In case you were wondering...

In case anyone was wondering what a belly ring looks like on a gigantic 40 weeks pregnant belly, here are some pictures:


and



I think it looks quite stylish!

Geek parents

ok, it's totally geeky, but we set The Kid up with his own e-mail address. The intent is that all his family and honorary aunts and uncles can e-mail him with their thoughts on meeting him, hopes for him, advice, or just introduce themselves and explain their roles in his life, etc., and when he's old enough to read/understand, he'll get to read them.

I won't disclose the e-mail address here, but if you want the address, you know how to find me :-)

Zero station!

My Friday Doctor's appointment revealed that I am now 1.5 cm, and the baby is at zero station. That means that he has dropped and that his head is now down in the pelvis and in position. We are 90% sure he will be here within the next 10 days. It's probably going to be a long 10 days for me because I am SO uncomfortable and I have to pee every five minutes.
Everyone around me is excited. The inquiries as to how I'm feeling are getting more frequent. It's hard for me to describe how I'm feeling, but here goes:
Physically I feel fine. In the mornings I feel best because the weight of the baby hasn't been pushing down on me for hours. I don't even really feel pregnant until I attempt to get up from the couch, or if I bend over. As the day progresses, though, it gets harder to feel comfortable sitting or standing. My feet and hands swell, and the pressure in my lower abdomen increases. By bed time I am in pain. It's not unbearable, but it's a constant ache that extends from the lower abdomen to my ribs and all around my back.
Mentally I'm feeling a little frustrated and mixed up because I want this to be over, but I also want him to stay put a little longer because, selfishly, I am not ready for the responsibility, but, unselfishly, I think having a birthday on July 4th would be cool. Everyone will be in a celebratory mood during his birthday and he'll have many choices in parties to attend.
One of the great advantages our kid will have is that he automatically has dual nationality. He'll automatically be an American because he will be born here, but he will also be British because I am still a British citizen. Brian and I hope that he takes advantage of this and studies and works in Europe some day. With his British passport, he can live and work anywhere in Europe and not have to deal with all the red tape. He's a very lucky boy!

No progress

Well, my Friday doctor's appointment revealed that The Kid has already picked up some personality traits of his father. He's a procrastinator. This could be good, and bad I suppose. Good because a lazy baby means he'll be far too lazy to be demanding, bad because he's procrastinating on making his grand entrance into the world outside of my body. I'm feeling rather impatient and would like to to quit sharing the real estate in there with him and all my other organs. It's like having a squatter.

So there I was, all ready for some "good" news that maybe that one centimeter from the previous week had progressed a little futher, but no. I guess the The Kid caught a glimpse of the outside world, saw my giant ankles, probably thought they were some kind of weird animal waiting to eat him, freaked out and decided to set up camp. Ok, that might have invoked a visual you weren't prepared for. Sorry!

This part of pregnancy is weird. I don't know if other women feel this way, but I'm having mixed emotions because I am not ready for my life to change so drastically, yet I am interested to meet the little monster that's been poking and kicking at my ribs for the last several months.

Brian is excited. Of course, he doesn't have to go through the indignity and pain of giving birth. I'd do anything to trade places with him right now.

Today I'm going to work out extra hard at the gym and see if I can induce labour a little early :-)

New floor!

Timing couldn't have been worse, but our floor guy, Matt, made what could have been a stressful situation a very easy and stress free one. We picked out a wood that was similar in colour and texture to the wood in the rest of the house and Matt came and removed the cat pee carpet and leveled the floor on Wednesday. Then on Thursday he came over and laid the floor. Today he came over and did the final part, the trim. He saved us a bunch of money on the trim by staining it to match the floors himself.

From discovering the problem to fixing it was less than one week! I highly recommend our floor guy. He also did 3 of our other friends' floors and his workmanship is awesome. So if anyone is in the market for new floors, be sure to let me know and I'll give you Matt's number.

The dining room looks beautiful. It finishes off the downstairs nicely. I never thought it was weird that our dining room was the only room with carpet downstairs, but now that the wood is in there, it just ties it all together. Kind of classes up the place. Now I can't wait to actually buy a dining room set, of course, that's low on our list of priorities at the moment.

Misc. weekend activities and sushi ramblings

The weekend started off very well. It started with sushi for lunch with Miki, which is always so much fun. Miki's one of those low-maintenance friends who I don't see very often, but when I do, it's like a breath of fresh air. She and I have many similarities as far as our outlook on life, and many similarities in our childhoods.
That evening, two friends who we only see every now and then suggested we go for sushi downtown at Uchi. I could eat sushi for every meal, so of course we went.
My thoughts on Uchi:
Uchi is ok if you like foofy and creative (and expensive) sushi. I'm a bit of a sushi purist, though. Although I can't eat the raw stuff right now, which limits me to pretty much Eel and rolls, my preference is for a place with simple and fresh Nigiri sushi, and a couple of rolls, such as a spicy tuna roll, or Sushi Sake's amazing Spicy Susan. Uchi is wasted on someone like me. I found myself looking at the menu and thinking "you're charging HOW MUCH for that tiny morsel of food?". While I won't deny that the food is well presented and tastes good, I would much rather get better value at a more traditional sushi bar where you can get full without breaking the bank. The one roll I got at Uchi was the Shag roll. It's basically a veggie roll that's dipped in tempura batter and deep fried. It's served with a splash of squid ink. Sure it's interesting, but was it better than the sushi at my usual place. Not even close. So after 2 experiences at Uchi, I think I'm crossing it off my list of places to eat from now on.
Don't get me wrong, we had a great time on Friday night. But not because of the food or venue, but because of the company. I find that to be true most times we go out.

