Bringing Up Bobbin

Will today be the day?

The question at the forefront of our minds :-)

So far today I've

- spent the morning lounging around in bed in my pyjamas until around 10am, dozing between bouts of Baby Girl gymnastics and contractions (which are getting stronger but still not occurring at regular intervals)

- went to the mall and bought a new pair of comfortable slip-on shoes that I can walk in but that won't turn the soles of my feet black! (Note to self: Do not buy any more shoes that I intend to wear barefoot that have black insoles, regardless of the material). The shoe sales lady asked me when I was due and when I said "Today" the look on her face was priceless. I swear she thought I was going to drop Baby Girl right then and there in the middle of her shoe department.

- went looking for area rugs for the TV room and Baby Girl's room

- came home and had lunch (leftover spicey thai food ;-)) after getting back into my pyjamas and sleeping some more.

- cleaned out the fridge (you don't want to know what I found. Ugh).

- folded clean towels

- started a load of laundry

- packed a box of dishes. Oh - did I mention that we're potentially moving on August 12th/13th? Yeah. Our house will be done next week! Wednesday is final inspection, Thursday is Architect/Builder photo day (so they can take pictures before we move in), Friday we'll move the stuff we've been storing in the basement up to the appropriate rooms and Saturday we'll move the rest of the house. By "we" I mean of course Tim and whoever volunteers to help us move. Because I'll be hangin' with our new Baby Girl, since she'll either have come by then on her own or we'll have been induced on the 10th. Oops... there - another teaser for the delivery date betters. Of course, if I am induced on the 10th we'll probably NOT be actually moving on the 12th and 13th but a few days later than that ;-)

Of course, all of that activity was interrupted every 10 minutes by the need to go to the bathroom. Which was likely induced by the copious amounts of water I'm constantly drinking.

No Baby Girl yet though.

But the day's not over! ;-)

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Tomorrow...

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day"
- William Shakspeare, MacBeth

"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow."
-Orison Swett Marden

"The sun'll come out
Tomorrow.
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
a day
away!"
- Annie

Have you ever written a word so much that when you look at it, it looks foreign and you almost don't recognize it?

Tomorrow is Baby Girl's estimated due date. However, only 5% of babies are born on their due dates. What % are born after their due dates appears to not be quite as well known - I tried finding the stat on the internet but nothing reliable popped up. I have read that first babies are more likely to be born after their due date than before though.

Ah well. Anyway - TODAY is my last day at work, AND we have our weekly dr's appointment (the one we were hoping we wouldn't actually need ;-)). Work ends precisely at 2pm. Then we go to the doctor. I hope she tells us she sees progress!

In the meantime, to keep myself amused at night and to ease my mind that Baby Girl is fine if I've woken but don't feel her moving (because she's still quite active most of the time), I've learned that a sure fire way to rouse her from a deep slumber is for me to eat a popsicle. So I've just had two. Orange and Grape. (Sugar free of course). Sorry Baby Girl. You can go back to sleep now :-)

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Attention everyone: Heather has left the office building

At precisely 2:16pm today I left work for the last time until December. I did manage to get all the essential stuff wrapped up before I left; didn't get lots of other stuff wrapped up but they'll manage without me.

What a strange feeling - to think of 4 whole months of not going into the office.

Of course, there's little time for slacking off, as Tim and I are about to get a NEW boss... we're not sure when she's gonna arrive and we don't really know much about her yet, other than she's really small and demanding and I'm sure she'll have me and Tim both dancing to her beat within seconds of starting on the job.

Speaking of whom, we had our weekly doctor's appt. today. Actually, we saw a midwife since our regular doctor is... ahem... on vacation. I guess everyone's gotta take a vacation sometime, and if it wasn't this week it'd be next week when one of her other patients is due. Still :-)

Anyway, everything is measuring fine - size of uterus, Baby Girl's heart rate, my blood pressure. I've gained a pound since last week. I think it's all in my feet though. They're horribly swollen.

So here are some more teasers for those due date watchers out there:

I'm now
- 2cm dilated
- 90% effaced

And Baby Girl is sitting way low. Apparently she's low enough to be at a "station" but which one the midwife neglected to say so unfortunately we don't have that little stat to pass along.

No - I'm not going to interpret any of that data for you - you can research it yourself if you're really interested :-)

So tonight we're celebrating my last day at work by going to eat spicey thai food. Rumour has it spicey food can help to bring on labour. We'll see. Our midwife said it sounded like a good plan ;-)

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Baby Girl's ABC's

I wanted to share this with our family and friends that are far away, so thought I'd post it here.

At our Baby Shower, Debra put together an ABC book for Baby Girl and had everyone there pick a few letters and write something fun yet meaningful to Tim, myself and Baby Girl that started with that letter. We just received the finished product, beautifully presented, and it had Tim and I giggling from A to Z when we read it. Thank you so much everyone - this will bring us and Baby Girl much enjoyment as we read them together, and we will always treasure it!

Baby Girl's ABCs
As written by her Mom and Dad's Friends and Family 2005

A is for...
...Amazingly cute, which we know you will be!

The End

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More due date teasers

I read recently in one of my pregnancy books that the most accurate way of determining a due date is a first trimester ultrasound exam which has an accuracy of plus or minus four days.

Our due date of August 3rd was determined by an early first trimester ultrasound. We actually had a couple of first trimester ultrasounds, and the due date remained the same, and hasn't changed since.

Today is T minus 4 days exactly.

Therefore... we're in the range :-)

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Another wonderful day at the office

3 1/2 more days of work left. That's what I keep telling myself.

Today's adventure occurred as I was walking along the path between the parking lot and the building where my first meeting of the day was scheduled. As I was walking along the concrete I turned my ankle, and because of my dramatically different center of gravity, ended up completely falling down.

I managed to avoid landing on our baby which was the only thought in my head as I started to feel myself go down: "Must NOT fall on baby. Must protect baby". Motherly instinct is a wonderful thing. Instead I managed somehow to twist myself mid-fall to land on all fours - hands and knees. Pregnant and cat-like. That's me. I scraped up my right knee nicely, and have a slight scratch on my right palm from the concrete.

I managed to pick myself back up off the ground after a bit of contortion (it really isn't easy to get from all 4s to a standing position when you are 39 weeks pregnant) and dust myself off.

Baby Girl is fine - she's been doing her usual dancing off and on throughout the day since the incident.

I will point out that when this occurred I was walking with one person while two others were approaching my direction. All of them stood and watched me fall, and then continued to stand and watch me struggle to get back up on my feet unassisted.

If I saw someone fall, regardless of whether they were pregnant or not, I'd offer to help. I'm not sure why no one did. Fear of embarassing me? I did that on my own when I fell. Fear that that any aid offered would be construed as unwanted, unsolicited or somehow offensive or inappropriate? Possibly. Or simply a lack of caring? That too is a possibility. The person walking with me did at least ask if I was ok after I was back on my feet.

At any rate, I'm ready to be done work for a bit. I'm not feeling particularly joyous about my current working environment these days.

3 1/2 days.

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Beached Whale

I was walking down the hall today and a coworker, someone with whom I feel I have a solid working relationship and whom I respect at a professional level said to me, completely unsolicited

"I'm sorry to say, but you look like a beached whale".

I took a second or so to compose myself and think about my response and decided simply to go with "You really should have kept that thought to yourself".

He laughed what I interpreted as a bit of a nervous laugh - the kind of laugh you laugh when you realize that yup in fact you said something really dumb and would have been better off keeping your mouth closed - and proceeded to try and explain it away with "it's just that you have a very distinct walk when you're coming down the hall".

I chose not to say anything in response, and proceeded to walk down the hall, just as I had been, and go and get my lunch.

I then came back to my office with my lunch, closed my door and blinds, and cried. I'm only human.

After I had a chance to clear my system of my emotional response to this little encounter and eat my lunch (which was quite difficult to make myself do after hearing something like that), I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do about it.

