Thoughts at 9 months

This is the card we got from work last week. Very cute...and admittedly unnerving.

Well, we're down to our last week and a half. We've gone out to hear our friends Chris and Hashem play (I stayed up until 1am!) tried to get milkshakes at 11:30 pm in Manhattan before heading home that night, but the 24hr McDonald's was not serving ice cream! We went out for burgers and shake in New Rochelle the next night. The ice cream craving has kicked in at the last minute. We got free brownies too. Doug likes how I'm scoring us free desert. We got free rice pudding a month ago at a Mexican restaurant.

My first week off I've done a good job relaxing. I loaded up at the library, got stamps for announcements, organized our filing cabinet, and made some cold salads for the fridge relieved Doug of personal chef duties until I'm convalescing. And cleaning, no dishes allowed to sit in the sink, kitchen table staying clear, scrubbed floors!

I've had some random thoughts lately. There should be some universal wave or acknowledgement for pregnant strangers passing like the Harley motorcycle people. Staring blankly while passing seems weird. I've been passing a lot of other pregos this last month and we are socially unsure of what to do.

I read that the newborn may like familiar sounds from your daily routine from in utero; vaccuuming, talking, etc. So my days for the last 9 months have been me not talking in the basement at work and playing chromatic scales on various instruments. Wondering if Doug will have to play quiet scales to our swaddled baby.

3 bottles of Palmer's Cocoa butter lotion and no stretch marks!! I can't believe it. I leave in the morning smelling like chocolate, but it's paid off. Probably helps that I don't have firm, 20-something, model skin, for once an advantage!

From Paul and Peggy Bodin

Another package of cute has arrived from Eugene, OR. (The cigar is for Dad) It's from Nicaragua, picked up by Louis Bodin on his travels this year.

9 months

We are 3 days away from hitting 9 months and I'm home on a Monday, the 1st day of "Baby-cation."  My personal chef is finally getting a break and the fridge is stocked. Today I'll hit the library and stock up on books, maybe even a couple audio books for the hospital. We're expected to have to be there up to 4 days with nothing but cable TV and the hospital's "newborn channel."

We're doing well, though I'm getting quite creaky and sore. Every nighttime movement pops and snaps. A couple nights ago I moved my leg and my back cracked. Turning side to side is quite a chore, though I just read about a woman who advised getting satin sheets and nightgown for the last trimester so you can just Whoosh back and forth. I'm not going to bother now, but not a bad idea!

Baby shower at work!

I had a surprise shower tonight after work! My boss called me upstairs to deal with a customer, except there was a cake and pizza, presents and balloons. I came upstairs and there was Doug with my co-workers and even my boss's wife, Beverly, came down. We were gifted a substantial gift card to Babies R Us from work and Beverly picked out the trendy diaper bag. I told her it was the most stylish bag I've owned.  We forgot to take more pictures while we were there, but the cake was cute and yummy and great end to my second to last day for a while, especially after my most laborious day of the whole 9 months. Wouldn't you know I got a full size tuba needing dents and solder work this morning and worked on it all day. Baby and I are very tired! All the banging and wrestling wore us both out, it was a nice surprise to have Doug there to chauffeur me home tonight.

In the work picture are: Joe, Ray and Kelly
P.S. can you find Wally in one of these photos?

Growth scan ultrasound

Today we checked in to see how big our baby actually is since he's measuring a little large from the outside. We are not off the charts, but at the 75th percentile. After an excruciating appointment (more later) we learned that all of his measurements estimate him to be at about 6 lbs, 10 oz. at almost 36 weeks of 40. We could watch his heart beat and watch him "breathing." She pointed out that the halo around his head was his hair which looks to be full, no certainty on baby/daddy matching sideburns:)

The baby is dropping down a little bit now and moving a little less in his tightening uterine straight jacket. As per his ultrasound track record, he was a little bit off of the most convenient orientation for her measurements, which made it a little difficult. But the hardest part was keeping from fainting from being on my back. We had to stop and start several times for me to turn over and get my color back. I have about 5 minutes on my back before it sets in, so we did it in spurts about 5 times of a few minutes of ultrasound, then a side roll to let the blood flow.
From our go-to baby site obstetrician:

Once you get to the third trimester of pregnancy, I don't recommend lying flat on your back for any prolonged period of time. When you lie on your back, the increased weight of your uterus presses on the major vein that returns blood from your legs to your heart.

