Full Term!

I am 37 weeks and 1 day into gestation today, which is a milestone. Gabriel is now considered full term! He can arrive any day now and his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though his due date is still three weeks away.

On average, a baby at this point should weigh 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel. At my ultrasound on December 9th, one estimate had Gabriel weighing 7 lbs and 2 ounces a week ago, so he is ahead of the average size baby. (Another estimate had him bigger than that.) Lucky me!

I am noticing more and more Braxton Hicks contractions these days, and I have lots of swelling in my feet and hands now. The hand swelling is relatively new over the last few weeks. I have heartburn almost 24 hours a day. My hips are aching, but I usually can get a full night of sleep in if I don't worry too much about work and wrapping up there before maternity leave. I'm also trying to find time to enjoy Gabriel's movement, as I think I am really going to miss that when he is born. I have finally had some net weight gain from when I first got pregnant, but I believe it to be mostly fluid based on the amount of swelling I've had since the start of December. For the most part, being pregnant hasn't been as bad as I expected it to be.

It's probably time to have a bag packed for myself and Gabriel.

Another Prenatal Appointment

I had another prenatal appointment with Dr. Chaudhari on Monday morning. I had gained 6 pounds just over the weekend, but it clearly was fluid retention. For the first time, I had trouble getting my engagement and wedding rings off. My feet had experienced some swelling before, but this was the first time my hands really swelled. But my blood pressure still remains okay, so chalk this up to normal end of pregnancy swelling. I'm in my 9th month of gestation now, so almost done!

I finally caught the bugs that were passing around the office. So I have nasal congestion, a cough, a sore throat from post nasal drip, and barely any voice left to speak. I came down with it the night before Thanksgiving and was miserable with it for the long holiday weekend.

Dr. Chaudhari was not sure that Gabriel was head down at my appointment. He was thinking he might be transverse, which makes sense to me as sometimes I have felt like he was going across my stomach and wasn't low in the pelvis. I've never had that sensation of getting kicked up under the ribs like other Mothers have told me about. I feel a lot of movement in there though, and I really enjoy it and am already thinking I will miss it when Gabriel's out. A transverse lie can be a problem, and require a c-section, if the baby is not head down by week 36. And I was 35 weeks and 1 day as of my appointment.

I am scheduled for another ultrasound on the 9th to once again check the size that Gabriel is, and now to confirm his position in the womb too. There is still concern that he is really big for his gestational age. And I don't have to probably write too much about the problems a big baby can cause during delivery. I am sure you can use your imagination on that.

Dr. Chaudhari has indicated that I will most likely have a December birth and that I won't be going past my due date based on what he has found so far, but the next ultrasound will be the final determination on what the birth plan will be. I have given up the idea of having a late baby born around mid-January. I have wanted to get Gabriel's birth as far away from the holidays, so of course, I'm learning already that there is little control in parenting.

I am on a weekly prenatal appointment schedule now that I am in the final month.

Gabriel's Ultrasound

I have started the 8th month of pregnancy. I can't believe how fast the time is going!

Had another ultrasound today, so Michael and I got more glimpses of our boy. He's so much bigger now that we really only see one body part at a time on the screen as compared to when he was smaller and we could see his whole body in one shot.

The ultrasound shows all of Gabriel's parts in the right places. And he's still a boy! So we don't have to be concerned that his bedroom is now painted blue. The ultrasound technician showed us how she could see a good amount of hair floating in the amniotic fluid around his head. And she even showed us how he was practicing his breathing to get his lungs ready for room air upon his arrival.

Gabriel's growing uniformly, meaning his head and limbs and all of his parts are all growing at the same pace. However, he went from the 44th percentile in size from his last ultrasound estimation to the 89th percentile on today's ultrasound. Today's estimate is he already weighs 4 lbs and 13 oz. Based on that weight, he is about the size of a baby due 12/21/08. I thought I was sticking out more the last week or so.

So there will be another ultrasound in early December to get another estimate on Gabriel's size at that point.

28th week of pregnancy

I am in the 28th week of gestation. Gabriel's eyes are partially open and can perceive light. His eye lashes and eye brows continue to grow and subcutaneous fat is being deposited to put a fat layer on him. Our baby is almost 15 inches from head to toe and weighs over two pounds. He's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing his eyes and perhaps even sucking his fingers. His brain is very active now. While his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if he were born now. About 9 out of 10 babies born now will survive with intensive care services and the help of medical technology according to babiesonline.com. I've experienced Braxton Hicks contractions in the past couple of weeks. Braxton Hicks are sporadic uterine contractions that actually start at about 6 weeks, although most will not feel them that early. Most women start feeling them during the second or third trimester.

I had another appointment with my OB/GYN on Wednesday morning. My blood pressure was fine. I got my paperwork for the next one hour glucose tolerance test and blood work to check for anemia, all normal testing that occurs at this time frame. I just need to find the hour to take off from work to do the one hour glucose test. I had no weight gain from my last appointment a month ago. I heard Gabriel's heartbeat on the doppler again. Another ultrasound in 4 weeks has been suggested to try to pinpoint exactly where Gabriel is in size at that point. So we get another chance to view our boy on November 7th.

On Tuesday night, Michael and I attended a breast-feeding preparation class. Mike was a trooper sitting through the whole thing. I still didn't learn everything I wanted to know, but there are good lactation specialists at The Family Place where we hope to deliver Gabriel. They will be able to give us some one on one attention then. Meanwhile, I will keep reading my books to learn more.

