33 weeks and panic

Panic. Not out of the fact that we are having a baby, but panic about how we are ever going to get this house ready for a baby. See my other blog for the gory details.

Things are going well. I am having far more aches and pains with this pregnancy then I had with Leif. Is it this baby? Is it that I am now 35 and not 32? Am I that much more out of shape this time around? It is probably a combination of all of the above and more.

Truly I am just so excited to have this baby, to meet this baby and to add to our family. There is no panic on that side. I went to Target on Saturday and loaded up on essentials. With the exception of a few small things, I feel like we are ready to go from a purchase standpoint. I enjoyed fighting my way through the crowded aisles of baby items with mom and dad's to be debating over every purchase. Part of me wanted to stop and offer advice... "no, you don't want that one, you want this one, it's a lot better". But I trucked on through picking up my essentials, with confidence in my every purchase that this was the best product... or at least in cases as Diaper Genie refills, it is a vital component to an acceptable product.

One of the major things AB and I are replacing this time around is our monitor. Oh, correction, our two sucky monitors. One picks up phone calls with amazing clarity, and the other just was a cheapo to get us by. We are investing in a digital monitor this time around. Monitors are one of those things that are either super sucky, or there seem to be a rare few that are truly superb. I have identified two. One is an affordable $59 digital with stellar Amazon ratings. The other is the Mercedes of monitors at $199 with intercom capabilities (one of those features that I have routinely stated would make any monitor flat out the best) and a number of other extras (star projection, lullabies, etc.). This is where we fall into those categories of first time parents, how long will we debate the pros and cons before just picking one.

The newly revised list is below. Comments of course, are welcome.

1. Remove contents from guest room (done once, but the items grew legs and crept back).
2. Paint guest room for Leif.
3. Paint elephant on the wall of the guest room and move Leif’s toys and fun stuff over to entice him over to the bigger room. (Since at this point the “bigger” room holds no appeal.)
4. Address furniture needs, shelves for Leif’s books and a dresser for the nursery. Admit that a trip to Ikea is really out of the question before the baby comes and resolve to “live” with whatever I can find here.
5. Figure out where all the stuff (wedding stuff, suitcases, wine, etc) from the guest room is going (attic, garage, formal dining room…) and put it there.
6. Put Christmas stuff in the attic at the same time.
7. While in the attic and the nursery is pretty much cleaned out courtesy of Leif’s evacuation, bring the baby stuff down.
8. Now the fun begins… Sort through the baby stuff. Figure out what should be donated versus kept and washed. Wash.
9. Find a pair of white soft newborn pants for going home outfit.
11. Buy more Newborn Diapers (need 1 more package and size 1's)
12. Pack bag (LIGHTLY) for the hospital.
-Camera and extra batteries
-Videocamera
-iPod and little speakers
-Going home outfits
-Comfy, but decent looking clothes for me going home. Maternity is a must... silly me last time thought I would be going home in regular clothes.
-Travel size containers of shampoo etc.
-Brush
-Toothbrush
-Chapstick
-Hair bands
-Soft socks
-Baby book
-Gift for Leif from baby
-(What else?)
13. Install infant carseat and get checked.
14. Pack Leif a bag for staying at our friends.
-Underwear
-Clothes
-Diapers for night
-Pajamas
-Extra carseat
-Blanket
-Pillow
-Teddy bear or lion
-Lunchbox
15. Birth plan. Ok, so I really didn't need it last time, but I need to have it just to remind me.
16. Write up list of phone numbers for taking to the hospital.

32 week appointment

All is still well. My measuring 2 weeks ahead last visit must have been a fluke. I measured right at 32 weeks this time around.

BP – 90/56
Weight gain since last appt 3 wks ago – 4 lbs (Total of 15 lbs gained)
Heartrate – 140 bpm

I received nothing but praise. Still very low risk. Baby is head down and he expects at this point the baby will stay head down.

