Nope.

Sorry folks, no news. I have started having nightmares, really scarey ones. According to at least one book that's a good sign (but one I could do without).

NNNNnnnope.

Nuthin'. I feel like I'll be this pregnant forever.

Due Date!

Sorry folks, but nuthin' doin'.

The most exciting thing about today was that Jessica and I had a late lunch at Union Square on a WEEKDAY. Conversation in the bathroom of said restaurant:
Tourist #1: Ohhh look at you!
Tourist #2: When are you due?
I: Today!
Tourist #2: Today!!
Tourist #1: And... you... came to San Francisco?
I: Er.. I live here.
Tourists (together): OOOOooooooooOOOooooh!

Har har.

Today is a good day to wish Allen a happy birthday though... :)

2/23 Non-Stress Test and Dr Appt

Well, non-stress test and doctor's appointments were uneventful. Doctor Laros said, "I'll see you next week!" So there you have it. Baby has dropped a little bit (my belly measures smaller) but nothing really indicitive of anything starting any time soon.

The fun part was that Jessica Valley is here and got to come with me to the appointments and see the ultrasound and everything. She even tried blowing raspberries on the baby to get it to wake up during the non-stress test, but nothing doing.

Damn the buzzer.

2/16 Doctor's Appointment

These go like a breeze when you have non-stress tests every week. Doctor is like >poke<, >prod<, "Ok, see you later."

So he can still "bounce the head" around. Which means nothin' much goin' on. (Baby is not "dropping".) But the baby could wait to drop until the last minute, which would be fine with me!

We saw Well last night by Lisa Kron. Hundreds of people applauding and laughing is definitely enough to wake the baby up. How to engineer non-stress tests around going to see plays? Hm...

2/15 Non-stress test

BUZZERED! TWICE!

It is just not a morning baby. I learned exactly what the heart rate needs to do, so we're going to start being more specific in our goal-setting, maybe a little pep-talk before next week's appointment. That will be later, which might help, since I won't be working starting next week.

Due next Thursday. Wow.

Anyway, other than drowsiness everything is fine. Fluids good, blood pressure "perfect".

Happy VDay

We went out... somehow it feels like the last time ever. Happily, the food was wonderful and they had nice comfy booths. Very nice first-time grandparents sitting next to us were quite sweet. Except grandma went on and on about how their daughter did it without an epidural. Without an epidural! Can you believe it?? They're so proud, the baby was so alert, etc. etc. etc. I notice it's never the woman who went without the epidural who tell sme how wonderful it is to go without...

Anyway, us on VDay:

Getting to Where You're Headed

If you're flying into San Francisco and we're not picking you up, you can take the train directly from the airport. Take the AirTrain at the airport to the BART station.

You can take BART or BART and MUNI to Audrey and Ryan's house, the hospital, or the apartment at 22nd Street.

A note about buying fares: For BART, you have to buy the right amount depending on where you're getting on and off. You put the ticket in the turnstile both when you get on and when you get off. For MUNI, you just pay $1.25 no matter where you're going. When you're taking MUNI, you have to have 5 quarters and MANY STATIONS DON'T HAVE CHANGE MACHINES.

To BART to Audrey and Ryan's house, get off at 16th Street and walk (the station is at 16th and Mission -- it's about 8 blocks). Or if you have luggage, switch to MUNI (same train station, different tracks). Take any train headed inbound and get off at Civic Center. The station is at Van Ness and Market. Our house is about 3 blocks from the Civic Center station.

To BART to the hospital, get off at Civic Center and switch to MUNI (same train station, different tracks). Take the N-Judah outbound. It will take you right to the front door of the hospital. Or the back, rather, by the parking garage. The stop is Irving and 2nd Street.

To BART to the apartment at 22nd Street , get off at Civic Center and switch to MUNI (same train station, different tracks). Take the J-Church headed outbound and get off at 22nd Street. Walk up that BIG, STEEP hill. If you don't want to walk up the hill, take the BART to 24th Street and take a cab to the apartment -- 22nd and Sanchez.

