For the most part, we are ready.
- The changing table, after much delay and confusion, will be delivered this evening, which means I'll be able to put away all Dana's little socks and diapers and miscellaneous baby gear (all currently taking up space in her crib).
- The cradle has been outfitted with a fancy new Naturepedic mattress and sheets, paid for using the gift card from my baby shower at work.
- Speaking of work, I finished training my replacements on Monday, and yesterday was my last day of commuting to the office downtown. I'll be working from home through next Thursday, and official maternity leave begins on Friday September 3 (Dana's due date). I plan to take off nine weeks (six with pay, three without), and return to work around November 8.
- Lastly, we had tried several times to get a consultation visit with a pediatrician, and after several rounds of phone tag, still had not managed to get an appointment booked. However, we were invited to the birthday party for the daughter of one of Will's professors, where we had the chance to speak to other parents from the neighborhood, many of them affiliated with the University. One couple from the UK, who had their twins at the same hospital we're using, told us that it's OK not to have a pediatrician lined up ahead of time - the hospital will set you up with one, and if you end up not liking him or her, you can always change. It was a great relief to hear this, since I felt like -- what kind of terrible parent am I, unable to arrange a simple appointment with my baby's doctor? So I'm glad that's settled.

We had our 38-week appointment on Monday. I'm up to 40 lb weight gain. Yes, that's right, 10 lbs in two weeks. I'm hoping the majority of that is water retention due to heat and stress. We have been lucky with the weather: temperatures have stayed in the 80s, with only occasional spikes into the 90s. Stress-wise, the past two or so weeks have been a push to get things wrapped up. Will was busy with his last week of teaching, while I had to put in longer hours at work to make sure the transition to maternity leave would go smoothly. I can definitely tell when I've worked a 10-hour day versus an 8 hour day, because my feet would be twice as swollen and everything kinda hurt when I got home.

Now we're in the home stretch, both working from home, waiting for Dana. Hopefully we can get some good rest in the next few days/weeks. It appears that the weather will be nice, though not particularly conducive to labor: no major storms or drops in barometric pressure to get this baby moving.

Anyway, it will allow us to take some nice walks. Last weekend, we walked about 2.5 miles one day, and a little over 3 another day. Our average walk (out to the Promontory Point at back) is just over 1.2 miles, a really lovely stroll on cool evenings.

- We still don't have a changing table. Pottery Barn Kids says the chest of drawers is ready but the top part which makes it also a changing table is on back order. We were given August 14 as the magic date, but that's in 3 days.

- Nan mailed us the cradle on Monday and it arrived today. This is the cradle that Bela made (and had published in Fine Woodworking's Design Book Four). It is so beautiful and cheerful -- I could not be happier that Dana gets to use the same cradle, where her father and aunt slept as babies.

- Still working on getting a consultation with a pediatrician, as we continue to play phone tag. This is not encouraging behavior from someone we will want to return our calls right away.

- As for work responsibilities, I have all but made it through my last close before maternity leave. I have one more piece to finish up by Monday. After this, the job will be to transition responsibility to my replacements as smoothly as possible. Except for the new girl, who starts August 23 (2 days before my anticipated last day in office), everyone has been trained.

We have the 37-week doctor's appointment tomorrow. This is the last appointment meeting the other doctors in the practice. Next week we go back to seeing my doctor. So far the OB I like best in the practice is the one we met last week - he was friendly but professional, on time but not rushed. When we were listening to Dana's heartbeat, he looked over my belly and said "Hey, no stretchmarks!".. to which I replied, "Not there, anyway." He got a kick out of that.

As of last week's appointment, I was up to 30 lbs on the weight gain. I'm fairly confident that most of what I'm gaining these days is water weight, since I'm about as bloated and puffy as can be (see "sausage-fingered and swollen-ankled" above).

Last thing: pictures. A couple from when we hung Dana's quilt over her crib, and some of her cute footie PJs and assorted clothing we got at Target a few weeks ago.

Will's baby cradle is supposed to make its way up from Memphis to Chicago sometime this month. I'll have to order a mattress pad to go inside the cradle, but they sell those on Amazon, so that's no big deal.