I'll be cancelling my dentist appointment for next week, I'll never make it.

1983 arrived in a box!

 

Grandma Lynne sent a box yesterday with Doug's Cabbage Patch doll, "Drew- Robert." Doug doesn't remember that they were hard to come by for a while back then, I even had a homemade one (you could buy the heads alone). He says he doesn't remember playing with it, but it looks to me like he was dragged around plenty by grubby toddler boy hands. He got a little freshening up today. The one boxed mystery we decided was Doug's baby shoes. They seem so tiny, not much bigger than the doll's but they seem broken in with some baby miles on them. We're wondering if Doug was an over achiever with his first steps?

We're also ready to tote the little guy around Brooklyn or Portland in his vintage 1980s garb. Though Doug and I are not cool enough to pull off the hipster look, our baby is all set to go retro, especially with the gingham sleeved button up. The yellow sweater was knit by Doug's Grandma Detrick, the cable detail at the top are twisted into owls with button eyes, very cute.

The weird pregnancy dreams

I've started dreaming about babies nightly. The interesting thing with each dream is that our new baby is combined with an animal of some sort though it isn't very problematic to the dream version of me. The two most recent included, first, me trying to figure out how to feed my baby....because the longer I stared at him the more I realized he was mostly a kitten and then I was clueless about what to do next. Last night I was diapering our baby when I realized he had a Dungeness crab shell that was making it hard to secure a diaper, though, again, it was no big deal in my dream...

I had an appointment on Monday. We are hitting 35 weeks on Wednesday. Heartbeat is on target at between 135-140 beats per min. I weighed in with 32 lbs gained and no lecture, but then my fundal height is even further ahead of schedule than the last appointment so she'd like to do a growth scan which is scheduled for Monday morning (just an ultrasound). I thought to ask after I left if the anterior placenta could be a contributing factor to the circumference...in the "googlesphere" there many others with the same questions and many answers  by new moms who said their increased belly height was unrelated to the size of their baby when born. I'm not really sure what effect the scan would have in any case, maybe bump up the c-section a week? All will be revealed.

Filling the freezer for the downtime

Today I made 2 pans of stuffed Manicotti, 2 tortilla and bean pies, beef stew, and quiche...trying to reduce Doug's 1st week home workload. The freezer took some re-arranging but I got it to fit. I'm lucky Doug did a couple rounds of dishes because my kitchen was out of control this morning!

Packed and ready

We're ready to grab and go. Stuff for me, change of clothes and PJ pants for Doug. We have a pocket for electronic gear, cameras and chargers, phone chargers, etc. The pillow is called a "Boppy" made for nursing support, another find from that consignment shop long ago.

Little outfit sent by great grandma Allegar, dapper button up shirt with shorts and crocodile shoes that Doug and I giggled over.

Our Hospital Tour

 

For starters, I talked to my co-worker yesterday before our tour. He grew up in Stamford Connecticut and informed me that all the hospital shots in "All my Children" were of Stamford Hospital, I looked it up and he's right. We will be having our baby in "Pine Valley General!"

Again it was a little surreal to be gathered in a group of so many pregnant people, but the tour was nice and all the OB/GYN services are in it's own wing called the Whittingham Pavillion, c-sections included. We got a check list from the nurse and we have our homework done except for the suggested pertussis vaccines for Doug and I....still debating getting them. They had 12 delivery rooms (and 30+ private maternity rooms which we'll get transferred into after 2 hours recovering in the delivery room.) Doug was impressed at how huge the delivery rooms were. They were gigantic! The nurse says you are allowed as many people as you want in the delivery room, so maybe you could have a party if you wanted. There was a family in the waiting area that appeared to be parked for the long haul, 5-6 people, knitting, watching basketball and eating pizza.

If we go between 8 and 5 we get free valet parking! The rooms have internet so we will be blasting photos once we've recovered a bit.

Family Note:

Our plan for when the action starts and finishes is to have Doug call only the grandparents (and hopefully they can spread the word) so it's just 2 calls to be made. We will likely have our phones off for several hours and try to disconnect from technology for a good few hours. I'm sure later on we will want to tell everybody everything and DO feel free to call later on!