Hospital Tour

Our hospital tour last night was great! It felt short and sweet, but by the time we left, it had been an hour... I guess time flies when you're having fun! They walked us through the process we'll go through when we come in labor, from the doors we'll want to enter through, and the way up to the Labor & Delivery floor. They showed us an L&D room, and walked us through the process of what happens in there, and how long we'll be there. Basically we're there all the way through labor until about 2 hours after the baby is born. They do the cleaning and warming of the baby right there in your room, do the initial tests, then give the baby back to mom and dad for some bonding time and the first nursing session. After that is done, dad and baby head to the nursery for baby's first bath. It's really cool - they have 5-6 bassinets in front of the windows in the nursery, reserved for babies less than 4 hours old. This will likely be the first time friends and family will get to see the baby. They'll get to watch the process as dad and nurses give the bath, and go through some other routine care things. The baby will be in the nursery for about an hour, while mom gets transported down to her post-partum room and gets settled in. At that point, friends and family will be able to come in and visit anytime!

Jeff and I thought the facilities were really nice. Especially the PP room seemed less hospital-y than most rooms we've visited when friends had babies.

Maybe because I had hospitals on my mind yesterday, and we're having a slow period at work, I started my hospital packing list yesterday. It's amazing how much stuff you have to bring! Thankfully we have a Walmart and grocery store less than 2 minutes from the hospital, so if we were to forget anything crucial, we can always send someone out to the store for us!

In my mind, that whole process seems so far away. I think the whole pregnancy I've been thinking "May 9 is sooo long from now, don't even think about it or you'll drive yourself crazy." Well, I'm still telling myself that, and we're down to 10 weeks now. I think it's going to come sooner than I think it is! Thankfully I'm still going through all the motions and getting everything ready, prepared, and purchased, but I still feel like I have 6 months to go! It's almost March... Which leaves 2 months until May! Everyone tells me the third trimester is by far the slowest, but so far I beg to differ. That first trimester seemed never ending. Check back with me when I'm 36+ weeks, huge, and uncomfortable. :)

Getting Some Practice!

Poor Bailey is the guinea pig for all of our baby gear!

She has tested out the swaddle blanket:
(Bonus points for anyone who can identify the movie in the background)



And made sure the crib is nice and comfy for the baby:



She's a good sport about it all. She wasn't too crazy about the swaddle though! The other night I was wanting to just relax in the nursery and rock in the glider. I picked Bailey up and started rocking her. She was a little squirmy so I put her down, but she wanted right back up! So I picked her up and continued rocking her, and she was asleep within 5 minutes! Awww! I probably shouldn't get her used to doing that though, because pretty soon there'll only be room for the baby in mommy's arms!!

Jeff and I went to a Dallas Mavericks game with some friends last night. The family sitting behind us was the most obnoxious, loud, hick family I've ever experienced. I was sitting right in front of the dad of the family, and he seriously had the loudest single voice I've ever heard. He was one of "those" fans that was yelling and screaming the ENTIRE game, even though our seats were the 2nd to LAST row in the entire arena. Yeah buddy, the players can hear you from way up here. Every time he yelled something, my ears seriously rung he was so loud. I think I was deaf by the time the game was done! I think the baby was scared, or didn't know what to think! The entire game he/she was VERY high up in my stomach, curled into a tiny ball! Poor thing! The baby didn't come back down out of that position until we were home.

Good news for the day - over the weekend I tried on a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans for fun... I can still get them on, and buttoned! Woohoo!

