Ay caramba, dude!

So it's pretty much week 24 over here in baby-making land. I say "pretty much" because I've been counting the weeks as starting on Friday, so technically this is week 23, day 3. I'm not exactly sure why I started doing that. Oh, duh, it's because my due date is a Friday. See? LOGIC.

I've had a few pre-natal appointments, and my first ultrasound was a few weeks ago (though, and this is curious, I had an appointment right after that, but nobody at Kaiser thought to tell me that "Oh, the baby's development and placenta and organs all looked great on the ultrasound" until the very last appointment, which was... last Friday. Of course, I assumed that everything was fine - because otherwise they would've said something, no? - but this might be a sign of some quickly departing naivete on my part. I've been measured and weighed and the baby has been listened to, and hey, you know what? I seem to be growing a perfectly fine kid in there.

Believe me, I'm just as shocked and relieved as you are.

Last week I changed my appointment, which had originally been on Wednesday, to Friday, so I wouldn't have to use any work time to go, and I couldn't get the same midwife/nurse practitioner ladies I had before. Without naming names, the original midwife/nurse practitioner was much better, even though these appointments basically only consist of me urinating in a cup (messy, gosh, you'd think I'd be better at that by now), getting weighed, and having the doctor or whoever listen to the baby. This is the first time Patrick's schedule has allowed him to come to one of these routine appointments (he's been there for the major ones) so while he got to see the underwater view at the ultrasound, he's never heard the heart beat like that before. He thought that was pretty cool. And he agrees: the baby sounds like a teeny tiny very hungry washing machine(c). Well, I haven't copyrighted it yet, but I should, don't you think?

Anyway, though it means I'll probably have to use time off to go to my appointments (because I don't think the midwife/nurse practitioner I liked is available on Fridays, my day off), I think I'm going to go back to her from now on. There's not really much I can say about just what it was that I didn't like about the new lady, except that she was younger and more brusque than the other one. Oh, and she seemed to be under the impression that I had experienced some early contractions, which I have not, and even though I told her, nope, that's not a problem I'm having, she asked me again as if I could possibly have been mistaken.

No. I think I would remember that.

I scheduled a bunch of pre-natal classes for me and Patrick, including one on breastfeeding, and of course the Lamaze classes. I've pretty much done my best to avoid thinking about the day of actual delivery, but I guess it's time to start... oh, but the class doesn't start until next month, so I have some time still. Oh, and this week I scheduled my 3 hour glucose test, so I have that to look forward to.

I think I mentioned somewhere that we bought some baby furniture last week - crib, mattress, and dresser/changing table. The stuff is cute. The dresser is actually on order, but that's okay, because the room is, though mostly empty, not ready. Patrick emptied it of most of the things that were in there (except the closet, because now where the hell are we going to put our coats? My house has too few closets!), and started scraping the paint and patching the holes. We need to make a decision on wall color (I'm going for neutral, he seems to want an actual color on the walls), window coverings, and I need to go shopping with my parents for a glider or arm chair. We bought two braided rugs from JC Penney yesterday (one for the living room). The one for the baby's room is blue, and I hope I didn't make a mistake in choosing it without having anything else purchased. But they were having a sale, and our sweet neighbors (who work at JC Penney) gave us a coupon to use for an extra discount (1 day only!)... so it had to be done fast.

Today I finally made a decision about the car seat and stroller I want, though I could be easily swayed at this point if anybody cares to write in with their own suggestions. I just went with Consumer Reports' recommendation. And I'm starting to look at things (like bathtubs and rectal thermometers!) online, at Amazon and other baby-related sites, and to think about how I want the baby's room to look and function. Oh, and where I'm going to put all the crap in that closet. Seriously, it's a major issue.

Anyway, that's all the excitement going on in regards to that topic. We're still working on a name.

I'm sure this is fascinating reading, here. Other than the baby stuff, I've been at the theater, on the couch, and at work (possibly in that order). Really, my couch is very comfortable. Take my word for it.