Books

So here are the books I got at the IRLC book sale.

Books we’ll actually use. Like, now.

Old children’s books I’ll cut up for crafts.

Mostly science books, for later. Also Your Five Year Old, since I’ll have one soon.

Current textbooks, for a few years from now.

Science in Our World. From the 50s or 60s. I’m not able to go look at the moment. Um, adorable. It HAD to come home with me.

An old math textbook. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with it, and it’s adorable. We might end up actually using this one. Depends on if I can develop an appreciation for old books in my children.

Behind the Scenes in a Supermarket. Wow. Love it. It has no relevance to today’s life. Notice the grocer is actually washing the vegetables.

Sitting Outside

Wally and I woke up very eary this AM. Me, about 3:30. Him, about 4:00. Neither could get back to sleep. Except Wally fell asleep on the way home from Dr. Heather’s this morning. So I’m doing something I haven’t done in years. I’ve left him in his carseat and I’m sitting on my back steps, with the car door open, knitting and getting some computer stuff done. (OK, I used to just sit here and read, but I’ve got longer to-do lists these days.)

So I thought I’d share some pictures of yesterday’s activities.

We baked these cookies on Wednesday then let them cool and decorated them yesterday morning. We made more cookies than this. But, well, we ate some Wednesday. And then I dropped the container the cookies were in when I got them down to start decorating, so the broken ones had to be eaten. (It’s a rule.) And then a few got eaten during the decorating process.

You may have noted in the photo above that Wally loves sprinkles. He’s also not too careful about spilling them as he decorates. But he did help me vacuum.

We also finished up his Pumpkin shirt. I had dyed it orange a few days ago, and yesterday, we put the face on it. He helped me draw the face on the freezer paper – including the overly toothy smile – and then I ironed it on and he did the painting. I had him say “tap tap tap” as he did it to remind him that we TAP the brush when doing freezer paper stencils, we don’t rub it. Tap tap tap. Other than a few smears from not-so-careful waving the brush around, it turned out really good. He’s pleased as punch.

Baby update

just realized I never followed up on this. The ultrasound on Tuesday (my fifth this pregnancy, ugh) showed a definite breech, and a small baby at that. (which is good, in a way.)

So this week, I’ve been in to see Dr Heather (chiro) every day, Abby Miller (acupuncture/TCM) twice. I’ve been doing inversions and visualization and talking to the baby. I’ve tried ice packs at baby’s head and warm packs at baby’s butt. So far, nothing’s done the trick. I’m back to Dr Heather today, then have the weekend off from seeing anyone, but will continue with the inversion, moxibustion, and visualization.

I have a followup ultrasound on Monday, and then if the baby’s still breech, Dr. Mintzer will want to schedule an external version for later in the week. I’m very unexcited about that possibility. (FYI, versions can cause premature labor, fetal distress necessitating an immediate C/S, and other complications. It would need to be done around 37 weeks because if you wait longer, the baby could be too big to really get turned around. I can always just not do it, but then I run the risk that the baby doesn’t turn on its own and then what? Nobody around here will deliver a breech. I’ll start calling people in Iowa City, Ames, and Omaha next week to see if I can find someone skilled in breech deliveries.

I have a reiki session scheduled for Monday night, maybe we’ll find out why the baby decided to turn around.

I’ve been trying to spend quiet moments with the baby, seeing what it has to tell me, trying out different scenarios. Is the baby mad because I keep calling it a girl, and it’s actually a boy? Does the baby feel we haven’t carved out space for it yet? Is it picking up on my uncertainty about what life will be like with a new baby? None of those seem to have resonated. But the one that does seem to resonate is that perhaps the baby feels like I’m rushing it. I’ve definitely been trying to rush life since January. I couldn’t wait for spring, now I want it to be fall. I’ve said time and again that I don’t want to get to 40 weeks with this pregnancy, and then need to face the decision of whether to proceed with the recommended induction or not. I wanted the baby to come early, and my plan has been to start using chiro and acupuncture and visualization etc to get labor started. But now I’m wondering if I’m making the baby feel rushed and turning breech was his or her way of making me slow down.