Yesterday’s mini-shopping spree was spot-on. I got those few lingering items that I will need to take to the hospital with me, including a really cool sock monkey robe–no, it isn’t MADE of sock monkeys, it’s just got a design of sock monkeys all over it. (Is it just that it is still early in the morning for me or did I really just need to look up how to spell “monkeys?”)

My sister was insistent that she buy Sun’s “going home” outfit (which she thinks will also be the day of her official hospital photo). After a long, hard search, we settled on this:

It looks really big in this picture, but it isn’t at all, and it is really soft (I don’t know what they did to the cotton) and cute.

And then (Southern Mom, are you sitting down?), I bought this onesie for Sun:

[Oh my God! Did I just post my first pictures to this website?? I think I did! Thanks, Pete!]

SM has been insisting I need to buy clothes for Sun. I have been insisting right back that I didn’t need to be buying any clothes for her–that (1) I needed to see what I’d get in the way of clothes at the shower first; and (2) I felt superstitious about buying things too soon. But then I saw this and HAD TO HAVE IT. And I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that I call myself Nola on this website. It was just such a cute New Orleans onesie I literally could not resist. Very much out of character for me–I generally HATE shopping and have never had a “had-to-have-it” moment over any item of clothing.

All in all, yesterday’s outing was nice, restful and productive. And last night I slept very well (I may have even slept eight hours in a row!) and am feeling really well today and quite positive about our doctor’s visit this afternoon.

That cramp in my abdomen (I guess I can call it a contraction–that just seems so weird!) returned this morning. So yet another day not at the office! Oy. I am drinking water like a fish and trying not to worry. That is hard for me to do–the no worrying thing.

So to get my mind off of things, I am doing what any self respecting woman would do–I am going shopping with my sister. I still need a few items that I need to take to the hospital when it’s the Real Thing, and it seems like I better just go ahead and knock that out. My sister offered to chauffeur me around slowly and restfully so I can get those few things purchased. And we’ll do lunch somewhere in there, too. It always helps me to have a nice meal to look forward to.

Then tomorrow, we are back to the ultrasound doctor to see how things are coming along. My mantra is, “Week 35; Week 35.” Apparently, a baby born in or after Week 35 has far less preemie problems than one born earlier. That is next week. Surely I can make that, right?

I wasn’t feeling well today, and all I ate was a bagel. Then this afternoon, I felt this sharp, shooting cramp in my abdomen. No biggie, I think, it’ll pass. Fifteen minutes pass, then thirty, and I am still cramping. After an hour of no relief, I call the doctor and CS and we are told to go the the hospital. Yeah, I figured they’d tell me that. Damn.

We get to the Labor & Delivery Unit and I get hooked up to the fetal heart monitor. Of course, by this time, the cramp is no longer sharp and shooting but dull and not worrisome to me. The RN asks, “On a scale of one to ten, where would you put the pain?” How embarrassing to say weakly, “Two point five.” I mean, I never told anyone it was hurting–I used the word “cramp.” What worried me was that this cramp was constant for over an hour. Boy, did I feel like a hypochondriac/paranoid/overly sensitive patient. I hate that feeling.

After an hour on the fetal heart monitor, the RN tells me that I am having contractions. Wha?? Since being on the monitor, I am feeling less and less of the cramp and no new sensation. And somewhere in there were contractions? I do NOT get this being pregnant thing. Nothing feels as I would expect it.

So what do they do to help me before sending me on my way? I am further embarrassed to say that they gave me a tall glass of water to drink. Water. To drink. I drink water all day long. It is ridiculous how much water I drink. Except today. Since I ate so little, I drank less than I usually do. And apparently that brought on contractions. Errrr.

The OB tells me today that Sun is being scheduled for a C-section delivery on June 29th. She may come sooner, but if not (and she stays breech), we will be doing a C-section in one month (two weeks before her due date).

Well, well. On the one hand, I am relieved. All this monitoring is a drag, and to have a date set is somewhat reassuring. And she could still flip which would cause them to induce instead of do a C-section.

