Today's Midwife Appointment

Turns out that I'm already 35 1/2 weeks!! O.O on the 17th I meet with Cynthia (my awesome-tastic midwife) to talk about what will happen the day of labor and delivery. I can't wait to get the baby out of my abdomen and into my arms, but I still worry about having a natural birth and whether or not I'm strong enough (not that I have much of a choice!).

I got to meet another of the midwives at the practice I've been going to. She was awesome and very nice, but we still love Cynthia bestest! The good thing is, since there is a amll period around my due date where Cynthia won't be able to attend our birth, we do like everyone at the assocation.

We also got a chance to ask a few more questions that came up when we met with the OB. The midwives do not induce labor until 42 weeks at the earliest, unless there are other reasons to believe that the baby is in distress (too little amniotic fluid, slowed heart rate, etc.), so that's really refreshing. They also have such a low episiotomy rate that they can't really make it into a percent (the midwife I talked to today has attended thousands of births and only done 4 episiotomies). Other than that I just did my Group B Strep test, listened to the heartbeat, found out that I haven't gained any weight in the past two weeks, and left. The best visits are the uneventful ones :-)

I have my Bradley method childbirth class tonight, and am starting to have some issues with the workbook material.. mostly that they cite rediculously outdated studies and seem to talk about Dr. Bradley like he's some sort of childbirth prophet. That said, I like that they engage the partner and encourage natural childbirth. I love that the teacher/doula that I take classes from gives us updated materials and encourages us all to think about what is best for us personally. (Here is the doula's blog: Thoughts from a Doula and website: Rights of Passage)

I'm also working on another potentially paid crafting project! I swear I'm going to start my etsy page one of these days, I'm just getting all the real-world contracts that I can first. Right now it's crocheting BOOBS for my teacher/doula and some of her acquaintances to use as lactation awareness aids. I'll also be making some of my feltimals (simple felt stuffed animals) for her prize bin. Unfortunately the first boob that I attempted came out kind of wonky, and not in a way that could be passed off as "every boob is different" wonky :-/ I'll be borrowing one of her current lactation-aid boobs tonight to use as a pattern.

We're also considering whether or not we should hire a doula for our labor and delivery. Honestly, we love our midwife to death and would probably be more comfortable with less people around. J and I have always found immense comfort and relaxation in just being together alone and able to concentrate on eachother. We also really don't know that we can afford to throw another expense in at the moment. Colleen (the teacher/doula) has been amazing and offered to do some bartering, and I know intellectually that we should have another person there who is a professional and can help us advocate for the birth that we want, but I really don't think there are going to be any issues with Cynthia as our midwife. As great as advice on this subject would be, I really think J and I are going to have to make this decision on our own. 

Huge Picture-Filled Update

I've been horrible about updating again, but this time I have an excuse: the computer that I normally use at home (a huge desktop tower) has gotten this horrible trojan virus that masquerades as an antivirus program and blocks access to EVERYTHING. it sucks. And the laptop, which is normally the hubby's computer, has a sticky space bar, which is the most annoying thing to type on.

Oh, and I suddenly find myself busy again! ACEN is coming up and a friend is having me work on his costume at the last minute :-/, and the awesome doula who runs the childbirth classes I am taking is having me crochet some boobies!!!  They're going to be used as aids for lactation awareness and breastfeeding classes. I'll be making multi-racial boobs first, then eventually making boobs with inverted nipples, clogged ducts, engorged boobs, small boobs, droopy boobs, etc, etc... it's going to be awesome! Talk about a craft market that I never considered before! I've been tapering off the costuming contracts, partially because my sewing machine is wonky and keeps eating fabric and partially because it's just too hard for me to cut out pattern pieces and work around a table (i'm HUGE, or at least I feel HUGE!).

The birthing class I'm taking has us all start a pregnancy nutrition diet. To be honest (sorry Colleen), it annoyed me a lot at first (I'm a junky eater with no money for much better than mac n cheese and hot dogs), but it's helped me keep track of what I'm eating, I just don't know if I can afford another expensive can of protein powder since I have to go through so much of it since I don't really eat much meat. ANYWAYS, I didn't mean to complain so much, the point of mentioning the diet is to brag about the dinner I made myself!

I saute'd potatoes, carrots, broccoli, corn, and almonds with olive oil and seasonings. It was DELICIOUS. I just can't imagine cooking like that every day. I know some people can, and some people enjoy it, I'm just not one of those people. I'm lazy and I know it. Now if only I could get myself to do those stretches >.<

Lately I find myself freaking out over the baby coming and not having enough ready (I'm not sure i'll every feel 'ready'). This has led to a lot of frantic crafting and organizing on my part. Here are some of the things I've been working on. I've been stuck on a crochet streak since it seems to be the easiest with my low energy levels and my huge tummy.

