38w3d: Earthquake aftermath

Parker's first earthquake occurred yesterday in the early afternoon. We were in the office, clicking on the keyboard as usually, when the whole building started to shake. I grabbed my monitor as it was almost falling but since the shaking didn't stop, I just dove under my desk! It was pretty scary, I have to admit, and now I am not so sure about living in California.

Parker has been so cute lately! He is sticks his feet/knees out on the top right hand side of my belly; I love this feeling. I usually rub his little foot a bit when he does that. I love him so much already and now really can't wait for his arrival.

My belly is pretty huge by now and I can hardly fit in any of my shirts, even the maternity ones. I didn't gain any more weight though, for the last 3 weeks. The midwifes don't seem to worry though. DH and I saw a youtube video a while ago where a doctor (or a midwife, actually) said that stabilizing weight usually happens 2-3 weeks before the delivery. This would mean that we are getting close!

Walking is getting hard because of the pelvic pressure, and laying down is no better, not to mention trying to sit on anything other than an office chair.

Our nursery is almost ready. We have painted the stripes on the walls, hang the picture and the shelf, and attached the changing station to the dresser as of yesterday. We are still waiting for the glider, and have to steam clean the rug before we bring it up from the living room.

We also are done with the deck, finally. It's not perfect, but it is close enough. DH put together the table and we set it up outside yesterday. It looks gorgeous and we can't wait to have our first meal out there, perhaps tomorrow. Here is a pic.



Our tenant quit on us unexpected, and we had to search for another renter. On one hand it's good, she was very needy and bothered us about every little thing. She locked herself out twice (last time two day ago), and didn't seem very grateful for help. The timing was not good, of course, but it looks like we may be done searching. We are meeting a potential renter tonight and hope to have the lease signed by the week's end.

37w1d: Full term, no kidding

I am feeling good, for the most part. But I have been experiencing what I believe is referred to as 'pelvic pressure', since Saturday. It makes it a bit painful to walk so I am glad I have my midwife appointment tomorrow and will be able to ask about it. I also have been having A LOT of Braxton Hicks over the weekend, to the point that I downloaded a contractions tracking app on my iphone and started tracking them. As I expected, they are all over the place, not at all regular, so I don't think they mean anything. Although it definitely makes me happy to know that my body is getting ready.

I also had a strange, out of the blue, "attack" of RLS at work this afternoon. It hasn't happened since the first trimester and I was very surprised. I stretched and stretched and then felt so tired I had to close the door and take a short nap. This helped and I feel much better now. I am jealous of the women who go on maternity leave before their babies come around, though. I wish I could just stay at home and veg out on a couch, or at least be able to finish nursery when I actually have some energy in me.

Speaking of the nursery, we have made a great progress this weekend. DH finally installed the new fan, and I am super proud of him. He is not a handy guy who enjoys fixing stuff, he never liked to do things around the house. And the fan was not an easy one to start with. Especially that our 1939 house doesn't have a standard, color coded wires. So an extensive research and trial and error sessions needed to be performed before the darn thing was up and running. DH was so happy with the effect (and so satisfied that he actually did it all by himself), that he pushed for purchasing another fan, for our bedroom, and is going to install it next weekend. :)

I also finished up the shelves in the bookcase and put away all Parker's books and toys. He's got so many books already! A big chunk of them are my birthday present books, in Polish/English. I got them from my dear friend in NC. I am super excited about those; Marc will be able to read the stories to Parker in English and I'll get to read to him the same stories in Polish! So much easier to "get" what everything means. I also think they will help Marc pick up some Polish.

A big plan for tonight is to start cooking. I want to be prepared for when Parker comes, so we don't have to stress about what we are going to eat (it's always a big issue for us now). I am planning on making Lecho and Mushroom Gulasz. We can eat those with rice or bread and they are easy to heat up. I don't like freezing food (for some reason we never get to defrost any pre-cooked dinners and end up throwing them out) so I am planning on putting them in jars and storing them in the fridge for a month or so. I bought (almost) all the ingredients on Sunday, but I forgot the big one - tomatoes. We are going to stop by and get them on the way home, and pick up some jars from Target too. I am very excited, although I know I will feel super tired tonight.

