So last night we went out to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. We hadn't made any big plans ahead of time, for the obvious reasons, but we did finally decide that it would be nice to get out and have a nice dinner out. While we still can! And quite frankly, I just didn't want to cook. I've still been cooking fairly regularly, although these days I've been embracing more of my inner Rachel Ray a la' Thirty Minute Meals than my inner Julia Child. And since I've even made two extra large casseroles that I froze for those first couple bleary eyed weeks, I felt I deserved a little break. Unfortunately picking a nice restaurant whilst pregnant is no fun....at least for me. Mostly I am just tempted by all those "forbidden" baby-killing foods and I end up being pouty and sullen as I jab my fork into another piece of chicken and watch Phil slice into a nice juicy medium rare steak and wash it down with a glass of Pinot Noir. (I must say though, hubby has been very good about limiting his consumption of said baby-killing-foods in front of me but it would be just plain mean of me to deny him completely.) So in the end we finally decided to go to The Melting Pot.
Now I had never been there before and Phil had been there once a long, long time ago. We both love fondue and it was easy for me to find something I not only could eat but also wanted to eat. We opted just for the first course of cheese fondue (made extra spicy in hopes of "encouraging" Baby Love to come out) and the dessert chocolate fondue and skipped the entrees. The capacity of my stomach has been greatly reduced by the the giant watermelon that has set up camp in my abdomen. It was a good call too because we both waddled (okay, I always waddle these days) right out of there. So we definitely had a nice evening and it was great to get out but our consensus on the The Melting Pot is that we will probably never feel compelled to give them our money again.
Now maybe we are just spoiled because of a great little fondue place we have been to in Colorado Springs called the Mona Lisa. Although it's been ages since we've been there we can both clearly remember it and it puts the The Melting Pot to shame. First, the MP had zero atmosphere. Plain, boring and ridiculously bright lights. Second, it was hot. Really, really hot. Yes, I realize pregnant women tend to "run hot" but I am pretty sure I would have been uncomfortable even if I wasn't a round ginormous walking space heater. Third, because of the way the restaurant is set up (lots of walls and blind corners to turn into) there is serious potential for servers carrying steaming pots of melted cheese to crash into one another. The way they've solved this problem is to instruct the staff to yell "corner!" and/or "hot pot!" every flippin' time they turn a corner or pass a door way. The hostess even did this at least three times in the middle of our conversation as she guided us to our seats. And because we were sitting at a booth right by a "corner!", we got to hear this throughout the whole meal.
As for the food, it was just okay. Not bad but nothing to write home about either. Although I did particularly like the Oreo crumb coated marshmallow after its little dip in the dark chocolate and caramel hot tub. Oh yeah, and my non-alcoholic cocktail that was mostly ice and cut up limes was a whopping 6 dollars! Normally I would never order something like that but since it was our anniversary and I couldn't drink wine, I wanted to feel like I was special too. I think they must have gotten those limes from the one lime tree they have in Israel that fruits like one week out of the year. (They use those limes to make lime sorbet at the gelato shops for about 2 days out of the summer, so apparently MP had to pay a pretty penny to get those.) So while the place wasn't spectacular the company was great and we laughed and enjoyed ourselves in spite of all the people yelling "corner!" into our ear every two minutes. Here we are before we headed out on our date....
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Now that our anniversary is over, I'm ready for this baby to come out! I just didn't want her to be born ON our anniversary, as I didn't want to spend the next several years throwing loud kiddie parties on our anniversary. But now I beg her to come out soon. I have gotten increasingly uncomfortable as of late. I now need at least four pillows, which I rearrange at least 10 times a night, to get comfortable while sleeping. And I use the term "sleeping" loosely as I don't do much of that. After arranging my pillows in a way that is semi-comfortable, just as I am about to settle in the urge hits me. The urge to go that is. And it feels like I have to go really, really bad. Like I just drank a 64 ounce Cherry Limeade from Sonic. (Sorry to all you East Coasters who may not know what Sonic is. Here it is an institution. Especially in my home town where the popular late night activity is to "Cruise Sonics". Yes, they say Sonics with an S. But I digress....) So I very ungracefully roll myself out of bed (I'm sure it sounds to Phil downstairs like a giant hippo just jumped out of the bed) and race to the bathroom only to tinkle, just a teeny tiny amount. Then before I get back into bed to start rearranging my pillow fort, I take a giant swig of water. Why on earth you ask would I do that? Because I'm always thirsty and my mouth is always dry (probably not helped by the fan I have to run to keep myself from spontaneously bursting into flames), and apparently I am just masochistic like that. And then I start the cycle all over again until "wake up" in the morning.
