We spent most of the weekend with a few other pregnant couples learning how to give birth (here, right here, is where I give up the pretense that the blog has not morphed into all baby talk of late and I'm sorry, truly) and while I expected to roll my eyes a lot - it was actually useful and informative and I feel a lot better about the whole labor thing. (Although I find it interesting - how much info and support you get as pregnant people etc. and then when you might actually NEED help, when the kid is born, no more classes or groups or holding of doors...on a slight tangent, there was an article on "push presents" in the NYT last week and a mid-wife wrote in and said "it's be nice if ALL American mothers got the Push Presents of decent maternity leave, good healthcare and access to daycare rather than diamond rings" or something to that effect - AMEN SISTER!) It helps that the baby flipped and is no longer breech! At the midwives last week she was asking what I wanted to do (ie did I want to schedule the painful manual turny thing) and I was hesitating and she whipped out the ultrasound and lo - the child has flipped. I kind of guessed it had, but it's all guessing right now. After the first class I spent a tearful hour in a (fucking) Babies R' Us - aka the last place on the planet where I wanted to spend an hour. It is difficult to do this baby thing without casting some ginormous consumer shadow, no matter how hard you try, honestly. I've tried to do second hand and homemade as much as possible and eschew the malls and plastic and Made in China. But the other side of baby-land is the "luxury goods designer boutique" baby stuff - and just because I don't want plastic crap, doesn't mean I'm rich. AH finally just said stop counting the pennies, get the things you think are important and let's just stop agonizing. I did find some crib bumpers in organic unbleached cotton that look all soothing and will let me budget a really nice quilt, the kind of thing you can hand down, maybe. We got a bassinet, old school and wicker. The crib is fully completed and functional. The rocking chair has seat pads. I feel like I can breathe a little now, it's not just a disaster zone of a room. One Expecting Dad at the classes said he was glad they were taking the classes "because I've done absolutely everything at home - the nursery is as ready as can be." I noted they already have their car seat installed complete with toys and I wanted to punch them, gently and just a little. I'm holding off on the carseat thing because I want to use our Subaru wagon hauling capacity as much as possible before it becomes a baby hauling machine.
We also visited the mall and bought presents for family - something I try to avoid also, but while I had time to make some stuff for Xmas this year, it seemed a little skimpy, especially for the nieces and nephews. Of which I have 7 now, so things are spiralling out of control just a little. But knowing my capacity for dithering and agonizing over the "right" choices and how much is too much money (hint: I am insanely cheap) AH just took over again and said - here are our stores and here is our budget and here is 3 hours. Let's finish. And we did. Not without a great deal of kevetching about "values" and "conflicts" but sometimes, sometimes it is just easier to get the Gymboree outfit for little Susie than try to get the parent to appreciate my homemade "aesthetic". Or so I'm telling myself this year. The great drag of Christmas gift shipping is finding gifts that can be shipped - and that you don't ever get to see your relatives open it up and the kids play with what you bought or try it on or have fun with it. All the pain of gift getting and shipping, little of the joy. If it wasn't for eggnog and my beautiful, beautiful tree and the lights on the porch, you could accuse me of being a Grinch. It's all about the lights and the food, in my humble opinion. And the music!
Speaking of Grinches - it appears we are being mail-thefted. Our last 3 Netflix haven't shown up, conincidentally due on days our mailbox was empty. Dude, don't please. I don't want to be the suspicious homeowner, eyeing you guys, the ones who walk up and down the street. I understand opportunistic theft - when I am stupid and leave things out begging to be stolen. But please, I beg of you, don't take our mail. We hummed and hawed over whether we could afford Netflix as it is, and chose it over cable. I don't want to get caught up in a cycle of new tenants protecting their stuff versus old tenants who have nothing...argh. I want my neighborhood to be a neighborhood - not Neighborhood Watch only, you know? This did not stop me from posting a warning sign this morning, indicating mail theft is a federal offense, in case they didn't know. Awesome. Plus, you know, Netflix was kind of my Push Present to myself. Don't ruin it.