We've Gone Vertical

Well, within the last week or so the baby has re-oriented himself vertically. Up until this time he preferred to spend most of his time sideways.

Actually, he REALLY wanted to spend all of his time curled up on my pelvic floor like a little baby rabbit in a nest but that hasn't been physically possible in months. Not that this has kept him from making the attempt at least 15 times a day however. It turns out, you can't just push on the iliac crests to move them. Who knew?!

But anyway, we are mostly vertical all the time now and I'm finally joining the ranks of those who can't get a deep breath. (When I can breathe through my stuffy sinuses that is) And those whose stomachs are now moved involuntarily causing sudden nausea or reflux. Isn't that fun? And yesterday I tied my last pair of shoes for awhile. Thank goodness for elastic band tennis shoes that I can wear barefoot because putting on socks takes me almost as long as it does to find my phone and my house keys. At least I can still put on my socks. My husband has graciously offered to put on my socks and tie my shoes. And, Internet, I may actually take him up on it. Sigh. I've also given up taking the stairs and am using elevators. And when the teenage bagboy offers to help me out with my groceries I'm so grateful I could kiss him.

Getting things off of the ground has become an all new process as well. I thought it was uncomfortable to bend over while he was sideways-it actually causes pain now. If I need to pick something up I have kneel down for it. And then I have to crawl over to a piece of furniture sturdy enough to get myself back off the floor. (I quit being able to stand up easily even with assistance about two weeks ago.) So, if something ends up on the ground, I find myself staring at it and contemplating how badly I actually need/want it. Is this something I can go to another room and find without the effort of getting onto the floor? And once I'm on the ground I do that thing old people joke about where you look around to see if anything else needs doing while you're there. I used to think this joke was funny-ha-ha. Now I know it's laugh-because- otherwise-you'd-cry-funny.

I find I'm looking forward to postpartum pain and discomfort just because it will be a new pain and discomfort. And then I can have the fun of comparing it to the pain and discomfort of pregnancy. See, it opens up an entirely new world of conversational possibilities! I pointed this out to my husband who looked vaguely ill and made an mmmhphphmm sort of noise. I chose to belive this means he's excited about this too.

We have finally chosen flooring for the house. Yes, the flooring that we have been planning to install since we bought the house five or six years ago is finally coming! Who knew that my husband just needed a deadline? We found a stranded bamboo floor that is just a solid chunk of stranded bamboo, instead of being layered like other engineered flooring products. The nice people at Simple Floors are installing it in early February. This means we're packing up the house. At least we can leave the kitchen stuff, the bathrooms, and the large furniture pieces in the house. We have to move out for approximately a week and a half though. To celebrate and as an incentive to keep packing, Jon is sending me to the spa for two days and nights. We dropped of a check on Sunday and are just waiting for them to finalize delivery and install dates. The cats are going to the kennel. The fish are staying in a bathroom or on the kitchen counter. The birds and guinea pigs are staying with some friends in Snohomish. Sadly, my rats are still without a temporary home. I'd really prefer not to leave them in the house so I told Jon he needed to ask his friends as mine have all declined to take them. I had never considered that some pets are hard to find sitters for. But rats are tricky evidently.

At any rate. It is now seventeen minutes past my five o'clock naptime so I'm going to join my cats in a brief snooze. I had grand plans of putting away some laundry before Jon got home but instead I wrote this blog post. We have our third of four birth classes tonight and I'm sure there'll be something funny about it tomorrow. So far, what I've really learned from these classes is that Jon and I should not be allowed to sit together. If we ever go to a couples' seminar this will be a valuable piece of information. However, since Jon hates group therapy I rank my chances of taking up smoking crack higher than ever using this intell. Ok, I've also learned that all of those years of intestinal cramping and IBS have prepared me for labor techniques. We have yet to go over anything non-medicinal that I haven't at some point tried. At least having had undiagnosed food allergies for over ten years may come in handy for something. I suppose no knowledge is ever really wasted. We have our tour of the hospital tonight and then I believe we're supposed to be practicing more contractions. I continue to see the good in getting into and out of some positions since movement is getting more complicated the farther along we go. But I fail to see how I am supposed to be preparing msyelf for the effort/discomfort/pain/pick your favorite word of a contraction by thinking about it and imaging what it will be like. And I'm a fairly imaginative person. Even Jon seems to understand this idea better than I do! Which is such a role-reversal that I'm surprised the world is still turning.