Salt and Pickles

After having my membranes stripped at my Friday (oct 24) monitoring appt, my water broke at 11:15pm just after getting in bed.

Zaia Bee was born saturday October 25th at 4:07PM. she weighs 7 lbs 1 oz. we’re having some breast feeding issues, but she’s getting her colostrum. She’s long and lanky with round smooth sweet cheeks. She’s warm and soft and the best to snuggle. I had two labors. The first was awful, around 7 hours long, and didn’t have any relief between contractions, I shook uncontrollably for 4 hours (very exhausting) and threw up a lot. The tub made things worse, sitting on the toilet made things worse, laying on my side made things worse, dancing made things worse. I gave in on my natural labor dreams and had an epidural

.. then I had a dreamy wonderful labor. I napped a few hours.. they came to check me around 3pm and suddenly I was fully dilated and she was at +1 position. about 20 minutes later she was out. (i was saying 30-40 minutes. my mom swears it was more like 20 of pushing). and the pushing was easy and I was in a great mood through it all. Hans and my mom were my rock star supporters.

ZB is perfect and we will post photos tomorrow and zaiabee.com will become active once i’ve downloaded photos.

The baby can come any time now! really. i’m ready.

but at my appt yesterday, while my cervix was forward and soft and short… no sign of kiddo yet. no dilation.. no plug..no nothin except a few contractions here and there.

and I was so sure she’d be early! Tomorrow is her due date.

I’m too lazy to blog most of the time. In fact lately i’m too lazy to do much of anything except nap. I don’t even cook anymore.

I reached 37 weeks today! my belly is heavy and distended and I can’t sleep very well and there are all kinds of aches and pains, but still… since I stopped puking, pregnancy has been relatively rosy. but I’m still ready for it to come to a close! in another week, at least. I have a wedding to go to next weekend, and a few more things to do to get ready. But after October 13th, i am so ready for this little girl to make an appearance.

We had house cleaners come and do a deep clean and ooh la is it nice to have a sparkley house. it’s still cluttery as we haven’t put everything away yet or some things are ready to go out the door , but it’s clean clean clean. Also I got a massage and for at least 5 hours , my hips didn’t hurt.

today I went to a lactation consultant who is familiar with breast reduction patients and showed her my boobs and she touched them and it wasn’t sexy in the slightest! but I feel very hopeful that I’ll provide a good amount if not all of my baby’s sustenance. I’m going to do my best, that’s for sure. (so i say now, before the annoyance of multiple pumpings and mastitis and other discomforts)

I had an u/s yesterday and the baby weighs around 6 lbs. A l ittle small for 37 weeks, but totally within range.

I really do love the nap lately. I should try to time it better or I wake up at 6:30 pm and then try to go to sleep again 4 hours later and everything is skewed.

Last night our doula came for our last pre-natal appt and she had us practicing pain management techniques. Somewhere around when I was leaning over the yoga ball with Hans pressing on my lower back, i had a moment of “holy crap, this is REAL”

soon I will post a link to the baby’s blog and I probably won’t write here much .. not as though I was writing much here anymore anyway!

Ok, so for 7 months I pretty much have had no interest in food. I could take it or leave it, and I was not really gaining any weight.  (after losing weight at first)

Now.. I love food! especially farmers market tomatoes, farmers market organic locally made peach sorbet! or the strawberry nectarine sorbet. I’m cooking and eating and eating and eating. I went to a wedding and I was one of the first to go up for seconds at the buffet. food is righteous. 

Also, this kid in my belly is one hell of a mover and a shaker. She is seriously kicking the crap out of my insides 75% of every day. She often does what i call “AWOOOOOOGA” which is when every bit of her moves at once. all her limbs fly akimbo and she does a little hip shake or something. If my belly had eyeballs and ears, the eyeballs would be shooting out of their sockets..the ears would be steaming and the noise would be “awooooooooooga” . yea. she’s crazy in there. I don’t sleep so hot.

