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Belly Picture – Week 39

We went to the doctor this past week (38 weeks and 4 days), and the doctor said things are looking good! Wonderful amniotic fluid, baby’s weight looks good (41st percentile; approx 7 pounds but the estimates usually run a little high), and everything looks great on the ultrasound.

The ultrasound technician at our doctor’s office absolutely loves her job, and you can tell. She gets so excited when she gets a good picture of the baby, and she prints it out right away for us. This week, the baby was already in the head-down position, so the technician was having a hard time getting a good 2-D shot. She seemed defeated, but then she pulled out the 4-D wand and gave us a few pics.

I always think the 4-D ultrasounds are really creepy, so I wasn’t quite prepared to see puffy little Peter lips on the giant, flat screen, 52″ ultrasound TV.

The 4-D ultrasounds have lots of amniotic fluid and blobs floating by, which make it even weirder as you are watching. I imagine she wasn’t too happy with the technician poking and prodding around for 20 minutes. We will see if she still looks grumpy after birth :). 

39 Weeks

During the physical part of the exam, the doctor said softening is starting but no dilation. Her prediction is a late baby, so we will just see what happens! She wants us to prove her wrong, but we are going to discuss a possible induction if we make it to the appointment this Thursday, the 20th. I would be happy with a December 20th or 21st baby, but she may end up being a late-comer. We’ll just wait and see!

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37 Weeks and 4 Days

Well, sleep is getting difficult. Twice this week I woke up waaaay before my alarm went off and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. My mind just goes crazy with weird thoughts. I am not actively worrying or thinking about something, but as soon as I fall asleep, my mind decides to fixate on something. Anything really. If I watched it on TV before bed, I dream about it.

This week’s doctor appointment was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing, I guess. The baby’s heartbeat was 138 (normal). I didn’t gain any weight this week, but I honestly think it’s because my stomach feels more squished this week. The doctor asked me if I was having any symptoms or complaints this week, and I told her, “No, it’s been a pretty bland week for pregnancy.” She thought this was really funny. *shrug*

This week has been an abusive week for my hips though. It feels like she is pummeling me from the inside. I would swear sometimes she is trying to punch her way out.

I have also noticed an increase in my fatigue. I get exhausted sooo easily. If I get up and walk into another room, I feel like I carried a 200 pound man on my back. Needless to say, I have been spending an increasing amount of time on the couch. My heart beats a million beats a minute from just sitting. It’s crazy!

Hiccups are still happening daily. Also, I think my child is part golden retriever. Every so often I feel this spastic shaking inside my stomach, and it feels like the movement a dog makes when they scratch their ear really fast. Sometimes I think it’s the dog on the couch or on the bed, but then I realize it’s coming from inside my body. I have no idea what’s going on in there.

We got new carpet! It is so nice and soft…and hopefully not as much of a dog hair magnet as the crappy carpet we had before. Bonus: this carpet is not 20 years old AND is not green, so these are giant pluses.

We went to a parenting class this week, and it was pretty useful. A pediatrician was there, and she answered all of the questions everyone had. We also got a fancy poster of baby poop. Peter couldn’t look at it. Ha.

I was talking to a friend today on Facebook. We are both actually due on December 23rd, so it’s nice to compare stories. I can’t tell you how hilarious and comforting it is to hear that someone else doesn’t realize they have crumbs and stains on their clothes. These boobs…they hide the view of all the junk that lands on the belly.

I’ve been trying to wrap all of the Christmas gifts this week. It has been slow going, since I get tired after wrapping 4 gifts. Wrapping involves lots of leaning and stretching. Tough stuff!

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9 Months — AHH!

We had our 36-week doctor appointment on Wednesday. From here on out, this means doctor visits are weekly, and pelvic exams come back into the picture — huzzah!

The baby’s heartbeat was 152, which is pretty much where it’s been hanging around lately. My blood pressure was good, so these swollen legs are just a result of normal water retention.

I’ve been sneaking a peek at my records every time I go to the doctor because I am always curious what the “fundal height” is that week. Just in case you don’t know, the fundal height is the way they measure your uterus (aka stomach in my opinion) to see how the baby’s growth is. The doctor hasn’t told me anything about the baby’s size, but I saw that my fundal height has been matching my number of weeks since sometime in the 2nd trimester. If you are 36 weeks, they expect you to measure 36 cm. So yay!

No dilating going yet, which is fiiiiiine by me. The baby was in head-down position at the appointment, so we’ll see how much she wiggles each week and changes position.

