30w1d - Alien belly

This week is marked with another first. Alien belly started a few days ago. It's so weird to look down and see my belly moving. She must wake up from a nap around 1pm and shortly after is moving all about. This has been the case for the last 3 or 4 days now. Today I was at my parents when it happened. Boy did they think that was the coolest thing. They both put their hand on my belly and felt some good movements. Wasn't it nice that she cooperated for them!

I had an OB appointment this morning. Unfortunately I couldn't get in to see my regular doctor and ended up scheduling with someone different. This doctor definitely lacks in the personality department...I hope she isn't the OB on duty when it comes time to deliver. She wasn't running late by any means, but didn't really make any time for anything outside the scheduled visit either. Short, sweet and to the point. Blood pressure, good. Weight, good. Urine, good. Measurements, good. Baby's heart rate, good. Any questions?

Being that I didn't see the doctor after the results of the Glucose test last time but the nurse told me my Hemoglobin was a little low and I should take iron, I did ask about that. My number was just over 10, which falls into that borderline category. She said I could probably get by with taking the Iron supplement once every three days, but definitely don't need to take it daily. That's a relief that I'm not in a dangerous category.

My next appointment is in 3 weeks, then we are looking at weekly appointments from there out.

Next week as part of our child birth classes we'll take a tour of the hospital. If how close we are doesn't feel more real after that, I don't know what it'll take!

There is still so much to do over the next 10 or so weeks. Crazy how fast the time has gone so far and I'm sure that will continue right up to the end.

29w0d

Not much new to report this week after I snuck in a quick post on Monday. We had child birth class #2, but that's about it. Things just keep chuggin' along.

Baby is definitely moving around so that I feel her a lot more lately. My OB doesn't teach "kick counts" but says to pay attention to when you feel baby and if you know they are usually more active after meal time, be aware of their movements at that time. A lot of people say cold water or sweets will get the little one moving, but for me it seems to be warm stuff. She sure likes hot tea and hot soup. Those are for sure to get her going. I'm starting to notice that she's often awake when I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I'll come back to bed and feel her moving around. This could be contributing to the hard time I've been having getting back to sleep, but it's fun to be able to feel those movements too.

I feel like I'm overdue for an updated belly pic. It's been 5 weeks already. Here's a new one taken just today. This sweater was one of the first maternity purchases I made, so I'm glad to see that it still fits. It's getting shorter and tighter, but I think it's still cute.

We're into a new month now, so finally an update on baby's status.
What's happening with baby: Weeks 29-32 (month 7): Squash 15.2 - 16.7in, 2.5-3.8lbs

Baby’s energy is surging, thanks to the formation of white fat deposits beneath the skin. (Have those kicks and jabs to the ribs tipped you off yet?) Baby is also settling into sleep and waking cycles, though -- as you’ve also probably noticed -- they don’t necessarily coincide with your own. Also this month, all five senses are finally functional, and the brain and nervous system are going through major developments.

28w4d - It's Here!

And as Gretchen said about her new laptop, "It's Pink!!!!".

It's the new Bella pattern from Chicco. We were able to pre-order from an online sales company in California. I had called to check on the status of our order and found out that these are so new that the store hadn't even seen one yet. Apparently lots of people were doing the same thing. We were the 7th order in their original order of 8, and they were getting in another shipment of 28 that were also nearly all spoken for already.

Most importantly, this travel system came very well packed, with no broken parts or pieces laying at the bottom of the box.

Mr. Brown, as I like to call our UPS man, is so nice. I had a little warning from our dog that he was coming so I met him at the door and he brought it in and set it in our entry way. He's nice that way if we get a real heavy or large package delivered.

Assembly was nice and easy, maybe took me about 20 minutes total. Our little lady has a pretty awesome looking ride waiting for her, don't you think?

