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Maternity & Parenting Center

Ultrasound – 37 weeks 3 days

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Today we had our weekly “biophysical profile” ultrasound – once again, our brilliant son scored a perfect 8/8! Basically, it means he is quite content where he is. While I’m happy to hear that he is thriving in there, can someone please help me serve him an eviction notice? I promise not to serve him another one until after he completes college.

We actually got some fantastic pictures today – I’ll go downstairs and scan them when Elliot gets home (he took them with him). The doctor came in to see us, and after I whined he decided to do an internal check on me. The good news is I’m over 3 cm dilated (yes, progress!) and still at 80% effaced. He stripped my membranes to see if that would stir anything up. I’m actually not hopeful, but if it is going to work, we should see something in 24-48 hours.

****Update****

Here are the ultrasound pics from today:

Pictures

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Many of you have been asking to see pictures of our home renovations . . . so here goes! These pictures were taken the day before we moved – there are a few personal items we began bringing over strewn around in the photos, and there are definitely still unfinished parts of the house, but this gives you a good idea of what we’ve done! Hope you enjoy:

Living room

Kitchen

View of dining room & living room from kitchen


View of dining room and kitchen from living room


First Floor Powder Room

Stairs to upper floor


Baby’s bathroom

View of upper hallway into baby’s bathroom
View into baby’s bedroom

Baby’s bedroom
Upstairs Hallway View towards Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom Closet

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Stairs to Basement

Laundry Room

Door to utility room

Rec Room

View to Office

Office

Office Closet

Office Bathroom

32 week ultrasound!

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Today was our 32 week ultrasound, and so far, everything is looking great! The baby is about 4 lbs right now (3 lbs 15 ozs) and he was measuring in the 34th percentile (which is a little smaller than he was measuring last month). We got an adorable 3D shot of him, too – I think he might look like Elliot! He is still head down, we were able to see him breathing and we got a great view of his heart. My cervix is holding steady, although it has started to shrink some – it was down to about 2.7 cm today, but it is still in the “safe” zone for now. The best news, however, is that Frank shrunk! At my 28 and 30 week ultrasounds, he was about 5.4 cm x 4.9 cm x 3.5 cm . . . almost the size of a fist! As of today, he was only 4 cm x 4 cm x 2 cm, so he shrunk about 1 cm all around. I had thought that I was feeling much better (and experiencing much less pain), so I was relieved to hear it isn’t just a cruel trick of the medicines, but that I should be feeling better! Hopefully, that will make the next 4 weeks much easier for me. We go back again in 2 more weeks, and then we start weekly appointments to measure the baby.

So, here are the pictures:


Well, off to continue packing! We spent the past 2 days trying to acquire rugs for the house and get all the little details done. We are hoping that things are still on track for moving on Sunday!

30 week prenatal appointment

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Today we had our 30 week prenatal appointment. It was just another run-of-the-mill appointment. We discussed my medication, and I am supposed to stay on the current dosages of the tylenol and the Terbutaline. I am measuring 29 cm, which is right on track. The baby is head down and slowly descending – I think he already knows the way out, so we are going to have to convince him to hang in there a bit longer. We got to hear (and record) the heartbeat again, so I am posting it here if you are interested in listening!

The good news is that my last urine culture finally came back negative! We sent out one more today to see if the “maintenance” dosage of antibiotics I’ve been taking is keeping this infection at bay. I really hope it does! On Thursday, we go back to the Maternal Fetal Medicine office for another ultrasound. I will find out if I am allowed to do any more courses of Indocin, they will be checking on my cervix to make sure I am not starting to go into labor, and they will also take another good look at Frank to see if he is growing or shrinking. I am also going to ask them to search for Fiona, because I think she is in there somewhere.

So . . . . for right now, all is well. I am back to appointments every 2 weeks unless there are new problems with Frank and contractions. Oh, and for those of you who have been asking, here is a “belly shot” of me at 30 weeks:


My only other thing to add was that we stopped by the house to check on the progress . . . I really hate our contractor. He got the wrong granite in again, but at this point, we might just accept it because if we don’t, he really won’t ever finish the damn house! We are still hoping to start moving in next weekend, but I’m still uncertain if that is just a pipe dream.

