36 weeks, 5 days

I had my midwife appointment today and not much has changed. Still not dilated, baby is still very low. I was actually relieved not to have any real progress since last week . . . after hearing that the baby is a little small, I want it to stay in for a bit and grow!

My belly went from measuring 33 cm last week to 34 cm this week, so it's great that it's growing at the appropriate rate. It's still little (should be almost 37 cm) but at least it's growing!

Our next ultrasound is Friday. They'll be checking the fluid to make sure that the right amount is still there, and checking the blood in the placenta to make sure it's still working perfectly. I'm not too worried--the baby is SO active that I feel like the placenta must be bringing it a lot of nutrients and oxygen. I keep trying to tell it to settle down, stop burning calories, and fatten up.
They'll also do a nonstress test . . . hooking me up to a monitor for 20 minutes to watch the baby's heartrate and activity level.

The baby is "smaller than normal"

Well, this came as a surprise, since we tend to have hefty babies in my family. But the ultrasound Friday showed that the baby is smaller than average(estimated to be about 5 lbs, 2 oz . . . in the 18th percentile). Everything was normal (movement, fluid levels, bloodflow, placenta) but the baby is just a little peanut.

We have to go for follow up ultrasounds for the next two Fridays, and this Friday will include a nonstress test (when they watch the baby's movement and heartrate for a while) and some other test that I've forgotten already.

Also, I'm going to have to cut back on work, for two reasons. The more active I am, the more calories I'm using and at this point I need to keep all of them to fatten up the baby. Also, if I'm on my feet less than it's less likely that I'll go into labor early, and we want the baby to stay on the inside for a bit longer.

So this is a little stressful bump in the road. I'm trying not to worry too much, and to eat a lot of ice cream :)

Spring "Break"

The "Break" in the title is in quotes because we have been so busy that it seems like a ridiculous title for this week. Pictures and more to come soon (hopefully).

This week has been an extravaganza of activity as we've been trying to get a million projects done before the baby arrives. Here's what we've been upto:

Saturday/Sunday: Dave had shows, I assembled baby gear: pack & play (where the baby will sleep initially), swing, bouncer seat, strollers.

Monday: trip to home depot, where we got big shelving things for our storage unit. Dave assembled the shelves and re-arranged the storage unit, I moved everything that we had dumped in the baby's closet into more permanent housing.

Tuesday: big shopping trips: Babies R Us to get the remaining stuff that we need, Container store to get organizing stuff for the baby's closet (among other things), Williams & Sonoma to finally spend the gift cards that we got from our wedding (yes, that was 2 years ago), etc. Once we were home Dave spent a few hours re-organizing the guest room, while I spent the same amount of time trying to figure out what's going where in the baby's room, and moving things into containers.

Wednesday: 36 week midwife appointment (details below) then off to a big grocery trip. I'm trying to cook and freeze some meals now so that we have easy options (besides take-out) after the baby arrives. Last night I made a meatloaf to freeze, Dave disassembled our big dresser and moved it into the baby's room.

Today: Cooking & freezing & organizing for me (and my mom), a show for Dave. Interviewing a pediatrician this afternoon.

The busy-ness will probably continue until we're back at work on Monday, since there are a million projects that could be done. Sometimes it just sounds like a cop-out when people say "Sorry I didn't return your email, I've been busy" . . . but really, I've been busy! Now that we've hit the 9 months pregnant mark I also feel a little achy and get tired too . . . so things take a bit longer than they really should.

Baby Update

I'm now (just about) 36 weeks pregnant. The baby probably weighs around 6 lbs (we may get a better idea of that at tomorrow's ultrasound). It's big and it moves a lot, it looks like my belly is a wave that rolls from side to side at night. The midwife visits are now every week, and include internal exams (yes, they're about as fun as they sound). For those who really want to know every detail, the info is below. If you can do without knowing the condition of my internal girl parts, stop reading here :)

Currently I'm not dilated at all, but things are soft (which means we're progressing). The baby's head is "low in the pelvis" so it's not going to flip over at this point. That's about it for this week.

More pictures

These pictures are from my Aunt Chris . . . their quality is way better than the pictures from my camera!

Things are really busy at work right now . . . parent-teacher conferences and lots of loose ends to tie up before spring break (next week) . . . so I may have time to write more next week, but this is it for now:

Saturday was our baby shower, which was fantastic :) My mom and sister did a really great job planning and organizing everything . . . and people were so generous! We got a ton of great stuff for the baby.

Today I'm not feeling too well (hopefully it's just allergies) so I'm not going to write too much, but I wanted to put these pictures up:

Aren't the decorations cute? They even put balloons on my chair to dress it up. (The shower was held at my mom & dad's house.)

Opening presents, with the help of my sister, Lisa (in blue):

My mom, sister & I (it's a little dark)

Shower Guests:

Cake (yum!)

My cousin Coleen brought brand-new baby Delainey (only 5 weeks old!).

Coleen, Delainey, Aunt Cathy, Jenn, Aunt Chris

Tina & me

Lisa, Mom, Emerson (6 months) and me

Mom, me & Helaine (Dave's mom)

All of the women on my dad's side (minues Caileigh, who was playing at home :)

So that's it for now. I feel like I should talk about everyone's presents, because they were so generous, but I guess that would be pretty boring for anyone reading this. I'll have to post pictures of the chart from the shower. Lisa made it (it's really well done) and everyone made guesses about the baby . . . everyone seems to think it's going to be big! (I agree.) I'll also have to get a picture of the bracelet that Lisa had made for me . . . it has my birthstone and Dave's and the baby's---so the baby better make its debut in May!

