25th September 2009

Today I am getting stuff ready for baby's arrival. It has either been too hot to
do anything for me outside, as I am still not acclimated to the heat and
humidity and it has been causing my feet to swell and my blood pressure to be
higher than normal (I have always been low normal, so now it is high normal, but
I am checking it every day as it is above normal for me). Or my ribs had been
dislocated for 8 days so I couldn't move very well. So today I finally got to
clean, vacuum and 'spit polish' my vehicle (approximately 13,200 miles worth of
dust, general farm grime and "Cyrus" hair removed). Today it was mildly misting
and 57F, so it was a GOOD day to do this.

Then I went to get the baby car seat installed and I did not think it looked
correct for the back seat. So I went to the fire department and they sent me to
the police department where there is a special officer who helps with and
educates people about car seats. Officer M spent a long time with me adjusting
the car seat and said it was OK to put it in the front seat with the air bags
turned off. I think that is awesome as then I can be able to keep a better eye
on the wee one on the 18 hour drive back down and not worry so much trying to
keep track of what is going on in the back seat.

I am also very glad that I took the carseat out of the box (it was a 4-in-one
carrier, car seat, stroller and something else combo) and installed it early as
it is outgassing incredibly. Smells horribly vinyl-ish/plasticy even though it
looks not too plasticy. Something which was making me ill from the smell anyway,
so I definitely do not want the wee bairn to have to deal with.. Egad!

As I am not sure which time that I travel up that the doctors (I have 2 -- a
regular GP and a specialist) will say I have to stay up there, so I am packing
to expect that I will be 'stuck' up there each time now. I am gathering together
my 'hospital survival bag', complete with DVD's I have not seen before, an
exercise ball, NEW PJ's, soap, shampoo, my books on babies and childbirth,
camera etc. I have a few more things to put in there, including my birth plan.
Since I do horrible with drugs, even Benedril, codeine etc, I plan on natural
childbirth, but since statistically I have a 50% chance of a c-section due to my
age, I am trying to prepare for that as well in my birth plan. It is OK with me
either way, but with my previous fractured back, I REALLY am not keen with
anyone messing with my back in that location for an epidural, which I am told
may not work due to the previous injury anyway. And I cannot forget my
knitting!!! Baby socks of course!

Also on my birth plan is donating the cord blood. What is that you say? In the
past, when a baby was born, the umbilical cord was thrown away. But today, blood
from the umbilical cord can be collected after your baby's birth and donated to
a public cord blood bank to help someone with a life-threatening disease.
Umbilical cord blood is rich with blood-forming cells, cells that are no longer
needed by your baby after delivery. But these cells may be needed by someone
else — someone with a life-threatening disease like leukemia or lymphoma who
needs a transplant to survive.

And then there is the baby bag full of cute little clothes (all non-gender
except one going-home girl dress and a set of boy clothes with Husky dogs on
them), handmade cloth diapers my mom sewed, baby wipes, onsies, mini-mukluks
(the baby will be dual citizen Canadian/American), miniscule socks (some
handknitted by me), nursing pads and other baby paraphernalia.

For those of you interested, baby weighs approximately five pounds two ounces
(2.3 kilograms) and measures about 18 inches long as of today.

I am glad I got everything mostly done today before the sun came out and it
started to heat up. Tomorrow and Sunday I am going to a couple agricultural
events and have to play a bit of carpentry work tomorrow after my dog decided he
wanted to 'blow this joint' and ate my mom's wooden gate to go sit out by my
vehicle until the neighbor spied him and rang the doorbell and asked "is this
really nice HUGE dogs yours?". Just what I wanted to do tomorrow, rebuild a gate
*L*. I really want to look at two houses as well. One is on smaller land, but
the house really appeals to me in a little quaint town I like.
Right now though, I think I will put together a stroller and let it outgass as
well if it is anything like the carseat!!

tenzicut - who feels like she is the size of a barn and finding it difficult to
get in and out of a vehicle, but is happy she is not THAT fat looking.