Brian is at the store buying some groceries, including ingredients for a peanut butter banana cream pie I am going to make. My nesting and seclusion are taking the form of cooking and baking. For dinner tonight I made an elaborate tuna noodle casserole.
It’s not total seclusion; I did take Kona for a walk today. I guess I also took myself and the fetus for a walk. Trying to remain somewhat active, even if it’s only a 3/4 mile waddle. The weather was gray and chilly, the sun trying and failing to burn a hole in the clouds.
Tomorrow it will rain, and we have a doctor appointment. Though anything could happen between now and then, meaning I could go into labor I suppose, which would be great because the waiting would be over, as would the discomfort of pregnancy, but most importantly I will finally hold my baby, see what she looks like, hear her voice.
She has hiccups now.
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Fall is certainly here — we have seen the last of the hot weather and I think that very soon it may even freeze at night.
So yesterday Brian and I spent a few hours breaking down the vegetable garden. We pulled out everything but the acorn squash — which has produced a couple of grapefruit-sized gourds so far.
The tomatoes, which I thought in early summer would be a smashing success, kind of failed. And here is why:
+ The three plants grew incredibly large and tall, creating too much shade for the inner and lower fruits. This also made the stalks/stems too long for nutrients to actually reach all of the tomatoes. They were all over six feet at their highest. Needed lots of support to keep from collapsing. This was probably because they were in a very sunny area, in very rich composty soil, with unlimited root space in the ground.
+ Birds took to eating the fruits as soon as they began to turn color. >:(
+ Did not get enough water or food from me. It was hard to keep up as I got pregnanter. Could not do any pruning, etc.
So. Yesterday I plucked about five pounds of green tomatoes and put them in a paper bag. Having done this a few weeks ago, I know they will ripen to perfection. Pity they could not ripen on the vine.
Learnings for next season: Instead of a raised, ground garden bed for tomatoes, we will purchase some oak half wine barrels, which will give the plants enough room, but not too much room. And they will be easier to access. One plant per barrel. More watering, feeding, and pruning. Netting if the birds become an issue again.
Good news is that when the tomatoes did survive to ripeness, they were amazing.
Other takeaways from Veggie Garden 2009 for next spring:
+ Plant carrots earlier, and continue to plant in rows every two weeks, so that we can have carrots all summer.
+ Skip the radishes; not really worth it. Same with sugar snap peas. Peas are only worth it if you do a whole field of them. But they are very easy to grow, anyway. Might be fun for the baby… hmm we’ll see.
+ Do cucumbers again, but only one variety, and do them in barrels as well. They creep along the ground and get tangled without enough attention. Produced yummy fruit though.
+ Skip the peppers; again, not worth it when you yield a SINGLE pepper on each plant.
Next summer I won’t be pregnant so it’s going to be much easier to keep up with the garden. When summer falls in your final trimester and you can’t even put on socks, it’s not really possible to pull weeds or plant anything.
Any suggestions for other worthwhile edibles to grow would be great. Summer squash, maybe?
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I can’t believe October 12 is actually here.
This morning at just after two a.m. I woke up and felt a dull but intense pain in my belly. Hmm, I thought. Hmmmmm. I rolled myself out of bed and stood, leaning on the mattress, feeling the pain continue. Brian was awake at this point and could see what was going on. My breathing was different too. I was just trying to figure out what it was, a contraction, or the usual pain of pressure on my bladder, or a pulled round ligament, etc. It did feel different though. I waddled into the bathroom to pee.
Then I lay down again. I could still sort of feel it. I checked the clock, about 2:20. Brian put his arm around me and touched my tummy. We hadn’t said anything. The pain disappeared so I waited for it to return. Fifteen minutes, then twenty, and nothing. The whole time I was thinking, wow, is this it? And how awesome to go into labor on my due date. Thought about calling my doula, my mother, etc. Wondered how many hours I would labor at home, and so on. But I didn’t get another contraction, and I fell asleep.
So this morning, I am puttering around in my nightgown, with some low back pain, kicky baby, wondering if should be doing anything to get things going. All I can really do is stay hydrated and talk a walk or two. I am really excited. I’m not scared.
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I’m not very happy about the baseball playoffs this year. The teams involved are fairly predictable, with the long shots (Twins) assumed to have no shot of advancing. The two teams I despise the most (Los Angeles and Los Angeles) seem certain to continue to the next round. I can’t say I really care for the Red Sox at all, I’m ambivalent about the Cardinals. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Phillies win again, but really, eh.
