Past Due

Here we are 3 days over due. I have had some contractions but they are not in rhythm yet so more waiting is what we shall do. Our "due date" was Wednesday and we spent the day celebrating Father's Day, which consisted of sleeping in, sweatpants, coffee, burgers, doggy-time, and an action film. I managed to adorn some onesies during the film to keep myself from getting too antsy. Aren't they cute? I used fabric scraps, embroidery thread, and some buttons I had laying around to adorn some organic onesies I picked up for $4 each, what a bargain! 

Thanks Baby Gerrans for waiting until after Bobby & Kiren's wedding, but now you can come anytime!! Daddy got to be a groomsmen last night and he looked adorable in his tux (pic below). We unfortunately did not catch any photos of the two of us, but that is because we had such a great time eating spicy Indian food and partaking in some exciting Indian dancing. Loved it! Mom's feet were such a sight we nearly cried from laughing so hard once we got in the car. Have you seen Shallow Hal? Think of Gwyneth's feet in that movie, that is what mine looked like. We took a photo but its not making it to the blog today.

I have been eating spicy food, walking, eating pineapple, drinking raspberry leaf tea, rocking in the rocking chair, but still no baby. I am SOOOOO ready. Getting up, sitting down, standing, and sleeping are all difficult and my feet, oh my feet, are so swollen all the time. Sometimes I feel as if they will explode. I was hoping the full moon would pull baby out, but alas that has not worked so far, I guess I have a few more hours :) If baby does not arrive by Wednesday, I might drive to Walnut Creek for some "Prego Pizza" which is famous for inducing labor.

I am dilated 2.5 cm and 75% effaced and the doctor seemed pretty confident that we won't make it to our next appointment (Wednesday the 26th), but the anticipation is driving us all a little crazy. It is funny how you spend so much time prepping and planning for this moment and when it comes close there is little you can do other than wait. I can't think of anything else in life that is like this, I literally have no control and that is a bit bizarre. Every baby comes out so it is just a matter of time.....we'll keep you posted!!

xoxo

A fish.

An apple.

A bunny.

A turtle with glasses?

Daddy-to-be in his tux before the wedding.

Here I am on the due date, looking exhausted, swollen, and so ready for Baby's arrival.

Week 39 - The Waiting Game

Still no baby, but boy and am I ready. I have been ultra grumpy and had one emotional breakdown over hunger this week, so I am sure Robert is really ready too. Last night I actually got some good sleep and am feeling cheerier than I have been so that is nice, but still ready none the less. I cannot imagine going on like this for 3 more weeks, but it may happen. In addition to the grumpy, sluggy, and the constant state of exhaustion that I am currently in my feet have swollen to replicate what I would assume hobbit feet would look like. Particularly the left as it is usually a half size larger than the right. Good thing it is summer and I can get away with wearing flip flops all the time as some days I cannot get into any other pair of shoes. My hands are still a bit swollen but not nearly as uncomfortable as they were. My Doctor says this is all a result of going over my recommended weight gain, so a note has been taken for the next pregnancy. Don't worry there are no pictures of my swollen feet, even though they look quite comical (ask my husband) I would not subject any of you to an unnecessary picture of swollen hobbit feet that have not been pampered for the last ten and a half months, yikes!

So I am experiencing mood swings, swollen extremities and a new appetite. It seems the swollen foot is actually hallow and I cannot seem to fill it. I feel as if I am always hungry, but I don't want anything. Well that is not entirely true I want simple carbs like pancakes, fettuccine Alfredo, and gelato, but I am supposed to avoid refined sugars and starchy carbs and stick to protein, fruits, and veggies. It seems that those things are really nothing that I want, maybe that is why I am so grumpy?? I did indulge in a pancake breakfast yesterday, which combined with a long nap lifted my mood by the afternoon. Maybe I need to make bad diet choices for my own piece of mind..........On Friends Monica makes cookies for the mother carrying their child and justifies it as saying that she wants the baby to "come out all cute and fat." I wouldn't mind a chunky baby, but I really don't want to deal with any preclampsia so I have to stay on track, as hard as it is I have to.

