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Friday, October 25, 2013

Baby Squish : 32 Weeks

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Um. Hi. Let's just talk about that not only am I in that last line in the countdown, but I'm also two weeks into it. And I won't hit the last week. So....yeah. We're definitely in the final stretch. Going by lunar months, which I prefer since it makes you sound like you're further along than you are, I'm 8 months pregnant (then you spend a month at 9 months pregnant, and theoretically hit ten months at 40 weeks) (SHUT UP IT'S MATH).  In a week and two days, I'll be able to say I'm due NEXT MONTH. In three weeks I'll hit the 35/35 milestone, in five weeks I'll be full term, and eight weeks  I'll be having a kid. Whoa.

(Ugh, I hate my hair in that second pic. WTF.)
 
Last time I was pregnant, I didn't really start to get uncomfortable until the very end. It started around 35 weeks and I don't think it got bad until 37 or 38 weeks. While the majority of this pregnancy has been equally easy, for the last week or so I've had this intense pain around the pelvic/pubic bone. I don't know if it's the whole "hip bones separating" thing happening early or if it's because she's hanging out so low or what (she's been head-down the last couple appointments) but it's definitely uncomfortable. Some days are worse than others - there were a couple days there I couldn't move very easily from one position to another, but yesterday and today it seems to have improved massively (maybe she's not head down anymore?). 


I feel like all I do anymore is complain about all the things I have left to do, but seriously: I should probably have more done than I do right now. Literally, all I've done is buy a couple winter outfits, get out Carys's newborn and 0-3 clothes, and hang them up. There's also a new ceiling fan up in the "nursery." I kind of have paint colors picked out.  Oh! And I found a dresser on Craigslist. 

I still need to: Sand the nursery, paint the nursery, pull up the carpet in the nursery, have new carpet put in, find a crib, paint the rocking chair (for some dumb reason I want white furniture in this room and the rocker is currently black), re-upholster the rocking chair, paint the nightstand (came with the Craigslist dresser, but is seriously banged up), see if my mother-in-law will make a crib skirt and possible crib sheets, figure out how to actually decorate the walls in the nursery and procure goods to do so, wash all the used clothes and diapers, wash and sanitize all the bottles and pump parts, get the baby gear (bouncer, swing, tub, etc) out of storage and get it all cleaned up and ready to use, sign up for and attend a sibling class for Carys, deep clean the house, and I'd LOVE to get the carpets in the whole house replaced, but I doubt that will happen pre-baby (we had the carpet in the basement and Carys's room replaced before she arrived, so all that's left are the remaining two bedrooms, the living room, hallway, and stairs).  Oh, and before ANY of that happens Chris needs to finish cleaning out the nursery and we need to sell/give away the headboard and dressers that are in there now.  I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting. You know, like narrowing the list of names down from 30 to maybe 5? Forget one final name. I'll take just having less than a dozen on our list.  GAH.  I need a new diaper bag too. And a maid. And a cook. WHINE WHINE WHINE first world problems WHINE WHINE.

(I know we still theoretically have plenty of time with seven or eight weeks left, but with so much to do to prepare for the holidays, it cuts a lot of that time out. And I also know some of that stuff can easily wait until after she arrives, but am I really going to feel like doing any of it with a newborn and a toddler? Doubtful. I'll probably be curled into a ball in a corner for most of the first year....)


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Des Moines Trip Number 432

Since my mom moved to Dubuque, we go to Des Moines several times a year to meet her in the middle.  We always have a good time and have done everything from the Botantical Gardens to the Science Center to the Blank Park Zoo, but I usually don't take my "nice" camera with us.

This trip, I knew we were going to Living History Farms and anticipated some good photo ops, so I packed it along.

And holy crap am I glad I did, because OMG BABY PIGS.


But before I go on a baby-pig-splosion, I'll backtrack and start from the beginning. Reading it will be worth it because there will be MORE AND MORE AND MORE BABY PIGS. And then you'll die.

We rented a wagon (just $4!) for the day and Carys was thrilled. We have a wagon but don't get it out nearly enough.  She loved laying down in it and pretending to sleep.


And yes, I did dress her for the part in this coral (not pink! I swear!) dress and little ankle boots. 


To do the full tour of the farms, you take a tractor-pulled cart up to the beginning of a trail. Along the trail, you get to experience three different working farms from three different eras - an Ioway Indian farm the early 1700s, a log cabin pioneer farm from the 1850s, and a horse-powered farm from the early 1900s.  You then end in a town from 1875, with a number of stores, a schoolhouse, and a mansion.

We started on the trail, and she was SO excited to see the farms - when the first farm wasn't immediately visible after getting off the cart she almost cried with disappointment. We had to keep telling her, "It's right up here! Just around this corner!"


Watching the person playing the Native American hand-weave a belt. 


