Bi-coastal Baby Travel

Well I have like 5 post lying in wait (thank phone blogging and teething babies!). Now I finally have an hour or so to get some stuff out there and this one is sort of important, because I may or may not have access to internet for the next week or so.

You see, I'm going on a plane.

With Kiddo.

To Pennsylvania.

This week.

This guy in a small metal tube flying through the air... oh boy!

Jelly? Yeah. I thought so.

I am so excited to get out of California and visit family that I made a check list WEEKS AGO of all the things I'll need to have packed in order for me to survive traveling with an almost 9 month old. Weeks ago. And then I read it off to my mother and husband on separate occasions to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I tried Kiddo on Cheerios so we could have baby plane food.

I'm not leaving until Monday, but yesterday I packed as much as I could to make sure I had enough space... and well, just to pack.

You see, this is a big trip. It's 5 hours just flying time, not to mention the check-ins, security lines, and gate wait. Add to that the drive down to LA and the drive from the Pittsburgh airport to my aunt's on the other end and it gets gnarly. To mitigate the waits and keep Kiddo comfy, we're going to stay in a hotel in LA and then start our journey across the continent the following day.

Like I said, exciting, but also... well. Kiddo is almost 9 months old. He's an active little guy. He's messy. He's excitable. He's talkative. When he's at all hungry or tired, he can be a real bear. This is not the kind of thing most people like on a plane. I'm hoping he'll be in a good mood, smiling and laughing the whole way.

Oh, and I also hope he poops on Monday - not Tuesday our flying day. Yeah. Pray for "No Poo Tues." Seriously. Pray.

Taking Care of Business

This past weekend was incredibly productive. In fact, I think it was so productive that I ended up needing a few days to recover afterwards (the reason I've been slow to post this week). So as a recap of everything we got done:

• We got an apartment washing machine. It will make a huge difference in cloth diapering and I'm super excited about it.
• We put the car seat in the car. It's really intense, and I can't imagine why anyone would want a less robust seat.
• I started the HypnoBabies homestudy course, which has already been incredibly useful in that it is very relaxing (and I'm sure helps lower my blood pressure).
• We prepped our cloth diapers.
• We set up our cosleeper and put away all the freshly laundered diapers and blankets in its storage area.
• We got our DTaP vaccines (which I think was what caused me to slow down to a crawl the past couple days - thanks to my lowered immune system).
• I went through various items around the apartment and organized others.
• I packed a little more of our "go" bag - though I still need something that is sized for 0-3 months and isn't a pull over onsie (snaps or a zipper would be really useful at this point).
• We mailed another batch of thank you cards.
• I wiped down a play mat that was given to us, and miraculously found a place to store it until the baby can use it.

...and there's still so much left to do.  Despite this, both Christian and I feel a lot more prepared. We're almost excited. However I'd be lying if I said we weren't both feeling a little anxious about our impending new sleep schedule, along with all the other expected changes that come with having a newborn.

After all, kiddo's estimated due date is only 4.5 weeks away. That's not long at all, assuming he sticks to the schedule. I can hope that he'll be late, but there's no guarantees of anything. The daily discomforts of having an insanely large belly are starting to get to me. Still, I'd rather get a few things accomplished before kiddo arrives. Just thinking about the possibility of not getting everything done makes my shoulders tense. I guess I should try to recruit some helpers, but I don't know how I would delegate tasks, let alone select helpers. Not having family in the area makes the whole process a lot more difficult.

I hate having to say it again, but I feel like my mantra is "we'll just have to wait and see." I am not a patient person. Grr.

Don't Stress or You'll Have a Baby!

Starting some time late last week I began having Braxton Hicks contractions that were noticeable. Needless to say, when I contacted my midwives about the issue, they became very concerned.

Certain types of sensations, and or a certain number of Braxton Hicks contractions are normal. Yes of course I have increased pelvic pressure around the 32nd week of pregnancy. My baby is probably about half the total birth weight I can expect (around 4 lbs, and I'm expecting something around 8 lbs at birth based on my birth weight and Christian's). The weight necessarily presses down on parts that haven't been pressed before. Yes, there is round ligament pain (which can feel all kinds of ways). Yes my uterus is getting some practice time in with light contractions. That is all to be expected...

• But you don't want to have contractions that involve menstrual type cramping.
• You don't want to have more than 4 contractions in an hour.
• You want to be able to get them to stop with some water or rest.
• There shouldn't be any bleeding or change in discharge.

Well, I'm not bleeding so don't have a coronary (though it seems my heart is trying to, let's not make that 2 or more people going to the ER). I have been able to get them to stop with a little rest and a whole lot of water. HOWEVER... I can honestly say some of the feelings I've been getting are like mild menstrual cramps and there were a few times where I had more of these contractions than was probably normal.

The most likely culprit?

Dehydration can cause this situation. Physical over-exertion can cause this too. But guess what? Emotional stress can be just as problematic as either of these. Emotional stress can actually send a lady into preterm labor (NOT something I want to deal with when my insurance situation is questionable come August 1 - think hospital birth and 2 month long NICU stays...bleh!). Guess which one is my problem!

So today after I took my blood pressure for the fourth time at my appointment and it was still high, my midwives told me I needed to take it easy. Drink water. Meditate. Sit by the estuary. And I will do those things (I think I'm on liter number 3 and I'm currently typing from the comfort of my memory foam pillow topper and Snoogle body pillow.). The problem is, I don't know how much these things will help.