My doctor asked us to make a Birth Plan, which I never wanted to make because I am not that high maintenance…but after that crazy birthing class, I realized the things I do NOT want. No mirrors. No 10 person party in the delivery room.

I’m pretty open to my doctor’s recommendations though. I think she’s a smart woman. She’s educated. She went to school for this (several times). She delivered thousands of babies. I have never done this and have never taken a medical class before. I value her opinions and her expertise in this area. With that being said…if you are reading and thinking that Peter and I might make poor or uninformed choices, please don’t worry. We are educated people also, and you will be able to make all of the decisions you’d like for your own labor and delivery.

For the past 2 days, I’ve noticed that my lower back has been popping a lot. I think the relaxin hormone is kicking in again — it’s never fun. My pelvis has returned to being pretty sore, and now that my lower back is feeling achy, my body thinks it’s 92 years old.

I am pretty bad at drinking water just for the heck of it. I usually drink when I eat, so I’ve been trying to make myself drink more. I’m not sure if that’s why peeing in the middle of the night has increased or if it’s all of this internal pressure going on.

This stage of pregnancy is pretty uncomfortable, but even with that being said, I don’t feel horribly unlike my normal self. I just miss being able to get off the couch without assistance :). Wiping my woman parts on the toilet is also pretty hilarious.

There is still a lot to do. We need to install the car seat, pick a pediatrician, actually do one GOOD cleaning of the entire house, hope that the new hallway carpet gets installed this week or sooner, make a stock pile of sugar glider food, etc. I’d say for the most part we have all of the baby equipment and stuff we need. It’s just a matter of making sure we do all of the things that probably won’t get done again for months.

Today is Christmas Decorating and Hospital Bag Day.

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Childbirth Prep Course

*Warning: Contains graphic information and a lot of use of the word “vagina.”

Peter and I had our Childbirth Prep Class last weekend. We opted for the 8-hour weekend course instead of the 4-day event during the workweek.

When we arrived, we were the only couple there for a while, but they slowly started trickling in. Soon our room was filled with 9 other couples.

We had to start by introducing ourselves, and everyone said their name, due date, doctor’s name, and any other little tidbits of information we wanted to provide. I was surprised to hear that 8 of the 10 couples were due after me because I thought everyone looked like they were going to pop any minute now. Shh — never tell them I said that!

Everyone seemed pretty normal, and most of their stories made us laugh because we could relate. So naturally, I thought this was going to be a pretty mild 8-hour day.

As a side note, I would like to state for the record that I am now terrified of child birth. I have seen The Joy of Life video in health class before, watched A Baby Story on TV, and have heard horror stories about childbirth from just about every mom I’ve ever met…but when you know that childbirth is inevitable, it takes on a whole new scare factor.

The little “intensity” — this is another word for “pain” — charts made me want to cry. Here is my interpretation of the Stages of Labor charts we saw.

So with all of that being said…lunch was somewhat silent as I sat there and ate my chicken sandwich in shock.
After showing us 15-or-so charts, we got to watch “the real thing” as depicted by 3 “real” women. I don’t know where you get 3 women who are willing to allow someone else to film their childbirth and their hoohaw for the world to see…but I am going to guess it’s at a hippie commune where women go into labor just because “they love how great it feels! Get me a mirror! I can’t get enough of this stuff!”
In the middle of this 3-D animated DVD complete with actual birthing scenes, the guy next to me starts asking questions. First he asks about the importance of a birthing tub. “Could I just put my wife into a hot tub?” he asks. Immediately the instructor says no because of public water that could be infected with germs. “What if it’s my hot tub?” Her answer is still no due to temperature. “What if I turn the temperature down?” She says, “Let me put it to you this way, sir…your wife probably weighs 150+ pounds right now. You are not going to get a Stage 1 pregnant women into a hot tub safely and then get her out when she reaches stage 2 or 3.” He just didn’t get it.
The video also referenced the “ring of fire.” This was very concerning to the guy next to me. “Um, is there anything I could put in there to help…you know…stretch it out and get it ready for childbirth?” 
HOLY CRAP! DID HE JUST ASK IF HE COULD GAUGE HIS WIFE’S VAGINA? 
Yes. Yes, he did folks. The instructor very quickly said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Sir, please understand that this process has been happening for thousands upon thousands of years. A woman’s body knows how to get ready for childbirth. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE INSERT THINGS INTO HER VAGINA!” The most disturbing part was how he turned to his wife after this comment and said how he didn’t agree; he really thinks they need to start getting it ready by stretching it out. 
Finally, the instructor talked about how sometimes a woman can accidentally poop during all of this pushing. She was really trying to lessen the fear that women have of this possibility by explaining that a woman’s body generally starts shutting down the digestive system a few days before labor, so there is less “stuff” in there. I think she referred to labor poop as “little deer pellets.” 

