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Later
July 2006 entries
07-15-06
Just an update to let you know that I have NOT gone into labor yet - I am just busy doing last-minute stuff and spending time with Susan and Avi and, of course, Sean. Today is Shane & Katie's wedding on the island - I will get home around midnight. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post pictures tomorrow.
• link
07-12-06
Due in one week
Did I ever explain
the Susan
connection?
Susan and I have been friends and next-door neighbors since we were toddlers. We (Mom, Dad, and I) lived next to the family duck farm and Susan's Dad was the town butcher and lived "up the lane" from us. Susan knew she would be a nurse or doctor since she was a little kid (and she was the smartest kid you ever met), and by about age 12 or so she started telling me that she would deliver my baby wherever I lived in the world. Then she went to nursing school, then to Johns Hopkins, and all these years later I'm pregnant, and she's been an OB nurse for ten years now. It's just one of those karmic things that she's going to be here with me, and even if she has to go home before I deliver (she leaves on my due date), just having her here seems right.
Babymented? Start your little engines.
• link
07-10-06
I have a new cousin!
Wes, Val, and Chelsea
have been blogging their trip to China to pick up Cydney, and here are
some of the pictures from today. They have to remain in the city where
she was adopted for a few days for all the legal stuff to clear, then
they all return home on... my due date!
07-09-06
Coral's Birthday
Yesterday at about
4 p.m. I remembered that I had a birthday dinner to go to, so I whipped
up a batch of peanut butter cookies and headed out. It's SO HOT when you're
180 pounds and you have 150% of your usual blood volume.
Sean and I have been researching the use of penicillin during labor for GBS (Strep B), which is what I have. (Side note to Bonnie: the timing of your e-mail was eerie.) I picked up the penicillin so we have it here for the chance that a risk factor may happen (water breaks more than 18 hours before baby is born or I run a high fever) but otherwise we are speaking with the midwives again to see what they think about us holding off on the penicillin unless, like I said, the risk factors happen. A good example of my research can be found here and here. In the meantime I am taking all of my previous pre-natal supplements, plus my last-month stuff (prostaglandins in Evening Primrose, cranberry), and now two chopped fresh cloves of garlic and two acidophilus per day (trying to get the GBS bacteria down), as well as soy/banana/flax protein shakes daily. Yesterday I bought PomBlueberry juice to add to the mix. I am a walking talking health food store. HAHAHA see that eight-inch-high burger on the table? That was mine. So maybe I'm not.
Anyway, my point is, this is another one of the MANY aspects you can research about pregnancy or delivery and you find out that the common medical route can be... unsettling (see also: Vitamin K, the eye drops, monitoring the baby during delivery, circumcision, vaccinations).
A good summary for all of this craziness, and why I am trying home birth, is here. (Victoria). I have other reasons, too, but they are off-the-blog. These are my opinions and I'm not shoving them at anybody else, I've just had a lot of people asking me "why" on many topics and I thought I'd throw some links at you if you wanna look into them. For all I know at the first contraction I'll start bawling and we'll rush to the hospital anyway. Like I've said, I don't know what my pain threshold is, but I'm about to find out!
Hopefully not today, though. I have things to do.
• link
P.S. Baby doing a nice roll during King Kong. I've tried recording all the other movements, including hiccups, but they just don't show up. Plus as soon as I have the camera the baby knows it, and stops moving.
07-06-06
So I have "having a baby" penciled in for sometime in the next three weeks.
Good news - we got the prescription for the penicillin IV's so I now no longer have to go to the hospital to administer the first batch. This makes me all kinds of happy.
Dominique has managed to distract us over the past week - her bad teeth abscessed and it was really awful. Long story short, she was miserable and now she's $700 more expensive than she used to be, and less three teeth and a hunk of jaw bone. Gross. It it weren't for my family we'd be on the streets. I hope there's at least another 60-70,000 miles left on her.