We are so ready over here. Everything that can be done for baby's arrival is done. Car seat installed, hospital bags packed and in the car, nursery set up, mobile is hung, got the rocking chair set, refreshed ourselves on the newborn care videos, finished up the reading on breastfeeding, sleep habits, and calming methods (well mom has), freezer is full, pantry is stocked, house is clean, diapers are washed, Dad could really use a break from work and Mom has been practicing her swaddling on Mike the Bear. My mom thinks that if we weren't so "ready" and were a bit more scrambled the baby would probably come, but since we aren't he/she will probably wait until July, thanks mom. Now it is just a waiting game, whenever baby is ready baby will come. It would be adorable if he (or she) came on Father's Day, wouldn't it?? Of course for selfish reasons I would like baby to come soon, but I know Baby Gerrans will come when he is meant to. We have a wedding next Friday, that Robert is a groomsmen in, and I really hope that baby allows his father to participate in it, for the groom and for Dad-to-be. So baby if you are reading this you can come either on your due date or wait until Saturday morning? ha fat chance.

Baby Gerrans is kicking in there like crazy, still haven't seen any body parts through the belly and probably won't. I am feeling this new feeling of bubbles inside me which is a bit peculiar. At first I thought it was my stomach but soon realized that my stomach is now up high under my ribs and these "bubbles" are happening all over the belly. They usually happen when Baby Gerrans is moving a lot, could he be blowing bubbles? Burping? or something worse?? Did any of you mothers out there experience this? I haven't seen any literature on it. Maybe I am imagining it in my delirium.

Sorry about the way the last two posts delivered, they were supposed to come separately but somehow came together I guess I am still getting the hang of this blogging thing. We'll be sure to let you know when our bundle arrives, please wish for a safe delivery for us.

Cheers!

Robert hung the mobile.

Here is a close up.

Poor Mike he has been the subject of my swaddling practice.

Here is the rocking chair that belonged to my Great Great Grandma Ethel Mae Grey. She rocked my Great Grandma Mae (the picture you saw last week), who rocked my Grandma Marilyn, who then rocked my Mom, who later rocked me in it. Baby Gerrans will be the fifth generation to be rocked in this chair. We got a new fluffy cushion made for it so it will be nice and comfy for Mom and Dad. Could use a foot stool and a little side table, but those aren't necessities.

"Pregnancy Updates"

Here is my first "pregnancy update" at 12 weeks. We started out calling Baby Gerrans  Baby Nugget. Ali came up with this nickname, she is always creative like that :)

Update on Baby Nugget

I am 12 weeks today! Feeling good, no morning sickness at all, but still very tired and lazy :)

Today Robert and I had another ultra sound where they measured all sorts of things to screen for things like down syndrome, etc. Still have to wait for the results of my last blood test but baby nugget is moving like crazy in there! About the size of a lime, legs are kicking, arms flailing, and at one point the legs were crossed and hands were behind the head - definitely Robert's child! We were cracking up as that is how Robert sleeps!

Tarah, just like your sister, my doctor put the fear of weight gain in my head. She stressed that because of my size and bone density I have to be so careful to not go over. She also took one look at me and told me to lay off the processed food, what!!? Amazing how they can tell what your diet is like just by looking at you, apparently everything is out there when you are pregos. So no more Hayley diet for me, no more crackers, I have to reduce the starchy carbs, she even said I should limit my intake of rice, wow. Who knew that mrs. farmers market would get a lecture about eating healthy :)

I had one serious episode that sent me to the hospital, but everything turned out to be alright. I have always gotten migraines if I eat too much junk food, like the one time I scarfed down an entire roll of necco candies or the other time when I ate an entire queso by myself, and I believe the onion dip on Thanksgiving may have sent me over the edge (I practically consumed the entire bowl). The day after Thanksgiving I did my normal routine woke up early had breakfast and started cleaning something when a migraine broke out. I tried my normal remedy - Robert gives me a massage and then I take a nap, but when I woke up it was worse and then an hour later the nausea kicked in. Imagine the worst hangover you have ever had, then put yourself on a sailboat on a very choppy day, and top it off with a migraine. That is where I was, for nine hours. They gave me some meds that didn't make the pain go away, but eventually curbed the nausea enough that I could go to sleep, two days later I was back to normal. 

