Call me Chatty Kathy.
8:23 p.m. - 2005-08-12
Twenty nine weeks today. I felt her shifting positions, and noticed how much bigger she seems to be. I know that she's growing a lot these days, but didn't realize how rapidly I'd be able to feel the changes. Every day she seems to be getting so much bigger and stronger, and I'm so amazed by what I'm experiencing. Finally. I spent the first seven months of pregnancy wanting to really be able to tell that something was happening--something other than headaches, sciatica and a host of problems--and I'm glad to have at least a little while to enjoy making her.
Anyway, the movement. I was sitting at the computer (where I've been spending the majority of my time these days, unfortunately) and kept feeling these big waves from one side of my belly to the other. I lifted up my shirt (AGH! Stretch marks! My eyes, my eyes!) and realized that I could see it from the outside. I keep reading about women being able to tell if it's a little baby butt or head or whatever, but I really have no idea. Maybe I'm too fat to tell; or I'm not quite far enough along. It was a big lump moving across there, anyway. She's starting to get really smushed in there, I think.
It's obvious from the outside too. I see someone I know every time I leave the house, and last week I was getting, "You're not all very big for seven months," and all of a sudden it's, "Oh my goodness! You must be due any minute!" Um, no. But thanks for noticing! At this point I owe so many pictures that I can't keep up with them all, so there's no sense in me saying that I'll post a belly picture soon. I don't even have a recent one. I need to buy a damn camera charger.
I've been being Very Lazy for awhile now, and I hate feeling so unproductive. There's so, so much that needs to be done, and I can't seem to drag myself off my ass to do it. The carpets have to be steam cleaned. I have to scrub the drawers of the baby's furniture. I'd like to organize my cabinets. The spare bedroom is piled full of crap that has to be put up somewhere, and I need to go through and decide what's going in the attic. Even little, daily things like tidying up and doing the dishes tire me out, though, so it's going to take a LOT of effort to get the rest of it accomplished. I need to make myself a list and a schedule, and stick to it.
I'm not just lying around eating bon bons and watching soap operas, though. I've been doing a lot of research and reading up about labor, delivery, and babies in general. I have the rough outline of my birth plan together, and plan to discuss it with Dr. C on Wednesday. I finally joined the message board for the La Leche League in the town where the baby will be born, and got recommendations for good pediatricians in the area. It's important for me to find a ped. before the baby gets here, because I don't want her aftercare to be handled by whatever doctor is on call that day. It's also crucial (to me, at least) to have a doctor who will support me in breastfeeding and caring for my baby the way I want to. I'm beginning to think about vaccinations, and don't know how I'm going to handle that aspect of it yet. I'd kind of like to hold off on them for a few months, especially in light of the studies I've read that show they may possibly cause problems (autism, etc.) for some children. The doctors they've recommended most highly are all based in the same practice, and as luck would have it, it's in a very convenient part of town for me. I'm going to call on Monday and set up an appointment to meet with the three peds. whose names have come up most often, and hopefully I'll be pleased enough with one of them to make a decision then.
The hospital that I'm planning to deliver at comes very highly recommended by the women at LLL, and my OB is supposed to be one of the very best in town. However, since I don't have any close friends or family members who have breastfed their babies (and will actually be AROUND after the baby is born, unlike my mother) I'm probably going to need extra help and support. The staff at my hospital are rumored to be excellent in terms of caring for new moms, but I've heard that they're not very good at providing bf assistance, so I'm getting the name of a good lactation consultant from the LLL. Their next meeting is Wednesday night, and since I have a doctor appt. in town that morning, I'm sure I can find something to do to kill a few (or 7) hours during the day. I'm actually pretty excited about going, because I don't know that I've ever even SEEN a woman breastfeeding her baby. That's pretty sad, isn't it?
I still haven't found out a definite answer from the school board regarding my sick leave. I called today and left a message, but no one ever called back. I guess I'll try again on Monday. School starts on Wednesday, and one would think that they'd have to let me know something by then. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good news, but trying to keep in mind that the worst is an extemely real possibility. We're going to figure this out regardless, but it sure would be nice to be able to have insurance.
I had to take Rufus to the vet today, and he's spending the night there tonight. I don't know for sure that anything is wrong with him, but he wouldn't eat or drink anything this morning. He really hasn't been acting like he feels very well for the past week or so, and his nose has been awfully dry and warm on occasion, which leads me to believe that something just isn't right with him. The vet said that he did have a bit of fever, and possibly an infection or virus of some kind, so he's giving him a round of antibiotics to help get rid of it. He needed a checkup anyway, and it was time for his 10 week shots, so I guess it's a good thing that I took him in.
My sweet, wonderful grandmother has been after me all summer to pick out a recliner for myself and the baby, and we just got around to doing it Wednesday evening. I took Alan with me, figuring that he'd need to be comfortable in whatever I picked out too. Mistake! When he found out that the store was running some kind of "No Interest 'Til August 07" promotion, he decided that we should get two recliners. He also talked me into getting a new sofa for the living room. We really do need one--ours is no less than 25 years old and completely falling apart--and by putting the money that my g'ma gave me on the account, our payments will be less than $100 a month. That shouldn't be a problem, and I'll be glad to get this big ass, ugly sectional out of the house.
I really need to update more often so that I don't have so much to tell when I finally get around to writing here, don't I?