The company I work for, at the executive level, talks internally and externally about our commitment to diversity and inclusion and anti-harassment. All employees are required to attend diversity and anti-harassment training. The values that our executive leadership team have identified for the company support a diverse and inclusive work environment free of harrassment. As a manager at this company responsible for managing employees and providing leadership, I am held to a high standard for my own conduct, and expected to enforce diversity and anti-harassment policy.

And so I was faced with the following choices

1) Do nothing. Realize this person didn't really mean to be hurtful or disrespectful - he just didn't think before he spoke.

2) File a complaint with his manager or HR. Having to deal with the repercussions of that will certainly make him think before he speaks again in the future

3) Go talk to the person and let the person know that the comment was hurtful, disrespectful, and inappropriate even if that was not the intent and go from there.

#1 I didn't really see as an option. Not for me. I don't want or expect my employees to feel that they should just have to accept such comments because it wasn't intended to be hurtful or malicious so why should I think it's ok for someone to say something like that to me?

#2 seemed a bit too dramatic given that I did know the person well enough to know that no ill will was intended - it was just stupidity and a case of not thinking before speaking. If it wasn't the first time then I might feel different and take more formal action. But it was, and so I opted for #3.

After taking the time to think through what I wanted to say, I went down to his office, knocked on his door and asked for a minute of his time. I then closed the door and told him that although I was sure he didn't intend for it to be, the comment he made earlier in the hallway was hurtful, disrespectful and inappropriate. I didn't appreciate it and I felt that it was important that he understood how it made me feel. He apologized and said he realized it was inappropriate and had been meaning to come down to my office to apologize for the remark. I thanked him for his apology and left his office.

One of the earliest moral / value lessons that I recall really comprehending and internalizing, and that I remember to this day, came from the Walt Disney movie "Bambi". I saw it in the movie theater when I was really little. It's the part of the movie when Bambi's just learning to walk and talk and is all clumsy and making mistakes and calling things by their wrong names, and some of the little furry forest friends are kind of making fun of him. Until Thumper pipes up and says "My momma always told me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".

It's not that hard.

1 week

1 week left till Baby Girl's due date. 7 days. 6 until my last day of work ;-)

Babycenter.com update: "Baby Girl is ready to great the world! She continues to build a layer of fat to help control her body temperature after birth but it's likely she already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls). Her organs are fully developed and in place and the outer layers of skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath."

"... only about 5% of babies are born on their scheduled due date. And Baby Girl can't make you wait indefinitely for her arrival... If you don't go into labour on your own, most practitioners will induce labour when you're between one and two weeks overdue".

Hmm... also according to BabyCenter.com we can apparently get a congrats from the White House by sending Baby Girl's name, address and birth date to the White House Greetings Office (address provided). Um... no. No thanks. That's one souviner we don't need ;-)

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Ok Baby Girl... we're ready when you are!

Tomorrow marks the end of week 39 and then we head into our final week. :-) But I'll post about that tomorrow.

Today we had our weekly dr appt and everyone's healthy.

As a routine measure, our Dr. is going to be scheduling an induction date just in case Baby Girl goes too far past her due date. That doesn't mean that there's no chance of her being born before or on her due date or that she's thinking one way or the other. Apparently this is something they do at this point in the pregnancy just in case, because the slots fill up quickly. And if we don't need it, great :-)

Those of you who predicted she'd arrive after her due date are just dying to know when the induction date is, aren't you. I'm not sayin'. Yet ;-) If we end up getting there, I'll let y'all know!

As for readiness - we're pretty much there. New things accomplished on our to-do lists this week:

- I've finished writing my last employee performance review at work, finalized goals & objectives, and sent out notice about my last day. I have one more project to transition, and a couple of last minute details to sort out but should have that done by Wednesday.

- We're finished all our childbirth classes.

- we've scheduled our car seat installation and inspection with our local police department for tomorrow morning!

- We've finished writing our birth plan and reviewed it with our caregiver!

- We've picked up the last remaining essentials for Baby Girl

- Baby Girl's and my bags are packed and in the trunk of the car, ready to go. Tim still needs to pack his, but I do have a toothbrush and deodorant packed for him.

- The house is clean! Well, it's definitely livable, clean and organized in the places that matter most :-) The Kitty room, now that it is pretty much empty, has been turned into a random storage room of sorts in addition to housing the litter boxes but Baby Girl won't be spending any time in there so I'm not concerned about it. The office is still completely cluttered but she's not going to be hanging out in there either (except perhaps strapped to me or Tim in her Baby Bjorn for an occasional blog entry here and there in the first few days home if we feel like it but I suspect she won't notice the clutter if that's the case ;-)

Still some stuff to do on the list to keep us occupied until she gets here but the main stuff is done. We're ready for her :-)

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An end of one sort at least is in sight

I decided that if Baby Girl hasn't started making her appearance by August 2nd, that will be my last day of work. It's just getting too hard. I had intended to work all the way up to the start of the big event, but even if it hasn't started happening by next tuesday and she ends up going past her due date I'm just not going to try and work past August 2nd.

It felt good to send the mail out to my team :-) And it's nice to have a confirmed end of some sort in sight that is solid and not going to change - even if it means after august 2nd I'm just sitting around at home waiting to go into labour (unless she comes before then). I have plenty to occupy myself with so I doubt I'll be bored. More likely I'll be frustrated because I won't actually have any energy or mobility or attention span to do anything productive and as Tim will attest to, I've never been very good at doing nothing :-)

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Rite of Passage :-)

I finally did it. I finally parked in one of the reserved "Expectant Mothers" parking spots at Babies 'R' Us today. I think I've earned it :-)

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2 weeks left

That's right... just 2 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date.

BabyCenter.com update this week: "Baby Girl has really fattened up. She likely weighs between 6 and 7 1/2 pounds now (boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls) and she's probably between 19 and 20 inches long. She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test with your pinky! Her organs are fully developed and in place, but her lungs and brain - though developed enough for her to function now - will continue to mature right through childhood."

At our dr.'s visit yesterday we also went ahead and pre-registered, which they recommend you do 2 weeks in advance, "just in case". I guess the last thing you really want to be doing when you're in active labour is filling out a bunch of paperwork. I can see that ;-)

2 weeks... So how are we doing on our "to-do lists"?

Baby Girl To-Do List:

• Finish writing Birth Plan: On the agenda for this weekend.


• Pack and move all excess objects and furniture to new house - DONE! Thanks to the help of our friends!


• install carseat base and get installation inspected: Also happening this weekend. We did buy a 2nd base for Tim's car this week though.


• Wash all baby bedding, clothes, diapers, toys, accessories, etc - ALMOST DONE! We still have some toys and accessories to wash but all baby bedding, towels, washcloths, diapers and clothes are washed and neatly folded in her chest of drawers


• Set up Baby Girl's bed, dresser/changing area; organize and sort her clothes and accessories - DONE!


• pick up any essential items remaining for Baby Girl - ALMOST DONE!


• Preregister at hospital - DONE!


• pack hospital bags for me, baby and Tim in preparation - STARTED - baby girl's bag is out and I've packed in the baby blanket I crocheted for her when I found out I was pregnant - that's going to be the blanket we take her home in :-) My bag is out too and I've got massage oil and tennis balls in it (don't laugh! Rolling tennis balls feels great on the lower back :-)).


• Put together "call" list - still need to do.


• clean house: always in progress. 2 steps forward, 1 step back. But we're managing! Well - more like managing to not care at the moment ;-)

Work to-do list:

• write employee reviews - ALMOST DONE! 1 down, 1 to go!


• set and publish team goals/objectives and project priorities - ALMOST DONE! Got a draft out this week!


• Send out list of point of contacts for while I'm on leave - DONE!


• Finish transitioning remaining projects, meetings, and partner relationships to temporary owners - ALMOST DONE!


• get mailbox storage increased temporarily - DONE! Although they were stingy and only gave me 500MB instead of the 1GB I requested. Oh well.

personal to-do list (This is the one that's been suffering most!)

• balance our finances - um... no.


• keep up on daily walking until I can walk no more - I've cut back. It's so hard to move!


• try and get sleep whenever I can before Baby Girl is born! The post time of this entry ought to give you a clue as to how well I"m doing on this one


• eat healthy: In progress.


• got to remaining dr appts - of course!


• get back on the no-chocolate wagon. Sigh. I'm on. It's a bumpy ride but I'm staying on.

Moving to-do list:

• unpack all Baby Girl firniture, get it set up, and prep the nursery: We've unpacked the crib to let it air. The glider and ottoman is pretty buried so that'll have to wait a while. We can't move it up to the nursery until they finish the floors and electrical trim.


• notify construction loan people of project end and move-in date and get whatever remaining paperwork taken care of - DONE! We still have the actual papers to sign when we do the final billing with our builder.


• everything else will have to wait until we get closer to our move date.

Prep-the-current-house-for-sale list:

• We're not completely insane. We'll tackle this one once we've made a lot more progress on all the other lists ;-)

Not too bad. And we're still somewhat sane... sort of. I have my moments, to be sure. Tim as usual is my rock :-) But we're getting there!

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Baby Girl Update!

Had our dr. appt. this afternoon. Baby Girl is healthy and I am healthy and things are happening.

So... now that all the bets are in on her arrival date, weight, height, etc. (I hear there's actual real cash being placed in Newfoundland on the due date ;-)) I figure it's my turn to have a little fun so... here's some totally useless teasers for all of you folks with money and/or bragging rights on the line :-)

The doctor did say I was dilated more than last week. But I won't say by how much. Could be a LOT! Could be just a little bit.

She also said my cervix had thinned since last week. But I'm not gonna tell you how much for that either.

She also took some measurements and estimated Baby Girl's current weight. But I ain't tellin' what she said. She might have said she's on the large side of the weight spectrum. Or she might not.

She also gave us her current opinion, based on her exam, about whether we'd be early, or right around the original due date, or late. But... yup... you guessed it... I'm keeping it a secret ;-)

However, the important news is that we're all fine and healthy and we get to do the whole thing it all over again next week (unless, of course, I go into labour before then. Maybe I will... maybe I won't. ;-)

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Getting ready...

After a bittersweet work baby shower (do people honestly think that at this point in my pregnancy I really need or want to hear, repeatedly, with every greeting, about how huge I am? Do they think I don't know? And even worse, do they think I enjoy having them compare my huge belly size to the small belly size of my two pregnant coworkers, due 3 and 6 days after me respectively... not just within earshot of me but actually to my face? And do people really think I'll find it humorous, when we play the happy shower game of "predict the baby's weight and length" when all of the predictions are 14+ lbs? I suppose it's really no different than people who are considered "short" or "tall" having to put up with the same old "short" or "tall" jokes day in and day out. Or people who are bald having to put up with bald jokes day in and day out. I just need to suck it up. It's what people do and it will not change. That doesn't mean I have to like it though.)

Anyway - let's try this again - after a bittersweet work babyshower, I left the office in a somewhat disgruntled mood. But it quickly dissipated when I got home and found Tim there (turns out he didn't have to work late as he was expecting!) prepping yummy steaks for the grill :-) After a completely fabulous dinner, we spent an enjoyable and relaxing evening unpacking and organizing Baby Girl's chest of drawers and changing pad, sorting through and washing and folding Baby Girl's clothes, diapers, blankets, towels, washclothes, etc., unboxing and assembling Baby Girl's toys, gathering together and organizing all of Baby Girl's bathing, diapering and healthcare accessories, her feeding supplies and accessories, and her growing collection of books, and just generally getting stuff ready for Baby Girl. It was quite fun! Still lots to do, wash, organize, but it felt good to get started :-)

I have a dr's appt today at 2. I'm hoping for some tidbit of news that indicates progress is continuing... I... we... are so ready for her to be here already. Sigh. I realize it will bring a whole new level of challenges, sleep deprivation, and anxiety. But I'm kinda done with the whole being pregnant part. We're ready for that next phase to start :-)

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Weekend Update

Busy weekend this weekend! Let's see... where to start... with the fun stuff, of course!

House Progress

Saturday morning we started the day by heading out to the property in the morning to check progress.

- thermostats are installed and so is the air exchange control
- all plumbing fixtures now complete and water filter hooked up functioning. We can get and drink water from our tap and our fridge now! Our fridge is even making ice cubes :-)
- garbage disposal is installed - we got a special one appropriate for septic systems
- stove and ovens are installed and working (we even turned on the gas on the stove - such a pretty sight ;-)
Much of the electrical trim is complete. Still need some switches and circuits hooked up and some fixtures installed, but that should be finished up very soon.
- grass is growing like... well... grass! Still some dry spots but it's looking really good!
- sanding and finishing the hardwood floors starts on monday
- punchlist walkthrough is tentatively scheduled for August 2nd (tentative, because we're all kinda waiting to see what Baby Girl decides to do!)

More photos here.

"Everything Must Go"
A friend of ours is moving out to the east coast at the end of summer to go back to grad school so after playing around at the new house we headed over to her place to help her with her moving sale, get her yard spruced up, get some oddball chores taken care of as she gets ready to leave, and eat yummy food :-). Me - I just supervised ;-). But Janel put Tim to work fixing lighting fixtures, playing with electricity, etc. :-)

Last Supper
After helping Juan with her moving sale/house readiness, Tim and I went out on what will probably be one of our last real "dates" before Baby Girl is born :-) One of my favourite italian restaurants - Italianissimo. We hadn't been there in a while! It was really wonderful to get out of the house and have a nice dinner in a nice restaurant. We've both been moving at about 1000 miles an hour lately between our work, childbirth classes, prepping for Baby Girl, packing up the house and prepping for our pre-emptive move, staying on top of the final details of our new house construction, me trying to get exercise whenever I can, and both of us trying to get in a decent night's sleep.

After dinner we went back out to the property to check it out in the evening light. No pictures from the evening to share, but it was pretty cool! The interior lighting looks fantastic; we can watch the sun set from our back decks, and the moon rise from our kitchen deck. The different light streaming in through the windows gives the inside and the paint colours a different look as well - a nice warm glow.

Pre-emptive move #1
Today (Sunday) was spent moving all non-essential furniture and objects from our current house to the basement of our new house. MANY thanks to all our friends who came out to help out! Our current house is quite a bit emptier now, so we can start the task of getting Baby Girl's stuff set up so she has a place to sleep, be changed, play etc. It was kinda squishy with all of our stuff in the current house.

It was a gorgeous day - probably a bit hot for moving, but the key was that it wasn't raining ;-). It eventually got up to about 85 degrees at the new place. Not a cloud in the sky. We don't have any air conditioning at the new house, and we have a TONNE of glass doors and windows that let sunlight in at all times during the day, so I wanted to see how hot it would get inside. We were quite happy to find the interior temperature at a comfy 68 when we arrived, and only 71 when we left late afternoon. The house was nice and cool the whole time we were there, and the basement even cooler. Very impressive :-)

Needless to say, we're both a little exhausted :-) And we'll be spending the next couple of weeks straighting up and organizing what's left in the current house. But at least the big part - the move "part 1" - is done with (at least for a little while ;-)). Part 2 will be moving stuff from the basement up to the main floor as the hardwood floors are finished, and then Part 3 of course will be the Main Event. Timing for both of these though are at the mercy of our builders and Baby Girl. We'll see what happens ;-)

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It's not just me!

Found this on MSNBC

"The pregnancy panic attack: What don't moms-to-be have to worry about these days?"

So it really isn't just me... comforting to know :-)

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3's Company

Today is the end of week 37. 3 more weeks to go until Baby Girl's estimated due date.

Week 37 is also special because it marks the "full term" point meaning if she's born anytime between now and 42 weeks (2 weeks past her due date), she's considered "full term" as opposed to "premature".

According to BabyCenter.com, Baby Girl probably weighs a little over 6 pounds and measures between 19 and 20 inches, head to heel at this point. Although apparently our loving friends are thinking she'll be weighing in a little on the heavier side of "average" (10+ lbs at birth? Come on people. I'm a NORMAL sized pregnant woman. You're just all used to looking at photos of pregnant celebrity waifs in gossip magazines, who have the luxury to be able to afford an entourage of personal trainers, personal chefs, makeup artists, hair stylists, wardrobe specialists and personal nutritionists at their beck and call 24x7 to keep them looking waifish throughout their pregnancy and who probably also have daily massages from their personal massage therapists to keep their feet and ankles from appearing swollen).

Not that I'm letting it stress me out. I've got enough other stuff going on in my head to do that, without worrying about how giving birth to a 10+ lb baby would feel.

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The era of long walks draws to a temporary close

I believe I have walked my last 2.5 mile walk for a little while :-) It was bound to happen... not bad that I made it all the way to the eve of the end of my 37th week before having to hang up the walking shoes! She was feeling really pretty heavy tonight.

From here on out till Baby Girl is born I think our daily exercise is going to be taking place in the swimming pool at the gym. Or we'll just limit the walking to a short jaunt around the block. But I kinda like the idea of switching to swimming. Gotta love that weightless feeling!

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More Pregnant Ramblings

Multitasking

I used to be a multitasking queen. At work and at home. I could multitask like no other. People worshipped my multitasking abilities. These days I'm lucky if I'm able to concentrate on just one task or and see it through to the end. In addition, it takes me about 3 times as long to finish anything. Not just because I'm physically moving slower, and not just because I have to stop every 15 minutes to go to the bathroom, but mainly because my mind is moving slower. Like a slug.

While I'm sure the sleep deprivation isn't helping, I actually think this is more of a symptom of the hormonal surges taking place within my body. Even on nights when I manage to get a decent night's sleep and wake up feeling somewhat rested, I've found I feel dull-witted and unable to concentrate. And by comparison there have been days where I've gotten absolutely no sleep and am suffering from sheer exhaustion but somehow find it within me to rally and concentrate and get things done.

Nesting - when does that kick in?
I could use an extra surge of energy right now. I've read and heard the theory that the whole "nesting" urge is actually a result of excess adrenaline that is building up in my body - apparently I'm producing and storing the stuff in anticipation of the "big event" when I'm sure I'll need every ounce ;-) But in the meantime I have a list as long as I am tall of things that need to get done at home and at work before Baby Girl is born (as if I had any say in that whatsoever) and I'm thinking a nice little "nesting" urge would be welcome right about now.

Speaking of lists...

Here's our Prep for Baby Girl To-Do list:
- Finish writing Birth Plan
- Pack and move all excess objects and furniture to new house (scheduled for the 18th)
- install carseat base and get installation inspected
- wash all baby bedding, clothes, diapers, toys, accessories, etc
- clean portable bassinet, carrier/carseat, stroller
- set up Baby Girl's bed, dresser/changing area; organize and sort her clothes and accessories
- pick up any essential items remaining for Baby Girl (actually - she's quite well provided for at this point; just need a couple of things)
- Preregister at hospital
- pack hospital bags for me, baby and Tim in preparation (hmm - will entail some sort of shopping trip I'm sure)
- put together "call" list for notifying people of Baby Girl's arrival!
- clean house

Here's my Work to-do list:
- write employee reviews
- set and publish team goals/objectives and project priorities
- send out list of point of contacts for while I'm on leave
- finish transitioning remaining projects, meetings, and partner relationships to temporary owners
- get mailbox storage increased temporarily
- oh who are we kidding - I'll be lucky if I get the above done before she arrives! There's lots more that ideally would be done before I leave, but they'll just have to find a way to manage without me :-)

Here's my personal to-do list:
- balance our finances - get house stuff up to date so we know where we're at
- keep up on my daily walking until I can walk no more
- try and get sleep whenever I can before Baby Girl is born!
- eat healthy
- go to remaining dr appts
- get back on the no-chocolate wagon

Here's our moving to-do list:
- unpack all Baby Girl furniture, get it set up, and prep the nursery
- notify construction loan people of project end and move-in date and get whatever remaining paperwork taken care of
- schedule moving truck and the "firemen" and volunteers for final move
- pack and move everything remaining in our current house
- send change of address notices to relevant people, billers, etc.

Here's our prep-the-current-house-for-sale list:
- replace hardwood floors in entrance and kitchen
- get carpets professionally cleaned
- paint interior
- get furnace inspected
- clean roof
- clean exterior house, gutters, driveway, walkway, and back patio,
mow yards, weed (yard work should actually be minimal - Tim's pretty meticulous.
- clean interior
- sell sell sell! and fast!

I'm pretty sure I could come up with more stuff to add to these lists. Hell - I could probably come up with more lists. But what's the point really? Above and beyond ALL the items on ALL these lists is the #1 priority - Love and care for Baby Girl - now and then from the moment she's born to the end of time ;-)

We're gonna be a little busy, and we'll find a way to get what really needs doing done with the help of family and friends (I say that with confidence now, but suspect at several points along the way I'll be reduced to tears of frustration and panic) , but at least we've got our priorities straight. Baby Girl - #1.

And with that, I'm off for my walk :-)

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Baby Girl Update

Had our dr appt today - starting today we'll have them weekly until, well, she's here :-)

Everything is measuring just fine, heart rates, lengths, etc. Baby girl's head is where it should be (which means the rest of her is also where it should be), my weight is fine... etc.

But the most exciting news of all for me was that her head is definitely lower (although not "engaged" as they like to call it, when baby's head is in the pelvic bone at "0 station") and I'm 1 cm dilated! Woohoo!

Of course, for first time moms especially, it is not uncommon to walk around for - well 2-4 weeks at 1 cm dilated. So it's not like labour is necessarily imminent or anything. But it DOES spell progress! Stuff is happening in there ;-)

In our baby class last thursday one of the women in our class, who happens to be due Aug 1st, mentioned that she had just had her checkup and was 1 cm dilated and I felt the slightest twinge of jealousy ;-)

Anyway - that's the news :-)

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Baby Girl's Day in the Sun

Debra and Becky threw us an absolutely wonderful baby shower yesterday and we spent a gloriously sunny afternoon enjoying the company of our friends, the wonderful food and decorations, playing fun baby games, and of course, talking about the Guest of Honour - Baby Girl herself :-).

Baby Girl is definitely very lucky to be coming into this world surrounded by such loving family and friends. We had the best time yesterday - it was a great party! Thank you everyone!

Here are more photos from the shower :-) (and thank you to Dave for taking pictures of both of us with Tim's camera during the gift unwrapping!)

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Final 4!

Today marks the end of week 36. Exactly 4 more weeks till Baby Girl's due date!

Babycenter.com update: "Baby Girl is still putting on the pounds - about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little less than 19 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the creamy substance that covered and protected her skin during its submersion in amniotic fluid. She swallows both of these substances [yum] along with other secretions, which will stay in her bowels until birth. This blackish mixture, called meconium, will become her first bowel movement. Most likely she's in a head-down position by now (yes - she is) which is optimal for a smooth delivery. You might notice Braxton Hicks contractions are a little more frequent now (yes - they are)".

In one more week, baby girl will be considered full-term (babies born between 37 and 42 weeks are considered full term; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term, and after 42 are post-term).

36 down, 4 more to go, Baby Girl! Woohoo! You rock :-)

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Practice makes perfect

Around 4pm yesterday (about the time I started the previous blog entry ;-)) I started getting braxton hicks contractions. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened to bring them on - and nothing ever needs to - they tend to start whenever. I didn't think much of it at all as I'm very used to them having been getting them every day for many weeks now, but by 5pm when they were still occurring and were feeling slightly stronger than normal (not painful by any means at all, but just more... thorough... if that makes any sense) I decided to try lying down, drinking some water, and timing them. According to all the stuff our doctor gave us, if I experience more than 4 in an hour before 37 weeks ("pre-term") I should call in and let them know about it. Well, I had 6 between 5 and 6pm, approx every 10 minutes apart. That combined with some other... ahem... changes... I had noticed recently (but that definitely qualifies as TMI for this blog!) made me decide to call the 24-hour healthline for our dr's office to see if there was anything I needed to be concerned about.

I called and explained what I was experiencing, and they decided they wanted me to come in for some observation just to be on the safe side. Then I called Tim at work to let him know what was up, told him not to panic - that I wasn't in pain and that they weren't getting more frequent or more intense but they wanted to just check me out anyway and promised to call him again after the tests - and I went in to the hospital.

When I arrived they checked me in, took a urine sample, and strapped an external fetal monitor on me, as well as a monitor for the contractions. The nurses were all quite nice, although slightly disorganized as it was shift change (7pm is when the night shift comes on) but things settled down quickly. Of course Murphy's Law would normally dictate that the contractions that had now been occurring for the last two hours would stop now that I was being "observed" so as they were strapping the contraction monitor on me I was silently hoping to myself "PLEASE let me have at least 1 contraction while I'm here or they'll think I'm a complete dork. Please, just one... even a little one"). Murphy must have been listening because they continued about 10 minutes apart the whole hour that I was there so I didn't look like a completely neurotic and pathological first-time mom-to-be! They were definitely real, and happening just like I had said. But thankfully they didn't change in frequency or intensity (We're really not ready for her to come early and I made her promise that she would wait until at least 37 weeks anyway ;-)).

After about an hour of observing Baby Girl (who put on a great show for the nurse, with a nice strong heartbeat exhibiting lots of little activity peaks as she wiggled and squirmed the entire time), observing my uterus and contraction patterns, conducting an exam and finding my cervix still closed (yeah I know - sharing that tidbit of info begs the question "so where exactly IS the line of TMI for this blog"... hey... it's at my descretion ;-)) and getting back a negative result on my urine test for amniotic fluids, they sent me home.

The contractions continued on at home for some time and gradually decreased in frequency. I was still having them when Tim got home, but not as often, and eventually they stopped for a while as I fell asleep for the night. Now they're back to their regular random occurrances ;-)

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Another milestone

July 3rd is generally a rather unremarkable day. It's two days after Canada Day, and the day before Independance Day. But this year, it marks exactly 1 calendar month until Baby Girl's due date :-)

I do realize that these countdowns and milestones are somewhat arbitrary. Statistics say that a) only about 5% of all babies are born on their due date and b)first babies are usually born after their due dates.

Of course, we've had the pregnancy statistics discussion before, haven't we, so we know what that's worth :-) There's really no way for me to know which statistical bucket I fall into until after it has happened, so the bottom line is - it's gonna happen when it happens, and your guess is as good as mine as to when that will be! Ok - I might have a slight edge over you - perhaps even by as much as 24 hours or so. But you know what I mean ;-)

Still - there's something satisfying about reaching these little milestones. And yes, I may be a tad disappointed if August 3rd comes and goes and we're still waiting for Baby Girl to decide that it's time for her to make her appearance. Actually - I'm more likely just to be exhausted by that point ;-) We'll see.

But regardless - Happy July 3rd everyone!

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High 5!

That's right - today marks the end of Week 35. Only 5 more weeks to go until Baby Girl's due date. Only 2 more weeks until she's considered "full term". But we'll take the 5 if we can get 'em. Not only is there a tonne of stuff we still have to do around the house to get it ready for her, I have a bunch of stuff I still need to wrap up and transition at work (not that I'll care even one teeny tiny bit about that if Baby Girl were to decide to show up early. I fully expect any worry I have around leaving with a clean transition plan in place would be completely and utterly vapourized as soon as she arrives. :-) )

So here's the babycenter.com update:

"Baby Girl doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and weighs over 5 pounds. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. In fact, most of her development is complete. From here on, she's mostly concentrating on fattening up.

"You don't have a lot of room to grow either - your uterus - now up under your ribs - is now about 15 times its normal size and you may feel like you've run out of room! If you could peek inside your uterus (which, in fact, we did yesterday ;-)) you'd see there's much less amniotic fluid and much more baby in there now (yup. Very true). Your ballooning uterus is crowding your internal organs too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and have heartburn and other digestive problems (I'll spare you the details).

"Your little one is so snug in your womb that you may notice she isn't doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain the same". (oh yeah. Especially around 3am. And don't let those cute little baby feet fool ya. They're STRONG).

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Baby Girl - A Sneak Preview

Today Tim and I and Baby Girl had a 3D and 4D (3D rendering with real-time motion) ultrasound taken. It was something we just couldn't pass up, and it was an incredible experience to watch our little Baby Girl - in full 3-D rendering - squirming, kicking, waving her little hands, and opening and closing her little eyes and mouth. I just can't describe the feeling. I'm in complete and total awe. She's beautiful.

That's her! That's OUR Baby Girl!!!! I'm so in love :-)

You can view the rest of today's 3-D ultrasound photos here

and also take a look back at our previous 2-D ultrasound photos for comparison.

The place was pretty interesting. They led Tim and I into a spacious room with a big comfy sofa (I guess some people opt to bring in their whole extended family for the viewing ;-)), and a chair for Tim to sit next to me, and a really nice soft bed with an adjustable back that inclined (that was for me, of course ;-). The images were projected onto a large wall in front of us so it was like watching a movie in a private movie theater only much more comfortable, and no sound :-)

We also got to take home a DVD and video tape of the session today which shows Baby Girl in 3 dimensions moving around, waving, etc.

Welcome to pregnancy in the 21st century! ;-)

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6 degrees of separation

Today marks the end of Week 34. Exactly 6 weeks today until Baby Girl's due date! 42 days :-)

I'm feeling pretty good. My tiredness is due to lack of sleep more than anything else at this point. My 2.5 mile walks have gone from 50 minutes to 55 minutes so I'm definitely slowing down ;-) Baby Girl should be packing on the pounds now in preparation for life in the big world. She's still as active as ever (despite the exercise ball bouncing and the rotten apple ;-)

Babycenter.com update: "Baby Girl now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is probably almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers - which she'll need to regulate her body temperature once she's born - are filling her out, making her rounder. Her central nervous system is still maturing and her lungs are well developed by now."

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The return of the irrational fears

When I first found out I was pregnant I was plagued with various irrational fears centered around keeping Baby safe and seeing her through the precarious first trimester. They ranged from foods that I should/shouldn't eat to activities I should/shouldn't do, to fear that the extreme emotional roller coaster I was on as a result of my fluctuating hormones would result in Baby developing Manic Depressive disorder, or Schizophrenia, or even just ADHD.

2nd trimester brought some relief from these fears, as I started to become educated, and also became used to the idea of being pregnant but still maintaining my normal day-to-day routines. Um... with the exception of the one relapse at the U2 concert where I was convinced I had caused irreversable hearing damage to Baby Girl through my selfish desire to attend the concert. What kind of horrible monster of a mother am I?

Now that we're closing in on the end, the irrational fears have returned - the "we've come this far, we're so close, let's not do anything to cause trouble now" type of fears.

I'm an educated woman; I know that there is no basis for these latest fears. They're completely groundless. But yet they occupy valuable space in my head.

1) What if all the rockin' out to Great Big Sea on my bouncy exercise ball this weekend resulted in Shaken Baby Syndrome? Did I brain damage Baby Girl with all the bouncing I was doing?

2) Yesterday I ate an apple at lunch only to take a bite in next to the core and come away with a horrid taste in my mouth and a gaping black hole visible in the core indicating it was rotten. Did I just poison Baby Girl?

Her ongoing kicks and punches and wiggles continue to reassure me she is just fine. Not to mention the fact that I just know better. But still these strange little baseless fears wiggle their way up to the surface of my mind. Wacky.

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Bouncing and Buoyancy

Last week Debra loaned me her exercise ball - the kind you blow up and that you normally see used in exercise videos and classes for core stabilization exercises (although when you're pregnant, apparently it's commonly referred to as a "birthing ball" - our childbirth prep class has a bunch of 'em). Tim inflated it for me this weekend and ever since I've been having a grand ol' time bouncing and bopping to Great Big Sea and Pink Martini. I've removed my desk chair in front of my computer, and now I exclusively use the ball when I'm at home in our office. It's really comfy, and it's just a hell of a lot of fun to bounce on - especially when you've got some great music to bounce to! I have no idea what Baby Girl thinks of all the bouncing. She usually kicks up a storm after I've slowed down or stopped. But I find it entertaining and great exercise for my legs and thighs :-)

Yesterday I went out and bought myself a swim suit. I know I only have less than 7 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date, but as I was walking yesterday (in what turned out to be gloriously warm and sunny weather - not at all what was predicted for this weekend) I kept thinking how good it would feel to be in a pool - kinda weightless in the water, moving around... so I up and bought a swim suit. Yup - one of those maternity kinds. Just plain black (I thought that best ;-)) but I have to say - it actually looks ok - I'm kind of impressed! And I'm quite comfortable (ie - not self concious at all) wearing it in "public" (as public as the pool in the gym I belong to gets, I guess ;-)) Shaving my legs so that I felt somewhat ok about wearing it was a chore though. (We're about to cross the TMI line for this blog, so I'll just move on ;-))

Anyway - got to the gym, got changed, got into the water and it felt GREAT! I ended up staying in for about half an hour. The only thing that got me to come out was the need to go to the bathroom. I think being in a "weightless" environment like that lifts stuff up and shifts it around a bit temporarily. But while I was in there I did 5 laps of the pool - stopping at each end to just enjoy the weightless sensation and feel Baby Girl's reaction. I think it might have felt a bit different to her. I bet it sounded a bit different too. She kicked here and there to let me know she was awake and aware of what was going on. Walking out of the pool was an interesting sensation too - the feeling of gravity "pulling things down" again as I slowly walked up the submerged stairs out of the pool (no way I'm attempting to pull myself up one of those ladder thingies - the stairs did me just fine ;-)) I asked Baby Girl what she thought of the experience on the drive home and she wiggled and punched. I think she liked it. I told her after she's born, when she's a bit older, we'll be going to Mom and Baby "swimming" classes - I can't wait to take her to the pool for the first time - we'll have so much fun!

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Encounters

At the grocery store this morning, standing in line for Tim's coffee, I hear a woman's voice behind me exclaim (in a friendly way) "Wow - it's a pregnant woman who still has ankles!" Mornings are generally a good time for my ankles. It isn't until end of day that they swell. I explained that to her. She went on to elaborate that when she was pregnant she "looked it from head to toe all the time". Guess I don't have it so bad after all ;-)

On my walk later this afternoon I saw two women approaching my direction - clearly out for their afternoon walk as well. As they passed by, the younger of the two, out of the blue, reached out and patted my tummy (3 times - "pat pat pat") and as she did so smiled and said "I have a beautiful name; you should use my name for your baby", and the older one laughed in a kind way and wished me good luck. They had Caribbean accents. I never did learn her name. But I wonder how they knew she is a girl?

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Answer to this week's Friday Night Question

which was asked by Gracie: Do babies urinate inside the womb?

According to what I've read (multiple sources) I've pieced together the following picture:

By about the end of the third month / week 12 Baby's kidneys develop and start draining urine into Baby's bladder. By about the fifth month, the baby is drinking amniotic fluid and urinating into the amniotic sac.

At the start of pregnancy, the amniotic fluid that surrounds and protects baby within the amniotic sac is generated by the placenta. but once Baby's kidneys are formed and functional, they will start generating the amniotic fluid.

Amniotic fluid is constantly circulated by the baby swallowing and "inhaling" existing fluid and replacing it through "exhalation" and urination. This process will repeat continuously, causing the existing amniotic fluid within the amniotic sac to be replaced with new amniotic fluid every 3 hours or so.

Later in pregnancy (about the 36th week) fetal urine makes up a large part of the amniotic fluid present in the amniotic sac.

Excess urine passed by baby into the amniotic sac is transported through the placenta to the mother's circulation and are then filtered by Mom's kidneys.

Any of you out there who are actually educated in the field, please feel free to correct or elaborate :-)

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Self Expression

The thing is, I know I created this. But I don't remember actually doing it. But I do remember waking up the next morning and standing in front of the fridge staring at it, and thinking "Like... yeah... it's so true... I really do..."

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7th Heaven!

Today marks the end of Week 33. That means there are exactly 7 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date :-)

So how is Baby Girl keeping herself busy these days?

BabyCenter.com tells me "This week, your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and is approximately 17.2 inches long. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her bones are hardening. Her skull, however will stay soft until after birth, to make it easier to squeeze through the birth canal (thank you ;-)). You may be waddling a bit now, as your baby fills out even more of your belly. It may be harder to sleep comfortably too. For relief, try sleeping in a recliner or propping yourself in a semi-upright position in bed."

Ah... sleep. Yes. It is eluding me these days. I've taken to falling asleep in the living room in our armchair / ottoman because it's the only thing that surrounds and supports me comfortably enough - and even then I have to stack it with pillows :-) We tried this weekend to get one of those pillows with the back and arms on it that will help you sit upright, but it's so darn uncomfortable and bulky in bed... sigh. So I fall asleep in the living room and wake up around 4:30am and move into the bedroom where I usually manage to catch a couple more hours because I'm so exhausted at that point the discomfort doesn't register! ;-) At least this way Tim gets a bit of relief from my tossing and turning and fretting as well. Poor guy!

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Pregnant and Sleepless in Seattle

to be sung to the tune of "Who needs Sleep" by Bare Naked Ladies

now i lay me down not to sleep
i just get tangled in the heap
i swim in pillows three feet deep
i just lay back and claim defeat

baby kicking, tummy large
i feel like a slow moving barge
while tim slumbers deep and sound
i toss and turn and flop around

lids down, i count sheep
i count heartbeats
the only thing that counts is
that i won't sleep
i countdown, i look around

who needs sleep?
well you're never gonna get it
who needs sleep?
tell me what's that for
who needs sleep?
be happy with what you're getting
there's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War (Tim thinks it's cause his wife was pregnant too)

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Another clean bill of health

for Mom-to-be and baby girl! Wow - hard to believe in just over 7 weeks (give or take a couple) I'm really going to be a mom and Tim's going to be a dad and we will be a family of 3 (humans, plus 1 dog and 2 cats ;-))

Anyway - had the monthly checkup this morning and we both checked out ok. Baby Girl's heart rate was 152 - right where it should be, and my blood pressure was 90/50 which is where it usually is and which, for some reason, continues to impress the medical staff month after month. Not sure why. I'd like to take credit for it - my 2.5 miles of walking every day, and the physical condition I was in before I got pregnant. I suspect some credit needs to go to my genetics - hopefully ones that baby girl inherits too :-) I'm also thrilled to tell you that despite my continued chocolate indulgences, I've only gained 2 lbs since last month's visit which still keeps me in the range of "normal" weight gain (because my Doctor likes to keep tabs on that). I think it's all my daily walking, morning cheerios, and healthy dinners that Tim's been cooking me that's kept me in check :-)

On a side note, I did a little research on "low blood pressure" just to try and understand the reaction I consistently get from any medical professional who has ever taken my blood pressure (pregnant or not). Not a whole lot out there on "low blood pressure" except that it is generally considered good. Lots more of course on "high blood pressure" which I clearly do not have.

The American Heart Association basically said that "Within limits, the lower your blood pressure reading is, the better. In most people blood pressure isn't too low until it causes symptoms such as lightheadedness or fainting".

at heartcenteronline.com I learned that "Hypotension is the medical term for low blood pressure (under 90/60). Usually, borderline-low or slightly low blood pressure readings produce no symptoms and require no treatment. Low blood pressure can be a sign of good health in some people with no symptoms (e.g., athletes), indicating that their hearts, lungs and blood vessels are well conditioned and in good working order. However, it may also be an indication that the body is unable to properly regulate blood pressure. In these cases, low blood pressure may require treatment".

Another interesting little find at lifeclinic.com talks about a study conducted in Germany to learn how common episodes of low pressure are in the general population. The main finding is that approximately 50% of healthy people have episodes lasting one hour at least where the pressure may be considered “low”, and that the phenomenon is commoner in women than in men.

Anyway - despite my continued (and ever increasing) lack of sleep as I get bigger and bigger, stressing over the house, our finances, getting ready for baby, and the occasional hormonal emotional outburst, it appears these things have had no effect on my blood pressure or general health of me or Baby Girl, so that's one less thing I need to worry about ;-)

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8 is Enough...!

Yup - that's right. Today marks the end of week 32. Exactly 8 weeks left until Baby Girl's due date!

So what's going on? According to babycenter.com "It's getting awfully snug in there! Baby Girl weighs almost 4 pounds and is 17 inches long. She'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next seven weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb".

She's still extremely active all the time - moreso in fact I think than she has been, which I thought would be quite impossible already because she's constantly on the go. Braxton Hicks contractions are occurring throughout the day every day, although I haven't reached the threshold (8 per hour according to my doctor) for any cause for concern. They're still not painful, but they are getting more obvious.

Baby Girl appears to have a preference for the right side of my uterus despite any effort to get her to shift and even out a bit. She definitely is happier cramming herself as far right as possible. Whatever works! As long as she's comfy, and healthy, and growing that's all that matters ;-)

I'm still walking 2.5 miles per day every day - it's taking me about an hour - except for a few days last week when I was out sick, and except for today due to a late day at work (didn't leave work until 7pm). And yesterday I was remarking to Tim on how cool it is that my feet and ankles aren't swollen and I don't appear to be retaining any water. Seems I spoke a tad too soon because much to my dismay, this evening when I got home and put my feet up on the couch, my feet and ankles appeared to be... gasp... PUFFY. I'm not liking this whole puffy business. I should have gone for my walk today.

Between my squished diaphragm and my head cold, I've been sleeping propped almost completely upright. Not that it's helped at all. But I've got 8 more weeks of this so I better figure it out!

I wish I could see what she's doing in there with all that wiggling and poking and squirming. It's really intense. This is what I imagine an ultrasound would show right now if I were to have one:

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Balsamic Vinegar?

June is barely underway but I am still amused at some of the search strings people have used on the internet to arrive at our site. Among my favourites so far this month:

- radioactive glow
- squirrels with cats
- stunk
- doppler tim
- 20 weeks pregnant and can't breath well
- 3 musketeer candy
- balsamic vinegar contractions

The last one intrigued me the most so of course, I had to find out for myself what one could possibly be seeking with that search string. And that was how I learned that apparently balsamic vinegar has been known to be an effective agent in inducing labour. Or so the internet "experts" say. Huh... good to know. I'll have to ask my doctor about that when I see her next week, as I've been indulging regularly in the stuff ever since I posted my new favourite salad recipe.

The things you learn from the people who visit your web site - and they don't even have to leave a comment! ;-)

I'll let y'all know what a REAL doctor has to say about it after next week's visit ;-)

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I feel pretty! Oh so pretty!

So yesterday I decided I needed to get my hair done. It'd been about 7 months since I last visited the hair salon. I was in need of some grooming :-)

Luckily my hair dresser was able to squeeze me in at the last minute at the end of the day. She's awesome. I've been going to her for at least 3 years now if not longer, and followed her when she started at her new salon. She's the only hair dresser I've ever had that I've wanted to make sure I continue to go back to.

Anyway - went and got my hair done. Just what the dr ordered. Got a great scalp massage in the process (there's almost nothing I like better than getting my hair washed by a professional), caught up with my hair dresser, paid, and left. The sun was shining, the air in downtown Kirkland was warm and smelled like flowers, my hair was silky and bouncy and didn't look like a rats nest anymore. I was wearing my faded black jeans and light pink poncho. I was feeling pretty darn good about myself. I think I was probably smiling to myself as I strolled down the street to the waterfront where I had parked my car.

As I was walking down the sidewalk with one hand resting on my pregnant belly, I noticed a man talking on his cell phone on the sidewalk in front of me. He was about my age. Typical East-side kinda guy, standing next to his freshly washed BMW. As I got closer I heard him saying to whomever was on the other end "Yup, I'm good. I'm here in downtown Kirkland, the sun is shining, it's warm out, there's a drop dead gorgeous woman walking towards me who probably thinks I'm some kind of idiot for saying that out loud" as he stared directly at me and smiled at me while I passed by... I glanced in the store window reflection next to me. I happened to be the only woman on the sidewalk.

Anyway - I flashed a friendly smile at him and kept walking. What else can you do when you get a compliment from a complete stranger like that? I have to admit after passing by I did strain to continue listening to see if I detected any snickers or sarcastic comments, but none were said.

I dunno if it should be attributed it to my increased confidence after getting my hair done, if it was that Kate is an awesome hair dresser and her hair cut just made me look stunning, if the fabled "pregnancy glow" has resurfaced, if the afternoon light was hitting me in just-the-right-way, or if the guy was just trying to see if his pickup lines work on an obviously pregnant woman. And you know something? WHO THE HELL CARES!!! Because apparently I'm a drop-dead gorgeous pregnant woman in her 32nd week and I'm feeling pretty damn fine about that ;-)

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Apparently the magic number is "30"

So on May 18th, at 29 weeks, I wrote about how the most common reaction to the question "how far along are you" was "Oh, well, you still have a ways to go".

As soon as I hit 30 weeks (which was over a week ago, since I'm now at 31 weeks - but who's counting ;-)), the response immediately switched to "Oh - not long now!" Often times from the same people who at 29 weeks were telling me I still had a ways to go.

So apparently the magic number is 30. Or 10 if you want to think about it in terms of weeks left.

I liken the phenomenon to retail pricing. People are much more likely to think of $29.99 item as a steal, but the same item at $30.00 will get passed over as too pricey. Apparently 29 weeks pregnant is not a lot, but 30 is significant. Go figure.

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And then there were 9

weeks left until Baby Girl's due date. Today I am 31 weeks exactly! We're in the single digit countdown now, baby!

According to babycenter.com, Baby Girl probably measures about 16 inches long, weighs a little over 3 pounds, and is headed for a growth spurt. She can turn her head from side to side, and she's beginning to accumulate a layer of fat underneath her skin in preparation for life as a newborn.

Tim and I signed up for extra childbirth prep classes - just to be safe :-) We were supposed to start tonight, but I've come down with the cold that's been going around so we decided it'd be better to stay in. As Tim says, it's better to miss the 1st class than the middle class! The classes will take us to July 21st, which will help pass the time. Although time is passing quickly enough all on its own :-)

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Fashion Plate

Today's temps were in the 90s. I was not prepared for this. I have no temperature-appropriate clothes that fit.

Solution: One of Tim's white t-shirts, and his "vintage" elasticized-waisted "Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz" cotton shorts.

Thank goodness we live in the pacific northwest... wearing my husband's clothing, I can still fit right in.

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Take my breath away...

Baby Girl takes my breath away. Quite literally.

Around midnight last night I woke up with the sudden sensation that I wasn't getting enough air in my lungs. No matter how deeply I breathed, I couldn't breath in enough air - it just wasn't satisfying. I consistently felt short of breath.

I got up, walked around. Sat down at the computer and tried to distract myself. Tried watching tv. Tried yoga breathing. Tried sitting up in bed to sleep. Tried sitting up in the living room to sleep. Tried laying on my left side. Laying on my right side. No matter what I did I couldn't satisfy my desire to take in more air.

Baby girl continued her usual late night movements - nothing abnormal. Nothing that felt different. I was taking in oxygen - it wasn't like I couldn't breath at all. But I couldn't breath deeply, and it really didn't feel like I could take a deep enough breath to satisfy my lungs.

After about 3 hours of this it started getting to me. I was exhausted, and frustrated, and by now starting to become a little anxious. And all the attempts to breath deeply were causing me to start to feel a little dizzy and tingly.

So I called my OB's office 24 hour nurse line. By now Tim was awake and trying his best to help me, but there really wasn't anything to be done. I described my symptoms to the nurse. No allergies. No history of anxiety or panic attacks. No history of asthma. No medical conditions. No medications except for the prenatal vitamins. No extraordinary physical exhertion earlier that day. No unusual activity. No complications with the pregnancy to date. No pain or bleeding or cramping symptoms. No apparent cause for what I was experiencing. After going through her procedures and protocol list, she ended up referring me to 911.

So we called 911. Went through the same questions and procedures. Took a while to get through it all because I could only speak so fast due to my breathing attempts. And by now my back was starting to hurt as a result of being strained while I tried breathing deeply. The 911 operator said she would send an aid car out to take a look at me. When I hung up they were already at our front door, quite literally. No sirens, thank goodness! They came inside, and checked me out. The good news - my blood pressure was fine. My pulse was fine. My lungs and breath sounds sounded good. My oxygenation was measuring 100%. I had good colour, and I was holding complete conversations with them
(if a little strained and slow) as I answered their questions. But because I am 30 weeks pregnant and clearly short of breath they asked if they could take me in for further examination at the hospital.

So I walked with them out our front door to the aid car. They pulled out the gurney and lowered the side rail and raised the head so I could sit down and swing my feet on board and lean back. They loaded me into the back of the aid car. Tim followed behind in our car.

In the ambulance they hooked me up to 100% oxygen, and continued monitoring my oxygenation via that little clippy thing they put on your finger and continued to check my vitals, all of which were normal (blood pressure was a little low relatively, but my blood pressure has always been that way, and never low enough to be diagnosed as low blood pressure - it's always been considered quite healthy).

4 minutes later we arrived at Stevens. Tim was there there waiting for me when they lowered me out of the back of the aid car and wheeled me into the E.R. The triage person came out to meet us. I was still short of breath but able to walk into the check-in room and provide him with my information for registration. He took us back to the ER room. The EMTs finished checking me in with the registration desk.

They took my vitals again, and also listened to the baby's heart beat. I was still breathing rapidly and still short of breath. The doctor came out and listened to everything. My lips and nose and fingers were tingly and he explained it was because I needed to slow down my breathing - that the release of the carbon dioxide was what was causing the tingly feelings. He had me concentrate hard on my breathing and slowing it down. The oxygen they had given me had helped a little with that as well.

The doctor explained possible causes of shortness of breath. In pregnant women especially, when this type of thing is experienced, they are concerned about the possibility of a blood clot causing the shortness of breath and inability to breath. He also explained though that if a clot was the cause, It usually would be accompanied by other indicators, none of which I had - eg lower oxygenation (mine was continued to be 100%); pain in my back or chest or legs (I had back pain but it was muscle strain due to my breathing attempts), lower or higher blood pressure (mine continued to be normal). But they wanted to do everything they could to rule out the possibility, so ordered a blood test that checks for a particular enzyme that can be a predictive indcator to a possible blood clot. If the test comes back negative, it is 98% indicative of no blood clot. However the test also has a 30-70% chance of coming back with a false positive. And under normal circumstances, if it came back elevated, further testing that would include radiation, would be required to eliminate a clot in my lungs as a possibility. However being pregnant those tests are not an option. However the first step was to have the blood taken and the test performed, and then we'd decide from there.

They took my blood - had to draw from my hand because my veins in my arms had been exhausted by my 3-hour glucose screening earlier that day (which had left me slightly bruised).

And then Tim and I settled into the ER to wait. It was around 4:50am when the nurse had drawn my blood and sent it to the lab for analysis. It wasn't until 7:30am that we got the results back. By then my breathing had improved, I was relaxed and my back muscles were no longer strained and causing pain.

The results did come back slightly elevated. Apparently anything less than .50 was the 98-100% predictive indicator of no clot. Anything higher was considered "elevated". My reading was 0.72. However the doctor had decided based on my presentation, vitals, and the fact that by 7:30 my breathing had improved, the tingling had subsided, and my back ache had eased due to my being able to relax, that anything less than a 1.5 he would treat as acceptable and not recommend further course of action that included radiation. However because it was elevated above a 0.50, and their hospital policy dictated that any pregnant woman over 20 weeks be seen by the on call OB after being discharged from the ER, I was sent upstairs for further monitoring, and for non-invasive testing via doppler to eliminate the possibility of any presence of a clot in my legs and tummy veins.

So Tim and I headed upstairs. The registration desk was waiting for us and we were placed in a screening room. I was put on a monitor that monitored our baby's heart beat, as well as my uterus for contractions. Interestingly enough they monitor did register contractions - my braxton hicks, which I've been experiencing pretty much daily now for several weeks.

The on-call OB arrived about 9am. she checked the monitor results. Because of the contractions that were showing she also did a physical exam to ensure I wasn't in early stages of labour. Which she confirmed I was not :-) She was able to tell that the baby had turned and is facing head down now. This explained the swift and direct kick to my ribs the other day, and she said could also explain an increased pressure on my diaphragm which could explain the shortness of breath symptoms. However she still wanted to have me undergo the doppler screening in my legs and tummy to eliminate the possibility of a clot at least there.

It was around 9:30am at this point. They gave Tim a coupon to go and get us some food and something to drink from the cafeteria while we waited. I was hungry. Tim was exhausted (he's actually been suffering a really bad cold the last couple of days himself, and not getting much sleep; plus he had to work today.

While we were waiting for the doppler tests, another couple arrived (I was in a semi-private room with the curtain drawn). We never saw them but we heard them. She was due last thursday and was in for a screening to check the baby's heartrate and for signs of contractions and early labour. She still had a week to go before they would consider inducing her labour. As it turned out, today was not "the day" for her - no signs of labour yet. She was scheduled to return next tuesday for more screening. It was interesting to overhear the conversations ;-)

Around 10:00am the ultrasound technician arrived to do the doppler screening. Everything checked out well. I was still breathing ok. Occasionally still needing to breath deeply and not able to fill my lungs, but nothing close to what I was experiencing when this all started. All we needed was the official clean bill of health from the doctor after examining the doppler results, and we could go home.

At 11:00am we were finally discharged.

The final diagnosis: Shortness of breath that was either being caused by the pressure on my diaphragm by Baby Girl possibly shifting, or possibly caused by anxiety/sudden panic attack (or a combination of both - not being able to breath as a result of Baby Girl's position relative to my diaphragm, which escalated into anxiety/panic attack). What I was experiencing was not uncommon and apparently something they see fairly regularly in the E.R. I was given instructions to take it easy the rest of the day, follow up with my primary care physician, and return if symptoms worsened.

And I've been following their advice. Taking it easy has consisted in staying home from work the rest of the day (although I did slog through work emails that had built up by 11:30am),and then napping soundly for about 4-5 hours to catch up on the sleep I lost as a result of this whole ordeal. I was exhausted. Poor Tim was moreso - battling a cold, not getting any sleep, and then getting in a 1 hour catnap when we got home before having to head in to work. He is my true hero.

So that was our adventure last night. Baby Girl - she's totally fine as she always has been. She's been squirming and kicking and doing her usual in-utero-gymnastics likely oblivious to her mommy's discomfort and overnight ordeal. As she should be :-) . They were quite impressed with her activity and responsiveness on the monitors in the hospital. We also got a very slight glimpse of her on the ultrasound when they were checking my veins around my tummy. And I am now fine, if a little tired and still feeling slightly challenged in my ability to fill my lungs to capacity, but nothing on the order of last night. And apparently shortness of breath is going to be the norm for me from hereon out so I'll have to get used to it.

I wonder what else is in store for me in these final 10 weeks!

Comments

T minus 10

Baby girl is due exactly 10 weeks from today!

If we were to equate the remaining pregnancy weeks to the final countdown in a shuttle launch sequence, at "T minus 10" the "go for main engine start" command is being issued by the Ground Launch Sequencer, flares are being ignited under the main engines to burn away any residual gasous hydrogen that may have collected in the vicinity of the main engine nozzles, and in a half second (or 3.5 days in pregnancy weeks) the flight computers will order the opening of valves which allow the liquid hydrogen and oxygen to flow into the engine's turbopumps