getting birth ready...

Today kate and maryann came over for my blessing way. a blessing way is basically a shower for the mom-to-be, but more of a celebration of her giving birth. usually its really crunchy and spiritual with people braiding her hair and singing kumbaya. but since i am so not like that (and thankfully neither are kate or maryann), it was just a nice afternoon. they cleaned out the birthtub and brought it inside, got the nursery ready (more than i ever could), and basically made the house birth ready. we realized the living room is too bright to labor in and began putting curtains and sheets over the windows. they decided i needed positive things to focus on, and put up pictures around the house (including a lovely flower that looks like a vagina, right over the bed-ahh soothing). maryann drew an incredible family portrait of me, jack and the new baby that i absolutely love! we made beaded anklets and henna'd my feet. so it was maybe a little crunchy and kumbaya. but fun. and much needed!
(the bears were out! so exciting - i haven't seen them in years)
Saturday we took our niece maillie out for her birthday. mcdonalds (never plan to actually eat at a mcd's. thats all i have to say about that), maymont. we walked there and back and all over the park, with maillie taking pictures of every animal we saw. i was quite proud of myself considering i am 9 mo pregnant and haven't done anything physical in those 9 mos. and i wasn't even hurting the next day! totally surprising to me. although i did sleep really really well.(trolls - jack and maillie)

so it looks like baby is still cooking and won't be making her entrance anytime soon. in fact, it seems as those nancy doesn't expect her at least until next week, if not the week after. although i learned that the baby's developing endocrine system triggers the onset of labor and therefore labor won't begin until the baby is mature enough. so she still has a little growing to do and will come when she's good and ready! which is ok with me. although i have to admit, i'm getting a little burnt out on the preparing for birth reading, videos, etc. i think i'll switch to some good fiction (aka harry potter, stephen king - you know, classics!) and then get back into some baby books by the end of the week.

and tonite i get my indian food!!

baby mode

so i said i wasn't nesting and yet... i've since made banana bread, PICKLES (with cukes from my garden!), tomato sauce, jambalaya, au gratin potatoes (from scratch, not a box)...its nice to want to cook again since i haven't wanted to in 9 months. i've also cleaned the house - including all the windows, we've hung some pictures, i've done a crap load of laundry.... so yea, if thats nesting i'm totally doing it. although in my head its more a matter of need - this needs to get done before the baby or it won't ever get done. so call it what you will.
i'm getting scolded on all sides for not being in "baby mode" and working too much. which is funny b/c, yes i've been at work and finishing up one last experiment (done tomorrow!!), but if i don't get it done, its all i'll think about. the writing can wait, the lab work cannot. but i swear that i am done friday. good luck getting me back in after that! and then its all about some baby time. so lets hope i dont go into labor saturday so i can enjoy baby mode. and one last trip to the pool....
i've been meaning to post this for awhile but the baby room is almost done (the damn crib and its missing pieces is killing me!) but here is a pic of the curtains jenny made:
they go so well and the pink lining turns the whole room a deep pink when the light shines through. its pretty cool. and yet, not as girly as one might think! we also finally got a co-sleeper that fits our room and her laundry is ready to go. bring this baby on! and when she comes, please bring me this as well: (icebox cake courtesy martha stewart)
any day now....

dr. d

FINALLY! I have passed my PhD defense. i won't say i've quite finished yet, so it doesn't seem like i'm off the hook b/c i have revisions and a couple things to complete in the lab. BUT i won't ever have to go through another exam/defense/grilling ever again. awesome. i still haven't been able to completely let go with the extras to wrap up. but whatever. i passed. phd. the end.

and to focus on birthing, baby. i'm not nesting yet. i'm not sure if this is just a thing that some people go through or if its truly a sign that its time. i think the fact that my brain is still kind of in "work mode" is preventing me from totally settling into the birth. i'm just waiting for that crazy urge to clean. maybe i'm too lazy to nest. or maybe i've been doing it so much off and on throughout the birth that i got it out early. but either way, truthfully we're almost completely ready for the birth. the co-sleeper(that will actually fit in our room) is on its way, the birth kit is ready (except for a faucet attachment), her clothes are washed and ready to be worn....things left to do:
1. car seat - wash and put in the car
2. nursing bras
3. pacifiers sterilized
4. pump (and accessories) purchase and prepare
5. inflate birth ball
6. clean the house
7. finish up her room
8. wash the dog
i've gotten some really great advice on pumping which is something i was really stressing about. now my worries include:
-what will she wear to sleep in? will she be too cold at nite?
-is she going to have the right number of fingers and toes? will she look slightly retarded like some babies do? and will i not notice it, but everyone else will and they wont want to tell me??
-when can i take her outside? what age can she wear sunblock?
slightly freaking...but trying not to.
I've been sworn off sugar to prevent her from getting huge and making labor difficult. which normally wouldnt phase me, but this pregnancy has made me a sugar fiend - ice cream, cookies, pie, soda. especially soda. so i think i've changed my postpartum meal from pasta to ice cream cake, coke, and some sort of berry pie/turnover. i also really want indian food. i'm going to try to get a india k'raja buffet in before i go into labor. i feel like new cravings are coming on. i'm still on a major cereal kick. so weird. mmmmm..... and with all this, the baby is hiccuping and kicking me to eat something.

