He was due yesterday, but he didn’t feel like coming out!

Of course not, he’s definitely going to be a troublemaker…

It’s getting to be quite difficult to type on a laptop!

Although this Friday will mark 40 weeks, the 40 week checkup was this morning. We got there on time this time but had to wait because I took too long providing a urine sample. Blah. We brought the little crappy misting fan that we got to help me deal with labor and being roasty, and it was used well.

Anyway, this appointment was with the regular doctor I’d been seeing throughout most of this experience. He gave the overbaking speech (what happens if I go overdue) which was a bit scary. Not looking forward to induction or having the baby chopped out of me, that’s for sure! It’s also very unlikely that they’d let me hit 42 weeks if my body tried that.. not that that’s optimal, but he’d be a Virgo if he did hold on until then. So, I’m apparently 1.5 cm dilated – and that makes pelvic exams really uncomfortable, not that I will give a shit about that piddling amount of pain when I’m in labor. Things are progressing, I’m not YET overdue, and there’s surely a chance he could come out on his due date, which would be neat.

Random people in public (like restaurant hosts, bank personnel, etc.) are amazed that I’m still going out and about. Either that or they’re afraid my water will break and they will have to deal with it.

Speaking of restaurants, when we went to The Olive Garden a couple of nights ago, the family the next table over had a very young baby. I noticed that she? didn’t cry a lot, and wasn’t especially loud when she? did cry. I have been worried about going out in public places with the baby but I now realize that he will be far more annoying when he is a little older.

Digressively: something I found interesting but James thinks looks like more of a pain than it’s worth – Mei Tai baby carriers.

Yesterday morning at the tender time of 10:30, we were in the waiting room at good old Kaiser for a 10:40 appointment for the 39 week checkup. At the not-as-tender time of 11:20, we were still sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor. What a reward for coming in early – we should’ve stuck to showing up late.

The nurse asked if I wanted to be examined (internally, the fun stuff) to see if there was any progress, and I said yes. This resulted in the removal of the lower half of my clothing and the mostly modest covering by one of those blue drapes. Said draping turned out to be futile and mostly uncomfortable, as being pregnant, short, and undressed means that sitting on a paper table does not work very well. Anyway, the doctor (yet another unfamiliar one) was sort of.. we didn’t like her, anyway. She was technically all right, and she actually washed her hands, which most of them don’t bother with. She didn’t do the internal, citing that since we attended the childbirth class I’d know if labor were imminent. Sigh, why was I sitting there in a damned drape, then? Once the doctor arrived, though, the entire process may have taken five minutes and I was working on very little sleep, as is often the case these days. We weren’t feeling very assertive.

Anyway, his head is where it should be (pointing down and not dropped yet) and his heartbeat sounds good – musical, even! This won’t mean much to most people, but it sort of reminded us of the Magical Trevor song.

In any event, the baby is not coming yet. There’s still a week until he’s due, so no big deal. I suppose I’d have liked the extra hand-holding since I’m inexperienced at this, but I trust that he’s not going to just fly out without any pain. Even the women who have no clue they’re pregnant that do shows on Discovery Health are often significantly sick in some way before the surprise kid pops out.

It’s a very weird feeling, wanting a pregnancy to be over already but being terrified about the new person about to join our lives. From what I understand, that’s supposed to be normal.. doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel weird!

The normal doctor had to attend to another patient, so we ended up visiting an unknown doctor at the KaiserPlex. She turned out to be very nice, so yay! I’m still, umm, closed up tight and the baby’s head hasn’t dropped yet. We’re now to the point where visits will be weekly until I pop.. let’s just say that pelvic exams, while tolerable, are not fun – especially when the office is five hundred frickin’ degrees. In any event, Puntypaws isn’t ready to come out just yet.

Any bets/guesses as to whether he will arrive anywhere near his due date?

Oh – we got a hamper and a trash can for his room, hehe. The important stuff!

So, setting up the carseats, I noticed that there was a supplement/replacement page in the instruction manual.  You know those games in kids magazines where you’re supposed to spot the differences between the images?  Well, relive your childhood.  Here you go:

My score?  0.  No differences (Ignoring the subtle coloring / line break differences,  and the helpful header)   Am I blind?  Maybe.  But I sure can’t tell what prompted them to print the errata…

Put the replacement together – all pieces accounted for.   It DID however, burst into flames during the crash test. Er, maybe not.  The original was a  bit disappointing though – it’s amazing how much of the stuff you buy these days is just plain crap – how do you miss a giant giant smash/crack like that when packing the thing?   C’mon.   Between that and the first Crib that they tried to deliver… are these people even trying these days. Still need to get the bases in the car, but gear wise, we’re otherwise set up.

Now we just need to get a video of Kirin’s stomach – Puntypaws is basically dancing – it’s like a stomach-quake.

Evidently, he’s a bit camera-shy.   As soon as I busted out the camera, he stopped.  D’oh.

On May 31st, we purchased one of these travel systems from Babies R Us. Today we opened the damn thing to get the car seat bases set up and the stroller was broken! Even more annoying is that it’s been discontinued there, so we had to exchange it for this one, which was by far the least obnoxious print available currently.. and it cost more, blah. Let’s hope this one is not broken, because a travel system is a bit of a pain in the ass to get back to a store!

We went to visit the new Babies R Us in Sunnyvale and went home with this bassinet and a bunch of cloth products like burp cloths, socks, and hooded towels. Basically, we want to keep the baby with us at least until we figure out the whole feeding and sleeping through the night thing.

I also ordered nursing bras from Bravado Designs today. Sizing on these things is confusing! Then again, I have absolutely no idea what my boobs will do considering I’ve never experienced this before. Hell, I’m not even sure about breastfeeding due to the inexperience factor. But time will tell, as it does with all things.

Article on Cracked – good stuff!

We spent a large portion of the evening speaking with our respective parents who are to be visiting us in September.  By then, the baby should be here for enough time that we’re fairly comfortable with the basics, like how to feed and diaper him.  For some reason, I am very self-conscious about this inexperienced mother thing, but I think that most of it is feeling weird about whether breastfeeding will succeed or not.  Anyway, James is researching hotels (we don’t really have enough space to put people up here unless they’re keen on air mattresses in living rooms) for them to sleep at.  Hopefully our new couch will have arrived by then!