This week, Jude measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He’s moving a lot too! All this moving is a sign that he is active and healthy. Unfortunately it also means that he is putting his mama in a good deal of pain! My back hurts, enough so that I actually went home early one day last week. I could hardly walk, and in my job, mobility is very important. He moved a little so that day by day, I progressively got to feeling better. For a brief few moments the other day I was entirely without back pain. It was bliss. I look forward to that sensation again once he is out. But for now, every single trip through the house, bend over or roll over is measured and weighed: how much do I need to do this? Fortunately I have a lot of support at work and home, so what I need to do is actually fairly limited.

Our sickness is on the way out. I am so happy because in pregnancy illness lasts longer. This one was in and out within the week. Gigi, on the other hand, is still fighting it. We were finally able to get our hands on some antibiotics though and she seems to be on the upswing, thank goodness. I have been hit by those blessed pregnancy mood swings this week. It doesn’t take much to make me cry or have hurt feelings. I feel bad for Bradley, who ends up walking on egg shells around me. Even Gigi can hurt my feelings now. Usually I have a pretty thick skin and am even tempered, in fact I think I’m usually one of the the most happy/even tempered people I know, but not right now. Now I need to be coddled apparently.

We had a visit with the doctor this week. Now we are on the every other week plan, and we have set up our appointments through to the end. That was kind of exciting. I asked a lot of questions about the logistics of the hospital stay this time, and the possible c-section date. They have changed things, for the better I think. For a c-section delivery I will only be in the hospital for 2-3 days! Yeah! With Gigi we were there for five LONG days and all we wanted to do was go home. The staff was annoying and disruptive, waking us up all night, so for five days we didn’t get any sleep and felt stuck. This time I’ve been worried about my baby girl and her feelings of displacement while we were stuck in the hospital. I am so pleased that we will be home so quickly! We also came up with a delivery date of March 26th or 27th. They are going to look at the surgery board to see if they have times available on those days, so that is pretty exciting to consider. Hopefully he stays put for that long, though I don’t know. Those contractions and cramps are becoming more and more frequent. He may want to come earlier, and frankly, I am thinking he will do so. Nonetheless, March 26th is my parents anniversary. That is a pretty neat connection! Besides that, I gained two pounds and found out that as long as we get a big enough OR, my mom can come to the delivery with us. I don’t know why, but having her there offers a bit of needed security for me.

Remember a long time ago when I said that my baby bump was off to the right? I wasn’t crazy. My doctor confirmed that indeed my uterus leaning the right for some reason. I think that explains all the extra back and hip pain, which is on my left. My body is trying to compensate for the lean.

Finally, the big deal of the week, was packing for the hospital. It seems early, but not. As I was going through our baby clothes, I came to the realization that we have a tiny little stack of newborn stuff and a HUGE stack of 3-6 month stuff. Like 7 times the amount of what we have for newborn wear! Hopefully he grows into the 3-6 month category soon! Gigi lingered in the 0-3 month stage for three months and I remember getting pretty bored of those same boring clothes until we got a bunch of hand me downs from Beth’s niece. It was hard to decide what to bring for him to wear, and harder for me to figure out what to bring to wear for the trip home. What can sit in a suitcase for the next nine weeks without being missed? I decided on workout clothes since I am not doing so much of that lately! For the baby, it needed to be functional and cute, since taking pictures is the number one pastime in hospitals when babies are born! I ended up packing way more than he will ever wear, but I needed extra socks in case his feet are too big or small, extra hats that are dependent on his head size… You get the idea.

As I was going through the baby stuff I also realized that we REALLY need to get on track as far as organizing the baby stuff. We have no dresser for the kid yet so everything is sitting in paper bags, plastic sacks, and the gift bags we received things in. Classy and ever so organized, NOT! We are headed to Ikea today to look for a few other needed things. Perhaps a solution will present itself.

We figured out the theme for the baby’s room: 1950’s space theme, with rockets, robots and all. It should be pretty cute!

Have a nice week. It’s supposed to be really cold!
Tami


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