Getting Ready to be a Big Sister?

Maia loves to play with the babies at daycare (or at least their toys), and will go through some days where she LOVES to take care of her own dolls. She doesn't have the whole concept, yet, though. And tries to wrap up her baby in blankets for nuh-night time! ... on second thought, maybe Maia wants to go nuh-night.

Art o' the (2) Month(s)

I've been getting TONS of art projects for Maia each week, and I haven't been doing a very good job keeping up with getting them photographed so we can move on. So here are April's and May's wonderful works.

Crayon on construction paper Stamped paint on paper

EARTH WEEK

WATER

SUN

CLOUDS

(the noodle-y thing is a cornstarch packing peanut, which I donate to the center every time we get a Porto Rico coffee shipment... Being made of cornstarch and water soluable, I figure they're a little safer for the toddlers - especially the younger toddlers - than the styrofoam ones, and they're always glad to get them. THE EARTH

TREE

ANIMAL WEEK

Snake

Horse (with googly eyes)

Alligator/Crocodile

Bear, made with coffee grounds

And everyone loves kiddo footprints!

And a little more "nature"

FAVORITE FRUIT WEEK

Strawberry

Banana

Grape (painted with grape kool-aid)

Dih-dih-tar!

Maia loves it when daddy plays his dih-dih-tar. She gladly dances along!

2 Weeks Left ?

This is day number 265 and you're 37 weeks pregnant!
You have 15 days or 2 weeks left, and are 94.6% of the way there.
Baby's age since conception is 251 days or 35 weeks.


My OB always seems to be delivering babies on Friday mornings. This morning we had to wait for him to finish up a delivery, and 2 weeks ago, he had to run out to do one. He's sort of a solo-practice OB (his wife, an internal med doc, works with him... but she doesn't handle the baby stuff), and he loves to talk tech stuff with Ray.

So he comes in late, apologizes (for what? doing your job.. no problem, I can wait!) and we go over my birth plan. Yep, yep, yep... GBS is negative (yay), so he's okay with me asking for Hep Lock instead of IV... Never does episiotomies unless it's a last resort... Okay with intermittent fetal monitoring and no internal monitoring unless baby is clearly in distress. Then DH states: Hey, did you know they're taking down the fetal monitoring software on 6/14 (my due date is the 12th) to do upgrades? Nope, OB didn't know, but... he says - it's FINE. Here's the deal with continuous fetal monitoring, he says: It's a huge crock of ***. Some guy in the 70s came out with this system, touted it as a way to decrease the number of cerebral palsy cases because you could monitor for signs of distress. Everyone bought into it and it became the standard of care without a single study ever being done to see if more continuous monitoring really improved outcomes in any way. So what happened in the 30 years since then? CP rates are about the same, but C-section rates have climbed to 30-35% in the country, in part because of all the fetal monitoring making doctors panicky.

What it DID do was make it easier for fewer nurses to cover more laboring mothers, thereby saving hospitals money in labor costs. So for his laboring mothers on 6/14? hello, that's what the hand-held doppler is for. And a little extra attention. Oh, and if you go into labor on a weekend I'm not on call, please page me anyway and let me know what's going on. If I'm not too many glasses of wine in, I'd like to be there. Man. I love this guy's honesty

So anyway. Progress? Nope. None whatsoever. Not effaced. Not dialated (I was 50% and 1 cm at this point with Maia, I think). I'm actually relatively convinced that my mind is not going to let me start relaxing enough to progress until I get a few urgent issues resolved at work. I'm really hoping that I'll get most of the issues resolved by the end of the next week. Anyway, I'm measuring on track, heartbeat good, and my BP is still good.

And for funsies: a pic of Maia this morning before daycare. The "ponies" are from yesterday, she sometimes she gets pretty adamant about NOT having them taken out at the end of the day... and, well, last night Aunt Kathleen put her to bed (Ray and I had a nice dinner at the Chop House with a group of his co-workers). So they're looking pretty rough, here. And yes, she's standing on her toes. She will still do this occasionally, and even when bare foot.

