Introducing Maren Ione Klest Loucks

Introducing Maren Ione Klest Loucks, born September 26 at 10:09pm, 8lbs 2oz, 20in. Maren rhymes with Karen, and Ione is pronounced "eye-oh-knee." She is as healthy as can be, and I am recovering from a long and somewhat difficult labor (giving birth is hard!) but also healthy and doing well. Sorry for the delay in posting this update, but we pretty much don't care about the outside world at this point - we are totally and blissfully in love with our little girl.

Much more to come :)

Probabilities, superstition, and squirmy tummies

As was my general prediction, no baby yet – I am hoping the baby comes soon, but so far have no signs of labor. We had an appointment with the obstetrician last Wednesday, and at that time it seemed like the baby was content to stay put for a bit, and we have another appointment tomorrow to see if anything has changed. Maybe, but my gut feeling is that things are pretty well the same. 

We found this handy calculator that gives probability of labor by date, given the due date. By these calculations, only half of first babies are born by their due dates. I am hoping to wait not longer than a week or maybe nine days, because apparently at ten days past due date they start suggesting induction. From what I hear, induced labor can be quite a bit more painful than spontaneous labor, so I have my fingers crossed for spontaneous labor sometime in the next week. We shall see.

In the meantime, our freezer is completely full (we count thirty-three nights worth of pre-made frozen dinners for me and Jeff, including potato-chard-cheddar pockets with potatoes and Swiss chard from the garden, homemade mac & cheese, enchiladas, calzone, lasagna, chili, lentil soup, lentil sweet potato curry, and a second kind of lentil soup with Swiss chard from the garden, plus over fifty chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, forty-seven muffins, and forty-five energy balls). From the perspective of having food ready, I don't think we could be more prepared. I have read multiple books related to sleep, breast-feeding, and what to expect in the first little bit after baby comes home. The only other bits of possible preparation include putting up some hooks to hold a laundry bag in the baby's room, and finishing knitting a little cardigan sweater I started for the baby. 

I am not usually particularly superstitious, but at the moment I feel like the baby will not come until I finish this sweater (and then who knows, the sweater may never actually fit). I am getting reasonably close, but still have hours worth of work to do on it. I was planning to spend a good deal of time knitting this weekend, but I can only do so much at one time without getting some pain in my right arm – I always have to be careful about how much I use my right arm, for everything from writing to mousing to knitting, because overuse can seriously exacerbate my neuropathic pain. So knitting on this sweater is a bit slow, and my superstitious side is telling me that means the baby isn't ready yet either.

I feel like my ability to function is getting to be less and less, and my stamina is lower and lower by the day. Last week I went to my prenatal aqua fit class twice, and that was fabulous– being in the water takes a lot of pressure off of joints and such. I am also still using the exercise bike and stretching on days when I don't go to aqua fit, and trying to get some kind of exercise in every day. Yesterday Jeff and I went for a bike ride on real bikes outside, and I think that might have been overdoing it for me. Today I woke up not feeling great and was on the verge of a migraine for a good part of the day. I feel a bit better now, but still not 100% of my already compromised energy level. So I think I have to really watch it and pay close attention to how I'm feeling so as not to overdo it again! I need all the energy I have for labor, whenever it happens to come.

It is becoming clear that the baby is becoming increasingly cramped for space in my belly. As big as my belly is (and it is quite big – most of my maternity shirts are now too small to cover my whole belly, even though they used to seem like it would be impossible to ever fill them completely) it is not really cutting it size-wise for this baby anymore. I am getting near constant pokes and jabs and waves of movement. I tried to take a video, and of course as soon as I started filming the baby quieted down, but if you look closely the first couple of seconds of this video show some good squirming:

You may have to watch it a few times to actually notice, but the squirming is more at the top. It just doesn't do justice to the weird movements that I feel and see all the time, where suddenly the left side of my belly will be sticking out, or it will be clear that there is a knee/leg poking out. It is now possible to tell by feel where the baby's back is, versus arms and legs. It's such a strange thing to think of a real baby squished into my belly, and I have taken to telling the baby that there doesn't seem to be enough room in there, and it needs to come out to where there is plenty of space to move around :-)

Still hanging on but slowing way down

Today marks thirty-nine weeks pregnant, which I can hardly believe. It seems like this has all gone by very quickly, but at the same time I sort of don't remember what it's like to not be pregnant. The baby is hanging in there, and my prediction is that I will go a couple of days past my due date. I also have a prediction that the baby will be eight and a half pounds or bigger. I don't particularly have any investment in being right about either of those things, but that is my gut feeling, so we shall see.

Earlier this week our department threw a baby shower for us. We got some things that were on our registry, and lots that were not, so it may not have been necessary to do the registry after all, but I suppose it was potentially helpful for some people. We were given a mix of toys, clothes, and practical things like swaddling blankets and bassinet sheets. We were also given a hand-me-down rocking horse from someone who used it for her grandchildren, and it was given to her by someone else who used to be in our department and has since left, and we found out later that it was given to that person by someone who is still in our department, and it was made for her children (now in late high school and university) by another psychologist in town who works at the rehabilitation center (where I have gone for my physical therapy). It will be a while before our baby can enjoy a rocking horse, but it is neat to have something that has a history to it here.

