Archive for April, 2010

Home stretch(marks)

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

April beauty

I honestly thought this baby would be born with snow on the ground. We had so much of it, I just figured it would take forever to get warm enough for it all to melt. Never did I imagine we’d have flowers blooming in our yard!

As we’re quickly approaching the (supposedly) last week of pregnancy, I’m finding it difficult to not be anxious about those things of which I have little-to-no control over. When will labor start? What will it feel like? What kind of delivery will I have? Will he be healthy? How quickly will I recover? What kind of baby will he be like? Will nursing be difficult for us? And so much more…

I anticipate that once I’m admitted to the hospital, a lot of my anxiety will be relieved since right now the biggest question for me is: When? After that, most of the questions will be answered within hours. And I’ll find new things to be anxious about. So far, we’re just taking it day-by-day. Every afternoon I send an end-of-day email with every project I’m in the middle of, where to find the documents, and where I’m at with the project. I’m working on school assignments early, to hopefully get some things done before the baby arrives, rather than needing to ask for extensions later. I’ve had several days of feeling “crampy” and thought each time that maybe it was pre-labor so that has kind of motivated me to be on top of things as much as possible, even though these aches have not amounted to anything.

Many people have asked about visiting us in the hospital, etc. We’d like to keep hospital visitors to a minimum for several different reasons and so we ask that only our parents and siblings visit during that time. However, anyone is welcome to come meet the baby once we return home. I’d ask that you call or email us first, so we don’t have a lot of people showing up on the same day, unannounced. This way, we also can let you know if it’s “not a good day” without turning you away on our doorstep. But seriously, come meet the baby. We might have an informal “meet the baby gathering” this summer in Sioux Falls, but I’m not ready to commit to anything at this point.

We’ll post updates, pictures and video of him online (nothing gorey, no worries) so in addition to this blog, I would suggest checking out my Facebook profile, Miles’s profile or the Dear Future Kids page–as well as my Flickr stream and Miles’s Flickr stream or Miles’s Twitter feed. We aren’t making any guarantees on who we’re texting immediately after he’s born, so many of you will probably hear it first through one of those avenues. Unless some interesting new information reveals itself in the next couple weeks, this will probably be the last post before the baby arrives!

For your listening pleasure, there’s a new Dear Future Kids podcast available, DFK 105: Math is Hard.

Baby update

Friday, April 9th, 2010

I kept thinking we’d get around to recording a short DFK podcast, but we haven’t yet. So here’s an update…

Good news! The ultrasound at 32 weeks showed that he’s right on track. In fact, he’s in the 52nd percentile in all of his measurements (weight, head, abdomen, length, etc.). This basically means out of 100 healthy babies at random, he’s bigger than 51 of them and smaller than 48 of them. It doesn’t explain why I’m measuring so much bigger, but we’ll take it. Of course, I’ve heard they can be off by as much as a pound on ultrasound measurements, (which would make him much much larger) but I’m choosing not to linger on that. Bonus: more baby pictures!

My appointment this week at 36 weeks went smoothly. I’m measuring at 38 weeks, but two weeks ago I was measuring at 37 weeks so I might be starting to level off. Looking at my pregnancy journal, I can see that it’s actually taken 12 weeks for my uterus to grow the equivalent of 10 weeks. At 24 weeks, I was measuring at 28 and at 36 weeks I’m measuring at 38. This makes me less concerned about measuring big.

I’ve gained a lot of weight. Like scary close to the weight I was before I lost all that weight. And if you remember how many pounds I lost, then you can guess within 10 pounds as to how much I’ve gained during pregnancy. They give you a weight range to try to stick to in gaining (based on your pre-pregnancy weight) and I flew by the high end on that range weeks ago. And I mean flew. And I mean weeks ago. I know in an instant I’ll lose like 10+ pounds with the baby and everything else that, umm, comes out. It’s just a mental thing. It confuses me because people tell me I look small. But I’m measuring big and weighing in big. So maybe people are just nice. But at my last appointment my doctor said “your blood pressure, your urine and your weight all still look good” so…we can add that to the list of things I love about her. I now will be going to appointments on a weekly basis until the baby comes.

Looking at my class schedule, it reminds me just how close we are to his arrival. I give a group presentation less than two weeks before our due date. It’s just weird to think about. Being two weeks before our due date pretty soon. Then, after my due date there are 3 classes left. Not really certain how that will all work out as I don’t know what my recovery will be like, but the professor said we’ll just play it by ear and work it out however we can. My hope is to only miss one class and then sit in class for the remainder of the weeks and just take notes – and then have Miles bring the baby half-way through the class (it lasts 3.5 hrs) so he can nurse before bed. In theory, it makes sense to me, but we have no idea what to expect. I do know that we have a final exam, so I am planning to at least be there for that.

Miles and me

Miles’s cousin Amber and aunt Karin threw a shower for the baby last weekend. We had a really good time and it was great to see everyone who came – many of whom I hadn’t seen in months! The baby scored a lot of loot and is loved already. We’re so excited to hold him and wrap him in all his new blankets and clean up his spit-up with all the new burp rags and dress him in dino outfits and change his diapers on his little butt. I’m obsessed with thinking about his little tiny hiney. Is that weird?