9cm to go

Good news from the doctor yesterday. I'm a centimeter dilated! Which means nothing. But it gives me some hope to cling to. Now if only I had some sign that this cold might end soon, too...

36ish Weeks

Yesterday marked 30 days left until my due date. Tomorrow marks 36 weeks completed. So I figured today was a good day for some comments and observations...

It is getting more and more difficult to get comfortable. I find myself dreading bedtime, because even though I am sleepy, I know the whole night is going to be one uncomfortable suckfest.

The (possibly?) good news? I appear to be adapting a sort of newborn schedule. I am up every three hours to pee. Which reminds me. You know what you probably don't really want to eat when you're nine months pregnant? Asparagus. Asparagus pee at 12, 3, and 6 AM really starts to grate on your nerves.

Which brings me to eating. I am not enjoying the eating anymore. It's not the whole baby's-too-big-stomach-is-crushed scenario - I ate through that phase like a champ. It's just, I don't know, I'm not hungry anymore. I find myself eating because I have to. I think I'm still eating more than I used to, I'm just not quite at the I-must-have-two-french-dips-for-lunch level I was a few months back. It depresses me, because I love eating. I love it the most.

And I keep having random bouts of nausea! What's up with that?

This weekend is my baby shower. I am very excited and glad that the day is finally here. I remember vaguely when we were looking at dates a few of my mom friends saying May 1st might be a *little* late - and me shrugging it off that I was sure it was fine, it's four whole weeks from my due date, after all! Now that we're here I see what they meant. I figure I will be very busy next week, getting everything all finalized, and then I will sit on my ass watching my stockpile of 16 and Pregnant episodes until I go into labor myself.

33 Weeks

My 33rd week is now complete. It was kind of a bummer.

I had another one of those mood episodes. I pouted and I cried and I felt miserably sorry for myself, but I couldn't help it. It was all hormones I swear. It culminated last night in my crying hysterically over the news report of the death of that oil-well firefighter guy Coots Matthews - but not because I found it so sad. I was crying because I thought his name and life story were hilarious. I didn't FEEL like laughing, I wanted to be SAD. How dare his story cross my consciousness and interfere with my pout.

Anyway, Husband got me some Taco Time for dinner and I got over it.

I saw my OB today. I gained another 5 pounds over the last two weeks. You know, at this rate, 200 pounds is not out of the realm of possibility. That would be so awesome. I would totally take a picture and ask all the time, "hey, remember when I used to weigh 200 pounds?" Spoken like a true asshole, I know.

28 Weeks

Nothing much new to report, other than one more week of pregnancy completed. Only, oh, a zillion and a half to go.

I'm sure I'm a few pounds heavier and a few inches bigger around, but I haven't bothered to do any research in those areas. I have just continued to eat unreasonable amounts of moderately healthy to unhealthy foods and assumed the inevitable.

I bought a purple bikini today. I got a raised eyebrow from the Target checkout lady when I told her that yes, the bikini was for pregnancy wear. I did not care for her look of disapproval. In fact, I'd say she deserved a raised eyebrow from ME for daring to ask me my intentions in the first place. I should have just given her a big fat NOYB, but I am far too sweet and lovely of a person. Ask anybody.

Oh yeah, and there is one other thing. The baby is named. No, I'm not telling you what.

26 Weeks

Today marks 26 weeks, aka 14 weeks to the due date, aka two weeks from bi-weekly doctor appointments, aka the last week of my 2nd trimester. Eeek!

Needless to say, we're transitioning from "casual baby prep" mode to "oh crap we gotta get ready for this baby" mode. Considering I just had a friend give birth at 36 weeks, I've realized I should probably try to get all the basics taken care of by more like mid-April than mid-May.

Physically speaking, I'm starting to get big. I know I keep saying that, but no - FOR REALS now. My belly measures 40 and 1/2 inches around, and I'm up twenty pounds from where I started - I've crossed the 150 pound threshold for the first time in my life.
I don't feel bad about the weight. I know I'm a girl and I'm supposed to worry about it, but I just don't. To me, I'm pregnant, and it's a golden opportunity to eat what I want and gain whatever I gain and just not give an eff. Harumpf.

This week in food:


I got my soup made. I realize that this photo is not appetizing even if you love split pea soup, and that if you hate split pea soup this might be the most revolting image you have ever seen. But I did not really have the time, patience or marbles required to style soup attractively, so it is what it is.

(I'm not making that up, by the way. Food stylists use marbles to style soup. To hold up the carrots and potatoes and what not so they don't sink to the bottom. Fun fact!)

Anyway, soup made and delivered to Grandpa. It's a good batch, if I do say so myself. My secret weapon for velvety smoothness was a 1/2 cup or so of leftover mashed potatoes.

