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Woo hoo: 40 weeks today!

Boo hoo: Still no baby.

Although I totally expected to go past my due date, there’s something a little extra depressing about getting ready to go to work today rather than getting ready for the hospital.

Went to the doctor’s yesterday. Figured it would be the standard appointment where they’re checking to see how I’m progressing, to see if things are getting ready for labor. The baby has been head down for weeks, so I wasn’t even worried about that. I was hoping he had moved lower, though. Everyone at work keeps telling me that I’ve dropped, but honestly, I wasn’t feeling like I had.

Yesterday, we discovered the baby had moved. Now he’s transverse. Well, more specifically, he’s oblique, where his head is down toward my left hip. I had complained that there was some body part of his under my ribs in my right side. After some ultrasounds, they determined it was probably the baby’s hip.

So they said our options are an ECV or C-section. At first, we were interested in the ECV. They did ultrasounds to determine the exact position of the baby and the placenta (initially, they thought he was completely breech) and to find out if I had enough amniotic fluid.

Everything looks good. Placenta is in a good place. The baby has plenty of amniotic fluid. Lots of it. In fact, so much that the doctor decided not to do the ECV. He said that if he did it, the baby had so much fluid to move around in that he’d probably just flip back, anyway.

Initially, I was a little disappointed, as having someone else’s hip in your ribs is not very comfortable. But now I’m kind of glad this happened. I’ve been reading about ECVs, and while the risks are low, I’m not so sure I want one now. The success rate isn’t that high, the risks, while low, are just not risks I want to take, period. Also, if he has so much fluid around him, it sounds like he could just flip back anyway, so why bother? And, to be honest…there’s the gut-feeling factor. Normally, when something says there’s a small risk of something bad happening, it doesn’t phase me. There’s a risk of everything. But there’s just something…I don’t know. Everyone keeps telling me some maternal instinct will kick in, and maybe this is it, but I feel like the c-section would be better.

Never thought I would say that I’d rather opt for the knife, especially since it will probably hinder my recovery and my breastfeeding plans, but again. It’s the gut-feeling thing.

I guess we’ll find out what happens. The doctor’s going to check the presentation again next Tuesday to see if the baby has moved again. If not, we’ll be discussing our options. Thankfully, I’m not one of those people who are too hung up on doing everything “naturally.” Once upon a time, women with transverse babies died during labor and their babies did as well. So much for “natural” being better! Yeah, I’ll take the knife rather than dealing with that, thank you very much.

Congrats to my husband. Not only did he win his Warhammer 40K tournament on Saturday, today he got his Associate’s Degree in the mail. Things are pretty awesome for him right now.

For weeks at work, everyone has been talking about the Super Bowl. We were even going to have a Super Bowl potluck. It seemed to me like we just had a potluck–seriously, we had one, like, a week ago–but we do love our potlucks. I didn’t think much about it.

Up until there, there was a lot of ribbing. Most everyone in our unit is rooting for the Ravens. My friend January is a huge 49ers friend. As it turns out, Friday was also American Heart Association day, so Jan has been trying to convince everyone to “wear red for the 49ers–er, the heart association!” Everyone said they were going to wear purple.

I showed up at 6 AM, groggy, with cookies for the potluck. Oh, and wearing red. I turned the corner to get to my desk and stopped. Blue streamers? I could understand red or even purple, but…blue? There is no blue for the Super Bowl this year.

My first thought was I think someone was trying to pull a prank on Jan. But that’s that wrong color. And that’s my desk–Jan sits over THERE.

I got closer.

Oooh. I’d been had. There was no Super Bowl potluck. Hey, my brian isn’t fully functioning at 6 AM, okay? And to be fair, I’m not due until the end of February, so I certainly wasn’t expecting anything the first day of February!

So, yeah, I was surprised. I got more surprises later:

I do work with a great bunch of people.

Psst…anyone notice the crocheted dwarven beard hat for that baby?

I’m exhausted and my wrist hurts. I’m suspecting carpal tunnel, which is, believe it or not, a common issue in pregnancy. Probably doesn’t help that I’m on a computer all day at work.

Speaking of work, overtime Saturday sucked. I spent four hours on one inquiry and realized later because I was so exhausted, I missed something that would have made it a 2 minute inquiry. I was pissed at myself.

