Phew, I made it.


Sars guys, not a lot to say right now because me and babers are mega busy eating and sleeping. Here's the run down with more details coming when Ira learns how to use Blogger:

Ira was born last Wednesday at 11:30 AM, after a 9 and a half hour labor. He just kind of blew in with the wind! We stayed in the hospital for about 4 days. My sense of time was pretty warped because I was on some heavy duty anti-seizure meds. So what else? Labor? Ouchy! Breastfeeding, also kind of ouchy. Hospital food? Salty! Baby Neon? Total preciousness!

Lates!

Orange squashy things


First orange squashy thing: our pumpkin this year. A couple years running we had some fun ones, Homestar Runner characters, MF Doom's mask...but this year we couldn't decide what to do. Finally I channelled some mellow energy and freestyled a unicorn on this year's pumpkin and Leon carved it out. Voila. A touch of whimsy!

Second orange squashy thing: Anasazi butternut squash soup via heckasac, from epicurious.com.


It came out pretty good. We made all the appropriate vegetarian subsitutions though with soyrizo and veggie broth. Another modification I had to make was adding a little oil in with the onion and garlic sautee because soyrizo does not render the ammount of fat that regular chorizo does. My only complaint is that this one took forever to prep.

Labor watch 2006 update!
Teeni's intuition says baby Neon is hatching in the next 3-7 days!

Labor watch 2006


I keep having mega braxton hicks contractions, but no baby yet. I saw the doctor today and he said that baby Neon is engaged and ready for hatching, but my cervix (sars, if this is TMI) is still closed. This means that baby is not likely to hatch this week. Thank goodness because I have a lot to do still. Like next week's last hurrah party for Tower on Tuesday and our interview/meeting with McKinley Montessori on Wednesday. It's never too early to shop for preschools, right?

Okay, Top Model last night? WTF? After one bad picture AJ is off? Jaeda has been stinking every week and also totally bombed the challenges (in my opinion worse than AJ did), and she gets to stay?

Then Project Runway? Ugh! I still think that Neck Tattoo cheated and it's totally unfair that he won. I was really rooting for Uli towards the end there.

37 weeks


Oy. 37 weeks! That means I'm full term and baby Neon can pretty much hatch any day now. Not much new is going on this week except major baby and money anxiety. I have developed a bad pattern of waking up at 4 or 5 am and staying up. Here's everyone else on the 37 week flickr stroll.

I've got a lazy baby. Since Sunday, he hasn't been moving much. At first I wasn't too, too worried. I was really active on Sunday (walking around SF) and Monday (cleaning house), so I thought that baby was just chilling. So after I ate breakfast yesterday morning, and didn't feel the usual vigorous kicks, I started to worry. Then after a trip to Ikea, I grabbed a cinnamon roll. P.S., they're never as good as they smell. So when the cinnamon roll didn't get baby moving, I decided to call the doctor's office. They sent me directly to the hospital for assesment. I sat strapped up to a couple of monitors for an hour or so while they checked the heartbeat, movements and contractions (every 7 minutes at the hospital). Turns out baby is just fine, only lazy. We hit up Tres Hermanas for some spicy tamales afterwards and before dinner was even over, baby perked right up with a fetal mexican hat dance. Phew. I guess he doesn't have much room to move around in anymore.

Food and food


I made these green beans last week. I always try to make a green vegetable with dinner but get tired of plain, blanched asparagus and broccoli. So I cracked open my Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone book by Deborah Madison. Sabs got us this for our birthday last year. I've made quite a few things out of it so far. It's a great resource for cooking basics, providing the how and why behind it. Deborah used to cook for Greens, she also cut her chops at Chez Panisse, so you know she's real. So I had these green beans and needed some interesting way to serve them. I found this spicy olive sauce in the book and whipped it up right quick. Luckily I had everything on hand already.

Some kalamatas, some green olives, capers, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice and good olive oil. I fine chopped all the olives and threw it all together and let it sit for a couple of minutes before I tossed it with my blanched green beans.