It was a quick, uneventful appointment. Talked to him about my horrible heartburn. But that was about it!

I can actually cross a few things off my to do list! And it isn’t even the weekend. I dropped off my pre-registration forms at the hospital and printed up my insurance claim form I am required to bring when I check in. AND today I ordered two going home “outfits” online. I am a Gymboree fanatic for my son. I will say though, that I don’t think I have ever paid full price for a thing from their store. Of course that means I do a lot of shopping for next year, but I am fine with that and so far with Gymboree (knock on wood) I have never had a problem with next year’s items not fitting.

If you shop their sales, often their prices are comparable to Children’s Place and such. I am thoroughly happy with their fits, the adjustable waist pants (love those) and the high quality t-shirts. I don’t even balk at buying white background t-shirts there for Leif because I have never had a shirt from there that I couldn’t get a stain out of using my routine washing methods. Plus, Leif loves the soft appliqués.

Ok, back to the topic at hand… I bought two cardigans from Gymboree for going home outfits. My plan, as suggested by V, is to buy one pair of white soft cotton pants, a white soft cotton long sleeved onesie and socks and then two different tops. I very nearly went with the super soft Hanna Anderssen rocking horse sweaters that V sent me a link for. So close. In the end I went with the Gymboree cardigans. They were the same price, but the ease in running the unused cardigan back to the mall for credit won out. Returns can sometimes be a hassle if they aren’t within 30 days from the time of purchase. And with Gymboree, I can at least get store credit still after 60 days in case I don’t get there immediately. And since I am still 52 days to my due date, return times are a factor to me.

So here they are:

For a girl, I waffled between the pink alligator one above and a peach flowered cardigan. But after having a boy first I decided that IF I have a girl this time around *I* need something pink for her to come home in.

I look at these two cardigans and something in me tells me we will be using the pink one. In fact, I had a hard time even choosing a boy’s cardigan simply because it just didn’t seem natural to me. I did resist the urge to buy more newborn girl’s clothes though even though they were on sale. Just in case… I was wrong with Leif!

January 21, 2007: 32 weeks

This weekend was huge for moving us along in the direction of organization, which satisfies my nesting urges. We received our desk and file cabinet this week and AB spent literally the entire day today assembling it... in front of the two divisional playoff games, of course. It looks fantastic. So the desk is still pending two drawers, right now there is an open space that fits nearly perfectly, a 2.5 year old. The file cabinet has done a huge amount simply for organization and places to put things and the desk just offers our library a more finished look (as opposed to two utility tables from Costco).

I moved a few things around in the library and have been working on organization of the area throughout the day while AB worked and worked on assembly.

I have yet to make many real purchases for the baby. We ran to the mall yesterday and I had intentions of looking for "going home outfits". I looked at Old Navy and Children's Place quickly as I browsed sale items for Leif, but saw nothing that jumped out at me as the perfect going home outfit. I think my mind was on getting the mall errands done so we could get Leif down for a nap and I could get to my prenatal massage appointment. So I will have to head back to the mall later with that purpose in mind.

I did get out and fetch groceries yesterday and while there picked up the first pack of newborn diapers. I chuckled at the fact that it seemed far more like a package of wipes with a refill then a package of diapers. I got them home and AB was shocked to see that something so small could be a pack of diapers. And I truly do not believe the packages were any larger 2.5 years ago. I need one more package of newborn diapers and then a package of size 1's.

I have a long list for Target next weekend where I plan to buy a lot of my disposible things for the baby... or at least things I don't want to reuse from Leif.

Next weekend will be busy as I already warned AB we will be emptying the guest room, making a stack of stuff to go to Goodwill and prepping it for paint. He agrees that this needs to get done.

