davejenbarnes

Yes, folks, 16 days ’til our due date!

1cm dilated
75% effaced
overall weight gain: 13 lbs (oops… backslid by 1 lb)
blood pressure: excellent though I didn’t get the numbers
baby’s heart rate: 146 bpm

All this adds up to my doctor thinking we’ll go late. So late, that she’s predicting I’ll be induced on July 21st. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see… I don’t want to be pregnant that long. None of my clothes are fitting anymore belly-wise. I guess that’s “Mah Bad” since I only bought what fit in my second trimester - and now I’m bigger than a size S. Or - I could let my belly hang out and pretend I’m in Hollywood. Ha! NOT! At least I’m home all day every day and can wear Dave’s big comfy t-shirts and not really worry about looking cute. The problem is that I’m still pretty small “up top” and since it’s summer… tanks are the way to go but I have yet to find a small busted large bellied tank top. I should wear a skirt as a shirt! ha!

Ok, enough with the silliness. The nursery is officially ready, though the car seats need to be put in the cars and the sheets on the twin bed need to be washed. Everything shelfish is hung on the walls - the crib bedding is washed and I have it covered with a blanket to keep dust/cat hair off the actual sheet. The baby’s bag is packed with 3 outfits a receiving blanket, nail clippers (thanks to Kimberly’s suggestion!) and some bibs (though I doubt we’ll use the bibs). I’m planning on using the hospital’s diapers and we’re supposed to take the rest of the stuff since we’re charged for it and the hospital I’m going to throws most of the stuff out once our baby uses it… like the bulb aspirator… all I have left to buy is baby socks. Funny that I have only 6-9 mo. sized socks.

The baby is getting the hiccups regularly 3-4 times per day. Drives me nuts when I’m trying to sleep, but I love it otherwise. The little Barnes moves around constantly. I don’t know when his/her “sleep” schedule is anymore.

I have been getting braxton hicks contractions but they are not painful and I only have maybe 3 per day and they’re hours apart.

David has been wonderful. Our apartment is so clean thanks to him. He has worked so hard this summer helping to get everything ready and clean (carpets!) for our baby. I cannot wait to see him hold his baby for the first time. I think my heart will break.

Garrett 042, uploaded by smwood77.

WELCOME GARRETT! Proud parents: Nathan & Shannon Wood
UPDATE: a friend IM’ed me his weight: 8 lbs 11 oz, 20.5 in long

37 Weeks, originally uploaded by davejenbarnes.

Lots more nudges than kicks these days. This belly is making me so uncomfortable, but there are no other complaints than the ones belly-related. I am really thankful to have had (so far) a very easy pregnancy.

Yeah, well, while I’m working on my own theme, I’m also trying out other peoples’ hard work. I’ve noticed that since my navigation links were built into my last template, they don’t import when I switch themes so here are the navigation links for this site:

home - kind of boring
pregnancy weblog - the most updated part of the site
photos - a list of photo albums by topic
about the site… also kind of boring

So, yeah, there is another theme in store for davejenbarnes… this is how I take up my time waiting for the baby to arrive. Dave has taken up his time between video games, steam cleaning the carpet, killing bugs, and feeding my insatiable appetite with his wonderful cooking.

Wishlist for my theme: (basically I want to get these all collected in the same place so I can work on them and stay focused)

• *look good in most browsers
• *archives: link to a page that lists month, then date, then post title with the post title being a link to that particular post
• *theme be able to wrap around my blogger blog (pregnancy - soon to be imported once the baby is here)
• *categories: drop down selectable menu - takes up too much space right now check!
• *category photo: with a slightly different layout, getting rid of the blog sidebar and replacing with a caption
• *category photo: have a next and previous link that link to the next and previous post in the category photo

I’ll add more as I think of ‘em.

We’ve lived in this apartment for a year and a half… and the complex for 3 years. We’ve never seen a roach until this past week - and two of them?! Yuck! Both were spotted and killed in the master bathroom. Tonight’s roach was found thanks to Mambo’s keen eye and killed thanks to David’s quick bottle of roach spray. And if roaches weren’t enough, the cats also found a scorpion and an earwig in here last week as well. Man, this apartment complex is going to the bugs and fast, probably thanks to the new ownership and management. Why, oh, why do we have 12 more months here?!

overall weight gain: 14 lbs
blood pressure: 120/80
baby’s heart rate: 156
dilated: 1 cm
effaced: 50%

So… I asked my doctor if any of this meant I would have the baby early… and she said that I’d probably be right around my “due” date. At least the weight gain is getting higher.

The baby’s head is, apparantly, very low for my long-torso’dness because the doc was surprised when she felt for “his” head. (She called the baby a “he” - I wonder if that means anything?!) Anyhow… we’re still waiting for the end of the pregnancy.

Dave had to work today. Not really work but he still had to give his time and attention to the school district today. I must admit, I have gotten quite comfortable having him around all day long and I missed him terribly today. He is very helpful and has been the enabler of my comfort and, yes, even my laziness. I will dread the day he must start the next school year. It is so wonderful having him around; I love him so!

What did I do without him? Well… I went to the bathroom about 300 times, which every pregnant woman in her 9th month will understand. I took 2 hour naps throughout the day… whenever and wherever I liked. I did 2 loads of laundry (yippee!!) and cleaned the master bathroom (so the day was not completely wasted) and I watched about 4.5 hours of TV… Dr. Phil, Oprah re-run, Seinfeld, Nanny 911 and Hell’s Kitchen. I cannot believe I watched THAT MUCH television! But it’s true. Sad, but true. I also helped David rig a trap for the fruit flies that have taken up residence in our apartment. So far, we have caught one. I think we caught it twice, because the first trap did not seal successfully.

I have my 37 week dr’s appointment tomorrow (though I won’t be 37 weeks until Thursday - who’s counting weeks at this point?! I should call it my “T minus 23 Days” appointment!) and she (the doc) will be starting internal exams (oh boy) and I’ll be going back every week until around my due date when I’ll start going every other day. Won’t that be nice? I mean, two weeks ago, they had such a hard time finding an appointment slot for me… I’d hate to have to schedule an appointment for two days in the future when the dr. is so PACKED with patients that it took 15 mintues to find a slot two weeks in advance! Sheesh! Not looking forward to that.

So far, I have, with the help of my parents, been able to stock the nursery with the first round of deliciously baby-scented lotions, cremes, soaps, detergent, stain spray, ointments, and powders. I am enjoying every minute I spend in the nursery more and more. The parents also helped me pick out some receiving blankets, a crib sheet, playard sheets, a crib bib, and these really heavy, really cool rubbery cotton pads to save our laps/shirts/crib from all sorts of liquidy body fluids a baby can secrete. All of this has been washed in Baby All and is ready for the little Barnes to come drool, pee, and poop all over it!