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Tuesday 24 November 2009

Dropping Babies

I think maybe the baby has dropped in the past day or so... I can certainly breathe a lot easier and the baby seems a lot lower than it has been in the past few months or so. I'm not positive, as it could just be positioned differently (the baby has been head down for the last two months or so, but this morning I was feeling kicks on my side, so maybe it's just turned sideways?). I've never done this before, so who knows.

I'm so excited about the baby though and it's getting more and more difficult to contain myself about it. A few friends have had their babies recently (that were due about the same time as me) and I can't help but think that that's what my baby looks like inside me. Then it dawns on me... HOLY cow, there's a real baby in there. Not a pretend one that I've always dreamed of, a REAL one. A big real one. The baby is supposed to be 16.7 inches long and 3.75 pounds right about now (according to Babycenter). That's pretty big.

We went out with some of Nic's work buddies on Saturday for some pub golf (I didn't participate obviously) and everyone seemed to have a different opinion about the baby. I think more people thought it would be a boy than a girl, but we'll see. One of the guys said that he was really good at guessing when babies would be born and he thought I'd have it around Christmas. You know, I've always been fairly sure that I'd carry full term (not sure why...) but this whole having the baby early way of thinking has me a little concerned. What if I DO have the baby early? Two days after Christmas I'll be 37 weeks, which is considered to be full term. That's when the baby's lungs should be fully developed and it begins to really focus just on gaining weight etc. I would be ok with that I guess, although I'd prefer to have the baby stay the full 40 weeks, just for good measure. So, then I began to think about how soon that is... I'll be 37 weeks in just 4 1/2 more weeks! My baby's lungs will be ready in 4 1/2 weeks. How crazy is that?! This whole pregnancy has flown by. Sometimes it seemed like it would never be over, but looking back, holy cow, it's been a super fast 8 months. I only have 7 1/2 weeks until my due date! Wow!

I feel ready to have this baby. The only thing that has me unsettled is that my house isn't as clean as I'd like it to be. I do pick up, I do the laundry and the dishes, etc... but it just doesn't feel CLEAN like my Mom's house does. I know this has to do with my disliking of dusting (I'll admit, I don't do it as often as I should) or the fact that my floors are lint/dirt magnates. That, and it feels cluttered to me. We have a lot of stuff... and I keep looking around thinking about how in 6 or 7 months we're going to have our hands full trying to keep the baby out of everything! That leads me to my next thought... as much as I love wood flooring, I don't think it's the most baby friendly flooring in the world. It makes me miss our old house, simply because it had nice new squishy carpet.

To be honest, I miss the U.S. in general. I've been really homesick lately. I'm not sure if it's just because the option of flying home is now out of the question (I'm too far along according to the airlines) or if it's my huge desire to be closer to friends and family or what... but I do miss home. I know Nic does too. We talk about going home quite often. We ask each other what we miss the most and what we think we'll miss about living here when we do decide to go back. We have this sort of conversation probably once a week or so.

Nic is being so cute lately. He rubs my belly as he's going to sleep and has been asking loads of questions about how we are going to parent (ie: "How close do you think is too close to the TV?", "What age are you going to let our kid play Halo with us?", "Do you think we should ship over my old tricycle?", "Are you singing to the baby during the day? Make sure you diversify... I want it to know more than just Ani songs" lol...). I love it. The other day, he even offered to eat more veggies so that I wasn't the only one eating them at dinner time (for those of you who don't really know Nic that well...he only likes three vegetables really- Okra (fried), potatoes, and corn). He asks me on a daily basis whether or not I'm drinking enough water, and if I've taken my vitamins. It's rather cute and I love seeing this side of him. Oh, did I mention, he's already started in asking for parts for the mini robot that would match his? Yeah. I told him we could wait on that one! Lol.

Anyway, I'm off to take a cat nap before I do my afternoon clean up of the house!

Friday 6 November 2009

Gestational Diabetes

I thought I'd update you all on my recent trip to the maternity hospital for my second glucose screening.

I left the house (starving!) at 7:40 for my 8:35 appointment hoping that I had left myself enough time to get there (it's about a ten minute drive without traffic) and then started to worry a bit when I went all of a mile in half an hour. I did manage to get there on time, but only just. The ladies there were absolutely wonderful and the lady that took all my blood samples was a superstar. You can't even see any holes or anything so I don't look like a pregnant crackhead (like the other time I had my blood taken by the midwife in training... that was bad!). They offered to let me watch tv, which I refused because I had brought my new book with me. The whole test went rather well... they even let me have the lemon lime stuff instead of the horrible orange that everyone kept warning me about. It didn't exactly taste good by any means (think two packages of kool-aid with enough water to make half of one package) but it wasn't THAT bad. I will say I'm glad it wasn't the orange kind, but that's a personal preference, as I don't usually like orange flavored stuff. Anyway- the end of the test was the best part! They brought me decaf tea and two slices of toast! They said they didn't want me to get light headed or anything on my way home... how sweet is that?! I was very grateful, as by that time it was 11:30 and I was really really hungry.

They told me that they would call me if my scores were high again (meaning I had GD), otherwise I'd get a letter in the mail with my scores... so no news is good news.

Well, I got a phone call today... but I DON'T have Gestational Diabetes. They had forgotten about the Royal Mail strike/problems going on right now and didn't want me to worry about my scores so they thought they'd call as well as send my letter. My scores were absolutely perfect, exactly in the middle of the range they prefer. I'm so happy! Seeing the number on my phone scared me quite a bit, I assumed she'd be telling me I did have it after all and it wasn't just the orange juice... so I was pleasantly surprised when she said she had good news!

Hooray!

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Busy Body

Well... Life has officially started to become busier here in the Alvarado household. It's amazing how much stuff we are trying to pack in to such a short amount of time. Somehow, I think we'll make it work and get everything done. I've been proud of myself this week, I've managed to keep afloat regardless of all the stuff that's been happening. We've had quite a bit of emotional turmoil this past couple of weeks (not Nic and I, just other stuff that I don't think is blog material) and somehow we've managed to keep the house picked up, get the septic tank emptied, go to the midwife, and spend some quality time together. I'm proud of the teamwork that my hubby and I have going on... I'm proud of us in general. I have to take a second and be a sappy pregnant woman- I adore my husband. Even though he's super messy and has the attention span of a 5 year old most of the time, he makes me incredibly happy. He knows just the right things to say most of the time and can make me laugh when I feel like my world is falling apart. He is my absolute favorite person and I am so thankful to share every day with him. I swoon. Ok, enough of that.

My midwife appointment went rather well last week. I am measuring a week ahead (I was measuring 29 weeks at 28) but that's normal, or so I'm told. Maureen (my midwife) said that anything within a two week period is normal, as babies have growth spurts and most of the time it will even out. Even if the baby is a week ahead, that's perfectly fine, as I'd rather be ahead of the game as far as development is concerned than behind. The heartbeat sounded good as well. However... my blood results came back and my sugar was a little high (normal is a 7, mine was a 7.8- Not THAT bad...). Anything above normal requires extra testing, which means I'm heading to the hospital tomorrow for a three hour glucose test to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes. I'm pretty sure I don't and that the spike in my blood sugars from last week was due to the fact that I had forgotten to pee in my little cup before the appointment (I had already gone twice that morning!) so I panicked and downed 16 oz of orange juice before I left for the appointment hoping that it would help me find the urge to go (nope... I did REALLY need to go afterwards though lol). Orange juice has a lot of sugar in it and I know my body didn't have time to break down the sugars before she drew my blood. At least that's what I'm hoping.

I'm not really looking forward to the test though... it requires me to spend 3 hours in the hospital without food. In fact, I have to fast from midnight tonight and won't get anything to eat until nearly noon tomorrow... that doesn't bode well for me since the longest I could hold out today without feeling famished was 9:30 this morning. I've bought myself a Jodi Piccoult book to pass the time quickly hopefully, and will be bringing my ipod and sudoku book as well. I'm hungry just thinking about the test though. Oh, did I mention- I also have to drink this super sugar drink while I'm there? I've heard horror stories about that drink and was happy thinking that I was going to get to avoid it last week. Oh well. At least I don't have a phobia or disliking of needles necessarily, so the 4 vials of blood they'll draw won't be a problem. Nic isn't going with me this time... I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to sit for 3 hours if I didn't have to and his slight phobia of needles would make the whole process really uncomfy for him I'm sure. He stands on the opposite side of the room when I get my blood drawn for the midwife appointments (and she only takes one or two!).

Anyways... we start going to our labor classes next week. I'm kind of excited about them but at the same time, I wish we could get them all over with at once instead of in installments... it seems like a waste of time sort of to have them spread out like that.

Here's our tentative schedule for the upcoming classes/events:

~Nov 7th- My sister's birthday! (Happy Birthday Raime!)
~Nov 10th- Coping with Labor class
~Nov 14th- Nic's sister's birthday! (Happy Birthday Karin!) and Laura's Virgin Vie ( like Mary Kay) party
~Nov 17th- Midwife Appointment and then Coping with Labor (part 2) class
~Nov 20th- Aberdeen Scoobies Quiz Night (my event!)
~Nov 21st- Fugro Pub Golf Night
~Nov 29th- My birthday!
~Dec 1st- Preparing for Labor class
~Dec 8th- Midwife Appointment
~Dec 11th- Breastfeeding class
~Dec 17th- Coping Strategies for Labor
~Dec 22nd- Midwife Appointment
~Dec 25th- Christmas! Nic's mom's birthday! (Happy birthday Cris!)
~Jan 1st- New Years!
~Jan 5th- Midwife Appointment
~Jan 8th- Our 5th Wedding Anniversary (I love you honey!)
~Jan 17th- Our Baby is DUE!!!
~Jan 26th- Nic's birthday! (Happy birthday honey!)

Between now and Nic's birthday, there is a lot going on... but there is also a lot of little things to do to get ready for the baby! I still need to get my Mom's flights sorted out, get a few last minute things for the baby (like a changing table that fits on top of the crib for example), finish planning the rest of the quiz night, do some stuff for Deeptrek, get Nic's diving certification sorted, as well as some other odds and ends. It's going to be a busy time but I'm so very excited for the outcome!

I can't wait to hold our baby!