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This last week was the first time a complete stranger remarked on my belly. I was wary of him at first since he was singing to himself (here in Portland, talking to yourself is a sure sign of The Crazies) but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he was very polite and nice. He asked if I “knew what it was” (boy) and how far along I was (7 months) and was like, “In two months you’re going to be a mama! Congratulations!” He asked if we had any names and I said no and he laughed.

Because, no, we still don’t really have any names. We’re not revealing them beforehand anyway, but the plan is to have a shortlist to bring into the hospital so we can meet him before we name him. Problem is, we don’t really even have a shortlist. And now one of the names I liked (that Daniel was lukewarm on) just got axed because the nickname sounds terrible and singsong-y with Riley, which makes me sad but lets Daniel off the hook.

Sometimes I hate the news

Sorry, Baby. As if I didn’t have enough things to worry about. My baby may have Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, stroke and/or heart disease because I couldn’t limit myself to only gaining 10lbs while pregnant!

Even better:

“If there ever was a maternal hex, obesity might be it,” said Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of the journal, “and as it turns out, even after the weight comes off, the biggest loser isn’t a mother, but her child.”

MATERNAL HEX. Could they BE any more sensationalist? Good grief. And then ending it by saying the damage is already done, so even if you DO lose the weight your baby is already at risk.

*sigh*

Hospital Prep

I think I found a going-home outfit for Baby! It’s a white onesie with gray, blue, and green rocketships and UFOs on it, plus a little green and white striped zip-up hoodie with a blue rocketship embroidery on the front, and then little gray sweatpants. I got it in “newborn” size so I’m hoping it fits and I’m planning on bringing a similarly-colored 0-3 size onesie just in case he’s huge.

I haven’t started a hospital bag yet but I’m thinking about it. I can’t stand packing early because I feel like in the meantime, I need the stuff that the bag is supposed to contain, but I’m making a mental list of things I should include. This is, of course, based mostly off lists I’ve found on the internet.

Maternity Leave

I’ve started to get things in motion for when I’m on maternity leave from work. If everything goes according to plan, my last day should be April 9 and I will return July 6 (which is a four day week!). I get six weeks disability pay (60% of my salary, pre-tax), two weeks PTO from the company (THANK YOU), two weeks of my own PTO, and then the rest is unpaid time off.

This leaves me with two more weeks of PTO (luckily, I rolled over one from last year) to use throughout the rest of the year for daycare emergencies/closures, sick time, vacations, and anything else that comes up. I was really leery of using all my PTO in one go so I think this plan works out nicely for me.

Baby and Me

The internet tells me Baby should be about 16 inches tall and around three and a half pounds. I’d estimate him at closer to four, mostly based on the ultrasound a couple of weeks ago saying he was already 3.5lbs. He’s having loads of fun stretching, rolling over, and occasionally kicking me in a rib. I can sometimes tell when he’s about to kick, because he’ll stre-e-e-tch, pause for a moment, and then BAM! I had a dream the other day that I knew where his feet were and I was tickling his toes – I woke up smiling.

Baby’s lungs are maturing and apparently he often has his eyes open when he’s awake. Creepy!

As for me, I’ve had a couple of Braxton-Hicks contractions (I think?) and walking tends to fatigue me pretty easily. I think my belly pokes out far enough that my back/legs are having a hard time adjusting to the shift in my center of gravity, and they have to work extra-hard to keep me upright and mobile. I’m still doing yoga once a week which helps, and I’m usually pretty conscious of my posture and know not to overly arch my back to make up for it. Still sucks though.

I’ve also had a bit of sciatic pain on my right-side top-of-butt which is unpleasant. It’s not debilitating, thank goodness, but it is uncomfortable. I’m getting better at remembering to pee before I leave work instead of realizing I need to go on my way home when I can’t do anything about it. Progress!

Also, chocolate basically sounds good all the time.

I totally got the absolute shock of my life this morning.

I am an aunt.

My younger brother and his live-in girlfriend had a baby in JANUARY and kept it a secret for not only the entire pregnancy, but for A MONTH after the baby was born. My parents found out last night.

Here’s what my mom posted on Facebook today:

So sometimes your kids can drop a bombshell on ya….Carson came home yesterday….followed by girlfriend Nellie…carrying a baby. THEIR baby. They had a baby a month ago and told no one…..NO ONE!!! ……SURPRISE!!
Meet Riley Alexander born 1-5-10 7:41 am 5 # 13 oz 19 1/2 ”
Our precious first Grandson!!

