Week 41

OK, I don't have a regular weekly photo to share this week. Sorry! Many people are wondering and the answer is yes, I am still pregnant. Tomorrow we are officially a week overdue. I have tried just about everything to jump start labor but so far no luck. We tried strenuous activity over the weekend by cleaning the entire house. Nothing. Greg keeps making me take long walks even if they are around the living room because of new snowfall. Nothing. On Monday I took Castor oil and had a few minor cramps for an hour and then went back to feeling great. So nothing. I have been using primrose oil every day on my cervix but that has resulted in barely 1 cm dilation. Today we started acupuncture treatments (above photo). So far nothing. You can kind of see the needles in my shins and hands. There were also needles on my ears, collar bone and ankles. This was my first experience with acupuncture and it was not bad at all. Not painful anyway. They burned three rounds of moxi on the needles in my shins so right now I smell like really bad marijuana. I am sure people on the subway were wondering why a woman as pregnant as I smelled like weed!

On a happy front I had a non-stress test today and little Koobie was very happy and not stressed and doing great in my belly. Apparently I am a great gestator! The sad news is that as of midnight tonight we are risked out of the birth center at Roosevelt hospital. They only allow you to be 6 days overdue and still use the center. We now have to go to the labor and delivery floor to have our baby. It is not the end of the world at all but I am very disappointed by the news and have been working hard to come to terms with it. I know that God's timing is perfect and there is a reason he wants this baby to stay where she is, it is just hard to let go of my plans and desires.

So we are still waiting. I am working a little from home. Greg stayed home today to go to all my appointments but will probably go back to work tomorrow while we wait. I guess we waited over 2 years for this little girl, we can wait a few more days!

Week 40

Hello due date. Good-bye due date! We are officially overdue today. It is funny because we really want the baby to be born but each day we have been saying "but not today because...." there is a meeting, a deadline, the birth center is having the floors redone and is closed and most recently there is a blizzard coming. We got about 8 inches of snow over the weekend at our house and certainly didn't want to try to navigate our way to the hospital in that kind of weather. So now we find ourselves overdue. At my regular appointment yesterday we talked about some ways to try and induce labor at home. Poor Koobie, first she got her head frozen for being breech and now we are going to torture her some more with long walks, special oils, and laxatives to try to encourage her to be born! She really is going to hate us when she finally pops out!

I have definitely turned that corner from being happy to have her stay inside forever and saying things like "I will miss this bump of mine when it is gone" to my new state of being ready to have this baby outside of me so I can have my regular body back, sleep on my stomach and wear regular clothes again (I miss shopping for me!). It is just getting so tough to get around and find positions to be comfortable in. For instance I have been working all the way up until today but decided yesterday that baby or no baby I would not be in next week. It is just too hard commuting each morning on crowded trains and multiple flights of stairs. Plus I am at the point where I am so pregnant it makes people at work nervous. That being said we are really hoping and praying that she and my body decide to work together this weekend to be born. I found out my favorite midwife in the group is on call on Sunday which would be great. Plus that is Valentine's day and so many people have been hoping for a valentine's baby.

So I leave you with this fun comparison. Here was my view looking down at 34 weeks. And here is my new view at 40 weeks. Still can't see my shoes or much else!

Koobie's Room

We finally put the finishing touches on Koobie's nursery. It is all decorated, cleaned and stocked and ready for her arrival! My handy guy did some light work to get the pictures hung on the walls and items hung from the ceiling. Now we are ready to give you all a tour!

Welcome to Koobie's room. The little lamb is leftover from the shower and the baby bootie garland was a gift from Alice. When you step in and close that door you see our main bookcase holding Koobie's toys and supplies. You can see my big pom pom balls found a place to hang. If we work our way around the room we see the dresser turned changing table. I hung a couple more pom pom balls and paper lanterns for Koobie to look at while she gets her bum cleaned off. In the corner is Koobie's co-sleeper all ready to be used. It is hard to see the pictures on the wall but they are manatee watercolors that Greg and I have had for years. The final corner is where we have Greg's Grandmother's rocking chair and a little night stand that holds Koobie's books and odds and ends that come in handy when rocking and feeding. The tree is a vinyl cling from Land of Nod. The final wall is all doors so there is nothing to show. Koobie has 4 doors in her room! That limits the space we had to work with but we are very happy with how her little room turned out. Her dresser is all stocked with diapers, extra wipes, tiny socks and hats and booties. All her 0-3 month clothes are crammed into the second drawer with linens, towels, blankets, and some 3-6 month clothes in the bottom drawer. OK Koobie, we are ready for you to use your new space! Love Mommy and Daddy! Of course after the photo opportunity our work was not really done. We had to actually move the co-sleeper into our room, attach it to the bed and rearrange everything. It is actually pretty huge so we had to really change everything around. I am sad to lose my nightstand but it will be very nice to have her within arms reach for late night feedings. I am glad we tackled this before Koobie arrived. It was a lot more work moving furniture and lifting the mattress than I anticipated.

