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Baby, baby, he can hear your heart beat

Last night, Baby was moving so much, my stomach looked like a bowl of Jell-o. Shane was talking right above my belly. He put his ear against it and said, “I can hear his heart beat!”

Sure enough, he could! He tapped his hand to the baby’s rhythm, and it was more than twice as fast as my own.

How cool is that?

29 weeks and appointment update

Today I took the three-hour blood glucose test. I won’t know the results for a few more days, but I’m betting that I’m fine. We’ll see! The “glucola” drink had 100 grams of glucose, or twice the amount of the one-hour drink. It certainly seemed sweeter! Still nothing horrible, and after going 12+ hours without eating anything, it almost felt good in a way to get some calories back in my system.

Somehow, sitting in the waiting room for three hours and having my blood drawn every hour wasn’t so bad. Time went fairly quickly. I had things to read and I tried to doze for a little bit.

Even though now I say “it wasn’t so bad,” this morning, I was pretty crabby. Fighting morning rush-hour traffic on an empty stomach = a cranky Kacie. I managed to hit the evening rush hour traffic on the way home, too, but I had more patience then. I really really hope my labor isn’t timed so that I have to get to the hospital during rush hour. Or a Steeler’s home game. A 15-minute trip could quickly turn into 45 minutes to an hour.

Anyway.

In trying to get out the door on time, I managed to leave my lunch behind. So, I broke my fast at the hospital cafeteria. I chose lasagna, a breadstick and milk. The first few bites of the lasagna were magnificent. It tasted like the most wonderful pasta ever. After about five bites, my tastebuds kicked in and I started to notice that the noodles were way overcooked and it wasn’t so scrumptious after all. Oh, hospital food.

Next on the agenda was a trip to the ultrasound department. At my midwife appointment last week, my belly was measuring about 24 centimeters when it should have been around 28. She was concerned that he might be having trouble growing. This week, the ultrasound revealed that oh, he’s fine. He’s measuring in the 65th percentile, which is actually on the slightly large side of normal. Not too large to worry, but big enough to make me laugh. My belly must be all baby. So ah…where are my usual belly organs? Pushed aside.

The ultrasound estimated that he’s about three pounds right now, give or take a few ounces. It’s too hard to predict what he’ll weigh at birth (and those ultrasounds aren’t totally accurate anyway) but it’s likely that he’ll be in the healthy range of 7 to 8 pounds.

My belly is now measuring 27 centimeters and since I’m now 29 weeks, it’s technically on the small side, but whatever. That’s just how it’s gunna be.

I’ve gained about 15 pounds so far and all seems well.

Here’s what’s happening according to BabyCenter:

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you’ll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby’s hardening skeleton each day.

What a lovely, productive weekend

Last week, I took our car seat to a certified car seat technician. He showed me how it was supposed to fit and provided a — I kid you not — pool noodle! to help the seat achieve the proper angle. Apparently, this is what the owner’s manual recommends. You’d think that if you were going to pay $150ish for a car seat, they could throw in a pool noodle with the box. Oh well.

Car seat tech Larry gave me one for free. It’s pink.

When he got the seat to the proper angle and we used the LATCH anchors to secure it, the seat did fit a bit more snugly. With the seat in the center spot in the backseat, we do have room in the front seats to drive and ride without our knees in the dash. And, there’s room (it’s a tight squeeze, though) in the backseat if one of us wants to ride next to Baby. Whew!

I left the seat in there for a few days. There were already some pretty serious indentations from the seat, so I think I’ll buy a rubber mat thing that’s supposed to help protect the car.

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On Saturday, Shane and I went to a few yard sales. Most sales didn’t have much for us, but we did manage to find a baby bath for $5. It has a shower sprayer and adjusts so it might be helpful for different sizes. We’ll see!

We ended up in Zelienople, PA where we happened upon a fall festival. Score! We enjoyed some apple cider and the healthiest fair food we could find (I had a beef fajita and Shane had a beef brisket sandwich. Oh, and I had a banana dipped in chocolate). The sounds, smells and general atmosphere were so charming. It’s a lovely small town.

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On Sunday, we took some of our things to our storage locker in the basement. We also had some things that we took to a thrift store. Gotta get rid of stuff so we can make room for baby stuff!

We also went to pick up our crib. My car’s back seats fold down, giving way to the trunk. The crib *just* barely fit, and we didn’t have to leave the trunk open. Yay!

We found an online tool to help us figure out a decent room arrangement, and we went to work rearranging the baby’s room and setting up the crib.

Shane did a great job with it and we think it looks pretty good. I’ll post pictures soon.

Now, I need to figure out exactly how we plan to store our baby things. I have some ideas and I’m sure I’ll post photos and details once it comes together.

It was a productive weekend and I’m feeling encouraged by the progress we’re making!

Tomorrow is my superfun day at the hospital. I’m actually not worried about it anymore. It’ll be fine, seriously. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Welcome to your life, Cadence Rae!

My friend Jessica had her little girl last night! Cadence Rae is 8 lbs. 5 oz. and super cute! Go wish the mama congrats at her blog.

Sounds like everything went well. Jessica was even able to provide a few updates via Twitter and Facebook! Whoa!

One-hour glucose test fail & first Bradley class

Baby is really keeping me on my toes this week. First, it was my midwife telling me that suddenly I’m measuring four weeks too small. Then, yesterday evening I found out that I failed my one-hour glucose tolerance test! My levels were at 158. If you test at 140 or higher, you’ve gotta take another test.

First of all, if I have gestational diabetes, wouldn’t I be measuring big? You would think so.

We’re gunna get this whole thing figured out soon.

I’ll have an ultrasound on Tuesday about his size, and as soon as the lab opens this morning, I’ll schedule my three-hour glucose test that ought to be a little more helpful in telling us if I have GD.

Either way, looks like I’d better be a bit more careful with my eating habits.

I was pretty upset about the whole thing yesterday, but I’m fine now. Thanks for all of your kind comments! I really appreciate them.

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Last night, Shane and I went to our first Bradley method childbirth course. I think this will be helpful to us both. Simply talking about aspects of childbirth for 2.5 hours with people in the same situation and an instructor who knows her stuff — plus, doing some exercises during class — will help a ton.

There are seven couples in our class and I think one more couple will join us next week. In our group, we have two ER pediatricians (moms), a surgeon (dad) and a nurse (dad). What a medical group!

I think it’s really cool how they see the value in unmedicated childbirth. I’m hoping they won’t mind if I ask them for some recommendations on a pediatrician.

Some ladies are due at the beginning of December. One is due at the end of January, and I think we have some February moms and lastly, an early-March due date.

Besides the instructor, I think all but one of us are first-time moms.

The first class was an introduction to various things. It was fairly low-key, with plenty of good information sprinkled in.

We were assigned some reading to do by next week, as well as tracking everything we eat. Oh, and we’ve got to do our stretching excercises.

We’ll discuss a controversial subject each week, and we’ll take turns doing some research to make a small presentation. I’m up first. I’ll be talking about eating and drinking during labor. I’ll share my findings with y’all.