AHH! THE CHUBS! *squee!*

So!

Ultrasound and prenatal visit today!  I'll skip right to the facts. Baby was crazy active, and I got to see what it looked like. Holy cow. Baby chub on baby legs is cute even in utero. She wiggled her tongue a lot, and even yawned for us. And yes, those feet are generously sized and I watched them kick me.  89th percentile for size (which is about 2 weeks bigger than average, but is right on for a 9lb baby by April) and estimated 7lbs 10oz right now. GRANTED, ultrasound guesses are notoriously inaccurate in 3rd trimester and can be off by a pound or more. My personal guess before the ultrasound was around 7lbs, and I've been pretty good with my predictions so far, so their estimate may not be off by that much. She's gonna be pretty much what I was expecting - between 8 1/2 and 9 1/2 lbs.  Oh, and she's still a girl.

It's weird to think that I have a full-grown baby in there right now. Bigger than some babies are at birth, even healthy, full term ones. No wonder her darn little fists and feet seem so strong!

Good prenatal visit, all is well, baby is plenty active and Julie is fully supportive of my wishes not to have a c-section or induction without a clear medical reason. (And for me, a baby estimated over 9lbs isn't a medical reason to schedule either procedure. It's just a bigger than average baby. When we hit an estimation of 10+, I might be willing to discuss it.) She warned me that some in the medical profession may give me some grief over that choice. Which seems silly to me, but so noted. My baby, my birth, not theirs. I'm not doing this for their convenience. And so long as baby stays healthy and can make it out the birth canal - and I have no reason to think I will have any other outcome thanks to my genetics of big babies and uncomplicated births - I cannot see the purpose in agreeing to a surgical procedure that has guaranteed risk factors in place of a perceived "maybe" risk that will likely not be an issue. And now I'll get off my soapbox. :)

Our younger cat is attempting his Jedi mind tricks on me to get my pudding, so I think I'll go dissuade him from that venture and protect my bowl.

36 Weeks Tomorrow, AKA The 'Holy Crap' Zone

Haven't had anything to post in a while, as lately everything had been pretty routine. Rick and I had a virus that made us cough and sneeze a lot, but that seems to have passed now. Mainly, baby has been doing beautifully - even though she's big enough to necessitate another ultrasound for growth/fluid level check.

Speaking of big baby, I currently have a 51.5" circumference. (My mother had a point - a waist is supposed to be the smallest part of your torso, lol.) And this is AFTER she seems to have dropped into 'locked and loaded' position for birth. So yeah, it appears we're on track for a 9lb baby. As I told everyone it would happen to begin with, even the midwives who didn't want to believe me.  Ah well, she won't be bigger than I can manage to birth.

And because she has wedged her head firmly in my pelvis, I am peeing every few minutes. I had no idea how much I could pee in one day. Seriously. I can be exiting the bathroom and she'll roll her head around and I have to go again. BUT! I am proud to say that, as of yet, I have not wet my pants. Not even a little. Nothing.  ...*knocks on wood*

Because this wouldn't be a proper post from me without some little bit of TMI, here you go. The three words that are currently the bane of my existence: itchy, bleeding hemorrhoids. 'Nuff said.

My mother told me the other day that she was really proud of me for being committed to as natural a process as possible. (I'm still planning to give this whole thing a shot w/o an epidural, and I plan on breastfeeding for as long as possible, so long as baby & I are comfortable.)  Made me feel pretty good, coming from her. I guess even when we get past the need to please our moms, there is still a happy little pleasure that comes from their validation, eh?

Pardon me, I'm having a contraction and need to pause.

Ok, all better. Those buggers can hurt, but my muscles seem to be adjusting to them, and most often now they're more uncomfortable than painful. Thank heavens.

The nursery is partially done. We had a brainstorm the other night about slipcovering a chair that will work beautifully in there, so that's another project to be done soon. We've also got our bedroom organized and far cleaner than it has been in ages. We pulled the obnoxious giant wall cabinet out of the tiny downstairs bathroom and replaced it with a smaller (and actually pretty) one, we've been working our way through the loads of crap that were in the bigger cabinet and throwing away loads of old stuff. We also got a new towel rack up on the wall to replace the old cracked plastic spring-loaded rack - I got tired of the arms swinging out and trying to take out my eyes. We got a set of key hooks hung by the front door so we can keep track of our spares and I can stop losing my keys. We moved a bookcase into the upstairs bathroom for storage, and it works beautifully. The kitchen has stayed fairly neat and functional since we both dug in and decided to stay on top of the dishes. With nothing piling up, it doesn't get so messy in there. And I'm finally making a noticeable dent in the backlog of laundry.  We have so far to go with the mess, but I'm trying to remember to go through my mental checklist of what we HAVE accomplished so that I don't get discouraged. The nesting urge is sort of there, but what with illness and exhaustion, I'm not able to scrub like I'd prefer. Maybe this is the universe's way of telling me I need to get over my need to be a good 'housekeeper for show.' (If it's just Rick and I, the mess doesn't bother us so much. But the second someone else is going to walk through the door, I want it spotless and get really embarrassed when it isn't. I'm getting better about it out of necessity, but I still don't like it.) It's one of the only times I care what other people think, and I really should let go of that. Especially w/a kid in the house, right?

