Blame the Pleats

Here is another of the famous self-portraits of me sitting at my desk, looking down at the beach ball, I mean belly.  For some reason today struck me as looking rather large, so I'm blaming the pleats on the dress.  I mean, I don't like to wear pleated pants due to the effect on my hips, so I figure it must be the pleats on the dress that make me look large :)

I did hear from a couple of students that I had a cute pregnant belly (keep those types of comments coming!) and since I'm not teaching this school year it couldn't have even been hopes of a good grade that made them say it!  Same with the girl today who said I didn't look that big for being just 6 or so weeks away from my due date (bless her, she even said it with a straight face!).

All was good at the 33 week checkup this week, just plugging along, growing, gaining weight, good heartbeat.  I keep hearing Dory from Finding Nemo in my head now "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" when I think about the next few weeks.

Baby Monkey got to go to his first college football game on Saturday, and it was a FABULOUS day to be a Spartan!  Jay and I, his parents and sister made the trek to Iowa City to watch my Michigan State Spartans play the Iowa Hawkeyes.  We tailgated (check out the awesome can of O'Douls I'm holding) before and after the game and had a great time (even if the hormone monster might have made a slight appearance when it came to picking the parking spot...luckily both it and the pouting was short lived).  Best of all, for the first time in ten years, I was present for a Spartan Victory!  A perfect first game for Baby Z...not that Jay agrees with that opinion!  Below is our crew...despite the scarves, it really was just perfect weather for football, especially for mid-November.

The Karate Kid

Halloween 2011 was probably one of my more tame holidays, particularly for a year in which we had a fabulous party to attend.  Jay and I were a team this year, reaching back to the good old days of the 1980s for inspiration, to the classic Karate Kid.  This was right before I stole his move and swept the legs ;)

Let me tell you, there's nothing like feeling you are wearing a robe or pajamas to have a comfortable Halloween costume!  I think the costume however, has given Baby Monkey some ideas, as it feels like he is practicing for his black belt in there some days.  No internal organ or nerve is safe from those feet, fists, knees or elbows!

Halloween Day was also my 31 week appointment, where again all was well.  We measured right on track, had a good heartbeat and were reassured that all those lovely weird things occurring to my body were "normal".  We also got to talk to the doctor a bit more about planning and timing and the concerns we're watching for related to the lupus.  At this point, other than the next regularly scheduled appointments at 33 and 35 weeks, we're going to do some testing at week 36 that will give an even better indication if all is going well there on the inside.  If it is, then they are tentatively planning to have me proceed along to week 39 and induce somewhere between the 27th and 31st of December.  there's a lot of factors that will play into that whole decision, but that's sort of the overall plan at this point.  Baby Z might have his own plan though, which could trump all of this :)

Hard to believe though there's less than 2 months before the due date, and with the holidays, this time is bound to fly by!

And one last picture for this post, tomorrow we are headed to Iowa City for the big Michigan State/Iowa football game!  Time to instruct Baby Monkey on the proper way to tailgate, and of course, to ensure he knows which of these two teams is the RIGHT team to cheer for!  Go Green!

Hungry Belly

It's official.  My belly has now swallowed my hand when I take the sitting down belly shot.  Not only have I lost my toes, but now my hand as well :)

Baby Z seems to be growing about on schedule. I had an appointment last week where we were back to measuring roughly right on track (30 cm at 29 weeks) and heartbeat was good as well, between 146-148.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that means no giant baby!  Other than the typical aches and pains and "fun" of pregnancy (swollen ankles, fatigue, etc.), things are going quite well and I really can't complain!

It's hard to believe that 30 weeks have passed already!  It's going to be time for his arrival before we know it.  I had my last real travel trip last week, when I attended a conference in Texas.  I'm glad I went, and it was a great few days, but wow do I tire quickly.  I have to say I'm glad that I'll be sticking closer to home these next few months and not dealing with airports and airplanes and all that fun for a while.

What's Missing In This Photo...

Here's a picture I took just now at work, me standing up and looking down.  Something seems missing though...oh what could it be?!  Oh, I know, MY FEET!  I have to admit, I gave up seeing those on a regular basis a while ago now. If I look down as I walk, I can sometimes catch a glimpse.  Now I just need to hope I can actually put on socks and shoes that match without being able to check!  If you see me and I don't match, you'll know why.

Last weekend I thought I'd be good and paint my toenails since it was sandal weather and I was trying to look good for my shower...that was just a comedy of errors.  I've never had so much nail polish all over my toes!  For the next few months, I do believe that a pedicure or two is going to need to happen.  In the meantime, I'll just be glad that it's starting to cool down a bit and the sandals can maybe be put away until next year... 

Sugar High

Happy Third Trimester!  No matter which book I read, 28 weeks is officially within that last third of the pregnancy range.  I posted a few pictures from last week in the album...if I can get decent pictures I may try to take one or two each week from here on out just to see how much things change so quickly.

Last week I had the last of my monthly appointments...for the next few weeks I go every two weeks, then weekly.  Baby Z's heartbeat was good at 140 and my vitals were good...and then it came time to measure. Using a good old tapemeasure, the doctor measures "the bump"  - actually the fundal height, which is the distance from your pubic bone to the top of your uterus.  On average, you measure about the same number of centimeters as the number of weeks you are.  I was first measured at 23 weeks and was at 24 cm...so pretty close.  This month, however, at 27 weeks I measured 31 cm!  There's a host of reasons for measuring big...it could be a big baby, he could be in some weird position, there could be a lot of fluid, hard to say.  BabyCenter says one potential cause is "You have looser abdominal muscles than most women."  While depressing to think about, that has potential, as I wasn't exactly rocking the 6-pack-abs prior to April!  Odds are if I measure that much ahead at my appointment on the 17th they'll check things out with another ultrasound.

