A curious feeling

You were baby-sat for the second time tonight -if you don't count when you were with your dad alone when I went to a doctor's appointment -which I don't. With three sets of grandparents eager to be with you, I don't think we'll run short of baby-sitters anytime soon.


We went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The movie itself was unimportant, but we were gone almost 6 hours, and there were two scenes near the end that both your dad I were reminded of you (as I'm sure all parents in the theatre were). I'm not sure if it was hormones, or the constant lack of sleep, or something a bit deeper, but it brought tears to my eyes and I suddenly needed to be with you.


It's a curious thing... being a mother. I think everyone feels differently about it at different times. When I had a miscarriage, a few months before we became pregnant with you, I felt a profound feeling of loss and grieved for some time, even though I had only known I was pregnant a few short days.


When I was pregnant with you there was never a moment where I wasn't aware you were with me and when I wasn't concerned and curious about your well-being and what your future life would hold in store. I wasn't overly emotional at your birth, probably just more relieved you were finally here, for more than one reason. I do remember the feeling when we were first together alone for a brief few minutes, along with a sense that you looked familiar to me from the beginning. I knew that feeling didn't come because you have my nose or because the rest of you looks like your dad, but that we actually knew each other, even though neither one of us can remember.


I remember thinking it was funny, or even odd, the first few times I was able to comfort you -if only for a few moments- when no one else seemed able. I think that's when I first felt like your mother. And tonight (or, last night, rather) while watching a newborn next to his mothers side and again when a baby was being rocked to sleep, I felt like someones mother, and found it very hard to be away from you.


I am so blessed. We, your dad and I, are so blessed, to have you in our lives. I am so grateful that our family is eternal and these bonds we are creating between each other, and any siblings that will eventually come to our family, those bonds will last forever. There will be times, probably many times, while you are growing that those bonds will be tried and strained. If you're anything like your mother, you will be very aware of when I make mistakes and don't live up to your expectations and desires. But, throughout your life please remember how much I love you and that I will ALWAYS be trying my best to be what and who I need to be. I will not be perfect, and others may be better at it at times, but I promise you I will always be the best that I can, and I just hope it's enough.

Merry First Christmas!

What a difference a month makes!

(Or 4 weeks, however you do the math)

What a difference a month makes, especially when we're actually feeding you for 2 of those weeks!

You still LOVE your baths...

Except for the getting out part.

We're still supplementing with formula, although I'm getting more when I pump, and there have been a few feedings where you hardly take any from the bottle. (There's far too many times that you'll take more than two and a half oz AFTER breastfeeding, so only time will tell on that one).

You (and your dad and I) survived being baby-sat for the first time. In fact, your grandma and grandpa Hardcastle paid US to go to a movie, just so they could watch you -and after all of that, you slept almost the whole time we were gone.

You're starting to sleep for longer stretches -some of the time, and be more awake and alert a lot of the time. We're much better friends when the sleeping happens at night and the awake-ness happens after I've had at least one nap.

You've been to a funeral -your great-grandpa Lafeen.

And, countless family Christmas parties.

You've attended church once (and we're going tomorrow), but just for one hour.

You haven't grown out of any of you clothes, but you're starting to actually fill out a few of the smaller onesies

You attended your own baby shower -and received entirely too much stuff.

And, you've gone through no less than a hundred diapers... in fact, I should probably change you right now.

Love you Hyrum, your dad and I are glad you're here.

PS... sorry about dressing you up in the Santa outfit!

Tipping the scales

Well, Hyrum, you've had a much better week than your previous two. You're pretty happy to be eating now. We're supplementing with formula and really hoping I start producing more milk soon. We both get pretty frustrated sometimes trying to get you to latch on to both me and the tubing attached to the bottle. At today's doctor appointment you were 8 lbs .5oz. We got the go ahead to NOT return until your two month check-up (sorry... you'll be getting stuck a few times at that one).

You made your debut to the Hardcastles at a Christmas party yesterday and you'll meet the few Petersen's that you haven't seen yet at tomorrow's party. We're also on our own for about 24 hours -dad flew down to Phoenix to work on Saturday. So far so good... but I hope you're planning on sleeping a bit tonight!

Here's a couple of photo's from the week...

Big Day

Sometimes when we're going somewhere or doing something I think about how it's your first time doing it. However, since that could describe just about every situation at this point, it hardly seems worth it to mention.
Today was a little different, if not for you, for me at least. We've done a few quick outings just the two of us... to the hospital, pharmacy, and out to your great-grandma Petersen's house to see Grandma Hardcastle. But today was a big day. We made our first trip shopping -with the stroller and everything. We went to the mall and one other clothing store. Then tonight we went with dad grocery shopping. You slept during most ofboth trips.

