1 week down, 1 week to go...

Ugh. Now I remember what the two week wait hell is like. The first week you can keep it together quite well, and then the 2nd week starts and Ppbbtt!

Oh well. I'm being gentle with myself and not stressing out or getting upset at like, anything.

Ohhh you want to cut me off today? That's your path! I'll just be over here on mine, zenned out listening to Pink Floyd in my new carrrrrr...

Yeah, Shawn got me a black Honda Accord with 4 doors for when the baby finally decides to exist. Geeeze, baby. Take forever... OK, don't...

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much as I usually do; I've been really busy at work. Plus, not writing day after day during the 2 week wait helps stave off my impatience and I'd like to nurture that, mmmkay? I'm also sorry this post is so allover the place but I wanted to update the blog before Friday so as not to be quite so random.

ME?! Random... please... ppbbtt...

Better.

Sorry for the cryptic bit of sad yesterday... had a bad babycrack day.

Anyway, the more and more we crunch numbers the more we see how much easier saving money and buying baby things will be after August.

In smaller and yet smaller sizes I keep making more baby hoodies for us to save. 9-months might be too big to use in December if we got pregnant this month. I might even have the baby on my birthday if this cycle works out. So now I'm working on an 8-month sized hoodie. It's pink-to-gray ombre stripes with little "bobble" polka dots. I don't have a picture yet, but it's textured like this:

via

And colored like this:


via

The hood is almost done; I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.
In the meantime, Shawn is trying to figure out where we are going on vacation very soon, and I am not sharing after the Chicago-Surprise he pulled on me. He will have to just WAIT. :o)

Well, slap me and call me observant... and foodie.

via... why would I not use a picture of a baby for this?!


 Apparently the guest recipe post I wrote for Offbeat Home was published last night! I missed it! BAHHHHH... not observant yesterday. I wrote out a recipe for Guacamole and Homemade Baked Tortilla chips and it's good!

Other posts I've contributed:
Recipes
Quinoa Pilaf
Mooseloaf

How we decided to have babies
How and When in the Now

Long Weekend Funk

After not having time nor mood to blog since last week, I'm still in my funk. I just don't want to work today or do anything that requires Shawn and I to be apart. We love our Mondays off together, especially.

Saturday had quite the bright spot to it even though it was busy, busy, busy. We had a baby shower and graduation to go to, and to pick up the gifts for both... great planning, I know. We got ready, went to Target, and headed to the baby shower. Once there, I found myself feeling proud for being truly happy for my friend and her partner as she hugged me with her 8-month belly. It didn't make me sad, jealous, or resentful; my heart is starting to burst open to all kinds of joy instead of just my own. As if a reward for my progress one of our mutual work friends came in with her children: her 3 year-old son (with darling rosy cheeks) and her *gasp!* 5-week old daughter!!! I haven't been able to hold a baby since the affliction of the babycrack! For the first time in my life I felt no fear as she let me hold her, so hold her I did. I don't know how long I held that little baby but she was so sweet and so awake. When I commented on her alertness her mom told me "Oh, she won't sleep during the day!"

About twenty minutes later she fell asleep. I beamed.

Pick a Name, Any Name

Which Offbeat Baby Boy name do you like best?
	Zeppelin
	Zefflin
	Zolin
	Lennon
	Lennan
	Zennon
	Zoren
	Zephyr
pollcode.com free polls

We already have name ideas for a girl when we try to have a baby this Summer, but what boy name do you like?

I Replaced the Pill with a BBT

Download this Free BBT Chart for Degrees C or F HERE

Last week I had mentioned that I am pre-nesting and had purchased some things to help us prepare before we start actively trying in July. The Prenatal Vitamins and basal thermometer (BBT) came in the mail yesterday so I took a tablet after dinner with water and this morning recorded my first Basal Body Temperature. I almost forgot to take it and record it on the chart this morning since you have to do it even before you're "up" for the day out of bed. I layed there and waited for it to beep and then read it: 96.8F... I was instantly awake, "Is that right?" I asked Shawn, who was still mostly sleeping. He said something muffled by pillow and I just recorded it as it was. Turns out it is very normal to have a body temp between 96-98F upon waking. Who knew?!
So although I don't take a Pill everyday now, I still have to do this everyday. I find it easier to do something in the effort of getting pregnant versus in the effort of not getting pregnant, especially when I want a baby NAO. I'm also into the idea of knowing my body really well and seeing the patterns emerge. Overall, I'd describe myself currently as impatient.

LlamaLlamaLlamaLlama

So the yarn Mama Kitty was rolling around in on Friday is for a baby hoodie. I'm not giving it away or selling it but I plan to save it for our future child. It is 50% Peruvian Llama, 50% wool and it feels so nice. I've never had this nice of yarn before and I really think the color is gorgeous, too, albeit hard to find.

Instead of kaboshing everything I made for Omaha Fashion Week this year, I'm just making it for the future kids and saving it for whenever that happens. It's close enough to Try-Time to start preparing tangible things for a baby, in our opinion. We also ran into (almost literally) a yard sale yesterday and found a vintage high chair that is EFFING BEAUTIFUL for $20. It's baby blue, has a maple tray, and even converts to a chair/table combo.

I know a lot of the baby things I'm making and finding are blue, but since we're going gender-neutral with our parenting style I don't think it matters. I'll have pictures of the high chair after I clean it up! BRACE YO'SELF! It's PURTY!

Pre-Nesting

Do I ever have it bad. The Babycrack. The Baby Fever. Whatever you call it.
So far this week since Sunday:

• Decided to have a baby no matter what
• Health was cleared for having babies on Monday
• Stopped the Pill
• Registered on OvaOva
• Ordered a Basal thermometer
• Dealt with the first pregnancy-related jerk
• Sourced Cloth Diaper materials
• Sourced and Contacted local Doulas
• Contacted the Birthing Center here
• Decided on Home Birth instead of Birth Center Birth... more on that below
• Selected a Birthing Pool
• Read approximately 40 Birth Stories, some good, some bad, some ugly

It has officially started.
So about the home birth... I originally dreamed of giving birth in a birthing center, so when we finally got one in the Omaha area, I was very excited! I looked into it only to find that although it is a great facility, it's basically like being at home... but you're not. No pain medication or emergency intervention measures are offered at the center so if anything were to happen and an emergency arised I would still have to be transferred to a hospital.
Now my stance for my pregnancy is "Unmedicated or Emergency C-Section Only," given it is a healthy, no-risk pregnancy and I can find support for me and for Shawn during labor. I feel that being at home with no pain medication and a support system (that includes my cat I played doula for) is the same as going to the birthing center except that we don't have to drive 40 minutes from our home to get there, and there is a hospital just as close--maybe closer--to our house as the one near the center.
I don't feel that having a home birth is more complicated, quite the opposite: it is stripping away the illusion of control Western Medicine sometimes tries to impose on the natural, uncontrollable force of nature that is birth. No IV lines, monitors, strangers, risks of BAD infections are in my home. If something happens we can leave and drive down the street. But we will try it!
Just love, support, and my body is all I will need to have our baby.

Word

KRAMER: Do you ever yearn?
GEORGE: Yearn? Do I yearn?
KRAMER: I yearn.
GEORGE: You yearn.
KRAMER: Oh, yes. Yes, I yearn. Often, I...I sit...and yearn. Have you yearned?
GEORGE: Well, not recently. I craved. I crave all the time, constant craving...but I haven't yearned.
KRAMER (in disgust): Look at you.