Current Status?

40w 2d! I just have to keep reminding myself: this is totally normal, lots and lots of babies come after their due date, just be patient, try not to dwell on the fact that you have a TWO-DAY OLD BABY just walking around inside of you, etc.

J and I are getting a touch of the cabin fever. The house is clean, the freezer is stocked, the laundry is done, everything’s ready. All that’s left is for us to chill out and relax. But honestly? Today I ate popcorn for dinner and watched a marathon of The New Normal on Hulu. This baby needs to get here if only to give me something to do.

Home Stretch

In pregnancy parlance, I am 39w2d (39 weeks, 2 days), so labor could theoretically start at any time, but I haven’t had any indicators yet that it’s imminent. The stats nerd in me delights in the notion that birth dates are roughly normally-distributed around the 40 week mark (although first-time mothers are statistically more likely to deliver after 40 weeks). Here’s the baby bell curve.

I still have 3 more days of work. Working until my due date is such a cliché, but every day off I take before I have this baby is one I won’t get after the baby’s here. 12 weeks is 12 weeks, after all. (Remind me to post a rant about “maternity leave” in this country; to wit, there is no such thing — what women actually receive is a very meager short-term disability leave).  Colleagues are generally supportive, except for the constant barrage of “We’ll set up a WebEx in the hospital for you so you don’t have to miss the next meeting!” jokes. I’ll note without comment that these jokes are always made by men and women without children.

Everything’s ready…ish. Baby clothes are all washed and stowed, swings and other devices have been assembled, supplies for the birth purchased. We finally got our (private, non-employer-based) life insurance policies finalized and signed, which is a huge relief. We still need to cook a lot and stockpile food in the freezer for the first several weeks. I’ve seen my midwife weekly over the past month, plus I’ve got my labor doula and my post-partum doula all lined up. (With little family in the area and few friends who’ve shown any interest in helping us out with meals and laundry and such, my solution is to throw money at the problem, hence the post-partum doula).

Now to play the waiting game. I hope the next thing I post will be a baby photo.

Coastal

I meant to post this a few weeks ago, when we drove out to the Oregon coast for one last quick visit before B-Day (similar to D-Day, except maybe more blood?) Everyone from Portland goes to Cannon Beach because it has the famous Haystack Rocks and is the quickest way from Point A to Point B, but as someone who’s driven the entire length of the Oregon coast I am here to tell you that Manzanita is the choicest, loveliest spot along the way. It has a good beach and enough elevation to provide some truly spectacular views as you approach the town driving south on 101.

It was really windy the day we went and there were a ton of kite-surfers out, which was really fun to watch. J. caught some video:

It was so zen, and so damn cold, that we left after about 15 minutes. But if a beautiful beach isn’t worth driving 4 hours round-trip for, what is?

From Poppy Seed to Cantaloupe

Only 5.5 weeks left. Or, more realistically, 3.5 to 7.5 weeks left, since “normal” due dates are distributed over a 4-week period (2 weeks before the estimated date, 2 weeks after).

This is the time when the baby’s apparently not doing much in the way of development, just fattening up like a Christmas ham. I get the weekly e-mails from BabyCenter that tell me what’s up in fetal development and size – they started out describing it as a poppy seed, and now she’s  the weight of a full-on cantaloupe.

The good news is that I feel better than any pregnant woman at 34.5 weeks has the right to. All of the back and pelvic bone pain is pretty much gone, I have energy, I’m sleeping decently and have even got somewhat used to side-sleeping. I’m coping at work despite it being pretty stressful now and then.

Are we ready? We’re ready-ish. In terms of sundry goods to dress, feed, house, clean and entertain this baby, I’ve ticked off almost everything on my list. I bought a glider and dresser and lots of baby clothes on Craigslist — nothing but the second best for our child! And Amazon thoughtfully supplied the rest. Yesterday I “set up” the nursery, which involved moving things around and taking things out of packaging. But truthfully, there are no nursery decorations or themes. Just as weddings aren’t for the couple getting married, and funerals aren’t for the dead person, so too beautifully-decorated nurseries are not meant for the tiny creatures that will inhabit them. I may break down and buy some jungle-themed decals, but that’s about all I can promise. It’s a rental, and we won’t be in this house for more than another year anyway, so best not to make things too difficult to tear down when we leave.

I’m looking forward to 5 or 6 more weeks of just being a couple and relaxing, especially since I love fall like nobody’s business, but on the other hand…I’m totally excited to meet my daughter. The time has flown.

Travel Jinxed

I think that’s going to be it for us and traveling for awhile, because this weekend we had (another) terrible travel experience. Busted travel plans are the worst, but when a formerly-reliable airline disappoints you for the first time ever, it feels like a personal betrayal somehow. Oh, JetBlue. You were one of the good ones!

Things Mexican-American Husbands Say

Me: “Can you look up a recipe for enchiladas for this week?”

Him: “Sweetie, you don’t need a recipe for enchiladas. That’s like having a recipe for sandwiches.”

The Past Year In Financial Planning

It’s been like this:

• Combined finances, including all savings and checking accounts. Dealt with resulting hilarious overdraft issues during the transition.
• Researched and bought life insurance (worth a post in itself).
• Researched, hunted, and finally got a new place to live.
• Shut off utilities at old house, turned on utilities at new house.
• Researched and bought renter’s and landlord insurance.
• Got a renter for our old place and put together a semblance of a lease document for her.
• Switched car insurance.
• Titled and registered our cars in Oregon and got new driver’s licenses here. Total cost: $650, I kid you not.
• Researched, toured, and got on waiting lists for various expensive daycares.
• Researched and hired (and paid) a midwife and a doula. BTW, the doula still hasn’t cashed my deposit check after 2 months UGH.
• Sank a lot of money unexpectedly into our cars and our cats.
• Researched 529 plans (I’ll only have a month to set this up so it’s live by the end of the year, but we’ll have until April 15 of next year to throw cash at it for the juicy state tax deduction).
• Rolled-over an old 401K into a Vanguard IRA — so much easier than I thought it would be. Seriously, don’t put this task off anymore, people.
• Figured out how to cope with a reduced income while I’m on maternity leave.
• [in process] Researching wills, living wills, power of attorney, and just-what-the-heck-is-a living revocable trust, anyway?

It’s just contracts and cash from here on out until we die, isn’t it?