Big baby!

I had an ultrasound late yesterday and it re-confirmed what the last ultrasound (which was 10 weeks ago) said... our baby is a big and tall baby! It is 3lbs 13oz according to their estimates, and at the 83% of height and weight. This means, for its age, it is bigger than 83% of other babies. The baby also slept (somewhat mercifully) through the ultrasound, with a few short periods of moving slightly, yawning, and some light fidgeting. I was a bit concerned it would do its normal calisthenics instead, so taking a nap was a welcome surprise.

It is tucked into a very good position right now- head down, elbows bent, hands near its face, and legs firmly curled up against its abdomen. The technician said that it looks nicely proportioned- good muscles, nice long limbs, plump but not too plump for its age. I have a very average amount of amniotic fluid, which is a good thing although it made seeing the baby's face nearly impossible. Needless to say Matt and I were brimming with pride at our little buddy in there.

Babies in the third trimester gain about a 1/2 lb per week, so at current estimates the baby will be born weighing in around 8 1/2 lbs. This is exactly what Matt weighed at birth!

29 weeks and 3 days

Here we are at aaaaaalmost 30 weeks. So exciting!

I had a doctor's appointment today that was great- I learned that my body likes to "dump sugar" when I eat christmas cookies for breakfast, which means to give an almost false positive for excessive sugar in the urine. The nurse was very funny, "Did you have a lot of sugar with your breakfast? Like maybe some christmas cookies?" Uhhhh... guilty as charged.

I also gained almost no weight since my last appointment, which is neither good nor bad. I gained more-than-average for first 25 weeks, and therefore one month below average is kind of a relief. I guess I'm evening out, which is nice.

The baby is settled in head-down again. I'm glad, and more comfortable. I thought it was, but its little angular butt kinda feels like the blocky shape of its head, so I was slightly confused. I know its feet felt like they were near my ribs, but then sometimes they "jack-knife" with their legs extended so that is not necessarily a perfect sign of being head-down.

The baby kicked the heart-rate monitor and startled the nurse, which was funny. It moved around quite a bit and generally showed off its fine talents of being an active baby. That made everyone happy and Matt is so proud of his little acrobat's antics. Apparently this baby is far more active than average. Good! Healthy!

On an unrelated note, the friend's baby is HOME! Little boy Kit got to come home from the hospital in time for Christmas and has been gaining weight steadily without further feeding interventions. I am so happy for my friends that their little guy is doing so well. He is still a month from his "due date" so you can imagine how exciting it is that he is already at home full time. He already weighs more than I did when I was born- amazing! Also, the report is that he looks great in the sweater I bought him, and it fits nicely. Awwww...

Home improvement

I know I've been slacking on my photos of myself being all big and pregnant. Our lives have been entirely consumed lately by contractors, drywallers, carpeters, etc which has left little time for goofy photos of me in my cheerleader outfit.

However, Matt and I have been taking some photos of each other hard at work in the 2nd floor addition. Behold! A pregnant painter (note that we exclusively use "Low VOC paint" to prevent toxic paint fumes) wearing her husband's overalls!

Flippy freakout

The baby definitely was head-down for a few days. You know how I know? Because last night I woke up at 3am to the most amazing uncomfortable SOMETHING going on in my uterus. It was like the baby had been replaced with a rabid raccoon. The intense motion, squirming, skin stretching and even some internal scratching made me nauseous, miserable, freaked out, hungry (weird!) and wide awake. Then- the baby decided it was done, and... that it liked it with its head up, jammed in my ribs, again. The feeling was completely unmistakeable- it was heads up once more, and it took some serious effort to get there.

