An ounce or two, what's the diff?

So, today was my weekly doctor appointment. This time around it was the non-stress test, an ultrasound (yes, even though we did one with the MFM high risk people last Saturday, not even a week ago), and doctor/nurse consult (i.e. tummy measuring). He cooperated well enough for the stress test (he's quite the mover and shaker) and did okay for the ultrasound, though he wasn't in a good position for pictures, sadly. They could measure things though. This time he measured 4 lbs. 15 ounces, which is just one (estimated) ounce up from Saturday. But the nurse and the tech said that ultrasounds can be w-a-y off (up to a whole pound), which is one of the reasons that they want to induce me early. That and the rampaging hormones that hit you the last month.

Today I worked on YABC and got all of the contest stuff ready for the next 2 months so that I don't have to worry about it in either Feb or March. I figure I'll be a little busy...I should probably set up April too, but we'll see. Just trying to get organized so I don't have to think about it much when things are too busy.

Tonight is our child care class, though I probably wouldn't have scheduled it if I'd realized how much of that kind of stuff we were going to cover in the child birth prep class. I figured that one would be all, you know, child birth stuff. But they did cover quite a bit of newborn care, so I don't know that we need tonight's class after all...but we're already scheduled and paid up and it's just on the other side of the neighborhood in the Lake Forest hospital building, so what the hey. I'll probably forget half of what I'm supposed to know anyway and put the diaper on the wrong end. Who knows.

Look! My book is on Amazon already!!??!!

So, I was just browsing around on Amazon and thought to myself, "Hey, hehe, I'll put in my book title and see what happens." I didn't actually think anything would show up yet since the book isn't coming out for months and months but...LOOK! It's already up on Amazon!!!! Everybody go pre-order it!! :-)

It actually shows a different date on Amazon than the one the publisher told me (Aug. 26th vs. Sept. 8th) so I have to email my editor (oh, heck, I have to email her anyway, just to go "OMG!"). And now I need to figure out how authors do all that stuff on Amazon where they fill in info and bios and stuff. Ack!

The Peanut has Furniture & other good news

Woot! Well, yesterday I spent probably 4 hours on the phone with Babies R Us (not to mention other furniture stores and the manufacturer) and the end result (I won't bore you with all the intricate details or frustrations) is that the furniture we wanted in the first place has officially been ordered and should be here in 7-14 days.

There's that whole counting chickens/eggs thing, so I'm not going to completely crow yet, but I'm also not going to worry about it anymore until I hear otherwise. They did at least take money, so I think we're fairly secure now.

So, presumably, the peanut now has a room full of furniture coming.

Had a strange sugar day yesterday; it was way up and way down. Not really sure why. The Dr. upped my insulin by a bit again, but not too much. It's *almost* where it is supposed to be.

On the writing side of things, my editor forwarded me this really nice note from the lady who is writing the discussion guide on my book. It seems she's not a big fan of vampire books, but took the work anyway and wound up really liking the book. :-) So that's really cool. It was nice to get that after all the baby-drama (dealing with salespeople is soooooo NOT my favorite thing). It was a good pick-me-up at the end of the day.

And that's about it for now.

And we're all prepped now

This weekend we had our "compact child birth prep class" which went basically all day Saturday and Sunday. It's only "compact" because it was a weekend instead of being one night a week spaced out over 4 weeks. We learned some things, saw a lot of videos, practiced breathing, all that good stuff. A few things stood out for me:

One, I'm not the kind of girl who goes in for the "visualization" method (for the same reason I usually hate yoga classes). As soon as someone starts going into the whole "imagine you are a tree" mantra or the "build your safe place, one brick at a time. Hear the voices of song birds calling out to you" stuff, my brain just goes immediately into hyperdrive making fun of it. All I can think are things like "follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road" in those high-pitched munchkin voices or "Everything is under control" from that b-flick Hardware. It just does not work for me. If anyone tries to do that to me while I'm actually in labor, I would be hard pressed not to whack them upside the head.

Two, no matter whether you do medication or not, labor is likely going to suck pretty bad. And will probably take longer than you want it to. But it does end and whoop-dee-do, it's not like I can get out of it now. And I'd really rather not get a c-section and have another lovely 6 inch scar across my belly. Recovering from an emergency appendectomy was bad enough, I can't imagine trying to recover while also trying to deal with a newborn. So hopefully the c-section doesn't have to happen.

Three, I am a small pregnant lady. Most of us in the class were all due in March, though there was one in February and one in June. Everybody was pretty much bigger in the belly than me. I guess that's good. I dunno. So far, as of this morning, I've gained 16 pounds.

