Well, it's Friday and I do not feel like working! I posted nursery pics earlier but still am looking to kill some time before I sign off for the long weekend. I am looking forward to the time away from work - it's been a busy week. So I sort of feel entitled to having a 'blah' day today.
Anyway, tomorrow I'll be 31 weeks! Just 9 weeks away from our due date (or 64 days). I've said it before but I just cannot wait to meet this little guy! All the prep and anticipation is fun, exciting and all but it's nothing compared to actually getting to finally hold him and shower him with kisses! Thinking about how much we had to go through to get to this point (and to labor day for that matter) is all just unreal. A year ago today I was thinking that I may never get to experience motherhood and was pretty unsure of how my body was going to handle going through IVF. But now here we are at 31 weeks! Our little guy has been making his presence known lately too. I can tell he is running out of room though as his movements are less and less sudden and 'jabby'. They are slower now and feel like he's dragging various limbs across my belly. It's hard to describe. Sometimes they get intense if he is pushing on an organ - like the other day when it felt like he was kicking my lungs or today when he was juggling my ovaries! Of course I can see it all happen now too which makes it even more fascinating. I wish I knew what body part was causing the bulges. Sometimes I'm convinced that he is sticking his butt straight out - but then it could be his head too or just a knee. I always ask him what he's doing in there and tell him to kick twice if I'm touching his head - but he doesn't listen;).
Turning 31 weeks tomorrow also means that I'm almost 1 week away from our 32 week follow up with the high risk OB to check on baby's ventricle! It'll be 1 week from Monday first thing in the morning. My regular OB tells me that she thinks I'll be pleased at what I see during that appointment since there has been no other indication of an issue in our other tests. But still - the anxiety remains. I've been on a strict anti-googling policy regarding the topic of prominent 3rd ventricles and have been keeping my mind occupied elsewhere so hopefully I can keep it up just one more week! When I do think about it I try to think of it as just another opportunity for us to check in on baby and see what he looks like now. I'm very interested to see how much he weighs now too. According to babycenter.com he should be about 3.3 lbs now and 3.75 lbs at 32 weeks - but he's always been ahead at earlier ultrasounds. So we shall see. I actually hope he's not so far ahead this time because as the due date gets closer and closer I get more and more apprehensive about pushing a possible 9 pounder out of my hoohaa!
My hubby is going to be pretty excited for my labor day to arrive because of course he will meet his son but also because he won't have to be shivering in his own house anymore! The poor guy has been sick all summer because I have to have our AC set at the high 60s otherwise I start sweating and swelling up. LOL!! At night we have it even colder plus we have the ceiling fan on high power. All that and I still have to kick off the sheets at night. I used to be the one who was cold all the time. The thermostat would be set at 74 in the summer and I'd need a blanket and a sweater. Not this year! I guess that's what happens when you put on 35 lbs in a matter of a few months and your metabolism is running at a faster than normal pace. Apparently I'm wearing my extra poundage well though because my hubby didn't really realize just how much I had gained until last night. We were at our childbirth class and were trying out various labor positions. The last position was the pushing position. I was sitting on the floor leaning against hubby's chest holding my knees up to my armpits. The instructor told us to breath in deep and then imagine that we were pushing while holding our breath - had to do that 3 times and on the last time I farted. LOL!! I was mortified! Hubby quickly whispered that no one heard (which I doubt) but still... very embarrassing! But I encourage any preggo woman to hold their knees up to their armpits, hold their breath and imagine pushing. I bet you will have to try hard to not let one rip! Anyway, after that was over hubby tried to help me to my feet by grabbing me under the arms and hoisting me up - but he started falling! He caught himself in time so it wasn't a big deal. But he was shocked at how much I weigh now. Used to be that he could throw me over his shoulder without so much as a grunt. Not anymore! Now I weigh as much - if not more - than he does! He felt bad that he had to struggle to get me to my feet and was worried that he hurt my feelings but I just thought it was funny. I know I have gained a lot of weight but feel pretty secure about it - after all that is what pregnant women do! Rather than getting upset about it, I do see the end in sight and know I won't be this size forever. In the meantime I'm seeing the humor in it. I have a tough time with once simple activities like shaving my legs, washing my feet, putting on my pants, shoes, or socks, getting out of bed/off of the couch/out of a chair or car. I don't get upset and am not sensitive about it. I just look at myself and laugh - pretty hard sometimes... and then I fart, laugh harder, then pee my pants a little, laugh a lot harder. Ahhhh the joys of pregnancy. I can not wait to get rid of the weight though. That is FOR SURE!!
