Charting the Belly: Week 39

Well, I think I've dropped:

I can breathe again!

Sorry for the bare belly pictures, but the other ones were less than desirable.  I had just woken up, and my photographer thought that my bed head was "sexy."  I disagreed.

News update: Mr. Belvedere's cousin was born two days ago!  My brother, his wife, and their son welcomed Liam Reid into their family.  He's a peanut--6 lbs. 4 oz. and 18 in.!  Now the family is just awaiting grandchild numero seis...  April or May?  Mister or Miss?  Chub or lightweight?  Only one way to know--WAIT.  My appointment last Tuesday revealed I wasn't hardly effaced and only a fingertip dilated.  There are all sorts of ways to naturally induce labor, but I'm not so desperate that I want to try Castor oil yet.  Ask me in a week.

Life Goes On Part 2

I really should be taking a nap right now.  I'm exhausted from the past few day's events.  My dear cousin, Tom, passed away yesterday afternoon from a terribly aggressive and rare cancer, neuroendocrine carcinoma.  His mom is my dad's sister, so this has been a very emotionally-charged year for this side of the family.  He was diagnosed two months ago on February 18 with cancer, and was given a couple of years.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, it turned into six months to a year.  Friday night, he was in liver failure, and had about a week.  My mom and I went to Chicago yesterday morning, and he was given a few hours.  He passed about an hour and a half after we got there.

I don't get life.  To be honest, I felt very awkward yesterday at the hospital as we shared my 30-year old cousin's last breaths while his siblings and my aunt and uncle sat by his side.  Perhaps the awkwardness came from the fact that I have this life growing inside of me, waiting to make its entrance into the world, while my cousin was preparing to make his exit.  It is inconceivable for me to understand what it would be like to lose a child, and I feel as though I went completely numb.  I couldn't cry, and still haven't really.

I'm reminded of this Buddhist thought that I learned in India when I was there six years ago: There is a paradox in relationships--once you meet someone, you are also preparing for the end of the relationship at some point in time.  Death is absolutely inevitable.  It just sucks when it's someone so young.

Bowling for Belvedere

Last night for date night, Nate and I went bowling at my suggestion.  At the shower a couple of weeks ago, my cousin's wife told me that she went into labor with both her boys after she went bowling, so away we went.  My mom came with us as our "chaperon."  It was loads of fun, even though I had a horrible first game.  It took awhile to get used to how my center of gravity has shifted.  After my hips opened up, I came back in the second game like a champ and ended up with a 163.  Apparently, my mom had the highest bowling average of her career while she was pregnant with my sister and me back in the days when she was on a bowling league.  Go figure.

Dropping Mr. Belvedere

No, I'm not talking about not being able to hold on to the baby after it comes (although that sometimes is a fear because I can't seem to hold on to anything lately); I'm referring to that desirable lightening that is supposed to happen sometime soon when the baby "drops."

Come on down!

Almost every woman I talk to looks at my belly and says, "Oh, you haven't dropped yet, so that baby's not coming out any time soon."  That's really not the news I want to hear, but that's the reality, I guess.  Some people said that when it feels like you're sitting on the baby's head, then you know you've dropped.  I'm guessing that I'll have some major relief to the rib pain that I've been experiencing these past few days.  Last night, my ribs ached so bad that I felt like I had been repeatedly kicked like this poor dude:

Charting the Belly: Week 38

This weekly plan with the midwife is time consuming!  I have appointments every week now, and I've only scheduled them up until April 19, which is next Tuesday.  I'm just hoping that's my last one before Mr. Belvedere makes his or her debut...  Yeah right--I'll probably go until 42 weeks and deliver a 10 pound baby.

Hopefully no more than 15 days to go!

