The Waiting Game

I’m not playing the waiting game; I’ve convinced myself that I might as well have a month left of my pregnancy. Sure.

That’s why I just took a walk around the block, bounced on my ball for over an hour, ate practically a whole pineapple and am going for a curry tonight.

Actually though, I’m feeling pretty calm and though I’m making my way through many of the old wives tales in the book, I’m feeling overall positive this week. Let’s hope this high lingers.

Getting out of the house continues to be my savior. Monday I went swimming and had a great chat with an 8 month pregnant lady at the gym….It was a refreshing swim and I felt good, however I did finally suspended my membership, earning a few raised eyebrows when the staff heard when I was due!

Yesterday I met up with the other girls in my NCT group – all still pregnant but one who has recently had a lovely little boy. Having lunch and hanging out with others at a similar stage of this pregnancy journey is reassuring, supportive and fun. We lucked out and have a great group of ladies who are going through a similar life shift, have a laugh together and have no qualms about leaning on each other as we simultaneously stagger into the abyss that is parenthood. It felt good to be out and to be social. I then topped off the day at pregnancy yoga, which continues to be relaxing for body and mind.

So now I sit a temple of calm, full of pineapple but not too full for a spicy curry tonight. Actually, food is today’s theme since I promised Chris I’d make him some banana chocolate chip muffins. We’ll enjoy them, and hopefully they will keep the midwives well fed for our imminent home birth – how’s that for positive thinking?!

Thanks everyone for the continued support!

My Hectic Chill

Are most women swimming at the gym at nearly 39 weeks pregnant? Are most still plodding away, slow but steady, on the cross trainer or taking power walks on the beach? Do many subject themselves to one last pre-baby retail therapy session involving Ikea, John Lewis, Sainsburys and horrendous traffic in torrential rain during half term in the week after Christmas? Maybe so….I expect more often not….but I am not most pregnant women but just little old active me and this is my hectic chill in the run up to my “last” week of pregnancy. Hear me roar!

If you’re shaking your head and thinking I should slow down, I don’t feel like I’m wearing myself into the ground. Plus, I just had a lot of rejuvenating down time with family over Christmas. If you’re of the similar “I can’t sit at home alone all day, especially when everyone is telling me make the most of my last week pre-baby before my life changes forever” then you may have a sympathetic hug to offer.

Since going on maternity leave I’ve made time to put my feet up in front of day-time TV but there is only so much Come Dine With Me that a person can take. I can’t stand Jeremy Kyle and Loose Women is just not my thing.  I expect it's a whole different ball game when you have other little ones to tend to, but I don't and it has been an adjustment not to get up for work each morning when the daily grind was all I knew.

I’ve done nesting. Maybe I’m still nesting. Chris says I’m always cleaning at the best of times, and I’ve tidied the house, washed the baby clothes, cleaned out cabinets, rearranged drawers. But there is only so much nesting I can do before I go stir crazy and need to get out of the house. Plus, with all this rain and mud what’s the point of mopping a floor as clean as a dinner plate only to have some inevitable muck tracked in next time someone emerges from outside, even if they do take their shoes off? Plus, I keep hearing once the baby comes I’ll have no time to clean my house so why set an extra anally high bar of cleanliness now?

Don't get me wrong.  I'm thankful for the time I've had to get organized for our little lady.  I'm grateful to be able to lay in bed past 7am and sit down when I need to.  But I'm still, in the words of Chris and in my usual on-the-go style, actively moving and using. Swimming and shopping; walking and errand running; reading and Internet browsing; preventing my days alone from dragging or my mind from idling over “Is she coming, is this it?” through this home stretch of pregnancy.

Feet Up, Stocking Up

Chris and I are, dare I say it, prepared for Christmas. We decorated our house a few weeks ago, attempted some paper snowflakes (below, our first attempt), hung a home-made wreath on our door (this one we didn’t make but it’s the kind of one I want to try), sorted out our present purchases and mailed off all our cards. Woohoo! Now we have some time to mull wine (Chris loves doing that), put our feet up and listen to The Gift CD, one of our Christmas favorites. It’s our last Christmas without a little one so we better make the most of it!

My other mission of late is stocking up – not on Christmas candy and cakes (though I had to buy some of those too) but on food in my freezer for when the little lady arrives. Pregnant Mama E suggested this to me some time back, and I’ve since heard others say how useful the cook-freeze-stock plan of action proves if you have time to do the cooking in the first place. This weekend I made meatballs, lasagna and some veggie chili for temporary hibernation in our freezer. If anyone has any other ideas on easy to prepare and freeze dishes, I’m all ears! I’m anticipating a the first few weeks I won’t have so much time for cooking so hopefully this stock will provide a well needed head start – we do still need to eat, after all!

Here I am post-cooking - I don't think the sitting down angle is working for me but I no longer have any shame when it comes to these photos!

The Pain in My Ass

Today I encountered a real pain in my ass - literally, that's what it was.....a pain, or pressure, in my rectal area. I've had this happen sporadically throughout my pregnancy but today this little niggle decided to stick around from first thing in the morning to sometime in the middle of the afternoon. I wasn't constipated. I don't have any haemorrhoids....I checked. More uncomfortable than hurt, my butt felt like a cranked up pressure cooker, a little achy, almost sore? In past this feeling has radiated into my upper thighs but it preferred to stay nice and concentrated in my butt today.

