29 August 2008

baby update:

How your baby's growing:
Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an
ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon)
and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy
covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa,
the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her
nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances,
along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called
meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term.
(Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term
and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a
head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest
scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of
saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by
manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

I have FOUR weeks left! that is, two - six weeks. whoa.

also, we're going to starkville this weekend! but still coming back in
time to see my dear friends who are coming to jackson!

i need to get to work...

27 August 2008

a brief complaint:

I'm sorry...I just really do have to complain. or vent or something.
I'm just really sick of my doctor's office. I think I'm okay with my
doctor, but I'm so tired of the d*** office.

So, I slipped and fell Monday night--I was trying to be good and walk
on the sidewalk, not the grass, so it wouldn't be slippery, but there
was mud on the sidewalk and I slipped. I landed on my ankle and my
knee--same leg (now it looks like i have a stigmata on my ankle) and
am scraped and bruised, but fine, as far as I know. Aside from the
excitement that my body would have triggered, I don't think anything
could have happened to Iris and she's still moving around a lot, etc.
But I figured I should probably tell my doctor anyways. I thought I
had an appointment today, so I was just going to wait, but then
yesterday I realized that the appointment was next week. So this
morning before I left for work I called--I figured I'd have to leave a
message for nurse anyway, so it wouldn't matter that it was before
they opened. So I called and listened and followed all the prompts,
and then got a real live person, which was a pleasant surprise...until
she said, "this is the answering service. you'll have to call back
during their business hours to leave a message." I almost cried. It
doesn't make any sense at all. Most of the time you leave messages for
people when they are not there, and speak to them when they are, but
at my doctor's office, you can't leave them a message until they are
there, and heaven forbid you get to speak to a real live person! I'm
so frustrated! This compounds the frustration I'm already feeling
because of waiting so darn long before I get to see the doctor.

There should be some kind of ratio worked out--if the length of time
you see the doctor is less than x% of the time you waited, you should
get a reduction on your bill or something.

Also, because I apparently have the world's best pediatrician, it
makes my OB's office look much worse. Not only do they have a real
person answering the phone, but I can call anytime, day or night, and
reach a doctor. Like, actually talk to the doctor. I don't know how
normal that is, but compared to my OB, it's wonderful!

Okay. Sorry. thank you for listening *reading?* to me.

Back to work.

26 August 2008

Places I want to eat in Starkville

Mrs. Rachel's house
Lil Dooey's (Proud winner of another "Herbie" award)
City Bagel
Shaherezad's (sorry I didn't spell that right)

Runner ups:
Bulldog Deli
Starkville Café
Mexico Tipico
MSU Cafeteria
Stromboli's

What else did I leave out?

If only we were going to be there for that many meals! I'm not even sure that Iris has been to Starkville. Can anyone remember?

Mmm... I know that most people will be in Ruston, but...I'm so glad we'll be in Starkville.

25 August 2008

Baby update

How your baby's growing:
Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18
inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew
melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing
somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain
about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can
process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is
now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

and kicking me, apparently.

also, most of my maternity shirts don't cover my belly. if i'm nto
careful, i show off all my stretch marks. gross. and my crocs, whcih i
have pretty much worn every day since Roy got them for me in mid may,
have finally worn out and are makign my feet hurt. i've been thinking
i was really tired, but it's relaly just been my feet hurting. there's
also a little swelling goin' on.

on the bright side, only 32 more days until my due date... that's five
weeks, even though technically, it could be plus or minus 2 weeks. ...
our kiddo is three to seven weeks away from arriving. wow.

also, i am having a shower, and this is a craptastically informal way
to invite people, but i'm pregnant and my brain is mush. it's next
saturday, between 11-1 at mrs. leverette's house. leave a comment if
you want to rsvp and let her know you're comoing and i'll give you her
phone number. i'm excited.

okay. i need to get back to work. but befor ethe day is out i want to
mention the two yummy dishes i've made in the past week. roy-tested
and approved.

15 August 2008

baby update

How your baby's growing:
Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe)
and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help
regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out,
making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central
nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as
well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to
know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health
problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal
nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long
run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

also, she is kicking a LOT, and sometimes I can even see my skin
move...it's really weird looking.

we are going to the doctor on monday...childbirth classes start the
week after that...we have a car-seat coming (courtesy of my
co-workers!) we have a crib, when roy gets paid next week i'm going to
order the bassinet, i have another shower coming up (let me know if
you want an invite), someone has offered to let me use her baby sling
and a front carrier, i'm going to call a pediatrician today and make
an appointment to get to know her, i'm thinking about my birthplan...
(basically, don't mess with me unless i need it)...

all i need now is a breast pump and a rocking chair. and maybe some
more bottles. and to buy my lil sister's ticket so she can come from
colorado.

just a few...

from Roy's home state:
http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1833071,00.html

Go Bulldogs!
http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080815/SPORTS030102/808150336&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

that's it for now.

13 August 2008

baby stuff sale!

Wed. & Thurs., August 27 & 28, 9am – 6 pm

Thursday-Everything is 25% off

Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church

750 Pear Orchard Rd. – New Multi-Purpose Building(former fellowship
hall, Ridgeland

You may also enter from Northpark Drive and follow the signs.

This is a Consignment Sale for quality toys and baby equipment

Sellers receive 65% of their marked price.

