Stretchmarks. That is all.

First, the good news, I passed my GD screen! I know this is a somewhat controversial test, but I have a few risk factors for GD and wanted to know either way. At the same time they were drawing the blood for my GD screen, they also checked my hematocrit and, unfortunately I am on the anemic side. I really never would have known, I'm not feeling symptomatic at all. Anyway, I am now taking Floradix twice a day. My midwife said it tasted like metallic prune juice and that is a pretty apt description. DH tried it and said, "Wow, that really is like drinking prune juice from a rusty cup!"  It is supposedly absorbed well and is non-constipating (unlike iron taken in pill form) so, I'm sucking it up.

In other news, we finally bought a glider/ ottoman for general rocking/ nursing purposes. I say finally because I've been perusing craigslist on and off for months. In this area, there are TONS of gliders available on craigslist and I have a hard time justifying buying a new one when there are so many used ones available. A solid 40% of them appear to be white wood with blue/ blue jean-esque covered cushions, not really my style. In fact, I have looked at many a glider in the last few weeks (both on craigslist and at stores) and find most of them to be well... um... ugly. The few that weren't ugly were blatantly uncomfortable. When I saw the ad for the chair we bought, I thought, "Yay! Finally an acceptable combination of form and function!" It's a nice, leather Dutailier glider with matching ottoman. When I tried it out for a few minutes at the home of the seller, it *seemed* comfortable. Once I got it home and sat in it for more than a few minutes, I realized that we'd been a bit hasty. In hindsight, maybe I should have noticed that the woman selling it was both shorter and smaller boned than me. I can see how this chair would be comfortable for her, but I feel like I'm sliding out of it, like I can't sit far enough back in the seat and reclining it just makes it worse. Ugh. I cannot tell you how much I just wanted to be done with this and now it looks like I'm going to need to find another chair AND deal with trying to resell the one we bought. Back to the ol' drawing board.

The blankets were both bought a few years ago. I just loved them, so I bought them and put them away for future babies. I can't believe "the future" is in less than three months!

Here it is, the belly picture you have all been waiting for ). I think I finally look pregnant, not just like I've gained weight. Also included, pictures of our master bedroom-- I don't even want to go into the lunacy that was involved in getting that one room put together, let's just say that for the first few months, DH and I slept in the guest room on our old bed. We had bought the new bed frame and the new dresser which both took a month to be delivered, but we hadn't yet bought a rug to go under the bed. The bed frame and nightstands are all one piece of furniture and we didn't want to put them together, only to have to take them back apart and then move them in order to put a rug underneath. For some reason, it took us a long time to pick out a rug. We finally moved into the master bedroom maybe a month or so ago.

I'm not sure why I included a picture of the car seat, but there ya' go! We are slowly acquiring baby stuff. We have a crib that we plan to sidecar to our bed. I was having a lot of hip pain when I was trying to sleep, which started even before I got pregnant, so we ended up buying a fairly soft memory foam mattress (non-petroleum based and Okeo-tex certified that it does not contain any chemicals that are harmful to humans or the environment). I love that mattress. Within a week of sleeping on it, my hips completely stopped hurting. Anyway, I think the mattress is too soft for a newborn to sleep on, hence the sidecarring.

This CPSIA thing is threatening to throw a huge wrench in my buying-stuff-for-the-baby plans. I went ahead and ordered a custom BabyHawk Mei Tai carrier last night because I was afraid that they might have to close up shop for awhile (even if temporarily). As far as cloth diapers go, I have bought a few of each type (prefolds, fitteds, contoured, AIOs, pockets, and wraps) and my plan was to wait until the baby shows up, try them out and then buy more of the ones that seem to work the best for us. Now, I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and buy some more infant prefolds and larger size wraps just to have something on hand if the small cloth diaper makers are forced to comply with the CPSIA and driven out of business or forced to shut down until the legislation can be amended. And have you heard about the craziness it's causing with libraries (thanks to feebeeglee for the link)?

Other than that... we had our first childbirth class on Tuesday. We're taking one taught by Penny Simkin for couples planning an out-of-hospital birth. We are the only ones planning to birth at a birth center and not at home. It was mostly review for me, but it was very interesting for DH. We talked about positioning and how the baby navigates the pelvis to come out and she showed a video of a woman in labor and giving birth. It was fun to watch the other people in the class, who haven't seen a birth before, react.

