36, 37, 40, HIKE!

I am, going by the early due date, at 36 weeks today. This means, as I explained to my boss yesterday, that I am full term next week. Poor Boss Man. both of his children were premature, the latest one coming at 32 weeks. He has no idea how long a pregnancy is supposed to last or really what goes on at the end. I explained that full term is 37 weeks, as in before then they will usually try to stop labor if it comes, but after that the baby can come at any time. The due date is at 40 weeks and between 37 and 40 there is usually still some more growth, but everything is already fully formed and there is generally no need for any intervention or intensive care for a birth during those three weeks. But now that he knows I'm s close he wishes that I had scheduled my leave sooner (the sooner I take it though the sooner I have to come back at the end) and he's paranoid that I'm going to go into some horrible active labor and give birth walking to the office from the T in the morning. On the plus side, he's at least taking my annoyance at having to do so much work to heart now!

So, work. Yeah. I'm ready to go. Boss Man has had a lot of issues at home himself and has had to be out a lot, including all of last week and this week. I'm only just getting my student workers up to speed and the replacement position that was supposed to be filled September 15th is still in the hiring phase. I've been waddling along trying to do AV jobs (and I don't know how women with toddlers or childcare workers cope with being pregnant while running after little ones) and getting more and more irritated which has not been doing me any favours. Sprog is actively upset when I am stressed and I found that if I am too active then I start having Braxton Hicks contractions. Fun! This led to some arguing with Boss Man a couple weeks ago as well. But this week I got a bit of a reprieve with a temp coming in and HR helping with interviews for the interim position. Yay!

34 weeks, 2 days. Just proving
I sometimes get dressed

On the homefront, I've been trying my best to nest, but it's really just not coming. The closest was the need last week to season all the cast iron pans in the house. I have, however, managed to get some cooking done for the freezer. I made two huge pots of chili this weekend so we have four big meals of chili available. The week before I did a big batch of garlic "meat"balls that are in bags in there too. We have a good amount of sausages, plus lots of rice and dried beans. I think stocking up on tinned tomatoes and Heinz beans will be a help, plus I plan on making a vindaloo base to have in there - just add meat, veg, paneer there's a very large block of paneer already there.) If we can manage to get some things that will keep like root vegetables and some frozen veg (although we still have 2 large bags of green beans in the freezer) then I think we'll be able to throw things together fairly easily once Sprog arrives and we're too tired to cook. ow, if only I could get it together to make those crib sheets.

In medical news, we went for another ultrasound today. It's at the point of weekly OB appointments and alternating weeks of non-stress tests or ultrasounds. Sprog is measuring small again, about 5lb 5oz, but the margin of error is 14oz so it's not the most accurate. The OB appointment is tomorrow and I get the group B strep swab then.

Yesterday we had an initial consult at the pediatrics office. I was fairly impressed and liked how they were straight-forward, even when I asked about the justification for a hep B vaccine at birth when mother is negative and has been vaccinated (she said it's because newborns are a good target but there's no medical reason.) I assured her we weren't anti-vaccine or medicine, we just anted to really only have things that were necessary. On that front we also asked about antibiotics and how often they're prescribed (we do not want them unless actually warranted, as in don't give them for a virus!) and treatment of and possible avoidance of allergies since I have one drug allergy and Spouse has some food allergies. All went well and I'm glad we were both able to be there, even if we were both lacking sleep.

So, that's all the news for now. Rather a large update but it has been a while since I posted. With things coming up so fast I do hope to get a couple more posts in before the birth, but who knows. Let's try for some short ones, shall we?

Bedding!

Quickie tonight. No, we're not going to keep the baby in the kitchen but it was convenient to set things up. The new cotton mattress and wool pad for the co-sleeper arrived today. It adds enough height so that there's not a big lip to lift the baby over and sprog will be level with our bed. Now we just need some sheets and we'll be all set! Well, on the bed front at least.

Restless Leg

I'm up yet again with restless leg. This time I thought I'd do something slightly productive and blog while I rock on the exercise ball. This will probably be a quick post as I'm not quite so sharp when I wake in the middle of the night.

It's hard to believe that I have only six weeks left until Sprog goes from residing inside to outside. I'm not ready. We have everything we really need but I'm just not prepared to have an actual baby yet. I don't suppose one is ever prepared for a first child though. We haven't even decided on a name!

In terms of baby, all seems to be going well. I'm measuring right on schedule and there's plenty of movement. We've started weekly non-stress tests when I go in, lie down and get hooked up to monitors that track foetal heartbeat and movement. After a headache/blood pressure scare last week they decided to start me on this early. The headache turned out to be due to a stiff neck and the blood pressure is fine (our home monitor may be off) but I was told to ALWAYS call if I have a headache that doesn't respond to the piddling medication I can give it. We'll have another ultrasound in a couple weeks and after that it's pretty much just wait for baby to arrive at any time.

That's it for now. Next time I may talk about work, but it has been so busy/frustrating lately that I really don't even want to think about it right now.

Sorry for not posting

It's felt like there's really been nothing new, but now that it's been two, nearly three weeks, I guess it's time to play catch-up.

"Thugs" dressing the stunt dummy

I've been working on a short movie with a friend about a pregnant superhero. While the shooting schedule has been dragging (and that is partially my fault), it has been fun. The first scene we shot, a scene where I beat up two muggers, has so far taken the longest. It was also done outside on a hot day so not exactly comfortable. However, I got to work with one of my favourite "regulars" from Steve's pool of actors so that was a lot of fun. Generally I'm not in front of the camera so this was a really different way to work with these people.

The next scene we did was the costuming scene, which was done after work in my living room. Again I got to work with a friend which made things really comfortable and fun. Last night we knocked out three scenes with superhero's boyfriend/husband (it's not really clear in the script) and they went really well and really fast! The last scene we shot, the first one in the script, takes place in bed and I think Spouse was more comfortable with that when we got him to man the boom mic so he was observing the whole, not at all sexual scene. All-in-all, some good stuff was shot.

Unfortunately, some of the positions I got myself into to make the shots work were not really comfortable on a pregnant belly. I pretty much spent the rest of the night in pain. Spouse asked if he should cancel his plans and stay home with me but I didn't feel like there was any emergency situation looming so sent him out. I feel better today so clearly I just need to stretch out and moan for a few hours.

Me, mom, friend from high school(!), Spouse

I notice I haven't blogged about baby showers yet either. There have been two so far. The first was up in Vermont, hosted by my mom. The shower itself was not a surprise but the guest list was. LOTS of gifties (including big things like car seat, co-sleeper and massive cloth diaper starter kit), food and swimming and generally a good time had by all.

Party number two was at work. This one was supposed to be a surprise but I knew about it a couple weeks in advance. I did my best to keep my knowing a secret but was unable to look suitably surprised when I got there. It didn't help that Spouse showed up and came to my office first. I had to remind him that it was supposed to be a surprise and he didn't seem at all shocked that I already knew. That party was fun too, especially getting the hand decorated onsies from the student workers. The Union Jack and computer ones were particularly appropriate. Party number three is upcoming and promises to be a blast.

Medical appointments are more frequent now. We've had yet another ultrasound and Sprog has moved up to 60th percentile, which the doctor was very pleased about. I have an appointment in two weeks and then will start weekly non-stress tests to monitor movement and heartbeat. This is routine but it will take a good chunk of time out of my days.

Right, that's enough blather I think. In spite of saying how I felt better, I have actually felt a bit under the weather generally this weekend so plan to spend some more time in bed (I actually had a rather long nap in the middle of writing this post) so I can be ready and rarin' to go for another week.