Which... is more than I can say for you right now. We're going on 11:30 and you've yet to sleep this evening.

2 weeks

Well, you could have done a bit better at your 2 week check-up. Not bad... but not great.

You've gained weight since last week (you got down to just over 6 lbs)- 7lbs 1 oz, which isn't quite what your doctor wanted to see. You've also gained almost an inch, 20 3/4, so you're a skinny long little thing at the moment. After a discussion about your feeding (or lack there of) habits, we decided to make another trip to see the lactation specialist and get you eating more.

You and I made our first trip alone to see the specialist (you did great, by the way -thanks for not crying) and she helped us a lot. Mom needs to pump more, we got our doctor to prescribe me some medication to help with milk production and I have a tubing device to help supplement with formula (or eventually breast milk, if I ever can pump enough). During our appointment you ate 50 cc's of milk... and at the same time only got 10 cc's from me, so it's no wonder it's taking 90 or more minutes to feed you, and often you're still not full.

So, sorry we've been (nearly) starving you, things should turn around this week.

You also went to your first funeral today. Dad's grandpa Lafeen (Lynn Kay Lafeen) passed away rather suddenly this last week. You were quite the hit, and I think it helped your grandma and grandpa Lafeen to have you around. Your aunt April was pretty happy to see you again too.

10 days

I meant to post about your first week... but I didn't get to computer much in the last couple of days. You're surviving, although there are some moments when I'm not sure you believe it. We've had your first bath,

Your first trip to Mimi's and Papa's (no pictures -we weren't very good guests and didn't stay long on Thanksgiving) and your first trip (and 2nd and 3rd) to Grandma and Grandpa Hardcastle's.

Your first photo shoot went pretty well and quick with Terra, and we should have those pictures pretty soon.

You've had a lot of visitors, including your great-great grandma 'purple'.

You're getting fed, this I know because of all of your diapers, but, there are some tough moments -especially at night.

Your dad and I are somehow surviving on very little sleep. Last night you actually scared us a bit, because you went 5 hours! I think it was a fluke (I'm not expecting it to become a habit this early) because you had a rough day and previous night.

We're happy you're here (and that's saying alot after Sunday night, kiddo). I hope we get the hang of each other soon!

Your first outing

I'm still working on the play-by-play story of your birth, but I'm not quite finished yet.

Today we left the house for the first time. After a rough couple of nights I finally called and made an appointment with a lactation specialist. Yay! You were pretty happy too, because you probably had a pretty full tummy. We learned some tricks to help you get more food without causing me toe-curling pain. It's a win-win situation! Hopefully tonight goes a bit better.

You also had your first pediatrician appointment. Sorry about that heel prick! I made your dad hold you, I guess we've designated him to be the one around when there's pain involved. You were pretty mad, but once again, got over it pretty quick. You're looking a little orange, and you've lost your allotted 10% body weight, so hopefully with my milk coming in and getting better at feeding you both of those should take a turn for the better.

Your story

I need to write this down before I forget. I'm sure I'll forget certain aspects of your birth story (which is why women do this again and again) but, I want to make sure it's written down.


3:45 pm November 21


Your dad and I showed up for our 39 week pre-natal appointment with Dr. Cox. We had been watching my blood pressure (it was a little high for the previous 2 weeks) for signs of preeclampsia. My blood pressure wasn't too bad, but the level of protein shot up to a 4 (I guess a 2 and higher is pretty bad) and I had gained 5 lbs that week. So, Dr. Cox came in and said, we're having a baby today. We did a 'check', I was still dilated to a 4, 70% effaced, -2 station (pretty much what I had been for the previous 2 weeks). We talked about possible scenario's once we arrived. The best case would be breaking my water would induce labor, but I'd have to be continuously monitored, well, YOU would have to monitored.



5:30 -ish



We had gone home and gathered all of our stuff. Which, was a lot, surprisingly. Your dad gave me a blessing and we arrived at the hospital. It was a busy night in the labor and delivery floor, and they didn't have a room or a nurse available, so they sent us to the cafeteria. Your dad ate dinner, and I had some jello.



6:30 -ish

When we finally got settled Dr. Cox came in and broke my water and the nurse started an IV and got us on the monitor. Which, proved to be quite difficult to continue to find throughout the night -you were pretty active. Our first nurse was Lynne. We didn't like her too much. First of all, we talked about our 'birth plan' because I didn't want an epidural (among other things), and her response was, "Well, in my experience, 95% of birth plans end of with a C-section". She was one of those, 'I've been doing this for 22 years' type of a nurse. For the first hour or so while she was our nurse she kept threatening to do an internal monitor because she couldn't get a good reading on you. At this point your dad started trying to move the monitors around, just so she wouldn't come in.



