Baby is now just over 19 inches long and weighs about 4.4 pounds, approximately the size of a honeydew. She may grow up to a full inch this week alone, and her brain is developing like crazy. When Baby is awake, she is listening, feeling and learning. There are billions of neurons in the brain that make trillions of connections. Pretty soon, she'll be able to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing. Also, her bones are hardening, and she's started to keep her eyes open when she's awake.
Sunday, April 24, 2011 ~ Not a lot to report this week. I was on Spring Break and realized how much more difficult it is to work than to be at home during this point in the pregnancy. Even though I was very active this week, it was still so much easier and I really look forward to being on leave. I have three weeks of teaching left. I'm a little bit nervous about the substitute teacher situation. The last I heard, my department chair put a call in to a retired teacher that she used to work with at another school who is considering the job. I'm hoping that works out!
I had a major case of nesting syndrome this week and I feel good about everything that I got done but there's still a lot to do. I need to tackle organizing our closet because it's a mess and I would like to think that we will organize the garage but it's not high on the priority list. Otherwise, I think it's just a matter of getting "stuff," like the second car seat base and the crib mattress.
This is going to be another busy week (April has been crazy) but it looks like May is going to be much less packed. We have our birth class on Monday, I'd like to get to yoga on Tuesday, Wednesday is my last AP Calc review session and an awards ceremony at school in the evening, Thursday is the last of my monthly doctors appointments (we switch to every two weeks and then every week), and I hope to get to yoga again on Friday. Somehow I have to work in some more walking, as well. I plan on getting a good 6-8 miles in this morning and then hope to go on at least one more walk this week.
The baby is definitely running out of space. I'm not feeling kicks as much as before but getting a lot of stretching out. Often she will stretch her legs out and I can feel her foot on the upper left side of my belly and her butt on my upper right side. Sometimes I'll feel her entire back running down the right side of my belly. Most of the time it's fun but sometimes it's uncomfortable. We also felt the first case of baby hiccups about a week ago and I've felt it several times since then.
I am absolutely smitten and in love with this little person and can't wait to meet her!
Friday, April 29, 2011 ~ Yesterday's appointment was pretty uneventful again. Baby is still head down and her heartbeat is strong. I start going every two weeks now and will get checked for dilation and effacement starting at my next appointment. If there's nothing going on, I'll wait two weeks for the following appointment but otherwise I'll go every week. I got my release paperwork and have two weeks left of work. Preparing for five weeks off is quite daunting and I know I'm going to be pretty busy next week.
We have our last natural labor class on Monday and we will be doing a labor run-through using ice (not exactly sure what that's about but I'm looking forward to it). We also have a Baby Safety class at Hoag tomorrow.
I had lost my energy around the beginning of the third trimester and then found it again for about a week but have been more tired for the last week or so. Nothing compares to the lack of energy during the first trimester though! I have also had another very hungry week which seems to be tapering off, however again, nothing compares to the hungry week I had during the first trimester. I've had three stretches of about 6 days where I was ridiculously hungry.
Less than a month and a half to go!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Week 32: April 17-23
Baby weighs about 4 pounds and is almost 19 inches long. His movements peak this week and his growth begins to slow. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). His skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth. My blood volume has increased 40-50%, made evident by the vericous vein behind my right knee. I read (and hope) that it will go away once the baby arrives.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 ~ The baby shower was a big success! I had a lot of fun, everything was beautiful, and it was great to see all of my old pals from Tesoro. We got so much stuff that we really need and are super grateful.
This week I'm on Spring Break and the nesting instinct has definitely kicked in. In two days, I've cleaned the entire house (all but the floor and the baby's room because gifts need to be put away before I can clean up there); I've organized and cleaned out the bathroom, laundry room, and kitchen cabinets; and I spent an hour and far too much money at The Container Store buying things to help me organize all of the cabinets and the baby's closet. Oh, and we had our labor class Monday evening and I had lunch with Jessica and a dentist appointment yesterday.
Speaking of the dentist, if you're reading this and will be pregnant anytime in the future, floss!!! My hygenist and dentist were very impressed with the shape of my gums because I floss virtually every day (I might miss 2-3 days per month) and commented on all of the benefits to myself and the baby because of my gum health. I wasn't always the best flosser but I had my last appointment right at the beginning of the pregnancy and the hygenist went over the risks to the baby of poor gum health so I kicked it into high gear.
I thought I had already written this but I must have just thought about writing it: I've figured out my "birth plan". I hope for a natural birth and feel confident that I can do it. I believe that my body was made to give birth and think that exercise and yoga have prepared me, as well. However if I have a particularly long labor ("You've been in labor 12 hours and are only a 3") or if there are any abnormalities, I don't have a problem asking for an epidural.