So, if you spot a cute little pink and gray stroller out and about this summer, it just might be us. I am so excited for the time of year that our little girl is expected. Hopefully we'll be able to get out and take some nice walks before it gets too hot for her.

28w1d - I Passed!!!

Today was my Glucose Tolerance Test and I passed. They were looking for 140 or under, and my number was 101! I'm so excited! My hemoglobin is a little low though, so I picked up a bottle of Iron to help with that. I made sure to ask the pharmacist if there is such a thing as too much Iron in pregnancy and she assured me that since my OB said to get extra Iron, that the extra 361% in 1 tablet wouldn't be too much as some people actually take 3 tablets a day. That number just sort of freaked me out for a second!

Despite what my mother keeps telling me, Baby Girl is measuring right on (well, at least the belly is) at just over 28cm. My mom keeps saying that I'm huge. I don't feel huge by any means. Baby girl must have gotten a bit of a sugar rush after I drank the Glucose drink because her heart rate was a bit higher than it has been lately at 156/bpm and she was moving quite a bit while I waited for the test hour to be up.

The doctor felt around a bit trying to find her, but couldn't tell what position she is in. So now I'll actually be going back in 2 weeks because when I scheduled the next appointment last time, it ended up being 5 weeks out and being firmly into the 3rd trimester, they don't like to go so long between appointments. So, we're adding an appointment in 2 weeks, I'll go 3 weeks after that, then only one more 2 week appointment and then the weekly appointments start! I have appointments booked through the end of May! That only leaves two more weeks before her due date! Eeeks! Time is really starting to go fast now!

And finally, the quilt is done! I didn't end up quilting it like I wanted to. Instead, it's just tied. So while I'm happy to have completed my first quilt, it isn't everything that I had hoped for. Next time I'll have the experience of this one behind me and that should help with the overall project. One thing we noticed was that there wasn't enough contrast in the colors so I added the applique butterflies to the center piece to give it a little 'pop'. Here it is.

27w0d - Leaping into the 3rd Trimester

Wow. 3rd tri? Already? I realize I still have approximately 13 weeks to go, but that just seems crazy! I'm seriously 2/3 done with this pregnancy? Not sure what kind of changes to expect over the next 13 weeks, but I guess I'm ready. At least I'm feeling baby and actually feel pregnant now. I was starting to feel like a fraud with a big ol' bloated belly!

Last weekend I took the DVD and pictures of the 3D/4D ultrasound over to my parents so they could see them. Poor grandma was just a mess and couldn't hold back the tears. She had never seen a 3D ultrasound before, and just couldn't stop looking at the photos. She must have gone through them at least a dozen times. Grandpa thought it was pretty cool too, but he wasn't nearly as emotional as grandma. It's just amazing to see how loved this little one is already. Seeing their reaction to the video was incredible. Grandma kept saying how cute she is.

For the most part, it's been a pretty quiet week for us. No appointments or fun ultrasounds. Next week I have my 28wk appointment which will include the Glucose Tolerance Test. Hopefully that goes well.

Next week we also start our childbirth classes. That'll keep us busy one night a week for the next six weeks. By the time classes are over, that will bring us to almost 33 weeks! Eeeks!

So my new thing lately is that my body has gotten into this horrible pattern where if I wake up to use the bathroom between 1-3am, I'm probably going to be awake for a good hour, maybe even two. Is this some crazy way that my body is getting ready for midnight wake up calls or something? It isn't that I'm uncomfortable or in pain. I just can't get back to sleep.

Our furniture should be coming in anytime now. It's been 6 weeks and they said 6-8 weeks. We really need to get some warmer weather to come our way. We won't be able to do any staining if it doesn't start to warm up. I don't think it's advisable to stain in 20º weather.

No new updates on baby now that they are for a month at a time. All I can say is that I am definitely feeling her a lot more. This morning before I got up was the first time that I had a really high "kick" that made me think that maybe rib pain would be coming soon. Oh the things to look forward to.

