Odds and ends

We've been so busy lately, I haven't had time to sit and collect my thoughts. I still haven't quite collected my thoughts, so this is just brain dumping:

1. L.A. baby shower: my sister and parents hosted a baby shower in Cerritos and invited both families and close friends. I've never been quite comfortable being the center of attention, so I requested a co-ed shower, which turned out great. The dinner was awesome (thanks, Stella!), the cake was tasty, the company was excellent, and now, our little baby will be the belle of the ball. She has no shortage of adorable, pink outfits. Someone asked, "What if the doctor was wrong and you're having a boy?" I guess he'll have to be a boy who wears a hell of a lot of pink!

2. Birth preparation class: we took the intensive, one-day childbirth prep class offered through UCSF last Saturday. It was a lot of information to take in in one sitting, but overall, we both found the class valuable. There was a lot of discussion about pain medications and we watched footage of actual births, including one all-natural birth, one helped with narcotics, and one with an epidural. There's still a lot of information to sift through, but I feel more informed and ready to deal with the birth. I might be singing a different song when the time comes, of course.

3. We just hired someone to do the housecleaning for us. Chris has been advocating this move for a long long time, but I've resisted. As it turns out, I have a strong streak of Protestant work ethic. I just had a hard time dealing with the idea of paying someone to do something that I can do for myself. But the reality is that I can't really do it anymore, at least not as easily, and it's only going to get harder. As a result, the bulk of the housekeeping falls to Chris, but given the time demands of his job, it came down to hiring someone or resigning ourselves to living in squalor. Make that squalor + fur. So we hired someone to come every other week. She's coming for the first time this week. We spent part of the weekend picking up stuff around the house so she'd be able to clean (it's hard to clean surfaces that you can't actually see) and the house is already looking way better than it has in a long time. Ironic that it took hiring someone to clean to get us to pick up the crap around the house.

4. I've definitely moved out of the wonderful pregnancy glow of the second trimester. I'm not exactly suffering any serious complications, but it's just not as comfortable. Obviously, my belly is getting even bigger and that makes it harder to do simple things. For the past few weeks, I've been having pain over my pubic bone, as though someone had kicked me square in the crotch. It's normal and expected pain, but knowing that doesn't help it hurt less. Sometimes, just walking is painful enough to make me short of breath. Now I'm having this weird issue with the Eustachian tube in my left ear. For a few days, it was randomly clearing, even though I couldn't tell it was clogged. It would suddenly clear and everything would instantly sound louder. Today, it's not doing that. Instead, every 30 seconds or so, I hear a faint click/pop sound in that ear. It's surprisingly annoying for such a minor bother. I'm beginning to think I'm playing host to some little insect. (Gross.)

5. Someone needs to figure out how to make pregnancy disability and family leave from work easier to figure out. Even the people in our benefits office are not always clear on what the rules are and need to confer with each other to figure out each person's specific situation. How I long for the ease and generosity of the parental leave rights of Sweden!