We’re living it up tonight, ringing in the new year with a puzzle (difficult!) and some knitting (easy!). We are ANIMALS. 🙂 Really though, can you imagine me standing in Times Square, big as a house, screaming with the masses? Me either. This quiet night is just perfect.
Welcome, 2011. Good to see you.
This week Baby Girl has fingernails and toenails! That’s great. I actually find great satisfaction in clipping baby nails. We know from ultrasound that our baby girl has hair, but apparently this week, the hair is growing and looking more like real hair than peach fuzz. What kind of hair will she have? Ringlets like Sam? Will it be dark or light? I can’t wait to find out!
The average 32-week baby is 16.7 inches long and about 3.75 pounds, like a large jicama. I love that word. Jicama. HEE-ka-ma. But really, how many of you out there have picked up a jicama? I haven’t. How about a small watermelon? I know what that feels like. 🙂 Right now, at this very minute, Baby is smashed up in my lung field. I’m taking small, short breaths, and rubbing her head or butt or whatever hard object is poking out. Do you know what I’ve noticed this week? When I was pregnant with Sam, he’d kick and poke me. When I’d poke him back, he’d wiggle and kick. This baby doesn’t respond to my pokes. She gets very quiet. But when I rub the area, she kicks and pokes me. Isn’t that interesting? 🙂
And my ankles are swollen. Not really swollen, just a little bit. I spend quality time with my feet up on pillows these days. I’m so thankful for Rob and all of work he does picking up my slack. He’s amazing!
Well. Rob and I spent the evening at Appleton Medical Center, being evaluated for preterm labor. OK, that’s not true. Rob wasn’t being evaluated. He was overseeing the operation. 🙂
I’ve been having some cramping over the last couple of days, so I called my doctor in Michigan and he said to go in and be evaluated, just to be safe. I was actually really glad that he wanted me to go in, because with every little twitch and twinge, I thought, “Oh, here we go. Premature baby, NICU stay, can’t go home because Baby can’t leave.” I couldn’t relax. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. In some ways, it was a relief to head to the hospital.
They ran a bunch of labs, checked my cervix for any dilation or softening, and did a fetal Fibronectin test, which measures a protein that the cervix secretes (hate that word) in the weeks prior to delivery. If that test is negative, there is a 99% chance that the body will not go into labor within two weeks. Mine was negative. Best Christmas present ever. The rest of my labs were normal or close to it. (I’m still anemic. I guess I need more Cream of Wheat.) I had some IV fluids while we waited for the labs to come back. Nothing like a little Lactated Ringer’s cocktail going right into your bloodstream to bring back the spring in your step! 🙂
Rob and I ordered pizza and watched “Chopped” on the Food Network. Rob said it brought back so many memories of hanging out at the hospital with me while I was there on bed rest the last time. We’d eat, watch TV, play games, talk about our days (Rob usually had more to say in that area!), and just be together in the little home-away-from-home hospital room. I certainly don’t want to repeat that experience, but there’s a little bit of magic in the memories.
So, all is well. I’m not having the baby for two weeks (and let’s just tack on a few more weeks to that plan, thank you), and I can wake up to Christmas Eve with a clear mind and a few poke marks as tiny memories of our crazy date night at the hospital.
This week, Baby is about 16 inches long and 3.3 pounds — the equivalent of carrying around four oranges. I think that’s funny. Here I am with four oranges, just carrying them around! 🙂
Today has been interesting in that I had some uterine cramping this morning. I called into the clinic to check in. They would have had me come in, but I’m in Wisconsin and can’t just zip over for a quick visit. So instead, I am supposed to lie around and drink lots of fluids. It seems to have helped, because they have stopped. So that’s good. I have to say, I don’t want to have a baby this week. For as much as I want to meet this little one, I don’t want to meet her yet. Four more weeks and I would feel comfortable with a surprise early birth day. Week 31 is still a little early for my comfort level.
So, Baby Girl, stay put. Don’t even think about leaving your womb until I’ve said so!