We Stomped Out Stigma...

As I've done every year for the last 5 at my job, I've organized my employee team of walkers for the Stomp Out Stigma walk for Mental Health. This year, we have finally, as a company managed to work together much more closely with the agency that puts this program together. This buy-in really helped us to make a MUCH more impressive showing than previous years (2009, 2008 shown here)... with over 70 walkers and 15 dogs. This year, however, pregnant as I am (3 weeks to go!) the walk was a bit more of a struggle for me than in years past. As an additional challenge: while it was not all that hot, but it was extremely steamy, following a night of rain. The hot came on Sunday. In several days, we went from 60º temperatures to the upper 80s and 70% humidity. YIKES! And of course, Maia was desperate to go outside and play. We took turns. I did some bubbles with Maia earlier in the day. In the afternoon, Daddy took Maia out to swing. Such joy! Such excitement!

Daddy gives REALLY big pushes.

And by the time she came in... well, she was a little sweaty. Just in time for bath night!

36 weeks

This is day number 256 and you're 36 weeks pregnant!

You have 24 days or 3 weeks left, and are 91.4% of the way there.

Baby's age since conception is 242 days or 34 weeks.

Since the last visit with the OB consisted of his staff telling me: He's got a patient in labor, I'll do my best to get you in before he has to go... and "multitasking" to get three of us in-and-out in 10 minutes or so... and them Dr L poking his head in and saying "Hey, I've got a multi-para in L&D, and... Oh, you're all set... well. I guess I'll just do your exam real quick a sec, hate to get you undressed for nothing!" I assured him it was fine (supposed to be my first internal and my Group B Strep test), that momma was definitely working harder than I! He says: Nah, she's got an epidural, so she'll be fine for a bit yet. So on Friday, I got examined, but no details, as he was hurrying through the exam. No time for questions!

So today, details. My BP was 112/62, and I'm about at the same level of weight gain that I was with Maia. Baby was sleeping and relaxed, so heart rate was much lower: 130s (I'm thinking it was 150-160s on Friday). I am measuring at 37 weeks, and he commented that the baby is starting to settle a little lower, and taking up more space all over, than the big lump of baby butt I had just under my ribs a few weeks ago.

No progress on effacement or dilation, but I didn't expect there to be. In fact, I think I might be a little panicked if there WAS progress! I've been having more braxton hicks, and I generally find it very difficult to get comfortable and, as a result, struggle to get enough sleep. I commented to Dr L today that I'm pretty sure that's nature's way of making sure that you're ready to deliver when the time comes. If it was all like the 2nd trimester... well, baby can just stay in. They're not too heavy, you carry them around wherever you go, and they're MUCH cheaper that way! He chuckled at that.

The only question that I had to pose to him this time was what precautions we might want to take knowing that I am personally and genetically pre-disposed to post-delivery hemorrhage. I advised him that after it happened with Maia's delivery, my mother shared with me that she had the same experience with one of the 3 of us (I don't know which one!), and Kath had it with Adrian. She apparently knew there is some genetic pre-disposition component and just hadn't thought about it ahead of time.

So he wants me to remind him during labor, so he can have necessary interventions at the ready. I'm hoping that I'll be able to nurse this baby more immediately after delivery (which I couldn't do last time, since Maia was needing to be suctioned more than usual because of the meconium in her amniotic fluid), which should help my body do what it needs to do more quickly after delivery. I'd rather not have to have any "interventions" if I can avoid them!

Ah well. Next visit is next week Friday... I'll get my birth plan ready to remind him.

Playtime with Papa and Grandma

We'd put in a big coffee order while it was recently on sale, so I called my folks to see if we could come over and drop off their supply. So they invited us to come and stay for dinner. Ray wasn't feeling well, so Maia and I went. I got a few moments to sit and relax while Papa kept Maia busy outside. First they explored the yard together. The trees and Papa's little garden gnomes. It was a beautiful afternoon, if a little breezy and so mildly cool. After some running around, Papa gave Maia a ride in the wheelbarrow. Which she loved.

