28 weeks

26 Nov 2013 Comments Off on 28 weeks

by jhking in Uncategorized

What’s new with the baby?
At week 28, baby is putting on layers of fat and weighs in around 1.5 to 2.5 pounds, measuring about 13.6 to 14.8 inches. Her skin has a smoother and less wrinkled appearance too. And her lungs are mature enough that she could probably breathe on her own if she were born prematurely. Plus, her eyes, which can open and close now, can sense changes to light as well.
Food comparison this week is…
How am I feeling?
Good – cold!  We had a decent cold front come through, and this time, when they call it a cold front I’m not scoffing that they should actually be saying “cool front”.  It really has been cold!  Down close to freezing at night and not really getting above 40 during the day.  And rainy.  And windy.  It’s been fun…a change of our normal pace.  But the forecast does show that we’ll be getting back up into the 70s next week.  Which will be nice since we have been missing outside playtime.  I don’t mind playing outside in the cold, but the rain sort of ruins it all together, you know?  Physically, I’m well.  I think the baby has shifted position and might be head down now?  I have felt two bouts of hiccups that were very low down, so I think his head is that direction, so that’s good news.  I’m hoping at my appt next week the midwife and feel around and tell if that’s true.  Also, I think after this appt I’ll start going in every 2 weeks.  Which…holy cow, how did that sneak up on us so fast?!  I’m pretty sure my little ticker thing says I’ve got 83 days left.  On one hand, I’ll be glad to not be pregnant anymore…this one hasn’t been quite as fun as the first one was.  Not because it’s a worse pregnancy, but because I don’t get to do exactly what I want whenever I want this time!  Last time I could lounge around or go for a walk or read or shop whenever I so desired, and this time, I’m on someone else’s schedule, so even when I’m tired or grouchy, I’ve still got to be on the ball.  Welcome to the next 18 years, right?  But on the other hand, I’m feeling a little sad that this will be my last pregnancy.  I’m not wavering on that, mind you, just feeling nostalgic about it.  This will be the last baby stage and toddlerhood we go through.  I guess we had really better enjoy it and then we’re on to bigger and more grown-up kid things!
Weight gain?
Still waiting for my next appt.
What do I miss?  What am I looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to eating on Thanksgiving.  And  putting up my Christmas decorations.   And trying to explain the advent calendar process to Urijah, and fully knowing that once he sees a piece of candy come out of one of the pockets, he’s going to want to look in each pocket and eat all the candy right away.  And I’m missing Nan, like I always do more at Christmastime, because really, this was her time of year.  But I’m wishing that she could have met these great-grandbabies and seen how amazing they are (and will be!) and that they could have known how special she was.  And then I remember that she was my grandmother, and they have their own grandparents that are just right for them and I can keep her for just myself (so to speak.  I’ll always share her with Ali and Lisa, and that actually makes it even better.)  I can’t wait to see how the grandparent/child relationship grows overs the years…especially around the holidays, when my own memories are the strongest.
Preparedness?

No change here..but when I start thinking about that 83 days, I feel a little bit like we are slacking and better get on the stick!

Highlights of the week?

I think the highlight of this week will be Thanksgiving!

Belly pic:

We’ll probably have some pictures from Thanksgiving so I’ll come back and post one then!

27 weeks – a week late!

26 Nov 2013 Comments Off on 27 weeks – a week late!

by jhking in Uncategorized

What’s new with the baby?

Your baby is now 13.6 to 14.8 inches long and 1.5 to 2.5 pounds! And she’s not just getting larger, she’s becoming a complex little human being. This is the earliest she could survive outside of Mommy if delivered prematurely.

Her brainstem, which controls most of her vital functions (such as heart rate, breathing and blood pressure) is nearly fully developed by this point, and her cerebral cortex (which forms consciousness and allows us to think, feel and perform voluntary actions) is growing more and more, maturing and becoming more complex during the last trimester. So don’t be surprised by baby’s karate kicks in your belly. She can stretch and make grasping motions now too!

Food comparison this week is…
How am I feeling?

Things are starting to get real!  We’re getting so close.  When I say I have 3 months left it sounds like forever, but when I say I have 13 weeks left (well, almost 12 now, actually) that feels like a snap of the fingers.  I’m sleeping well, which is really nice, feeling pretty good throughout most of the day, and the baby is moving around nice and regularly.  I think he might have shifted positions yesterday because I was having a bunch of sharp jabbing pains in my upper right rib area when I would sit down, so I think maybe that was a foot or something jamming me?  I’m not sure, but that’s my guess.  It seems better today, so maybe it was just a weird position.  I feel like my hair has finally gotten to the nice and lustrous stage too, which is fun.  It isn’t getting as oily as quickly as it used to, so that’s a definite plus, since I don’t get to take a shower everyday.

Weight gain?
 My next appt is on December 2nd.  So, it will be after Thanksgiving (weight will go up) but it is also the morning I have to be fasting for my bloodwork, so (weight might go down?).  We’ll see where I’m at!I’ve been pretty well on track for what they want to see, but I have put on weight faster this time than I did the first time, so that makes me a bit nervous.  I don’t want to be in a position of having a toddler, a newborn, and lots of extra weight that I want to get rid of.  I mean, I’ve always kind of been there with regard to the weight, but to pile it all together just seems like a bummer.  At least it will be spring and then summer shortly after this baby arrives so plenty of opportunity for being outside and playing and all that fun stuff.  At least until we get to about July and it’s too unbearable to go outside again.  HA!  Oh well, can’t win ’em all.  (And that’s why some genius person invented air conditioned gyms…with daycare facilities.)
What do I miss?  What am I looking forward to?

