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[ add comment ]okay, i'm excited
February 28, 2005, 5:28 pm
In the midst of a beautiful snow storm I finally got officially excited for this whole event to happen. We had a fancy 4D ultrasound today and got to see the baby smile and suck his hand and suck his fingers and open his eyes and laugh and scream and dart to and fro as much as he can in his tight quarters. I am afraid to say, however, that our darling baby boy does resemble an old wrinkly man. Here he is taking after his father and either screaming or laughing really hard:;)
I was then given a "Non Stress Test" where they monitor the baby's heart rate for 20 minutes. Everything was completely normal and fine, and apparently I was having contractions all through them though I felt nothing. The baby is eight pounds right now, as best as they can tell.
My doctor wanted to be sure I knew how to reach her in case I go into official labor tonight. It suddenly feels like this is about to happen, but you never know. Max is definitely acting differently today ... he is staring at me VERY suspiciously and refusing to take part in all my hilarious games that I'm desperately inventing to get a rise out of him.
There are a couple more pictures of our Old Man Fetus on the Photos page.
[ 33 comments ] ( 135 views )
sleep talker
February 26, 2005, 1:07 pm
Now that the famous due date is just three days away I am finding myself trying to answer the questions, "How are you feeling?" and "Are you excited?" about 100 times a day. So I thought I would answer here. I am feeling fine! I just can't sleep and I can't feel my fingers, but otherwise I really am feeling pretty normal. And I don't know if I would say I'm excited. I'm feeling pretty calm and patient about the whole thing. I'm definitely not excited to check into the hospital and have all that stuff happen, but I am extremely looking forward to meeting our baby. And I'm finding myself imagining him here in our apartment more and more lately, and that makes me smile. But excited sounds like the wrong word. I guess it's a more peaceful feeling than that.Now I would like to tell you a funny Troy story. I know, I know, this blog should be called the Troy Blog with all the things I am writing about him lately. But really, he is a delightful person to live with and nearly everyday makes me laugh so hard I am afaid I will give birth right then and there. Well, Troy is a very deep sleeper and he can fall asleep with no warning, which is the opposite of me and really isn't fair. Lately he's taken to reading me Shakespearean sonnets to help me fall asleep because they're so boring. Last night he began reading and I kept noticing long dramatic pauses. I would look up and realize he had fallen asleep while in a sitting up position. I would yell at him and then he would jump and continue reading as if he had never stopped. After about the fifth time I finally gave up and let the poor guy go to sleep. About 15 minutes later he began sleep talking, which he does a lot. In a very old-man voice he loudly growled, "THE ONLY HURT IS PRIDE!" and he pronounced "pride" kind of like "proid." There was a bit of a Cockney accent going on there. Then about ten minutes later he giggled really sweetly like a little girl and shouted a name like "Louisa." So basically he completely failed at putting me to sleep last night AND he kept me up with all his ramblings.
But he really is a very sweet husband. [ 24 comments ] ( 78 views )
my night time game
February 24, 2005, 5:07 pm
I have to confess that sometimes when I'm lying awake in the middle of the night unable to sleep because of my large tummy and my shrinking bladder I imagine hitting Troy urgently and saying, 'It's time!" just to see what he'd do. I'm sure his response would be very funny because he is a deep sleeper and when you wake him up it's very creepy. Either he is super dramatic and puts his hand over his face as if he's been shot OR he acts like he's been awake all along and attempts to continue the conversation he thinks we've been having. So if I did this mean trick I imagine he would jump out of the bed in a frantic hurry and probably fall down and hurt himself.You see what happens when you can't sleep? [ 9 comments ] ( 56 views )
birthday
February 22, 2005, 3:29 pm
Today at my 39 week appointment we scheduled a day to be induced just in case he doesn't come on his own. That means that his birthday will be March 7th, which would mean he'd be a week past his due date. Now chances are he will come sooner than that, but if not ... mark your calendars!Okay, so that gives us two more weeks of rest ... [ 7 comments ] ( 94 views )
parenting degrees
February 19, 2005, 7:03 pm
We are officially ready to become parents. We know how to breathe while in labor and we know how to push, we know how to swaddle the baby and how to cut his nails and suction his snot and bathe him and breastfeed him and take care of his circumsized penis (I'm not kidding when I say he just did an extra hard kick as I typed that last thing), we know how to save his life if he's choking and we know how to perform CPR on his little body. We know how to switch him from our dominant hand to our non-dominant hand (see Troy's picture on previous blog entry). We have a crib and a car seat and a dresser full of some of the cutest outfits you ever saw. We have painted his room and decorated it with precious things and necessary things, and we have enough little Huggies to last 175 newborns several months. We have picked his pediatrician and we have her beeper number, and we have alerted our health insurance that a new addition will be arriving soon. Yesterday was my last day at work. I have my suitcase packed and emergency numbers handy, and our cell phones and digital camera are all charged up. Whew!Today was the final day we wanted to get through before his birth, as it was our Infant and Child CPR class. When it was over we both let out a sigh of relief, followed by a panic attack.
