Productive

It's probably a good thing Buddha Baby hasn't arrived yet, because I feel so much more ready as of this weekend.

Friday was my last day of work--I had a couple weeks to train my new coworker (replacing my old coworker who left at the end of February and will be my coverage during my maternity leave).  Feels so odd to know that I'm out of there for 4 months.  I know I'll be working my butt off during that time, but I've never had that much time 'off' before--there's always been work or school or a combination of the two.

Darren finished rewiring the upstairs of our house!  I think he officially finished Tuesday or Wednesday of last week.  He absolutely rocks--has basically been working 2 jobs since the project started just about 2 months ago with some help from his dad some weekends.  Darren is not an electrician but has been studying up on the subject since we moved in as it was something he was really hoping to accomplish on his own (versus paying someone else up to 10K to do the job).  Our house was basically 85% knob & tube wiring.  All the upstairs has now been upgraded and when you live in a 1940's house this is huge.  We have access to 6 outlets in the kitchen now--we used to have access to 1 (move aside the dirty dishes to plug in the coffee maker, then move that aside if you want toast, or if you want to use the blender, or food processor...).  An outlet for our built-in dishwasher is in (yet to be installed).  We used to have an ungrounded outlet in our bathroom, right above our sink--um, that's a big no no.  A new light for our deck.  Recessed light in the closet that turns on with a switch instead of a bare bulb and pull string.  Additional outlets in the bedrooms...  In addition to wanting to be able to add insulation to our attic, we have been wanting to upgrade our kitchen.  Once we have our wiring inspected, we'll be at a point where we can focus on swapping out our current stove and rollaway dishwasher for a convection stove, gas cook-top (we had someone come in to take care of extending our gas line), and built-in dishwasher.  We've got a nice looking stand alone unit from Ikea which will hold our new stove and cook-top.  We'll put in new counters to replace our ratty linoleum counters we've put up with.  And we'll put in a new sink and faucet.  Fun stuff!

With the upstairs rewiring finished, Darren thought we should use this weekend to babify our house.  Great idea!  We were able to store some of our extra furniture at D's parent's house which made room for more storage in the basement and garage which meant we could clear out the extra boxes we had in the nursery.  The crib is now up and the space certainly looks more like a nursery/office instead of just an office/storage-of-a-lot-of-crap room.  I use the word 'we', but really it was Darren and his parents who dealt with all the moving of furniture and boxes.  I went to my yoga class as usual and spent a lot of time with my feet up on the glider.  Okay, I did fold a lot of baby clothes since a ton of baby clothes loads were done over the last few days since I finally purchased storage bins to organize the larger clothing we've been handed down and gifted.

The carseat is in the car too!  39 weeks 6 days is a good time to check that off the list, right?  It's a good thing Buddha Baby didn't come early with everything that has just recently been accomplished.  Is this how it goes for most expectant parents?  I see pictures of these 'perfect' nurseries on-line and wonder if these parents have that much more time/money than us or was it just a bigger priority (most likely a bigger house as well)?  I mean, our kiddo won't even be sleeping in his crib for a while as we'll be co-sleeping.  He won't care if the walls are red/tan for a while longer instead of yellow.  Or that we have a few extra piles of paperwork on the desk instead of nicely organized on wall shelving that hasn't been purchased yet.  Will he? 

So, now that my maternity leave has started, will I get to enjoy it at all?  I have my 40 week visit tomorrow with the midwives.  Wonder if they'll be able to tell me if I'm any closer to actual labor.  I have a list of useful and/or fun things to do during maternity leave:  take care of officially changing my last name (it's only been 6 months since we got married), get the car seat checked out, get my brows done, go swimming, read up on patching drywall holes (oh wait, that was another thing that Darren and his Dad worked on this weekend so I can check that off my list), nap...

3rd Trimester

I am 38 weeks along today!  Most women deliver between 38-42 weeks and Buddha Baby probably would have been just fine even if he had decided to make an appearance in the last couple of weeks, but at this point it's just a waiting game.  I hear this gets harder as you approach and pass the due date.  Most women deliver past their due date for their 1st child, but I hope I'm not like most women!

• For the most part I'm feeling great.  I've had a few really low days where I'm feeling huge, tired, hormonal, stressed..., but for the most part can't complain too much.
• Have some swelling in my ankles and fingers.  A reminder to sit down with my feet up more often.
• Heartburn continues.  Eating too much before bed seems to be the main culprit.
• Seem to crave sweets more than usual.  For a while it was chocolate ice cream every night.  My office mates have bowls of candy around--things I normally wouldn't snack on during the day.  Dangerous.
• Kinked neck/shoulder.  Not sure if it's how I'm sleeping, my posture, the weight of my hair (super thick!) or the combination of it all, but have been dealing with the pain for the last 4-5 days.  A heated rice bag helps.  The midwife suggested a cold compress, will try that tonight.
• Frustration that I can't do as much as I'd like to around the home.  Part of this is my own limitations, can't lift/move all the boxes or furniture around that I'd like to.  Part of this is the fact our re-wire project continues. 
• The pressure on the bladder continues!  There are some days, where it seems I need to hit the restroom once an hour.  Waking up on average twice a night.  And ow, when buddha baby moves just right, it's like a punch in the bladder.  Not comfortable!
• Getting more clumsy.  Still not used to my huge belly and I bump into things that I think I can pass no problem (chairs, tables, Daren...).  I also drop or knock things over a lot.
  

Growing...and then some

I went in to get a professional fit for nursing bras.  2 firsts for me as I've never been officially measured by a 'bra fitting expert' and I've never needed to purchase nursing bras before.  I have purchased a few maternity and sleep bras in the past couple of months, but as I've heard it's worth it to spend money on nursing bras, I wanted to make sure things were going to be a good fit.  Word of caution, nursing bras can be very expensive!  I walked out of Nordstroms with 2 nursing bras and $140 charged on my credit card.  $140 on 2 bras!!  Most popular styles, but really?!   Will be performing a little experiment to see how similar styles of a $16.99 Gilligan & O'Malley bra from Target and the $58 Elle Macpherson nursing bra from Nordstroms compare.

Of course I expected to get a bigger rack during pregnancy, but ahem, wow.  And I'll get larger after Buddha Baby arrives?  Yowza.  I never thought I'd be seeing the letters DD or E on my delicates before.

One brand I've been told to check out is Bravado--I guess Village Maternity at U-Village carry this brand and it only costs around $50.  As I'm all about comfort, would prefer to avoid underwire, I may need to check out nursing camis, but I guess it will depend on how supportive they are.  Lots of great nursing bra comments and tips on this offbeatmama post.