one enormous chair

We are about 2 weeks into being parents! It has come with many joys so far (and many short sleeps). The cat is annoyed, the baby doesn't understand night time, and my body is still taken over by hormones and birth aftermath, but we are doing OK. Wren has had many visitors, and she seems to like it. She is the most calm while in a room full of chatty people who are passing her around. Our friends and family have been very generous, bringing us food and a whole second front of gifts (mostly pink clothes, hehe). We had so much food for a while, the fridge was jam packed. I think Tim ate about a dozen cookies and a dozen cupcakes in 4 days. We are finally starting to use all the food we stockpiled in the freezer, which is good because we need to make room... For MILK! Holy milk. We have been blessed because breastfeeding is going very well. Wren is very enthusiastic about nursing, and so are mah boobs. Sometimes they are a little too enthusiastic. I would say Wren nurses about a do...

Here is my birth story! I tried my best to remember every detail, and some details are gross (pee, poop, blood, and every other bodily excretion), so... warning... On Tuesday, October 1st, I went to see the doc to talk about the progress of things. I was a little over my due date of September 26th, and we were talking about induction. Before I had gone in, I said I will only get induced if she thinks Babby is in any danger, but when she suggested "We can do it this week, or you can wait until Monday..." Monday sounded like an eternity. I agreed for an induction on Thursday, October 3rd. I immediately felt a sense of relief which I did not expect.  I thought maybe I would feel disappointed.  But it was nice that on Wednesday I could go into work knowing it would be my last day, finish things up, and take a deep breath. Wednesday evening rolled around, and I felt calm and excited. I was looking forward to getting a good night's sleep before it was time for delivery. W...

*BIGGEST SIGH EVER* guess I'll be pregnant forever. But really, it wont be more than a week because I'll probably be induced if I go a week over my due date. I think I don't want to be induced just because I want to have the experience of natural labor beginning. I have anticipated it so much that in a way it would feel like a let down to just have it scheduled. Ah, either way it will be a blessing to have a healthy babe. I don't think there has been any other instance in my life that is such a big deal, but I have had no idea WHEN it's going to happen.  In the evenings, I really feel like something is going on. Each day the feels get a little more intense: constant tightness, occasional sharp pains in various places, an overwhelming feeling of heaviness in my belly. Some moments in the evenings have even taken my breath, but as soon as I lay down to go to sleep, they go away. In the morning and early afternoon I don't even feel tight. Its so weird, and frustr...

Welp, Tim and I went to the doctor this week and while everything was good, there was not a mad rush to the hospital to deliver baby Baker. My blood pressure was a bit high, so they had me lay on my left side for 5 minutes so they could take it again. The second time it was much better. The doctor told me I need to be extra careful with my blood sugar in the time leading up to delivery... I kinda lied and said its all been fine, but honestly I have only been testing my blood first thing in the morning, very occasionally.  So I know my resting blood sugar is good! I am going to force myself to get back in the habit of testing it. Unfortunately I have really been wanting foods that lean more toward the carby, sweet side. They seem more neutral to my tum. Besides, anything even the slightest bit salty makes me swell like mad. So no sweet and no salty leaves me with mostly plain veggies and raw almonds. I've been eating a crapload of raw almonds. But, I have been cheating here and th...

Well so far none of the induce labor "tricks" work. You name it, we've tried it. I know I'm jumping the gun a bit considering I haven't even reached my due date yet, but I am just so anxious! I am trying to just calm down about it... Tim and I need to enjoy our last days of childlessness. I think maybe I had ONE real contraction during the night a few days ago. I dunno if it makes sense to have had just one all by itself, but maybe that is what it was. Other than that, I just have a very heavy feeling on the bottom of my belly/uterus, it feels like the baby is just gonna fall out. In the evenings the baby is so wiggly that it is terribly uncomfortable. It doesn't feel like cute little pokes and kicks, its like full on shoves and jabs from inside, right in the hips or the ribs. Even laying on my side is not comfortable anymore, I feel like I am being pulled forward and it hurts my back. Rolling over from my left side to my right side takes me a full 15 seco...

