Madame Zaritska predicts...

From the Madame Zaritska predicts your birth experience website:

The day you deliver, outside will be foggy. Your baby will arrive in the late afternoon. After a labor lasting approximately 19 hours, your child, a girl, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 6 pounds, 5 ounces, and will be 19,19-1/2 inches long. This child will have dark violet eyes and barely there auburn hair.

Uh...dark violet eyes? 19 hours? No thanks Madame Z., I'm sending your prediction back to you. You better not be right. Except for the 6 lbs, 5 oz part. Now that is a prediction I like.

March showers bring April babies!

On Saturday I had my second shower, hosted by 4 of my most wonderful friends. We had good eats like cinnamon wrap ups (not sure of the correct name--one of you help me out here), other wrap-ups, an edible arrangement, cheese & crackers, veggies, sherbet punch, etc. We played fun games like guess the baby food and guess the nursery rhyme. I bombed guessing the baby food, but I totally rocked the nursery rhymes. Thanks Mom and Dad for the background knowledge.

Everything we got will be loved and used and appreciated very much. We got the car seat (whew!), the changing table, changing table pad, super cute clothes, homemade blankets--2 crocheted, and 1 rag quilt--toys, teethers, books, a Moby Wrap, a Boppy, storage bins, bath stuff, etc. Baby Rain will surely be very loved by his "aunties" and their moms; I have no doubts about that.

Aunties, L to R Top: Laura, Steph, Brooke

Aunties, L to R Bottom: Leah, me, Kristin, Jess (and baby friend Nolan)

Big weekend ahead! A family shower and (cross your fingers!) the possible completion of the nursery! Eep!

Midwife Appointment

At yesterday's first once-weekly appointment, the following stats were "achieved:"

Weight: Up another 4 lbs. That's 12 lbs in 6 weeks. 28 lbs total. I swear, this week's 4 lbs was not cupcake-induced. I believe the weight has been distributed in the form of water in my now apparent cankles. I've always had slender, nice-looking feet. That is, until about a week ago. I bought a pretty pink new water bottle at Target yesterday hoping it will motivate me to drink more water and make the swelling go down. I'm also thinking about getting a pedicure in the hopes of reducing the fatness.

BP: 92/60. Good thing it's low so my midwife doesn't start worrying about pre-eclampsia.

Belly measurement: on track. Which perhaps proves the water-weight theory.

Baby's heartbeat: ??? I wasn't told, and forgot to ask. It's becoming so routine now. You don't ask what your bpm is when the nurse takes your pulse at appointments.

Baby's position: ??? Head down, I'm guessing. I wasn't told otherwise.

Cervix: First of many checks in my new future. Soft and closed. This is where I'm expected to be at 36 weeks.

My midwife sort of crushed my dreams of having a water birth. Her water birth success rate for first-time moms is 20%. Long story short, the conditions in order to have a water birth have to be absolutely perfect, and I can't expect those conditions to actually be perfect. Obviously--I'm a realist. So if they are, great. If they aren't, baby will be born "on land." Either way, I get a baby out of the deal so I can't stomp my feet about it. And really, I think when D-Day comes, of course I'm going to hope for a water birth, but will I really care? I'll just want it out.

Today I'm headed across the border to a shower thrown by my very wonderful friends. I am excited to see them, their moms, and other friends who will be there. I will update about the shower and its antics later this weekend, as tomorrow I'm re-crossing the border and going to Leah's shower.

36 weeks: Crenshaw Melon

One more month to go! EEEE!!! Raina weighs in at about 6 pounds and measures about 19 inches this week, which is the size of a crenshaw melon. I know you've all eaten a crenshaw melon before, so I don't need to post a picture. Or not. Here you go:

Raina's body is round and plump as new fat stores are made to keep her body temperature a teeny bit warmer than mine. That teeny bit of warmth for her goes a LONG way for me. I feel like I'm roasting out of my britches these days. Now I can see why being 9 months pregnant in July or August is not fun. And I also understand the term "bun in the oven." Anyway, Raina apparently turns toward light sources, which is known as the orienting response. Her bones are flexible, but getting harder. At birth, her tibia will usually be completely ossified into bone. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body, as well as the vernix caseosa. She's swallowing that gunk, which means her intestines are accumulating a considerable amount of meconium.

