New Links

I've added some internet links on the left to some sites that I've shared throughout the last year and some others that I've found interesting. If you don't remember what your baby prediction was, then check out the ExpectNet! link and you can look it up. I really hope that Jason has psychic powers even though I'm enjoying pregnancy. However, I think that either Lois or Claudia will win. Most of the people predicting an overdue baby guessed boy and I really, really hope they're wrong. I don't want to deal with the returns and I don't think my little boy should have to wear pink the whole first year just for my convenience.

I'm friends with the Mommy & Me Necklace business owner. You should check out her stuff if you're looking for a unique gift for showers or if you're planning to nurse.

I know some of you enjoyed listening to the Rockabye Baby! music. It's much cheaper to buy the songs from iTunes and put them on your iPod. Whenever I work on projects in the nursery, I always have one of those CDs playing. I have three or four.

The Baby Name Wizard is fun to play with because it shows the trends for names. Feel free to play around, but don't share your guesses with me anymore. We all know her name is Sally Minnie. Plus, I go psychotic at times so do you really want to test me? I'm bigger than you!

Pregnancy Week by Week just goes through what's going on each week. I suppose that would have been more helpful earlier on, but I know that at least a couple of my readers are preggers.

Contraction Master helps people time contractions without having to write it down with pen and paper. You just have to be able to press the spacebar. If Milo's guess is correct, then it might be my family's entertainment for when they come to visit December 29th and 30th.

Griddlers are the puzzles I talked about the other day. Sudoku and kakuro puzzles get a little old so it's fun to play something new.

Rocking Chair

The rocking chair is complete! I picked it up this afternoon. It's incredibly comfortable now and it's so much prettier. Jon did a great job with refinishing and the upholsterer did a great job also. Here are the before and after pictures.

Before:

It felt like I was sitting on straw and had stains.

After:

You can see the nursing stool in the second picture. My handy dad made it for me. The wood in both the chair and stool are really pretty in person (and match better than they look in the picture).

The nursery is ready so baby is welcome to come now.

Cervix of Steel

Apparently baby girl is showing no signs of wanting to come out anytime soon. I had my first internal exam today and baby was high and my cervix was completely closed. The doctor did a quick ultrasound to make sure that she's head down (she is), but she didn't look at the goods. Shucks! My blood pressure was a little high, but not high enough to worry the doctor. We don't need to talk about my weight. I had the Group B Strep swab test and will find out the results at next week's appointment. I hope I'm negative or I'll have to get antibiotics during delivery. According to fundal height, I'm measuring slightly ahead (37 weeks). That goes to show that all of those people that think I look too small are wrong because I'm slightly bigger than average right now. It's just that my extremely long torso is good at hiding baby.

Here are this week's belly pictures. I've included a bonus picture that shows how I don't fit into my shirt. It's an extra large, but it looks like a doll shirt.

A Funny

I was forwarded this email and I found it very amusing as a former teacher.

New York City Report Cards
These are actual comments made on students' report cards by teachers in the New York City public school system. All teachers were reprimanded but, boy, are these funny!

1. Since my last report, your child has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.
2. I would not allow this student to breed.
3. Your child has delusions of adequacy.
4. Your son is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.
5. Your son sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.
6. The student has a "full six-pack" but lacks the plastic thing to hold it all together.
7. This child has been working with glue too much.
8. When your daughter's IQ reaches 50, she should sell.
9. The gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming.
10. If this student were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week.
11. It's impossible to believe the sperm that created this child beat out 1,000,000 others.
12. The wheel is turning but the hamster is definitely dead.

T Minus One Month

I can't believe how close we are to the end/beginning! We're getting more excited every day. Last night we watched The Happiest Baby on the Block and we enjoyed looking at all the cute babies and learning techniques to get them to stop crying. I have a feeling that Jon is going to be really good at it since he's the person with more patience of the two of us.

I'm working on getting as much of the baby book done as I can before baby girl gets here. There are lots of spots for pictures so I got some pictures developed yesterday to use. I had a bit of an emotional/psychotic episode at Walmart yesterday, but I'm better now and I didn't go to jail. It's fun to fill out the story of us as individuals, how we met, our wedding day, how we found out we were expecting a baby, etc. I'm going to work on the book some more today since it's going to take a while to place all of the pictures. I'm feeling a little stress to get everything done and ready for baby. My next project will be to make some meals to freeze to put in our chest freezer for after baby gets here. I don't really love cooking so it's better to make stuff now than later or we'll be living on frozen pizzas, hot pockets, and takeout.

Fun Pictures

We took a few pregnancy pictures yesterday. Jon was very enthused.


