm not saying anything's going to happen or isn't going to happen, but I just want you to consider the possibility of alternate modes of delivery."

I suppose I would rather know I'm going to have a C-section from the beginning than go through hours and hours of labor and then still end up with a C-section.  I suppose.  But I'd really rather just not get sliced into at all, thank you very much.

She also said, "If you have the baby before you get that ultrasound, then he'll probably still be small enough and all this worrying will be for nothing." 

Just because everyone thinks he'll be born early, he'll probably be late...

In more pleasant news, I went to meet with a pediatrician on Wednesday.  I'd gathered a few recommendations from friends and checked them out online, but this is the first doctor I visited in person.  The office I went to was both recommended by my OB and raved about by a friend, and I felt really comfortable with them.  So I can check that off my list!

We can also check off packing the hospital bag and pre-registering at the hospital.  [Internet spell check doesn't like "pre-registering."  It recommended per-registering, ore-registering, pr-registering and pee-registering.  What?!]

And this weekend was all about getting things organized.  Three loads of baby laundry (most of that was sheets and mattress pads and nursing pillow covers, but one fun load was clothes) and I'm actually putting things away, instead of leaving them piled on the table downstairs.  Now we can once again eat dinner in a civilized manner, instead of on the couch hunched over the coffee table.  Hunching over is not easy with a big belly in your way.

Productivity for the win! 

Sunny with a Chance of Showers

When we went out early Saturday morning to walk the dog, it was like walking through soup, it was so foggy.

"I hope this burns off and the sun comes out by this afternoon," I said.

"Me too!  At least one of our friends has never been here before.  We should give a good first impression!" Steve piped up.

As it turned out, the fog did burn off and the sun did come out by late morning, leaving us with a gorgeous day.

A gorgeous day for a shower!

Four of my fabulous friends threw us the perfect baby shower.  There was delicious food (including the most amazing mini cupcakes I think I've ever tasted), most of my favorite people, adorable decorations, and fun projects.

Oh, and my mom and sister were there.

Both of them (and my dad, too) will be flying out separately once the baby is born, so I didn't even consider that they'd come for the shower, too.  After our Skype shower worked out so well, my mom asked me to set up a laptop (tricky because I don't think there's an internet connection in the clubhouse, and out laptops are very old) or one of our phones with Skype at this shower, so she could "attend" long-distance. I was focused on that, and put Steve in charge of making sure the video chat worked.

My friends keep a good secret, and I was pretty surprised when they walked through the door!

I'm also pretty excited about the project everyone participated in.  There were pages with letters of the alphabet printed on them, one letter per page, and everyone who wanted one drew pictures that started with their letter.  One of my friends collected them and is going to laminate them, so Kidd MacDougall will have his very own custom alphabet book!  How neat is that?

The rest of the weekend was packed, too.  It already would have been busy, but there was the added layer of unexpected out-of-town guests.  (Which I am NOT complaining about; it was fantastic!)  Steve's parents had driven down, so after an afternoon of visiting with shower guests who had come from farther away, we all went out to dinner Saturday evening.  We all met up for breakfast again Sunday, before they had to drive back home.

Then, my mom, sister and I headed out to Babies R Us to pick up some registry items we hadn't received, and to spend the gift cards we had been gifted.  Surprisingly, what I really needed was tiny clothes.  People did a fabulous job of giving us larger sizes, including two bags of 12-month-sized hand-me-downs, but I suddenly realized we didn't have anything to bring this little dude home from the hospital in.  And now I do!

We capped off the evening with a planned dinner with my cousin (good thing it was my cousin I'd had plans with; we might have had to do some rearranging if it had been anyone else) at Polka, a Polish restaurant in Glendale.  Delicious food and more good company before Mom and Jess had to head to the airport for their red-eye flight home.

Our fridge is absolutely packed with leftovers and our table and the surrounding area are piled with baby gear we somehow have to find a place for in our little condo.

All in all?  Perfect weekend.

When a Forgotten Lunch is Best

Before I post about the weekend (and what a weekend it was!), I have to document what happened on Friday.

It started with me forgetting my lunch  I texted Steve to complain about my dopiness.

Me: I left my lunch at home!
Steve: What will you do for lunch?  Are you at your close office?  (I work out of three offices, varying in distance from my home from about three minutes to about thirty minutes.)
Me: I am, luckily.  I don't usually like to leave because I only take a short lunch, but I'll just go home.

Not the end of the world, not having a lunch.  If I hadn't been close, I would have just gone out and bought something.  Just... annoying.  How do you forget your lunch when you take it with you every single day?  Bah.

Steve and I had both been having a forgetful spell, because he'd forgotten to pick up anything to prepare for his office's potluck that morning.  So a little while after the lunch texts, I texted him again.

Me: What did you end up getting for the potluck?
Steve: That is a long story.  What time are you doing lunch?
Me: Probably about 1:30.  (I assumed he wanted me to call so he could tell me what happened with the potluck.)

When 1:30 rolled around, one of my coworkers said, "Kate!  Look who's here!"

Earlier in the day, one of my old customers, a favorite, had come in for the first time since I'd been back working out of this particular office (after a three-year hiatus), so I was wondering who else I was going to be seeing.

It was Steve!

Now, between Steve working over an hour away and my unpredictable schedule, a surprise drop-in is nearly impossible.

He was carrying a vase of gerbera daisies, a plate wrapped in aluminum foil, and both my lunch and his lunch. 

