Things To Do in Your Ninth Month

As if being nine months pregnant isn't hard enough, there is a ton of things that need to get done in the last few weeks before baby. At least, that's what I'm currently facing! This morning, I woke up and decided that today is the day I start doing the things I've been putting off for a while.

That meant that I responded to business e-mails I've put off for a few days, I had to stop ignoring our ant problem, and I put the baby clothing I already have into the wash and made my esrog liquor.

I had read in one of these Jewish women in pregnancy and spirituality books, that if you eat an etrog in your 9th month it's a Segulah for an easy labor. And, since Hot Dog is currently out of breech position and it looks like the baby will be making a natural entrance P"G into this world, I'm doing whatever I can to make it an easy birth. That means drinking my raspberry leaf tea every day, steaming with rosemary, massaging with almond oil and making esrog liquor. 

Since Pidgeon is home today working on his final project, I decided it would be a good time for me to do some of the household errands I need to get done. First, when Pidgeon left the apartment to run some errands and meet with a Professor at school, I washed the dishes and got ready for breakfast. When he returned, I made him a healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and some cucumber and tomato. After breakfast, I spent about 20 minutes cutting all the tags and labels off of the baby clothing and loading them into the wash. We purchased Tinok Clean powder and Baby liquid fabric softener and I put up the wash. I didn't separate the whites from the colors though, and I'm wondering if all my white onesies and crib sheets will now be tinged pink. Hopefully not!

After the wash was up and I got a quick phone call from Mom, I decided it was time to make the esrog liquor. Since making esrog jam or jelly is too much of a pain in the neck, and I already have 3 bottles of good vodka in my freezer, I went with the liquor route. 

Here's how you make esrog liquor. 

First (see photo above) assemble all of your necessary ingredients. Take an empty bottle of alcohol and wash it out good, especially if it's a bottle of whiskey or something other than vodka. After that's washed and dried, prepare the etrogim. Since I'm only using the peel for the liquor, I washed each etrog well (people have been manhandling these fruits for an entire 7 days, it's wise to at least rinse them). Then, being careful not to get too much of the white part, peel each etrog. I doubled the recipe and so I used 6 etrogim for 4 cups of vodka.



I cut the etrogim on my cutting board and then dropped them - piece by piece - into the empty bottle.  I tried to avoid the white parts but it wasn't that easy. Hopefully, it won't turn the vodka too bitter. 



Because of Kedushat Shviit (etrogim are especially holy since they were grown during a shmita year and therefore, nothing can be thrown out.) I put all the fruit, the top and bottoms of the etrogim and any scraps that didn't go into the whiskey bottle, into a bag. I'm going to leave the bag on the windowsill until is rots enough to be thrown away. Hopefully it will rot quickly, I'd prefer not having them hang out too long in the kitchen!

After I peeled all 6 etrogim and dropped the peel into the whiskey bottle, I measured out 4 cups of good vodka and poured it into the bottle. I'm going to store it in a cool, dark place for about a week. At which point, I'm going to drain the peel from the vodka, add 3 cups of confectioners sugar and another 2 cups of vodka, and put it away to "ferment" for 6 more weeks! 

Hopefully, we'll be able to toast a lechayim during Chanukah this year! I'm excited!!

Well, I'm off to enjoy the rain by baking some blondies for Pidgeon's cousin, whose wife is due P"G next week. I already offered to cook dinner for them and, with meatballs cooked and hanging out in the freezer, I'm hoping to take dessert off of my list. This way, when the baby does come, all I'll have to make will be some chicken, pasta and a vegetable. 

Yom Tov from Baka!

Sushi and Alcohol

I'm started to have cravings. Actually, to be more precise, I've always had cravings but now happens to be the first time I can't indulge my cravings. You see, all I want these days is a well chilled Extra Dirty Ketel One martini. With lots of dirty and at least 4 giant olives. Unfortunately, pregnancy means no alcohol what so ever. Even worse, I've yet to find a bartender in Israel who knows what I'm talking about when I ask for a dirty martini. It's all really sad, which is why my freezer is stocked with 3 bottles of Ketel One and I have some nice vermouth in our liquor cabinet. Never been opened. I'm waiting until the baby comes, when I will P"G make myself the drink I've been craving to toast our little one. Now I just need to do some research on breastfeeding and alcohol.

Meanwhile, I'd love to chase my extra dirty Ketel One martini with a sushi boat from Sushi Bar Rechavia. That would just be the perfect accompaniment to my alcohol. I miss sushi so much! We used to eat it at least once a week in our house, which really hurt our pocket but was so tasty and worthwhile. We had the same order each week. We started with the seaweed salad and then split a boat between us. I always ordered an extra spicy tuna sandwich and sometimes I would get some extra sashimi for Pidgeon since he prefers sashimi to rolls. We polished this off, between us, every week. I'm from the school that you need to eat as much sushi to fill yourself up, as opposed to trying to be dainty and just stick to 2 rolls that we all know does little to satiate the stomach. Shavuot will be very hard for me, as Pidgeon's family (in acknowledgment of their Japanese heritage) always has sushi for dinner. Last year, it was incredible! I stuffed myself silly on all sorts of yummy sushi! Sadly, this year I'm going to have to stick to the cooked fish and spinach/sesame salad (Pidgeon's Aunt's recipe for this is delicious!) and try not to shoot daggers of jealousy at the family indulging in the evening's make-your-own-sushi Shavuot ritual. If Pidgeon can bring me some sushi to the delivery room, I'm all for it! First, we have to figure out where we're going to deliver :)

This week has not been a good week for my tushy. The above photo is not an exaggeration. I had that size needle jabbed into my upper tushy yesterday, and was icing for 2 hours just so I could sit on it. But I digress. 

