Big Sister

I've gotten such a kick out of watching Anna over the last few weeks. She's getting so excited about the baby. She loves to put her hands on my tummy, and if Caroline moves (and she usually does!), her eyes get really wide, and she smiles and laughs. It's really cool to experience this through her eyes this time around!

So yesterday, Anna took a sibling class at our hospital so that she could learn about babies and what to do with them. They watched a little video called "Sibling Silly", which was very cute. Then the teacher showed them some pictures of newborns so that they would be prepared for how the baby will look. They included a few pictures of things like the umbilical cord, some mild head bruising, and a minor rash so that the kids could see that babies sometimes look a little different at first, and that's okay. They also showed pictures of babies nursing, which I thought was a nice touch, and something that Anna will definitely have to get used to. After that, the teacher talked about how to hold the baby, with emphasis on ASKING first. This is something that I have a feeling we'll need to reinforce a LOT with Anna. She's such a little mother, I have a feeling she's going to want to hold the baby all the time! The teacher also talked about toys that babies can and cannot play with and showed the kids how to use a toilet paper tube to test whether the toy was okay for the baby.

Then she divided the kids into groups and taught them to diaper and swaddle baby dolls. It was hilarious to watch the boys, many of whom had never gone near a baby doll before! One little boy was completely grossed out by the idea of changing a diaper, and he was VERY vocal about it! But not Anna. She swaddled the baby doll expertly. Then when she went to change the diaper, she was not content to merely take one diaper off and put another on. Oh, no. She wanted to wipe the baby, too! So she found a napkin, opened it up, wiped very carefully between the baby's legs, put on the clean diaper, and then swaddled the baby again and held it in her arms and rocked it, supporting its head in her elbow, just like the teacher said to!

After that, we got a tour of the L&D unit so the kids could see where their baby brothers and sisters would be born. The poor teacher then asked if they had any questions. One little boy piped up and said, "How will the baby get out of Mommy's tummy?" The teacher handled it well (she said something about the doctor getting the baby out), but considering this was a class for 6-9 year olds, I was surprised the parents hadn't addressed that with the child AT ALL. I certainly haven't given Anna the gory details, but she does know that the baby comes out through a special opening between the mommy's legs.

Oh, and forgive me for my mini rant, but would someone PLEASE ban those stupid Heely shoes from all public places? One of the little boys in the class was wearing them, and I wanted to strangle his parents for allowing him to coast through the L&D unit without a single thought about whether he was going to knock over some poor pregnant woman or nurse. Seriously. They're bad enough in malls and grocery stores, but in the hospital? Ugh.

Okay, off the soapbox now. Here are a few pictures of Anna at the class. Also note the new 'do. She's very proud of her "grown up" hair!

Getting ready to wipe the baby:



Finishing up the diaper:



Time to swaddle:



Carefully supporting the baby's head:



Anna's "graduation" certificate from sibling class:

I have cankles!

Cankles = calf/ankles. This is so not fair. I never got swollen when I was pregnant with Anna. I blame my friend, Leanah, at church. She told me on Sunday, "Oh, you're just so cute pregnant! You don't even have swollen ankles!" So two days later, I looked down and couldn't tell where my calves ended and my feet began. Cankles. Sigh.

Other than that, things are great, though! I had my 35-week midwife appointment this afternoon, and things are looking good. I asked Karen to check the baby's position, since she still seems to be flipping 180s on a regular basis. She checked me and said she was pretty sure she was head down (also told me that I'm 1 cm dilated), but she wanted to do a quick ultrasound to make sure. She sent me across the hall, and sure enough, Caroline is in launch position. She's still very floaty, though, so I'm not 100% convinced that she'll stay that way. I've been doing squats and bouncing on the exercise ball tonight to try to encourage her to gravitate and stick. Jimmy thought it was hilarious to watch me typing on the computer while bouncing vigorously on the ball, but hey, if it helps, it will be worth it! The ultrasound tech also said that she's "definitely still a girl." That's reassuring because if she's not, our son will be wearing a LOT of pink!

I didn't get a weight estimate or anything (ultrasound can be off by 2-3 pounds at this point, anyway, so I don't put much stock in weight estimates), but Babycenter.com says that Caroline is around 18 inches long and probably weighs about 5 pounds. Of course, Babycenter.com also says that she's running out of room, and her movements should be getting smaller. In that regard, Babycenter.com is full of crap. They clearly have not met my little alien because I still get giant bumps and rolls on a regular basis. Last night, Anna spent about half an hour at bedtime singing to Caroline (this baby ALWAYS reacts to music!) and watching, wide eyed, as my belly morphed into strange shapes as the baby somersaulted and rolled around when she heard Big Sister's voice. I've decided my uterus must be made of spandex, since she obviously still has plenty of room to maneuver in there!