In other news, we are cranking away on our must-do baby prep list too. I already mentioned that we've been going to our childbirth class. That was high up on the list and has really taken the fear and uncertainty out of the whole labor process. Of course I am nervous about it but I guess I just always envisioned hubby and I being completely on our own - but that is not the case even if we don't hire a doula (a person who helps women get through labor - heavily used by women trying to do a natural birth, aka no epidural). The nurses will be there and will take care of me until I start pushing. Then my OB will be there. Hubby will take care of me too obviously but this is his first encounter with giving birth so of course he won't have all the answers. When it gets to be too much, in goes the epidural!
Other things on our list were to find a pediatrician. We figured that out this week and have one lined up ready to go. The task was easier than we thought it was going to be. There's all this stuff online and in books about interviewing multiple doctors and visiting practices, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. But we just didn't see how picking a pediatrician needs to be that difficult. I don't do that with doctors for myself - I make an appointment with them, if I don't like them I make an appointment elsewhere! Not that hard. Maybe I'm being naïve but picking a pediatrician doesn't seem to be much different. We got recommendations from friends, coworkers, checked Angie's List and called our favorite place up. We got matched with a doc who was accepting new patients and it was as simple as that! Baby will receive a visit from her when we are still in the hospital before he is 24 hours old.
Next on the list is to figure out the daycare situation. So today we started visiting daycare providers. We are going to check out a couple places and then hopefully make a decision on that soon. The tricky part is that I don't want our son to be in daycare all week - at least at first. I just feel like infants need plenty of mom & dad time early on. Then as they get older socialization becomes key. But for the first year or so of his life, my work schedule will allow me to work at home 2 days out of the week and I will switch to a 35 hour work week schedule thus enabling me to take off Fridays. So we will really only need him to be in daycare for 2 days a week once he is 3 months old. A lot of daycare providers are not flexible with this kind of arrangement though - they will allow you to attend 2 days per week but you have to pay for 5 days which is crappy IMO. So we are limited slightly in that respect. But the place we saw today is literally 1 minute away from our house and will work with our schedule. The price is very reasonable too. We have a couple other places to see in the next couple weeks. So we'll see - but seeing the daycare center today really made me feel better about leaving him at such a young age. There was a 4 month old in the infant room today that was having a blast and the teachers were obviously enjoying their jobs - so that was good to see!
On a somber note though - I found out yesterday that a facebook acquaintance gave birth to her first baby Tuesday at 32 weeks and was stillborn. So sad to hear. I guess there was a cord accident. We announced our pregnancies at pretty much the same time on facebook so we were following each other closely. I just can't imagine how hard it must be for her right now. There has been such a shift mentally with my hubby and I throughout this pregnancy. It's like we turned in to parents the moment we found out we were pregnant. Every decision we've made the past 7 months has been made with our son in mind and in preparation for him to arrive. I imagine it was like that for her too. To go through all this and have that heartbreaking loss just seems unbearable to me. Not to mention the fact that this was her first so most likely she had had a shower or two by this point to celebrate her baby's arrival. And to make matters worse, you have to essentially go through the birth process at this stage since babies at 32 weeks are large compared to earlier on. Well, all I can do is pray for her I guess and continue praying for the health and safety of our own baby too. Of course it was impossible for me to not put myself in her shoes and in doing so made myself a bit anxious. Baby decided to take it easy yesterday too so that wasn't reassuring either. Today he's making up for it. But I was thankful that I still had my Doppler and got it out last night just to make sure he was doing alright. My word, that thing has done wonders for my mental state! Geesh!!
Well, on that note, I am noticing that the work day is over. YAY!!! So I'm going to close up shop here and start my weekend! Should be a nice relaxing one. We'll see how I manage to deal with that;)
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