My darling fetus (emphasis on the FEET) has been quite active today, so I'm relieved that she's decided to rest for the moment. Those kicks and punches are not as full extension as they used to be, but she's a LOT bigger now and they HURT when she gets going!The upside is that Rick gets to enjoy the show she puts on when she's dancing - it's really easy to see her active movements from the outside, and he can feel some of the smaller stuff just by resting a hand on my belly. And heaven help us all if he gets close up and talks to her. I get stretched & pummeled while she moves towards his voice, then she tries to kick him in the mouth (or hand or whatever is closest) once she figures out where he is. Entertaining, if a bit uncomfortable for me. :)

I should probably get off the comp now and do something useful, like feed and bathe myself. I'll update again when there's something more to share, perhaps after tomorrow's ultrasound and prenatal visit? Oh yes, I get to start weekly visits now, yay fun! Less than a calendar month to the due date!

...I will not freak out, I will not freak out, I will not freak out, I will not freak out...

I'm Haunted By Fat Gloves?

During pregnancy, dreams can get quite vivid. And weird. And weirdly vivid.

I've had my share of strange pregnant dreams so far, and I can vouch for the previous statements.  The best one was 2 nights ago.

After Rick left for work, I fell back asleep. The usual 'only makes sense while dreaming' stuff proceeded to kick in.  At one point during the dream, I realized I was going to have to punch someone. Not from anger; just because if I didn't punch this specific girl, she'd do something that would screw up everything in the storyline of the dream. (Like I said, it all made sense in the context, but describing it sounds silly.) I kept refusing to hit her. Other people in the dream were anxiously encouraging me to do it, and do it NOW. I finally gave in, yelled, "FINE!" and threw a punch at her jaw...

...and woke up as my fist connected with the bottle of Coke Zero sitting on my bedside table.

Fortunately, the cap was tightly in place and I managed to catch it before it knocked everything off the table. Talk about scaring myself awake, though!  After telling this to Rick last night, he seemed hesitant to cuddle with me as we fell asleep. No idea why...

TMI, But Funny TMI

As some of you may know, pregnant women produce an abundance of a substance called leukorrhea. It is perfectly normal, but can be rather startling in the occasional over-abundance found in one's underwear. (For any guys reading this who are now totally freaked out, think of it as WD-40 for childbirth. That should get you to the end of the post.) The following is an actual conversation between Rick and I.

Me, from the bathroom: OMG! Another big spot in my undies! What the hell? It's ridiculous! It's like I've sprung a leak or something! It's like I'm one of those cars w/a leaky transmission that you have to shove a piece of cardboard underneath when it's parked so that it doesn't drip antifreeze all over the driveway that cats will lick up and die! ... Except nothing like that at all.

Rick: ... ... ..... ........... I love you, dear.

Quick Story

Telling this story to Heather today reminded me that I need to blog it so that it stays recorded for our daughter to read someday. Can't trust my pregnancy amnesia to retain anything these days.

The other evening, Lyra was full of the dickens. Kicking, punching, and more kicking... Rick and I were amusing ourselves by watching me "belly dance" w/o moving. She pelted him a couple times really hard when he put his hand over her kick zone, so we knew she was wound up. Rick decides it would be fun to see what she'd do if he blew a zerbert on the area. (You know, where you put your lips on skin and blow and it makes a farty noise?) The first time he does it, she gets really still for a minute. He does it again. She starts shifting around and turning her feet towards the side he's zerberting. He does a third one. More shifting and tentative poking at the spot with a toe... Eventually, she gets one foot up against the area and starts puuuuuushing. So Rick leans over and blows one directly against where the sole is pressed. The foot shoots backwards away from my skin immediately - I felt her entire lower body shift away in one movement. (We're giggling uncontrollably by now.) There's a moment of silence, then as we're both watching, she delivers one enormous strong kick right where his lips had pressed. My belly probably popped out a good inch in that spot, she kicked so hard. We laughed a bunch. She was SO definite about, "Don't DO that! Bad daddy!"

She's grown a load in the past few days. I'm sure she's pushing 3lbs now. I can feel every movement she makes, and little bulges happen on the surface more often than not when she's rolling now. I'm getting ever bigger. Tonight at our tour of the birthing center, one of the other gals mentioned she's due about a week before I am, and is having twins. She was only slightly larger in the belly than I am. No wonder I keep getting questions about that...

