and if one more person asks why I'm not gorging myself at a Christmas party (I had 2 tonight, another 2 next week. Blah) I am going to toss my elegant wine glass of water straight at them. That's all.
And I'll blame it on the head cold, obviously.
[Oh, but don't worry about me and missing all that holiday sugar. I just got home and did a very self-satisfied inspection of all of the dessert food that I have stashed in little tupperware containers in my freezer. We will have a very unhealthy New Year's Day in this apartment, let me assure you.]
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Still sick
and it's starting to get me down. Going on 7 days of a brain full of snot and a very sore throat. So if you have any suggestions of safe remedies for colds, please let me know. I have a humidifier next to the bed and have been taking long, hot showers but other than that, nada.
It's hard to try and get psyched for labor when I just feel tired and congested. And of course I haven't been getting all that much work done. Plus, the endless runabout of doctors appointments is getting me down. I wish I could just go to bed but I have 2 meetings and then an event tonight, and 2 doctors appointments and an evening lecture tomorrow. Plus another doctors appointment and a lunch event I organized on Friday. Can't wait for shabbos, and it's only Wednesday.
It's hard to try and get psyched for labor when I just feel tired and congested. And of course I haven't been getting all that much work done. Plus, the endless runabout of doctors appointments is getting me down. I wish I could just go to bed but I have 2 meetings and then an event tonight, and 2 doctors appointments and an evening lecture tomorrow. Plus another doctors appointment and a lunch event I organized on Friday. Can't wait for shabbos, and it's only Wednesday.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Home Alone
It's Tuesday night and I'm home alone again. JD's office has been 'very slow' of recent, which means he usually gets home around 9 pm and thus far no weekend work where he has to go to the office. But he e-mailed tonight to say it might be closer to 11 pm. Which is honestly fine at this point. I did basically no work today with 3 appointments and a meeting, and it's nice to have a few hours at my desk to work. Plus, I don't have any early morning plans so I can stay up with him till at least 1 am when he gets home and then just sleep in a bit in the morning.
My friends who have children keep telling me I'll get most of my work done from 8 pm to midnight once the baby starts to sleep in 2-3 hour blocks. But I really wonder if I've done enough mental preparation for the spring. Because of our crazy plan to move back to Europe (baby and I, that is), JD will be saving his family leave time for the end of the spring and back on this schedule within a couple days of my delivering. So I will be alone for a the majority of every day. On one hand, JD does not leave for work until 9 am or so he will have plenty of time with the baby in the morning, presuming she decides to torture us and do the normal baby thing of waking up between 5 and 6 am. And I know she'll nap during the day. But am I crazy? Is there anything I can do at this point to prepare?
Oh, and if you're wondering why this is suddenly on my mind, apparently our nanny (we're sharing a nanny with a friend on our street) wants a few more hours. And I'm trying to decide if I will really have the energy to work more hours this spring, and whether it's worth/excessively indulgent given our budget constraints it to have a nanny around even if I'm too tired to work but want to run out to the grocery store or gym (hahaha) alone when the weather is bad.
And also because I called JD's work several times today to tell him all my appointments went fine. And apparently he spends a lot more time in meetings this year than last - i.e. 4 phone calls and he never picked up at his desk. Of course, he has a secretary who can track him down and I had to assure her repeatedly that this was not an emergency today. I haven't met her yet, and I presume that the only thing she knows about me is that I'm rather pregnant and due any day now, so she was quite sure when I called for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time that I really was in labor and didn't want to scare JD, and she kept telling me it wasn't a big deal to pull him out of a meeting (can you imagine how worried he would have been? when all I wanted to say was the my test results were fine).
Well, at least it will be entertaining to watch 2 such optimistically over-reaching people adjust to a baby's schedule. I'm sure we'll do it, but I'm not sure how gracefully.
My friends who have children keep telling me I'll get most of my work done from 8 pm to midnight once the baby starts to sleep in 2-3 hour blocks. But I really wonder if I've done enough mental preparation for the spring. Because of our crazy plan to move back to Europe (baby and I, that is), JD will be saving his family leave time for the end of the spring and back on this schedule within a couple days of my delivering. So I will be alone for a the majority of every day. On one hand, JD does not leave for work until 9 am or so he will have plenty of time with the baby in the morning, presuming she decides to torture us and do the normal baby thing of waking up between 5 and 6 am. And I know she'll nap during the day. But am I crazy? Is there anything I can do at this point to prepare?
Oh, and if you're wondering why this is suddenly on my mind, apparently our nanny (we're sharing a nanny with a friend on our street) wants a few more hours. And I'm trying to decide if I will really have the energy to work more hours this spring, and whether it's worth/excessively indulgent given our budget constraints it to have a nanny around even if I'm too tired to work but want to run out to the grocery store or gym (hahaha) alone when the weather is bad.
