37 Weeks - Get Well Mandi

We are 37 weeks this week, which means we are full-term and any day now Baby Gerrans could arrive. This blog has been such a great place of creativity for me and has blessed me with such wonderful messages of love from all of you. I would like to take the time this week to request some special attention for my wonderful sister as she needs it so very much more than I do. As I noted last week, Mandi brought a beautiful baby boy, Cameron, into this world on May 22nd. She did this by laboring for many many hours and then having an emergency c-section. A few days after arriving home from the hospital she found her incision to be infected and quickly made her way back to the hospital where she has undergone several surgeries in the last week. She is stable now, but may need another one before she can start to rest up to come home. She needs your love and well wishes more than ever, so please pray, jump backwards, cross your fingers, light a candle, or do whatever you do to send positive energy her way. Please do not worry about me, I am fine. I am saddened that I cannot drive down to be by her side, but you better believe I am sending her positive energy all day long and would love it if you could too.

Thank you.

Mandi and Cameron on delivery day.

Week 36 - A Little Bit Closer

Well it is official I am nine months pregnant!! When people ask me how many months I am they are confused when I say nine months but that I still have a month to go. It is usually men who are dumbfounded by this, what they taught us in our health classes wasn't exactly accurate. 40 weeks = 10 months, it may take nine months for a fetus to fully develop but doctors track your progress from the last day of your last period which gives you that extra time. Speaking of doctors we have begun our two week appointments! Which means we see her every two weeks until our due date and then they become more frequent if baby has not arrived by then. Our appointment went really well, that is until this morning at least. We went over our birth plan, had a final sonogram, checked my weight, and tested blood pressure. My blood pressure is still on the low end of the healthy range and hasn't changed much from being pregnant, which is FANTASTIC! Thanks Mom - I get that from you :) Low blood pressure means no Preclampsia, very important for me and Baby Gerrans. My weight is my weight, I have gained another 5 lbs in 3 weeks which is over what I should be gaining (1 lb a week), but the doctor thinks its fine and I haven't ballooned yet so I am going to keep doing what I am doing. Our birth plan is reasonable - low lights, not a lot of traffic, don't ask me about meds, Robert is to cut the cord, nothing but breast milk is to be given to Baby Gerrans, and if the baby goes anywhere Robert goes too! Our sonogram was fabulous. Our doctor was able to keep it away so we did not find out if we are having a William or Marilyn, but we got to see the head, the heart, and the rib cage. Head is super low, like ready to go low, which means no breech baby here, yay!! The head looks nice and large :) The heart is moving at great speed and rhythm but the most amazing thing is Baby Gerrans is already breathing!! That our doctor says is a sign of a very healthy baby. Breathing liquid right now, but the fact that the lungs and ribs are moving this early is a great sign, another yay!! She took a look at the water sac and said that that was looking great too, meaning I have been doing good on the fluids. I am 35 inches from top to bottom of uterus, and though I am large, baby has room to grow as I have more space for him to stretch out near my ribs. This may mean that I won't be growing out much more, but we'll see. I have advanced to a 42 inch waist, wow, that makes me tied with mom....will I beat her??

So what wasn't so great about our last appointment? They tested me for Strep B, which 30% of women have, its basically a bacteria similar to the strep in "strep throat" but it lives in other parts of your body. I found out this morning that of course I have it, I have to have all the weird stuff, well almost all of it. I am positive for Cystic Fibrosis, which thankfully Robert is not, I have a negative blood type so I had to have an extra injection at 27 weeks and another after I give birth so my body doesn't reject my next pregnancy, and now I have Strep B, which means I have to get an IV as soon as I get to the hospital, yuck. If I was having a home birth with a mid-wife I wouldn't have to worry about the IV as I would be having oral meds instead, but alas Kaiser has their own protocol and they don't care that I am afraid of needles. Stress, anxiety, and fear are the number one reasons why a woman's cervix will not dilate so the IV freaks me out a little that I will not be able to relax enough and the whole thing will have a snowball effect into medications I really do not want to take. This is going to sound crazy but I am hoping that my contractions will be so crazy intense that I will forget that it is there. Honestly I have tears streaming down my face right now about it. I guess it is better that I have these health issues rather than Baby Gerrans having any problems. Parenthood is a lot about sacrifice, right?

