A blog about Parenting and Family Life and Personal Journals.
Real Name: Jennifer Baldwin Member Since: May 06, 2008 Last Signed In: November 14, 2008 Profile Views: 405 Blog Views: 993 Baby could be here in a week or two! Something cute I've noticed One month to go (give or take) 7 week countdown On a scale of 1 to 192 ... Crib vs. Bassinet vs. "play yard" Only two months to go - Ah! Oh, THOSE ligaments! Pass the s'mores ... and some ore! May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 
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Welcome to motherhood! It's been 10 days since our little bundle was born and I am only just now finding a few free moments to post to the blog! Here are the stats: Derek Oliver Burger was born at 5:04 a.m. Nov. 4 (four minutes after polls opened on the east coast on election day). It certainly was a day of new hope! He came 17 days before his due date, weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was 18.5 inches long. Labor lasted just seven hours. Not even time to even think about an epidural! He is the sweetest, cutest, most perfect baby ever. (I know, every mother says that about her baby!) Complications so far: Short frenium made sucking difficult. Pediatrician clipped under his tongue and multiple visits with lactation consultants has helped us train him to breast feed, but it still takes four hands to help him latch correctly. Less than adequate fluids due to the breast feeding issue elevated his bilirubin level and created a very yellow few days of jaundice. In-home phototherapy and two days of formula from the bottle brought the level back down. Of course, the bottle set us back on breastfeeding again, but we are overcoming it. We made quite the mess with black ink when trying to do his handprints and footprints for the baby book. No advice on making this easier. Successes so far: Baby's first manicure included nail clipping and light filing. It's hard to clip those tiny nails, but my mom's suggestion of using the nail file worked very well. His umbilical stump already fell off two days ago! He likes to be early for everything, it seems. Except mealtime. We usually have to wake him up to eat, and often he falls asleep at the bar. But boobs make such nice pillows! My mom had the great idea of doing a little "autumn" photo shoot for the birth announcements. We took about 100 photos of Derek in a basket surrounded with leaves. Priceless! I will write more as I have the time. I just wanted to get something up on this blog! James and I went to our now weekly appointment with the OB this morning and learned that not only am I 1 cm dilated, my cervix is also 90 percent effaced. Which means I'm ripe to pop this boy out. But the doctor really surprised me when she said "The baby could be here in a week or two." A week or two? My due date isn't until the 21st! I am supposed to work until the 14th! There's still so much to do! Positive outcomes of an early arrival: 1) I can breath again! (The baby is really taking up a lot of space and I literally have to stand to eat if I want to breath at the same time.) 2) Our baby might be born on the same day as his cousin, who is also due in a week or two, give or take. (James' sister Julie is having a baby girl!) 3) Better chance of me being able to drink a beer while watching football on Thanksgiving. (I'll pump first, of course, so baby gets alcohol-free milk and Mommy can drink.) 4) We get to meet our son sooner! Negative outcomes of an early arrival: 1) We aren't ready yet. But, then again, who ever is? I'm actually quite excited to squeeze out Baby Boy. People are asking me, am I scared about anything? The truth is, not at all. Even though I've heard the horror stories -- and even watched a few on A Baby Story on TLC -- I'm not afraid of labor at all. It looks like fun to me! And my mom is staying with us, so I'm not scared about not knowing what to do. I mean, how hard is it to hold, feed, change and play with a baby? Bring it on, sonny boy! For anyone who wants to follow along with the birth, I'll be Twittering via my cell phone from the hospital -- and passing off the phone to James when I can't text due to the whole pushing thing. Go to Twitter.com and search for the username "jenbaldwin." As baby grows, I can definitely feel the fact he's got less room to move and groove. This week I've actually seen his feet push against my tummy (up near my ribs) and stick out. I just push them back in. Today I've noticed that when I'm on the phone, he squirms around a lot. I wonder if he is responding to the sound of my voice? When I'm just quietly typing at my desk, he doesn't move as much. I'm really anxious to meet this little guy, but I do also enjoy feeling him move around inside me. Even though I feel like a boxing ring sometimes, baby's movements amuse me and amaze me. Yes, I believe I will miss the squirms and pokes after he enters the world. But I am so looking forward to his smiles and giggles! Today is Oct. 21, which means I am one month from my due date of Nov. 21. Of course, if all goes as "planned." Which I hear never