8:00 -or so

Contractions had started, but were fairly mild. I had dilated to a 5 (started as a 4) and we got a couple of new nurses, Libby and Stephanie. They had a lot more patience with you -trying to get a good reading on your heart rate. I kept getting up every hour, to go to the bathroom, and really just to switch the side I was laying on. My hips were killing me laying on my side. They started me on Pitocin at a 2. I'm not sure what the 2 meant, but it was the lowest dose. Contractions started to pick up a bit, but were still pretty manageable.



9:00

Grandma and Grandpa Hardcastle came by. We were all going to my cousin's play that night, and we ended up respectively declining the outing after our dr's appointment. I think they stayed about an hour. Contractions were still okay, I didn't talk a lot during them, but I was okay in between.



10:30 -ish

I think my parents left around this time. When the nurse came in and checked me I was a 6 and she increased the pitocin to a 4. I'm not sure why I didn't ask her why we were increasing it, or if we really needed to. I just said okay. I had told your dad to sleep for a bit because the contractions were manageable and I figured I'd need his help later on trying to relax myself. I definitely felt the increase from a 2 to a 4, but I still felt okay.



1:00 am November 22nd

I asked your dad to help me to the bathroom. The pain seemed to increase as soon as I got up. It was a pretty big struggle to get back in the bed and when the nurse checked me. She asked if I was thinking big numbers, and I responded that I didn't want to get my hopes up. She said I was a 7, and gave me her warning about feeling an urge to push. She said if I felt like I needed to push or go to the bathroom I needed to tell her, because she'd need to check me.

At the peak of the very next contraction I kind of felt like I needed to push. By the time the next contraction came (60 seconds later) I knew I felt like pushing. I made your dad stay for one more and then he went to get the nurse. I guess when he told her I needed to push she said "Well, did you tell her not to?"

She came in to check me and without saying anything she hurried out of the room. I was worried something was wrong, because there was no denying the fact that my body wanted me to push. I didn't realize it at the time, but the nurses changed and started prepping the room for a delivery. I guess a bunch of women were pretty much delivering at the same time so we were all hoping Dr. Cox arrived soon, since there were no spare doctors around.

In our birth class our instructor always told us when we were ready to push it would feel better to push than not to push. Oh, she was right. The nurses tried to get me to breathe through the contractions and not push -it was horrible! About every other contraction I could manage to not push, for the most part, but it was really hard and painful. I think it became pretty clear, pretty quickly, that I needed to push. They got me on my back and I had probably pushed during two contractions when Dr. Cox arrived.

1:30 am ish

Okay, it was really painful and difficult to NOT push, but I soon found out it REALLY hurt to push too. Most people describe crowning as a 'burning' feeling, and while I don't disagree, I think that description is used because there isn't a better way to say it. It really, really hurt! I had great cheerleaders -your dad and the nurses, which made it easier. The best part was that it was pretty short, by 2 am, I was done. Your dad thinks I pushed through about 10 contractions before you were here. I remember after your head came out thinking your body was taking forever to get out, and the shear relief once it had. I didn't even think to ask if you were a boy or a girl, I was just so glad it was over!

2:09 am

Your dad actually said "It's a boy" and they put you on my chest. Dr. Cox waited a few minutes before she had your dad cut the cord. I tried breastfeeding, and got you to at least latch on both sides for a bit. The nurses were really good about leaving you on me for quite a while before taking you to get you weighed and everything. I tore a bit and had 2 stitches, which didn't hurt a bit until the local wore off. I'm still feeling it, but the worst of it was over in about 10 days.

The rest of the story includes more pain that no one really talks about, from the nurses contracting my uterus, to the difficulty going to the bathroom and moving around later. I felt good, I think, considering everything I had gone through. And, as dumb as this might sound, because I'm saying this with FULL recollection of the event, I'll do it without an epidural again.

Actually, saying I'll repeat the last 10 months again at all seems a bit crazy, but somehow (and sometimes) it all seems worth it!

Oh, baby!

Welcome! We're so excited that you've finally made it, and you're a healthy baby boy. I won't lie, I was getting pretty anxious for you to arrive, but it was mostly selfish reasons - I was tired of being pregnant, and I wanted to know if you were going to be a little Emily, or a little Hyrum.

You were born on my cousin's birthday (Nacole and Paige) and they couldn't have been more excited! I guess that's second best to coming on your dad's birthday next week. You've spent your first day and a half surrounded by great doctors and nurses and a lot of family and friends. Everything thinks you're just the cutest thing with beautiful soft hair and a little man face when you're get mad. Even when you get mad, you don't stay that way for long, you're pretty content and sleep most of the time.