On a better note, we finally got the cradle mattress figured out. After four phone messages and two emails I finally got the original company to issue me an authorization number to return the too small mattress that I ordered. I am returning it to them, but I purchased a new one from someone else out of frustration for their customer service tactics. The product is the same I just ordered it through the mega website diapers.com this time. I ordered it yesterday and it arrived today - free shipping. It fits perfectly! Now of course I needed a sheet for this mattress and the one they sell that goes with it is $50! for one sheet, 36 x 18", not a set, not two, just one fitted organic cream sheet, really?? I am crazy in a lot of ways, but to spend that much on a sheet for a cradle that Baby Gerrans will only be in for a second before out growing it, seems ridiculous. What I did notice is that those dimensions are very close to king size pillow cases :) so what did I do? I found a set of two organic king size pillow cases for $15 and planned to sew them to fit the mattress, since I needed a bigger mattress they fit perfect no sewing needed! Now I have two so while the clean one is on the cradle, Robert can be washing the other in his "ten loads of laundry a day" ;) Great Grandma Wilma and Mom will be impressed by my thrifty-ness, as they are two ultra thrifty ladies that I have taken notes from for many years. Now if only the nursery furniture would arrive......

Speaking of the cradle I mentioned it last week, but neglected to give it the attention that it deserves. Robert and I are lucky to have families that love history so much and have preserved some truly special items to be passed from one generation to the next, the cradle is one of them. It originally belonged to Robert's Great Grandfather Samuel Birney Anderson. He wasn't the only one in his generation to get use out of it, but it was later used for Robert's grandfather Richard Birney Anderson (who would have been 100 years this Monday), his mom Carolyn Grace Anderson (Gerrans), Robert, and now Baby Gerrans will be the fifth generation to get use of it! Isn't that incredible! I just love it. Photos are below so you can see that it sits right next to our bed. I will sleep on that side when baby arrives so I can be close by all night long. The mattress is  in it (covered in the pillow case) and I have hung the beautiful quilt that my Grandma Donna made for Baby Gerrans over the side for easy comfort when we have to get up those four of five times throughout the night. I noticed that the wall seemed so bare above the cradle so I hung a cross-stitch that Robert's Great Great Aunt Ruth Dobyns made for him when he was a baby. That way Baby will have something to look at and I will have something to recite in the middle of the night! As the nursery unfolds I will share more of our family treasures with all of you.

In Great Grandma Wilma's words I "am getting lazier and slower everyday". Sometimes after watering the backyard I want to come back inside and take a nap, I have usually been up for maybe an hour at this point :) I'll start a task and not be able to complete it because physically I am just not able to. Today for instance I planned to pull out the bachelor buttons that are now going to seed in the front yard (there were tons of them) and I got maybe 3/4 of the way done before having to retire to the couch for a read then snooze. Normally those things would have been gone and I would have found the motivation to weed the embarrassing left side of the driveway too! Baby is coming and I have to listen to my body. I did decide as I was catching my breath on the porch bench that I will do one more week of things I "have to" before I only do things I want to. This sounds a little toddler-ish, but I have made so much progress on things that I should be doing I am neglecting things that I won't be able to do for a while after baby arrives. I would like to enjoy these last me moments, and hey it might feel really good amongst all the chaos to organize something that I didn't get too. Although I am making great progress. Robert and I are sharing a closet! and this is not your standard sliding doors closet. This is your 1950s should be the size of a linen closet closet. This has freed up the guest bedroom closet for the Christmas decorations, china, and possibly camping supplies. I made space in the hall closet for my favorite books, cleaning supplies and suitcases. I am desperately trying to empty out our third bathroom and my office so that they can be turned into our kitchen. If I do it now, it will make our lives easier when we dive into that project. So I am giving myself one more week to work on it, then I am going to concentrate on more fun things!

