31 week OB appointment

I saw the doctor today for my 31 week checkup. Baby is doing fine. Her heartbeat was in the 150s. The doctor felt my stomach and told me that her head is face down already and showed me where I could feel her butt sticking out. I feel it, but there is no way I can tell that it's her butt. :) Just by feeling my belly the doc told me that she weighs about 4.5 pounds and said that is right on track. To me, that seems like a lot for only 31 weeks.

Anyway, baby is doing great! So, we're all happy.

31 weeks right now!

9 more weeks until my due date.

Baby is probably weighing in just over 3 pounds now and heading for a growth spurt.

I just found out that she's opening and closing her eyes and knows the difference between light and dark. Crazy!

Her brain is also able to start forming memories now. I just read an article that I need to start reading the same story to her twice a day. Then when she's born, this story will be familiar to her. Studies have shown that if I read this story to her when she's fussy it should calm her down. Does anyone have any suggestions on the story? Something that won't get tiresome for mom? Maybe something from Dr. Suess?

A future swimmer, runner or soccer player

This baby sure can kick. At least twice so far I've been minding my own business only to be kicked or elbowed hard enough for me to say a loud "OUCH". Will is convinced she'll be an avid swimmer. I, on the other hand, hope she wants to take after mom and become a runner. But by the way she moves around, I think we're going to have to settle for a soccer player.

Regardless, it's some much fun to rest my hands on my belly while she moves around and try to guess what boby part I'm feeling. I also like to "watch" my stomach move after I've had something to eat or drink. Will is still amazed everytime he feels her move.

Update on Baby Alexander and Mommy & Daddy.

This baby is growing for sure. According to all the books and the websites that I read, she's probably around 2.5 pounds right now and 15 inches long. If you ask my stomach and my bladder...they would probably say that she weighs in at a whopping 25 pounds. :) Not only to I feel huge, but I am officially walking and getting out of chairs like a pregnant lady.

On Wednesday I had an OB appointment. The baby is measuring ok and her heartbeat sounded good too. I'm going to the doctor every 2 weeks now. We're definitely in the home stretch now.

Will and I started our birthing class on Monday. It was great. I'm really going to enjoy them. There are 6 other couples in our class who are all first time parents like us. It's reassuring to hear that we all have the same concerns. Although most of the other couples have decided on a name by now! (EEK)

I really like the instructor too. She's been teaching the class for 24 years and is also a lactation consulatant at our hospital. I ran into her on Tuesday at the dog park with Sadie and we had a chance to chat and get to know each other a bit.

During the first part of the class, she showed us medical poster boards of the inside of a non-pregnant woman. Then she showed us views of 25, 29 and 36 weeks pregnant. We got to see how the baby grows and pushes all of a females body part up into her chest and "out of the way". And how the baby sits right on the bladder. Will looked at me and said, "I feel so bad for you".

The second part of the class was very relaxing. We gave each other massages on the floor in an effort to try to "learn" to relax. According to our instructor, Martha, Will needs to perfect the massage so he can keep me calm during labor. :) Trust me, he's a pro at it. :) Next week we learn our first breathing technique. Will is going to be out of town so I will be attending by myself.

It's hard to believe that in 10 weeks we will meet our daughter. I can't wait!!!

A sweet tooth for my growing appetite

Hmmm....so I'm beginning to think the old wives tale of having a sweet tooth if you're pregnant with a girl is true! I've definitely got a HUGE sweet tooth. Some of these cravings have led me to the purchase and consume the following (of course, none were consumed in less than 2 sittings (and I'm talking about the strawberries...)

1) a box of 12 Dunkin Donuts at 3 in the afternoon
2) a chocolate fudge ice cream cake with raspberry filling from Cold Stone Creamery (for Valentine's Day)
3) a dozen white, dark and milk chocolate dipped extra-large strawberries (also for Valentine's Day)
4) a bag of mini York Peppermint Patties.
5) Nestle ice cream bars (lite version)

And, I'm sure there are a few more that I have failed to recall at this point. :)

My photo at 7 months

OK - 28 weeks and 1 very long day intothe pregnancy. :) Here's what I look like right now. Give me another few weeks and I just might pop!!!

