Synchronize Your Watches

Well, here we are at 35 weeks, and I'm starting to get information on how to know if I'm in labor and what will happen during delivery. This baby is getting bigger and heavier every day, I have to pee about twenty times a day, and I'm having just a slight bit of good ol' nausea again in the mornings, though not nearly to the debilitating level it was before.

First, here's the update from BabyCenter about how big this baby is:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

I don't know who they modeled that drawing after, but my belly is way bigger. 

I discovered on Monday morning that red meat does not agree with my system anymore. After having to stay home sick because I had been up in the middle of the night throwing up, and was just too exhausted to do anything but sleep until 11am and then lay on the couch feeling gross, Shawn and I decided that it must be the beef. I'd had some yummy steak the night before, and it seems like every time I have red meat my body reacts that way. Mom said she had to avoid it as well. Makes me sad. I hope it goes away.

While I'm not yet "sick of being pregnant," I am getting restless to have her here. So I guess in that sense I'm tired of being pregnant -- I just want to meet her. The anticipation is getting to me. After next weekend's shower I can start setting up an actual nursery -- I'll have my changing table back, and it looks like some more furniture and stuff as well. If we don't get our dresser, I have a $50 Ikea gift card that I'll use towards getting the one I want.

When I flipped the calendar over to March yesterday morning, I had a very surreal moment of, oh, that's it -- just one month left, and there it is, in visual aid, only those days I can see right now, right in front of me, that's all the time I have left. Start the countdown.

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...

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.

More Thoughts on New Doctor

The more I talk to friends about my experience with this doctor, the more glad I am that I'm switching. I'm realizing that there are a fair amount of things that haven't been done that should have been. He hasn't been measuring my abdomen, he didn't measure the baby at 17-18 weeks, and during my ultrasound this week, all he did was look at gender, when he was supposed to check out all kinds of other things. Every mom/pregnant lady I've talked to has raved about how much they love Kaiser and how thorough they are in their prenatal care.

Tomorrow I will being calling the Kaiser offices in the area and leaving them voicemails for Monday. There is an office in Alameda, so it would be nice if they were taking new patients. If not there's also an office in Oakland.

Lila's family baby shower was this afternoon. Sally did a really cute theme of a candy shop, it was fun. It was cool to see the whole family there, and it looks like she got lots of good things that she'll need. I'll have to see about getting her a little something else for christmas as well, since what I got for the shower was a bit small, I think. Even if I get her a bunch of diapers and wrap them, hehe.

19 Weeks

Officially 19 weeks today. See picture below.

Baby looks a little squished.

Shower tomorrow, for Lila, who is at 29 weeks. She'll be getting nice and big by now, so that's fun.
Meanwhile, I'm starving, so I should go feed.

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!