One week and counting

Okay baby... any time now. We're ready and waiting your arrival. According to babycenter, you're ready too...

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

I'm still working (mostly) full time. I took quite a few hours off during the day last week, but my blood pressure has been back to normal, so I've been in 10 hour days this week. However, after tomorrow, I don't have much to do, so I'm not sure if I'll continue. Hopefully the next time I write, I'll have something more exciting to say.

But, I'm trying to not get too excited.

Close, but not close enough

Well, baby... we thought we'd see you this week, but my blood pressure came back down with some time off work and we're hanging in there.


This week we've been watching the price of gasoline come down (slightly, but we haven't seen that for a while) and I thought I'd do a post of other interesting things about life right now.


Average price of a gallon of gasoline: $2.00. (This is pretty significant because earlier this summer it was close or over $4.00 a gallon).


Movie tickets: $8.00 about $5.50 for a matinee.


Utah's poplulation is about 2.5 million, and the US has about 300 million people.


Minimum Wage is $6.55 an hour


Current President is George W Bush, President Elect is Barack Obama.


The US has the highest national debt ever: 10,586,881,875,335.10 (sorry)


Average price of a new car: $28, 715

Average price of a private four-year college degree $25,143

Average price of a public four-year degree $6,585 (your dad and I went to a private university for undergraduate)

Church membership worldwide is over 13 million

Closer to Home:

Midvale, Utah has about 30,000 people

Midvale's average household income is $51,500

Midvale's average home price $225,000

Ready, Set...

Here's the latest update...

I went from 3 minus centimeters to "3 plus -almost a 4", and the baby has moved down a bit and is at a negative 2 station. (The stations start at -3, and go to -2, -1, 0 and then 1, 2 3 -which is pretty much crowning).

This is all good news, as far as I (and my doctor) am concerned.

However, my blood pressure is 'creeping' up. So... I am supposed to 'take it easy' -work less, more laying down, etc, for the next little while. If my blood pressure gets up much higher and stays that way, we'll need to take the baby early. And, when you're wanting a unmedicated child birth, taking the baby early is not a good thing. More interventions (breaking my water, starting pitossin, possibility of a c-section) creates a difficult (or impossible) environment to have natural childbirth.

Here's the dilemma... do I take it easy, and hope my blood pressure stays where it is, or bump up my efforts to induce this baby on our own? (Long walks, massage, magical/mythical pizza from Cafe Trio).

Either way, this baby will most likely be making an entrance before Thanksgiving -and I still have a TON of things to get done at work!

Full Term

Well, I've made it! I'm officially 37 weeks along, which means baby is full-term (although full term REALLY goes from 37-42 weeks). Here's what babycenter has to say:

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel.

To be completely honest, I'm ready ANYTIME now -so feel free to show up a little early. I have a pretty full work schedule through the 19th, mostly because I'm trying to fit in a months worth of work in 9 days. However... on November 20th I'm going to take matters into my own hands (or at least the skilled hands of my masseuse). This will include a massage hitting all of my pressure points, the labor-inducing pizza at Cafe Trio, and a long walk -no matter how cold it is. So... if you're ready to come, that would be a great time to start making your big entrance!

In other term news... just for a bit of history. Although you will be born while President George W. Bush (the W. is important, look it up in your history books) was the president, the nation just elected Barack Hussein Obama. Your dad and I are proud to say that even if he didn't get any electoral votes from Utah, he did the the 2 votes available from our house!

Change

I can't take credit for this one, but I wanted to share it.

Things that change when you have a baby

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.
3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
4. You respect your body ... finally.
5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.
7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.
8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.
9. Your heart breaks much more easily.
10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
11. Every day is a surprise.
12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)
13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
14. You become a morning person.
15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.

by Rebecca Woolf

Progress and Presents

Well baby... things are slowly progressing. Which, is probably the speed that I'm comfortable with right now. On Friday I was dilated to a 3 minus (just about a 3), 80% effaced and still at a -3 station, but baby is 'well engaged' and still head down, so I'm sure you'll stay that way.

You also received a LOT of wonderful gifts from thoughtful friends and family. I didn't want to buy much of anything until I had a couple of showers, and November 1st was a day of showers. I think we're set on newborn diapers and ducky outfits. That must be the clothing item of choice for 'gender neutral' babies. We started making a short list of things to fill in the blanks of items we need at the beginning, so I'll work on that next week. To be honest, we've got diapers, a car seat, and some onesies, so you'll survive for a while.

