Dax's Journal

Week 31

Baby Center says, "Your baby's arms, legs, and body continue to fill out — and they are finally proportional in size to his head. He weighs about 3 1/4 pounds and looks more like a newborn. You can expect your baby to gain at least two more pounds before delivery."

I feel like he gained at least two pounds in the past week! My belly has definitely gotten bigger. I was really hoping to get through this pregnancy without getting any stretch marks. That's right, all you moms....just go ahead and laugh at me.

I had an appointment on Thursday and everything is good. They looked over Embry's kick count chart and declared him "healthy and active". I got to hear his heartbeat again. I just love that part!

The best part of this appointment was the note I got saying that I could only work 40 hours a week. That is going to be so nice. Especially since I usually work between 55 and 65 hours a week. It will almost seem like I've gone "part-time".

I feel the baby move a lot now. Sometimes I wake up in the night and I can feel him squirming away in there. Once in awhile I can get him to play. He'll kick and I'll poke and then he'll kick again. A couple of times, he has kicked Cat in the back when we're snuggled in bed.

My appointments will start to increase now. I'll go every two weeks for the next month and then weekly. Some time in the next couple of weeks I'll have to go back and repeat my glucose test. Yuck!

Rock a bye

Our little one will be sleeping in style.

This is the cradle that my dad made and the quilt that my mom made. They drove all the way out here this weekend to deliver them in person.

I also had my first baby shower, which made the term "shower" seem inappropriate. It was more of a monsoon. I'm even more excited for this baby to get here now!

I'm at week 30 now. Baby Center says, "Your baby's a bit more than 15 1/2 inches long now, and weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and fills out your uterus. His eyes open and close, he's able to distinguish between light and dark, and he can even follow a light source back and forth. Once he's born, he'll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he'll respond to changes in light but will have a visual acuity of only 20/400 — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from his face."

Cat has no trouble feeling the baby moving now. The baby even kicked him in the back the other night. I've noticed in the past week that I can see my belly moving. What an amazing thing. His kicks are getting stronger and stronger and I'm feeling a lot more squirming and repositioning going on. There have even been times when he's woken me up at night.

I'm feeling like we are getting close to being prepared for our son's arrival. We still have quite a lot to do, but it feels manageable. At least he'll have clothes to wear, some toys to play with, and a place to sleep. :)

(This entry says it was written by Cat, but it was actually written by Michelle.)

Despondent

It was funny.

As I drove past a house in some random neighborhood, I saw two kids standing in their driveway. They were still as a painting. One kid with an ice cream cone in hand, caught in mid-laugh, pointing at the ground. The other kid, looking down at the ground, dejected. I wish I had my camera...

Week 29

I started week 29 demonstrating my complete lack of "Cat-Like Stealth" by walking into a wall. We need to call Cat's mom to find out what type of bean we need to plant to keep my poor child from inheriting my "grace".

My update from Baby Center says that the baby now weighs about 2.5 pounds and is a bit longer than 15 inches from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are maturing and his head is getting bigger (but not too big, I hope) to accomodate his quickly growing brain. His nutritional needs reach a peak during this last trimester. For the last few days, I've been craving milk. This now makes sense as I read that the baby takes approximately 200 mg of calcium each day.

I didn't think I could actually become more emotional at this point, but I'm shocked to find that I can. I'm hoping most of that is due to the extremely tough week I just had at work. If not, I'm going to take up a collection to send my poor husband somewhere safe while I live out the rest of my pregnancy days a weeping, moody mess.

I've been keeping track of the baby's movement for the past week. He made me a little nervous on Thursday because he had apparently decided that napping was a better idea than kicking for mommy. None of the usual recommendations for getting a baby kicking were working for me. I ate something, drank a giant glass of very cold ice water, laid on my left side, sat up, stood, laid on my right side. Nothing.

They recommend that you do your kick counts in a quiet room. Not for the baby, but so mommy doesn't miss any subtle movements. That's what I was doing when Cat came in. He immediately turned on the television and started to read "The Stinky Cheese Man" to the baby. Wouldn't you know it? That got him kicking.

It figures, really. I have a history of reading and watching television at the same time. Cat? He'll read, watch television and listen to a baseball game on the radio all at once. The only time it is quiet in our house is when we are sleeping. No wonder the baby thought that's what he should be doing.

Beanstalks and Balance

One of my mom’s old friends said that if you plant a bean and have the stalk climb along a trellis of some sort, your baby will have excellent balance. But I don’t know how this actually works: Does the bean have to undergo a ceremony before you plant it? Do you have to plant it at a certain time? How do you actually get the essence of Embry in the bean before you plant it? I didn’t know to ask these and other specific questions then.

But I do know this; I think someone actually performed the ceremony for me because of my excellent balance. I remember my first balance act: it was on my friend’s bike. I had been riding on training wheels for a few months on a Western Auto bike. I grew tired of the training wheels and decided to hop on my friend’s bike. It was a huge bike, a Tank. I could barely reach the pedals, but I rode it. Without falling. I like to think now that I didn’t really need those training wheels back then. I think I could have just ridden a bike without going through that phase. That’s something I will never know, though.

Perfect Balance is something I hope Embry will possess. It comes in handy in certain situations. Like when you start slipping while you’re walking on ice and you’re Perfect Balance kicks in and you slide on your left foot for several inches/feet until your shoe catches and you’re able to continue your walk without falling. Or when you’re on top of the ladder with a huge box you’re trying to put away. Or when you lose you’re footing while you’re riding your skateboard on a half-pipe and Perfect Balance makes you land on your padded knees instead of your head.

Perfect Balance (also known as Cat-Like Stealth), an essential skill that we must pass on to Embry…

What kind of bean do we use? Do you plant it before Embry is born? or after? Do you save the plant? Does Embry need to eat something from the plant?…

Week 28

Week 28 marks the beginning of the 8th lunar month and the third trimester according to various sources. Pregancy math makes no sense to me.

Week 28 is also when I start counting the baby's movements. Once a day, at about the same time, I'm supposed to count 10 movements and record how long it takes. I've done some practice runs this weekend and it usually takes him about 20 minutes to move/kick/twist/punch 10 times.

I think he had a little growth spurt this weekend because my belly seems to sticking out a bit more. I read that the baby could weigh about 2 1/2 pounds and measure about 14 1/2 inches by now. He can also open his eyes. If we were to shine a continuous, bright light on my belly he would be able to turn his head to follow it. The fat layers are forming and the fingernails appear.

I had my follow up glucose test last week. It was unpleasant. I passed, but just barely. That means I have to do it all over again in a few weeks. Yuck! In the meantime, I'm just continuing to watch what I eat and to excercise. I guess spending another unpleasant morning getting jabbed with needles beats having to jab myself in the finger several times daily to test my blood sugar (which is what would be happening now had I failed the test).

A lot of things I read right now bring up the fact that our kid will need a name and that we should be narrowing that down. Interestingly enough, a lot of sources also advise against sharing the name with everyone once you have chosen it. I used to wonder why people would do that. I mean, once you have the name picked out, why not share it with the world? Watching my friend Julie (who is 6 weeks ahead of me) has answered that question for me.

Her son's name has changed four times now. Each time, she has to go back and tell everyone again that there's a different name. And every time, at least one person will voice that they once knew someone with that name and he was a paste eater/bully/suckup/total jerk/felon. Several others will repeat the name as a question and then make a face as if they've just eaten something very bad.

So, we won't be telling anyone any names being considered until he's here and the name is on the birth certificate.