Last Saturday, some friends threw me a baby shower, and that was a lot of fun. We got some really wonderful gifts, and the food was fantastic! The cake was the best I've ever eaten, and I still have one piece left! My friend, Melissa, gave us the cutest little pair of hot pink capri pants and a little floral top that I plan to use as Caroline's coming-home outfit. It's absolutely adorable! I'll try to post a picture of the outfit, if I can ever find my camera, which went MIA the day before the shower. It has to be around here somewhere! We also got the infant carseat yesterday, and I installed the base this morning, so the hospital will now let us take our child home if she's born. And now, I guess we just wait.

Oh, George, how I missed you!

We spent part of the weekend at a friend's beach house this weekend. There were tons of people there (there were actually three beach houses -- two were rentals), and it was SO much fun! We got to swim in the ocean (despite some rain this morning, which did finally clear up enough to let us swim, but not enough to keep Anna's lips from turning purple from the chill!), build sand castles on the beach, and hang out with our friends (all 30+ of them!). We all went to dinner last night, terrorizing at least three waitresses who earned every penny of that 15% gratuity that is added for parties over 6 (the number of spilled drinks from our sordid party of rambunctious kids was probably double their usual weekly quota!), and then sat out on their deck watching the moon float over the ocean. It was really beautiful.

The only problem was that I discovered about halfway to Galveston that I left George at home. George is my ridiculously large maternity pillow (Best Pillow Ever! Link here), and he has made sleeping during the last few months so much more comfortable. Now, normally I wouldn't have been too upset. I mean, it was just one night, right? Surely I can arrange pillows around me to get me through one night! But I happen to have a cold this weekend, and I can't breathe lying down. Since everyone knows they don't give you the good drugs when you're pregnant, this means that I have to find some natural method of relieving my stuffy nose, and the only thing that seems to work is to elevate my head to a practically-upright position.

The house we were staying in had exactly two extra pillows, so let's do the math. One pillow under my head. Check. One pillow behind my back. Check. One pillow under my bump. Check. Okay, we're out of pillows, so what to do? I needed one between my knees and at least two more under my head to get me upright enough to breathe. So let's move on to the beach towels (which were thankfully unused at this point). Move the pillows under the head (ah, I can breathe!), and fold one towel to go under the belly. Wait, I'm still going to run out! Okay, these are big towels, so what if I rolled them? Finally, a solution! So I ended up with two rolled up towels -- one under my belly and between my knees, and the other wedged behind my back. It wasn't George, but it got me through the night.

You know, Jimmy gave me a hard time when I ordered George. He thought George was a waste of money and that he took up too much space (thus the name -- we figured the pillow was at least as big as an extra person in the bed!). After all the tossing and turning and rolling and stuffing and wedging that went on last night, Jimmy is now feeling the George love. I don't think I'll be hearing any more complaints from him!

Getting funny looks....

Over the last few weeks, I've been hanging out a lot with my friend, Gayla, who has a 4-year-old son and 14-month-old twins. We've gone to the mall a few times (the better to deal with the heat, humidity, and constant rain we've had lately), and played at her house quite a bit. Well, the last couple of mall trips, I've ended up pushing her double stroller briefly for one reason or another.

The looks I've gotten have been PRICELESS! They've ranged from awe to horror to outright pity. I mean, the poor woman with such young twins and about to pop with another one! Not to mention, are those two older kids BOTH hers? Gayla informed me this last trip that I am no longer allowed to push her stroller!

I had my 33 week visit on Thursday. I got to meet the backup OB for my midwife. I liked her pretty well. She had two of her three children without any drugs or interventions, and her general attitude is to just leave things alone until it's time to catch a baby. Sounds like just my type of doctor! This appointment was a little different, though. I've gotten so used to Karen doing the entire checkup pretty much on her own. She uses the Doppler to try to find the heartbeat, pulls out the little tape measure thingy to measure me, and palpates to check the baby's position. At my last appointment, the nurse did everything except the palpation, so my total time spent with the doc was quite a bit less than my typical midwife visit. I guess that's fairly standard, and once I started thinking about it, that's how all of my appointments went when I was pregnant with Anna. But it was a little odd now that I've gotten used to spending so much time with the midwife every visit!

