Week 36!

Roasty is the size of a Crenshaw melon, 6 pounds!

I've finally begun suffering from the famous lower back pain in pregnancy.  I notice it the most when I get out of bed 800 times to pee.  Sometimes it sort of flairs and it hurts to walk.  Yoga helps a lot.  And Leighton has been rubbing me down with tiger balm.

We got a new OB, Dr. Stavely, thanks to recommendations from our doula.  She is sooooooo much better!  She actually talked to us!  I also got weighed at my last appointment...207 pounds!  Leighton only weighs 214, so we'll see if I can catch him.

My school does a "TBS Idol" in which Leighton performed with one of my colleagues, Chris.  They got mad love from the audience.  I call him my Jamaican idol.  Check them out:  http://vimeo.com/23931110

The boys pose before the big party.

Leighton and almost grandma

We also got to celebrate Carol's 60th birthday at Stinson Beach.  We ate, we danced, we canoed, we ping ponged, it was a great vacation.  So many folks in the extended family have new babies so there was lots of mama talk.  It was fun to compare bellies and stories with Katie who is two months behind me, and we have the same doula!  Speaking of Michelle, we met with her to discuss our labor plan.  We're going to try and stay at home as long as possible and then stay as relaxed as possible while at the hospital (that's the challenging part).  Hopefully staying at home will mean fewer interventions.  We're hoping everything will go smoothly enough to let us stay where we are comfortable. 

Emma and Katie's bellies.

Lance and Susie fight the current in the lagoon.

Playing Ping Pong at Stinson, almost beat Mickey and Leighton.

Two of our roommates, Froy and Christa graduated from Cal with Masters in Environmental Sciences.  We had a huge dinner of terriyaki chicken and tempura with both graduates and their families.  Plus, I made a special edition Oski carrot cake...mmmmm....

The graduates with their special Cal carrot cake

We love it when Froy's family visits!

Week 35...OMG!

Feeling strong, but tired.

There he is!

Roasty is the size of a honey dew melon, and I feel it!  He's still practicing his volleyball moves, even though they claim he's pretty snug in there and not moving as much.  Most of his basic physical development is complete, now he's just gaining weight.  I'm getting tired again.  Leighton had to tie my shoes for me this morning.  I'm having mild allergies which mostly sucks because I can't take anything for it.  I've got some minor pain in my lower back, nothing like what I've heard most women suffer from, so I still feel lucky.  Yoga is really the only physical activity I can handle and it feels REALLY good.  Though I've noticed that I am carrying much smaller than all of the women around my same number of weeks.  Is it possible that I'll have a small baby??  Maybe he'll slide right out...a girl can dream.

Karl, Leighton and Grace

Hot tub!

Leighton ate in the sandbox with Grace

The Feast!

Leighton and Yuki are ready to race!

We got to celebrate Mother's Day at Uncle Bob and Joanne's pool.  Jonna and I made Mother's Day Love Punch, which we sipped by the pool.  Joanne made her famous gogoebi ribs...mmmm....with corn, potato salad and tons of delicious appetizers.  Then we worked off the big meal with fun games in the pool.  Jonna even gave me a Mother's Day foot rub!  She also pulled out her stethoscope and was able to faintly hear Roasty's heartbeat--very exciting.

Grace and Yuki

On our way home we stopped by Cousin Nate and Trish's house to steal more of their delicious oranges.  They are amazing!  No wonder California is known for its citrus!  We completely raided the tree, Leighton climbed right in and lobbed oranges at us to catch.  Nate and Trish also gave us a car seat that they aren't using--score!  And of course we got to see baby Zoe again.

Leighton raids the orange tree.

Last weekend, one of Leighton's friends, Kaki, took us sailing for Opening Day on the Bay.  It was amazing!  I wore a tanktop for the majority of the trip, unbelievable.  I was worried about being extra motion sick, but I kept my tummy full, snacked on ginger snaps and had no problems.

DJ and the Golden Gate Bridge

Week 34!

I think the shadow makes me look bigger than I really am.  He's a pineapple.

It's getting real, people.  I'm getting less and less mobile and more and more tired.  I went to school the other day feeling light headed and shaky.  I came home, took a 2 hour nap and then felt fine.  How am I going to make it to the end of the year?

We got to have a long meeting with our wonderful doula and she enlightened us on all sorts of tricks, tools and prep work.  My iron is a touch low which is not good because I will soon lose lots of blood.  My stupid OBGYN put me on iron pills, which aren't absorbed well and make you constipated.  My doula, on the other hand, required that I eat beef and lamb at least twice a week (please send along your favorite recipes!).  She also recommended coconut water to help with the hydration, which has been difficult to keep up with.  In an attempt to strengthen my amniotic sac, I'm to eat grapefruit once a day.  In an attempt to ripen and soften my cervix for labor I'm to use Evening Primrose Oil suppositories and have lots of sex.  Apparently, one of the many interventions they will use at the hospital if things aren't moving along quickly enough is a massive dose of prostaglandins.  As always, the synthetic stuff isn't as good as the natural stuff and semen is a great natural dose of more effective prostaglandins.

We are trying for a natural birth which isn't easy to pull off in a hospital.  Our doula warned us that at our next appointment we'll be required to do a Group B Stress test.  Basically our doctor will test the levels of bacteria in my vagina and anus.  If they decide the levels are too high, I am required to be hooked up to the IV and on strong antibiotics throughout labor.  This is because the bacteria could cause problems for mom and more serious problems for baby.  As usual though, it is quite rare AND there is really no reason why they should be checking for group B in the anus, as we all know babies don't come out of butts.  Doula Michelle to the rescue!  I'm going to use a homeopathic treatment called Gynatren two weeks before my test.  I'll also clean my anus with tea tree oil.  This will help make sure they don't find more bacteria than they want and I won't have to be tied to an IV.   Knowledge is power.

Lastly, Michelle told us about the vitamin K shot which the hospital automatically gives to the baby immediately after birth.  Vitamin K helps the blood clot and somewhere along the lines of 5 in 100,000 babies will have a problem with blood clotting and will suffer from "tragic intracranial bleeding".  On the other hand, who knows how this massive dose of vitamin K affects a newborn.  We can ask that they do not give our baby the shot, but we've got to explicitly include that in our birth plan.  Along the lines of torturing our newborn, we have to decide if we'll have him circumcised.  It turns out there is no medical reason to do it and it is very much going out of fashion, especially here in the Bay Area.  Michelle says that if we circumcise our child he'll actually be in the minority.

Right after the surprise, I'm still in shock.

The diaper cake (not edible)

The other really exciting event was the surprise party that the parents and students at my school threw for me.  Leighton told me he was taking me out to dinner on Friday night, which was shocking and very exciting.  He was acting funny and I kept asking questions.  We started heading into Piedmont, so he says, "we're going to have dinner with my ex-girlfriend".  I thought that was fishy because I didn't know of any ex-girlfriends who lived in Piedmont, so naturally I started yelling at him.  We pull up to a house and he makes me go in first.  I recognize a parent who answer the door, but he's acting weird and sends me to an empty living room.  I hesitantly walk forward and out jumps, from both sides mind you, about 60 parents and students!  They almost surprised me right into labor.  I couldn't believe that all of those 12-14 year olds were able to keep their mouths shut all week.  We had a HUGE paella, salad, cake, and then I opened hundreds of wonderfully thoughtful gifts.  One of them was this creative "diaper cake".  It's all little baby diapers rolled up and surrounded by awesome toys (little rattles on the ends of booties!)

opening tons of gifts while everyone ooo'd and aaahhh'd.