motherhood.

I am a midnight milk machine. It's an odd role. Every 2 hours. I'm living on sleep in 2 hour chunks totalling 4-6 hours a night. It's kind of a mess. I want to thank everyone for their emails, calls, and congratulations, but I don't have 2 minutes to shower, much less get back to folks. I hope I can do that this week.

Elliot is doing great. There was a little scare when he didn't learn to latch and was basically not eating, but one visit from a lactation consultant and things were back on track. After losing a pound between birth and day 5, he gained 2 oz back the next day. So after some tough days, things have turned around. He's happier now too. Makes sense.

+1

Yup. Welcome Elliot Benjamin, our new little buddy. It was a loooooooong weekend but he finally came out to play at 7:30am on Monday. We did have the natural childbirth of our dreams. No drugs. Just a few really long nights and moments of self doubt and triumph far beyond any that could be described. I guess I aught to write up a proper birth story, but that'll come later...

in limbo

No news. This week it's M/W acupuncture and T/R massage, on top of all the herbs and other stuff, hoping to have a baby before Ben leaves for Interbike. There's no perfect scenario at this point though. Either baby comes and he has to leave a teeny newborn home with me, or baby doesn't come and I might be calling him to get on the next flight home. It'll be ok, I'm sure.

Ben rightfully raised the point that this means our kid will always have a bday during Interbike. Too late now.

I had been walking since about 38 weeks, but it was boring and I felt like I wasn't getting my heart rate high enough for a workout. Yesterday, I went back to running part of the way. Today too. It's hard because i know I'm just further screwing up my foot/ankle but I figure in a little while I'll have a few weeks off from running... right?

Things are happening though. I know this baby is on its way... eventually.

It's like living with the Jeopardy! theme song on repeat play.

Tick tock. Tick tock. Still technically more than a week to go, but I don't care. With Ben leaving for Interbike on the 18th, I'm motivated. Started acupuncture last night, going back tonight. Herbs, visualizations, exercises, trying it all. I'm being very careful not to get stressed about it or feel desperate- baby's going to come when it's good and ready- but just really do all I can to contribute to a speedy delivery.

Still walking. It's, erm, a little boring. It's also easy. I feel like I could walk forever, but the problem is, it takes forever. So slow.

The women's cx clinic is this weekend. I should be really looking forward to it, but in reality I'm hoping I won't be there. It's odd helping to plan something with this odd situation attached.

Still waiting.

Nope, no baby yet.

Spent the weekend lazing about. They say walking helps get the baby out, so it was 4 3-mile walks, which made Molly pretty happy. Joined in the ladies' trail ride on Monday morning for a couple super-slow hours on trail followed by a great brunch. In all, though, the 1st trimester exhaustion is back and by 7 or 8pm all I want is to be laying down. No fun. The weekly schedule is now shaking out to be midwife on Tue, chiropractor/acupuncture on Wed, and massage on Thu. Trying to get a baby out is time consuming.

I'm also pretty done with running. I just keep injuring myself in new and more serious ways. This body was not meant to carry this much weight. So, walking it is, with some riding and yoga and strength workouts thrown in. Still getting in 5-7 workouts a week. Still logged 15 mi last week. Counts.

Anyway, nothing exciting. Sorry.

a little OCD.

Monday night, Audrey and Ben finished the baby room. It looks like this. While they did that I sewed a ring sling using leftover curtain fabric and rings from slingring.com because OF COURSE there's bound to be a website devoted entirely to selling rings for slings. Duh.

Anyway, you'll note the chaotic stack of fabric on the table there. That would be my cloth diaper stash, or just a small part of it, because the rest is shamefully hidden behind the cabinet doors below. I've somehow taken my bike component OCD brain and temporarily converted it to be about cloth diapers. Right now it's about 48 newborn-sized prefolds, 12 covers, 6 Snappis, and about 50 cloth wipes. Also, a sprayer of diaper potion for the wipes, a hanging wet bag to serve as a diaper pail, plus a large (for daycare) and small (for out and about) wet bag. This should last us till about 6 weeks, when baby outgrows the newborn size and we'll be switching to simpler all-in-one diapers that we'll buy used from my sister. Actually, just about all of these are used.

It's funny, getting OCD about cloth diapers is just like collecting components for a bike build. There are a bagillion options and three times that many ways to make it work-- new or used, high tech or old standby. It's a simple thing to obsess over but it's really quite satisfying to have it all come together like this. It makes me feel... prepared.

And on that note, at our midwife visit last night, we were handed instructions on what to do when I go into labor. It makes this all so real. Any day now. 80% of women birth between 38 and 42 weeks, and 66% birth within 10 days of their due date. Only 5% birth on their due date. Since we have several due dates, this doesn't mean all that much to me, except that I shouldn't be getting too excited, it could be a long wait.