It was pretty good and a nice change from just dousing the veggies in butter and garlic salt. I got so inspired about it that I ended up making my very first mashed potatoes (I know, total basic dish, but my dad makes them really good and I just didn't have the courage to ever try before). The recipe in the book came out great. I'm now scouring the rest of the cookbook for some easily freezable meals to make ahead so when baby Neon hatches we don't have to cook anything for a while.

This weekend we took Heylove to SF to sell off a bunch of CDs (only from my personal collection of course!). Walking her around was like hanging out with a minor celebrity. Everywhere we went, people would smile and point "A boston terrier!" We'd wave and Heylove would do a butt wiggle, but no autographs. She's kind of a bitch that way. We also hit up Jay's Cheesesteaks in the Mission and had the most delicious, toasty seitan cheesesteaks ever. I ate half and tried to eat the other half at home, but cold seitan kind of grossed me out. I won't hold that against them.

OMG! Did you see Flavor of Love last night? Flaa-vor FLAV!! So stoked he made the right choice.

36 weeks


I can't go on like this much longer! I'm so uncomfortable. I wonder how everyone else was feeling on the 36 week flickr stroll. I went to the doctor yesterday for my check up. They have me coming in every week now to check if baby is making his way out yet. So far, his head is already low in my pelvis, I'm not dilated, my uterus measures 38 cm from bottom to top and the doc says that baby is going to have a big head and weigh about 8 lbs. Ow! I also had a little preeclampsia scare, but my blood labs turned out absolutely normal. Phew.

So what am I doing with all this free time to myself (remember, I'm laid off now, not on maternity leave anymore because "leave" implies that I'm returning somewhere)? Nesting! I felt the incredible need to clean out the fridge and spice cabinet yesterday. I also did some laundry, bought some food to make for dinner this week, took a nap and watched Club Dread....which was terrible! Today I'm going to check out a mommy's group with HH, hit Target for some last minute baby items, then continue to feather my nest at home. I wonder what's on Oprah today.

Aww, thanks.

100_1983
Originally uploaded by electrogroup.

Our friends are awesome. We had a baby shower at Casa Hull this weekend. So sweet! Our hosts were fab and our friends were so generous. I've been washing and organizing all the tiny baby clothes and putting them away. There are a couple of things I still need to get though...or not. Mommas out there, do I need a humidifier or what?

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye.


I don't know where to start. I've cried and fretted about this enough this weekend, but it's not doing me any good. We got the news on Friday afternoon that the liquidation company won the final bid for Tower. The going out of business sales began immediately on Satruday morning. Our employee discounts were eliminated, instead everything in the stores was marked down. I passed by the stores on Broadway and saw people funneling in and out of them, just like Christmas. I can't imagine why everyone's buying now. The clearance offer is lousy. 10% off list price? Please. I'd wait until the body is a little colder and the discount is a little bit deeper.

So here I've been for 11 years. I started out at the record store in Citrus Heights in 1995. I needed a job after high school and wanted a discount on CDs, so it was a good fit. I had a lot of fun at that store and made some really good friends. After 4 years there, working and putting myself through college, I moved on to their local regional office as the assistant for this wacky guy. He was either on or off, depending on how the horse races went, but at least he was never there. In that empty office, I taught myself how to use a computer properly. When the big company losses were first reported in 1999, my position was eliminated. I went with my tail between my legs back to the store and worked there for a couple of months while looking for a new job. It didn't take long. I got offered an entry level position in the corporate marketing department.