But it just all seems so surreal. In one short month (or sooner), I will be a mother. And CS will be a father. And I still have no idea how to do most of any of this baby stuff. I am confident it will come to me. It’s not that I am worried I won’t be a “good mother.” It’s just that I still haven’t fully wrapped my head around the fact that I will be a “mother.” That is a label I never really get to a comfortable place with. On some level, I fell like a dog who always chases cars–except this time the dog caught a car and is going “thump, thump, thump” down the street.

The energy that has been put into getting pregnant and maintaining this pregnancy has been very time consuming–and distracting of the fact that the result of all that energy is a baby. Period. It was all for this one thing. I mean, we KNEW that the baby was the end result. But I allowed myself to get so focused on the process that sometimes I haven’t seen the forest for the trees. And right now, I feel like I am coming out of the forest, and the trees are thinning out and in the horizon is my pot of gold. All shiny and perfect and waiting for me.

But somehow I know that what I think the value of that pot of gold is isn’t what it really is. And the real journey will begin when I lay my very own eyes on my very real baby–not ultrasound pictures or mental images–but on Sun her very own self. I don’t see how it’s possible to be prepared for that moment. The moment when I will meet who I know will be the most important person in my life.

Today, after our usual Sunday morning breakfast with Southern Mom and her family, we managed to get the SM clan over to our house so SM could show me how to assemble the layers of sheets and pads on the crib. They really ought to have a class for new parents on all the baby accouterments–I defy someone to tell me they intrinsically knew what to do with all this stuff without getting advice from other mothers. It’s insane! So a big thanks to SM!!

The second to last thing to be done in the nursery is to install a ceiling fan. We selected and purchased one today (I’d tell you it is pastel and has butterfly pulls, but then SM will say that the theme in the nursery is butterflies–because Sun’s mobile also has butterflies–but then I’d have to kill SM). CS promises the fan will be finished tomorrow. That will leave one last thing needing to be done in the nursery–the wood floors need a good polish to put a shine back on them that eight dog paws took off. That will be done this week. The nursery will be complete. All it will need is the baby. That is so weird to me.

Also today, CS and I went to see Spider-Man 3. I knew going in I wouldn’t like it. I don’t like Tobey Maguire, and I’d heard he cried (with tears) eight times in the movie and that Kirsten Dunst sang three times. Yuck. Thank God she never finished a song; I’d have cried, too. CS was all kinds of angry for the movie being so bad. I explained that his expectations were too high. I, on the other hand, expected crap and got what I expected. No letdown, no anger.

Oh, and my Mad Libs Thank You Note was returned to us today by the recipients. They had filled in all my blanks. So do I now need to send a card in response to their responding to my card? Ugh!

Here’s the completed card (the bracketed words were the lexical or other category beneath my blanks; the underlined words are those blanks as filled in by our friends):

Dear O Generous Ones [gift giver]:

Thank you so much for the Target gift card. We are certain to use it for various and sundry baby items, including chicken wire, mouse traps, and electroshock devices [nouns for baby stuff]. We are really traumatized [positive adjective] by your jocular [positive adjective] gift. You really shouldn’t have.

Love,
Nola and CS

Last night, CS and I were treated to dinner by another couple as a thank you to work CS did for them. I LOVE getting the perks of CS’s freebies! They took us to a place I hadn’t yet been–Martinique Bistro on Magazine Street. This place is so cool! It’s got a great courtyard that we dined in. The restaurant (including the courtyard) is quaint and romantic. They have a great wine list (I am told); the three of them enjoyed a nice Pinot Noir. For starters, I had a crawfish cake (YUM!) and CS had the salmon tartare–he said it was delicious, though it looked like I can of cat food had been placed on arugula; they may want to consider reshaping this appetizer into a triangle instead of a circle. Our friends started with escargot and a spinach crepe. By all accounts, the four appetizers were a hit.

For the main dish, I eyed bouillabaisse on the menu and thought, hey, a French bistro is the place to finally try this dish. Oh. My. God. It was heaven. It had clams, shrimp and fish in this incredible broth. I was sorry not to have been able to finish it. At least by the eighth month of being pregnant, I am finally learning not to over eat and cause myself heartburn. CS had a pork dish that was also perfectly cooked and divine.

