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.

29 Weeks

Here is my big belly, getting bigger every day!

Patrick and I have been working on the baby's room all week. He painted over the weekend (notice the nice green color!) and we built the crib Tuesday night. It came out very nice - we're very excited about it. But we've come to realize how very small the room is. Its only 8.5x8.5 ft, so there won't be much extra space! We're still hoping to squeeze a dresser/changing table combo and a rocker/glider. Its going to be a tight fit, and we haven't quite figured out how we're going to arrange the room. We're using newspaper cut to the dimensions of the dresser and rocker to try to lay things out with the crib (since we don't have either of those pieces in the room yet), and we haven't found the perfect solution yet, but hopefully we'll figure something out. Nellie has been checking out all the action as we are starting to put together the room.
But don't be fooled. She's not as innocent as she looks. What she's really after is the monkey.

In other news, Patrick and I took a newborn care class last night at the hospital. We learned all about diaper changes, baby carriers, and swaddling. I'm a little concerned that when Patrick was practicing putting a baby doll in a carrier that you wear, he popped the baby's head off. A little too much pressure on the head as he was trying to position the baby, perhaps? I'll give him another chance but if he pops our baby's head off, he's going to lose some privledges.

My water aerobics class is a lot of fun. There are a couple of other moms in the class that are due in April. I feel a little self-concious because I think I look way bigger than they do. But its fun to get together with other prego ladies and swap stories. I have my second class tonight.

The baby should be about 2.5 lbs now and about 15 inches long. This is the period where his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, so I've been drinking lots of milk! He needs about 250mg of calcium a day to deposit into his hardening skeleton. His head is getting bigger as well since his brain is developing so he also needs lots of protein, Vit C, folic acid, and iron. I've really tried to eat much healthier since I've been pregnant. Hopefull he's getting lots of good nutrients!

News Flash!

The nursery is now green. Yes, it was green before. Is it now the right color green, you ask? Doesn't matter. It's green.

-Patrick

Weeks 27 and 28

I'm a little behind on updating the blog, so I'll have to do two weeks at once! The third trimester has officially begun! The baby should be about 2 1/4 lbs and about 14.8 inches long. He can open and close his eyes and his eyelashes have also formed. As his eyesight is developing, he can probably start to see light that filters in through my belly. His brain tissue is also still developing, and at this point his brain is probably very active.

Patrick and I have been busy the last couple of weeks. We've finally managed to get most of the baby's room cleared out and transferred most of the office stuff into the guest bedroom (its getting very crowded in there!) We've been storing all of the baby stuff in the guest bedroom too since we still need to paint the baby's room. I'm working on picking out the paint, but I don't make decisions like this very quickly. And Lowe's seems to be out of the paint swatch that I think has the exact green color on it that I want! But I think I would like to paint the room green and have red accents, like red curtains, etc., since the pattern has some red in it. Those of you that have been to our house know that the baby's room is already green, but its definitely not the right green. Its too dark, and not quite the right shade to match the pattern. But I think I've finally convinced Patrick that the room needs to be painted. He has agreed to do it, although he doesn't seem to be happy about it. Since I'm pregnant, I'll just supervise the job. But I'd better get the green color right the first time because there is no chance in hell that I'll convince him to repaint it if I don't like it! We're going for an animal theme, and here's a picture of the quilt from the pattern for the baby's room (click on the picture to make it bigger):


We purchased the crib this past weekend, so I'm glad that it's done. I was worried that we would have to order it and that it would take up to 12 weeks to arrive, which is around the time the baby will arrive too. And even though the baby won't sleep in his crib right away, we still needed it soon, right?! But the lady at the store said, "we have some in the back, do you want it today?" and of course I said yes! They came out with this huge box, so we ended up having to take all of the pieces out so that we could fit them all in the back of the Explorer. I told Patrick that I felt so much better now that we have the crib. He thinks I'm crazy of course because he didn't think there was anything to worry about anyway. And now he wants to know what we should do with it until we are ready to put it in the baby's room. Hmmmm...right now its in pieces in the living room. Guess we should paint the room so that we can put the crib together, huh? That means I need to make a decision about the color!

I had my most recent doctor's appointment yesterday. I had to do the screening for gestational diabetes, so i had to drink a very sweet fruit juice drink then wait an hour to have my blood drawn. I called and got the results today and it was in the normal range, so that's excellent! The baby's heartbeat also sounded great - it was around 150bpm, so it's going strong! Otherwise, the doctor seems to be pleased with my progress. I only gained about 5 lbs between my last two visits, as opposed to the 10 that I gained between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

I have enrolled in a prenatal water aerobics class on the suggestion from Patrick's cousin Laura. She said it made her feel so much better and she thinks that the fact that she was in pretty good shape made for a better labor. I look pretty funny in my prego bathing suit, but hopefully so will all of the other pregnant women in the class. I'm supposed to start tomorrow night, but I'm fighting a cold again so I guess I'll have to wait and see how I feel.