And also because I called JD's work several times today to tell him all my appointments went fine. And apparently he spends a lot more time in meetings this year than last - i.e. 4 phone calls and he never picked up at his desk. Of course, he has a secretary who can track him down and I had to assure her repeatedly that this was not an emergency today. I haven't met her yet, and I presume that the only thing she knows about me is that I'm rather pregnant and due any day now, so she was quite sure when I called for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time that I really was in labor and didn't want to scare JD, and she kept telling me it wasn't a big deal to pull him out of a meeting (can you imagine how worried he would have been? when all I wanted to say was the my test results were fine).
Well, at least it will be entertaining to watch 2 such optimistically over-reaching people adjust to a baby's schedule. I'm sure we'll do it, but I'm not sure how gracefully.
Very proud
of myself, of course. I am exceedingly proud of having shown up to acupuncture and willingly allowed a stranger to put a series of needles into my body. I have a lot of control issues with needles and I would far rather do anything painful or unpleasant to myself than allow someone else to; I think it comes from having been a rather sick little kid with a lot of doctor's appointments. Not only did I do my own injections for IF and blood draws for GD, but I can also put in my own IV and routinely take them out. But today I was calm and relaxed and I survived acupuncture.*
Rewarded myself with a quick little shopping trip to TJ Maxx, where I was supposed to find new hand towels. Needless to say, instead of hand towels, I bought a baby outfit.
Oh, and I also passed another ultrasound and NST.
* Yes, still a skeptic but the acupuncturist claims to have an 85% success rate for labor induction. We'll see.
Rewarded myself with a quick little shopping trip to TJ Maxx, where I was supposed to find new hand towels. Needless to say, instead of hand towels, I bought a baby outfit.
Oh, and I also passed another ultrasound and NST.
* Yes, still a skeptic but the acupuncturist claims to have an 85% success rate for labor induction. We'll see.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Postscript on registries: Just the way the world is supposed to work
My previous post on registries reminded me that I wanted to buy a gift for someone from their registry. Not because I had to or because I was invited to their baby shower, but because I wanted to.
And being a bit cheap, I decided to google coupons for the place she had registered.
And there are tons of them.
And at least one applies to the breastpump I want to buy.
Which is really, really expensive.
And so, by buying a gift for a friend I managed to find a way to save oodles of money on an item we need.
Just the way the world is supposed to work.
And being a bit cheap, I decided to google coupons for the place she had registered.
And there are tons of them.
And at least one applies to the breastpump I want to buy.
Which is really, really expensive.
And so, by buying a gift for a friend I managed to find a way to save oodles of money on an item we need.
Just the way the world is supposed to work.
Thoughts on registries
The wind is howling outside (which I find delightful from my desk inside) and I need a break from reading, so here are my quick thoughts on baby registries.
1. Our friends are incredibly generous. I registered very, very selectively since we were living in a mini-apartment at the time (320 sq. ft., 1 bedroom), but all the same, almost everything off our registries has been purchased for us. I also think it comes from being among the first of our friends to have a baby, so our friends are much happier to select something off a registry than actually have to go into a baby store. I really think it might take us under $100 to buy the rest of the items we need off our registry, plus the 2 big items that I did not expect our friends to splurge on. I could not be happier about this.
2. Baby registries are much, much more work than wedding registries. And I should know, we just finished up our wedding registry ;-) I would estimate that at least 1/4 of the items I originally added to our list were unavailable by last week. A large part of this is because things like slings and cloth diapers come in so many different size and color options, and the truth is I don't care all that much. But every time a specific size or color gets sold out, the item becomes unavailable and I have to remember to keep logging in and changing my selection (and neither registry notifies me of this). Also, it really helps to register at 2 different places (we used amazon and ba.by.earth) because when one place lists an item as out of stock or discontinued the other place usually still has it.
3. Along the same lines of baby vs. wedding registries, neither of the places I registered has any type of completion package. Not nice. However, bab.ies 'r us really didn't have the items I wanted.
4. Finally, customer service. We registered at amazon and bab.y.earth.com and I have to say amazon's customer service was awful. The whole point of registering is to avoid duplicates, but somehow their computers were down for a couple of days and we received several duplicate items off our registry (where it reads, desired: 1, received: 3). Not only did I have to take them all to the post office to mail, but amazon is taking a full 14 business days to give us a credit and it's a bit unclear if they're even refunding the shipping costs on the return to us. Needless to say I was annoyed. Ba.by.eart.h also had a few slip-ups including a rather disturbing note from 'Grandma and Grandpa' which clearly was not meant for us, but they have been charming to deal with and just sent me a credit to compensate for their slip-ups. Of course, their items also seem to go 'out of stock' astoundingly quickly.
5. Final pet peeve. If you plan to spend $30 on a gift, try to find something around $30. A number of my friends bought us several small gifts off the registry and then I kept having to add $10 and under gifts because I didn't want anyone to feel obliged to spend more than $10 on us, or to even feel that was an expectation. We have a lot of poor grad student friends and I think $10 is a totally appropriate gift, especially under the circumstances, but I'm starting to run out of items in that price range that we actually need.
6. Final thought. The best benefit of amazon is that several friends ordered an item off of our registry and then added a book that they remembered from their childhood. Those are the best presents to open - something we need, plus something personal and sweet from our friends.