I am still reeling from the shock. I’m obviously super happy for them and very excited about my nephew – it means that Baby will have a cousin close in age (4mos apart) to play with, but I’m pissed they didn’t tell anyone. And I feel a little bit like my thunder has been stolen, since now Baby isn’t the first grandbaby OR the first boy. (I’m sure I’ll get over this, but right now I am still in rug-pulled-out-from-under-me mode.)

So yes – very excited, confused, happy, upset, and so many other things this morning. Congratulations to Carson and Nellie and baby Riley!

So! 30 weeks down and approximately 10 to go. Baby is moving much differently than even a month ago – it’s much more squirmy, rolly, and stretchy sensations rather than distinct kicks. I still get those too, but they are much fewer and farther between. I’ve also felt hiccups a couple of times! I think the last time I said I did, it was something else – right after I posted it I read somewhere that the “shuddering” feeling is usually Baby shaking a limb around to get untangled from the cord or to move around a bit. Now that I’m pretty sure I felt actual hiccups, I’m even more sure the shuddering wasn’t it.

I had a follow-up ultrasound done last Friday to check Baby’s growth. I think they were just wanting to make sure he wasn’t a giant baby, so while he was still measuring ahead, it was a much more manageable week ahead instead of 2+ weeks ahead like at the first ultrasound. Baby is still definitely a boy, and we got a cute picture of his little noggin:

People tell me he has my lips and this makes me laugh. I find him adorable already and I can’t even really tell what he looks like.

He was breech (head up) during the ultrasound, which was weird since I feel like he’s been head down for weeks now, and turned head down again pretty soon afterward. He was head down today at my appointment so maybe he just wanted to spice things up for the ultrasound. They estimated his weight at about three and a half pounds.

Also! Speaking of pounds, I only gained TWO between my last appointment and today’s appointment. GO ME!

That time I fell down

I fell over on Sunday. (I AM FINE, BABY IS FINE.) I misjudged a curb and did something weird, and my heels slipped off and before I knew it I was lying in the street in between two parked cars. (Please note that I am laughing here, typing this out. It just sounds so horrible.) Mostly I landed on my knees, and I kind of caught myself with one hand and a boob and I don’t think my belly even hit the ground. Primarily I just scraped my knees and scared the everloving hell out of both Daniel and myself. I keep picturing the panic-stricken look on his face as he helped me up and OH MAH GAH SO HORRIBLE.

Knees are a little bruised and a little scratched, but I didn’t rip my pants or anything and Baby was just as active as ever and I didn’t have any cramps or bleeding or anything out of the ordinary. I told my midwife about it today and she was like, “Okay. So I really hope that doesn’t happen again but if it does, you should call us, because we might want to check you and the baby out to make sure everything is okay.” Duly noted! (SEE? I AM BAD AT THIS DOCTOR STUFF ALREADY.)

Childcare

This is so stressful and just UGH that I almost don’t even want to talk about it. In short: everywhere imaginable has a wait list a year long and we need care starting in July; everywhere is right around a thousand dollars a month; I am still vaguely upset that I even have to use childcare; I am angry that many places charge you (anywhere from $25-70) to get placed on the waitlist. Fortunately the place we toured already seemed nice (and was fine with cloth diapers!), and we have a tour at another location next Thursday afternoon and then another one Friday morning, so we’ll see about those as well. We’re submitting wait list applications where we can, especially at the ones that don’t charge to type your name into a spreadsheet.

Other stuff

I have an appointment for maternity portraits booked for the 20th! I’m super excited!

The fatigue I mentioned last week has gotten a bit worse. I can’t tell what causes it but I’m leaning toward it possibly being related to needing to eat something. It’s just so WEIRD – my sidebutt/hip area will be so fatigued it doesn’t want me to stand up, but all I did was walk up some stairs. So irritating.

Only one more childbirth prep class to go! We’re also signed up for a breastfeeding class and a newborn care class but those aren’t for another couple of weeks yet. This week we learned about interventions and pain medication. I’m still leaning toward avoiding pain meds, but we’ll see how things go once we get there. Basically, I think I’ll be fine as long as I don’t end up getting Pitocin. If I get Pitocin, all bets are off and I’ll probably ask for an epidural, but if I can avoid the Pitocin (which is one of my goals) then I think I’ll be okay.

Non-baby-related drama: Something got messed up with Daniel’s W4 form at his last job, and as such, his deductions for taxes were not what we intended and stayed that way for most of the year, and as such, instead of getting a nice fat check for our tax return we had to SEND the IRS a fat check for both federal and state. Argh.