37 weeks: trouble at home

So as luck would have it, as soon as we have the nursery together, the rest of the house falls apart.

As some of you may know, Jeff has just finished re-establishing a backyard of lush green grass after a blight of lawn-killing grubs. This entailed a chemical treatment, tilling and pulling up the dead grass, seeding, and a twice a day watering schedule. All was well in our backyard. Upon rising and making his coffee in the morning it would not be uncommon for Jeff to gaze out our kitchen window and remark on how beautiful our new lawn had finally become.

That was until one morning Jeff noticed a black hole had been dug into the lawn, six feet in diameter. A little investigation pointed to the culprit: a large animal, likely a raccoon. And likely one that had, at some point, feasted on grubs in our yard. Perhaps he was upset at our lack of supply, and took it out on our lawn, ripping it to shreds. The next night he came back to further vent his frustrations.

We picked up a trap at the police department to catch our little friend. It took two nights, but we caught the rascally digger with strawberries and peanut butter. He had to hang out in the cage for the rest of the day, until Jeff came home from work. I tried to make his stay as non-Gitmo as possible by feeding him a couple of times and keeping him comfortable by covering his cage with an old piece of carpet. His growling and attempts to bite me made me feel unappreciated. Oh well. That night, we completed the little criminal's relocation plan by dropping him off at an undisclosed location, far, far, from our house (at the encouragement of our police department, surprisingly). If he found his way back, I can only imagine the amount of damage he may have committed in retaliation.


With that behind us, on to the next problem... I had a plumber come out to clear a couple of slow drains in our bathrooms. Let me just say, first off, that Jeff was opposed to bringing in a human plumber, favoring instead the liquid variety. Well, that being the case, it is no surprise then that the real plumber would cause a real problem. While aggressively rodding the second drain, he busted a pipe, letting loose a waterfall in our utility room in the basement. Just my luck. This week the plumber will be tearing out some of our subfloor and part of a wall to access the broken section of pipe that just so happens to be embedded in concrete. What a convenient place for the pipe to burst.

Two hours after the waterfall, a loud buzzing noise in our front yard alerted me to the fact that our brand new driveway curtain was being destroyed. I ran outside to see what was happening. It took a few minutes for the worker to see me waving my arms at him, he was so distracted with the fun of tearing up our driveway. We put up with construction on our street for the past 7 months until last week when most of the rubble and orange lawn ornaments had disappeared. It seems that a mistake had been made in the type of pipes they used to drain water to the sewer. Now driveways and curbs up and down the street are once again torn up.

Not even an hour before the plumber showed up, I had a mini panic attack for no reason. When I saw that water flowing down the wall, I was ready to cry. By the time the driveway was being destroyed, I could only laugh in resignation. I guess I'm not too capable of dealing with surprise situations at this point in pregnancy. We've just built this damn nest, it upsets me to see it pulled apart! Good thing it was nothing too serious.

Oh, and our little baby is doing well, thank you.

36 weeks: false labor

I'm happy to say, the nesting is complete. Last minute purchases such as diapers and baby soap have been integrated into the house. The nursery is ready. For more pictures of the nursery click here. Everything seems to be organized. We are now materially ready for his arrival.

My body is starting to get me physically ready, whether I like it or not. Last week both our birthing coach and our practitioner asked if I was experiencing any Braxton-Hicks, or false labor, contractions yet. To both of their surprise, I hadn't. Well, not a day later, I did. I guess the power of suggestion took over. To those of you without the pregnancy experience, these contractions are nothing to worry about and painless. They are just the uterus's way of practicing for the real thing.

Our birthing coach said something interesting recently. Apparently the uterus could have the baby all by itself without any help. So if I were paralyzed or in a coma, uterine contractions would eventually push the baby out. There is nothing I can do about it, this baby is going to come out! That's pretty incredible.

So the next question is whether we are ready emotionally. Definitely! Our Bradley birthing classes have given us more information than we need to know about labor, easing much anxiety about the big day. And of course, we cannot wait to meet the little boy we've been blessed with. I can't wait to see his little face, his little hands and feet. Is he going to have that little pocket of fat that sits on top of a baby's foot? I hope so!

35 weeks: nesting

This past couple of weeks we've been busy nesting. Final preparations are being completed for the arrival of our little man. We’ve got five weeks to go, maybe six if I am a typical first time mother that delivers at 41 weeks instead of 40. So my due date is November 20th, but my guess is that I’ll deliver on the 28th. It's just a hunch.

We have many other guesses about the delivery date from friends and family that attended my baby shower last weekend. Kristen threw a wonderful baby shower for us complete with delicious little curry chicken sandwiches. I've been craving more curry ever since. It was great to spend a little time with everyone, even though it was a little unnerving being the center of attention. We received a lot of gifts; it was an embarrassment of riches. Thanks to everyone. We were even given two beautiful handmade quilts, one from Jeff’s mom and one from my Grandma. Does anyone have pictures of the shower?


Jeff was finally able to take a vacation this past week. It has been over a year since he’s been able to take a week off, other than Christmas. We focused on relaxation since our slow, quiet days are numbered. For a couple of nights we stayed in Madison at our favorite get away, the Mansion Hill Inn. We hit my favorite thrift stores where we picked up a bunch of Golden Books for a quarter each. We strolled around State Street while the first snow of the season fell.


We made two resolutions for this past week, neither of which we accomplished. First was to decide which of our cars to get rid of, and what kind of car should replace it. Secondly, we wanted to decide on a name for our baby. We did narrow the possibilities to three names: a list yet to be released to the public. After being pressed last night for our name decision, I tried to convince my mom that we are naming him Pomeroy Terwillager Jarka. She told us we may as well give him up for adoption. We will be doing neither.