Lastly lets end this week on some great news.....Baby Cameron has arrived! Baby Gerrans' will be his closet cousin. He arrived on May 22nd at 9:02 pm, measured in at 21 inches and 8 lbs 5 oz! He is beautiful, see pic below. I can't wait to meet him and so sad that I can't drive down alone to go see him yet, but sending so much love to Mandi, Ryan, Patrick and Cameron! Congratulations!!

Makes me so excited for our little bundle to arrive :)

xoxo

The Anderson cradle, needlepoint, and Grandma's handmade quilt.

A close up of the needle point hanging above the cradle.

Robert and I being silly in the photo booth at my brother Josh's wedding.

Baby Cameron wearing the hat that I made him! Isn't he precious?

Robert and I spent a night in the city this week. Before wandering through the Ferry Building we had breakfast at the Buena Vista in Fisherman's Wharf and he snapped this photo of me in front of the hollyhocks near the cable car turn around.

Okay I'll probably regret this one, but this is the most hilarious picture I have ever seen of myself, I nearly peed myself due to laughter when I saw it. I was washing up after having a lovely French meal in the city with friends when Robert snapped this. He sent this to me in a text with the words "I love bananas" under it. Apparently there is still a primate in me; hopefully this woman will come out during labor.
Hope this gives you a good laugh too!

Week 35 - Getting There

Some days I feel like a rock star and I have this amazing ability to get things done that have been on the to do list for ages and other days I hardly have the energy to get out of bed to eat! We are winding down and I am sure that my body is preparing for this laborious journey up ahead. As I glanced at the poll on the top right of the webpage I noticed that there are 29 days until the "due date". Wow, where has the time gone? Robert is getting super antsy (surprise surprise) and keeps asking me "when is that baby going to come out?" but this morning as he was leaving for work at 6 am and complaining about being tired I rolled over and told him we don't know tired yet. He laughed as he thought the same thing as the words came out of his mouth. EVERYONE is telling us how sleep deprived we will be, so we are expecting it. Over dinner the other night my brother Jer told me that the first four months are really hard (he has a beautiful 9 month old girl), he remembers them being extremely difficult, but cannot recall why :) Must be some form of amnesia otherwise people would probably only have one child, like birth right? If you could remember the details exactly you might not sign up for it again. I have a nightly schedule of which I get up to drink water or use the restroom and I am curious if that will be at all related to Baby Gerrans' schedule. Depending on what time I go to bed each night, which seems to be later and later, I usually get up at 1:40, 3:20, and 5:45 (I note the time each occasion). It is almost like clockwork. When I am down I am sleeping pretty well unless my hands fall asleep. They seem to be more swollen than my feet these days and I am still having a lot of pain in my joints.

I am not ready to pop yet but starting Wednesday I will technically be 36 weeks which means if I go into labor they won't stop it. Everyone seems to have arrived late in my family and it looks that way for Robert's too, but part of me thinks that Baby Gerrans will get his Daddy's obnoxiously early gene. Have you ever invited him over and he arrived 15-20 min before you wanted him there? :) If that is the case I want to be as ready as possible. The hospital bags are all packed and we will be putting them in the car next week (after my cleaning spell is over). I have packed our freezer with enough frozen dinners to feed an army. I am stocking the pantry with tons of things from the bulk aisles and next week plan to get some canning on! If anyone wants to join this pregnant lady for a can-fest I am going to be making jam and processing tomatoes first, then we'll see how I feel after that. Though I am ready on that end our furniture is still not here! Argh!! It shipped from LA last week and makes a stop in San Leandro where they take their time processing it before bringing it to our home. This is probably why I am really not ready for pregnancy to be over. We do have a beautiful cradle that has been passed down through Robert's family for many generations, but I neglected to measure it so the mattress I ordered is too small and the mattress company has a really organic way of getting back to its customers about returns. Worse comes to worse I'll co-sleep until we get all this mess figured out. Maybe these are my hiccups? meaning that labor will go smoothly and I am just stressed about silly stuff instead; I like that idea ;)