Pom Pom Ball Decorations

Finally a craft post! Can you believe this used to be a craft blog? Heck, it used to be a scrapbooking blog but we won't go there today. As I mentioned previously a couple girlfriends threw me a baby shower recently. We had it at my house since I have a lot of space by NYC standards and the guest list was a little on the big side. I offered to handle all the decorations mainly because I had wanted to try making these pom pom balls I had seen in Martha Stewart Living (January issue I believe). I thought I could use them for the party and then move them into the nursery when the party was over. I have been a fan of Martha's tissue paper pom pom balls for a long time. I made them for this previous shower and loved the effect. So when I saw this new version of the pom pom I thought they looked just as easy and cool so I thought I would give them a try. First I got out my materials. They have a foam ball center, some ribbon to hang the ball by, and the rest is made from cupcake liners you can buy at any grocery store or cake decorating supply shop. I got all my supplies at Michael's. I found pink Wilton's cupcake liners with green stripes (my color scheme for Koobie's room). You also need hot glue and some kind of stick, pencil or implement to attache the cupcake liners with. I ended up using a couple bowls too which I will show you. First thing I did was make a hole in the top of my foam ball and glue one end of my ribbon into it. Then I was ready to start. You basically take a cupcake liner and smoosh it over the end of a pencil erasor or dowl. I used a folding tool with a blunt end (the green stick). Then you apply some hot glue to the smooshed liner and attach it to the foam ball. Right away I noticed a problem. The hot glue melts the foam ball so you have to hold the liner in place for a few seconds until the glue cools and sticks to the ball. Otherwise the liner will just fall off. This means the process is a little on the slow side. I made up for that by watching season 1 of the Closer while I worked. Good show! I started adding liners around my attached ribbon and then began working out. On the first ball I did I just added liners willy nilly very close together. This produced an uneven surface and I actually ran out of liners long before finishing the ball. Not good. So for the next ball I learned my lesson and began working in quadrants. Counting out liners in the rows so they would be about even and spacing them out a bit so that the surface would look even. This worked MUCH better and I was able to complete a small ball with just 2 packages of mini cupcake liners (the foam ball was 4" in diameter). I found that placing the foam ball in a small bowl while I worked kept it from rolling around. I also found I could move faster if I smooshed all the liners in advance and tossed them into a big bowl. Then I could just focus on gluing quickly. I have to say I love the way the balls turned out. I hung them from the ceiling and a light fixture with a few white paper lanterns for the party. However there were some other lessons learned. This project is expensive. Tissue paper pom poms cost a couple bucks total. These pom pom balls were about $13 for each big ball (I made 2) and $8 for each small ball (I made 2). My large balls had a 6" core ($5) and it took 4 pkgs of regular liners to cover each one (75 count $2 each). My small balls had a 4" core ($4) and it took 2 pkgs of mini liners to cover each one (100 count $2 each). Not terrible but if you are just using them for a party decoration and throwing them away I think that is a waste of money. They are also time consuming to make. Tissue pom poms are a 30 min project, these balls took me almost 2 days to complete. Again, if you intend them to be disposable I would say that is a waste of time. I am planning to use at least some of mine in the nursery so it was more worth the time and expense. This project reminded me of grade school when we used to twist small tissue paper squares around the end of a pencil, dip them in Elmer's glue and stick them to a piece of paper. Very similar except in grade school I never burned my finger with the glue gun! Ouch! Be careful out there and consider this project. I was thinking on a much smaller scale it could make some cute Christmas ball ornaments for a Christmas tree.

Week 39

Week 39 is almost over. I had my regular check-up today and nothing has really changed since last week. Baby is still head down, my cervix is ripening but not opening and she is only "dipping" into my pelvis (-4 or -3 station) which is fancy talk for, "it looks like we will probably be seeing you for your appointment next week". According to my providers my due date is February 11th so they think I have a full week before I am even due. Everywhere else I look, every book, every website, every pregnancy wheel says I am due on February 9th. It really doesn't matter. I know that babies come when they are ready and all those dates are just a guess. It is fine with me if she wants to hang out in my tum a little longer. I have lots of things left to accomplish before she arrives at work and at home. I didn't manage to get my last bit of decor up in the nursery last weekend so I could take pictures to share with my blog readers. I did manage to get my hospital bag finished and do a big run to the grocery store for labor snacks and postpartum freezer meals which is good. Plus Greg and I managed to win Super Mario Brothers Wii over the weekend which is very important for parenting preparation!

Overall I am still feeling really good though a little stiff and my waddle is becoming much more pronounced and slowing me down a bit. My last vacancy in the office was filled this week so I have a full staff now which has removed a lot of the burden from my shoulders in terms of being ready to leave work. That is great! I will probably keep working next week if things don't start changing and I still feel good. I hate to waste my precious leave days with no little baby to care for. I can sit in my desk chair as easily as I can sit on my couch watching tv or reading books on breastfeeding and baby care (my latest topics). Anyway, that is the latest from the Cruikshanks. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!