May 25, 2013

Week 36 - A Little Bit Closer

Well it is official I am nine months pregnant!! When people ask me how many months I am they are confused when I say nine months but that I still have a month to go. It is usually men who are dumbfounded by this, what they taught us in our health classes wasn't exactly accurate. 40 weeks = 10 months, it may take nine months for a fetus to fully develop but doctors track your progress from the last day of your last period which gives you that extra time. Speaking of doctors we have begun our two week appointments! Which means we see her every two weeks until our due date and then they become more frequent if baby has not arrived by then. Our appointment went really well, that is until this morning at least. We went over our birth plan, had a final sonogram, checked my weight, and tested blood pressure. My blood pressure is still on the low end of the healthy range and hasn't changed much from being pregnant, which is FANTASTIC! Thanks Mom - I get that from you :) Low blood pressure means no Preclampsia, very important for me and Baby Gerrans. My weight is my weight, I have gained another 5 lbs in 3 weeks which is over what I should be gaining (1 lb a week), but the doctor thinks its fine and I haven't ballooned yet so I am going to keep doing what I am doing. Our birth plan is reasonable - low lights, not a lot of traffic, don't ask me about meds, Robert is to cut the cord, nothing but breast milk is to be given to Baby Gerrans, and if the baby goes anywhere Robert goes too! Our sonogram was fabulous. Our doctor was able to keep it away so we did not find out if we are having a William or Marilyn, but we got to see the head, the heart, and the rib cage. Head is super low, like ready to go low, which means no breech baby here, yay!! The head looks nice and large :) The heart is moving at great speed and rhythm but the most amazing thing is Baby Gerrans is already breathing!! That our doctor says is a sign of a very healthy baby. Breathing liquid right now, but the fact that the lungs and ribs are moving this early is a great sign, another yay!! She took a look at the water sac and said that that was looking great too, meaning I have been doing good on the fluids. I am 35 inches from top to bottom of uterus, and though I am large, baby has room to grow as I have more space for him to stretch out near my ribs. This may mean that I won't be growing out much more, but we'll see. I have advanced to a 42 inch waist, wow, that makes me tied with mom....will I beat her??

So what wasn't so great about our last appointment? They tested me for Strep B, which 30% of women have, its basically a bacteria similar to the strep in "strep throat" but it lives in other parts of your body. I found out this morning that of course I have it, I have to have all the weird stuff, well almost all of it. I am positive for Cystic Fibrosis, which thankfully Robert is not, I have a negative blood type so I had to have an extra injection at 27 weeks and another after I give birth so my body doesn't reject my next pregnancy, and now I have Strep B, which means I have to get an IV as soon as I get to the hospital, yuck. If I was having a home birth with a mid-wife I wouldn't have to worry about the IV as I would be having oral meds instead, but alas Kaiser has their own protocol and they don't care that I am afraid of needles. Stress, anxiety, and fear are the number one reasons why a woman's cervix will not dilate so the IV freaks me out a little that I will not be able to relax enough and the whole thing will have a snowball effect into medications I really do not want to take. This is going to sound crazy but I am hoping that my contractions will be so crazy intense that I will forget that it is there. Honestly I have tears streaming down my face right now about it. I guess it is better that I have these health issues rather than Baby Gerrans having any problems. Parenthood is a lot about sacrifice, right?

On a better note, we finally got the cradle mattress figured out. After four phone messages and two emails I finally got the original company to issue me an authorization number to return the too small mattress that I ordered. I am returning it to them, but I purchased a new one from someone else out of frustration for their customer service tactics. The product is the same I just ordered it through the mega website diapers.com this time. I ordered it yesterday and it arrived today - free shipping. It fits perfectly! Now of course I needed a sheet for this mattress and the one they sell that goes with it is $50! for one sheet, 36 x 18", not a set, not two, just one fitted organic cream sheet, really?? I am crazy in a lot of ways, but to spend that much on a sheet for a cradle that Baby Gerrans will only be in for a second before out growing it, seems ridiculous. What I did notice is that those dimensions are very close to king size pillow cases :) so what did I do? I found a set of two organic king size pillow cases for $15 and planned to sew them to fit the mattress, since I needed a bigger mattress they fit perfect no sewing needed! Now I have two so while the clean one is on the cradle, Robert can be washing the other in his "ten loads of laundry a day" ;) Great Grandma Wilma and Mom will be impressed by my thrifty-ness, as they are two ultra thrifty ladies that I have taken notes from for many years. Now if only the nursery furniture would arrive......