This is the first blanket I've every crocheted. It has huge spaces between the stitches so that the baby will be comfortable in the summer. Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead and buy a large hook for the large stitches, so the blanket is also incredibly uneven, but has a sort of hand-made charm to it. It's made of the Sugar'n Cream brand's new stripes yarn in green and white.

When I was little i always needed something to do with my hands, and I still do. I also always needed to have some sort of comforting object around. I crocheted little cloths out of more Sugar'n Cream yarn. The larger has some huge buttons on it for when the baby is teething or needs something colorful to fiddle with. If she doesn't end up liking them, they'll make great washcloths too ^.^

I also made a baby cocoon. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, they're another way to swaddle a baby and make sure that she doesn't hit herself in the face while she's sleeping before her coordination has developed. For the picture, there's a stuffed lamb in it pretending to be a baby. Extra thanks to my aunt Linda for the stuffed animals she gave me (they'll show up in more pictures a little lower.).

This is my current crochet project. It's another blanket, this time made yellow and green yarns (the colors didn't photograph so well >.< ) and the proper sized hook so it will hopefully turn out square and even.


I'm tempted to sell crocheted things on etsy, but I'm not sure that I'm willing to put in all the time it takes to make these things with how little they will sell for. unfortunately the market is so permeated by machine-knitted things that people are not really willing to spend the money on something that is hand made and takes forever to make.


In a frantic effort to convince myself that I am ready for the baby, I've done some nesting. Unfortunately my comfort and energy levels haven't been enough to let me actually CLEAN the house, but I've worked on putting all the baby things together and in order of size:

I cleared off a set of shelves and used it for all the baby-appropriate books and assorted toys we've acquired so far.
The top shelf is a couple of dragon needlepoints that a friend made me a while ago and I framed. It also has the adult books that are child appropriate and a couple very old childrens books. Unfortunately the Tolkein collection, which I will be reading my child from birth, did not fit on these shelves and aren't pictured.

The second shelf has a plushy version of our cat that we got at ACen last year, my stuffed bunny from when I was a baby, and the assorted children's books that I've gotten from a used book store near us. My favorite is Not A Box by Antoinette Portis. I was really into playing pretend as a child and this book is all about a bunny playing pretend with a box. it rocks my socks.

The third shelf is full of stuffed animals from my aunt (the giraffe and the bear), a few toys I've bought (the lion mirror, the cow rattle/teether, and the linkies), the sun that used the hang over my crib when I was a baby, and two wooded teethers from etsy. I posted before about the 'I love you' ASL teether in both my Sign Language Post as well as a Featured Seller Post. It's from an awesome Etsy.com seller; EcoAyris. The smaller teether is a squirrel from Etsy seller Little Sapling Toys.

And below the shelves, this awkward giraffe sits :-) I have a thing for awkwardly cute animals.


Along the same lines, I organized all the baby things in the closets. I sorted them all by size >.<

This organizer hangs in the closet and is acting as a stand-in dresser until I can get my old changing table-dresser from my family (they're jewish and don't believe in giving me baby things until the baby is here so as not to jinx it). If you look really carefully, you can see the Star Wars onesie on the fourth shelf down :-) now I just need a Lord of the Rings onesie to balance the hubby's nerdiness. Almost everything in this organizer was bought by us at Goodwill or Salvation Army or made by me.

All of these were gotten by my mom and my grandmother. They're crazy shoppers. I'm pretty sure my grandmother would be pissed if she knew that my mom already let me take these clothes home but my mother needed the closet space.

Here are the rest of our baby supplies so far. There's a wipes case, wipes, baby soap, as well as disposable and reusable diapers.

I've also been doing a lot of child-centered reading, here are the three things I'm working on right now:

There's The Thinking Woman's Guide to a  Better Birth by Henci Goer, Baby Sign Language Basics (I'm using it to teach the hubby sign and to brush up on my own skills) by Monta Z Briant, and the most adorable manga I've ever seen: Yotsuba&! vol. 3 by Kiyohiko Azuma.

Also, here's an obligatory baby belly pic and a pic of me. The dress I'm wearing is the only thing that still fits me and manages to cover my belly >.< everything else is too short now.

I'm generally a pretty tiny person, so the bump really stands out. I've caught retail workers with a terrified look on their faces, I'm sure they think I'm probably ready to pop! and honestly, I feel like I am.

And then there's this horrible facebook-style picture... really just because I realized there aren't any recent pics of me floating around the web and I wanted to show off my badly dreaded hair (i'm too lazy!) and my newly acquired acne (never had it during puberty, it decided to show up during pregnancy).

