with 39 minutes to spare...

OK, I totally almost missed posting today, but here I am. It would have been really embarassing if I couldn't make it through a week. This is why I will never run a rapture email service*.

In my defense, my "day" was only a few hours long. I slept for a good chunk of it - still battling this stupid cold. I woke up with just enough time to shower and brush my teeth before heading out to a trivia night and we just walked through the door returning home. We tied for first place, by the way. There's a first time for everything, apparently!

Even if I went into labor right now, there's a less than zero chance I could deliver before March 1st, so yay for that. Hopefully we won't have any action for a few more days so I can get over being a stuffy, sneezing disaster.

*among many other reasons

my friend M

I am crazy sick. I'm netipoting like a mad woman but I can't keep up with the congestion. Blech.

In only-vaguely-related-to-baby news, M and I are spending this evening reviewing the final drafts of the legal documents we had done to protect our increasingly complicated family structure. Throughout the various powers of attorney and wills and so forth, the phrase that is repeated over and over is: "I, M... bequeath to my friend, K..." It's funny (and not) to see our relationship referred to that way in legal documents. I get that we are legal strangers and that's why we're doing this whole thing, but it's still weird to see it in print. I wish we could just leave the relationship terminology out altogether. Oh well. When all of this is done, M will be the legal guardian of "my" child should anything happen to me, and since we're signing papers on Monday, this protection will be in place from the first minute of the child's life which gives both of us so much peace of mind.

I am impervious to your scare tactics!

I'm home and feeling like crap - worse today than yesterday, in fact. I need to get off the couch and shower if I'm going to head into work this afternoon and I really should. I can't believe my body decided to get sick NOW. I finally packed my hospital bag last night. I felt lousy but realized I'd probably feel worse in the midst of labor and since we don't know how soon that will be upon us, I didn't want to chance it.

I've been watching (well, scoffing at) TLC and Discovery Health's hours of baby-themed television this morning. It's such crap - all revved up for dramatic effect. I know that's all those shows are, but it's still shocking to see them play out sometimes. If I see one more whispered hallway interview about the dire circumstances a laboring mother is about to be rescued from...  I simply can't imagine what women did before we had access to C-sections at every turn! Blech. It's certainly reinforced my desire to stay home as long as I can.

More contractions today but still nothing regular. The baby is moving around a ton (probably because I'm not) and I can't believe how huge he or she feels in there!

sicko

Thanks for all the supportive comments about keeping the little one baking for a few more days. I had an OB appointment today but no real updates. She doesn't do internals, not that those provide much useful information anyway. We paid the rental fee on the birthing tub and made a 39 week appointment for 3/5 which I hope I won't make it to.

Currently, I'm sick with a nasty cold and en route to the couch. It's been coming on since Monday but I clung to denial as long as possible, hoping it would just go away. It hasn't. Today my OB said I needed to take a day off to rest and offered to write me a note. Getting approved for the time isn't the problem, it's getting my work done before I leave! As it turned out, I look and sound lousy enough that my boss sent me home early today and instructed me not to come in until 2pm tomorrow when I have a meeting, or not at all if I'm not feeling up to it. It's nice to have such a flexible workplace, even if I am stressing about how I'm going to get everything finished before I leave. My goal all along has been to have everything done by Friday, just in case. Now it may spill over into next week a bit - hopefully I'll be around long enough for that to be okay!

Oh, and I'd like to amend my post below. Reason #10 should be: My dear friend inlocoparentis has picked March 3rd in our baby pool and, as she has pointed out, someone has to win so why shouldn't it be her gosh darn it?

no welcome mat out just yet

As promised, a list of reasons why we are pleading with the kiddo to stay put for just a little while longer:

1. M and I have plans to attend a big fundraising event this Saturday for a group I'm on the board of. A ton of our friends are coming and it will be a lot of fun... if we make it.

2. We have tickets to the symphony on Sunday. It's a program M has been looking forward to for a while and I'm not sure they issue refunds for concerts missed due to labor.

3. M's mom will be in town until the morning of the 2nd. She has said in the past that she doesn't want to be here for the birth, although she's starting to drop hints that her feelings on this may have shifted a bit.

4. M's mom will be in town until the morning of the 2nd. M is really looking forward to a peaceful, relaxing, mother-daughter bonding weekend and she'd prefer not to have it upstaged by the arrival and/or first few days of life of her irresistably-cute-but-high-maintenance son or daughter.

5. M's mom will be in town until the morning of the 2nd. I love her mom and I'm glad she's coming. That said, I hope to labor at home for as long as possible and I'd prefer not to have any houseguests - even family - staying with us while I do. 