I noted above that I am having a cleaning spell. Not a scrub kind of clean spell, but rather a cleaning out spell. I decided to indulge in one non-pregnancy/baby book before baby arrives and chose Zero Waste Home by a local Marin woman. She and her family throw out one quart of trash a year! Wow, when I saw that I had to read it. While I won't be at their status anytime soon, it definitely has inspired me to let go of so many things I really don't need and to stop buying things in unnecessary packaging. I have been going through each room getting rid of stuff I am holding on to for that "someday" when I "might" need it. I donated nine bags of clothes this week, four boxes of housewares, and 67 books! It feels amazing to lighten my load. We use our third bathroom as storage and someday soon I would like to turn that space into a new kitchen so the goal is to either get rid or store those items somewhere else. This is not necessarily nesting as from what I have heard nesting is this burst of energy that you get to clean something two to three days before you go into labor, our egg lady cleaned all of her blinds with a toothbrush two days before she had her eldest daughter. However this is a great distraction from the fact that the nursery is not done and it will be wonderful to have purged before baby arrives. One less thing to worry about. I highly recommend this book not only for those of you who could use a little purging, but for all who could use a little simplicity in their lives. It is great food for thought!

In addition to all the wonderfulness that surrounds me week to week while I am pregnant Baby Gerrans gave mom and dad a big laugh this week! So one thing that Robert and I are sure to disagree about when it comes to parenting is the TV. We argue about it now and Baby Gerrans isn't even here yet. Robert loves the TV, he'd have one in every room and swears he couldn't live without it. I on the other hand would find great joy in throwing it into the street and watching it get run over by a semi truck :), sorry honey that is harsh but its how I feel. From that you can probably tell that I would like to be the type of person who does not allow their children to watch it and he would like to sit with Baby Gerrans and watch the darn thing from the start. EVERY parenting book that I have read has said that a baby should not be exposed to television for at least the first two years....even in the background!! I am not making this up and everytime I find it written down I make sure to share, some even suggest the first five years! Their brains aren't ready for it and can't handle it, so you better believe that this momma-to-be has got her boxing gloves on for this fight. The other night as we are getting ready for bed and having one of our discussions, Robert with his I want to be able to relax argument and my you can find another way to relax when baby is around (relaxing apparently has not left our vocabulary although many parents are probably reading this and laughing because we think we will be able to relax!). I am laying in bed basting the belly and he comes over to the exposed belly gets real close and says "baby kick once for no TV and kick twice if you want to watch TV" what do you think baby did???? Gave a ginormous kick!! ONE GINORMOUS KICK!! The kind that makes my belly really move. It startled Robert as he had never really seen it stir like that!! He was a little baffled and asked it I made it do that but I assured him I couldn't and tried to replicate it. So there you go dad, baby and mom agree no TV :) I was of course happy as a clam at high tide and Robert though a little defeated thought it was pretty cool. I think he said "oh its a girl." This has to be one of the best moments ;)

This is not so wonderful but I want to put this in writing so that I remember it, I do not want to be a cynical or negative mom. We celebrated Mother's Day with grandparents-to-be and mommy-to-be at the very beautiful Filoli mansion in Woodacre and we had a wonderful time awing over flowers and old things. While waiting in one of the lines for the restroom we met a baby that was 5 weeks old. An adorable little girl. Moms, especially new moms, always want to talk about babies, birth, etc. so naturally I struck up a conversation with her, her mother, and my mother. Not too long into the conversation I wanted to run. She didn't have anything nice to say and acted like everything was such a burden. Yes its hard, nothing in life prepares you for this, but if you focus on the negative that is all you get. As we all finally made a break for it, she yelled to us "get the epidural and take the meds they're great". Wildly inappropriate to say to a pregnant lady even if you do believe it. I desperately hope that I will not feel this sort of negativity about being tired, worn out, dirty, hungry, etc. I want this little baby more than anything so there is no room for complaints!

