Monday, April 28, 2008

Any Time Now

My back is killing me. I've been having cramps and contractions on and off for the past week. Nothing is happening. I've apparently developed sleep apnea as well. I'm tired.

So, baby girl, you can come out any time now. Please. Before you hit ten pounds.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Mah Hubby Iz Famouse

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/

Check out the entry called "pajamablog" - Kerwin's quite beside himself that he got his question answered. :D

Friday, April 25, 2008

Insomnia

It's 3:43 am.

I woke up around 3, decided sleep was over-rated, and took a shower. I know I should just go back to bed, but I'll probably toss and turn instead of sleeping.

I wish I could report labor pains, but I can report the laptop bouncing from being kicked repeatedly by the unborn spawn.

I sort of feel like cleaning up the house. Maybe I'm nesting. I don't feel enough like cleaning up the house to get out of the recliner, however. The recliner is comfy, and the only place my back doesn't feel like it has knives stabbing into it lately.

It is rather peaceful sitting here in the dark with heavy rain coming down. I might actually call it a torrential downpour.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

A Whine

Lower back, hips, thighs = lots of ow.

Typical at 37 weeks? Yes.

Doesn't mean I like it.

I can't get anything done.

I don't want to bring the baby home to a messy house.

I forsee tylenol in my future today.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Still Here

And still pregnant!

Some perinatologist tried to play the dead baby card with me yesterday in regards to my diet-controlled gestational diabetes (which he thinks is not diet controlled because my fasting blood sugars occasionally run 5 points high - nothing any of my other docs have been concerned at all about) Stupid peri, you don't play the dead baby card with a mom who's done her research, especially if you've just looked at my chart for two minutes and decided you know more about my specific case than the doctors and midwives who have seen me my entire pregnancy. No, I will not be scheduling a c-section because you think I should.

He prescribed a blood sugar medication that in the literature states should not be taken within two weeks of delivery to avoid extreme low blood sugar in the infant. I will not be taking it, as the risks outweigh the benefits at this point. I have a call in to my regular OB about it. I'd much rather adjust my carb intake if she thinks it's a problem (which she did NOT on monday).

Thankfully I shouldn't have to see this guy again. I have no idea why I had to see him in the first place, b/c I thought I was just going in for an NST and an ultrasound.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Bad Idea

Remind me never to meditate before going to sleep ever again.

I just woke up from a dream that's left me really shaken - shaken enough to have to get up, check the news, check the phone, check that Freyja is where she's supposed to be. I stopped short of calling Kerwin at work, but if I can't get back to sleep in a half hour or so, I might call him anyway.

I have a cup of tea.

I don't have nightmares often. The dream just started out as odd, but then I got mad about something pretty inconsequential during a family party (I believe I chewed a younger cousin out about how HER religion wasn't the only one in existence, so would she please shut up) . I went outside to take a breather and calm down, and all of a sudden people start pouring out of the house, looking for their family members and their belongings. Something about seventeen people being shot on the floor of a slaughterhouse not far from where we were, and the news said the apocalypse was upon us.

I couldn't find Freyja. I couldn't find Kerwin. I couldn't find my socks. It was dark and they had turned out all the lights in the house, the light switches wouldn't work. Why I was worried about my socks is beyond me. I went into my mom's room (who knows why dream logic works) and got a pair of socks. She coudln't find hers either, so I handed her a pair. She kept screaming something over and over, and I couldn't understand her. As soon as I put the socks on (they were either 60's flower power flowers or stripes...I don't remember which pair I gave my mom), I woke up.

My heart was racing. I had to get up and turn lights on, check on things.

I don't remember the last time I had a serious nightmare bad enough to make me get up out of bed, make a cup of tea, and long desperately for someone to talk to at a quarter to five in the morning.

Taking It Easy

Due to my high blood pressure, midwife wants me to "take it easy" until my next appointment, which is Monday with the OB who is overseeing my VBAC.

Easier than usual? To be honest, my hips and pelvis hurt so much that between fetching meals and snacks for Freyja and myself, going to the bathroom, and occasionally unloading the dishwasher or switching laundry loads, my butt stays in the recliner. Then every evening I do some of the spinningbabies.com postures to attempt to make up for the time in the recliner. From what I can tell, the baby is happily right occiput anterior, so I must be doing something correctly. Left occiput anterior is the end-all-be-all of optimal fetal presentation, but I'll take what I can get.

I'm not sure how much "easier" I can take it without becoming comatose. My blood pressure remains high, but I have zero other symptoms of pre-eclampsia. I'm still wearing my rings and I still have ankles. I am not at all puffy (erm...puffier than usual). In theory, we are still "only" talking pregnancy-induced hypertension (because my blood pressure is shockingly normal when I'm not incubating another human life).

I'm supposed to lie on my left side a lot. I have a stupid uncomfortable couch and a three year old who requires constant supervision just due to her age. She is good about playing independently, which is nice for me - but I can't just hole up in my bedroom while she has run of the rest of the house. Let me tell you that this is probably not going to happen much. Comfortably ensconced in the recliner is the best I can hope for. I might be able to swing 15 min out of an hour on my left side on the couch. Any longer and I'd fall asleep. Not a good thing.

Off to meditate before sleep and see if that helps the blood pressure any.

One calendar month til my due date.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Musical Theatre Meme

Eden's Movie Quote meme made me think of doing a Musical Theatre meme along the same lines.

Everybody who's nerdy can come and play. There might be a couple of you somewhere.

Same rules - identify the musical that the song snippet is from and quote a song snippet you like from the same show. I'm going from classics to contemporary here. I don't think there's anything too obscure.