36w2d: Midwife appointment

Had my midwife appointment today with an internal check. I'm not dilated yet but I am about 50% effaced and station -3, so it is starting slowly. I thought something has started as I have been having slight period like cramps lately (we learned on our Bradley class that this is how you feel your cervix 'working'). when I told DH yesterday on the way home, he was so excited!

I'm not going to have any more internals until 41 weeks (unless I want to) so we will see. I also got 'swabbed' for GBS/group B strep and had my blood drawn for the last time. From now on I also go every Tuesday.

P is still head down and I officially need to start counting his movements (every other day until the due date and then every day).

We were supposed to get our oxygen tank already, but it turns out that there are some others who are due still in Aug and still don't have theirs. I have to call them on Thursday and we will be most likely picking it up on Friday.

I heard from several sources, and the midwife confirmed, that if there is any prediction about how your labor is going to be, it is to base it on your mom's experience. So I talked to my mom recently and found out that all three of us (my two sisters and I) were induced. I knew I was two weeks late but didn't realize all three of us were. And didn't know about the induction. So if there is any truth to the prediction, we still have plenty of time to work on the nursery! ;) So we discussed the plan in case I do go over the due date. They will do another internal check at 41 weeks and see where we are. If nothing happens at 41.5 weeks, we start talking about some help. First castrol oil, if that doesn't help, Cervidil. Cervidil can be applied by the midwifes so we would still plan on home birth. But at this point I would also have to schedule a hospital induction for closer to 42 weeks (which would be around Sep 18, but since it is a Sunday, it would most likely happen on the Fri 16 or Mon 19). The midwife said that even if I go to labor the day I am supposed to be induced, I can still deliver at home, which is nice. I really hope I won't have to go to the hospital!

We still need to provide a birth plans to the midwifes (one for home and one for the transfer, but I would also like to have an extra one in case of induction) and install the car seat. We have almost all the supplies (minus ammonia for cleaning purpose).

We didn't make any more progress on the nursery as I felt too tired last night and tonight. I hope we will get some stuff done on Friday (I am working from home so will save time on commuting; DH is off and I will try to convince him to install the new fan in P's room). We have a birthday party for our friends' one year old to attend on Sat afternoon, and then DH's brother's birthday lunch or dinner on Sunday. It may not be possible to do much on the weekend.

I am working on my parents invitations to come here to US. We finished and submitted their visa applications today and they will have their interviews on Friday. I am praying they will get the visas! I really would like them to come see P before we can travel with him.

36w1d: More shopping. Online.

I have been spending a lot of time (and money) on the internet lately. Honestly, I am bit scared to check my credit card balance, although I know I am not buying junk, only the items that we need for the baby. We actually kind of gave up on getting a new TV for a while and resigned to watch Netflix shows on the computer (we did get a new computer; the old one wasn't going to last much longer). But I digress. I wanted to say that I much prefer online shopping than regular stores, especially for baby items. The reason behind it?

1. Variety. There are usually many more choices online.

2. Reviews. Things may be pretty but are they really well made, useful, appropriate?

3. Price. Pretty much everything is less expensive online, and you can get free shipping on most items.

4. Time. I shop during lunch break at work or late at night. Neither one I could spend shopping in in a brick and mortar store. Plus I save time on driving to and from the store.

With baby items, additional plus is that if I have to, I can return the generic items to a regular baby store most of the time. We spent over 3 hours in one of the big baby stores a week ago, looking at things and not being able to make a decision. I was supposed to use my coupons and get all the remaining baby things at once. We both were simply exhausted (a trip to IKEA after didn't help) and I ended up with not even half of what I needed, of which three or four things I will be returning as I found exactly the same items for a less online afterwords. I absolutely love online shopping and I don't think I will be going back to this store to actually buy things other than diapers, only to spend the store credit $$ I have (returned a whole bunch of shower gifts).

