Six weeks to go...

This is day number 236 and you're 33 weeks pregnant!
You have 44 days or 6 weeks left, and are 84.3% of the way there.
Baby's age since conception is 222 days or 31 weeks.

SIX WEEKS! ARG!
So OB visit yesterday. I wish I hadn't worn jeans, because I'm sure that made it look like I gained more weight than I did. But I'm not too far off where he expected me to be. Anyway. BP was 120/76, baby's heart rate was 150. Doc confirmed the baby is head down (as I suspected) and getting an accurate measurement was a little trickier than previously, as this baby's tiny bum is firmly stuck right in the center of my abdomen. So as Dr L would try to measure, the baby would slide a little one way, and he'd get a measurement of 35. And then it would slide again and he'd get a measurement of 37. So he gave up, called it 35. Which would put me marginally ahead... but with Maia I almost consistently measured 1-2 weeks ahead, so I'm not worried about big baby (yet).

You may be able to tell how much Junebug has his or her little bum sticking straight up and out under my ribs.
I'm a little behind schedule in getting our cord blood donation kit ordered.. and I've been playing phone tag with the phone screener for 2 days.

We did check to see when he was going to be on call around our due date. He generally takes his own call Monday-Thursday, and rotates his weekends on call. And, unfortunately, he will NOT be on call the weekend I am due, nor the weekend before or after. So. I need the baby to decide that it's time to make an entrance between 6/7-10 or 6/14-6/17. I think I'd prefer the 6/7-6/10 dates. Ray is hoping for a 6-8-10 birth date. However, we didn't really luck out with the 08-08-08 birth date for Maia... so I'd just like this kid to at least have his or her own birth date if possible. June is a busy birthday month with Aunt Tara's (6/1), my Grandfather's - my mother's father (6/7), Nana Effie's (6/14), and Uncle Andrew's (6/30). Although I doubt I would be pleased if this baby waits until the 30th!

In the mean time, as we plan for our future, and budgeting daycare costs for 2 under 2... I had submitted a proposal to my employer hoping to work from home for 12-16 hours a week, and in the office three days a week, thereby allowing me to drop the kids down to part-time daycare and saving a significant amount over full time daycare for both.

While my boss and my HR director were on board with the proposal, this "work from home" idea has not previously been approved at my hospital. My written proposal was submitted to the CEO, who turned it down (not surprisingly, based on my experience with him, and his hopes for the growth of the clinic). That said, he did ask if there might be something else they could do to work with me... so I'm needing to come up with a second proposal (in the next week or so!) which will require me doing a little research and some more number crunching. Wish me luck!

Maia loves heels!

As soon as Maia gets home from daycare, we usually take off her shoes, because we're not interested in getting accidentally kicked while we cuddle or play. As we all know, Maia LOVES shoes. She used to not really appreciate the taking off of her shoes. Recently, however... she changed her mind. Shooos off, momma? I take off her shoes, and she immediately rushes to the mud room to pull out a pair of mine to wear instead. She likes my heels the best. She actually walks around in them pretty well... and I assume she probably really likes the noise that they make. It's important to accessorize, and Maia also loves purses.

And, like a Television Housewife from the 50's, she also "vacuums" in her heels!

So here she is walking in my shoes, and showing off her "mad scientist" laugh that daddy taught her.

Static Maia

This is a little older video - from early March, in fact. This was taken at Red Robin while everyone was together for my sister's birthday. Well, everyone but me, who was recovering from my horrible bout with the GI bug. Maia loves balloons, and her cousin Emily was happy to oblige her by giving her a lovely new hair-do.

Maia's Pak-pak

I love sites like babysteals.com, kidsteals.com and babyhalfoff.com. A special baby or kid item at 50% off (or more) each day until they're all sold out. I've gotten my favorite swaddling blankets, sleep sacks and kid friendly cds that way. So I happened to catch this little back pack that doubles as a harness in the event that we need to keep tabs on her in a large crowd (Ray's not a fan of that part, but it's totally detachable). And it was less than a comparable one at Target and Meijer, cuter, and actually has more storage space.

Maia was delighted, and wanted to wear it immediately!

And she continued to wear it for about half-an-hour until I finally made her take it off. However, she still frequently asks me in the morning if she can wear her 'pak-pak!'

Spring Break (part 3)

Saturday morning was quiet for a while. Maia LOVES to look at all the neat stuff that happens on people's computers, and Rachael was nice enough to share.