For dessert, I had their homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream, and I sampled the other couple’s white chocolate bread pudding. That bread pudding kicked the ice cream’s ass.

The weather held out and so it was another beautiful, mild, bug-free New Orleans evening. A true delight.

CS and I went to Greek Fest last night with, it seemed, the rest of New Orleans. Pete was there, and Southern Mom and her family, and many friends. We had a really good time–the weather was divine. In New Orleans, the weather can make or break an evening: last night, it made it! OPA!

The Greek Church bought some more land, and so the Fest was a bit larger this year–which means there was more breathing room. Ahhhh. The worst of the evening was that we forgot to bring chairs. Standing for a long time is no fun for me, but sitting on the ground makes my feet fall asleep so that wasn’t working for too long either. And walking just sucks for me these days. So I spent the evening rotating from an ambulatory state to a resting state. When it got to the point that my lower back and down all ached (four hours into the Fest), we left.
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Here is the funniest line of questioning I’ve ever had with a doctor:

Doc: Do you smoke?
Me: No.
Doc: Does your husband smoke?
Me: No.
Doc: Do you live with anyone who smokes?
Me: No.
Doc: Do your neighbors smoke?
Me: Pardon? Do my neighbors smoke? I, I really don’t know….

Apparently being around smokers is quite bad for me and Sun.

Today, I am working on my thank you notes for my shower attendees. I am extremely appreciative of all everyone did for me. But why are thank you notes so tedious? I’ve written one (yeay!) and feel I have earned a break (thus this post). And already, I’m saying to myself, “One down, nineteen to go.” And they just get harder down the line because it starts to feel like I am repeating myself. Not that anyone would know, because who reads other people’s thank you notes? But, I always endeavor to make each personal and unique. But are there 20 different ways to says thanks for a baby item? I’ll know by the end of today. Because I WILL finish them today. I am a stickler about thank you notes and getting them done as timely as possible.

But I can’t promise that there won’t be several mindless posts today just to break things up. It helps that I have a doctor’s appointment midday to give me a real break.

So tonight after the last thank you note is written, CS and I are gonna make all of Sun’s goodies fit in her closet and room. Too bad I can’t drink for this. It will warrant some liquor. I’ll at least be sure that CS drinks!

Update: I am just about done. Except CS says someone dropped off a gift for me with him. So add one more. The last one I have to do is for a friend who said that I did not have to send her a note. Well, now it’s a challenge. I’ve come up with her own “Mad Libs Thank You Note.” Once the finishing touches are done on it (I need to brush up on what exactly is an adverb…), I will be done! Now on to the task of making all this stuff fit in a very tight spot.

I have become the Blueberry Girl from Willy Wonka. I feel I need to be juiced. My fingers, feet, ankles, and toes are all swollen. CS LAUGHED at my feet smushed into my shoes this morning. Ouch! My feet are so big, I accidentally kicked my desk–the dang things are getting in my way of walking!

It didn’t help that CS made red beans in the slow cooker yesterday and when I got home, the smell was too good to resist. I need to be eating read beans about as much as I need to be licking a salt block. And do you know what foods DON’T have salt in them? Me neither. UGH!

And tonight is the night we usually have dinner with another couple. In a restaurant. Where salt is in EVERYTHING.

And with my lovely acid reflux, I need to avoid tomato-based foods, ground beef, cottage cheese (are you kidding me??), salads, salad dressings…. You know, things I tend to eat every damn day.

What do eight month pregnant women eat? I AM STARVING OVER HERE. And the Low Sodium Wheat Thins are not cutting it. I suppose peanut butter isn’t good either (I mean, even getting past the “don’t eat peanuts lest Sun develop an allergy to nuts” thing). And I can’t even eat a lot because the little bugger has not flipped yet and her big ole head is smushing my stomach (and lungs).

Now a rain storm is coming. I feel responsible. All the water in the world seems to be seeking me out.

Oy my frigging Vay!