Friday, September 30, 2011

24 Weeks

Had my midwife appointment today. I met with Tanya who seems very nice. At the "meet the midwives" she seemed the most doctory of all the midwives and that came through again a bit today but nowhere near as doctory as the doctors.

I told her about our Doula and then asked about him being breech. She said right now it's hard to tell what position he's in but around week 34 they'll be able to tell and that's also when they can start trying to get him to flip around.

I realized I forgot to mention that my regular doctor had told me I have a heart murmur when they were taking my history at the last appointment. So I told her that. And since I've never had any other kind of tests about it she is referring me to a cardiologist. My doctor made it seem like it's not a big deal but I guess she wants to be sure.

My blood pressure was well within a normal range today. But I've been keeping track of it since just before I got pregnant and noticed that it's been going up. So I brought that up and showed her my notes. We talked about what would happen if I get preeclampsia again. If I get it before or after full term, if it's severe or mild, no matter what combo, they would just end up inducing me. So I'm hoping to avoid that but at least I know now. I guess if it is going to happen I'll want to discuss how to make it less awful this time around, if that's even possible.
As for right now I have an appointment to go back in two weeks just to check my blood pressure.

I think she thought I was worried so that's why she had me make the BP appointment and gave me the referral for the cardiologist. At least that's what I hope.

Bean is a little over a pound and almost a foot long. His skin is still translucent and he's developing taste buds. My soccer ball sized uterus measured 24 weeks perfectly today and his heart rate was 156 which she said was great since he was kicking.
So he's good at least!

I've gained 9 pounds according to their scale. But I also started wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers. Our scale has a slightly more reasonable number usually around 5 pounds. So that would put me at either 11 or 7 pounds gained total.

Pretty big week in all sorts of ways.

She's walking!

Kaida started walking everywhere last Friday. She just stopped crawling and cruising everywhere and started walking instead. No idea why. It's pretty cute the way she toddles around though.

She showed off for Grandmom on Saturday at Aunt Jamie's house. And she was pretty fascinated when Melanie started running around. She was definitely interested in joining in.

She's gotten a lot better at it in just a week but I still hold her hand when we're walking on hard or uneven surfaces.

It's funny how she's gotten worse at other things that require balance since she started walking. She keeps falling over when she sits. Just out of nowhere she'll topple over. This has unfortunately happened while she was sitting on the couch so she fell off... twice. She's also falling from standing too. I guess she's just too busy to think about it. Silly toddler.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Out for a Walk

Kaida and I went out for a walk this afternoon.

First we walked on the grass around the side of the house. The dogs across the street were barking at the lady from the gas company so we talked about Dogs the whole time we were walking. Then she noticed her swing so we went right over to it to swing for a little while.

After we were done swinging we came back to the front of the house and went up the sidewalk. Or we started to but then she noticed Gin sitting sad and lonely inside the door. So she went over and banged on the door for a little bit.

Once I managed to get her headed up the sidewalk we went out into the street and (after a quick inspection of the garbage can) walked as far as the other side of Dave's half of the driveway. She decided that was far enough so we turned around and walked the other way.

Then we walked all the way to Dave and Holly's house. Kaida was fascinated by Holly's car and kept trying to touch it. We wandered around by the corner for a little while and then she found a rock. We brought it home with us. When we got to the porch we let Gin out and she put the rock in the recycling bin.

After a couple minutes everyone wanted to go back inside (there was a car making a scary noise).

Thursday, September 22, 2011

23 Weeks

Bean is 23 weeks gestation this week. We really need to get a name on this kid. But today we were reminded that our front runner is what JR's cousin named their son. Doh!

Bean is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. I've been thinking that I look a lot bigger this last week or so. I guess other people agree, two other mothers congratulated me at gymboree on Wednesday. I think they think we're a little crazy but so do I so that's ok.

The e-mail says that his ears are getting better at picking up sounds. This evening Kaida was making a ton of noise while she was playing and he kept jumping around in my belly.

I have the glucose test and a midwife appointment next week. I need to ask about him being breech. He was at the ultrasound so if he hasn't flipped, or doesn't get around to it by the time we're getting close I want to know what our options are.

We met our Doula this week too. Well, I kind of met her at the meet the doulas night but JR hadn't. She seems really nice. She was a little distracted because she got a call from a mom who went into labor early on during our meeting. She seems like she's a lot more our style than Monique was. Monique was very holistic to the point of being crunchy. This Doula seemed to be pretty in sync with us. So hey, having Monique was great, having this Doula should be fantastic!

We still have a ton of stuff to do to get Kaida moved into her room. And I have a huge list of stuff we need to get before he arrives. Luckily the consignment sale at church is this weekend so I should be able to get some of it there!

Kaida Can!

Here she is on stage with her microphone doing a little song and dance routine.



She's started walking around a lot more. Still just short distances but at least we don't have to force her to do it anymore.

She can point to her nose. Well at least the vicinity of it. Sometimes she hits it right on. I think she might have learned the sign for "All Done". It looks nothing like the way I do it but we'll see if she starts using it when she's finished eating. I'm also trying to teach her "more" and "please". She keeps bringing me toys to turn on for her so I'm trying to get her to either sign or say please.

When the dogs across the street bark she says Dog. Sounds a lot like Duck. We keep trying to get her to say Kaida but she gets distracted by the Da-Da part of it. If you say Good job! she claps. It's hilarious.

And here she attempts peek-a-boo with just her hands. Normally she has a blanket or towel to cover her eyes with.




I think we need to work on that one a little.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Cute things my baby does

Uses everything as a phone: phones, play phones, pens, shoes. You name it she's holding it to her ear to have a conversation.

The other day we were walking up the stairs when she dropped her kitchen phone. She made a little "oh my goodness!" noise and then she picked it up.

When she picked it up it rang so she put it to her ear to answer it.

She carried around JR's tools today just looking for something that needed to be repaired.

She's started bringing her blankie with her after she wakes up. And she knows that the extra blankie is in the drawer so sometimes she gets that one out too.

She combs or brushes her hair. Usually the comb or brush is upside down or flat against her head so there's no actual hair movement but she tries it all the same.

She can get on Mr. Ed and rock him all by herself.

Tries to blow out the candles on her toy birthday cake, but only when the song tells her to.

Today she lifted the paint cans that are in her big girl room and tried to put them in the bottom drawer of her dresser. She wasn't quite tall enough to heave them over the lip so she needed a little help. This one was maybe a little more strange than cute.

Fun Foods She's Been Eating:
Meatloaf
Bacon
Peanut Butter (the natural kind)
Grilled Cheese
Eggs
Stuffing

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Kaida Walks!

Seems like she's ready to make the switch from crawler to walker.



She took seven steps from me to Grammy over the weekend. And she would do 3 or 4 from Grammy to the rocker or table.

Yesterday she got up to standing from sitting on the ground which is the first time she'd done that too.

Today she started walking on her own without us having to push her to try it!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

20 Weeks

20 Weeks today. That's the halfway mark. But January still seems pretty far away.

Bean should be about 10.5 ounces and 10 inches from head to heel. 6.5 inches from head to rump.

I had my first appointment with the midwives yesterday. I met with Laura the midwife. She actually took us on the hospital tour when we went to meet the midwives. The doctors never sent my records down to the midwives which is annoying. But I signed a release so they can get them now.

The receptionist was way nicer than the doctor's receptionist. There's a TV in the waiting room. And they seem more relaxed. We went to a consult room first to do my history and then when the midwife came in we just stayed there for the exam rather than packing all of Kaida's stuff back up and moving to an exam room.

Bean seems fine, his heart rate was in the 150s. Kaida screamed for that part. I'm not sure if it was because it was nap time, she didn't like the midwife touching me, or if she didn't like the equipment. I might try to find a baby sitter for my next appointment since it will be the glucose test and will take a while.

Laura ordered the glucose test for me and she also ordered a creatinine blood test. That one tests kidney function. I believe she said it was to get a baseline for me. I guess if my blood pressure starts going up again they can do another creatinine test and compare it to this one to see what's going on more specifically.

I have now gained weight! I am up two pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. Since I lost 4 pounds in the beginning it's really like I've gained 6 total (5 since my last appointment). I thought it was stressfull to gain weight fast but I think it's more stressfull to not gain weight at all.
Other than that my hips disappeared this past week, I'm feeling a little less mobile, and a little more tired. Not as tired as in the beginning but I had two or three really good weeks there where I wasn't sick and I wasn't tired either.