We had another baby appointment yesterday and things are still apparently going very well. The heartbeat is very strong and about roughly 140 beats per minute (anywhere from 140-150 is good) and he's still turned upside down. At this point he probably won't shift all the way around anymore because he'll be growing too large to move that freely. How do babies know these things????? God is so amazing. Also, we can probably look forward to a little baby! Dr. Priddy said that she wasn't worried about him being necessarily underweight per se, but he was still really small (more so than normal for 32 weeks) and would probably stay that way. She estimates about 6-7 lbs possibly.

Another fun thing: She told me that I have had the easiest, smoothest pregnancy by far that she's ever handled- ha! Imagine that! I guess it has been pretty much "life as normal" except for growing bigger and buying baby stuff. Hopefully this will stay the trend all the way through labor & delivery. I'm gaining about a pound per week myself, which is normal, and my total weight gain should be around 40 lbs total (current weight = 160 lbs, that's how much Justin weighed in high school!!!! Yikes!).

She also gave us some recommendations for pediatricians, which we need to pick one like NOW I guess. We need to have one "assigned" by the birth so he/she can come to the hospital to do the first checkup before we go home with Brand New Baby Boy. If we haven't picked one by then, the hospital will assign one in-house but then we have to pick one later. I'd rather have one now so that we can meet him or her and at least have a phone # to call if something happens after he's born. I'll keep you posted on that.

Well that's about it.

Next post: (On or before) 1/20/08

Well it's taken me 21 weeks, but yesterday I finished reading the pregnancy bible: "What to Expect When You're Expecting." I felt a huge sense of accomplishment, then turned the last page only to find that the authors also recommend all expectant parents go through their entire collection which includes such titles as "What to Expect: What to Eat When You're Expecting," "What to Expect the First Year," "What to Expect: The Babysitter's Guide to your New Baby," and "What to Expect: the Toddler Years" (to name a few). But I decided I wasn't going to guilt myself into THAT much torture just yet. I have to say I learned a lot, freaked out a little (okay, a LOT), and now feel mentally prepared to handle a new human living in our house. The practical and logical side of me knows that I'll never truly be fully "ready" for all the life changes, and I can imagine all I want just how tired I will be and still not be ready for that brick wall, but I'm convinced that I have at least realistic expectations that this will not be easy. The mentally glib part of me is, in my opinion, overly excited for Baby's arrival, as if finishing the book was some kind of finish line, and now that we've crossed it we're ready to go. Let me put it this way: Imagine your boss (or some other authority) comes to you and says, "I'm really impressed with you and I think you're ready for the next step. All you have to do is this one project and once you succeed, you'll be rewarded." So you take on this huge task and successfully complete it (and you're really really excited and have a new huge burst of energy), only to hear you have to wait another 7 or 8 weeks to get your reward. Just a smidge deflating. We're keeping our fingers crossed for an early arrival for several reasons, so hopefully we won't be disappointed.

There's a new picture posted! I'm standing in Baby's room (Colts blue, of course), wearing my Colts jersey (Bob Sanders, of course), because it still fits! And fittingly, today is the last day I can proudly wear it because of the devastating loss to San Diego in the playoffs.  I think if you look carefully you can see my belly button poking through 2 layers of shirt right where my stomach sticks out the farthest. You can also slightly see it on last week's picture. Maybe one of these days I will bravely take a picture of it in the flesh so you all can see how funny it looks. For someone who's always had a significant "innie" it now looks like a tiny donut- there's a complete ring that sticks out all the way around, and the little bubble in the very center is just starting to get pushed out as well. Justin is very amused by it.

Baby is getting big enough now that I think we might be past the rib-kicking stage. The uterus is sticking out far enough that most of the time his feet are out the outer side of my ribs as opposed to underneath them. He still uses them for leverage when he wiggles around, but it's not as much of a painful jab anymore. Speaking of wiggling, that's the newest sensation this week. Until now he's had enough room to move around quite rapidly, if not as freely as before. But now all of a sudden it's like he's all cramped up in there and I feel mostly flutters and wiggles instead of rolling motions and jabs. It's like instead of being able to just roll over he has to scooch around- it's really cute and sometimes it tickles.

The "Tickle my foot game" is still popular, and he's responding to voices for sure now. He used to jump or twitch every time the dogs barked, but now I think he's getting used to that, which is good since they're showing no signs of quieting down once he's born. He moves around when I put both hands firmly on the sides of my belly and talk directly at him (we call him by name, of course), and he gets really excited when Justin puts his face down really close and starts talking or singing to him. And apprently he really enjoys our Sunday School teacher's voice because for the full hour and fifteen minutes he would not sit still at all, to the point where I was almost uncomfortable. He also likes rides in the car when I play music. Another new recent thing is that I can tell for certain now when he gets the hiccups. I think he's had them for a few weeks now but at first I wasn't sure. It's just a light twitchy feeling but it has a very regular "beat" to it- like once every second there will be a twitch or a tiny pop. If you're looking at my belly it almost looks like a heartbeat but it's not. They rarely last more than 5 minutes, but one night it was like he couldn't shake them or something. After about 15 minutes I think he started to get frustrated because he really started kicking and punching hard and he actually turned all the way upside down (head up top near my rib cage instead of down in the pelvis). It was weird. Per the Book and Dr. Priddy it's a normal thing, and actually a good sign because it means he's starting to practice breathing and that his lungs are developing. Poor kid will have a really strong diaphragm if this keeps up! (speaking of, he's hiccuping right now as I type this)

We've started to accumulate supplies for the upcoming baby shower, which is really exciting. Last week the mothers and I got together to plan, and this week has been a flurry of making sure we're registered for everything we need (turns out we weren't) and gathering decorations and game props for the party. It will be fun! Mom and Roberta are co-hosting it at my parents' house and it's going to be duck themed (surprise surprise!) with blue and yellow. I think it will be nice and bright and cheerful considering it's in the dead of winter, haha. Another fun thing is that there are already a few items purchased off our registry! Hooray!  One of the things I've been freaking out about is not feeling prepared enough with baby things around the house. As I mentioned in my registry blog: We have a stroller. That's another part of the mental peace I'm feeling- now that we've picked the things we want and I can see them being bought, I'm not as frantic about not having anything for him when he's born. Just an aside, the one thing we DON'T need at this point is blankets (at least any more than are on our registry because, seriously, who knew there were like 50 different kinds of baby blankets??? And you have to have one of each). He's got... [insert a picture of me mentally counting here] 10 blankets already upstairs in his closet and I think there are like 2 or 3 more on our registry.

I think that's about it for this entry. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon so I may add something else if there's any more new info to share after that.

LLSLB:

1. Morning sickness is not reserved to the first trimester. The last few weeks I've been really queasy around dinner time and all through the rest of the evening. (If you recall, I was usually nauseous in the early morning and early evening my first trimester.) I think it's the hormones changing a little bit because my hair is starting to thin out again (whereas it seemed to get thicker and grow faster the last few months) and my skin is starting to lose its clarity all over again. Mom and Dr said this is normal around this time.

2. I really haven't been sick (like with a virus or other bug) this whole pregnancy! It's been very nice.

3. The FAA prohibits infants under 14 days old to fly. Imagine that!!!! We decided to fly out for my best friend's wedding in March and while researching tickets we came across this information. He will fly for free but has to have a boarding pass and we have to bring along a notarized birth certificate to prove his age. If he comes on time we'll be fine, but even 1 day late and we'll be driving the 10.5 hours...

4. And finally, time does NOT fly when you're pregnant, even if you're having fun. At this point I feel like I've been pregnant forever, and will be pregnant forever.  These next few weeks can't go fast enough!!!!

Things are starting to get exciting- and scary! First I'll tell you about all the exciting stuff, because it's more fun that way.

We had our doctor's appointment last Thursday at the actual hospital where Baby will be born, which was an experience in itself. I don't have the time nor the blog space to go into detail, so click on the link from my last entry to get a glimpse into the accomodations. I'd only gained ONE pound from my last appointment 2 weeks prior (after 28 weeks we start going every 2 weeks instead of once a month, and after 36 weeks it's every week until the birth), which is a HUGE accomplishment for me and gave me even more inspiration to keep up the exercise. I HIGHLY recommend exercise in pregnancy, as it helps maintain EVERYthing. I've noticed the mood swingy-ness isn't nearly so bad, and I sleep a lot better, even when he's doing his Jedi training at 1am. I also don't feel as chubby and bloated (a feeling I had kind of taken for granted considering I'm carrying a considerably sized basketball shape on my stomach these days). All of you blondes out there can easily bond with me when I quote the greatest movie of all time: "Exercise gives you endorphins; endorphins make you happy- and happy people just don't go around killing their husbands!" Not that I was plotting murder, but my exercise-less lifestyle was making me extremely prone to irritation and meltdowns. Long story short- I'm a changed woman! And I'm hoping that setting this precedent now will help me keep it up after Baby comes. We shall see.

