33 Weeks

7 more weeks to go! (However, this post is a little delayed, so its more like 6 1/4 weeks!) Patrick's parents were here this past weekend delivering the baby furniture that Mr. Brian made. He made a cradle for our bedroom for when the baby first comes home, and he made a dresser for the baby's room. Both pieces are beautiful. He did a very nice job. It was a long drive for a quick trip - they arrived Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning - but they wanted us to have the furniture so that we could finish getting everything set up.

The cradle is quite large. We may have to rearrange some things in our bedroom to squeeze it in there, and I think the baby could sleep in it until he's 2, but it really is a great piece of furniture. I'm sure it will be a family heirloom for generations to come.
The dresser is very nice as well. It has a lot of very nice details - notice the balled feet and the swirly thing at the bottom. Mr. Brian had called to see what color stain we wanted, so Patrick and I spent a lot of time trying to pick out the right stain to match the crib (at least 4 trips to Lowe's), but it paid off because the colors match quite well. I will be able to use the top as a changing table initially, but the baby will be able to use it as a dresser forever. Unless we give it to his younger brother or sister. Hmmmm....maybe we should put in our order now for another set of furniture.



So the room is coming along very nicely. The bed is all made, the curtains are hung, the furniture is all there. Now we just need a baby!


Nellie even has her own little spot in the room. I'm hoping that she'll be happy laying there and won't try to get in my lap while I'm nursing the baby in the rocking chair. I know that's probably not realistic, but I have to try anyway. At this point, she still tries to get in my lap, but I think she's starting to realize that there isn't much of a lap left. I was sitting on the floor the other day, Indian style, and she came over and tried to put her paw down in my lap and couldn't find anywhere to put it. She turned a little, tried with the other paw and failed again. She settled with sitting next to me, as close as she could possibly get. I'm not so sure that she is going to like the new addition to the family, because she's not going to get nearly the attention she normally does. And she is a very attention-hogging dog.

At 33 weeks, the baby should be about 4 lbs and 17 inches long. The skeleton is hardening but the bones in the skull are not fusing yet, which makes them more pliable so that the baby can fit his head through the birth canal. I'm still feeling pretty good, although I'm finding it harder to sleep comfortably. I guess the lack of sleep is just good preparation for when the baby comes.

Belly Pictures

Use this link to see some pictures that Patrick took of my big belly!

http://www.pbase.com/pharr080/jessica_pregnancy

32 Weeks

We went to the doctor last Tuesday, and everything still looks good! She measured my belly and it measured about 32 - 32 1/2, which is exactly in line with my due date! The baby seems to be head down, with his feet up near my ribs, so as long as he doesn't decide to turn around, he should be good to go! We'll start going back more frequently now, so I have another appointment 2 weeks from tomorrow.

We took our childbirth class this weekend, which we enjoyed. There were other scared dads in the class, so Patrick felt a little better, I think. We learned about all the different stages of labor, relaxation techniques, pain managment, C-sections, etc., and we got to see all of the equipment that they will use during the delivery. And of course we got to see a video of a live birth. How do they talk women into allowing them to videotape this, even if its for educational purposes?!

We did a role playing activity, where the wives had to read specific lines and then the husbands had to say how they would respond. My line was something like, "I've been in labor for 10 hours and I'm only 5cm dilated. I'm done with this. I'm going home!" (You know, I can actually imagine myself saying something like that.) To which Patrick responded very supportively in front of the class, "You're doing great, honey. You're halfway there. You can do it". I told the class that I actually thought he might take more of a tough love approach and say something more like, "Oh, yeah?! You're going to drive yourself? Because I'm staying here." We got a good laugh out of that.

Anyway, the baby should weigh about 3.75 lbs and is probably about 16.7 inches long. I should be gaining about a pound a week now (no problems with that), and most of this will go to the baby. He will gain about 1/3 to 1/2 of his birth weight between now and when he is born. He should also have fingernails and toenails now and maybe even a little hair on his head. However, I haven't had any heartburn at all, so perhaps he's bald?!

30 and 31 Weeks

Wow! Time is flying by...less than 9 weeks to go! I feel like I'm getting bigger by the minute. I was starting to have a lot of leg pain because I think the baby is sitting pretty low. But now I wear this belly-band thing that pulls my belly up. Its actually helped quite a bit with the leg pain and higher back aches.

The baby is moving around quite a bit. Sometimes I feel like he's doing summersalts in there. I think he gets the hiccups occasionally. I go back to the doctor on Tuesday, then I will start going every two weeks.

Some friends of ours had a 'baby brunch' for us and another couple that is pregnant a couple of weekends ago. We played games and ate lots of good food. But one of the games consisted of guessing the ingredients to 5 different baby foods. I dipped my pinky slightly in them to get a little taste and gave up after that. None of them tasted all that great, and they all tasted the same to me. Seemed like all of them had bananas in them, but apparently only one did. Patrick on the other hand ate everything on his plate trying to figure out what they all were. He only got the banana part right too.

My mom and Bob were here last weekend (since it was Mardi Gras). We got a lot done. My rocking chair arrived and we put that together, we put the mobile together and put that on the bed and started decorating the baby's room. We washed a lot of the baby's clothes and blankets and stuff he'll use in the beginning. I felt better having gotten so much accomplished.

My water aerobics class is going well. It feels so good to get in the water and move around. And its good to talk to other first-time moms or other moms that have done this before. The lady that teaches the class has a 13 week old, so she has lots of great advice.

Patrick and I will be taking a childbirth class next weekend. Its lasts all day both Saturday and Sunday, so hopefully we will get something useful out of it.

The baby should now weigh a little over 3 pounds and is probably about 16 inches long (we don't know this for sure, but this is a general idea). Apparently he should be heading into a growth spurt so I guess that means I can look forward to getting bigger and bigger! His eyesight is beginning to develop but will probably only have about 20/400 vision when he's born.