Michael has been working on sanding and prepping the walls of Gabriel's room for painting. We have narrowed down to three possible wall colors.

Another Glimpse At Our Baby

Michael joined me this morning for a second attempt at our 2nd trimester screening ultrasound. We don't have the results from the ultrasound yet, but the technician congratulated us a few times and just seemed too peppy to have seen any horrific problems on the ultrasound. I counted 2 feet and 2 hands myself, and saw a lot of fingers and toes. We also clearly saw little boy parts, so we are quite confident now that we are having a boy. IT'S A BOY! We have posted one of our ultrasound photos so you can try your own hand at gender determination. It is amazing how much change we could see just since the last ultrasound 2 weeks ago. The technician said our boy weighs 1 pound and 3 ounces now. Elleigh gets to maintain her reign as the princess, but Lucas is now our big boy.

We're Getting Another Chance

Michael and I will get another chance to find out the gender of the baby. My obstetrician called on Wednesday evening and said he had a chance to review the ultrasound results from Monday himself. He was not happy with the clarity of the ultrasound and felt that the ultrasound technician didn't get a great view of some of the baby parts, especially of the heart and spine. I think those are pretty important baby parts. He didn't indicate there were any problems, just that he wanted clearer photos to make sure there still weren't any problems with good views. So, we have a second ultrasound scheduled for Friday morning, August 29th. Let's hope the baby cooperates better this time. This means there will probably be more ultrasound photos posted soon.

IT'S A...

...normally gestating baby. Michael and I went to an ultrasound today that took 45 minutes (on a full bladder, I might add) to look at all of the baby parts and measure them. Our little crumb is 11 ounces now. Michael got a good view of most of the scan from his vantage point in the dark room. The baby's arms are longer now, so Mike could see that it moved the hands over the face quite a bit. It wasn't until the end that the sonographer tilted the screen to show me some of views. We are very pleased that our baby is right on track with the original due date and the growth in all of the body parts is equal, which is a good sign that nothing chromosomal is wrong. It is so reassuring to know that everything seems healthy and well developed so far.

The sonographer thought she saw a little boy, and showed us the snapshot she took with evidence of a boy. But she wasn't able to get a second glimpse as confirmation, so she said she wouldn't paint the room blue yet. We were hoping to know for sure if it would be a boy or a girl, but I guess healthy really is the important thing. We will just have to wait longer to find out if our household is going to be 3 girls and 2 boys, or 3 boys and Miss Elleigh May and Mommy. I had hoped to go and buy something gender specific for the baby today after the ultrasound, but I didn't end up getting anything. It just wasn't as fun thinking I might end up having to return what I was buying.

I have completed 19 full weeks of pregnancy today and as of this coming Sunday, I will be half way through the pregnancy, assuming I deliver on my due date of January 5th.

Pregnancy Dream

I had my first baby delivery dream, that I remember, very early this morning. And in the dream I had a boy. This is in direct opposition with Nana Doaner's prediction. I hope that the ultrasound on August 11th conclusively shows a healthy baby, as well as gives us a good glimpse of the baby's gender. Don't forget to vote on my poll as to whether you think we are having a boy or a girl. The poll will be open until the day before the next ultrasound.

We're Expecting!

Michael and I are very eager to share "officially" on the blog that we are expecting. The estimated due date of our bundle is January 5th, 2009. I am hoping (now) for a later baby so there can be some distance between the holidays and the baby's birthday.

We have tried to get to most of our friends, co-workers and family with the news personally over the last two weeks. We told our parents first during the last week of the first trimester. We both agreed that we didn't want to start telling people too early.

Even though we were trying, it still took us by surprise. We both seem to be adjusting to the thought of being parents though. It's interesting to think that this time next year we could have a 6 month old baby.

We do not know if we are having a boy or girl yet. We do plan to find out if possible. Some people (Nana Doaner) are firmly in the camp of one gender or the other, but Mike and I are not spending too much emotional energy on it until we get an ultrasound confirmation.

The first trimester for me wasn't too bad. The standard symptoms, especially being tired and having heart burn. (You may have noticed the marked decline in blog posts through the first trimester.) But uneventful enough that I didn't feel truly pregnant until my June 17th ultrasound when the little fetus could be clearly seen bouncing and waving erratically. And oh yes, I must post the obligatory ultrasound photo.

We had a second ultrasound on June 24th, when Michael got to see the baby bounce around on screen for the first time. We had the second ultrasound as part of our first trimester screening and the results of that were favorable. This ultrasound photo is from June 17th, but it is better than the 2nd ultrasound photos. The baby would have been 11 weeks and 1 day into development at the time of the photo.

I thought the second trimester was suppose to be the "good one," so I had been expecting my energy to return and all symptoms to go away. Unfortunately, my energy has not bounced back yet and a few of the symptoms have worsened. It still could be much worse, but our doctor says that many woman experience this and that there's nothing to worry about. My doctor also made mention that sometimes with girls that the symptoms can get a little worse in the 4th trimester, but that is just his observation and he said there is absolutely no research to back that up.

Child care has really been the biggest issue so far. A few woman from work had mentioned to me that once you get a positive pregnancy test that you have to start putting yourself on child care center waiting lists. We are on a few so far and I am still searching for more. None yet that even remotely seem like they will have an opening come the end of April 2009 when we estimate I would return to work. The hospital has a child care center, which would be the ideal location, but we are only #83 on the waiting list in the infant room.

You better believe there will be many more prenatal posts.