Any which way, we are now into week 28. Third trimester a-go-go!

Next ultrasound and some biology

Today we had another ultrasound visit, and got to see our daughter bouncing around as usual. She's active and then some! We also got some 3D shots in addition to the regular images; I'm sure Linnea will post more details soon.

Interesting post today on Boing Boing about cellular connections between mothers and children - fascinating to read. Fair warning, may cross some people's ick threshold. "Our Selves, Other Cells" http://boingboing.net/2012/01/03/cells.html

Norm, Hiccups, and Insomnia?

I have nicknamed this baby "Norm."  Short for "enormous."

If you have seen my Facebook page, you can see the recent pictures of me at 22 and 24 weeks. I am significantly larger in just 2 weeks.  And, like the song says, it doesn't show signs of stopping.

Someone reminded me the other day that I should be keeping track of the little funny/odd/random things that go on with this pregnancy, because I won't remember them all and they will make great stories later. Possibly to embarrass her in front of her boyfriends. Heh.

- For starters, last night Rick and I entertained ourselves during one of her bouts of dancing by balancing the tv remote across my bellybutton and watching it dip, bounce, and wiggle.

- I have been comparing her with both the Aliens chest burster and the scene in Constantine where the demon tries to escape through the gal's abdominal skin. Some days it feels like the skin is bubbling up in repeated lumps when she gets going on a tumbling run.

- Baby hiccups TICKLE. Not my favorite sensation, but somewhat entertaining when she's lying high enough up to feel the bounce w/less tickle. When she bounces her hiccups off my bladder and groin for 10 minutes, it is absolutely creepy-crawly all over the place.

This next one is a TMI, so anyone who is mildly weird about natural processes, you may look away. Also, you should probably stop reading this blog altogether, since I am a "sharer."

- So... nipple crusties. That was new. And kind of gross (in a fascinating way). You know, like how you get little eye crusties in the corners of your eyes when your eye gunk dries there overnight? It seems that colostrum will do the same thing occasionally.

- I have no idea how she does it, but she still responds to Rick. His voice, his hand on my belly, she always moves towards him. Even when we very carefully swap hands in identical positions, as soon as it's not my hand, she stops moving... tests the area, usually by a light kick/punch or pressure... then moves directly into the area he is touching. We don't know if it's a pressure or temperature difference, or if she can feel his electromagnetic field, or what! No matter how sneaky or quiet or careful we are, she unfailingly picks out where he is. Once I had my hand and his on the belly together. She settled under his hand, then kicked mine. HOW DOES SHE KNOW???

- I've also joked that I'm gestating the reincarnation of Shiva, because she seems to keep sprouting extra limbs.

- She's been doing morning calisthenics lately, mostly with her feet just left of my bellybutton. If I say nothing and move carefully, I can get Rick's hand over onto the spot she's kicking while she's in the middle of a series of impacts. He's felt her kicking so many more times that way. If she's not alerted, she will complete the set of kicks before she realizes it's dad and settles down.

- Don't know what the difference is, but when her feet are upward and she's mostly kicking me at bellybutton level or higher, it doesn't hurt or annoy as much. Less nerve endings in the surrounding guts, I guess?  She tends to settle head down in the pelvic cradle at night, then kick me high in the mornings before I get out of bed. Once I'm up and moving, she drops down and lies either sideways or head up. Then the kicks are low and against my groinal area or bladder. That's always fun. Plus, they can actually hurt if she gets a good one in against a sore hip or tired ligament.

- I read somewhere that most uterus (uterusses? uteri?) tend to slant to the right, so baby will often lie to mom's right side most often. Naturally, that means this baby has spent her time mostly on my left. She's already a weirdo. Guess that suits for parents like Rick and me.

- I feel so bloody huge all the time, and I know I've still got a LOOOOOONG way to go, belly-wise.  Though it is interesting to finally be to the point where we can watch my skin ripple as she rolls over, and tell where she's lying by which side of me is asymmetrical.

- Pregnancy amnesia is bizarre. Things that are routine become challenging. Trying to think of the word "amnesia" one day, all I could come up with was, "Pregnancy... insomnia?"  Mostly it's been forgetting words or losing track of what I was saying or doing. The worst (and funniest) occurrence so far has been in the restroom at the college. I exited the stall, headed for the sinks. I pulled a paper towel out of the dispenser. I stared at it for a good 10 seconds. I said out loud to myself, "You can't wash your hands with this, Linnea."  I set it down, got some soap, and washed my hands. THEN I picked up the paper towel and dried them. *sigh*

I'll try to remember to add more as they occur to me, but with all the pregnancy insomnia, it's hard to say when. :D  Baby has been awake and kicking as I've typed this, and I think would like me to get up and move around a bit. So I'm going to go help Rick work on prepping the 2nd bathroom for installation! Yay!