Growth Chamber Stats

Baby girl has been gestating for almost 29 weeks and we had our 5th prenatal appointment this past Monday.  My fundal height was measuring for about 30 weeks, which fits with all the appointments we've had since the first one for her measuring a little ahead. From here on out we will be on a 2 week schedule for the next six weeks and then after that we will start seeing the doctor every week. The most exciting thing for me at this appointment was that our doctor told us that I passed the 1 hour glucose test with flying colors.  Woot!  I really really didn't want to go in for the 3 hour test and I really really really really didn't want to be developing any form of gestational diabetes.  I am very thankful that isn't the case!

My doctor did tell me that I am slightly anemic so I have started taking an iron supplement in addition to my prenatal vitamin.  Unfortunately, the real trick here is remember to take the iron supplement and the prenatal vitamin.  I have to confess that while I was really good in the beginning, lately I have only been remembering around 4-5 times a week. However, previously it mostly me trying to remember all by my lonesome, but now Jamie is going to try and help as well.  We are off to a good start, with him putting everything out at breakfast this morning!

In my excitement over passing the glucose test I think it is time I post my growth chamber stats.  For all of you that know me (which is presumably almost all of you), you will be shocked to find out that I love measuring, entering, and graphing data. I ♥ spreadsheets! So without further ado, here are my data!

GROWTH CHAMBER STATS

   Blood Pressure

Prenatal Appointment #1: 110/70

Prenatal Appointment #2: 118/64

Prenatal Appointment #3: 116/60

Prenatal Appointment #4: 122/66

Prenatal Appointment #5: 118/70

Each of the next two graphs are measurements I have been taking, albeit rather sporadically.  They span almost the entire 2nd trimester, with the last 2-3 points being third trimester.

Very important edit: This actually has nothing to do with this post, but I was just sent a link to the following website: 

http://pregnantchicken.squarespace.com/pregnant-chicken-blog/2011/3/15/cake-wrecks-baby-shower-edition.html  

I laughed until I cried, and almost peed my pants.  Perhaps it is just the mood I am in tonight, but if you think you could benefit from a similar endorphin release you should check it out.

Growing and Kicking

     Baby girl is now 27 weeks old and starts week 28 tomorrow.  According to some that means tomorrow I will be entering the 3rd trimester! Yeah! Of course, others may claim that I have a week or two to go OR that  I have been in the 3rd trimester for a few weeks now.  

     This whole "how far along am I" thing can be both confusing and exasperating.  I have come to dread the "how many months are you?" question in particular. Pregnancy is often thought of as being 40 weeks, or 10 months.  Which works out nicely if each month is 4 weeks long, but this tends to irritate me because, except for February, each month isn't 4 weeks long...it is approximately 4.3 weeks long.  So 12 weeks isn't 3 months, 13 weeks is.  To add to this confusion you also have to consider who asked the question.  Someone recently through pregnancy, or who has young children, won't bat an eye if you say "9 months and my due date is in 4 weeks", because they are familiar with the 10 month counting plan.  Whereas somebody not familiar gets really confused as to why you are 9 months pregnant and have 4 weeks to go. Anyways, the long and the short of it is that when asked how many months I am, between reconciling my wish for exactitude in having 4.3 week long months, and in trying to figure out the month-counting experience of the questioner, my brain tends to short circuit and I blurt out something like "27 weeks" in the hope that they will simply convert that number to whatever month sounds good to them.

However, I am straying off topic as the real point of this post is to a) update you on baby girl's development, b) post a picture of baby girl's host (i.e. moi) at the special request of my mom, and c) show you a video of her kicking!  

