38 weeks today...

I had an appointment with my midwife yesterday, and was surprised to find out that I am already not only 2 cm dilated, but also 50% effaced! Now, that's totally normal, and even routine for most women, but for me, that means it's going to be soon! With Benjamin, I was in the hospital, having contractions a minute apart before I dilated past one.

Oh, and for anyone who heard my concerns about the baby possibly being breech (I was feeling lots of little kicks WAY down low, where I knew the head should be), she checked, and his head is most definitely down, and just about engaged. I'm measuring a little bit on the small side (35 cm, at 38 wks, it should be right around 38 cm), but it's no big deal at all, I measured small with Ben, too.

That's all the technical stuff.... totally incidentally, I now weigh exactly what I did when I went into labor with Ben, so as far as I'm concerned, it's a go-ahead from me! ;)

Of course, between now and July 4th, my midwife will only be in Labor & Delivery on Thursday the 19th, so it would take some planning to try and have the baby with her assisting. But oh well, that's how it goes.

I guess I should probably add a picture... this was a couple of days ago, but close enough! As you can see, all my shirts now leave a lovely little gap over my pants/skirts-- or, as Shellee pointed out at my baby shower, "Your belly's hanging out!"

Nature boy

I've discovered that Benjamin is a real outdoorsman... there is nothing he loves better than just playing outside in the grass. He can entertain himself indefinitely by simply examining stalks of grass, or meticulously plucking the petals off of a flower (think "loves me, loves me not..."), or comparing two pinecones, looking for differences (or signs of edibility, which, of course, leads to "Oh! Ewww, stop, no-- Benjamin, we don't EAT pinecones, they're yucky!")




Fortunately, I can entertain myself for some length of time by capturing these moments on camera.. but unfortunately for Ben, my camera's battery runs out before his does, and I'm usually ready to go back inside within an hour or so.





Oh, well, there's always the next day... and the next, and the next, and the next!

Just a few random pictures of Ben in the car...



His feet are so cute!







SO done with the paparazzi!


Anyway, yesterday, it was incredibly warm, somewhere in the high 80's to low 90's, I think (in case anyone missed it, I'm sorry, it was beautiful!)

Daniel decided he wanted to go fishing at MHCC-- more to get outside than really do much fishing, I think. Obviously, bringing a toddler (and a wife?) doomed it to be much shorter, not to mention louder, than your average fishing trip. But it was fun, letting Ben run around while Daniel fished for a while. Benjamin was fascinated by the gravel on the path. He kept bending down to pick up handfuls, and then either throwing them back on the ground... or dropping them in the diaper bag. That was fun to clean out... I think there are probably still several in there. Oh well.

I showed him how to blow the fluff (petals? No... what exactly IS that stuff?) off of the dandelions. He gave a valiant effort... but ended up kissing them instead, which of course resulted in a very fuzzy-mouthed little boy, as we had just shared a small cup of ice cream, much of which was still all over his lips.





I love this one... click it and look at the large version. The string of drool from his chin is clearer that way ;D

Multnomah Falls: trip #1 of the summer

We went on our first hike this summer with Daniel's family a week or so ago, it was so nice! Ugh, even the easy hikes are tough when you're carrying 20+ extra pounds, though! I think Daniel and I had an equally hard time on the uphill hike, though-- he had all 30 lbs of Benjamin on his back in the hiking backpack.


Daniel and Ben taking a break on a little bridge along the trail.





David sitting on a tree overhanging the trail. I took the picture wrong, it doesn't show the 15-ish feet above the trail that the branch is.

There were lots of beautiful Trilliums along the side of the path the whole way-- and then there was this one, standing tall (well, as tall as a 3-4 inch tall flower can stand, anyway), smack dab in the middle of the mud of the trail.



Just a nice view of the trail ahead...

Aww... the little family. Don't ask what Daniel was scowling for, no idea. I think he was just trying to ruin each and every picture. This one was the best out of the 15 or so Diane took!

Contractions already??

These are two slips of notepaper I used to keep track of the Braxton Hicks contractions I was having the other night (the numbers in parentheses are how long a few of them lasted). Yes, they were literally 2-3 minutes apart for over three hours (I didn't start writing them down until they'd been going for over a half hour, and I stopped writing quite a while before they actually went away. (Oh, and the super sloppy section is when I asked Daniel to write them down for me ;)

It did eventually stop-- obviously, or you'd all have been invited to see the new baby by now!-- but then the next morning they were back, 5 minutes apart for several hours. Ugh... I think my body thinks that it's ready for delivery-- and I can't say I blame it! I'm only 34 weeks (and two days), but I feel like I've been pregnant for a year!

But I did think this was kind of strange... I called my midwife and left a message, and she still hasn't even called me back! I was surprised, even though I didn't feel like I was actually in labor, I would have thought that my midwife would have viewed a 34-week pregnant woman having contractions two minutes apart for three hours as at least somewhat urgent. Guess not, though.

Anyway, I guess it's still possible for Great-Grandma Martin (GiGi) to be here for the birth, if that keeps happening!

Benjamin wanted to add the finishing touch to a birthday card I made the other day, so I let him help out... I think he got more marker on himself than on the card, though!