1. Our friends are incredibly generous. I registered very, very selectively since we were living in a mini-apartment at the time (320 sq. ft., 1 bedroom), but all the same, almost everything off our registries has been purchased for us. I also think it comes from being among the first of our friends to have a baby, so our friends are much happier to select something off a registry than actually have to go into a baby store. I really think it might take us under $100 to buy the rest of the items we need off our registry, plus the 2 big items that I did not expect our friends to splurge on. I could not be happier about this.
2. Baby registries are much, much more work than wedding registries. And I should know, we just finished up our wedding registry ;-) I would estimate that at least 1/4 of the items I originally added to our list were unavailable by last week. A large part of this is because things like slings and cloth diapers come in so many different size and color options, and the truth is I don't care all that much. But every time a specific size or color gets sold out, the item becomes unavailable and I have to remember to keep logging in and changing my selection (and neither registry notifies me of this). Also, it really helps to register at 2 different places (we used amazon and ba.by.earth) because when one place lists an item as out of stock or discontinued the other place usually still has it.
3. Along the same lines of baby vs. wedding registries, neither of the places I registered has any type of completion package. Not nice. However, bab.ies 'r us really didn't have the items I wanted.
4. Finally, customer service. We registered at amazon and bab.y.earth.com and I have to say amazon's customer service was awful. The whole point of registering is to avoid duplicates, but somehow their computers were down for a couple of days and we received several duplicate items off our registry (where it reads, desired: 1, received: 3). Not only did I have to take them all to the post office to mail, but amazon is taking a full 14 business days to give us a credit and it's a bit unclear if they're even refunding the shipping costs on the return to us. Needless to say I was annoyed. Ba.by.eart.h also had a few slip-ups including a rather disturbing note from 'Grandma and Grandpa' which clearly was not meant for us, but they have been charming to deal with and just sent me a credit to compensate for their slip-ups. Of course, their items also seem to go 'out of stock' astoundingly quickly.
5. Final pet peeve. If you plan to spend $30 on a gift, try to find something around $30. A number of my friends bought us several small gifts off the registry and then I kept having to add $10 and under gifts because I didn't want anyone to feel obliged to spend more than $10 on us, or to even feel that was an expectation. We have a lot of poor grad student friends and I think $10 is a totally appropriate gift, especially under the circumstances, but I'm starting to run out of items in that price range that we actually need.
6. Final thought. The best benefit of amazon is that several friends ordered an item off of our registry and then added a book that they remembered from their childhood. Those are the best presents to open - something we need, plus something personal and sweet from our friends.
Really, truly 37 weeks
My brain is still full of snot, but other than that I feel great. In fact, as my doula put it tonight when she came to visit us, I really look more than a bit too glowing ... i.e. absolutely no sign of labor. No contractions on my NST, no Braxton-Hicks, no weird aches or pains (unrelated to the cold, that is). So into the world of natural induction we go. Starting with prim.er.ose oil and acupuncture this week, and who knows what fun next week ...
I am very, very glad to have made it to full term.
And I also wanted to explain a bit about all my recent whining. I'm sure it's quite dull to read and I really appreciate your wading through and even bothering to comment. I realized that a large part of why I want to record all of this, is to reassure myself that this wasn't all that easy and I had to put up with a good deal of hassle at the end, and yet it was all doable and entirely worth it. And I feel like if I don't record the little trials and tribulations of being 'high risk' someplace it's just possible that they might ballon in my or JD's mind (not that I let him read my blog, but I could show him posts in the future if I need to) to an insurmountable challenge which I couldn't possibly face again. And for all that I whine at lot, the truth is that I'd like to do this whole thing again as soon as our finances can support it.
I have 3 calls to make as soon as doctor's offices open in the morning, and then hopefully I will have managed to squeeze all 6 appointments into this week while still attending the 3 important meetings I need to go to and watching my friend's baby for an hour while she goes to an important meeting ... oh, and 2 birthday parties, 1 housewarming party, the opera, and an errand downtown relating to a store credit that's about to expire ... plus all my usual work for the week. Whee.
I am very, very glad to have made it to full term.
And I also wanted to explain a bit about all my recent whining. I'm sure it's quite dull to read and I really appreciate your wading through and even bothering to comment. I realized that a large part of why I want to record all of this, is to reassure myself that this wasn't all that easy and I had to put up with a good deal of hassle at the end, and yet it was all doable and entirely worth it. And I feel like if I don't record the little trials and tribulations of being 'high risk' someplace it's just possible that they might ballon in my or JD's mind (not that I let him read my blog, but I could show him posts in the future if I need to) to an insurmountable challenge which I couldn't possibly face again. And for all that I whine at lot, the truth is that I'd like to do this whole thing again as soon as our finances can support it.
I have 3 calls to make as soon as doctor's offices open in the morning, and then hopefully I will have managed to squeeze all 6 appointments into this week while still attending the 3 important meetings I need to go to and watching my friend's baby for an hour while she goes to an important meeting ... oh, and 2 birthday parties, 1 housewarming party, the opera, and an errand downtown relating to a store credit that's about to expire ... plus all my usual work for the week. Whee.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)