More like a million weeks.  I am getting pretty sick of being pregnant now. All of the big milestones of pregnancy have come and gone, and now I just feel like I am waiting. I guess I do want maybe one more week to get a few loose ends tied up at work, but other than that I am ready to go! The nursery is now finished, and we are rather in love with it. It is not exactly what I envisioned at first, but I am really happy with how it turned out.  Tim and I (and Lucy) all find ourselves just wandering in there to daydream.  It has a very soothing atmosphere as well, so it just feels nice to be in there.  I hope Babby agrees.  We have also been working on super stocking the household.  We've got a freezer FULL of easy, delicious Trader Joe's food to make quick dinners once the baby arrives, as well as canned stuff in the pantry.  I also have an extreme sized and extreme discounted order coming from Amazon with toilet paper, tissues, diapers, to...

Well I have become a crazy person. One of those people who will call customer service and make a big fuss for just a few dollars.  I have spent a lot of time on the phone for a few dollars. HOWEVER I have gotten some of the sweeeetest deals on baby items. Like a box of 174 pampers for $11, and a new $120 dollar baby monitor for $45. We had expected to spend a chunk of money after the baby showers were done, just to fill in missing items, and I went apeshit with coupons and discounts, making sure I was using every possible combination, and getting the right item from the right store (wherever it was the cheapest).  So my final tally (I'm so proud) was about $1300 worth of items, and after coupons and gift cards, we only spent about $450 out of pocket.  BOOM! We are still waiting on some shipments, but for now I think we have bought most of the stuff we need to start out (and then some). So the next step is getting the nursery all pretty and put together.

34 Weeks! MEGA BABY. I can't believe how big my tum is, and I really can't believe it is going to get even bigger. I am just really REALLY hoping that I have inherited my mom's ability to deliver big babies without a lot of issues. We are both flexible, which they say helps... fingers crossed. Speaking of being bendy, Amanda and I went to another Prenatal Yoga class this week. This one felt a lot better than the first one. The instructor mixes up the routine and I think each class will be a bit different from the last. I bought a package for 5 classes (Mana picked up 10) which I can hopefully use up before Babby arrives. The meditation portion was much less weird this time, she asked us to visualize the moment the baby is born: "it is being placed in your arms, you can feel the weight of the baby, you are looking at his or her face and touching his or her skin." Rather than feeling relaxed by this I felt overwhelmed and I almost started crying, lol. Any time I s...

You could at least brush your hair...  Approximately 7 weeks left! Every time I think that I follow up with, "but omg, it could be any day!" and "omg it could take even longer than that!" We are in getting-everything-ready mode.  I find myself wandering in to the nursery just to look at the baby stuff and fold things and look at the little books. We have collected a pretty decent amount of stuff at this point, we've had a couple of showers, and I have been hoarding any free samples I can get my hands on. OH! and we won a drawing at Babies R Us for a big gift basket full o' baby stuff! When the lady called me to tell me that I'd won, I almost pooped with excitement. It feels really good to win things! Tim and I have been just completely baby obsessed. We've spent several weekend nights just going to baby stores and looking at stuff, and setting up bogus registries just to get free gift bags. We are becoming experts on baby stuff. My mom DV...

Meh. Well this sucks. Gestational diabeetus is official: I have been given a monitor and have to check mah blood 4 times a day. I have a feeling that I will have to limit my diet even more now that I'm actually checking my levels. The dietitian said it needs to be under 120 two hours after I eat. Last night I had some pizza and two hours later it was still 144. The dietitian said with the meter I can narrow down the foods that cause my glucose levels to spike, and kinda figure out what I can and cannot handle. Apparently not two pieces of pizza. :( I am just kind of an emotional mess about the whole thing. There's a little voice inside me that keeps whimpering "It's not fair!" and then I want to cry. I feel so unsure about EVERYTHING I put in my mouth. I am struggling to find things to eat, and then I worry that I am not eating enough for the baby to grow properly. This is becoming even more difficult as I have to check my blood 4 times a day, and it has to take...