Our renovations

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Many of you have been interested in our home renovations. The background is that Elliot bought this house over 12 years ago. When we met, the house was a mess, and we couldn’t sell it, so we decided to renovate it. Our goal is to move in there for up to 2 years, sell my place (which might be bigger, but it is a townhouse/condo) and then move into a bigger house that we actually can fit in. This house is a “cape cod” that was built in the 30s, and at some point, it was expanded with dormer windows to create an upstairs. All in all, it has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs, a kitchen/living room/dining room/powder room on the main floor, and a rec room/laundry room/bedroom/full bathroom in the basement. So, it is kind of a tight fit for us, especially since we both work out of the house.

So, here is the “tour” – these pics were taken a few weeks ago. We are really hoping this will be finished next week . . . but I’m not holding my breath. I called the contractor and yelled at him from L&D at the hospital! When you walk in the front door, the stairs leading upstairs are right in front of you.

If you look down the hallway to the right, there is a closet and it leads to the 1st floor powder room:

Powder room:

To the left of the powder room is the kitchen:

We removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room, so now it is more like an eat-in kitchen:

The dining room connects back to the living room (here is a view of the dining room/kitchen from the living room):

The living room is just to the left of the front door:

When you go up the stairs, the baby’s bedroom is the first door on the left at the top of the stairs:



Just across from the stairs (and immediately outside the door of the baby’s bedroom) is the baby’s bathroom:

There is a long hallway upstairs (view with back to baby’s bathroom) – there are two half-closets that will be linen closets on the left, there is room under the window before the closets for a window seat, and the door at the end of the hallway on the right leads to the master bedroom:

When you enter the master bedroom, the main room is to the left, the master closet is to the right, and the door to the master bathroom is straight ahead. This is a pic of the entranceway to the master bedroom from inside the room:

This is a picture of the master bedroom from the back end of the room (the entranceway would be to the left):

This is a picture of the master bedroom standing in the entranceway with the master closet behind:

Here are pictures of the master bathroom:


Here are pictures of the master closet:


From the main floor, just across from the powder room and before you enter the kitchen, there are stairs leading to the basement. The basement is pretty open, with the laundry room to the left, a rec room area and a bedroom to the right:

Rec room:

Bedroom:

Bathroom:

As you can see, we still have painting, carpet, cleaning, and we have to finish the wires/lighting and vanity tops.

A registry!

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We did it . . . we finally started a registry yesterday at Buy, Buy, Baby! Yes, we have been putting it off, and no it isn’t anywhere close to complete, but we started it! Elliot was a bit of a maniac with the gun . . . if he could shoot it, I think he put it on the registry. Of course, he has no idea that I have the power of edit on the web site, so many of the items he placed on there may have “magically” disappeared. He initially registered me for 4 different breast pumps! I think Elliot can’t wait to go back so he can have the gun again for more play time. He is also currently obsessed with strollers – I’m not exactly sure what the fascination is about, but he can’t stop investigating strollers, and was quite upset that I wouldn’t go inspect and select the strollers yesterday.

We still want to start another registry at Great Beginnings, and we may put some things online at Target or Babies R Us, too, to make it easier for out-of-town friends and family, but we finally got the ball rolling. We also went ahead yesterday and bought a reclining chair for our living room – so that will complete our living room furniture. We still need to go back to Great Beginnings and pick out a glider, but we hope to do that this week.

