The other night I made the mistake of eating ramen for dinner. My feet (and what’s left of my ankles) quickly swelled up… and they’re just now getting back down to size. I don’t know if it’s because of the swelling but when I pulled off my socks on Wednesday night, I noticed two bruises on my right foot. I didn’t remember seeing them when I showered that morning but I couldn’t remember if I walked into anything either (which I try to avoid, but I do quite often). So I’ve been monitoring them and they seem to be going away. My first thought when I saw them was leukemia but that is just my hypocondriatic nature. But they still freak me out.

I’ve also noticed that I’ve begun to waddle. If I can take my time walking, I can pull off the ‘normal’ walk but if I’m in a rush the waddle is inevitable. The hardest part about it is that it feels like I have no choice but to walk like a duck. It literally feels like my pelvis (or my belly) is pushing my legs apart and for me to walk ‘normally’ requires me to consciously pull my legs together. It’s a really weird feeling.

Another thing that is pretty recent is my sudden insatiable thirst. After going to bed, I drank 32 ounces of water over the course of the night and I still woke up thirsty (and pretty parched). Looking online, it looks like a symptom of gestational diabetes, but I’m trying not to freak out or get carried away. I see my doctor on Wednesday so I’ll ask then.

Hopefully we can go shopping for a glider this weekend. That’s the only piece of furniture we haven’t gone shopping for but I don’t see it taking 8 – 12 weeks to get here like the baby furniture. I hope.

Jay finally got a callback from the place where we ordered the baby’s furniture and it will be at our house on April 12th!!! Woooohoooo!

The past couple of days have been so hectic.

On Thursday, Jay and I took off from work and cleaned and fixed and patched and made things pretty in our house. Then we met my mom in Baltimore and had dinner at a seafood restaurant.

On Friday we picked up his cousin (Veronica) at the airport and did some last minute errands like pick up the decorations, beverages (both alcoholic and non) and cleaned some more. We ended the night with Kobe steaks for Jay and his cousin (and chicken for me).

On Saturday we rearranged the furniture and then people started showing up. His aunt and uncle arrived latein the morning to start making the rice and beans and then his mom showed up. Veronica had already done most of the decorating (which was FABULOUS!) so all we had to do was wait for the caterer to arrive while we set up the games.

There was so much food (our neighbors also contributed and made a potato dish, arroz con pollo and flan)… and we were so worried that there wouldn’t be enough. We had so much fun and our little boy received so many great gifts — we can’t wait for him to see them all! We have tons of pictures; the digital age is great — you can get other people’s pics in a matter of seconds. Jay also has video footage which he’ll be putting on DVD’s and shipping out to the family.

Once the furniture arrives, we can start finalizing the room. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’s delivered before the baby.

From babycenter.com:

How your baby’s growing: Your baby’s getting big. He weighs a tad over 5 pounds and is just over 18 inches long. Because it’s so snug in your womb, he isn’t likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he’ll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

How your life’s changing: Your uterus — now up under your ribs — has expanded to about 15 times its original volume, and you may feel like you’ve run out of room! If you could peek inside your uterus, you’d see that there’s much less amniotic fluid and much more baby in there now. Your ballooning uterus is crowding your internal organs too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and have heartburn and other digestive problems. If you don’t have these problems, you’re one of the lucky few.

Your doctor or midwife will probably want to start seeing you every week until you deliver. She may ask you to count fetal movements, to track your baby’s activity level. Between now and 37 weeks, she’ll also do a culture to check for bacteria called Group B streptococci (GBS). This is done by swabbing the lower end of your vagina and your rectum — the swab is the size of a regular cotton swab, and it won’t hurt at all. Group B streptococcus is usually harmless in adults, but if you have it and pass it on to your baby during labor and birth, it can cause complications (like pneumonia, meningitis, or a blood infection). Because 10 to 30 percent of pregnant women have the bacteria and don’t know it, it’s important to be screened. (The bacteria come and go on their own — that’s why you weren’t screened earlier in pregnancy.) If you’re a GBS carrier, you’ll be given IV antibiotics when you’re in labor, which will reduce your baby’s risk of infection by 70 percent.

This is also a good time to fill out your birth plan. Using our form will help you focus on specifics — like who will be present, what pain management techniques you want to try, and how long you want to stay in the hospital. It will give you a starting point to discuss your preferences with your medical team. Labor and delivery are unpredictable and you probably won’t follow your plan to the letter, but knowing ahead of time what choices you have to make can take some of the anxiety out of the process.