We have yet to choose a pediatrician, or even speak to one, except over the phone. I am hoping to get a consultation scheduled with one or two of them for this Friday afternoon, to talk about the practice and and ask questions and get to know them. Of course, I'll have to do some research and put together a big list of questions first.

The main thing I am spending my energy on (besides carrying around this lovely giant baby) is getting things at work ready for my maternity leave. This means training people on my responsibilities, and communicating the transition of responsibility to everyone. Next week is close week (my last before Dana is born), which will be pretty intense. But after that, my replacements will be handle more of my stuff to get some practice before I really leave, so my workload will get lighter and lighter as time goes by. Yay!

I haven't done my little pregnancy check-in list in a while so...

Total Weight Gain: 25 lbs as of my appointment 2 weeks ago. I'm probably past 30 lbs at this point, I'll find out an official number tomorrow when we go back to the doctor. This appointment tomorrow is the first of the weekly appointments - exciting! (Not because I love going to the doctor, but because it means our baby is coming soon-ish and requires closer monitoring.)

Maternity Clothes: My stomach is roughly the size of a beach ball or watermelon, so maternity clothes is all I'm wearing these days. It's so big that some of my maternity tops are getting too short.. I'm going to have to upgrade to some kind of tent. My feet are starting to swell - we're lucky it's not cold out or I would need maternity socks too.

Best Moment This Week: It's been a pretty good week so far, lots of good moments to choose from. Visiting my parents in St Louis last weekend, listening to Great Expectations with Will in the car, gossipping with Olivia and Laura last night.. all lots of fun.

Tonight I'm going to ask Will to take me to the pool - he got me a "spouse of student" membership a few weeks ago, and we're really taking advantage. One trip to the pool can keep me from getting really uncomfortable for several days, it's just a great way to get a (very) little exercise, some great stretching, and a lot of relief from gravity. I think Dana enjoys being in the water too, she likes to do little dances in my belly when we're swimming.

Movements: Any time baby Dana moves, I feel it. There's no extra room in there anymore for her to float around unencumbered. She's head-down at this point, and should stay that way until she's born, so I mainly feel her hiccups and stretches. She typically gets hiccups about 2-5 times a day, around mealtimes like me, though sometimes she wakes me up in the middle of the night with the tiny spasms.

Also, based on what I feel, we're pretty sure she has her legs bent and knees tucked up at her chest, with her feet and heels by her butt. During weeks 32-34, she really had one of her feet dug up in the left side of my ribs, and was causing really painful bruising. However, I think she's found something more comfortable for both of us, since it's not bothering me this week.

The other thing she does is jab with her elbows, or sometimes lightly scrape them along my sides. So far it doesn't really hurt, but it might start to as she continues to pack on the pounds. Speaking of pounds, she's supposed to be somewhere around 6.3 lbs this week. Big baby!

Food Cravings: none

Belly Button: Oddly variable between definite innie, flat, and just barely an outie.

Overall: Feeling excited, impatient, alternately anxious/unprepared and so-totally-ready-let's-get-this-show-on-the-road, physically large and sluggish and slightly swollen. Can you tell I need an evening at the pool? :)

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty eventful day. We had signed up for the labor & delivery wing hospital tour, which was supposed to start at 10:00. I hadn't slept well the night before (this is becoming more and more common as time goes by), so I slept late and didn't wake up until almost 9:15. In the rush to get ready and out the door, there was no time for a good breakfast. I grabbed a bottle of cranberry juice and planned to eat after the tour.

• After 25 weeks, any emergency health situations should be addressed by L&D, not the normal emergency room.
• There is no need to pre-register the stay at the hospital. Just go to L&D and the paperwork will be filled out later.
• No eating or drinking is allowed during labor and delivery, except hard candy and ice chips.
• Generally, the hospital stay will last 48 hours after the baby is born, 72 if it's a c-section.