I know it will seem like it all flew by eventually, but right now I feel like I've been pregnant forever. The fact that I have less than 10 weeks to go goes back and forth from seeming like not nearly enough time to seeming like an eternity. Being anemic is making me tired and listless, and it is rubbing off on Timmy too. We are just kinda bored and unmotivated, which I need to get over or start appreciating because these will be the last days of truly being lazy. I get bursts of motivation (notice I didn't use the word "energy') here and there and try to use that motivation to do something good for babby.  One of those things is getting my butt back in the kitchen. I had entered a vicious cycle of eating a lot of easy food, which was affecting my energy level, then keeping me from cooking healthy. This past week, if I have a chance, I just go prepare a few things and stick them in tups, which are easy to grab for lunches or snacks. I've made sesame peanut...

OK! I am soo over days where I have to stand for hours and hours. Holy aches and pains. My ribs and my feet were suffering the most. I've finally found some time to chill on the couch and it has been very nice. I really haven't had much of a chance to be a lazy preggo. I had my glucose screening this week, and bad news... they said my results were high. This isn't the worst thing that can happen but I have to have another (longer) test in a couple of weeks to fully determine if I have developed gestational diabeetus. If I do, it can cause problems like a huge fatty baby (more difficult delivery).  I've done all kinds of restrictive diets in the past, but I've never monitored my sugar intake. It is a new one for me. Admittedly, I have consumed a lot more sweets since I've been pregnant than I normally do. So I am trying to be cautious about the sweets until my second test. I had the test in the morning, then I went to get some lunch from the grocery store. Fo...

I am six months pregnant! what the buh?! Third trimester! Babby is about 2 pounds and growing quickly. Things have been crazy busy and will continue to be so pretty much from now on. We have gotten all of our new Ikea furniture built (it took a month), and we have finished the move at work. Both worlds have been very demanding physically for me, even without heavy lifting. The belly and boobs add enough weight to make everything harder. 10 hours on your feet for moving is hard enough as it is! I had one night after a moving day that I literally couldn't stand anymore. Tim was talking to me about my computer, and I had to interrupt him so I could lay down for fear that my legs would buckle and I would fall over. I think we've finally reached a point where I don't have to work as hard physically, but there is still a ton to do. Baby paperwork. All the planning, arranging, forms, scheduling crap that comes with the arrival of baby. I have to make a will and stuff. Weird. W...

Babby is now about 11 inches, and nearly a pound! A couple weeks ago I thought that maybe I was feeling kicks, and a few days later the full-on-ninja-fest began. So YES! Those little gentle taps were baby kicks. Kicks can even be felt (and seen!) from the outside. Timmy was determined to feel one, so he rested his hand on my belly several times to no avail. Eventually the timing lined up and he loved it. I love it too, except the time baby started kicking downward on my bladder... That feels WEIRD and UGGY. Babby seems the most active in the morning when I first get up and as I'm settling in the evening. It makes me giggle to imagine it just flailing around in there for no good reason. "Baaaah! I'm a baby! Hi-YA! I have nothing to do! Take THAT!" The kicking makes it feel more real now, like baby and I are a little team. It makes me much more conscious that I am carrying Babby around and taking care of him/her.  Lucy the cat even felt a kick: she was resting her chi...

I thought that maybe I could use some of this fascinating baby experience to form pregnancy advice.  Nothing very out of the ordinary has happened so far (knock on wood), but I have had a lot of adventures in food as a pregnant lady, so here it is! My preggo food list! 1. Coconut Water In the worst stages of nausea, I would have died without coconut water. I am typically an AVID water drinker, but when you are extremely nauseated, water is the enemy (it tastes really gross). Coconut Water has hydrating effects, and tasted much more pleasant than water during that period.  It also has a crap load of potassium, which potentially alleviates restless legs (it def helped with mine). I would get up in the night with restless, achy legs and chug coconut water like it was crack. Potassium also regulates blood pressure which is important during pregnancy as well. My favorite brand is O.N.E. It may be a trendy health beverage, but it is GREAT for pregnancy. I rave about it ...