The new list (for as little that has been crossed off, I really do feel like we got a lot accomplished):

2. Remove contents from guest room (done once, but the items grew legs and crept back).

3. Paint guest room for Leif.

4. Paint elephant on the wall of the guest room and move Leif’s toys and fun stuff over to entice him over to the bigger room. (Since at this point the “bigger” room holds no appeal.)

5. Address furniture needs, shelves for Leif’s books and a dresser for the nursery. Admit that a trip to Ikea is really out of the question before the baby comes and resolve to “live” with whatever I can find here.

6. Figure out where all the stuff (wedding stuff, suitcases, wine, etc) from the guest room is going (attic, garage, formal dining room…) and put it there.

7. Put Christmas stuff in the attic at the same time.

8. While in the attic and the nursery is pretty much cleaned out courtesy of Leif’s evacuation, bring the baby stuff down.

9. Now the fun begins… Sort through the baby stuff. Figure out what should be donated versus kept and washed. Wash.

10. Find and buy going home outfits.(I am having serious problems with this... I have to buy two outfits, one for a boy and one for a girl, AND be able to return one. And I don't want to mail it back. Which means I have to find cute clothes locally. *sigh*)

11. Inventory… what do we need?
-Infant Advil and Tylenol
-Newborn Diapers (need 1 more package and size 1's)
-Pacifiers
-New bottle nipples
-Diaper Genie refills.
-Baby clothes detergent

12. Buy above items we need

13. Pack bag (LIGHTLY) for the hospital.
-Camera and extra batteries
-Videocamera
-iPod and little speakers
-Going home outfits
-Comfy, but decent looking clothes for me going home. Maternity is a must... silly me last time thought I would be going home in regular clothes.
-Travel size containers of shampoo etc.
-Brush
-Chapstick
-Hair bands
-Soft socks
-Baby book
-(What else?)

14. Install infant carseat and get checked.

15. Pack Leif a bag... Not sure what all will go in it, but just in case the need arises to drop him with friends, he needs a bag of clothes and things for daycare.
-Underwear
-Clothes
-Diapers for night
-Pajamas
-Extra carseat
-Blanket
-Pillow
-Teddy bear or lion
-Lunchbox

16. Birth plan. Ok, so I really didn't need it last time, but I need to have it just to remind me.

17. Complete preregistration for hospital (and turn in this week at appointment).

18. Write up directions for mom, who to call, e-mail, directions for Leif...

Physical Exhaustion

Physical tiredness. My body is tired. Last night I got home, sat on the couch and wasn’t sure I was going to be able to move from there. I wasn’t like this with Leif. With his pregnancy I was walking all over the place, I had no problems standing for long periods of time. I never had backaches, and the whining was minimal.

This pregnancy is killing me now. Yesterday I went over to work in the lab for the afternoon. We have a client visiting this week and I needed to get my little corner looking good. One of the new, young, mechanical engineers came over with me to get my system properly mounted. Then like a young guy who would never presume I might need additional help doing things I normally have no problem doing, he left. Frankly, I would have been surprised had he offered to stay to help and would have brushed his offer off quickly with a “no, I have everything under control”.

My older co-PI (mid to late 50’s) came into the lab and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He was there and was bound and determined to pick things up off the floor for me, to climb stairs to retrieve wrenches from the other labs, and to move things for me. Normally, it would have offended me, I am perfectly capable and don’t just assume because I am female that I am incapable.

Last night I sat on my couch and said to AB, “I don’t know how I would feel right now if Charles didn’t help me so much this afternoon, but it would NOT be good.”

My limits with physical activity have dropped substantially. I have to accept help in the lab. And I now have reasons why I need to spend a good part of my day at my desk (not that I normally don’t).

I rejuvenated quickly last night. Conveniently after AB had dinner made and nearly on the table.

January 14, 2007: 31 weeks

Weekend mission accomplished. Just barely.