Then we started the tour in triage (where nurse practitioners or residents examine you to see if you're ready to be admitted), followed by a visit to an actual labor and delivery room. It's a fairly large room with large windows, a bed, a couch and a chair, a TV, a separate bathroom with toilet and shower (yesss), and some medical equipment (computer screens, small baby warming area with set ups for oxygen, etc.) There was lots of wood paneling (I assume it shields the scarier-looking medical supplies), and in the mid-morning light, the room looked quite cozy.

While our tour group stood in this room, Tracy described the labor & delivery process, fetal monitoring and pain medication options, what happens right after the baby is born, etc. We had been standing for perhaps 20 minutes when I started to feel hot and tingly and sick to my stomach. I found a stool and sat down for a minute, but then it was time for the tour to move on to a postpartum room. I stood back up a little shakily and we started down the hall. At this point, I started getting tunnel vision and was sweating, so I turned to Will and told him I wasn't feeling well and thought I might throw up.

He found me a chair and I sat down. After about 5 minutes of resting, I felt somewhat better. Meanwhile, the tour had continued, leaving us behind. We considered trying to meet up with them but decided instead just to go home. Thinking that the episode was caused by a blood sugar surge (fruit, cheese danish, cranberry juice) and subsequent crash, Will made me some eggs. After that I felt much better.

Baby Preparation / Nursery Progress

I decided to spend the afternoon sorting through the baby preparation information/lists I had amassed, and get some major purchases made. I've been having lots of baby anxiety dreams lately -- I'm hoping that I can at least move past the "We don't have any diapers" dreams.

We bought this dresser/changing table from Pottery Barn Kids. We also bought a good amount of stuff from Amazon, including a changing pad and this cover.

I also forgot to mention that last weekend I finished Dana's baby quilt. For the first few weeks/months of her life, she can't have a bunch of stuff in the crib with her, so the quilt will be hung on the wall above the crib. Once she is old enough, we'll take it down and it will be her blankie.

 

Overall, the flowers were beautiful, the cake delicious, the company pleasant, and the baby gifts abundant. :)   Thanks to Carrie and Nan for the photos below (each linked to the original on Flickr).

A few days after the baby shower, I went back to the OB - going every two weeks now. Also, we've started cycling through the other doctors in the practice, and I really liked Dr L. She was running about 45 minutes late, but she apologized for the wait and really spent some quality time with us answering questions. She also commented that the previous ultrasound (around 27 weeks) had shown a somewhat low-lying placenta, which can be a problem if it gets too low.

So she ordered another ultrasound, which I had today. Olivia and my mom accompanied, which was a treat for me, since I got to show off my baby to them. This ultrasound revealed that the placenta was in a good position, far enough up as to not cause any problems with delivery. We also got a couple of good pictures of Dana's face, though she had her arm up, which distorted the focus a bit and makes it a little hard to see. I love the second shot below, because you can clearly see a big old grumpy expression on her face.

In addition to the pictures, we also got an estimate of her weight at this point: 4 lbs, 11 oz. So let's think through this -- babies gain an average of 1/2 a lb a week from now until birth. Since there are around 8 weeks left, she has another 4 lbs to go. That would put her birth weight around 8 lbs, 11 oz. Now that's what I call a baby. :)

At this appointment, I described the crazy pregnancy symptoms I was experiencing (not really mentioned in the baby books): muscle cramps radiating from my foot up through my calf, and a recurring tingly sensation in my ribs on the left top side of my belly. She has a saying for pregnancy symptoms, "You're going to feel a lot of weird things all throughout your pregnancy, but as long as it doesn't hurt (for long) and you're not bleeding (a lot), you're probably OK." She just suggested I eat more bananas - yay, potassium.

The baby shower is this Saturday at our new apartment. Olivia is hosting, and Laura is baking me a cake (yellow, with cream cheese frosting). I'm really excited, we have lots of people coming in from out of town. I'm finally going to meet Olivia and Will's aunt Carrie, whom I've heard a lot about. My friend Renee from Cedar Rapids is also visiting for the day. It will be so great to see all these people, and of course getting presents for baby Dana won't be bad either. :)

Total Weight Gain: as of Monday (29 weeks, 3 days), I was up 17 lbs. That means I gained 5 lbs in the last 4 weeks -- better than 8, like I did the previous 4 weeks. If I keep gaining at this rate, I will be up between 25 and 30 lbs total, which is absolutely normal and actually pretty good, since I'll probably be having a bigger baby.

