One Month!

30 days to go, peeps! 

Holy Mother of Supplements

Confession: I did not take my prenatal vitamin for the majority of this pregnancy.  I don't take a vitamin normally, so it was easy to "forget", and they are so freaking gross.  Seriously.

But good lord I'm having to make up for it now with all the stuff I'm taking!
- Liquid chlorophyll: You may recall my rants about salty wet hay when I was pregnant w/ Joseph.  It's meant to help with my platelets, which are low (again).  It's 3 tablespoons per day.  Blech.
- Vitamin K drops: I just put them in w/ the chlorophyll at night.  No biggie.  Also to build platelets.  Vitamin K is what they give babies at birth to help them clot better.  Same deal w/ platelets.
- Dandelion extract: helps to build blood up.  Also for the platelets.  This stuff tastes yucky.
- 5-w herbal blend: this has a bunch of herbs that should help get my body ready to birth "on time".  Since we're moving 12 days after baby's due date, I am hoping that she'll grace us with her presence in October.  This stuff is just to help with it.  We'll see.  It's 6 pills/day
- Evening primrose oil: another supplement to help prepare my body.  1 pill a day this week - each week I take one additional until my pelvic bones start getting too painfully loose (apparently it loosens everything up!
- Prenatal: heck, I'm taking a thousand other things, it just makes sense. 1 per day
- Propolis 1000: is supposed to kill the group b strep virus.  Since a group b strep diagnosis would be very difficult to get around with our home birthing plans, my midwife takes a proactive stance on making sure I *don't* have it.  6 pills per day for the next week.

My kitchen counter looks like a GNC.

I'm not sure how it's related, but since I've started taking the prenatal + chlorophyll + vit k + dandelion I've have a very clear reduction in leg cramping!  Not too bad of a trade off. 

Nesting

I don't know that I'd really call it nesting, as I feel like that is the crazy can't-stop-myself-from-scrubbing-the-toilet-at-3am involuntary stuff, but at least I'm getting stuff done!

This weekend I:
- spent too much time shopping for baby (consignment!  how green and frugal)
- did lots of baby laundry (and got depressed at the thought of how much more laundry I'm gonna have to do when baby comes)
- cleaned out a few drawers in my room for baby clothes (we'll buy baby a dresser after we move)
- took a baby-inventory of clothing and filled in the gaps
- made tons of freezer meals - lasagna, pot pie, shepherd's pie, masaman curry, chicken noodle soup, and banana bread  I was planning to make chili and coq au vin a different time, too, but I'm honestly not sure that there is room in the freezer.  A girl still needs ice cream!

T.J. did his part moving some more things to the garage, cleaning out a drawer in his dresser, and generally being at my beck and call.

We're pretty much set for the baby, except the car seat, which I'm planning to take care of this week!  I've decided to keep Joseph rear facing and do an infant seat to start for the baby.  With Joseph we loved just having him in a convertible from the start, but between Baby being born in the fall, and our 2-door car dilemma, the infant seat will be better this time. 

35/35

35 weeks down, 35 DAYS to go!  Well, more or less.  Can you believe it?  I can't.

Things are coming along nicely in terms of planning and I'm excited to meet this little one!  I'm starting to make my freezer stash up, and I think we have plenty of clothes and diapers.

Does anyone know how long an ~8lb baby would be in newborn disposable diapers?  I need to put her in disposables for our flight up to Pittsburgh, but I'm not sure whether to get newborn or size 1.  I suppose this is something we can do last minute, but I do like to be prepared!

The Stranger was Right.

I had my home visit yesterday with Charlotte, and she measured me at 38 weeks.  At 34w5d.  Oh my.

She did say that the baby is a normal size - I just have a lot of fluid.  Apparently I *do* look like I'm in my last month.

Baby is still looking great and is very active.

Silent Night

My first contribution to the knitting community!  I'm planning to use this chart for Baby Girl's stocking.