Well, this guy just wasn’t having it. This absolutely disgusted him, so he raised his hand. “Hear me out…what if…we took some sort of tube…and shoved it up there, so it would just whisk the poop away?” A POOP TUBE.

Once again, the instructor had to explain that he was really focusing on the wrong thing. I think he was imagining an active “spray” that just continued during the whole pushing phase.

I think the best part of the day was how everyone quickly turned and looked at the guy each time he raised his hand. And his wife…she didn’t seem phased by his questions. That was the weirdest part.
All-in-all…we laughed, I cried due to my new-found knowledge of this inevitable doom, and we have a funny story to tell you. 
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You’ll Poke Your Eye Out

On Thursday night, I was working at the dining room table…when all of a sudden, Lennon decided to go into super stealth mode toward the stairs. Her ears perked up, and she ran with a purpose toward the steps.

So I looked over and saw a little furry body hopping down the stairs. It was Tubby, the sugar glider. This sugar glider loves to get out and test his fate.

Tubby (on the left)  
Tubby before his diet

I ran to the steps and grabbed Tubby, yelling to Peter to grab Lennon, and at this same time, Lennon jumps toward my hands, scaring Tubby…so Tubby proceeds to jump on my face. Yes, face.

And wouldn’t you know that I haven’t clipped his dagger nails in a few months, even though I keep telling myself, “I really need to clip his nails.” Just in case you don’t know what their feet look like, here is a great pic I found online; it really showcases the talons of death well.

Where do his nails land, you ask? IN MY EYE. Like actually ON MY EYEBALL. At this point, I don’t want to pull him off my face, since his nails are like little hooks, so I just have to wait until he moves off of my eye. 
We called the eye doctor at 8:30 pm, hoping he had an answering service that could tell me what I should do. Luckily, my wonderful eye doctor was on call, and he called in some eye antibiotic gel that night. So I saw in Rite Aid with one eye closed — I could’t really open it because it would just start pouring tears down my face.
My watery eye 🙁
Me moaning on the night of “the incident”
My eye doctor was able to see me first thing the next morning and gave me more antibiotic gel. So yea… for about 1.5 days, it was almost impossible to open my eye. Luckily, all is healing well, and I don’t look like a cyclops anymore. However, I do have this awesome M-shaped scratch in the middle of my cornea. Wee!
The day after…disregard my messy kitchen.
It has been cleaned since then.

My favorite part of this story is how both the lady at Rite Aid and the nurse at the eye doctor’s office both looked at my file and said, “Happy Birthday!!” Hahaha! For some reason, this makes me laugh :).

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Busy, busy!

Over the past few weeks, we have been super busy — not even doing baby-related things necessarily.

This week was my brother’s wedding, so there was a lot to do in preparation for the wedding day, and work has been crazy because of a deadline.

 The wedding was yesterday, so I am super exhausted. I don’t know how Peter managed to do it, but he stained the whole backyard’s fence today. What a champ! 🙂  We are also trying to get new carpets installed on our stairways before the baby comes. We’ll see if this was a bad choice or not…maybe it will force me into cleaning-mode. I haven’t really gotten there yet. I think it’s because of being out of breath a lot.

Jeanne has been bugging me for belly pictures. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

Almost 34 weeks – Jerry’s Wedding Rehearsal

Not great but I was tired of posing. Every picture was horrible.
33.5 weeks

Had a doctor visit this week, which went well. The baby’s heartbeat was 148. We have one more 2-week appointment, then after that, the appointments will be every week. Yikes!

Next weekend is our birthing class. I’m not actually looking forward to that. It scares me to be in a room filled with pregnant ladies. The last thing I want to hear is another breastfeeding story. HA! 🙂

In other news, Jerry and Rachel’s wedding was beautiful. The weather was perfect, and everyone had a great time. Even though my brother was a ball of nerves, I think he survived just fine :). Welcome to the family, Rachel!

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Baby Shower

Apparently Peter was in on the surprise this past weekend…
We got a phone call on Saturday from Peter’s mom telling us that she needed someone to come jump her car at church. We hopped in the car and drove over to meet her. Peter told me to get out and go find her inside the building, and I was thinking, “Oh my goodness…I’ve complained about how my hips hurt so bad all day, and now you want me to search the building?” 
I waddled my way to the door and noticed about 10 heads bobbing around inside, and then the lights went out. This made me laugh out loud because I knew what was happening at this point. There looked to be about 20-30 people, but it was hard to see them over the mountain of gifts! What an awesome group of family and friends we have! 
I really liked that Peter was able to be there for all of the fun. I sometimes feel bad, because everyone asks me how I am feeling and how I am doing, so it was nice to have Peter be a part of the attention. He got to socialize with family and friends, eat like a horse, and open baby gifts like a pro. He even participated in the wear-a-hat-out-of-ribbons tradition. What a good sport!