We're getting very excited to meet you and introduce you to... everything and everyone, I guess. I'm also very glad because I'm sure you are getting to know you're Grandma Petersen before you arrive. She was really looking forward to meeting you, in fact, maybe she was a little too impatient and wanted to meet you before any of us! Tell her that we love and miss her, and we're glad that she's finally with Grandpa again.

2, 50%, -3

To many of you, those numbers may not need to be explained.

For everyone else, we had our first 'in depth' dr's appointment.

The good news is, baby is head down.

The rest of the news isn't bad, but we're hoping I don't progress much in the next 6 days since Justin is leaving on Monday until Thursday night.

I'm dilated 2 cm, 50% effaced, and -3 station.

These numbers don't mean a whole lot, other than, as Justin puts it, baby is at the starting point. I could walk around dilated to a 2 or more for months (or at least weeks) and my doctor said being 50% effaced is pretty typical at this point in first births.

From now on, we're in the office every week, so we'll see what happens next Friday.

Waiting for... when?

I'm used to waiting for things. Who isn't? We wait for school to start, for summer vacation to start, or just the end of the day. My job is full of schedules, some appointments are set frequently, other's are 6 months out or more. Christmas, birthdays, even hair appointments and massages (I'm going tomorrow, yay!).

This waiting for some unknown date is starting to get to me though. I have never felt like November 28th is some magic day that I'm waiting for. The chance that the baby will actually come that day is pretty slim (probably less than 20%) so it doesn't hold much security for me. I'm not quite at that moment where I'm feeling 'any day now'... but that's not far off. Probably another 2 or 3 weeks to go before I get that feeling.

It's no surprise that the impending birth and baby is the frequent topic of conversation from close friends and family to near strangers. I wouldn't trade the 'not-knowing' for a date set in concrete (a definite c-section or induction date). Even then, concrete wouldn't be the right analogy, maybe stiff mud. Most of that comes from the fact that I'm very much looking forward to have a natural child birth (laugh if you must), and drugs obviously get in the way of that.

I have been scheduling things for work next month, just assuming I will be the one to make it to all of the appointments. And, I've been making more solid decisions on leave from work, when and how much, and what it will be like when I come 'back' for a short time. So far I would say I've had a pretty typical, text-book pregnancy, and all signs point to a delivery date on or around the 28th of next month. But who knows. And the waiting is killing me.

On second thought, maybe it's the lack of sleep, pains in my back and neck, inability to breathe without sounding like Darth Vader (thanks, Justin), constant heartburn and overall feeling of uncomfortableness that's killing me.

Yeah, it might be that.

Melons

Last week the baby was a cantelope and this week baby graduated to a honeydew. According to babycenter:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds. Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

We had our last class with our Bradley Method teacher. So... according to her, we're ready to have a baby. I don't feel that ready. To tell you the truth, I'm very ready to not be pregnant anymore, but I'm not so sure I feel ready to have a baby. Too bad it doesn't work that way.

Could be worse!

I've never really thought to myself, "Boy, I'm glad I'm not an elephant" until this week at the Hogle Zoo.

To Be

It's hard to express the complexities of life. Lately I've been thinking about "bringing a child into this world" (oops too late!), and just how difficult an undertaking it will be. Now I'm not talking about diaper changes, sleepless nights, and vomit. I'm talking about learning, developing, and most of all spiritual strength. Our child will be born into a world where the economy is declining (including job loss), a historical election has just ended, we are at war (which people at home don't seem to understand), and moral values are being challenged many times daily.

Luckily, our child's parents have been taught correct principles and strive to live them. With great challenges come opportunity for continued growth - that is the entire plan. I heard a writer's words a couple days ago and he basically said that thinking we can protect our children is a myth we use to cope. I partly believe that. We teach and exemplify and in the end, our children will make their own decisions.

I hope they are good ones.

Too close for comfort

This could explain any number of feelings lately.

However... I am due in 7 weeks, which seems awfully soon. In a week or two, if I were to go into labor, they would do nothing to stop it. That's right... I could have a baby at anytime. Which, although you have 9 or so months to prepare for it, seems a little weird. We've got just about all of the 'big' stuff (still haven't bought our recliner or a pump) and after a couple of baby showers at the beginning of next month, we'll probably have most of the small stuff. Or, at least know where we need to fill in the blanks.

Justin is going out of town for a few days at the end of the month. When he made the travel arrangements (for work) it seemed like (to him) it was ages before the due date. But... I'll be 36 weeks by then, and at that point it's anybodys guess. We talked to our birthing class instructor and she will most likely be available if I needed her, and I'm in the process of finding myself a couple of 'babysitters' who want to come and spend the night -just in case!