I am beyond anxious to meet who this little critter is that's been jumping on my bladder, kicking my ribs, making me cry these past nine months for seemingly ridiculous reasons, and having me countdown the days until my next appointment with my hair stylist.  As a side note, I cannot get over how much hair is on my head or how thick it is.  Normally, I have to clean out the drain after every shower I take or sweep up my hair from the bathroom floor on a daily basis.  Since about week 20, I haven't had to do any of that, which means that after this baby is born, my hair loss will be indescribable.

How Many People Love This Baby?

I had a conversation with Mr. Belvedere this morning about how many people are so excited to meet him or her.  It's been rather quiet as far as its movement goes these past few days, and I thought maybe it was lonely, so I gave it a pep talk.  It's got to be awfully cramped in my uterus right now because all it does is roll back and forth, kind of like how I feel when trying to sleep at night.  I mentioned that it could come out any time it wants to; we're ready for it!  I think it felt better after our talk, because then it got the hiccups.

My dear mother threw a baby shower for us yesterday afternoon at Sheridan's in Cudahy, and I am still overwhelmed at my family's generosity.  Everyone who came lives somewhere else besides the Milwaukee area, and many people drove several hours to come and celebrate this little fetus.  It was so fun to see the women that are in some way related to Mr. Belvedere.

Our apartment has completely exploded after yesterday's shower:

I cannot wrap my head around how much stuff a baby allegedly needs.  I'm sitting next to the car seat and stroller that my mom, sister-in-laws and sister got us, and it's really intimidating!  I feel like I have no clue what we're about to get ourselves into, despite the fact that I've spent a decent chunk of my life baby-sitting, working in day care centers, teaching, and being around babies.  But it's way scarier when it's my own, and no one's coming here to relieve me of my duties at the end of the day.  I feel like I did right before our bike trip last summer--nervous because I didn't really know how it was all going to unfold.  I'd never ridden my bike for 60 days straight, nor had I ever been in the wilderness that long.  I had an idea of what it might be like, but it's impossible to know what it is that I don't know.

Charting the Belly: Week 36

We're nearing the finish line...  Child-birthing class number 8 of 8 is tomorrow.  Most of the baby clothes are washed.  My third quarter grades are submitted.  Mr. Belvedere is head down and on my left side (left occiput anterior).  The apartment is clean (at least for today).  I've made a list of what needs to be packed to go to the hospital, but I haven't put anything in a bag yet.

The fetus within...

I haven't had the nesting urge yet, or at least the final one where I start tearing apart the pantry and alphabetizing all the food after I've dusted, vacuumed, and painted the walls.

Staying at Home

Needless to say, these past nine months have been nothing short of stressful.  Being pregnant has this way of intensifying everything else that goes on in my life.  We ended the bike trip in Colorado early last August, and I was fully expecting to go back to my former job at the elementary school I taught at just a few weeks after finishing the trip.  Unfortunately, I was involuntarily transferred to a middle school for reasons I'll never fully know.  I cried for weeks about this, which probably should have been my first clue that I was pregnant.  Then in October, my dad passed away, leaving me with this indescribable loss in the midst of something so exciting in my life.  I think about him lots, and his picture is on our fridge, right next to the ultrasound pictures of our baby.

All the while, this year at work has been the most stressful thing I've experienced yet.  Being at a new school, teaching curricula that I haven't taught since my student teaching days, and dealing with the craziness of middle school students brought on feelings of complete inadequacy.  I ended my 7th hour class on an almost daily basis feeling utterly defeated, trying hard to fight back tears and compose myself before 8th hour began. I tried everything I could think of to make my 7th hour class tolerable, and I got nowhere.  Almost the entire staff knew about the yahoos that were in that class, and they would just shake their heads in sympathy.  Administration wasn't much help, either.  I continued to try so hard to rise above it, coming home and bawling to Nate about my frustrations.  To relieve the stress, I'd follow the guidelines that were suggested: exercising, eating well, getting enough sleep, etc.

Months of this, coupled with not sleeping at night, turned into a nasty cycle...  I routinely woke up at 2 or 3 in the morning to go to the bathroom, or for no reason at all.  And then the thinking would start...  What else can I do to make work better?  I couldn't turn the thinking off, despite trying to fall back asleep.  I'd be up for a couple of hours, occasionally falling asleep right before I had to wake up to go to work.