It doesn't help either as a right-sided sleeper, that women are told that left-sided sleeping is the best position for the baby. Stomach sleeping is a no-no, for obvious reasons. I'm not really sure how one could possibly do that anyway. Back sleeping is also a no-no unless you are propped up to like a 45-degree angle. This keeps the giant watermelon from compressing an oh-so-important vein and reducing blood and oxygen flow to yourself and baby. Although they do say that if you wake up on your back that you shouldn't panic. I love how they always tell you NOT to do something but that if you DO do it that you shouldn't panic. Then there is the left side/right side debate. The general consensus is that the left side is better than the right but that the right is not "bad". (Said important vein seems to run on the right side of the spinal column thus making the left side preferred.) Unfortunately I am a right-sided sleeper through and through. For whatever reason I just cannot get comfy on my left side and the bigger I get (which is when it is probably more important to sleep left-sided) the more uncomfortable it gets for me. I always try to fall asleep on my left but eventually I shift over to my right. Because my hips are starting to hurt more these days I do actually feel like I want to switch sides periodically, I just don't get much sleep when lying on my left side. Then the other morning after a particularly bad night's sleep I wake up to find this headline in the Google news thread....
So I had my standard scheduled appointment on Friday. My midwife was actually surprised to see me. I guess she thought that because of my progress last time that I was headed for L&D soon. I didn't have her check me because I figured how much further could I possibly be if I wasn't actually in labor yet? For the past couple days I've had an achy feeling in my lower abdomen very similar to period cramps. Apparently this is all normal and like everything else may mean labor is a day away or a week or two away. And while she was poking and prodding my abdomen she said she felt me having a contraction. I was like "what? I don't feel anything?" She said maybe I just have a high tolerance for pain. May I be so lucky. I keep joking that I'm actually in labor but I just don't feel anything and that maybe the baby will just slide out one of these days when I am sitting on the toilet in the middle of the night. Perhaps not the most sanitary way to give birth but much more comfortable. She also estimated the baby's weight at right around 7 lbs plus maybe a few ounces. But she also said she's been anywhere from dead on to 3 pounds off. Great. So reassuring to know that I won't have a baby any larger then 10 lbs!
And she said I might want to get my cervix checked next time or have my membranes swept (you can Google the gory details of membrane sweeping if that's the sort of thing that excites you), as both of those may sometimes give labor a jump start. I opted not to do it then because we wanted to celebrate our anniversary and I wanted to think about it first. She also said if I didn't want to wait until next Friday, I could come in to see her on Sunday in the hospital and she would do it for me then. It's tempting because I really don't want to go too far past my due date. If you go past 40 weeks and 6 days then for whatever stupid reasons they won't let you go to the Birthing Center, you have to go to the regular L&D floor. But sweeping the membranes carries a risk of breaking your bag of waters which means you must go to the hospital then and they start this stupid arbitrary clock on your labor (because of increased risk of infection). Basically it's a slippery slope at that moment and if you don't progress according to what they think is right you run the risk of being pressured into having your labor augmented with Pitocin which in turn means more painful contractions which means more chance of asking for an epidural which mean means increased risk of a C-section. Sooooooo.....I guess I'm kind of in a little pickle right now.
Other than that the tree is progessing, although I've been fired from helping. The two sides weren't matching and it was looking like, well, two different people were painting it. But here it is coming along nicely after Phil went back over my part....
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And I thought this would be fun. A little comparison to see what a difference 20 weeks makes....