Speaking of the cradle I mentioned it last week, but neglected to give it the attention that it deserves. Robert and I are lucky to have families that love history so much and have preserved some truly special items to be passed from one generation to the next, the cradle is one of them. It originally belonged to Robert's Great Grandfather Samuel Birney Anderson. He wasn't the only one in his generation to get use out of it, but it was later used for Robert's grandfather Richard Birney Anderson (who would have been 100 years this Monday), his mom Carolyn Grace Anderson (Gerrans), Robert, and now Baby Gerrans will be the fifth generation to get use of it! Isn't that incredible! I just love it. Photos are below so you can see that it sits right next to our bed. I will sleep on that side when baby arrives so I can be close by all night long. The mattress is  in it (covered in the pillow case) and I have hung the beautiful quilt that my Grandma Donna made for Baby Gerrans over the side for easy comfort when we have to get up those four of five times throughout the night. I noticed that the wall seemed so bare above the cradle so I hung a cross-stitch that Robert's Great Great Aunt Ruth Dobyns made for him when he was a baby. That way Baby will have something to look at and I will have something to recite in the middle of the night! As the nursery unfolds I will share more of our family treasures with all of you.

In Great Grandma Wilma's words I "am getting lazier and slower everyday". Sometimes after watering the backyard I want to come back inside and take a nap, I have usually been up for maybe an hour at this point :) I'll start a task and not be able to complete it because physically I am just not able to. Today for instance I planned to pull out the bachelor buttons that are now going to seed in the front yard (there were tons of them) and I got maybe 3/4 of the way done before having to retire to the couch for a read then snooze. Normally those things would have been gone and I would have found the motivation to weed the embarrassing left side of the driveway too! Baby is coming and I have to listen to my body. I did decide as I was catching my breath on the porch bench that I will do one more week of things I "have to" before I only do things I want to. This sounds a little toddler-ish, but I have made so much progress on things that I should be doing I am neglecting things that I won't be able to do for a while after baby arrives. I would like to enjoy these last me moments, and hey it might feel really good amongst all the chaos to organize something that I didn't get too. Although I am making great progress. Robert and I are sharing a closet! and this is not your standard sliding doors closet. This is your 1950s should be the size of a linen closet closet. This has freed up the guest bedroom closet for the Christmas decorations, china, and possibly camping supplies. I made space in the hall closet for my favorite books, cleaning supplies and suitcases. I am desperately trying to empty out our third bathroom and my office so that they can be turned into our kitchen. If I do it now, it will make our lives easier when we dive into that project. So I am giving myself one more week to work on it, then I am going to concentrate on more fun things!

Lastly lets end this week on some great news.....Baby Cameron has arrived! Baby Gerrans' will be his closet cousin. He arrived on May 22nd at 9:02 pm, measured in at 21 inches and 8 lbs 5 oz! He is beautiful, see pic below. I can't wait to meet him and so sad that I can't drive down alone to go see him yet, but sending so much love to Mandi, Ryan, Patrick and Cameron! Congratulations!!

Makes me so excited for our little bundle to arrive :)

xoxo

The Anderson cradle, needlepoint, and Grandma's handmade quilt.


A close up of the needle point hanging above the cradle.



Robert and I being silly in the photo booth at my brother Josh's wedding.


Baby Cameron wearing the hat that I made him! Isn't he precious?



Robert and I spent a night in the city this week. Before wandering through the Ferry Building we had breakfast at the Buena Vista in Fisherman's Wharf and he snapped this photo of me in front of the hollyhocks near the cable car turn around.



Okay I'll probably regret this one, but this is the most hilarious picture I have ever seen of myself, I nearly peed myself due to laughter when I saw it. I was washing up after having a lovely French meal in the city with friends when Robert snapped this. He sent this to me in a text with the words "I love bananas" under it. Apparently there is still a primate in me; hopefully this woman will come out during labor.
Hope this gives you a good laugh too!



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