Somebody is saying hi!

We had a 4d ultrasound yesterday. This is really cool technology. Unfortunately, the baby was asleep LOL and had his GIGANTIC FEET by his face so this is the only picture of him we really got. We will go back after the baby shower when he's too big to do these acrobatics.

You might have to focus on it a little bit, LOL! On the far left is said giant foot, but you can't see the contours of it. It just looks like a huge blob. Then right next to that is his cute little (bridged!? Where'd THAT come from?) nose, and from there you should be able to see his little lips and his little eyelids and his tiny ear (that would be my ear), a hand or foot or cord or something under his chin, a chubby little cheek and a surprisingly beefy arm muscle! Can you see him little face? :D

Obviously I am no longer on bedrest but have taken it very easy this week. I will go back to work on Monday and try not to overdo it. We have gotten a lot of important things done at the house, decluttered and made storage room for the things we will get at the shower and our stroller and such. When I get back from the shower I will only have two and a half months left. This is pure insanity. We're ready, if he was magically 9 months along and born tomorrow I would be more than happy to have him! (If I had a penny for every time I've said that...)

Just getting ready for the baby shower now. I'll be there in a week!

Almost 27 weeks, bedrest.

I started spotting yesterday and am officially on bedrest. I think I overdid it for a few days and got dehydrated. Its tapering off but hasn't stopped, so I will stay in bed until it stops and maybe a day or two afterward to really make sure everything is okay. The spotting isn't enough to worry about previa, but enough for me to stay off my feet. If it continues for a long while or gets worse I might go in for an ultrasound.

Jim is home for the weekend and is here to bring me good food and water and make sure I'm resting. We'll go to childbirth classes tomorrow but will not participate, just sit there and watch and learn. The baby is moving regularly and I am really not worried about it, but bedrest is extremely boring.

I've spent the day on etsy (a handmade-goods website) adding a few little things here and there to the registry. People have started RSVPing to the party and the excitement is on! Less than two weeks before I leave. I was just there in March but it seems like decades ago.

I have to go somewhere and pick out a heavy sweater or a coat or something. I always forget that it's cold in Missouri LOL and I have almost zero winter clothes, much less maternity winter clothes. I have a few long sleeved things but they are paper thin, meant for arizona's "winter".

Must find food again, gotta feed the beast.

26 weeks

Here's a picture of baby's quilt :)

The baby shower invitations were sent out today so you can expect them in the next few days. If you don't get one, let me know. I am pretty wary of the US postal service as of late, we have not been getting all of our bills and we didn't get all of our christmas cards either.

We went to our first childbirth class on Sunday. It was very interesting, I think it will be good for Jim. She's handed us sheets for the Brewer's Diet and I groaned.. even though I'm supposed to be on it now, something in me really hates it. Maybe its the you know 100 grams of protein a day or maybe my inability to eat two servings of leafy green vegetables every day without supplementing, sheesh. I don't think I know anyone in real life who has been able to 100% follow Brewer's. I seem to have done fine today.

I'll make the next paragraph in white font in case you don't want to know anything disgusting about this pregnancy. If you don't mind and you'd like to read, just click and drag over it and it will highlight the font and you can read it :)
TMI ALERT. lol
I have been doing my own urinalysis at home to follow up on an issue I have been leaking leukocytes (white blood cells) and a trace of blood in my urine. I had some protein as well around my third month but cleared that up pretty quickly. Normally WBCs and blood mean an infection like a UTI or worse, a kidney infection so I went to urgent care and was put on antibiotics. The UTI went away after the round of antibiotics and the leftover leukocytes went away with cranberry/water flushing but I still seem to have blood in my urine off and on. If it continues I'll go in for a culture just to put our minds at rest but honestly I'm not worried. Something was always "off" at my OB appointments pre-pregnancy that abx didn't take care of, and my midwife agrees that sometimes women simply leach tiny amounts of blood in their urine.. the leukocytes would have been a bigger concern and I haven't had even a trace of WBCs in weeks. A trace amount of blood in a healthy person's urine is normal but because I don't have a baseline, and I'm pregnant, we're watching the UA sticks and my temperature closely.
TMI ALERT OVER. ;)

I leave in two weeks and a few days for Missouri, and I just can't wait. There is so much to do. I want to of course eat everywhere LOL and see my friends and the horses and go to U City. I'm going to hold a mini-class on cloth diapering while I'm there for a girl in my due date club and try to help her figure out her diapering situation, so I get to visit Cotton Babies' store there. Then of course there is the baby shower itself, which is of paramount importance to the trip LOL and it will be fun, good food and cake and all this stuff. The next two weeks just CAN'T pass fast enough. I feel like I'm sitting on idle hands because I'm all ready to go but I still have to get through the time.

