Early Voting

Woo hoo!  We went this morning to the new Monongalia County election center (at the Mountaineer Mall off Greenbag Rd, where the Walmart used to be) and did our early civic duty.  Despite reports of some WV machines switching votes, we had no problems (though admittedly the complaints were only in two of the fifty-five counties, neither of which is our county).  It was a surprisingly smooth and quick process, and I loved the convenience of it.

Apparently early voting is 9 to 5 all week including Saturday, so if you haven’t had a chance yet you could still go vote early.  I mostly wanted to avoid the need to stand in line on Tuesday (I’m pregnant enough at this point that would probably be really uncomfortable) but it was also nice to be able to vote when we had the time and inclination.  There were already about a dozen people there when we got there, and another dozen or more arrived after us, and it seemed to be steadily refilling, so I’m glad we got there when we did.

It was great to see so many people coming in: The guy in front of us commented he had been out looking for Halloween stuff and saw the sign for the election center, just decided to come in and see if he could vote since he was out.  If having the center open 20 days prior to the elections makes more people vote, so much the better.

I officially love no excuse early voting.

Hot Dogs While Pregnant

Most pregnant women probably have the good sense to avoid hot dogs while they’re pregnant.  I avoided them at first, because of the nitrates, the listeria fears from deli-type foods, and the general feel that hot dogs aren’t very healthy food.  This didn’t last, however, as I would still have the occasional hot dog craving.

In the first trimester I mostly managed to be stolid in my avoidance, and then when I did purchase hot dogs I went out of my way to find organic, nitrate-free hot dogs which I treated as carefully as raw meat until heated to steaming.  I managed to find them at Kroger (the only place I managed to find them, and of course the last place I looked), and they were tasty, and probably pretty good for me, but expensive and with a short shelf-life.  Since I wasn’t eating the hot dogs very often, it became a little hard to justify, and again I mostly avoided.

Later I found myself craving the occasional hot dog again, and in my late second and early third trimester I was feeling more laid back about the occasional “junk” and pretty good about combating the nitrates with some good ol’ vitamin C.  (Ketchup has vitamin C, right?  Haha.)  I still was, and am, careful to watch for the listeria concerns, however.  While it’s easy enough to just let Sean make me a hot dog, I like to be self-reliant in my poor eating choices.  I’ve started buying the Ball Park individually wrapped franks.  They’re really meant to fill a picnic/cooler niche (no icky hot dogs in the cooler water problems), but I think they’re perfect for my pregnant concerns.  I tear off an individually packaged hot dog, never have to touch it or the juice, pop it in the microwave for 30 secs in the wrapper, and get to remove my steaming hot dog and put it on the bun.  Awesome.  I just wanted to recommend them if any other pregnant women out there haven’t already discovered them.

So that’s one of the “horrible” things I’ve been eating while pregnant.  Think baby will have scales?

Liking Veronica Mars

I hesitated to watch Veronica Mars at first.  It really just didn’t sound like my thing, though I guess I don’t know why.  I felt like I’d reached my quota for shows in a high school setting: I mean, I enjoyed Buffy and Smallville, but mostly because of the fantastic elements; and Veronica Mars is not an sf show.

My friend Eric, who generally has excellent taste, reassured me repeatedly that we would enjoy it if we gave it a try.  And one night the first season was dropped off for us to borrow, and a week or two after that I started watching it.  And for all that it didn’t immediately “wow” me, I found it compelling enough to keep watching the next one, and the next one, until in a very small number of days we’d watched the whole thing.  And the first season was not only satisfying in how the stories played out, but made it so I wanted to watch the next season.

I think we’re going to start Netflixing season 2 of it shortly, but for anyone else uncertain about the show I’d say give it a try.  It won’t be everyone’s thing, but I found that the high school student/private investigator angle was actually a really fun gimmick for the stories on the show, and I found the writing and dialog to be intelligent and witty.  I’m glad that Eric convinced us to watch it.

34 weeks

As of Wednesday, we’re at 34 weeks!  Apparently this is one of the big ones in terms of survivability, since from what I’ve read babies born 34-37 weeks, though considered premature, generally do fine with minimal medical intervention.  Baby should be about 5 lbs now, and most times it feels it!

Not a whole lot to share: I’ve had occasional tingliness in my fingers, which is a carpal tunnel-like side effective of swelling in pregnancy.  (I don’t notice that I’m swollen, but I do notice the finger tingles!)  It has happened a few times now, but once I found out what was up it’s more amusing than anything.  If I move around a little and drink some water it seems to go away almost immediately.  It also seems to be easier than usual for my feet or legs to fall asleep if I sit in an odd position too long.

It’s been harder and harder to get uninterrupted sleep.  I seem to have a mild case of restless leg syndrome, and when I lay down it feels a little like I’m about to get a leg cramp (in both legs) if I don’t move around.  Even though it’s supposed to be unrelated to regular leg cramps I’ve found that bananas do seem to help (placebo effect, maybe); also peanut butter, cream of wheat (high iron is supposed to help some people) and Gatorade seem to sometimes help, but none of my “cures” help all the time.  I basically sleep in 1-3 hour intervals between cat attacks and bathroom breaks — I’m doing fine, but it does make it easier to be cranky!  I may still get used to it and settle in again, or this may just be the way it is from this point on, I’ll have to see.

Blood pressure was 120something over 70something, so that still seems good, and things are generally uneventful.  Still measuring fine for my due date (had a different doctor measure the fundal height, and she measured me at 35cm which I think is technically a little ahead, but any measurement 2cm either direction of the week you’re supposed to be in is considered normal.  With my other doctor I always measured about 2cm below what it should have been — every doc measures a little differently.)  She was also able to tell us that baby felt like she was head down, and how baby was oriented, which was neat.  She confirmed that by being able to immediately find the heartbeat, which was zipping along just fine.  (The further along you are, the easier that gets, from what I’ve been told.)

Some aches and pains, but nothing really worth complaining about — I’ve had a fairly easy time I think (or at least nothing one couldn’t expect).    Not far to go now!