Hospital Info

The baby is going to be born (we hope!) at UCSF. Here is that info:

UCSF Labor and Deliver - Long Hospital
505 Parnassus Avenue, 15th floor
San Francisco, CA 94143
415-353-1787

Here is a virtual tour and a map and directions.

2/8 Non Stress Test

All is well...

Baby was asleep, despite my scarfing down chocolate chips for breakfast, so we had to use the buzzer. We hate the buzzer.

Heart rate is fine, my BP is fine, fluid is fine.

We saw baby yawn. Wow.

Baby Shower Joy

My friend Kerry threw me a baby shower today.

This is no small feat. In addition to the usual logistic challenges of throwing a shower (real invitations, RSVP's, location, what to do...) poor Kerry had to contend with me. Now I can be a real pain sometimes, and was drug into this whole shower thing kicking and screaming, with nightmares of prizes for who guesses how many squares of toilet paper it takes to get around my waist, ribbon-festooned snot-suckers and blindfolded doll-diapering competitions.

Kerry pointed out that like any other celebration, this could be whatever I wanted, and didn't have to follow convention (or my idea of convention). Furthermore, she promised that I wouldn't have to do a thing, and that she had no intention of Googling "cute baby shower games".



True to her word, I didn't lift a finger. Ryan and I just showed up at Lovejoy's Antique Tea Room. The food there is really amazing, I mean really good. Everyone should eat Devonshire Cream at least once a week. Chris and Jenifer provided a finger-licken' hazelnut raspberry whipped-cream cake, and I'll be durned if our poor friends didn't come up with wonderful gifts in spite of my refusing to register and our continued insistance that we didn't want anything. For the record, those tortured souls were Kerry and her husband Matt, Chris, (Jenifer and Zachary in spirit), Mark, Robin, Amy, Madla, Jiri and their daughter Margit and Madla's mother, Liz (from LA!), Ryan and me.

2/1 Non Stress Test

So this time we were late. I mean really, really late.

Late enough that I just brought the upper half of my ensemble to the car to put on while we drove to the hospital. Now these are modern pregnant-lady clothes. Stretchy. Tight. You can have all the right appendages in all the right places and they can still, for all intents and purposes, be backwards. You can have no cleavage or cleavage down to your navel. They'd prefer curveless bodies except that their label says "Maternity". And for some reason today I've decided to wear these tight clothes, and three layers at that.

Also, we're determined to wake this baby UP! The stereo doesn't work, no matter how loud it is, so we decide to sing in the car, the loudest songs we can think of. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, B-I-N-G-O, and the Wyoming State Fight Song, (which was a childhood favorite of mine, thanks to my parents):

HE AL-WAYS SINGS (shove arm through head hole)
RAG-GED MUSIC TO THE CATTLE AS HE SWINGS
BACK AND FORTH IN THE SAD-DLE (attempt to shove head through arm hole)
(muffled) on a horse (remove head from arm hole)
PRET-TY GOOD HORSE
GOT A SYNCHOPATED GATER (remove arm from head hole)
AND YOU OUGHT-A HEAR THE METER
TO THE ROAR OF HIS REPEATER (put head through head hole)
HOW THEY RUN (spin shirt around to put tag in the back)
YES THEY RUN (right arm through right hole)
WHEN THEY HEAR HIM COM-IN'
FOR THE WEST-ERN-FOLKS-ALL-KNOW (left arm through left hole)
HEEE'S
A HIGH-FALUTIN', ROOTIN', TOOTIN'(pull shirt down)
SON-OF-A-GUN FROM OLD WYOMIN'
RAG TIME COWBOY (yank back around to back and front to front)
TALK ABOUT YOUR COWBOY (yank neck up to reasonable-cleavage height)
RAGE TIME COWBOY JOOEEEEEEE

Repeated, at the top of our lungs, twice with the next two layers of clothes.

We arrived 15 minutes late, disheveled, sore throated, half-naked, flustered, and with a soundly sleeping baby. >sigh<