29 Week Picture

29 Weeks!



Well, for an update with the crib mattress issue... I just decided to keep the one we bought originally. We loaded the mattress up in the car, and I took it back to Babies R Us, but before returning it, I went and checked out the rest of the mattresses, specifically the particular mattress my baby ratings book recommended. Well, when I compared the recommended mattress to the one we had bought, ours was actually QUITE a bit firmer than the recommended "204 coil" mattress. There was a little poster over in the mattress section about how to pick out a mattress, and the poster said that it's not necessarily all about the coil count... It's the firmness of the coil that matters. For instance, you could put 300 soft coils in a mattress and have it be much softer than a mattress with 100 firm coils. So I feel pretty good about our decision overall. I think it will be fine, like my mom said, who knows what kind of mattress I slept on when I was a baby! It feels fairly firm and I think a mattress would have to be awfully plush for the baby to sink in and suffocate... Plus for the first few weeks (and months?) the baby will be sleeping in the sleep positioner, for one more added layer of safety, and by the time he/she doesn't need that anymore, they will most likely have the strength to push up and move their head if they were to get stuck facing downwards. Plus, that's what the Angelcare mattress monitor is for - to tell me if they've stopped breathing!

Today on my lunch break I'm headed back to Babies R Us (I'm thankful I work so close to it!) to buy our travel system - car seat and stroller. I think that is the last "big" item we have to buy, that is so exciting!

By the way, have I mentioned how much hair I have lost??? I forget when it started... But I think right around 12 weeks. I wouldn't say it comes out in clumps or anything, but every time I brush my hair or take a shower, I lose a good 10, 15, 20 hairs. I'm to the point now where I'm shocked that I look like I still have a head of hair because this has been going on so long! Now I'm REALLY dreading the post-partum hair loss, because I won't have anything left to lose! I know it's common to lose your hair after having the baby, but I've never heard of losing so much during the pregnancy! It's starting to show a little bit too... The early hair loss is now growing back to the point where it sticks straight up off my head in the form of frizzies. Great.

29 Weeks!

I am 29 Weeks today! Only 1 more week until 30! That is crazy! Pretty soon counting backwards it'll be weeks in the SINGLE digits!

Our latest stress is crib mattress shopping. Mattress makers sure know how to prey on new parent fear. Jeff and I picked out a mattress that we liked, seemed fine, and as an added bonus, it was made to fit our Babi Italia crib. Better yet, the price was reasonable. But then I started researching mattresses (shouldn't I have done that BEFORE we bought one?? Oh well..) and found that the "recommended" minimum number of coils for a crib mattress (to reduce SIDS risk) is 150. The one we picked has 117. So now I'm all scared about this stupid mattress I picked out and am wondering if it's going to kill my baby. Why would they make a mattress too soft? I'm sure this mattress would be just fine, but I guess I'll admit I'm buying into the fear-based marketing. We loaded up the mattress and I'm going to go pick another one out this evening, with a minimum of 150 coils... And I'm sure I'll end up spending about 2 times what I originally planned! Part of me just wants to keep the original mattress, but I know if anything ever happened to our baby while in bed, I'd think back to this decision and never forgive myself for not being the most educated shopper I can be.

Last night I think I had my first Braxton Hicks contraction. The whole time we were sitting at the table eating dinner last night I was a little uncomfortable, but couldn't place my finger on anything specific. Overall I felt like I could breathe well, and had to keep leaning back from the table to try to give my belly some room. Then when I stood up to go put my plate in the dishwasher, I couldn't really stand up straight because my belly was SOOOO hard, tight and stiff! It wasn't painful or anything, just hard as a rock! From what I've heard, that's what BH's are like! It went away within 20 seconds or so, and was gone! Weird.

I have high hopes for this weekend, to get the nursery more organized and finally get our glider in there. We have it in the family room for now because we like to sit in it while we watch TV! haha.

Baby Hiccups

I have been starting to feel a little left out lately in the last few weeks. All of the books and pregnancy updates I've been reading tell me that I should have been feeling Baby's hiccups for a few weeks now, but up until yesterday, nothing. Well, as I was sitting here at my desk yesterday morning, I could feel a little activity going on, but I couldn't nail down what Baby was up to. I put my hand on my belly, and felt a very rhythmic thump, thump, thump, thump. It was so cute!! It lasted about 5-7 minutes or so. I was very excited. It's so amazing to think of my baby in there! One girl on my "May Due Dates" board had her baby early this week, at 28 weeks. She posted pictures of her baby girl, and it's amazing to think that my baby looks like THAT. It was small of course, but fully complete and beautiful! Just crazy.