does. The baby could be here sooner. Or it could be here later. I have no expectations — only that the baby will come at some point :) Saturday night, we thought maybe he was coming early. About 10 p.m., I turned over in bed and suddenly felt a warm wetness. Was it the gush of my water breaking? No way ... couldn't be. But what else could it have been? James calmly got out the list of things to pack and started filling a small bag. I called the hospital to see if I should come in. "It sounds like your water broke. We'll see you in a few minutes," the nurse said. No way — this couldn't be happening now! We haven't even had the baby shower yet! I haven't painted the nursery! We have no diapers! No car seat! I still haven't bought a pump for the birth ball or created my birthing playlist on my iPod or bought my nursing bras. We haven't taken our breastfeeding classes yet. So we drove to the birth center and quietly walked in. The nurse belted the fetal monitors to my abdomen. No contractions. Healthy heart beat. The nurse tested me for amniotic fluid — negative. The doctor took a peek and also tested for amniotic fluid — again negative. The baby was not coming that night. I could go home and rest easy. Thank God. We are excited to meet our baby boy, but we aren't quite ready yet. I spent the next day prepping the walls in the baby's room to paint and we ordered the crib last night online. Still so much to do! It feels like just yesterday when I was writing my first blog post here. And now I'm in my eighth month of pregnancy! But at the same time, it really does feel like I've been pregnant all year ... so time is both going slowly and flying by! We've had a good September. The fair was the highlight, of course. We went three times! Once to see The Bangles, once to see all the exhibits and some motorcycle racing, and once to see Joan Jett. The total tally of foods eaten is this: Corn dogs (2), pink lemonade, hot link, deep-fried s'more, soft serve vanilla ice cream cone, corn on the cob, onion rings, cinnamon roll with icing and nuts, pulled pork barbecue sandwich, cole slaw, funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream, one sip of beer. And guess what? I only gained four pounds in September! That's a pound a week, and that is right on track. I guess I have a built-in calorie burner! Unfortunately, I experienced about a week of morning sickness again. It started with me puking in the middle of getting a facial last Saturday. (How embarrassing!) Then the next day, James had to pull over so I could puke on the side of the freeway on our way out of town to visit his family. A couple of days of Zofran put me back on track, though, and I'm feeling a lot better now. At our OB appointment last week, the doctor heard the heartbeat below my belly button, which means the baby is head-down (the correct position for birth). We have our third childbirth class tonight, where we get to tour the birth center and see the rooms and accomodations. I also just got a prenatal yoga video, which is helping me to stretch my ligaments and strengthen my muscles for the birth. All the invitations for the baby shower are in the mail. We finally finished registering at Babies R Us. We bought a family vehicle last night (2005 GMC Envoy) — with financing, despite the single-day worst drop in the stock market ever. Everything seems to be coming together! I don't feel overwhelmed anymore, just excited and anxious to meet our baby boy. James is going to be a wonderful birth partner, I just know it. He is already practicing pain management with me. We held ice cubes in our hands the other night to practice breathing and meditation to handle the pain. I know contractions will be far worse than a little old ice cube, but at least we are preparing! Just seven weeks to go ... (or five if he's early or nine if he's late ...) I could blame the corn dog, hot link and 1/2 of a deep-fried s'more I ate at the Kern County Fair last night ... The last time I was weighed was at my doc appointment two weeks ago. 186. Not bad. On track. Good work. Now, according to "The book" I should be gaining a pound a week. So I decided to go down to the gym at work and weigh myself today. I was expecting about 188. As I approached the scale, I noticed it was set to 192. "Oh Lord, please don't let me weigh 192," I said out loud. (I was alone in the room.) I stepped onto the scale and it clanged downward. Oh good. So I slide the measurer back to 190, expecting it to stay down. Nope, it raised up. "Oh my," I said. "More than 190?" I moved it to 191. It stayed up. OK, but at 192, it clanged down. So which is it? I slowly slid the measurer up — 191 1/4. 191 1/2. 191 3/4. It slowly rose and rested at a balance. "Lord, you are funny! You have quite the sense of humor!" So I don't weigh 192 YET - but I bet I will by tomorrow. Aye aye aye. Whatever -- it's not going to stop me from eating more corn dogs and a deep fried Snickers when I go back to the fair next week! In other news, we are still working on our Babies R Us registry. Here are some pics of us trying out the products.
