FULL TERM!!!

I'm OFFICIALLY full term today! That means he's not considered premature or early if he's born today or later. So I no longer feel guilty for wishing that he'll get out of me NOW. Bring on the spicy food, speed bumps, hot baths, primrose oil, pineapple, glasses of wine, Chinese food, licorice, eggplant parmesan...

Into the Home Stretch

I saw my doctor for my 36 week appointment today. I now am seeing her every week, which is killing my schedule (and my wallet -- stupid hospital parking fees!). While I was hoping for a, "He's ready! Let's go to labor & delivery!", I also realized that I'm not quite ready for him to show up (actually having a crib would be helpful).

Well, my subconscious won -- While I was convinced that my baby HAD to weigh at least 9 lbs (to compensate for my sudden weight surge), he's only 6 1/2 lbs. I was concerned that since I have gestational diabetes, he would be super-big, causing me to have a difficult or perhaps premature delivery. He's measuring a little big (about 10 days ahead) and is in the 70th percentile for weight and size. The size is most likely just due to the fact that Ted and I are big people; I have my diabetes under control enough that it's not affecting bambino.

As for the TMI section of the post -- I'm 1 cm dilated! Which means..... absolutely nothing..... I can walk around for weeks this dilated, so it could be two days or five weeks.

There is a lousy part of the diabetes that I have to deal with (in addition to the 4 times daily finger sticks and daily insulin injections) -- starting next week, I have to go in for twice weekly fetal monitoring and ultrasounds. They check for the shrimp's heart rate and movement (TRUST ME, he's moving.....), and also for the level of amniotic fluid, which can drop low in diabetics at this point and cause complications. I'm waiting for the time when I spend more time at the hospital than I do at home.

Is it possible to buy stock in a hospital? If so, I recommend GBMC stock.

Rolling in style

Over the weekend, we went up to Lancaster to see Gretchen's cousins, aunt and grandmother, since they couldn't make it to the shower. They gave the monkey a lot of great gifts, including what has to be the Maserati of strollers if not the Rolls-Royce. This thing has more style then I could hope for in a month of creative pants choices, opens itself, and even has a bug net. Plus, the wheels are big enough that I could put the bug net to good use and take it on safari, and we have some blankets that match the overall look. All in a package that's greener then my hybrid Camry.

Just the ride:

Getting ready for the safari:

Lay this thing down, flip it and reverse it

So, we saw a huge special on Amazon on Flip Video cameras and we got one "for the baby." The theory is, we'll take this small cheap camera with us wherever we go and just slip it in a pocket or a diaper bag. That way we can get quick, cute clips of whatever the monkey gets himself into. We'll still probably get a nicer camera for times that we know we have something we want to capture (birthdays etc), but this is nice for quick clips and the web.

Gretchen wanted a memory of her pregnancy and the profound statements made by "the preggo-brain". Below, submitted for your amusement, our first flip video:

Setting up the nursery (Apparently calling it a Monkey's Nest on Facebook was confusing)

Sunday, the shower fun continues... We couldn't bring Sharon's bookcase or the picture to the house on Saturday because of all the rain. On Sunday, it let up enough to get everything over, and to spend a couple of hours putting everything away and getting the room in order. This is basically what it will look like until he arrives and messes up our decorating scheme. We're still waiting for the actual crib and a glider/recliner to arrive as well - they should appear sometime mid-October. At least now we have a backup place for the baby to sleep besides my first idea - put a blanket in a drawer and let him sleep there. Apparently, a bare drawer is better, the biggest concern is the choking hazard of the blankie. Who knew?

An interesting thing about the room color - it really changes from olive/sage to bright green depending on the light and what else is in the room. I think it came together with the blue, but it looks totally different now then it did before. Which is cool, it ties the room together, but definitly highlights the risk of big, bold color - its not what it looks like on the swatch.

Here are the pics:

The view from the door:


A closeup on the corner



Looking at the other corner (the dresser is also a changing table and now has the changing pad on it, we got it later that afternoon)

But Ted, what will you guys do during the baby shower

Gretchen had her shower this weekend, and only she could really provide details of the shower itself, so I’m going to leave that to her.

Instead, here is what I and most of the boyfriends/husbands did:

Watch the UVA/Duke game at my house while

• Drinking some beer
• Eating delicious Italian sausage and assorted chips, dips, salsas etc.

Unfortunately, it rained enough that grilling was going to be difficult at best. That’s why I went with sausage over say, hamburgers – I know how to cook sausage on a stove but not a lot most other things like ribs or hamburgers. This is one of many lessons for my son – cooking is best done on open flames, not crazy indoor things.

Not surprisingly, at least for our generation, the shower had a de facto mixed gender after party. Most people ended up back at my house, where we confirmed that one of our friends is still a total lightweight. I also ran into a common (for me) hosting problem – she and I have almost opposite taste, and I don’t have stuff on hand, like cranberry juice, that I once did, now that Gret isn’t imbibing. I forgot that we had limeade, and actually whipped up something out of watermelon and cherry snowball syrup that was acceptable when mixed with vodka. These are the kind of skills that I want to pass on to my child. As well as a sense of style. If you squint really hard at the pictures of the nursery, you may notice that bookshelf contains

• Some really cute books in Spanish that Sherri gave him
• The hungry hungry caterpillar, which Sharon included when she painted the bookcase
• The scrawny tawny lion – my pick
• Ted Allen’s Everything A Man Needs to Know about Style

Gretchen is, how shall we say, not amused

The sudden influx of ladies who’d just been at a baby shower (and as Kevin put it, charge of estrogen that was suddenly interested in discussing their plumbing) lead to a vital and monumentous decision – we should go shooting. So off we went to Continental Arms (by TESSCO and the post office off McCormic/Padonia)

When we got there, we realized that I had some experience shooting, although mainly not in the US, James had never shot handguns, Chris knew what he was doing and knew the range and Kevin… Once we saw him in action, I’m a little scared of the seemingly gentle Kevin and his shooting ability…

Given the mix of shooting experience, we mixed up our choices and rented

• A concealed carry sized .40 (small and powerful, Kevin and Chris loved it, James and I thought it was too small)
• The standard Glock 17 (tried to get James to try the side pointed fast shooting, gangster style, but he wasn’t interested)
• A 1911a model .45 (My personal favorite. Huge though) and…
• A ridiculously large .44Magnum revolver. This is the gun from Dirty Harry. It’s a wrist breaker that we had no business shooting. Kevin still put six in the x-ring on his second go.

We then met the girls again for India Palace, and followed that with drinks at the house again. Given the theme of dinner, Chris and I broke into the Rangpur Gin. Highly recommended, but not quite Hendricks or Jin level.

All in all, a great day, and a nice mixing of traditional guy activities (Football, Beer, Guns) and getting ready for bambino.

Big and Beautiful

Check out this link from Perez Hilton -- Maryland's own Christian Siriano is launching a maternity line! Too bad I won't still be pregnant in Spring of '09.

http://perezhilton.com/2008-08-18-hot-mommas