Update

I haven't been on the computer in the evenings much lately and since I can't access blogger at work, that means I've been unavailable to post any baby-related updates. So that's the goal this evening.

First, I've noticed the baby moving more lately - and she's moving with more intention and strength. She's still well-behaved, though, and moves away and calms down when I need her to.

Baby is also still head down, we learned at our appointment last week. Her heartbeat was in the 140s and Teresa said everything seems to be going well.

Birthing class last night focused on advocacy for yourself during your birth, especially in the instance of transfer from home or birth center to the hospital. Kelly and I agreed that we feel far more prepared for the unexpected things that may come up after this class.

We're in the market for a pediatrician - or a family practitioner. Funny...I've never shopped for one of those before...

Probably we're going to get a crib this weekend, which we're excited about. We have the space and the bedding and the growing baby, so it's about time to get a bed.

I'm still having no problems. Just trying to keep my iron and calcium up - two things that you're not supposed to mix because calcium disrupts iron absorption. But I haven't had any real problems with either, so I'm not terribly worried. And I'm still trying to eat lots of brain food - blueberries, walnuts, fish, broccoli - since her little brain is maturing at this point.

Well, that's all I can come up with for now. More later...and Kelly's said he wants to take pictures this weekend.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Well, I'm home safe and sound from the Portland shower (pictures to come at a later date...assuming that people who took pictures email them to me). The whole weekend was a blast, full of visiting family, to walking all over downtown Portland, to practicing my awesome packing skills (sometimes, having grown up in a military family comes in handy), to talking about baby, baby, baby. My sister, I think, had a good time, too - especially when it came to the baby-centered stuff - and the shower was awesome (thanks again, Mali!).

One thing I noticed over the weekend was that LBH didn't move a whole lot - which was odd because she usually moves all the freaking time. Her favorite time to move is in the evenings, but even then she was relatively still. A few times it felt like she was adjusting to get comfy, but that was really short lived and then all movement ceased. When we came back home, though, she started right back up again - after she heard her dad's voice. Once we were around Kelly and she heard him talking, she was right back to her usual antics. In fact, while we watched a movie Sunday evening, she jumped and bounced and kicked every time he laughed. After the movie, he put his face down to my belly and spoke directly to her...and she moved her whole body to the outside of my belly, almost like she was pressing herself into him to get closer to his sound. She missed her daddy while we were away!

Angela - leaving on a jet plane

Angela will be leaving this afternoon to go to Portland. Yup, it's baby shower time! Although I am very excited for her to go and to see everyone, I have to admit to a little jealousy. She gets to see my parents and all the rest of the fam, and I'll be lonely with only two pups to keep me company.

Aw, I'll be all right, and I really am excited for her.

But I'm more excited for Denisha, Angela's little sister. She's ten and has been packed for over a week. I know Angela will show her a good time, gallavanting around the city together, and talking baby stuff for 48 hours straight. That's like pure crack for Denisha. She's going to be on a high that may not stop until the birth.

I'm fairly certain I've never been to an actual baby shower (at least since I was a baby myself), and I'm hoping that she has fun. Mali has put it together, so I know she will. Who could ask for a better neice? Seriously!

As an update, birthing classes are progressing nicely, and we attended a really cool potluck at the birthing center the other day. Lots of baby fun, and everything seems to be going smooth as can be.

Anyway, for those of you who follow the blog, but won't be in Portland, wish her luck and hope she has a good time.

Orientation

Last night we went to an orientation at the birthing center for parents who will be delivering at the birthing center or through home birth in the next three months or so. I felt like it was a good introduction to the things we should be keeping in mind as well as talking to the midwives about birth-specific stuff like when to call them and what to bring in (or expect them to bring to our homes), post-partum care and on and on. I learned about things I didn't expect to learn about, which I think is great because I'd hate to have to encounter some of this stuff at the last minute! (It also proved to me that just when I think I'm getting a handle on all of this, they can throw something at us like what to do with the placenta...or something else unexpected.)

More test results

Jen, from the birthing center, called me today to let me know about my last two tests. My glucose came back fine - YAY! Now I don't have to do the three-hour test and that means I haven't developed gestational diabetes. Also, my iron came back OK, but a little lower than they'd like to see it at this point in my pregnancy - so, to the lower side of normal, which is where it was before when they tested it. She said they'd like it to be higher just because of the growth the baby will be going through in the coming weeks. So, I have to take a supplement, but that's no big deal. I sort of anticipated I'd have to anyway.

