Monday, October 6, 2008

Pumpkin Season


It's pumpkin season in our house, which means that I've been baking up a storm with the canned pumpkin I still have left over from last Thanksgiving. This morning, I whipped up a batch of pumpkin white chocolate chip muffins. They smell pretty great and they look even better! I think this is part of the whole "nesting" thing - I've been desperately working on cleaning out the pantry. I'm dying to do the fridge next, but I'm waiting until after the Chagim are over before I really tackle that space. 

Shabbat was very, very nice. We ate Friday night dinner by friends from our childbirth education class and it went so well, that time flew and before we knew it, it was shot time! I invited them back for Succot lunch as I felt there was still so much to talk about, and they are just a really nice couple, so I'm looking forward to them coming. Granted, now I have to plan my menu, but I'm hoping it won't take too much out of me.

Sadly, Pidgeon caught the bad cold that is going around Jerusalem. I thought he might have picked it up at the Medical Center last Thursday, during my blood test, but then his Mom called to tell us both her and Pidgeon's Father are ill with bad colds. I spent Shabbos day nursing him, or at least trying to nurse him back to health. Fortunately, he is really a good patient. He's content just being miserable in his bed with either a comic book or his laptop for company. I made sure he ate well, and that he was staying hydrated. After Shabbos, I took his temperature and he had a fever, so there was just no way he could go to work. He called his boss and offered to go into the office to pick up his laptop so he could catch up on work at home. She was more than willing to take him up on the offer and so, Saturday night, we drove to his office to collect the laptop. It was pretty deserted at the office and there are a lot of stairs in the mountain, I literally said a perek of Tehillim as I walked down to his office because I thought I would g-d forbid fall. Fortunately, I made it without incident and about 20 minutes after we got there, we headed home.

We turned back the clocks at Midnight and Pidgeon crashed while I waited up until after Shabbos in the States to check in with the family.  It was nice catching up, and letting them know that we're now only 6 hours a part, and then I too crashed.

Yesterday was very busy, with Pidgeon not feeling any better and I had a few work deadlines. So, I spent the morning making sure he ate and kept his strength up, and then I spent three hours researching and writing a press release for my client. Because Pidgeon wasn't feeling any better, we called the Medical Center and got him an appointment with the on-call physician. Since I also had my 33rd week appointment with Dr. Yanai at the Medical Center, it worked out very nicely. 

The on call Dr. at the Medical Center examined Pidgeon and basically told him that he has a bad cold and the only thing he can prescribe for that is his sympathies. He did write a few scrips for some anti-congestions and cough medicine, but Pidgeon decided not to fill them. Since Dr. Yanai was running an hour late, we decided to drive over to Pidgeon's Aunt and Uncles house and relax there until our appointment.  

Baby Update
I was so excited to see the baby on the ultrasound, I can't even tell you! Its been an entire month since our last appointment and the baby grew so nicely! Right now, the baby is T"G 4.5 pounds and everything that was supposed to grow and develop has been on track with the way the baby has been developing thus far.  The only glitch is that this baby is still in breech position and, since I'm in my 33rd week, now is the time to try to turn the baby before I go into labor. Dr. Yanai tried to turn the baby right then and there, which was pretty painful with the pressing down on my very hard and taut tummy, and since I take the Clexane she had to be careful with how much she tried to do on the table. It's funny, but this baby is so stubborn! The baby had been kicking me and moving ALL day long and, as soon as I hopped up on the table for the ultrasound, would you believe the babes was fast asleep. Right now, the baby's position is both transverse (head is on the left side of my stomach instead of down towards my crotch) and "sandwiched" which means that the legs are over the head. But, there's PLENTY of room to move in there - the baby just doesn't want to.

We made another appointment for after the Chagim and Dr. Yanai says that, if the baby doesn't turn by then, we have to go to the hospital to have them do it. I would have to stop taking the Clexane shot for 24 hours in advance and then be admitted.

Did I ever mention my absolutely fear of hospitals? I'm petrified. I hate everything about the hospital except for the comfortable scrubs I wear to sleep at night. I really don't want to have to go to the hospital to have them try to turn the baby, so I've been doing research on exercises I can do at home to try to turn the baby in the next 3 weeks. Pidgeon got a big laugh last night as I laid on the bed, my feet against the wall, with my hips off the bed (was hard to do, I am so out of shape and heavy) while singing Turn, turn, turn.

I don't think it helped, almost immediately after I was done with those exercises, I was rewarded with a swift kick in the same place I've been kicked for the past few weeks. I'm thinking about trying swimming next, apparently the gravity shift while swimming is supposed to help to. I wonder if taking a bath would be just as good?

Poor Pidgeon, he woke this morning feeling even lousier than yesterday but he had to go to the office. I hadn't heard from him all morning and, just as I was about to call him, the phone rang from a number I didn't recognize. It was Pidgeon. Calling from the office. To let me know that he dropped his cell in the toilet and that he was miserable. 

Oy.

I think I'll make him a treat for dinner so that he'll feel a bit better when he comes home. If not, we're going to the book store tonight to pick up something I have on hold, and I'll just buy him a comic book.

Well, I'm off to try to get some writing done. I have three stories left to go on my thesis and boy so I want to get one of them started before this month is over!

Yom Tov from Baka!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Please consider trying this. To help a breech baby turn, get up on your hands and knees. On the bed, if that's the only place you're comfortable. Then bring your rear end up and put your head down. Rest like that, holding this "frog" pose for 5 minutes, no more. Let yourself down gently and relax.

As a doulah, I've seen this work many times. As a mother, it's worked for me, after only once. It doesn't happen right away - for me, it was a day later. You can do the "frog pose" once or twice a day, but if there is a problem with high blood pressure, do it only once daily, and never for more than 5 minutes.

Just be warned: when the baby turns over, it feels like a tsunami happening in your womb. Painful and contraction-like, but once the baby settles, the discomfort dies down.

Your childbirth instructor, Joanie, will know about this. If you want some feedback about it, ask her.