On Saturday my mom made Euclid a new cover for his dog bed. We're hoping that we can get him to sleep on it so we have more room in our bed. Last night he laid on it for a while, but he ended up in bed with us eventually. However, he laid on the dog bed for the whole car trip home and didn't seem to want to get up when we got home because he was so comfortable.Thanks mom for doing such a great job! I really appreciate it. Here he is posing on the bed.

We had a great visit with family even though it was short. I'm scared to see how much I weigh after all the yummy food!

Cool Toy

If anyone wants to splurge on baby girl, then I found the coolest toy. Here's the link to a musical hot air balloon mobile. I bet she won't be here until after Christmas, but you never know.

Jon is on call today and it seems all of the pysch patients are having tooth pain. They're probably more lonely than anything. I hope he doesn't have to go in to the hospital in the middle of the night since we're leaving for FD at about 6:30am. Why anyone would go into the ER on a Friday night for something that could wait until the morning is beyond me.

We had fun putting up the Christmas decorations today. Every year Jon wears a Santa hat and I wear the tree skirt while we decorate and it was a challenge this year. I can't believe I could ever get that thing to tie around my waist. I couldn't even get the ends of the ties to touch, let alone make a knot. Maybe next year...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of you had a wonderful celebration! We had a great day even though we didn't get to see family. It was our first Thanksgiving without our families. We slept in, watched the Macy's parade, cooked and ate Cornish game hens together, watched the Packers beat the Lions, took a nap, and we're getting ready to watch a movie. This could quite possibly be the last holiday we celebrate without our child so we're making it as relaxing of a day as we can.

I'm not going to do any shopping on Black Friday since I have most of my holiday shopping done. I get really hostile towards strangers that get near my stomach so for the safety at all, I'd better stay out of the mall. We're going to decorate for Christmas tomorrow as long as Jon is able. He's on call, but he won't have to go in unless there's an emergency. I hope the decorations are all in good order because I took them down in a huff last year instead of my normal tender packing. Usually I keep them up until January 2nd or 3rd, but I don't think they made it past a couple of days after Christmas last year. With our new addition, we might not have the energy and time to take them down until late this year. What a difference a year makes.

Here are my 35 week belly pictures.

A Year of Blogging

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog. A lot has happened this year! I looked back at my old posts and it reminded me how lucky we are to have our little one on the way. Sure, we'll have our tough times ahead, but hopefully life will continue to be much more good than bad. It was fun to look back at the belly pictures too. I remember feeling really big at the beginning of the 2nd trimester, but I barely had anything going on at all. I loved looking back at the posts in April and May. I was filled with so much hope, anxiety, happiness, and fear all at once. I'm so glad that things are turning out the way they are. Soon enough, my other blog will be actively circulated and will be devoted totally to baby, but this blog will always be here for our infertility adventures.

Pain and Childbirth

I should have updated sooner, but I had a lazy day yesterday (other than grocery and Christmas shopping). I'm addicted to a game. Here's the website: http://www.igridd.com/pages/home. Whenever I play griddlers time flies. I'm going to try to stay away from the computer today though because my back hurts really bad. On Saturday I felt better than I had for a long time. I got lots of massaging at the childbirth class and I was able to walk without a limp. I was also able to go up stairs without using the handrail. On Sunday night I had the bad idea to lay on the floor and I wrenched my back when I twisted to get up. Euclid was a little helper and stood in front of me so I could support my head on his back until Jon helped me get up. He doesn't like it when his mommy hurts. Anyway, my back has hurt since. I feel like a nerve is being pinched. Nothing seems to help so I'm just trying to take it easy and tough it out.

Our childbirth class was great and definitely worth the time. We learned some relaxation and massage techniques for labor. My favorites were effleurage (light, circular rubbing on the sides of the belly), rolling pin massage to my back while on all fours, and another back technique that involves sitting in a chair and having your labor partner push against your knees (which feels surprisingly good since it kind of settles your back). We also learned some breathing techniques, but I felt like I was hyperventilating when I tried those. Our teacher went through the stages of labor, when to call the doctor, when to come to the hospital, how to time contractions, medical interventions that could happen, and what to expect after. We got a tour of labor and delivery and of the mommy/baby suites. Also, we learned what the different protocols are concerning episiotomy (not standard), pain management (up to the patient), breastfeeding (strongly supported), plus some other stuff that I can't think of right now. The rooms are really nice and have whirlpool tubs. The mommy/baby room has a double bed so Jon will have the option of sleeping there if he wants. Now, we just need to talk them into letting Euclid come to stay also. I'm feeling up to the challenge now that I can visualize where I'll be when baby decides it's safe to come out. I haven't had any competitive labor dreams either. You'd have to sleep more deeply than I have been in order to dream.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. We're going to cook Cornish game hens and start decorating for Christmas. Jon has the day off so we'll get to spend time together. We're still planning to head west on Saturday. I'll probably be pretty sore after the car ride, but I want to see my family. We're bringing my hospital bag and we installed the car seat so if I have to have the baby there, then we're prepared for it. At least it would be easy for family to visit then. However, I'd probably want to make a mad dash back home because of the chance of needing a NICU at that point. I can just imagine the caravan of my family all heading east. That would be memorable. We'd have two minivans, two Avalons, and our Pacifica. I really don't think anything like that will happen. If I did, then I would stay here and not risk it.