As for me . . . . today I am 28 weeks pregnant! Overall, I’m feeling well. This little guy is kicking up a storm. For some reason, he seems to have a fascination with my cervix – he continually likes to poke it and make me uncomfortable. I’m sure when I tell him that during his teenage years, he’ll turn bright red with humiliation and say “eww, mom, do you have to say things like that!” Is it wrong that I am looking forward to embarassing him like that one day? I also have a pain in the lower right side of my abdomen – I hope it is nothing, but it is extremely uncomfortable. I guess I probably pulled a muscle or something . . . I think it started yesterday – I’ll have the midwife check it out at our appointment tomorrow! Here is my latest belly shot, taken today:


Tomorrow we go back to the midwife for my gestational diabetes test (wish me luck!) and a regular checkup. As of tomorrow, we will now be on a 2-week appointment schedule. I can’t believe how the time is flying! Now . . . if only we could get those renovations on the house finished, we’d really be in business!

On another note, I’m obsessing about my dog, Nugget, again. She has skin and allergy issues, so back in July, I switched her to a high-quality grain-free diet. I’d tried all the other tricks, but read an article indicating that many dog skin allergies may be caused by the grains in commercial dog foods. I think her skin has been better, but she has also had a skin infection that won’t quite go away, and has been on antibiotics, so it is hard to tell. My one worry with the new diet is that it is very high in fat, and I was afraid she would gain weight. Today I took her to the vet, and we have to go back on antibiotics for the skin infection. But, I learned that she did put on a bit of weight – maybe .4 lbs. So, of course, I’m wondering what to do next! I’m not ready to give up on this grain-free diet, but I don’t want to make her fat, either. I think Elliot is ready to kill me for obsessing this much over dog food.

After our appointment, I went to the pet food store (since we are almost out of dog food anyway), and found a different grain-free brand that has a low-fat version, but of course, it is even lower in fat than the food she was on before switching to this diet (and if the fat content is too low, it can give dogs dry skin and make them itch!). So . . . I couldn’t decide what to do! I know it isn’t a good idea to change dog food too many times, but I also want to do what is best for Nugget! I can’t believe how indecisive I’m being! So, I was an overwhelmed pregnant lady in the dog food store today. The saleswoman kept making suggestions, and all I wanted to do was strangle her. First, since the new dog food we’ve been on has double the calories of her previous food, she suggested cutting my dog’s food intake in half. Great idea . . . when you are dealing with a big dog. My dog is tiny – and only gets 3/4 c. food per day. And she is already pissed about that, because back in her younger days, I used to give her more like 1 1/4 c. per day. She now KNOWS when I cheat her out of even just one piece of kibble, and is not afraid to cause a raucous if she doesn’t get her share. She has made it quite clear she will not tolerate any more reductions in quantity, caloric count be damned! And my favorite comment from the saleswoman – why don’t you let your dog taste the new brand and decide which she likes better? Um, yeah, my dog will eat rabbit poo, vomit, and dead frogs – exactly WHAT makes you think she has discriminating taste and will “prefer” one over the other – it is food, she’ll eat it (or rather inhale it), probably within about 3 seconds after I place it in her bowl!

So, after coming home and doing some research, and discovering that this new low-fat dog food also was given 6 stars by a pet food analysis web site (that I’ve decided is reliable and have been consulting for the past few years), I decided that perhaps we will try switching to the new low-fat grain-free dog food. For some reason, I felt the need to share this piece of information with Elliot – whose response was the classic “okay.” Men! He could have at least feigned interest in my momentous decision. I might even be able to give her closer to 1 full cup a day, so she will probably love that. Do you think Nugget realizes how much agony I go through for her? And to think she gets pissed at me when I put the food down 5 minutes late.

Oh . . . and here is a pic of my adorable spoiled princess:

Babymooning and a small scare

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Many people I know go on a last-chance pre-labor fancy vacation, often called the “babymoon.” Well, Elliot and I decided that we wanted one last chance to get away, too. Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite schedule in the big fancy honeymoon level vacation we were originally hoping for (Hawaii will have to wait yet again!), but we did find time to get away for the weekend to the Greenbrier in West Virginia!

