Up

Up was a charming film. It took a special, specific sensibility and executed it with great purity of vision. That any animation film, which requires thousands of people to create, could emerge out of that process with a specific vision intact is miraculous. My favorite line, "I was hiding under the porch...because I love you!"

Rub-a-dub-dub

I had the best massage today. And it was free! Karina our birth class teacher let us know they needed prenatal clients at this massage school in town. It's the students' last massage before they graduate to internships. I got a wonderful student named Anne who gave a heavenly massage. I lay there thinking, "Why don't I spend all my money on massages? Who needs clothes?" It's hard to beat a good one. I'm going to sign up for at least two more with her before the baby is born. She will be an intern in a couple of weeks, and I will have to pay, but it is about half the price. It felt like she was floating over me because her hands would move from one side of my body to another magically. Also at times it felt like she had three hands, which I don't know how she did. My hips were both very tight and sore, which concerns me a little bit as our midwife said hip strength and flexibility are important. They felt anything but flexible. Next time I can ask for a concentration in that area so maybe that will help. I've been stretching at night so that should help, too. Also I need to try out our pool. There is still a ton of sand in my swim suit even though I've washed it twice since the ocean. The sand is very fine on Padre.

William is pretty tired and stressed from the load at work. It will be like this until he goes to Washington in mid-June. Then hopefully it should ease up. He does so much for everyone in his life. Someone who's so reliable and easy-going and can fix things and makes you feel good to be around--that person is always going to be in demand, at home and work.

I'm reading Mom's copy of the La Leche League book from when she had me. The majority of the information is just as apt today as it was then, with a few exceptions like, "Try to cut down your smoking, but if you can't, relax about it, because a stressed mom is worse than a smoking mom," or something to that effect. Although that may be true, actually. It also advises a car bed for behind the front seat as the safest way for baby to travel. And that drying dishes or doing housework does not impinge on a husband's masculinity.

I am hungry again. I guess it has been five hours since I ate, so that explains it. I get about three plus hours of feeling fine before I start to fade. Hmm, just like a baby!

Showers for the shower

Thankfully all the toe drama is over. I broke down and went to the podiatrist today. They gave me four shots in my toe (that part hurt a lot), three from the nurse and one from the doctor because I could still feel everything. Then she removed the poor toenail. She said, "Close your eyes!" I had been freaking out minorly about it because anything bad happening to my nails gives me the weeby-jeebies and I was dreading anybody messing around with my toenail. But I feel so much better now that it's all done with! I have a sporty red bandage and she said it's already healing well and I could have pedicures and everything. She gave me a prescription for Birkenstocks, which cracks me up. It means I wouldn't have to pay sales tax. She said they are good for your feet, and looked critically at my flip-flops.

We had the first baby shower on Saturday at Wren's parents' house and had a great time. It started to pour rain when we got there so no one was going to be able to hang out on the beautiful back porch, which was too bad, but it didn't matter because we had a good time inside. Lige got pretty cranked up with all the people there and being the only kid (until baby Kyle got there) so he reveled in the attention from everyone. He's always nice to have around.

The nurse at the doctor's office asked where I was having the baby and I told her the birthing center. Then she asked me if I was a nurse. I'm not sure why she made that connection. Maybe she thought that would make me less likely to want a hospital? Or more likely to think I could handle natural childbirth? I should have asked her.

Car Talk

My parents bought a frighteningly luxurious car. How come we had the twin Oldsmobiles when I was growing up and now they're floating on the clouds of Lexus? Retirement should have its privileges, so I'm happy for them. Actually I liked the Oldmobiles. At least one of them. My mom's was rust-colored (yes, painted that way on purpose by Oldsmobile) and had the cushy pseudo-velour type seats which seemed very comfy compared to the not-even-pseudo-leather vinyl on my dad's lima bean green Olds. We spent a lot of time driving around in that orange Olds. Mom used to go outside and start it in advance in the winter so it would have time to warm up before we went to school. I think Minnesota winters were more fun for kids than for parents. I tend to remember ice skating in the park, hot chocolate around the kitchen table, building snow forts, and idyllic Christmases with snow. They probably remember taking out the garbage into the frigid garage, shoveling the front drive, frozen nose hair, and icy mornings driving to work or school.

I lived in Minnesota for a year after college (trying to go home again, as Thomas Wolfe indicated one shouldn't) and got to drive around in the snow and ice for the first time. On one occasion I was driving home from work at night in a Toyota Land Cruiser and put on the brakes for a stop sign. The Land Cruiser not only did not stop, it did a 180, so I was sitting in the middle of the intersection facing the opposite direction by the time it had stopped twirling. Luckily, there were no other cars around. It was embarrassing.