My 31 week pregnancy newsletter had a link to signs of pre-term labor, one of which is increased pressure in the pelvic area. Red alert! Does rectal area equal pelvic area?....my gut feeling after an initial stomach lurch was no. I wasn't experiencing any other signs of pre-term labor so I then felt less concerned and more stymied....had our baby has found a pillow in my rectal passage? Did I sleep in some funny position? I've also read that first babies can engage or drop in the pelvis from 33/34 weeks but I'm not there yet and have had this feeling before only to have it fade as it did today, which does not suggest engagement. I considered whether I was again going nuts, but fellow mama-to-be LH reassured me that she has also experienced this tender/tight ass sensation since becoming pregnant. The old adage that misery, or in this case wacked out pregnancy symptom, loves company proved true. Ahhh, what will tomorrow bring?

I've included a couple of 31 week photos. Please excuse the lines on my bare belly shot; this is a pitfall of bump jeans with tight elastic at the top! Also direct your attention away from my little hooded bellybutton - not popped, but not pretty!!

This week baby is weighing in around the size/shape of four navel oranges. She can turn her head from side to side and dream! I found some maternity pads at Mothercare (they do a handy 48 pads for the week after birth pack & disposable undies for pretty cheap) and Chris and I started shifting some things in what will be baby's room.....it currently looks like a tornado hit it, but when that blows through there will be progress.

Fruit Photo Credit: Babycenter.com

Babymoon, Baby Steps

I think my 28 week photos were slightly deceptive in that they didn’t showcase my tub-like state in all its full glory. Here are a couple of 29 week pictures taken from Chris and my mini babymoon break near Oxford this past weekend – my red sweater definitely exposes my bump for what it really is!

This start of third trimester baby break was probably our last pre-baby hotel get-a-way and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We stayed a warm and toasty maze-like old hotel set in the heart of the countryside amongst quaint local villages. The water pressure in the hotel shower, unlike the water pressure in my own shower, was surprisingly amazing, and we ate, drank, ambled and explored at an easy pace. If you're ever in the area of Steeple Aston, check out White Lion pub where you can get freshly prepared food in a friendly, cosy and family oriented atmosphere.  The pub's owners were very attentive and we really hit it off when we discovered they'd lived in the USA for almost 20 years!  With baby’s due date quickly advancing, my head is full of “to do” lists and a break like for just Chris and me really did us good. I switched off from planning and feel refreshed for it. Much to my delight, we even fit in some National Trusting at Waddesdon Manor – you may remember that I love going trusting!

Back to real life, vacations complete, Chris and I are starting to take further baby steps towards preparing our home for our new arrival. We have a number of things we want to get accomplished and we’re trying strike a balance between taking on DIY (which truthfully means Chris taking on DIY since he’s more accomplished in this arena than I am) and having builders come in to help us with some final adjustments. We moved into our house in 2005 and it’s been a continual work in progress.

We’ve got a rough “plan of action” of what we want to achieve and we’re taking baby steps toward checking things off our list. Yes, my lists again! Chris tolerates the lists but he’s not as much of a fan – he’s happier to go with the flow but sometimes I get concerned if we do that we’ll flow into January and be rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off at the last minute. So he’s bearing with the lists and me, and I’m taking a baby steps, not unrealistically long list approach to getting prepared in an effort to not stress us out or inundate us.

Today we had new windows fitted in our Victorian terraced home, a major mission accomplished. We can now wave goodbye to pools of condensation on our sills and rest assured that baby will reside in a warm and draft excluded environment.

Chris is also in the process of building shelves in our hall closet so we have more and better storage space. When that job is complete, we plan to start to transfer some things out of what will be baby’s room and to our new closet shelving.

Then we’ll be in a better position to start fashioning baby’s room/our guest room. I look through these baby catalogues and gape at the fully kitted out baby nurseries featured. They look cute, but expensive, particularly bearing in mind that their décor may fit an infant to toddler but not a growing child. We’re not opting for a full fledged nursery but instead a sturdy pine set of drawers (that we've yet to get - I’ve been scoping out charity shops/thrift stores for a more antique style pine set of drawers – many a little gem may be found in charity shops if you’re willing to hunt) that matches the desk we already have in the room and crib we received. I’m sure we’ll get some cute baby linens and paraphernalia but we’re not going for “ABC wallpaper” or a pinked themed room or a baby cd player since our ipod and/or computer can play music just as well. We've found a baby monitor with a night light and thermometer to kill three birds with one stone. We have limited space to start out with so we need to be selective with what items we opt for.  Again the endless choice available can wreak havoc with my mind but I'm learning to consider options and then say enough is enough.

What am I getting at? As we prepare for our little one, we seek advice on what to get and how to “child proof” our house but are trying to stay true to what works for us – our tastes, budget and home – rather than get roped into what’s on the market and what everyone else may or may not have done.  It's easy to stray from this approach but for me, it brings me home, sane, at the end of the day. Now we just need to keep moving and using one baby step at a time...