I Did It!

I have worked 38 weeks and 4 days of my pregnancy. Today was my last day of work and I'm finally on maternity leave until January 7th, 2010. I had doubts I'd make it this far and even requested HR let me train my temp a week prior than scheduled "Just in Case". I especially had doubts this past week because Sunday I became randomly nauseous at 10pm, had back to back contractions, and runny #2's. I chalk it up to false labor. I've had nothing similar at all the rest of this week. And I did it. I made it to the end.

Now starts the waiting game and all my home remedies to start labor are now in effect. These are the remedies which were suggested by my natural child birth books as well as two of the UCLA midwifes.

• I'm currently drinking Third Trimester Tea every morning - famous for its Red Raspberry Tea Leaf which helps to tone the uterus.
• Every night I insert Evening Primrose Oil which helps to soften the cervix.
• TMI but sex with semen also helps to soften the cervix. I recently read that semen has some sort of fatty acid property called prostaglandins. Hospitals routinley use a synthetic version of prostaglandins to induce labor however why pay for what you can get for free. Though sex has become quite comical trying to accommodate my 42" belly bump, this will be a daily fun fest until I go into labor.
• I've also began to walk at least 30 minutes a day.This is by far the hardest part of the remedies due to the weight on my feet, belly sagging to the ground, and lower back hurting.

Round 2... Fight!

Round two of our attempts to own a small piece of LA. We put in an offer today for a cute house (in much better shape than our first offer) in Burbank. We constantly struggle with the fact that our monthly rent will be doubling. We go back and forth and wonder if this is the right move in such a scary economy. But the fact is, we've increased our rent so much within the last eight years and we've always been able to handle it. We are also older now and paying more attention to the media and that makes home buying less than digestible. So note to self: stop listening to NPR.

We will find out on Friday if our daughter will get a new house.

No Nest Yet

Though we were in the top ten offers for the house in Burbank, today we learned that someone beat us out with a an all cash offer. We can't top that with a ten foot pole. So our daughter doesn't have her own nest yet. We're hoping that another house will get listed soon. The only way to be homeowner's in LA is to have cash, know the person your buying the house from, or get lucky. *sigh*

Le Tour

Finally got in to see the UCLA Westwood hospital. It is oober cool with valet parking, ease getting to L&D, huge elevators, take out service after the baby is born, 24 hour visiting, it really jut rocks. They even are very respectful of women choosing unmedicated natural child birth and encourage every new mom to breastfeed and have skin to skin with in baby's first hour. On the way back to picking up our car from Valet, we were thinking she just might have to be a Bruin afterall. I am on cloud nine about my hospital and midwife decision and I am definitely looking forward to my baby's birth in a short five weeks.