Finally, some new pictures

Well, I finally have some pictures to upload. Hopefully soon I will have pics of our trip to San Clemente. The trip was fabulous, gorgeous weather, and I loved seeing all the places that Shawn is always talking about. Aunt Marg and her friend Gerri put us up for the weekend, and cooked up some delicious dinners of salmon and steak and ice cream. Yum! Plus they had this amazing memory foam mattress topper for the guest bed, I swear that was my favorite part. I actually slept all through the night without having to toss and turn from hip to hip, it was amazing. Shawn got to go fishing for a while, even though he didn't catch anything, and I got to tour the site where I think we will have our wedding and reception. It was a long drive there and back, but it doesn't seem as bad when you're making the trip with another person. And we got to borrow Shawn's parents' Jeep, which made it nicer than taking our Camry down there.

I am trying to really enjoy these last few weeks of baby-free living, and not take for granted being able to just sit and chill and not do much of anything, and just feel her kicking inside me while I do my own thing. Even though it seems so far away still, the weeks are already flying by -- I finally got around to posting up about four weeks' worth of belly pictures, and I can't believe it's been even that long already. The weeks just topple down on top of each other until the weekends come again, another week marker is reached, and it gets closer and closer to the main event.

Lila was giving me the details of how her labor went, and even though everyone's experience is different, I was definitely reassured by what she told me. She said it wasn't as crazy or chaotic as she had expected it to be or worried about. I'm glad I have her to learn from, I'd hate to be the first one to go, so to speak. She gave me lots of pointers on things to bring to the hospital and such, too.

Weeks 30-33:

33 Weeks and a Babymoon

Well, here we are at 33 weeks. My goodness. Baby is moving and shaking all day, and no longer in a cute way, but in a painful, those-are-my-ribs kind of way. I have to pee all the time, so this car trip down to San Clemente to visit the Godmama of Excitement is going to be an interesting ride, haha.

First, here's the info from BabyCenter for this week:

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. The bones in her skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for her to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as her brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

 Let's back up a bit, shall we?

My first baby shower was on the 12th, and it was fabulous. Gramma D and Auntie Nicole did a crazy good job of making the house into a purple flower wonderland. There was tons of delicious food and giant cupcakes, and I went home with a carful of clothes, diapees and wipees, my bedding set, and a bunch of other baby goodies. Now I just need somewhere to put it all. And I must remember to do my thank you notes next week.

Then, I found out later that night that Miss Lila Jane finally had her baby girl, Ava Elise, at 8lbs 8oz. Everyone is home now and doing well, and hopefully next week I will get a chance to get out to see them.

Went in to see Dr. Hayes on Monday, Valentine's Day, and all was well. We met with the postpartum counseling lady, who went over some basic questions with me, gave me some info on what PPD looks like and so on, and her card, in case we should need to talk to her later. She was very nice.

Dr. Hayes seems less worried about my increasing girth than I do, so perhaps it is all in my head. She measured my stomach and was pleased, and we listened to Vyla's heartbeat again. At first the doppler wand was right on top of her, but then she scuttled away and hid somewhere, and it took a minute to find her again. But, you know, there are only so many places you can go inside a uterus, so we eventually found her and got a solid 10 second listen to her heartbeat, which is still strong and fast.

My next appointment was scheduled for two weeks later, on March 7th, after which I will start coming in about once a week and they will start checking me for all kinds of different things, and, I imagine, doing at least one more ultrasound to figure out how she's laying in there.

This weekend, Shawn and I are driving to San Clemente to visit Aunt Margaret, or the Godmama of Excitement, as Shawn christened her when he was a kid. She calls him Shawniecakes. I think that's awesome. It's raining and poopy outside, but we have the Jeep, so I'm confident. It will be fun to see the place where I plan to get married next year, and to take one last trip just the two of us. Of course, once she's here we'll have all kinds of fun family trips that we can take, but the nostalgia of having a trip, as a couple without cares, for the last time, is nice. I must admit, there is a part of me that sometimes wishes we had held off on this surprise for a time. I've never been sad about this pregnancy, nor am I now, but every now and then I think about all the things I would have liked to have done as a carefree couple that we sort of skipped over, and it does make me a bit low -- for example, even though I love the idea of having my baby be a part of my wedding, and I think it will be so much more special with her as a part of it, I still sometimes think about having been able to have my wedding first, and then moving into having a baby.