One more bit of scary news, I am a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis. Apparently 1 in 25 people are. It takes two parents as carriers to have a child with this disease, Robert got tested yesterday and we will find out his results in two weeks. If you could keep your fingers crossed, pray, jump backwards or do whatever you can for us we would really appreciate it. I am trying not to be nervous but can't help it. 

I've got a little bump, but I haven't actually gained weight which is weird. My clothes are snug and people are giving me that "is she pregnant or has she gained a lot of weight" look. I love to watch people at the market who see me weekly ponder over it, it is quite funny. 

Lastly pregnancy dreams are crazy. Last night we brought the new born baby home and it was telling me how to take care of it and it would only wear diapers from Africa that our Realtor had to bring us. Every night they are bizarre like this, again Erica I cannot wait for you to be pregnant yours will be book worthy :)


Here is another from week 14

Thanks for all of your positive thoughts...we are cystic fibrosis free, Robert is negative (apparently I am the only diseased one in this relationship), we are also in the clear for now with down syndrome and t-18, yay!

My bump is growing and so is my appetite! I have one entertaining story that is sure to make you laugh, which we can all use as the year comes to a close.

Pregnancy hunger is unlike any desire to eat you will ever have. Last week I am having lunch with a friend in SF at this new Japanese Ramen House. We had to wait in line to get a table and finally when we sat down we ordered immediately as we were both starving. Of course the food was taking FOREVER. I thought I was going to die, when you are pregnant you have to eat when your body tells you you are hungry there is no putting it off. If you let it go far enough you get incredibly nauseous and even farther well I don't know yet. So I am sitting there trying to be polite and engage in the conversation as I am drooling over all the plates of food flying by us. Finally the waitress brings us some hot tea, which I proceed to guzzle down like I am playing flip-cup hoping that it will temporarily satisfy me, which it does not. Just when I feel like I am going to scream I realize that my napkin is paper and that there is a stack of them at the end of the table. Kids ate paper in Junior High right?, if I nibble on the napkin it could hold me over until the food comes. But what will my friend think of me if I start eating my napkin, now I start to devise ways to get the napkin in my mouth without her noticing. (the thought that I am crazy to eat a napkin NEVER crosses my mind) I kid you not I am sitting there nodding my head pretending like I am listening to her and I am secretly tearing up my napkin into tiny pieces to be stuffed into my mouth when she looks away. Just as I am about to distract her with the table next to us, the waitress comes with our appetizer, THANK GOD!!! 
Now this story is funny to me, but at the time eating the napkin felt like a great idea. Oh baby nugget why must you be so impatient!

xoxoxo


The last update before I started the blog - Week 20

This is a long and somewhat sad email so brace yourselves. Well we are 20 weeks over here, half way through, can you believe it? I feel like I am growing everyday! Today I tried to squeeze my way into a small parking space and then realized I was too big to fit out the door, ha! Baby nugget is as long as a banana now but a little thicker. Speaking of bananas they have been on the cravings list which was so awkward because I haven't purchased them in over 3 years! But what baby wants baby gets. I have noticed that the cravings have changed quite a bit, it went from wow that sounds amazing right now - sushi, latkes, cottage cheese, popsicle, and grapefruit - to my first omg I have to have that right now - which was steak.  On our last ultrasound we got to see hands, feet, facial expressions, and even a yawn. We could find out what baby is but we are still sticking to not knowing, though Robert is having a harder time waiting than I am. Apparently we aren't that unique. Our technician who just moved here from Chicago says that no one in California wants to know, but in the eight years she was in IL only two couples didn't want to know the sex, interesting. The second trimester is much better than the first, energy is up, much more comfortable, but my skin gets dryer and itchier by the minute, hopefully its the weather but it tends to be more on my belly than anywhere else so I have a feeling its not. Cora you asked me about my new organic method for dry skin and at the time I hadn't found anything well I have and I am loving it, straight Argan Oil. If I could afford it I would drown my whole body in this stuff :) I don't know if it is nesting or if it is due to all the non-creative tasks I have been given at work, but I am obsessed with my house right now. While I was bed-ridden from a nasty cold I managed to draft up a total house remodel. I am driving Robert crazy because apparently it is all I can talk about. The nursery is driving me mad, do you ever envision the perfect outfit for a special occasion and then find that it does not exist or if it does they either don't have your size or its so expensive you'd have to sell your soul to get it? Well that is how I am feeling about the nursery, what I want does not seem to exist in the fabric department and it is making me crazy, so crazy angry that I took it out on the closet and tore the whole thing out, patched painted and ordered a new closet system. Do you think it would be really distracting to paint stripes/chevron/ikat etc inside a closet? with clothes shoes etc does that become more than the eye can handle? Well on yet another note we have gotten a new baby before our real baby. Robert after nine months (no joke) got his Police K-9 dog two weeks ago. I have been super nervous about this whole thing and it started out really smooth. He got a female instead of a male, she is about the size of Annie, a little skinnier. Her name is Jesse. She is dark in color and looks a little wild. When I first met her she was sweet as pie I couldn't believe she was going to be trained to bite people. She immediately took a liking to me which made me feel much better about the whole situation. However this Saturday after an afternoon of bar hopping in the city (yes this pregnant lady bar hops), she decided that she was going to kill Ralphie. I am in the bathroom taking off layers of eye make up when I hear Robert screaming my name for bloody murder and things in German which I did not understand. I come running down the hall thinking he was hurt only to find him on the front porch wrestling Jesse who had Ralphie hanging from her jaws, he was limp. OMG I cannot describe to you the horror I felt. Robert had wedged his hands in her mouth to see if he could pull her off but a dog like that has a lock jar like you would not believe. I tried to get my hands in there too but there was no way it was happening. The whole time we are both screaming him in german, me "let go of him" and I am scrambling. I kicked her, I punched her, poked at her eyes. Nothing. All three of them were wedged under our cute little bench. My mother always talked about how to deal with dog fights, being attacked by animals etc.(such a pioneer woman), and in that moment those random lessons came to mind. She always suggested spraying fighting dogs with a hose and when all else fails go for the ribs. The hose was all the way around the corner and I just knew I didn't have time to get to it, so I grabbed the dog bowl of water and threw it on her face. She jerked and threw herself, ralphie and Robert out from underneath the bench but she didn't let go. I grabbed a japanese weeder (small shovel with sharp blade on one side) which I lazily had not put away from day before (thank god) and swung with all my might in her ribs preparing myself for her to turn on me. It took about four wacks and then she let go of him. He dropped totally limp in a puddle of water as Robert grabbed her to lock her up. Ralphie didn't move and like a victim's mother on SVU I screamed hysterically over and over "don't let go" and started rubbing his belly. He went into a seizure, I picked him to put him right side up so he wouldn't choke on his throw up if he did, and then he snapped out of it. I clutched him in my arms barefoot and bloody as I jumped into Robert's truck and he drove in what they call "code 3" to the pet emergency; both of us crying, Robert with blood gushing from his hands and begging Ralphie not to let go. The vets were amazing, he is a tough little dog, and if it weren't for Robert's large man hands getting in between her jaw and his neck he would have died. I looked like I was in a thrasher movie - blood and dirt splattered all over my white shirt, pajama pants, no shoes, and half of my eye makeup removed. I can't laugh about the incident but I can chuckle about the way I must have looked to all the people in the vet office. Robert had to go to the emergency room as he has major wounds to his hands, but they don't stitch dog bites for a fear of infection, so he has to wait for them heal. Now I am nursing Ralphie back to health, he's got a few stitches and is very sleepy from the pain meds but other than that seems fine. I am still shooken up by the whole ordeal. Jesse is not a dog she is an animal. She has not gone through all of her training and this incident, as Robert will tell you, was his fault. She has a major problem with food aggression and he let Ralphie out when she was eating. An honest mistake, but I am just so glad he is alive. You are probably wondering why I am sharing this story with you in my latest pregnancy update. You are my nearest and dearest and I need you to know that on the drive home from the vet I realized that I have married the right man.That no matter what the world dishes to us he is the one for me. I can't tell you exactly why but its true. Crazy I know. When Baby Nugget is 16 and driving Robert and I so crazy that we are on the brink of divorce I need you to remind me of this incident, remind me of what I felt on that porch, in the car, in that moment. Its funny how true fear can make you so much more aware of what you really feel. Baby Nugget handled the whole thing effortlessly, no shocking pains like I get when I carry the laundry basket, no nausea, no kicking. Not until the ride home; just to let me know he is okay.  Thanks for being here for me to vent to, this isn't one I could keep in. You can see that through these 9 1/2 months of being pregnant I have learned a great deal about myself. This has definitely been one of the best adventures of my life so far,  I can only imagine that parenthood will be such a treat for both Robert and I. xoxo