As we research baby sleeping arrangements, we are having a hard time deciding what to do. Maybe some of you parents out there have advice. Of course, we would like a crib for the baby's room. But for the first couple of months, we'd like the baby to sleep in the bedroom with us. So what do we put in the bedroom? Cradles seem unstable, bassinets are way cheesy and frilly, and "play yards" don't seem very durable. But we like the idea of a portable sleeper of some kind that we can have in the bedroom, and take with us when traveling. We are against co-sleepers (which attach to the bed) because our research has found this is unsafe for the baby, who can fall between the sleeper and the bed and suffocate. For the same reason, some of the "play yards" with the attachable bassinet don't seem safe either. I'm attaching some photos of products under consideration. But there seem to be pros and cons with them all. Help! Well folks, the impending birth of this baby is starting to hit me. We've got nine weeks to go, if the baby adheres to the due date of Nov. 21. Less if he comes early. James and I made a timeline of stuff we need to do before he's born, and let me tell you, I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. We haven't bought a single thing that we'll need, except UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley outfits (hey, gotta indoctrinate the tyke to love our alma maters at an early age). We need to register for gifts for the baby shower. But before we do all that, we need to research products and safety and consumer ratings. We also need to buy a "family" vehicle (the three of us won't be able to travel together in the truck). We need to paint and fix up the spare room for the nursery. And then there's all the stuff I need to finish at work so I feel good about taking maternity leave. Things we have done so far: Chosen the finalists for baby names, which we are keeping a secret until we meet the baby face-to-face and see what fits. UM, that's about it. Tuesday we have our first childbirth class. Those will go for five weeks, then we have a two-week breastfeeding class. Hopefully these classes will help calm some of my anxiety. In other news, my ligaments are still sore and tender, but feeling a lot more stable than before. I still get up slowly from a chair. But I went to water aerobics last night and felt great! I wish I had a pool so I could swim every day. The hardest part is getting out of the water. I feel soooo heavy when I emerge from the pool. In the water, I bob. On land, I bobble. We are super excited to meet our baby boy, though. He moves around so much, I can't wait to see what he's like "on the outside." He sure seems to have a good time in my belly, though. I call it "Romper Womb." I feel like a human bounce house. But I love feeling him move around. It doesn't hurt at all (yet). This weekend's assignment: Research cribs, strollers, cloth vs. disposable diapers, etc. Start registering for gifts! Last time I saw my mom (about two weeks ago on our birthday) she told me about how when she was pregnant with my "little" brother, she'd pick something up and "Oh! The pain!" Then a couple days later, after healing, she'd pick something else up and "Oh! The pain!" She kept tearing ligaments along either side of her abdomen. Well, two nights ago I learned exactly what she was talking about. I went to roll over in bed and "Oh! The pain!" My entire mid-section was seized in this awful pain. I arched my back and took several deep breaths, but still let out a moan. What was that all about?? Then all day yesterday it hurt to walk, get out of my chair, bend over, basically do anything. I skipped water aerobics. I hobbled into my OB appointment this morning. The nurse practitioner said I probably pulled the ligaments lining my abdomen. "Those ligaments are what hold everything up. You might need to get one of those belly straps. At least hold on to your belly as you roll over in bed to give it support." I hope I heal fast. This is not fun. The rest of the appointment was really good, though. The baby's heart beat is as strong as ever. And while the np had the doppler wand on my belly, the baby kicked hard against it. "Whoa! Did you see that?" she said to James. "Oh yeah," he answered. "Did that hurt?" she asked me. "Nah, he does it all the time," I replied. It was funny to see her reaction — I would think she'd get that all the time. Maybe our boy is just especially strong. I certainly feel like a boxing ring a lot of the time. It gets uncomfortable sometimes, but hasn't hurt yet. He's not high up enough yet to kick ribs. I'm sure that will come in time. I'm 28 weeks along. She measured my belly with a measuring tape and said I'm measuring at about 29 weeks. I've gained 3 pounds since my last visit; now I'm up to 186. I wonder how much this baby weighs! He feels heavy and low and loose and wobbly as I walk. I hope these ligaments heal fast! I don't need him falling out :) Last week James and I went on a road trip up the California coastal Highway 1, camping along the way at various state parks and beaches. It was a beautiful trip -- we learned to co-exist on the daily and fell into a cooperative pattern of setting up and breaking down camp, cooking and cleaning, building the campfire, etc. It was good practice in homemaking, being that this week he is moving in with me! |