i ordered a bunch of wedding photos and am working on getting them framed and put up. but the more i look around, the more wedding photos i notice we have around the house. narcissistic? perhaps, but our wedding was so damn fun. and the pictures are so pretty, i cant bear to just have them in an album that no one sees. now i just have to figure out where to hang everything so its not so overwhelmingly WEDDING around the house. b/c i'm sure it will soon be overwhelmingly BABY around the house.

and if one more person tells me how my life will never be the same again - i'll scream.

why is it called a shower?

we had a spectacular baby shower this past weekend, filled with lots of friends and family, presents, games, and sundaes. by far my favorite part was the sundae bar (thank you em!!), which i am still enjoying the leftovers of. is there really anything better than sundae toppings? i think not. malissa did a fantastic job of planning, decorating and executing a french countryside theme complete with our favorite nicknames of the baby translated into French, french soap favors and lovely flowers. and merit received some great things....lots of clothes which she didn't necessarily need but my friends have such great taste they were definitely appreciated! afterwards everyone came back to our house for a bbq (which we are also still enjoying the leftovers from). so overall, it was a beautiful day to celebrate this new little girl who continues to do flips and cartwheels in my belly.
AND jenny brought over the curtains for her room - they are absolutely perfect! the colors go really well with the room and they block out a lot of light (as good curtains should), which is great b/c that room is so sunny.
we attempted to put together both the crib -to realize that we had no screws to put it together with- and the cosleeper - but we couldn't figure out how to attach it to the bed. so as of now the baby has nowhere to sleep. ah well, we still have a month or so.
a month!! i can't believe she'll be here in a little over a month! its almost impossible to even think about it b/c i've been concentrating so hard on my dissertation. but that too will be over soon and then i can focus all my attentions on the little blueberry. i cannot wait. i also can't wait to chill at the pool all day. and get back into prentatal yoga. and read.
i found a new blog - its interesting to read and consider what advice i might like to give my daughter. i dont really agree with everything she says (espec. the drink milk thing)...but she has some good ones and it might be nice to keep a little list going myself. any suggestions?
i also found this. ok so embroidering is for old people. i get it. make fun of me. but i love some of the designs they have. what i would do with them i don't know but some of them are really fun.
and i just finished the first season of true blood! loved it. can't wait for the second season to come out..or if anyone has it dv'rd still and doesn't mind me coming over to watch...

THIS is what i'm talking about!

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-06-21-alice-in-wonderland_N.htm

i'm a little apprehensive about the new story line (alice returning to wonderland after 10 years?), but in 3-D this should be amazing!

busy little bird

i am going through major nesting i think. we decided at the last minute to have a yard sale on saturday. supreme craziness on my part -i so don't have time for this. BUT our neighborhood is hosting it so we didn't have to do any advertising - too good to pass up. we actually don't have much to sell - a TON of shoes, some clothes and bags, weird things i've found in the attic that do not belong to us (hopefully it won't piss off the attic children too much-you know the ghosties that live in the attic and play with the ben Franklin action figures that are up there? yea, them. they freak me out which is why I've never cleaned the attic before). ANYWAY. i also found some family photos that are not mine and not the people who lived here before us. creepy.
so yard sale sat. i also finally got around to cleaning out the closet in jack's room so i can move stuff out of merit's closet. that took all day. i threw out ALL of my notes from the past 5 years - why i was keeping them i don't know. i thought maybe i'll need to go back to that BICMIC exam in my future career? riight. thats what the internet is for. but now i can fit my extra clothes in that closet, and all of merit's stuff in her closet with room to spare. plus i realized i have a ton of space in our closet that i don't use. so now i do. sooo organized now!
and in case you were wondering, all of this cleaning means absolutely no writing. which on the one hand is okay b/c i'm waiting for edits from my boss, but on the other hand i could be working on a different section....oh well. it will get done. eventually.
right after i watch the third episode of true blood i got in the mail today....

she's gonna be a soccer player

so the baby is crazy moving. i'm sure she's been doing this the entire time, she's just now big enough that i REALLY feel it. like, keep me up at night feel it. its kind of the best part of this whole pregnancy thing. actually the best is realizing she already has dad's stubborn "you can't make me" attitude b/c she refuses to move when i say "jack, look! feel!".
i ordered some fabric from the far far away heather ross line that i talked about in the last post. not in exactly the colors i wanted (i really wanted the blue themed unicorns), but went with the orange. why force my love of blue on poppy? as long as its not pink - which i will force. so i got the orange theme. now i just need to quilt it together and find a good, soft pillow to cover.
katie's back in town!! yea! unfortunately for oliver that means no more mia, but fortunately for us that means far less dog hair throughout the house. and i got an awesome tea set from katie that i absolutely love as a thank you. thank you, katie. i've missed you!
i've set a time and date (and place) for my final defense...duh duh duh...... its kind of a relief to have a definite end but also a major stress to have a time limit. so unfortunately i will be writing during most of my free time. luckily, i have a lot written and a lot organized so hopefully i will pull this off. i'm a little nervous about defending and being 37 weeks pregnant but hopefully i'll get lots of sympathy. i'm not too proud to get some pregnancy sympathy, as long as i pass!
my little brother got married this weekend - the bride looked absolutely beautiful of course. and they both looked incredibly happy. highlights: alec's best man speech, mushroom shaped potatoes, my dad dancing with alec's new girlfriend, some chick's dress falling off, another chick falling on her ass with her legs straight up in the air after slipping on the beer she spilled, my mom almost leaving the bathroom with her dress tucked into her underwear. is it terrible that my highlights mostly involve others' misfortunes/embarrassments? nah. those are the funny parts! congrats andrew and em!