When we got home, it was slightly overwhelming to see everything in our dining room. Our dogs were going crazy sniffing inside each bag. Lennon quickly found the toys and made sure to pull them out of every bag she could find. We actually had to build the playpen so we would have a place to put all of the bags for safe-keeping.
Peter was excited that he got all of the tech-savvy things he put on the registry. He immediately went to town building things and playing with the technology.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of this special day for us! We had a great time and are looking forward to getting the baby’s room in order.
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Posters and Turnips

I made a post a while ago about some posters that I was thinking of printing. I decided to go ahead and get those puppies printed. I am pretty happy with the way they came out, too! Disregard the price tag stickers on the picture frames.
It was much cheaper to go to the local camera store and have these 11X14s printed as matte pictures rather than having them printed at Kinko’s as posters — $5 each versus $38.95 each. The picture frames were $7.99 from Garden Ridge, and we spray painted them white to match with the curtains and white trim. Yahoo! Still cheaper than similar things I’ve found online like this.
Turnips Fries – (before baking)
On the eating front, we always get turnips from our local Farmer’s Market and then have no idea what to do with them. Peter is always determined to take the vegetables I don’t like and turn them into something tasty. It just wasn’t happening with turnips…until I found a recipe for turnip fries! Yes, fries. When you eat them while they are hot, they are pretty convincing as French fries. I would highly recommend them if you are curious or needing something to do with turnips.

Turnip Fries Recipe:
4-5 turnips
2 tbsp of vegetable oil or olive oil
1/3 cup of parmesan cheese (the kind in the green can)
1 tsp of onion powder
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chives (optional)
sprinkle of ground pepper (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wash turnips and then cut into “steak fries.”
3. In a bowl, pour oil and mix with turnips. All fries should have a light covering.
4. Add in cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, chives, and pepper.
5. Toss all fries, so they are covered in the mixture from step 3.
6. Spray a sheet with cooking spray and spread fries onto sheet evenly.
7. Cook for 20 minutes.
8. Eat soon after (–I like them while they are still hot) and enjoy!

Turnips have less calories than potatoes.
Turnips have less carbohydrates than potatoes.
Turnips are higher in calcium.

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How Do You Do, Third Trimester?

Today marks the beginning of the third trimester. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. Everyone says the second trimester is the best, because your energy has returned, and you’re not that big that you can’t move or breathe. I’m starting to feel the weight of my belly lately. I know I may not look that big, but an extra 15 pounds can really make a lot of difference when it’s in the middle of your body!

My legs are still killing me in the middle of the night. It is really quite pathetic…. Trying to put pants on in the morning is probably comedic relief for Peter. Just lifting my leg high enough to put it into a pant leg is torture, so there is lots of moaning and groaning. Luckily the lower back pain has subsided (for now), so I am crossing my fingers that I might have a few weeks without this stupid leg pain, too.

Peter and I bought some white curtain’s for the baby’s room this weekend and hung them up with a new curtain rod. They look wrinkly for now, but I think I am going to put the word out there that I’d really like a fabric steamer for my birthday :).

If you are easily offended stop reading now! While we were hanging up the curtains, I sneezed and peed a little. It was the first time that happened, and it made me laugh really hard. Peter thought it was funny, too. I guess I should carry an extra pair of underwear with me now — especially if this becomes a daily occurrence. *Crossing fingers — please don’t let this be a daily occurrence.*

My little owl lamp arrived in the mail, and it is perfect for the room! It lets off just enough light that changing diapers will be fine, but it’s not too much light.

This weekend we went to visit some friends down in NC, and we had a great time. It’s so nice to see them being successful with their pizza business. The place seems really popular, and the food is delicious! If you are ever in the OBX, stop by Pizza Stop. Yum!

Also, my grand-mom and I went to Panera to pick up some pastries, and I grabbed a Pumpkin Spice Latte while we were there (decaf). It was pretty good!! I would rate it higher than 7-11 lattes and somewhere below the Starbucks ones…but totally good enough! I highly recommend trying it. They also have delicious pumpkin muffins if you are a pumpkin-lover, which I am.