Slow News Day

Well this blog post is going to be a bit like when you watch the news and within the first five minutes they're already reporting on some human interest story...slow news day, or week, indeed.

First off, of course, no baby yet. Everyone keeps telling me that I should use this time to get some rest ("you'll need it!"). This is a great plan, except for the fact that a) I have to get up every 5 minutes seemingly to go to the bathroom at night, and b) the act of even rolling over is sort of a chore, which makes it hard to sleep to say the least. Who knew that laying down could be uncomfortable?! At this week's doctor's appointment, we had made limited progress from the week prior (still 1 cm dilated, now maybe 40% effaced, baby still at -2 or maybe -1 station). The doctor is still predicting an early arrival, but with each passing day he is losing credibility on that front. :-)

In other news, I finally finished working, which was an enormous relief. My last day of work I woke up at least an hour before my alarm like it was Christmas morning or something. I'm sure I'll miss adult conversation, but for now I must say it is pretty darn great to have absolutely nothing on the calendar. And, since the new fall season is underway on television, there is no shortage of fun stuff to watch on Tivo to keep me occupied. Sheer bliss.

Speaking of television, "Sameer's baby" did indeed arrive before our actual child. We are now the proud owners of a behemoth of a television that is sitting in a box in the middle of our living room like a beached whale. Unfortunately, getting it mounted on the wall has proven to be far more challenging than predicted. Despite the fact that our spiffy new condo was advertised as having been built with a plasma television in mind (including building in a tube in the wall for all of the wiring), the first install guy who came by could not find two studs above the fireplace that were in acceptable positions to mount the television. So, we are now trying to schedule with a different (read: more experienced, more expensive) installer, and Sameer is the proud owner of his own stud finder from Home Depot (insert your own joke here). In the meantime, our living room looks like Fry's Electronics exploded, which is pretty much the opposite of baby-ready. Not known for his patience, Sameer has already started watching ESPN in HD while the TV is still in the box, which definitely calls into question who in this family is the bigger television addict.

If I'm going to mock "Sameer's baby," I should also note the arrival of what could be called "Laura's baby" -- our new glider for the baby's room. Since it arrived on-time and looks exactly as advertised, Sameer's only complaint is that it was too expensive. Since that is par for the course for pretty much all of my purchases, I view this as success. Between the glider and the crib, the room is starting to look light we might actually be prepared for the baby's arrival. And, for those of you who have been following the saga of the missing dresser, after a not-so-friendly email from Sameer to the manufacturer, they have magically seen fit to ship it, so it is now somewhere between Canada and San Jose. Not exactly the same thing as in our nursery filled with all of the baby stuff we have acquired, but progress nonetheless.

Other than that, we have been laying low and trying to wrap up various loose ends. I finally took my wedding dress in to the cleaners and today we dropped off our knives to be sharpened and took in all of our change to the Coinstar machine at the grocery store. What a wild and crazy weekend at the Dholakias. We did manage a trek up to Berkeley for Maya's 4th birthday party, which was great fun and filled with reassuringly happy looking parents. I suppose someday soon that will be us as well!

Nesting Instinct

Everyone talks about the strong "nesting instinct" that comes over expectant mothers near the end of the pregnancy due to hormonal changes. I suppose that accounts for why I felt that it was an absolute requirement that I iron all of the sheets for the crib (I'm sure that is the last time they will ever be touched by the iron). What people don't talk about is the father-to-be version of the nesting instinct. Specifically, Sameer has decided all of a sudden that we absolutely must address a huge gaping hole in our household: the lack of a plasma television.

Now some of you might be thinking that this would be a very strange time to buy a large-screen (50 inches!) television, exactly when you are bringing a child into the house that is not supposed to be watching television. But, it is as if Sameer has undergone some hormonal change himself and suddenly cannot bear the thought that we will live without one for another day. So, as of yesterday, we have officially ordered a television, due to arrive pretty much the exact same time as the baby. This may not come as news to many of you since I believe Sameer has contacted most of our friends to get their advice on which TV to buy, which cables to use, etc. They say it takes a village to raise a child, apparently it also takes a village for Sameer to buy a television. Now we will just have to see which arrives first...our baby or "Sameer's baby." :-)

At least we'll have a pretty great television to watch when we are stuck at home at night for the next few years or so...

Ready or not...

Today we had yet another doctor's appointment, which we'll have every week until the baby comes. Generally these are non-events (they weigh you, you wince at the number, you pee into a cup, they listen to the baby's heartbeat, you leave). But, now that we are actually getting close to the due date they are starting to get a lot more interesting. Like this morning's visit, for instance. With literally no expression of surprise on his face, the doctor matter-of-factly informed us that I'm 1 cm dilated, 20% effaced, and the baby had already dropped and is at -2 station. (For those of you who don't speak "baby" that means that the process is already underway, although of course I am not in labor yet.) Sameer asked the obvious follow-up question of "When does that mean the baby will come?" and the doctor couldn't give any definitive answer, but did say that he would expect it to be before the due date (still 3 weeks away). He estimated the baby weighs 6.25 lbs at this point, but I'm not sure how accurate that estimate was given that it was based on literally 5 seconds of poking me. Still, he does do this for a living.