07-01-06
Canada Day
Turns out I have Strep
B, which means that I have to have an IV of penicillin every 4 hours during
active labor. Which is really not part of the whole home birth plan, as
the first dose must be administered at a hospital to make sure I don't
have a bad reaction, but then once we know this, I get to go home and
the midwife will have additional IV's of penicillin. It's just that I
didn't plan on having to ride to the hospital and from the hospital
while in active labor and who knows how long I'll actually be
at the hospital. But there are worse things that could happen so I'm trying
to be positive about this.
I have three shifts this coming week and then I work Monday and Tuesday (the 10th and 11th) and then I'm done working. Susan and baby Aviva arrive July 12. We get pedicures July 13. See? Agenda.
07-15-06
Just an update to let you know that I have NOT gone into labor yet - I am just busy doing last-minute stuff and spending time with Susan and Avi and, of course, Sean. Today is Shane & Katie's wedding on the island - I will get home around midnight. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post pictures tomorrow.
• link
07-12-06
Due in one week
 |
My
last day at work yesterday was bittersweet. I'm going to miss working
there, but obviously I'm ready to stop working, too. We had a lovely
dinner at Anducci's, and true to Anducci form, the food was great
and the service was slow and awful. Stephanie stopped by work to
bring me a pink bouquet of flowers ("If you have a boy this
may be the last pink you see for a while") and Gabbi made me
a beautiful bouquet of roses. I have both bouquets at the side of
my bed. I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning for no reason. At first I thought my body was still on Starbucks time, but now I'm thinking maybe it's just baby time. I don't really have any early symptoms or signs yet, but Sean and I have a sense of impending.... something. We're ready. Also? It's cold and raining today - and it should continue for a few days. Ahhhhhh. Susan gets here this afternoon. |
Susan and I have been friends and next-door neighbors since we were toddlers. We (Mom, Dad, and I) lived next to the family duck farm and Susan's Dad was the town butcher and lived "up the lane" from us. Susan knew she would be a nurse or doctor since she was a little kid (and she was the smartest kid you ever met), and by about age 12 or so she started telling me that she would deliver my baby wherever I lived in the world. Then she went to nursing school, then to Johns Hopkins, and all these years later I'm pregnant, and she's been an OB nurse for ten years now. It's just one of those karmic things that she's going to be here with me, and even if she has to go home before I deliver (she leaves on my due date), just having her here seems right.
Babymented? Start your little engines.
• link
07-10-06
I have a new cousin!
 |
 |
| I
got two packages in the mail from friends that I have to mention
- Estella
sent me two
onesies, some turquoise birthing bracelet beads, and a hunk
of baby blanket. My knitting homies from back home, Heather, Maggi, Meredith, and Jen, all lovingly made this blanket for Babymented, plus Maggi threw in scores of stuff from my Amazon wish list. I love them. And one of these days I will start writing Thank You cards for people, going all the way back to when I found out I was pregnant. Clarence is on his way over for dinner. We are stocking up on social events while we still can. (Tomorrow is my last day of work... for a YEAR!!) • link |
 |
07-09-06
Coral's Birthday
 |
 |
Sean and I have been researching the use of penicillin during labor for GBS (Strep B), which is what I have. (Side note to Bonnie: the timing of your e-mail was eerie.) I picked up the penicillin so we have it here for the chance that a risk factor may happen (water breaks more than 18 hours before baby is born or I run a high fever) but otherwise we are speaking with the midwives again to see what they think about us holding off on the penicillin unless, like I said, the risk factors happen. A good example of my research can be found here and here. In the meantime I am taking all of my previous pre-natal supplements, plus my last-month stuff (prostaglandins in Evening Primrose, cranberry), and now two chopped fresh cloves of garlic and two acidophilus per day (trying to get the GBS bacteria down), as well as soy/banana/flax protein shakes daily. Yesterday I bought PomBlueberry juice to add to the mix. I am a walking talking health food store. HAHAHA see that eight-inch-high burger on the table? That was mine. So maybe I'm not.
