Once in a blue moon...

There has been much speculation about the lunar cycle in correlation to women going into labor. This coming Thursday is a full moon - and we are hoping that the old wives tale proves accurate. I've chatted with 2 medical practitioners, who have worked in Labor and Delivery and agreed that they used to see a larger # of women go into labor.

I found this article today, in regard to a Blue Moon. What a one liner our child can use in disputing a fact. "Right, and I was born on a blue moon. Oh wait I was!" Anyone that knows me, knows I am ALL about One Liners and Unanswerable Questions. Its just in my nature.

We had a great Christmas - had the In Laws staying with us and had a great time with them. Christmas Eve we drove around that day and saw the city. It was really nice as the streets were not packed with cars and people - as we avoided any of the major shopping areas! And I did finally make it up to Coit Tower - what a bad San Franciscan that I had never been up there before.

Christmas Eve we did a meal at our place and then opened gifts. To echo an earlier post - its just so great to spend time with family. We played lots of games (which I love!) - Farkle, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, Wii Fit Plus (which E got us as a Christmas Gift). Christmas Day we had dinner down at Joe Joe and Claud. Again it was nice to see family - pork pressures aside. We did a White Elephant gift exchange which was fun as our family is so damn competitive.

I did walk away a victor with a huge bottle of Jameson Whiskey. The only one to walk away with the'only' booze present for the gift exchange - was the pregnant one.

So, I'm at the 38-39 week mark (Thursday I will be 39 weeks - C'mon Blue Moon!) I went to the Dr's for a check up yesterday. Aside from waiting an hour to be seen, it was an exciting yet disappointing appointment. The Dr walks in an asks the usual "How are things? Hows the baby?" and then he says - "So today we are going to sweep [the membranes]?" I wasn't mentally prepared for that - as he told me that we would talk about it the following week. For those of you who don't know, sweeping the membrane will increase the chances of going into labor (It's predicted that you will go into labor within 72 hours, give or take) Its a really simple procedure where the Dr simply makes a circular motion on a partial dilated cervix. However, in my case, I was not dilated at all. I am thinking this baby needs a formal invitation to join our family! Dear Baby Busch, Please join us for drinks and appetizers in celebration of your grand arrival!" Hopefully next week my body has done a little prep work and the doctor can try for a sweep again.

Tomorrow RnDnFinn are coming to visit us. I got to see them back in October (when I flew into SLC for one night). I'm excited to see how big Finn is getting. And of course, I'm excited to see RnD!

Ok Fingers crossed this lunar cycle mumbo jumbo works. Busch out. Little Busch out - literally :)

Whoever thought I'd be DIYing when I'm 9 months pregnant....

Yes why let a little thing like pregnancy slow me down? This week I made a few Onesies (who wants a plain white Onesie anyways?) The one thing that irked me was when I intially printed these out, I forgot to reverse the actual images - so I had a sheet full of backwards stuff. D said "Put the alphabet one on backwards - that way when the baby looks in the mirror, they'll learn the alphabet!" haha gotta love his spirit. I settled for only one Punk rock one, Minor Threat (Which was my fav Punk group back in the day) And Yes, I lifted the other logos/images from the good old www. One has to be resourceful in order to be creative.

I did drop a pretty penny on some wall decals from Blik - I got this really cool Bull and Bee one - which is much bigger than I'd imagine it would have been. I'm thinking we'll put it in our bathroom, as we have nothing on the walls as of yet.


Well anyhow, I'm still on "cruise control" (thats what the doctor told me!) patiently waiting for this little one to come - and certainly savoring my last quiet moments.

D has been just great - and spoiling me by making dinner every night. And I'm not talking about Hamburger Helper dinner. I'm talking about Steaks, Chicken stuffed with goodness and other pretty fun meals. I know I haven't asked for much before, but please god - let this continue after the baby is born.

We are getting ready for D's Mom and Dad to arrive. They are coming up from the OC to spend the holidays with us. I'm really looking forward to it. Sure, its fun to open presents and eat great holiday meals - but the thing I enjoy most about the holidays (Aside from not working!) is spending time with family. It can't be beat. Christmas Day we are going down to Palo Alto to have a family meal with 27+ people. It will be interesting to see how my "Cruise Control" works - perhaps we will have a little one before the end of the year? (C'mon Tax break baby!!)

Wishing you and yours a very Happy holiday! I'm going to go and get my wall decal on!

Things I crave (in this late stage of pregnancy)

I thought it would be fun to look at my 37 week Belly pic next to my 30 Week belly pic. Its amazing how much bigger I've gotten in 7 weeks.



I haven't really had cravings thru this pregnancy. Perhaps its because my brain is hard wired to eat healthy. D and I have been cooking at home (he's been making me loads of dinners) and we have a (fairly) very well balanced diet (if I do say so!). But this past 2 weeks I've been making weekly visits to Taqueria La Cumbre, my all time favorite burrito/taco place in San Francsico. I have to go to UCSF for my fetal monitoring and on my route home (up 16th street) if I find parking near Valencia, I stop at La Cumbre for a delish Grande Taco. I've been having really good parking karma the past 2 weeks, so let's see if I can keep it going on...


My other craving is Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. However, I do have a little self restraint (no Ice cream for breakfast or lunch!) Its my nightly ritual. D and I have been watching "True Blood" and what goes better with Sex, Blood and vampires than a little Ice Cream? We just finished Season 2 last night, and I must say I am quite impressed with the series and season story lines. I mean its certainly not Mad Men. Oh god, I can not wait until next season for some more Draper drama.

When I last purchased some Choc. Chip Cookie Dough ice cream at Whole Foods, the cashier asked me if I had tried the Oatmeal Cookie Chunk - which I haven't. And I've been on the hunt for it ever since. I even went onto the B n J website to locate where they carried it nearby. They say they carry it at Safeway. So we invited my mom over for dinner earlier this week and she asked if she could get us anything. "Ohhh can you stop by Safeway and get me some Oatmeal Cookie Chunk Ice Cream!?" She called me in a panic as they didn't have that flavor. WTF!? I'm going to send B n J a very heated email about their store locator.


Tomorrow we have our 37 week doctors appointment. I not too certain what to expect - "Am I getting a pelvic exam" "How close am I to going into Labor?" I'm sure the doctor will not have all the answers as I understand its close to impossible to predict just When someone will giving birth.

Basically, our doctor told us that there was a 20% chance that I could give birth this week or the next or the next. That means there is a 60% chance that I could go into labor before my due date (of Jan 7th). I then read that only 5% of women ACTUALLY give birth on their due date. Which means (if I did my math right) that the other 35% of suckers out there go into labor after their due date. Please, baby don't make me the sucker!!

It's getting harder and harder...

...to be independent and get around. I'm at the point in the pregnancy that everything is a chore. Walking from the front room to the back is a hassle. Call me lazy - but its a huge effort. I feel like I an constantly running short on breath - perhaps it's that this bruiser of a kid in my belly is taking up all the room in my chest. I'm awaiting the moment when I feel the baby "drop" as I hear that my breathing will be back to normal.

My husband has been wonderful in making sure I don't overdo myself - he's been cooking and cleaning (hmmm maybe I should get pregnant more often? hah!) My mom and bro even went to Costco (which I had been putting off for weeks now) and got me a few things I needed. Whew. What a relief. And today I actually was able to talk my husband (Mr. Anti-shopping) to go to Costco for a few things. It was not too terribly crowded and to top it off - I got him one of his favorite things in the world...a Costco Hotdog.

I managed to squeeze in most of my Christmas shopping and have sent off to D's family this week. Relieved to have gotten all the packages out in time for them to be there by Christmas. Yay! A sense of accomplishment in my tender state!

One unusual thing that I have been experiencing this past week is that the baby has been getting hiccups. Baby hiccups for 5 - 10 mins each day. Sometimes multiple times. Usually it appears to occur after I've had a meal. Its such a strange sensation as I feel this rhythmic movement in my lower belly close to my hip (the baby is head down - thus ready for action!) I initially didn't even notice them, but was going in for weekly fetal monitoring (where they place a monitor on my belly to watch baby's movement and my contractions). The baby usually moves around a lot and uses the spot where the nurse has attached the monitor as a kicking bag. So there is typically lots of movement. "Oh it looks like your little one has the hiccups!" Upon paying closer attention to all the movements going on, I sense this rhythmic movement, which is different from the jabs to the fetal monitor or my ribs. Once it was pointed out what the hiccups felt like, I have been noticing them daily.

This pregnancy has been very easy (as compared to the horror stories I've heard about) and I am extremely lucky that I have been this healthy and energetic [knocking on wood]. However, we did hit a few bumps in the road at first, which were completely unnerving. The roadblocks were all caused by the first and second trimester genetic testing blood work.

First, we had some irregularities in out First Trimester blood screening and we're informed that our baby might be at risk of having Down's Syndrome. My heart literally fell out of my chest. I was inconsolable and it was hard to be positive about it. "How would we raise a child with Down's Syndrome? We have my health to contend with." In order to wipe out the worry for the next 6 months, we decided to get a Amniocentesis. The Amnio itself wasn't too bad - it was just the nerves I built up thinking about a 5 inch needle being stuck into my belly. It was at the least, an unpleasant experience. Luckily, we got the results back and things all appeared normal. Whew.

We didn't come to find out about another irregularity in one of my hormones (for the 2nd trimester) until about a month ago. Our doctor had neglected to tell us until it was suitable (as the monitoring couldn't start until the 35 weeek). I am so thankful that the doctor waited to tell us and didn't cause us any unnecessary worry. So, due to the irregularity in the blood results, we had another ultrasound (thus the "ONE BIG ASS BABY BUSCH posting") where the technician told us that things were looking fine and that the baby was healthy. I still have to go in for this weekly Fetal monitoring, which is fine, as its reassuring when the nurses don't see anything "out of the norm". Its so frustrating as I read that there are many false positives in the genetic testing for the 1st and 2nd trimester. I'm toying with not going thru the whole process if we get pregnant again.

So all the worrying aside, we are excited and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little one. Now the only thing that I really am dying to find out - will it be a boy or will it be a girl??

I'm trapped in the body of an 80 year old lady

Here's my 35 week Baby Bump



Ok so maybe its just that I'm pregnant :) Its so weird, these sleepless nights - I have to pee every 2 hours, regardless of if I've drank anything or not. Then I have trouble getting back to sleep. Cue the 4 am bowls of cereal to trick my body into going back to sleep. I'm sure getting ready for this little baby to come.



We've been pretty fortunate and have been able to get alot of stuff from our baby shower and Craigslist. Found "the deal of the century" on baby furniture on CL - We got a crib, Changing table, Amoire, and glider! It's all high end baby furniture that a guy needed to get rid of, as his son is now 4 and they no longer needed it. He gave us a free toddler bed and frame as well. Here's a pic of the crib with Kermit the frog. Its a nice neutral green, so will be perfect for a baby boy or girl (which we have YET to find out!) We are so happy with the furniture!




I've taken a video of my baby bump - I shot it using the new Flip that we got as a baby shower gift. I feel so tech savvy now - I have means to shoot video and just got a new laptop. Thanks to my lovely husband for the early and thoughtful "Push Present." I love me some practical gifts :)





I ordered the cutest wall decals for the baby's room today from Blik I can't wait to get em. Plus the Cheap Ass Bitch inside of me got 20% off too! woot woot!