Anyway, the appointment went great. I gained 2 pounds in 2 weeks, blood pressure was good, measuring right on for dates, etc. We did get a heart rate for the first time in several months, which was 140 bpm. This nurse was a little more tenacious with the Doppler than Karen usually is, so she worked on getting the heart rate for 4-5 minutes before Caroline stayed still long enough to get one. Usually, Karen finds the heartbeat for a few seconds, and when Caroline moves (and she ALWAYS moves!), she just says, "Well, if she's moving around that much, she's obviously healthy!"

As of today, I'm just 45 days from my due date, which means I'll be "full term" in about 3 weeks! That's just insane. Since I'm nearing the end of my travel days before Caroline is born, we'll be taking a series of "mini vacations" for the weekend of July 4th. A friend has offered to let us stay in a beach house they've rented on Crystal Beach close to Galveston, so we'll be spending Sunday and Monday on the beach. Tuesday morning, I have a chiropractor appointment, and then we'll be headed up to the DFW area to visit Jimmy's parents and spend the 4th with them. Then we'll come back Friday, and my wonderful friends are throwing me a baby shower on Saturday. So we'll be very busy for the next week or so, but after that we'll just be hanging out, waiting for our girl to make her debut!

32 weeks

Well, last week I promised I'd post my maternity portraits when I got them back, so here you go!

This week, Caroline is around 4 pounds and 17 inches long, and I can definitely tell she's getting bigger. My tummy starts to feel pretty heavy in the evenings after I've been carrying it around all day! I saw my chiropractor, Dr. Wolff, on Wednesday, and he said that the lower back tension I was feeling lately was probably due to the baby dropping. Sure enough, Caroline appeared to be head down and a little lower than usual that day. Considering she had been breech the night before, I don't expect that she'll STAY head down at this point, but he recommended doing lots of squats and lunges to get her head "stuck" down there so she wouldn't flip around again! I'm not sure if it's worked or not. I haven't felt for her head in a couple of days, so I'll have to lie down later and poke around to see if I can find it.

Last night, Jimmy and I went to a "childbirth refresher" class at the hospital. Since I've read every natural childbirth book out there (even some weird-sounding ones, like Hypnobirthing -- hey, it had some really great relaxation ideas!), there wasn't much new information, but it was a great refresher for Jimmy regarding ways he can help me relax while I'm in labor. I also absolutely LOVED the instructor, who is also a L&D nurse. She said she's never had a laboring mother who even WANTED a natural birth (most ask for epidurals immediately), and I told her I'd ask for her when I get there. She was excited at the prospect of actually being able to attend someone through a natural birth, and I'm thrilled to death to know a nurse who won't be pushing drugs on me the whole time I'm in labor! So that was worth the price of admission, right there! Hopefully, she'll be working the day I deliver.

We also got a tour of the hospital birthing center while we were there, and I'm really impressed with the facility. You labor, deliver, and recover in the same room, so you never have to move. The baby is never taken from your room unless you request that it be taken to the "newborn lounge" (a.k.a. nursery) between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. so you can get some sleep. The lights in the room can dim, they have a VCR/DVD/CD player and refrigerator in every room, and there's a fold-out couch for dads to sleep on, which is a vast improvement over the vinyl recliner Jimmy had to sleep in when Anna was born! There's also a great solarium/family lounge down the hall for anyone who is hanging out waiting for a baby to be born, and they have rooms with jacuzzi tubs available if you want to use one while you're in labor. Overall, a very nice place!

31 weeks

Well, I had a midwife visit this morning. All was well and boring. True to form, Caroline kicked the Doppler several times when we tried to get a heart rate, and she was doing all sorts of acrobatics during the appointment. She's measuring perfectly, I've gained 2 pounds in the last 2 weeks (right on schedule), and my BP was great. My next appointment is in 2 weeks, and I'll officially meet the OB who backs up Karen in the event of an emergency. I've met her a couple of times in the hall during my appointments, and she seems very nice and laid back, so I'm sure it will be a pleasant visit.

According to BabyCenter.com, Caroline is about 16 inches and weighs a little over 3 pounds. They also say "she's probably moving a lot, too." They have no idea! She's just a constant wiggle worm, and I love to feel her bounce and kick and roll in there. Well, I mostly love it. Occasionally, she'll decide she needs to stretch her legs a bit, or that she's just not comfortable on THIS side, so she needs to flip to THAT side RIGHT NOW, and that can really HURT! I've also noticed that, depending on her position, I'm feeling a bit more out of breath some days than others. Some days she's so far up in my ribs that I can barely get a full breath. Last night at choir, I had to stand for the entire rehearsal because 1) I couldn't take a deep breath while sitting, and 2) when I did sit, Caroline started attacking the waist band of my pants. Apparently, she's not fond of the pressure!

