Baby on the Brain

I must be ready for Baby Girl to arrive because I just realized that I swaddled all my china doll Christmas tree ornaments before putting them away. <grin>

Week 39!!

This is Week 39!  We're getting closer every day to seeing our Baby Girl!  Her official due date is still Jan 6th, next Friday!  Baby Girl's jobs this week are continuing to put on weight and hopefully getting into position for birth!  Our jobs are to continue to get things ready for her arrival! :)  I'm still feeling pretty good although the last two days I've felt more tired and achy and crampy than usual.  Andrew is doing a great job of making sure I get enough rest and don't do too much, although sometimes that's harder than you'd think. I am definitely feeling like an important deadline is approaching and sometimes I find it hard to just sit and relax.

Yesterday Andrew rearranged the furniture in our room to add a set of shelves and the co-sleeper we borrowed from Ben and Kerry, my brother and sister-in-law.  Thanks guys, it looks like it will work out great for us!  Andrew also put window wrap on the bedroom windows to cut down the draft and keep the room warmer.  I mostly watched him to the hard part, but he let me use the hair dryer to tighten it up.  That was kind of fun! :)  Yesterday I also set up the changing area in the baby's room.  At my baby shower in Dec, my friends gave me one of those edible flower arrangements that came in a ceramic yellow ducky.  The front part of the ducky is a bank, and in the back is a space where the florists foam went to hold all the fruit on skewers.  That makes a perfect place to put the diaper cream and baby lotion and such.  See: 

I also finished packing my hospital bag and the baby's diaper bag, all except the hand knit sweaters, and leg warmers from my mom which I washed and laid out to dry.  They'll go in the bag later, but you can see them below. :)

I didn't notice until now that I laid this soft yellow sweater out crooked.  It really is all square.  It's sooo soft.

This is a sleeping pod in the softest fuzzy yarn.  The colors are a bit washed out in this photo, but they're lovely in person!

This one might be my favorite.  It's a soft sweater with two leg warmers!!  Because onsies don't have legs!  Isn't that the best?  And I love the colors -- they make me think of sherbet! :)

I love having a Momma who knits! Thanks Mom, I can't wait to see these on Baby Girl.  I'll make sure to send pictures.

That's all for now, I suppose. :)  Thanks for Reading! :)

Very Positive Dr. Appointment!

We had my 38 week appointment this afternoon.  IT had been snowing lightly all morning, so we figured this would be a nice trial run to get a good sense of the time to drive there.  The roads were plowed and the traffic was moving well at noon on a Wed, so the trip only took maybe 10 minutes longer than usual (there abouts).  So that's good to know.

At the appointment, my Dr. looked at the results of my Strep B test (negative).  This is a bacteria that many people carry around, and are immune to, but newborns wouldn't be.  They can be exposed to it during birth which can lead to blindness and other complications.  So if I had tested positive, I would need antibiotics at delivery to help boost the baby's immunity.  But I tested negative, so Yay!

She also told us the results of our latest ultrasound.  Baby Girl is measuring at about 7 lbs (as the technician suggested) which puts her in the 39% for fetal growth.  Doc says this is great, not too small, not too big.  My weight is great (actually lost 2 lbs in the last 2 weeks), as are my blood pressure, sugars, and Baby Girl's heart rate.

Today was another squirmy day so Baby Girl kept "popping" the heart rate monitor and it was really neat to hear her heart rate speed up and slow down as she moved and quieted.

My next appointment is for Fri, Jan 6th, Baby Girl's due date!  At that appointment (assuming she hasn't made an arrival), Doc will check for dilation.  She offered me the option of stripping my membranes at that point.
************ TMI Detail Warning **************************
Stripping membranes occurs when the woman is dilated and the doctor uses her finger to separate the amniotic sac from the cervix, without breaking the sac.
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Apparently when this is done, it begins the release of labor hormones and contractions, which can speed labor along.  I asked why this would be necessary and she said it's not really, if everything is going well, but some woman are very "due date" oriented.  She mentioned that there is no guarantee that this will start labor, especially in a first pregnancy, and it can produce strong, painful contractions that are just as likely to fade away in a few hours as they are to start labor.   The potential risk is accidentally rupturing the amniotic sac at which point, I would Have to be induced and deliver that day.

