May

I’ve done it – I just bought the first thing for the new baby. Well, not just – it was two days ago now, but I’m just now getting around to writing this. Craig still maintains that it’s way too early to start buying for this baby, but I feel like if I see something I love, I should get it. Right?

Anyway, it’s just a little blanket, but it is *so* cute. It’s blue and green and very soft and cuddly. Yes, I do understand that this baby is going to be born in August; however, babies still need blankets in the summer if they’re inside with air conditioning, which is the case here. So, it was perfectly justified. And it didn’t even cost much! %-)

I love blankets. Sami has 34 blankets (no, that’s not a typo). Oh, and that’s not including the ones that people gave us that I didn’t like and packed away. Did she need 34 blankets? Not likely, but she did use all of them, at least a few times. 22 of the blankets were the fabulous two-ply ones from Gymboree, and they matched her Gymboree outfits. She used to wear a different line/style of clothes each week to daycare, and she would take the blanket that matched. They thought it was very cute. But I think she’s getting a bit old for that now, so with the new Gymboree summer line, I did *not* buy the matching blanket. It was a first. Craig is very relieved, though not nearly so relieved as he will be when I decide she is too old for Gymboree clothes…

In other news, the semester is (finally) over. Craig and I have both turned in our grades, and we are done with teaching until the end of August. We will of course probably end up with several whiny emails from students complaining about their grades, but that is to be expected and it’s easy to deal with. We have lots of paper-writing and grant-proposing to do over the summer, but it is nice to be free of the teaching at least. So, we are in somewhat of a celebratory mood these days.

Sami is now letting me know in no uncertain terms that she is ready for me to stop being in front of the computer and go back to playing with her, NOW, so I’m off…

  

Feb

Today is Craig’s first day of “paternity leave” – he doesn’t have to teach again until after Vanderbilt’s Spring Break. We are both glad that he is going to be able to stay home with the baby for a while, too. We are also both wondering how long it will take us to start wearing on each other’s nerves, being home all the time…;-)

Of course, this presumes that there even *is* going to be a baby, which I am starting to doubt – I really think I might just stay pregnant forever! I’ve been employing as many of the old wives’ tales about how to induce labor as I can, though I haven’t quite been able to bring myself to track down something named castor oil and try to drink it – somehow, that just doesn’t sound appealing. But I have tried just about everything else, and so far – nada.

Now the doc is talking about inducing me one day next week. In some ways, this is appealing – I really am kind of sick of being pregnant, in case you haven’t gotten that from reading these little notes! Still, it makes me uneasy – my gut tells me the baby will come when she’s ready, and I shouldn’t rush her. Anyone have any personal experiences with labor induction? I’d be interested in hearing about it.

Today I’ve been experimenting with mp3 files. I got the idea to make a CD of the songs that people have been recommending for me to listen to during labor; but some of them are kind of random, things that might be fun for this purpose, but I probably don’t need a whole CD of, etc. So, I thought I would try to find them as mp3 files, to see if I like them, etc. I was just using the browser to search, which ended up being a real pain. I was starting to wonder what all the fuss was about. But then I downloaded a special program that searches for the files via napster and gnutella servers, and it was much easier after that.

Well, that’s pretty much my news of the day. Still no contractions to speak of – just small ones every now and again. The doctor is going out of town this weekend, so the baby will probably decide to come then! Otherwise, we got back to the doc on Monday and talk about this whole induction thing. Everyone please send contraction-vibes my way!

We’re off to try to track down some Girl Scouts now – rumor has it they are selling cookies at Kroger this week, and suddenly I am really craving those ones with the coconut and caramel…