Not sure if I'll be able to fit into this tank top for my next photo. It has definitely reached full stretch capacity. It was beginning to cut off my circulation. hehehe

Just for kicks....take a look at my photo when I was 6 weeks.

Finally, the 3rd trimester!

Yea!!! I've reached the third trimester. I'm 28 weeks pregnant now and beginning the home stretch. We start our birthing class on Monday night. The class will held at the hospital and last for 6 weeks. Then we'll be really ready to have the baby, wink wink!!

Speaking of the baby, she probably weighs just over 2 pounds now and is between 14 and 15 inches long. I feel her moving all the time - especially when I'm relaxing at night around 8:30. She's quite a mover!

I'm really starting to go into panic mode...about just about everything and anything. :) Will the nursery be ready in time? Will I have a normal delivery? Is the baby ok? Is the throbbing pain that I constantly feel in my pubic area normal (yes, it is - it's my joints loosening and widening). Will I ever be able to hoist myself off of the couch without using the armrest? Did I really just eat more that Will for dinner (how is that possible?)? All very important questions!

The crib has been put together, I think Will is going paint this weekend and we'll be ordering the rest of the furniture in a week. So, the nursery is moving along quite nicely. Once the room is painted, I'll post a photo.

The doctors....

I had a doctor appointment earlier this week. It was uneventful. :) My belly is measuring fine and the baby's heartrate was in the 150s. I had a chance to meet with the final OB that works in the office. Like the others I didn't really care for her because she didn't really take the chance to get to know me at all. I'm just a chart to her.

So here's the tally on the doctors who could deliver our baby:
Dr. Rex Waterbury - older man, uninterested bedside manner, very blunt.
Dr. Jeannie Hilton - young woman, impersonal bedside manner, robot-like (but I've only met her once)
Dr. Renna Talreja - very young woman, looks fresh out of school to me. Hard to tell her bedside manner, but she definitely didn't ask me anything about how I'm feeling, etc...
Dr. Nancy Bradbury - by far the best - young woman, by far the best bedside manner, takes the most time with me as a patient. I hope she's working the day/night that I deliver.

Here's an update on our little one:
The baby weighs almost 2 pounds and is gaining ounces each week. She's probably around 14 inches from head to heels. She learning to practice how to breathe and her lungs are inhaling amniotic fluid. She won't get her first real breath until she's born.

Overwhelming

Shopping for baby items is definitely overwhelming. Especially the cribs! Not to mention the car seat combo/stroller/travel systems out there right now. Or you can get a convertible infant/toddler/booster seat! Huh??

Will and I spent 2 and 1/2 hours at Babies R Us yesterday just really looking around and test driving out some items that we'll need. We started our registry...but are nowhere near having all the items on the list that we actually need. I stood in front of the pacifiers trying to decided if I should get a round nipple or an orthodontic nipple...does it really matter? I have no idea.

Luckily, I have some really good friends who have already gone through it and they have already passed a lot of advice my way....but I have a feeling I'll be calling them all really soon to get another reality check.

And to top it all off, I had a dream last night that at my next doctor appointment, the doctor tells me that they made a mistake and that I'm really having a boy. Geez...!

Theme for the nursery

So, yesterday I bought the theme for our nursery. Here's a picture. It's called Lollipop from Cocalo (same makers of Osh Kosh). I love the fact that it's not completely pink. In fact, it's a rainbow of color. Purple, green, yellow, pink and blue. How fun!!!



I was able to get the bedding, the lamp shade, the crib mobile, the wall border, the diaper stacker, the valance and the wall hangings so we're SET. Can't wait to make some progress in the room with paint and the wall border. I'll post pictures of our progress....