We didn't take a 34 week picture, but we'll definitely take a picture this week. I'm sure I'm growing. It was funny how different all the pregnant women looked at the childbirth class. My long torso seems to hide a lot of baby. The only person that looked less far along than me was due in February. There was a woman there that's due a day before me, but her tummy stuck straight out in front. She was short and looked like she could tip over. I seem to be carrying my weight all over. In fact, my latest stretch marks are on my thighs. Yuck! They'll fade (I tell myself). I bought some wine at HyVee yesterday and got carded because the girl didn't notice I was pregnant until I joked about not even getting to drink any of it. I'm due in a little more than a month and I'm still not obviously pregnant to everyone and I'm apparently not obviously over 21 either. I guess neither of those things are bad. The checker was a little embarassed about carding a 28-year old pregnant woman though.

Competitive Breastfeeding

So anyone that knows me well knows that I'm a little competitive. I like to be the best at things and I'm a perfectionist (not in all aspects of life, but in some). After coming home from the breastfeeding class, my personality really shone through in my dreams. I had never ending dreams where I was in competition with the other women in the class - from latching to hearing the baby gulp down milk to losing the baby weight and putting weight on the baby. I was so jealous if someone was doing better than me. I hope I'm not like that in real life and it was just magnified in my dreams!

Other than the bad dreams, I'm very, very glad that we went to the breastfeeding class. I'm also glad that Jon went with because there were four other couples and I would have felt funny alone. He even admitted that he was happy that he went. It was a three hour class so I won't get into all of the details, but I did learn some great stuff. Our teacher is a lactation consultant at the hospital and she was wonderful - bright, funny, experienced, and realistic. I'll most likely get to see her when I stay in the hospital after baby girl arrives. That gives me some comfort. She also told us about the hospital's breastfeeding practices. They try to get a baby to breastfeed within the first hour after birth (everything I've read says this is very important). They don't supplement willy nilly and if they do need to supplement, they don't use fake nipples. Instead, they finger feed with a syringe so the baby is less likely to get confused. Basically, the hospital is VERY breastfeeding friendly and there are a lot of people there to help. I can even go in and see a consultant later on (free of charge) if I'm having problems. We practiced holding fake babies in good nursing positions and also got to see videos of good latching vs. bad latching. We went over the score card that the hospital uses to assess how nursing is going (hence the cause of my bad dreams - rubrics make me want to outperform). We looked at breast pumps and she told those of us that work for the hospital how we can get the pumps for free or basically free. I won't have to use mine that much since I'm not going back to work, but it will be nice to have some backup milk in case I want to go somewhere or Jon wants to feed his daughter. Oh, and I found out for sure that I can have a glass of wine or beer now and then while breastfeeding. White Zinfandel, yummy...

I hope Saturday's class is just as good. It's going to be long! Hopefully I'll get the same thing out of it that I did last night - Our hospital is great. They have a family-centered approach that will allow the baby to room-in with me. Hopefully that will really help with the transition home.

We didn't get around to taking a picture last night and Jon won't be coming home until late tonight so expect belly pictures for 34 weeks sometime tomorrow. I'm going to lay around and be lazy today. I did too much yesterday and my back really hurt. I want to be in top form for the class from 9am-5:30pm tomorrow.

34 Weeks

I had an OB appointment and everything was good. The doctor told me that if I go into labor from this point forward they won't stop it. Hopefully that won't happen for at least 3 more weeks because I don't want baby girl to have to stay in the NICU. Plus, I'll miss her kicking. Her heartrate was 140 today and we heard an acceleration in her heartrate when she started moving around. The doctor was pleased by that. I'll get tested for Group B Strep and get my first internal exam at my next appointment on November 29th (36 weeks). I accidentally let it slip that our trip to Dallas was for a concert when she asked about the trip. Oops. I think she was displeased that I had considered it "necessary", but we didn't go anyway and all was well (and would have been if we had gone).

The breastfeeding class is tonight from 6:30-9:30 so I'll be leaving shortly to meet Jon at the hospital. The poor guy has been there since yesterday morning and he'll also have to spend all day Saturday in a class with me too.

Here's an unofficial belly picture in case we don't get a picture done tonight.