We went to Costco this weekend and found a desk. We didn't buy it immediately, instead went home and downloaded the measurements and then measured our library. Yikes. It was a huge setup. An L shaped desk with an additional long wing type desk. The problem with Costco, they have great prices (most of the time) but it is often a lot more than you really want or need. We just didn't have room for that third "desk" - the part that turned the L into a U. Ugh. I mocked up my library on graph paper and even measured the existing furniture, marked in the one immovable pieces of furniture (that truly does limit nearly everything else you want to do in that room) and played with it. We figured out how to make it work and then skepticism set in. Do we really want to make it work? Or do we keep looking.

This morning I knew that we wouldn't get out in the morning. The SeaHawks were playing in the playoffs at 10am. And since this isn't a purchase I cared to do by myself, I gave up. My nesting urge was killing me. I *needed* to get a desk purchased this weekend to stay on my schedule for preparing for the baby.

I sat down at the OfficeMax website this early afternoon and found a set almost immediately. I called AB in and he agreed that it wasn't just my "need" to get this done. It was exactly what we wanted. I bought it there and then. And now we will just hope that the desk that arrives this week is as high of quality as it appeared online.

Check one thing off my list.

I checked my e-mail yesterday and got a notification for a sale at Figleaves.com. I browsed over there... surely they wouldn't have maternity bras on sale, would they? Score! I bought two that were normally $55 on sale for $17, we will now hope that my size is about the same as I was with Leif. I seriously coveted the line of "Blossom Mother and Child" that were normally $110 on sale for $35... but since the largest size was a 36C it suddenly made sense why they were on sale so substantially. Because seriously, who is a 36C or smaller while nursing? (Don't answer that.)

Another thing checked off the list.

And just to round out the checks... a case of wipes and size 2 diapers were purchased at Costco. (I know we won't use the diapers for months, but I couldn't pass up the $8 off coupon.)

I am feeling ok. I have a horrible back ache and have been quietly cussing the new massage therapist for closing off her Saturday afternoon schedule and bumping me to next Saturday. I am still feeling huge. Heartburn is a constant battle. Kicking is intense and sometimes painful. But all is good!

Revised List
2. Remove contents from guest room (done once, but the items grew legs and crept back).

3. Paint guest room for Leif.

4. Paint elephant on the wall of the guest room and move Leif’s toys and fun stuff over to entice him over to the bigger room. (Since at this point the “bigger” room holds no appeal.)

5. Address furniture needs, shelves for Leif’s books and a dresser for the nursery. Admit that a trip to Ikea is really out of the question before the baby comes and resolve to “live” with whatever I can find here.

6. Figure out where all the stuff (wedding stuff, suitcases, wine, etc) from the guest room is going (attic, garage, formal dining room…) and put it there.

7. Put Christmas stuff in the attic at the same time.

8. While in the attic and the nursery is pretty much cleaned out courtesy of Leif’s evacuation, bring the baby stuff down.

9. Now the fun begins… Sort through the baby stuff. Figure out what should be donated versus kept and washed. Wash.

10. Find and buy going home outfits.
(I am having serious problems with this... I have to buy two outfits, one for a boy and one for a girl, AND be able to return one. And I don't want to mail it back. Which means I have to find cute clothes locally. *sigh*)

11. Inventory… what do we need?
-Infant Advil and Tylenol
-Newborn Diapers
-Pacifiers
-New bottle nipples
-Diaper Genie refills.

12. Buy above items we need

13. Pack bag (LIGHTLY) for the hospital
.-Camera and extra batteries
-Videocamera
-Going home outfits
-Comfy, but decent looking clothes for me going home. Maternity is a must... silly me last time thought I would be going home in regular clothes.
-Travel size containers of shampoo etc.
-Brush
-Chapstick
-Hair bands
-Soft socks
-Baby book
-(What else?)

Single digit weeks left

At 30 weeks and 1 day I am now down to the single digit week countdown. 9 weeks and 6 days left. In theory, of course. (Interested in placing a real guess? Go here, enter game name "AprilHansBaby2" and enter your guess on gender, date, weight, and length.)