Other than that mother's day was great. I mentioned last week that Robert took me into the city to buy me something special for my first mother's day. While we wandered around Union Square and I admired that gorgeous stove I couldn't find anything that I really needed. I could have gotten some of our wedding china, but it sort of felt wrong to buy something that I would need to store until we can find a hutch. As we ate a delicious lunch it came to me, what I really wanted for Mother's Day was for him to build me some garden boxes for veggies in our yard. I have had a veggie garden, but the gophers had just discovered it (I have killed six this week alone!) and no matter how much I amended it the soil was awful. He obliged to build them, but noted that of course I had to be high maintenance in my own way, I can't simply buy something expensive he has to give me his sweat too! Well on his day off he put them together for me and filled them with organic compost. You can see the picture he snapped below of the finished product. I planted a tomato I grew from seed and........ gherkins! That way I can take a stab at making my own cornichons (apparently I still think I will have time for canning this fall, denial?). I have since planted two more tomato varieties,  a sweet pepper and many seeds from the baby shower favors that Carolyn put together, the lettuce and basil are already coming up! I am so excited about my boxes and they are a much better Mother's Day gift than a mortar and pestle, a dinner plate, or that stove :).

Cheers!!

Me and my new garden boxes. Wow I look large!

Here is a baby sweater that I crocheted and finally finished this week. I used the same yarn that I had chosen for a hat that I made for Mandi's baby because I loved it so much and added some vintage buttons my mom had laying around. This was so hard and took me so long (I started it in February) so now I understand why those adorable items I see in boutiques are so darn expensive!! Of course my computer won't turn it the right way. It is made to fit a 6-10 month old baby so it should be perfect for Baby Gerrans come this winter. I can add flowers to it if we have a Marilyn as it does feel a little boyish.

34 Weeks - Appreciative

The hospital bag is packed, the birth plan is filled out, the freezer is full of ready to heat homemade dinners, and our birthing class comes to an end next week. We are feeling ready. Everyone keeps telling me the belly has dropped, even our lovely milk lady Wendy mentioned it, and I can feel it. I don't believe I have experienced "lightening" (when the baby moves down to prepare for birth)  because I still have a slight tightness of breath, but he has definitely shifted downward. I know this because my bladder has told me so. It is crazy that I feel as though I could use the restroom 24/7, I literally walk out and think, I have to go again! Can't wait for that to end :)

I look like I am going to pop and everyone is telling me so. Still getting the looks of pity when I tell people I have a month to go and 5 people asked me at Farmer's Market on Thursday if I am having twins, one was a Doula (a birthing assistant).  It has to be my body to belly ratio, I bet if I was 5'10 people would not be saying this to me. Anyhow I am basting the belly daily to keep my skin moist and comfy and trying to put my feet up as often as possible. Still walking but not everyday, though I really should be. I find myself still gardening (check out Robert's snap shot below) which feels great on the body. However after a day of weeding I can no longer jump into a crafty project like crochet, I made this mistake only to wake to fingers that slightly resembled the homemade sausage I made the other day. I imagine this is what it feels like to have carpel tunnel. It took my hands two days to reduce to their normal size and my joints still feel stiff.