Tonight i made the supper tart from Splendid Table. buttery pastry, cheesey goodness with greens & grapes & onions. yummo. followed by peach sorbet . yay food! oh did i say that already?

i have a little over 8 weeks left. If she goes til her due date. yikes.this weekend we buy a new car. Probably a prius. because we’re oh so berkeley.

also, google docs has been a lifesaver for me. That shit is awesome. I mean… I am keeping my life and money organized for the first time in my life practically. it’s great. I’m a grown up. (I’m about to be a parent!) 

ok, it would seem i’m high on sorbet sugar. I’m going to go take a bath and read The Never Ending Story (i dare you to try to get that song out of your head now) 

The little girl (now confirmed) in my belly would seem to be quite the little swimmer swimming around in her mama’s fishbowl belly. She is constantly doing flips and moving so her head is down at one point and then is to the side and she’s laying sideways 10 minutes later.

 This was all confirmed at an appt today where they were monitoring her closely because 2 days ago they did a scan that found i had low amniotic fluid. All is ok though. I drank a lot of water between then and now (i totally own that i suck at drinking enough water) and things looked fine. The tech said “are you a swimmer? you have quite a little swimmer in there” 

she’s named now. But i think maybe i’m too superstitious to put it here yet.

We have a house guest for the long term. although she’s not actually a house guest right now , as i found her house sitting gigs. But she’s over here most days. This is a good thing because she’s like family for me and really needs a safe place to be. Her life being in upheaval. it’s also interesting because i SERRRRRIOUSLY need my space and I am hoping I don’t get irritable and uncharitable before all is said and done. I’ve strained friendships before where somebody had to stay with me for awhile.

I had placenta previa at my 20 week scan, but by now (28 weeks) it had resolved itself, which is a great relief.

I’m in the third trimester. that’s just crazy to me. still so much to do!

Hi there. I’m a bad bad blogger. 

The baby is still growing and kicking away in my belly. I had one day where I was positive she was moving more sluggishly than normal and didn’t sleep much that night. But the next day she was back to moving like the jackrabbit she usually is

apparently my grandmother is convinced I’m having a boy, still. I have an ultrasound on wednesday… so we’ll see if ’she’ is still a girl! (i find myself hoping so, only because of the 3 or 4 little dresses I couldn’t stop myself from buying. i have control issues. or rather.. lack of control issues)

I’ve gone to minnesota and swum in a lake, I’ve shopped at the farmers market a lot, i’ve cooked a lot of healthy yummy meals, I’ve done far less to the loft than I’d hoped to by now.

right now we have a friend visiting.. potentially for awhile, although I got her a few house sitting gigs over the next few weeks. Will be nice to have some help with the physical labor part of getting the house in order. We’ve known each other since 1977.. so she is family. Going through a rough patch and hopefully we can help her get through it and established here in the bay area

I should really get out of my pajamas and into real clothes, as noon creeps up on me!

So i don’t think i’ve mentioned here. I’ve been obsessed with watching online clips from 1986-1992 Days of Our lives. In particular the Steve(patch)/Kayla and Jack/Jennifer story lines.

when i say obsessed, i don’t mean mildly. 

in 1986 I was 16. I think the last time I watched a soap opera was around 1992. oh the power of nostalgia. 

I still can’t stop myself from going through piles of watermelon & nectarines every day. I just scarf it down. 

I had an appointment with my midwife this week (I hit 24 weeks yesterday) and I’ve lost another 3 lbs since my last appointment. I find this funny, because I can feel the solid dense weight that is growing in my belly. The rest of me, however, seems to be carving itself away. I think it’s because I don’t snack. I don’t want butter (my biggest weakness). I barely crave animal protein. I mostly subsist on pre-natals, stone fruit, smoothies, salads and fish.  

This morning I made  scrambled eggs with basil & parmesan. I ate two bites and then gobbled my way through the bowl of sliced fruit. I did have one slice of freshly baked bread with cherry/apricot jam on it. Delicious. 

I’m trying to keep to my chores and lists, but it’s easy to suddenly find that I’m depressed and grouchy because I fell off the wagon and haven’t really done anything but sit on my butt for two days. Being a stay at home person is , in some ways, harder than I expected. Mainly because I have to police myself, i guess.

