And Still We Wait...

First off, today's Tyson's and my 6th wedding anniversary!!! I can't believe it's already been 6 years. What an adventure it's been. We didn't make any special plans for tonight - we were thinking we'd be the foggy, sleep-deprived parents of a newborn plus a 4.5 year old by now.

So this feels familiar. We're still waiting for GodotDeuce to decide to join us on the outside world. Today is Week 40 Day 3.

This time I've taken extra steps to try to ensure that my body would be ready to go on time. I don't believe in rushing things, but we hated staying at the hospital last time, and once again, I tested positive for Group B Strep, which means a 48 hour hospital stay post-birth, so we're really hoping to go into labor before we "risk out" of the birth center. Delivering at a birth center instead of a hospital drastically decreases the risk of c-section and other often unnecessary medical interventions, and is a more family-oriented setting than a hospital - a bed that fits two adults AND an infant, for one thing. I still fail to understand why on earth they kick people out of the birth center for going past 41 weeks, when the average length of a first pregnancy is 41 weeks and 1 day. Midwives are supposed to be about letting nature do her thing, but since the birth center is overseen by a medical entity, it seems they have to comply...

But last time I didn't know about the 41 week rule until 40 weeks, 5 days, so I started late on the home remedies. This time, I was prepared. The things I've done differently are:

1)  Used family planning charts to convince the midwives to re-calculate my due date based on ovulation, instead of LMP. This changed my due date from November 1st to November 6th, buying us some extra time that we wouldn't have had otherwise.

2) Started drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea at 34 weeks, 2-3 times a day.

3) Started taking Evening Primrose Oil at 37 weeks, 2 times a day.

4) Made a conscientious effort to leave my work and go for an hour walk multiple times a week, averaging 3 miles per walk, and at 38 weeks, slowing the pace down to approximately 20 minutes per mile.

5) Waking up at 5:15am 4 times per week to do an exercise video that includes Middle Eastern labor dance techniques, sustained squats, and yoga exercises. Tyler would often come out and be angry at me for doing the video instead of being in bed - he prefers to come cuddle with us each morning. "Mommy! You don't do this video at night! Only in the morning!!! It's still nighttime!" Sometimes, he'd sit and watch. He declined to participate, however.

6) Eating 6 dates a day. I started late - 38 weeks? That's when I read a study that seemed pretty simple yet promising that women who eat 6 dates per day for the last month of their pregnancy are far more likely to go into labor spontaneously, and much less likely to need their labor augmented, as well as decreased postpartum hemhorraging. However, it was a small study, and it failed to cite WHEN they go into spontaneous labor. I don't know how far past 40 weeks women in Jordan are allowed to go before they're pushed to induce...

7) Started the downward qi style acupuncture at 39 weeks instead of 40. Second session at 40 weeks. Third session scheduled for 40 weeks, 5 days...

8) Started black cohash at 40 weeks, 5 doses over 4 hours each day, walking during part of that time.

9) Stopped working at 40 weeks. Except I worked from home for the entire morning on Week 40 Day 0, and didn't get it all done, so worked a couple more hours on Week 40 Day 1. When I finally set my email to send automatic out of office replies, I suddenly felt low back pain, similar to how I felt the day I went into labor with Tyler. I thought with excitement, "Bring it!" But alas, it subsided.

10) Dancing with Tyler to Gangnam Style throughout the pregnancy. Bouncing around with him is great fun. He comes to drag me off the couch whenever he hears/sees it.

11.) Switched to sitting on a stability ball at 40 weeks, 1 day, at the request of a midwife. Supposedly gets the baby into the right position for labor. The couch supposedly does the opposite.

12) Started eating spicy foods at 40 weeks.

13) Went for a 6 mile walk with Emery at 40 weeks, 2 days. Technically, 5.8 miles. We left the kids with their dads. We ambled. For a long time. Until we got a text from Tyson, "Where you guys at? The kids have murdered the dog, and cut off one of Chris's legs, and they are eating it, I'm locked in the bathroom, HELP!!!" So I texted back, "C u soon." Then we decided to hang out some more (Chris and Tyson had gone on a 32 mile bike ride before Emery and I went on our walk) so we ordered takeout Indian food - good spiciness, good company.

14) On 40 Weeks, 3 days, rearranged our bedroom and set up the pack and play for GodotDeuce to sleep in. So now GodotDeuce's bed is all ready, the room is all clean. We recleaned the house (I'd cleaned it on Friday/ 40 Weeks 1 day. But I think a clean house helps.) I also got a bunch of great music ready, and started listening to it, music to labor to...

15) Spending lots of special time cuddling with Tyler and making this weekend extra special for him.

Clearly, despite my intentions, I am a long gestator - I cook my kids till they're well done! Ultimately, it's not just my body that has to be ready. Maybe GodotDeuce is putting the finishing touches on his/her lungs, or brain...At any rate, still we wait. Waiting for Godot...Deuce.