Belly pics this week:

Today I had a math curriculum meeting in the morning. I was at the elementary school hanging out until I had to leave to go to the district office at about 8:00. My sub was obviously in my place, and she had taken my students to gym, which is by the art room. I got back to school at about 11:30, and the teacher who teaches across from me asked where I had been. I told her I was at the math curriculum meeting, and she was relieved. And apparently, people (namely, the art teacher) were worried about me since I wasn't there! Too funny. As much as my class is a handful sometimes and I'm going to really appreciate my time off during maternity leave, it was nice to come back to a good report from the sub and a few smiles and "I missed yous" from some of the kids. I had a great (half) day with my class, so I'm going to keep talking about them. In science, we're studying electricity. I gave them a battery, a wire, some tape, and a light bulb, and without any instruction, challenged them to light the bulb. That wasn't working, so I gave them another wire, and they got their bulbs to light. Then I challenged them to make two bulbs light. When they got the two bulbs lit, they asked for more wire and more bulbs, and some of the partnerships joined other partnerships to make all of the bulbs light up. It takes a very interesting lesson to keep them all engaged. I think they all LOVED this experiment. I just let them investigate on their own for a good 40 minutes, without any behavior/teamwork problems. I have never before seen them so engaged in anything like they were with this. I'm so excited to do more electricity experiments, and usually I dread them. Now let's hope I didn't jinx it!

Finally a little organization!

The baby project for the weekend was assembling 1 of 2 closets. The clothes closet is going in in 2 weeks by my dad, but the toy closet we decided to tackle ourselves.

The original concept, which was a self-designed ambitious mixture of different divisible-by-12 cubes, some of which are tall, some of which are wide, and some of which hold fabric baskets (hence the small rectangular "handles"):

turned out to be very different than the much less awe-inspiring end product.:

In my heart, I hope this isn't the end product, because I really loved my cube design. However, since my husband nearly gave up and walked away mid-measuring, sawing, and drilling just for this simple number due to crooked walls, uneven drill holes, uneven cuts, etc., I shall wait patiently and see if the vertical parts are necessary for the future. We're not sure how we'd pull them off.

See that pile of adorable baby clothes, 2nd shelf from the top? I'm so excited to wash and hang those up in just 14 or so more days when the other closet is done. All in all, I'm just really glad that all of this stuff isn't piled inside of the crib or on the bookshelf we are temporarily storing in baby's room anymore. Now if Rain or Raina (uh...by the way, have you cast your vote yet?) decides to come early, he or she will at least have an empty crib to come home to. And by empty, I mean it doesn't have a mattress yet. :-/ Yikes.

Oh, and I found out today that our neighbors, who are about our age, just had a baby! Their baby girl came early. She was supposed to be born right around the same time Rain/Raina is. Maybe our kiddos will be good friends. Or at least ride the bus to school together. Either way.

Back to school tomorrow. Spring break is over. I only have about a month left and I'm outta there! :D

35 weeks: Honeydew

Rain is now over 18 inches long and 5.25 lbs, which is the weight of a honeydew melon. He's running out of room to do a whole lot of big movements, but believe me, he's still able to deliver a good jab or kick. He's also very capable of stretching out. Rain is spending most of his time putting on more weight. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products.

Note: I do not recommend Old Navy maternity jeans. See the little slit of white on the elastic band? Yeah...ripped. Both sides. Since, oh...about week 20. But I refuse to buy another pair of pants I only intend on wearing for another 5 weeks. Next time around, I'm going to spend a little more on jeans that will last!

I captured some belly movement on video the other day, and tried to upload it into the blog, but it wasn't working. I'll try again some other time.

Polls

If you look to the right, you'll see two new gadgets. The first is an easy poll. Guess whether we're having a boy or a girl! The second one is also easy, just a little more detailed. Click on the orangey box and it will take you to expectnet.com. Here you can guess the sex, birthday, weight, and length of our baby. You get points for each correct answer. The person who earns the most points is the winner of the game. What do you win? Bragging rights and a feature spot on the blog once the winner is declared.