In early March, Nate had had enough: "Why can't your turn your brain off?"  Good question--I didn't know how to answer that.  He suggested that I talk to our midwife and let her know what was going on at work.  I really didn't want to; I suppose because that meant that I wasn't tough enough.  But what was I trying to prove?  That I could make it through to the end?  I know about opinions, and I didn't want people forming one about me and my "inability" to work.

But, at the urging of Nate and my mom, I told the midwife at my last appointment (I actually started bawling even before I could say anything), and she talked to me about the risk of preterm labor for women who are stressed during their pregnancy and not sleeping enough.  She put in orders for modified bed rest, which basically means that I'm supposed to take it easy and not work.  I was off all last week, and will be until the baby comes.  And guess what?  I slept through the night after my last day of work.  I've been feeling well-rested and less anxious about the birth.  I'm calmer, which is a wonderful feeling to have.  Sure, I've had to endure some people's comments and opinions about this: "You think this is not sleeping?  Just wait, honey."  Ultimately, it's the best decision for me and the baby, and I'm glad I did it.

Charting the Belly: Week 34 (almost 35)

I. Am. Feeling. Big.

It'll be 35 weeks this Thursday, and I suspect like every other pregnant woman at this point in her pregnancy, I am ready to get this baby out.  But I've got some time to go, and some room to grow.  I had Nate take some pictures this morning, and I was disgusted with every one of them.  I couldn't bring myself to post them because it looked as though my face was pumped up with helium.  So, we tried again this evening, and I didn't look at the camera.

I'm picking lint off of my shirt

I have read everything about the next five weeks in preparation for light at the end of the tunnel (before the next adventure of parenting).  The highlights?  Read on:
"Your baby will spend the next few weeks putting on weight."
Awesome.  As if topping the scale at 200 pounds isn't exciting enough.

"Your ballooning uterus is crowding your other internal organs."
Like my lungs, my bladder, my stomach, and any muscles that used to help me put on my shoes and pick up stuff off the floor.


"You may have trouble sleeping at night."
Really?  No kidding.  

Rocking Chair

In the hopes that we can continue to use our rocking chair as a functional piece of furniture well after the baby (and its subsequent siblings??) is/are grown up, Nate and I decided to purchase an Eames Case Study Rocker from Modernica.  It's not an original, but it's as close to the original as you can get.  It's a fiberglass shell with the same molds that Ray and Charles Eames used in 1948.

At this point, I don't fully appreciate nor understand how cool this chair is.  I don't come from a design background that would help me wrap my head around our purchase, but Nate and Jeff both think it's a great start to what could end up being a sweet furniture collection.

Daddy-to-Be

Registry Fun Times

The other night, after hearing for the umpteenth time from my mother, "You need to add more to your registry," my two cousins (who are both moms themselves), offered to register items for me.  Because the biggest problem with figuring out what I need for this baby lies in the fact that I simply don't know what I need, I jumped on the offer and quickly logged them in.  In a matter of thirty minutes, Cindy and Angie had gone through almost every category at BuyBuy Baby, asking me questions along the way, and filled up the registry.
"Get as many receiving blankets as you can from the hospital.  Those swaddle the best."
"Don't register for any more newborn sizes."
"You'll be doing laundry all the time, so get as many burping cloths as you can."

It was way less stressful than the hours I had spent thinking about what I needed and agonizing over of the fact that I simply had no idea what I needed.

April Showers

Last weekend, my "family" from the elementary school I worked at for three years (before I was unexpectedly and involuntarily transferred last August) threw me a baby shower.  It was still March, so the title of this post is a bit misleading...

Anyway, it was so much fun to see the many amazing teachers that I spent most of the past three years of my life with.  They all took time out of their weekend to celebrate the fact that I'm having a baby--a baby that no one's even met yet, but is truly excited about.  Being the emotional person I am these days, I came home from the shower exhausted and weepy.

