september mama

so i am finally done with work and have been home since friday... and i haven't rested at all so far! matt has been awesome getting all the shit around the house done--we have new floors, new walls, and he's working on finishing the bar--and i can honestly say for the first time since we moved in 4 years ago our house actually feels like a home (and not a garage). it's freaking fantastic.

the only problem is that i have apparently gone psychotic and expect every surface to be spotless and sterile 24/7. i wake up (at 730) and start cleaning, and once it's perfectly clean, i clean more. then matt comes home and everything he puts down, touches, uses, or leaves out makes me want to scream... i have to stop myself from following him around like a little cleaning goblin. i guess this is what they call "nesting" because it is completely out of my control. i am single-minded.

a few nights ago i cleaned our back room--an enclosed porch--which is basically power tool storage and our screenprinting studio (plus the dogs sleep in their cages back there) so the room is constantly piling up with dust, dirt, and dog hair and normally i just worry about keeping the printing surface clean, though every now and then i would sweep or something. the other night i found myself scouring the place. literally. it looks awesome now, but why did i do that? i have no idea. it's not like rowan will EVER be allowed back there, what with the nails, saws, chemicals, and such... but, there it is. i even cleaned matt's big old filthy truck today just because he asked if i wanted to. it's a little frightening.

i also painted our lovely new walls. we chose a stormy sort of steel blue and i must say it looks quite nice. in fact, here is a pic:
it's a bit bare, but see the new floors? yay! they are so easy to keep clean. we will be putting floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on the righthand wall as soon as matt has time to build them. we have literally a whole room stacked full of books that desperately need a home, and that wall is basically wasted space otherwise.

oh and i planted a little flower garden in the front walkway using plants that were given to us by this great lady matt has been working for--she has incredible english-style gardens throughout her yard and she gave us free reign to steal whatever we wanted... so we did. and i planted them all a few days ago. most of them are doing ok but a few of the transplants seem like they may not make it, unfortunately. matt has a grand plan to landscape the whole front yard into meandering flower beds with mulch walkways in between. i said as long as it's all free i'm totally into it. so we've made a start, and it looks pretty good.

anyway. so i am a week from the due date if we're going by mr. doctor's assessment! a few extra days if not. tonight was my official "intuitive" prediction, but i don't really see that happening at this point; she's being her usual bouncy self right on time as we speak. oh, so i recently learned what a "braxton hicks contraction" really is--i have been having them for MONTHS and never knew it because the descriptions (in books, online, from others) are so wretched! every so often my belly will do this thing where it gets really tight to the touch, like she's pushed herself really hard in one direction and has run out of room, and i always thought it was just her... but no, that's a BH. so to the other pregnant ladies out there, BH are when your belly is suddenly really weird--like bunched up and lopsided or pointy--for no apparent reason. and it should feel hard to the touch. for me i feel nothing when this happens, like no pain or anything, but they have started happening 20+ times a day or so. it's interesting.

i also last 3 pounds this week, which is normal enough, and honestly i don't know what else i expected. i went from 9 months on my ass doing nothing to being home and busting it for 12 hours a day... of course i am going to lose a few pounds. if i had been home the whole time, i bet i would have only gained half what i have. maybe in the next life. but at least i know i should be able to lose the baby weight easily enough if i keep my activity levels pretty high. i'm really banking on the claim that breastfeeding is the magical cure for pregnancy fat, lol. it's hard to see myself so out of shape--i can't wait to have my body back. i've really grown an appreciation for what i had (or could've/should've had) now that i lost it! but it's ok--i'm not stressed or worried about it, because i've gained and lost weight enough times in my life to know it's a pretty straightforward process. the key is not to get overwhelmed with apparent lack of progress and keep at it... you never notice you are losing weight until one day you see a pic of what you used to look like.

crazy news: my lovely doula/super awesome bff is pregnant too! she just found out a few days ago, and it is possibly the coolest thing that could've happened at this point. we will have kids 9 months apart now, instead of 4-5 years! i'm so excited for her. and rowan. it's important to have cool friends! :) i think she's having a girl also, but we'll see... if it's a boy he's going to have some competition for her betrothal, lol. there are so many eligible baby boys around these days.

so my plan for the rest of this pregnancy, now that i have mostly finished my "to do" list, is to:
-finish a few chores (laundry/minor stuff)
-find a place to go swimming, preferably beach or springs on a hot day
-henna my hair, hands, and feet and spend the staining time relaxing
-sleep for a whole day
-maybe make some (more) food for the freezer if i feel like it. already got a great lemongrass ginger fish soup and some banana raisin spice bread :) and i know my friends have plans to deliver postpartum food, bless them.

the midwives say i'm doing fine (i was GBS neg, yay), looking "great," my blood pressure is "great," and her heart rate is "great," so... we just wait. i'm ok with another week of waiting. after that i might start to... encourage... labor in the few natural ways i know how. we'll see. as soon as i get my whole day of sleep i am ready for labor. today i made my "mama tea" blend, my healing bath tea blend, and a little bottle of hooha healer spray/pad soak liquid for afterwards. and of course i've got some of t.w.i.n.k. beauty's healing salve c/o me! that stuff is magical. i'm just going to assume the worst (a moderate tear) and plan to have supplies on hand to deal with that healing process. the mama tea is mix of physical/mental rejuvenators and some lactation aids, so hopefully that will be useful. i've been drinking raspberry leaf since the beginning of this pregnancy, and for the last 3 months i've added hibiscus and rose hips to it, and man i can drink that stuff by the gallon. it's tasty and i swear i can feel it nourishing me. so now i'm adding some extra herbs specifically for the post-birth trauma to help my body go back to normal as easily as possible.

i'm going to end this abruptly because i just remembered i need to look something up for a friend; but i think i have run out of things to say anyway. i'll try to update more often as labor approaches, to document every little weird change that might be signaling its commencement. :P