We decided to drive out there, and we left on Friday around 11:30 in the morning. Along the way, I noticed signs for Skyline Drive, so Elliot and I decided to detour along the route. Unfortunately, my morning sickness is not completely gone, and too much time in the car seems to exacerbate it . . . so, of course, we had to pull over so I could throw up! After that, I made sure to take my phenergan, and I was feeling better the rest of the ride. Here are a few of the scenic views we saw on our drive down Skyline Drive:



We arrived at the Greenbrier at 4:30 pm . . . just in time for a complimentary afternoon tea and pastries! We indulged ourselves then checked in, and off to our beautiful little villa we went. I have to say, this must have been one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed. Somehow, we were upgraded to a villa on the property, and we had a private “cabin” all to ourselves – complete with living room, a 50 inch television, wood-burning fireplace, huge bathroom, dressing area, walk-in closet, and big master bedroom. The decor isn’t quite my style, but you can see the luxury of the room:






We settled in, changed our clothes, and then decided to head to the main dining room for a fancy dinner. The dining room was beautiful . . . but dinner was a bit of a disappointment. Not to complain, but we had pretty high expectations for such a high-end resort, especially for the prices they were charging for the food (and they required a jacket and tie at dinner). The service was unbelievably slow, the bread was stale, and I was totally unimpressed by the salad I ordered. It was supposed to be a romaine salad with parmesan cheese dressing and asparagus. Sounds lovely, right? It was a ceasar salad (and yes, I am well aware that I am not supposed to eat caesar dressing while pregnant) with chunks of parmesan and the smallest pieces of asparagus I’ve ever seen (I needed a microscope to find them, and I think we only found 5 in the whole salad – less than a full piece of asparagus!). I did order a delicious glass of zero proof pinot noir wine . . . basically, red grape juice made from pinot noir grapes. My main course was good . . . it was an interesting pasta (I believe it was a homemade spinach papardelle) with a madeira mushroom sauce and some other vegetables, but to my dismay, the pasta was unevenly cooked. Some of it was really mushy, some was perfect, and some was hard as a rock. We passed on dessert – nothing looked overly enticing to us. I guess I just expected more! Nevertheless, we had an extremely pleasant dinner, and we were thrilled to be on vacation.

After dinner, we wandered around the hotel a bit, enjoyed a quick little dance by the bar area, then went over the the hotel movie theatre to watch the newest Indiana Jones movie. They had an old fashioned popcorn machine in the back, so Elliot loaded up on popcorn. It was a fun evening, although I apparently fell asleep during the last 5-10 minutes of the movie . . . ahh, the joys of pregnancy! After dinner, we decided to head back to our villa, and light a beautiful roaring wood-burning fire! We spent the rest of the evening in front of our fire.

We woke up early on Saturday, and headed off to brunch. I woke up STARVING! I think I was eating off the buffet before they even seated us! The food was delicious – I was particularly in love with the waffles! After breakfast, we decided to tour the property. Our tour turned into a full 2 hour tour of both the inside of the hotel and the outside premises. It was quite fascinating, and we really enjoyed learning about the history of the resort, the interim government ownership, and a tasting of the history of the formerly hidden Congressional bunker beneath the hotel, but I was exhausted! I guess 2 hours on my feet wandering around is harder than it used to be! After the tour, we stopped off at the museum, then wandered down to the golf club and made dinner reservations at the club restaurant, and wandered around the pool, golf and fitness facilities. Here are some pictures we took, but I’m not sure we really captured the interior beauty of the hotel:




We finally made it back to the room, and I was EXHAUSTED and sore. I stretched out for about 15 minutes, then we decided to change into our bathing suits and move our lounging to the indoor pool at the hotel. On our way to the pool, we were sidetracked by a cooking demonstration. I then left Elliot and headed off for a luxurious spa treatment! I ended up getting a body mud mask . . . so relaxing and refreshing. Elliot apparently wandered around the property, and managed to get access to the Presidential Suite and the fanciest villa on the property called the Top Notch. We met back up at the indoor pool after my spa treatment, and spent an hour in the pool.


