Introducing Neil

Blessed art thou O Lord Our God,
King of the Universe who has kept me alive
and sustained me and brought me to this
wonderful moment.

Baby Neil born August 24, 2009 6 lb 2 oz, 19.25 inches long.

Daily Life

1. Facebook is great and all, but almost all my blog friends are on facebook, and now I hardly feel like blogging at all. I love the fact that I have had personal communication with almost all of those I met through the blog. And few of them I can call friends for real. Isn't that great?

2. Tomorrow I start my maternity leave. I am 39 weeks today and according to the doctor, anytime now! I have finished all the work related tasks on my plate and things at my job are really slowing down for our group. My boss was saying it is a great time for me to be out since billable work is less anyway. I see it as God's perfect timing.

3. My hands and feet have swollen a bit more, and yesterday I had a headache, but I am doing much better. I guess there is the emotional aspect of having my parents around that really helps.

4. Mom is just getting used to the machines and mechanisms here such as dishwasher, washer, dryer, so I am not completely free of work, but the fact that I don't have the responsibility of cooking is a great relief!

5. I finally did the baby clothes laundry and when I left for work this morning, Dad was sitting and folding itty bitty baby clothes. It was really adorable!

6. I am hoping baby holds off for a couple more days until I get R to finish setting up the pack-n-play at least. I have given up on anyone putting together the crib for me, but the little one needs somewhere to sleep!

7. Those who are on my facebook know, I had a meltdown yesterday, but just having the baby clothes laundry done was a huge weight off my shoulders. It made me feel so much better!

8. Last day of work before leave starts tomorrow and I am looking forward to the time at home with Pa and Ma and getting things done around the house. Hubby is holed up in his man cave as he is very busy at work. Both of us are relieved that I can go shopping for stuff with them and just get things done. He is happy he doesn't have to come and I am happy I have someone to go with.

9.Bill, please stay away.

The food bit me back

So tomorrow my parents should be here, God willing. They are starting from home in a few hours and it is a LONG flight which should get them here midnight tomorrow. I am very excited about their coming, but am also ashamed to admit that I am very much looking forward to all the food they are bringing. It is not really a pregnancy craving, just general home food craving. I have them all the time.

I had a rough Sunday with food poisoning. It was the most sick I have ever been in my life. Even two days later, I am still feeling kind of weak. I don't know what the culprit is. I am thinking it is a doughnut I ate Sunday morning. But apparently, no one else who ate that had any issues. So, who knows? I lost 7 pounds in the last two days. At 37 weeks, I am at 118 pounds. I am keeping myself hydrated all the time. Hopefully, I will bounce back soon.

So the anticipation of all the food is also a result of deprivation, I guess. Or, that is what I keep telling myself.

In a nutshell

1) Work:

I finished all my deadlines for today and I am feeling so relaxed. I have work to do, but I am in the euphoria of having finished all the critical stuff I was supposed to.

2) Home:

Well, house is still filthy, but finished a lot of handyman stuff around the house. I had given up on getting all that work done, but the person who usually does the work for us (who is also someone we fellowship with at the chapel) was out all summer. But a change in plans had him home for this week and we got all this stuff taken care of. It is a great blessing to us!

3) Materials:

We had to have a new exhaust put in for the kitchen and Mr. G bought a white one for us. I didn't want the white since all appliances in the kitchen is black, plus we wanted one with a removable filter. With our kind of cooking, nothing else would do. So we went to Home Depot in the night and was looking around for one. The one with two removable filters were close to $230 and it was only available in stainless steel or white. And then we found one for $250 which was black, had two removable filters, AND was marked down to $60 since they were discontinuing the line. Praise God who is faithful even in little things.

4) Pain:

I loathe to talk about it since it is just bad everyday. Sleeping is torture. The slightest housework sets off pain alarms throughout. I am surviving though.

5) Friends:

An Indian couple we met at the church we visited invited us to their home last Friday for Bible Study and Prayer. Hubby and I went and there were about 30 people there. It was a nice time, they are great folks and at the end of it, the host said that there was some light food that they wanted to serve. And we went to eat the "light food", and there was Paratha, Chicken curry, Chicken fry, Mutton Biriyani, and Raita Salad. Except for the Paratha, everything was cooked from scratch for 30 people.

Yeah, it was real light and didn't fill me up at all.

I don't think I have written a more sarcastic sentence on my blog so far.

6) Family:

One. More. Week. My Pa and Ma are coming and I am beyond excited. I have a list of things I want Mama to cook for me. Please don't think I am all stomach (actually, I AM, so never mind). I hope there will be some days before the baby comes so we can take them around a little bit.

7) Baby:

The little one seems to be doing well, and my church friends are throwing me a baby shower this Friday. The room is painted, bedding has been bought, crib needs to be assembled and I am working on a couple of small projects for the room. I will show the pictures as soon as I am done. Which I really hope would be before the baby comes!