Since we're just now completing 37 weeks and are considered to be full term, in general this is great news (my bladder for one is psyched at the possibility of an early arrival). Our reaction (or at least mine) of course was more along the lines of panic, seeing as half of our nursery furniture has yet to arrive, and I'm also scheduled to work through next Wednesday. Somehow the mental image of my water breaking during one of the many meetings I have between now and then is not my idea of a shining career moment. So, for those of you keeping track at home, the plan is to keep my legs crossed through next Wednesday, and then the baby can arrive anytime she likes.

Mind you, now that the doctor has set this expectation, no doubt she will be 2 weeks late just to be obstinate. Everyone knows that Dholakias are never on time, let alone early. :-)

Adventures in pest control

For a couple of weeks in our condo we've been noticing the occasional small black bug...just often enough that you realize that they're there, not so often that you bother to do anything about it. The bugs are tiny (ant-sized) and they don't bite or anything, so occasionally we killed one and in general just ignored them.

Until last week, that is, when suddenly they seemed to be staging an invasion. While we're certainly not expert parents-to-be, avoiding having to say things like "please get the bugs off of the baby" seemed like a reasonable goal, so we quickly called the building manager and got them to refer us to an exterminator. Yesterday, the exterminator came by and diagnosed that we were now roommates with weevils (or "weebles" as Sameer calls them). The good news is that they're harmless. The bad news is you have them because sort of grain-based product you bought in the store came with them, and thus they are somewhere in your pantry. I had been convinced they were coming from the outside because I always saw them near the windows, but apparently they are attracted to light so I was catching them at the end of their mad dash for freedom.

Never have I been so glad to be pregnant as when it came time to go through the entire pantry to find "the source." Sameer certainly scored bonus points when he declared that the pregnant lady should not go on a bug-finding mission, then he proceeded to carefully throw away everything that was open in the cupboards, until finally, on literally the last shelf in the way back, he discovered a sack of lentils that was definitely the problem. I won't describe the scene, but needless to say we will not be eating lentils at our house anytime soon. After tossing out basically all of our food and a serious cleaning of the pantry, the exterminator said we should be weevil-free. At least until the next time we manage to buy something in the store that comes with weevils as a bonus.

As unpleasant as it was, I did manage to keep some perspective by fondly recalling routinely finding scorpions in our house on Long Court in Austin. These Palo Alto bugs certainly don't hold a candle to Texas-sized invaders.

I know, I know...post more often

We are way behind in posting to our blog, so I'll try and catch everyone up on recent events in one big posting. As of today, we are officially one month away from the due date, which is both exciting and, of course, mildly terrifying.

On the workfront, I'm already well into the phase of ramping down. I'm working on an "internal project" which means it's not client work (read: in town, in the office, go home early every day). Needless to say, I am not complaining. I'm scheduled to work through October 25th, so just a little over two more weeks (not that I'm counting or anything). After that apparently the state of California has decided that I'm unfit to work, because I'll be on paid disability leave until the baby arrives. My plan is to take off 6 months of maternity leave, and then head on back so that Sameer's head does not explode every time he updates his increasingly complex excel model of our finances.

Since the last post, Sameer has been doing his best to be on the road as much as possible (not sure if this is to avoid his hormonally-challenged wife, or because, as he claims, he's trying to get as many trips out of the way so he can be "grounded" between now and Baby Dholakia's arrival). So, he was in India for a week, followed by a boondoggle to Boston, and of course he has been doing his usual circuit of Orange County and Austin. He also represented Team Dholakia at Jason and Julie's wedding reception, where by all accounts he did "drink for three" as he had claimed he would. I would describe the reception in more detail if Sameer could recall any of it. All I can say is that apparently there was an open bar. Special thanks to Paige and Trevor for mailing Sameer back his prescription glasses which he "lost" along the way (how you lose the glasses that are on your face remains a mystery). I did hear from other, more sober, attendees that the reception was fantastic and I am definitely bummed that I had to miss it. Since Jason and Julie are delaying their honeymoon until next year, I'm sure I can make up for not celebrating their wedding now by joining them then. I've always wanted to see New Zealand...

Our quest to "get smart(er)" about baby-related stuff is continuing. We now know (in theory) how to care and feed for a new baby, or at least we know when we're screwing up and need to call someone to figure out what's going on. We have our last class this weekend, the all-important childbirth class, where hopefully they will teach us how to say "I'd like an epidural" in multiple languages. We *still* don't have the nursery set up (don't get me started on how furniture that you ordered in July can still be on backorder), but according to Sameer we have already bought way too much stuff so we are ready gear-wise.

Other than that, life continues as normal...or as "normal" as things can be when every day you're bigger than yesterday, and one of these days a person is going to come out of you. :-)