[pregnancy] 38.5 weeks

[moominmolly]

I think that this is the period where people traditionally start saying, "oh, just take it OUT of me already". I'm still doing fine, and I don't feel precisely that fed up with it yet, but it did take me over half an hour to shave my legs on Friday. I still can't quite believe I managed it, in the end. (And then I wore opaque tights! More fool I.)

I haven't really updated on pregnancy in a while. Most of October was taken up by moving our bedroom into the nice new space we've made in the basement, and since nothing monumental changed in my abdomen once the protein cravings subsided, I haven't really felt the impulse to post. One interesting thing: after putting up a truly excellent fight, my abs finally split. (I didn't even know the word diastasis before getting pregnant.) Right after this happened, I noticed that for about a week, I had to sit and stand ramrod-straight. This was because leaning to either side would cause me to feel an uncomfortable internal pinch. Not only did I not want to feel that, I didn't even want to think about what was going on in there. Thankfully, things have loosened up a bit again, and I'm more mobile. I'm not entirely looking forward to putting the whole belly thing back together again, though.

I don't seem to have gained any weight in the last few weeks, but I am feeling a bit less steady. I'm definitely pregnant enough, at this point, that everyone everywhere wants to say something to me. Store clerks gleefully ask about my due date and the baby's sex. Having experimented a bit, I've learned that total strangers are much more interested by the reply "I'm not sure whether it's a boy or a girl" than they are by "It's a girl". Neither of these is strictly true -- it's more like "it's probably a girl but you can't really always tell when the legs are shut tight so I guess we'll see", but I don't really feel like talking about baby crotch with strangers and so I never bring it up.

In the last week or so, Spawny seems to have dropped. This means that instead of having feet and a butt lodged in my ribcage, I have a head pressing into my pelvis and against my bladder. I'm happy to trade in my heartburn and excessive panting for having to pee twenty times a day. One step closer!

Finally, and almost unexpectedly, this week is my last week at work. I'll be out for six months, so I won't be sitting at this desk and working again until May. MAY. Oh man. I haven't been out of school and work for that long since I was 5. No, 3. It's not like I'll be lazing around all day, but the structure I will have will be unlike any structure I've ever had before. Also, I've been working at this particular place for 5 years, through a lot of ups and downs, and ... and I'm just walking out the door. It feels pretty strange, to tell the truth.

Comments

[water-childe.livejournal.com]

If it helps, I couldn't resisit some adorable baby items today.
Spawny, as well as the yet to be nicknamed other child soon to be part of your household, will be the proud owner of several adorable Halloween themed clothing and accesory items.
I mean, how can anyone resisit Halloween pacifiers!!!!
Let me know when you're free and I shall shower you will Halloween baby stuff goodness. The beauty of having friends nearby with soon to be newborns is that I can enjoy playing baby dress up. Do you think Spawny would like a soft cuddly Elder God to play with? I've been thinking of making 'non-traditional' baby toys.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Ours has been nicknamed "Nub" since the beginning. :)

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Spawny & Nub... famous comedy team? Or law firm?

[coraline]

so lunch?

friday maybe?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Sounds lovely. Let's.

[coraline]

when/where?
hartwell house is currently closed *sob!* so. i'm open to suggestions...

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Ono! Closed? Sad!

Ummm... I like your cafeteria, but that might be overdone, for you. There's always Khushboo, if you'd prefer. :)

[coraline]

not permanently, they're renovating, so for the next few months.

and yeah, the cafeteria isn't looking interesting for tomorrow...

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Pick me up at noon, then? :)

[amare.livejournal.com]

You may not be sitting at a desk but you will certainly be working! My friend Caro who recently had her baby told me that she had no earthly idea it was going to be as much work as it is. Yikes!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

The one thing I am confident of is that I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what I'm getting into. :)

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

You sound both ready *and* not fed up, which seems like a lovely combination :)

Leg shaving while 8.5 months pregnant is yet more proof that your creativity knows no bounds.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

leg shaving... And it should be good prenatal exercise! Like when you're in a cheap hotel on a european or 3rd world vacation and get the room withoput bath, then if you're too lazy to shower down the hall you try the Olympic event of washing by getting each part of your body one by one into that little handwashing sink that comes in the room.
Or am I the only one that does that?