The "fun" part of the week was the glucose screening and testing.  Oh joy.  I had the screening on Monday, which was not a great day for me to have my blood sugar tested as we celebrated a birthday that morning at work with cupcakes :)  Needless to say, Jennie did NOT pass the screening (scored 150 and needed to be below 140).  That meant I got to spend 3 hours in the lab on Wednesday doing the full glucose test.  This involved 12 hours of fasting, with only sips of water, followed by arriving at the lab and getting a fasting blood test, drinking the fabulously horrible sugar solution and then having blood drawn once an hour for three hours.  By the time the whole thing was done I took down a bottle of water in about 2 minutes flat...16 hours of fasting is not my idea of a good time.  And I learned that you see quite the interesting assortment of people who come in and out of the lab over that long a period of time!  Other than some lovely bruises from the blood draws, the testing seems to have gone well and the nurse said Thursday that as far as she could tell, the numbers looked within the normal range.  That was excellent news, as I do love to at least have the option to eat whatever sounds good (including cake from the fabulous baby showers last week!).  To celebrate, I ate a Starburst :)

Week 26

We are in the last week of the second trimester, according to my handy week-by-week book, which means Baby Monkey is about 2/3 done being incubated!  Here's a "from my view" belly shot taken while sitting at my desk today.  The thing that struck me is that you can *barely* see my hand there under the bump.  Wowsa.

I was lucky that in talking to friends and family, there wasn't too much I wasn't at least aware of when it came to all the "fun" things that come along with pregnancy.  I have to say that two things were/are a bit more extreme than I expected.

1 - Sleep.  Oh sleep, how do I miss, thee, let me count the ways.  I haven't really slept well or much since about the time I found out I was expecting.  First trimester is was this sort of random insomnia (joy) and second trimester has been pain/discomfort making sleep elusive.  I work my way through the bed, the couch and the recliner at various points throughout the week (and sometimes all three in one night).  The whole "it's good practice for when the baby comes" thing might be true, but I sort of though that I'd at least be able to get a FEW good nights sleep before the Monkey arrives.  Silly me.

2 - Heat.  I joke about being an incubator for the baby, but little did I know that I'd heat up like an incubator too!  I'm always the cold one in our house.  Hate using the air, bundled under a blanket in the basement in the summer, multiple layers in the winter, that's me.  Lately though, it's a bit of a role reversal.  Even the dog is now curling up next to me at night because I'm throwing off the most heat.  It's a bit ridiculous how warm I am.  I'm breaking out in a sweat, Jay's under a blanket he's so cold.  The incubator joke is more reality than fiction.

Oh, and a third bonus one - the kid is already turning my hair gray!  I thought I had a few years before the stress would get to me, but apparently now.  Luckily, my hair is still light enough that the gray hairs still look blond, but with close inspection you can see the difference.  I'm already planning an excursion after the first of the year to cover those pesky hairs up, along with any others that might want to appear in the next few months!

Baby Z...the Prequel

Hello friends and family!  Welcome to Baby Z's blog...or at least the blog where we'll talk about Baby Z and all things related.  As I write this, we are officially 25 weeks and 6 days along in this 40 week pregnancy.  I find the whole process fascinating, but I have to say, 40 weeks is seeming like a long time!

Our current adventure started Easter Sunday, which was when we first found out we were expecting.  My first appointment with the doctor was at 6 weeks, where Baby Z was confirmed, we heard a bit of a heartbeat, and found out our due date was January 1, 2012.  No Rose Bowl for us this year!  Because I'm considered high risk due to the lupus, I went back at 8 and 11 weeks also.  Ultrasounds at both showed good heartbeats and growth and that all was looking as it should.  It's amazing to look at the photos from each of those and see how quickly things change in there!

Shortly after the 11 week appointment, Baby Z was nicknamed Baby Monkey by our 3-year-old niece.  It stuck, which was ok since it was pretty gender neutral.  Since all was going well, I got put on the typical 4-week appointment rotation and have been on that for the last few months.  Our next (and most recent) ultrasound was at 19 weeks, which was doubly fun since Mom and Dad were there to see their first grandchild as well.  At that appointment Baby Z was NOT shy about showing the "goods" and we learned that Baby Z will be a boy...or at least that's how it certainly appears!

Overall, the past 6 months or so have gone pretty well.  The first trimester was...the first trimester.  Pretty much 24/7 nausea and the all-encompassing fatigue, but nothing that wasn't at least manageable (or out of the ordinary).  Things got better with the second trimester, I started gaining weight (hello belly!) and moved out of the extreme fatigue into just easily worn out.  I'm moving now into the somewhat-uncomfortable phase when it comes to the back and hips.  Apparently, I was not designed to sleep on my side.  My hips kill me, even with the small fortress of pillows I've started to use.  Between my fortress and the dog, poor Jay is getting the squeeze!

That essentially gets us up to our current point!  I'll try to post some photos and updates as we go along, and then of course even more once we actually have a little one to show off.