I've been bragging for a few weeks that the baby has been in "optimal position" since two ultrasounds ago (about 8 weeks ago) but on Monday I found out that I'm wrong. I was under the impression that head down and facing either side was optimal and as the baby descends, he rotates 90 degrees in either direction; 90 degrees facing the back is ideal and 90 degrees facing forward causes a more painful and often longer labor. Well, I found out at our natural birth class on Monday that with the baby currently facing left, many babies will rotate facing forward. Argh! There are lots of strategies as we get toward the end and especially during the early phases of labor to encourage the baby to rotate facing back so hopefully they will work for us!
I'm excited to start putting the baby's room together and to buy the last necessities on our registry (like the crib mattress). Today I'm going to finish organizing a few things and clean the floor downstairs and then I'll start upstairs tomorrow. I'm also very excited about the stained glass animals that Mom is making for the upstairs windows. I can't wait to see everything come together!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Week 31: April 10-16
Baby is about 18 inches long and weighs about 3.5 pounds. This week marks an incredible milestone in her lung development. Before now, the air sacs and branches in her lungs were present but not functional. The lungs were not able to inflate properly. However, now there is surfactant being produced in her lungs. Surfactant prevents baby's lungs from collapsing outside of the uterus and she is able to take in air and breathe properly. The fetal ear is almost completely developed both inside and out. She can hear my voice and other familiar sounds that she will recognize after birth. Baby is putting on white fat under the skin and the skin's color is pink instead of red at this point. Her fingernails have grown to the end of her fingers and she may scratch herself while she is in the womb. Baby's going through major brain and nerve development these days.
Sunday, April 10, 2011 ~ I am beginning to feel the upward push on my lungs and stomach. I have to sit up very straight after I eat to avoid discomfort and find myself short of breath sometimes. This is a minor irritation though and overall I am still feeling really good. I found out that my yoga instructor teaches classes nearby on Mondays and Wednesdays. They are not prenatal classes but she said that I should attend anyway; several of the people who attend the Saturday prenatal classes in Irvine attend her Monday and Wednesday classes in Huntington. I hope to be able to do yoga twice a week for the remainder of the pregnancy. I really attribute it to how good I've been feeling.
In addition to the upward push, I'm feeling an outward push as well. I can tell that the baby has less room because she is "sticking out" a lot more often, especially after I eat. I think I officially need to drastically cut my meal size and just eat pretty much all day at this point. I haven't really been able to distinguish body parts yet but I think I'm feeling her butt and back quite often. It's fun but sometimes uncomfortable.
The baby has been very cooperative when it comes to sleep (knock on wood). I keep reading that she will be more active at night, often keeping me awake, however that hasn't happened yet. The worst that has happened is if I wake up in the morning to use the restroom, the baby will wake up, too, and start moving around. But this weekend I haven't been able to fall back asleep anyway so it hasn't really mattered (yesterday I was up at 5 am and today at 6:30 am).
I think we made some progress on names last night. Our original list was all but thrown out the window by Dan; he had a change of heart on most of the names. We have a new list of some tentative names for each gender and I hope that the baby's name is on that list but I have a feeling we won't have a name set in stone until we meet the little bugger. I mean, obviously not because we don't know the gender, but I doubt we will even have one for each gender set in stone.
We have also made progress on the daycare front. We have met two in-home daycare providers and also stopped into a daycare center. We both liked all three places but have a slight preference towards in-home daycare. Of course, Dan likes one daycare provider slightly more and I like the other; this is par for the course with us. Despite being apprehensive about daycare in general, I know that we will make the right decision and, like I've said before, I believe that the baby will thrive being surrounded by other children and that a learning environment is a great place for her to be from the start.
I am very excited about my shower on Sunday! So many people are genuinely excited for us, even people that I haven't known that long or don't know very well, and it's been really fun to be the recipient of that excitement. I can already tell that this baby is going to be incredibly loved by a lot of people and it makes me so grateful. I have always known that I'm a lucky person to live the life that I live surrounded by the people in it, but this has really amplified that feeling.
Sunday, April 10, 2011 ~ I am beginning to feel the upward push on my lungs and stomach. I have to sit up very straight after I eat to avoid discomfort and find myself short of breath sometimes. This is a minor irritation though and overall I am still feeling really good. I found out that my yoga instructor teaches classes nearby on Mondays and Wednesdays. They are not prenatal classes but she said that I should attend anyway; several of the people who attend the Saturday prenatal classes in Irvine attend her Monday and Wednesday classes in Huntington. I hope to be able to do yoga twice a week for the remainder of the pregnancy. I really attribute it to how good I've been feeling.
