Recent Baby Cards

I was on a cardmaking spree last month and made some cards that went to people who had babies recently.

For a co-worker who just had a baby boy (her due date was technically after mine, but she had her baby a bit early):

Navy and Blue "Lush" Congratulations Card

For Greg's co-worker who just had a baby girl:

Pink and Gray Pieced Argyle Card

For another co-worker of mine who I just found out had his baby today (his wife's due date was more like mid-June. I was like, what! It's comical, almost, that both the other babies in my office that were technically due after baby K were born before her):

Blue and Green Congrats Elephant Baby Card

Fortune Cookie Predicts Arrival of Baby

Greg got this message in his fortune cookie the other night when we went out to Chinese (place called Wang's Delight) with my mom:


Nice! Obviously, it doesn't really predict anything, but I liked the fortune, so I hung onto it and will perhaps incorporate it into a baby layout.

No baby as of yet, though she was due last Saturday. If she doesn't come on her own between now and Friday, we are scheduled to induce later this week.

This looks to me like an image of her face-on (instead of profile). Honestly . . . looks a bit scary with the eyes all dark and sunken in. Heh.

At my appointment on Monday, the doctor said to eat something light before going to the hospital, such as cereal, toast, or a turkey sandwich. He also explicitly mentioned no Filiberto's, which is funny because that's exactly what I had decided I wanted to eat before going to the hospital. He said nausea is not uncommon though, so if I eat something heavy, I might see it again. Boo. Greg and I wondered if he said no Filiberto's because that's just what came to his head, or if it's because he remembers seeing Greg noshing on Fili's at the appointment the previous week. Heh.

Chinese Postpartum Traditions

My mom has previously told me, on more than one occasion, about Chinese after-birth traditions/wisdom for the mother, such as not drinking cold fluids or washing your hands in cold water. I don't think she ever had a very good explanation for why not to do those things, and I sometimes think my mom is a little superstitious, so I essentially chalked up that piece of information to Chinese cultural craziness. Read: no intention of following.

Last night, my dad and his sister came over for dinner (she's in the US visiting for a few months, between my brother graduating from high school and us having a baby), and she offered up the same advice about cold fluids, plus some other ones, such as:

- Avoiding washing my hair if I can, or if I need to, making sure that I blow dry it right away.
- Drinking hot soups as much as possible, such as chicken soup.

The hot soup thing sounds pretty reasonable, but the cold fluids and not washing hair - really?!

Apparently, if the traditions aren't followed, it could result in bad health for the mother later in life. I realize the intent of the traditions are good, but I still think it is crazy.

In any case, I did a quick search online for what kind of information is out there and found the following article, which is at least an interesting read on cultural differences:

Postpartum Beliefs and Practices Among Non-Western Cultures

39.5 Weeks

Due date is Saturday and it's so close that I'm like, whoa. We're going to have a baby soon. Like maybe this time next week.

Last couple weeks have been uncomfortable not necessarily because I'm nine months pregnant, but because I developed this pregnancy-related rash all over my body. Unpleasant. But at least my face was spared! I don't think it's terribly common (though not uncommon either, it seems, from reading about it online) and the doctor ordered blood work, as well as additional ultrasounds, to keep tabs on the baby. When he mentioned doing additional ultrasounds, I was thinking, Oh, we will get one more ultrasound between now and the due date. When the doctor's office called to set up two ultrasounds a week until the due date (this was a couple weeks ago), I was like, two a week?! Seems like a lot. In any case, blood work was normal, as well as all the ultrasounds so far. And although I'm still a little bit itchy, the rash seems to have largely subsided. Excellent!

3D ultrasound, again with her foot all up in her face:

Profile:

Profile, but with her arm over her face. I wouldn't have known what I was looking at had the technician not told me. The arrow is pointing to the elbow:

As of this morning, there's no indication that I'm even close to needing to go to the hospital yet, but last night, this was my conversation with Greg:

Me: So . . . what are we going to eat on the way to the hospital?
Greg: Dude. Are you for real right now?

People have been telling me that they won't let me eat once I get to the hospital, so I should eat before going to the hospital. I feel like the last week or so, I've been really nom nom nom. Surprisingly though, I hadn't gained any weight since my appointment a week ago, so I must not be eating as much as I think I am.

It's looking like if baby doesn't come this weekend, we'll go ahead and schedule an induction for late next week. That is good in that we will have this weekend to get some packing done (more on that later, like when the craziness settles), but bad in that having to be induced is not preferable to the baby coming on her own. We'll see what happens . . .

Home Stretch

Last week was the first week that I thought to myself, Okay, now I'm uncomfortable.

I stopped wearing heels in early March because they were causing some hip pain, which seemed to go away after I started wearing flats regularly. At that point in time, I still fit into most of my dress shoes, so I was like, No biggie, I can still wear dress shoes once in a while if I need to. A few weeks ago, I tried to wear a different pair of flats than the ones I have been sporting and came to realize pretty quickly that those other flats, which I considered to be on the looser end before, were pretty tight and effectively unwearable. Which means that all my dress shoes are unwearable. Which means . . . my feet are fat from swelling. Or fat. Or both.

So I'm reduced to wearing the same pair of flats to work every day (I'm not buying more shoes if I don't have to). The other alternative is, apparently, tennis shoes. The OB nurse said that wearing tennis shoes will help with the swelling and that she could give me a doctor's note for it. I thought it was kind of funny, the idea of wearing tennis shoes with work clothes. I don't think I could pull off wearing tennis shoes in the office, both from a fashion standpoint and from an office dress code standpoint.

Last week: Hip pain began, but on a different side than before. I think this time it will stick around until the end. Sitting in an office chair all day aggravates it and, therefore, my waddling.
This week: Ankle pain began. Likely from my body not being used to carrying around so much extra weight. Contributes to waddling as well.
ETA: 3 more weeks. We're in the home stretch!