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Now I had never been there before and Phil had been there once a long, long time ago. We both love fondue and it was easy for me to find something I not only could eat but also wanted to eat. We opted just for the first course of cheese fondue (made extra spicy in hopes of "encouraging" Baby Love to come out) and the dessert chocolate fondue and skipped the entrees. The capacity of my stomach has been greatly reduced by the the giant watermelon that has set up camp in my abdomen. It was a good call too because we both waddled (okay, I always waddle these days) right out of there. So we definitely had a nice evening and it was great to get out but our consensus on the The Melting Pot is that we will probably never feel compelled to give them our money again.
Now maybe we are just spoiled because of a great little fondue place we have been to in Colorado Springs called the Mona Lisa. Although it's been ages since we've been there we can both clearly remember it and it puts the The Melting Pot to shame. First, the MP had zero atmosphere. Plain, boring and ridiculously bright lights. Second, it was hot. Really, really hot. Yes, I realize pregnant women tend to "run hot" but I am pretty sure I would have been uncomfortable even if I wasn't a round ginormous walking space heater. Third, because of the way the restaurant is set up (lots of walls and blind corners to turn into) there is serious potential for servers carrying steaming pots of melted cheese to crash into one another. The way they've solved this problem is to instruct the staff to yell "corner!" and/or "hot pot!" every flippin' time they turn a corner or pass a door way. The hostess even did this at least three times in the middle of our conversation as she guided us to our seats. And because we were sitting at a booth right by a "corner!", we got to hear this throughout the whole meal.
As for the food, it was just okay. Not bad but nothing to write home about either. Although I did particularly like the Oreo crumb coated marshmallow after its little dip in the dark chocolate and caramel hot tub. Oh yeah, and my non-alcoholic cocktail that was mostly ice and cut up limes was a whopping 6 dollars! Normally I would never order something like that but since it was our anniversary and I couldn't drink wine, I wanted to feel like I was special too. I think they must have gotten those limes from the one lime tree they have in Israel that fruits like one week out of the year. (They use those limes to make lime sorbet at the gelato shops for about 2 days out of the summer, so apparently MP had to pay a pretty penny to get those.) So while the place wasn't spectacular the company was great and we laughed and enjoyed ourselves in spite of all the people yelling "corner!" into our ear every two minutes. Here we are before we headed out on our date....
Now that our anniversary is over, I'm ready for this baby to come out! I just didn't want her to be born ON our anniversary, as I didn't want to spend the next several years throwing loud kiddie parties on our anniversary. But now I beg her to come out soon. I have gotten increasingly uncomfortable as of late. I now need at least four pillows, which I rearrange at least 10 times a night, to get comfortable while sleeping. And I use the term "sleeping" loosely as I don't do much of that. After arranging my pillows in a way that is semi-comfortable, just as I am about to settle in the urge hits me. The urge to go that is. And it feels like I have to go really, really bad. Like I just drank a 64 ounce Cherry Limeade from Sonic. (Sorry to all you East Coasters who may not know what Sonic is. Here it is an institution. Especially in my home town where the popular late night activity is to "Cruise Sonics". Yes, they say Sonics with an S. But I digress....) So I very ungracefully roll myself out of bed (I'm sure it sounds to Phil downstairs like a giant hippo just jumped out of the bed) and race to the bathroom only to tinkle, just a teeny tiny amount. Then before I get back into bed to start rearranging my pillow fort, I take a giant swig of water. Why on earth you ask would I do that? Because I'm always thirsty and my mouth is always dry (probably not helped by the fan I have to run to keep myself from spontaneously bursting into flames), and apparently I am just masochistic like that. And then I start the cycle all over again until "wake up" in the morning.