We all ended up going to mall together in the morning. Rachael got her nails done while Maia finished playing on the (largely over-crowded) breakfast food.

In the afternoon, my sister's family and my mother (my dad was in Ann Arbor at a concert) came over just to see everyone. We had a relaxed afternoon of snacking and chit-chatting.

Maia with all of her cousins

Aaron, Adrian, Emily, Maia, Lydia, Rachael
Ade and Maia play outside. (Buh-booos!) Maia and Grandma (aka: "Munga" or "Gya-mah!")

Rachael plays Sims while Emily looks on

Maia shows off her new Easter gifts from Nana and Grandma Ashley: a purse (pooos!) and sunglasses (sun-gyassess!)

And, of course, Aunt Tara manages to get photo ops that I simply cannot get from Maia. It would seem that when Momma pulls out the camera, Maia is determined not to look in my direction. Aunt Tara, however... much more of a novelty. So thanks for the great shots!

And because every day needs a little sensory play... Maia finally opened her Easter Play-doh.

The weekend went so quickly, we were all sorry to see Tara, Dave, Aaron and Rachael go. Maia continued to ask about each of them frequently for the next few days. We're so glad they came!

32 weeks.... tick, tick, tick!

Only six more weeks until I'm full term.

This is day number 225 and you're 32 weeks pregnant!
You have 55 days or 8 weeks left, and are 80.4% of the way there.
Baby's age since conception is 211 days or 30 weeks. You are due on 6/12/2010.

Your baby is 18.9 inches long from head to toe and weighs almost 4 pounds. He or she will gain weight more quickly now and will probably double in weight between now and his or her birth. Just like a newborn, your baby sleeps a lot of the time. He or she even experiences rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the period of sleep when we dream!

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We have spent hours and hours narrowing down the name list, and think we have finally settled on three for each gender... final name to be determined (hopefully) before we leave the hospital.

I think I am starting to nest, after getting that little "maybe six weeks" wake-up call from the OB. It's feeling much more urgent to me to start getting things ready for the first few days of this baby's arrival, and essentials for my recovery.

Since we have PLENTY of newborn girl clothes, I will just select one going-home outfit from that pile within the next few weeks. I have also purchased one boy going-home outfit. Outside of that, if this child turns out to be a boy, he will be wearing plain white onesies, baby legs and receiving blankets for a few days until I (or perhaps some excited Aunts or Grandmothers) get a chance to go out and pick out some cute boyish clothes. I got a few packs of newborn diapers, glamourous things like nursing pads and a few other things I wish I'd had or known about when Maia was born. And I'm feeling a bit relieved, but starting to realize there is much, MUCH more that needs to be done before June Bug gets here!

We start our Lamaze refresher classes on April 20th, and between a few of those classes, and an another impending Symphony performance week (which I suspect will be my last for quite a while) in early May... we've had to line up a number of nights of babysitting for Maia (my folks). This is probably a good thing for her to get used to as well, since we expect to be relying on others when labor finally gets rolling.

On our list of things to figure out shortly is our plan for Maia's care for when I do go into labor... a whole list of "if this.... then that..." sort of options. If labor starts during the morning, day, evening or night. If she needs to be picked up at daycare. If labor is going too fast (I've read subsequent labors can be half as long as first labors... And, well... that's scary. Four hours is probably not enough time to get everything taken care of!), we may have to take her to the hospital with us until someone can pick her up. Lots of possibilities to think through.

Spring Break (part 2)

Maia and "Ant Tay-wah" spent some more quality time together on Friday.

Maia loves to look outside for the neighbor's "bi-ci-coh" (motorcycle, he has a large Harley), and will squeal excitedly if she sees their dog or a squirrel or some "boo-dees! seen-en?" (birdies singing) They spent LOTS of time playing in Maia's kitchen, and Tara identified some tools that Maia's work space was lacking (namely a spatula), to use with the McDonald's food set that Nana Effie got for Maia. In addition to my difficult week at work, I've been fighting off some bug (which are always harder to fight off while pregnant) and I find myself pretty tired. So Tara sends me away for a nap, since there are many hands to take care of Maia while I sleep. So a little more outside time.

Maia used to be able to easily identify a football (she would get very excited when football was on TV in the fall/winter). Now she thinks most balls are "Socco-baaa!"

Aunt Tara, Uncle Dave (Unco Dafe!) and Maia went for a walk, too.

And a family weekend could not go by without some video gaming.

"Wan some?" Checking out all the stuff in her new bag.

In the evening, the guys went to the last Griffins game of the year.