I should go now but I want to give you a quick update on the nursery front. I'm starting to doubt that I will ever paint the stripes on the walls. :( There are so many other things to worry about! Even though we did quite a lot this past weekend: we put together the dresser and the bookshelf (minus shelves), and I put most of P's little clothes and other items in the dresser. I would like to finish the bookshelf and perhaps install the changing pad on the dresser today. Once we finish the bookshelf, I can finally put his many, many books away and free some room on the floor/stairs. And would also like to finish putting away the rest of P's clothes, etc. This way I may be able start painting tomorrow, one wall at the time. I already ordered the hook for the guitar, a secure one, that will hold the guitar in place even when knocked about accidentally. So I have a plan! This makes me feel so much better! Perhaps we can hang the new fan on Saturday. If P decided to come late, we will even have time to steam clean the living room rug and put it in his room! :)

I also spoke with my mom about her labor with all three of us (I have two sisters, one is three years older than me and the other is fourteen years younger). I found out two interesting things. My mom was induced with my older sister and me, as she was going over her due date (I was two weeks late, not sure how late was my big sister). We both were average weight babies (around 7 lbs each) and born healthy. She went into labor spontaneously with my little sister, although I believe it happened a few days after her due date as well. My little sister was on a heavier side (9 lbs). My mom also said that her labor was long, but once she got to the pushing stage, it was very quick. I hope this will be true for me too. Even though it's getting harder and harder to get around and do stuff, I think I would rather P to be late than early. This will give us (or DH, as I most likely will not be able to do much in a couple of weeks) the time to finish up everything we need to.

The other interesting fact that I learned from my mom was that she did not breastfeed me or my older sister. Her doctor said the she won't have milk because of the induction drugs and she, being in her early twenties, didn't even think to try after a few days. She also said that nobody was encouraging new moms to breastfeed and the fact that mom's milk is the best for the baby wasn't really a common knowledge.

I am glad I didn't have babies thirty something years ago with no internet and no access to the knowledge I have now. 36 weeks 1 day. A few more weeks.

35w4d: When is the baby really "full term"?

I read about a study yesterday that says that baby's brain almost doubles in size between 37 and 39 weeks. Also, statistically, babies have 6% probability of dying when born at 37 weeks as opposed to 3% at 39 weeks. Apparently there are talks about changing the 'full term' from 37 to 39 weeks. One state, I think it is Arizona, just passed a law about no scheduled c-sections until 39 weeks, for that reason. I know that sometimes the early studies are wrong and I probably should to do more research on the subject, but for now, I hope P stays in for at least another 4 weeks!

P's movement pattern has definitely changed over the last few weeks. He doesn't kick as much but he definitely moves around. It's like he rolls over and creates a big wave. The strange thing is that sometimes I don't feel his movement unless I place my hand on my belly or lean against something. Earlier, I used to feel his movements in my belly more then on the outside.

35w1d: Shopping

We finally have (almost) everything purchased. Went to Buy Buy Baby and IKEA yesterday (more about it later) and then I shopped online for another 2h or so. I also did about an hour of additional Amazon shopping today.

Went to IKEA yesterday to pick up a dresser a bookcase. It turned out that the one I originally selected felt too tall once we put the changing pad on it. I am so glad we brought it with us to test! The one we decided to get is a bit nicer, actually, more sophisticated (if there is anything sophisticated about IKEA furniture, lol). We also picked a really cool kids bookcase in the showroom and headed down to the furniture pick up section, and... They were all gone! All dressers we wanted and all bookcases we wanted! We were very disappointed as we got stuck in traffic on the way there and felt like all this wad for nothing. But at least we now know exactly what we want. And I checked the inventory online and they already restocked so I will be picking them up on Friday.

I also got to return a lot of unwanted/double shower items at Buy Buy Baby and, with the 20% off coupon, we got a crib mattress practically for free! As soon as we got home, I put the sheets on it and realized that I forgot the bed skirt (I am not much of a bed skirt person but the crib has drawers under it and without the bed skirt all the inside of drawers is visible). I went online and ordered one; it's coming tomorrow. :)

I also ordered pretty much everything else online and it's supposed to get delivered tomorrow and on Wed. I think we'll be all set with purchases after we get the dresser and the bookcase on Fri. Then we "only" have to put them together, hang the new ceiling fan (that has been sitting in a box for over a month now; hopefully it won't be broken as the return date has probably already passed). Then we need to steam-clean the living room rug before we put it in P's room. We are also still waiting for the glider, which should come sometimes in August. I haven't painted the stripes on the walls yet either, as I need all the furniture to be there first, so I can decide on exact placement. It seemed like we were almost done when I started this post and now I feel like we are still very far away!