He came to have a picnic with me.  And he brought freshly-baked green chocolate chip cookies, made in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, with avocados.  To share with my entire office.  (By the way, the cookies were amazing.  Here's the recipe if you want to try them yourself.)

It was the best surprise!  ♥

35 Weeks

To weeks to go until this kid can be considered full-term, yo.

Also, I need a haircut.  Real bad.  The earliest evening appointment my stylist had available that also matched with my availability is two weeks from now.  You know when you finally get fed up enough with something that you suddenly want it fixed yesterday?  That's what happened to my hair.  And because it was the last thing on my mind until I realized I'm incapable of having a good hair day lately, I have to wait. 

The second half of his week's prepared childbirth class was on complications and interventions.  It resulted in my having a series of dreams about childbirth, and not the good kind.  Ugh.  I didn't expect our wedding to be "perfect" because that seemed to be the quickest route to disappointment.  I expected it to be wonderful and to enjoy it; it was, and I did.  So I don't expect this birth to go according to a pre-written plan, either.  I figure I'll need to go with the flow, and as long as the result is healthy baby, it's all good.  But boy, are there some things I really, really don't want to deal with.  *shudder*

Unrelated but also stressful: have I mentioned here that my awesome boss is retiring?

I switched job locations (with essentially the same job duties) at the beginning of the year, and my job-related stress plummeted.  It was fabulous, and due in large part to my new awesome boss.  And then, a few weeks ago, he announced that he'd be retiring in early April.  April!  Giving me only three months of working for him.

Cue the uncertainty over who will replace him, what will change, and what kind of situation I'll be coming back to work to in a few months.

So on top of stressy labor dreams, I'm having stressy work dreams again.  (Stressy work dreams, something I dealt with frequently, went the way of the dinosaur as soon as I switched jobs, by the way.)

But enough bad stuff!  I'm excited that our first camcorder arrived this week.  I want to have home videos (emphasis on home--this thing is not coming to the hospital) of our little guy from the beginning.

And you know what?  The thing is smaller than my hand.  Well, not on volume, but in footprint, anyway.  That amazes me, especially when I think back to the camcorder my dad had when we were tiny.  It recorded directly to VHS tapes and was a full-sized camera that sat on his shoulder.  And not just that!  It required half of our VCR unit--think of a box the size of a "modern" VCR, assuming that's not a total contradiction in terms--to be carried in a shoulder bag at all times.

This post was kind of full of random subjects, wasn't it?  Sorry 'bout that.

34 Weeks

Hello, Week 34.  Only six to go.

Let's nevermind the dopey look on my face.

We're neck-deep in classes all of a sudden.  We started our four-week Prepared Childbirth class on Monday.  More good information.  I like the instructor, it's nice to meet other local expectant couples, and our homework was to practice the relaxation technique we went through at the end of class, which was nothing groundbreaking, but resulted in probably the best sleep I'd gotten in months.  So, you know, a win!

Then, on Wednesday, we had our maternity tour at the hospital we'll deliver at.  I don't have anything to compare it to, but I was impressed.  There's a one-to-one nurse-to-patient ratio, and, unless there's some kind of medical emergency, the baby is immediately placed on mom's chest for the first hour after birth.  They don't do any weighing, measuring, or cleaning until after that hour.  I like that.  We also test-drove two different routes, and I'm feeling okay about the time it will take us to get there.

In addition to classes, I'm neck-deep in books.  I suddenly realized I should finish ALL the books I'd started and been dabbling in along the way: two on healthy pregnancy/childbirth/postpartum (both the book I've been reading all along and the one we got from our class), one on pros and cons of circumcision, the parenting-a-newborn book, a breastfeeding book, and the really interesting child psychology book a friend just gave me (remind me to tell you about this one when I finish it).  Not to mention, I stopped midway through my for-fun fiction book when I acknowledged these baby books might be more important.

What else has been going on this week?  Not a lot, fortunately.  I think that's enough!

33 Weeks

In my head, I've switched to the count-down, instead of the count-up.  Seven weeks to go.  Five before I can go out on maternity leave.  I just switched the calendar to March, and April 5th seems impossibly close!

Last night, we had our first baby class: Breastfeeding.  There was a lot of really good information.  A lot of information.  I'm glad there were handouts and a book, and I'm really glad Steve was there (two heads, definitely better than one!), because otherwise, I don't think I'd remember half of it.

When we walked out, Steve said, "Wow, it almost seems like child abuse not to breastfeed."

And that was my one complaint.  I'm planning to breastfeed, definitely.  I know about the benefits.  I knew most of them before I went into the class.  But what if, for some reason, I couldn't breastfeed?  I don't want to be made to feel like a criminal.  Sure, breastfeeding is best.  But isn't feeding best?  Nourishing your child the best way you can?  And if you can't breastfeed, I'm pretty sure your child will make it in the world just fine.  (I'm thinking of my good friend whose infant was severely allergic to breast milk and ended up on some crazy-expensive formula.  It's hard enough to realize you have to pay out the nose for that, without piling on the guilt, right?)  Anyway.

Overall, a really good class.

She even went through other uses for breast milk, including healing diaper rash and acne.  What?  I can't say I'm not going to try that...

There were some interesting videos, including one about a study that was done on newborns crawling up their mothers' abdomens immediately after birth and breastfeeding by themselves in medicated vs. unmedicated deliveries, when placed on their moms' tummies and allowed to do their thing vs. being cleaned, weighed, and measured first.  There wasn't as much actual information as I'd like (but lots of adorable tiny babies crawling, or not, and feeding, or not) and I'm going to be googling that study this weekend.  Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm feeling good about having started the classes!