And the peanut, incidentally, is up to almost 5 pounds. Ack! We had another ultrasound on Saturday before class (long story; essentially, hospital equipment screw up so we had to repeat the last one, even though I'm supposed to get another one this week at the Lake Forest office). The peanut was up to 4 lbs. 14 ounces (up from 3 lbs. 8 ounces on Jan. 10th, if anyone is keeping track). So even though I've not really been gaining any weight to speak of, he has. Well, he can have it. As long as he doesn't get too big.

Everything is still measuring well. I was officially at 32 weeks, 5 days and he is measuring slightly ahead of that at 33 weeks, 5 days (he's a week ahead of me...ah, time travel). His head, though, is slightly bigger than the rest of him (which revelation came, of course, with the obligatory jibing between myself and Tony). He'd better calm that down though since that head's got to fit through a not-so-big opening.

Anyway, ahem, speaking of other things...Tony managed to get the car seat base installed last night. Whoo-hoo! It wasn't too bad once you figured it out, it's just the figuring it out part. And the fact that it was really feckin' cold out in the garage.

And in the last bit of baby-related news I have to impart...we may (probably) have to get a different crib. It seems Babies R Us won't actually let you order furniture until it is in their warehouse. And the set we want is a new one this year that everyone seems to want. So even though we were supposed to be next in line or whatever, they still haven't gotten it (and looking over the lady's shoulder at her computer, there's a big note of "this set is being oversold" right in the BRU computers).

So I did some research and it seems that the Baby Cache brand is actually sold at both BRU and at JC Penney's, though they carry different looks. And it's actually made by Munire furniture, which makes some higher-end baby furniture (this is their first foray into having stuff carried by more mass-market retailers). So there's another set from them that's almost the same that I can see if we can get from anywhere else. We'll see. At this point, they are all starting to look the same to me.

Le Vichyssois

Le Vichyssois
220 West Route 120, Lakemoor, IL (815) 385-8221

Tony took me out for my birthday last night. We went to a little French place that I'd heard about on the PCHO (i.e. PSYCHO) list. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it is a cute little place. Elegant inside (all cream and white and silver and bronze) with lots of oil paintings (all of which are for sale).

I gather that it has been there for a while. They feature an a la carte menu and a "bistro" 3 course menu. We wound up doing the a la carte since I was trying to keep my sugar/carb intake low. Tony had foie gras with brioche, a house salad, and the venison. I had a warm cabbage and bacon salad (nice, faintly reminiscent of sauerkraut) and veal medallions in a black truffle sauce. We split some dessert. All-in-all, even with the dessert, I didn't do too bad. My sugar level for the 2 hour post-prandial measurement wasn't all that off the charts, just a little bit high. 146 when I'm supposed to aim for under 120.

The people were friendly and the service was good. It was a pretty quiet night, but I imagine that's due in part to the location and a good deal more to the temperature (it was -4). Definitely a place to try again. It wasn't the best French food I've ever had, but it was good (and we've been to some really, really nice French places). And for being out here in the suburbs, it's darn good.

And the stroller is here...

The stroller and infant car seat (and bassinet and toddler stroller seat) all arrived yesterday (Wed). Ack! We got everything unpacked and more or less figured out where things go. It's the biggest baby-focused thing that has arrived so far. The furniture will hopefully be here by the first week in February.

The stroller, incidentally, completely terrifies Harley. Just wait until he finds out what goes inside it.

And today is my birthday. Pretty low-key day planned - I have to go for a doctor appointment (there's a pretty good chance of that on any given day, anymore, since I've got at least one and sometimes 2 or 3 a week now). This will be the first stress test, which is supposed to take a 1/2 hour, so I guess I'll be taking along some knitting or something.

Other than that, I suppose I'll continue cleaning and working on my book and working on the website stuff.

I opened my present from Pam (I didn't wait for Tony to come home -- but hey, it is my birthday). She sent a Book Lover's Cookbook. Pretty neat. It's got recipes and the passages from books that inspired them (all kinds of books - everything from Charlotte's Web to more lofty works of literature).

The forest for the lamps

Well, I finished up the lights for the baby room today (just, oh, a few days later than I had planned. Ah, well.). I cut out leaves from felt and fabric glued them onto the shades of a floor lamp and a table lamp. The first picture shows an in-progress shot.
And here's the finished floor lamp...
And the finished table lamp. I think they came out pretty good. We just have to decide whether or not we want to leave the bases white or whether we should paint them brown like tree trunks. At the moment I'm leaning towards leaving them white, but I'm not sure. So, anyway, another project down. Now I just need to do one more curtain.

