The Seversons

In an hour or so Eric will take his exam and be finished with surgery.  I can’t quite express how happy this makes us.  It is step 2 in our 3-step-finally-done process.  Step 1 was me finishing my class a few weeks ago, now Eric has step 2, and step 3 will be when this baby finally shows up and I am no longer pregnant.  Each step along the way helps, but it won’t be over until the whole process is complete.

From here until the baby shows up, we have a list of things to take care of.  Fortunately, though, these things are basically non-essential, just things we’d really like to have done before the baby shows up.  Which means in about four hours or so, it is officially okay for this kid to show up.  He may not have a neat and tidy house to come home to and the hospital bag may not be packed, but there are worse things.  I’m also at term now, which means it’s okay for him to show up from a medical standpoint, too.

Being this far along also means that life sucks.  I know that my third trimester has mostly been not so bad, especially now that the risk for pre-term labor is gone.  (So are all those contractions, I don’t miss them.)  But I’m starting to dislike it more actively now.  My swelling is worse.  The tips of all my fingers on my right hand are permanently numb.  I’m pretty sure my hips have really started separating in the last few days.  At least I’m assuming that’s why my hip pain has gone from only annoying when I’m in bed to annoying all day long no matter what I do.  The heat outside is oppressive.  I could live in a refrigerator.  (Eric has suggested the 4-degree freezers in his lab.  I’m considering it.)  Plus the Nugget has been particularly active the last few days, as if he’s trying to remind me that he’s still here.  Seriously, Kid, it’s not like I’d forgotten.  It’s not like it’s even possible for me to forget.

Last night, Eric–in an astonishing act of night-before-test calm–came with me to the pool instead of studying.  We just sat and talked for an hour or so while I enjoyed feeling not-hot for the first time in weeks.  It would have been a perfect experience except that there came a point when I had to get out of the pool.  Succumbing to gravity again was a painful experience and I swear everything hurt worse than it had before I got in.

Our celebrations for Step 2 include going to dinner tonight (where I will be wearing something besides my sit-around-the-house shorts) and getting massages tomorrow.  Plus we’ll probably manage to watch some Wimbledon next week, which we always enjoy.   It may be hokey, but watching tennis makes me all romantic.  Probably because that first summer we were dating, Eric and I watched both the French and Wimbledon quite a lot.

I had a pedicure last week, which was quite lovely once I mustered the energy to get from the apartment to the car and then inside the salon.  The pedicure itself wasn’t quite enough to motivate me, I also had to stop and get a green tea frappuccino on my way.  If I hit my due date and there is still no action, I’m going to go back and have them go to town on my ankles, which they haven’t been allowed to touch thus far.  They told me another woman has been in on a weekly basis trying this and it hasn’t worked for her so far.  I may just bring in the specific acupressure instructions with me.

We are still hoping against hope that he is a slightly early baby.  I’m pushing for a 4th of July firecracker.  Mostly this is because the thought of this going on until as late as the 22nd of July makes my head explode.

Also, I think the word “comfortable” should be removed from the dictionary.  Obviously such a thing no longer exists.

Things have changed a lot in the days since I finished work.  For example, on my home page I have a little calendar with all of my upcoming events.  Currently, there is one thing listed (a doctor’s appointment) for the next month whereas before I had at least two things a day.

This new freedom should give me the opportunity to get everything in order as we reach the final days of the countdown.  Except that it doesn’t.  My last week of work I started having a lot more contractions, but it was off and on, not every day.  After that I had good days and bad days.  But now it’s reached the point where a trip to the grocery store that is 15 minutes long means at least 10 solid minutes of contractions.  It feels like one big long one that just doesn’t go away.  Since I am still technically pre-term, this is something to keep an eye on, though it’s not any real danger.  Mostly it’s just annoying.

These contractions are always brought on by the same thing: moving.  If I run an errand, for the rest of the day, every time I get on my feet and walk across the room I’ll have a contraction.  It’s lovely.  None of it is true labor and it’s not even painful, just incredibly annoying, but we definitely have an interest in making sure this baby does not show up until July.  (We don’t want him to come too early, plus if he showed up this month it’s very possible Eric would have to miss his surgery exams and take them next month instead, which would suck.)