It's the first notes to Silent Night.  Fitting for a stocking, and a plea for a newborn! Ha!

The pattern is 60 stitches wide and 24 long, and fits the Cascade Christmas Stocking Pattern.

Why I Love Consignment

Or, the best $6 I've spent yet. 

Or, why going "green" is so easy when it comes to baby clothes.

Here is baby girl's wedding outfit for Uncle Jake's wedding!  He's getting married about 3 weeks after Baby is due.  It's a newborn size dress, so I'm hoping it'll fit.  I figure that dresses must be pretty forgiving, right?

I got tights, too.  Do people combine diaper covers and tights, or do you pick one or the other?  I have so much to learn about baby girls.

 

Hopefully baby girl will have daddy feet instead of mommy feet like Joseph, so she'll fit into the shoes!

 

I also got 10 pairs of Trumpette socks (mostly never worn) for $3.50!

A Big Boy Bed

We went on a long vacation (more on that later) where Joseph spent the entire 10 days in various adult beds.  He did pretty well with the sleeping - needing us more because they were new places than because of the beds. 

When we got home, I realized that either he's gotten fatter or my belly had gotten bigger, because I could barely lift him in and out of his crib!  He's never tried to climb out, and he sleeps so well, we were planning to just leave him in the crib until the baby needed it or things changed.  Well, I guess things changed!

Last night T.J. took the front side off of the crib, and Joseph now has an open "toddler" bed.  He had no trouble last night and stayed in bed until we came in this morning, so we'll see how the nap develops today.  I *just* put him down to sleep.  So far he's not very settled, but still lying down in bed.  I hope he doesn't figure out that he has free reign of his room now!

Conversation with a Grocery Store Stranger

Stranger in checkout line: "You're having a boy, right?"
Me: "Nope, it's a girl"
SiL: "Really?!?"
Me: "Really"
SiL: "Are you sure?"
Me: "Yup"
SiL: "So you're in your last month, right?"
Me: "No, I have seven weeks left."
SiL: "Really?!?"
Me: "Yeah"
SiL: "That's a big baby"
Me: "Yup"
SiL: "Are you sure it's just one?"
Me: "Just one."
SiL: "Wow"

People have no clue.

33 Weeks - Celebrity Spotting

My mom got me candid today at the Como Zoo... Baby is 33 weeks and halfway to my knees!

And we got a nice picture at the Conservatory, too, right before Joseph fell into some bushes, Ha!:

Some days, it is too much

Love, that is.  In the last months, I've felt this overwhelming pride, happiness, and LOVE for Joseph... to the point of feeling a little guilty about the lack of these really strong feelings in the past.  I presume that it's just a natural progression in life... spend more time with someone you love, learn to love them more and more deeply?  He's just so darned amazing lately.  I have told people since he was a wee one that every day gets better for us (isn't it wonderful, to know that the trend is going up and up and up???) and it's still true.  Sure there are "days", but oh my, does life continue to improve by leaps and bounds.  It's breathtaking!

Anyway, while we're on vacation, Joseph's been needing help at bedtime.  He's in strange places, "big kid" beds, is overtired and overstimulated.  Last night as I lay down with him waiting for sleep to come, I had this overwhelming urge to cuddle him up like I did for so many months when he was a baby - to feel him fall asleep in my arms.  I didn't, though, because I didn't want to disrupt his sleep progress. 

Today on our way to Chicago, I told T.J. about it and my assumption that this is all pregnancy related - thank goodness I'll be getting a new baby to cuddle soon since my baby is growing up so quickly, I said. 

Then tonight, laying in bed in the hotel room with Joseph, he turned to me, reached out for me with both arms and said "Cuddle with mama."  I was so excited that I responded "Really?!?  OK!" - It might have been the most earnest and humble thing that has ever come out of my mouth when speaking to Joseph. T.J. looked over to see what was going on and just smiled and chuckled.

::tears::

I might still be getting a new baby, but my older one is not growing up too fast for me, yet.