In addition to the upward push, I'm feeling an outward push as well. I can tell that the baby has less room because she is "sticking out" a lot more often, especially after I eat. I think I officially need to drastically cut my meal size and just eat pretty much all day at this point. I haven't really been able to distinguish body parts yet but I think I'm feeling her butt and back quite often. It's fun but sometimes uncomfortable.
The baby has been very cooperative when it comes to sleep (knock on wood). I keep reading that she will be more active at night, often keeping me awake, however that hasn't happened yet. The worst that has happened is if I wake up in the morning to use the restroom, the baby will wake up, too, and start moving around. But this weekend I haven't been able to fall back asleep anyway so it hasn't really mattered (yesterday I was up at 5 am and today at 6:30 am).
I think we made some progress on names last night. Our original list was all but thrown out the window by Dan; he had a change of heart on most of the names. We have a new list of some tentative names for each gender and I hope that the baby's name is on that list but I have a feeling we won't have a name set in stone until we meet the little bugger. I mean, obviously not because we don't know the gender, but I doubt we will even have one for each gender set in stone.
We have also made progress on the daycare front. We have met two in-home daycare providers and also stopped into a daycare center. We both liked all three places but have a slight preference towards in-home daycare. Of course, Dan likes one daycare provider slightly more and I like the other; this is par for the course with us. Despite being apprehensive about daycare in general, I know that we will make the right decision and, like I've said before, I believe that the baby will thrive being surrounded by other children and that a learning environment is a great place for her to be from the start.
I am very excited about my shower on Sunday! So many people are genuinely excited for us, even people that I haven't known that long or don't know very well, and it's been really fun to be the recipient of that excitement. I can already tell that this baby is going to be incredibly loved by a lot of people and it makes me so grateful. I have always known that I'm a lucky person to live the life that I live surrounded by the people in it, but this has really amplified that feeling.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Week 30: April 3-9
Baby is about 17 inches long and weighs about 3 pounds. As baby's skin smoothes out, his brain just keeps getting more wrinkled. All those grooves and indentations increase surface area, meaning more room for that oh-so-essential brain tissue. He's also adding some brawn -- his grip is now strong enough to grasp a finger.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 ~ Wow I just read that we only have 67 days to go. Overall, the last 5 months have been pretty slow-going but the last two weeks seem to have gone pretty quickly. While I was getting ready for my work shower on Saturday I was thinking about my coworker's shower two weeks earlier, which seemed like days earlier.
Speaking of my work shower, it was great! I feel so supported at Fountain Valley and was really touched by how much my coworkers put into the shower and by how excited they are for Dan and me. We had fun, good food, and lots of fun gifts. I'm really looking forward to my other shower in a week and a half!
All of a sudden I feel like I am carrying the baby completely differently. Despite my belly, I had kept some pretty nice curves. But now the baby seems to be pushing out the sides of my belly and the curves are all but gone. I also felt really different at yoga today. I can't quite describe it. The baby also seems to be sticking out more in the front and continues to be sitting really low in my belly.
It seems like it's going to be a bit difficult to find a substitute for my maternity leave. Unfortunately neither of the two retired ladies are interested in subbing so we have to use the substitute list even though we don't know any of them. I say "we" but really my department chair has taken the reins. I'm not super concerned with the person who will sub for the end of the school year because Calculus will be done (the AP Exam is May 4) and Precalculus has a pretty easy chapter at the end of the year; anybody with half a brain will be able to teach my Algebra B class. But the four weeks I want to take off at the beginning of the year are another story. Not only is it more important to the success of my classes, it is going to be more difficult to find a sub because most people will be trying to find a teaching job during the summer, not looking for a subbing job. I keep reminding myself that it will work out for the best, one way or another.
I'm still feeling really good and my only real complaint is just lack of energy starting around lunch time. If I could take a nap every afternoon, I'd have no complaints. I really think yoga has made my pregnancy a million times easier and can't recommend it highly enough!
We started our natural childbirth class last night. I didn't feel great about the first class but mostly because a lot of the material we had already learned at our Hoag birth class, which I kind of expected. I think I will feel better about the classes after next week; we will be learning more relaxation techniques, which is really what I wanted out of these classes.
Friday, April 8, 2011 ~ Had a rough parent meeting after school today. A student of mine is dealing with things that no kid should have to deal with. She's a good kid but is really struggling with school because of her home situation. I want to help her out but there's only so many times I can tell her what she needs to do and have her not follow through. This time I had the support of the assistant principal and we laid it out: this is her last chance. I'm really hoping that she'll find it within herself to make it happen and I'm going to be really disappointed if she doesn't.
After that, Dan and I went to a daycare center. Sean and Sandi love the daycare center that they send Evyn to so we went to check it out. I really like the place and everybody we met was very nice. The thought of sending the baby to daycare at only a few months old just kills me and I wish I could take a year off of work but I believe that daycare is going to be a good environment for the baby to become more social and potentially start learning at an earlier age. We have an interview with another in home daycare tomorrow and hopefully we'll have a decision made within a week.