Anyway, my point is, this is another one of the MANY aspects you can research about pregnancy or delivery and you find out that the common medical route can be... unsettling (see also: Vitamin K, the eye drops, monitoring the baby during delivery, circumcision, vaccinations).
A good summary for all of this craziness, and why I am trying home birth, is here. (Victoria). I have other reasons, too, but they are off-the-blog. These are my opinions and I'm not shoving them at anybody else, I've just had a lot of people asking me "why" on many topics and I thought I'd throw some links at you if you wanna look into them. For all I know at the first contraction I'll start bawling and we'll rush to the hospital anyway. Like I've said, I don't know what my pain threshold is, but I'm about to find out!
Hopefully not today, though. I have things to do.
• link
P.S. Baby doing a nice roll during King Kong. I've tried recording all the other movements, including hiccups, but they just don't show up. Plus as soon as I have the camera the baby knows it, and stops moving.
07-06-06
So I have "having a baby" penciled in for sometime in the next three weeks.
Good news - we got the prescription for the penicillin IV's so I now no longer have to go to the hospital to administer the first batch. This makes me all kinds of happy.
Dominique has managed to distract us over the past week - her bad teeth abscessed and it was really awful. Long story short, she was miserable and now she's $700 more expensive than she used to be, and less three teeth and a hunk of jaw bone. Gross. It it weren't for my family we'd be on the streets. I hope there's at least another 60-70,000 miles left on her.
| Jon
and Amy were here this morning and we met up at my Starbucks
(she would have died on the spot from her allergies if they had
come to our house). It was great to see them - they were on their
way to Whistler to celebrate their one-year
wedding anniversary. Instead of saying "I can't believe
it's already been a year" I feel like I can't believe it hasn't
been like, three years. Or so. I've gone through so many
changes in my life in the past year that it seems as though years
have gone by since I left Seattle. I've heard people say that pregnancy
just flies by, but lemme tell ya, mine feels like way
more than nine months. Going home last Thanksgiving
to tell my family? AGES ago. Wes, Val, and Chelsea are currently in China to pick up my new cousin! I look forward to meeting her at Laura's wedding this October. Babymented is very heavy tonight - which is interesting because Grandma and I were just discussing today that her early labor signs were just.... heaviness. Then tonight Sean and I go out to run an errand and I'm holding my lower belly because it's so heavy. Hmmmm.... • link |
 |
07-01-06
Canada Day
 |
We're
having a baby this month. I'm not sure if that could sound more freaky. We're excited, of course, but I told my shrink that I'm all over getting pregnant, and being pregnant? You bet! But then actually having the baby and becoming a Mom? Uhhh, that's not on my agenda right now. It's not on my Outlook Calendar for which I can hit snooze with every pop-up reminder (along with "h2o plants"). It's not a planned party. I'm perfectly content to keep it right where it is for a few more months, providing it slows it's growth. Oh and the little heel in front of my right ribcage is a bit creepy too. But otherwise, really, it's much easier to plan things knowing that it's still right where it is now, and not... out. Out in the open, where I have to do stuff to take care of it. |
I have three shifts this coming week and then I work Monday and Tuesday (the 10th and 11th) and then I'm done working. Susan and baby Aviva arrive July 12. We get pedicures July 13. See? Agenda.
 |
 |
Here
are a couple pictures of the completed bathroom. I made a set
on Flickr. The room is so tiny there's really no way to get
a proper picture of it without a wide lens. It's hard enough just
getting me in there. As we speak (type? read?) we are missing the giant Culver/Quick reunion in Michigan that only happens every 6 or 7 years. I mean, we have a giant Culver reunion a few times a year but this is my Grandma's side from New York and expands to second- and third-cousins and is over 100 people. It's the due date, you see. I couldn't be there for it. Agenda. • link |