I'm an anomaly.....

Like we didn't all know THAT!

My blood work came back clean.
I have so much amniotic fluid it's hard to figure out the actual position o our Babysaurus.
I don't have blurred vision or head aches.
I have no protein in my urine......meaning my liver isn't breaking down.
YET my blood pressure numbers are still through the roof!

We're going to wait and see if we can ride this out full term.
We're at 39 weeks now and next week should be the "magic week".
We'll see how it goes.

It's getting harder to get around.......I am now tipping the scales at 210 lbs o love!  Ahhhh ya!
My feet are now so swollen that I had to go back to Target and buy size 11 flipflops because the size 8 ones I bought a few weeks ago are now to tight!  SIZE 11 peoples!  I had to trim the fronts off because I was tripping on them.  Oh yes, I am a sight to behold!

Here's me a few weeks ago being silly.......

under pressure......

So my blood pressure has been rising for about a month now.  It's an older mama, first baby, 3rd trimester on-set sort o thang.  If I can't get my blood pressure to level out and be more "normal" then I lose the privilege to have a home birth.  I keep telling myself as long as the baby is healthy then it doesn't matter how he/she gets here but I'd be a bit sad.  Bustin would probably be releaved to not have to worry about having this house ready to birth a baby in.  Oh well whatever will be will be.

I've been seeing an acupuncturist for 3 weeks now.  It is a really interesting clinic.....a HUGE room with a few dim lamps and a doz or more big recliner chairs with sheets on them.  You sit back in the chair, roll up your pants and sleeves, the doctor comes over, puts your needles in and then you go to sleep.  There are usually about 5 or 6 other folks in the big room in chairs sleeping as well.  It is very un-spa like but that doesn't really matter to me.  I usually pass out for a couple hours.  There tshirts & bumper stickers said, "I sleep with strangers at South Austin Acupuncture Clinic" which I think is high-larious.

The baby's head is down, hopefully he/she won't flip.  I think it's backside is on my right cause I rarely get kicked over there anymore.  It's mostly on my left lower and my right upper.  Some days it's yoga-esque with stretching and some days is definitely a kick boxing class.  As the baby gets bigger, it's harder for him to move around cause space is at a premium AND it's harder for me to move around cause I'm getting HUGE.  I am approaching beached whale size or very pregnant dinosaur as Bustin likes to remind me.  My feet are so swollen & big that even my Croc shoes are tight.  I went and bought size 8 flip flops and called it a day.  I'm usually a 6 1/2.  (deep sigh)

I saw my midwife today and thinks I might be further along then we first thought.  If I my periods weren't regular before I got pregnant then it seems your due date can be off even if you have the date of your last period which I do.  I might have 2 weeks left instead of 5 weeks like we thought....YIKES!

Here's a little Freddie for you.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJg8w9fGdA

I need your help at our birth.....

So we're on the semi-home stretch at 31 weeks out of 40 and half way through our birthing classes.  The classes are a bit hippy-dippy but then again WE're the ones doing the natural child birth at home and it don't get more hippy then that...just sayin!!!  This week our teacher lady was trying to distract us 'soon to be mamas' while we were suppose to be concentrating on our "non-focused awareness" pain coping method.  I told you, very hippy!  Anyways, she put on her ipod, slammed the door, asked us direct questions, all trying to distract us from practicing our "meditative state" we're somehow suppose to maintain through contractions.  All I could do was try not to bang my head and rock out to The Heart sisters singing "Barracuda".    Of course Bustin & I started giggling about the ultimate birth songs......which got me to thinkin.  I highly doubt this currently very large & still somehow getting larger dino and her ADHD riddled self is going to be able to pull off some "zen meditation state" since she's never been able to quiet her mind for more then 26 seconds let alone while having some pain crazed labor contraction.  Sooooo I think I'm going to take a slightly different approach.

Here's where each & every one of YOU come in.......
I need you to make us a "birthing CD".  I figure I'm just going to concentrate on the songs and zone out to those instead of trying to ignore everything & one in the room.  I think this is definitely more "me".  Songs about strength & enduring.  Songs that make you think of us.  Songs you're listening to right now.  Whale songs.....NO scratch that!   The midwife & her assistant might be a bit "wowed" by the shear awesomeness o our friends musical genius but I'm willing to take that chance.