Friday was a wonderful day! My friend came in from Tel Aviv and we went to see the Orphaned Art of the Holocaust exhibit at the Israel Museum. It was truly incredible. There were two pieces in particular that really, really stood out for me. This one Egon Schiele painting of the ghetto, and the Money painting called Snow at Sunset, which were both really fantastic. It was an extremely well done exhibit and left us both wondering how no one in the Rothchild family has claimed four paintings of their ancestors? The paintings were stunning, naturally, but seemed very out of place as orphaned art. 

After the exhibit, we went to Caffit on Emek for some lunch. As usual, the service was horrendous,  but while we ate a friend of ours walked by the window and invited us for dinner. Since I hadn't even started cooking, I decided to buzz the Pidgeon and we accepted. The meal was really, really interesting. We hadn't been to an all singles meal in quite a while, and the conversation at least on our side of the table was intelligent and stimulating. I was very pleased where we were sitting, especially once I caught some snatches of conversation from the other side. Pidgeon had a good time and we excused ourselves early so we could come home for my shot. That's the hardest part of this daily stomach shot, I need to do is roughly around the same time each day. Since I picked 11:00 p.m. as my shot time, dinner on Friday nights out of the apartment is getting increasingly difficult. We might have to stop accepting invitations for Friday night from now on. We got home only 10 minutes late and, since I had done a ton of walking on Friday, passed our fairly easily. 

I woke on Saturday with pain shooting up from my left foot. It's not new pain, unfortunately, and I was cursing the decision to wear new shoes for the walk on Friday night. My left foot is very sensitive and I get inflammation of the joint at the ball of my foot. It makes it hard to walk on it and, the only cure for the problem is to stay off the foot until the inflammation has time to go away. 

Well, we had a hike ahead of us to get to Pidgeon's parents for lunch, and so I strapped on my New Balances and said a little prayer that the problem shouldn't become exacerbated. The walk was hard, it was hot and up "death hill". They live in Talbiah and, since Pidgeon was davening at Chovevei's 9:30 a.m. minyan, I knew that we had no choice but to trek up Chovevei street. Which, when coming from the Inbal hotel, is "death hill". It's really, really steep. I was wheezing halfways through the bottom half, and there was plenty ahead of me. Finally, we managed to make it to shul, and I took Pidgeon's house keys and went the rest of the way to his folks house. I managed to pour myself some more water before collapsing on one of the beds. I didn't get to sleep, but was able to relax and cool down. I don't know how much longer we're going to be able to do that walk. Although, I do think if I end up going overdue, that I'm going to make Pidgeon walk with me up that hill. It should certainly put me into labor!

We decided to walk home after lunch since I really wanted my bed, and my foot was sore but not too bad so we took it slow. We ended up getting lost in Baka - don't ask - and took a roundabout route home. The good thing is that we discovered a very nice, clean, beautiful park with lots of activities for kids. The bad thing is that it added 10 more minutes to an already long walk. 

Fortunately, I had plenty of time to nap before Shabbos ended, and it was fitful but restful. I spent the night waking up every hour going to the bathroom though, I guess from all the fruit and water I'd been consuming, and so I woke up yesterday at 7:00 a.m. really, really tired. 

Which brings me to the situation at hand. Yesterday, I was feeling really lousy. I was nauseated and tired and my foot was throbbing something awful. Plus, I had the worst headache that didn't go away no matter how much I ate. For some reason, I decided to whip up a bath of Riches Whip from my freezer to go with a strawberry slices snack. About 30 minutes later, the puking began. It was terribly painful. And it was stopping! I went into the kitchen and discovered that the Riches Whip expired in March! That's when I started to panic. Fortunately, this happened towards the end of the day, and Pidgeon came home from work in time to help me out. We called the Medical Center to talk to the Dr. on call and he told us to immediate come in to see him. I ran to puke again while Pidgeon got things ready. My headache was worse and I just couldn't believe what I had done to myself.

We waited a short time before the Dr. saw us and he took my blood pressure, which was B"H normal, but I had a very elevated heart rate. He didn't like the way I looked but didn't want to give me an IV if he didn't have to. He decided, instead, to shoot me with a drug that would take away the nausea so I could rehydrate myself. He left to get the shot and then came back, with the shot concealed. He told me the needle was too big to go anywhere but in my ass. Oy!

I turned around, closed my eyes and clenched Pidgeon's hand. The Dr. said he would count to three and then jab. Unfortunately, he only counted to 1 before jabbing and boy did it hurt! I yelled Jesus C#$^T! and then it was over. Since I take Clexane though, I bleed more than normal people, so he had to put pressure on it to make it stop. That was about as pleasant as the shot itself. He asked us to stay for 20 minutes so he could make sure I didn't have a bad reaction and I took my time sipping a glass of water. 

Pidgeon brought me home and I was a wreck! My parents were calling to see what was going on and so I had to fill them in, while Pidgeon attacked the kitchen to make himself some dinner and cook me some rice. Fortunately, I was able to keep a few spoonfuls down. Within no time, I had to give myself another shot, and I just almost couldn't do it. I'm getting real sick of needles people, and two in one night is just too much for me. But, with Pidgeon's help and support, I was able to do the 11:00 p.m. shot and crawl into bed. Sleep, B"H, was much easier last night. Being dehydrated, while it's very dangerous, at least afforded me a full night's sleep without getting up to use the bathroom.

And so, on this Memorial Day in the US (which I celebrate here in Israel too), I am spending it trying to hydrate and relax. Tomorrow is school and, at this point, I don't think I'm going to make it. Here's hoping that today is a much, much better day than yesterday!

Yom Tov from Baka!