I had a dream last night about the baby getting bigger and bigger in my tummy.  And I dreamed there was lots of kicking and movement!  We went swimming in my dream, and the baby really liked the weightlessness.

Except for the swimming, everything else is true.

Okay, I have finally made it to 36 weeks.  Just two more weeks until I am considered full-term!  And probably four or five weeks until I give birth.  It seems so close now.  Oh wait, that’s because it is close.

I have noticed that I am a lot moodier, which is probably due to a combination of factors:

1.) Not enough sleep.  Last night I was up until 11:30 with heartburn, but then I slept well until 7:15.  I only got up once to pee and fell right back asleep.  Also, tiring extra quickly.

2.) I think that the acyclovir makes me feel a bit out of sorts.  If I take it on an empty stomach I get a little nauseous.

3.) End of pregnancy hormones.  I have been extra weepy lately, and a little out of it – sort of disoriented, often having a feeling like I’ve forgotten something, not reacting sharply to situations that take actual thought.  It’s like the pregnancy brain fog I’ve been having has suddenly stepped up a bit.  On Saturday morning I spent like an hour weeping into the pillow for no reason.  Yay!

Kelly and I got a lot done, baby-wise, this weekend.  On Thursday after work we went to Diaper Lab and bought 10 newborn cloth diapers, some diaper covers (2 Thirsties X-Sm and 2 Happy Heinies X-Sm pocket diapers), 2 snappis, a roll of diaper liners, 12 flannel and 3 hemp cloth wipes, 2 pail liners, and 2 wet bags.  We wanted more newborn cloth diapers, but she was out of Green Mountain brand, and the alternate brand (All Together) hasn’t come in yet.   All Together doesn’t seem as soft and I wish we could have all Green Mountain brand, but on the other hand I have very little desire to spend an entire day in the laundromat washing and drying a load of diapers 8 times.  We also special ordered some Dappi diaper covers and Happy Heiny changing pads.

Yesterday we moved the other floor-to-ceiling shelves into the hallway and cleared out the corner for the baby.  He hauled the chair next to his side of the bed into the living room so I could take pictures of it and post the pair on craigslist.  We also moved the incredibly crappy chest of drawers out of the front room closet and into our bedroom for baby stuff.  I wiped all the drawers out, but I am going to try covering the bottoms with contact paper tonight.  We got this chest of drawers for free, and it was worth exactly what we paid.  It will be useful for the few weeks we are in Somerville with a baby, though.

Kelly also did some loads of baby laundry with a baby-friendly laundry soap, Ecos Free & Clear Liquid Laundry Detergent, purchased at our local Whole Foods.  Unlike All Free & Clear, which we currently use for laundry, Ecos has no additives or residues (such as optical brighteners).  Ecos is recommended for washing diapers.  We got the pleasure of going over all the cute outfits we received at our various showers and from Glenda and Alex.  Yay baby mittens!

The next step after getting all the baby clothes into the drawers will be cleaning the pile of clothes and junk off my chair and getting it out of the room and then setting up the bassinet (no, we haven’t done that yet).  We also really need to get the bags of books to sell and the bags of clothes to give away out of the house – they take up a LOT of space in the hallway.  The money the books generate will be poured back into baby and moving costs.  Some of the t-shirts we had planned to give away I rescued so I can cut them up into baby wipes.  I wish I had that sewing machine so I could serge the edges.  I found this awesome site about sewing your own diapers, but I am not sure that I am that motivated!

Kelly and I also prepared for baby in another way: we’ve received the advice to go to movies now, while we still can, so we went to see Hulk on the Fourth of July.  It was pretty good, except that the emotional climax of the film took place before the obligatory big-cgi-fight-scene climax, and the latter was waaay too long.  I really enjoyed the story, though.  Good characterization by Edward Norton and Bill Hurt, and actual chemistry between Liv Tyler and Norton (amazing since Liv never seems to have chemistry with anyone).  I’m really looking forward to the Batman movie coming out.  We’ve also been renting a lot of films, and two I highly recommend are Lone Star by John Sayles and Blame it on Fidel! by Julie Gavras.  Both really, really good examples of complex storytelling.  Of course, there’s been a lot of chaff as well.

We also got to hang with friends this weekend: Kelly at the Esplanade for fireworks on the 4th, and both of us on Saturday for an awesome game of Dungeon and Dragons at Summer’s house.  That was the most fun gaming I have had in a long time – not boring at all, and it made me want to do it again soon.