Water

Had a great time in the ocean yesterday on Padre Island. The water was very rough; the red warning flag was flying. We could only go in the shallow surf because the waves were too strong. Even sitting in the surf we got all rolled around.

I put sunscreen on but it didn't work too well. I got fairly badly burned on my arms, back, and upper legs. I haven't had a burn in such a long time I've forgotten how uncomfortable it is.

I'm hungry right now and can't concentrate on writing. The sense of urgency to eat when you need to while pregnant is overwhelming!

Mom, Dad, Aunt Linda, Uncle Carl and I are down in Harlingen visiting Cuz. Cuz and Dorothy both look good. The weather is hotter down here and the sun seems brighter. We're going over the border today for lunch at Arturo's (despite Swine Flu). We had a delicious steak dinner last night at Cuz's. Omaha steaks.

Our hotel is pretty nice. I'm looking forward to getting in the pool.

William is heading to Washington D.C. next month, his first visit there. He's staying at a hotel very close to the Mall. Hopefully he'll get a chance to see some museums. I guess I've been on the Mall once (?) and I remember being amazed all these incredible museums were free to get into. It was so impressive to see.

Time to go!

Thirty Weeks Four Days

We had our birth center appointment this morning, with my favorite midwife, Roswitha. She told us how the baby is positioned (head down, hopefully will stay that way, back on the left and feet on the right). My stomach is the right size and the baby's heart rate is good. My heart rate and blood pressure are higher than they usually are, but since they are normally low it's fine. I guess all that blood rushing around increases those things (you have something like 50-60% more blood volume when you're pregnant).

She gave me an informational sheet about preterm labor. I really don't think that's going to be a problem. I think this baby wants to cook till it's done.

Mom and Dad and I visited a shop looking for a rocking chair yesterday. We found a company which makes custom furniture which has one just like the one Mom had. You can choose the fabric and wood. Basically it's like a big stuffed chair on regular old-fashioned rockers. Really nice quality. Lifetime guarantee. After all the stuff I've seen posted online about subpar furniture it's nice to see a place making good stuff. They had a couple of beautiful tapestry-like fabrics I loved. Subtle colors in jewel tones. The furniture my grandparents' had has mostly lasted for fifty years or longer; isn't that how it should be?

Zapped! (not the Scott Baio movie)

I went to the dermatologist today, the rather adorable absent-minded-professorish Dr. Flynn, and he zapped four spots in various regions of my body. He did one on my foot, first, and then went on to do the others, so we were both occupied paying attention to other things than the foot. Then he looked down and said, "Oh!" My foot was sitting in a large pool of blood. Apparently he nicked a blood vessel or something and it bled like crazy. He called, "Renata!" very loudly and his nurse came in to deal with the wreckage. She scolded him right out of the room. She mopped up the mess and put something to stop the bleeding, then a pressure bandage. It was weird because I had felt like my toes were kind of wet before we saw the blood, and I just thought my feet were sweating because of the pain of all the zapping. He's a very good zapper, though. He talks you through the whole thing so it doesn't seem so bad. They are very nice at his office.

I saw the first episode of The Tudors. It's beautifully produced. Also, it's kind of fun to guess who people are before they're named. I saw Sam Neill in a scarlet robe and I thought, Cardinal Wolsey, and I chortled when it was Cardinal Wolsey, because my history is not the greatest! In the jousting scene I wondered what happened to opponants who might have injured the king in the game. Would have it all been considered sport if he were hurt, or would that person have been in the soup? I might have hesitated to ram the king with an enormous lance. I instantly wanted to go and look everybody up in Wikipedia to remind myself what happened to them (it always seemed to be extremely dangerous to be a close friend of the monarchs of England) but I resisted because it will spoil the story. So I only have a vague sense of who gets the ultimate punishment (except for the wives, who I remember pretty well). Jeremy Northam plays an unusual character, for him, a kind of scholarly lawyer who tutored the king and is so pious he wears a hair-shirt and flagellates himself, like Arthur Dimmesdale. No matter how religious they are, people don't tend to wear hair shirts these days.

I'm rereading Have His Carcase. It's such a pleasure to read effortlessly logical writing. The kind of writing that turns a problem inside out, letting the reader see all sides (except the ones the writer is purposely keeping hidden) and you feel the quality of the thinking in all the dialogue.