A) Development

• Baby girl is probably 2lbs or more by now.
• The fine hair covering her body (lanugo) is starting to disappear.  Although it is quite possible that she won't lose all of it before she is born.
• She now has distinct sleeping and waking cycles.  I feel her moving around the most during the morning (~8-11am), and then again in the evening (~9pm-11pm). However it may also be that I am simply more aware of her wriggling during those time periods because I am slightly more quiescent, especially for the evening chunk of time.
• Her tastebuds are developed.  In fact, she has more tastebuds now then she will a month after birth!
• Her lungs are coming online more and more.  She should be producing surfactant and taking small breaths of amniotic fluid.
• Her retina's are formed, she can tell the difference between light and dark.  If her eyes are open she is probably practicing blinking, and if her eyes aren't open they will be very soon!

B) Baby girl's growth chamber

The growth chamber continues to grow.  I have been measuring my circumference and for one of these posts I'll throw up a graph I promise!

C) Baby girl kicking!

Okay, you will probably have to watch this video a few times to see it.  What happens is that I start to take a breath in (so you will notice my belly moving up slightly) and before I breath out there is a bouncing of my belly up and down.  (I think it is easiest to see if you focus about 1 cm left of my belly button.) That is her moving!  I have to admit that when I watch my belly move from the outside I can't help but think of the "Alien" movies.  Keep wiggling alien baby!

Registry

Hi! Many people have been asking us about a baby registry.  Therefore, for ease of communication we have decided to put our registry on the blog.  So this is kind of a boring post, but hopeful it will get useful information out to those who want it. :)

- We have registered two places, the first is an awesome local store here in Flagstaff called Babies to Kids. (Not only are they really nice and informative when you go into the store, but they are the only store in town where we've been able to find a great supply of cloth diapers and cloth diapering accessories.) They are happy to take orders over the phone and do gift certificates as well.  Here is our list for Babies to Kids:

- The other place we have registered is through the website www.myregistry.com.  After going to the website you can search for either Cinnamon Pace or Jamie Lamit.  If it asks you for a password put in the word "baby".  The only trick to this website is that if you purchase something you need to take it off or mark it purchased (I have to confess that I am not entirely sure how it works because I haven't done it before, but they make it sound easy).  

- Although we didn't register there, Target gift cards are always welcome for filling in those odds and ends.

-We also love hand made or locally made items! Surprise us! 

I hope that helps for anyone that wants that info! I promise I will post a baby girl update soon! :)

Increasing viability (also known as "Why Cinnamon is thankful and excited for each new day")

So baby girl is now exactly 25 weeks.  I feel her kick every day (mostly right before I go to bed) and she is definitely continue to grow and grow (my belly is a definite testimony of this!).  Starting last week, baby girl's odds of living outside of the womb reached the point of feasibility and every single day increases those odds more and more.  Now, I would like her to cook as long as she needs to, but I find the fact that if something were to happen she could probably now make it very comforting.  You can find slight variations to this chart all over the internet, but as a general rule of thumb baby girl increases her odds every week in the following manner:

Up until 21 weeks: 0% survival rate



at 22 weeks: 0-10% survival rate



at 23 weeks: 10-35% survival rate



at 24 weeks: 40-70% survival rate



at 25 weeks: 50-80% survival rate

 (this is where we are!)

at 26 weeks: 80-90% survival rate



at 27 weeks: greater than 90% survival rate

at 30 weeks: greater than 95% survival rate

at 34 weeks: greater than 98% survival rate

Further more, between 24 and 26 weeks her odds go up 2-3% EVERY DAY!  At the same time her odds of having major medical issues associated with being premature go down EVERY DAY! Some people may find this a little grim, but for me it works.  At least once every day I give a little cheer of "another 2-3% baby girl! Yeah!" For me, it is very exciting!

Cranky pants in love.