Best Moment This Week: I really enjoyed seeing my family in St Louis this weekend. Grocery shopping yesterday was also pretty great, because Will let me buy some chicken nuggets. Mmmm.

Movement: more than ever these days. She'll play and bounce around all morning, take an afternoon nap, and then start back up in the late evening. I think she likes it when Will talks to her. She stops moving around, and I just imagine her listening in there, very thoughtfully, perhaps nodding as she thinks about what he is saying.

Nursery progress: basically the entire nursery is ready to go, except for one very important area - the changing table. I'm having a hard time finding one that I like, which isn't $900. I want something with a medium to light wood finish, and that has both dresser drawers, and open areas for baskets/supplies. Something like this (but not white):

In any case, today I am 27 weeks pregnant, which officially puts me in my third trimester. Yay!

Total Weight Gain: around 15 lbs. This came as a bit of a shock, since I was gaining so slowly before the last doctor's appointment, but apparently it's catching up with me.

Best Moment This Week: actually happened yesterday/today, graduating to third trimester. When I announced this on Facebook, Will replied "Happy third trimester, my beautiful ladies." I read it at work and teared up a little bit. Also, it's always gratifying when we do anything to get ready for Dana's arrival. Yesterday we got the carseat/stroller system out of the box (thanks Nan!) and started figuring out how they worked. Tricky stuff!

Movements: she's moving all the time these days and is getting very strong. There are times when she's kicking me in such uncomfortable ways that I have to try and get her to rotate or something. But even when it's uncomfortable, it's great to know that she's strong and healthy.

Overall: big and happy. 

In any case, I will burn a DVD with the original quality and aspect ratio for anyone that wants it. Enjoy!

Second, Will and I moved into our new apartment earlier this week. The new place has 2 bedrooms and 2 full baths (with HUGE bathtubs, which will come as a great relief when I am as big as a house and need the buoyancy), and the dining room window has a 12th-floor view facing east out over Lake Michigan. The cats are settled in now -- Lucius had one unhappy evening of trying to hide under furniture, but Olivia came over and worked her magic to coax him out. The next morning he was acting normal, and I am convinced her efforts on Tuesday night were the cause. We bought a few Ikea bookshelves which will be delivered in a week or two, and once we get those and all the books put away, I'll take some photos to share.

Now for the pregnancy updates:

Pictures: covered belly, bare belly  (Sorry for the poor picture quality, taken on my iPhone in the hotel in Cedar Rapids)

Total Weight Gain: somewhere between 6-10 lbs, based on our scale at home, depending on which way you face the scale. I think our floor is sloped??

Best Moment This Week: It actually happened almost a full week ago now, but I was right in my last entry that Will would feel her kicks soon. He felt her moving around in there and could even see on the outside. This made me so happy and I've been encouraging him to belly-watch with me when the "Baby Show" is on (during her active periods when she's kicking).

Also, yesterday we made it to 24 weeks, which is considered the viability mark for many babies. Meaning if she were to be born now, she would have lots of health problems, but the probability is that she would survive. I intend to keep her in for a couple more months, of course, but it's good to know that even if that weren't possible, she could still survive.

Movements: very frequent, I feel her almost every hour. Sometimes when I wake up at night, she's awake and moving around, though I can't imagine what she's up to at that hour. It's much too dark to read. :)

Overall: feeling good physically and in good spirits. I am almost feeling brave enough to put on a two-piece and take a swim in the hotel pool, despite the weird looks I might get from onlookers.

Total Weight Gain: 6.5 lbs (unofficial, from our scale at home)

Maternity Clothes: I went to Macy's on Friday and bought 3 more tops (including the yellow tanktop seen in the photo above, click to view the full photo) and a pair of jeans, a pair of leggings, and some PJ bottoms. I'll probably go back and buy another couple pairs of jeans, since the ones I bought are very comfortable and a good deal.

