Full Term!!!

Woohoo!  The milestones of pregnancy are so much more exciting in the last month!  Today we are considered full term...so if Baby Hales decides to make his or her debut any day now, the doctors/midwives would just let it happen.

Today we had our appointment with a new midwife who does deliveries, Patricia.  She was really funny and nice and I secretly hope she will be at the hospital with me.  My weight and blood pressure were normal today (thankfully for those of you that know what happened to me last week :) ).  Cervical checks weekly are optional so I thought, why not see how things are going at this point.  Tricia asked if I had been having any contractions...I'm still not sure about this as it feels more like cramping to me.  I was measuring small again today - 35 cm, but within normal limits.

She poked around my belly to try to determine the exact position of the baby (I am REALLY ticklish.)  She was poking quite a bit more than normal and then gave this perplexed face and goes, "Well, I'm sure your baby has a head, I just can't find it!"  "It must be way down in there."  So I guess the baby isn't JUST head down, he/she is WAY down - which might explain the 3-4 weeks of significant pubic bone pressure I've been experiencing.  The only thing that worried me a little during the appointment was she had a hard time hearing the heartbeat, then asked me if it was normally low.  I told her no one has really told me a number, they just keep telling me it's perfect!  But she said it's normally between 110 and 160 and our baby's was 115 and it went up to 130 when she poked at him/her (which I warned her baby does not like.) I'll try to keep the details to a minimum regarding the cervical check, but basically I'm very slightly dilated and 50% effaced and the baby's head isn't quite lining up right yet.  I'm so excited.  I'm not sure that this necessarily signifies any expected D-day for the little one, but it's a little more exciting to know a little bit more.  She is the first midwife to tell me to actually do a kick count.  I've been sorta keeping track but maybe I'll try to be more concrete about it now - starting tonight.

Oh, also, Tricia is an Ohio State fan and said they she sometimes brings OSU booties for her moms that are fans and for the Michigan fans, just to piss them off! :)  I told her about our family tradition of Hang on Sloopy at weddings.  I think she likes me!

Here are a few of my favorite maternity photos from our shoot with Rachel Naft!



P.S. I've decided I'd rather be dealing with a crying baby than all my whiney patients, so please come quickly Baby.

Head down

I won't be posting much most likely in the next few days but for now...

36 week check up went well.  Measuring on track this time.  Baby Hales is definitely head down.  Got our crib and dresser.  Not putting the crib together until we move probably, but the dresser looks nice.  Can't wait to put the baby stuff in it.

Missing the rest of my family this Christmas but looking forward to spending the weekend with my wonderful husband, our baby, my awesome sister and my favorite nephew, Samson as well as my in-laws.  Happy Holidays to everyone.  I hope you all get some quality time with the people you love the most.

1 month to go!

This is going to be REALLY short and sweet because...well, frankly...I'm too tired to blog!  Work has been so busy and crazy, but thank God that they are starting to stop giving me new evaluations (seeing as these patients will just have to see someone else anyways in a short while.)  And one of our therapists is going to the Philippines for 2.5 weeks beginning Wed. so I'm going to be seeing quite a few of her patients, as well as all of my own.  Dreading the next 3 weeks, but at least we are SO close to getting our fourth quarter bonus!

Baby class last Monday was all about breastfeeding.  I was initially looking forward to getting off of the birthing/labor topics, but I think I was pretty irritable that day, because I couldn't WAIT to get out of there!  I am of the opinion that the saying "There is no such thing as a stupid question" is stupid because there ARE stupid questions, and one of the couples seemed to be asking a lot of them.  I also think, I've been doing a good amount of reading on my own so I don't feel like I'm learning much new stuff, but it's nice to be there to learn with Justin.  Tomorrow is our last class and it's all about caring for baby when they arrive, hopefully that will be more interesting!

We had pregnancy/maternity photos done tonight with our wedding photographer, Rachel Naft.  I told her we just love her and I refer EVERYONE to her.  She's so easy to be around and I can't wait to see how the photos turn out.

Tuesday is our 36 week doctor/midwife appointment so I'll be getting the Strep B test.  Other than that, nothing exciting except starting to think about things we NEED before the baby may come and considering packing hospital bags (I really just want to pack all the baby things in my new Coach baby bag!)

Until next time...

34 week Doctor Appt.

It's actually 34 weeks and 3 days... but who's counting?  At our baby/birthing class this week, the nurse instructor was running through a list of names of the midwives from our practice that actually do deliveries at the hospital.  Funny, we/I haven't seen ANY of those midwives!  The practice encourages you to see everyone since you never know who will be there when you deliver, which I totally get, but seriously?  I think we can be pretty sure we won't be seeing any of the midwives that don't even do deliveries at the hospital!

