Meet the newest addition to our family!!!

I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist that! 

Meet Maisie, the duck! She was given to us for our little girl by our friend, Suzanne, who is an irrepressible anglofile and a lover of fine literature and of course, fine art!

She found Maisie at a sale of work ( like  a craft fair) in a little English village somewhere near Oxford. It's fitting that  our little girl  will have a friend like Maisie who like this mama is from England.   Maisie has a big tail and two legs but no feet. I am going to have to ask one of my skilled knitting friends to help her out because I think she really would like some feet.

In other news:

We are in the home stretch. Still plenty to do on the home front but we have the bare necessities and lots of clothes. I had this fantasy that our house would be spotless and clutter-less before the baby arrived, but alas, we are not those types of people and we just have to accept that. 

I am taking it as easy as I possibly can in between doctor's appointments, tidying, shopping and sleeping in every morning.

On the less glamorous side of things I have swollen feet, legs, eyes, nose, a huge hemorrhoid, a yeast infection and  less than reliable bladder control. I am not complaining in the least bit about it. Just telling it like it is. I might be complaining if I had to work  - but I don't so I am not. 

I got my first disability payment today - for a month off I got approximately 25% of what I normally make. Which does not seem right as the disability company said they are giving me 60% of my salary. It's enough to pay my part of the mortgage. Again not complaining because we have a little back up money - for which I am eternally grateful - otherwise the bills would not be getting paid.

We missed our prepared child birth express class when we were out of town at the end of September visiting S's mom who was dangerously ill. She is hanging in there thank god, and we are scrambling around to figure out how to get by without any kind of birth class preparation. I am reading all my birth books now that I am preparing for the possibility of a vaginal birth but not sure if that will be enough. I don't want to be judged for not doing a class!!! We have great midwives and labor support people and I am hoping they and S will help me get through this. Apparently one thing I have in my favor is that I am not a Type A personality: ( sorry to all you A's out there) - as this sometimes hinders birth because of control issues! Apparently birthing ( according to one of the books I am reading!) is about surrendering to not being in control! Yikes! But what do I know??!! I am just trying feebly to reassure myself that it will be okay. 

We did go to the tour of labor and delivery which was guided by an incredibly perky nurse. The part that scared me was when she told us that when the doctor says: "break the bed" that means  fold the bed and pull up the stirrups so that you are ready to push! Apparently midwives don't need you to break the bed and are better contortionists and can see what's going on without doing violence to the bed, so hopefully we won't be hearing those scary words! It's a very medicalized setting  -even though perky nurse kept telling us that people who work with midwives do it this way and people working with OBs do it another. There is only one birthing tub - which you have to work hard to snag but which is in such a small birthing room that you might all have to sit in the tub together.

So that's it. Miraculously, good things continue to happen over here, the baby is growing, kicking, loving all her meals, becoming more real by the minute.

I am one lucky lady.