But then, I don't plan to stop being fabulous just because I become a mother, so really, what is all this worry for? In fact, I will be extra fabulous, because I will be Fabulous Me + Adorable Baby + Super Hot Husband. So really, all the more to admire. ;)

Monday Monday

I have finally updated my belly pictures, but so far they're only on Facebook, so you'll have to find them in the Oh Baby! album there until I get around to posting them in the blog. We missed a week of pictures while Shawn was at NAMM, but it's still a pretty good slide show. It's so funny looking back at some of the earlier pics when I thought I was showing so much, compared to now when I really am. I was so much smaller then. Well, I will be again, someday. By September, I hope, when my Mom gets married. I'd like to have most of the weight worked off by then.

I spent some time with Lila last night, who's due date was just moved back to February 5th from January 28th. She's jolly and round like Santa, hehe. We checked out her nursery, which is darling, and ate cheesecake and tea and talked about weddings and babies and life changes. It was nice to have some quality time. She's still working on remodeling the house with her hubby, and hopefully they can have it mostly finished in a week.

My shower is in two weeks, and the more I see that gifts are being bought from the registry, the more excited I get. Not in a greedy way, but because I'm finally and actually going to have her things in the house, and I can start getting ready for her for real. I'm pretty close to chucking out a lot of the stuff in the house, like half of what is stuffed into the closet. I just don't think I need it all, especially the two boxes that were never unpacked from the move... Shawn is going to disassemble the changing table before the shower, so that I can send it home with Vicki to paint all pretty. And it looks like someone purchased my bassinet, so I'll have that to set up, and acclimatize the cats to its forbidden status.

The baby is kicking and I have a bit of something in my contact lense. I want a venti iced latte...

30 Weeks

Hello! We're at 30 weeks now, and the kicking has increased in its urgency and violence. I swear she's doing gymnastics in there all day long, but it's kind of fun to feel her so much. I'm finding myself referring to her as my daughter instead of the baby, which is a slight mental shift, but an important one. "The baby" was a more detached way of viewing her, as a thing separate from me. "My daughter" gives her the ownership that was lacking before, and really drives home just how crazy a life shift is on the way. As a wise man once said, "it's about to get real up in here."


Our next doctor's appointment is on Valentine's Day, when I will turn in my hospital pre-admission paperwork and birth plan, and they will doubtless give me a kick card and ask me to pee in a cup...again. After that appointment, the appointments will increase in frequency. I'll probably go in again two weeks later, and then once a week in March until she shows her little face.

Her middle name is still up for debate. We'd liked Jane for a while, but now I think we're leaning towards Elizabeth. It has a nice musical sound to it, all rolled together.


I'm a little frustrated that I can't bother to go try on wedding dresses for several months, but I think that, combined with my mom's wedding in September, will be a very good thing -- if I lacked motivation to get back in shape before, I definitely have it now.

Third Trimester Pending

Oh my gosh, I haven't updated in so long. Baby is getting bigger and bigger. Tomorrow is going to be my 28 week mark, which, prior to what I'd originally thought, is the start of my third trimester. This belly is starting to get in the way of doing stuff. I can't bend over to pick things up very well any more, and sitting forward is becoming less comfortable. I've been getting headaches and pain in my leg muscles from not stretching out. And I find that I get out of breath going up stairs and stuff. The books said that it gets harder to breath as you go on and the baby starts pushing against your ribs and stuff.

She's been pretty quiet the last couple of days. Today she was moving more than yesterday. I was starting to get paranoid that she wasn't moving enough, but today she's been back to her old dance moves.

I got a notice in my email that someone bought my bedding set from the registry -- it didn't say who so I'll still be surprised. But I'm super glad that I'm getting it, yay!

Holidays are Over...Sad

Some new pics tonight before I take my week 26 photos. These are from week 25:

With the turning of the new year it has finally hit me that a baby is about to be here. It hasn't seemed real, or, at least, impending, until now, when it's the year it will happen -- it doesn't seem so far away now. In fact, it's stressing me out to think that it's really only right around the corner. Of course, I'm also super excited that my showers are coming up soon, and once I have baby stuff in the house I'm sure I'll feel more prepared.

Speaking of New Years, I didn't really make any resolutions this year. I have so much I'm trying to get a handle on that I just didn't even consider it. I know that I'm trying to get back in the habit of working out, while I still can, and I have made it my goal to get into better shape after baby than I was in before. I have my mom's wedding in September, and I'll want to be as trimmed down as I can by then. So, eating healthy and getting into healthy habits. But mostly I'm still just nesting a bit and reading my newborn and nursing books, and trying to prepare for baby as much as I can.

I still need to go in and have my sugars tested. These last two weekends have been so busy that I just haven't even remembered or had the time. Plus, on Thursday night I came down with some kind of nasty stomach bug, and I was up for a good part of the night just heaving. It was yucky. Baby seems fine though, she's still kicking away and doing her thing. And after a day of rest and re-hydration, I was back to normal as well.