Nesting has set in. In between my bouts of fatigue, that is. This has substantially helped my New Years goal to better organize my house. I am normally an organization freak, but I have been slipping the past few years. I call it being a mom. I had lofty ambitions for this past weekend, paint the guest room for Leif, get the Christmas decorations packed up and put away, get the decorations into the attic and the baby stuff down, and buy a desk for our library, so I can have my craft tables back (I need one for my sewing machine) and my library doesn’t look like a paper factory exploded. After one weekend, I can check the packing up of the Christmas decorations off the list. And even though it wasn't on my official list I also managed to clean the linen closet and the organize the spice cabinet.

The rest of that stuff just took more energy then AB and I had.

Here is my list of stuff I need to do to feel really prepared for this baby:

1. Buy a desk and file cabinet for the library. (Ok, ok, so this seems weird, bear with me. Buying a desk and file cabinet means that I can organize ALL that paper in guest room and library in one space. Freeing up the guest room is key!)

2. Remove contents from guest room (done once, but the items grew legs and crept back).

3. Paint guest room for Leif.

4. Paint elephant on the wall of the guest room and move Leif’s toys and fun stuff over to entice him over to the bigger room. (Since at this point the “bigger” room holds no appeal.)

5. Address furniture needs, shelves for Leif’s books and a dresser for the nursery. Admit that a trip to Ikea is really out of the question before the baby comes and resolve to “live” with whatever I can find here.

6. Figure out where all the stuff (wedding stuff, suitcases, wine, etc) from the guest room is going (attic, garage, formal dining room…) and put it there.

7. Put Christmas stuff in the attic at the same time.

8. While in the attic and the nursery is pretty much cleaned out courtesy of Leif’s evacuation, bring the baby stuff down.

9. Now the fun begins… Sort through the baby stuff. Figure out what should be donated versus kept and washed. Wash.

10. Find and buy going home outfits.

11. Inventory… what do we need?
-Infant Advil and Tylenol
-Diapers
-Wipes
-Pacifiers
-New bottle nipples
-New (and good) nursing bras
-(what else?)

12. Buy above items we need

13. Pack bag (LIGHTLY) for the hospital.
-Camera and extra batteries
-Videocamera
-Going home outfits
-Comfy, but decent looking clothes for me going home. Maternity is a must... silly me last time thought I would be going home in regular clothes.
-Travel size containers of shampoo etc.
-Brush
-Chapstick
-Hair bands
-Soft socks
-Baby book
-(What else?)

So what do you think? Doable in 9 weeks time?

29 week appointment

I went in with fear in my heart. How much weight have I gained? I feel huge! Wow I hope it isn’t in the double digits for this month. I ran through Dairy Queen and grabbed a corn dog on my way to the office, bypassing the hot fudge sundae out of fear of the potential weight gain. That nearly killed me.

I got to the office and ran over and picked up my Ob Pre-Admit and Registration packet at the hospital first. That made me a little nauseous. It was actually that time that if I didn’t, my doctor would be yelling at me. And being that I am constantly touted as one of his favorite patients (as I am sure every pregnant woman is), I had to have the documents before going up to my appointment.

I nearly questioned the nurse with every stat she took. They couldn’t be right.

I went and sat in the room and waited very few minutes for my doctor to come in. He took one look at my stats and the praise started.

“Who gains only 3 lbs over the holidays? Definitely not a pregnant woman! You didn’t have to be quite so strict, you could have eaten ONE cookie to at least make the rest of us feel better!”

I told him I sure did eat cookies, and chocolate and that frankly with as big as I am feeling I was sure the weight gain was going to be far more. He marveled that I have only gained 11 lbs this far and told me how easily that weight will fall off after the baby comes. Yeah, yeah. “I bet you only gain another 10 lbs,” he tells me, “If every one of my patients had a 20 lb weight gain with their pregnancy I would be one happy man!”