Photo at 23 weeks

Tomorrow I will be 23 weeks pregnant or starting my 6th month. Here's a picture of me -- getting bigger! I've gained about 22 pounds to date.

I remember only a few weeks ago I was really hoping that I would start showing and looking like I was pregnant. Well, can I eat my words? Don't get me wrong, I do love being pregnant, but um.....what is happening to my body? My belly button looks like it's going to turn into an outie soon! I've outgrown 2 bra sizes! Even my arms are getting bigger!

I finally got to see her face!

This week I had my third ultrasound and finally had a chance to see my little girl's face. As you can see from the photos, she really enjoys sucking her thumb and keeping her hand up near her face, mostly covering it. :)

She weighs just over a pound. She's just now starting to put fat on her body and she moves constantly! It's such an amazing feeling. I love knowing that she's in there from her pokes and prods.

Check out these awesome pictures. The last 2 are 4D images.

	This is a profile shot of her with her hand near her mouth.
	Another profile shot, but her hand is moving up her face.
	Hands covering her eyes.
	Her foot. This is the image that I mentioned in a previous post.
	This is one of the 4D images. This is the front of her body and face. She's got her hand over her face.
	This is THE COOLEST one if you ask me. It's her profile. Her head has not fused together at all....but the red arrow is pointing to her forehead. The green one points to her nose. The blue one points to her lips. The purple one points to her chin. Do you see her???

22 week appointment

I had my 22 week appointment yesterday morning and again heard the heartbeat. 160 beats per minute.

I have a 3rd Ultrasound scheduled for Friday to finally get another chance to see this baby's face. During the first 2 ultrasounds, she was face down and didn't want to move at all to give us a peak. So hopefully we'll get lucky this time.

Next month I will start going to the OB for a check up every 2 weeks - which in theory means we're getting closer to baby time.

Here's pictures of us at Christmas and our new adolescent puppy/dog.

Baby movement

Um....last week I was worried that I wasn't feeling a whole lot of movement, but this week (week 22) I'm feeling her move all the time. On Sunday night, Will had his hand on my belly for a while and felt her move too! He got jabbed a little bit. He seemed completely surprised and a little stunned.

So, from now until week 28 I should be feeling tons of movement from the baby. She definitely has her acrobatics on a schedule. She's usually moving around 11 am, 2 pm and she's always moving fast and furious in the evening time - around 9 or 10 at night. It's a great way to unwind from the day.

A boy or a girl??? Yes, we found out!

We're having a GIRL!!!! Yes, at first we weren't going to find out, but when it came down to the last minute we decided that we would pretend that we weren't finding out the sex and that we could surprise our families at Christmas with the sex of the baby!

So, we found out on December 13th. Deep down I always thought we would have a little girl, but Will had convinced me otherwise. I think we were both shocked to find out the opposite. We had our boy name picked out, but we're still totally stumped on a girls name.

For the Christmas reveal I bought 3 pounds of pink Jelly Bellys and filled small pink mesh bags for each member of our family which they were instructed not to open until after our mom's opened up a larger present. (I've got about a pound of Jelly Belly's left - eek we'll be eating them forever!) For the larger present - I tried out my "crafting" skills and made/decorated from scratch a baby frame for my mom and Cynthia. Each theme was pink/purple, girly butterflies, flowers, pink bottles, etc... It was funny to see each of them open the frame and not notice that it read "It's a Girl" in pink letters across the top of the frame. It took each of them a few long seconds to figure it out. :)

Since I wasn't home for Christmas this year, my brother took the photos of my mom and dad opening the frame. Here's the sequence of photos of my mom...

	Opening the present.
	Oh how cute. Shirley made us a baby frame.
	No, wait! It's says she's having a girl! Oh....tears!
	Oh, Danny! Can you believe it??
	Mom calling me.

I thought those pictures were priceless. I hope baby girl finds them cute too.

Now we get to decorate our nursery. I can't wait to go shopping to see what's out there. Does anyone have any suggestions on nursery themes?