On Saturday we discovered a cat problem that had been apparently happening over some time and has caused us to need to replace the carpet in our dining room. It's a behavioral problem, we think, because there's nothing wrong with the cat. She's just deathly afraid of the new Littermaid catbox and won't go near it. We made the mistake of thinking that if we put a regular and the automatic cat boxes in the cat's bathroom, the scaredy cat would simply use the manual one. But no. She chose to use the carpet in the dining room, instead. What's strange is she was fine with our old Littermaid box. Lesson learned. Manual catbox only from now on.

We shopped around for wood floors to match the floors in the rest of our downstairs and found several good options. One based on some recommendations by several friends. We were planning to get wood in the dining room anyway, just not right away, and of course the timing is awful given that the baby could arrive at any moment. But it has to be dealt with.

Saturday evening was spent with friends at Nutty Brown Cafe in Oak Hill where the very talented Brian Lee was opening for Monte Montgomery. We had a great table outside with a good view of the stage and close to Michelle who was working the merchandise booth. We had dinner and spent some quality time with friends. Again, venue and menu had nothing to do with the fun level. We have such great friends.

Saturday night, though, was awful for me. I spent the entire night sick to my stomach. The kind of nausea that won't let you actually throw up but is bad enough that it turns you fetal and groaning. This was followed by a visit from the poop fairy around 5am. Consequently, most of Sunday was spent on the couch groaning some more, trying to hydrate, and going stir crazy because I was a prisoner in the house. I did do some productive things, though, like laundry and changed the bed.
Sunday evening we had dinner with Tiffeni, whom we hadn't seen in many weeks! One of the few remaining unmarried friends in our circle these days, soon to be converted to old married lady in August!

The countdown begins...

Today's doctor visit revealed that I am 1cm dilated!

Don't get excited, though. It really means nothing if it's not accompanied by painful contractions. Which it isn't. So while it's progress, the little bugger is hanging in there. If I have been experiencing contractions, then I'm just oblivous to them. I haven't really even noticed much Braxton-Hicks activity, either. Unless Braxton-Hicks feels like The Kid is striking poses in there with all his appendages spread out and shoved into various organs. He does seem to be very, very active lately, and he seems to get the hiccups on an hourly basis. Perhaps I should lay off the Tequila?

Maybe I am having contractions, but I'm such a badass and my pain threshold is so high that it feels like no big deal! Wishful thinking on my part. I'm a huge baby and the slightest bit of pain turns me fetal and crying for my mummy. Can I get my epidural now?

Has the baby dropped??

Yesterday (for the record that's June 2nd) I experienced what I can only describe as a frequent urge to pee. I went 3 times in 20 minutes. Every time I stood up, I felt an immense pressure on my bladder, and a lot of lower abdominal discomfort. In addition, I can now more easily take a full breath. Could this be the "lightening" that they talk about? or am I just imagining it because I so desperately want this to be over?

Brian thinks my shape has changed. Everywhere I go people comment on how "high" I'm carrying. And it honestly does look like he's all up in my ribs (and feels like it, too). But yesterday, the bump looked a little less prominent at the top. If he has descended then that means it's not long until The Kid makes his grand entrance into the world (and thankfully, his exit from me). Lightening usually happens between 3 weeks and 2 days before labour starts, according to my sources. So if that's true, maybe he'll be early.

I have mixed feelings about that because I really would like to have him on 4th of July. But on the other hand, I really want the infestation to be done!

Another really freaky thing is that you can now see a foot or an arm moving around and can pretty much distinguish what it is just by observing my stomach when it happens. It's the weirdest looking thing, and I can't even describe how it feels other than "creepy".

In other news, Brian and I tried out Kona Grill last night. I went there for lunch a few days ago and tried their sushi (cooked, of course). I don't recommend their sushi. In fact it was about grocery store quality. I do like the ambiance in the place, though. And the service has been awesome both times I've been there. Brian had the Pad Thai last night and it was really good. I had the Pork Tenderloins. It came with white cheddar mashed potatoes and a shitake mushroom sauce. Delicious. So I can certainly recommend either of those two dishes. When I went for lunch, Dana had the Macadamia crusted chicken and it was extremely tasty. So that's 3 dishes I'd definitely go back for.