May 20-27 Chat thread...

[CanBoo]

I'm sorta back...

Let's start another chat thread...

[Ldavis24]

toodle loo CanBoo! How are you doing?

[trauerweidchen]

Every time we start another chat thread I wonder how many of us will be around in the next week to actually participate...

[CanBoo]

Our good computer has not been revived yet, but DH brought the basement one in the house (the one we use to control our christmas lights). Very old and basic machine, but will surf the net.

Babywise: I still have enough! Everyday I think I am actually wake up crazy on the following day!

Been trying whatever I could to move this babe along. Had sex and drank cumin tea again yesterday... No luck

I am not even 40 weeks yet... But so unconfortable... And I am also very scared of going late and not getting my homebirth beacuse of it... Hard to relax... The induced hospital birth I had last time is the main reason I wanted a HB, so I would not want to repeat that, it is sure.

My kitchen floor looks scary at the end of the day! I don't pick up anything off the floor anymore, and I am so far from the counter that everything falls off... So whatever the dog doesn't want to eat, DH gets to pick up after work. Yesterday it was potato cubes and soy beans.

I am also not too sure what is on the bottom shelf of my fridge, beacuse that also seems to be out of reach.

Sorry for the squirrel...

[Ldavis24]

Does the Cumin tea taste bad? I have plenty of cumin sitting around my house!

[trauerweidchen]

Originally Posted by CanBoo

I am not even 40 weeks yet... But so unconfortable... And I am also very scared of going late and not getting my homebirth beacuse of it... Hard to relax... The induced hospital birth I had last time is the main reason I wanted a HB, so I would not want to repeat that, it is sure.

Glad you got a computer up and running at least; I'd be sad without being able to surf the 'net and keep in touch with people these days, as I'm not exactly venturing out in public much right now. I really hope your baby arrives soon... I dread the idea of a hospital induction, too, but I know I have a couple more weeks before that will be an issue so I'm hoping that baby cooperates and comes before we have to have that chat with our midwife.

@LDavis--I decided to respond over here instead about your last chat post--I know and have had the privilege of working with (as a kid, and on a very occasional basis) an excellent local wildlife rehabilitator, and I think that would be a wonderful thing for you to do. Some of the animals she helps and the educational opportunities she creates for people in the area are just fantastic, and it was always wonderful as a kid to go over there and see how she was caring for the wildlife she was brought. It's a fantastic, albeit difficult and often thankless job.

[CanBoo]

I thought it tasted just fine, until the 4th cup

I did not use ground cumin, though, but the seeds instead. I added honey and a cube of potato in it.

But a pot of that sitting on the counter sure had the smell spread throughout the house. (small house!)

[JamieCatheryn]

I'd suppose it would taste like cumin...would make a weird tea. Does it work if it's on nachos?

My DH is getting so impatient for me to go into labor. He really didn't want to go to work today, so we went to the zoo and 2 stores to make me walk around, and he, ah, donated some prostaglandins twice. No labor, just had a few mild contractions while walking. Baby moved even lower I think though, so now I can't hardly walk until I adjust to this. And we saw some awesome orangutans, one pointed at DS for a while and another huge one was swinging from a net right by the glass where we were. A zookeeper told us about another of them breaking out of their area one night into the staff's area, trying on their clothes, and starting a load of laundry with way too much soap.

I'm calling Friday due, that's 38 weeks past ovulation, but I was 40w from LMP last Sunday. I see my midwife tomorrow and get to find out if I've increased my iron, it was really low 3 weeks ago. I need to ask her if she's got a fetascope, baby can't tolerate the Doppler and her Pinard horn would be inconvenient in labor.

[Ldavis24]

Originally Posted by CanBoo

I thought it tasted just fine, until the 4th cup

I did not use ground cumin, though, but the seeds instead. I added honey and a cube of potato in it.

But a pot of that sitting on the counter sure had the smell spread throughout the house. (small house!)

haha thats how I felt about my RRL tea until the 4th cup in a day and i wanted to heave just looking at it...I don't have the seeds and I am not even going to try it with the ground, something tells me that would be a little gross!

Thank you trauerweidchen. I have spent so much time wondering what I want to do with my life etc..you know those small questions. I keep coming back to animals. Why not do something in an area I am passionate about you know?!
Also are you already in Vet school and taking a break for your LO or have you yet to enroll? Did you try a vet tech route first?

[CanBoo]

Originally Posted by JamieCatheryn

I'd suppose it would taste like cumin...would make a weird tea. Does it work if it's on nachos?

It might, you just never know, but you'd need a lot of it! The tea is made with 1 tablespoon of seeds per cup.

Everything I've seen though talk about the tea helping, not just seasonning with the spice. Although I have seen a reference to cumin being a spice to avoid in pregnancy... But as my MW put it, if it was that well established of a relationship, there would be a lot of pre-term labour and miscarriages throughout the world!

[Quate]

Thanks for the new thread! Maybe I'll keep up with this one ... then again, maybe not. I'm now understanding how people get impatient towards the end. I mean, I know it can't be more than a few more weeks at this point, and I haven't even hit my due date yet, but I keep waking up in the morning thinking, should have been last night, you know? I guess I need to write a lesson for tomorrow--I've been putting it off and am totally uninspired, but things aren't looking too promising. Maybe it will put me into labor????

[CanBoo]

Originally Posted by Ldavis24

haha thats how I felt about my RRL tea until the 4th cup in a day and i wanted to heave just looking at it...