Baby is still moving around alot- and everything seems right on schedule after our last doctor's appointment. One more this month, and then we start going every week. Which, again, just seems too soon. I suppose the more uncomfortable I get, the more I'll feel ready have this baby here... but right now, I could use a bit more time!

Close to my heart(burn)

Okay... here's our weekly (or mostly-weekly) update from babycenter:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

To accommodate you and your baby's growing needs, your blood volume has increased 40 to 50 percent since you got pregnant. With your uterus pushing up near your diaphragm and crowding your stomach, the consequences may be shortness of breath and heartburn. To help relieve your discomfort, try sleeping propped up with pillows and eating smaller meals more often.

I had heartburn early on, but it was very manageable, didn't keep me up at night or extremely uncomfortable... then the 3rd trimester came.

These are my new favorite friends... Nothing I do regarding the food that I do or do not eat seems to have any affect on the burn... and sleeping with my head propped up is giving me a kink in my neck and a morning headache. So... Tums it is. Tums, and spending 2 or 3 sessions during the night of sitting at the side of my bed for a couple of minutes.

That's okay though, I have to pee that often anyway!

Preparation

Sorry I haven't been posting here much. I will probably do one later this week, because on Wednesday I'll be 32 weeks -2 months left, that's a milestone I think.

I just had to add this, which isn't original, I read in on this blog this morning... but it is what it is...

When a prisoner of war is forced to go without sleep for consecutive days at the hands of his captors it's called torture.

When a woman or a man is forced to go without sleep for consecutive months at the hands of their infant it's called parenthood.

Something to look forward to.

10 weeks left and some furniture

Well, 10 weeks left. And really, it could be sooner (or later) and I'm not quite sure how 'ready' we are. In our class this week our instructor asked us to start getting our bags packed... just to make sure we have everything when the time comes. Seem's a bit premature to me, but we'll do it. This whole thing is becoming quite real now.

Here's what babycenter has to say about the progress...

Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face.

In other news... we got the rest of our furniture a while ago. The only big thing left is a comfy rocking chair, which we'll probably try to get at the end of the month or sometime next month. Also, we hung the framed children's books around the room.

A new toy... for Justin

Justin and I went and registered at Babies R Us. I didn't really want to, but given the fact that we don't know what gender that baby is, I was persuaded by many friends to register for some basics.

When we signed up, the lady told us that if we put 100 items or more on the registry, they'd enter us in for a free drawing of stuff. We were lucky to get 25 items on the list. (I went back online and added a few more since then).

We did find this while we were there...

If you're smiling right now and thinking that this is an item for suckers and it can't possibly work, you're only partially right. It takes a fair amount of imagination to actually hear anything that sounds like a heartbeat. But... the microphone is pretty cool. We hooked it up to the computer and pumped some music into my stomach via small speakers and the baby went crazy. Either the baby really likes music, or it was pretty upset I was disturbing it with Mozart when he or she was trying to sleep.

Oh baby

I haven't done the weekly update from babycenter for a while, so I thought I'd add that today.

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

In other news... the baby is moving ALOT! I'm feeling more and more when I'm up and doing something, as opposed to only feeling movements when I'm sitting and relaxing. Justin's getting better at 'catching' the baby move at night, and now you can see it move under my clothes when I'm resting. It's providing me with some distraction during meetings at work. The rest of the baby furniture hasn't arrived yet, so we'll hopefully get that soon and finish setting up the nursery.

Doctors and Patience

I had my monthly doctor's appointment on Thursday (which will now be occurring by-monthly now).

Two things... one, is that my glucose test came back normal (no gestational diabetes).

The other is I was reminded how much I really like my doctor. For those of you who I talk to, you probably already know this. She is (1) and she, (2) a mother, (3) has excellent bed-side manner, and (4) an 'everything' doctor. I've been seeing her just myself for almost 4 years, she'll deliver our baby, and be our pediatrician. I'm sure there are reasons why it might be nice to have 3 different doctors for all of those things, but I'm enjoying having someone know me (and my family) so well.

We had a LIST of things to go over with her, information that has come up during our Bradley classes, and I was worried about asking too many questions during one appointment. However, it didn't seem to phase her when, between Justin and I, we asked her about: fetal heart rate monitoring, IV's in the delivery room, episiotomy, breast feeding on the delivery table, how long to wait to cut the umbilical cord, circumcision, how long we have to stay after the delivery, exams leading up to birth, my diet, asking for nurses who 'enjoy' working with unmedicated births... I think that was it. There were probably more.

Good news... she passed with flying colors and didn't seem upset at all that we were taking more of her time than usual. I guess now that we're going every other week I could have spread out my questions, but my guess I'll continue to have more.

