33 weeks!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, my gosh: I am still here. 33 weeks. Thank you lord!

The contrax were pretty bad on Tuesday night….not painful, but scary because there were more than usual. Two thoughts kept running through my mind….either I am a) going into labor (FRACK!), or b) dilating like crazy (FRACK!). If it had gotten much worse I would’ve called the OB, but fortunately hubs rubbed my back, got me a big glass of water, and we watched my favorite bedrest show, Anthony Bordain’s No Reservations on the Travel Channel, until I was tired enough to fall asleep through the worry. They were bad again on Wednesday night but fortunately not as bad Tuesday night. And last night they were fine. (No jinxies!) If (if if if if if!!!) I can make it to my OB appointment on Monday, I am very fearful of what kind of damage (aka: dilation) those contrax have created. Eeeeeeeeeek. [Side note: Dr. Zen said contractions are more common at night—which is definitely when I get most of mine, between 7 and midnight—something about circadian rhythms, have others experienced this?]

But, I am still here! Thank you lord.

My Mom has been in town the past couple of days. We had to lay some very serious ground rules: NO TALKING ABOUT MY CERVIE OR UTE. Fortunately, she has not made the comments I feared she would. She did talk a fair amount about how QUICKLY all four of us kids came into the world….3 hours max from the start of labor. I admit it elevated my heart rate hearing about that and I think crazy thoughts like, Oh my gosh, what if I don’t realize it’s labor soon enough and I have the babies at home, they are too tiny to not have doctors helping them. I am so incredibly hyper-alert of every tensing, aching, contracting sensation—each one I experience is a little lesson in managing my fears. Zen zen zen zen.

I am working full-time from home via my laptop, but it’s been awesome having my Mom in the house with me. Boy do the days go by faster when I’m not totally isolated! She has also been working herself to the bone around the apartment, taking on all of the nesting projects I didn’t get to: cleaning out the drawers and cabinets in our kitchen and putting in new liners, putting up art in our hallway, hanging up art in the babies’ room, organizing all of the babies’ clothes and gear into dressers and drawers and bins. She finds new projects to delve into on her own….last night she cleaned up all of the dead leaves and winter muck off of our front porch! She also has done about a dozen loads of laundry. She is such a good egg and I am so appreciative of her help! 🙂

I am so so so so so grateful and happy to be 33 weeks. Thank you cervie, thank you ute, thank you sweet Baby A and Baby B. You are all doing SUCH an awesome job. Thank you lord, for letting us make it this far. Today is all I can think about. One more day, one more day, one more day.

Eggapalooza (or, how I spent NYD)

Although I feel zero pregnancy symptoms (no sore breasts, no tingly nipples, no crampiness, no stabbing implantation pains, no muscle twinges or tensing, no spotting, no backache, etc), I am being as kind as possible to my body right now, just in case. Which meant no drinking on NYE and, more challenging for me, almost zero cardio.

If you guys have been reading for a while, you know that I am wee bit addicted to the endorphin boost I get from working out. It is my sanity! And despite Dr. C saying that my exercise is not a problem, I have been really conscious about cutting back over the last few months. More easy ellip days and fewer runs. More easy rides on my bike trainer, less weight-lifting. More yoga, less cardio. This has been especially true during the two week wait, during which I’ve never broken a sweat.

So, having only done about 20 wimpy minutes on the ellip on Wednesday and nothing on Thursday, I jumped out of bed on NYD a firecracker of energy. I immediately set to work organizing my dressers and closets, filling trashbags with clothes and shoes I haven’t worn in ages (will ship to my Mom and little sis), stuff that needs to be mended, and stuff to be donated. It took most of the morning and part of the afternoon.

But I was just getting warmed up! Next, I drove to Target (god bless them for being open on a holiday) and bought some organizing bins for all of my present-wrapping materials (which have hitherto lived in random cardboard boxes in my study’s closet). I also picked up two new cute laundry baskets (all these years, we have been using the ghetto plastic ones we’ve had since COLLEGE! and I call myself a grown-up?!).

Back at home, I used the new three-drawer bin to organize my study closet. And then I set to work on my desk drawers, trashing all the unnecessary paperwork and knick-knacks. And then—at around the time we put our just-brined pulled pork dinner in the oven for our Egg & Hubs of Egg NYD dinner—I decluttered our medicine cabinet, bathroom shelves and drawers, which had all become a mess of makeup, lotions, SPF, spilled aspirin, etc etc.

IT FELT AMAZING! Hubs was checking out my handiwork in the bathroom when his eyes zeroed in on a box sitting next to my tampons on the top shelf. Condoms. He grabbed them and shook the box. We both burst out laughing. For years they had been our backup protection if I ever accidently missed a BC pill. Yeah, I was so sure that I’d definitely get knocked up after one or two late pills that we used condoms for a week after any such incident. Kind of unbelievable in retrospect, huh? We threw them in the trash. 🙂

Finally, at about 8:30pm, Eggapalooza came to and end. (That’s what hubs named it about seven hours into the cleaning/organizing frenzy.) I literally crashed on the couch in front of Iron Chef. I slept REALLY soundly last night.

I feel very happy about the state of the house! We have a few home decorating projects I would like to tackle this year (new draperies in the living room and dining room, more lamps), but I’m glad the stuff that bugs me on a daily basis is dealt with. YAY 2010!!!!

Do you ditch exercise during the 2ww? Do you change anything about your life when you’re post-ovulation?

(pre) Nesting

I’ve heard friends talk about it and I’ve seen it on TV. Nesting. That internal urge of moms-to-be to create the safest, prettiest, most perfect home for their unborn baby.

Is it possible to start nesting BEFORE you’re even pregnant? That’s how I’ve felt this weekend! Hubs and I picked out a headboard while we were in Philly for Thanksgiving (gotta love the Black Friday sales). It’s something we’ve been talking about getting for more than SIX YEARS. But more pressing purchases and errands always, always, always come up and we’ve managed to avoid this essential, adult purchase for a very long time.