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Baby Appointment

Dr’s appointment yesterday didn’t offer a lot of great news – my blood pressure is elevated (140/90, up from 140/76 two weeks ago) so they want me to come back in Monday for another blood pressure check just to make sure it’s not continuing to go up.

I don’t seem to be spilling any protein in my urine or having any hand/face swelling or dizziness, so I don’t think I have preeclampsia, but they want to err on the safe side. Right now, I’m hoping for two things:

1. Blood pressure either stays the same or goes down. I really, really don’t want it to go up. This also contributes quite a bit (I think, anyway) to the foot swelling so any improvement here would be welcome.
2. I continue to not have protein in my urine. The midwife mentioned something about maybe doing a 24-hour sample collect, where you have to keep all your urine for 24 hours in a jug and then bring it in so they can test it. DO NOT WANT.

I keep joking with Daniel that he’s going to start feeding me only salads and gruel to try to keep my BP down. Somehow I get the impression that he is considering it.

They also wheeled in a terrifically ancient-looking ultrasound machine to verify Baby’s position, because at this point, they really should be head-down to prepare for labor. Just to be difficult, Baby was transverse. Argh.

Daniel gave him a pep talk to try to get him to turn, and I’ve been hanging out in Cat Cow to try to give him a bit more room. I have basically no torso so I don’t blame him for stretching out sideways across my tummy, but HEY. BABY. There is this thing called “birth” we have to go through, and best to not make it more difficult than necessary for the both of us. Head: down. Now.

Breastfeeding Class

This went well. I was surprised to discover that I knew several of the points the instructor made just from reading so many parenting blogs over the years. Internet win! We got a book to refer to and lots of handouts, and we practiced some nursing positions with plastic baby dolls.

I made the class giggle during introductions because we were supposed to mention a concern or fear we had regarding breastfeeding and I said I was afraid my boobs would suffocate my baby. And then I turned bright pink, because HELLO, the only person in this room I know is my husband and now I have basically just said hi! My name is Meggan and I have ridiculously large boobs, nice to meet you.

Sleep

I actually haven’t been doing too poorly in the sleep department, but apparently poor Daniel is being woken up by my outrageously loud breathing and/or snoring. Whoops. My nose gets kind of snuffly in the evenings so by the time I go to bed I can’t breathe through my nose very well and I guess I make a lot of noise? Occasionally I’ll wake up to him elbowing me but that’s about all I remember.

Lucky

I just wanted to mention how much I lucked out with Daniel as my husband. He will volunteer to squish my feet if they are painful, he does all our laundry and dishes, handles a lot of the grocery shopping, makes me dinner, and is great about cleaning the apartment.

He is excited about preparing for Baby and wasn’t a bum about going to classes or participating once we were there. This past weekend he told me he’s looking forward to carrying Baby around in a sling, and if I hadn’t already been sitting I would have keeled over from the cuteness.

OMG SO ADORABLE.

He turns 25 on Sunday and I am so pleased that I’ve gotten to share the last 9-ish years with him. Love you, Danbob!

Maternity Photos!

We had our maternity photoshoot on Saturday and it went splendidly. Ashley is so fun to work with and was great about giving us directions so we didn’t look stupid. I’m really bad at finding places to put my hands and don’t always notice if my bangs are doing something kooky so I really appreciated the gentle direction.

The shoot was out on Sauvie Island (about a 20 minute drive) and involved a pleasant nature walk, in which Daniel and Ashley each saw a frog and I saw some duckies. I wanted to see the frogs really bad but they hid from me. And apparently it’s weird that I’ve only ever seen frogs as big as a quarter – Ashley said she’s seen giant ones in Hawaii that got run over in the street and turned into frog roadkill leather in the sun. Crazy! I’ve always wanted to see a huge frog or toad but have never had the opportunity.

And this is just the sneak peek! We will be getting a CD in the mail with all the photos so we can get them printed or have the files to post on Facebook or Flickr. Thanks, Ashley!

Massage

My massage was WONDERFUL. It didn’t cure me of all my ailments (woe!) but it was so lovely! The massage therapist was super sweet and helped prop me up with 800 pillows (okay, maybe six) and it was a great way to end the weekend.

