35 Week Special: Ham hands & hot hobbit feet in a pool of saliva

I can't claim to be feeling terrible, even 5 weeks from our due date, but I do have a few ailments I'm sure you're all dying to know about. Let's start with the ham hands. After a bit of a nervous "episode" on Friday, Paul decided I needed to get out of the city so we spent the day up in Santa Barbara. It was much cooler there than by our house, but I couldn't escape the swelling of the hands and feet. After dipping my feet in the cold ocean water they felt a lot better, but my hands didn't. My fingers swell up and the palms of my hands turn odd shades of red and white. Not pretty, and, thanks to Paul, the phenomenon is now known as "ham hands." These ham hands have gone from the 6 rings I normally wear to one $5 oversized faux silver band on my wedding finger. I tried to make my wedding band work, but sayonara! No dice. In addition I have achey finger joints all day long, which is supposedly due to excess fluids hanging around my digits. Along with the arthritic ham hands I have NHFS (Nightly Hot Foot Syndrome). This is annoying as hell, especially for Paul I reckon, because the only thing that cools them down is a foot massage. Even with the inevitable soothing foot massage, I could do without the NHFS, thank you. What could possibly make all this better? An endless supply of saliva! Where is all this excess saliva coming from? I can't stop drooling, especially when I sleep. This afternoon I fell asleep and woke up with a giant pool of drool on my arm, with more dripping from the side of my mouth. I wiped it off, dozed off again, and it was like I never wiped away the first lot. While all this is going on, Mave is tucked away in there getting her beauty rest in preparation for her arrival. Then she can pick up with the drooling where I left off.

33 weeks- 7 weeks to go!

They aren't kidding when they say you grow fast towards the end.

The ginormity of the side view.

Frontal view. Bit caught off guard in this picture.

Sliders

The novelty of maternity pants has worn off. Now, I have never been happy when it came to shopping for pants. I've got a real disability with a waist that is too small for my thighs. Before pregnancy, pants fell into two categories for me: A) too tight in the leg, just right in the waist, or B) just right in the leg, too loose in the waist. Yep. I would spend a lot of time at the mall avoiding pant shopping. I was certain pregnancy would be different since I would be dealing with an anti-waist. How wrong was I?? I don't know that it would matter if my thighs DIDN'T fall into the "more to love" category. These pants would still suck. It seems as though I spend every 3-5 minutes yanking them back up to my boobs, only to have them fall back down again in a matter of seconds. What is with the constant sliding? Women have been wearing pants for years and years now. You'd think someone would learn how to make a pair of maternity pants that don't slide. Actually, I am sure they do. J-Lo had to wear something other than muu muus, right? I'm sure they're $500 a pair and, thus, will never be clinging to these thighs. Oh well. I guess trousers and I were just not made for one another, pregnant or not.

32 Weeks

Once again I find myself a textbook case in the last trimester. I can't stop cleaning and organizing, and all I really want to do is get the house in order and "make room for baby". The Mave's room is finally painted and her crib is up! The closet fittings were pretty useless in her room, so we are going to get new stuff to install in there this weekend. Paul also built the toybox that Aunt Laura sent. :) Between that and the closet being finished shortly I can actually start putting things away in Mave's room. We ordered the rest of her furniture 2 weeks ago, when I was 10 weeks away from our due date. Of course they told us it would take 10 weeks for it to get here. Typical. As long as we have a crib and butt wiping supplies we should be fine if she decides to arrive early, but it would be nice if everything came early so I could have the room completely ready and not have to worry about finishing things when she is already here. Speaking of finishing things, I've also finished designing the birth announcements and have all the envelopes addressed and ready to be stuffed. I figured this was the only way they would actually go out and now all I will have to do is add the correct info on the mock-up and print them out, which may be easier said than done with a newborn. I've just gotten 2 very hard kicks in the abdomen. I'm taking this as a sign that someone down there is sick of hearing my stomach growl and I should go eat breakfast.

30 week belly pic

If your imagination is as warped as mine you might think my boobs and stomach look like a face, with the boobs being the 2 eyes, of course.

30 Weeks

10 weeks to go. Oh dear. I partially want to fast forward to the moment the Mave is born, while partially wanting to hit pause thinking about how everything is going to change. It's a whirlwind of mixed emotions, but both Paul and I are well up for the challenge of being parents. At this point we'd better be, right?
In preparation, we're taking some classes in a few weeks. Last night we went to an orientation at Encino-Tarzana hospital, where we're having the baby. I'd heard so many great things about the birthing center at this hospital that I decided I wanted to give birth there, despite there being a decent hospital 5 minutes down the road. Encino-Tarzana hospital is a 20 minute drive on the freeway, which could end up being longer if the Mave happens to decide rush hour is a good time to start her journey out. I'm not worried about giving birth in 30-40 minutes or anything (that would just be wishful thinking). I'm just trying to imagine what fantastical cuss words will be flying out of my mouth if stuck in traffic AND in labor. I'll probably have to write a whole new dictionary after the experience.
So back on track, we went to the orientation, sat in a room of very pregnant women shoving cheesecake into their gobs (afterthought: why did I opt for the cookie when I could have had the cheesecake?), and watched a slide show. Then they had a raffle. I know Paul was terribly upset to not win one of the daddy diaper bags, but I made up for it when I won a 20-pack of diapers! I won! And these ain't no storebought diapers; these are hospital grade absorbancy, baby! It says so on the packaging.
Anyway... the hospital is great (as far as hospitals go). They have an entire wing devoted to birthing, and it didn't seem stale like hospitals often do. The labor & delivery rooms are large and have beds made specifically for birthing (the bottom portion can be removed, making it easier for the OB to deliver the baby), and a bathroom with a sit down shower. There is also a warmer and bath center so the baby can stay with you after birth instead of having to get bathed in another room. After recovering for about an hour in the delivery rooms, you go to the postnatal room. These rooms are all singles!! YAY! No having to share a bathroom with a stranger (one of my least favorite things to do). They even have sleeper chairs so I don't have to worry about Paul being uncomfortable. So it looks like this hospital is well deserving of all the hype.
The Mave is doing well. Not much has changed since last week. I'll try to get an updated belly picture up in the next week.

29 Weeks

Things are looking pretty good here at 29 weeks. We went to the perinatologist yesterday for our third trimester ultrasound and the baby is doing great. All her organs, blood flow, and brain function look good, and she is now 2-1/2 pounds, which is pretty textbook at this point. I am feeling pretty good but can tell the energy is starting to fade a bit. It's not too bad yet, and I'm just trying to listen to my body and go with the flow. I never received that dreaded phone call saying I had to do the longer version of the glucose tolerance test, so looks like I'm negative for gestational diabetes. Yay! I'm off but I leave you with some pics of the Mave from yesterday's ultrasound. She's got chubby cheeks and her daddy's lips! (Click on the pictures for larger versions.)