28 weeks 1 day

My pregnancy book seems to have successfully hidden from me, so I can't update from it right now. Luckily, I have an alternate source.

The following is from StorkNet's Pregnancy Week-by-Week Guide, for week 28 (with some added in from SheKnows.com's Week-by-Week Guide):

Eyebrows & eyelashes are now present, & hair is starting to grow on the head (not too much, knowing my babies)...
Eyelids are open & eyes are completely formed & can differentiate between light & dark...
Baby weighs abou 2lbs & has 2% - 3% bodyfat (approx. half the weight of the average bag of sugar)...
Baby is 10" long...
Lungs are capable of breathing air but aren't yet mature...
Baby can recognize mama's voice...
Fundus is about 3" above navel (mine is more like 4.25" above it)

Hmm, methinks that's a better source than the book! Certainly has more info.

Gratuitous illustration:
Cute, isn't it? One hopes mine is head down. I keep thinking it might be, but there are so many little bumps and smacks I really can't tell. I'm pretty sure I was able to feel a little foot pushing against my hand earlier today, and up top too, but I'm not certain.

My stats this week:
I weigh 193.5 pounds, for a gross gain of 17.5 pounds & a net gain of 11.5 pounds. On the low end of the normal range if you account for gross weight gain, a bit below normal if you take my start weight into account. If I work with the theory of gaining a pound a week in the third trimester and the further theory that I'll go to 40 weeks, I can expect a 29.5 pound gain, total. I doubt I'll gain that much, but we'll see. Not that it bothers me, the prospect. Just I don't think it will happen.

My uterus is 33.5 cm this week. A centimeter up from last week, so right on with my own normal curve, though still measuring significantly ahead. My tummy is now 43" circumference, two inches greater than the last time I measured, back in week 24. It's about time for more belly shots, too, but I'm not in the mood for those tonight.

I have started drinking red raspberry leaf tea. It's supposed to help tone the uterus. The box says to drink 3 cups a day, so I take 3 teabags & make a pitcher of iced tea with it. Worked well until I drank the last of it today, & we're broke til the first! Ah well, some say not to start drinking it til 36 weeks. It doesn't give me braxton-hicks contractions, though, so I'm comfy with drinking it early. Will definitely buy a bigger box, or two boxes, next time, though. I'm not too worried about missing a few days this early on, but I don't want to miss any in the future.

Once I hit 34 weeks, I'll start evening primrose oil orally, and at 36 weeks I'll switch to vaginally. EPO isn't usually started until 36 weeks, period, but since I had Linda by then, it makes sense for me to start a little earlier.

We're telling Linda this is her baby. We told Bobbie that Linda would be hers, so it's only fair that this one is Linda's. And the cute thing is, Baby is definitely reacting to Linda's voice. Well, her hollering, at any rate. Bobbie hollers too, but Baby reacts only to Linda. I guess it's more familiar with her, because she's the one usually cuddled up to me.

We have added another girl's name into consideration, Judith. Nice old-fashioned name. Ranked 542 last year, an 85-place jump from the year before. Hasn't been in the top 100 since 1964. The height of its popularity was 1940, when it was at #4. So it's got the same feel as the others. Hmm...

Bobbie
Linda
Esther

or

Bobbie
Linda
Judith

The thing that gives me pause is neither daughter's name lends itself easily to a nickname, but Judith does. Ah well, we'll wait to name the baby til it's here.

Twenty-seven weeks even. Happy Third Trimester!

Twenty-seven weeks marks the start of the third trimester. According to my ticker in the corner of my browser, there are 90 days, 22 hours, 29 minutes, and 39 seconds remaining in my pregnancy. Not that I expect to go all the way to the end, as I was a month early last time.

From the book:

Baby now weighs a little more than two pounds.
Crown-to-rump length is 9.6 inches, and total length is 15.3 inches. (I tend to give birth to 18 or 19-inchers.)
The uterus measures 27 cm from pubic symphysis to fundus. In theory. In practice, it is 32.5 cm, which is 5 "weeks" ahead, but consistent growth for me, about 2 cm more than the last time I measured.

The baby can, in theory, see now. The retina has formed, at least. Of course, the womb is a rather dark place, so what the baby can actually see is anyone's guess, I suppose. It's probably starting to blink, at any rate.

I still cannot discern the baby's position. Probably breech, knowing me. If not completely transverse. Sigh. It's not sitting still from day-to-day.

Third trimester pain has started. Started last week, actually. A bit early. Nothing like going around with an icepick stabbing you at the base of your spine...Usually this is when I start to question why the hell I don't just adopt. This time...I dunno. I'm groovy. Mellow. My marriage seems to be falling apart around me, but I'm in some other universe with the fetus. Odd. Very odd.

25w 2d OWWW!

First off, let's see what the book says...

Baby weighs 1.5 pounds
Crown-to-rump length is 8.8 inches
Uterus is about the size of a soccer ball (yeah, right!)
Top of the uterus is halfway between bellybutton & sternum.

The "Daddy Tip" this week is to do the grocery shopping. "This may be an unsettling prospect for some men, but cell phones have made men better shoppers." On the one hand, it's sexist as hell. On the other hand, my husband does frequently call me to verify things now that we both have cell phones.

OK, time for Sabra's Uterine Reality Check. There's really no need to measure my uterus every time, but I'm bored and so I will anyway. Instead of 25 weeks, I'm measuring ~29 or 30 weeks. Still ahead, but at least consistently 4 to 5 weeks ahead. So offhand, I'm guessing this will be (at least relatively speaking) a big baby. Either that, or it's twins, which isn't bloody likely.