Since blogger doesn't allow a cut like livejournal and wordpress do (at least, I haven't found out how to create one), once I start getting answers I will just hide them so you'll have to highlight to read.


1. "Why not both instead/there's the answer if you're clever/have a child for warmth/and a baker for bread/and a prince for...whatever"

2. "I'll show you the proper ploys/when you talk to boys/little ways to flirt and flounce"

3. "I'm a girl men go mad for/love's a game I can play/with a cool and confident sort of air"

4. "What we have here is an ethical dilemma/'Less I help him get the mask removed/He doesn't have a prayer/True the gun as never fired/But the way events transpired/I could finish him with simple laissez faire"

5. "He'd go out every night trying to find himself/and along the way he found Ruth, Rosemary, Gladys, and IRVING/I guess you could say we broke up because of artistic differences/he saw himself as alive/and I saw him dead."

6. "Down once more to the dungeon of my black despair/down we plunge to the prison of my mind"

7. "Did you ever laugh when a waitress falls/and drops a tray of glasses/"
"And ain't it fun to watch figure skaters/falling on their asses?"
"Don't you feel all warm and cozy/watching people out in the rain"
"That's schaudenfreude/people taking pleasure in your pain"

8. "I have confidence in sunshine/I have confidence in rain/I have confidence that spring will come again/besides which you see/I have confidence in me!"

9. "Prove to me that you're no fool/walk across my swimming pool/if you do that for me/then I'll let you go free"

10. "Find - Glory/one last refrain/glory/from a pretty boy frontman/who wasted opportunity"

11. "Tonight, tonight/it all began tonight/I saw you and the world went away/tonight, tonight/it's only you tonight/who you are/what you do/what you say"

12. "Macavity's a mystery cat/he's called the hidden paw/for he's the master criminal/who can defy the law/he's the bafflement of Scotland Yard/the Flying Squad's despair/cuz whatever time the deed took place/Macavity wasn't there"

13. "Mama/Doesn't even have an inkling/That I'm working in a Nightclub/In a pair of Lacy pants."

14. "Shan't I have the normal life a maiden should?/Shall I never be rescued in the wood?/Shall two knights never tilt for me/and let their blood be spilt for me?/Oh where are the simple joys of maidenhood?"

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Gearing Up

Not only is unborn spawnling already "dropped" into my pelvis (and yes, I do look like a ridiculous penguin when I walk now), I am having braxton-hicks contractions from hell tonight. I just drank a ton of water and now I'm going to bed. Freyja never did drop at all and I don't remember having any BH with her.

Maybe she'll come around 38 weeks. That'd be fantastic except we're not quite ready yet. The crib is still a toddler bed, we haven't gotten the new carseat, we haven't gotten the bassinet and swing out yet, etc.

Oh, and she's still nameless. I'm still stuck on what you name the sister of a Freyja. It has to have either no nickname possibilities or EXCELLENT nickname possibilities. Persephone is right out, Percy is the only decent nickname there and I don't like it. Athena is too severe. Isis too dippy. Minerva = Minnie. UGH. Artemis has potential, but I dislike "Missy" and "Misty" and "Arty" as nicknames. Sif is too weird, I don't like Iduna, and the Celtic goddess names are all WAY overused (Rhiannon, Brigid, and yes, I've met 2 or 3 Morrigans in the area) except for Bronwyn which is too guttural when put with Heather as a middle name and our last name.

I kind of like Lakshmi, but can you get away with naming a likely towheaded, blue eyed German/Swedish child Lakshmi? I'm not sure you can.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

My House Smells Fabulous!

There's a big stockpot of chicken soup bubbling away on the stove. We don't fuss around with chicken soup here - this isn't some pop open a can of chicken broth and add a few veggies kind of a thing. Oh, no.

There are caramelized onions and garlic. Then we saute the carrots and celery to bring out the flavors. Add ten chicken legs (no skin, please) and fill up the stockpot with water 2" from the top. Add a bay leaf or two, and then cook the hell out of it all afternoon until the liquid is reduced by at least a third (yes, children, a third. you want to concentrate the flavors). Then fish the chicken bones out (since it all fell apart on you), add fresh or dried herbs (I like thyme, dill, and rosemary) and your choice of noodles or pasta and cook until the noodles are done.

Eat. Eat a lot. Then freeze the leftovers in gallon ziplock bags, enough to feed the family for one dinner in each.

Someone told me once that I was making chicken stock and furthermore, "doing it wrong" (ie, you don't let the water evaporate, bla bla bla). They've never tasted my soup, so I can see where they might be confused. I agree that the chicken and veggies strained out, this would be fantastic chicken stock. But why add the extra step of taking the veggies out and then putting different ones back in? The carrots are sliced thick and so is the celery, so nobody's ever complained about the texture of the veggies. You should try it my way. It's really good.

Just make sure you caramelize the onions first. If you skip that, it's not nearly as yummy.

Friends Pimping Friends...

Eden has a fun movie quote meme going on today. You should go over and play!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Why'm I not Surprised?






Do you have an inclination for BDSM?
created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Dominant

(((Note: This quiz doesn't cover all aspects of BDSM due to the length that such a comprehensive quiz would be. I chose to keep it sex-based because the psychological reasons behind fetishes are complex and different for everyone to some degree.)))

Sex is about power and you like to be powerful. It's nice to be in charge and get what you want. And being in a position where people will do what you say is exciting.



Sadist


89%

Dominant


89%

Experimental


75%

Exhibitionist / Voyeur


71%

Bondage


36%

Switch


36%

Masochist


25%

Submissive


14%

Vanilla


14%

Degradation Lover


11%