All proceeds benefit POPC Mother's Morning Out and Christ Covenant
School. We reserve the right to have first choice on items put in the
sale for the benefit of our children's programs.

this is troubling:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/us/13marriage.html?pagewanted=1

08 August 2008

baby update, quickly:

How your baby's growing:
This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple)
and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled,
alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull
aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap,
thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The
pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are
born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse
until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue
expands during infancy and childhood.\

49 days left, holy crap!

06 August 2008

we got our advances of this book today:

http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Where-Eat-Neighborhoods/dp/1578069416/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218037764&sr=1-10

http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1118

And I can't stop reading it! I won't get my staff copy until it
actually comes out in September (another good reason to keep working)
but I'm already in love with this book. It's amazing. I keep thinking
of how much Roy will enjoy it when he gets a chance to read it, even
though I'm pretty sure it will make him homesick.

I wish there was a picture of the cover somewhere online, but I'm
afraid there's not.

-Emily

01 August 2008

baby update and other good stuff

32 weeks (that means 8 weeks or 56 days left....holy crap!)

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is
about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus.
You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes
right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth
weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside
the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at
least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as
she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Also, we've definitely felt pointy things poking my belly. I'm not
sure if it was an elbow, hand, foot, or knee, but it was very pointy.
Also, my sister found a free stroller in her NYC apartment building
and it should get here today. I'm excited. I have another dr. app't
monday. (I'm up to every two weeks--have i mentioned that yet?)

Here is a link to be able to download talks from Jackson-Summer RUF,
including an excellent one by my husband! I mean, you can tell he's
still got some baby-preacher kinks to work out, but while I was
listening to him preach, I started to be afraid he'd be really
successful and we'd end up at a mega-church! (Yes, I know...my fears
are bizarre.) Roy loves the gospel.
http://www.fpccollege.org/GenericPage/DisplayPage.aspx?guid=5F11845B-35A7-4A42-97E7-F712BE161906

My first batch of wedding pictures came in. Yay! You are welcome to
come and see them, though since they were taken by my
bridesmaid-sister, there are a very few of the actual event and more
of the entire weekend, as well as shots of the mississippi country
side and horses.

the site i am using (yorkphoto.com) is having free shipping for orders
over $35 until august 8, so i'm hoping to be able to upload all the
rest of the pictures before then, since last time, half the cost of my
order was the shipping--but it was still pretty affordable. And the
pictures have white borders around them, which just looks cooler.

We are also seriously starting to work on clearing out space for
Iris...I've been goign through drawers of stuff and my filing cabinet.
trying to be good about throwing stuff out. I had years and years of
receipts. Some of them, i saw and thought, "gosh, that was from a trip
to Jackson just before I met Roy! I should save it." I did throw that
one out, but I did keep others--some of them from the grocery store
effectively function as a recipe! ...It's kinda funny...I have a lot
of stuff from freshman year (one of the happiest (pre-roy and
pre-counseling) years of my life), and then a lot from senior year +
grad school (also a mostly good time in my life--therapy started
working! and at the end, I met Roy). [Those of you who have known me
through college know that the years in between I was dating someone...
I'm finding it kinda ironic that those years appear like a giant blot,
both in my own memory and in the stuff that I kept. I guess that's
good, really. I want to have plenty o-room to make memories with Roy
and Iris. But I guess it's indicative, too. Anyways...off that track.
] I also still have all my notebooks from all my college and grad
school classes. I'm kinda afraid that I even have my stuff from
highschool squirreled away somewhere. I REALLY loved school and going
to class (I know, I'm a dork). And I still don't want to throw them
away. But I don't think I need to keep them in Iris's room, either.

Roy and I are both just sentimental packrats. He has a whole box
(large shoe box) full of stuff, too, that he calls his "memory box"
and I...well, right now, our whole spare room bed is covered with
stuff that I still can't bear to throw away. So I think we are going
to have to turn into scrapbookers, though not the cutesy kind with
special scissors. We've also saved all the cards from our wedding
gifts, etc., etc., etc. Did anybody else keep them? if so, what did
you do with them? I save all the wedding invitations and christmas
cards I get...I just love feeling _special_.

Of course, we are also coming to realize (at least I am especially)
the importance of filing non-emotional but important stuff--like bills
for having a baby and stuff that we'll need for taxes, and other
bills...right now we don't really have a standardized spot--though I
think we are doing pretty good about paying bills. But this lil baby
coming is certainly making us take stock of all the excess stuff we
have.

Tomorrow will be an epic quest for plain ol' cheap scrapbooks.

Also, Roy has been playing NCAA09 not quite non-stop, but a lot. He's
been playing with Mississippi State (yay! best husband ever!) and as
he finished his season last night, he only lost to LSU, one of our
players came in second in the Heismann race, and another won the Jim
Thorpe award (I think that's right). and he beat wisconsin in the
Capital One bowl. I don't know how much of that is related to our team
and how much to his video game skills, which are pretty amazing, but I
thought it was encouraging. I'm counting down the days to football
season as well as to my daughter's birth--only 29 more!

Okay. I need to go get a ride home.

I hope ya'll all have fantastic weekends!

Emily-n-Irie (our nickname, which is apparently Rastafari slang for
"positive emotions or feelings, or anything that is good. Specifically
it refers to high emotions and peaceful vibrations."