She did a good job holding on to the sides.

And thought it was absoultely fantastic when Papa helped her turn around. He would rock the wheelbarrow from side to side while running through the yard, which lead to LOTS of giggles.

More Papa?

Papa also took Maia on her first "bike ride" of a different sort... actually ON the bike itself.

She thought this was about the best thing ever. However, she would get a little annoyed with Papa for peddling. "Maia do it?"

She sat on the center bar (which Papa wrapped in some padding) and she held onto the handle bars and played with all of Papa's gadgets (bells, lights and the like) .

She definitely didn't want the experience to end (although she did need a break from sitting on the middle bar from time to time!)

Interestingly, as fearless as she was about this experience on the bike (until they got too far away from the house and she couldn't see me anymore, and she needed a break), she decided she was interested in, but did NOT want to ride, Papa's tractor. "Too loud!" She would not leave my arms to sit on his lap and get a tractor ride, as much as she loved it this winter. Must be one of those funny toddler phases. She was very excited to SEE the tractor!

Verdi's Requiem and Work Stuff

The first week of May was what I often refer to as "hell week" - or Symphony performance week. What this means is rehearsal from 7:30-9:45/10 pm on Monday, 6:30-10 pm on Wednesday, 6:15-10 pm on Thursday. And then rehearsal prior to the 8 pm performance: 7-10 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings. Whew! Notice how many nights off we get in a week? One. Tuesday night. One solitary night.

For the last month or so, I'd been asking myself repeatedly: Why did I sign on for this performance? Why didn't I just quit after the earlier spring concert? Glutton for punishment? Who knows! I was extremely uncomfortable during those long rehearsals: back hurt to stand, baby in my ribs/can't breathe if I sat. But I had committed. I guess that there is a big part of me that wanted to squeeze in another opportunity to perform at this level, knowing it'll probably be quite some time before I'm able to participate in such an endeavor again. Also fun: not being able to fit into my performance skirt. The top was stretched to the max, but I couldn't get the skirt on, so I wore black maternity pants for the performance.

Anyway. The performance really came together nicely, and I actually thought the chorus gave one of it's most cohesive, unified and musical performances since I've been a part of it. Turns out the rest of the chorus, the Chorus Master and the Symphony Conductor (those of us most likely to be critical of ourselves) felt pretty much the same way. There wasn't much we could have done better.

I am in the 2nd row of the chorus, on the left side... the 2nd person in from the left, next to my sister.

The Reviewer, however (see here) did not see it that way. In fact, based on the review, I'd thought maybe he didn't see the performance, but maybe one of the dress rehearsals from earlier in the week... because it didn't make any sense. This same reviewer has given us glowing reviews on much poorer work. Ah well.

So. How long will it be until I get to do this type of thing again? I thought maybe a couple years, since, at this time, I was hopeful that my proposal to work 1/3 time at home (evenings and weekends) might be approved. That hope was soundly denied, and I'm back to the drawing board in negotiating with work to find a way to make my work/home life balance better and still be able to pay my bills. So the first proposal would have allowed me to drop the kids down to part-time daycare status while I continued to work full time. This would have allowed me to still pay a lot more for daycare, but with some judicious budgeting, we should have been okay. Since that got turned down (argument being: You're a manager, you need to be here to manage. Maybe we offer you a raise and/or a title change?). I had to put out a counter-proposal. After I figured out what I would need to manage financially in keeping 2 kids in full time daycare, I put together a proposal asking for a Very Significant Title Change: I'm basically asking to be promoted to the same level as my boss, reporting directly to the CEO, which I've actually thought would be better for everyone years ago, since I have a very unique position in the hospital, and the more filters there are on information for me, the harder it is for me to do my job and make the clinic successful and profitable... which is what they ask me to do, but then sort of prohibit me from being in a position of being part the decision-making that would make us successful and profitable. So I finally though: Fine. I gave you the cheap option, and you declined. Here's the alternative, which really should have been offered years ago, and by the way, here's a bunch of comparative research showing that you've been underpaying me for years (not to mention, every time you take my doctors away, I end up cutting my hours and my salary for issues not in anyway related to any sort of poor performance on my part, but because I'm recognizing it's what's right for the company at that time). So. Go big or go home. My fingers are crossed, but I am quite sure I will not get everything that I've asked for. I do hope to be able to reach a reasonable negotiation.