So, I am spending my free time doing as little as possible because of my own comfort and my midwife’s recommendation.  (Don’t worry, this isn’t bed rest.  Just staying off my feet more than normal.)  Once July hits we’ll see how things go, but for now I am taking it easy.  In some ways, it’s like going back to the very beginning of my pregnancy, when my morning sickness kept me from doing anything that involved taking more than a few steps.  At least now I can walk around the apartment and do little things here and there.  But really it means I’m going through my Netflix queue at an astounding rate, getting a lot of reading done, finishing all 3 of my little tiger hats, and starting a new little knitting project. (It will be very cute, but it involves lots and lots of stockinette stitch.  This is a very basic knit pattern and it does get rather monotonous.  Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll start getting to the more interesting stuff.)

But with the last few weeks coming so quickly, it’s also very frustrating since there are plenty of things I would really like to get done around the house.  For those I will have to wait until July when Eric is home for the month.  If this baby does come early, we will not only have to worry about him but the dreadful state of our living quarters once all the grandparents show up.

To calm any remaining fears, let me assure you that yesterday we got another ultrasound where everything looked very very good.  He is still a boy, he may be just a bit ahead of schedule, and his head is big.  These were all things we were expecting to hear.  We may scan in a profile shot to post.  We have a couple of those as well as the obligatory shots of his junk.  I know they do this to reassure you that the gender of the baby is what they say it is, but the obsession with fetal genitalia in ultrasounds does weird me out a bit.  (Especially the ones where there’s a little arrow pointing you right to the junk saying “Boy” or “Girl”.)  We will not be posting those pictures for his sake, although he currently doesn’t seem to be very shy about letting the whole world know what he’s got.

So I apologize if I don’t post much or if my posts are incredible dull for the rest of June.  If I had half a brain I would’ve brought my camera with me last week when Marlene and I went to the Botanical Gardens and saw the amazing Henry Moore exhibit.  It was very cool to see such great sculptures nestled into the middle of lovely gardens.  Here is a picture I did not take of one of our favorites:

This is Oval with Points in the middle of the Southeastern bog garden, which happens to be filled with very cool pitcher plants and other carniverous species.  On the Botanical Gardens’ website, I did find a link to a blog following the exhibit from construction on.  (As we expected, Marlene, lots of cranes were involved.)  If you happen to be in the area, I highly recommend taking a look.  It was a nice change, since it seems like the only time you ever see massive sculptures these days is in a courtyard of concrete surrounded by buildings.  It did seem fitting, since one of Moore’s favorite subjects is the mother and child:

No one should be surprised that pregnancy is not the most enjoyable part of getting ready for a baby.  Instead, it is the abundance of cute things that suddenly invade your house.  Cute little baby clothes and accessories, all of which must be displayed and described in your best baby voice.  (Eric has probably heard plenty of me asking him to look at cute little bebeh-hats and bebeh-socks and such.)

We finally got our crib set up complete with bedding, and it’s heavy on the cute factor.  Behold:

Of course, all those bumpers will be removed since they are just another of the many things for your baby that will actually kill your baby.  Why so many of these things exist, I don’t know.  (We are not trying to kill our baby, we ordered the bedding online and never saw it up close so didn’t see how big and fluffy the bumpers were.)  For now they stay, since it’s cute.

Also, just pretend there are no boxes in this picture.  Why would there be boxes?  We moved into our apartment in December so of course it is not possible that there are still boxes.  The room has been rearranged since the taking of this picture so the crib now has its own cozy spot.

And now behold:

This cute little bebeh-hat is being inexpertly modeled by my hand, since there is no little baby head to put it on.  Since I finished my big blanket (maybe, I can’t actually promise that since it is kind of totally messed up, but let’s move on to happier subjects) I needed something new and I found a pattern for a cute baby hat with tiger stripes and little ears.  I made it this weekend and now it just waits for a cute little baby head to wear it.

By the way, some of you *cough*JoLee*cough* may find yourselves the proud owner of an identical tiger-striped hat for your own little baby boy heads.  I have plenty of yarn left in orange and black and they don’t take very long.  Those of you with baby girls *cough*Susan*cough* are of course also welcome to a little tiger hat as long as you find it acceptably girly for your offspring.  I figure, at least it is useful for a little Halloween hat if you are not much into cute baby tigers.