100 Days

According to the ultrasound, the due date is December 3rd, using a calender, it's November 26th, and my medical file has November 28th written on it -just because that's Justin's birthday, and it was close enough.

So... whatever it's worth to put an actual date for when the baby is due... it's in 100 days from now. That's deserving of a post, right?

I wondered if I could make a list of 100 things, either that I'm looking forward to or I'm scared of, or don't want to think of... I'm not sure if I can make it to 100, so , maybe I'll try 10 -10 things I'm looking forward to, and 10 things I'm NOT looking forward to.

First... the 10 things I'm looking forward to in the next 100 days (and maybe a few days following that).

10- Looking more pregnant. When I look at myself, there's no question of whether or not I'm pregnant. However... it still seems to escape some people, and they must just assume I'm fat.

9-Finishing the nursery. I've had fun over the last few months slowly purchasing new furniture and it kind of weird to look into the room now (we used to keep the door shut) and see a crib with bedding in it. Like, all it's missing is a baby or something.

8- I like the reactions we get from people when we tell them we're not finding out what we're having. People closer to our age think we're nuts... and the ones a little older seem to respond by saying, "Good for you".

7- I also kind of like the reactions from people when we mention we are planning on a non-medicated birth. It's always interesting coming from mom's who have been there -I don't think they believe me. I guess we'll find out in a few months.

6- I really like our birthing classes, the instructor and the people in class, so I usually look forward to attending our weekly sessions.

5- Monthly massages from now until the baby is born. I'm spoiled, I know. Who knows... my pregnancy might just END with a massage, because I'm going to try to be induced naturally (using pressure points) if it gets to the point that the baby needs to come out, and my body won't cooperate.

4-Feeling the baby move more and more, and letting other people feel it. I know I've mentioned my issues with people just touching my belly, but I don't seem to mind it when the baby is moving and permission has been granted for touching.

3- I really like my doctor, so I don't mind my monthly appointments. It's always nice to hear the heartbeat and find out that things are going the way we expect them to.

2-People's guesses on the sex of the baby. I've heard it all -and some people are just SO SURE of themselves. For the record, I get more people saying it's a girl than a boy.

1- Having a baby at the end of all of this!


10 Things I'm NOT looking forward to in the next 100 days

10- Swelling -hands, feet, nose, face, other joints. You name it, and I'm assuming it's getting larger as we speak.

9- Decreased energy. I have to take a little rest after going up the stairs even at this point. Pathetic.

8- Breathing difficulty. I enjoy breathing, call me crazy. When you look at pictures of your insides getting all squished up together, it makes me feel claustrophobic.

7- Same goes with the bladder. I've seen the pictures, it's going to get squished.

6- Early morning work schedule and a growing pregnancy. It's pretty tough getting up as early as I have to now at this point... so I don't have high hopes for a month or two from now. Same goes for the 10 hour work day.

5- Inappropriate comments. You've all heard them, I'm mentioned a few, and I'm sure they won't be the last.

4- Fatness. This is different from the swelling, although it's similar. I don't need to explain.

3- Other physical ailments, mostly with my skin. I'm not sure WHAT'S going on with all of my 2,000 parts but it's not pretty, and it seems to be getting worse.

2- I'm afraid that my doctor will be eating her Thanksgiving dinner out of town when I go into labor.

1- Speaking of labor. Just about everything that goes along with it. THIS I could probably list 100 things I'm not looking forward to. There's the ripping, the tearing, the cutting, the pain, the emergencies, the length of it, and any other number of unknown and known things that go along with that.

There's my list. 100 days whether I like it or not, and life as we know it will be forever changed.

A place to lay your head

We did some receiving (thanks, Lisa and Dave), purchasing (those will be here next week) and some light contruction this weekend. This is what we came up with...

6 months

Depending on how you count (it seems like all books and websites do it a little differently during these 40 weeks), I'm six months along.

Six months. That's a lot! It's quite misleading to say I only have 3 months left, because I really don't, it's a week shy of 4 months, but it still seems like I've reached some sort of milestone.

My uterus is about the size of a soccer ball. And I feel every cubic inch of it. Last night before Young Womens I thought I had a hernia or something because 'something' was sticking out from my lower abdomen. I'm pretty sure it was an elbow or knee or something -it really hurt! I've been enjoying the day (the second day a week hasn't happened yet) I get in the pool for water aerobics, because you can't feel how heavy things are. But... I've been exercising almost every day (last week was 5, this week should be 5 or 6) and started doing a yoga/pilates dvd that does a lot of stretching and strength training, which usually feels really good too.

