Nothing yet

I've received a few emails asking if the baby has arrived yet. Not yet. My due date is this Sunday (10/4) but it could happen anytime from two weeks ago to two weeks from Sunday. A nice and vague month window.

Signs that it may come sooner:

• I was 2 cm dilated and 75% effaced as of my last appointment (last friday). Apparently labor is considered to be started at 3 cm and 85% effacement.
• The receptionist told me that it looks like the baby has dropped. (apparently she has a good eye for these things). The doctor also felt the head at the last appointment. Creepy.
  

Signs that it may come later:

• I was late and I've heard that births go similar to their mom's. Along those lines, I didn't feel kicking until 10 weeks past when I should have. Plus, I haven't felt a single contraction -- braxton hicks or regular. So, it's possible she could be a sleeper like me.
• It's entirely normal for first births to run late
  

So, stay tuned. For those of you on Facebook, Ken will be giving updates in real time. Blog posts will be a little slower but we'll get things posted ASAP.

Homebrewing Distractions

Ken and I had to sit through 10 miserable hours of childbirth classes this past weekend. A great idea in theory, but 10 hours is excessive -- even (or especially) when it's split between two days. I learned the following things though:

1. I have way more time when I go into labor than I originally thought
2. I theoretically know what contractions are and am pretty sure I haven't felt any (real or "practice")
3. I really, really want the epidural.
4. I've had a pretty easy pregnancy
5. I'm glad Ken is my partner
6. I'm hoping Katie isn't born on a Sunday or Monday else I will have to share Ken with NFL. Or fantasy football. Or other football-watching spouses who may also be in the hospital that day.

When we got home on Saturday, we had Brian and Dennis over to help pick the hops we've been growing over the arbor and brew some beer using the freshly picked hops. Ingrid came to help as well as dig up some plants to divide and move to their yard. Win, win. Here's the crew harvesting (20min max).



And here's the resulting harvest. We have a lot leftover. The far bowl weighed 15 oz or so; we used it for the beer that night. The rest I'm freezing for later use. There are still a ton of hops left on the vine. I've told some local homebrewers they're welcome to them if they pick them. I'm too tired and big at this point.



The beer we made is a hoppy northwest red ale. It's apparently pretty forgiving. It's my first batch of all grain beer (rather than using malt extracts, etc). I've seen Brian do it in the past, so it wasn't completely new. But it was still my first attempt. Especially while trying to teach others. It's bubbling away now. Fingers crossed it turns out.

Week 37 comes to a close

Had my doctor's appt today. 203 lbs. Baby's heartbeat is 150-160 (normal) and her head is down. I'm 1.5 cm dilated (need 10 for delivery; was 1 cm last time they checked) and 75% effaced (softened uterus for delivery). My belly is measuring 38 cm (right on track) and Katie kicked when the doctor was taking the measurement. The baby could come today or 4 weeks from now. My uterus is a time bomb.

Things at home are pretty much finished. I have our bag ready to go -- or at least all of our stuff on the dresser with the backpack on the floor next to it. We have the carseat and such, just need to install it in the car. So big items are complete with little pieces here and there.

Regarding cravings, no more blueberries for me. I've been eating a lot of nectarines but my biggest craving is milk. I've purchased 6 gallons of milk this week alone and I'm on my 5th one. Wow.

Still working. Very slow in moving. Fingers on my right hand are still numb.

Week 36 comes to a close

I hit week 37 in two days (sunday). That is the day I am officially considered "full term". (full term is anywhere from 37-42 weeks, so the baby's not imminent but you get the idea). Scary to know it's any day now, but nice also in that my stats have become ludicrous:

• At my doctor's appt on Wednesday, I was 200.4 lbs. I never thought I would be over 200 lbs. So, it's nice to know these pounds will be going away soon. I started around 156 or so -- a solid 44 lb weight gain. Average is 25-35 lbs. The upside is that I have been thoroughly enjoying myself. I currently can't get enough milk and drink it by the quart. My blueberry craving has been replaced by a nectarine craving.
• I had to get up from bed to go to the bathroom 4 times last night. I think that is the baby's way of preparing me to get up every 2 hours for feedings and such. Even moving 4 times at night is hard for me, let alone getting up.
• I have carpal tunnel in my right hand from the pregnancy-induced swelling compressing the nerves to my middle and ring finger. Ken will massage my forearm for me, which helps, but the numbness is constant. it is very uncomfortable.
• My cankles are laughing at my wrists. I have hobbit feet.