Well it happened. I turned 30. The celebration of delicious food continues as it did in Hawaii, I've had a meal date just about every night this week for my birthday, and cakes and treats have made several appearances. I really need to have some meals where I don't end up stuffed and THEN get a fancy dessert. It's a blessing that I am pregnant for all this so Babby can help me use up some calories. I caught a glance in the mirror as I was changing my bra yesterday. I don't even recognize my boobs these days. They are intimidating, aggressive even. Pregnancy makes them nips go through some changes I tell you what. Your nice peach colored silver dollars morph into prune colored pancakes. My belly button is also strange looking. It was compared to a teeny cinnamon bun resting on my torso, and one friend even cringed in fear when I revealed it. I thought I maybe felt some kicks the other day, but I'm not positive. Some women claim it feels like a flutter, some like ...

Weeks are flying by. I can't believe it but I am halfway through my pregnancy! That's insane. It's making me feel like I should be doing stuff (I probably should). Birthing classes or something? paperwork? I read a few books at the beginning, but they were mostly funny books about peeing yourself and such. Well the past few weeks have seen some belly growth for sure. A couple of those weeks were spent in Hawaii eating all sorts of delicious food, so some growth has been of the fat variety. Babby got his/her share of delicious treats... yes especially desserts. I am not typically a huge sweets person (salty in taste and disposition), but Hawaii had the BEST desserts. They're all coconut and tropical fruits and macadamia nuts. There is a local candy bar made in Maui called WowWee  which comes in the BEST flavors. The cuisine focuses highly on local fare, seafood and super foods, so unlike our usual trips to restaurants where our only vegetarian choices are carbs with da...

I am feeling a little bit better these days. The weather is helping A TON. I feel like since the moment we opened our windows, my coughing and snottiness has gone down. Obviously, nice weather improves my mood as well. I don't care if it is cloudy, rainy, or storming, as long as I can open windows and breathe real air. This baby requires mad oxygen! I still throw up most mornings, but it almost feels like part of the morning routine: get up, make some tea, watch some YouTube videos, barf, check my email, bathe... I'm starting to feel kinda chubby, and I'm trying not to let it bother me too much. Just having these huge new boobs makes me feel frumpy. I actually LIKE having small boobs. The titty fairy has stopped by, but I didn't want her to, that asshole. I feel quite hippy too, and I've been trying to do some "butt blasters" to keep from getting a squishy fat ass. Sigh. We are going to Hawaii in a little over a week and I am super excited. The travel ...

Hiya. So first of all, some updates: -At the moment, Tim and I are not planning to find out the sex of the baby beforehand. -Baby Shower will probably be some time in late July or early August. -Babby is about 4 inches long and is still trying to suck the life out of me. Sooo... It's a lot of work to feed a pregnant lady. First of all, the sheer volume of food I must consume requires a lot of groceries. I used to pick out one box of cereal and it would last me a few weeks. Now I have a miniature cereal aisle on the kitchen counter which must be restocked often. Second, a given food may sound like the most delicious thing ever, or it may sound awful. No one, not even me, will be able to advise you on what to prepare that I will want to eat until the moment its time to eat. I do not wish to hurt any feelings if you bring me food, I just may not be able to eat it! Third, if I get too hungry, you better keep your distance, or feed me asap (don't fuck with the hungry pregnant l...

I am now 14 weeks along, and still have sickness. My coughing and congestion are worse than ever. But I gotta keep swimming. I am trying to work on being really positive about everything, but its hard. Especially because it still doesn't seem real that there is a tiny person in there. I am still waiting on an official bump. My torso/stomach does seem to have a slightly different shape, and my belly button's shape has changed (weird) but it doesn't look like a pregnant belly. Believe it or not, I have built abdominal muscles from constant coughing, heaving, and retching. So hey! that's a positive thing, right?!  I am sooo positive. Last week Tim and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat via Doppler at the doctor. I have been trying to figure out how to embed it in this entry but I am not having much luck, try clicking this:  Heartbeat and Kicks . I dunno, that might work. You need to play it in itunes or quicktime. Most of my time these days is devoted to eating ...