I had some maternity portraits taken over the weekend, and I'm very pleased with how they turned out. We ended up ordering one traditional family portrait as well as four others that showed my bare belly. This is apparently scandalous to my admittedly old-fashioned mother (Hi Mom!), but I think they're nice. I'm usually not one to show my bare middle (I don't exactly have washboard abs, even on a skinny day!), but I think pregnant tummies are beautiful, and I wanted to be sure to capture this one, especially since this may be my last baby! The studio was fabulous. We got some sweet pictures of Jimmy and Anna hugging/kissing the "baby" individually, and we got a great family shot with the three of us. We should be getting the prints in the next few days, so I'll scan and post them when I get them.

Playing "poke the baby"

Well, I'm 30 weeks this week. 10 weeks to go. I can't believe I'm about to be in the single digits! Some days, August seems SO far away, but other days, I can't believe I'm this close! I've noticed that people around me have already started making plans for August. It feels kind of odd to turn things down this far in advance, but I'm not making any firm plans! While I'd love to think I'll go a little early this time (second baby and all -- it could happen!), I could just as easily go late. And since my due date is smack in the middle of the month, that means that the entire month is pretty much up in the air.

The last few days have ended with a bedtime game that could best be described as "poke the baby". After my chiropractor showed me how to find Caroline's head a couple of weeks ago, I've been occasionally feeling around on my tummy to see if I can figure out how she's positioned. Well, Jimmy has gotten in on the fun now, so we spend several minutes every night poking around and trying to guess which parts we're feeling. She's been squirming around like crazy in there lately, and if I push gently on her head or her bum, I can feel the opposite end floating around to a different section of my belly. She often rewards us with a few good kicks, probably to tell us to stop bugging her!

Anna finally got a chance to feel some major movement today, too. I was on the couch after lunch watching something on television, and Caroline started moving around a lot. Anna came over and was able to both see and feel my belly moving. She ended up lying on the couch with me for about 10 minutes, just waiting for my tummy to bulge and move around. She thought it was really neat!

Speaking of Anna, she has done some really wonderful things lately! We finally got her into some swimming lessons this year, and she's doing so well. Jimmy took her to the neighborhood pool the other day, and she actually swam about 6-8 feet from the edge of the pool to him, all by herself! For a kid who was afraid to put her head under water a week ago, this is major progress! She's also been taking piano lessons for the last couple of months, and she's already most of the way through her first book and just loves it. And just to prove that she's truly exceptional, last night at dinner, she leaned over and hugged me and said, completely out of the blue, "Mommy, I'm so glad you're my mom!" Could you just melt? Maybe I'm a tad hormonal at the moment, but that just brought tears to my eyes. What a sweetheart!

I can't wait to see how she'll be as a big sister. She's so excited about Caroline and keeps asking if we're getting close to August. I want to try to keep from "using" her to help me with things, but I have a feeling I'll have to pry the baby away from her when it's time to feed her! She just loves babies so much and is already talking about changing diapers and holding the baby. She even wanted to put the baby in her room, "so that if she wakes up at night, I can sing her a lullaby and put her back to sleep!" Obviously, she has NO CLUE what she's asking for, but I thought it was sweet, nonetheless!

Yay for a healthy baby!

We had our follow-up ultrasound this morning. Everything looks great! The cyst has resolved completely, and everything else looks completely normal. Thank you all for your prayers over the last few months!

As usual, Caroline was moving all over the place during the ultrasound. The tech had trouble getting her to be still long enough to even get a heart rate! She's measuring right on for dates, and the ultrasound estimated her weight around 3 lb. 6 oz., which is pretty much exactly where she should be, as well. She's currently frank breech (that's butt first, for the uninitiated!), but I'm not worried about that at all. I know that she was head down for a day or so last week, and I've been able to follow her kicks all around my tummy. Sometimes she kicks my ribs, sometimes my sides, and sometimes down low, so she obviously still has plenty of room to move around! I'm supposed to continue spending some time every day on my hands and knees with my bum in the air to try to encourage her to turn. Not the most pleasant thing to do, but if it's the biggest sacrifice I ever have to make for this kid, I'll be doing pretty well, dontcha think?