Tales from the Gym

I felt really good to get back in the gym last night. After 30 minutes of brisk hill walking on the treadmill, I felt jazzed enough to do 10 minutes on the recumbent bike, which stretched out my hips and thighs something wonderful. I had no idea how much I'd missed the feeling until I was back there again. I had to dial down my intensity just a hair about halfway through, but otherwise everything was fine. I looked like a beached whale, but at least that will keep me motivated for a while. Of course, none of that negates the chinese food I ordered when I got home. But I told myself this morning that I did better, diet-wise, yesterday than I had the day before -- salad and greek yogurt for lunch, very little sweets -- and today I would do better than yesterday. That's all you really can do, right?

Tonight we're supposed to be having mexican food with my mom for dinner. I'd better be careful during the day.

Vyla was kicking a lot this morning, from all angles. That was weird. I'm super exhausted and really glad that tomorrow is a holiday.

Post Christmas News

Okay gang,
I'm taking a quick break from work to update everyone, as some exciting new developments have occurred. As many of you will already have heard, Mr. Duttera made our forever official on Christmas morning, when he got down on one knee and presented me with a beautiful diamond ring.

I have, of course, already started pouring through the magazines and making notes for things. No date yet, but I'll keep you all posted.

Meanwhile, Violet had the hiccups again this morning, and rather violently I must say. She's obviously opposed to me sneaking in 5 more minutes before dragging myself out of bed. I don't like the implications of that.

I'm at 25.5 weeks now, which is technically only 5.5 months, and somehow that count doesn't sound right to me, not if my due date is April 6th. That sound like I should be due sometime later in April. Hmm. I'll have to check those numbers. Here's what the BabyCenter email had to say about baby's development this week:

How your baby's growing

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

I wonder what color that hair will eventually be. There's a fair chance she could have some red in her hair -- Shawn has a lot of it.

As exciting as all the wedding stuff is, I feel like I need to refocus to baby, since I only have a few more months to enjoy being preggo and getting ready for her arrival. Then I can transition to wedding planning to my heart's content.

Belly Pop Pictures

I have been terribly remiss it posting to the blog, and I have a bunch of things to update on, but the notebook with all those notes is in the car, and that's not at home right now. So I'll make do with updating photos and inserting some info on week 24, which is where we've progressed to by now. 


First, from BabyCenter:

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.


***
She certainly is kicking like a little demon. I can feel her more and more during the day now, and this morning it actually hurt when she kicked/punched me in the side while I was trying to sleep in. Here are some more pictures of the belly:

The top one is 22 weeks, and the bottom is 23 weeks. As you can see, it really popped out in a week. 24 week picture will be coming in a couple of days.

22 Weeks and New Doctor

My Kaiser appointment went well, I really liked the doc. She was very thorough and attentive, and fit us in at the end of her rotation since we were an hour late. We got lost on the way there and then couldn't find parking and it was super busy. She gave me a whole rundown of how my care would proceed for the weeks to come, what would be done in my next appointments. She asked Shawn and I a bunch of questions about our family medical history and so on, we listened to the baby again, and she answered all my questions. Right away I had a better feeling from her than I ever had from Farney. Even the medical assistants were so nice and helpful when scheduling my next appointments. I have an appointment coming up dedicated solely to having a nurse give me a rundown of questions about medical history and so on. A whole appointment dedicated to that. I can't even remember when/what Farney asked me about my medical history. My big ultrasound appointment is on Wednesday at 8am, when the radiology tech will do all the anatomy measurements and so on, and confirm the baby's gender.

Dr. Hayes also measured my tummy and said my belly size was right on target for where it should be, and told me about some other genetic tests that I might like to do (which Farney never mentioned, despite his two long speeches about how common miscarriage was in the beginning on the pregnancy -- he was awfully lax about some important tests and procedures later on).

When we were listening to the baby, we kept hearing these little pops on the doppler machine -- baby was kicking at the wand where it was pressing on her(him) in my tummy. Hehe, silly baby.

Confirmation of gender and other interesting news to come on Wednesday.

22 Weeks:

A Jolly Xmas Day

I have an appointment with my new Kaiser doc on Monday, December 6th, at 10am. I got a female doctor, but after looking at her profile it looks like she's a resident and not a full fledged doc yet. Which is cool with me, her profile looks like she's a cool lady, and one of the questions I've written down for her is whether or not a doc will be shadowing her and so on.