Once upright, it promptly kicked me in the bladder and lower intestine for about an hour, bringing my self-pitying and indigestion to new heights as I alternately peed, thrashed around in bed, tried not to puke on Matt, and wolfed down a cup of apple sauce. All of this came to a somewhat ridiculous head when Matt, as he was rubbing my back in a half-asleep attempt to make me feel better, asked if maybe some hot tea would be nice. I burst into tears, hugged a pillow and just sat on the side of the bed in total pity-wallowing fashion. Then I hugged the pillow too hard and almost puked, so I had to stand up and avoid vomiting while crying. It was 4am, and I had reached my end.

Sometime after that I fell asleep completely upright in bed, propped by 4 pillows and a blanket into the only position that did not make me feel like I was going to vomit.

This morning I feel better, except that the baby is still upright (kicking is worse in this position, and sitting/driving is bad) and I feel like someone tucked a grapefruit under my left lung.

Note to baby; FLIP BACK OVER. And then stay that way!

Fun for the whole family!

The baby seems to have flipped back over, much to my relief (physical and mental). I can't imagine having a full term baby in the breech position- it was noticeably less comfortable in several ways to have that little head stuck under my ribcage. Now, I'm back to getting kicked in the gut, but that is waaaay better. The other possibility is that I am fooling myself and the baby is still upside-up. I have a doctor's appointment in about 10 days so if that is the case, I'll figure it out soon.

Baby's kicking/punching squirming is getting incredibly strong. Every once in a while it kicks so hard it almost takes my breath away, and yesterday it kicked Matt's hand so firmly that he and I both yelped in surprise and I ended up doubled over and laughing. I really, really doubt it could move its hands with that much power, which is why I'm thinking it must be back to the head-down position.

At the city council meeting last night, I got all nervous and anxious about chickens. Almost a year of working on this and it all came down to one vote. As the discussion progressed and got a little heated, I could feel the baby getting more and more agitated. Matt and my friend Julie started giggling as the baby's rolls and kicks became abundantly obvious to the outside observer, and Julie put her hand on my upper belly just in time to get a strong thwack from the baby. She and I both jumped and then got a case of the "church giggles" while we attempted to be courteous in the council chambers. I knew that the chemicals and hormones in a mom's body affected the baby (duh!), but it was truly amazing to watch my own baby get all hopped up on my excitement/nervousness level. Only a few minutes after the ordinance passed and the baby went back to sleep, calm and quiet in there.

I'm kind of glad I didn't have to get up to speak at the council meeting last night. It would have been very distracting to be in front of the whole city council, on TV, with a crazed acrobatic baby distorting my belly in bizarre, fairly uncomfortable, and comical ways.

Baby plays a practical joke on me

Two nights ago the baby moved so much, so constantly, that I got hardly any sleep. It was unbelievable- the kicking almost never stopped, all night. Not painful, but highly distracting. Last night I slept a lot better and generally had a better evening, and in the morning the baby moved a lot during breakfast, as usual. It firmly kicked me, squirmed, kicked some more, got the hiccups, and generally entertained me and Matt for a while with its antics.

Then, sometime around 10am it stopped moving. I didn't think much of this until I realized around 2pm that it hadn't done anything in about 4 hours. That troubled me. Maybe it got tangled up? Freaked out? And then at one point the baby got the hiccups- in the wrong spot. Up by my ribs. Disconcerting!

So I called my health care providers- they told me that if I wanted to, I was welcome to come on down and they'd test the baby to make sure everything looked normal.

My nurse was very nice. First thing she did was confirm that yes- the baby has inverted itself and is now chilling out with its head up. After two months of being head down, it must have decided it needed a change of pace. Now that I've been shown how, I can feel its little bobble head quite clearly- it feels very much like an apple sitting under my skin. Up until today when I smooshed down in that area I could feel a tangled up group of legs and feet parts, and I would inevitably get kicked back. Now- I get a wobbly apple, and I'm a little nervous that I'll poke the little bugger in the eye or something. Temporary ban on smooshing!

