Pregnancy update: 34 weeks

I have definitely rounded the corner from feeling like the birth is forever away in the distant future to ack! I'm going to have a baby in a matter of weeks and how on earth will I be ready in time?! I wondered if I'd ever be chomping at the bit to get the baby out toward the end, but I'm usually thinking more along the lines of "give me some more time; I have so much to get done still." Of course, my babies were born at 38 and 39 weeks, so their arrivals both felt like surprises.

I feel really good in my body right now: strong, capable, not too awkward or cumbersome (although I have delegated certain things to Eric, such as putting drywall mud on the hard-to-reach ceiling areas above the tub or carrying really heavy boxes of marble tile). I enjoy doing physical work while I'm pregnant. I have an almost perverse sense of wanting to show that I'm not helpless and incapable just because I'm growing a baby. I probably go overboard sometimes, like when we installed our privacy fence during a major heat wave this summer...that did both of us in.

Yesterday we tiled the shower, and today we tiled around the tub. Tomorrow we'll install the tile on the floor...which means only 2 more days (or as soon as we get the grout installed) to having a working toilet downstairs! No more having to use my friend's Luggable Loo for middle-of-the-night bathroom trips.

I apply the mortar and lay the tiles while Eric does all the cutting. We used marble tiles with lots of  decorative accents. The lighting was poor for this picture, but you can see the mosaics we installed. The narrow mosaic strips came from large mosaic tiles that we cut apart with scissors. Much cheaper than buying decorative mosaic borders. We interspersed larger brown glass tiles in the mosaic strip.

So back to pregnancy...I did a science experiment last week. I bought new test strips for my glucometer and tested my fasting levels for 4 days in a row. I also tested simultaneously with the old and new strips to see if the old strips were perhaps giving me inaccurate readings. Guess what....?

The old strips were bad! With my new strips, my fasting levels were consistently around 84-86. With the old strips, they were around 105. These numbers were from the same finger prick.

Lesson learned from this whole saga of blood glucose testing: be sure the test strips are new and accurate before taking any actions from your readings. Now, the old strips hadn't yet reached the expiration date marked on the canister, but I don't know how long they had been opened. (You're supposed to use them within 6 months of opening.)

As with all my pregnancies, my fundal height is measuring dead-on. I've gained right around 20 lbs so far, almost identical with my other two pregnancies. This baby likes to hang out ROP/ROT, sticking its butt on the right of my ribcage and its feet on the left. Just like Dio.

Stuff to do in the next week or so:

• Plan a blessingway date and send out invites
• Buy a 25' drinking water quality hose for filling the birth tub. I can't find my old one...I think that it never got returned from one of the families I lent the tub to.
• Finish the bathroom and enjoy the new jacuzzi tub!!
• Get supplies ready for my midwife's home visit next week
• Sew together the quilt squares for the baby's birth quilt (still waiting on about 6 squares...if you're one of those people, hurry up and get them done!)