lullabies

It’s a little yuppie of me to have an ipod for the baby.

But I bought one.  A little one. A third-gen nano.

So here’s the music on her ipod.

Air
Andrew Bird
Belle and Sebastian
Billie Holiday
Bob Dylan
Bon Iver
Bonnie Prince Billy
Calexico
Califone
Decemberists
Denison Witmer
Explosions in the Sky

Fernando Ortega
Fleet Foxes
Gillian Welch
Help Me to Sing: Songs of the Sacred Harp
Hushabye Baby – Lullaby Renditions of George Strait
The Innocence Mission
Iron and Wine
Jack  Johnson
Joanna Newsom
Jon Foreman
Joni Mitchell
Jose Gonzales
Kings of Convenience
Mindy Smith
Over the Rhine
Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead
Rosie Thomas
Shane and Shane
She and Him
Sigur Ros
Simon and Garfunkle
Songs: Ohia
Sufjan Stevens
Taize
Thom Yorke
Wye Oak

and Tim Keller sermons

Today I’m 36 weeks and 4 days along.  The midwife says baby has dropped and my iron levels are up (hematacrit percentage went from 29 to 34)! Yesterday we went Ikea shopping for babygirl’s room.  I’m feeling good.

the tree is on the wall

one month to due date

“My due date is in one month.”

“That’s soon.”

“Then we’re going to have a baby with us, all the time.”

“Yeah.”

Pause.

“I hope that works out ok.”

——-

I’ve decided to just not step on the scale anymore.  I don’t want to know how many pounds I’ve gained.  I feel better not knowing.

I wake up and switch sides every couple of hours.  My hips and butt ache in my sleep, my allergies make my nose stuffy and my throat sore, of course I have to go to the bathroom, and then sometimes acid reflux wakes me too (has that fact induced me to change my eating habits?  No.  So I can’t complain).

In the daytime, my main complaints are how difficult it is to bend down and then get back up, as, for example, when tying shoes or picking up a dropped pencil.  That, and the pain of stretching ligaments, which is sudden and can make me gasp a little. Oh: and don’t let me forget the achy, swollen hands.  Feet too, but right now the hands are much worse.

I feel more energetic.  I don’t know if the energy is due to my iron levels going back up or due to the fact that I’ve quit work and can take life as easily as I want to.  Not that I’m taking it THAT easy.  Yesterday, while 8 inches of snow blanketed Seattle, DH and I spent six hours deep cleaning the kitchen. Whew.

Our inane birthing class is finished.  My recommendation: instead of the 150 or 200 or whatever the class costs, just get yourself a free library card and promise to spend 10 or 15 hours reading books and watching dvds.  The books I’ve read have been way more informative and empowering than the class was.

Gear decisions have been made.  And re-made.  And made again.  We ended up choosing a Chico infant car seat instead of the  convertible we’d originally chosen, so that we could pop out the seat and carry it places.  This will mean that we’ll have to buy a second car seat at 12 months, so it’s not the thriftiest of decisions.  But maybe eventually we’ll need two seats anyway, a toddler seat and an infant seat, depending on what might happen with a baby #2.

As for diapers, Mom bought us our first dozen bum genius 3.0 one-size diapers, which are adorable.  They are washed and ready to go.  I’m also going to get some old-fashioned cotton prefolds and covers, which are cheaper than bum genius, but not quite as simple.  I bought a bunch of cotton flannel remnants at the fabric store, and I’m cutting them into re-usable cloth diaper wipes.

Instead of buying a sling, I got a long piece of fabric from the discount section (it cost like $10, total) and will try it out as instructed here and here.

I found a great website to help determine what laundry detergents are good to use for baby stuff: http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm.  For now, I’m using the Arm and Hammer for Sensitive Skin, just because it’s sold at the grocery store a few blocks from my house.

And as if I haven’t committed my little sewing machine to enough other projects, now I want to use the leftover quilt fabrics to make a flock of birds.

one month to due date

baby quilt

For size perspective...at the foot of a twin bed.

The back is a little furry with textured hearts.

without the flash...more accurate colors?

The quilt is made with the same fabrics as our tree art project was made with, plus a few extras that I had around.  It has a lot of mistakes that you can see if you look closely…squares not matching up, fabric pulled instead of smooth…but it was my first quilt, and I made it entirely by reading instructions online and figuring things out as I went along, without using any professional tools like a rotary cutter to get things even.  I did a simple “stitch in the ditch” to quilt it together, so it’s nothing fancy.  But it’s warm and cozy.

i know, i know

Is everything ok?  What happened to the blogger?

Everything is fine, maybe even more than fine.  I’ve just found that obsessing over my pregnancy is less interesting as I get closer to my due date.   This pregnancy thing is almost over!  Instead of keeping track of exercise and diet and baby movements and pains and aches, I’m thinking more about car seats and cloth diaper wipes.

But I’ll write about that.  Soon.  Maybe tomorrow, if the power doesn’t go out (Seattle may have 6-10 inches of snow by tomorrow, high winds and ice).  But right now, I’m going to cuddle up and watch the Hallmark channel Christmas movies, and finish binding the baby quilt (pictures to come).

Merry Christmas.