Baby has been kicking more and more these days, a lot at night and in the morning, but lately I've also been feeling kicks after eating, which I've heard is what they do. Of course, I've also been getting heartburn on a pretty regular basis during the day. It doesn't really matter what I eat, it gives me heartburn anyway. But it's not super bad heartburn, so I just chug water and deal with it.

I got a cute new journal last night, and I'm going to use it as my pregnancy journal. I got the idea from a friend of mine who said she had used one, and kept records of questions she wanted to ask the doc, random thoughts, and so on. The one I got is super cute, it has little rainbow colored dolls all over it, like those Russian nesting dolls. Shawn and I also went to the bookstore and Walgreens tonight and got more xmas stuff -- garland for the tree, two new music cds, and some towels and pot holders for the kitchen. Walgreens had all kinds of xmas stuff for cheap, so I didn't feel bad, we didn't even spend $20 there and got a bunch of cute stuff. I got a new stocking, too, red and knitted. And I officially have one present under my tree, and another one that needs to be wrapped. Yay, Christmas!!

Finally, my stomach feels huge tonight. I took a picture of it, just to document, cause it feels more ginormous than usual.

20 Weeks

From BabyCenter.com:

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

That picture makes total sense. All the kicks I've been feeling have been in the low part of my abdomen, where this handy cartoon illustration shows the baby's feet. Look how serene it is in there. I bet it's thinking, "hehe, enjoy your heartburn, lady!" Little punk.

Soul Train 2010

Baby was doing some crazy dance moves this afternoon. I might have bruises.

New Clothes!

Super big thanks to Nicole and Kim for donating two big bags of maternity clothes last night. I have seriously doubled my wardrobe. I wore a combination of both gals to work today -- Kim's khaki's, and Nicole's navy top. My own sparkly flip flops, hehe. Pops is giving me some money to stock up one some other things, like some outwear and a couple more pairs of work pants, and so on.

I had a dream last night that we were at the ultrasound appointment -- me and Shawn, my mom, Shawn's parents -- and we found out it was a boy. Premonition? Or resurfacing of everyone telling me it's going to be a boy? I don't know, and I'm trying desperately not to get my hopes up for one or the other. Also, I came up with a really fun way of breaking the big news to the folks waiting in the waiting room, in my dream, and when I woke up, I was like, huh, that's a really good idea. So now it shall come to pass.

Felt another little kick today, but he/she isn't terribly active yet, and least not that I can feel. Braxton-Hicks contractions from time to time, usually at night or first thing in the morning. Registered for a freakin' adorable bassinet online this afternoon. I'm jealous. I wish my bed was that cute.

Today is my one year anniversary with Shawn. We're celebrating by having a kid. Hehe. But seriously. I guess none of this has felt like a big deal to me because it seems like we've been together for so much longer than that. We both looked at each other last night and thought, really? Only one year? Time has gone in slow-mo for the last year. I suppose Thanksgiving is as good a time as any for all these things to come up. Cause no matter what, I really am happy and thankful for him in my life.

So, sappy moments aside, hope everyone has a wonderful evening, and I shall be back tomorrow with pictures of the belly at 19 weeks. Can't believe I'm encroaching on the halfway mark already. Christ. Slow down in there!!

First No-Foolin', I-Know-What-That-Was Kick

18w6d

There's no question this time. Just felt two kicks, down below the belly button where the baby is hanging out. Hello, small creature. Welcome to movement.

Seeing as I spent the morning being a hypochondriac about whether or not I was having a miscarriage (bear with me, I'm prone to these flights of fancy), I teared up a bit at the unexpected interior jabs.

Sneaky little devil.

Brand New Blog

18w3d

Good morning!
Rather than clutter up the Facebook feed with news of baby that some folks may not care to read, I've created this blog for Baby Duttera, so that all the news and updates for this pregnancy can be compiled into one place. Pictures, countdowns, news, all that fun stuff.

Baby Duttera will officially be either Maximus or Violet beginning on November 24th, just in time for Thanksgiving. It will definitely be the thing I am thankful for this year.

So many changes in such quick succession, and yet they all seem like the right thing. Funny how we spend so much of our lives trying to make things happen, and yet when it's truly time for them, they happen on their own.

The baby showers are starting this weekend. Lila, who is 10 weeks ahead of me, has her first shower on Saturday. I can't wait! I need to get on the ball about putting a guest list together for my showers, as well, for those of you who are planning them. I'm so slow like that.

I thought I had felt baby kicking, but now I'm not so sure it was just intestinal issues -- I think the bubbles were too high up in my tummy, when the doc says baby is sitting below my belly button right now. I'll make sure to post when it's for real!