Maternity portraits

Here are a handful of my maternity portraits. Done by Emily Witkowski http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Beautiful-Life-Photography/153725851330824

Click on the image and it should pull up a larger view.

Almost done!

We thought we should do a 38 week picture just in case I don't go to 40 weeks...although we really don't expect baby until 41 weeks.

Other than that, not much is new. Baby and I are both doing great, and we have everything all set and ready for the birth. I feel great, and I'm not tired of being pregnant, but I'm impatient because I'm anxious to meet this little person!

12 x 3 = Me!

36 weeks already! At this point, baby is about 19 inches long and weighs around 6lbs. Now is when it's time to start bulking up and building fat layers, so s/he could gain about an ounce a day.

Our midwife visit yesterday was great! Baby is engaged and nestled into my pelvis nice and low, so the odds of kiddo flipping breech are small. Head down is only half the story, but Baby has also been persistently anterior, so I'm not as concerned with a posterior birth as I was. I will still be doing my OFP routine to make sure baby stays that way! :o)

All the banana peppers stuffed with cream cheese seem to have been doing their job, as in two weeks I've gotten 4 cm bigger. This is by far the most active baby I've ever had, and the kicks, stretches, and squirming has been a source of delight for the whole family.

I've got a few things left to order, and then we'll have everything ready for the birth. Although I still don't realistically expect baby for at least another 4 1/2 to 5 weeks, anytime after 37 is fair game, so our midwife likes her clients to be prepared just in case!

Woo-Hoo!!

Joe was told by the HR gal at his office yesterday that the insurance WILL cover our homebirth! YAY!!! I guess she talked to the two really "big dogs" at the office and part of the reason is they decided it was crummy to switch the policy in the middle of my pregnancy, and basically yank the rug out from under us. It's unclear if they'll cover homebirths in the future, but as long as we know ahead of time if they won't, we can plan accordingly. No, that does not mean we're planning another baby after this one, but it's good to know anyway.

Prenatal appointment was great yesterday. Baby was measuring right on track, and as I suspected, has finally flipped vertex. Now I just have to keep the bugger from going posterior on me. I'm 30.5 weeks now, so baby is opening and closing eyes, sees light, can distinguish sounds, and weighs somewhere around 3 lbs. So the next time you're in the meat department, find a rump roast that's about three pounds and stick it in your pants to see what it feels like to lug that around...okay...don't really stick it in your pants, you might get in trouble.

I'm feeling pretty darn good, as is typical for me and my pregnancies. The only thing I'm not digging right now is the addition to the front portion of my braces. They are really pretty painful right now, and I kind of wish I could get to be unconscious for the next couple of days until my mouth adjusts. Once again, if you're considering braces and pregnancy at the same time, DON'T DO IT!!

The boys have been enjoying the tennis program through our park district for the last month. Zack was bored out of his mind with playing t-ball last year, so we decided to put Dom and him in tennis this time. Today is their last session, so we're going to start taking them to the park and hitting balls around...they have this short little rackets, and it's so funny to see them dashing all over the court. Mia is in a program where they play different sport every week, and that just started. She wasn't at all interested in hockey last week (and it was cloudy, wet, and cold), so we only stayed for about 10 minutes. I'm hoping her second session on Friday goes better!

If you're on Facebook, you've already seen these pictures, but I thought I'd post them for those who haven't.

Yes, she fell asleep this way...We had to move the bird feeder thanks to this little guy...

The kids after Zack's first Cub Scout rocket launch.

This pregnancy seems to be flying by! I'm 24 weeks now, and am boggled at how fast this seems to be going.

Baby is about 11.5 inches tall, and weighs around 1.3 lbs. S/he is considered "viable" at this point, so if they were born today, there is a 36% chance they could survive. I don't plan on testing that theory. Ears are done, fingernails are done, and eyelids are clearly visible, although fused shut. Baby is developing taste buds, and apparently can taste what I eat...again, something new I learned this pregnancy. His or her eyeballs are also totally formed, although the iris is apparently colorless at this point.