Everything still looks good — fundal height is 34.5 centimeters. I’ve gained 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks, so that puts me at 25 pounds gained at 34 weeks. I was hoping 25 pounds would be my total weight gained but I guess that won’t be happening. I hear a lot of women gain more weight in their third trimester and I’m hoping I’m not one of them.

The doctor also felt around and said she could feel little ‘body parts’ (and I’m assuming she meant feet) right where I get kicked all the time — on my right side, directly under my ribs. She also confirmed that he is still head down and that his back is on the left-hand side. His heartbeat was in the 150’s and she said he was probably upset that she was poking and prodding so much. I think he was just really hungry.

I also got to ask my OBGYN questions that I probably should have asked earlier but didn’t even think about. I asked her if she thought I could make the drive from Bethesda to Frederick (~37 miles) if I started to go into labor and she said maybe, but to see if I could work from home after 37 weeks…. Did they do episiotomies? She said only if they think it’s necessary — they don’t force it on anyone and sometimes a woman will demand it because she just can’t push the baby out without the assistance…. And lastly, are they ok with drug-free/natural births? She said they’re ok but she just doesn’t want the woman to feel bad if she ‘needs’ the drugs to get through it. Then Jay told her that I was trying to do the hypnobabies thing and she seemed totally cool with it. She said she was watching something on some nightly news show (Dateline, 20/20) about hypnosis and how it really works for some people and if she’s not the one delivering our baby (she’ll be out April 22 – May 2 getting married and going on her honeymoon) she wants to know how it goes. So that helped me a little to know that my doctor wasn’t so weirded out by it. I’m a little concerned about the other OBGYN since he is an older man and may be less enthusiatic about our centuries old yet relatively ‘new’ attempt at childbirth.

On Sunday I prepared some sugar cookie dough to be baked on Monday night; I’ve been looking for a good sugar cookie recipe but have been too scared to try any that I’ve found. I finally found one that had excellent reviews so I decided to give it a try. Monday night proved to be too busy since I had to stop off at the Target in Germantown to pick up some more folding chairs (the one by us was sold out) and I didn’t get home until almost 7:30.

After the doctor’s appointment we grabbed some pizza and when we got home it was only 5pm — the perfect time to bake cookies! So I rolled them out and put icing on them — recipes for both were acquired from allrecipes.com — and let me say these cookies are awesome and even look store bought! I’ll post the recipe later but if you want it now, just do a search for Best Rolled Sugar Cookies on allrecipes.com and Sugar Cookie Icing on the same site. Yum, yum, yum.

Time for bed. Tomorrow is my Friday and then it’s time to clean, clean, clean!

From babycenter.com:

How your baby’s growing: Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is probably almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which he’ll need to regulate his body temperature once he’s born — are filling him out, making him rounder. His central nervous system is still maturing and his lungs are well developed by now. If you’ve been nervous about going into preterm labor, you’ll be happy to know that 99 percent of babies this age can survive outside the womb — and most have no major long-term problems related to prematurity.

How your life’s changing: You may be feeling a little fatigued lately, and that’s perfectly understandable. Let yourself slow down and save some energy for labor day. If you have to spend a lot of time on your feet, try wearing a maternity belt that supports your abdomen and helps redistribute some of the weight. And if you’ve been sitting or lying down for a long time, don’t jump up too quickly. Blood can pool in your feet and legs, which may cause a temporary (but rapid) drop in your blood pressure and make you feel dizzy when you get up.

Many midwives recommend massaging the perineum (the area around your vagina) to help prevent tearing during childbirth. This is a good time to start, though not everyone is comfortable with this technique and it may not help in every case.

You may notice itchy red bumps or welts on your belly (they might even spread to your thighs and buttocks). This is usually a harmless condition called pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPP for short), but let your practitioner make a diagnosis to be sure. Also be sure to call her if you feel itchy all over your body, even if you don’t have a rash. It could signal a liver problem.

We put half the border up this weekend and it looks so damn cute! It’s a lot more difficult than we thought since we have to soak it and then position and hold a dripping mess up on the wall. The hardest part is getting it in position before the glue dries — everything else is relatively easy.

While we were at Lowe’s this weekend we noticed that they had patio furniture out so we rented a truck (only $20) and picked up some chairs, a table and an umbrella. Now guests can enjoy our deck if they so choose. I’ve been keeping an eye on the weather — I hope it doesn’t rain. In other house-ishy news, Jay patched the last two holes in our ceiling from when we had the recessed lights installed. I think we should celebrate — it only took 4 years and 3 months but it finally got done. I will say though that part of the reason it took so long was because he had to take apart and move his ENTIRE dj setup. Hopefully painting the basement will be less painful than patching the holes.

I don’t know if it’s because we did so much this weekend (and yet we still didn’t accomplish anything on our to-do list!), but I am completely worn out. It’s also getting very difficult (impossible) to bend over and I have to bend at the knees and lean to the side to pick things up. My belly is also getting in the way of simpler things like brushing my teeth, tieing my shoelaces and sitting at my desk at work (I have to sit at the end of my chair). I can’t believe that I still have a full month to go… does he have any room left? When he moves, his kicks go right into my ribs. There is no more slouching for me since that pushes his feet right up under my ribs and when he moves its like someone is kicking me square in the chest. Did I mention that I can’t see my vagina? Well I can’t.

The other night Jay got to feel him moving around and he said he thought he felt his foot. He said his movements are more defined and he can feel body parts now. I’m glad he can feel them because I can definitely feel them.

In birthing news, I am feeling less anxious. Maybe it’s the hypno CD’s but I feel like everything will be ok and I’ll have a nice childbirth. It seems that everyone that has given birth has a horror story to tell me but I know that that is their story, not mine. I really do feel that the female body is meant to give birth and I just have to learn how to listen to my body and not be so scared. So I’m working on that… it’s just difficult when every single birth account I hear is negative. Maybe I can hang a “shut up and don’t talk to me” sign around my neck.

This weekend is the last weekend before the baby shower. We have a bazillion things to do to get the house ready and to get US ready. There’s a lot to be done, but I know it will totally be worth it. We have family from all over coming next Saturday and we’ll have plenty of food (and alcohol!). Jay has plans of videotaping the whole thing as well as taking tons of pictures. It will be interesting to see how everyone fits into our place — I didn’t expect such a big turnout otherwise I would have had it elsewhere.

It’s still crazy to think that we’re having a baby. Our living room is now filled with baby stuff — we definitely need to invest in more storage solutions. I’m sure it will help when the baby’s furniture arrives so we can start packing things away. Unfortunately for us, that isn’t due to happen for a few more weeks… and if the furniture arrives closer to 12 weeks than 8 weeks, we might have a baby in our house before we have a changing station!

I’ve been trying to read my hypnobabies material and listen to the cd’s every night. I know it’s supposed to help me relax, but I feel more anxious now since I’m reminded daily that this baby will soon have to come out. I don’t know if I’m more scared of the birth or of the fact that we’ll be responsible for a whole human being.

This past weekend we attended Jay’s stepdad’s niece’s Bat Mitzvah — it was so fun! The food was great, the people were nice and everything looked absolutely beautiful. We also got to see Jay’s sister and his niece who we haven’t seen in almost 2 years. She’s grown so much and looked adorable in her dress!

Today I’m relaxing at home — I think the weekend was a little too much for me. But now we I can get some little things done around the house like cleaning and laundry. And hopefully we’ll be able to visit the caterer to check some things out (like how much space the food will need so we can plan accordingly).

Last Wednesday I received my hypnobabies stuff in the mail. I’m really hoping to have a drug-free childbirth. I don’t want the water birth or a home birth; I just want to be able to deliver our baby without the intervention of drugs. It’s been done for millions of years by humans and animals alike so I’m sure it’s possible. Plus, my mother and my grandmother had relatively quick deliveries — I’m hoping for the same. Part of hypnobabies is ‘de-programming’ your mind from all the negative perceptions we have of childbirth but that is so much more difficult than I thought. Scary images of birth are all over the place, not to mention all the ‘helpful’ women that approach me with their birth stories that usually feature 36 hours of labor followed by a c-section.

From babycenter.com:

How your baby’s growing: This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and measures 17.2 inches from the top of his head to his heels. His skin is becoming less red and wrinkled, and while most of his bones are hardening, his skull is quite pliable and not completely joined. This will help him ease out of your relatively narrow birth canal.

How your life’s changing: You may be feeling some aches and even numbness in your fingers, wrists, and hands. Like many other tissues in your body, those in your wrist can swell, which can increase pressure in the carpal tunnel, a bony canal in your wrist. Nerves that run through this “tunnel” end up pinched, creating numbness, tingling, shooting or burning pain, or a dull ache. Try wearing a brace or propping your arm up with a pillow when you sleep. If your work requires repetitive hand movements (at a keyboard or assembly line, for example), remember to stretch your hands when you take breaks.

If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, try wedging a pillow between your legs and behind your back. If that doesn’t help, try sleeping in a semi-upright position, with several pillows behind your head (or sleep in a recliner!). If frequent trips to the bathroom are robbing you of your zz’s, cut back on fluids by late afternoon or evening.