The "tool shop" at the Native American site - a pile of bones that they would use for various tools. Carys is getting a lesson in anatomy from her Nana in these pictures. What a good Nana. If Carys is smart, it will be completely because of this woman.


These are probably my favorite pictures EVER. She saw the bench along the trail, said, "Take my picture!" and ran up to it. She smiled nicely for the first one, but then went into a series of faces and labeled each one. 

Happy. Angry.


 REALLY HAPPY! Silly.


Then she was just plain cute.


I wish I'd gotten more pictures of the environment and actual set-up of the farms, but whenever I pulled out the camera I was focused on the cuteness that is the child. This is the 1800s farm, and this is the pig sty at the farm. 


While we were looking at the pigs, the farmer (who Carys became totally infatuated with) came over and gave her a couple turnips to throw to the pigs. 


They had a flock of sheep that roamed free most of the time. When we arrived (we were the first people there) the farmer called the sheep over to their pen, where we got to hand-feed them grains. I don't have any pictures of this because I was holding Carys (and maybe feeding the sheep myself) but I assume it was adorable.  Listening to the sheep respond both individually to their names and as a flock was pretty interesting. To me. Am I a nerd?





Watching the farm wife cook the dinner (lunch) meal.


The farm wife also gave us a bowl of slop (leftovers/garbage) to take out to the pigs to feed. They really let you participate at this particular farm site - so fantastic. 



Immediately after the above pictures, that pig "kissed" Carys on the cheek and left a giant muddy snout print on her cheek. However, it scared the ever-loving CRAP out of her, so being the good parent that I am I only tried for a minute to get a picture of  it before I moved onto comforting her. So no picture exists of the pig kiss. Sadly.

I bribed her back to happiness with an apple freshly plucked from an apple tree.




My sister took over the camera for a little bit on the trail when Carys pulled a "2-Year-Old" and would only let me pull the wagon.


You can only kind of tell I'm almost 8 months pregnant from the back!



Pulling up to the 1900 farm.



ARE YOU READY FOR SOME PIGS? I promised you more baby pigs.



There was a whole herd (?) of baby pigs just running around. She chased them for a bit, then decided she wanted to show them her dress and sticker.


"Come here, pigs! Here pigs!" while patting her leg and making a clicking sound like you'd use to call a cat or dog. Have I mentioned she uses that same method to call me sometimes? 

 

"Look at my dress!" (Yes, that is literally what she was saying.)


"Look at my sticker!"







Inside the farmhouse. 



 Obligatory blurry mirror self-portrait.


We were all surprised when this phone had a dial tone. 




These have nothing to do with anything but how pretty are the spiderwebs with the light shining through them?





We ended in the town, where we visited the schoolhouse, the mansion, and attended a Victorian funeral.



Rocking the baby cradle and checking out the toys that would have been available to kids of the 1900s.




The Victorian funeral.



At that point we looked at the clock, realized it was naptime, and booked it out of there. That afternoon, we were supposed to go on a train ride, which was a TOTAL and complete disaster. For some reason, we thought that the train station was a half hour from the hotel, so we left around 45 minutes before we needed to be there, figuring we were giving ourselves plenty of cushion time. Well, we (fine, I) realized I left the car keys in the other bag, so my sister ran back to get them, but didn't have a key for my parent's room where the bag was, so she had to get a key as well. That cut us down to about 35 or 40 minutes to get there, but we still had plenty of time. We thought. 

We got on the road, pulled the directions up on GPS, and had heart attacks when it said it was going to take an hour to get to the train station. There was no way we'd make it in time, but we tried anyway, driving at breakneck speeds trying desperately to get there, since we'd been talking about the train ride all day and Carys was SO excited. 

We didn't make it. By less than 10 minutes. (My parents just BARELY made it and begged them to hold the train for us, but they couldn't.)

This was as close to a train ride as Carys got.  She was happy, but still. Sadness. Also crap, because I'm out $30 for the damn ride that we missed and their season ends at the end of October, so chances are we won't be able to re-use them.  Also crap, because we wasted 100 miles worth of gas. In a Chevy Tahoe. So that equals like 5,000 miles of gas in a regular car.


Oh, well. (Grumble)

Before we left to come home the next morning, we also stopped by the Pappajohn Sculpture Park to walk around a bit. We mostly stuck by this particular sculpture because it apparently was the perfect climbing structure (note: we looked around carefully for signs saying 'do not climb' or 'do not touch' and there weren't any, so we let her go crazy).






Note the Thomas she's holding in the last picture - that was part two of her consolation prizes for missing the train ride. She LOVES Thomas but hasn't ever had any toys associated with the show, so this was a Really. Big. Deal. for her. 


Despite the train ride being a complete and total bust, Living History Farms totally made the trip worth it. If we lived in the area I'd probably be trying to live on the farms and they'd have to keep kicking me out.  I asked Chris if I could at least get a baby pig and he just looked at me like I was insane. He clearly is missing something in his brain that appreciates cute.