Fajitas for dinner. Just in case you were wondering what I've been stuffing my face with lately. My preferred fajita ratio is one small onion to two bell peppers, one chicken breast and one can of black beans. That allows the two of us to stuff ourselves with a couple of lunches worth of leftovers. You wouldn't think it with only one chicken breast, wouldja?

This is my latest craving. Green salad with garbanzos, hard boiled egg and cheddar on top. All dressed with some Italian style dressing. I've had one for three days straight now.

23 Weeks

While yesterday I announced I was four months from my due date, today I am here to tell you that it's technically 17 weeks. Can we all just agree that we need to have some ruling board lock themselves in a room and not come out until we have one, unified, universal system of time-keeping in pregnancy? It's just ridiculous. I mean, yesterday was 4 calendar months until my due date, today marks 17 weeks until my due date, I'm considered 5 months pregnant, but I'm in my 6th lunar month, it's the beginning of week 24 but really let's call it week 22...too many answers to the same effing question, in my opinion.

*Deep breath* ... Anyway...I am 23 weeks pregnant today.

Supposedly the baby is now the size of a mango. All I can think of is Chris Kattan in his gold lame' skirt and beret. Picturing this inside of me is rather unsettling. Although I must say if my little Chopita ever gets into a slap fight with J-Lo, I'll be pretty proud.

Everything I'm reading now about my body is getting very ominous, from a vanity perspective. I have been warned that the baby is about to quadruple in size and that stretch marks are imminent. So far so good there - through some combination of water consumption, body oil and genetics I have avoided them so far. Of course, I have also avoided having some wiggly four pound alien in my belly so far, so who knows what will happen.

Speaking of wiggly four pound objects, my breasts are completely out of control. I have gone from a nice, manageable borderline B/C cup to an F. EFF. Yes, my bra size is now 34F. When I say this to mothers who have experienced the horrors of Milk Coming In, they shudder. They shake their heads and regard me with pity. I think I had better pay special attention to the section in the breastfeeding book about What To Do if Your Giant Oversized Breast Is Suffocating the Baby.

I'm now pretty solidly in maternity clothes and t-shirts that used to be too big for me to wear in public, and I think I have about all that I need to get through the duration. I tried to buy a bunch of cheap t-shirts, cardigans and sweatshirts so that I could layer according to the weather. I had to buy cheap because the budget was blown on the miracles of engineering that are my two new bras. The one thing I still want to buy is a new pair of slip on shoes, seeing as getting to my feet is already slightly uncomfortable sometimes.

The best part? I feel Chopita move all the time now. The worst part? I feel Chopita move all the time, and she's getting deliberate. Lately it feels like she's been punching me in the cervix. It's uncomfortable. I have tried bargaining with her - hey kid, stop punching me in the lady bits and I will let you wear mascara in high school - but apparently that's meaningless to her now. I'm looking forward to telling her how she blew it later on.

T minus 4 months

Four months to go until my due date. That seems both exceptionally far away and mind-bogglingly close.

What was happening four months ago? September 27th. My calendar shows that it was my mother-in-law's birthday and that the Seahawks played the Bears. I had known I was pregnant for almost two weeks. It was still scary (scarier, anyway) then, and I was prone to waves of nausea. I think I remember eating a cup o' noodles in the car on the way to that football game. It was the first one we drove to, rather than take the bus, because there would be no risk of drunkenness. My grandfather was in the hospital, and we stopped by on the way to say hello.

Well, with that perspective, the baby seems farther away. All of that stuff seems like an eternity ago. But maybe that's just because it was an entirely different head space. My pregnancy was still a secret at that point, not to be revealed for another few weeks. The fall that sent my grandfather to the hospital set off a busy chain of events, which included Husband and I flying to Phoenix to drive home with my dad. Yes. You heard me. Two day, marathon road trip with a secret, fresh pregnancy. It was as fun as it sounds.

So now that I'm firmly in baby mode, and couldn't hide it if I tried, maybe it will go faster. Things are going to start happening quickly. Our birth class starts four weeks from tomorrow, and will occupy our Thursday nights until the middle of April. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, another one four weeks later, and then I start going every two weeks already. Granted, four weeks is still four weeks, and thinking back four weeks to New Year's...THAT even seems like a long time ago. The ultrasound where we found out it was a Chopita was that week! It seems like we've known she was a girl for an eternity.

Whatever. As slowly or quickly as it goes by, there's still a lot to do. Like all that baby registery stuff I was going to get done after Christmas? Yeah, I think there are one or two items on there. I still need to register for (more) classes, and of course do the physical setting up of the nursery. It's nice to start the concrete action portion of this pregnancy, rather than living in abstract concept land like I have for the past five months.