Fashionably Late

Well, I guess my baby has decided to be an October baby. She must like Halloween as much as I do. For those of you wondering:

• No, the baby isn't here yet.
• No, that doesn't mean we're going to tell you her name early.
• No, I haven't had any contractions.
• Wednesday. My next doctor's appointment is Wednesday.
• Yes, we'll be discussing other "options" if I make it to my appointment.
• (for the Mesanites) No, at this point, it doesn't look like we'll be making it into town next weekend.
• Yes, the Halloween party is STILL ON. (her costume is already in the works)
  

Fancy Feet

Since I decided not to have a baby on Tuesday, I went and got a pedicure instead (actually a delayed b-day gift from my mom).

Now I'll have fancy toes for the big event...whenever that is.

Due Date

Today is September 26th 2006. I've been thinking about this date every day for the past nine months. Well, longer than that since this was a planned pregnancy, so I knew even before I got pregnant that, if I did get pregnant, this date would be my due date.

Yet so far today, my body does not seem "due". My baby seems quite large, but comfortable. Jake and I were just noticing yesterday how big she seems. When she kicks or moves, it's not just in one place anymore, it's all over.

So I guess we'll wait for another day.

Technology Troubles

Remember the joke that our parents couldn't program a VCR? Well, it's amazing how quickly all of our VCR programming skills have gone forgotten.

Jake & I had a baby class last night at the hospital, so we were unable to watch The Office premier. We decided that it was ok though, cause we could just record it. However, we now live in the days of DVR/TiVo, and unfortunately, Jake & I cannot afford DVR. So, while we know how to use it, we do not have it.
We spent the morning trying to figure out how to record a tv show on, yes, a VHS tape. We ran a test run in the afternoon, only to come up empty handed.










We tried programming, we tried just plain recording, we tried everything, but nothing seemed to work. We had to leave for our class frustrated and knowing that we would be missing The Office all together.I couldn't help but get on the internet when we got home to read about what happened, but Stephanie/Cathy - please keep the show on your DVR until we can come watch it. Thanks!

Beached

Last night I had my husband roll me over in bed.

9 Months

According to the 40-week pregnancy calendar, I am officially 9 months pregnant. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and from her medically official "squeeze-the-belly-in-a-couple-different-spots" judgment, she does not think that my baby is 8 pounds yet. She guessed that the baby would be 7-7 1/2 pounds.

So who should I believe? The ultrasound machine - which I had previously heard wasn't great at predicting weight? or my doctor, who uses her hands to weigh a baby?

I guess only time will tell how big she really is. It's not like it's a big deal anyway. I'm just anxious to meet my baby. She's due on Tuesday, but I think she'll be later than that. Jake's guess is that she'll come next weekend sometime (the 29th-1st), and his official guess is October 2nd.

Who knows? Maybe she'll come tomorrow.

The Pregnant Girl's First Aid Kit

I decided today that I didn't want to take my regular purse to church, so I took a small black bag instead. This was for 2 reasons: 1. I'm trying to enjoy carrying around a small bag for as long as possible before my days with a diaper bag come upon me, and 2. I was wearing a black dress, and my brown purse didn't look as good as I knew my little black bag would.

So I packed it with just the essentials and we headed off to church. During our meeting, Jake looked in my bag and started laughing. He said I had created the perfect "Pregnant Girl's First Aid Kit". Here's what I had with me:

A bottle of water, a tissue pack, a pen, tums, chapstick, and a Tide-To-Go pen.

I'm thinking of marketing it. It IS the perfect bag. It has all of my essential tools for everyday life.

A Public Thank You

I would like to publicly thank my husband Jake's family at this time for producing big babies. My ultrasound went really well this morning, except that the ultrasound lady said that my baby already weighs 8 POUNDS. If that is accurate, and I deliver on my due date, we're looking at a 9+ pound baby here. She has a nice, round tummy, and "thunder thighs" as the ultrasound lady put it (that's a medical term).