;The squiggle is wiggling and kicking with great constancy. Hans has only managed to feel her a few times, though. I adore the feeling of laying on my side in bed and feeling her kick at the bed. (we know our next ultrasound could change the pronoun… but for now it’s just easier to say ‘her’ based on the anatomy scan)

It’s almost my boy’s birthday. I got him lots of little goodies and we’re having a bonfire party. I’m thinking about trying to make grilled pizzas with from-scratch dough. We’ll see how gung ho i stay on the idea as the week goes on.

one nice thing about the constant (3x a week!) farmers markets has been that I’ve cooked most nights. sometimes just a glorious salad, sometimes fresh local caught fish with another glorious salad. I love farmers markets and I love summer. I’m realizing now that I’m eating this good, I’m going to be very very sad when the summer fruits and veggies are gone. 

our kitty is pretty sick. He has chronic diarrhea and it’s not cure-able, just treatable. only problem is, none of the treatments have worked yet. Basically we are giving it a last go.. and in 2 weeks if treatments still aren’t working, we may have to let him go. We’re very sad yet in mild denial. He’s only 4 and we’re very much hoping his body gets into the groove of things from his diet and medicines and he starts gaining weight again and pooping solid. The poor lethargic puppy (he’s always acted more like a dog than a cat) 

So we have 80% odds of a girl, so of course that means that I’ve already bought one dress and a few girly onesies. Also, as i build my cloth diaper stash.. a few of those diapers sure are flowery. Thankfully, I have no issues with being gender-confusing and dressing my son (if those 20% odds win out) in flowery onesies or pink cherry blossom diapers. 

I love Christensen Creations Diapers and can’t stop myself from buying them. I think I have 5 now and another 10 on the way. Luckily they have good resale value!

We spent Fathers Day in a sunny kiddy park with other parents-to-be and already-parents. It was nice.. a potluck with socializing and hanging out with little ones and realizing that it’s possible.  I feel a little sunsoaked and sleepy now though.

Yesterday was also spent with new parents (5 week old) and that reminded me that tiny babies are wonderful and also a little boring. sleep, cry, sleep, cry, eat .. ok eat some more. more boob! ok cry a little. rock back and forth in swing, wiggle arms around, be bounced in arms ..It’s not bad boring. Just reminded me that being a stay at home mom is going to have a lot of … long moments. Aside from cuddling the newborn, there was also bbq and some geekery. because the geeky nerdy boys that we love so are going to play D&D. That’s right. .. many-sided dice, bugbear beasts, hob goblins and other outright nerdtopia. in their 30’s and reliving the glory.

If i weren’t going out to dinner with family I would so be asleep right now. also, now that i’m no longer getting sick… I really love being pregnant. Every time that little squiggle kicks and bounces around, I am blissed. I imagine as i get bigger it will be less blissful, but right now every movement just is glee.

Do you think they’ll let me do a shot of tequila in the hospital once the baby is out? I joke. i swear.  

I no longer have a job. today was my last day, and it feels really really strange! 

I’ve known for a few years now that as soon as i was 6 months pregnant (ok, we jumped the gun by a month) I’d quit my job and take some time to myself.. and then when the baby came I’d stay home a few years and then figure out a whole new career because web development has turned out to just not be my thing.

but it still feels weird. I’d been at that job for 8 years, and I have a feeling that I’ll have a few days where I get up automatically and head to work only to wonder who the stranger is sitting at my desk. Or i’ll feel the urge to, at least. I really liked the people, the culture, the boss, the place. I’ll miss it.

but all that aside? WOO HOO. i’m going to mexico on Friday and when I get back I’ll be having lunch at Cafe Clem on sunny days, or reading books, or readying the house for baby, or learning to sew, or shopping at the farmers market & cooking great meals, or just sitting on my ass. hooray for ass-sitting. 

Yesterday was our anatomy scan. Things looked good with the baby & it’s measuring on target..  but my placenta was a bit low. Not ‘placenta previa’ necessarily,  but low enough that they’ll be monitoring it.

I really really hope it moves up.I would like a c-section to not be a foregone conclusion. We’ve already chosen our doula, damn it!  I’m fine with a C as a means to an end. but I’d like to feel like I still have a choice at this point. Even if at the end i have none.

oh and the two techs were 80% certain it is a girl.