Other than that, work is okay. Still on hotline for most days, but so far (knock on wood), it hasn’t been nearly as bad as last year. We get more time off the phones than we did a year ago. That’s always good.

What else is new? Oh, yeah, in the last post, I mentioned the baby shower. What I didn’t mention is that our car died right outside Jim’s mom’s driveway. It’d been making weird noises for a while, and Jim had planned on taking it in the next day…but we didn’t expect it to actually DIE. Jim was furious. I was disappointed because it meant Jim had to go take care of that rather than stopping in to meet my co-workers, who have been dying to meet him. (They think that, based on my stories, he sounds “quirky” and “hilarious.” Which, to be honest, is true.) So that didn’t happen.

But really, it was good timing. The money we got from the baby shower took care of the car parts. Jim’s dad loaned us his Explorer (he and Jim’s step-mom have three vehicles, so they could spare it, which was nice!), and Jim, his uncle, and his cousin managed to actually fix the car. What happened? I’m a little fuzzy on it, but I guess it was something like the water pump got loose, broke, which led to breaking the belt and somehow, the battery died in there as well. After Jim and his relatives fixed the car, it actually sounds better than it has in a couple of years.

My man is handy. It’s sexy.

Other than that, I feel kind of crappy. I never have energy, pregnancy is just getting gross (trust me, you don’t need the details), and I think these charlie-horse like things in my abdomen are Braxton Hicks contractions, which are getting uncomfortable and more frequent. Jim’s gotten pretty much all the baby stuff put together, but the baby’s room is out of commission for now, since we discovered a bad leak in the walk-in “closet” that’s a built-on addition to the house. I guess it won’t matter for a while, since the baby will be staying in our room for a while, but it’s still depressing.

Which doesn’t help me a bit, as I’ve already been depressed. Don’t ask. Life is good. I assume it’s just another hormonal thing. But if that’s the case, someone needs to explain to me why Jim seems grumpier lately, too…

A couple people have mentioned that something is “wrong” with my site. Nothing is wrong. I made everything private, for reasons I won’t go into. Suffice it to say, it didn’t go over well with Jim, who apparently likes to read my blog. Also, I think Phil was disappointed he couldn’t get to the old “Homebrewed” gaming posts.

I am deciding what to do about the site. I’ve had an itch for a while to move this to a free hosting site like Blogger, but right now, I need the hosting services I currently have for forums my friends and I use (although the forums appear to be dead right now) and Jim’s email. Yup, Jim has an email address that ends in springading.com. I created it for him, thinking he was only going to use it for forums, but now I cringe when he uses it for professional things, say, like, the bank. Oy.

Whatever.

So, yes, things are fine. Pregnancy is coming along well: 35 weeks today. It’s hard to believe that in two weeks, I’ll be considered full term! Baby shower came and went. The weather was terrible on the day of, so a lot of people didn’t make it. Four out of six of the co-workers I invited did, though, as well as Jim’s step-mom Christine. And of course, Wendy (who hosted it) and Jim’s mom Lori (whose house it was in).

It turns out my co-workers LOVED my in-laws, especially Lori. I’ve always known I was lucky in the in-law department with both Jim’s biological parents and step-parents, but my co-workers just hammered the idea further home.

So, the shower was good. I got a lot of stuff I needed. Really, the only absolutely must have thing I didn’t get was the car seat, but I ordered that the other day with my Target giftcard I still had from my birthday (back in August, if you can believe it), and it’s supposed to be here by Wednesday.

I also have big news about work–BIG, BIG news–but I’m kind of hesitant to talk about it in fears of jinxing it. I haven’t really said much to people at work, but of course, word got out and I’ve gotten congratulated a couple of times, and my response is still, “Well…let’s see if it actually happens.” I’m afraid something will go wrong.

And if it doesn’t…well, you’ll find out what it is around March 6th.

We don’t get a lot of snow here, usually, in southern Illinois. But Christmas night and the day after, we had a blizzard. I had to call in to work. Thankfully, I have a bunch of PTO saved, but I was hoping to use it for after the baby got here, not for snow days.

The parking lot in front of our place was one of the last places to be plowed, so I was stuck home again on Thursday.

Yup, I only worked one day this last week.

Now I’m hearing rumors we might get more snow. It figures. Last year, I had nothing really going on and was praying for snow days. We didn’t get a single one. This year, now that I need as much PTO as I can for after my little guy is born, we’re getting snow up to our ears.

