Baby digs...

Since we have no baby to show off yet, I figured I'd post some completed nursery pics instead. See what a nice job Ros did. She's such a good mom.

Only thing we have left to do is get some shelves for that shelfie thing.

All those wonderful books were given to us at shower #1 when we had people bring their favorite childhood book instead of a card. We've got lots of bedtimes covered.

Poop removal station, nuff said.

Nuggets wardrobe. Most of it is in her drawers, or under the crib separated by size.

Hopefully the next time we post, we'll have a baby to show off...Any time now :)

Home stretch...

No baby yet for those that are curious. I've just been too lazy to write anything. Although the fatigue of the 3rd trimester isn't nearly as bad as the first, I find that all I want to do on my days off is sit around my living room wearing nothing more than a t shirt and some undies. The heat is awful and is definitely making me wish little Nugget out of me, but I know she'll come when she's good and ready.

I've been trying to get things going the natural way for a couple weeks now. I've been taking Evening Primrose Oil 3x/day, walking, and some good old fashioned fooling around. The fooling around part, not so much fun these days. Now I know how straight people trying to conceive feel, trying to get down and dirty on demand. NOT FUN. But at this point, with absolutely no more room in this belly, I'll do anything for her to make her appearance just a little early.

Over the past few days the Braxton-Hicks contractions have really ramped up, which I hope is a good sign that the real ones are just right around the corner. I'm excited to use all of the Hypnobabies techniques I've been practicing for the last few months to see if I can really birth this BIG girl naturally. I'm hoping she weighs less than 9 lbs, hoping, hoping... I just don't know. I've been measuring right on target every appointment so hopefully she isn't a sumo wrestler when she's born.

We had our 38ish week appointment today which went well. Nugget had hiccups when they were listening to her heartbeat which was really cute. She's seemed to have moved back over to my right side even though I've been trying so hard to keep her on my left. Hopefully she'll move back over. The midwife discussed with us about stripping my membranes at the next appointment if she hasn't made her appearance yet, which I'm all for although I know it will be uncomfortable. I hope we won't even have to go there and we'll have our little angel in our arms before then.

Pregnancy updates, I've cut my working hours down to three 8 hour shifts per week instead of 3 12's. Which may not sound like much to most of you who work 8 hour shifts usually, but it's a huge deal for me not to have to be at work until 3am. Ankle swelling is still minimal except for just a few cases of cankles after very hot days when I walked or sat around alot without putting them up. No varicose veins for me even though everyone who has given birth in my family has horrible ones. I'll attribute that to religiously wearing my TEDS when I've been at work. Finally the stretch marks... Yuck... But I tried my best to avoid them so I'm not too upset with myself.

Finally, I think that everybody needs a wife when they are pregnant. She has nested for the past few months and our house looks great. She's even cleaned out the shed. All I've had to do was gestate and some days, that's really all I am capable of. I haven't felt like nesting myself, but I just contribute that to my nest being complete. So thank you my beautiful wife for making this pregnancy so easy for me, I LOVE YOU!

Sobered....

*Steps on soapbox*
Take a good look at this...



















(from Forbes.com)
There's a lot that could be said about the U.S. being comparable to Ghana, Swaziland and Zambia (where no nominal per capita income is above $3000/year) in the their unpaid maternity leave, but I think this speaks for itself.
If one word could be uttered about this, I would use "shameful."
*Steps off soapbox*

Don't get me wrong....I am grateful that we'll both have jobs after this kiddo pops out. I'm happy that I'm able to take the summer off and Nickie will take her full 12 weeks because we've been saving like squirrels collecting nuts before winter so they don't starve. I'm glad I can tell my employer that I'm going to take the time off because my lesbian wife is having a baby.

But then I have to think, just for a second, would Nickie have been better off in Bosnia or Chile? Or, Mexico or Malawi? Shameful.

Check Up

Today was our 36 (almost 37) week check up at the midwife office... Although our dates and their dates are a little different as we go by when conception actually took place and they go by that little wheelie thing based on my last period.

Everything seems pretty good, got the crotch swab for group B strep, had the midwife check my cervix even though I know any amount of dilation pretty much means nothing at this point but we were curious. The verdict, squishy cervix and fingertip dilated. I feel good about this as that is one fingertip I won't have to dilate later. My blood pressure today was a little elevated at 130/70, last week it was about 102/68, so I had some blood drawn while we were there too looking for signs of pregnancy induced hypertension. I'm pretty sure I'm fine as I haven't had any protein in my urine, no headaches, and my swelling is minimal at best. Although I have been having floaters in my vision occasionally so maybe that's something to think about. I'm thinking that my pressure was probably up since we were chatting about work and the fact that I still work 12 hour shifts in the ER, and at this point in my pregnancy, nothing stresses me out more. But due to the crappy maternity leave we have in this country (one of the worst in the developed world, or even undeveloped as Rwanda has a better one than us) I have to keep working until the princess decides to make her appearance or they (the midwives) tell me I can't work anymore.

We are totally ready for her to come, Ros even installed the car seat today. It's weird to look in the back seat and see it there, we'll see how the dogs react to half of their space now taken up. Everything is washed, folded, and placed neatly in drawers, again thanks to my wonderful wife. We even bought our second possible take home outfit depending on how much she decides to weigh when she is born, little nervous that the newborn size will be just a bit snug. All we need now is our little bundle of joy. But not until we finally pack the hospital bag which we have been talking about for a week now and haven't started yet. I should get on that, except all I want to do is lay on the couch which is a big problem for my productivity.

Here's the 9 month belly shot... Still waiting on that belly button to fall out, not long now.

Special Gift

As everyone might have guessed and read about before, we didn't make Nugget the natural way. It's not just the age-old, romantic story of "2 women fall in love, and that love makes a baby". We have gotten by pretty well without a man, but we needed one for this.

We went through a sperm bank to find an unknown donor. At first, it was about finding a donor who looked like me, didn't have crazy in his family and had attributes we liked. We got about 15 profiles that were 21 pages each. We sorted and prioritized, looking at hobbies, jobs, height, weight, handwriting, grammar, the interviewer's interpretation, everything.

After 2 months, priorities shifted. The rollcoaster of emotion was already getting to us. We decided we wanted a donor that was successful, thinking we'd have a better chance. There was a particular profile we liked who had been successful, but he was always "unavailable". There are a lot of great things about his profile. He's described by the interviewer as the "ideal donor". One part in particular got us (like most women, I would think). In the profile, there is a section asking, "If you could send a message to the recipient(s) of your semen, what would that message be?" Most men would read that as a message to the parents, but he read it differently. He wrote the message to the child. He started his answer, "Welcome to the world!" How cute is that? He goes on to say some wonderful things that made us melt. Too bad he was always unavailable...

...except for the month we got pregnant. He happened to be available the day we needed to order and we jumped. We gave our credit card info, got the tank in the mail and...well, the rest is history. Not the history of where most other babies come from, but its our Nugget's history.

Nickie made this and it's hanging right above the crib. It has a copy of the donor's answer to the question we loved so much. When she's old enough to ask what it is, we'll tell her. Nugget will know where she came from (well, as much as we know). She'll know she was wanted and the donor wanted her too, for us: Our Special Gift.