Boy's Names?

We are not in love with any boy's names. They seem to be too common, or too weird, or just "eh". If you have any suggestions or favorite boy's names, feel free to "add a comment" to this message with your ideas :)

32 weeks, 2 days

Baby Update

By now, the baby weighs somewhere around 4 lbs and is about 18ish inches long. It's continuing to gain somewhere around .5 lbs per week to fatten up :) Apparently it's movements are going to start slowing down because it's running out of room.

The baby is a lot more responsive now . . . I can wake it up by tapping on my belly and it will wiggle around a little bit. It's getting the hiccups once a day or every other day or so, which I don't like. I've always heard pregnant women say that they love it when the baby gets the hiccups . . . but to me it feels like any annoying muscle twitch. I really like it when the baby is moving around a lot (mostly at night, I think it will be a night owl) and I can watch my belly shift all over the place.

31 weeks

I really have nothing interesting to say. Here's a run-of-the-mill pregnancy update:

I'm starving and slightly afraid of gaining 30 lbs in the next 9 weeks. 2 weeks ago I nearly panicked when I gained 3 lbs in one week---but then the next week I lost nearly a pound, so it still evened out to about 1 lb per week. I know that I shouldn't worry about it, but I don't want to end up trying to deliver a 10 lb baby. (As of week 30 I had gained 25 ish lbs.)

Oh, by the way, I don't tell the little baby ticker at the top of the screen what to say. It just comes up automatically (in case you were wondering how I came up with these weekly quotes).

Baby Update

The baby is getting bigger and moving around like crazy (it's now around 17-18 inches long and weighs 3.5 lbs). It now gets the hiccups! I feel kind of bad for it . . . sometimes hiccups hurt. It gains about half a lb per week from now on, which is good because I'm starving. Seriously, I've been so hungry for the past couple of days. The only thing stopping me from eating constantly is the miserable heartburn that hits if I eat too much at a time.

I haven't really had any swelling (although my feet are magically bigger and I can only wear Crocs) or contractions yet (thankfully). However, the midwife is concerned about the long hours that I have at work. Apparently if you work more than 44 hours a week at an active job, the chances of premature labor increase. We work a little over 50 hours a week, so she said that I need to either cut back or lay down at work. It sounds silly, but I guess laying down helps fight gravity or something . . . so now I have to lay down at work from time to time :)

30 wks, 3 days

I'm really, really tired. I pulled my back on Thursday and I feel like a big, growing blob. No time to write more tonight, but here are some updated nursery pictures after our productive weekend:

We finished the border (and the long thing is a hanging growth chart)

Dave examining the crib box:

The glider (& a little of the ottoman):

The crib. I really love this crib. I would kind of like to sleep in it myself.

30 weeks along now--3/4 of the way there. I'll try to post more soon.

29 weeks

The nursery is still a work-in-progress. Today we put up one long wall of the border---borders are hard work! It's the type of job that takes a lot of planning and forethought---these are not Dave's strengths. There is no doubt in my mind that had I left him in there alone he would have wet the entire roll, started to put it up . . . realized it was crooked . . . stared out the window a minute to think of how to fix it . . . noticed that the window was dirty . . . left to get the toolkit to take the window down and clean it . . .etc. 2 hours later the room would have no windows, the border would be half hung up (crookedly) pand he would be re-arranging the toolbox alphabetically. (**if you think that I am exaggerating at all, please view the evidence at the end of this post**)

We had to wet a section, then try to smooth it on so that there were no air bubbles, it was in a straight line, and it wasn't pulling or tearing. Then we started again with another section. I think by the time we were done I must have looked like a junkie, complete with flushed skin, sweat & shaking hands. No pictures of me during this loveliness--but here's the section we put up, and one of Dave (who obviously wasn't as high strung about it as I was).

Oh, this is where we found Layla when we came home from getting coffee the other day. I resisted the urge to scream at her long enough to take this picture. This tendency might be interesting after the baby is born---do you think it will send mixed messages if I tell the baby to smile for the camera before yelling at it when it's in trouble?



And here's me and the big belly at 28.5 weeks. It's really getting basketball-esque and moving a lot. It's somewhat entertaining to watch my belly move around---like a big bowl of jello.

Baby Update

This week the baby weighs about 2.5 pounds and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. I have my next midwife appointment on Wednesday, and we were able to re-arrange the schedule at school a little bit so that Dave can come to this one too. He hasn't been to an appointment in a long time, so it will be really nice to have him join in. The appointment mostly consists of weighing and measuring me, so I feel a bit like a farm animal.

***This is what happens when Dave is in charge***

We are in the process of making 5 pans of brownies for the kids tomorrow (6th grade is taking a state math test). I'm in the living room writing this blog entry and he's in the kitchen, allegedly cutting up the first 3 trays of brownies so that we can use the pans again. I walk towards the kitchen, he is laughing so hard that he's in tears, and this is what I see:

I have no idea how he did this. He tried to lie about it but he keeps giggling. We may never know the truth.