We've decided not to take that option, unless there's some medical reason that I have to deliver then.  Assuming Baby Girl doesn't show up by Jan 9th (the following Mon), I have another Dr. appointment, followed by a Non Stress Test at the hospital.  The NST is when they monitor the baby's heart rate continuously for about an hour to see how it fluctuates.  Apparently, placentas have expiration dates and as they breakdown, the baby gets less blood flow and would display more fluctuating heart rates (I *think* I got that right).  We'd have another appointment and another NST on the 13th (that Fri) as well.

If we still haven't seen sign of Baby Girl and she's still testing healthy, I would probably be induced the next week.

So, we're "down to the wire" but I'm still feeling relaxed and happy.  As long as both Baby Girl and I are healthy at at no risk, I'm happy to let things progress as they do.

Hopefully, these posts will get more interesting once Baby Girl is here and I have some fun pictures to go along with them. :)

But for now, that's all for us.  Thanks for Reading! :)

Tuesday Morning Revelation

Lovely morning so far, sunny and "warm" with predicted highs of 40! But it will rain soon and tonight's low is14! The rest of the week is going to be "seasonal"... read: Cold and Snowy! Had a nice, relaxing breakfast with Andrew and am now trying to work up the motivation to go into work to finish up a few end-of-semester things before I settle into my "waiting-for-baby" winter break! Have a Dr. appt tomorrow, and one next week... on Jan 6th... the day Baby Girl is predicted to arrive... OMG Baby's Due NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!! :)

Beginnings

Hello There!

With the upcoming beginning of a new chapter in our lives (the arrival of our Baby Girl), Andrew and I decided to restart the blog we began back in 2006.  We figure we'll be more successful at posting to this one, since blogs about new babies are probably more exciting than posts about the everyday lives of two otherwise ordinary people. <grin>  I won't guarantee frequent posts, but check back now and then to see what's up with our new little family!

At some point, I may try to collect all of the pregnancy updates I made to Facebook and email, but that may be a big undertaking, so we'll see.  For now, we'll just start where we are: Week 38! :)  Here is the post I made about this week.

Hello Family and Friends-Like-Family!!

Here is this week's Baby Update!  This week is 38 Weeks!

Yesterday we had another ultrasound to check on the growth of Baby Girl.  The measurements estimate that she is about 7 +/- 1 lbs.  This still puts her in the 50% range... perfectly average. Yay! :)  I'm most likely not having a giant baby!  We had our pre-admission appointment at the hospital earlier in the day, and so we're all set for when we arrive at the hospital.  Then we had a quick bite to eat since I was starving!  Then it was back to the hospital for the ultrasound.  Baby Girl must have been enjoying the calories form lunch because during the scan she was wiggling all around, making the technician laugh.  It was very cool to be able to see what she was doing while I was feeling her do it!  Those "bumping" feelings I keep feeling way down low are probably her moving her head back and forth.  It looked like she was bopping to her own little music number in there.  Those "pushes" and "pops" I've been feeling higher up, near my sternum are her feet.  Her legs are all curled up and when she moves and stretches BOY can I feel it! :)  Her due date is still Jan 6th, although the ultrasound suggests Jan 8th as possible due date as well.  Everything seems to be continuing to progress in a nice, normal, orderly fashion, which I'm very happy about. :) 

The house is clean for Christmas, and the baby clothes are sorted into those that we washed and put away for immediate use and those that we'll wash later on, closer to when we'll need them.  Before I wash and put away all the hand knitted items, I'll take some pictures for the knitters to have. :)  Since I finished all my grading, I have today to play and prepare for Christmas!  On the list is some laundry, some food shopping and hopefully some cookie baking!

The tree is lit this morning and the Christmas presents are all wrapped and underneath it (or as close as I can get to that since it's a tiny, 3 ft tree <grin>).  I'm finally feeling relaxed and ready to enjoy the holiday and then... Baby Girl! :)

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday Week!

Love, Cindy, Andrew and Baby Girl!

Thanks for Reading!