August 6, 2008
Baby Watch: Week 40, Day 1
I'm going to quit calling people on the telephone for the next couple of weeks. Inevitably, the very first thing out of anybody’s mouth is some variation on “are you in labor” or “have you had the baby?”. Everyone should be certain that when it happens, they won’t have to ask. Also, even though today is the medically determined “due date”, I don’t expect to have a baby for at least a week – maybe longer. And though I’m doing or contemplating doing lots of things to help get our birthing started, it’s not so much up to me as it is to Baby. As we all learned from Magda nearly 4 years ago, Baby will come when Baby is ready.
Otherwise, I’m feeling fairly good – aside from it being hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in and the trouble I have rising from a sitting or reclined position. I swam 1700 yards on Sunday and 1300 on Monday and took the dogs on an hour-long 2-mile hike through Walnut Creek Park on Tuesday. Homer, Rose and I will likely repeat the hike in the morning. We had a meeting with our doula last night who gave us some referrals for chiropractic and acupuncture that I’ll try to set up for either Friday or early next week. Today I had an appointment at the Birthing Center. It appears as if the baby has dropped even lower. Baby is currently positioned on the right and the midwife gave me some helpful reminders on how to encourage Baby to move to the left. Baby’s heartbeat is strong and his/her movements are regular. My weight has held steady since last week and my blood pressure is enviable (110/60).
June 28, 2008
Hotel Valencia
Last Christmas, Stepan and I won the big door prize at the @Hand Christmas party. It was a getaway vacation for one night in San Antonio. Mom came into town on Thursday so we could redeem the gift certificate on Friday. It was my first full night away from Magda and it seems we both did okay.
We left for San Antonio around 3pm on Friday and checked into the Hotel Valencia around 5-ish. After walking around the riverwalk for a bit, we returned to the hotel for a fantastic dinner at the hotel restaurant, Citrus. We each had only one drink from the bar and the final bill was over $130 - it's a good think most of it was covered with the gift certificate.
After dinner, we strolled around the riverwalk some hopefully to walk off the bloated feeling from the wonderful dinner. When we got back to the hotel room, we were greeted with rose petals on the floor and bed (in the shape of a heart), sparkling water (champaign substitute), and chocolate covered strawberries. We were still really full from dinner so we put the strawberries in the mini bar and called it a night.
The next morning we had a lovely breakfast on the balcony off of our room. The room service breakfast was also included in our gift certificate. It was entirely too much food, but all very delicious. After breakfast, we showered and checked out of the hotel. The hotel allowed us to leave our luggage and car while we did some final sightseeing along the riverwalk.
All in all a wonderful getaway. Thanks to Mom for sitting for us and many thanks to @Hand for footing the bill!
June 6, 2008
The Ducio Wedding
Danny's wedding was a huge success. Everybody told me it was one of the best, most fun wedding they have been to in a long time. I don't think I have time right now to actually write much about the wedding, but I have posted my pictures of the weekend. Please view them at your leisure: The Ducio Wedding.
May 13, 2008
Happy Mother's Day
I had a very nice Mother's Day this year. It started with my regularly scheduled 9am swim with my Masters Swim Team. When I got home, a beautiful pasta necklace and a pan of brownies were waiting for me. I also got a $50 gift certificate to a recently discovered knitting store here in Austin called Gaugue. I think I'm going to try to make something for the baby. We also had our regular Sunday brunch at Cafe Java and went on a 2 hour hike with the O'Reilly family. After our hike, I squeezed in a nap before going to the O'Reilly's for dinner. Technically we invited ourselves (they are fostering kittens from the Humane Society that we wanted to play with), but we actually brought over dinner for the adults (red beans and rice I made from left over ham hock). The kids had left over pizza from the youngest O'Reilly's birthday party. Of course that also meant we got left over birthday cake for dessert. All was superbly delicious!
All in all a great day though probably one of the best parts of the day was the pedicure I got from Magda after our brunch. And she even got most of the polish on my toenails this time!
April 25, 2008
Strawberries
Magda and I had a great time picking strawberries at Sweet Berry Farms in Marble Falls. We went with our neighbor, Agnes, and her two sweeties, Mia and Raiden. We were even able to carpool in the hybrid when we moved to Magda to a booster seat I borrowed from Elizabeth. Next time I want to go earlier in the day though. Picking strawberries at 2pm was almost brutally hot. I also need to get more berries next time. Magda and I picked almost 2 pounds, but they are already nearly gone and I was planning on making ice cream with them for our bookgroup meeting on Wednesday.
