7 Days

I went to the doctor on Wednesday (oh how fun that is) and he checked my progress for the first time. You'd think that at 38 weeks I'd be somewhere, I'm always hearing about how woman will be walking around for over a month at 1cm dilated and nothing... but alas I was only 50% effaced and super soft and little baby Evelyn is still a free floater. Meaning... I'm probably going to go over my due date (I know, normal right- why am I complaining). Come on baby, early July birthdays are good! Come meet your family!

My girlfriend is talking me walking on Monday (I should have been doing so much more of this on my own but I keep choosing not to because I can't stand the puffy feet I get) and I go back to the doctor on Thursday. I figure Tuesday I'll go back to yoga (I've been totally slacking and haven't gone in several weeks) and I'll find something to do Wednesday to try to make things start actively moving. I really don't want to be induced, and I don't think that remedies like caster oil are a good idea either and I still think it would be super cool to have a 4th of July baby. Fireworks on your birthday! Otherwise, I may have to vote for July 8th.. but that's almost cruel.

Too Much Time

So before I've been freaking out because I wasn't ready for the baby to come. Put up and took down the crib twice (it wasn't perfect); kept moving the bassinet; counted all the blankets, towels, and burp clothes I had.... 2 weeks ago I finally had my baby shower (AWSOME party) and got all of things I needed. What I still needed or wanted I've been slowly picking up. I suppose I could put in the socket protectors, pick up some gripe water and a few baby gates, but those are such little tasks that really can wait.

Now I finally have her crib all set up: monitor, night light, and white noise machine in place (not all plugged in though).

Changing table is set up with the clothes washed and put away and diapers being delivered on Tuesday.

Hospital bag packed for both of us and I even went online and bought a few cute headbands in case she comes out bald. I don't have the car seat in yet, but it's all ready to be put in (have kids that need the seat still, don't want to cramp them together till I have to) and I also got a head and body support for her car seat ordered today, it should also be here on Tuesday.

I went online and bought a book on breastfeeding and the parts I need for my breast pump for when I go back to work.

I have everything set up for her birth announcements, I just have to take a picture and put in her information then order the prints. I could still pick up the envelopes and address them now, but even if I don't have that done I do have all the addresses organized to one location.

I've been having so much swelling in my feet and hands it hurts to stand or try to grab things (much less write more than a few thank you cards at a time which is something I still need to do). I'm too tired or swollen to clean my house anymore than a mild state clean (ie, things picked up, not all laundry put away but it's all clean, etc)...

She's finally (as in last night) ruined my body and spread stretch marks all the way across my stomach... I'm pretty positive she's not coming anytime soon, I still have my plug, I don't think she's dropped yet, I know she's not engaged and I'm having no contractions besides mild Braxton Hicks.

I realized I was keeping my head busy and staying sane trying to organize what I still needed or needed to get done... Now I've finished that and I still have 2 to 4 weeks left (38 weeks today and with my luck, since now I want her out, she'll wait it out till the last possible moment to leave her cushy, albiet cramped, home) to sit and do what? I've had an easy pregnancy, but it's lost it's fun factor. I'm done.

Bed Rest

This pregnancy is much harder than I expected. Okay, it's still a cake walk, but I'm finally getting normal pregnancy symptoms (acid reflux, water retention, etc) that are NOT fun. I am at least very thankful that even though I'm due in July (crazy hot summer month) we've had a VERY mild summer so far. We'll pay for it later I'm sure, but at least then I won't be 9 month pregnant (I'm so selfish sometimes).

Yesterday I choose to put myself on bed rest. After walking around and trying to get a bunch of things done over the last 2 days my feet turned into these creepy, puffy, sausage looking things. Not pretty, not comfortable, and very difficult to walk around. It wasn't so bad for a day. I slept in, gathered a few things to entertain myself (books, tv remote, etc) and parked it on the couch with my feet up. Not horrible, but not fun. Bed rest would suck (I sympathize with everyone who's been put on it-unless they have a laptop, that would make it better). I only did it for a day and it seemed to help, but it was not so much fun. Hopefully my feet stay only slightly puffy after this so I don't have to do it again. My doctor told me I need to be careful with the heat coming on and making sure I don't let my feet get too swollen.

Maternity Photos Round 2

I am not a patient person by nature. Oh sure, I can be patient sometimes, but more often than not it's something I struggle with. So I had my maternity photos taken (or at least some of the photos I wanted to get done) but then I had to wait for her to edit them and send me my proofs of them.... oh how difficult waiting can be. Finally, I broke down. I had an afternoon without any mandatory plans and decided I would just set up my tripod and take some of my own. Let me tell you, the idea seemed so much easier than it actually was.

First I had to clear a space to work in- okay, that really wasn't very hard. Then I pulled out my props, outfits, tripod, camera remote, and backdrops. Also, not to hard....

Finally came the time for me to get into my first pose, take the picture via remote, get up and check the picture to see if I was in the right place or not, and then try to get back into my EXACT pose so I could adjust the picture as I was needing (ie, didn't get my whole body in the frame). THAT was the hard part. The whole thing took a few hours to do (that's several hours more than I was expecting), not even counting my clean up time.

I had printed out a list of photos I liked, about 16 in all, and tried to duplicate them myself. Honestly, I really had no such luck. I did however get a few pictures that I like, even if they are a bit risky, it was one more thing that was really important for me to do in my first pregnancy that otherwise was not going to happen. There is only a very limited amount of time you can actually do maternity photos. Too early and your stomach is too small, too late, and it's too big (or plagued by stretch marks... Thankfully, I got mine in JUST in time to beat the marks that pregnancy tends to leave behind.

Maternity Photos Round 1

A weeks back (May 18th, actually) I did a maternity photo shoot with an amateur photographer. I found her on craigslist offering a free session and took her up on it. My mother was convinced I was driving out to a serial killers house where they were going to cut me open and steal my baby... Cliff wasn't thrilled with the idea either (especially when I got there and told him it was in the middle of nowhere-all the better to hide my body, he said) but I gave him all the information I had and called him before and after so he wouldn't worry. Just for the record, if I had not seen this persons work for several weeks (if not months) in a row (meaning if it WAS a serial killer they had been doing it totally undetected for a good long while now and probably deserved another victim if they really were that good) and well constructed web site I probably wouldn't have gone either... but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I got there and spent an hour with her taking almost 100 pictures with her. Out of my gas and time I was able to walk away with a CD of about 5 pictures that I really liked creating a nice record of my belly. Not bad for free.