6. I have a TON of work to do at work and I could really use a few more days there to wrap things up.

7. The organization I work for is in the process of adopting a new policy manual. This manual will include a parental leave policy granting 2 weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child. (We currently receive nothing. We are given three days of paid bereavement leave, but not a single hour on the day we push out a baby.) This policy is slated to be approved at the March 17th board meeting but will be made retroactive to March 1st. My supervisor specifically asked if I would be eligible for the leave if I deliver before the 1st and was told no because they have to draw a line somewhere. (For context, the organization I work for employs roughly 25 people and I'm the only one about to pop. It's not like it would be an expensive exception.) I could probably fight this one, but it would be a pain and easier if the little one can just stay put for 4 more days.

8. M and I are in the process of getting some guardianship and other legal documents in place and we have an appointment to sign papers on March 2nd.

9. I know this is really reaching for the stars, but my parents arrive on the 4th and my mom is desperate to be here for the birth. If I can make it a whole eight days, that will just be the best of the best case scenarios.

10. I don't have another reason. I just really wanted to make this a top 10 list once I finished the last item and saw how close I was.

Now that I've written all of this out, I'll probably go a week past my due date and laugh bitterly every time I read about how worried I was I'd go too early. I kind of don't think so though. I actually thought I was in labor last night. I had BH contractions all evening to the point that I asked M if she thought we should be timing them. Instead, we decided to deny them and pretended nothing was happening. Later, I was eating an ice cream bar and the chocolate coating kept falling on the floor. Have I mentioned lately that I'm huge? Yeah, bending over to pick up little pieces of rapidly melting chocolate was NOT making my night. At some point, I became Done With It and mumbled a string of obscenities which made M burst out laughing. This made me start laughing. And then I was crying. Or was I still laughing? I don't know, it was all a little ambiguous. I decided that I was having some kind of a hormonal meltdown and therefore I MUST be in labor! The baby has dropped so low I can hardly walk. I had an awards luncheon to attend today and some co-workers I hadn't seen in a week or two were stunned at the difference. Things definitely seem to be gearing up. Hang in there, little one! Only a few more days to go!

In the grand scheme of things, none of these "problems" matter, of course. We're ready, and even if I don't get the leave (the most tangible benefit for waiting until March), we'll be okay financially. I didn't even know it was a possibility until about a month ago anyway. As much as I'm enjoying the relative peace of these last few days before our lives change forever, I'm also aching with longing to meet this little person I've already grown so connected to. It's nearly impossible to believe he or she will be here within the next couple of weeks, perhaps sooner than later.

one down

I have a stack of posts piled up in my head waiting to be put down on paper... er, screen. To that end, I'm making a promise to myself to post every day from now until the baby comes. This will accomplish the killing of two proverbial birds: (1) I'll stop lying in bed at night feeling overwhelmed by the rapidly growing pile of posts I want to make and and (2) I won't keep you all in suspense as our due date approaches. I have cyber-stalked so many friends as they near the ends of their pregnancies, always sure that an extra day or two of silence means a baby has arrived and usually wrong. I'm not promising quality, only quantity, but I will post something to let you all know I'm still here and still huge.

This last bit provides the perfect segueway to two things I wanted to post about...

On being still here: Anyone familiar with the guy that runs the rapture email service? Anyone registered for the rapture email service? I think I am, but I can't remember. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, there's this guy - I heard him on NPR one day a while back - and he provides a very valuable service. In the event you are taken in the rapture, he will notify your friends and family so they will not worry about you. Isn't that thoughtful? He will do this by dispatching an email the morning after the rapture to all of the people you have listed. The email will say something to the effect of "You may have noticed that I am missing. I have been taken in the rapture. I'm in a better place now - please do not worry about me." (I'm unclear as to whether the closing offers any apology to whoever is left behind reading said email.) Here's the catch: This man is confident that he too will be taken in the rapture (of course) so how will the email get sent? Simple. He has his computer set up to automatically send this email every single morning and every single morning that he is still on earth, he has to go in and disable the email before it goes out to however many million recipients it is addressed to. If he fails to do this one morning, an ungodly (pun intended) amount of spam shall be unleashed upon the world. On a post-rapture morning, this will be appropriate and probably the least of our concerns. On a post-hangover morning, this will be outrageously embarassing, annoying, and funny as all hell. Now that is pressure. If that guy can handle a daily cyber task until the second coming, I figure I can commit to one for a couple more weeks.

On being still huge: I'm in the stage where total strangers feel totally at liberty - no, downright compelled - to comment on one or more aspects of my growing belly. It's been going on for a while so I expect it and I only bother M with stories of the most ridiculous of comments. Yesterday in the grocery store, she got to witness one of these interactions for herself. It went something like this:

Checker: When are you due? Today? (Insert self-satisfied chuckle - what an unparalleled sense of humor he has!)

Me: Nope, I've got a couple more weeks to go.

Checker: Are you having quads? (Yup, he went straight there.)

Me: Oh, ha ha (sometimes it helps if you indulge them a bit). No, just one. A big one, I guess.

Checker: Yeah, I guess. I've seen a lot of pregnant girls in here and I've never seen anyone as big as you!

Me: (Tired smile - I mean really, how does one respond to that?)

