Baby

Jen's Updates - Week 37

Sunday, March 30th, 2003 - 3 weeks before estimated due date!

Oh no, stretch marks! See the 'Symptoms' section for details.

I'm full term now! The baby could come at any time! Technically my due date is three weeks off, but they consider 37 weeks to be a safe time to deliver. That's pretty scary. I'm starting to feel like a time bomb! It is very strange to know that something is going to happen to my body over which I'll have absolutely no control.

Usually, only your involuntary muscles (lungs, heart, etc) are functioning without your control, and that's good. All of the sudden, sometime soon, my body (or at least parts of it) will be out of my control and I'll just be along for the ride. How strange!

Reminder: the Peanut Pages are at http://www.whitedoom.com/Baby/

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Midwife Visit

Preparation

Movement

Symptoms

Exercise

Other Babies

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Midwife Visit

I saw Cindy today, and got to meet Anne, finally, though it turns out that she won't be on call in April, so there isn't actually a chance that she'll be with me during the birth. Regardless, she seems nice, and I'm glad that I got to meet her.

The appointment went fine. He's still on my left side, with his back on the side of my belly. My fundus measured 38 centimeters, if I remember correctly. Cindy agreed that he has probably dropped, because she can't feel as much of his head above my pubic bone. His heartbeat is good, and he is generally very active.

Angela had mentioned that my craving for ice and snow might be a symptom of PICA, so I mentioned that to Cindy. She said not to worry, because although that is possible, PICA generally causes eating of non-food items (like coal or wood), and that ice doesn't really count as non-food. If I had any additional strange cravings, THEN I should start worrying. This is one of the reasons I like sending these updates... I find out what symptoms are worth checking out! I like having people watch out for me.

My sugar level was down today, to just 100, instead of 250 like it was last time. That is better, but still high. Nothing to really worry about, though. They also did the Strep B test, and I'll find out the results next week.

The most interesting part of the visit was that I found out that one of the women in our childbirth class (last weekend) gave birth last night! Her daughter was born two weeks early, with no complications. She was the one of the three of us that was saying, 'yeah, I'm planning on having an epidural'. It turns out that she didn't have one, and didn't even ask for one during the entire labor.

The other fun part of the visit (sorry, most of it has gotten pretty routine) was that I'm going to build a web page for the midwives. They have one already, and it is actually quite nice, but sparse. I think that it would be really interesting to collect birth stories from people who have given birth with the midwives. It would be excellent publicity for them, and there are a ton of other cool things I want to do with the site that I won't bore you with here. They're excited about it!

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Midwife Visit

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Movement

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Exercise

Other Babies

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Miscellaneous

Preparation

We're just about ready! I mean, in the house. Emotionally and psychologically, I don't know. Anyway. My parents came to visit the weekend, and they brought me a chest of drawers that my dad had built for me when I was a baby, as well as the cradle that I've mentioned before. So, my mom and I organized the baby room! We put all of the baby clothes into the dresser, cleared out the closet to make room for some baby stuff that we don't need available just yet (mostly toys for when he is older), and generally just organized the room. It looks like a regular room again, instead of like a baby bomb exploded in it. All neat and tidy! While we were doing that, Travis and my dad were playing with our new digital video camera. It seems to work fine!

I washed all of the newborn clothes that I have. I don't know if that was necessary or not, but some people say that you are supposed to do that. Anyway, I did.

Angela wrote to me and said that it looked like I was getting into the nesting phase. I have to disagree with her. We NEED to do all of this stuff, but I don't WANT to do any of it. Picking things up from the floor requires a lot of effort, so I have a low tolerance for cleaning and organizing. I had Travis move all of the baby stuff onto the bed so I could reach it without bending down.

Travis installed the baby seat base into my car, so that is all set. Now all we need to do is pack my bag for the hospital. I'll put up a list of what we've decided to take with us (once we figure it out).

Travis and I spent a day taking care of baby things. We went to Babies R Us and ordered the glider and ottoman that my parents and grandparents bought for us. We were very disappointed that they didn't have it in for us to take home with us! I'll have to go back and pick it up in a week or so. We also picked up a few more things that we needed, like diapers and wipes and nipple pads and other things that would have been strange to get as shower gifts!

The more fun part of the day was that we went to Best Buy and purchased a new digital camera (just like my cousin Brett's) and a digital video camera. Our old digital camera is not working well at all... it needs to be plugged in to work, and sometimes refuses to take pictures at all. We bought it about 6 years ago, when they were just coming out, and it doesn't even have a view screen. Archaic technology! The new one works great!

Still to do: clean my car, finish packing my bag, random small tasks, clean the house and keep it clean in anticipation of visitors after the birth!

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Midwife Visit

Preparation

Movement

Symptoms

Exercise

Other Babies

Gifts

Miscellaneous

Movement

Travis said that the baby woke him up last night. He was sleeping with his hand on my belly (as he usually does, so he can feel the baby moving as he goes to sleep), and the baby kicked his hand and woke him up. He said that I didn't even move. I guess that once I'm asleep, I'm really asleep.

I think that he is getting agitated at being cooped up in there. He's been very active and very violent lately! He wants out!