So today, we saw yet another midwife, but this one actually does "a lot of deliveries."  She was very nice just like everyone else at our practice.  The nurse I think may have been new as well because I walked into the bathroom and stepped onto the scale without her even saying anything.  Then she said, "You know the drill, huh? Weight, pee..."  I laughed and said, "Yeah, 34 weeks later!"  :)  We then went into the room and finished the rest of the typical nurse-related activities.  This nurse seemed younger and more thorough than most of the other ones though.  She asked if we had any questions/needed anything and informed me that the next visit I would be getting a Strep B test.

Then the midwife came in, and also joked with us a bit.  She got out the doppler and checked the heartbeat.  Then she poked and prodded my belly to get the baby to move and then checked the heartbeat again.  She said it was supposed to go up after the baby moves, which it did, and like those before her said it was "perfect."  Then she measured my belly.  She said it was 32 cm, which is a pretty normal for 34 weeks.  I said no one ever told me what the measurement was and I was curious because I feel like I'm smaller than other women as far along as me.  She said that was because I was tall and long waisted (which I figured), and then said probably in the next few weeks, I would still measure small and the practitioner would probably recommend an ultrasound to check the growth of the baby and the US would say the baby was in the 90th percentile.  She sounded like this happened a lot! :)

Anyways, all in all yet another uneventful appointment - except that I got to meet one of the midwives who may be with me in the delivery room!  I also made all of our remaining appointments and I realized next week is my last week without an appointment with a doctor before I deliver...scary.  New belly photos for Justin's co-workers (and anyone else who has been wondering what's taking so long!)

Partner yoga post coming up! :)

Taking a break!

So I've been getting a little bit of nausea this week, which is semi frustrating in my third trimester.  Last night I could hardly sleep and still felt pretty crappy this morning.  I think I am so stressed out about preparing for baby and buying Christmas gifts for family while at the same time trying to make sure we save money and have enough to buy the things we need but don't yet have for baby...it's all overwhelming.

Not to mention I don't exactly have an physically easy job, or emotionally for that matter.  I'm a bit tired of hearing my "lovingly whiney" patients, as I call them, complain to me about their pain and their problems.  I know it's my job and I signed up for it and 95% of the time I love it, I just want to vent!

So anyways, today I took a day off.  The list of reasons not to was much longer, but the one reason to take a break was much more important that the many other reasons not to.  I feel SO much better.  I was able to just sleep and rest and also got a few baby things done:

• Called to schedule a "prenatal" visit with a potential pediatrician's office


• Called to schedule a hospital tour of the "maternity ward" as I called it and laughed at myself on the phone with the receptionist (I guess I couldn't think of the word UNIT)


• Researched some more daycare options


• Researched potential apartment options


• Registered our Britax car seat and stroller (some of the car seats were recently recalled due to a "brittle chest clip" but turns out the green color was a good choice because our model # wasn't recalled)


• Researched some invitation wording options for bridal shower/bachelorette party

Did I mention I rested?  I think I just really needed a day to rest, relax and get a few small things done to take some stress out of my life.

I am trying to get Justin to blog about partner prenatal yoga last weekend.  We'll see if he does it, if not I'll try to fill you in!  It was so much fun! :)

27th Birthday Gift: QT with my sister

We went to see Michael Buble.



This is us waiting before the show started.  The couple behind us was obnoxiously funny.  The guy was so impressed with my self photo taking camera with a front screen (hilarious picture of guy being amazing to come...)  Megan bought the tickets as a birthday gift for me and something we could do together before my life changes completely.



After going on and on about my camera, the guy behind us started talking to the couple next to me about the guys smart phone and the front facing camera with a flash.  Being the smarta*s I am, I turned around and said, "You came here to check out all the new technology not for the show, didn't you?"  His wife/gf/whatever started cracking up and he goes, "Yep exactly, I'm outta here in 10 minutes.  I couldn't care less about Michael Buble!"  We all laughed.  Here are some photos from our seats (not zoomed).





The opening act was a group of 7 guys, called Naturally 7.  They are a group that does what is called "vocal play."  They basically make the sounds of the instruments with their voices.  The guy who was the bass was amazing!  (And of course the skinniest guy in the group.)  I highly recommend checking them out on iTunes.  Then we waited about 15 minutes for Michael Buble to come on.

He was, simply put, totally AWESOME!  He was funny and sounded awesome, and his band was fantastic.  It was just all around such a great time...even though my ankles and shins swelled up like balloons during the 3 hours of sitting/standing.  I loved every second of it, and got emotional a few times thinking about how scared I am of my life completely changing, but I think I'm ready.  Or maybe I'm not quite yet but I have at least another month or so to come to terms with the whole idea of being a mom.  Thanks, Meg, for a really great birthday gift and for making me feel special for my birthday.

Here are a couple more photos from the show of Michael.