Robert's co-workers always have interesting stories and advice for him to bring home to me. The latest is that the last month is when their wives ballooned up. He of course shared this with me one morning, and then proceeded to tell me not to worry because it is normal and I needed to make sure that I was still feeding the baby properly. Don't you love innocent husbands. Of course it slightly freaked me out, that and running into pregnant ladies who had ballooned and new moms who had also experienced this late expansion. I can't stop thinking of this and the number on the scale. I have been a super healthy eater through this whole pregnancy and I am not stopping now. My appetite has increased, so I am eating smaller more frequent meals. I have even turned into a mid-night muncher. I am lucky that I have not been craving anything terrible for me, making the weight/diet/ballooning very manageable for now. I do love sweets, but my sweet tooth is often cured with a bowl full of organic strawberries or organic cherries, we've been going through a half flat of strawberries a week over here :) I try to stick to mostly veggies as snacks and I keep a jar of raw almonds next to the bed for my 3 am snack attack. I am not trying to "diet" or starve myself by any means but gaining a lot of weight in the last month increases my risk of terrible things like preclampsia and other labor complications which I want to avoid at all costs. I am being smart. Plus Baby Gerrans loves a lot of the healthy snacks I eat, radishes with lemon and salt got him all riled up today and strawberries have got to be one of the favs, but honestly who doesn't love a good strawberry? I read in one of my books about feeding kids, that many of the foods that mom eats in the last trimester are often foods that the baby grows up to enjoy. My Mom ate a lot of sushi, fried eggs, steak, and sandwiches with me, all of these foods are ones that I have always enjoyed. Baby Gerrans may enjoy strawberries, cucumbers, cornichons, sushi, cottage cheese, caprese salads, and really dark (85%) chocolate. We'll see :)

I am still content pregnant and not ready for this adventure to be over quite yet. Because of this I would like to end with some things that I have really grown to appreciate more as a pregnant woman than I ever have before.

The Female Body - We are machines. The fact that my body can create and house a human being is still so mind blowing. I eat, sleep, and go on my merry little way, meanwhile my insides are working tirelessly to fabricate a person. A miracle is going on inside me, there is no greater accomplishment.

One-size-Fits-All -  Okay this may sound really silly especially after the first one, but this has been a savior especially in the under garments department. I was always against this one for all idea as it seemed like laziness on the manufacturers side, however the fact that I never have to worry about at least one item in my closet fitting has been so nice. Now the real test will be if they fit after the belly is gone or if they will be stretched to oblivion.

My Husband - Yes I appreciated him before, but I have found a new form of appreciation for him these days. Maybe I am especially googly eyed because he helped me weed the rest of the backyard which I had been working on since February (and would have never finished before baby arrived without him). That does help but that is not the only reason. I am super independent, but pregnancy has made me dependent and vulnerable in ways I never thought I could be. From opening a jar of pickles to holding my hand through injections, walking me around the block to following me around the grocery store when he should be sleeping before his next shift, he is taking on much more and I haven't heard him complain. He did chuckle the other day, as he did a huge load of dishes from my dinner freezing frenzy,  how he has become the bread-winner and the homemaker and it is so true. Dishes have become so hard for me to do. I can't reach into the sink very easily with this large belly, so I am forced to turn my body to the side to get close enough. This is fine for a little while but eventually my back begins to ache. I can hardly push our mobile dishwasher to plug it in and I gave up scrubbing bathrooms long ago. He is picking up where I am slacking all the while trying to be emotionally available and uber supportive. I know women do this alone all the time, but I cannot imagine going through all of this without him. I know I would not be as content and positive as I am without his support.

Living in California especially the Bay Area- We are so spoiled. We have great food in every corner. I have had organic strawberries since March, just had my first organic peach yesterday, and the tomatoes are coming soon. There is really not much that isn't grown here. The weather is gorgeous (even if I am boiling in the odd heat).  I can drive up to Sonoma for the best fried chicken and waffles you ever tasted and the next day be in San Francisco eating a humanely raised beef burger topped with truffle french fries. There is a reason they call this little corner of the US the gastronomical capital and I am so happy to have so much tasty and conscientious food at my finger tips.

The Kindness of Strangers - Even though I get lots of omg reactions to my pregnant self I get way more people telling me how beautiful I am, how much I glow, sending best wishes, giving congratulations, and telling me how wonderful my life will be with my little one. From the man who carried the big bag of dog food to my car to the women at the sushi restaurant who send blessings to me and Baby Gerrans I have been flooded with so much kindness. I feel good about this world even if the news makes me want to cry. Turning it off and spending time with real people makes me sure that there is a good world that I am bringing Baby Gerrans into.

