29 Week Baby Incubator

Hello from Washington!

It's been a very busy week so far, and pretty tiring. I bought a belly belt before I went on my trip, and it has helped immensely in terms of my back aches. The 5 hour flight went without a hitch and my back really didn't hurt at all. This compared to the one hour flight to San Diego, where I was in a lot of pain by the end.

I haven't been outside that much because I've had so much to do, but when I have, I've noticed an amazing thing! Although, it's much colder outside than Sacramento (high 40s during the day, low 30s at night), I haven't been cold at all. Apparently, the baby is keeping me nice and toasty. Finally an upside to being pregnant! On the flip side, as it gets warmer and warmer in Sacramento, I have a feeling I'll be regretting that upside... :)

Tomorrow, a day of sightseeing.

Scale Shock

Hi Friends!

I had my 28 week appointment today, this time with my nurse practitioner (she was on maternity leave herself when I first got pregnant so this was the first time I've seen her in a long time). She is really nice and we chatted for quite a while about various pregnancy-related things.

The biggest shock is that I gained eleven pounds in less than four weeks. Eleven pounds!! I practically had a heart attack when I saw the number on the scale. I am now up to 35 pounds in weight gain. I asked Gina if she thought I was gaining too much, but she said she wasn't concerned because I don't have gestational diabetes. Also, apparently most women make a huge jump in weight gain at around 28 weeks. Plus, have I mentioned my hobbit feet lately? I have so much water retention in my ankles, I might as well have injected liquid straight into my feet given how squishy and puffy they are. That probably accounts for a good part of the weight gain.

Plus, Gina made a point of saying how great I looked, so this is encouraging. Plus, just about everyone who sees me says the same thing, so I guess most of it must be belly. Still, I can't help but feel enormous. I also have great blood pressure and the fundal height is right on track. I was secretly hoping she would tell me I was several weeks ahead, but alas, Little C. is going to have to be content to stay in there for another 12 weeks.

Speaking of our little girl, she is moving now like crazy! She's actually been waking me up in the morning due to her alien-like shifts. I guess I'm already on her schedule and not mine. :) And now I can even notice when she's back or butt-side up because one side of my stomach will be hard and smooth and the other will be soft. Too weird.

Gina, like the nurse midwife and the OB (yes I have 3 providers) remarked how active she was when trying to get her heartbeat. I believe the term Gina used was "Wild Child." If all three have mentioned the same thing, it must mean something! Does that mean she's going to be super active on the outside? If so, Chris and I are in trouble! 28 weeks is also when I start counting kicks each night with the kick count card. Given her activity, it shouldn't take very long to get her to 10 kicks.

On another note, I'm heading to Washington, DC for 7 days on Monday. It's my last flight before the baby arrives, and it's definitely going to be tiring. I have to find some "support hose" to wear during the 5 hour flight to help with circulation, and I need to find a coat or rain jacket I can wear because I have zero coats that button up now!

Anyway, wish me luck on my trip. I have a feeling it's going to be very exhausting traipsing through the Capitol buildings!

Goodbye 1, Goodbye 2, Hello Love*

So today I am officially 27 weeks pregnant and yesterday was exactly three months until my due date. You know what this means? Hello Third Trimester!

And to celebrate, my body has decided to grace me with new, horrible pregnancy symptom #503** -- raging, hellfire and brimstone heartburn! Yesterday was particularly bad and was set off by, what else, my berry oatmeal. Uggh, my esophagus was en fuego almost all morning until it subsided at lunch, at which point I decided to eat Thai food and it started up again. Note to self, pack Tums to have on hand at work!

Anyway, here are my 27 week pictures. 13 weeks to go!

I'm wearing my prenatal yoga clothes, so please don't mind the odd get-up.


No, that is not some grotesque growth on my belly, simply my finger pointing to my belly button, which is halfway to being an outie.

On the good news front, we received my glider/recliner today! I can now watch TV without putting five pillows behind my back. The bad news is that the matching ottoman is out of stock, so I'm using an end table from Ikea to prop up my feet, which isn't very comfortable. Chris put the glider together, and the cats have been very curious. You can lock the glider in place, so it doesn't move, but I am so afraid the kittehs are going to trap their paws in it as it's gliding back and forth.




*This blog title is to the tune of some montage song in the musical Chorus Line, except that the real lyrics are "goodbye 12, goodbye 13, hello love." You get the idea.
**I made the number up, it's probably something small and boring like symptom #10. Still this may be the most annoying symptom yet!

Ah Honey ... Ah Sugar, Sugar ... You Are My Candy Girl...

It has been quite the eventful week for Baby Berry!

Stop Kicking - Your Grandma and I are Trying to Have a Conversation!

First, who spent over an hour in Labor & Delivery this past weekend and in San Diego, no less? This girl! I was in San Diego visiting my parents and my dear friend Kristen, who was in town escaping cold, wintry New England. On Saturday, I woke up with sharp, jabbing pains at the top of my uterus. I thought that it might go away after eating some breakfast, but it lingered. And lingered. After four hours of more or less constant pain, I decided I should call Kaiser and see what to do. The advice nurse transferred me to a L&D nurse, who listened to my symptoms and advised me to head to the nearest Kaiser L&D in San Diego. Of course, literally as soon as I got off the phone with her, the pain stopped. But Mom and I headed to L&D anyway. After registering, which took some time because I'm a Northern California patient and the medical record numbers aren't the same, the triage nurse stuck me in a room and placed the fetal monitoring device on me.