And last but not least, since my cat always insists on being the center of attention and it's impossible to take any pictures without taking at least one of him:

He likes sniffing and rubbing on my childbirth class binder because it came from a house with a dog :-) oh, and you can get a glimpse of our AWESOME COW PRINT OFFICE CHAIR in the upper right.

 So yeah, THE END!

My week thus far

I think that one of the biggest reasons that I don't post more often here, is that I just don't think that my life is worth reading about. And then I kick myself. Most of the blogs that I keep up on are other mommy-blogs where the writer posts about their daily lives. It might seem strange, but I'm pretty isolated, and these blogs help me know that I'm not alone. They help a lot. So... here's my life this week so far:

Monday was a fun day. J has off work on mondays, so any preggo-related appointments are usually scheduled for then. We had our biweekly midwife appointment in the morning, and met with a different midwife in the practice than we normally do. We intend to have our favorite midwife attend the birth, but there is a chance that she might be out of town or someone else might have to step in, so we need to start meeting the other midwives so there are no surprises. Although all the midwives in the practice are AWESOME (!!!), we really do have our hearts set on our favorite! Anyways, the visit went really well, weight gain, blood pressure, iron count, and measurements are spot on and the baby is SUPER active. Seemed like she was fighting back against the midwife!

      After the midwife visit, we went home and rested for a little bit, and then headed back out to the same area to go to a 7:00 PM hospital orientation class. Apparently it's required in order to use the Alternative Birthing Rooms. They were AWESOME! In Illinois, midwife attended home births are illegal, and there are no real birth centers, so midwife attended Alternative Birthing Centers inside of hospitals are the only alternative to a full O.B. attended hospital birth. The rooms are fantastic though, they have a queen size bed, a private bathroom and shower, a birth tub, birthing ball, birthing stool-thing, TV, fridge, microwave, etc... etc... I'd almost say that it'd better than birthing at home, with all the stuff that's there and the fact that you don't have to worry about any messes later on. Also, for my first preganancy and my blood pressure issues, there is some comfort in being in the hospital.
       The hospital visit ended with J locking the keys in the car and having to get a super-awesome security guard to help him break in. Luckily we don't care too much about his crappy old car. After that, we went out with some friends to a local Denny's and tried to pretend that we are still young and hip and can stay up late. I almost fell asleep in the booth. It was fun to see people, and these are some of our favorite people, but I've been so tired since becoming pregnant.

Tuesday I managed to not leave the house AT ALL. J was at work for most of the afternoon/evening, and I managed to finish crocheting the baby cocoon that I was working on and start on a baby blanket :-) unfortunately I think I still need 3 - 4 more skeins of the yarn I'm using to finish the blanket (I had intended to make something small and simple out of it, and changed my mind at the last minute). I'll have to take pictures of the cocoon to post here, but I'm not sure it'll register so well without a baby in it. It's basically a safer blanket, it's made like a hat, but you slide the baby in feet first. It is used to swaddle the baby comfortably and keep her from hitting herself in the face.

Yesterday J worked again, but this time had a morning shift. I worked on the blanket some more, and watched Precious for the first time. I  had read the book Push, by Sapphire, in college and was amazed at the honesty and courage in the book. I have to say, I was not let down by the movie! Plus, in the special features, they went through and explained why they changed some of the things that they did (most of the reasoning was just so that it would make it into theaters, if they had all the horrific scenes straight from the book, it would NEVER have been seen by so many people). It was also great to see the author talking about her work.
      After J got home from work, we went out to dinner with some friends. Treated them to some delicious Chinese food and LOTS of tea ^.^ I'm a tea freak, but that's a topic for another post. It was fantastic and really refreshing. I've been feeling super-isolated with the pregnancy, and even though none of my friends are also pregnant and all my parent friends live too far away for random visits, visiting with this group is fun and refreshing. Oh, and did i mention Chinese food, cause that's important! It was delicious.

Today is aiming to be a pretty full day. We have some errands to run, including the trip to JoAnns to get more of that awesome yarn for the blanket and dropping off a check for our health insurance. Then we have to stop at my MIL's (Mother In-Law's) house to drop something off and to help my BIL (Brother In-Law, you get the idea) make a blog of his own. After that it's onward to my first birthing class! I'm super excited to be learning from an awesome doula who's totally connected online. We've chatted a couple times via facebook, and I always love reading the links she posts to current birth and pregnancy-related articles. I'm really excited for the class and can't wait to meet some other preggo women and discuss some very important and controversial topics.

WooHoo! Wasn't that a FUN look into my life!