Anothing fun thing we learned is that Baby has shifted into the "correct" position! He's head down in the uterus which is good news. My doctor said that by 32 weeks babies typically get into this "birth position" and will most likely stay that way (for the most part) until they're born. It's good that he shifted early, which MIGHT point to a slightly early arrival as opposed to late. Nothing is guaranteed, but this was terrific news to me since I'm slated to be a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding 2 weeks after the due date... We also learned that I have a "long" uterus as opposed to a wide one. Meaning: from the back I don't look pregnant because my belly hasn't grown width-wise, but rather up and down and out a little. This usually makes for a tall skinny baby (again nothing is certain until we actually see him being born) as opposed to a shorter larger body. Dr. Priddy (say it out loud and try not to chuckle- granted, she is pretty cute for a doctor) felt around for the position and noted that he had a tiny little head and his feet are still really small, guestimating that he weighs about 3-4 lbs now. He'll continue to gain weight from here on out at a rapid rate.

This isn't exactly related to our doctor's appointment, but goes along with Baby's positioning. Since I'm not gaining a lot of "fat" weight, the skin across my belly is stretched pretty tightly against the uterus, which allows us to have hours of fun each day watching him move around. We've located his little butt (just on my right side near the belly button), fists (directly above my left hip bone), head (engaged in the pelvis), and feet- my personal favorite *ahem* usually making contact with my right floating ribs. After working out I'll lay on the couch or floor in my sweatpants and sports bra and we can see these teeny tiny body parts moving around. As one of my co-worker's described it- ALIEN!!! It's a weird but awesome sensation to physically see this child's life unfolding. Incredible. Sometimes I feel like I should cry, but I seem to have lost that part of my emotions this trimester. The thing about the feet- they're about the size of a squashed penny. You know- the ones that people buy in the little quarter machines at the gas station that are ovular and usually have something printed on them. They usually hang out (actively) under the right side of my ribs, and we're really into the "tickle my foot" game.  When he kicks my rib I gently push down on his feet and legs with my hand until I can see a foot. I then take one finger and gently rub it quickly which makes him twitch and move a little, and then I do it again, and he twitches again, etc. This can go on for several minutes until he pulls his legs back under his knees again and turns so they're not near the surface anymore. Super cute!

As for the scary part: I've been faithfully reading my "What to Expect When You're Expecting" book and I'm now towards the end in the Labor and Delivery chapter. This is the chapter where the authors go over every possible scary and gory detail about giving birth and how it will be the absolute worst experience of one's life. I knew it would be bad, but come ON people! I think I changed my mind about this whole giving birth thing. Justin and I were talking about it together and I told him I was going to try to do the "natural" thing as long as I could, meaning put off pain medication (ie epidural) until absolutely necessary. He pinched me on the arm and I was like "ow quit!!!" His response: "Yeah right you're not going to do the epidural right away!" Maybe he's right, I don't know. A lot of women I've talked to who have gone through this experience say that, yes it's terrible, but you kinda pull together all your adrenalin and strength to make it through miraculously. My own mother didn't even have time for an epidural with me, so hopefully I will be as quick as she was.

Another good news bulletin- my baby shower has now been planned, yay!!!!  When I had my bridal shower everyone told me to soak it in because it would be the last time all my friends would be in one room for a party for ME- they were WRONG!!! I get to be the "party princess," as mom says, again! Granted this time will be about me and Justin and the Baby, but still. I think I'm allowed to feel good and pampered on such an occasion. I'm really hoping a lot of people will be able to make it, and also that the weather holds out (it's Super Bowl weekend). The blog entry after that will be filled with details on all the fun things we did and all the goodies he gets, I'm sure.

LLSLB

1. You'll lose a lot of junk food cravings once you start to exercise on a regular basis. Double bonus!

2. I probably don't drink enough water because I'm ALWAYS super thirsty. Or maybe it's just another late-pregnancy symptom.

3. We're too late to take a tradition childbirth class- we have to take the fast track course that meets 2 Saturdays in a row from 8-5 yikes! Justin wasn't too happy about that one.

4. Lastly, I keep taking on things to do (work, house stuff, friends stuff) which I don't recommend. It is entirely possible to stretch oneself too thin, and that's never a good idea when you're pregnant (did I mention the emotional blowouts I have every once in a while???)

Love you all! Oh and don't forget to sign the guestbook so I know who's getting these updates and who's not.

Here is the link to the hospital where Baby will arrive- click on the link about halfway down the page to take a virtual tour of the place. It's like a 5 star hotel!!!!

http://www.clariannorth.com/serv/mate/

Ridiculous