We have really prepared for the fact that we don't have family in town to help out. My mom is coming for about ten days, a week after my due date (fingers crossed that the baby arrives by then), but it's not the same as having someone who lives here who can help out. However, we have been getting lots of offers of help from friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, so it is nice to know that we have backup if we need it. And just the fact that Jeff will be off work from when the baby comes through December will be amazing. I think we will do just fine even being so far from family.

Jeff has been extremely involved and helpful, and I'm sure that will only get to be more so when he is off work after the baby comes. I feel so incredibly lucky to have Jeff as the father of this baby, because I don't think that the average dad is nearly so involved. Certainly it would not appear that they are based on  all the baby books and websites I have been looking at. I know there are lots of great dads who are very involved out there, but my bet is that Jeff will be more involved even than the average great dad. Anyway, I know this baby is lucky to have him.

Also, Jeff got me a gift as a sort of end of pregnancy, this has been physically hard, thank you for carrying the baby gift. He bought me a lovely silver necklace with a sapphire stone in it, which will be the birth stone of our baby (assuming it is not more than ten days late). It was so thoughtful and so sweet, and such a reminder that I am awfully lucky too :-)

Swollen feet and breakdancing carrots

Monday was my last day at work, but on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I did feel a bit like I was working from home as there were lots and lots of emails to respond to and things to do. However, on Friday I got exactly 0 emails that I had to respond to, so I think that my leave has really and truly started. There are some little things that I will do, like sign things and attend to any urgent issues that may graduate students are having, but there are backup people in place and for the most part there is nothing that I have to do this someone else can't do. So I'm finally feeling like my brain has transitioned out of work mode, which is great.

On Tuesday night Jeff took me out to dinner to celebrate having finished my last day of work. I also went for a prenatal massage that day, and last week on Tuesday and Thursday went to a prenatal aqua fit class. I am trying hard to focus on being physically well and prepared for birth, which has been a bit hard given that I have had a cold for seemingly ever. My cold is starting to improve significantly, and I think it may be over soon, but it is hard to say how long symptoms will linger just a little.

My biggest complaint has been giant swollen feet and ankles that don't go back to normal anymore. For a while I would have swollen feet sometimes, and then the swelling would subside for a while, but now it's just constant. My obstetrician said it is normal and not something to worry about as I don't have any other symptoms of concern, and she said essentially that if I think my feet are swollen I haven't seen anything. But it is quite uncomfortable. One of the biggest challenges has been related to shoes when I go out. Most people with giant swollen feet just wear flip-flops, but I can't do that because without some kind of ankle strap they fall off my feet. On Friday I went out and bought some "yoga flip-flops" like these which are basically the same as flip-flops but with two fabric straps, one of which goes around the ankle. They are a reasonable compromise. They allow my feet more room than any other shoes, and stay on well enough, so are pretty good even if they are not great on either front. At least I can wear them without being extremely uncomfortable.

Our biggest baby preparation has been doing more food related stuff. Yesterday I baked forty-eight of my protein and nutrient dense oatmeal applesauce muffins (not sure if I have posted the recipe, but if anyone wants it they are pretty tasty and quite healthy) and froze forty-seven of them (I had to have one fresh as a snack), and today I made my first batch of "energy balls" consisting of almonds, dried cranberries, prunes, oats, and flax seed. All of that goes into the food processor and when it gets sticky it gets rolled into balls. Jeff tried one and said it tastes like candy, and I tend to agree – thanks to our friends in Ottawa for introducing us to this idea :-) I plan to make several different kinds of these for the freezer, and since they involve no baking and minimal ingredients they are quick and easy. And at last count I think we have twenty-three nights worth of dinners in the freezer, counting the enchiladas Jeff is in the process of making as we speak.

And the most involved part of everything has been harvesting vegetables from the garden. Our beet harvest ended up being completely miserable this year, and not one of the beets was large enough to save or use. We probably planted the wrong kind. However, Jeff dug up almost 14 pounds of carrots, and also quite a few potatoes. We don't quite know how many potatoes he dug up just yet, because we still have to clean a bit more of the dirt off and make sure they are fully dry before they're ready for storage. I am not really in much condition to help with the garden harvest this year, so Jeff is basically doing all of it. It is a lot of work to dig and clean 14 pounds of carrots and I'm not sure but probably 20 pounds of potatoes. I am very appreciative that he is doing it, because it is  so satisfying to eat produce from the garden. We are still also getting lots of Swiss chard, and a slow but steady stream of zucchini. Sometimes Jeff hates the garden because it is so much work, but I know that sometimes he also loves it :-)

The best  carrot by far was this one, which definitely looks to me like it is breakdancing: