34 Week Update from Baby Center

How your baby's growing: Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born — are filling him out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

Whoa.... what have we done?!?!?

We finally attended baby class this past weekend. While it took about 8 hours of our weekend, it opened our eyes to a whole new world.... oh my.

The very wonderful and earthy teacher opened up the class with "introduce yourselves, and let me know what kind of questions you guys have so I can make sure we address it in class." My response was "hi, I'm Lina, and this is Tim. I have no questions, because until now, I haven't let myself even think about labor and delivery, let alone post-partum and bringing Monday home." So confession out of the way, we started listening and boy, I am in for it.

The videos were good (GROSS!!!!) but left one with the feeling of "really, seriously? the placenta? really? breach? c-section? really?" As Timmy and I talked afterwards, I am sure it will be different when we're talking about Monday. Labor really just is the bit we have to get through before we can meet our little man.

We're both so excited to be introduced:

• - who will he look like?
• - what will his personality be?
• - what will he really like to do? and not so much?
• - what will make him laugh?

Having passed this milestone, we're now full steam ahead on talking about names, cleaning up the nursery (this week) and otherwise just preparing him to come. He is fully baked in 3 weeks, due in 6. We're getting into the final countdown, and Tim and I are getting ready. Life is really good right now. We're really optimistic and happy - and just can't wait to bring him home.

Ultrasound update

The last 2 times we went to the Doctor, they were slightly concerned that I wasn't growing enough based on an external measurement of my belly. They wanted to make sure that Monday was growing enough despite all that -- and the good news is he is!

We went in for another ultrasound today (not a week goes by, it seems without an appointment or a test!) and everything looks great. Monday is still in the middle of the road for growth (for which I am pleased!). They even said that he looked to be a tall and lean little man. Apparently, his legs and arms are long and his body is slightly smaller. His head (and this isn't the great part for labor) is a little large. We chuckled as we drove home from the appointment calling him our lollipop or microphone.

All in all, he's in the 44% for growth. A little bit smaller than average, but they don't worry until a fetus is under 10%. So with just over 6 weeks to go, it looks like all is well!

I generally find that tests are exhausting. I get myself completely worked up and nervous about the results. We've been blessed so far with nothing but good news, but I always need a good nap after these things! That, and its a rainy Friday... can I take a nap now??

Snow on Mt. Hamilton

For those of you not in California, nor familiar with the bay area landscape, feel free to skip to the next post!

There is snow on Mt. Hamilton!! (Or did you already get that from the headline.) It's been raining here straight since Sunday and promises to continue throughout the weekend. We're supposed to get hammered again tonight with high winds and more rains. Additionally, it's been so cold (last 2 days, no highs anywhere in the bay area over about 45 degrees... which is cold for us!) that we're actually seeing snow up on the peaks around here including Mt Diablo and the Santa Cruz mountains and of course the aforementioned.

I just hope the sierra is getting as wet as we are. It was sure a dry year up in soda springs this past summer.

Whoa is me... sigh...

Issue: Upper back pain.
Solution: Tim has constructed a sock filled with rice that we put in the microwave for 3 minutes and then apply as a heat pack. Last night this worked great, though we may need to find a solution for the damp wool / moist rice scent that the sock emits.

Issue: My feet hurt!
Solution: well, I don't think there is one. I am mostly wearing flats, but the fact of my life right now is that even standing in slippers makes my feet hurt -- and you know you're in a bad place when your slippers hurt. That said, I do have arch inserts in my slippers (that I rotate throughout my shoes) that actually do help a bit.

Issue: I can't reach my feet to tie my shoes.
Solution: avoid shoes with laces or figure out how to knot them and then slip them on afterwards. This is getting increasingly difficult.

Issue: still can't sleep.
Solution: none to be had. Any Mom I have spoken to says it only gets worse. Thanks moms! I am feeling incredibly encouraged.


grumble, grumble, grumble... it might be the rain for the last several days, but I am feeling cranky! That is until Tim gets home at night and we get to hang out with Monday - those moments just fill me with joy!!

How much do I suck?

Enough to make my 60 year old mother and husband dig in the garden while I munched on apples and contributed such fine ideas as "I think the orange one should move a little more to the left."

Mom was out here for the weekend, and was determined to get us down the pipeline of starting to organize our garden and shop for curtains. I don't think I have ever spoken so much about "cocoa bean mulch" and "sheers" as I have in the last 72 hours. The great news, is that the garden is looking wonderful, and we are more than educated on curtains. We have a couple of more curtain items to track down before we can buy anything, but we're closer than I imagined we would be.

We had a great visit with her. It was really nice to have someone be a Mom to me, though I opted out of randomly kicking her while she slept ... I think she probably appreciated that. We ate some great meals at home and out, hung around the house, potted around the community, and went to a great church service on Sunday. She and dad are coming back out in February and I am looking forward to their trip. Maybe at that point, we'll start to attack the nursery!

33 Week Update from Baby Center

How your baby's growing:This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.