Wordless Wednesday : Pot-Head

37 weeks...

Well, this past week was a bit eventful in terms of the pregnancy. I was feeling great, then my right hip started to bother me...and then to really hurt! The pain was a bit sharp and seemed to be greatest when I'm just getting up or walking, so much so that I'm now walking with a very pronounced limp. Aparently, kiddo has shifted down and is now crushing against my sciatic nerve over there. I tried ignoring it for a couple of days, but no go. Plus now I'm wicked slow at moving anywhere and I simply dread stairs.

Along with the fun-fun hip, I've started having more Braxton-Hicks contractions; these are the fake ones that are supposedly helping to get everything in there prepared for true labor. Most of these are not long and not terribly strong, but annoying, especially when they catch me off-guard.

On a really cool note...watching kiddo move around in there is way awesome because the bumps outward are really prounounced now. Very much like a little alien saying hello during his 2-3 active times during the day. It's been a big enough movement that I can show him off to colleagues and students as a cool science-freaky show :-)

The doctor appointment today was quick. Blood pressure still great, weight gain holding (as it has been for the past month), and water retention minimal. Baby heartbeat still great, size of me great = Doctor thinks everything is on track still. She did say that the nerve pain is pretty much a lost cost until the little one is born or shifts back off it. Luckily, I just have a few more days of school before I can relax a little more and put my feet up. If I keep progressing well, and nothing happens labor-wise on its own, we are still under the plan to induce around the 19 / 20.

Place your bets now on if he'll be jostled out early :-)

Baby Center's comments:

Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb. (Some babies need a bit more time, though. So if you're planning to have a repeat c-section, for example, your practitioner will schedule it for no earlier than 39 weeks unless there's a medical reason to intervene earlier.)

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Latest crafts

With a short break last weekend from school work, I got a few sewing projects completed and checked off my craft list.

Here's a shirt I finished for Tamlin when he becomes a Big Brother :-)














And here's an Easter Bunny for Tamlin made from some scrap fabric. Fairly easy to sew from this tutorial .
I may make it a tradition to add one each year for the boys...we'll see...


I hope to still get some diapers finished: fabric purchased, pattern cut, elastic waiting, ... I just haven't tried one yet after my last failed attempt.

And I want to whip up a stuffed fire truck or police car for kiddo, create a new curtain for the kids' room, finish an alphabet book / color book for Tam based on photos I've taken, AND do up a new dress for niece-to-be Ciearra. Sigh...maybe in the week post school and pre baby...

Easter basket

Okay...last Easter post from last week...

We did the Easter egg hunt and basket after church instead of waking up really early to do it before.

The basket held items from us as well as the Aunts, and Nana & Papa.

After an idea from a fellow mom, we strapped the plastic eggs to puzzle parts. These were dinosaurs from a puzzle from Nana and Papa. Tam has just recently been getting into dinosaurs, instead of just cars. I got Tam in the mood for looking for these by placing the blue dinosaur & egg in his room besides his bed so that he found it when he woke up.

The rest of the dinosaur/ eggs were placed around the living room for kiddo to find. The eggs all held either a nilla wafer cookie or a few jelly beans. It was great to see his face light up each time he found one. Then he would bring it over to me to help him open the egg and claim the sweet treat.

The last one found was the tyrannosaurus rex. "T-Rex, mama!" - Oh, this one is definitely his favorite dinosaur :-) Check out that happy-face picture while grasping the purple dinosaur.

The Easter basket was discovered afterwards and Tam the puzzle completed. The additional items in the basket were explored and thoroughly played with before lunch and nap.

Other big hits were the noisy construction book from the Aunts and the colored chalk from us.

Easter Sunday

Last Sunday was Easter, so we all got dudded up and headed to church for service. We usually attend the 8:30am service because the later service tends to run into Brian's work start time. This early service is a bit more intimate, often with only a couple dozen people, and it has more groovy/ hip music.

Brian leads the singing each Sunday, often singing harmony with a our piano player. This time around we added drum beats to our music as well. I also rang a handbell solo prelude that included the common Easter hymn "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." It was a bit difficult to ring while being 8months pregnant, in a dress, and in heels. But the tune was recognizable and I was glad to add the ringing of bells to the Easter celebration.

With our new pastor, he brought a new tradition to Easter Sunday. At the front of the alter, there was a large wooden cross encased in chicken-wire / mesh. Everyone who came to either service received a flower and then added the bloom to the cross via the mesh support. Even after our small morning service, the cross was starting to look so beautiful.

As you can see, the family cleans up pretty well. Auntie Shelly should be proud that I actually got Tam a cute little preppy outfit complete with vest and tie. He looked so cute. I even conviced Brian to wear his suit and tie. (He admitted later that he was glad he remembered how to tie a tie after only five tries). As for me, I am thankful for this spandix-material dress. It fits me great when I'm normal size...and stretched a bit to cover the baby belly and milk-heavy boobies. It was warm enough when we got home for a few photos outside.

Egg hunt at church

Last Saturday our education group held an activity time / egg hunt for kiddies.
I thought this would be a great opportunity for Tam to partcipate in a fun time with other kids and for us to get out of the house...and not have to deal with crazy parents that seem to always show up at public egg hunts. (You know the ones, psychos who snatch eggs, push toddlers, and general go crazy for $1.00 prizes).

For this I let Tam wear his new "tie" shirt I made him. Then, he insisted on wearing a hat like daddy. The hat was a gift from our neighbor's garage sale this past summer.

Once we got to the church, there were maybe two dozen kids between baby to ten. Their opening activity was coloring little Easter puzzles. Tamlin was all over this! He has really begun to like coloring and drawing cars...plus this was a chance to use MARKERS...which are pretty forbidden in our house :-) He managed to color the puzzle, his hands, my hands, and his pants.

The actual egg hunt was divided by age into three rooms. We had Tam head into the nursery with young ones and toddlers. This is where he goes every Sunday while we are church service, so he knows the room very well, especially where all the trucks and buses are kept. He caught on quickly that he had to search for plastic eggs and place them into his bag. What a hoot to watch him turn slowly around in the middle of the room, and then hollar out loud once he spied an egg!



When then gathered back with the other kids in the main room for opening their eggs and eating cupcakes. Tam needed a bit of help with the actual opening of the eggs, but he was all about getting the prize out of the center. His held toddler friendly little bunnies and chicks (which he called ducks) and gummi-fruit candy. Some slight of hand on Brian's part, and we could refill eggs after he opened them...so that he could open them again and get excited all over again!


The cupcakes were a great way to finish the event. Even though I cut the cupcake into quarters, Tamlin would shove a piece into his mouth, chew a couple of times, and then try to ask for more. "More? More, Mama?" Someone once asked me why I thought wee ones shove food into their mouths so much. Their thought was that maybe kiddo thinks the food will disappear if it wasn't eaten quickly. I, however, hypothesize that they do it so that they can show that have none left and then ask for more :-)


What a sweetie...colored markered hands and icing mouth and everything!