Saturday, May 31, 2008

Overheard the last two days...

- Daddy, don't get in my nerves!

- I'm gonna swing by Daddy's office for a candy snack.

- Daddy, go somewhere else. Mommy doesn't like your stinky poots.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

34 weeks

Crazy. Unbelievable.

I'm amazed that I'm already at 34 weeks. After the first trimester, with all its attendant fear and panic that Things Would Not Go Well, this pregnancy has gone by much too fast.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm ready and my honest answer is, no. In no way am I ready.

This morning KB and S came to wake me up and the three of us snuggled together in bed for a while. It was joyous and wonderful and sad, all at the same time. I couldn't stop kissing KB's cheek and stroking his soft hair.

I am already mourning the loss of our "three-ness". I am worried how KB is going to react to having a little brother who receives the lion's share of our attention for a while.

I have so much to say but I really need to finish up some work. Tomorrow is my last day before I put myself on maternity leave (as a contractor, I don't get any paid maternity leave, but I am giving myself a full 4 weeks to stay home before the scheduled delivery date).

For several days now, I've been mulling over a post I really want & need to write about my mother and her attitude towards this pregnancy. I suspect that entry will come sometime next week when I am at home alone with my thoughts.

Under 5 weeks to go. I'm not in panic mode...yet. I'm sure I'll get there soon.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A rhetorical question...

If I am this tired now, how am I going to survive when I have both an active preschooler and a newborn?

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Names, redux

Oooh, Karen at The Naked Ovary is having naming issues too.

One of her commenters suggested this retort for people who poo-poo the parents' choice of name for baby:

You got to name your children, I get to name mine.

I love it. I think I'll try it next time someone gives us grief about baby names.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

My mother on breastfeeding

Mom: Are you going to try nursing again this time?

Me: Yes, I'd really like to give it my best shot.

Mom: But this time, I'm guessing you're going to be a lot more willing to supplement right away if things don't work out?

Me: Well, I'd really like breastfeeding to work this time. I'll work with the lactation consultant at the hospital from the beginning, and if she can't help me, I'll find another one.

Mom: But last time, you were feeding KB every 2 hours, and you were trying for 45 minutes at a time, and he still wasn't gaining weight, and you weren't sleeping, and you were so tired and so frustrated. It was just awful.

**************************************

This is the second time my mother has instigated the "But you're going to just give formula if breastfeeding doesn't work immediately, right?" conversation.

Do I really need to tell you that my mother did not give any of us 3 kids a single drop of breast milk?

I am starting to regret my decision to have my mom here for the first 3 weeks. I need support, not someone telling me at every turn to give up and just give formula because "it's easier".

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

What's in a name?

We are still trying to decide on a name for the baby. With KB, our choice was very easy. Honestly, we had chosen his name a couple of weeks after we got married, way back in 1999, and we never wavered from that choice. It was the perfect name for him.

We chose his name because we wanted something that would reflect both of our heritages, Indian and Irish (I am 1/4 Irish from my mom's side, 1/4 Lithuanian from my mom's side, and a mixture of English, Irish, German, Scottish, and possibly Welsh on my dad's side).

Shortly before we married, we watched an excellent movie called "This is My Father". We loved the name shared by the father & son main characters. As it turned out, the name (minus one letter) was also an Indian name. We loved (and still love) the name.

With baby #2, however, we have not had a name jump out at us. We again played around with the Irish/Indian names, and came up with this short list:

Sean/Shaan
Rowan/Rohan
Devon/Devan
Thomas/Tamas
Colin/Kalan
Neil/Neal/Neel

But seemingly, we find a strike against each of the Indian names. Some have a negative connotation (Shaan, for example, means "pride" and Tamas means "darkness"). Kalan is apparently the Indian equivalent of a "country bumpkin" name. S doesn't like Devan for whatever reason. And personally, I think Neel and Rohan are way too common.

I've gone through lists of Indian baby names multiple times, and I've decided I like the name

Ketan

It rhymes with "Nathan", though the "th" sound is much softer, barely there, in Ketan.

S likes it as well. KB loves it, and has been referring to the baby by that name since we started kicking it around a couple of months ago.

But no one else in either of our families seems to care for it. Everyone keeps asking us if we've settled on a name yet, despite our telling them that Ketan is the current front-runner.

A big drawback to the name Ketan is that it's probably going to be mis-pronounced as "Keaton" or "Kay-TAHN" by non-Indians.

After Ketan, Sean is the #2 name on our list.

I would like Thomas as the middle name, because it means "twin", and in my own small way, I want to remember and to honor the fact that this baby started his journey with a twin sibling.

So, opinions please. I've set up a poll, but feel free to add comments. And if you can think of an Irish/Indian name pair that we haven't thought of, please feel free to tell me.

We have a date

At my last appointment (3 weeks ago, at 28 weeks), I told my physician's assistant that I had a date in mind for my scheduled c-section. She said that the woman who handles the surgery schedule only works Tuesdays and Thursdays, so she'd make a note in my chart and the scheduler would call me the next day.

The scheduler did indeed call, and proceeded to tell me that the date I had chosen would not work because my ob-gyn was going to be on vacation all that week. Keep in mind that my ob-gyn has been telling me since Day 1 that she would schedule my c-section for approximately one week before my due date.

The scheduler continued, "How about July 7th?" I told her that's the one date I'd like to avoid, seeing as it's KB's birthday and all. She replied that I needed to talk to my ob-gyn to figure out logistics, so she changed my 31 week appointment to be with Dr. G instead of with my fave physician's assistant.

I figured my choices were (a) schedule the c-section for the date I wanted, to be performed by the other ob-gyn in the practice, or (b) wait for my ob-gyn to get back from vacation.

Had my 31 week appointment this morning and talked with Dr. G about scheduling. She doesn't want to take a chance on my going into labor on my own, so she wants to do the c-section earlier rather than later. She said her vacation plans are still not set in stone, so she will most likely work the Monday and/or Tuesday of July 4th week.

This means my c-section is tentatively scheduled for July 1st (the date we wanted originally). If by chance Dr. G decides to go on vacation then, she will push the date back to June 30.

Oy. I am soooooo not ready. And by that I mean mentally, physically, emotionally.

The only thing I have accomplished thus far is to wash one load of baby clothes. That's it.

Sheets, towels, washcloths: unwashed.

Nursery? Still has two desks, two bookshelves, filing crates, and lots of miscellaneous papers (not to mention all my craft supplies in the closet).

KB's big boy room? Needs all the furniture moved out, needs to be primed & painted, needs to have his big boy furniture brought in from the garage and assembled. Oh, and a mattress for his new bed would be nice.

I am just under 8 weeks until the big day and I have no idea how I'm going to get anything done. No energy, no motivation.

I keep telling myself it's OK if I just get the co-sleeper, Pack n Play, and changing table set up by the time the baby comes. But S is getting really twitchy about wanting the office to be converted to the nursery.