Earthly Goods

Earthly Goods, Inc. Health Foods
Gurnee Town Center, 6951 W. Grand Ave. (847) 855-9677

Was cleaning off my desk and found the card for this place -- went to it while Christmas shopping and wanted to remember it since it's the closest place I've found to buy essential oils for making soaps and lip balm.

Actually, a pretty nice health store all the way around. More spiffy than a GNC and has a wheat grass bar too.

Things are looking up...

Things are definitely starting to look up. My sugar is finally (!!) coming down after the latest insulin increase, which is giving me more energy and definitely making me feel better. And today was the first day that my keytone reading wasn't too high (negative, in fact!!!) and my fasting sugar was below 90. Woot! I'd talked to the nutritionist yesterday and she suggested a late night snack with at least 20 carbs. So I had a sugar free carnation instant breakfast at midnight and it really seems to have worked!

I know, I know, kind of a crazy thing to get all excited about.

And I went to the exercise room with Jill at lunch yesterday and did 30 minutes on a treadmill & elliptical, which helped with the blood sugar levels too (it dropped by 50 points after I was done). We're going to go again sometime on Friday. It helps to have someone to go with, especially when it is cold and nasty outside and you don't want to leave the house.

AND I had a little bit of a spa day yesterday in the afternoon -- I went to Mario Tricoci for a facial with Emme (she's awesome), which really helped my skin out and made me feel better. The high sugar levels had been fighting it out on my face too (stuff takes longer to heal when you're hyperglycemic). I have to get Tony in for one of those. He'd love it, he just doesn't know it.

And...yesterday I posted on the YABC blog that I was looking for a new reviewer or two to add to the volunteer staff because I'm sure I'll have less time for updates after the baby gets here. Last time I posted a similar thing, I got a few responses total. I've already gotten over 10 this time and some really impressive ones (former editors, current authors, teachers, librarians). It's going to be really hard to narrow down to just a couple of people. But it is good to know that people are reading the blog. ;-) The pageviews on the site are over 250,000 a month now and I get tons of email, but sometimes you still feel like you are operating in a vaccuum. So it's nice to see people actually paying attention and wanting to get involved.

And today I'm going to run out and do some shopping so I can finish up some baby projects (like the lights for the room -- I'm cutting leaves out of various shades of green felt and putting them on the shades so that they look all forest-y and also sewing leaves on some window sheers). I can hopefully finish all of that up tonight. And I need some nightgowns that will a) cover my belly now and b) work later on when breastfeeding and c) be comfortable. I feel ridiculous walking around in my normal nightgowns with the front all hiked up high because of all the extra belly.

And I need sour cream so I can eat taco salad! Taco salad, taco salad, taco salad! (I love taco salad! And if I'm sparing on the chip part, it actually works really well into the whole diabetic diet thing.)

Eh, so I guess that's a boring enough update for today. I'll post more pictures tomorrow if I get the lamps done. They are coming out pretty cute so far (I've got one side of one of them done). Besides, I'm feeling like the "And then..." lady with all the "And's" in this post.

Where the Wild Things Are Mural

Well, I can't wait any more. We're not actually done with the mural yet (it's about, eh, 75% complete), but I figured I'd post some in-progress pictures (more pictures'll be posted as we make progress, so check out the archives for Jan-Feb 08). You can click on 'em to see the larger size and really see the detail (like in the first picture, where you can actually see the penciled-in outlines).

Tony has done most of the painting part, since I'm supposed to stay away from chemical-ly stuff (I did just a little bit of the painter-y paint, not any of the wall paint). I've done most of the detail stuff (using paint markers) since that was the least smelly bit, but Tony has done some of that too (one of the pics is of him detailing Max). The quote at the top is directly from the book and is very fitting since we're naming him Royce Maxwell (Max).






Moishe, the funny guy in the striped shirt, is my favorite so far. But overall, I'm really happy with how the whole thing is coming out. We still have to add some more leaves at the top and the grass at the bottom and we're thinking about doing another smaller mural on the other side of the room too (I bought this moon nightlight thing that goes up on the wall and does the phases of the moon and there's a picture of Max in the book where he's howling at the moon). Tony's going to blend the blue paint so that it's darker on the other side of the room so it'll look more dusk-y on that side.

My book!

I got the okay to post it -- here's what my book cover is going to look like. Well, the ARC (Advance Release Copy) version, anyway, but it is almost the same as the final. It'll just be missing the little yellow bit on the back and one sentence on the front. Anyway, isn't it cool??? I'll post some more details later and maybe a blown up shot so you can actually read it (though, if you click on it, you'll get a slightly bigger version where you can read some of it). The official release date is September 9, 2008.