Readiness Update

We're long overdue for an update, but you won't get anything profound. It's all bullets around here.

• First, Gail is having super pumping success. She is a total milk machine. She cleared 5 ounces pumping yesterday and gets a few mL more every day. See the graph above of her output since day 2 of pumping. It may not be the exponential growth in supply she was hoping for, but that would have been a bit much. We're perfectly happy with some nice solid linear growth. We already have a freezer stash and we don't even have an infant yet. Those straight moms are going to hate me...
• We had a goal of getting a (much reduced) "No really, this has to be done before the baby" list done by Friday, and we succeeded. We actually set up the crib and changing table, washed clothes and diapers, and decided that we didn't actually need to have that garage sale.
  
• The hospital bag is actually finally packed, despite many false starts and a giant meltdown on both of our parts once it was actually ready to go. Something about packing the bag meant this was really happening, both in terms of birthing at a hospital, and in terms of the "wait-a-second-we-really-are-having-a-baby-%^&(*&^" realization.
  
• Constant monitoring of this kiddo continues to show that he is A-OK in there. A fancy ultrasound last week and the (perhaps more accurate) estimate of our midwife have put my worries that the baby might be too small to rest.
• Our midwife, and the doula we had lined up for home (who know each other and have worked together before) are totally up for a trip to the hospital, so we'll still have much of the birth support we hoped for. I'm trying not to worry about what the nurses will think when we show up with extra people (though at least we won't have extra family around cluttering up the room and misbehaving).
  
• We're hopeful that the extra support helps Gail do what she needs to take care of herself during the birth (like, say, eating and maybe even sleeping). We've been warned by our vast array of care-providers to be prepared for a long haul, and during Leigh's birth (itself a very long haul) I did not do a good job of taking care of myself, partially because we should have lined up more support. Gail's job has gotten harder now that we've moved locations.
• Grandma is on deck for Leigh duty while we're busy birthing. She's been hosting Leigh overnight one night a week for the last month or so (and has done a couple 48 hour stretches in the past) so they should be good to go. (Yes, we do know how lucky we are).