I got in a big argument with Kelly Saturday night though about whether we are living up to our vow to be hospitable, something we both take very seriously.  I’ve been so concerned lately with being at home and getting it all ready for the baby that I haven’t paid much attention to his desire to be social – and in the local group of friends maximum sociability comes with playing host to a party.  Not that we could have hosted the game (we just don’t have a table big enough), but we could have hosted the after-party and then offered a place for Josh and Casey to sleep over.  Or alternately, I could have personally opted out but not told Kelly he needed to be home by 10:30 so we could get a full night’s sleep and have the energy to work on the house the next day.  Sometimes my needs seem so loud to me that I forget that Kelly has needs too, and his priorities may not line up exactly with mine.  Or that even when our priorities do match, the way that we choose to fulfill them may differ.  Anyway, after talking it out we both felt a lot better.  We even had hot make-up sex the next day!

Current pregnancy fear: that the baby is in a side-lying position and will not turn head-down before the birth.  (They still move around a lot, so there doesn’t seem to be a big reason for concern.  I don’t feel that the baby is stuck, for instance.)

Current pregnancy excitement: after some focused nipple stimulation, I can get a large drop of colostrum out of each of my nipples.  The taps are on!

I actually slept all the way through the night last night (by which I mean, I fell back asleep quickly each time after getting up to pee twice).  The alarm woke me up at 7:15 and I am sooo happy that Friday is a holiday.  Tonight I have a midwife appointment.  At this appointment they are going to draw my blood and do the swab for group B strep, a type of bacterial infection that can be passed to the baby during delivery.

We went grocery shopping last night since it was the new month so our budget finally kicked over.  This system is really working for us.  In the last 3 months (April, May and June) we brought in $12,886, spent $7,669, and put $5,005 into savings.  Pats on the back all around!  What’s really made the difference is using the 3-basket “envelope” system – setting aside savings and monthly fixed expenses and then having the remaining amount of money to spend on food and any other expenses we choose – and not a penny more.  Of course, we usually end up within about $20 of the number either direction, which is fine.  We’ve also created a buffer for ourselves by saving in a separate account for large, one-time expenses like travel, car maintenance, and our tax bill.  I would say that our three-month review of this system finds it a big success.

We’ve got to get our butts in gear on finding infant CPR classes, a pediatrician, a mohel, and a pediatrician in Rochester who takes the insurance Kelly will have through his new job.  Now that it’s a new month, I also want to buy The New Jewish Baby Book, a birth ball, and a few other things.  And I can’t wait to spend our Target/Babies’R'Us credit on the infant car seat and all the itty-bitty baby grooming things like tiny nail clippers.  And we totally need a “Baby on Board” sign!  We’re going to be those people!

Ugh, I am so tired. I have been averaging about 6 1/2 hours of sleep a night, which is not quite enough. I need more like a minimum of 7 to 7 1/2 hours.

More thoughts on diapers…

I was trying to figure out when the cost would even out between cloth and disposable diapers. You know, like Tax Freedom Day (the first day of the year in which the nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to fund its annual tax burden). There should be a way to figure it out with a line graph tracking money spent over time on either cloth or disposables. I think that if we used a laundromat for the life of our diapering, it would obviously take longer to reach the point of intersection. On the other hand, we are def. going to move into an apartment with a washer/dryer hookup and will probably have to buy a used washer and dryer, so add in another $300 or so. On the other other hand, we will then use that washer and dryer for more clothes than just diapers, so the cost can’t be completely calculated as a “diaper cost.” I’ll try to keep track of our diapering costs as we go along so I can figure it out. I also think that the real cost of disposable diapers to us would not be as cheap as some estimates online because we would be using the chlorine free, more-natural diapers and wipes, which run more expensive than the big-name brands.

Here is my guesstimate, though:

So, I guess that it really is cheaper to cloth diaper. Huh! That’s a big savings over time. I’m actually surprised. I thought that disposable diapers would be more competitive.

Oh, man, I need sleep.  I keep waking up at 4:40 to pee, but then I can’t get back to sleep after that.  Two nights ago I eventually fell asleep again around 6:15, but last night I just ended getting up after about an hour and a half to clean the house and pack for the trip to Seattle.  I am sooo tired today.

Also, last night I was exhausted.  I went to Isis Maternity to buy some compression hose for the plane after calling ahead to make sure they had my size in stock.  Lies!!  Not only did the Arlington location not have it in stock, but none of their other two stores in the area did either.  Motherhood Maternity in the Cambridgeside Galleria Mall assures me they have my size in stock – we’ll see.  I’m taking off work after 1 today to have lunch with Barb (who is in town for the day) and then go buy compression hose, finish packing/doing dishes, and get the taxi around 5:15.

Can’t believe I will be in Seattle tonight!