Great news from the doctor!

We had our follow-up appointments with the doctor this past week. Our first appointment Thursday was with the ultrasound technician to check on the location of the placenta. Good news! The placenta has moved up 1.5-2cm, and the doctor said this means we should be able to have a normal delivery, barring any other complications that may arise during labor that may necessitate a c-section. Yay! Baby B is already head down, which the doctor said may or may not change. There wasn't any sign of those pesky choroid plexus cysts, either. Baby B was moving around like crazy and the tech must have been enjoying talking with us because she kept moving the transducer around even after she checked everything she needed to. She even pulled out the 3D one and spent a few minutes playing around with that! Baby B had his/her hand in front of their face the whole time, but we got some great shots of their hand and half their face. On the regular 2D ultrasound we got to see Baby B open up his/her mouth, stick out their tongue, and gulp in some amniotic fluid (great for lung development). It was so fun to watch! We also got to see a bit of hair on the back of his/her head! Baby B looks healthy and is weighing in at 2 lbs 13 oz right now. His/her heart rate was in the 140s (I don't remember the exact number) and the levels of amniotic fluid looked good.

Then we saw the doctor, who said everything looked great and my weight gain was right on track. This was a doctor in the practice I hadn't met before, since mine is out on maternity leave for another few weeks. By the time mine comes back, I'll have met every doctor in the practice except one. This is nice because if it's time for me to deliver after hours or on the weekend, the on-call doctor will be the one delivering Baby B - so any of the five docs in the practice. Anyway, back to the appointment Thursday - after I talked with the doctor a bit, the nurse came back in to give me a flu shot and take some blood for my glucose test. I drank the glucola just before my ultrasound and that stuff was gross! It wasn't as horrible as I had geared myself up for, but it wasn't very good either. I had the lemon-lime flavor, so it tasted like really sweet, really flat Spr.ite. They were also running a blood test to check for anemia. Apparently I'm not anemic and don't have gestational diabetes, because the nurse said she would call on Friday if either of those tests came back abnormal, and I never got a phone call. Woo hoo!

Thursday night we had the second of our childbirth classes, which are also taking place at the hospital. We talked about the stages of labor and learned some comfort measures to practice at home. Can I just say I never knew that tennis balls made such good massagers? Seriously, Matt rubbing my lower back with that tennis ball was awesome. We stopped on the way home to pick up some tennis balls of our own :) We also have a paper with a bunch of different positions for laboring that we're supposed to try before next week so we can figure out what we like/don't like and we aren't trying to figure everything out from scratch when I'm actually in labor. Labor still kind of scares me, but I'm liking learning more about it and what we can do to help me manage the pain when it actually comes time for that (though there will be an epidural at some point).

I'll make another post soon about the little getaway Matt and I took this weekend (our "annual small town fall retreat") but I'll leave you with this 29 week photo from the corn maze we went through yesterday :)

27 week survey

How far along? 27 weeks 1 day
How big is baby? About 2 pounds and 14 inches
Total weight gain/loss? My best guess is that I'm up 14-15 pounds.
Stretch marks? Nope!
Sleep? Still so-so. I woke up Thursday night with an awful cramp in my left calf that had me gasping. I know those happen during pregnancy, but I'm hoping that does not become a frequent occurrence.
Best moment this week? The nursery is painted! And we got to attend a fundraiser cookout tonight for friends who are adopting two beautiful children from Africa. It was so encouraging to hear how God has provided for them thus far, and to see photos of their son and daughter.
Weekly wisdom: When in doubt, call the doctor. That's what they're there for. I had to call on Friday because Baby B hadn't really moved around much at all Thursday or Friday, and that's just not normal for me at this point, so I got concerned. The nurse was super nice and encouraged me to call any time. In the end, I left school right after dismissal (so about 45 minutes early), came home, drank some cold juice and laid on my side to do kick counts. Baby B finally decided to start moving around and we had 9 movements in one hour (I was told to call immediately if I felt less than 5).
Milestones: 3rd trimester! Oh, and I realized today that I can no longer see my feet if I stand normally.

The nursery is painted!

When we bought our house 3.5 years ago, we had plans to paint this room soon after closing. But then we got caught up with a few other house projects, and decided we would just leave it and decide what to do once we had kids. The previous owners had hand-painted this room for their first child, and we knew that it would cost a good amount of money to have someone do something like that, so we didn't want to paint over it right away in case we decided we liked it enough to use it for our child(ren).

Behold, the frogs and lilypads. (And yes, this has been called "the frog room" for the past 3.5 years!)
But then once we got pregnant and started talking about nursery ideas, we decided we didn't really want a frog-themed room. We wanted the experience of getting the room entirely ready for our baby, and we wanted to make it our own. So Matt and some friends of ours tackled this project last weekend. Matt primed on Friday night, and I think that's when it really became real to me - we were painting this room to get it ready for our little one!

We put a stripe along the top of the room. Doug, being the mathematical person that he is, was in charge of making sure the taped lines were straight.

Amy, Doug's wife, is an awesome painter. And has amazing tape-removal skills.

I obviously didn't help paint. I had seen some of the green, but none of the stripe. Matt had his camera ready to catch my reaction when I walked into the room and saw it completely painted for the first time.

The finished paint job! I love it! It's exactly what I had pictured in my head!

Our next step is to get new baseboards up. We had to take them out because one of our cats had decided the baseboards in that room were a nice place to use the bathroom. (That little corner nook used to hold both litterboxes - they've been moved elsewhere in the house now). The carpet cleaning company is coming in 2 weeks, and then we'll be ready to move the furniture in. Only 13 more weeks (ish) until Baby B gets here! Time has gone by so quickly!

Coming home outfits!