The reality is, the only thing that will completely remove the kind of emotional turmoil I'm having is a solution. It's easy for people to tell me not to stress out or not to worry, but they don't have an impending birth and infant care to concern themselves over. They don't have to worry about how they're going to pay rent next month. We have almost no money left in our bank account and the month is only half over. Christian hasn't started his work yet and we have no idea how the pay periods fall. Even if we did, I don't think his first paycheck will be enough to cover basic needs like food and gas, let alone rent.

Then of course, I also have the whole nesting thing, which is stressing me out more. I want to organize our apartment. I want to purge things, or put things away, or build storage or something...but what's the point? I don't know how long I can afford to live here. I can't afford to buy things to make storage solutions. I can't afford to get rid of anything right now, because I won't be able to replace it if I find out I need it later. Right now, our apartment has piles of random things everywhere (everywhere for me means like 3 or 4 stacks of things on each of our 2 floors). It's driving me crazy because I can't do anything about it. We have half finished projects that we wanted to get done before the baby, but we can't afford to finish them.

Like the stacks of things, the stressors continue to pile up.

And I can't do anything about them.

I feel helpless and hopeless and incredibly frustrated. So my blood pressure spikes. My pulse quickens. And then I have a Braxton Hicks, which then increases my blood pressure, quickens my pulse even more, and causes me to struggle to breathe.

That is, if I don't start crying.

I don't want to go into preterm labor. I really don't. It's dangerous for everyone - not to mention the extra costs involved. I want kiddo to arrive as scheduled, in a comfy birth-center birth room, with candles and music and an extraordinarily low or nonexistent amount of pain, bleeding, or tearing. I want a low stress pregnancy too with few hurdles, but it seems life has different ideas.

So I'll try to cope as best as I can. I'm going to try to meditate twice a day (morning and night). I'm going to drink tons of water. I'm going to try to watch things that make me laugh and get some writing done from the comfort of my bed in an effort to reduce stress (writing, even if I'm working on a publishing goal, is a calming and cathartic exercise for me). And hopefully this works.

In the mean time, please continue sending positive thoughts and prayers. Please help us brainstorm ways out of our insane situation (crowd-sourcing seems to work for everything else, so why not this?). Please buy, read, rate, and review my newest book. All these things will help us tremendously. And with a little luck they'll keep kiddo cooking for a few more months.

Registering My Anxiety: Worrying About Baby Registries

As my baby showers get nearer, I'm wondering about every little thing on my registry. I'm wondering if I registered for the things I will really use and need. I'm wondering if because I registered on Amazon a whole bunch of people won't even look at my registry because they're not tech saavy (think: the sweet church women who are over 75). I'm wondering if the people who look at the registry will even bother with buying the things I requested. I'm wondering if I should have less clothes on there because well, I want the other things on there more (actually, of the non-essentials I'm most excited about books. I'm such a writer!). Then of course, I also feel a little guilty for putting so much on the list, but...this is my first and I've got limited resources at the moment so I only feel a little guilty. :-/

What makes it worse is that everything I've read gives conflicting advice. The only thing that seems to be universal is that "team green" is the safest way to get gifts off your registry. Mostly this is because people buy clothes for girls and random crap for boys (toys?). People tend not to buy things on the list when they know the sex. I guess that's one more good reason not to tell people...

Even writing this I feel like a gift grabber. :-( But I can't help it. I've got limited income and this is my first kid. I don't have a foundation of gear to rely on (another reason to keep early stuff "team green"). Everything on my list was carefully thought through because I want it to last. I want it to be useable with #2 if there is one (I'm 90% sure there will be, but we'll see how round 1 goes). That's one of the reasons I'm primarily cloth diapering (sposie users - spare me the poop comments and the grimaces). I don't want to spend 1000s annually that will basically just get stuffed into a landfill.

Incidentally...I really hope I get diaper covers. Really.

Don't worry, I have a plan in place if the registry doesn't work out like it should. Is it solid? Mostly (badumcha!). And the reality is if I get a ton of clothes, they will be useful (assuming they're not in newborn sizes!). And I'm pretty excited about some of the handmade things I know I'm getting (my aunt is making a blanket!). These things are useful and obviously not all on the registry (though they are similar to things listed).

I also know, from my wedding gifts, that I may have missed something. One of the most useful gifts I got at my wedding shower was something I didn't register for (a casserole dish - not sexy, but I have used that thing constantly!).

For those gifts that just won't work for our lifestyle, they're getting returned. Remember: we live in a tiny loft. Exersaucers are a bad idea for us. Anything big and bulky, no matter how highly reviewed is getting exchanged. Pretty much anything that squeaks, honks, or whirs is getting returned for my personal sanity. I have a cat. She yowls enough. I don't need a baby toy band.

Now I just have the nail-biting wait. Maybe it's gouche to wonder aloud, but I can't help it (and let's face it - everybody does it!). What will I get? How much will I have to spend (and scramble while waddling)? The suspense is killing me!

In the mean time, I'll try to focus on writing and organzing my life. These are big enough distractions I don't think I'll have time to wonder about baby gear... Ahem. Right.

If I keep telling myself that, it might come true? Right? Right???