In the meantime, I've been working on the nursery. Here are some pictures:


Looking at the door to the room.

The glider



From the glider, looking into the closet abyss:


The closet. Please note that Ken and I have only purchased three onesies and a hat. Everything else was given to us by family and friends. Insane! I labeled it all by age and type of clothing: i.e. Dresses (0-3 months), Dresses (3-6 months), etc. Otherwise, it just looks like mountains and mountains of small clothes.



The closet, looking closer.


Looking at the crib from the glider. I made the paper mache lanterns for above the crib. Ken helped to hang them.


Old sideboard that we refinished and will be using as a changing table. I did the sanding, stripping, staining. Ken did the structural work.


Still need to hang some pictures and decorate the wall, but most of the big stuff is finished. I'm packing a bag for the hospital this weekend (just in case). My maternity leave is taken care of (12 weeks) and I'm already pre-registered for the hospital.

Now I'm just waiting for the time bomb that is my uterus to explode.

35 weeks

I'm 35 weeks and 5 days today. 40 weeks is finito (give or take). I had my doctor's appointment today and things are coming along. Here are the latest stats:

• Belly measurement is back down to 36.5 cm. (1 cm for every week, so I'm back to normal since I was 3 cm over last week). Ken was a little sad by this. He wanted another ultrasound.
• I'm at 199.2 lbs. I'm almost breaking 200 which is unbelievable. (I started at 156). Yes, I feel ginormous. I'm not worrying about it though.
• Baby's heart beat is 160 bpm (on the high side of normal). Apparently if this gets higher and stays that way, they induce early. So far, everything's fine though.
• She did the first exam today and found that my cervix has already started to "soften" and that I'm already 1 cm dilated. It can stay that way for weeks, but it mean's I'm at least started along the process. Very strange.
  

Otherwise, I feel fine. It's still hard to get to sleep and it's hard to walk. My feet are giant sausages. We were going to go to the hog roast this weekend, but we decided to stay home and relax instead. I'm going to finish Katie's room (that's my goal) so stay tuned for pictures next week.

Hood to Coast 2009

Ken and friends completed Hood to Coast this past weekend. 196 miles from Mt Hood to the ocean. It took them 28 hours to complete the race. All were friends from dodgeball and the league even sponsored their shirts.



Ken loves that race. He loves to organize it, run it and push himself as far as he can go. I, meanwhile, have no desire (or ability) to run that race. Now or ever. Instead, I go for moral support and to hang out in the beach house that we rent for the weekend. This year, there were 23 of us in the house. Quite full to say the least.

I went down the night before with two girlfriends and the dog. We took down all of the food for the house and did a grocery run in town to pick up beer for 23 people. (We estimated 6.5 beers a person which was surprisingly accurate. I think there were only 6 left or so -- fitting since I accidentally counted myself in the beer numbers).

Five others came down later Friday night in separate cars and a group of six went crabbing early the next morning while I slept in. I went crabbing last year but the giant belly makes it difficult to fall asleep and move. So when I get to sleep, I want to stay asleep. Apparently, I picked the wrong year to skip crabbing because the light rain and 3 lbs of raw chicken drumsticks resulted in their catch being 30 ginormous dungeness crabs. The outfit where they rented the boat steamed, cracked and cleaned the crabs for them, which our friends brought back and kindly shared with the rest of us. I drank a non-alcoholic beer and ate crabs on the porch. It was the highlight of my entire summer since that was our family's tradition at the beach growing up. They also brought back 4 dozen beautiful oysters that they grilled and served up to the running team. I skipped those but will happily partake next year.

When the runners arrived, they showered and ate. We spent most of the afternoon & evening grilling up burgers, brats and oysters while drinking beer, playing games and hanging out. It was a nice weekend. It's hard to imagine that next year at this time, we'll be taking an almost one-year-old. Surreal.