You see that, I don't get tired of. I happily drink a pot a day :-)
I make it in the evening and I have it cold the next day. I also normally drop another tea bag in it to change the flavour everyday.

[trauerweidchen]

Originally Posted by Ldavis24

Thank you trauerweidchen. I have spent so much time wondering what I want to do with my life etc..you know those small questions. I keep coming back to animals. Why not do something in an area I am passionate about you know?!
Also are you already in Vet school and taking a break for your LO or have you yet to enroll? Did you try a vet tech route first?

My philosophy about a career is that it's better to try to do something you love even if you won't make a lot of money, than do something you hate, earn a lot, and spend most of it trying to escape. At the end of my life, I'd rather say I did something I was passionate about than that I earned big bucks. Working with animals might not get us rich, but if we're fulfilled in life, then it's a successful venture in my opinion.

I'm not terribly career-orientated, so although I have an inherent interest in medicine and science (I majored in Chemistry as well as German in college), I graduated without a clear idea of where I wanted to go with my education. I kept coming back to veterinary medicine, though, so I went back to school to pick up a few extra biology classes, and have been working on getting the hundreds of hours of veterinary experience you need to be a competitive applicant. Since I've already got a B.A. degree, I didn't want to go the vet tech route; it's another couple years of school (and debt!), and the job market for vet techs in our area is not great because there's a community college that offers the program and churns out more than the area can probably support. Working at the shelter also gave me a crash course in basic technician skills, and I've worked at a vet office as a kennel assistant so I know what techs do fairly well.

My DH and I had a long conversation about when to start a family last summer/fall, because we both knew we wanted to have a child or two, but I also know I will be going back for a graduate degree at some point. I hadn't applied to vet school yet, and because it's so competitive, I didn't want to apply, possibly get in, and have to deal with a long commute (we just bought a house we love an hour and a half away from my state school), a baby, and the rigors of vet school. I'm glad I waited, because getting this little one started is really important to me. That question of family or career first has driven me absolutely bonkers for a year and a half, so when I saw that positive pregnancy test, everything seemed to fall into place. We would probably have waited a couple months longer to start trying, but the timing is working out about as perfectly as I can imagine.

My other passion is midwifery, actually, so this pregnancy is allowing me to explore other possible avenues I might pursue should I decide against vet school.

*whew* Didn't mean to write a novel there...

[trauerweidchen]

Originally Posted by CanBoo

You see that, I don't get tired of. I happily drink a pot a day :-)
I make it in the evening and I have it cold the next day. I also normally drop another tea bag in it to change the flavour everyday.

I do this too! I'll make a quart at a time with two tea bags, add honey, and then mix it with milk to drink it cold throughout the day. At least, when I get around to making it, that is...

[lil_miss_understood]

Sorry about the squirrel, Ldavis. A few years ago, I saw a very similar scene and called my (now ex) bf, bawling about it too. Kind of funny since he was a Southerner and had been out squirrel hunting the previous night. An animal's death doesn't bother me as much when it means someone gets to eat- not that it doesn't bother me at all, just not as much.
On the vet front, my twin brothers both worked for a vet from the time they were about 8 or 9 years old- one until he was about 25 and the other until he was 30. Although they're not certified, they have been trained as vet techs and have been performing sterilization and euthanasia procedures since they were about 15. The one who stayed longer was incredibly talented and the vet offered to pay for his schooling, but my brother declined.

[ColoradoMama]

I'm on my fifth baby, and I am now 9 days overdue. I've never been this pregnant ever. It's weird. I've kind of gone into denial that I will actually give birth. I saw my chiropractor today, and she worked on me a lot, so maybe that will help move things along. We'll see.

[j_p_i]

I understand about the denial aspect ColoradoMama, I keep telling DH that when I finally do go into labor "for real" that I won't believe it. I've had contractions and cramping on and off, and lost mucus plug here and there, etc, but I haven't let myself think "this could be it!" at all.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by j_p_i

I understand about the denial aspect ColoradoMama, I keep telling DH that when I finally do go into labor "for real" that I won't believe it. I've had contractions and cramping on and off, and lost mucus plug here and there, etc, but I haven't let myself think "this could be it!" at all.

Yeah I hear that. I keep hoping though.
OTOH, today is the first of my stranger days. I want this baby out but do I really want a stranger delivering it? *sigh*
To make things even "better", if I make it to Friday, I have my 40 week appointment with the OB I haven't met and I believe clinic policy is an internal at 40 weeks.

[j_p_i]

Just got back from my 40 week appointment, they gave the option of an internal (perhaps yours will be the same Jacqueline?). I said I was a bit curious, so she did the internal. I'm 1cm dilated and about 25% effaced. She said based on that and what I've told her of my mom's births, I'll probably have a longer early labor, 12-24 hours. I don't know what makes her think that, but that's what I'd assumed anyhow. She also said that baby feels like she's about 7-7.5 lbs right now.

I have a NST and ultrasound scheduled for the 28th (I'll be 41 and 1), if I don't have her by then. They're comfortable letting me go past 42 weeks if I want, as long as baby looks okay.

[mamayarn]

Originally Posted by JamieCatheryn

I'd suppose it would taste like cumin...would make a weird tea. Does it work if it's on nachos?

Forgive me. I laughed so hard after reading this, because it really could only be written by a very pregnant lady.

... and I am drinking about 32oz of red raspberry leaf tea every day right now. I make it in the morning and put it in a nalgene bottle in the fridge to refill my glass during the day. It's not bad, and this is coming from the girl who can't stand unsweetened tea and lives in the northeast.