We know we SHOULD feel ready, but let's face it ... this is terrifying.[ 7 comments ] ( 88 views )
website update
February 16, 2005, 11:00 pm
I just wanted to inform you faithful blog friends that the Photos page has several new pictures on it (including Troy in that apron Rosie made him) and my last pregnancy essay ever is on the Words page. I can only imagine how many parenthood essays will eventually end up on there ...[ 4 comments ] ( 67 views )
scary class
February 14, 2005, 8:55 pm
Today we had our childcare class where we were kind of taught how to bathe our baby. We had the world's craziest, most aggressive teacher who kept tricking us by asking questions she knew we wouldn't know the answers to. She'd have someone answer incorrectly (once it was poor Troy!) and she'd get this evil smile on her face and shout, "Nope! That's wrong!" Troy's imitation of her has almost made me wet my pants so many times that I've had to ask him to stop. Anyway, here's Troy awkwardly trying to obey her demands to hold the baby in various positions. If he looks scared, it's because he is. This teacher was frightening!;)
[ 5 comments ] ( 81 views )baby dream by troy
February 13, 2005, 10:09 pm
I dreamt about our baby.I haven't had any baby dreams during the pregnancy and it was kind of starting to bother me. Now that I've finally had one, I'm not sure what to think...
I dreamt our baby was a big blue crayon. It was rounded off from lots of coloring and the paper was peeled back. His name was printed on the side where it would normally say, blue. I held it in my hands and looked down at the crayon with such joy and happiness. I woke up almost blissful.
A blue crayon.
Analysis anyone?
[ 9 comments ] ( 63 views )
an awkward day for troy
February 8, 2005, 11:17 pm
I know this is very unusual for me to write a second blog entry on the same day, but I can't help myself. I have to write about Troy's exciting adventure today. I wish you all had a Troy to make you laugh when you're in a public place by yourself ... oh, the crazy situations he gets himself into!I was leaving work and on my way to meet said Troy at our 3:45 doctor's appointment when I realized he had left me a couple messages on my cell phone. Both messages wanted me to know that he was absolutely fine but that he had been involved in a bit of an accident which involved fire and that he had lost some hair on his head and his eyebrow. But I shouldn't worry. He was fine and was just going to be late to the doctor's. Late and with a little less hair.
So he showed up and indeed looked different. The left side of his head was missing a considerable amount of hair, as was his left eyebrow and some of his eyelashes. His neck was very red and burnt. Turns out he was helping a woman in the kitchen at church and misunderstood her, causing him to put his head in an oven and light a match. The oven, however, was on and thus a large fireball flew out of the oven and attacked him. (You can refer to a previous blog entry which starred Troy pouring rubbing alcohol down my ear and almost killing me, and this will make you appreciate how dangerous of a life he leads.)
The worst thing was that someone put vinegar all over his burnt parts in order to make the sting go away. Between the vinegar and the burnt hair, he smelled exactly like a homeless man. Plus he looked like one. He grabbed some yellow smiley face frozen thingies from our freezer that my mom gave us and rode the subway with them pressed against his neck listening to his U2 iPod. Apparently someone got up and moved away from him because he stunk and looked so bad.
He showed up at our appt. and my doctor had to spend equal time with him making sure his burn was okay. He was looked at by a gynecologist. I was like, "Hello? 37 weeks pregnant over here! Full term!" She gave him some medicine which he then rubbed all over his face and neck, making him look even more sickening. The smell only got worse with time. What a way to spend our last Lamaze class! I told our teacher so she wouldn't be scared of him and of course she gave him lots of love and attention, as did several other preggers ladies. He just stood there smiling humbly and shaking his head.
I made him take a long shower once we got home and begged him to use as many of my bubble bath type products as possible. He does smell a little better and his neck is almost totally back to normal. I had a nice talk with him and gently explained that although I'm getting all the attention these days he shouldn't go and stick his head in an oven and light a match.
;)
[ 28 comments ] ( 99 views )big day
February 8, 2005, 9:23 am
Today is kind of a big one as I am now 37 weeks pregnant which they consider full term. Also today my doctor checks to see if he is head down. I'm sorry I'm using so many big words. You see, I've practically got a Masters of Pregnancy degree now, what with all the classes I've been taking. I will now go down to your level and explain all my high falootin' language. Being full term means that if the baby is born today he should be totally healthy and able to function just fine. He would not be considered premature. Now of course he could also be born five whole weeks from now and that would be normal, too. But as of today I am three weeks till the due date. My sister Jeni had both of her babies before the 38 week mark, and my friend Shannon likes to fantasize that because Jeni and I are related this will be my fate, too. My ESP mother, however, believes he will be late. And at this point he has run out of room inside of me and so should be in the position he will remain in until birth. Ideally this is head down. If he is not head down then we discuss c-section or the doctor turning him herself which makes me kind of squirm around in my seat.Last night at Breastfeeding Class we learned that newborn's tummies are the size of a ping pong ball. Tonight is our last Lamaze Class. Childcare Class and Infant & Child CPR classes are coming up. Someone give me a diploma or something! Troy is a much better student than me. He takes lots of notes and asks 90 percent of all the questions in the class. I was sure this would not be the case last night, but no, he kept asking personal breastfeeding type questions. The teachers always have little crushes on him I think.[ 7 comments ] ( 79 views )