Thanksgiving next week!  Lots of good food!  And then Christmas decorating and baking and shopping!  Mostly the decorating and baking.  I bought a pressure mount garland hanger for our front door, so I can finally put up Christmas garland, and that’s going to be my fun project to tackle.  I got some basic prelit garland with pine-cones and berries on it, but I might jazz it up with some ribbon, or other pretty things, as well.  It’s going to be so easy to put up the hanger and then just drape the garland on it every year.  Yay!  (Also, getting U’s picture taken with Santa sometime over the next couple of weeks…can’t wait to see how he does this year!)

Preparedness?

The bed and tables and mattress and boxspring are all sold!  I pulled everything out of the closet in the guest room, so I could see what I was dealing with, and now I just need to find new storage homes for it all, or at least move it to some unobtrusive corner until I can empty all the baby stuff out of the spare closet and then put the other stuff in that spot.  It’s like one of those little puzzles that has one empty space and you have to shift all the pieces around until you can get each one in the exact right spot…just with holiday decorations, baby stuff, luggage and random crap.

Highlights of the week?

Today it is 39 degrees and rainy!  VERY rare for November for us, and I’m loving it!

Belly pic: (a very quick, casual shot!)

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25 and 26 weeks

12 Nov 2013 4 Comments

by jhking in Uncategorized

What’s new with the baby?

25 weeks:  Your baby measures about 13.6 inches to 14.8 inches and weighs about 1.5 to 2.5 pounds. During week 25, baby’s nervous system is rapidly developing, and she’s enjoying her new sense of equilibrium, knowing which way is up and which is down. Plus, she’s growing more hair too! Will she have Mommy’s hair color? Daddy’s hair color? Or a different color altogether? The suspense of what baby will look like is building!

26 weeks:  Baby is still growing in the 13.6- to 14.8-inch and 1.5- to 2.5-pound range, and while her eyes are still forming during week 26, they’ll open soon. Hello, baby! Her eyelashes have grown in, too, and she’s getting her immune system ready for the outside world by getting antibodies from you.
Plus, baby’s little lungs are starting to produce surfactant, the fatty substance that coats the inside lining of the lungs’ tiny air sacs, helping them to expand during breathing. And her skin has developed its color as well, because her body is now making melanin.

Food comparison this week is…
How am I feeling?

Pretty good…every day!  Till about 6:00…that’s when the energy decline starts and the random aches and pains start to kick in.  I feel like I just can’t lift Urijah one more time, and I need to sit down for just one minute.  Whew.  But then if I sit too long, the lower back pain and bit of sciatica start to kick in…so.  everything in moderation, huh?  Sleep has been kind of weird the last couple of nights.  I toured a private preschool yesterday for Urijah (he won’t be able to start there until he’s 3, but I thought I’d check it out now to know if it was something we were interested in.) and the night before we went I had panic dreams about packing him a lunch and the anticipated dropping him off at school dramatics of crying and all that, and then  last night after we did the tour, I couldn’t turn my brain off from thinking about the details.  It probably didn’t help that I gave Scott the full run down of all the info right before bed, so it was all just running through my mind.  Hopefully tonight will be better.  That is, until I schedule the next tour of a school for him to start going to after Christmas.

Weight gain?
I was up exactly 20 lbs at my appt on the 7th.  Everything else checked out just fine, though.  My BP was good, and the heartbeat sounded nice, and we think the baby is laying transverse, or crossways, right now.  We’ll see if that changes over the next few weeks.
What do I miss?  What am I looking forward to?

Well, so far, the early darkness from Daylight Savings Time ending hasn’t been so bad.  I forgot how cozy it always makes it feel inside the house.  To know it’s getting colder out there and darker as well.  Makes you glad to be safe inside.  But I have decided that it’s a fun thing to do if we take an after dark walk…so a couple of times we’ve gotten out the stroller and taken a stroll around the block when it’s totally dark.  We like to find the moon and I like to check out all the houses that leave their lights on and curtains open.  Everyone wins!  I’m looking forward to the super cold front that we get today and tomorrow…40s!  20s tonight!  Woohoo!  And then after that, starting to look forward to heading to Houston for Thanksgiving.  This year it’s going to be at Nanny and Paw-Paw’s house, and my mouth is already watering for sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and gravy and….. mashed potatoes.  Oh…did I say that already?  Nanny and Paw-Paw have lots of land and U is going to have a fun time investigating it all…plenty of things to check out there, so it should be a fun day!  And I think we’ll continue to have cooler weather so it might not be a shorts and flip flops Thanksgiving this year, which would be awesome.  We’ll see though!  It is Texas, after all…you never know what that weather might do.

Preparedness?

I sold the guest bed and side tables!  The mattress and boxspring are still here though.  I had a good possibility for those , but the guy flaked out, so I’m back to square one.  I’ll repost them on their own and see what happens.

Highlights of the week?

The sleep-depriving school tour was kind of a highlight….in that it felt like such a big next step for our lives.  Thinking about U going away from us for part of the day feels very foreign, but I think he’ll love it once he gets settled in, so it’s something to look forward to.

Belly pic:

No week 25, but here’s week 26.  Also, we passed the 100 day mark this weekend!  Only 97 days to go.  Whoa.

Julie_Nov11