A Break from Monotony

I substitute taught today for one of my old colleagues. I got to do some math proofs and use my brain a little bit. I also got to see all my favorite kids/young adults. I even got a few hugs and a lot of kids told me they missed me. I really enjoyed my day, despite having a junior high study hall for about 45 minutes. However, I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty sore. My legs are tired and my shoulders hurt from writing on the board. It really felt good to be active though. I have a feeling I won't stay away from teaching forever because it is fulfilling and I miss it. High school kids are fun.

What else? Baby girl seems to be getting bigger and stretching out because she's been hurting me occasionally when she gets near my ribs. Even my super long torso is starting to run out of room. The other night I dreamt that I gave birth to an alien baby that was trying to kill me. Yesterday I slid down the stairs on my rear end, but managed to not even get a bruise. I guess I'm getting even clumsier than usual.

Jon was home at about 5:30 tonight and we cooked and ate supper together. That's even better than getting to eat together. He made the bacon and eggs and I fried up the hash browns. He should be home early tomorrow night too so maybe we can have a date or something.

Here are the pictures from this week. I feel very different in size, but I don't know if it will show up in the pictures. No one is scared to ask me when I'm due anymore so I guess I'm very obviously pregnant now. Yay!

A Mule?

Funny story. We ended up going to the ISU game yesterday since the weather was so beautiful. Anyway, as you enter the game, they make sure you aren't smuggling in anything you shouldn't be (beer for the most part). I've never been stopped and I've never smuggled anything in. The same doesn't go for some of our friends, but that's another story. I had my coat zipped up and was pretty proud of myself for fitting into it. It's so tight that I can only zip it when I'm standing up. For the first time I was stopped at the gate. The girl at the gate asked me what I had in my coat as she stared at my straining zipper! My response was "a baby." She kind of laughed and said that she couldn't tell. She let me pass without frisking me, but that would have been funny - especially if she got kicked. I guess I looked like a shifty character yesterday.

Resolution

Well, Euclid's reservations have been cancelled, our concert tickets will be refunded, and our plane tickets are transferable (unfortunately not refundable) so all is not lost. We decided to not make the trip to Dallas since it was going to be such a short trip. Instead, we're planning to go to California some time in the spring to visit our best man James and see the sites at a more leisurely pace. Jon will take some vacation days so we can do more than a weekend. Plus, I won't be pregnant so I think I'll enjoy traveling a little more. Also, I've been to Dallas before, but never been to California. Baby girl will be 4 months by then so even if she's colicky, she should be over the worst of it and will be able to travel to see "uncle" James. This might end up being a more fun vacation in the end, despite traveling with a little one. I already have pictures in my mind of dipping baby girl's feet into the Pacific Ocean at the same time her mommy dips her feet into the Pacific for the first time.

I had a very vivid dream about the baby last night. I was calling her by name and breastfeeding her like a champ. I washed all of her clothes, towels, etc. so I'm feeling ready for her (kind of). My sister Claudia reminded me that both of her kids were born within a few weeks of the stage that I'm at now. That's kind of fun...especially now that I don't have a plane ride ahead of me!

We might go to the ISU game on Saturday since we won't be out of state. If I would have known, then I would have bought a Halloween costume for the Halloween party that's following. However, I doubt I'll feel too excited about staying in Ames after a day at the football game. I'll probably be pretty sore and tired and just want to go home.

Here are the pictures for the week:

I really look a lot better in green than red.

Say it Ain't So!

I just found out that the Smashing Pumpkins concert is postponed until November 18th because the drummer had some heart problems a few days ago. I'll be too pregnant at that point to make the trip. Plus, we have our one and only chance at the childbirth class on the 17th so we would have a hard time making it there anyway. I guess I'm not meant to ever see the Pumpkins live. The last time I had tickets (about 11 years ago), the concert was postponed because the drummer died from an overdose and I couldn't go because I didn't want to miss school. What was I thinking? Now, we need to attempt to sell our tickets on eBay, cancel the boarding for Euclid, and figure out what to do about the plane tickets. We're out a lot of money with nothing to show for it. This was kind of our last splurge. Oh, it sounds like Jon just got home so I'll post again later.

Uneventful 32 Week Appointment

It looks like the trip is on. My doctor says I'm in fine shape for the trip to Dallas as long as I get up and around when the seatbelt sign isn't on. My blood pressure was down to 120/69 (still higher than pre-pregnancy, but lower than my last couple of appointments). I gained 3 pounds since my last appointment and the baby's heartrate was around 150. Her heartbeat was right behind my belly button so it took some searching to find it and the doctor felt around and figured out that she's head down. Hopefully she'll stay that way! I got a flu shot also. My next appointment is in two weeks.

I'm so hungry for Papa John's pizza that I can't go on with my blogging...must order pizza and get it FAST!!! I'll post more later when I have a belly picture.