My blood pressure was 98/56 and he commented that I am obviously doing a great job of staying in shape with this baby. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Wish I could fool everyone else so easily!

The baby’s heartrate is 140 bpm which made him a lot more happy than the 150’s from last time. I have been working really hard on my water intake, so it has made a difference. I complained about constant heartburn, no longer just occasional and was told that I have to give up the grapefruit and orange juice completely. Here’s me being a bad patient… I will think about it. I told him about the baby nailing my ribs with massive force and he agreed that the baby seemed high early. I didn’t remember this so early when I was pregnant with Leif.

He felt and said the baby was definitely head down (well duh) and then commented that the baby seemed large. He retrieved his tape measure and measured me at 31 weeks as opposed to 29 week. This is new to me. With Leif I always measured small in the later trimester. For the first time ever, I am measuring large. Dr. M recanted his initial assessment that I would have a small to medium size baby and the forecast is now for a medium to large baby.

“Don’t worry,” he tells me, “they all come out somehow!”

Thanks. Just what I needed to hear. He told me he would rather have a large baby then small anyday though. With small babies they worry about the placenta, which I remember was a concern with Leif and resulted in two additional ultrasounds and a non-stress test with that pregnancy.

I get a week’s reprieve from the every other week appointments thanks to my low risk status and will go back in three weeks.

I left walking on air after such a great appointment. Only a little concerned about measuring two weeks large, though with as huge as I feel it isn’t a huge surprise.

I came back to work after stopping off at Dairy Queen and getting that hot fudge sundae that sounded so good for lunch.

Jan 1, 2007: 29 weeks 2 days, A pants rant

I hate pants. I am sitting here contemplating what to wear to the grocery store. I am settling with a pair of maternity jeans from Old Navy that "claims" to be a "full panel". HA! My ass. (Or maybe I should say my fat ass, right now.)

This "full panel" comes almost halfway up my belly. If it was halfway up, I would be golden, but the "almost" is what is killing me. Which means it slides down, rapidly, then the behind inches down AND takes my big granny maternity underwear with them. Misery.

I had one marginally acceptable pair of maternity jeans I bought from Mimi Maternity that were not inexpensive. They came with a full panel and one long ass drawstring just in case the diameter of your waist fell in the six foot range. I have struggled with this drawstring because a shoe string thick drawstring does not hold tight, nor hold up a pair of denim jeans. Still, more acceptable to constantly fiddle with the drawstring then to have your pants around your knees.

That pair bit the dust last Wednesday, amidst a pile of tears of frustration. And the way they were constructed, they aren't even repairable. I can't just rethread the drawstring and attach it. No, I can't even explain the calamity. I have a sliver of hope of threading in elastic where the drawstring used to reside and repairing them that way. IF I can find the time.

I went online shopping today and everything I could find was demi panel, or "under the belly". Yeah, I have a few of those, they were nice during that first trimester. I was even willing to spend $68 per pair at The Gap (I was that desperate) except that NONE of their full panel styles were available in my size. Hello, size 2 and 4 maternity jeans are apparently not moving very well.

I have two pairs of yoga pants, a pair of nice maternity pants for work and two skirts (that I would live in if I could). So at nearly 30 weeks pregnant (10 weeks left) I spent $100 on more maternity pants and $20 to have them sent next day air. Money I would have far rather spent on a new baby monitor, or those neat candle sconces for my "formal dining room" from Pottery Barn, or a prenatal massage and pedicure. Oh well. Instead I will now have three more pairs of pants (cheap ones) that I can complain about.

I didn't have this complication the first time around with Leif. My mom told me she can tell why I am struggling with this... I am carrying this baby much higher than I did Leif. (Who I thought I carried near my chin.) This makes sense though... I can't believe I am 29 weeks and my ribs are already sore and how short of breathe I am.

End of pants rant.