On the bright side, this should be good for the farms around here. Hopefully, we won’t get a drought this summer. Last 4th of July without fireworks was just sad.

Well, I didn’t mean to come on here to complain, but since I’m doing such a great job of it, another thing the snow is keeping me from is this:

My brother and his wife picked this bouncer from my registry and informed me that it’s on its way. It was supposed to have gotten here yesterday, but I’m thinking the snow is going to keep from that happening any time soon. Jim’s also supposed to be picking up the crib from his dad and step-mom, but I think he decided he didn’t want to go there in the snow. Funny thing? He just left to get a headset for his XBox Live account he just set up last night. I guess we know what Jim’s priorities are, eh?

A couple nights ago, I had what started out to be a wonderful dream that quickly turned sad.

In my dream, I’d already had the baby. And he was wonderful and gifted and all those things that parents usually think about their kids. I’d never bought a baby book, so I grabbed some paper to start making my own. I was writing down everything: his first steps, his first smile, everything. He was beautiful and wonderful and I loved him.

And then I realized that instead of writing my baby’s name down on all these things, I was writing Joshua’s name instead. I broke down crying.

I miss my nephew. I wish my baby could know who his cousin was, how hysterical and fun he could be. Josh would have been excited at the idea of a new baby cousin.

I wish I could have had my way and named this baby after my nephew.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Josh. Wherever you are.

Woo hoo! As of Friday, I finally have Internet and cable again.

It’s fitting that we’re in the final stages of 2012. Jim and I are in the final stages of so many things. One: Moving. We’re still unpacking. To be honest, I have a feeling we’ll be unpacking for a while, especially since we now have a DVR and shows On Demand. We just finished season 2 of Game of Thrones, which, while not entirely following the books, still has the same main plots unfolding, so I’m all good with that.

Two: School and work stuff. Jim should be wrapping up his last semester before getting his associate’s degree. There was a change in the curriculum last minute that he wasn’t told about, so it’s possible that he might need one more class. I’m still not sure what’s happening there.

For me, December will mark the last few weeks until I’m pretty much on the hotline for the first few months of the year. The rest of the year, I like my job a lot. I mean, usually, my day is spent with my ear buds in, music on, and just working on claims. I call providers if I have questions, I chat with my awesome co-workers when I can, but other than that, I can just work, which I like. But after January 1st, when benefits are most likely to change, we get a surge a phone calls in, which means those of us on the written staff get pulled to help out those who work the hotline. And we all hate doing the hotline. I used to do the hotline before being moved to where I am now, and it feels like I’m being demoted three months of the year.

Unfortunately, knowing that this is coming up kind of ruins the holidays for most of us in writtens.

But, there’s the thing to look forward to, as well: The third thing. Last trimester! Huzzah, I made it!

I will be 29 weeks tomorrow. Everything is going okay. My appointments are now at every two weeks rather than every month. I need to find info on classes so I can take one of those. If I only take one, it will be infant CPR. I almost have the list for addresses together for the baby shower my sister-in-law is throwing me. I’ve managed to get out and start buying a couple of baby items myself, albeit not very many.

There are struggles, though. One I’ve been having troubles with for a while is swollen feet. Common, but painful. Another kicked in my last few weeks of the second trimester: Exhaustion. Come noon, I was struggling to keep my eyes open at work. I heard that the fatigue you get in the first trimester comes back like a beast in the third, so I just assumed that’s what it was. “Hey, I’m already getting third trimester exhaustion and I’m not even in the third trimester yet,” I said to Jim once. I thought, Look at me! I’m ADVANCED!

Well, no, turns out I’m not so much ADVANCED as I am ANEMIC. Weird, because according to my prenatal vitamins–which I’ve been taking since 2010, mind you–I should be getting 156% of what I need. Apparently, my baby is an iron-sucking machine, so I have to take additional iron supplements. But it explains why I started dozing off at my last appointment–and why I’ve suddenly been craving burgers.

Also, my doctor’s appointment Thursday was of the dreaded glucose test. I had read from a lot of women that the drink is gross and makes some of them gag. Turns out, it wasn’t bad at all! My drink was pretty good, so I was able to get it down in way less than 5 minutes before I watched the epidural video. (Possibly another reason why I dozed off in their office. Pretty boring video, heh.) The results? I passed the test–but barely. The max you can get to pass is 135. I got 135.

