Grandma awesomeness, mad camera skills and dilation?

I have arrived at 38 weeks. Where people have stopped asking me when I’m due and have rather begun to guess how many days past my due date I am – thanks in part to my ever-growing basketball belly!

The only baby thing we’ve done recently, other than some errands and trips to Lowes, was that on Sunday we had a local couple over to give us some basic how-to’s in photography! We have an old camera from Tim’s sister, Kara, which as far as we know is still useful and pretty nice, but neither of us have any sort of training in lighting or arrangements of photos – nor any training on how cameras work and the specific functions of our camera.

Kara – many complements to you – Matt and Pearl said that the camera we have is very, very nice, with several special features (like the flower button) that make it a step above many other similar cameras. And if we wanted to add parts like more lenses or an adjustable flash, it comes equipped to add on those pieces as well.

Let’s see if I can remember what we learned without my notes: shutter speed, which is how fast the camera takes the shot, aperture, how “wide” the lens of the camera is, and ISO, which had something to do with resolution but I don’t remember what. I wrote it all down J We also learned about lighting sources (should be about three), the rule of thirds and that the subject of a photo should never be centered – things I’ve learned in various art classes but were new to Tim. Matt tried to take an up-close picture of my eye by putting the camera about one inch away, which resulted in me laughing and flinching uncontrollably b/c I don’t like things near my eyes! Anyway, we’ll plan on doing some practicing of shots before and after baby comes so that we can become great photographers and show the world our beautiful baby! Kara – you would also be proud to know that we used one of your photos to demonstrate these various factors – the one of Micah eating an apple from the fall of last year with the sun dappled behind him – very nice job. They asked us what we wanted to learn and we said we wanted to learn how to take photos like that.

My ankles and feet are starting to get a little swollen – not uncomfortably so yet, and my shoes all still fit, just a little tight. And, some of you may be happy to know that I downsized from my 4” heels to only 2” or lower heels this week J

In very fun baby gifts news, my Grandma Flint up in Buffalo sent me a big box of stuff this week – including not one but TWO baby quilts! I’ll upload some photos later today, but they are absolutely marvelous. One could be used for a single bed, and the other is a little smaller, perfect size for baby. She also sent a beautiful hand-made bag with all sorts of pockets and all blue and white stripes, which I love and might make my new, super-awesome work bag. I feel like I’m surrounded by grandma awesomeness: my mom’s mom, (great) Grandma Norton, started crocheting just for baby boy Dwight, and made a marvelous little green blanket. Great Grandma Violet White’s skills were exhibited in an orange blanket with a beautiful pattern to match the baby’s room. NanNan (Julie, Tim’s mom) has been voraciously quilting for some time now, and showed us the colors/material she picked out at Christmas, and now (great) Grandma Flint has joined the party! We are very blessed. Oh- I should also mention the mad skills of Aunt Marilyn, who knitted beautiful matching hats and a blanket in my favorite color teal, Lauren from our old church in Uxbridge who knitted both some cushy blocks for baby to grab as well as a little jacket. I think I’m missing one – ah yes! Deb Koopman, another talented lady from back in Uxbridge. Bravo to all of you – I’ve never had the patience to knit. I like one-day projects best J

In a not-so-great update, I’ve had a head cold that developed into a sinus infection all week. I’m particularly cranky when I get sick – partly because I never take sick days and partly because I want to be babied ALL the time. So being almost 38 weeks pregnant, with crazy sinus pressure, hardly sleeping at night either because I have to pee/can’t breathe/am sleepless as a result of baby anyway, makes for a very cranky Holly. If you’ve had to interact with me for the past week, I apologize. I think Tim had to apologize to the other three people he works in an office with on Tuesday because I dropped him off some food and nasal spray (he was also sick) and I was pretty short with everyone…:/

Anyway, I went to the OB-GYN today and she gave me a z-pak(sp?) script to beat the infectious boogers back. So hopefully I will not be laboring while crying in pain over my over-stuffed sinuses, or trying to tilt my head to use a netti-pot while having a contraction.

In other news at the doctor’s – I’m two centimeters dilated! Didn’t expect that way at the bottom of this post, did you? I’m 13 days out form my due date, so not necessarily unreasonable, though often unexpected for first babies. The bad news is that my midwife is going on vacation….tomorrow. For seven days.

Now, the dilation could be because I had a leg massage last night while getting a spa pedicure at my friend Karen’s salon in Leola, along with my last haircut before baby, and I’m sure she hit some acupuncture pressure points in both legs, and that could have started me on my way. No contractions yet, Braxton Hicks or otherwise.

According to my midwife, I could still be two centimeters dilated in two weeks, or I could have the baby in the next four days – who knows. Every baby’s got their own schedule. I’m REALLY hoping to keep Dwight wrapped up in my womb until she returns and is back on call Sunday, April 24 (Easter!). So hold on baby, the midwife needs to relax in Vegas before you bust outta there.