M later suggested I should have asked when he was due and how many babies he was carrying. Jerk. It's still bizarre to me that people actually offer these comments. Do they think they are the only ones doing so? If they do, they're even stupider than I think. If not, do they really think it makes me feel special to hear how enormous I am 35 times a day? Or, is it just that they think they have something particularly unique or creative or humorous to add to the mix? Like, what comment are they going to make that is so clever that I'm going to stop in my tracks and think, "Wow, you've really enhanced my day. I am so glad to have run into you!" Of note, women with children never say anything to me. They frequently smile (often sympathetically), but that's all. They've been there. They know.

Soooo, promise to self made today; promise to self kept today. I'm one for one! Go me. Tomorrow's post: Why this baby is simply not permitted to arrive prior to March 1st. (Check me out with the tempting of fate...)

oops

I just realized it's been over two months since I posted a picture. Good grief! It's not like I haven't been taking the darn things. To make it up to you, here is a photo extravaganza to get us back on track. Can we be friends again?

First me:

28 weeks

32 weeks

34 weeks

36 weeks

(Yes, that's right my friends. I'm planning to give birth to... a basketball.)

And now the cute one:

It's not the best pic, but this kid has got some seriously chubby lips and cheeks! I wish they'd given us a picture of one of the frontal face shots. Those were pretty amazing for a 2D machine.

Aaand, my reason for keeping the antacid folks in business during these tough economic times. :-)

Just to show you how guilty I feel, I'll throw in a few bonus pics from our attempt at "artsy" belly pics, taken around 30 weeks:

We're still trying to decide which to get prints made of and what to do with them.

That's all I have for now. I've contemplated taking cankles pictures but I think those are one part of this lovely journey I don't need documentation of, thank you very much.

So THAT's the cause of all my hearburn!

It's been an eventful couple of weeks. I'll guess I'll start with today and move back from there.

We FINALLY had our follow-up ultrasound today. The bad news is the kidneys are still dilated. The next step will be an ultrasound on the kiddo when it's about a week old. If the condition hasn't resolved, he or she will be put on antibiotics to prevent infection and our pediatrician will have to come up with a treatment plan. We're meeting with her on Monday anyway (yes, I finally made an appointment) so we can get more details then. All the people who know what this means continue to act like it's No Big Deal so we're just trying to follow their lead. Not much else we can do now anyway. The good news is the baby looks really healthy aside from that. It is estimated to weigh 6 lbs. 2 oz. and it has a full head of hair and chubby cheeks. :-) I still can't believe you can see HAIR on an ultrasound, but she gave me a picture to prove it. I'll post it once I have a chance to scan it in. We managed to avoid finding out the sex. I actually doubt we could have found out if we wanted to. The baby is so squished in there! It's legs were all bunched up and it had at least one foot all the way up by it's face for part of the ultrasound. He or she has been crazy active all afternoon to the point it made me queasy once or twice. I don't know if it was the ultrasound or the brownie I ate with lunch that stirred it up, but it has been especially active and that's saying something for this little jumping bean.

M made an amazing discovery last night. If she presses her ear against my belly in the right spot, she can hear the baby's heartbeat! Pretty cool.

We had party at our house on Saturday night - probably our last for a while. :-) It was really fun and I'm glad we did it when we did. If it had been only a week or two later, I don't know how I would have made it through!

My body is starting to show signs of wear. Up until now, it's been pretty smooth sailing except for the lovely strech marks, but edema has officially come to town. My ankles and feet have started swelling up at night and it's pretty sexy, let me tell you! I've started chiropractic in an attempt to head off the hip pain that's been building over the last couple of weeks. Tomorrow will be my second appointment. It hurts. A lot. More than the pain itself. But hopefully it's also making a difference and getting things properly aligned for a smooth delivery. I've been spending a lot of time sitting on an exercise ball and that seems to be helping a bit too.

We had a surprise shower last week while my parents were in town. As I've mentioned before, our friends and family are spread from coast to coast and I just didn't think a shower was in the cards. Well, a friend had other ideas and she organized a "virtual" shower where our friends and family sent gifts to her house, then she brought them all over to small gathering with our local friends. There weren't a lot of people there in body, but there were so many there in spirit. It was really humbling. We got stacks of sweet cards and amazingly generous gifts. I think we're in great shape now - only a few more things to buy.

Speaking of being in good shape, the nursery is pretty much done. My parents helped out with the last of the furniture moving while there were here. We don't have much on the walls yet, but the major stuff is in place. I love spending time in there now, and not just because of the comfy glider/recliner! :-) It's just a neat room and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

We finished up our hypno.birthing classes last week. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm still nervous, of course, but I feel like we've done all we can to prepare and as long as we keep practicing, we'll be going in with some good tools in our belt.

And I think that about covers the gap! I have a new belly pic, but we'll also be taking another one on Wednesday so maybe I'll wait until then and post them both. That should give me time to scan in today's ultrasound pics as well. Wednesday will be 36 weeks. Hard to believe. There's gonna be a baby in this house before we know it.