Halloween 2014

If you're ever going to be 39 weeks pregnant on Halloween, you have to do something to make fun of yourself. Oh yeah, we did. Yes, we went out in public like this. Strangers stopped us to take pictures. Seriously. My husband is the best!

We heard a rumor that we won the costume contest, but we left before the winners were announced. Wonder if it was a "must be present to win" thing...

For trick-or-treating, we did a repeat of this costume. Tyler initally wanted to be a crocodile, we were excited about that, and I started making plans. Then he changed his mind and wanted to be a shark. We were even more excited about that, thought it would tie in well with our Cast Away theme. But in the end, he decided to go as Spiderman, along with his best friend at school, John.

I didn't get a picture of him with the mask on, but that's okay, because he just looked like all the other kids dressed like Spiderman with his mask on. There were several Spidermen at his school. Fortunately, no other kids dressed like Spiderman at the party, so even when he wore his mask, we didn't get him confused with anyone else.  On the bright side, he thought we looked "cool". He was very excited about Wilson, declaring it to be GodotDeuce's costume. We treasured getting to walk the neighborhoods with Tyler this Halloween! Thank you Bushman family for hosting!

Manhattan

The second half of our trip was to Manhattan. My sister's sister-in-law (or, my brother-in-law's sister) PJ was getting married. I've known PJ since I was a wee little elf - 11 or 12 at the most. Sometimes she lived in Boston, sometimes Alexandria, and more recently, New York. But somehow we manage to cross paths pretty often. During my last trip to Virginia, we didn't get to see her, but did get to meet her fiancee, Dawn. Dawn and PJ joked that GodotDeuce was the only child allowed to attend their wedding.

Yes, it's an East Coast thing that children are not always invited to weddings, or to invite them to the ceremony but not the reception. A surprise to Tyson (it's standard operating procedure to invite kids to weddings in Tucson), but not to me. So that left the dilemma, to attend PJ's wedding solo, or bring Tyson and have Tyler stay in Tucson or Phoenix, or bring Tyler and hire a babysitter for the night? When I learned that Tyson's mom hadn't been to New York since she was a child, when she first moved to this country, I decided to see if she'd be interested in going. She was!

We arrived in New York on Friday evening in terrible traffic. We went to dinner in our hotel, and straight to bed. In the morning, we walked to meet my sister, and were suprised to realize we were staying right next to the World Trade Center. We stumbled across the Ground Zero site:

Here's the new tower:

And just a few of the names on the memorial:

It felt so strange, talking to Tyler about what happened here. My heart goes out to everyone who had to explain to their children while it was happening, and especially to those who had to explain why their mother or father wouldn't be coming home anymore after that day. I work with someone who survived the attack. Being here so close to the anniversary was a surreal feeling.

We continued walking and eventually met up with Jonell, Art, Payton, Cole and Shelby. After a fabulous breakfast, we all went to a park together to let Tyler burn off some energy. When they left for hair/makeup for the wedding, we took Jonell's advice and walked to the Brooklyn Bridge. Tyler loved sitting on the  bridge, watching the ships and helicopters. Those pictures are on Tyson's phone, which is broken. Hopefully we'll be able to retrieve them soon.

That night, Tyson and I went to the wedding. We headed to the Tribeca Rooftop. We hung out in a very crowded lobby, watching with amazement as more and more people packed in. The wait made the entrance to the rooftop all the more wondrous.

The first people we ran into were some awesome relatives of mine, all glammed up - our niece Shelby (Payton too, but we'll get to her in a minute), and our nephew, Cole.

My super awesome sister, Jonell, looking fabulous:

And here's Payton! Wow is this family good-looking!!!

Art walked PJ down the aisle, such a sweet moment.

Dawn's excitement was infectious.

My favorite thing about this ceremony was how well the officiant knew and described them. He asked them to hold hands, and at one point said, "Dawn, these hands are the hands that will never cook for you. But they will fix you a stiff drink at the end of a hard day." Cracked me up. PJ with her vodka and cheez-its...

Tyson and I spent the first half of the cocktail hour enjoying the sunset.

Here's Tyson and me - 35 weeks pregnant...

After appetizers, we headed in to the reception. I had no clue purple would be the theme! Loved it.

Art delivered a beautiful, hilarious toast. It had some sentimental parts too, as you can see by my sister's face.

The food was amazing, and lots of great dancing. The next day, Dawn and PJ held a post-wedding brunch, on the roof at PJ's (oops, now Dawn and PJ's!) condo on Chambers St.

The next day, we took Tyler on the subway (exciting!) and the ferry, to check out the Statue of Liberty. Tyson surprisingly liked the New York subway better than the DC Metro. I think because the fare stays consistent! I loved the moment when I realized our car was nearly empty, yet a guy in his early 40's chose to sit in the seat right next to Anne Marie. I pointed this out to Tyson, and we had a great time teasing her. Alas, she left without giving the guy her number. Could've been great. :)

No surprise that Tyler loved the ferry. I think this was his first time on a boat.

As we were getting off the ferry to return to land, Tyler stopped to take a last look at the statue.

We also went to Central Park to play at one of the playgrounds there. What a great vacation!