And the thought of each o you musically being in our birth room got me thinkin about how awesome it'd be if we could have each o you cosmically in our birth room as well.  So I'm borrowing an idea that our Pixie used during her last birth.  I'd also like you to send me a bead or charm to add to a necklace I'm making which I'll wear during the birth so I can pull "extra energy" from each of you when I'll need it the most.  Sort of like wrapping myself in your love & pain free thoughts.  How's THAT for hippy for ya!?!?!

If you need a song to help get ya started, this one got Bustin & I giggling the most....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCadcBR95oU

The Bryants
374 Pope Bend N
Cedar Creek TX 78612

So what do YOU do?

So there was a TEDx conference here in Austin this weekend.  http://www.tedxaustin.com/  It was $100 for a ticket PLUS more importantly you had to apply to attend and more folks get turned away then accepted....it ain't always so easy to be a hipster here in Austin!  Hey but it was FREE to volunteer!  They even accepted this waddling preggers lady!

On Saturday I worked the "I thru O" registration table with 2 other ladies.  We just giggled at the silliness of "Austin's elite" crowd......"What do you  mean you need to see my ID, I don't carry one, EVERYone knows who *I* am!" OR the girl (early 20s) who complained about how 'low-tech' this conference was compared to ALL the other conferences she had been to (I guess we should have had retinal scanners at the door instead of asking for her licence & ticket), I handed her a cute little pencil they were giving away that said "Write Now" on it (a pun on the conference theme o "Right Now!") and said "Here's a pencil to add to your low tech experience" (she didn't laugh!  Come on, that was funny!).  WE had a good time checking in the peoples even if THEY didn't think we were funny!

I meet a bunch o random folks and was asked a lot "So what do you do?"......a simple enough question for small talk among strangers but I didn't have an answer.  The first time I was asked I replied "Do for what?".  I need to figure out what my answer will be sooner than later.  

As far as volunteering goes, I've never had such a "cake" job.  I kept checking back in every couple speakers but they'd just say to go back, enjoy the conference and they'd text me if they needed me and they had so many volunteers that they didn't.

It was my first for reals TED conference......like a lot of us, I've watched dozens o videos o incredible speakers in places all over the world discussing global issues and brilliant ideas and ground breaking technological advances and amazing performances all in 18 mins or less.  To be honest, I was kinda disappointed in Austin's speakers....just because you wrote a really prophetic book does NOT mean you're an engaging public speaker.  Some speakers were just full of themselves.  Some didn't really say ANYthing.  BUT in retrospect, I think I set my expectations WAY toooo high.  I went to have my mind blown and I got an semi-interesting all day conference which is fine.  Would I pay $100 to go next year?  Shit, would my application be "accepted"?  Probably not, on both fronts, but I'd totally volunteer again.  All in all, it was a lovely day.

Just in case you've never heard o TED conferences....... http://www.ted.com/

A Rat and 2 Bunnies.......

Gung Hay Fat Choy or Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Growing up in the Bay Area this is a phrase you learn in grade school.  You also learn which Chinese Zodiac animal you are because unlike sun signs....the zodiac signs go by year born, so EVERYone in your class is the same animal.  *I* am a rat.  I think I even remember making colored construction paper rat face masks.  Growing up next to one of the oldest & biggest Chinese neighborhoods in North America, you learn things like red envelopes have money in them and stacked up steam baskets are full o lots o delicious dumplings, oh and how to eat with chop sticks!  

Actually you learn about all sorts o Asian cultures growing up in the Bay.  Your friends go to school on weekends to learn their family's language.  You have to take your shoes off at the door.  They eat different food then you do at home.  There's an alter in the living room you're not allowed to play with.  You pick up how to say "white girl", "shut up & listen" and or course swear words.  You know, important things!

We'll be having a baby born in the year of the Rabbit which is awesome since it's considered the luckiest of all the signs.  A rabbit is talented and articulate, affectionate yet shy, and seeks peace throughout it's life.  As I'm looking up what a rabbit child is like, I asked Bustin which animal he is and he didn't know.  It turns out he's also a rabbit, which I found HIGH-larious when I read this......."Remarkably observant, a Rabbit can calculate his chances for getting his way.  Instead of directly resisting rules, the subtle Rabbit will carefully devise ways around them.  In short, this polite little angel is going to bargain for a better deal every time."  Oh THAT's Bustin to a T.....even Bustin's Mom would agree with that statement!

