Author: Sarah

Our yard has been taken over by something very large, that creates very large and deep holes to live in… OK, not really, our fence is finally being put in, and the workmen arrived this morning with this really cool auger-thingy on a bobcat that made very short work of digging 5′ deep holes in our heavy clay soil. For that alone, it was worth hiring out this job!

The current estimate is to have the fence done by the end of this week, assuming the weather holds (which it’s supposed to – knock wood). Then we’re going to have to put lattice panels up under the deck so the doggies stay in the fenced area. I’m envisioning some great games of fetch this weekend. Oh, and probably chase, because the dogs don’t come when called. Ever.

I guess we’ll have to work on that…

Childbirth class was…interesting. The video wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected, but the “floor exercises” seemed just plain silly. I mean, does saying the word “hoot” really help? I suppose if it makes me feel really idiotic and laugh, that might be helpful.

The best part was how much she wanted us all to share. Because a room full of complete strangers really need to know how the video made me feel. (Hmm…squirmy?) Oh, well. We’ll keep going, because I imagine there will be some better pain management techniques in the rest of the classes. There has to be, otherwise nobody would go to them.

So far, though, yoga wins hands down for relaxation techniques. Not once have I heard the word “hoot” escape my teacher’s lips, and that class certainly has never broken out in fits of giggles rather than doing what we were supposed to!

I am lucky enough to not only live near a lot of my family, but to have family members who have a large farm, part of which is still active. This means that there is an abundance of many kinds of vegetables, all summer long. Apparently, zucchini and green beans have been quite prolific in the past couple of weeks, so I was gifted with several pounds of each. (Along with a few dozen gladiolas, which I have stuffed into anything resembling a vase and placed all over my house!)

What does one do with so much zucchini?

Try tasty new recipes, of course! That first link is probably the all-time yummiest thing I’ve ever done with zucchini, which is saying something – I love zucchini and could eat it in just about any form.

The only problem with allrecipes.com is that I have a tendency to see many more tasty-looking recipes than I could ever make, and then I start wandering off and finding recipes for things which I don’t really need to make, but sound really fantastic to my pregnant taste buds, like chicken pot pie and beef stew.

Must focus. Several pounds of green beans are sitting in the fridge, awaiting their cooking fate…

The crib, which was going to take 10-16 weeks (or more) to come in, because they told us it had to be ordered from Italy, is already here! They found an available crib in one of their Canadian distributors’ warehouses. This is a good thing, because 10-16 weeks meant it would be coming in October or November. The baby’s coming in October or November. This could have been a problem. (Well, we do have a cradle, but still – it will be nice to have the room all ready and put together before the baby comes home!)

The dresser/changing table is ready for pick-up, too.

However…the room is still full of furniture, and boxes of stuff that I couldn’t bear to part with, and piles of things that I managed to part with that need to be thrown out or recycled (quick! before I change my mind!) and still has horrible striped wallpaper and glow-in-the-dark monster eye stickers all over the ceiling and trim.

Guess what we’re going to have to work on all weekend long?

Oh, and today I am 30 weeks pregnant. 30! Which means only 7-10 (well, really, up to 12) weeks before we get to meet this baby! Our first childbirth class is Monday. That just blows my mind, because when I scheduled them, it was two months away. Where did those two months go?!?

My youngest brother went off to his second year of college today, and I wanted to send him along with his favorite cookies. Unfortunately, even though they’ve carried them in the past, our local Wegmans didn’t have any cinnamon chips – a critical ingredient. So the other night, I went to the gigantic mega-super-Wegmans (the one we use as a tourist stop when people come visit us from outside of Rochester) and they didn’t have them either. Uh-oh…

Realizing that going to a third Wegmans would probably not help matters any, I made the ultimate sacrifice. I went to their competitor, Tops. And they had the chips, which is good, and I stocked up. But I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting the Grocery Store Police to come and revoke my Wegmans Shoppers Club Card any minute.

I guess it’s strange to be loyal to a particular chain of grocery stores…but I really hope Wegmans gets those chips in stock before I run out of the 4 bags I have left. The Grocery Store Police will probably track down the fingerprints on the (empty) bottle of Wegmans branded bottled water that Denis discarded at Tops, and start watching our every grocery-buying move…

I had a prenatal appointment today, and they let me know that I passed the glucose test. Yay! One less thing to worry about for now.

As a reward, they gave me a shot. I’m Rh negative, which means that I could potentially start fighting off the baby’s red blood cells. To prevent that, they gave me a shot of something called RhoGAM. Silly me, I took off my over-shirt so I could get my shot. Um, yeah. To put it delicately, I needn’t have bothered. She isn’t even born yet, and this baby’s already a pain in the…rear.

I’m at the point where I start going to appointments every two weeks now. Time is flying!

Well, we didn’t quite get to the “well over 100 items” mark that the registry consultant suggested, but we managed to finish registering at both Babies R Us and Target today. Actually, “finished” might not be the best description. I’m sure there are things we forgot that are important. There are other things we intentionally forgot – I think the reason people register for so many items is that they put clothes, receiving blankets, and toiletries on their registries. We kind of figured people will buy those things anyway, so why bother registering for specific ones? (I trust our families and friends to have relatively decent taste. And if they don’t, that’s what gift receipts are for, right?)

Besides, “well over 100” is way too many decisions to make.

We also put together the cradle. Yes, it’s way early, but it was mostly a procrastination technique. This is how the conversation went:

Sarah: “Hey, Denis, do you want to help me clean out the desk that’s in the nursery?”
Denis: “Actually, I was thinking of putting the cradle together today.”
Sarah: “Oh, what a great idea, let’s do that instead!”

Since that took all of 10 minutes, we did manage to clean out the desk drawers, and I started packing away the stuff on the shelves above it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get the rest put away. That piece of furniture is the biggest obstacle between me and tearing down the horrid wallpaper in the room so we can get ready to paint!

(Sorry for all the baby posts lately. I’ve been knitting fun and exciting things, but I haven’t managed to take pictures yet. Soon, I promise.)

Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? So now I’m a really strong human pincushion. Actually, it was really OK (aside from the nasty drink and being somewhat dizzy from hunger) until the last draw, because they had to reuse a vein. Ugh. Of course, in the not-too-distant future I’m going to go through much more unpleasantness than a few little needles to actually have this baby, so I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining!

Thanks for all the good-luck vibes! Now I just have to forget about the test until I get the results – no sense in stressing for the whole weekend, right?