On our way back to the room to shower/change for dinner, I started realizing I was having some strange cramping all over my belly. It dawned on me that they might be contractions, so I had Elliot start timing them. In the meantime, we stopped to play a game of croquet on our way back to the room (we weren’t 100% sure of the rules, so we may have invented some). Elliot claims to have won our game . . . . of course, I think he cheated, and when we discounted his treacherous, cheating turn, then I won! Since we couldn’t agree on who won, we called it a draw – but at least we had fun! I have a feeling we are terrible croquet players. Here is a picture of the croquet field, and a few pictures of us playing. You can see our villa just up the hill on the left in the first picture:


In the meantime, I had a few more contractions while we were playing croquet. After Elliot checked his watch, we learned that lo and behold, I was having contractions every 20-25 minutes. I was a bit worried, but I lay down for a bit in the villa, and started drinking water and juice. Unfortunately, that did not seem to slow the contractions down at all. We decided to keep our dinner reservations, keep pumping me with fluid, and then call the midwife if the contractions either increased or failed to stop by the end of dinner. Like clockwork, the contractions continued throughout dinner. I have to say, however, that dinner at Sam Snead’s restaurant at the golf course restaurant was AMAZING!! The bread was delicious, we skipped appetizers, I ordered a wild mushroom crepe that was unbelievable, and we shared a side of boursin cheese mashed potatoes that were heavenly. We almost ordered the snickers pie for dessert, but we were so stuffed! The atmosphere was perfect, and the dinner was so much better than the previous night in the main dining hall. I made sure to eat lots of food, drink tons of water, and I enjoyed another glass of that delicious pinot noir grape juice! We were at the end of dinner, and I was realizing that a phone call to the midwives was imminent. I did remember that alcohol used to be the “standby” to slow/stop contractions, so I decided to have a few sips of Elliot’s wine. I have no idea if it was the wine or coincidence, but I had one more contraction at the 40 minute mark, and then they stopped completely. I can’t tell you how relieved I was! I was so worried during all those hours of contractions. Here was our view of the golf course from dinner – if you look closely, you can see some deer on the edge of the course:




Anyway, with the contractions in check, we decided to head back to the hotel movie theatre for the evening screening of Get Smart. It was cute . . . nothing spectacular, but a pleasant movie. After our movie, we again went straight back to our villa and lit a beautiful fire and spent the rest of the evening planted in front of it!

We woke up again early on Sunday morning and decided to take an early tour of the Congressional bunker they have ensconced under the West Virginia wing of the hotel. It was a fascinating tour! We really learned a lot, and just were amazed by how they hid the bunker in plain sight in the hotel for so many years. For those of you who don’t know, the Greenbrier bunker was the site for Congressional relocation in case of nuclear war. It was designed to be a fallout shelter big enough to house all members of Congress, Congressional staff, and enough hotel staff to serve the bunker for 60 days. Some of the bunker was open to the public for exhibit hall space and meeting rooms.

After the tour, Elliot stopped to do a few putts on the putting green, and then we went for a brunch buffet at the golf course. The food, again, was absolutely amazing! We were disappointed that the snickers pie was not on the buffet . . . we were regretting not seizing that moment the night before!

After lunch, it was time to check out. We packed up our car, checked out, did a few last minute pictures on the property, then went on our way at 1:30 pm. Here is a picture of a beautiful monarch butterfly I saw in the gardens and just couldn’t resist!



Once again, the road signs called to me, and I made Elliot take a detour to see the Natural Bridge on our way home. Here is one of the pics we took there:

It was a beautiful site, and I’m so glad we stopped! We did not arrive at my parents’ house until 7:30, unfortunately, because our detour sucked up a lot of time. We had dinner with my parents, picked up Nugget, then headed home. I was ready for bed about 5 minutes after we got home, but it was truly a wonderful weekend!

It’s all about furniture

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I might just be in the early stages of nesting. I am not sure that I completely understand what nesting is, but if it is this overwhelming urge to get your house and life in order, then I’m nesting. This week, I’ve been making phone calls and appointments, making decisions, and generally trying to clean up both my surroundings and a whole lot of loose ends. Some days, I feel the need to quit my job so I can work on getting my life in order!