I was just 23 when I started in this department. I was stoked to work closer to home and I got a nice raise, too. The environment in marketing was so fun. We got wined and dined by labels, newspapers and radio stations. There were plenty of free CDs, DVDs, concert tickets, meeting bands and tons of new connections. And I can't forget about the trips I've been on: LA, Hawaii, Manhattan, DC, Philly, Chicago, Seattle, Portland and Phoenix. I also learned so much about marketing, retail, merchandising and negotiating. I've had some really great bosses who've challenged me to do better, and I did. I met some good friends that I know I'll still be in contact with. And here I am, six years later. But like any job you've been at for ages, it was tough some years. I've hated it, I've loved it, sometimes been indifferent to it. I can confidently say that Tower has never treated me poorly. It's been a really, really good ride for me. Sure, it's ending pretty shitty but I'm not mad, just extremely saddened about the company sale and ultimate closing. As Leon says "It's the end of an era!" So true.

I'll be looking for another job soon, but first things first. Baby Neon is coming soon! For the next couple of months, my job will be mom, food source and baby warmer. Something tells me that this job is going to be the best job of my life. Everything that comes after it will just be to pay the bills.

I got a new phone


Well, I couldn't make a good case for the Treo 650, so I ended up with a Razr instead. I'm not bummed though. I like Motorolas, they sound great. And this one takes pictures and video, which is awesome because I'll be able to send Leon pictures and video clips of baby Neon doing cute things. The only thing I don't like about Motorolas is the phone book. Either it's not possible or it's not easy to figure out how to have one contact hold multiple numbers. Right now, I have like 4 listings for my mom and dad, which will be annoying when I'm in a hurry. Leon is such a whiz though. He figured out a way to make me cool ringtones and message alerts. Now if I can just get someone call me...

35 Weeks


I got really mixed up on Sunday and couldn't remember if I was going to be 35 or 36 weeks today. I guess it's 35 weeks. Here's everyone on the flickr stoll at 35 weeks also. Only two more weeks and I'm full term. That means baby can pretty much come whenever after that. Heck, baby can arrive anytime now if he wants. Still so much to do! The laundry room is a mess and I still have tons of baby laundry to wash. I need to get diapers, a changing pad, a pump, newborn clothes, exchange my car seat, and sleep as much as I possibly can. Mostly I feel really exhausted this week. My pelvic pain has been so excruciating that at night, it's so difficult to turn over or get out of bed. I have a prenatal massage scheduled for next week! Free for pregnants from the Healing Arts in Citrus Heights. They told me to tell all my friends, but I don't have many pregnant friends in town, so readers, in case you are pregnant or will be pregnant at some time or other, call the Healing Arts massage school. They will give you a free prenatal massage.

I was able to get some baby wipes made and a nursing cover done this weekend. Here's the cover:


Making this was tough! I'm a very inexperienced seamstress and I fussed and messed with this thing for about 4 hours. First I picked up this gorgeous fabric at JoAnn's, along with the a little boning and a couple of d-rings for the buckle. Then I went to Goore's to measure out the real version. It's 35" wide, 24" long with a two-part, centered strap at the top, where one side is 3" long (this one has the d-rings) and the other is 23" long. Then 16" of boning gets sewn into the top seam between the straps. Someone much better at sewing than myself could probably make this alot easier and more professional looking. Here are more pictures from my finished project on my flickr.

I made it!


I didn't take a picture yet, but I made my own nursing cover this weekend. I went with Mariah to the fabric store to get some flannels for baby wipes I'm making and spied a girl in line at the fabric cutting table holding a bolt of the exact same print that the bebe au lait nursing covers come in. I got really inspired to try to make my own cover, so I picked up a yard and a half of that fabric, some boning and a set of d-rings. Then I dragged poor Mo to Goore's, where I knew they had the nursing cover. We did some covert measurements, which I recorded in my Palm and we left for home. It took me about 4 hours to cut, iron, sew and fuss over and then it was done. I've never sewed anything beyond a pillow case, so this was a big accomplishment for me and my sewing machine. I don't really understand how to get the thread tension right, so my seams are a little janky looking. But, unless you're totally examining it, you can't tell so much that it's a total fake.

Ugh! I won you, Goore's! I ownnnnn youuuuuu!!