Today's Progress Made While I Rested!

Today was my 38-week doctor appointment. They got me in and out pretty quickly, as there were two women in the office who were in labor. Without needing to, they reminded me I would be soon to follow. As for the stats: blood pressure was 116/66, weight was up two pounds (24 total). I forgot to mention yesterday, but my waist now measures just shy of 42 inches. I am now officially one centimeter dilated (he said that before, but now it was wide enough he could touch the baby's head...how is that for your first contact with the outside world?), 10% effaced, and the position of the baby is -3. I ask him to explain that to me, and he said when the head is right at the pelvic bone it is at 0. When I'm pushing right before birth, the position can be +1, 2, 3. It means that right now, the baby is not fully engaged yet and hasn't fully dropped. His or her heart rate was now in the 120's and the doctor said the parasympathetic nervous system probably has finally taken over now.

While this was going on, work began on the baby's room. We are glad a professional looked at this, because he said it was still really wet underneath. All day, he terrified Pumpkin and made Chester growl (until we put them outside) with the sound of beating and plaster falling to the floor. I snuck in and got a picture of it, it is really cool to see how they built ceilings in 1913 (it smells old in there too). The old camera actually worked for this picture.
Today, I also called the unemployment office to tell them about my latest paycheck. My old company had not reported it when they sent in their last paperwork, so they were sending more paperwork to confirm. Still, with the check now I don't have to worry about applying every week. I also told them about my upcoming due date, and discovered when I'm considered "available to work" depends on my doctor. Once I get the go ahead, I can start applying for benefits all over again if we need them still. This is such a relief, as it is impossible for me to seriously focus on my job search right now.

My Moby Wrap also came in the mail and I practiced putting it on. At first it looked so long I didn't know what to do with it, but it actually is fine once you get it wrapped! The company I ordered it from send a full-sized bag of Skittles in the box as a thank you, that was cool!

Finally, I took the Corolla up to the dealership. They ended up confirming the problem was exactly what my research pointed to and it was covered under warranty! I still did end up paying them $95 to do a full throttle cleaning because our car had excessive carbon build-up and this was apt to cause the car to run rough and would only build up more. Not the kind of maintenance we'd want to do ourselves, so I didn't mind paying them to do it. The car now feels completely normal again, and now is ready for the baby (minus the car seat we can now reinstall)! The service rep asked me when my baby was due, and said his wife is due Feb 2.