Family & Friends -  One of my favorite quotes from my pregnancy readings is "We are often misinformed for navigating pregnancy, labor, and new parenthood in that we are often taught that we need the right stuff rather than the right people and support. The high-priced stroller isn't going to make dinner on day three postpartum and all the new baby clothes that are rapidly pooped on won't wash themselves. We need support in order to cope and make good decisions. We don't need matching satin crib bumpers and bed skirts; we need our mothers and fathers, we need our extended families and friends, we need our good friends, we need experienced midwives and doctors and pediatricians and educators and doulas and nurses." Robert and I both feel so blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive network of family and friends who are already checking in on us, offering their help, advice when asked, and volunteering to assist us in whatever tasks we may need when Baby Gerrans arrives. Baby Gerrans has no idea how lucky he is that he will be brought into a family that already loves him unconditionally.
Thank you.


Lastly I would like to add some quotes from the blog to the baby book, if you have any favorites please share as I am having a hard time picking.


xoxo

Not a very flattering picture but one that Robert captured of me cooling my feet in the tub on one of those scorching hot days. Why did I ever leave my foggy Aptos??

At the coffee shop, helping Robert indulge in his new addiction - blended coffee drinks. Belly is a little lumpy due to all my layers.

Outside another coffee shop, I think Daddy-to-be has a problem and he is torturing mom-to-be in the process :) I miss coffee!

Here I am on my hands and knees in the garden. Robert told me he couldn't believe that I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and still gardening then quickly ran in the house to grab the camera. I have always been happiest outside in the garden and pregnancy is no different.

Robert took me into the city to buy me something nice at either Gump's or Williams Sonoma for Mother's Day. I found this stove :) He decided that when little William signs his NFL contract then I can have a stove like this, looks like Dad has got big plans for you Baby Gerrans. I think I'll hold Robert to it, the stove that is ;)

The nursery valance came this week. I usually make them myself but after failing miserably at getting the step-frets to look half way decent I opted to pay someone else to do it. They did a great job and I am so happy with it. Valances really complete window treatments. I wish I would have had the same company make the shade, but I was being too cheap - lesson learned.

I finished the baby book this week. I decided to make my own since I couldn't find one that wasn't too cutesy and generic. The pages are in plastic covers for now to protect them from the journey to the hospital etc. I will likely grommet the pages later as the plastic seems a bit office-y. I used scraps left over from the baby shower flags to adorn the pages.

The cover is made with wool felt and I trimmed it with ric-rac that matches the nursery walls. I embroidered a circle  on the cover and when we find out if we are having a Marilyn or a William I will embroider their initial in the circle. The whole idea is not my own its a spin off of Martha of course, however it did remind me of how much I love to embroider  It has been a long time, but I used to do it frequently and I really like it!

Week 33 - The Truth About Pickles

I had to open my fat mouth and talk about how great I have been sleeping, so now I can't sleep, argh. I can't even nap. Its not that Baby Gerrans is bothering me, it is simply that I can't fall asleep and when I am asleep I am not even sure that I am. Does that make sense? I lie there, tired, relaxed, but I can't say that I am actually asleep, especially with my mind racing the way it does these days. Burp cloths, car seats, diaper inserts, oh my! No wonder I can't rest. I have had two nightmares about nursing bras this week, so I guess I have been getting some shut eye :)