Jimmy and I discussed our general ideas about the birth with Karen this morning as well. For those of you who don't know my basic childbirth philosophy, let's just say that pregnancy turns me in to a bona fide, flower-wearing, Kumbaya-singing hippie nutjob. I do still shower and shave my legs and pits, however; I'm not THAT earthy! But the bottom line is that I think childbirth generally doesn't have to be a hugely medicalized event, and I prefer to avoid drugs if at all possible. That's what drew me to a midwife rather than an OB, and I've been very pleased with my choice so far. Anyway, we talked to her today about the possibility of Jimmy helping to catch the baby, and she was all for it, assuming all is going normally up until that point. Obviously, he'll have her assistance, so it's not like he'll be flying solo or anything (yes there were some "Go long!" jokes in the elevator on the way out of the appointment, LOL!). He thought that Anna's birth was so amazing and awe inspiring that he's really excited about being able to take a more active role in delivering this baby!

So, there it is in a nutshell. I'll be going back in two weeks for another regular visit. No more peeking at Caroline until she's ready to come out! The tech gave us one final ultrasound picture of her -- a profile shot. She's getting so big that it was hard to get her whole profile in the shot, but I think she looks beautiful (admittedly, I might be a tad biased!). I'm also posting the picture we took of Anna holding the 30-week rubber fetus, which is just about the size of Caroline right now (give or take a week!).

Third Trimester -- Woo-hoo!

Today begins my 28th week of pregnancy, so I'm officially in the home stretch -- my third trimester!

I called today and got the results of my gestational diabetes screen, and it was normal. Because I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), one of the symptoms of which is insulin resistance, I was moderately concerned that the GD screen would come back high, and I'd have to take the 3-hour test. Fortunately, everything is fine, so I don't have to drink that horrible orange stuff again! I did find out that my iron is a bit low, which I pretty much expected. It was low when I was pregnant and breastfeeding Anna, and it fluctuates between normal and low even when I'm not pregnant. Anyway, they're calling in a prescription for an iron supplement, which should fix the problem.

In other news, I have been suffering a severe case of "placenta brain" over the last few weeks. I remember forgetting small things when I was pregnant with Anna. It was not at all uncommon for me to misplace my keys or store the ice cream in the oven or whatever. But this time I seem to be forgetting dates, times, and events at an alarming rate. Yesterday, Jimmy and I were supposed to sing for an evening church service. I was even reminded at church yesterday morning, and I STILL forgot to go! And I didn't even realize I forgot until our choir director called this afternoon to make sure I was okay and hadn't had an emergency or something. Fortunately, the music was covered, and everything worked out okay, but I still feel really bad for forgetting. Maybe I can blame the iron deficiency, LOL!

Unfortunately, I seem to remember that "baby brain" is even worse than "placenta brain" because apparently all of the brain cells that are not involved in subsistance (breathing, eating, waking up in the middle of the night, feeding, diapering) seem to fall out right behind the baby, and it takes a couple of years before they start to finally regenerate. So I guess I can expect to walk around in a baby-induced haze for at least another 2 years or so. Sigh.

27 week midwife visit

I got to do the 1-hour glucose screen today. It sucked. I don't care what "they" say, that orange stuff is VILE. I nearly threw up a couple of times drinking it. They did let me drink the glucola at home, which was good, since I could then spend part of the hour driving to my appointment rather than just sitting and waiting. I really, REALLY hope that I pass the stupid screen so that I don't have to go back and do the 3-hour test. They usually don't give you the results until your next appointment (strange -- I remember getting the results instantly when I was pregnant with Anna), but they said I could call Monday if I wanted to know sooner. Oh, and the place where they drew my blood has developed about a 4" long bruise that is all sorts of pretty shades of purple and blue. Lovely.

Other than that, everything was pretty boring. My blood pressure was 110/63, which was down a bit from last time -- not that it was bad before (I think it was about 130/80), but it was a little high for *me*, since my average bp usually runs somewhere in the 100-110/60 range. Weight was up 2 pounds. Baby was very active (who wouldn't be, after having all the sugar from the glucola?) and measuring right on target.

I now get to start going every 2 weeks. My next visit will include a Level II ultrasound to make sure the cyst has gone away and that there are no other abnormalities that could indicate something more serious.

I also asked my midwife when she generally gets concerned about breech/transverse babies. This one is definitely transverse right now -- all the kicks are either down low or on the sides -- but it's obviously too early to really be a concern at this point. She said she doesn't start worrying until full term (around 37 weeks), which is exactly what I wanted to hear! I love that she's so laid back about things like that. I've had some friends whose doctors scheduled them a c-section when their babies weren't in position at 30 weeks, which is just craziness because babies still have PLENTY of time/room to turn at that point. So anyway, Caroline has plenty of time to get into the correct position to make her appearance, though I have to say I'd welcome a break from all the bladder trampolining that she has seemed to enjoy over the last few months!