Of course as soon as I got rigged up to the doppler, buzzer, etc the baby went hogwild. It kicked the doppler, squirmed very strongly, and generally acted like it knew it was the center of attention. It insisted on squirming right by the receiver, which made very loud scary noises through the microphone. When it kicks deep in my pelvis it feels odd (feels even weirder than kicking in the gut/ribs) and muted, but once I got used to the new feeling it was very clear that no, baby is not stressed, tangled, or upset. Baby just wanted to be upright. I think maybe the effort of getting there required a four hour recovery nap.

The good news is that baby was perfectly content in the new position, and the nurse said that if it spent the last two months upside down it will most likely flip back to upside down sometime soon. Maybe our little frog wanted a heads-up holiday? Hard to tell. Hopefully it will just flip back into the correct position and then stay that way.

For a good laugh

Visit my other blog to watch my sweet moves at catching a wily hen. I might be pregnant, but I can still out maneuver fancy poultry.

http://radwoodchickens.blogspot.com/

Friend has baby!

My very petite, very largely pregnant friend (my water aerobics partner) had her baby on Thursday! I just found out now, because I was out of town. So exciting.

4lbs, 13oz. They named him Kit Carlisle, last name starts with M.

The little guy is a total champ- he's breathing all by himself just fine, very active and alert, good digestion, and overall doing extremely well. He doesn't know how to swallow because he is two months pre-term, but my friend is having good success with the pump so he's getting her breastmilk with a little technological help.

He was due on January 28th so we are all a little shocked, but it has been abundantly clear for the last month or so that there was no way he was going to stay in the womb that long. My friend went into labor late Wednesday night, they tried to stop the labor, and within about 1 hour the baby was born vaginally anyway. The report from the very proud father is that she pushed three times and Kit shot out like a screaming red cannonball. He's a cutey, that is for darn sure. Very lanky- he is 20inches long so the little fellow is all arms, legs, and head.

Welcome Kit! Keep being strong and learn to swallow soon so you can go home!!!

I'm having a hiccupy basketball player

I had a prenatal appointment today. I like prenatal appointments with my new caregivers sooooo much more than my old doctor. To make a long story short on that point; after some serious handwringing and about a month of consideration, research, and word-of-mouth investigations I decided to switch practices. Not a big deal in actuality (i.e. records were easy to transfer and both practices were quite understanding in my desires), but a big decision anyway.

So now, at my new practice, the nurses keep teasing me that I'm a little big for a new patient. I got a "1st trimester" gift bag by mistake (I gave it back, minus the neat day planner it came with) which cracked me up. I have to learn all the new patterns of their practice, like the new pee test protocol (fun!). But it is all totally worth it. Matt and I are a lot happier with my new care.

Today I got weighed, measured, dopplered and poked. As usual, I am ahead of schedule on a few things- my uterus is 2 to 3 weeks too long, my baby is about 2 to 3 weeks too tall, and as a result of that I weigh about 5 lbs more than I might have otherwise. Everyone says I'm just having a basketball player and I shouldn't sweat it at all.

Lately, the coolest part is that the baby is getting really skilled at kicking on command. If you press hard into where it like to keep its little feet, it often whacks you one. This has been going on for only a few days but it keeps me highly entertained. When the nurse pressed the doppler wand into my upper belly- thunk, the baby kicked it. And again, and again. It was really funny to have her gently (and sweetly) reprimand my fetus, "Now, this time, you need to be a really good baby and NOT kick the wand away."

Thwack.

So she gave up and moved to the other side (down near my groin) to get the heart rate she was trying to catch. Down there, there were two conflicting sounds- one was the rhythmic swishing of the baby's heart (same as always- normal for age) and the other was the goofy spastic ticking noise of a little baby with the hiccups captured on the doppler wand. So THAT is what the feeling has been for the last week or two. I wasn't 100% sure, but now I know. Diagnosis; hiccupy. Prognosis; excellent.

Our little frog is tall, a champion kicker, hiccupy and healthy. Now if I can just kick my head cold!