Alien Spouse

Eva's Birthday - Part One

Hi, how are you?  I had a baby this morning.

WEIRD!

So to pick up the story where I left it on Wednesday, I had an ultrasound on Thursday and at this point in a pregnancy the ultrasound techs are looking specifically at four things 1) heart rate 2) amniotic fluid levels 3) practicing breathing and 4) movement.  The first three are the tricky ones, usually, and Eva did all of those but she would not move whilst being monitored this time.  She actually started to move the minute the ultrasound tech gave up!

That isn't a huge deal, but I'd also been feeling uncomfortable and so my doctor decided to call the hospital and get me in the same evening to start things off.  This was at about 5 in the evening, and I was told to check into the hospital at 8 that evening. It was just a little overwhelming and I did get a bit weepy on the way home to pick up my hospital bags, just from the sheer enormity of the thing quite apart from anything else.

Once at the hospital I was set up in a birthing suite, (I'm pretty sure it's the one we saw whilst on the tour, and it had magnificent mountain views!  Lovely!) and my doctor started a procedure to soften my cervix, I know, I know, TMI - but that's a pertinent plot point!  I was given a dose of ambien but, at about 1, I started getting what I thougth were cramps, because they were so very similar to severe period pains.  Those of you who have had a baby may be one strep ahead of me here, having realised that actually these were contractions.  I was also bleeding a fair amount, but everything seemed to be on track so I didn't worry too much.

I was given a bunch of pain medication and I tried to get as much rest as I could but I found the contractions increasingly painful so at 5 I had the IV for an epidural fitted and then went for a walk around the ward with Doc C but it was really tiring and the contractions made walking tricky at times.  The sunrise was in about half an hour, so I decided that I wanted to go back to bed for 20 minutes and then walk over to the windows and watch the sunrise over the mountains, doesn't that sound like a lovely thing to do whilst awaiting the birth of your child?  

When we got back to the birthing suite the battery powered mobile monitors I had strapped to the bump stopped working, when our lovely nurse, Jennifer, came to check on that, she hooked me back up to the wired monitors instead.  And she wasn't happy with what she saw, because Eva's heart rate was very low. She got on the intercom, said "This is real!" and suddenly the room became very busy.

Eva's heartrate did go back to normal, but that worrying blip in addition to my bleeding getting heavier made my doctor decide that a caesarean would be a really good idea.  She talked to Doc and I about it, and gave us the choice - Whilst that wasn't what I'd expected to happen (and finished off any lingering possinility of my September baby plans), it seemed best to listen to the doctor and just get Evalyn out of there.

Loud Day.

I woke up at about 5 this morning, fitfully napped, fretted and looked pregnancy stuff up on the internet until about 7:30 when I decided just to get up and eat something.  I could hear a couple of men talking outside, and that seemed a bit odd but whatever.  Then I heard large vehicles coming down our little dead-end street, and I became more confused because, as I say, it's a dead end street so we don't get a lot of traffic and bin day was yesterday.

It turned out to be a medium sized crane (which every time it moved sounded like giant nails down an enormous blackboard), and a second truck full of lumber jack equipment.  By 8am the team of guys that accompanied the trucks had started up every engine they had to hand, and a solid wall of petrol-powered noise was created.  They were cutting down what must have been a couple of enormous trees, using the crane to lift them to the chopping area, chainsawing them into chunks and then feeding the chunks through a woodchipper.  The cats were initially really freaked out and unhappy, but seemed to get over most of it except for the intermittent wood-chipping noise.  I can't say I blamed them on that.

And that noise went on for ten hours.  

At mid-day, so after four hours of this, I remembered we had ear-plugs in the flat and they really helped block out the noise, so I did get a bit more sleep.  The lumberjacks packed up for the day about an hour ago, and I really hope they got the whole job done in one day because if this carries on tomorrow I'll go a bit loopy. 

This has to have been one of the most exhausting days of my whole pregnancy.  Not least because I'm pretty sure Eva has dropped into position, and today I just felt very uncomfortable when standing or walking.  Without knowing what I'm talking about in the slightest I feel quite certain that I'm not going to need to be induced next week, because it really feels to me like Evalyn's getting herself ready to be born.  I've got an ultra-sound booked for tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see if I'm right about her having moved then - And in the mean time I'm just going to be lying down, because if she's going to be late then I would like Eva to hold on for just a day or two longer so that she's born in September.

Of course, Evalyn gets to decide that for herself but keep your fingers crossed for this weekend would you?  That way she gets sapphire as a birthstone (though August's stone is a peridot, which is pretty too!), she'll be definitively on the other side of the school cut-off date and she would get Labor Day birthday weekends fairly regularly.  That's not bad for just a little bit more patience is it?

Making Plans For Evalyn.

At my doctor's appointment this afternoon everything was fine, I hadn't lost any more weight, my blood pressure was good and I was hooked up to the nst monitor again; this time I actually had a contraction whilst hooked up to it, which was really interesting to see charted.

My OB/GYN practice doesn't allow pregnancies to go past 42 weeks (because the placenta ages in dog years I was told today! Hahaha!), so part of my appointment today was about co-ordinating when I'm going to be induced.  At this point, assuming that I don't go into labour naturally, then I'll be going into the hospital next week - I don't exactly when yet, but Tuesday looks likely.  Eeeh!

On the other hand, Evalyn could just decide to be born at any time before that, so who the hell knows?

Rolling in the Sunshine.

Since moving to Asheville with Doc C and I, Nancy has spent at least an hour or two outside on the balcony pretty much every day.  She's always been pretty vocal in the mornings, but where as she used to be demanding her breakfast, she's now demanding that the door be opened for her.

Nancy's favourite thing in the whole world is to lie on her back in the sunshine, maybe luxuriously washing a paw, and have either Doc C or myself tell her what a good cat she is.  All you have to do is say "Nancy! What a good girl!  Who's a good cat?  Nancy!", and she starts deliriously rolling around on her back.  Ridiculous creature!

In this photo Nancy looks like a ball of lard (Jason's nickname for her, Fat Nance, has never looked more appropriate), but I think that's to do with the angle I took it from, actually she's lost a bit of weight, plays a lot more and is generally looking a lot happier and healthier.

I know being a parent is going to be very different to being a cat owner, but adopting a mangy looking, skin-and-bones cat with some weird behavioural issues and having her blossom in your care into a healthy, affectionate and clearly very happy animal, well, it sort of gives one confidence that you really will be able to keep a child alive.

(Also - No, still no baby! Evalyn has been wriggling around a fair bit today though, so I know she's ok and that's really all I care about.)

Eva's Un-Birthday!

Today is the 26th of August, which is/was Evalyn's due date.  From now on we will be celebrating it with a cupcake, and the annual displaying of the wrapping paper.

Doc C was talking to Eva today and telling her about all the stuff that we have ready and waiting for her, which includes her toys.  At the moment it's only a small collection, and she won't able to play with most of them for a year or so - Still, they are waiting for her!  She just needs to get here now!

Saturday's Non-Child.

Before you ask, no, no baby yet; which is fine actually, I'm quite comfortable and we can hang out for a bit longer if she likes.

The only annoying thing is that I've got through the majority of my pregnancy without any stretch marks, and it's only been in the last few weeks that they've suddenly appeared.  Damn it!  And I've been SO good about moisturising as well!  Oh well, the stretch marks were kind of inevitable really because I already had stretch marks on my arms, legs and hips just from weight fluctuation. Still, *sigh*.

Hospital Tour.

This evening we took a tour of the maternity unit where Evalyn will be born (at some point), and it is nice. Our tour was given by the same nurse who had run the infant safety class, so I immediately felt comfortable and she gave us a lot of great advice and information.

The rooms are large and well designed, with clearly a lot of thought put into making them comfortable, attractive and efficient.  Actually, I've stayed in hotels that were not as nice.  Four of the rooms have large birthing tubs in them, and all of the other mothers on my tour seemed very keen on those.  I was vaguely interested until they explained why you would also need to bring a small fishing net with you.

Anyway, the birthing beds themselves are amazing.  They can be folded up into a variety of shapes with hydraulics, have built-in inflatable lumber support and a nifty cut out in the mattress designed to accommodate the emerging baby.  They look super comfortable.  Once you move from the birthing room to the mother/baby recovery rooms, where you stay with the baby for two or three days after the birth, there are comfy beds for the mum, a cot for the baby and even large window seat sofas where your support person can sleep.  Assuming that the baby is healthy and doesn't need to be in the NICU, then it stays with it's mother for the entire duration of the hospital stay, there isn't a separate nursery where the babies are kept (you know the ones with the long windows along the side which you always see in films?  None of that!).

Also, our tour guide/nurse went through the security measures they have in place.  When the baby is born they take prints of the baby's feet and the Mum's thumbs on the same certificate.  They also have numbered bands that they put on the baby, mother and father (or whomever the significant other is), so, if for any reason the baby is taken out of your room and out of your sight, then when they bring the child back those numbers must match.  Add to those two fairly low tech security protocols the fact that the umbilical cord clamp has a tracking device on it, and I'm fairly confident that no soap opera style baby mix-up is likely to happen.

All in all, I found it all immensely reassuring.

Still Pre-Partum - Planning for Post-Partum.

We just got back from seeing my doctor and, yeah, nothing is happening so we are unlikely to be seeing Evalyn on her due date of Sunday. If things still haven't changed by the end of next week, then it's likely I'll be induced.

The weirdest thing for me is that I've actually lost a bit of weight, which is somewhat counter-intuitive at this point of a pregnancy - especially as I swear the bump is getting bigger!  My doctor didn't even mention it though, and I gather from the internet that it is really not that unusual.  I suppose it seems odd to me to have gone down from 215 pounds to 212 pounds in the last fortnight, mainly because I actually weighed more than that a couple of years ago and, of course, that was without being pregnant.  The average weight loss in the couple of weeks after birth is between 10 to 20 pounds, so there is a distinct possibility that I could be back under 200 before I even start actively trying to lose weight.  I'm not intending to go totally nuts with the post-partum dieting and exercising, but I do want to be a good healthy role model for my daughter by the time she's able to observe such things.  I'm not going to be ridiculously thin (ever!), but I do want to be fit, strong and happy with my body.  Basically I want to be able to go rock-climbing (or whatever she's interested in) with my daughter!

Instead of a goal weight though, I think I'm going to aim for a specific outfit - So I want to be able to wear my new leopard print cardigan, which arrived this morning and is gorgeous, with my skinny black jeans by this time next year.

Missions Accomplished.

Today I -

1. Read a couple of chapters of a YA novel and flipped through one of my Pilates books
2. Tidied the living room
3. Swept all of the wooden floors
4. Did a pre-natel Pilates routine
5. Watched an old season of "The Biggest Loser" (and was very disappointed when my two least favourite contestants won all of the money.  Damn it!)
6. Stopped Edith playing with a large bee
7. Started making Eva some sock/bootie things
8. Realised the yarn and crochet needle I have are entirely the wrong size for the sock/bootie project
9. Took all the plastic tags and stickers off some new baby clothes so that they can be washed
10. Had two cups of tea

Today I did not - 

1. Give birth

That's about it really, Doc C is home for the weekend now so we are at Evalyn's disposal should she decide to hit her due date.  Tomorrow morning I have a doctor's appointment, so we might get some idea of how likely that is.

Leopard Print Knit.

Today I bought a lovely merino wool cardigan (It's the Leopard Print Tippi Cardigan from J. Crew).  I feel a bit weird buying clothes for myself whilst I'm not actually earning any money, especially from somewhere as ridiculously preppy and, frankly, over-priced as J. Crew.

This was a carefully considered purchase, and I proceeded based on the following criteria - a) I've been sort of obsessing over leopard print cardigans recently, b) it was reduced from $89.50 to $49.99, and J. Crew currently are offering an additional 30% off on all sale items, c) I haven't bought any non-maternity clothes (not counting a new dressing gown) since December (and, actually, I stopped buying maternity clothes in May because I didn't feel I'd get enough wear out of them in 3 months to justify the purchase).

Whilst pregnant I've been working with a capsule wardrobe of 4 dresses, 1 pair of maternity jeans, 1 pair of non-maternity shorts that I could get to stay up with a hair-band, 1 pair of linen trousers, 2 skirts and a selection of tops that I didn't care too much about over-stretching.  It's served me well over the last 9 months, and for the most part I have been quite happy with how I looked - But I am really looking forward to the autumn, and being able to wear some different clothes. This cardigan is going to be paired with a) jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of boots, b) a black dress c) a black skirt (pencil or circle).  I also think it would look great under a leather jacket, but I don't currently own one of those so that's the next wardrobe item to obsess over. Clearly.

Oh, my only slight concern with this clearly fabulous woollen is that it says dry-clean only in the description.  Babies instinctively know not to puke on dry-clean only clothes, right?  Right?  Why are you laughing?

Five Days Until Due Date.

Doc C is back after the first day of teaching and he brought me a sticky bun!  That man knows me so well!

Today he made a point to warn his students that he'll likely be cancelling a class either this week or next because of the baby, so they are forewarned.  Usually Doc leaves his phone in his office whilst he's teaching, but for the time being he'll be taking it with him into the classroom; and I have been told I am only to call in the event of waters breaking.  It is obviously extremely tempting to call and just be like "Hi!  I'm bored!  How are you?", because that would be funny.  I'm not going to do that though, because Doc would have a heart attack and then be really really unamused.

To stop myself pulling hilarious prank calls on my poor husband, I have been reading a lot today and I think tomorrow I might even crack open the yarn stash and start making something for Eva.  I'm thinking booties that look like black mary-janes with socks, but I might start her first Halloween costume.  Decisions, decisions.

Chicks!

Doc's sister sent us a really fun parcel of baby stuff today, and she definitely got the no pink memo! I love the chick theme, and I'm pretty sure she made the chick soft toys.

New Routine.

It's been sort of a weird day, because Doc C had to go back to work and I didn't - So I've just been kicking around the appartment with The Bump and the cats.  There has been much napping, reading, watching of quirky detective dramas that were cancelled after one season on Netflix and eating fake bacon sandwiches.

Doc will be staying at Randy and Laura's house two nights a week this semester, because he's scheduled to teach four days a week and this is the first week of that new routine.  It's going to be weird not having him here, but it's better than him exhausting himself driving; I'm also hoping that this arrangement will mean he'll be able to get at least some sleep once Madam gets here (whenever that is, but let's also hope that she chooses not to be born on a Monday night or a Wednesday night - because, oh for goodness sake, that is going to be a massive headache).

 

Seven Days.

It's exactly a week until Evalyn's due date, so of course I'm over-thinking every twinge and movement coming from The Bump. 

Today, by way of getting some idea of what I'm dealing with, I've looked up the percentages, and apparently only 5% of babies are actually born on the estimated due date, so really that's a complete guess! It's more annoying to try and nail down a statistic for how many babies are born late, most of the data a quick google search provides say that 80% of babies are born between 37 and 41 weeks - Well, yes, thanks for that!  It's just as vague really, isn't it?

Again most of the information seems to suggest Eva will be about a week late, because she's my first baby and because 7 out of 10 of babies are apparently (oh, and the same website I got that from then helpfully starts talking about the elevated, although incredibly rare, chance of stillbirth at this stage of a pregnancy *shut-up-shut-up-shut-up-shut-up*).

So what does this tell me?  The baby will come when the baby decides to come. And I really need to stop looking stuff like this up on-line because it will invariably not be that helpful really and will also probably throw up some new thing to worry about.

Mind you, having said I should avoid the internet for this kind of information, I really like this webpage of birth statistics which was put together by a woman similarly frustrated by a lack of good data.  Surveys, spreadsheets and charts forever!

Cheese-Fest.

Doc C has to go to campus tomorrow for some start-of-the-semester stuff, so he had to make sure he'd done all of his homework today.  Whilst he was doing that I read and tried to find a comfortable position to sit in, because my lower back is killing me.  Ahh, the last couple of weeks of pregnancy!  So much fun!

The book I grabbed off the shelf was Jacqueline Susann's "Once is Not Enough", and it is unbelievably tacky and entertaining.  There is more plot in the first fifty pages of this paperback than in a year of any soap opera you care to mention, and I've just discovered there is a film version starring Kirk Douglas!  OMG!  Well, I'm going to have see that now clearly, I can't imagine it being anything but fabulously dreadful.

Bump : Elevation 6684 Feet.

Today is the last (week) day of the summer holidays for Doc C, and when I was a kid that always meant going out for the day.  In the absence of a National Trust House (I love National Trust Houses and especially National Trust tea rooms!) to visit, we drove to the top of Mount Mitchell and then walked 280 yards to the actual summit - Which, as you can see from the sign, made Evalyn's bump the highest bump East of the Missipi River!

It was very pleasant up there, because it was quite misty and autumnal.  Lovely.  It was very odd to drive back down the mountain and into late summer again.

Thirties Style.

I keep forgetting to say that we met one of our neighbours, Steven (and his very sweet dogs Twiggy and Coco), from the rather nice house next door, he told us that he had a friend who had lived in our house decades ago.  Apparently it was built in the Thirties and has always been appartments.  Fascinating!

There are several elements, like the living room's light fixture, that are clearly original features, and it also explains the layout and design of the flat itself.  All of the rooms, including the hallway and except for the bathroom, have a large cupboard built in; it makes so much difference, and I don't understand why more modern houses forego this type of functionality.  Well I suppose that it must be much cheaper to build that way, but why don't people insist that houses need proper storage? 

There is never anywhere to keep the ironing board or the vacuum cleaner anymore.  Actually, in this appartment we have an original murphy bed style ironing board in the kitchen which I would have tried using, but Doc C thought it would be a little bit impractical as it butts up against the gas stove in the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still, isn't that fab?

 

 

The Fourth Doctor.

At this point of the pregnancy, ten days until the due date, I am getting weekly check-ups to see how everything's going; as ever, apparently everything is fine with Eva and she passed her non-stress test (which was being done because 36 is so very ancient to be having your first child) in record time this week.  Last week she wasn't keen on co-operating, so this time I came prepared with a chilled drink to wake her up a bit first and that really did seem to help.

After the appointment today we have met all four of the doctors at my OB/GYN practice now, which means we'll be somewhat familiar with whomever is on call when I go into labour.  Of course, we don;t get to choose who that is, so now I'm trying really hard not to rank them mentally, because that would inevitably mean that the doctor I want the least will be on duty that day/night.  Fortunately all of these doctors have been perfectly professional and pleasant, so any slight preference is purely based on how much I like them personally and nothing at all to do with how compotent they are, so I do feel confident in placing myself in their care for the delivery.

I've now decided that I would definitely prefer Evalyn to be about a week late, so she's born in early September.  Naturally this means that she'll be decide to early, because she already picked the hottest summer on record for her gestation period and the first week of the semester for her due date (yes I'm aware I may have had some involvement in these decisions, but I really feel she had a bit more in-put), so clearly she is a comedian.

 

Homewares.

Whilst I'm not entirely sure whether or not I'm nesting at the moment, I am definitely invested in getting the flat thoroughly organised and so today we went out in search of those canvas storage crate things.  I specifically wanted two large ones (one for my bewilderingly large collection of belts and one for my entirely necessary assortment of bags) and a small ones (especially for headscarves), and it was but the work of moment in the home goods section of Target to find exactly what I wanted in a jaunty multi-coloured polka dot canvas.  Score.

This means that I've emptied the top drawer of the small chest of drawers and Evalyn's socks now have a designated home.  Eva's not even born yet and she's already got an entire (although small) chest of drawers to herself, whilst Doc C and I are sharing the large one.  I decided this was necessary when I was packing her hospital bag, because I couldn't find her red socks and the Wonder Woman onesy will look so much better with red socks!

We carried on with the home improvement shopping by purchasing some outdoor furniture in the form of two cheap-and-cheerful plastic (but entirely recyclable) adirondack chairs.  These are surprisingly comfortable, and I've spent a lovely late afternoon sitting in the shade of a tree, drinking lemon barley water (Thank you World Market!  You are magnificent!) and reading some essays by G.K. Chesterton on my Kindle.  The cats are very taken with this novel development and love having us outside with them, Edith in particular is ecstatic and has been perched on the railing right next to the chairs just gazing at us lovingly.

At one point Edith moved along the railing a bit to get a better view of something, and her profile was beautifully framed against the sky.  She looked like she was composing poetry, and I was irrestibly reminded of Jordan Catalano from the nineties teen drama "My So-Called Life" .  Edith, I feel sure, would lean beautifully if she were a human.

Practice Run.

In the spirit of "I could go into labour ANY minute", whilst we were out getting a few things for dinner, we also drove over to the hospital and made sure we knew where the maternity ward is.

I think Doc C feels a little bit better about the impending panic run now.  Not good, but a leetle teeny bit better.

Squirrel and Nut.

This afternoon I was in our bedroom and there was a weird loud scritchy noise coming from just outside the window.  I looked out, and there was a squirrel draped over a small branch gnawing at a nut.

I loved how nonchalent the wee beastie was; just hanging out in his tree, eating his nut, totes happy.

I also filmed it, but I am having a really difficult time downloading the film to the computer from the camera data card.  It's only 90 seconds of footage, yet it is taking FOREVER via the wi-fi link and the card reader keeps getting turned off by the lap top.  I don't particularly care about this short film, but what about when Evalyn does something that needs to be filmed?  Hello?  First words?  First smile?  Clearly I'm going to have to fix this technical issue before it messes up something important.  Updates as they happen!

Bag Packed (Finally)

When we went to the baby safety class yesterday, as always with these type of things, the instructor went around the room asking everyone's name; she also asked whether people were expecting a boy or a girl and when they were due.  When she got to us and I said that the due date was 26th of August, she joked about us having left the class until the very last moment - so I didn't like to add that I didn't have a birth plan printed out and laminated (or, ok, actually written out), or even my hospital bag packed yet.

It's weird at this point of the pregnancy because people keep telling me it could happen ANY moment now, but if I say something like that then they, and often it is the very same person, will chuckle knowingly and tell me that first babies are usually about a week late.  And why if I do something now, like take a baby safety class or try to book a tour of the hospital (the only tour they have any space left on is two days before my due date - So either pin-point perfect timing, or utterly useless!), do people act like I've been lollygagging around doing nothing much for the past nine months and should have done this earlier?  Actually having moved house so recently is a great explanation for leaving all this so late, so I'm cutting off a lot of tedious conversation with that!  That sounds a bit mean doesn't it, but at this highly visible late stage of the pregnancy I am getting a lot of unsolicited advice, and some quite personal questions that I'm just not that inclined to answer fully, so saying "Well, we have only just moved here so we still have a lot to get organised!" really helps for some reason.  Anyway, if I'm not meant to be taking my pre-natal classes now (and ok it is a bit late in the day for some of those), then what exactly am I meant to be doing now?  Mostly, according to the books and the websites, it seems I'm meant to be resting and pampering myself, which sounds great in theory but gets old pretty quickly if you ask me.

Today, spurred on by the it could happen ANY moment thought over the more likely three weeks from now thought, I packed myself a hospital bag, and one for Eva as well.  Mine has clothes, snacks (which seems odd, but all the books & websites are most insistent on this point - I've got a box of cereal bars, some plain oatcakes and a handful of green tea bags), toiletries and various types of pad (again - Odd!) Eva's has clothes, a sun hat, one of those "My Birth Books" (which we are filling out only so we can cull the information from later and make a new one which doesn't have teddy bears and bloody duckies all over it) and two blankets.  One of the blankets is a thin swaddling blanket and the other is a slightly thicker cotton blanket which I'm bringing just in case there is a really sudden cold snap (unlikely), but mostly because the fabric is a Keith Haring design and the idea of wrapping my baby up in modern art pleases me.

Isn't that fabulous, with a nice twist of the 80's to it?  This side is clearly Haring's signature Radient Baby whilst the other side is black and white radient hearts with the occaisonal red heart.  Evalyn is going to be surrounded by good design and aesthetically pleasing objects from the moment she is born, and that's all there is to it!

Safe Baby!

This morning we had the baby safety class, which covered child proofing the home, infant CPR and treating choking; it was equal parts TERRIFYING and reassuring.  It was terrifying in that the nurse teaching the course kicked off with "Babies have a death wish and it's your job to keep them alive", and reassuring in that most of the stuff we covered was either common sense, something I already knew or actually seemed pretty instinctive.

I did enjoy learning that the best beat to do infant CPR to is "Staying Alive", or apparently "Another One Bites The Dust" but the CPR peeps decided that the BeeGees' lyrics were more appropriate to bear in mind at such a moment.  Also CPR works far far better on children than on adults, because the blood pressure that CPR produces is actually pretty close to a child's natural blood pressure, so you can actually keep a child's brain properly oxygenated for hours with CPR.  Good to know!

It was interesting to meet other soon-to-be parents, but I was jealous of the couple who are expecting their baby around Halloween - And they said that they don't even like Halloween, so it's wasted on them!  So unfair!  Can you just lie about when a kid is born by a couple of months?  How noticable would that really be?  Hmmmm?

After the class we rewarded ourselves with doughnuts, followed by a quick flit around Target to buy a few more baby things. Because there are always more baby things to be bought.

Please Prepare for Slightly Too Much Information.

Yesterday the manual breast pump I'd ordered arrived.

(That should have cleared the room a fair bit already, but let's just give them a moment to get their coats)

Naturally We unpacked the thing, looked at it, read the manual and then put it back in it's box... Until I got ready for bed, at which point I thought to myself that I really ought to just give it a quick test pump or two.  And then my boobs started to leak.

Which freaked me out frankly.  Doc C walked into the bedroom at this point, saw my face and asked what was wrong, so I told him and he was also a bit freaked out.

I mean obviously this is really good, because I intend to breast feed and this means that means that my body is pretty much ready to do that and yay for the miracles of the human body, etc, but still - OMG!  That was SO weird, and it;s all just going to get weirder isn't it ?

Cat in a Hole.

Edith keeps climbing into the top chamber of the cat condo - which to my mind must be incredibly warm and uncomfortable at the moment, something like The Hole that prisoners are put in as punishment in POW movies.

In this photo Edith looks particularly sad and put upon, but she really did choose to be there of her own free will.  Daft creature.

I.D.

My State I.D. arrived today, and, as predicted, the photo is horrendous!  Woot!

A Portrait of the Queen.

We've been meaning to get a portrait of the Queen for a while, and this week we actually got it organised. 

First of all we found a portrait of the Queen that we liked on-line (It's a Dorothy Wilding photo, that was hand-tinted in those gorgeous fifties colours), downloaded it to a zip drive and took it to Staples to be printed on shiny card stock.  That cost a dollar.

Today we went in search of a frame, and we very specifically wanted something a bit tacky.  In one of the local antique markets, after some thorough searching of the aisles, we found a faux mother-of-pearl frame of exactly the right size for $6.50.

It's so fabulous, it goes with our red mid-century modern living room beautifully and it cost us under ten dollars.

 

A Pastoral Spherical Bump.

We didn't actually leave the house yesterday, so today Doc C was all "WE ARE GOING FOR A WALK - Bird Sanctuary or Botanical Gardens?  Choose!"  I didn't realy mind which and I felt like a bit of a stroll, so we ended up going to both and grabbing lunch from a Korean/Mexican food truck in between (so I had a tofu torta, Doc had spicy pork tacos and we split a side order of kimchi - It was SO delicious).

I also asked Doc C to take some more photos of the bump, because my stripy blue skirt is cut in such a way that it really shows off how spherical the thing is looking now.  I am serious, look:

It looks like I stuffed a mixing bowl up my t-shirt! Ridiculous!

Oh!  Let's compare it to a photo taken this time last year, shall we:

That really is RIDICULOUS!

The really funny thing about all the photos we've taken to document The Bump is that all of them have been outside (almost - We took a photo inside the flat last week, but I was next to the window!), preferably near a pond or a lake with plenty of trees in the background.  When Evalyn looks at them it will look as though I went entirely feral whilst I was carrying her and never came indoors or ventured too close to an urban area.  We'll have to go into town and find some really good graffiti for The Bump to pose next to, just to get some grittiness on record.

We also received a parcel from Doc C's aunt, who had clearly heard we were intending on depriving Eva of anything pink.  She thoroughly redressed the balance, and we now have several pink baby-grows, night gowns and dresses; fortunately she did lean more towards hot pink and the over-arching theme of the bundle was pink elephants, so we're not turning our noses up!

Cat on a Warm Wooden Railing.

The cats LOVE being able to go outside whenever they want (when the door is open, they don't have a cat flap or anything); even if the only "outside" they can access is a small fenced in balcony.

I think they just really enjoy being yelled at by the birds because it makes them feel dangerous.

Nappy Training Day.

Today Doc C and I had an induction with a local diaper service (they deliver fresh clean nappies and take away the dirty ones to be washed - So the part of the whole cloth nappy thing that was giving me pause is just taken care of?  Perfect!), which means that the very nice woman who runs the service, Erika, came to our flat with a big stack of cloth nappies and a baby doll to practice putting nappies on.

We now know three different ways of putting a nappy on a baby, and both of us now feel a little more confident about what we're doing, I think.  The nappies are held in place with nifty rubber grippy things instead of nappy pins and then you put a water-proof cover over the top of that to really secure everything in place.  It seems fairly straight forward, but the doll isn't as wriggly as an actual baby, so that might change everything.  We shall have to see.  The only thing that Erika said that really surprised me was that breast-fed baby poo doesn't smell nasty, she said it smells like bread! Really?!?!?  Is that a true thing?   Similarly, I was reading last night that to help with breastfeeding I should consider taking fenugreek, which apparently has the weird side-effect of making sweat smell like maple syrup: again, really?!?!?!  I want to try fenugreek now just to see if that actually happens, because then, once Evalyn is born, the flat could potentially smell like french toast and how great would that be?

One of the things I am surprised to find that I like about the new flat is that, precisely because it's so small, we are forced to assign an actual place for everything to be stored - It really has to be "A place for everything and everything in it's place" because otherwise we'd be tripping over stuff and/or losing everything the minute we put it down.  So Doc C immediately cleared a shelf in the hall cupboard for the nappies and wipes, and we have stacks of both of them ready to go right now.  The nappy bin is also going to go in there, so it should be nicely out of the way and, should the bread aroma thing be a lie, we'll have an additional smell buffer.

Now all we need is a baby to actually wear the things.

36 Weeks and 4 Days.

We had an appointment for an ultrasound this afternoon, which was really exciting because it's been three months since our last look at the baby.  In May all of Eva fitted easily onto the ultrasound screen and she's grown a lot since then.  I'm a bit annoyed I forgot the CD of our other ultrasound photos, but the most exciting part of this scan was watching her practicing her breathing and it was nice to see that she has shifted into the right position. She's also apparently got some hair already!  Weird!

The ultrasound tech was also able to estimate her weight, so we think she's currently five pounds and thirteen ounces - About half the size of Nancy Wake-Cat, which is another very odd thought.

So everything is looking good, and there's nothing to worry about, we'll just let her percolate for a bit longer and put on few more pounds.