On the other hand, look at these cheeks.

These cheeks are unmistakably from my side of the family.

A foot

Her hand. She's pointing to the left, can you see it?

Her blood flow in her cord looked good, and yes, she's still a girl. She may even have some hair.




In other news.......

Look what the Tax Return Man delivered to us this morning! Isn't it adorable?

10 Simple Things

Here's my list of ordinarily simple things that are difficult now that I'm in my 9th month of pregnancy.

1. Getting up off the couch
2. Rolling over at night
3. Taking a walk around the block without feeling like I need to use the bathroom (and then when I get home, realizing that I don't need to go)
4. Covering up the bottom 1/2 of my belly
5. Seeing my toes
6. Seeing my belly button (a new thing I noticed today)
7. Sleeping without 3 pillows
8. Going places without strangers touching my belly or giving advice, or kids pointing and whispering to their parents
9. Wearing my wedding ring
10. Standing in one place for longer than 10 minutes

I had heard that these things become harder to do, but I was kind of skeptical.

Front View

8 months, 3 weeks, 3 days (38 weeks, 1 day)

Note: for a quick growth comparison, click on "8 Months" in the 'Previous Posts' column to the right. It has a nearly identical picture of me 4 weeks ago. Pretty impressive growth.

The Belly

My favorite part of this picture is how you can clearly see my ribs ending and my belly beginning on the left side of the photo. It looks like I swallowed a beach ball.

Practice, Practice, Practice

My fake contractions are really improving themselves these days. They've started spacing themselves out. Last night and this morning, I had a bunch in a row that were all 10 minutes apart. They weren't real contractions - I couldn't feel them at all. I just noticed that about every 10 minutes my belly would turn into a hard basketball. I guess practice makes perfect.

In other news, my baby had a mini-ultrasound this morning to make sure she is growing at the right rate. Apparently, her head and maybe femur were in the 10th percentile at my last ultrasound (4 months ago) and no one thought it was a concern until today. PREGNANCY ADVICE: See a different doctor for at least one of your appointments, so that a new set of eyes can look at your chart. They just might see something your regular doctor fails to notice.

My doctor is on vacation this week, so I saw a different doctor for my appointment, and she noticed the ultrasound results and asked if they were ever discussed with me. Anyway, my ultrasound this morning was only a head measurement, and my baby's head measured at 37 weeks, 4 days: 2 days shy of what it should read. She's exactly on target.

I'm scheduled for a real ultrasound at the main hospital this Thursday, just to double-check, but everything seems normal.

Full Term

Today I am 37 weeks along. I am now officially "Full Term". This means that if I go into labor, the doctors & nurses at my hospital won't be too worried, and my baby probably won't have to spend any extra time in the hospital.

Here is my belly from my point of view.
I no longer have toes.

I am now also 8 1/2 months along. Isn't that crazy? I think so. My baby seems to be moving all the time now, and when she's not, my belly is practicing its contractions. It's been practicing all day today. It must know something's coming.

Other than an active belly, everything else has seemed pretty normal. I've been feeling great. Oh, but apparently I'm more emotional than normal. But who wouldn't be completely distraught when silly little minor things go kind of wrong? I feel completely justified in being ridiculously upset when something doesn't work out quite the way I planned. Or for no reason whatsoever. That's normal, right?

Which reminds me: I love my husband. He's quite an understanding guy.

It

My search for the perfect baby blessing dress was leaving me feeling pretty hopeless. I wanted something white-based, but I didn't want a super-frilly dress. The only white dresses I could find were Christening dresses, which look like miniature wedding dresses. Okay, they're fancier than my wedding dress was. I had a simple wedding dress because my style is very simple. All I wanted was a simple white baby dress, is that too much to ask?

Apparently, yes.

Then I turned to another source and found exactly what I was looking for. I am the proud new owner of a 1940's-1950's hand-made white dress.
It's so simple and I love it a lot. And it was about 1/3 of the price of those huge dresses at the store.

I found it on e-bay.