davejenbarnes

Sixteen days until our due date. I gained almost 4 pounds in one week. Hoo-rah. No internal check because the midwife was running 30+ minutes behind and in a hurry. She said she’d guess that we’re 100% effaced and 2-3 cm dilated but there’s no telling until she checks but then she never got around to checking so who knows… Fundal height of 37 cm. Blood pressure 110/70. Little baby heart rate in the 140’s, probably gaining half a pound a week (or more!) now. I’m supposed to try to fall asleep on my right side for comfort sake since most of the baby weight is on my left and when I sleep on my left side, I end up getting all kinds of ligament pains and cramps. Blah blah blah…

SO, no baby. This midwife, Joan… Jean… I can never remember - AABC has one of each, warned me to call as soon as I thought I was in labor. We’ll see… It’s just a waiting game at this point.

I wanted to edit to add that we would post our baby names if we actually knew what we’d end up with but I just changed the girl name this morning and we have yet to decide 100% on a boy name (it’s about 80% set I guess). The middle names are pretty decided.

Girl middle name: Mae
Boy middle name: David

As for the first names, well, I guess we will all have to wait and see.

Says the midwife.  But then again, this same midwife said I had two more weeks left the day before Lowell was born.  I had the strep swab today.  140 pounds (23 pounds gained, woo-hoo!) blood pressure 102/60, fundal height 36 cm (measures at 36 weeks, same as 2 weeks ago so the baby is probably settling lower), 90% effaced, 0 cm dilated, baby’s head is “right there.”  In fact, the little one jumped as she checked me.  I go in every week now.  I’m having irregular but frequent contractions.  Sometimes 4 a day and sometimes 4 in a row 4 min. apart and painful.  BUT, irregular nonetheless, so nothing to send me running to the birthing center… yet.

23 days until our due date.

I’ve already got the baby’s bag packed (and it’s stuffed because we’re bringing twice as many receiving blankets as last time plus both pink and blue things).  Need to get mine packed I guess, now that I have the packing list from them.

The boys did fine.  Did.. not doing.. it’s lunchtime and they’re both driving me nuts right now, so we’re off to the kitchen!

** BUMP ** updated some MORE stuff…
I just noticed, yes, noticed as in I have not been keeping track of how far along we are, that we’ve only got 7 5 3 weeks to go until our due date.  In attempt to ward off any “What do you need?” questions, I have put together a short list for the family of stuff that I think we need.  Note: we needed a minivan and got that ourselves, though feel free to cover a car payment or donate toward the repair fund of the other two cars if you’d like… haha  :-)

WANTS:

• BumGenius 3.0 diapers.  I’m leaving the link up there ‘cuz with cloth diapers, you can always use more, but WOW, THANK YOU Rachel, Shannon, Brandy, Crystal H, Crystal R, and Amy!  Holy cow!
• A few new snappis. THANK YOU Rachel, Shannon, Brandy, Crystal H, Crystal R, and Amy!  Holy cow!    These are awesome and the ones I have are leftover from James and they’re just not so stretchy anymore.
• Maya Wrap (moss, chocolate, or blossom)… Holy Cow, THANK YOU JEN!

I went ahead and added a few more things…

• Sleepmate (also marketed as a Soundscreen) — I found it at JCPenney.com but it’s also on amazon.com
• Bibs are always welcome.
• Dreft is always welcome though I didn’t use it for Lowell and he’s still doing fine.
• Itzbeen - in Babies-R-Us stores
• Tub (not tube - we can never get all of it out of those tubes) of Boudreaux’s Butt Paste diaper creme, Grandma El’s diaper creme, or California Baby creme (the last two are cloth diaper safe)
• Soothies for starting to nurse

I wish cloth diapering were more readily available but to be honest, the only places I’ve ever bought diapers is online.  The diapers we have are starting to show some wear (I bought them all second-hand) and it would be extra nice to start off with some new ones that we could depend on, even though they’re really not a need.  Honestly, we’re set.  (Note: we use cloth to bring down our weekly grocery store expenses) We’ve had 2 kids in the last 3.5 years and we’ve survived with everything that we have, but we would prefer that if money is to be spent spoiling us (and the baby) that it be spent on the items above instead of the items listed below.

***

PLEASE AVOID BUYING US THESE:

• clothes, size NB or 0-3 month.  We’ll take bigger sizes *only* IF THIS IS A GIRL and the season is appropriate for the size.  If this is a boy, he does not need any clothes, even if they’re cute!
• socks.  Too many as it is.
• blankets.  We have too many, again.
• bottles.  I have tons left over from James and Lowell that have never been used and I’m not planning on using any for this one, either.
• toys.  Have you seen our house?  No?  Take my word for it.  We don’t need toys or equipment…  (swing, exersaucer, bouncy seat, jumperoo, bumbo, highchair, etc.)
• picture albums.  I don’t print pictures.  Don’t need the albums.
• towels. Not kidding. Don’t need dish towels or bath towels.