I’m a little surprised because just a couple years ago, my issue was my blood sugar dropping all the time. Now it’s on the high end? Weird.

My doctor didn’t recommend watching the sugar or anything, but that “barely passing” numbers coupled with my weight gain (16 pounds so far), I think I maybe need to start watching what I eat again. I did great the first 20 weeks, and then…well, I got hungry. And there was Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas candy everywhere. I think I know why my blood sugar is suddenly going higher!

Wow, it’s almost noon. I probably should take a shower and unpack–or just watch some Dexter that’s ON DEMAND! Muhahaha!

Note: This was sitting in my drafts folder. I never did publish it before the move. Original date: 11/18/12.

Originally, I had no intentions of having a baby shower, nor did I have plans on making a baby registry. My plan involved hand-me-downs and Craigslist, with the exception of a couple new things. (Particularly, I don’t trust old cribs or car seats–actually, the “safety police” advise against used car seats, so I’m not crazy here.) However, my sister-in-law is kind enough to want to throw me a baby shower. And with that comes baby registries.

There are many posts online about how “been there, done that” mothers hate first-time mothers and their registries. An example post? Here. And there’s registry hate over here. Well, guess what? I hate making baby registries! So, I guess we’re in the same boat on that. You don’t want to read my registry, and I feel stupid for making one.

Note, though, that while I’m a first-time mom, I’m not entirely clueless. I’ve had a weird childhood. My older sister Diana had three kids by 19, two of whom lived with us. My sister hadn’t quite grown out of her partying stages and wasn’t great at things like, oh, waking up for 2 AM feedings. Or even, in most cases, BEING there. (No, my parents had no clue. They worked a lot of overtime, so my sister would ditch my younger sister and me pretty much all day and leave us with her infant.) So, yes, I was up, at 10 years old,  for 2 AM feedings and diaper changes.

And a few years ago, I lived with my younger sister and her kids. Jennifer is a different story though. She was a nurse who worked third shift. It threw her internal clock out of whack, so she slept a lot. I’ve worked thirds before; I understood, as it did the same thing to me. But, again, I watched the kids most of the time. I was up with them most mornings, and I put them to bed most nights. I even was the one to get the baby monitor.

That being said, there are things that I am clueless about. Like making freakin’ DECISIONS. After all, I’ve never had to decide on strollers, car seats, clothes, blah, blah, blah. These things were already done, and I just used what they had. And I hate making decisions.

So, here I am, making a registry on Target’s and Walmart’s websites. It occurred to me that while kids aren’t new to me (over 50 nieces and nephews in my family!), it’s been a long time since I’ve been around a newborn. Things have changed. For example: Now bumpers are considered no-nos and babies are supposed to sleep on their backs, not their stomachs.

Sigh.

And they have all this STUFF listed as “must haves” now…Baby mittens? We just put little socks on their hands. Baby washcloths? We just used regular ones. Same with hooded towels. We never used baby tubs; we just put put very little water in the bathtub and did the cleaning that way. I do remember that with Diana’s first, we started with cloth diapers, but it was just too much hassle. But then something that I thought wasn’t really necessary, a bouncer–we just had a swing for Josh–my sister Jennifer says is a must have. So what the hell do I know?

I’ve also expressed to my co-workers–the ones that will be invited to the shower, mind you–that I wasn’t happy with how high some of the prices were on things. What I’d been doing was sorting from cheapest to most expensive on the websites, and then looking for something that was reasonably priced but still decent quality. My co-workers urged against that. They said I should just pick out what I wanted, price be damned. People could always go in together on bigger ticket items. It makes me uncomfortable, but okay, sure–I did that. I figured I probably wouldn’t get those items, but I do know some places allow discounts if you have a registry, so maybe I can buy those things and get a discount later.

And then you read about some other people bitching about how people only put the most expensive things on their registries. Gawd. Can’t win.

Oh, incidentally, to those who complain that nobody wanted to get anything in a neutral color for future children: I looked for those. I didn’t find anything I liked in the neutral patterns. I’m having a boy and, as it turns out, blue is my favorite color. So blue it is. And if I have a girl later on, I’m not entirely against giving her blue stuff too. So suck it. It’s MY kid, thanks.