Spring Break 2008 vs 2009

In honor of having Spring Break this week (yay!), I'd like to show you what a difference a year makes.

On March 16, 2008 we boarded a plane to catch some rays and relaxation at Sandals Montego Bay in Jamaica. We considered it our honeymoon, and it was a fabulous time. Going on a tropical vacation by ourselves before having a baby was definitely on our to-do list. We are probably still paying for the trip, but it was well worth it.

We relaxed on the beach,  took the paddleboats for a spin,

played beach chess (this apparently is

the only type of chess that I can beat Kevin),

          went ziplining through                    the rainforest,-->

rode ATVs in the Blue Mountains (which was AWESOME. We were the only ones in our "group," so we got to go fast and got some extra-special attention),

saw the Easter Bunny (we left on Easter Sunday),

ate some great food (this was at the Japanese

hibachi-style restaurant Tokyo Joe's), and

enjoyed spectacular sunsets.

We also got massages, drank many Jamaican Smiles drinks, had fun at the beach party, played pool, people-watched, climbed Dunns River Falls, experienced a bit of Jamaican culture, witnessed (without trying to witness) many weddings in the gazebo right outside of our room, and much much more that I don't necessarily have pictures of. We left feeling refreshed, and dreading the cold weather back home.

March 16, 2009 We spent much of the past weekend attending our Childbirth Education class. While much of the information we learned could be obtained by watching Discovery Health and TLC baby shows, it was very informational. Especially for Kevin who doesn't watch baby shows as avidly as I do.

We learned about labor, breathing techniques, delivery, got a tour of the women's center where it all takes place, shared our dreams and fears (the teacher crushed the "quick and painless dreams all of us had, and alleviated many of the fears, such as giving birth at work), and talked to an OB doctor and a pediatrician that practice at the hospital.

During the eye-opening post-partum segment of class (this is the part of having a baby nobody talks about), I got my first look at what I had only heard about from other women who had given birth before. Imagine this: one size fits all mesh underwear, lined with a ginormous (and I mean GINORMOUS), and what can only be classified as a diaper, then an ice pack, and then some witch hazel. I'm not sure how that all stays up. It looks pretty heavy. I'm sure it feels just lovely though.

Quite the difference a year makes, eh? Although I am quite jealous of my co-workers who are soaking up the sun, I wouldn't trade where I am.

Baby appointment stats and another dream

At my 34w appointment on Friday, everything was still looking good:

My weight: Up another 4 lbs since last time. Total: 24 lbs. While this is still just fine and dandy and perfect, I am not going to attempt to indulge in my cupcake cravings anymore when there's just disappointment on the other end anyway. Back to eating more veggies!

BP: good

Belly measurement: on track

Baby's HR: 150ish

Baby's weight: Midwife guessed about 4 lbs. That's smaller than last week's cantaloupe comparison, but maybe 4 lbs = 4.75 lbs in her world. Not worried.

Baby's position: Still head down

We start weekly cervix checks at my next appointment, which is in 2 weeks. Should be good times.

Last night I had a dream that we were getting ready to leave the hospital with our baby. I still didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. The nurse brought the birth certificate to us in a white paper lunch bag. Through the bag, I could see a pink piece of paper, indicating it was a girl. I looked at the name, and it was hacked to pieces! A horrid, horrid spelling. I told the nurse, "this has got to be fixed right now." She came back with the new one, and the first name was right, but the middle name was still wrong, so she had to go back and fix it again. I remember feeling slightly disappointed that it was a girl, but only because I love the boy name we have picked out more than I love the girl name. But maybe this dream is meant to reassure me that the girls name really is one I love enough to fight for. Apparently the baby class we attended Friday night and all of yesterday (more details about that tomorrow morning) scared me into thinking that we're going to be SO BUSY at the hospital after the baby is born that we will not even have time to find out the sex of our baby, or properly spell out the name for the birth certificate!

Bettercream shmettercream and other food

It's no secret 'round these parts that I currently have a deep love for chocolate cupcakes. This is definitely a craving, because there has only been one other time in my life when I've craved chocolate cake. That was when I was traveling around Europe for 3 weeks and hadn't seen hide nor hair of chocolate cake, and it's the one thing I really wanted when I got back. Despite my mom wondering what in the world had gotten into me, because I was normally a marble cake girl, she appeased my craving. My parents, brother, Grandma, and my friend Brooke came to the airport to pick me up with a pack of chocolate cupcakes. Bless them.