The last two days have not been spent basking in glorious pregnancy splendor.  I have not been idyllically  "glowing" from gestation as I float from one task to the next. I do not feel like a maternal goddess imbued by a well-spring of 2nd trimester energy. Instead I am tired. And grumpy. And since I have been a heavy walker my whole life I am pretty sure that pregnancy has not induced any graceful floating, if anything it has increased the thudding. Did I mention I am tired? (And, uhm, grumpy?)  I would like to say this is a one-time aberration from the norm, but I was tired and grumpy for 2 days last week as well.  I have noticed that there is a direct relationship with multiple  four am bouts of insomnia and being tired and cranky.  I never imagined that I would do chores at four am in the morning, but I just can't stand lying there wide awake. Plus if I DO stay in bed I inevitably end up rolling over and having the following conversation:

Me: "Jamie...what are you doing?"

Jamie: Snort, grumble.

Me: "Are you asleep?"

Jamie: (long suffering not-amused sigh) "hun..."

(Yes, you are all allowed to feel great sympathy for Jamie at this exact moment in time.)

However, life is funny in that it often presents events that are in seeming opposition to one another.  On one hand I am cranky, tired, and slogging through my day.  On the other hand I am stricken with waves of love for our little baby girl.  I am not joking...WAVES!  Not the general amorphous love of being so excited about having a baby and loving a baby.  I mean a very personal, specific rush of emotion directed at only one little being on the planet: our baby girl.  (The biologist in me wonders when that happens if surges of the hormone oxytocin are being release by my pituitary.) I think for me, feeling her move, knowing she's a she, having a pool of names, all are probably part of this.  She is developing an identity, seems more and more real, and I adore her (and specifically her) already.

Thus the title of my post "cranky pants in love".  Lets all hope I get a beauteous nights sleep so we can drop the "cranky pants" part.

Alternatively, it is possible my crankiness would dissipate if someone could whip me up one of these:

(only make mine with strawberry haagen daz and sprite...thanks!)

VERY IMPORTANT EDIT (10:00pm): I wistfully mentioned rootbeer floats when Jamie walked in the door after band practice at 9:30pm and he turned around, drove to the store, and bought the necessary ingredients. He is truly wonderful and I so love that man!

A belated happy valentine's day!

Happy belated Valentine's Day everybody!   Since the new year Jamie and I have been trying to set aside a special "date night" each week to enjoy one another before the baby comes (honesty compels me to add that while we have been mostly successful at this, we haven't been entirely successful.)  Not that we don't do things together all the time, but "date night" is different and usually involves getting out of the house.  Valentines day, however, makes it very easy to set aside some time to go celebrate togetherness!  We don't usually go in for big gifts or anything (although there was the year Jamie gave me an awesome pocket knife), more tokens of affection.  This year Jamie took me to breakfast and gave me flowers and I made Jamie a little felt envelope that buttons shut with a love letter inside.

Jamie's envelope.

My flowers.

For date night Jamie and I went out to a local Indian/Nepalese restuarant called The Himalayan Grill for V-day.  It was really nice!  We splurged and each got a thali (which is a sampler of all kinds of different things), extra naan, and mango lassies.  It was definitely waaaaay to much food, and we each had leftovers for lunch both yesterday and today. Yeah! We LOVE leftovers!

Us all gussied up and heading out to dinner!

Update on little baby girl:

Little Aspen/Amelia/Layla/Ophelia/Charlotte/Sky/Whatever-else-gets-added-to-the-potentials-list (insert random middle name) Pace Lamit is is exactly 23 weeks done cooking and tomorrow starts week 24.  She is probably over a pound now. Her nostrils are unsealed, her skin pigment is forming, and her pancreas should be mostly up and running. And...(drum roll please) I CAN FEEL HER KICK NOW! YEAH! It isn't incredibly regular, but almost every night before I go to bed I can feel her move around.  Poor Jamie hasn't been able to feel her yet, but I'm sure that is coming soon. We had a doctor's appointment last week and everything looked great.  I was excited to hear her heartbeat again, it is such a reassuring noise!  (Jamie was also excited, albeit not for exactly the same reasons.  He was excited because it was neat to hear, of course, and because he is fascinated by our daughter, but also because it meant I would stop fretting for a while.  Sometimes I have a fretting problem.) We have another appointment the 1st week of March and then we will probably start going every 2 weeks, rather than every 4 weeks.   This Thursday starts the first of our prenatal classes.  We are taking a 3 week series (meets once a week) on labor and delivery, a breast feeding class, a newborn care and infant massage class, and an infant CPR class.  I am curious to see how this first one goes!