So NOW I had to look up how Rats and Rabbits get along.  I mean if I'm going to be ganged up on by TWO evil bunnies, I have to prepare myself somehow, right, RIGHT?  After some serious in depth internet research on compatibility that required "Cosmopolitan-esque quizzes" and fill in the blank list generators, turns out that everything will be alright in the universe.  Rats & Rabbits get along famously, both seek a home filled with love, children, and have an innate sixth sense to know when something is a-miss with the other.  DEEP sigh o relief!

If you want to look up your zodiac sign traits or compatibility, here's a fun & silly site:

http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/zodiacs/love_compatibility/rabbit.htm

Purrrrrrrfect!

So the baby has FINALLY started to move around enough for me to feel it.  Nothing tooooo crazy yet.  I'm certainly not being kept up all night yet.  Oddly enough the baby is most active when one of the cats is across my belly purring loudly.  I think it's funny that I'm turning our baby into a "cat person" already.

According to the books, Babysaurus Rex can now "hear" outside the womb and actually feel my movements.  Seems like we might need to do some testing and figure out what kind of music Rex likes.  Please please please let it not be metal.....Bustin would LOVE that tooooo much!  I'd be happy with Rex rockin out to some ol' school funk or house even sugary pop music would be better than Metallica.  ANYthing but Metallica!  Just sayin......

P.S.  I went to the chiropractor on Monday and am walking better today then I have since my back spasms on Friday.  Apparently, lower back problems and pregnancy go together like peanut butter & jelly.....that whole extra weight hangin off the front o ya.  My whole center of gravity is changing.  Cool huh?

Prenatal Yoga is for pussies.....flexible fat ladies that is

I went to my first prenatal yoga class on Tuesday.  I carefully picked out which o the XL Shoreline concert "local crew" shirts of my multiple stacks I'd wear since I wanted to make a good impression with my soon to be new uber granola hippy yoga practicing friends....NO Oz Fest or half naked woman from one o the cowboy shows, that's country AND western music folks!  A respectable black shirt like "Sade - Lovers Rock local crew 2001" would be perfect.  Well most days I forget that TX hippy chicks are a LOT different then the Berkeley or even Santa Cruz hippies I'm more familiar with.  The lady on the mat next to me had a red shirt on that stated, in rhinestones no less,"God Bless Texas and Willy Nelson".  Wow.....I simply have nothing to say to that.

So the teacher is calling out pose names and the ladies are all doing them and I'm sitting there trying to figure out what exactly is going on.  The teacher looks at me and I say, "I'm just waiting to see what that looks like so I can pretend to look like I know what I'm doing."  She was slightly aghast when I said this was my first yoga class......well except for that month I spent in the Guatemalan Highlands at the Lake Retreat Center to learn astral projection and stone healing but the daily multiple yoga & meditation sessions were in Spanish and a lot different, just sayin!

Still these ladies in this class were no joke.  I'm feeling more and more like a beached whale every day and THESE women, who are much further along than I am, are bending like pretzels with gigantic beach balls protruding out of their pretzel-ness.  Whatever!

So I've been limping around the last few days barely able to get from one side o the house to the other after getting my non-yoga butt kicked.  This morning I couldn't even manage to slip back into bed after peeing for the 3rd time last night.....granted I was trying not to disturb Ace & Bustin's sleep and was terribly unsuccessful.  My back was acting up again.  I've been having lower back pain off & on for a few months now, usually when I go for walks or am on my feet all day.  I make Bustin dig into my lower back at the end o the day or when I can't walk any further.  I now waddle around like the super preggers ladies with their hands on their lower backs.  I'm sure I look high-larious.

Still I was not going to let the yoga ladies win.....I was heading back to yoga today for another beating.  I got all the way to the car with my mat and everything and basically buckled to my knees while trying to get in the car.  My back went into horrible spasms and thankfully Bustin was there and caught me when I called out his name.  So that whole, "my pregnancy has been soooo easy, I KNOW I'll have to pay for it sooner than later in some horrible fashion" thoughts I've been having of doom and gloom.....well "easy street" is definitely over now and all my "panicked what if's" have NOW come into play!!!!

Just when you thought that crawling was just for babies.......I can't even move off the couch even sitting up so Bustin could put the heating pad behind me was excruciating.  Thank heavens Bustin was close by or I would of had to crawl back into the house.  Now I'm trying to find some last minute pregnancy massage or prenatal acupuncture appointment so I can, oh I don't know, walk!

Oh yoga ladies, you have won this fight but you will not win the war......no, no, you will not win the war!  Namaste THIS!!!