Rap, rap, rapping on my rib cage

As of last Saturday, I started feeling LBH on my ribs - but only on the right side. So, maybe she's a right-y like her folks. Or maybe she's saving the real excitement for the left side later on. When I feel her, it really is just like a light tapping, like she's saying, "Hi, Mom! I'm here!" And when it starts to bother me or if she hits me too hard, I push down on the spot she's been hitting and she goes off to play elsewhere. I've thrilled that she's such a well-behaved child already!

LBH has also been getting hiccoughs more frequently (I've been able to feel them now for about two or three weeks). I've noticed that she gets them when I'm hungry and right after I eat. When she gets hiccoughs it's never for a long time - usually just for a minute or so. Her hiccoughs are getting more prominent, though, able to visibly bounce my belly. It's very strange to have something inside of me hiccoughing when I myself don't have hiccoughs.

Childbirth Class #1

We had our first birthing class last night. We both think we're going to like the class and the instructor a lot because of her ability to not only draw on years of experience but also because her philosophy of the birthing process seems to match up with ours - plus she's realistic and involves humor in her approach. The class last night was a lot of theory, sort of, and discussion about the birthing process and our expectations of the experience. One thing we both liked was how she didn't call Dad the "coach" during labor and delivery. (She said that when she and her husband hired a ski coach for their son they looked for someone who had been skiing before and when they hired a golf coach for their other son they hired someone who had seen golf before. Many dads have never seen a birth and none of them had actually done it before themselves, so they couldn't really be called "coaches.") She calls Dad "co-creator and protector of the space." And every time, too. She never slipped up. Her reasoning on that is that Dad created half of the baby, he creates half of the marriage, he created half of the home environment and so during the birthing process he should be seen as such, as a co-creator. And as the protector of the space, it's his job to make sure Mom feels safe in her environment - safe enough to relax and do what she needs to do to have the type of birth she needs to have. Kelly said afterwards that he felt a sense of relief at not looking at the process as a "coach," that that was scaring him a little because he really doesn't know how to coach me through childbirth. But, he said that being a co-creator and protector of the space is something he feels very comfortable and confident doing.

Even just after going to this one class...and after discussing some things with our midwife and reading things in books and on line...we're thinking that our original view of "how things will go" is going to change. We think that some of our ideas were shaped by just thinking we'd do things the way other people do them or by the way other people told us we'd do them. And we don't really want to do things that way. I'm being open and ambiguous right now, and mostly on purpose, because we don't have anything established or really figured out for certain. But we're rethinking perhaps where we want to have the birth and how many people we want to alert right away and the type of experience we want it to be for us. We like knowing there are options - more than we initially came up with on our own - and we like the thought of exploring those options.

I'm really good at this, evidently.

Yesterday at our midwife appointment, Paula showed us how we could feel LBH's head, which is in delivery position already. She said LBH should stay there for the duration of my pregnancy - that once babies arrange themselves like (especially this far along) that it's rare for them to be able to move around enough to put themselves in another position less conducive to an easy birth.

When Paula came into the room, Jen had already taken my vitals, so all Paula had to do was check my chart to see how things were going. Her response: "Wow. You're just perfect!" She said that she's very happy with the way everything is going. My weight gain is just where it should be, my heart rate is excellent, my blood pressure is still low (Jen said that the two times she's taken my blood pressure she'd thought that she had missed it - but then there it was, just lower than where she usually finds it on people) and I'm not having any major problems or difficulties - I'm sleeping fine, my heartburn is still super mild (and has actually been less of a problem lately), I'm not having much sciatic pain (and that has also lessened lately) and I haven't had any problem with headaches. So I've determined that I'm just lucky enough through genetics or whatever to be good at this pregnancy thing - because I'm really not trying to be good at it. I mean, I think it's great and I love that I am this lucky, and I hoped for this much, but it sure isn't something I planned.

Also, yesterday's appointment was my glucose test, so I had my blood drawn for that as well as to test my iron again. Last time, my iron was low-of-normal, so since then I've been trying to consume more iron. I'm hoping that my iron is OK with this test. My mom is pretty worried about my iron levels being low, but I have no symptoms of having low iron, so I remain unconcerned. I guess the test will tell.