Best Moment This Week: On Wednesday, while I was lying in bed getting ready to go to sleep, Dana was kicking a lot, and I could see her kicks from the outside! I have a feeling that before too long, my best moment of the week will be when Will is able to feel her movement.

Movements: Not so much this weekend, since I have been pretty active walking around and doing things with Will's family and visiting the Barkers. This tends to put her to sleep.

Food Cravings: I really wanted a Baconator yesterday from Wendy's, but I don't think that counts (and I didn't eat one). ;)

Belly Button: Still an innie, but shallow and kind of pillow-y.

Overall: Feeling pretty good, a little achey in the belly sometimes (I think she's going through a growth spurt and stretching out more). Our big move to the new apartment is coming up soon, which I am very excited about. Officially our lease begins the 15th, but the landlord said we could call to get the keys a week or so early. I will only be good for packing and unpacking some boxes, not really carrying anything.. but Ty has volunteered to help us move after he graduates (also the 15th), and we will probably hire movers as well. At that point we can get started on the nursery! :)

21 Weeks, 3 Days

Total Weight Gain: 4.1 lbs, as of today's appointment

Maternity Clothes: Now that the bump has lifted up a bit, I can wear most of my pre-pregnancy clothes, though the pants are pretty tight at the waist and the shirts seem a little short. I got a lot of maternity clothes for my birthday, and that's tiding me over so far.

Best Moment This Week: The moment I am most proud of happened on Saturday night. Will made me some pasta for dinner, and he was having spinach with gorgonzola dressing. I decided to try a spinach leaf. Since it was uncooked, it didn't have much of a taste, so we tore up some more leaves and mixed it in my pasta. I ate it and didn't cry at all! This should be a testament to how much I love this little girl - that I am willing to try green foods in order to get her some extra nutrients.

Movements: Typically in the morning or in the evening after dinner, she'll say hello with a couple kicks. This afternoon at the doctor's office, I got about 10 kicks in a row, traveling from the lower left side, up and over my belly button.

Food Cravings: None

Belly Button: Still an innie but shallow.

Overall: Feeling very happy with how things are going. I like the way I feel and look right now. Will's parents and uncle are coming into town this weekend, and it'll be great to see them.

• I turned 25. Whee!
• Will and I went to Greece. Will has a bunch of pictures posted on his facebook, but I'll put up some here when I get a chance.
• We found out two weeks ago that we're having a little girl. Her name is Dana Violet and she is beautiful.

She was so wiggly during the ultrasound, the tech couldn't get a good luck at her at first. She was curled up in half on my right side. Finally they had me lie on my left side so that she could stretch out. After that, she was very cooperative and they got lots of good pictures of her.

Will and I were both thrilled to see our baby girl.

We had been looking forward to the appointment for two long weeks, since the initial prenatal visit. I had gone into the prenatal visit with high expectations, hoping to receive an ultrasound that same day, but it didn't happen -- Dr. M said it was too early (at 10 weeks) to see or hear much. I was very disappointed, but this new ultrasound appointment gave me one more thing to look forward to.

To avoid being disappointed again, I guess I had lowered my expectations for this visit. Despite having memorized the "What to Expect" chapter related to the third month and the illustration of a tiny, person-shaped baby, I still expected to see on the screen an indeterminate blob-shape with a fluttering heartbeat. What we got was so much better!

As soon as the image came up on the screen, I could immediately recognize the shape of a tiny person! This came as quite a shock, but I was immediately filled with happiness. We laughed as the baby squirmed around and wiggled its legs. We got a look at that baby from all angles. I loved every minute. Ultrasound technology has come a long way from what you see in the movies -- the images are much clearer, and they even warm the jelly before they put it on your belly.

In the month that we've known about the pregnancy, up until yesterday, there was always a small element of worry in my mind that the baby wouldn't be healthy. However, when I heard the baby's heartbeat and saw those baby dance moves, I just knew this baby was OK, and that I was in love.