Week 38 - Ready to Go

Today we are 38 weeks and we are ready to go. We had a doctor's appt this morning and we came home with more good news. Good strong heart beat, I am dilated 1 cm, my cervix has thinned and begun to soften, Baby Gerrans' head is right up against my cervix, and he/she could arrive any day now! Crazy. I have been brainstorming a post reflecting on the last nine months and I think it is appropriate to do now. Robert and I went from newlyweds, to honeymooners, to parents-to-be in a matter of minutes. It seems like ages ago that Robert and I were in France talking about becoming pregnant and when we found out that we were we were so elated! When we first got home I took a pregnancy test and it came out negative, but I knew it was wrong. I can't describe exactly why, but I just knew that I was pregnant, I felt it. A few impatient days later I took another test and low and behold I was correct. Robert was at work so I left him a card that said "Guess What" on the outside and inside said "we're pregnant". It is in the baby book now. He came and woke me up, we were both so excited. After our first appointment and ultra sounds to confirm it we told our parents in a similar fashion. Got them each a card with a sonogram photo attached inside and wrote the words "Hi Grandma & Grandpa, See you on June 19th!" beside it. Carolyn screamed and my mom welled up in tears and hugged Robert immediately, lots of hugs were given. It was so fun to surprise them in this way. We saved the big announcement for our "Wedding Celebration" which many of you were able to attend. There really could have been no better way to share the good news than with a room full of all of our favorite people. Don't know how we'll top that with the next one. We were so nervous and excited to tell everyone even though it was a teensy bit early to share.

I started an email chain with pregnancy updates for my close friends and sisters, but with all the requests to be included in what was going on with me I decided to start this blog at 22 weeks. Robert has been encouraging me to write one since he took me to Napa for my birthday in 2009 and a gentlemen that was staying at the same B & B suggested I start one after loosing my Event Design job. I finally dove into it, and am so glad that I have. What a great way to catalog my pregnancy and as I have said before an amazing creative outlet for me. I like to write and I always feel like I have a narrative in my head so to put it down somewhere has been very fun. I hope to continue it as Baby Gerrans grows (I don't expect you all to continue to read it) as I am sure there will be many challenges and changes that I will face giving me lots of topics to explore :)

Back to my email updates that I sent my close friends they included funny stories and interesting details about what I was experiencing in those early days. They didn't come weekly so there were not too many. To insure that they do not get lost I will be posting them separately for us all to enjoy.

I was fortunate to never have any morning sickness, though I was super sleepy and lazy in the first trimester. I did feel the urge to nest around 20 weeks, but have spent the last few getting rid of things. We went from a small bump at 12 weeks to now a 43 1/2 inch waist, I outgrew mom. I have gained 37 lbs (5 in the last two weeks) and as the days go I feel as if I am swelling like a summer peach. My feet and hands show it the most. Just to give you a perspective my ring size is normally a 4 1/2 but today I am wearing my grandmother's wedding ring which comes in at a size 8, that is some serious swelling. My hair is so thick I will miss it terribly when it all falls out and Robert will not enjoy finding it in the drain again :) I have gotten to the point where bending down to pick something up or weed is nearly impossible, funny how that happened pretty much overnight. Walking has been my only form of exercise these days. Getting in and out of bed is difficult and the last few nights somewhat painful. Sleeping has not been that difficult. I had one week of terrible sleep but for the most part have been very fortunate. I get up frequently but go back to sleep very easily. The last few nights my hands have been falling asleep which wakes me and that is a bit annoying. 