Happy February...and an update!

Happy February everyone!  Our February has started out extremely cold! Yesterday had a high of 12° and a low of -2°!! It was also very windy last night so windchill values were another 15° lower than that. Needless to say we didn't exactly venture outdoors last night! I have been a little behind in my updates, so here is a special "double feature": baby girl update and parental units update!

Update on our little baby girl:

            So far we are 21 weeks done and today marks the first day of week 22.  According to some sources our baby should be between 10-12oz this week.  Since she was measuring 12oz over a week and a half ago I'm guessing she is bigger than that now! I can't wait until we have a one pounder! Other than growing, here are some other big accomplishments our daughter has achieved:

-       She is starting to practice swallowing amniotic fluid to exercise her mouth and tongue.

-       She now has eyebrows, eyelids, and fingernails.

-       She is starting to develop brown fat.  Adult humans have really reduced amounts of brown fat, in fact until recently it was thought we didn't have any.  However babies have brown fat, as do many other mammals, especially ones that hibernate. For babies and hibernating mammals brown fat is a very important way of generating heat.  Adult humans are stuck with behavioral modifications and shivering, but if we had more brown fat we could keep warm without shivering!

-       She can perform rapid eye movements (REM), which is an indicator that she can dream! Jamie and I find this a very fascinating idea. What exactly do babies in the womb dream of? She doesn't have any outside experiences yet and her sensory input is limited.  Her eyes are fused shut still, although she may be able to detect light and dark.  Her hearing is coming on line, but at best it is going to be muffled. Her taste buds are developed enough to taste different flavors, but I don't know how many different flavors she's been exposed to yet (how much does amniotic fluid vary anyways?).  So are in utero baby dreams mixtures of light changes and muffled noises? How would you know if you were asleep or awake?  Some people pay a lot of money to use sensory deprivation tanks, where light and noise are absent and they float in a pool of warm water.  Sounds a lot like being a fetus!

Update on the future mommy and daddy:

            The first part of pregnancy is interesting because although we both knew I was pregnant, there wasn't any physical signs that the pregnancy test was right (especially since I had no morning sickness, etc).  For both of us each ultrasound has been a big moment of "Wow! There IS a baby in there!" (especially the first one). Also, while it has been easier for me to feel the changes in my body through time, those changes haven't always been readily apparent to Jamie.  That's part of why it has been really neat to watch him get more and more excited the bigger my belly grows.  This probably isn't true for everyone, but for us, finding out the gender and seeing the anatomy has made everything even more real. At least once a day Jamie turns to me and says "We're having a little girl!" with a big grin.  For the past few weeks he has been playing his guitar at night in bed for her. Not only do I think it is touching, but it is really nice to doze off to the melodic sounds of the guitar! 

            Physically I have been feeling overall pretty good. I stopped playing soccer after Thanksgiving, which was hard, but since then I have been going to a prenatal yoga class that I love once a week. Jamie and I have also both been going swimming at the campus pool at least once a week, and we are working towards making it over there at least twice a week. (Which really shouldn't be hard, the building is literally 100yards from the Bio building). So far I haven't really had any weird cravings, although for a little while I had a tofu aversion that has since dissipated.  The only thing that has been disappointing is that I was really hoping that I'd be feeling movement by now.  Every once in a while I think I might feel something, but I just can't be sure. I know that eventually I will feel it, but it is so hard to be patient! We have another doctor's appointment this upcoming Tuesday and I am hopeful that we will get to hear the heartbeat again then!

Ahem, for those that are curious here is the current size of our baby's home: