35w4d. I feel really good. My “short of breathness” seems to have almost gone away- I only feel it occasionally. Brendan has moved a lot more vigorously in the past few days- you can see movements without me pushing up my shirt now. He gets the hiccups a lot too! I think that is so cute! I still can’t walk around for very long without my back hurting and I sometimes have trouble standing still without getting faint. Makes painting a challenge! I had one more “near-fainting” episode while trying to make brownies for our 4th labor class.
Our 4th Labor class was perfect! It was the last "labor" class (next week is newborn care). We had a FABULOUS potluck dinner- everyone went all out! I made two sets of chocolate-fudge brownies decorated like quilts- one pink and one light blue. Each "square" had a teddy graham in the middle with a little pink or blue bow frosted on his neck. It came out well! Everyone loved it. Funny enough, it took me a whole bag of Teddy Grahams to find 18 nice looking ones. Can we say "no QC??"
While we all stuffed ourselves (Thai roll-ups, Beef and chicken fajitas, finger sandwiches...) we watched postpartum videos. Then we all gathered our chairs in a circle in the middle of the room and the instructor went step by step through a mock labor and delivery. Every so often she'd stop and ask questions like "what could we try here" or "what could we do instead here". At every stage we practiced the appropriate breathing and comfort techniques. During the biggest contraction we were all given a paper towel with ice in it. We had to squeeze this in our hand for the first half of the contraction to simulate the pain building up- the idea was to be able to relax and not think about the cold and pain of the ice. I found I could stay relaxed- but I sure couldn't take my mind off of the ice!!! This mock labor was very useful in both putting it all together and as a review. I feel much more practiced now!
Well, the secretary lady who runs the show at DH's work told him yesterday that so many people have come up to her and told her that they wanted to be invited to his shower that she decided not to keep it a secret- it'd be too hard and he's too observant! So, we know his work shower is being held on Feb 28!! In my opinion, that is a bit on the late side as I'll already be more than 38 weeks, but I am not complaining! It is really neat they "he" has a shower, "I" have a shower and "we" have a shower. I just think it is too cool that his work throws men showers too (even though I'll be there).
So, my plan is to go to this last baby shower on the 28th, buy the last few remaining items at BRU and pick up the glider we ordered on March 1 (feeling guilty on such an expensive item, but at least I have a $40 off coupon and I REALLY want it!), go into labor on the 2nd and deliver on the 3rd. Sound good? Now I just wish I knew what Brendan's plans were! LOL. No, this is too convenient! I really think he’ll come later than this, but before his due date. I asked the ladies on my board and some of my family and friends to do a poll. Here is what I think (their results are on a separate page). Of course, this is my “pre-ultrasound” poll!
Boy
March 10 at 3:13 pm (still hoping for 03/03/03 though)
8 lbs, 2 oz.
20.5 inches
medium amount of light brown hair
I am going to try for drug-free
I did have one break-down this past week. Here are the events that led to it:
I was given 10 6 oz Playtex Ventaire bottles (actually, now that I think of it, I got them on Ebay). Since that time I have added to my collection (mainly the 9 oz bottles) of new Ventaire bottles I purchased- which look the same as the others until you scrutinize them closely. The used ones and the set of new ones I bought are primary colored. I also got another set that were pastel colored at a shower. So they have 3 versions floating out there...
I was playing around with them one day while rearranging the nursery and I noticed that the clear caps for the pastel bottles DID NOT fit the primary colored bottles. Well, I didn't want to play the "which cap will fit today" game so I returned all the pastel bottles. A few days later, I washed some of the bottles I had. The instructions said to pull out the bottom vent to wash them. I did. Wouldn't you know it, the bottom vents on the first set of 10 DON'T GO BACK IN. Not only that- the NEW bottom vents DON'T FIT IN THE USED BOTTLES EITHER. Apparently in the original bottles the vents weren't meant to be removed (gross).
So, I get online and the only way to contact Playtex is to phone them. The lady who answered said that there are NO replacement parts available!!! She actually wanted me to purchase new pastel bottoms (vent and plastic piece) to go on my primary bottles. The whole style is different! I was sooo angry! Why couldn't Playtex have saved some of the "newer" primary bottoms with vents to replace the old ones for this reason? And they should be free because both their online and paper instructions say to pull the suckers out! ARGH! These bottles cost $4 EACH!
Well, being so hormonal, break down and cry. Darrell comes home from work and listens to my story. He picks up the pieces that won’t go back together, fiddles with them a bit and pops it right in! Argh! I spent forever trying to get that back in!! Of course, that made me cry harder. Poor guy, he actually apologized several times that he fixed it so fast! After I calmed down, I asked him if it was easy enough to fix that he’d do it every time I washed the bottles. He agreed that it wasn’t easy at all. Final count, it looks like I have 5 bottles that will be easy to wash. And if I change out the small bottle middles to the larger ones, I’ll have 5 big bottles instead. Maybe that’ll be enough. It should be, as long as long-term breastfeeding is successful.
My family’s baby shower was on Saturday! It was wonderful! Most of who we invited came- several I had not seen since my wedding!! We had played a "Guess how many M&Ms are in the bottle" game (which was hard because M&M minis were added!) and the "Guess the size of the belly" game with ribbon. We had the traditional baby shower fare- a huge ring sandwich from Sam's, chips and dips and a cake that my Grandma (MaeMae) made. It is amazing that she could still decorate a cake like this, because she has hardly any sight in one eye and has lost some of the sight in her other eye as well!! We also had KFC wings- they are good!!!
I received a bunch of presents!! The biggest was the dresser that my aunt used for her kids. Apparently this turned into a family project and everyone helped to restore, stain and decorate it with M&Ms. It looks fabulous in the baby's room!!! I was very impressed! I also received a diaper bag with goodies, many cute outfits, a crocheted pastel blanket, a large blanket with animals and several receiving blankets (which MaeMae made), the Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders aquarium, and lots more! It was a great day!!!
I have finally finished painting Red!! I think he looks great too! Even Darrell painted some of him, though he insisted on only helping with the large fill-in areas because he didn’t want to mess Red up. He is so funny- he painted him in splotches!! I have decided not to do Orange, so I am half-way done painting! Blue is next!