We are pretty close to ready. I have organized and re-organized the baby's "room" with what we have in there so far. I wish someone would buy my loveseat so I could freakin' have more room in there because it's so cramped. The clothes are hung up and ready to be washed, the prefolds are organized into their little bins... I've been watching craigslist for a washer. I think that's one of the last things that we need that we can't really ask for at the shower. They come cheap, $75-150 washers that are pretty new come up on craigslist all the time but we have to find someone who will bring it to us since we don't know anyone with a truck! The same thing kind of goes for the bigger bed. Poor Jim is sleeping on the floor, any time we both try to sleep on the full bed he gets kicked out because there just isn't enough room for the three of us on there. My restless leg syndrome has gotten horrible with this pregnancy and there's nothing I can take for it so I just kick the crap out of him the whole time. So, I'm waiting for a king mattress to go on sale, and I guess we will just have to sell this bed and someday when I'm confident that this baby won't take a headlong leap for the ground we will buy the frame that we have now in King size and just be done with the bed situation. I am so obsessive about my bedroom set that I think it will be frustrating for me to sleep on a mattress on the ground, but it really is the best arrangement for cosleeping especially for the first several months. Maybe not for my back, LOL...

So, things are really coming together. I'm glad I didn't wait to start buying diapers and clothes or we would be rushing right now. Only three months to go, and even though I know it will drag I know it will go by crazy fast all at the same time :) Which is good.

Jim got to feel the baby hiccuping last night. He has been doing that for so long and I've never felt it externally so it was really cool that Jim got to feel it too. The baby is really responsive to touch, if you leave your hand on the side of my belly he will twist and turn until he can press his back against it, and then you can rub his little back until he falls asleep. He still really hates when I wear pants.. he will flip vertex and stick his little fingers under the waist bands and jab and poke me.. he does it the whole time I drive. Otherwise he seems to prefer to be breech and posterior, you will see little knees and butts roll past underneath my belly button, he distorts my entire gut. He'll reach up and pat and poke my ribs, which I am not pleased with..

He has plenty of time to turn and get locked and loaded and I am totally not concerned about his position at any time. Watching him flip flop is hilarious, and I will miss it when he runs out of room.

That's all for now. :)

25 weeks.

No interesting pictures or videos this week! Sorry about that.

Those little kicks have become big violent rolls. I imagine he's starting to run out of room in there since his last growth spurt. He's a bit over a foot long (the little guy in the corner seems to still be measuring CRL, tip of his head to his butt, not counting his legs) and a bit under 2 lbs now. It seems like just last week we were able to indicate how big he was between our fingers, and now it takes both hands!

This is the last full week of my second trimester. In the middle of next week sometime I hit the third, and thus seven months. The last two months passed quickly thanks to the holidays and the busy-ness, and I think January will be quick with all my appointments and the baby shower, but what will I do after that? LOL I hope time doesn't start dragging again.. although I think it will.

We start our childbirth classes next week, which I am really excited for. Most of the pregnant women out here are 20-25 years old and I'm hoping that the childbirth class brings opportunities for new mommy-type friends. It's a 12 week course and will take up our Sundays right up until this baby makes his appearance. We're doing Bradley classes which was the best I could come up with for a homebirth, most childbirth classes are geared toward hospital births but I thought it would be best, particularly for Jim, to have some sort of instruction so he can be helpful when I'm in labor. Bradley is husband-coached childbirth so I figured it would be best for him! The coolest thing about it for me is the post-baby potluck, where we all get together and share our birth stories and meet the babies!

Jim has expressed interest in catching the baby. The current plan is for me to catch the baby, but if I'm in an inopportune position to catch him myself, Jim will probably do it. I think ideally I would love to be in the tub (my bathtub, small as it is, I really gravitate there for comfort these days and I can't help but feel I'll end up there) with Jim helping where he can, and the midwife in the corner keeping an eye on things.. kind of like how we would be when the horses were giving birth. We would crouch in the corner and let her do her thing unless it looked like she needed our help, we would step in and do what we knew we should do and then back off again. I haven't decided if I will have a doula, my midwife is going to make a few calls and set up a few interviews for me I think, as I've asked for someone who has some massage therapy experience and she knows the doulas in the area better than I do. I've had bad lower back pain for several years and I could really use someone (if nothing else, in early labor and nothing more if I decide I'd rather it just be Jim and me) who knows where I hurt and how to help. I've had issues the whole pregnancy, and sciatic nerve issues, and Jim's hands get too tired too fast.

Nesting has kicked in, now that I'm feeling better. The baby's room is evolving. I cleaned up my sewing area and sat down and made him a quilt a few days ago, it is so soft and cute, and I have enough to make one more.

He moves around in there all day long. Sitting here at the computer I can see my belly moving and shaking. I don't think I've ever heard of such an active baby, who seems to have a fairly regular sleep schedule and likes to play poke-the-baby in the mornings.

Blah I guess I should get up and go to costco now.