Nate: "Honey, why are you crying?"  This seems to be a standard question from him these days.


We were surrounded by onesies, toys, receiving blankets, leftover cake, and mounds of tissue paper, and I was sitting there with tears pouring down my face.  I blubbered, "This past year has been stressful being in a new building and away from the work family that I had come to know and depend upon.  I miss them!"

Sure, it's sad being away from them, but I think I just had this tremendous feeling of gratitude for the fact that even though I don't work with them anymore, they all chose to be a part of such an amazing time in my life.  Thanks, Pershing.

Aches and Pains

The past two weeks have provided some phenomenal insight into the world of sciatic nerve pain.  One website describes it as coming on suddenly, causing immediate distress.  I would say that's an understatement.  I have woken up in the middle of the night on several occasions in agony, as if my entire left side were on fire.  Thankfully, it doesn't happen every night and it seems to be only when I lie on my left side.  I spoke to my midwife about the increasing pain I was experiencing, and she referred me to a physical therapist.  I was able to get in last Monday, and she spent about 45 minutes with me, giving me several exercises to do to strengthen my hips.  The weight of Mr. Belvedere puts pressure on this nerve, which causes the irritation.

I also have a small hole in my abdominal muscles (diastasis recti), which is a common symptom in pregnancy, so she gave me some exercises to do to correct that.  I've been pretty diligent about doing these simple exercises and so far, I've been feeling better.  I haven't awoken to the excruciating pain in the past six days, but I do notice that I'm sore in my hips in a different way, perhaps due to the exercises that I'm doing.  Who knows.

Those Braxton-Hicks contractions are happening more and more frequently, in preparation for labor.  They are so weird--like my belly is tightening up in a giant abdominal crunch.  They don't hurt, but they can be uncomfortable.  I almost always get them right after I stand up from sitting down, which makes for some awkward first steps when trying to walk.

Body After Birth

I hope Nate sends me this card:

Charting the Belly: Week 31

Jabba or me at 31 weeks?

I really wanted my photographer to crop the picture to cut out my chubby face, but he said no.

This guy can't tie his shoes, either

The Name Dilemma

The other day, a teacher colleague said to me, "I'm glad I had my kids before I became a teacher."  I completely agreed with her because I'll tell you that the past 6 years of my life have significantly put a dent into what names I would even consider giving this baby.  There are way, way too many sour experiences with the Shaynas, Hopes, Sierras, Parkers, Adrians, Davids, Quentins, Isabelas, and Cheyennes of the schools I've taught in to even consider naming our baby something even remotely close...

Parker talks way too much.  Shayna is mentally unstable.  Quentin is one angry kid.  All the Isabels I've known have been nothing but trouble.  Jaqueline was the one who didn't make a whole lot of sense when she told stories, even though they were pretty funny.  And the list goes on...

We do know that the baby will have my dad's first name as its middle name--Lynwood.  It's a really unusual name, but it will work whether Mr. Belvedere is a boy or girl.

Top Pregnancy Something-or-Others

I'm not sure what this list is exactly, other than some of the unexpected things I've experienced as a direct result of having a bun in the oven.

1. Peeing during the third trimester is ridiculous.  The urge to go is very immediate as of late, but the outcome is like, "Really?  That's it?"  And then I have to go again in about 15 minutes.
2. Tying my shoes makes me grateful for slip-ons.  At the gym, I have to take a rest between putting on the sock and then the shoe.  My lungs are getting squished.
3. "How are you feeling?"  It took me awhile to get used to this question from others because I liken it to a question that would be asked of someone who just got over the flu, or who's currently sick.  I'm never really sure how to answer this, other than to say, "I'm good...just getting big."
4. People are always looking at my belly.  I do it to other pregnant women, too, but it's just different when I'm the one whose belly is growing.
5. Waking up at some crazy hour of the night by the foot of my fetus banging out a rhythm on my ribs.
6. Grunting.  I grunt getting in the car and getting out of the car.  I grunt trying to get out of bed.  I grunt tying my shoes.  I grunt trying to pick something up off the floor that I've dropped.
7. Two-hour naps.  I am tired!  I don't sleep through the night anymore, and sometimes I'm up for quite some time at 3am.  The best part is that I can still go to bed at 9pm after sleeping from 4-6pm.
8. I weigh more than my husband.  'Nuff said.