The other night when I was home watching TV (before we started working 10 hour days, because now I haven't even turned the TV on for 3 days) and I'm pretty sure the baby had hiccups. I could barely feel any movement, but my stomach was moving up and down rapidly for a few minutes, it was kind of fun.

Now that Justin is home for the rest of the summer (except for a few days next month) I'm hoping we'll start making some progress on the nursery. A crib, rocking chair, hanging of pictures (uh oh, more nails)... so hopefully I get some photo's soon.

Justin's favorite

Justin just loves mango's, so I thought I'd post this weeks 'fruit' comparison (a day early).

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound, you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

We went to our first child-birthing class last night. I decided that I'm really going to like it. It's called the Bradley Method, and it focuses on natural child birth.

The Bradley Method of natural childbirth (also known as "husband-coached childbirth") is a method of natural childbirth created by Dr. Robert A. Bradley (1917–1998) and popularized by his book Husband-Coached Childbirth. Teachers of the Bradley Method believe that with adequate preparation and education along with help from a loving, supportive coach, most women can give birth naturally - without drugs or surgery. The Bradley Method emphasizes measures that can be taken to stay healthy and low-risk to help avoid complications that may lead to medical intervention.
The primary goal of the Bradley Method is healthy mothers and healthy babies. The method holds that in most circumstances, a natural childbirth (drug free) is the best way to achieve that goal. Over 86% (over 95% in Utah) of Bradley moms having vaginal births do so without drugs. The classes teach nutrition, relaxation and natural breathing as pain management techniques, and active participation of the husband as coach. Parents-to-be are taught to be consumers of birth services and to take responsibility to make informed decisions regarding procedures, attendants and the birth place.

Last night we did a quick overview of nutrition and exercise routines and some relaxation techniques. We actually have to track what we eat each week (which I'm looking forward to) and increase whatever exercise time's we were doing before class started. I think we both liked the instructor (which is good, since we're spending one evening a week with her for the next 3 months).

First Photo Shoot

I finally scanned the ultra-sound pictures from a few weeks ago.

Enjoy.

Jane verses John

I absolutely love not knowing whether we're having a boy or a girl. I think the hardest part was finding baby bedding, but I think I would have tried to get gender-neutral bedding anyway. (It's not going to wear out before baby #2, and it'll be nice to not have to change anything.)

It still surprises me that people are so opinionated about us not finding out (even people that don't know me very well). Some (mostly older people) think it's great, and others... well, others seem genuinely angry or annoyed that we want it to be a surprise. (A surprise with 9-months worth of anticipation, not 20 weeks.)

I also really like it when people guess what we're having. Most of my family think it's going to be a boy (Jodi and Jessica admitted that they want it to be a boy to find out the boys name). My dentist looked into my eyes (the bottom of my eyeballs) and said it was going to be a boy too. I know there are lot of other 'tricks' that I'm sure I'll be a part of to figure out what we're having.

I've been leaning towards boy... until last night. My saw my esthetician (she does my eyebrows) last night and I asked her if she'd find out for me. Jan is awesome when it comes to 'listening' to your body, she's figured out quite a few amazing things about me and my body before any doctor could help out. I've learned a lot of 'alternative' or eastern remedies to help with chronic issues from her. Anyway, after she made my eyebrows look beautiful, she got really close to my belly and 'listened' to the baby. I asked her what I'm having, she wasn't going to tell me, but when I was scheduling my next appointment she let me know that I'm having a girl.

It's still anybody's guess (or anybodys multiple guesses on our poll), if anyone else wants to preform any other 'tests' on my belly to figure out, you're more than welcome.

You must like loud noises

Well, baby... you went to your first concert last night. Justin and I went with his parents and brother and sister-in-law to see John Mayer at USANA amphitheatre. (Don't worry if you don't know who that is, I'm sure he won't still be relative when you can read this.) But... we were quite close to the stage and his base and drums were quite loud. I felt every beat in my chest, so I'm sure you were too. In fact, Justin got a little worried and tried standing in front of my (and my ever-increasing belly) to block out some of the sound. You didn't move an inch -at least enough for me to feel you.

And, I have been feeling you move around a bit. I was doing paperwork most of the day yesterday at work, and everytime I'd squish my stomach a bit sitting at the computer, you'd let me know you didn't like it very much. I feel you a lot in the early evening if I'm just sitting around. Justin is pretty sure he felt something on Sunday... but he wasn't quite sure.

In other news... I went to my first prenatal water aerobics class last night. It was great. I will hopefully get there at least once or twice a week, it was a really good work-out and I think we both enjoyed it.

What's up doc?

Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long. You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now.