I noticed this morning that the sunshine promotes kicking. :-) There’s definitely some dance lessons or soccer practicing going on in there this morning. (The stripes are from the miniblinds)

No internal because the baby’s head is “still jiggly” and not engaged so we’re not worried about dilation, yet.  Plus, I have only had a handful of contractions since Tuesday morning.  At my 36.5 week checkup, I get the strep swab so that will mean in internal check, too.  The baby is LOP and head down.  I’m up to 137 pounds — finally at my goal weight for my height!  hehe!  Good blood pressure, good everything.  Easy-peasy.

Next checkup November 12th which starts the every-single-week checkups.  We’re getting close!

Just because its been awhile, another belly shot.  Sorry for the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.  I think this one is lower than the other two because none of my shirts are long enough to cover the belly (shirts that were plenty long enough for my previous two pregnancies), but I didn’t take a sideways one to compare.

My friend from church, Kristin, made a comment on Sunday which explains a lot to me.  I never thought of it this way.  I was whining about the hip pain… She said something to the extent of “Jen, you make it look easy to be pregnant — that’s why you don’t get any sympathy.”

So I just won’t expect any sympathy from people, but it would be very nice to get some every once in awhile.  Sidenote - David is pretty good about the sympathy part (but I do his laundry so I do expect that out of him, too).

I’m rarely in any pictures, but David grabbed the camera last night and pointed it at me so I had to smile.  I have to admit, the belly does not seem so large now at 34 weeks as it did at 20 weeks.  I think because it got big fast and has stayed more or less the same size for 13 weeks.  It also helps that I have 3 layers of elastic around that belly and I’m wearing a non-maternity shirt and I have a 20 month old on my lap, and I’m sitting.

I know I’ve updated here and there, but I think the baby flipped into a breech position yesterday.  All of a sudden, all of the kicks are way down low around the exit and they HURT.  C’mon, Baby baby, kick my ribs instead!  On the other hand, it was SO MUCH EASIER to sleep without a head wedged between my legs.  (haha, taken out of context that is a very silly statement)  Let’s pray that this little one decides to get head-down and stay head-down.

UPDATE — Alien kid turned my belly into a football and immediately I felt some bumps and kicks up high again… shortly afterwards, Braxton Hicks started up every 30 minutes apart for about 4 hours then slowed down to about 45 min apart… I’ve been having “regular” though veeery far apart BH contractions for about 10 hours now.  Hopefully they’ll go away when I fall asleep.  They’re SO distracting!

I finally put what week I’m at on ical.  This is week 33.  I’ve hit the point where I am not getting quality sleep, which leaves me quite groggy and grumpy and sleepy during the day.  I’m finding that having two boys and being 33 weeks along is not easier than having just one boy and being 33 weeks.  The two fight.  A lot.  And one of them always needs me.  James was so good at playing on his own when he was 18 months old and I was this big with Lowell in my belly.  Lowell is not very good at playing on his own, and especially not good at playing with James.  I’m starting to think the adjustment from 2 to 3 kids is going to be rough.

I find that leaning back to any degree is not comfortable at all.  I think this is the Bradley Method working on me… sitting up straight, leaning forward to help a head-down position in the baby, never leaning back or letting the baby rest on your spinal column.  My back is doing fine, but my hips.. oh the waddle!  Yesterday I gave up putting on pants while standing so now I sit down to do almost everything to keep myself from falling.  :-)  The braxton hicks contractions are becoming a little more regular.  I had three in a row last night, about 20 min. apart.  The baby is moving like crazy, which is very good.  I am sure this one will have as distinct a personality as Lowell had.  Oh boy.  That baby (Lowell) was intense.

My next appointment is on Halloween, still over a week away.  I’m sure everything will be “normal” and uneventful.

Having the MPV has been amazing.  Both boys climb into their car seats unassisted.  I don’t have to bend over to lift anybody in anymore!  Buckling them in is a snap as they’re up high and easy to reach, and it’s so much easier to get in and out of the driver’s seat than in a car.  We have both boys in the middle right now and the captain’s chairs slide together or apart, so the boys can sit together or apart in the middle.  David found the tether in the back of the van, so we will be able to secure a big-boy seat in the back when we move one of them back there, provided the latch belt is long enough to reach.  James can open the sliding doors from the inside (and they’re not power sliding doors, either).  That amazes me.  He’s getting so big and strong.  Probably my favorite part of having the van is the remote unlock.  I know that’s been around for awhile but we have manual everything on the blue car and you have to physically unlock every door to open it and it took us about 5-7 minutes to load the family in that car and open all 4 doors just to get the kids in the back seats.  It became a balancing act for me once my belly started getting big with Lowell in my arms.  Not only having the remote, but the fact that it works from, like, a mile away is AWESOME.  The saturn remote for our coupe only works within about 8 feet of the car, and yes, we have changed out the batteries several times thinking it must just be going dead.

Thomas is almost over so I’ll hit publish and stop rambling.  I have cat barf on a bed to clean up (don’t worry, I threw a big heavy-duty blue blanket that the movers forgot over the bed just in case the cat barfed on the bed… good thing) more cat barf on the carpet in front of the TV to clean, and probably some more cat barf left to discover.  Lowell is great at finding it and bringing me to it, pointing and saying, “Dirty.” The cat will now be banned from that room in addition to all of the other bedrooms.  Can’t trust him not to barf anywhere…