25w6d - Hello Baby

Over the last two weeks, I've finally started to feel our little girl moving around quite a bit more. I can't believe some people feel this as early as 15wks! Just lastnight daddy finally got to feel a couple of really hard kicks. I'm glad it didn't take 4 weeks from when I really started feeling them for him to be able to.

We had decided after my last OB appointment to go in and have a 3D/4D ultrasound done. While the doctor wasn't exactly worried about lack of movement, she knew it give us more peace of mind and had no problem referring me to have another one done. Since I was going to be sent for one anyways, we decided it would be more fun to see her in 3D. I actually scheduled the appointment before the movements started to get more regular and noticable.

Today was the day that we got another look at our little girl. I scheduled it half way between my 24wk and 28wk appointments.

It was so amazing to see her today. She is moving around so much, I can't believe I'm not constantly feeling her. She kept playing with her umbilical cord. We saw her yawn and stick out her tongue, we caught a picture that looks like it could be a smile, and one that looks like she's giving a raspberry. From the 3D view it looked like she was rubbing her eyes, but when the shot was flipped back to 2D you could see her hands weren't as close to her face as it appeared. Best of all, she wasn't shy in the least in showing us her goods and letting us know that she's still all girl and didn't grow any boy parts in the last 6 weeks.

This kid looks to have some big cheeks on her. I can't wait to see her in person and find out who she looks like and get to know her true personality.

25w4d - Take a Lesson from Us

As mentioned in a previous post, our hunt for a stroller has been interesting. Since we wanted a non-neutral color/design, maybe it was our mistake in even looking at strollers before we knew the gender.

From the beginning of our search we found one that we absolutely loved, should our baby be a girl. It had pink in it, but not too much pink to look like a little girl's doll stroller. And then there was the more neutral purple and gray one. Definitely not as girlie, but we could have been happy with it.

Then big day came where we found of the gender. It's a Girl - yeah! Let the shopping begin! We returned to the store where we originally found the cute but not too frilly pink and brown stroller. It was gone! Aakk! Store clerk said it was discontinued, but the manufacturer's website might have more choices.

That's when we found Isabella. The super cute light purple and light gray travel system. I placed my order only to get a notification a few days later that my order could not be fulfilled. That is when I called the customer service department and thought we had reached the end of our hunt for a stroller as they were going to send one out to me.

Well, they did send one out to us, but it was broken in the box. :( What? Are you kidding me? The outside of the box didn't look like it had been through any more than any other box we get delivered, but the insides of the box told a different story. There were pieces of cardboard shoved in obviously not protecting anything. Had this item been returned? When we pulled the stroller out there were several small pieces laying on the bottom of the box. Sure enough, the mechanism that adjusts the handle height was broken.

I couldn't believe it. After all we had been through to get this stroller, and it came broken. I called customer service again and explained the condition of the item. They were going to send me a return label and once they had my return, they would process an exchange. A week later we finally had the return label and dropped it off so that it still went out that night.

A week later I hadn't heard anything about the status of my return, so I again called customer service. They had indeed received my return, but it hadn't been processed yet. One more week and I called again. Due to the low inventory of my item and the delay in processing my return, there were no more Isabella's in stock. They were issuing a credit for the item.

Somewhere along the way we went back to the store to take another look at that other purple and gray one that we sort of liked. That too was discontinued and no longer in the store. Sigh.

After running around a bit and looking at a few different travel systems at a few more stores, we found nothing. We did have a better idea of what we for sure didn't want. Once we got home, the online search continued. We found another that we really like and placed a pre-order. Apparently this one isn't coming out until early to mid-March. Considering today is already March 2nd, it shouldn't be long now. Fingers crossed all goes well with this order.

I'll wait to supply details on this new one until we have it in hand, all in one piece and thoroughly inspected.

So, the lesson to be learned here is if you see something you really like, BUY IT! It may be gone by the next time you get to the store.