All posts by sunday

Still capable

By on


photo.jpg, originally uploaded by Abby and Sara.

38 weeks pregnant, and checking the tire on Abby’s jogging stroller.

We (Jason and I, not Abby and I) had a midwife appointment this morning. Every week, they measure my belly (the long way, not around), and it’d been getting larger by about a centimeter a week.

This week, I’ve gone down a size. The baby has descended from her usual place above my pelvis, down into the birth canal (meaning, my hips). That’s a good sign, that she’s getting ready to come out. Also a good sign is that she’s head-down, facing sideways. That’s way better than feet first.

The midwife said “So, we’ll see you next week at your appointment … or not.” The Soybean is fully formed, and could theoretically come out at any time.

I’m kind of disappointed that no one’s started a pool. The due date is May 20. My money’s on the weekend after, since it’d be much more convenient, and that’s what babies are — convenient — right?

Big foots

By on

Not much about my body has changed in the past few weeks (of course, my belly has gotten bigger, by a centimeter or two every week, but at this point it’s the opposite of a drop in the bucket). Here’s what I’ve noticed:

*Now that the temperature is reaching summer levels, I’m noticing how warm I am. Some of this happens every year, as spring moves to summer and I have to recalculate what “comfortable” is. After walking home from Harvard Square on Sunday, though, it took me a good 45 minutes to cool down. Usually it takes me about 10.

*My feet are puffy. I’d been noticing that my socks were leaving marks on my legs (indicating that they were affecting fluid), so now that I’m barefoot most of the time, I’m seeing my ankle bones recede and my toes plump up.

That’s it. That’s my list of complaints. I’m pretty sure I’m in some sort of minor percentile of pregnant women who are still sleeping well, without heartburn, baby feet kicking into ribs, surprise peeing, etc.

Maybe I should do this professionally?

Tech jargon and squishy bits

By on

TMI (too much information) warning for this post.

The latest development with The Soybean is that she’s now so big, and so active, that when she moves around she hits my cervix. I think of this as “pinging my cervix”*. To ping is a computer term. In Facebook parlance, it’s like “to poke”. It’s sending a message to someone without saying anything.

The term has become part of my daily language. I ping my coworkers via instant messenger to see if they’re available before launching into the question I have. I’ll ping my friend Kelly when I’m ready to meet her for lunch, so she knows to meet me on the corner.

The way the word sounds also fits the feeling I’m having. The baby is just saying “hey, are you still there?”, probably wondering when she can come out and play. As my (very pregnant) friend Mary described herself, I too no longer have a round belly. It’s getting corners.

For those of you who’ve had a Pap smear, it’s similar to when they swab your cervix. It doesn’t last long, but you definitely notice it. PING!

I keep wondering how much assault my cervix can take before it gives up. I have three weeks till my due date, but the way she’s squirming, I think the Soybean is going to throw herself out of me. That, or it’s going to be a very long three weeks.

Then again, I should be grateful that she isn’t pinging my bladder. I hear that generally results in an underwear change.

*I think Kelly actually used this term first. Since she had a 10+ lb. baby, you can imagine all the pinging.

Pregnant, or shoplifting?

By on


Pregnant, or shoplifting?, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

The sun in shining, flowers are in bloom, and I’m patiently waiting out the last few weeks of pregnancy. I feel awesome, actually. I don’t have a lot of the normal symptoms (heartburn, kicks to my ribs, stretch marks) — YET. We’ll see what the next 3+ weeks bring.

Jason and I finally got around the the birth ritual of going to Ikea to pick out tiny furniture. We’re sticking to minimal gear, getting what we know we’ll need, and waiting till after we have the baby to get what else we might need. Thanks to awesome friends (AbbyBN, StephMcN, TaraWP, Kelly and my sister) I have pretty much every piece of clothing the Soybean will need for the next year.

I’ve not been particularly hormonal, so the influx of tiny socks kick-started my nesting instinct. Now I’m baking muffins (to put in the freezer) and organizing.

My pregnancy ritual: hydration

By on


My pregnancy ritual: hydration, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

Here’s how it goes:
*Get out tea gear (see photo)
*Put the kettle on.
* Fill tea basket tea.
*Pour hot water over tea basket into white teapot
*Fill thermoses with hot water while tea steeps in pot
*Move basket from white tea pot to the first thermos
*Put lid on teapot
*Put lids on thermoses (noting which has tea, and which has hot water)
*Take teapot and thermoses into the office, where my mug is waiting
*Drink all the tea from the teapot
*Open the thermoses, switch basket to hot-water thermos
*Drink tea from thermos 1
*Drink tea from thermos 2

Here’s how this came about:
My sister, who’s already had a bebe, gifted me the jar you see, full of pregnancy tea. (The tea is equal parts red raspberry leaf, nettle, and oat straw. I think she added red clover just for kicks, and I’ve recently added alfalfa.) This was the jar of tea she had when she was pregnant, and I love that I get to use the same one. My sister said that she began to crave the tea, and never got tired of the taste. She also attributed the tea to the fact that her umbilical cord was incredibly strong. "They had trouble cutting it.", she said, gleefully.

I’m finding that by having tea every day, I manage to stay well hydrated. I’ve been drinking it since Thanksgiving, and I haven’t gotten tired of it (which is kind of amazing).

Oh, apparently teas that are normally otherwise fine to drink can sometimes have adverse affects during pregnancy. I liked having a huge supply of tea that I knew I could drink a lot of, without worrying about the effects on le fetus. There are some commercial brands of mother-to-be teas, which have very similar ingredients, but this was MUCH cheaper, especially considering how much of it I’m drinking. I was able to find all the herbs at my local health food store. I think the grand total was $15 to fill up the jar (and that’s at a fancy store in Cambridge where John Malkovich shops).

Babies are easy, let’s make a website

By on

One of the things I love the most about my partner/sig.oth./hubs/spousal unit is that we’re kind of like Transformers. On our own, we’re pretty great, in our own ways. Together, thought, we make something much more kick-ass and powerful.

IMG_0928

Last night, I offhandedly made a comment about a frustration I’m having with a particular aspect of a website I’m using. Jason kidded that he could make a better version. I kidded back a really great domain name.

I saw his eyes literally light up. “That’s great!” he said. And it was on.

We had made plans to finally have dinner at Scups, so he grabbed a small notebook and we started plotting a new website to build.

We spent the whole dinner talking over each other and writing down notes. What’s the workflow for building this? Is that a feature you need right away, or could that be part of the second round of work we do? I don’t think people would bother with that thing. How do we keep spammers out?

(I’m spoiling all of this by not telling you any details. Sorry!)

By the time our food came, we had a really solid plan for a site that could build in a matter of weeks, and this time (as opposed to previous ideas we’ve had), it had a tiny bit of a revenue generator built in. (It would nice if we could recoup that server expenses.)

When we got home, I started in on a UI design for each of the types of pages (index page, sign-up page,etc.), and Jason set up the domain and … did a bunch of stuff I’m actually not familiar with, but has to do with the back-end of how the site would function.

See? That’s why we’re so awesome together. I bet other couples have their own version of this, in the medium they’re versed in: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera painting, our friends Jill and Adam building houses, The White Stripes*.

If only our daughter could be all the best parts of us working together. I’d comment out the need for glasses, and change the CSS so she’d have a fighting chance at not being of medium height only.

*Technically, they’re ex-spouses.

MUCH more belly

By on

It’s been a while, and because of the pace of visible growth, you’re going to be able to tell. What I find interesting is the change to my posture.

7 weeks13 Weeks
18 weeks22 weeks31 Weeks, side view
(That’s 7, 14, 18, 22 and 31 weeks.)

I’ve also been taking pictures of what it looks like when I tighten my stomach muscles.
31 Weeks, sucking in
I should have nicknamed the fetus “The Six Pack”.

3 of 3 (welcome to the third trimester, here, have a donut)

By on

Thursday marks the rollover date for The Soybean. It’s kind of like an estimated birthday, or reverse-birthday, since the actual birth day hasn’t arrived yet. Conception day sounds too creepy. Conceptión Day sounds better.

Anyway.

Yesterday marked the 28th week of my beknocked uppedness. I was always irritated by people who spoke of their pregnancy (or children’s ages) in terms of weeks, because it meant I had to divide by four to get a number that was meaningful to me. Much like how much a salary is, or how much a house costs, my ability to understand the numbers is something that came with age. 28 weeks = seven months, which would then mean that I have two months to go (8 weeks), but in reality, human gestation is a bit longer than that (40 weeks total), so I actually have 12 weeks to go.*

So what does this mean? The Soybean is over two pounds now, and if she were born now, she’d fare … ok. My plan is to keep her in for another 12 weeks.

What does this mean for me? Month 5.5-6.5 was kind of crappy, body-wise. I really couldn’t sleep in any position other than my sides, and I started getting back aches when standing or sitting for too long. This meant I was uncomfortable no matter where I was. I also was waking up a lot at night, unable to fall asleep. That may be par for some of your courses, but not me. I’m a good sleeper, and I want to get as much of it as I can NOW.

I thought (and even admitted to Jason) that if this is how crappy it is now, there’s no WAY I was going to be comfortable again for the next 3.5 months.

Starting mid-way through month six, I started being able to sleep better, and my back stopped hurting. I recognize that it’s not that much to complain about, since I’m bringing some effing life into the world in exchange.

What I’ve learned is that there’s a fine line between feeling like myself, and feeling like an incubator. When I’m not achey, when I can sleep at night, when I can wear jeans and a hoodie, I feel like myself. (I recently acquired maternity jeans and a maternity hoodie — my standard uniform, expanded.) If I’m uncomfortable, I feel so radically different, it’s surprising. It’s not like when I’m sick, even really sick. Maybe it’s knowing I’m not just outpacing a cold, I’m running the equivalent to a marathon, and it’s nowhere close to over yet.

*I’ll save all irritation at the whole gestation length being off by 2 weeks, because doctors count from your last period, instead of when you actually got pregnant, but whatever. It’s a joyous occasion, and I can’t get my panties in a bunch anyway. They’re stretched too tight.