28-Week Belly (6 months)

Drake, Erin and Baby enjoying the sunny afternoon out in the yard after work on Tuesday!

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Dr. Appointment Update

I saw Dr. Hallman for my 28 week appointment last night and everything looks good. Although the baby was moving a lot while he was trying to listen to the heartbeat, he said the heartbeat sounded “wonderful”. It’s not often your doctor uses the word “wonderful” at an appointment. The baby was doing all sorts of tumbling while he was trying to listen so he kept having to move the scope thing around to follow the heartbeat. It was a bit entertaining. My belly measurement was good and my weight is also good. I’m up 14 lbs from my lowest weight during the pregnancy and I asked him what he thought of that. He has no concerns about the weight either way and said it was clear that I was eating healthy and felt good.

I did ask about a bit of lower back pain that I thought could have been in my kidney area and he suggested that it was likely joint pain caused by the extra stress of the off-balanced baby weight. He said that tall people in particular tend to lean backward more when pregnant, which puts extra pressure on those joints. He offered physical therapy and suggested I wear flat, comfortable shoes rather than heels each day and also avoid prolonged standing. I told him I would let him know if I thought I needed the physical therapy, but that the discomfort had only lasted about a week and had since subsided.

We talked about what I should be watchful for now, which was basically just any signs of preterm labor although he assured me that I am not at high risk for pre-term labor and everything looks good at this point. We went over what to do if or when I do start having contractions and how to get them to slow down and when to call the doctor if they don’t slow down or subside.

We start our childbirth classes in mid-September and have our next appointment with Dr. Hallman around the same time (in three weeks). That might be our last appt with Dr. Hallman as Rita will likely be back at work in October.

Oh – I was supposed to do the glucose test for gestational diabetes, but someone missed one minor detail when I was scheduling the appointment… My appt was at 7:20 and the clinic closes at 8:00 and the test takes an hour. So they said that I would have to reschedule the test for another time and that the latest my appt could be scheduled for is 6:45 to allow time for the test. I’m not sure why they didn’t realize this when I made the appt for last night… anyway, I’m going in Friday morning to have the glucose test.

All is well! Keep praying that things continue to go so well!

First Baby Shower

The Ladies of Harley got together last week for a baby shower for us and it was a lovely time! Jill and Morena planned the shower as a pool-side gathering at Morena and Kevin's house. The evening was warm, but nice and the company was absolutely wonderful. Everything was decorated so cute in green and yellow and it was obvious how much effort was put into the evening. We had a good, fun group of people: Morena Kelly, Jill Bakalich, Billie Robinson, Becky Frye, Kathy Tewinkel, Denise Burkett, Marnie Nelson, Cyndy Shearen, Jeri Jorgenson, and Karen Harmon. Sonja Kelly was also a great help throughout the shower and facilitated a baby animal game for us! Other games included a baby word search, a baby word scramble, shower guest bingo, and the belly size guessing game! The food was fabulous and each guest received an adorable bathtime gift basket from the party hostesses. I am so appreciative of each person who came to the shower and so grateful for the beautiful gifts we received!

You can sign in to Snapfish to view photos of the shower at:

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=947201219257269864/l=421391370/g=11116803/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

87 Days To Go!

87 Days sure seems like a long time! We are all doing well and looking forward to finally seeing our little cuddlebug in about three more months. Three long, anxious, slow months. I think Cliff is happy to know the baby is safe and sound in my womb and isn't yet racking up diaper bills, daycare expenses, and keeping us up at night. Me... I can't wait for this little bugger to come out and say hello to the world. I know, I know... stay in there for another 86 days, little one. It's better that way. It's sort of like having a birthday present all wrapped up and sitting on your nightstand for nine months, but you can't open it. You see it every morning when you wake up, you think about it all day, and you look at it again in it's beautiful wrapping paper each night before you go to bed. You wonder what's inside... Is it pink or blue? Is it small or big? Does it have all of it's parts? Oh, how I want to peek at it. Three more months... 87 more days...

Baby moves a lot, mostly when I am sitting still. When I am busy on my feet all weekend, it barely even hiccups, but when I'm sitting quietly at my desk at work, I get poked and prodded quite a bit. I think it also reacts when I eat really cold foods like ice cream. As soon as I started enjoying my root beer float the other day, the baby started tumbling around in there. And again, when I had a key lime bar with home made vanilla ice cream. Either this one really likes ice cream or it can feel the cold sensation of the food in my belly! I think it's the temperature, since the reaction is too quick to be the sugar.

Cliff and I have frozen our garden-fresh green beans and corn, and have pickled beets and green beans. We still plan to freeze carrots and squash when they're ready, and next spring and summer before next year's garden is ready for harvest, we will have home-grown frozen veggies to puree for baby food. (and maybe, just maybe, we'll give the baby some ice cream too).

Pop! Goes the Belly

There is suddenly no denying it. Just in the last week, several people have commented on my suddenly very visible belly. Although we still have three months to go, and I have no doubt, my belly will continue to grow, it is already beginning to feel a bit like I have something attached to the front of me that doesn't seem completely natural and tends to throw my balance off a little. I spent much of this weekend gardening and can no longer sit on the ground for this work because I'm not able to bend that far forward. My handy-dandy gardening cart works well to sit on while weeding and harvesting! Cliff spent most of Saturday finishing up the limestome retaining wall (pictured) on the West side of the house where we will eventually put a small deck. I pulled out grass and weeds from along the side of the house so that we could mulch and prepare to put a flower bed there. The wildflower garden on the end of the shed is flourishing as you can see by the 8' tall sunflowers in the background of this picture and the birds love hanging out there! We also hung another hummingbird feeder on the outside of the screen porch on Saturday and it's in the perfect spot to view from either inside the screen porch or from the living room couch! The hummingbirds had already discovered it by Sunday evening. I think our baby will have a lot to look at outside next spring and I hope that all of the work we've done in the yard brings all the birds and butterflies back next year!

26 Weeks - Third Trimester

Today marks the end of the second trimester, which means we are 2/3 of the way there! Only 98 days to go before our due date. I've been doing a lot of wondering lately...

I wonder if our baby will arrive before, after, or around the due date?

I wonder if I will miss being pregnant after the baby is born?

I wonder how I will be able to go back to work after having six weeks off work with our new baby?

I wonder if this baby is a boy or a girl, what his or her personality will be like, how much we can effect personality and how much of it is already in the making...

I have a lot of questions that no one can answer for me right now. On the good side, most of my questions that do have answers are getting answered.

The baby is growing quickly now - measuring over 9" long and weighing almost 2 pounds. It seems funny that the baby is only going to double in length (or a little more), but is going to at least triple in weight. Now is when the baby begins to grow layers of fat - when the transition begins from thin, wrinkly skin over a monkey-like skeleton to soft, full, rounded baby cheeks, and buns.

The baby is very active these days and tumbles around much of the day. It seems to be most active in the mid-morning from about 9am - 11am and again at that same time in the evening about 9pm - 11pm. Although, it is more and more active now in the afternoons. My nephew Nathan got to see the baby moving this week and the baby even responded to some gentle nudges from my sister Carrie. Every once in a while I can tell where the head is and where the toes are, but most of the time, I'm unsure if it's hands or feet that are pushing on me or if it's a complete somersault.

I have a lot of options for maternity clothes now and have gotten several compliments from coworkers on the cute outfits that have been passed on to me or given to me as gifts. I've realized I should just pack up all of my summer stuff that I can't wear now since I won't get to wear it until next summer anyway. That would give me some more room in my closet for all of the maternity clothes!

I am anxious to meet our little one and can barely wait another three months! Thank you all for your well wishes and for being part of our lives!

25 Week Update

Wow, 25 weeks already!! That's 5 1/2 months - only 3 1/2 months to go! Today is August 1st. November seems so close now.

We had our 24 week dr. appt this week (a few days late) with Dr. Hallman and it went well. This appointment was just a wellness check. My weight is up about 5 lbs since our last appt 4 or 5 weeks ago, which is good news. He measured my belly with a tape measure (I don't actually know how it measured) and he also listened to the baby's heartbeat again. He said it all looked good. My blood pressure and pulse were also good, so he basically wanted to know if we had any questions or concerns and if I've been feeling okay. So, this was a pretty uneventful day. Oh, except we got rear-ended in the truck on 94 in St. Paul on the way from work to the appointment. It was all fine, just a little wrench thrown into the mix.

Next time we go in, we'll do a glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. That will be at the end of August at about 28 weeks. 'til then, just keep praying that all keeps going well and we keep growing a healthy, happy baby!