Well of course, as I mentioned, the pain had already gone away at this point, but Mom and I enjoyed hearing that baby girl's heartbeat and the static that would ensue every minute or so when she would kick the monitor. She's one active baby! The providers at L&D were all very understanding though and said it was a good thing I came in. The culprit? Round ligament pain! Apparently, the uterus is not yet done stretching out. The OB on call did a quick cervix check to make sure everything is good in that department and it is. She did annoy me by asking why I would ever have moved from San Diego to Sacramento. I love visiting San Diego, but Sacramento is home now. Plus, I'm not a doctor, so I don't have the luxury of essentially being able to choose where I want to live.

Pregnancy Fun Part Deux!

Last week, I went in to do my one hour glucose test. This involves drinking a sugary Orange Crush-type drink called Glucola, waiting an hour, and then having your blood drawn. It is the first check for gestational diabetes. For some reason, I failed. This then, required that I go back on Monday for the fun-tastic three hour glucose test!

The three hour test required that I fast for 8 to 10 hours the night before the test, come in and have my blood drawn no fewer than 4 times over 3 hours. My arms are nice and bruised from 4 needle sticks. Oh and drink twice the amount of the Orange Crush Drink of Death. As I was not allowed to leave the lab waiting room, I got to witness quite the parade of characters coming in -- from the lady with the six inch foam platform shoes that made her shuffle when she walked to the one year old who would not stop screaming before, during, and after his blood draw and whose mother did absolutely nothing to shut him up.

I was worried about how I would feel after so much sugar coursing through my system on an empty stomach, but it turned out not to be so bad. Baby Berry loved the sugar and spent a good portion of the three hours breakdancing on my bladder!

Kaiser has a wonderful electronic medical record, so as soon as the results were in, I got an email asking to check out my record on their website. Turns out I needn't have worried about the 3 hour test at all. After one hour, I should have had a blood sugar level of less than 180 mg -- mine was at 105, which is well below the level needed after three hours! So I'm in the clear. I don't have the diabeetus! I stole this delightful photo from this woman's hilarious blog I've been reading, so I'm sad to say I can't claim fame to the Wilford Brimley cat caricature.



So hurray! No risk of giant babies, I can still eat carbs and satisfy my insatiable sweet tooth that I've had most of this pregnancy. Bring on the cookies!

100 Days?!

I just looked at my little ticker and realized I have 100 days until my due date. Holy frijoles!

On the one hand, it seems like a long time. I mean, don't we always judge new presidents initially based on how well they do in their first 100 days? By the way, I'd say our new guy is doing a pretty great job, considering what a mess he has to clean up. And he just dispersed the first funding for our health centers -- the first actual grant award notices to come out of the economic stimulus! Yay! Even at 9 o'clock at night I still have work on the brain...

But I digress...

100 days until we meet our little Baby Berry.

100 days until we see whom she resembles more.

100 more days of back aches, trouble sleeping, tail bone-soreness, and whatever else this little girl has in store.

And yes, of course, 100 days until our lives "will totally change!" :)

Hold on Tight

Chris and I spent another weekend searching for things for Baby Berry. I think this little girl is going to stimulate the economy all by herself!

The goal for the weekend was to decide on paint colors, find a crib, and buy a rocker/glider. Despite going to 5 different stores over two days, we were able to solely accomplish the paint colors.

Armed with the comforter from the bedding set (which I absolutely love -- the back is a very soft, velvety teal blue and I wanted to find a paint color that matched), we headed to Lo.we's. Lo.we's is my preferred hardware super store over the Home Despot, as Chris calls it, because the people there actually seem to know what they're talking about.

We knew we wanted two colors -- a bright yellow and a teal blue -- but of course we quickly became overwhelmed by the sheer number of paint color in both of those colors. So after perhaps an hour (an hour!!) of comparing colors, we decided to order up 5 samples (3 in varying shades of yellow, and 2 in blue). While the paint guys were mixing the samples, we went in search of crown moulding. Well, Chris did. I got held up in the wallpaper section. And found the most adorable wallpaper border to break up the yellow and blue (it will act as a chair rail).

Behold, these pink Mommy and Baby Elephants, titled, appropriately "Hold on Tight":

This is with the crib bedding.

And here's another shot this time showing the back of the comforter (the picture doesn't do the colors justice).

And because I checked out the wallpaper book, we also came across this border called "I See Spots."

We're still trying to decide between the two borders, but I think I'm leaning towards "Hold on Tight." It's adorable and I love the white ears with the pink and chocolate brown polka dots.

I'd post the paint samples that we painted onto one wall, but the lighting doesn't work and the existing orange paint is too distracting.

Anyway, I'd love to get your feedback! And if anyone has some suggestions on where to get an overstuffed armchair that's not overly expensive, I'd really appreciate it. We want the rocker/glider downstairs, but wanted a chair for the nursery to read books to baby in (this one does not have to rock).