Fast forward to 11 years later. All this girl wants is chocolate cake. I've made 2 Betty Crocker "chocolate snack cakes" from scratch in the past few months. I always have all the ingredients here to make it. Last night, I just had to give in to my chocolate cake craving again. I really wanted a chocolate cupcake with awesome, sugary, superfantastic, vanilla frosting. I went to the grocery store and made my purchase carefully. I chose some festive St. Patty's day shamrock-sprinkled cupcakes. There was no sticker proclaiming the frosting to be "bettercream," so I thought I was in the clear. Sure enough, I get home and it's frickin' (pardon my fake swearing...I was and still am very upset) bettercream! There was foot-stomping, I won't lie. What the heck happened to regular, sugary, teeth-rotting frosting? Grrrr.

My craving was NOT satisfied, and now with every cupcake I ever consider buying during this pregnancy, if there's not a sticker on the box, I will be asking the baker what kind of frosting adorns the cake. You know what? I'm asking after this pregnancy too, because I HATE bettercream. It should be called worsecream. Or nastycream.

Oh but oranges...these don't ever do me any wrong. They're always fantastic :) I eat about an orange per day. The lunch ladies at school know about my love for oranges, and served me up a bowl of "orange smiles" left over from yesterday's lunch. All I needed was a fork and a carton of milk, and they gave me a little treat. Awesome.

Also...strawberries. Green Giant apparently grows them now, and they are flippin' fantastic. I've gone through a few containers of these in the past few weeks now too. Helloooo summer! I am ready for you!

34 weeks: Cantaloupes, names and minor freak-outs

34 weeks! Are you kidding me?!?! Raina now weighs the size of an average cantaloupe. She weighs about 4.75 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. We're talking life-sized babies here, people. Of course her main development these days is still packing on the fat layers and smoothing out her skin. Her lungs continue to mature, which is good because babies born between 34 and 37 weeks with no other health problems generally do fine. Perhaps she'd need a short stay in the NICU, but then she'd be good to go with no long-term problems. Her gums now have ridges which may look like teeth. Her gastrointestinal system is very immature and will actually not mature until she's three or four years old. In the meantime, she's eliminating her nutrition through the umbilical cord. It's interesting that she receives food and eliminates it through the umbilical cord. I sure hope things aren't mixing around in there, or I'd feel kind of bad.

I've been asked if we have names picked out. At first, our plan was to have a short list of both boy and girl names to choose from once we see our little bundle. Turns out we picked 'em already. Barring on the chance that our baby looks nothing like the name, it'll be the name we've chosen. Names are a big deal. I hope we don't scar him or her for life. That being said, we didn't make up the names, and there are no extraneous Ys in them. And that's all I've got to say about that.

Yesterday a co-worker (who had a baby in October) asked me if we had the car seat installed yet. WHAT?!? We should have it installed now? We don't even have one yet! That kind of made me freak out a little. But if "worse comes to worse," Target is close enough to the hospital to pick one up. Right?!?

Another co-worker (who had a baby last May) and I were talking about the fact that she went on bed rest about a year ago when she was at about 28 weeks. She had her baby at 36 weeks. She said, "Just think. You could have a baby in 2 weeks like I did." I thought my knees were going to buckle from under me. I don't have 2 weeks left, I have 6! 

Yet another co-worker said, "You're going to go late. You are." As if she's psychic or something. I honestly think this is true, though. My water is going to break in one big gush while I'm at school, and it'll be May. This is the most likely of scenarios. I kid, I think. I hope.

STOP FREAKIN' ME OUT PEOPLE!

One more thing. I had the most delicious of dreams last night. I dreamt I was eating strawberries from one of those Edible Arrangements. They were so good. Never mind the most random of parties going on around me (I think one of the characters was Ron from "The Biggest Loser" who wanted to meet a long lost love whom was also there).

Weird baby dream

Last night I had a weird/interesting baby dream. Here's how it went down, the best I can remember:

I went to the chiropractor, but it was definitely not the same building or the same receptionist lady working there. First I got a "facial." It was basically a sticky mask thing I put on my face myself and had to let it sit there for awhile. I don't remember ever taking it off. The mask stuff was also on my hands, but I was told I couldn't wash it off. It dried into a cornstarchy paste.

I sat on the couch waiting for my appointment FOREVER. Dr. S was there, but apparently not taking patients. I had to wait for Dr. P. While I waited, I looked down at my belly and felt the baby's hand move diagonally across. I knew it was a hand because I could feel it opening and closing. I reached for it and could feel the little fingers, and I kind of "held" it. That part was so cool. Then things started to get weird. Without explanation (because dreams are weird), all of  a sudden I was actually holding my baby's hand. It's arm had come out of  a hole in my belly. Not a gross-looking hole, just a hole in my skin. Then I realized that the baby was actually coming out. Not out of the belly hole (thank GOD! I don't want any Alien-esque nightmares). I didn't feel any pain at all. Then it was out, and I was holding it (yeah....it. No gender shots in this dream). I wasn't sure what to do. It was dark outside. Dr. S. had gone to sleep in his office, the receptionist had left, and I couldn't find Dr. P. Another patient walked in, and it was time for his appointment. He found Dr. P. in his office, which wasn't an office, but instead a messy bedroom, and Dr. P. didn't look like Dr. P. at all. I walked in there with the other patient and I'm holding my baby. Nobody seemed shocked or anything. The baby's not crying, but it's pink-colored, so I assume it's breathing. The umbilical cord is still attached. I'm wondering why nobody else thinks this is weird. And then I wake up. Crazy huh?

33 weeks: Pineapple or Honeydew

This week, Rain is the size of a 4 lb pineapple. Can you believe that? He has passed the 17-inch mark as well. *sniff* They grow so fast! *sniff* He continues to lose his wrinkled, alien-look and his skeleton is hardening. According to my secondary source, from now until week 36, Rain can also be compared to a honeydew. His senses are continuing to improve. When light peeks in through my belly, his eyelids and irises blink and dilate. He can now even react to simple songs. Guess we better start practicing our lullabies! Here's a picture of me wearing a maternity shirt that doesn't really fit me anymore:

My tailbone pain was fixed by my chiropractor last week, but it is slowly coming back. My next chiro appointment is on Monday, which I am sure will be perfect timing to get some relief again. Last night, I was sitting on the couch knitting and watching TV, and I just kind of started to get a little achy in my belly and back, so I had to put the knitting down and lounge for awhile. It's hard on your body to gain 20 lbs in 8 months!

I ended up bring my Jafra "warehouse" that I mentioned a few weeks ago to work on Monday to get rid of some stuff. The way I saw it, if people wanted it, they could have it for free, because it would've just gone in the trash or gotten donated anyway. So the vultures swooped down and in 2 days, most of the stuff is gone. YAY!

My grandma is still in the hospital, but should be out soon. Then she'll move in with my mom and dad for awhile, which she did not end up debating. My dad has some time off to spend with her while she's there.

Monday, Monday...

My grandma is doing much better. She had a stent put in, and will be on medication as well. I talked to her on the phone yesterday and she was in good spirits. So if you sent a good vibe her way, in any form, thanks!

I went to the big city to see Jessica and Nolan on Saturday. We had loads of fun out and about. Jess and I got our hairs cut, we ate at Chipotle, and went shopping for a little bit.

Yesterday, I was in full nesting mode for about an hour. I finally got the urge to clean out the closet in the baby's room. I'm taking the Jafra stuff that is still "good" to work today to see if I can pawn any of it off on my co-workers (for free!). I threw out a bunch of old stuff I don't use anymore out of the bathroom drawers, and even vacuumed the drawers out! There will be quite the collection of randomness in the garbage this week, for sure.

Kevin caulked the trim and painted the future clothes closet, so we accomplished our baby's- room-job-of-the-weekend-goals.

I think I felt the baby hiccup a couple of times in the past few days. They weren't any huge movements, but they were definitely rhythmic, and you could even feel them a little from the outside.

Off to another week at work! Two more weeks and it's spring break! Yahoo :)