I've also renewed my commitment to doing prenatal yoga. I'm taking a class Tuesdays and Thursdays. I took one back when I was about 19weeks, but have been so busy with traveling and dealing with my mom and the holidays that I just didn't make it back. Being officially in the 3rd trimester now, if I'm going to do it, I have to make it a priority. So, I am.

Now, I need to get on the find-a-doula ball. ASAP.

Tonight, I wrote my Senators. If you haven't heard about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, check out the Handmade Toy Alliance website. In a nutshell, the CPSIA was enacted in response to the consumer wrath over all of the recent recalls of children's toys found to have unacceptably high levels of lead. Among other things, it requires third-party testing of all goods aimed at children under the age of 12 for chemicals such as lead and phlalates. Sounds good, right? I'm against my kids being exposed to lead and phlatates (I'm also against Bisphenol A, but that's another post), who wouldn't be?

The problem is that the act does not provide any provisions or exemptions for small businesses and crafters and, as currently stated, requires testing of each item produced. I read one blog (I can't find the darn link now) that said one work at home mom got estimates on testing the onesies she embroiders and it was something like $600 per onesie. What does this mean? It means all that cool kids stuff you've been eyeballing at Etsy will disappear. Work at home moms who produce things like baby carriers, cloth diapers, and baby blankets will have to close up shop, or only sell within state lines (bye, bye internet sales!). What about small US toy makers that produce, and have produced for years, toys that are produced using natural, non-toxic materials? Too bad, they also have to submit to the prohibitely expensive testing.

As you will see in my letter, I'm not against the testing and protecting kids, just the way the CPSIA requires that the testing be done. Read on!

Dear Senator Murray,

I am writing in regards to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). As a consumer and soon-to-be mom, I was thrilled to see congress take action to protect the nation's children from dangerous chemicals and substances found in toys, clothes, and other consumer goods aimed at children.

Unfortunately, the consequences of the CPSIA's third-party testing requirement on small businesses are devastating, unacceptable, and unnecessary. Requiring unit-based testing and labeling unfairly favors large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy and will have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels. The cost of testing for small businesses will be prohibitively expensive and has lead to many to refer to February 10th, 2009, the date by which manufacturers must be in compliance, as National Bankruptcy Day. By driving these small crafters and companies out of business, not only does the CPSIA strike another blow in an already fragile US economy, it serves to decrease consumer choice and inhibit free enterprise. The irony of this law should be clear: those large manufacturer's, many of whom outsourced manufacturing to countries with fewer regulations and controls such as China, whose products and practices the CPSIA was meant to address, will benefit from decreased competition. Meanwhile, many small companies who have long upheld and surpassed consumer safety and environmental standards, while keeping jobs in the US, will be crushed under the weight of this legislation. There has to be a better way-- and there is.

As a registered voter in Washington state, I expect you to take action to ensure that appropriate changes and exemptions are made to the CPSIA that protect small businesses, while continuing to protect children. Suggestions, include allowing materials-based certification instead of unit-based certification, which would make it possible for crafters and small businesses to rely on certifications from their materials suppliers instead of repeating tests multiple times for each product made from those materials. The National Association of Manufacturers has presented a petition to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, proposing changes to the CPSIA, including the above, that are endorsed by organizations such as The Handmade Toy Alliance. I urge you to review and support the petition.

Finally, I would like to be clear that the above letter is not a canned letter taken from some advocacy site. This issue is one that I, as a private citizen and consumer, have taken the time to research and write you, as well as Senator Cantwell, about. I know that generally, emails are not as highly regarded as physical letters, in this case I chose to send this letter by email not out of convenience, but because this is a pressing issue requiring a timely response.

Thank you for your time and attention to this issue.

Sincerely,
(my name here)

As an aside, already at least one European toy maker has announced intentions to pull out of the US toy market due to cost concerns and because the of US regulations. They are already in compliance with the European standards and the costs for separate testing for the US would make the toys too expnsive to be competitive in the market.