I Think I'm having a Contraction...

I'm fairly certain that I had one of those Braxton-Hicks contractions tonight.  These are those false contractions where the uterus tightens up in preparation for labor, which, dear reader, is just over two months away!  Yikes.  Anyway, I felt this pressure in my belly, and when I touched it, my protruding gut was rock hard.  It didn't hurt, but I certainly noticed it.  It relaxed after about a minute.  My mom said that she used to get painful ones with my sister and I that would stop her in her tracks.


As an aside, she also said that she would sit on the steps of our patio when she was pregnant with me (and then later with Mary) and cry because she was so fat.  We made our mom pile on 60+ pounds each time, most of which was water weight.  I think our older brothers were much easier for her.


Birthing class #2 was pretty exciting, mostly because there were two women in labor while our class was going on.  One gave birth right as class started, and the other woman was audible throughout class.  The looks on the faces of the dads was priceless.  I'm not sure when she delivered.  I could certainly feel the energy!  The night before was a full moon, too...


We talked quite a bit about exercise and many of the benefits of keeping up with exercise during pregnancy.  There are all sorts of statistics about the benefits to both the mom and the fetus.  I found all the myths that we discussed rather interesting.  Here are a few:

MYTH: Pregnant women should not exercise more than three times per week.

TRUTH: Following a doctor’s approval, it’s recommended that pregnant women engage in 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily, five or more times a week.

MYTH: Pregnant women must keep their heart rate under 140 beats per minute during exercise.

TRUTH: Instead of counting beats per minute, use the Borg Scale (measures perceived exertion) or a simple talk test to assess intensity.

I currently swim once a week, use the elliptical machine about 2-3 times a week, and take a weight training class twice a week (Power Flex).  Oh yeah, and my homework was 200 Kegels a day for the next week.  So exciting...

Birthing Class #1

We made the trip up to Menomonee Falls Well Rounded Maternity Center Saturday morning for our first birthing class.  Our instructor, Coral Slavin, is a seasoned Bradley Method instructor, but has since modified the class because the true Bradley course was too rigid for her tastes.  So she created a hybrid class.  There were about seven other couples there, all of us first time parents except for one couple.  We talked quite a bit about the importance of relaxing during labor so that the body can do its job.  Next week's topic is about diet and nutrition.

I also had my 30 week appointment this afternoon at the Midwifery Center at Aurora Sinai.  Things are good...baby's heart rate is 142 and my fundal height is 30 cm (right on target).  My blood work from last time showed that I'm not producing any antibodies, and I think that means that Mr. Belvedere and I have compatible blood, but that conversation was too much for me to follow.  I'll put that on my list of questions for next time.

Fundal height--things are getting cramped

It's hard to believe that there are just ten weeks left (give or take a few).  It's gone by very quickly so far, but I've heard from others that this last trimester can get long...

Charting the Belly: Week 28 (almost 29)

I just got done watching the first episode of One Born Every Minute and I was...appalled?   Discouraged?  Mildly amused?  I also feel like I know the woman who was having a natural childbirth.  I did go to Ohio State, the show is filmed at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and she and I are the same age.


I'm feeling pretty good so far, other than a few aches here and there.  My left hip is tight, and rolling over in bed is a pretty big ordeal every night around 4am.  I'm hoping to make an appointment for a prenatal massage sometime in the next week.  Valentine's Day is around the corner, Nate...

Bruce Lee and me

Beginning of the third trimester!