Monday, August 16, 2010
Nearing the finish line
Laura has her week 37 doctor's appointment today, even though tomorrow is technically week 37 (she had to reschedule because of a conference call for work).
Holy crap, y'all. You know what week 37 means? That means it's three weeks until the actual due date. TWENTY-ONE DAYS. This is really happening!
Saturday we went to a 6-hour birthing class with 11 other couples. (Pregnant women get up to pee constantly during a 6-hour class. Seriously, there was never more than two seconds when everyone was in the room.)
The thing started with the cord blood banking rep making a pitch. Yeah... $1,900 to do it, but $125 a year forever to store it, and most likely it will only come in handy if it's used to treat whatever illness a later kid you might have might get. We're passing on that. But the rep passed out goodie bags with random junk in it, and inside the little cooler bag we got the raffle winning $25 gift card for Babies R Us. Score! Free diapers!
The class was actually very informative, if only for the need-to-know details the woman gave us about which building to go to, where to park, etc. We watched a video of four different births, and half the moms-to-be were like "Ick, I don't want to see my own birth, why do I want to watch someone else give birth?" I have a high threshold for body-type stuff (I took a pic of my arm with my cell phone the last time I gave blood) but I too will admit not having a strong desire to watch this thing come out of my wife's hoo-ha. The nurse said they have a mirror on wheels if the mom wants to watch what's happening. Laura will decline that opportunity.
I also know how to time contractions, and when to go to the hospital (and how long to put it off so you're not sitting there forever). Laura's having one of her sisters there with us in the room, to help out, and to keep their mom from trying to demand to be in there, which neither of us wanted!
We got home after the class around 3:30, both of us tired. Laura went to grab a nap and I popped in They Live, John Carpenter's great '80s flick about aliens secretly invading by keeping us sedate little consumers. About 10 minutes into it, L's sister (the one I mentioned above) called and asked if we wanted to go to dinner. We all agreed on Georgia Brown's in downtown DC. Yum!
Sunday I tried to finish the movie I had started, and got another 20 minutes into it before L got up. I'll finish it before the kid gets here. Maybe. I also finished assembling random baby things: a Pack-n-Play (a playpen that has risers on it so the kid can sleep in it when he's a baby, and it has an attached changing table); a vibrating chair that also rocks (oh man, I said more than once I wish they made these in adult sizes. The adult version is the massage chair from Sharper Image that cost about $2,000); the adapter that allows you to snap the car seat onto the stroller; the car seat base into the backseat of L's car (he won't be riding in my Beetle too often).
At week 37, the baby is considered full-term. The last organ to form (his lungs) is done, and he can come out any time in the next three weeks and not be considered early. I guess we're ready whenever he is. Laura is SO ready to have him, if only to make me take my turn carrying him!
Holy crap, y'all. You know what week 37 means? That means it's three weeks until the actual due date. TWENTY-ONE DAYS. This is really happening!
Saturday we went to a 6-hour birthing class with 11 other couples. (Pregnant women get up to pee constantly during a 6-hour class. Seriously, there was never more than two seconds when everyone was in the room.)
The thing started with the cord blood banking rep making a pitch. Yeah... $1,900 to do it, but $125 a year forever to store it, and most likely it will only come in handy if it's used to treat whatever illness a later kid you might have might get. We're passing on that. But the rep passed out goodie bags with random junk in it, and inside the little cooler bag we got the raffle winning $25 gift card for Babies R Us. Score! Free diapers!
The class was actually very informative, if only for the need-to-know details the woman gave us about which building to go to, where to park, etc. We watched a video of four different births, and half the moms-to-be were like "Ick, I don't want to see my own birth, why do I want to watch someone else give birth?" I have a high threshold for body-type stuff (I took a pic of my arm with my cell phone the last time I gave blood) but I too will admit not having a strong desire to watch this thing come out of my wife's hoo-ha. The nurse said they have a mirror on wheels if the mom wants to watch what's happening. Laura will decline that opportunity.
I also know how to time contractions, and when to go to the hospital (and how long to put it off so you're not sitting there forever). Laura's having one of her sisters there with us in the room, to help out, and to keep their mom from trying to demand to be in there, which neither of us wanted!
We got home after the class around 3:30, both of us tired. Laura went to grab a nap and I popped in They Live, John Carpenter's great '80s flick about aliens secretly invading by keeping us sedate little consumers. About 10 minutes into it, L's sister (the one I mentioned above) called and asked if we wanted to go to dinner. We all agreed on Georgia Brown's in downtown DC. Yum!
Sunday I tried to finish the movie I had started, and got another 20 minutes into it before L got up. I'll finish it before the kid gets here. Maybe. I also finished assembling random baby things: a Pack-n-Play (a playpen that has risers on it so the kid can sleep in it when he's a baby, and it has an attached changing table); a vibrating chair that also rocks (oh man, I said more than once I wish they made these in adult sizes. The adult version is the massage chair from Sharper Image that cost about $2,000); the adapter that allows you to snap the car seat onto the stroller; the car seat base into the backseat of L's car (he won't be riding in my Beetle too often).
At week 37, the baby is considered full-term. The last organ to form (his lungs) is done, and he can come out any time in the next three weeks and not be considered early. I guess we're ready whenever he is. Laura is SO ready to have him, if only to make me take my turn carrying him!
# posted by smacky @ 8:14 AM 
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