I think I’ll just be contrarian and root for the Yankees. Fuck it. Hey, I always did like Nick Swisher, I even have one of his t-shirts from when he was in Oakland. But even if I did root for the Yankees, it would be half-heartedly. But it wouldn’t be so bad if they won it all; they were the best team all year.
But I’ll focus primarily on L.A. and L.A. losing. Humiliatingly. That better happen. Because eff the Dodgers. Worst case scenario is the both of them make it to the WS. Yuck.
Okay anyway.
Last night I slept HORRIBLY. I could not get comfortable in any position. It felt like my bump weighed 500 pounds. Sleeping on either side resulted in sore hips. Sleeping upright placed all the weight on my tailbone. Ugh it was agony. My bladder felt more compressed than usual. Brian kept snoring. I just lay there waiting for dawn. I think my body is pushing me into the “get this baby out of me” mindset. Which is a good thing.
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Well, I caved and ordered some clothing from babygap.com this morning. Even when I worked there two years ago I appreciated how stylish and cute their baby clothes are. In the baby girl department, there is a distinct lack of wall-to-wall pink. Sure, some of the clothes are pink, but a healthy percentage are not, and they even let baby girls wear BLACK! Woo! So, here is what I succumbed to:
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Through observation and keen intelligence, Kona has determined that the cats are not allowed to be on the kitchen counter. In other words, when one of them hops up there, we scold and remove them, and Kona has taken notice.
So now, she has taken it upon herself to police this activity for us, to much hilarity. For example last night Sasha jumped up onto one of the bar stool chairs, and seemed to be making a move to continue toward the counter.
Kona leaped off the sofa and ran over to the chair and started growling in Sasha’s face. I told her to knock it off and called her back, but she kept an eye on the cat. Every time Sasha peeked over the edge of the counter, Kona was on the case again.
I don’t know where she gets this from.
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Brrr. Looks like I went on leave just in time. It’s 46 degrees outside and there’s no way any of my winter coats come even close to being zipped or buttoned. So I’m cozy inside in my tent of a nightgown, having a cup of coffee and a freshly baked homemade cheddar biscuit (recipe courtesy “the Barefoot Contessa”).
Today’s agenda includes cleaning up the dining room (for some reason a bunch of boxes and crap have been stored in the corner of the room for months), tidying my office, finishing one of my library books, and watching baseball games. Oh and waiting for the baby to decide it’s time to evacuate. That’s a big one.
I’ve been sleeping on and off, sometimes well, sometimes not. Mainly I just get pain in my hip when I sleep on my side, which is really the only way I can lie down now. And I get up thrice to pee. Baby moves around a lot at night, she is strong.
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Feeling so huge and also heavy today. Like there’s a bag of bricks rolling around in my pelvis. I took Kona for a walk and we went sooo. Sloooow. Poor pup probably hated it. I just felt pressure the whole time. Got home and poured a little glass of juice, immediately knocked it to the floor. Oops.
Later I decided to go grocery shopping. Slowly shuffled through the aisles. Got some ingredients to make meatloaf. Also got marshmallows and a graham cracker crust. For some reason. I think I was envisioning a banana cream pie? Anyway, I think I need Brian along the next time so I don’t randomly grab things.
Finally back home, Brian and I prepared the meatloaf together. It’s in the oven now. I really need to rest on the sofa.
Thirty-nine weeks today. I feel like she is coming soon.
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Something that has occurred to us as we get closer to childbirth: there will be a new person living in our house. For years now it’s just been me and Brian, and our pets. When he goes off to do something, I’m alone. But very soon, there will be this third person. Yes, she’ll be a little baby, our baby, but very soon her personality will appear, her voice will fill the rooms. Everything will be different.
I had odd dreams this morning. In one, I am standing on the ferry deck as it slowly moves toward the Bainbridge dock. This is something I have done hundreds of times now. It felt very real. The air was white with fog. I began to wonder where my purse was. Then I couldn’t remember how I had traveled to work that day, if I had taken the bus or driven. I felt in a panic about my bag. Then I realized it was on my shoulder, it was my woven light brown hobo which I love. In the other dream I was in San Francisco, standing outside a house where a punk show was being held in the basement. Very much about being a younger me. But, as I am now, I was hugely pregnant.
Anyway.
This morning I baked an apple crisp. And now I have given myself a bunch of chores, which I will perform at a leisurely pace. I feel like labor could be a few days off. It’s strange to finally be at the end of this, thirty-nine weeks from the first day of my last period, which was, of course, also my birthday.
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