Everyone wants to know what I am craving these days and I have to disappoint you all with nothing. No weird cravings and even worse no cravings at all. When I go out to eat with friends they always want me to choose, but honestly it is hard enough to get through the fog that is pregnancy brain to make a decision. These days anything cold, seems to sound good to me, oh and of course sushi! I believe I have demystified the pregnancy pickles & ice cream craving though. Early on while on one of my grocery trips I wandered past the pickle aisle and began to ponder the typical craving. Since I was a wee tot I have always loved pickles, so it was not too much to experiment with them in my early pregnancy days. I picked up a couple of jars of cornichons since the chance of getting a large mushy pickle seemed too much to bare. At home I proceeded to taste a few to see if my taste buds had miraculously changed and they would sing for this new vinegary love, but alas they did not taste any different. They are still good, but not anything out of the ordinary. However, when they hit the back of my throat I knew instantly why these would become so desirable during pregnancy. See when you are pregnant your lovely hormones make your body produce more mucus, which makes your nose stuffy, which then makes your throat itch. What feels good on an itchy throat?? Answer: the vinegar in pickles. I love the cornichons because they are so crunchy which is a texture I seem to love these days. Now what is up with the ice cream? The cold temperature also feels good on an itchy throat. See mystery solved :) I still haven't eaten them together and I can only see this being great if your pickles were at room temp when you eat them, mine are always cold. And yes I do go through a lot of them.

I have been eating ice cream or frozen yogurt pretty regularly but after my doctor's visit today that will be no more, not cold turkey, just not indulging in a spoon full everyday. I stepped on the scale and lets just say that I am not longer half of Robert's weight, though I am still more than a foot shorter ;) Actually we decided that if Robert was twice my weight now we might have to put him in a wheel chair. Yikes. Well at least my college self is happy that while pregnant I have surpassed my freshmen 15 days; I think she would have been rather offended if that was still my heaviest. I am 32 inches from top of uterus to bottom, which is right on track, and 41 inches around (meaning I have grown 2 inches in four weeks). Will I beat mom?? She measured in at 42 inches, I still have at least four more weeks to go, so we'll see. Baby Gerrans' heart beat is in the 130-140 range, slightly slower than last time....so old wives does that mean I am having a boy?

Can you all order up some colder weather? Pregnant ladies don't do hot weather and I thought I was supposed to miss it! Most nights as the indoor temp registers 81 degrees I find myself standing in a bathtub full of ice cold water swaying back and forth as I read. The sitting position is the hardest for me to be in these days and when my feet are hot my whole body is miserable. They aren't swollen, they are just hot and I can't stand it. The only way I can cool them down is by soaking them in the tub. I am multi-tasking by bringing my book in there and for some reason I sway back and forth, maybe it encourages the blood to my feet, maybe I am practicing the rocking motion? I guess its good I don't get seasick ;)

My pregnancy app says that Baby Gerrans is about the size of a pineapple these days and boy can I feel it. He apparently has moved into the right position for birth (yay!!) but man oh man can I feel him moving around in there. All day long I am getting reminders that he is there. Robert pinned it best when he said Baby is not punching or kicking, but rather is sweeping my belly. It really does feel like that. He runs his body part across the belly rather than hitting it. The only time I really get kicked is when I put something cold on it. Sometimes while reading I will rest my glass of cold water on my belly and that is when he will hit at it, but other than that it is a sweeping motion. He must not enjoy the change in temp as much as mom does. I haven't seen any body parts come through yet. Shelly mention seeing her daughters bottom and being able to feel the cheeks, and my cousin Chris mentioned being able to see his daughter's nose poke through. I am constantly looking and feeling to see if I can recognize what is moving across my belly, but nothing looks familiar yet. I guess we have plenty more time for this.

Well we are off to practice our breathing in another birthing class tonight. Hopefully Daddy-to-be will learn to do something other than pat my head and sing Johnny Cash to me as he keeps threatening to do while we are in labor. (does he want to be kicked out of the room??)

xoxo

Here are the pics from the shower that I promised last week.

Signs mom made to let you know you had the right house.

Shelly and Larry's gorgeous home with the flags that Mom made in the trees.

I love the flags they made the entry ultra charming!

Flowers to remember the grandma's that are not longer with us.

The adorable Renee's seeds favors that Carolyn made.

Enjoying our lunch.

Hanging out in the shade.

Lovely ladies in blue.

Sarah and Shelly grabbing some lunch.

The dessert spread.

The girls.

Oh Aunt Lynne you know me too well, food groups for kids, something I can't wait to teach!