Tonight, after getting home from playing with friends, Sam rushed around the house, turning all the lights off. Except the Christmas tree. He then pronounced that it was time to “watch a dark movie for Sam.” He chose the new Christmas special “Prep and Landing” (which is adorable, by the way). He climbed up on the couch and directed Rob and I to either side of him, so he could sit in the nest between us. We were a bird family — Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Bird — watching a Christmas special, snuggling together. I never want to forget those little moments. Of tiny bodies nestled between big bodies, soaking up Christmas and love and togetherness.
For the last two days, Sam has been running around the house shouting, “Shoot the power out!” He says that he made it up, and when we ask him what it means, he says, coyly, “Nuffin’.”
He’s so funny.
Well. Here we are. Week 30. I’ve been on my feet for a week longer than last time, which has been so lovely. I had a doctor’s appointment today — with no ultrasound, which was strange — and everything is FINE! Again! My BP was 132/68, which is just right. It’s higher than I would like if I were not pregnant, but as it is, I’m thrilled! Baby’s heart rate was 160 bpm — very close to where it’s been the whole time. (Can you imagine that little heart? I picture it fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings.) Without talking about it, both Rob and I went into today’s appointment hoping and praying that we wouldn’t be told that we were unable to travel for Christmas. We both breathed a huge sigh of relief when we realized all is well.
At one point, Dr. Bryant was talking to me and Sam was trying to ask Dr. Bryant a question. Rob attempted to answer for the doctor, but Sam turned around and said, “I was talking to him.” Dr. Bryant burst out laughing! It was pretty funny.
My next appointment is on January 3rd, before Rob starts school again. I’ll have another ultrasound to check in, see the baby’s position (will she still be breech??), and check my cervix for length and dilation. Do you know what’s weird? I’ll be 33 weeks by that point, which means that I am truly in the home stretch. That’s great. I’m all about the home stretch. 🙂
Isn’t thirty a nice round number? It makes week 40 seem not so far away. Remind me that I said that in a couple of weeks when the rush of Christmas has passed and I am staring down forty-some cold days of gigantic belly. 🙂
Speaking of a gigantic belly, it seems that strangers now have the right to comment on my burgeoning girth. We went to church on Sunday and some old woman came up to me and said, “I saw you sitting in church this morning. You must be having a Christmas baby!” I said, “No, I’m due in February.” She expressed awe, staring at my belly, and replied,” Oh wow. I thought for sure you were due any day, since you’re so HUGE.” Thank you, old church lady, can I please go to the bathroom now? It’s ok. I get it that a pregnant belly is some sort of invitation to talk about every pregnancy and birth experience you’ve ever had or heard about. I’m just glad that people aren’t reaching out to touch me all the time. I’ve never had that happen, actually — even when I worked in a hospital last time, where boundaries are generally nonexistent.
So, what’s happening with Baby Girl this week? Well, she’s getting fatter. Her skin is turning from red to pink as she puts on more weight. The average 30-weeker is 15.7 inches long and almost 3 pounds. (But as we know, this baby is probably 30 inches long and 6.5 pounds, given how big my belly is, right strangers?) She’s also continuing to develop her eyesight. You could shine a flashlight against my belly and she would be able to detect the changing light. She’d better do what she can for vision right now, because she’s destined for glasses at some point. Rob and I weren’t gifted with pilot-worthy vision — we make friends with the optometrist wherever we live. It’s only a matter of time for Sam and Baby. 🙂
Every morning I wake up and think, “Today is another day that I am walking around.” I’ve never known what it feels like to spend week 30 on my feet. I’m grateful for every day I spend on my feet, even when my back is sore and I’d rather be lounging on the couch. I’m ready for whatever comes, whether it’s smooth sailing till the end or modified activity or bed rest. A healthy and happy baby is the reward for whatever my body needs me to do!
At dinner time, I cried because all of my sauce pans were dirty.
Ridiculous.
[While building a zoo with Legos]
Rob: Animals who eat only plants are called herbivores.
Sam: Herbivores. Yes.
Rob: And what do we call animals that eat only meat?
Sam: LIONS!
One Fish, Two Fish 
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