As you may know, we are in the process of renovating Elliot’s house, and are hoping to move there in the next few weeks. At present, we have been crammed into my townhouse, and the mess and *stuff* has taken over. I had previously given up any effort at order or cleanliness, because we have been on the verge of moving for 3 months now.

This week, however, I hit my limit. I have been all over Elliot to clean up all the crap that has taken over our lives at my house, and I’ve been all over him to come with me and make decisions about furniture for his house. I think it dawned on me that it can easily take 8-12 weeks to get furniture once we order it, and with that time frame in mind, we’re running out of time before the baby arrives. On Thursday night, we went up to Great Beginnings to look at furniture. We have it narrowed down to 2 possible bedroom sets, but we just can’t decide which of the two. This is definitely progress, however – we do know that we will purchase one of the two sets! The first set I think is far more interesting in terms of wood texture and design, but the second set is a little less expensive and simpler (which a boy might prefer). I’ll post the pictures here for any comments/feedback – but note that the pictures do not necessarily reflect the pieces we are considering:



We also finalized which car seat we intend to purchase, we think we may have decided on a stroller as well, and we narrowed down our bedding options and glider options. Here are the 2 different beddings we are considering:



You would think with these big decisions out of the way, I would relax a bit, right? Of course not! I then felt the need to point out the baby’s room is only ONE room in the house, and we still need to deal with replacing the dining room table Elliot broke (long story short, he thought ironing on the glass table was a good idea – until he left the iron face down on the table and walked away without turning it off – naturally, the glass top splintered, and we do not currently have a functional dining room table), and we need new couches for the living room and the basement rec room. So, Elliot humored me, and today was furniture shopping day. We went to Marlo and Top Drawer (and we will be hitting Crate and Barrel tomorrow) and I think we have it narrowed down to 2 different couches – one from Top Drawer, and one from Crate and Barrel. We need to figure out exactly which pieces will fit in the living room, and the best shape for the basement rec room, but we think we are all set in our selections. We also found a new glass table top at Top Drawer that we can purchase to replace the broken one.

Not bad for a weekend, right? I am hoping to order the couches this week, and then I’ll focus on accessories (we’ll need a new coffee table, a plant stand, perhaps a filing cabinet and some storage shelves, and I’d like to get a storage bench with a cushion to serve as a window seat in a few of the house’s alcove areas). So . . . I’d say we are making progress! If we can just get them to install the toilets and finish the cabinets and lighting, we could actually start the process of moving!

Big ultrasound!!!

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Yesterday was our “big” ultrasound! It was also my father’s 65th birthday! We have been so excited, but we were convinced this baby would not be cooperative and would refuse to show us the goods. Well, it turns out, this baby decided to cooperate!

First, the ultrasound was great. Our technician was so wonderful. The baby was jumping and moving all over the place! I can’t believe how much movement I’m NOT feeling yet. All of the measurements were right on . . . right size, heart looking good, kidneys/stomach all perfect, lovely looking spine – just perfect! They estimated the baby might be about 1 day ahead of schedule, but essentially, no reason to change my expected due date!

So, here are some beautiful shots of the baby . . .

Profile pics:


Apparently, the baby already has a sense of humor – here is a scary skull face shot that just creeps me out:

And now . . . drumroll please . . . . the “money” shot:


Yes,

We’re thrilled! I’m sure one day our son will hate us because we have already posted his first penis picture on the internet! We have no idea what we are going to do for a name (and we don’t plan on sharing before he is born) but we are so excited!! After we found out the news, we drove straight to my parents’ house. Jeremy and the girls were there to wish my father a happy birthday. We decided to share the news in a truly classy way . . . we asked who was in the mood for franks and beans for dinner. We shared the pictures, and then Jeremy headed home with the girls. Mom, Dad, Elliot & I went to the Prime Rib for dinner (thanks Heather & Brad!) and it was a perfect night.

We learned even more good news today . . . my cousin Jodi got engaged last night (congratulations!!) and our friends Niki and Eric had their little girl – 7 lbs 5 ozs, mother & baby both doing well! All-in-all, it has been a great couple of days!