Reality Check

I think Daniel and I are both kind of realizing that HEY, we will have a baby soon! It’s very exciting but also kind of scary. We’re both kind of worried that we’ll miss each other a lot or not be able to do things like see bands play anymore. I mentioned that I’ve heard we should institute “date nights” to make sure we get some together time even when Baby is here and we agreed that that sounded like a good idea.

This whole thing is pretty freaky though; there won’t just be the two of us! And I will have to take care of a tiny helpless thing! And I will only get maybe two weeks with Daniel before he has to go back to work! And I will only have 12 weeks with Baby before I have to go back to work! Eeek!

Preparing

In terms of preparing for Baby, I feel like we have the essentials but ONLY the essentials. We have a crib, a carseat, and our cloth diapers. Beyond that… it’s kind of sparse. I did buy some pacifiers and a set of muslin swaddling blankets and we do have some small onesies, but we don’t have a diaper pail, cloth diaper detergent, any kind of medical supplies like infant Tylenol or a thermometer, etc. The list goes on.

I was trying not to to stock up on stuff before the baby shower just in case we are blessed with particularly generous friends and family members, but it also makes me nervous to have next to nothing for Baby this late in the game. Deep breaths! I’m sure it will all work out but it makes me nervous just the same.

We have a couple more classes coming up next week – a breastfeeding prep class and a newborn care class. I think they’ll both help us feel more comfortable handling Baby once he’s here. Not that we’re afraid of breaking him, exactly, just… I don’t really know what to do with a newborn and I think this will give us a small boost of confidence.

I think I am hitting the “uncomfortable” stage of pregnancy.

My feet and ankles retain fluid so easily and I get really frustrated with my chubby feet. It often hurts to circle my ankles or flex my calves because the skin is so tight – it feels like an indian rugburn.

Elevating still helps slightly, and Daniel has been wonderful about giving me footrubs (“foot squishins” in our household) but I’m finding that depending on how I sit afterward it can come back almost instantly. Anytime my leg bends at the knee, especially sitting cross-legged, is DOOOOM for my feet. Plus, they’re super tender! The outside of the tops of my feet feel like they’re bruised.

Several of Baby’s movements are painful now – I often find myself pushing a limb of some sort back at him because whatever he’s doing hurts! It’s not even the kicking, it’s the weird body part lumps that poke out. It’s like having a cat in a pillowcase!

The fatigue-during-walking thing is nearly constant – I gave up trying to take my normal route to work and hop on the bus instead because it’s MUCH less walking. My muscles get really exhausted after about three blocks, it’s sad.

Fortunately, I still feel like I can take in a full breath but I hear that will go away soon too.

(ALL THAT SAID, I really do feel like I am getting off easy in terms of pregnancy woes. I don’t pee myself, I haven’t had any bottom-system problems, and aside from the muscle fatigue and the fatty piggy feet, I usually feel pretty good.)

Trimet win!

This week, someone FINALLY got up for me on the bus. I stepped on and it became immediately clear that I was going to have to stand, so I made my way toward one of the poles to hang on, and then a very nice girl offered me her seat. She was a sweet-looking, 20-something lady and I was so, so grateful.

Then later, this ancient little Asian man got on the bus after grocery shopping, and had clearly misplaced his wallet somewhere. He kept patting all his pants pockets, and then jacket pockets, and then looking through his grocery bags trying to find it. After a few minutes, a kind of skeezy-looking guy handed him a fistful of dollars so he could pay his bus fare. The Asian guy was SO thankful and I just felt so happy that there were two very nice people riding the bus that day.

Other stuffs

Daniel installed the carseat base this week and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. Yay! We are keeping the actual carseat in the house for now but the base is in the car still.

Baby’s heartbeat sounded great at my appointment yesterday. My appointments are always hilariously short because I don’t really have anything wrong with me, so there’s not a lot to talk about. I complain about my feet every time and they just give me the symptoms of preeclampsia to be on the lookout for and send me on my merry way. Meanwhile, I have difficulty GOING DOWN STAIRS because my ankles and the tops of my feet are so fat that they have a hard time bending and it hurts. I’m good about drinking water but perhaps I should go on a salt-avoidance mission?

I have my maternity portraits scheduled for tomorrow and Daniel totally wins the Expectant Father of the Year Award for getting me a pregnancy massage for Valentine’s Day. I scheduled that for this Sunday and I’m hoping it’ll help with the foot problem. Hurrah!