On to the OW...

I finished crocheting a little yellow dress (with blue trim, God it's adorable!) tonight and decided to go digging for my buttons. Easier said than done. They're in the bottom of one of those humongous plastic storage tubs, so brilliant me decided to heft it onto the floor (it was stacked on top of another such tub). OW! My whole pelvis hurts now. I stressed a stretched-out ligament or something. No serious damage done, of course. No damage at all, most likely. But damn it hurts.

Word to the wise: if you can't bend over from the waist because your stomach's getting in the way, you shouldn't be wrestling heavy things to the floor.

one last thing...

Dear God, my tits have grown AGAIN. I did not think it was physically possible. But it must be. And it had to have happened in the past week. I mean, I put on tonight a dress that I last wore this weekend, Sunday I think. Then, it fit perfectly. Now, it's tight, but only in the bodice. And I know it didn't get shrunk, because I hadn't washed it (kinda grody I know, but I'd only worn it a very short time on Sunday, I swear it didn't stink, & we weren't getting out of the van anyway). My boobs no longer fit in the dress. Eek. I noticed a little tightness in my bra when I was taking it off, too. But that may just be my imagination. I do hope I'm wrong and I just didn't have the dress adjusted properly or something...

24 weeks 5 days...Homebirth

Birth is not an Emergency
It's an Emergence, See?

This is my new motto for birth. Someone mentioned it on Laura Shanley's website for unassisted childbirth. I'm adding it to my affirmations. Thus far, they are:

My body is strong and made for giving birth.
My baby is healthy and will be born healthy.
My baby will be head down for birth.
My birth will go well and my baby will be born.

I will now add the following:

Birth is not an emergency. It's an emergence, see?
My pelvis is soft and flexible and moves to allow my baby through.
I will stay centered and balanced in labor, surrendering to each contraction to bring my baby into the world, within the perfect length of time.
My baby will grow to the perfect size for my body to birth naturally.
My cervix will open fully, like a flower to the sun, to allow my baby through.
I now choose to have a loving, gentle birth at home.
My baby is safe and nutred and instinctively knows what to do.
My body was made for giving birth and knows instinctively what to do.
Through pain I will find strength, through birth I will find healing.

I'll add others as I think of them. I believe strongly in the power of the mind. With my first daughter's birth, I was induced. I started having contractions right when I thought they put the Pitocin in my IV bag--a good five hours before they actually did. So I know how belief affects reality. I'll ask the baby to come at a good time, and I'll be s/he will. We'll see.

In fact, I'll pick a birth date now and whisper it to the baby. My "official" EDD is 19th October 2005. Pretty good, since not very many cousins are born in October. My brother was born 16th September, so that's tempting. But I'd like to go to at least 37 weeks. So let's aim for 30th September. I just really don't want an October baby; my mother was born in October.

Baby...come 30th September.

That part is to be continued...

***

I used to watch "A Baby Story" all the time. I can't do it anymore. Birth...Birth should not be violent.

I was looking for photos I could use as a basis for some pregnancy graphics I want to make. So I did a Google Image search on "homebirth." Then I did one on just "birth." The latter gives lots of hospital birth photos.

And you know, the difference is distinct. I've seen lots of photos from hospital births. The women in them never look truly happy. Some look drugged, some look pained. None look happy, much less ecstatic. But the homebirth mamas...even the ones in obvious pain, they look HAPPY. Not just happy, HAPPY. Ecstatic. When was the last time you heard of a woman having an orgasmic birth in the hospital? I never have. It's just not the right venue. Home is. Which of course is not to say that every home birth is orgasmic. Just that it's more likely to happen at home than anywhere else.

"I had been told to expect a 'dogging pain,' but was unprepared for the sensation of sexual ecstasy, the voluptuous feeling of penetration....Crouched on my knees on the little afghan, I caught the infant who rushed from my vagina into the small world between my legs, in the midst of an extraordinary orgasm from the inside out."
-From They Don't Call it a Peak Experience for Nothing, by Ruth Claire(Mothering, Fall 1989)

That's from Laura Shanley's website. That's the sort of thing I aim for. Not the frightening, helpless births of my first two. A happy birth. A fulfilled one. An active birth. I want my baby to have that sleepy happiness I only see in photos of homebirthed babies, not the fright and neediness of hospital-birthed babies.

(The next time you watch "A Baby Story", look at it objectively and see how they terrorize the mother and child, especially that poor newborn. I've always thought "newborn care" was more torment than anything. Certainly not the welcome a new human deserves!)

24 weeks 3 days Hooray for Viability!

Baby's officially viable at 24 weeks. That's when a baby is more likely than not to survive, though it doesn't hit about 90% til 27 weeks.

What is new for this week?

Baby weighs approximately 1.2 pounds, & 8.4 inches long.

I'm measuring way ahead again, 28 or 29 weeks instead of 24. I've really "popped" over the past week or so. Still, +/- 3 weeks is considered normal. so +4 isn't really out there. Book says my uterus should be 1.5 or 2 inches above my navel, but mine is 3" up. Only 1" more in circumference, though.

24 weeks belly

That's the latest tummy-shot.

More from the book:

Baby is filling out. Its face & body look more like an infant at the time of birth. Quarters are starting to get cramped. (Really, I can feel it flippin' around in there.) Amniotic fluid volume is approximately 12 oz, & will top out at 2 pints around 36 weeks.

Cool.

I like this baby. Very interactive. I still very much enjoy playing games. Funny how not having to dread the hospital at the end of the tunnel makes for a much calmer Mama.