The Half Way Point

I'm almost 21 weeks pregnant. So as far as the timeline goes, I've reached the official 1/2 way mark. 20 weeks is 1/2 way because technically speaking, women are pregnant for 40 weeks....yes, that's actually closer to 10 months!

Will and I had an ultrasound last week only to discover that our little one seems very shy or dramatic. The baby was facing down and no matter how much the technician prodded and poked at my belly, the baby would not turn over completely so we didn't actually get to see the face. Instead, we got to see that the baby is sleeping with the arms held up to the face and hands covering the forehead as if exhaspirated. Here's what we did get a good glimpse at so far:

• An adorable foot (photo coming soon)
• 4 chambers of the heart beating (which were beautiful!!!)
• The tops of the ears sticking out
• A hand with the thumb stuck up in the sucking position

We're proud, doting parents for sure. We didn't get an accurate measurement of length since the baby was curled up in a ball. However, our baby weighed 10 ounces at the ultrasound last week and if my appetite is any indication, then we're going to have quite a big baby. Latey, I've been very hungry. Not to mention a bit emotional. I can basically cry just watching a commercial on TV. :)

Bending over - who knew it would be so hard?

Ok, this belly of mine is now preventing me from really being able to bend at the waist. And, I never realized how often I actually naturally bend at the waist. Here's just a few examples of my daily struggles....

1. In order to tie my tennis shoes, which I wear almost exclusively, I am forced to hike my entire leg up onto a dresser or the top of the bathtub! It's kind of funny.
2. How about trying to blow my hair dry with my head thrown over my body? That's now an exercise in itself. By the time my hair is dry I'm winded.
3. Getting a pot out of the bottom drawer of the oven/stove proves challenging.
4. When I feed the cats and put their food on the floor, I now do a fancy ballet move and kick back one of my legs so far that it and my body are parallel to the floor!
5. And forget about when I drop something. I either need to get down on my knees to pick it up or I have to call for Will to help me.

I'm not complaining. It's all definitely worth it, but I miss my waist!

Update on What's Happening to Baby

Keeping with the food measuring system: Baby is the size of a small banana or a zucchini - or about 8 inches long and weighs about 8 1/2 ounces.

The arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. Hair on the scalp is sprouting. The baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch.

Go baby go!!!

18 weeks picture

Well, as you can see, I'm definitely getting bigger. Here's my photo at 18 weeks. I'm starting to get lots of "advice" from women who can tell that I'm pregnant. It's a nice gesture, but I'm sure I'll be tired of receiving soon enough.

As of today, I am officially 19 weeks so the blog is falling a little behind. Chalk it up to the Holiday Party that Will and I hosted last Saturday night. We definitely had a great time, but I'm still trying to recover on my sleep. Our last guests stayed until 2:30 AM. I could barely keep my eyes open at the end of the night.

The weeks seem to be going faster now. I read recently that the baby is just now able to hear loud sounds outside of my body. In fact, the baby can get startled by a very loud sound at this point. So far the baby has been lulled by the sounds of my blood pumping and my organs working, but the ears are formed enough now to actually hear my voice, dad's voice and music... Yes, we'll be playing some formative Mozart for our child very soon. :)

I felt something

WOW!!! On the Saturday after Thanksgiving when I woke up, I felt a strange tingle - it was almost like butterflies fluttering around on my mid-left side.. Right away I wondered if it was the baby, but wasn't sure. Then it went away. On Sunday I felt it again when Will and I were walking through Target. Every few days last week I could feel that same feeling. Mostly on my left side and then it moved. I felt it right in the middle....so I KNOW it was the baby. The feeling was so slight I almost missed it. In the OB world, this feeling is called quickening.

I haven't felt it in a few days, but I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow - my 5 month appointment. Will and I will get to hear the heartbeat again. It's hard to believe that I'm already 5 months pregnant. In 2 weeks we'll be 1/2 way there.