I was taking a bath the other night, and I set my glass of milk on the end of our porcelain tub. I set it down a little hard, I guess, because it made a pretty big clunk. The baby was startled! He jumped in my belly! I did it again, to see if it was a coincidence, and he jumped again! I didn't do it after that, because it seemed a bit mean to be scaring him, but it is nice to know that he can hear! It was probably pretty loud, through all that water!

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Midwife Visit

Preparation

Movement

Symptoms

Exercise

Other Babies

Gifts

Miscellaneous

Symptoms

Stretch Marks

Yes, I finally have developed stretch marks. I really thought that I was going to avoid them, but apparently not. There are about four or five, less than a centimeter each, under the globe of my belly. I noticed them because I was playing with our new camera and taking a picture of the magnificence of my belly, which gave me the rare opportunity to view the underside.

They are mostly on my left side, which is not surprising because that's where the baby is. It is pretty common to develop stretch marks there when the baby drops, because unlike the rest of the pregnancy process, it happens relatively quickly, so your skin doesn't have time to stretch gradually.

I think that they are low enough that I could still wear a bikini and have them not visible. Not that that is important, because I'm not really the bikini type, but maybe someday I will be! You never know. Then again, it is hard to tell which way my skin will go to regain its shape.

Insomnia

I actually went to sleep at 11:00 on Sunday night, and slept until I woke up naturally at about 8:30. It was wonderful! There were some bathroom breaks in there, of course, but I never had trouble getting back to sleep! Yay!

Unfortunately, that was an anomaly.

Mostly, I've taken to sleeping in our guest room (soon to be the baby's room). The bed in there is very old and very soft, and it has a feather bed under the sheets, so it cradles my body really well and makes it a little easier to sleep. Our bed is very firm, which I usually like, but not so much lately! I am also very restless, and feel more comfortable throwing my body around in the bed when I don't feel like I'm keeping Travis awake.

Also, I tend to suffer from insomnia in normal (non-pregnant) life as well, and I've found that switching rooms is often helpful, though I don't know why. Sometimes, when I'm experiencing insomnia every night, I start off trying to sleep in the guest room, so I can leave _that_ room and actually go to sleep in our room. That way, I get to wake up with Travis.

Swelling

My ankles are swelling again. Mostly after a long day at work, because I've been working very intensely lately, trying to get everything done there, so I haven't been getting out of my chair as often. When I walk, it feels like the flesh on the top of my feet is jiggling. Yuck!

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Midwife Visit

Preparation

Movement

Symptoms

Exercise

Other Babies

Gifts

Miscellaneous

Exercise

I haven't been exercising. I mean, I did once or twice this week, but my ankles and feet have been so swollen when I've gotten home from work, and I've been so tired, that I just wasn't interested in being on them at all. I've been taking baths and reading in bed instead. Anything to avoid sitting in a computer chair or being on my feet.

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Midwife Visit

Preparation

Movement

Symptoms

Exercise

Other Babies

Gifts

Miscellaneous

Other People's Babies

Our next door neighbor, Tanya, came over yesterday to see how pregnant I was. She and her husband Heath have a boy named Chandler who is 16 months old, and they said that they have tons of clothes and toys that he has outgrown that they want to get rid of. That could prove very useful!

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Midwife Visit

Preparation

Movement

Symptoms

Exercise

Other Babies

Gifts

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Work

I'm getting a little stressed about work. There are projects that I need to complete before I take time off, and I just don't see how I'll get them all done, even if I don't give birth before my due date. Argh. I've been working a lot, and have been busy getting organized when I've been home, so if you've been waiting for an email response from me, I'm sorry! I'll try to catch up soon!

My Birthday

The baby is due on my birthday, as you know, so I don't think that I'll get to celebrate in my usual way. Usually, Travis takes me out to Jay's Seafood Restaurant in downtown Dayton. I order crab legs (my favorite meal) and they are just so good! It is a very nice restaurant, and not inexpensive, so we only go there on my birthday. Normally, Outback Steakhouse crab legs are just fine, but for one day a year, I prefer the classy atmosphere and superior crab legs of Jay's.

Anyway, my parents came to bring the furniture down, so I thought that we should go out and celebrate a little early! I don't know what I'll be doing on April 20th, but I'll either be giving birth, extremely pregnant, or covered with spit-up. In any case, I didn't think I'd want to go out to a nice restaurant that night. So, we went this weekend. It was very nice! It has been a long time since I got to go to Real Seafood with my family, which is what started me on the 'I need crab legs on my birthday' kick in the first place. I missed my sister and my aunt Becky, who usually went with me to Real Seafood, but it was still nice! If I had thought of it earlier (and the entire visit was less spur-of-the-moment), maybe we could have arranged it.

We played cards the entire time they were here, one long euchre tournament, boys against girls. Unfortunately, the boys won something like 6 out of 9 games. My mom and I gave them a run for their money, I think, but didn't manage to win many games. Sometimes I think that we talk too much. Anyway, it was very fun because Travis and I love to play cards! Maybe next time we (my mom and I) will win a little more often.

That's it for this week! I'm trying to send these out more promptly, because I don't want to end up having the baby, and then send out the previous three weeks of pregnancy updates, as I've done in the past! That would be silly. I'll try to stay current!