Right before I got on the computer I was thinking that I'm starting to feel ready to have my body back. Almost immediately afterward I got the worst Charley Horse I've ever had. It's become more challenging to get off of the couch and with this ridiculous cramp in my leg, it was impossible. I had to call Dan over to help me up so that I could flatten my foot on the ground and slowly work the cramp out. It hurt so badly, I literally almost started crying. This is the second time I've had a terrible cramp in about a week. The other one happened in the middle of the night. I had been woken up by a few small cramps but as soon as I bent my foot towards my shin, they went away and I was able to fall right back to sleep. Then around 3 am I got one that shot me up in bed faster than I thought I could move. The cramp took quite a while to get out and my calf was very sore the next day. My calf is already sore from the cramp that I just had. I know it's from not having enough water (although my body's definition of enough is insane; I drink at least 96 oz every day, not including any juices or soda).
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 ~ Wow I just read that we only have 67 days to go. Overall, the last 5 months have been pretty slow-going but the last two weeks seem to have gone pretty quickly. While I was getting ready for my work shower on Saturday I was thinking about my coworker's shower two weeks earlier, which seemed like days earlier.
Speaking of my work shower, it was great! I feel so supported at Fountain Valley and was really touched by how much my coworkers put into the shower and by how excited they are for Dan and me. We had fun, good food, and lots of fun gifts. I'm really looking forward to my other shower in a week and a half!
All of a sudden I feel like I am carrying the baby completely differently. Despite my belly, I had kept some pretty nice curves. But now the baby seems to be pushing out the sides of my belly and the curves are all but gone. I also felt really different at yoga today. I can't quite describe it. The baby also seems to be sticking out more in the front and continues to be sitting really low in my belly.
It seems like it's going to be a bit difficult to find a substitute for my maternity leave. Unfortunately neither of the two retired ladies are interested in subbing so we have to use the substitute list even though we don't know any of them. I say "we" but really my department chair has taken the reins. I'm not super concerned with the person who will sub for the end of the school year because Calculus will be done (the AP Exam is May 4) and Precalculus has a pretty easy chapter at the end of the year; anybody with half a brain will be able to teach my Algebra B class. But the four weeks I want to take off at the beginning of the year are another story. Not only is it more important to the success of my classes, it is going to be more difficult to find a sub because most people will be trying to find a teaching job during the summer, not looking for a subbing job. I keep reminding myself that it will work out for the best, one way or another.
I'm still feeling really good and my only real complaint is just lack of energy starting around lunch time. If I could take a nap every afternoon, I'd have no complaints. I really think yoga has made my pregnancy a million times easier and can't recommend it highly enough!
We started our natural childbirth class last night. I didn't feel great about the first class but mostly because a lot of the material we had already learned at our Hoag birth class, which I kind of expected. I think I will feel better about the classes after next week; we will be learning more relaxation techniques, which is really what I wanted out of these classes.
Friday, April 8, 2011 ~ Had a rough parent meeting after school today. A student of mine is dealing with things that no kid should have to deal with. She's a good kid but is really struggling with school because of her home situation. I want to help her out but there's only so many times I can tell her what she needs to do and have her not follow through. This time I had the support of the assistant principal and we laid it out: this is her last chance. I'm really hoping that she'll find it within herself to make it happen and I'm going to be really disappointed if she doesn't.
After that, Dan and I went to a daycare center. Sean and Sandi love the daycare center that they send Evyn to so we went to check it out. I really like the place and everybody we met was very nice. The thought of sending the baby to daycare at only a few months old just kills me and I wish I could take a year off of work but I believe that daycare is going to be a good environment for the baby to become more social and potentially start learning at an earlier age. We have an interview with another in home daycare tomorrow and hopefully we'll have a decision made within a week.
Right before I got on the computer I was thinking that I'm starting to feel ready to have my body back. Almost immediately afterward I got the worst Charley Horse I've ever had. It's become more challenging to get off of the couch and with this ridiculous cramp in my leg, it was impossible. I had to call Dan over to help me up so that I could flatten my foot on the ground and slowly work the cramp out. It hurt so badly, I literally almost started crying. This is the second time I've had a terrible cramp in about a week. The other one happened in the middle of the night. I had been woken up by a few small cramps but as soon as I bent my foot towards my shin, they went away and I was able to fall right back to sleep. Then around 3 am I got one that shot me up in bed faster than I thought I could move. The cramp took quite a while to get out and my calf was very sore the next day. My calf is already sore from the cramp that I just had. I know it's from not having enough water (although my body's definition of enough is insane; I drink at least 96 oz every day, not including any juices or soda).
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