The Griffs reportedly majorly outplayed the opposing team.

Dollar beer and dollar dogs!

While the guys were at the game, the ladies went out for Chinese Buffett. We had thought to go to the mall to let Maia play on the breakfast food, but ran out of time before bedtime.

31+ weeks

This is day number 222 and you're 31 weeks pregnant! You have 58 days or 8 weeks left, and are 79.3% of the way there. Baby's age since conception is 208 days or 29 weeks. At long last (poor June Bug!) a belly pic taken last weekend.

OB appointment yesterday. Everything is still looking good. Baby's heart rate was in the 150s. I gained a little more weight than was my trend, this month, which I'm sure was directly related to Easter candy. I do love my Cadbury Mini Eggs. YUM. So, only 7 lbs more, and I will be at the same weight I gained with Maia. However, I'm hoping I don't put on more than 1/2 a pound a week between now and delivery. BP was interesting after my amazingly stressful week: 106/80. My bottom number isn't usually that high, but I'm giving myself a pass after having to battle horrific traffic (they're closing down I-196 right in front of the hospital and "Medical Mile" and it's leading to all sorts of interesting traffic challenges. Secondly, and MORE stressful for me was the fact that the scheduling software program at work crashed, and the entire database was corrupted... resulting in the loss of ALL our known appointments. It has been extremely stressful and resulted in a few sleepless nights. So I think I'm entitled to a little higher BP! And some chocolate. Anyway! Back to the baby. I'm measuring at 32... which is right on track (I believe I measured marginally ahead with Maia). We're thinking the baby is probably head down, based on where I am feeling movement (or a butt in my ribs) and where he found the heartbeat. This marks the end of my monthly visits, and begins the every two week visits. We talked a bit about the next things we need to do: - cord blood donation preregistration - Lamaze refresher courses - Start thinking about our birth plan As we were ending the visit, Ray asked how long we have left... I said just under 9 weeks, and Dr L says: 'More like 8... but I'd plan on 6.' Six!?! Maia was late... 'Yeah, but plan on being ready at 6, and if you get the extra time, it's a bonus.' Alright. THAT freaked me out a little. I'm not ready for this baby to come in 8 weeks, much less 6! In the mean time, Maia continues to be very interested in and curious about "June bug" and talks about June bug at school. Yesterday, she went to spend some time with the babies at daycare. She was asked what their names are (Murphy and Avianna, which she knows). She said "June bug" and "Bee!"

Spring Break (part 1)

Tara, Dave, Aaron and Rachael came out to visit for a few days at the end of Spring Break. They arrived shortly after midnight/1 am on Thursday the 8th. I couldn't spend the day with them, as I'm trying to save up all my vacation time for my maternity leave... so here's what I guess everyone did while I was working! Eventually... everyone woke up. Maia was quite likely up by 7 or 7:30 at the latest. I would guess everyone sat around tiredly for a while. Tara took out her camera at some point, and took a few pics of Maia playing in her room. Here, on her rocking horse (which Papa Joe just fixed a week or two ago by replacing the missing ear that didn't make it through the first three grandkids). At some point, they went outside to play. It was a balmy, spring-like 42 degrees outside, so Maia was bundled up. And when she came inside and took off her hat, her hair looked like this: And I'm just going to comment here on the difference between Aaron and Rachael between now and when Maia was just a few weeks old, here. In the evening we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, and Maia was delighted that she could watch "Ockey" and "Goff" on the big screens while eating her "Maroni and Sheese." She also chowed down on some celery, and interestingly would eat about half of each stalk before deciding she would give it to me and grab a new one.

Art O' The Month

We've got a whole bunch this time! With the coming of spring, the weather has been nicer, and apparently lending itself to more outdoor time at daycare. And so they were able to find, apparently, some remnants of autumn.

A close up of what Maia found. They said she had a great time with this project. More dot painting (which she will now narrate: dot, dot, dot, dot) A little finger painting, which apparently has a title: "Painting with Flowers" I really like this one. Here's a close up. Some brush painting

More dot painting

Her St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun.

And a St. Patrick's Day Clover, with green glitter.

A basket of flowers.

An Easter bunny... colored excitedly with markers.

Another Easter Bunny, with cotton balls.

And what appears to be a "stained glass window" sort of project. Pieces of colored tissue paper between sheets of clear contact paper.

I love this one too! It's a caterpillar made of circles strung on a pipe cleaner. There's your fine-motor skill art project for a toddler! They said she did very well with this one too.