My mom has really been wanting to buy gender-specific clothes, which she can't really do since we dont' know if Baby B is a boy or a girl. So, I decided to let her help me pick out coming home outfits, since I wanted to have a boy outfit and a girl outfit ready for when we leave the hospital. Mom and I went shopping and picked out two adorable outfits. And let's just say, I'm fairly certain that once Baby B gets here, he/she will have a full wardrobe fairly quickly. Soooo many cute clothes!

If Baby B is a boy, he will be wearing this outfit home from the hospital:



Isn't it cute? And the little shoes...I love them!

If Baby B is a girl, she will wear this outfit home from the hospital:

Fun colors, fleecy and warm...cute!

Only 14 more weeks (ish) until we know which outfit Baby B will be coming home in!

26 week survey

How far along? 26w1d (picture from yesterday, 26w0d)
How big is baby? All the books say baby is about 14 inches long and weighs 1.5-2 pounds
Total weight gain/loss? I was up 13 pounds total at my appointment 2 weeks ago, so maybe 14-15 pounds total by now. The doc was pleased with my gain so far.
Stretch marks? Nope. And my mom said she never got them with me or my sister, so I'm hoping it's the same for me, since stretch marks are supposed to be hereditary.
Sleep? Decent. I'm getting a few hours in at a time.
Best moment this week: Picking out coming-home outfits (another post on that coming soon!) and painting the nursery (happening today!)
What I am looking forward to: Seeing the nursery completely painted (it's primed right now, and our friends are on their way over to help paint)
Weekly wisdom: People tell you that you "look great." I'm convinced people say this no matter what, as I feel like a huge cow lately. Seriously, the picture this week is enough to show you that I've suddenly become huge, especially when compared to the picture from 2 weeks ago.
Milestones: Air sacs are beginning to form in Baby B.'s lungs, and he/she can now open their eyes.

And here's the picture. I feel HUGE compared to where I was a week or two ago.

update!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Things have been soooo busy with work that I barely have time to do much else. But the school year is going well and I still maintain that I have an awesome group of kids this year.

In baby-related news, before I do the survey, here are some highlights:

-The nursery is pretty much cleared out! The desk still has a few random things, and then that needs to go, but aside from that (and the litterboxes), the room is empty! We picked up some paint swatches this weekend so hopefully we'll have colors picked and the room painted soon-ish!

-We have a car seat! Babie.s R U.s was running a sale where if you traded in an old car seat, stroller, swing, bouncer, pack n play, etc., you got 25% off a new one. Some awesome friends from church gave us their old car seat and we bought one for our little one!

And, the biggest news...Matt got to feel Baby B kick! I'd been trying for about a week or so, and every time Matt would come over Baby B would stop kicking or wouldn't kick hard enough to feel from the outside. But last weekend Baby B had consistently kicked pretty hard in the same place a few times, so Matt put his hand there - and Baby B kicked again 3 or 4 times before stopping. Hooray! I was laying on my side and couldn't see Matt's face, but he said that it was pretty cool :)

And here's a survey...

How far along? 24w1d

How big is baby? Not sure exactly, but according to the books, Baby B weighs just over a pound and is about 8-9 inches long.

Total weight gain/loss? Not sure. I go to the doctor tomorrow, so we'll see!

Stretch marks? Nope!

Sleep? It's getting better, most nights. I'm still waking up to go to the bathroom, but am going 3-4 hours in between those trips sometimes.

Best moment this week? Baby B moving around a TON, buying our car seat, and (I'm going back to last week) Matt feeling Baby B kick!

What I am looking forward to: Meeting two new babies who were born today to friends of ours (2 different sets of parents); picking paint colors!

Weekly wisdom: Five year olds have tons of questions about babies. Have fun explaining to them why you don't know what your baby looks like yet and why you can't bring your baby to school tomorrow so they can see it :)

Milestones: 24 weeks! Viability! (Basically, if something were to happen and Baby B decided to come sometime between now and his/her due date, there is a decent-ish chance he/she would survive. But Baby B needs to stay put for a good while yet!)

21 week survey

Better late than never, right? :) Things have been so busy with school, and I'm so exhausted when I get home, that posting online hasn't happened much.

How far along? 21w4d (picture taken at 21w1d)
How big is baby? As of a week ago, Baby B weighed 12oz!
Total weight gain/loss? Officially on the doctor's scale, as of Monday, I've gained about 7 pounds total. Not too bad for being 21 weeks in!
Maternity clothes? I think I'm going to stop answering this one after this week - because I'm loving my maternity clothes. Aside from just a few shirts that still fit, I'm only in maternity stuff. And I'm not sure that I ever want to go back to non-maternity pants. The maternity ones are so comfy!
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep? It's okay. Still waking up every couple hours, but I'm usually able to get right back to sleep.
Best moment this week? Well, I'm going back to last week - finding out that Baby B is healthy and "perfect!"
Movement? I feel something most every day, but usually when I'm sitting still. Baby B seems to be most active (or I feel him/her the most) mid-morning and in the evening.
Food cravings? Not really, just what sounds good at the moment. I'm still liking the occasional root beer.
What I am looking forward to: We are spending the long weekend with our small group from church up in Wisconsin, and I can't wait. We had such a great time last year, all in one big house in the middle of nowhere, just hanging out and enjoying the community we have with each other. We leave Friday after work and come back on Monday.
Weekly wisdom: If the doctor isn't worried, you shouldn't be either. (lesson learned about looking things up online - low placenta can bring up scary things, but most of the time, things are fine. I'm not worrying about it until the doctor seems worried - and neither the specialist nor my regular doctor are worried yet).
Milestones: Baby's eyebrows are present now. And in fun news, according to a pregnancy book I'm reading, baby's hair is all white right now because it doesn't contain any pigment at this stage in gestation.