Anyway, in the midst of all that... we finished up our Lamaze refresher class, and Maia got some one-on-one time with my folks who helped with babysitting during our Lamaze classes and the above Symphony week. I'm rather alarmed at how quickly time is passing, as I have a 2 1/2 page "To Do" list for work, although I feel more or less prepared at home with some minor tweaking and, well, lots of cleaning (an uphill battle with a toddler and our busy schedule of late) that I just don't have energy to do. June Bug will be here before we know it!

A couple funny pics

Maia had, in fact, been doing pretty well in her "big guh bet!" (big girl bed). I think she's somewhat of a restless sleeper, because we often hear her kick the wall or drop her water. Generally when she wakes up, she quietly sings or talks to herself. One morning, she woke up a bit earlier than usual and was crying. Generally a gentle "Maia, nuh-night!" will encourage her to settle back down. This morning, she would not settle, so I went up to find out what the problem was. I found her like this: She looked up at me totally perplexed, and seemed like she really had NO idea how she had gotten into her toy basket. These two pics are just awful cute and are from a few weeks ago. She is wearing one of her own sun hats, but daddy's work gloves.

This was actually from quite a while ago: the morning the Tara and her family left after Spring Break. Maia was laying on the air mattress in the living room (which was very interesting and lots of fun for her) and reading the newspaper.

We do the crossword every Sunday morning (at this point, anyway!) She came up with something funny recently. She suddenly announced "Maia deeuwit, crosswooud" and disappeared for a few minutes. She came back shortly with her Magna-doodle (which had been in her downstairs toy bin) so that she could "write" her crossword too!

Happy Mothers Day!

We had a fairly quiet Mother's Day. I actually got my gift from Maia when I dropped her off at daycare on the Friday before. I was presented with a big pile of various tones of green tissue paper and was told that Maia helped wrap it. When I opened the paper, I saw this:

We had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage and a yummy lunch of grilled steaks and chicken at Ellen P's house with my folks, Kath & Andrew's family and Andrew's mother and sister Sarah. Maia, when prompted, would say "Happy Birthday Mothers Day!" Which she finally got right the next day, and has been saying intermittently since.

Ray also got me a Baby K'Tan baby carrier which was available from the hospital gift shop of all places. One of only two places in town where it is sold. I'm excited to use it... I think that I'll need to do more baby carrying with June Bug while chasing after Maia... and I didn't really love the sling carrier I had for Maia (and neither did she). She did like the front carrier when she was bigger, but it was bulky and difficult to slip into a diaper bag for outtings. This one gets rave reviews, seems comfortable, has lots of different options and more back support. So hopefully, it will be good!

Maia Can...

It's been a while since I documented all the things that Maia does and says these days. So let's start with what she can do:

• Maia counts from 1-10 in English with no prompting (approx 19 mos - with help, 16-17 mos)
• Maia counts from 1-10 in Spanish with very little prompting (20 mos - with help 16-18 mos)
• Maia counts from 1-10 in French, German and Japanese with Daddy's help (18 mos) The ladies at daycare can count with her in Spanish, and so she expects that they should know French as well (her 3rd most comfortable) and has been known to get frustrated with them for not counting in French (or German) with her.
• Maia knows her colors (18 mos) and can correctly identify the color of something (20 mos): red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black, white, pink and purple.
• Maia knows her shapes: circle, square, triangle, heart, star... sometimes rectangle. She also knows about stripes and dots.
• Maia knows her all her letters by name and by sight (17-19 mos), although will occasionally confuse E/F and U/V.
• Maia can recite the alphabet (19-20 mos), although she will occasionally skip MNO. She sings the song without prompting.
• Maia started singing the ends of the lines of familiar songs at about 18-19 months. An example: Baa baa black sheep, have you any... wool
• Maia quickly moved on to singing more of her favorite songs. An example: baa baa bea shee hayoo wool?
• She's actually pretty good at using her manners (most of the time), she will say please (pees), thank you (tank ooo), pardon me (pahmuh me), excuse me (scooos me), and I'm sorry (sowwy daddy!) She will even say 'pardon me' in response to bumping into someone, or being bumped into by someone (which happens with me a lot these days, since I can't see her below my belly!)
• I'm amazed at how well she is starting to use pronouns. If she knows daddy is downstairs, then she wants to "find him." She's doing some great work experimenting with pluralizing and verb tenses (singing versus sing)

Funny things she says:

• Tank you toooo much! (Thank you so much!)
• Strawboobies (Strawberries)
• Wok an Woooooh! (Rock and Roll)
• NOOOO touch Baio! (She may not touch Daddy's laptop: the Sony Vaio)
• Top it! No tank yoo momma! (Stop it! No thank you momma!)
• Buh bye pizza guy!
• Pizza's here?
• Maia deeuwit! (Maia do it!)
• Goot..... moh-neen! (Good morning. She says this with a big pause in the middle of the two words) She also says Goot... afernoon!
• Aunt Tay-wah shakey bum bum! (This comes from a book about a bee that Aunt Tara read with her. The bee dances because she's happy).
• Ath-a-leen preshusss! (This comes from Aunt Kathleen so frequently telling Maia that she is precious... and now the word is linked with Aunt Kathleen.)
• If she doesn't know where something is, the answer is always "Hiding!"

Things she LOVES to do:

• Group hugs with Mommy and Daddy together delights her!
• More tickoos? She LOVES tickles and will ask for more. Ticklish spots: under arms, hamstrings, belly and sides.
• Go Ow-side!
• Talk to Nana Skype? She loves to talk to Nana and Grandpa, or Aunt Tara on Skype with daddy.
• Blow "bubbos" (bubbles)
• See juu bug? (Check out my growing belly and poke her finger in my rapidly shallowing belly button)
• Sing to herself. Favorite songs include: Row, row, row your boat; Baa Baa Black Sheep; Skin-a-ma-rink; the Alphabet Song; You Are My Sunshine
• Play mommy's "pnano" (piano)
• Dance! She also is a big fan of watching her reflection in the fireplace while dancing at home.
• Immitate. What you say, what you do, funny faces. Oh, and the things you shouldn't have said in front of her...
• Read (or be read to). She will finish the lines of familiar books much like she does with familiar songs. She loves the "Llama Llama" book series and knows them so well that while I was trying to choose which one to buy (she has them at daycare, and I got tired of telling her we didn't have any Llama Llama books), she recited the first page of one of them when I pulled them off the shelf.

Things she LOVES to eat/drink:

• Fyoot (fruit)
• Peeesa (pizza)
• Fyoot nacks (fruit snacks)
• Kashi baaar (Kashi TLC cereal bars, the usual mid-week breakfast)
• Su-sujjjjuh (sausage)
• Eggs
• Sheese (cheese)
• Bed (bread)
• Miiok (milk)
• Co wata ice coobs (cold water with ice cubes: a nightly bedtime request)
• Llll-em-a-ade! (lemonade... which is a rare treat, but she LOVES it)

Maia saw this image on the spine of a book on the bookshelf:

and immediately identified it as a "Wok n Woll tongue!"

Comparison

Just for curiosity's sake (and because everyone loves to determine a baby's gender based on how you are carrying... which I found, in both pregnancies so far, completely varies by week... or sometimes by day) I thought I'd pull a couple of pics for comparison. So here I am, 6 weeks before June Bug's due date... And for comparison, this is 4 weeks before Maia's due date...

Hrm. Whatdya think?