Transplanting a Seattleite

The pool helped a lot yesterday (thank you thank you thank you thank you).

The weird, short, hard contractions happened again early this morning, but, once again, desisted. After one of them, I had this truly bizarre expanding feeling of complete euphoria. Like a bubble of pure, perfect, glowing, physical happiness that started in my very huge belly and expanded out beyond me. Then it sort of popped, but there was no feeling of let down; I just felt normal again (well, to the extent that I ever feel normal these days). If you could package that particular feeling as a drug, I'd be hooked the first time I tried it. It's probably too much to expect that to happen during labor, but boy, it'd sure be cool if it did.

It's a little toasty today, so I pulled the rocker into the second bedroom/office (where the computer and the new portable AC are), moved the small TV from the bedroom and got a pan with an ice pack and water to soak my feet in. It is quite nice in here. If I'm totally wrong on my prediction, I think I could stay pregnant right through 42 weeks without completely losing it. Of course, moving the dresser so I could get at the cable connect was a bit arduous, but I won't have to do that again.

In addition to the aches and pains already mentioned, my right arm is just annoying the hell out of me. R. says the shoulder muscles that lift the arm were full of knots and felt warm to the touch. Let this be a lesson to me. Sitting around all day holding a book up is not a healthy way to live. The constant pins-and-needles feeling is really annoying.

And a very nice person is coming over to cook for R. and me tonight. The plan was for this to start after the birth, but after some discussion we decided that getting the details works out in practice ahead of time would be good. It sure took a lot of arm twisting, let me tell you. ;-)

I wish I had a picture of the look on my midwife's face when I told her how much I weigh these days. They don't care (well, they probably would care if I didn't gain anything and they noticed) what I weigh or when I gain it, as long as fundal height, blood pressure, pee-on-a-stick and other general indications look good (they cared a lot about hematocrit). But the last few weeks made me nervous, when I not only broke 200, but hit 215. Eeeek. I'm hoping some of this is water and will just pee out after the birth. So I tell M. this number, and she just didn't believe me at first, then added she would have guessed me at 160. I retorted that that's where _I started_ from. She did not, however, seem at all perturbed by the 50+ pound gain. Honestly, I'm over the panic, too, especially since both midwives are unconcerned about the size of the baby. M. thinks about 8 pounds, maybe a bit more. I figure as long as it isn't more than 11, I'll deal.

It is bizarre to be a shade under 5'8" and weigh 215, and still have pretty good muscle definition. Really, really, really bizarre. Especially the obliques (I think that's what they are) where they curve around the side of the belly and eventually attach to the spine. They are f-ing huge.

This is great. Thursday was my last class in the current German course. The instructor and three fellow students sound okay with the idea of me bringing the wee one into class should I return not for the next round but some later round. We'll see about that when I know more about the character and habits of our wee one. RHI evenings are Not Good for fresh babies.

The baby is no longer technically preterm from here on in, which is lovely. If it holds off a few more days, I should be able to get enough cooking done so we can eat off the results for a couple of weeks or longer. If it holds off a weekish, I'll get through the current tentative social commitments (a wedding, a play and a couple parties). I have been clear that no one should count on this happening. No particular news other than, of course, the sciatica, slow moving and contractions. The contractions are getting profoundly interesting. Over and above the monkey labor (regular contractions basically every night starting at dusk and continuing for at least a couple hours, each lasting a minuteish and about five or six minutes apart) every day, and the ones dispersed throughout the day, some of them are really noticeably stronger (as in, R. can tell the difference by touching my belly). Plus an assortment of interesting other pains that if I have to guess I'd say were in the general vicinity of my cervix. Anyone wondering how many centimeters I might already be dilated should just know that asking that question will not be getting an answer any time soon. I figure if I can get through pregnancy without an ultrasound (not counting doppler stethoscope), I may be able to sneak through the birth without anyone digitally examining my cervix (thank you very much).

Blood pressure continues to be low normal. I'm still eating. Cranberry juice (diluted in other juice and in water) has helped with the swollen feet a lot. The child has gotten so strong that it can now push my arm up when I rest it on my belly, when it feels so inclined. This morning, R. came up with a way to lightly tap rhythmically in a way that gets the wee one to quit stretching and curl back up again. Whew. And as of last night I'm starting to have dreams of having the baby. Kinda weird. Not bad weird. Just weird. The theme so far is that I never make it to the birth center. And they have such a nice big tub. I hope I make it there. I really do.

I'm currently reading _Medical Nemesis_ by Ivan Illich. I love Illich, altho sometimes reading him frightens me, because he can pretty much take any bit of received wisdom I believe in (public schools are good, say) and cause me to not only change my mind about it, but push me so far off the deep end I find the resulting political stance extremely absurd (which, of course, does nothing to convince me he's wrong). I was startled to discover he was suckered by five-year survival rate improvements. He should have caught that one. The good news is, I'm pretty sure this particular analysis will inoculate me against the risk of inadvertently becoming a Christian Scientist. Whew.