Robert noted as he watched me roll over that me rolling over is like a submarine trying to make a u-turn. I don't know much about submarines but apparently its a lot of work to turn such a large thing around...I don't think I like being compared to a submarine :) I have started to feel Braxton-Hicks contractions which are a result of my uterus practicing for labor and pushing Baby Gerrans down. I also notice that my belly has hardened and it is easier to feel baby. We are both running out of space. My cravings have been rather uneventful but I have had an increase in appetite this last week and have been consuming radishes like they are strawberries. Grandma I tried your radish sandwich and it was very tasty! And yes the furniture finally arrived, not without hiccups but it is finally here. Rocking chair will be finished tomorrow, yay! Mobile is done but needs to be hung, Daddy-to-be will be putting it up this evening, as I have finally determined that leaning over a crib to screw it into the ceiling is not a battle worth fretting for this pregnant lady. When that is done the nursery will be pretty much complete. I am still looking for a small table to hold a beverage and maybe a snack to sit beside the rocking chair so I can have something while I am breastfeeding, but that is not a pressing item.

As we left the doctors office today we both felt a rush of giddiness as it is finally here. We cannot wait to meet our little one and to find out if it will be a William or a Marilyn. I have made some signs to tape up in our labor room with phrases like "boy or girl" "William or Marilyn" hoping that they will give me the extra energy to push when I become exhausted. Not knowing has been so fun, as I have said before I thought it was going to be so much harder, but it really hasn't. I am a planner, but you really can do all the planning prepping you need to not knowing what you are having. What would really be the difference if I knew? I would have probably bought that adorable vintage linen coat if I knew I was having a girl and invested in some pee pee tepees if I was having a boy - both totally unnecessary.

If all goes as planned we will be delivering at Kaiser in San Francisco and this baby will be the 6th generation to be born in the city on Robert's side. I don't know how many people can say that but I think that is rather cool. We will be sending out a mass text (can't figure out how to blog from my phone yet) to announce baby's arrival. I believe I have all the phone numbers I need, but if yours has changed please send it my way so you can be included. They do allow visitors once we get to the postpartum department, so call or text Robert after you get the announcement if you would like to come and see us to get the details. We are toying around with the idea of having a meet the baby potluck on 4th of July, so if you are around then we would love to have you and will send out an invite when we decide what to do. 

Below are lots of pictures for you to enjoy from the start to today. It has been quite a journey and one that will never end for us!

xoxo

PS Please continue to keep Mandi in your thoughts, she could still use your positive energy.

Just Married!

In Paris, this was the day :)

Robert and I with the card we made for Art & Carolyn.

After we announced the pregnancy at our Wedding Celebration.

Me at 12 weeks, the end of the first trimester.

At 24 weeks, the second trimester.

Here I am at 37 weeks.

Not sure if this picture is clear but this is an aerial view of my belly while I am sitting. You can see that my belly is lop-sided as Baby Gerrans in pushed up against my right side, he does this often :)

Here is an overview of the nursery, a little more crowded with all the furniture in there now.

This needle point, which hangs over the changing table, was made for me by my Great Grandma Cecilia Savar, and is something I read all the time especially as I was learning to read.

A close up of the crib with the quilt Cathy Hackett made for Baby Gerrans hanging over it. 

The picture is of my Great Grandma Mae Grey at 18 months of age. I had painted the room before we inherited this picture and her dress happens to be the same color as our walls. This hangs over the bed.

We bought this bookshelf made of recycled barnwood and painted it cream with a sherbet orange background color. It houses all kinds of wonderful books and treasures.

One of the vignettes on the bookshelf includes Robert's childhood bear, my grandma Marilyn's baby cup, and one of  my Great Grandma Edith Ayer's hummel prints. 

Here is a close up of the changing table with the needlepoint above it.

A vintage print of the Wee Willie Winkle poem gifted by Grandma-to-be Carolyn, it is one of her favorites.

Here I am today at 38 weeks at the same restaurant that we had our Wedding Celebration back in November.

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.