8) Hubby:

A friend was supposed to come and stay with us for a while. He is a missionary on a visit here and will be going back in less than a month. R was suggesting that he can come stay with us starting that night he arrived. Our house is a filthy mess as of now. (See No: 4) I am not saying it coyly, like Number 5 above. I am no June Cleaver or whatever. It is actually a sad, pathetic, dirty mess. And it makes me want to cry every time I see it. Hubby said "it is no big deal. He is a guy, he wouldn't mind. Just relax". I then realized this is one of the times I would cheerfully break a frying pan over his head.

I am just kidding.

Why would I waste a perfectly good frying pan?

Notes from the weekend -10

It was a great weekend. I was relatively pain free and what a blessing that was! Of course most of the weekend, I spent just sitting around or lying down doing nothing. I am sure that helped.

I had an ultrasound on Friday and thankfully baby is doing well. I have a 3 cm tear inside my abdomen. The doctor is hoping that it would heal on its own after delivery, otherwise I might need PT or surgery to correct it. It is still in the future, so I am purposely not thinking about it now and stressing. There are a lot of uncertainties in our life right now, unfortunately I have to be rather vague about it here in the blog. Lot of things up in the air and things which we can't make any decisions on now. It seems difficult not to be able to have everything nicely and neatly tied in a bow, but it is what it is.

I got the nursery painted with one coat and will get the next coat done next Friday. Slow but sure, things are getting done. After Sean (he does the painting, landscape and most odd jobs around the house) left, we went to watch Earth. We both loved it. The movie was $1.25 each and the water was $3.00 (Note to self: Please remember to take a bottle everywhere.) After that, we went for a mile walk in the park. There was a free jazz concert which we enjoyed for a while and then went to the mall and I bought two baby outfits from Macy's with a gift card my sister had sent a while back. And to celebrate our annual trip to the mall, we bought some Godiva chocolates. I was on the phone with my sister and she asked me if the chocolates were part of my craving. I had to inform her though that hubby is the one with all the cravings. I have no cravings. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Is that weird? And then we drove to Don Pablos to eat our most favorite dessert ever. The chocolate volcano. We love it! It was a lovely day all in all.

We visited a different church yesterday. It has been something we were thinking of doing for about 5 months, but just got around to it yesterday! We met a friend there and we all had lunch together at their house. I got to hold her sweet 2 month baby as well! It was a nice time of fellowship. We came back home and stopped at Publix to get some groceries. And by that time, I was so tired like I had run a marathon. I was thinking to myself that the floor is clean and was seriously considering just lying down on the floor there. The fatigue is just unbelievable. I never thought I would feel this way. I guess a big part of it is the heat. It is HOT HOT HOT here in FL. We also somehow managed to walk a mile as I really needed my exercise.

So we had a nice, relaxing weekend and I am grateful for my husband, our growing baby, friends, loving family, a beautiful park, respite from pain and chocolate volcano. And what a privilege to serve a heavenly father who gives all these good gifts abundantly!

Why I am not posting much

Because if I did, it would be like reading a letter from your 90 year old grandmother complaining about the aches and pains.

I wish I was a dog so I could make whining noises. That would be a relief.

A new normal

It has been a fairly eventful couple of weeks to say the least. First of all, I apologize to all my non mom, non pregnant readers who has to put up with all the pg related posts. But when you are so big and fat that you can't see your toes and you wake up to go to the bathroom 6 times in 4 hours, it is kind of uppermost in your mind. As for the 3 men who read my blog, they might want to skip this post completely.

July 4th, I woke up with very bad pain in my lower abdomen and since I had no idea what in the samhill it was, we decided to go to the hospital. I had Braxton Hicks the night before and well, the money spent on childbirth classes paid off. I could recognize it for what it was and I wasn't alarmed. But this new pain was concerning and we went to the L&D unit of the hospital. The doctor came and touched the area below the navel and it was very very painful. So she told me that I don't have preterm labor (I knew that!), but what I have is diastasis recti. But, let us not get fancy schmancy on this lil blog. What it means is, my stomach muscles have separated due to the growing uterus (Sorry guys, but I did warn you). It affect 30% of pregnant women. Here is the funny part. It is not supposed to be painful, but it is for me. Very much so. Getting in and out of couch is difficult. As for the bed, it is torture.

The good news is that it is not affecting the baby in any way. The bad news is that other than a tylenol, nothing can be done about the pain at all. I have 6 weeks of this to look forward to. I can't say I am thrilled, but there is this. It was really bad yesterday. I suffered till about 4 am and then for the first time in 34 weeks, I had a Tylenol and the pain subsided.

The verdict from the doctor is that I should really take it easy. No bending, no lifting. I need to get by with doing the minimum necessary. My to-do list is mocking me. Hubby has taken over laundry and dishwashing. I have hired people to paint the nursery and clean the house. Even with all that, there is still things for me to do. The hardest part for me (aside from the pain) is to sit still. Sitting still is not part of my nature. It is no fun to be almost helpless either. But there is a season for everything. It is a season of quiet and slowing down for me. Maybe the Lord is preparing me for the time to come. I also don't know at this point if this will affect labor and delivery. I tend to be a little concerned until I remember who was and is in control. In any case, what a comfort it is!

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."