Last night was our third childbirth education class. The class was mainly on epidurals. Out of the entire labor & delivery process, I am the MOST scared of the epidural! Don't get me wrong... Not scared enough that I'd consider going without one... But scared none the less! And they say that education gives you power, but if anything, after last night I'm MORE scared! haha! But I'm sure when it comes down to it and I'm having contractions, I'm not going to care what they're doing to my back, as long as it makes the pain go away! So I try not to think about it. :)

They also told us last night that from now until delivery, the baby will be gaining about 1/2 pound a week. Whoa, baby!! That's some incredible weight gain! Considering it took the entire pregnancy thus far for the baby to reach 2 - 2 1/2 pounds.

My itchiness is still around, but I think I've gotten used to it. Thanks to medicated lotions it's very livable.

Last night was a rough night related to acid reflux. Thankfully I don't really experience any pain or burning in association with it, but it's very uncomfortable and makes me feel like I'm going to throw up. Normally I take 1 Gaviscon tablet and it goes away, but it was having no effect last night. I had to sit up in bed for about 30 minutes from 3 - 3:30, and then when I laid back down I propped up 3 pillows behind me to try to keep myself somewhat elevated. I was up probably 6 times or so... I guess I should go back and look at what I ate yesterday! Either that or get used to it, as it will only get worse for 11 more weeks! :)

Guess What We're Having!

Ok blog readers, come out of the woodwork, and guess who baby Blair is, and when he/she will arrive! You might have noticed the "ExpectNet" icon I added in the top left corner of the blog. Just click on it and enter your guess! Looks like so far, with 14 guesses, boys are winning! And just a hint, the lighter in weight you make my baby, the more I will like you. :)

28 Weeks

All is well and I had a very quick 28 week appointment this morning!!

First of all I gained 7 pounds in the last 3 weeks! The nurse laughed and said "Somebody had a good month!" They didn't say anything to me about cutting back or anything, probably because the weight gain has been so slow up to this point, but I'm going to make a mental effort to try to eat better or something! But I could tell my belly has gone through a HUGE growth spurt in these 3 weeks too, so I'm letting the baby take some of the blame.

I brought up my itchiness again, and told him the "experiments" I did on myself, and he said it sounds like it really was the iron I was reacting to in my prenatal vitamins. I told him I've been taking Flintstones vitamins, and he said that would be just fine to continue. We'll check my iron levels at my next appointment to make sure my blood iron is still ok despite not getting any in vitamins. (Flintstones have no iron.)

One thing I haven't discussed yet in my blog, is my difficulty breathing. The first time it happened was on the plane up to Minnesota a couple weekends ago. All of a sudden it felt like I couldn't breathe very well, then my heart started pounding and beating very quickly. I was like, "Great, I'm going to pass out here on the plane, we'll have to make an emergency landing and I'll be on the world news tonight." haha! But I was ok. I reclined my seat, put on some relaxing music, and took slow breaths. Within 10-15 minutes it went away. But it kept coming back, to the point now where I'd say it happens about 3 times a day.

So at the appointment I asked him about my breathing issues, and corresponding heart rate increase. He said it's totally normal. (Annoying, but normal!) It's called "Oxygen Hunger" or something like that? Something about the uterus/baby being in a bad position or up too high, cutting off lung capacity, and not allowing the diaphragm to do its job, which in turn causes the heart rate to accelerate and/or beat harder, which is exactly what I've been feeling! He said just try a position change whenever that happens, because while it's not harming me, it's definitely uncomfortable and not good to be "oxygen hungry" and a rapid heart rate for long periods of time.

Now I'm on bi-weekly visits! Yikes!

And for fun, here's a 28 week belly pic.