We're all completely enjoying the baby acrobatics that are happening right now. The kids love to watch my belly "bubble" when the baby flips and trying to feel them move and kick. By my next update (around 28 weeks) baby will probably be too big to be flipping and rolling in there, so I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can.

This pregnancy has me once again knocking around the idea of becoming a Childbirth Educator. I've yet to determine what approach I'd want to teach, since I've used more than one. Given my passion for birth, and increasing awareness of birthing women's rights, I know I'd enjoy it. I also think I'd be pretty good at it. Maybe someday I'll become a doula, but those kinds of hours don't appeal to me with having young and homeschooled kids. So for now, I'm going to look into training next year and being able to make a schedule that would fit our family.

Over halfway done...

I'm 21 weeks already! Yes the picture is from last weekend...sue me.

At this point, in yet another confusing aspect of obstetrics, they no longer measure baby from head to butt, they measure from head to heel. So Baby is about 10.5 inches right now. That's only about 1/2 inch difference from 19 weeks, but baby has been bulking up as opposed to getting longer. Kiddo weighs somewhere around 12 oz and my belly has gone from 17 cm to 22 in the last month, which my midwife said is great growth. Baby's digestive system is fully functioning now, and s/he is swallowing and eliminating amniotic fluid now...at least it's all sterile! As for looks, s/he is basically a mini version of what they'll look like at birth. All traces of "alien" are gone...we hope.

I can say this kid is a bit of an acrobat. I get feel kicks and squirmies all day, and am enjoying it immensely. The kids have gotten to feel a kick here and there, and since they know the baby can hear, they've starting having conversations with my belly. Zack has described in great detail the tour of the house he will give the baby once s/he is born. :o)

Once out of the first trimester, I really do enjoy being pregnant. I (praise God) do not have difficult pregnancies, and am just trying to remember to enjoy these moments as they are going to be over sooner than I think!

We're still waiting to find out what the new insurance situation is going to be...hopefully that will be resolved soon and I can have one less stress to worry about!

19 weeks

So I'm almost halfway there...it's pretty strange to think about that, actually.

At 19 weeks the baby is about 6 inches from crown to rump, or 10 inches from head to toe. Hair is growing, and if we were having an ultrasound, we'd be able to tell if it was a boy or girl. Teeth buds are developing, and if it is a girl, she'd already have 6 million eggs in her ovaries...although from what I've read, about 2 million will disappear before birth. I'm curious as to why, but I'm not curious enough to explore Google to find out. Apparently this is also the point where the baby starts producing poop. This just goes to show you learn something new all the time. In four pregnancies, I never knew that. I kind of thought it was later, but it makes sense as this is the time the baby begins to digest amniotic fluid. I also found it interesting that on three of the four websites I looked at to get the info for this paragraph, the authors felt this was important enough information to include it...some of them going into great detail, which I will spare you.

We did get some frustrating, and potentially costly, news this week, and that is that Joe's company is changing insurance carriers starting in May. The new one does not cover home as a place of birth (unlike the insurance we have now). The new insurance will cover licensed midwives in birth centers, but I have absolutely no desire to drive anywhere while in labor, and it would be at least 1/2 hour to get to one. We're hoping our midwife's new billing service (which she is signing up with in the next couple of weeks we think) will be able to work some magic and get them to cover it. Right now we're left waiting until she meets with them and they contact the insurance company. Oh, and the cherry on top is our chiropracter, whom we've been seeing for three years, is not in their network either.

I'm feeling fine, although feeling much bigger than the pictures of the typical 19 weeker I see. My energy level is getting better, and I think I'm starting to nest really early this time. Decluttering has been going off and on for about two weeks...except the basement. I haven't had the gumption to go down there yet. The baby is pretty active and I can feel him/her multiple times a day. It's been so long since I've been this pregnant that I'd forgotten what it feels like. It seems like there is so much going on, I've had to force myself several times to just sit and enjoy feeling the baby moving around for a few minutes.

The weather is getting warmer, the kids and I are getting more time outside, and we're all almost completely healthy. All in all, things are pretty good with us right now, and I hope it stays that way. :o)