It doesn't help either as a right-sided sleeper, that women are told that left-sided sleeping is the best position for the baby. Stomach sleeping is a no-no, for obvious reasons. I'm not really sure how one could possibly do that anyway. Back sleeping is also a no-no unless you are propped up to like a 45-degree angle. This keeps the giant watermelon from compressing an oh-so-important vein and reducing blood and oxygen flow to yourself and baby. Although they do say that if you wake up on your back that you shouldn't panic. I love how they always tell you NOT to do something but that if you DO do it that you shouldn't panic. Then there is the left side/right side debate. The general consensus is that the left side is better than the right but that the right is not "bad". (Said important vein seems to run on the right side of the spinal column thus making the left side preferred.) Unfortunately I am a right-sided sleeper through and through. For whatever reason I just cannot get comfy on my left side and the bigger I get (which is when it is probably more important to sleep left-sided) the more uncomfortable it gets for me. I always try to fall asleep on my left but eventually I shift over to my right. Because my hips are starting to hurt more these days I do actually feel like I want to switch sides periodically, I just don't get much sleep when lying on my left side. Then the other morning after a particularly bad night's sleep I wake up to find this headline in the Google news thread....
Sleeping on Back or Right Side May Increase Stillbirth Risk
Great....just what my paranoid self needs to read right now. So what did I do? Well, I read it of course! If you do go read it you'll see that as with most things this was based on ONE study and still needs further investigation and that when it comes down to it, it really doesn't mean much at this point and seriously, why do they publish shit like this anyway? Pardon my French, but I felt the use of an expletive was well warranted there. And as you know there is no rationalizing with a crazy hormonal pregnant lady! And thus I have been trying to force myself to stay on my left side more which unfortunately means even less sleep. The one good thing from the study though, is that you also increase your risk of stillbirth if you only get up to pee once during the night. Since I get up like 50 times does that mean that counteracts the time I spend on my right side?!?! (Just say yes.) Oy vey. Anyway, I can't wait for Baby Love to get here so that I can be paranoid about something else. Like newborn jaundice. Or cutting tiny little baby fingernails.So I had my standard scheduled appointment on Friday. My midwife was actually surprised to see me. I guess she thought that because of my progress last time that I was headed for L&D soon. I didn't have her check me because I figured how much further could I possibly be if I wasn't actually in labor yet? For the past couple days I've had an achy feeling in my lower abdomen very similar to period cramps. Apparently this is all normal and like everything else may mean labor is a day away or a week or two away. And while she was poking and prodding my abdomen she said she felt me having a contraction. I was like "what? I don't feel anything?" She said maybe I just have a high tolerance for pain. May I be so lucky. I keep joking that I'm actually in labor but I just don't feel anything and that maybe the baby will just slide out one of these days when I am sitting on the toilet in the middle of the night. Perhaps not the most sanitary way to give birth but much more comfortable. She also estimated the baby's weight at right around 7 lbs plus maybe a few ounces. But she also said she's been anywhere from dead on to 3 pounds off. Great. So reassuring to know that I won't have a baby any larger then 10 lbs!
And she said I might want to get my cervix checked next time or have my membranes swept (you can Google the gory details of membrane sweeping if that's the sort of thing that excites you), as both of those may sometimes give labor a jump start. I opted not to do it then because we wanted to celebrate our anniversary and I wanted to think about it first. She also said if I didn't want to wait until next Friday, I could come in to see her on Sunday in the hospital and she would do it for me then. It's tempting because I really don't want to go too far past my due date. If you go past 40 weeks and 6 days then for whatever stupid reasons they won't let you go to the Birthing Center, you have to go to the regular L&D floor. But sweeping the membranes carries a risk of breaking your bag of waters which means you must go to the hospital then and they start this stupid arbitrary clock on your labor (because of increased risk of infection). Basically it's a slippery slope at that moment and if you don't progress according to what they think is right you run the risk of being pressured into having your labor augmented with Pitocin which in turn means more painful contractions which means more chance of asking for an epidural which mean means increased risk of a C-section. Sooooooo.....I guess I'm kind of in a little pickle right now.
Other than that the tree is progessing, although I've been fired from helping. The two sides weren't matching and it was looking like, well, two different people were painting it. But here it is coming along nicely after Phil went back over my part....
Me with my cute litte 20 week baby bump and then.....
Me with my very large almost 40 week HUMP!!!
Wow!...What a report...I hope your blog doesn't discourage other women from getting pregnant.....I know you will be a Mother very soon, and we wish you an easy birthing...Love, Sarasota Dad
ReplyDeleteYou're getting so close now. It won't be too long until we can all welcome Baby Love. Can't wait.
ReplyDeleteLove, Lynn