Also, I think we need to get a set of crayons... markers aren't so great with this toddler, I think!

He wasn't so thrilled when I took the marker away...

Nesting

Nesting instinct
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

"Nesting instinct refers to an instinct or urge in pregnant animals to prepare a home for the upcoming newborn(s). It is found in a variety of animals (both mammals and birds) and can occur in human mothers as well... It is commonly characterized by a strong urge to clean and organize one's home, and is one reason why couples who are expecting a baby often reorganize, arrange, and clean the house and surroundings."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be completely honest, during my first pregnancy, I was highly skeptical of this whole "nesting" idea.... I certainly never experenced it for myself. However,this time around, I hit 32 weeks, and became a crazy woman. I've never been much of a housekeeper, unfortunately, but the past 3 or 4 nights, as soon as Benjamin goes to bed for the night, I've spent the next several hours uncontrollably scrubbing floors, organizing closets, reorganizing furniture, etc.

The only problem is that I obviously can't do anything in our bedroom at night, because Benjamin is sleeping. So, today, my mother-in-law Diane was kind enough to watch Ben this afternoon so I could clean up and rearrange the bedroom.

I moved Benjamin's dresser into the closet, moved other things around, cleaned a TON, filled two bags of garbage and one of clothes to give away, flipped the mattress and moved the bed, and --my favorite part--put the beautiful new bedding set, a birthday present from Loy and Diane, on our bed.



Now we just need to get a new dresser set...

Then, when I finished in the bedroom, I sorted through all of Daniel's computer games, filed them in a cd holder, and threw out most of the game cases that were just taking up space (yes, I had his permission... and I made sure to save all the activation codes first!)

I used the idea (writing the codes all down in one place and getting rid of the separate papers) that you mentioned on Sunday, Juli, thank you!

Anyway, whatever the nesting instinct is, I'm certainly not complaining! I feel so productive, and the apartment looks so much nicer!

"The Sharper Image corporation is filing for bankruptcy, so they're closing half the stores nationwide. No, we're not the only store closing. No, ALL of the stores are not closing, just half."

"We don't know the exact date we will close our doors for good, we're going until we sell out our inventory. "

I think I could say those sentences in my sleep, that's how many times I've said them in the past week. I just started working for Sharper Image, where I worked over the holiday season, again. We've been a little strapped for cash lately, and they, coincidentally, just came to be a little strapped for associates, so they gave me a call, and it all worked out. I'll only be working for about a month, so hopefully there will be no babies delivered in the middle of the mall...

I swear, I cannot for the life of me understand how women can work up until they give birth, with no problems whatsoever. Maybe it's the difference between a "cushy office job", as Daniel said, and working retail, standing up all day, I don't know... but my feet/back/legs are killing me already, and I haven't even been working again for a week!

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy working, it's something to do, it's adult social contact (not that spending all day, every day with my widdle chubbalump muffin pie honeybunch cutieface isn't entertaining enough... but sometimes I crave actual conversation. Admit it, moms, we all do.), but ouch, standing behind a counter for hours on end really is quite a different thing when you're 7 1/2 months pregnant!

To add to that, yesterday I was particularly tired for whatever reason, looking forward to being able to sit and relax on the train ride home-- until I heard over the intercom, to many groans of disapproval among the commuting crowd, "I apologize for the inconvenience, folks, but the train line is experiencing a power outage, and so you're all going to have to get off at this next stop (7th), and ride shuttle buses all the way down to the 99th train stop."

No big deal, right? I'm pretty flexible, I don't mind switching to a bus. But when I got off the train and saw the crowds of people, at least 400, waiting for buses, and the way they all literally swarmed the first bus that pulled up, pushing and shoving others out of their way like there was no tomorrow, my heart sank a little.

Three or four buses later, I got on a bus, but I was one of the last people to board, and apparently they're not kidding when they say "Chivalry is dead". I mean, I hate to sound obnoxious about it, but really, when there are 30+ guys sitting comfy on a bus, staring at at least 15 women (one of whom was holding her very young infant, and one of whom is me, who is at the moment feeling VERY pregnant) standing, lurching around trying to stay vertical, and not ONE of those men offers up his seat, it makes me a little sad for the state of the world.
So anyway, I stood on the bus for over a half hour, before finally making it onto the train home. Walking up the stairs at home took about all the energy I had left.


Anyway, this was supposed to be just an update on what's been going on with me, but it turned into a mini-rant/pity party, so I apologize for that, and I'll just shut up now.

Shoes

...and flowers.

A boy and his Daddy

The other day, it was (deceptively) sunny outside, so we ventured out to the park. Turned out, sadly, the sun was hiding not-so-bright and sunny intentions... it was pretty chilly and windy. But we stuck it out! Benjamin was having loads of fun just running around anyway, so we hung out a while. He would just run up and down the path, pausing occasionally to excitedly show us a rock or twig he'd "discovered".





































And then he just wanted to hang out with Daniel, just walking around with him, sometimes holding his hand, sometimes running ahead, other times lagging behind, just following.
I really like these pictures... I feel like they really capture how much Ben looks up to his Daddy in the way that he just follows him around so trustingly.