[bluepapercup]

No, you're not the only one.

And it happens in the states, too...

[bethr.livejournal.com]

Well, I found that using your belly as a soap dispenser can help that process out a lot. Just put the shaving materials on the top of your fundus (that's the top of your uterus, for the inexperienced) and it's one less thing to reach down for once you've found an acceptable position. :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

That sounds so cute! But actually, I keep my razor in a little suction-cup thing that's at face height, and I just shave with soap (which is similarly placed). But now I want to use my belly as a table!

[veek.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness no. Not the only one by a long shot.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I'm just surprised that ya'll still shave your legs. I know it's a personal choice; my personal choice is 'no the heck way I prefer the hair soft not stubbly and I'd rather spend the time on LJ'.

If it's any consolation, not one of my lovers has ever complained. At least, not within my hearing.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Um, I was talking about the washing, not the shaving. :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Eh! My leg hair is fairly fine, so when it's stubbly I don't much mind. I don't mind leg hair, though, either. During pants season (Sept. - May), I basically never shave unless I have a date or an outfit involving fishnets or something. In the summer, I shave when the whim strikes me. My hair grows slowly, and I love the feel of having smooth legs, so it feels like an indulgence. I don't do it because lovers complain, I just do it because it's an entertaining and sensual thing I like to do sometimes. Also, I can't recall ever caring one way or the other about whether other women shave. I figure as long as you're doing the thing you want, shaving or not-shaving, everything's great.

And, like veek and klingonlandlady and bluepapercup, I've also done the bathin'-in-the-hotel-sink dance.

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

I figure as long as you're doing the thing you want, shaving or not-shaving, everything's great.

for what it's worth:
1) i don't shave.
2) people think i do, because my legs are so dang smooth.
3) (i believe, although i do not know for certain that) #1 would still be true even if #2 wasn't.

a bit bizarre, eh? it was never intended to be a political statement, per se, although i find the idea that women are "supposed" to have smooth legs to be annoying and that certainly is part of it for me. so here i am disdaining this particular piece of societal teaching, and no one will ever even know it. silly, silly world...

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

My mother's legs were like that! I didn't inherit the practically-no-leg-hair thing, darnit.

I also find the idea of that societal pressure kind of silly, but in all honesty, I don't feel that pressure myself. I felt it for about a year when I was 13 or so, and then I realized that I didn't actually care and nobody mentioned a thing when I stopped shaving. So I guess I kind of forget that other people do. :)

Anyway! I promise to be impressed by your invisible non-leg-shaving feats the next time I see your bare legs. :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

proof that your creativity knows no bounds.

I was thinking it was proof that I am a very very foolish woman, when I want to be. :)

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

C'mon, how many chances are you going to have to knock "shaved legs while 8.5 months pregnant" off your list of challenges? ;-)

[cutieperson]

you totally win the leg shaving competition. i did mine last week for the first time in months and my physical therapist has since banned me from twisting around like that again :)

[moonshadow.livejournal.com]

yay for Spawny dropping!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yay for being able to breathe, too. :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

But good LORD, I am peeing about thirty times a day. Okay, maybe not quite that many, but it feels like it.

Today, the doc said that the baby's head was really really low and that I was 1 cm dilated. I know that doesn't really mean anything, but it seemed so real...

[mindlace.livejournal.com]

When spawny hits a few years old, you can teach hir die babygestweilundschraft (http://www.planetdan.net/pics/babies/) so hi knows how this all happened.

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

Are you going to post pictures sometime?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I reeeeeeeeally really should, shouldn't I? I totally missed photographing the cutely-pregnant stage, and now I'm stuck with the enormously-pregnant one. I will try to do it this weekend. :)