Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is turkey day! It should be a time of reflection on all the things that I am grateful for. Trust me, I see what other ladies write online and Ben and I are super lucky to have the relations and friends we do. People have sent clothes and books and beautiful cards, no one has complained about name choices, or really complained about anything. But I honestly don't think you are here to read about how thrilled I am that my families are super great and supportive, I am guessing you are here for baby stuff.

Yesterday I went for the 35 week checkup with my OB Doctor H. She has been super sweet but is leaving at the end of December, so depending on when baby bunny comes she may or may not be delivering him. (Think December vibes!)

Dr. H always answers my questions and yesterday I had a really weird question for her. Tuesday my toilet seat was a normal white color and Wednesday morning there was a big blue butt-print on it. I did a quick google search and apparently this is a pregnant thing that just basically has no good explanation. I'm her first toilet seat turner!

I am sparing you a picture of my toilet, (this one is from google) so now you have something to be thankful for too...

After the toilet seat question we proceeded with the rest of the appointment.  She did an ultrasound to check the position baby bunny was in. Everything looks good including his position and heartbeat. He is head down and at the time his spine was aligned with my right side. I got to see a profile of his head, and little hands, and the spine. We could see the amniotic fluid looked good and even chunks of the vernix floating in it. We tried looking to confirm baby bunny was in fact still a boy, but he kept shoving a foot in front so we couldn't get a clear shot.

After the ultrasound they did a swab for group B strep (20% of women test positive for it). And I was free to go until next week. Dr. H is out so I will be meeting with Dr. L who will take over for Dr. H when she leaves.

Baby Bunny Loves Opera

The other day baby bunny was really excited to listen to Ben's opera. I was trying to get him on camera and I thought he might move a little more if I gave him some music to dance to.

I am trying to hold my breath for a lot of the video so almost all of that movement is actually the baby.

Predicting the Arrival of Baby Bunny

Today I discovered a new due date calculator on the internet. The data for the algorithm is based off of user-submitted birth, conception, and menstrual period information. Here are my results:

Estimated birth weight of your baby is 7 pounds, 10 ounces

True due date: Wednesday December 24th, 2014 when you are 39 weeks, 4 days pregnant

There is an 80% chance your baby's birth weight will be between 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 8 pounds, 13 ounces

Most likely week (27% chance): Monday December 22nd, 2014 to Sunday December 28th, 2014

Fifty percent chance of being born: Wednesday December 17th, 2014 to Tuesday December 30th, 2014

Eighty percent chance of being born: Tuesday December 9th, 2014 to Tuesday January 6th, 2015

Double Digits

We have reached double digits! I guess if bottles of beer are your thing you can start the countdown now, otherwise you just have to be patient like me. Keep in mind that the 29th is just a number and baby bunny will come when he decides he wants too but it feels good to be under 100! 

Viability!

Week 24 is an important week because this is the tipping point of viability, or baby bunny surviving outside the womb in some kind of emergency. Obviously I want Bunny to stay in there as long as he is safe and comfortable but sometimes things just happen. On my baby forums there are some women who are on total bed rest because their waters have broken and even some people with December due dates who have delivered already due to early labor, or issues with the placenta, low amniotic fluid, etc. Here is a little bit more about the subject from Wikipedia:

21 and less -  0%
22 - 0-10%
23 - 10-35% - We have completed here
24 - 40-70% - We are currently here
25 - 50-80%
26 - 80-90%
27 - 90%
30 - 95%
34 - 98% 

A baby's chances for survival increases 3-4% per day between 23 and 24 weeks of gestation and about 2-3% per day between 24 and 26 weeks of gestation. After 26 weeks the rate of survival increases at a much slower rate because survival is high already.


To celebrate our increasing chances of survival here is a picture of my cat in baby clothes.

Guest Post - How the Times have Changed

As a soon-to-be-grandma I am very proud and excited for my Nicky. Recently visiting her and watching her makes me reminisce about my pregnancies. Seeing as how women have been giving birth to babies for a heck of a long time, you would not think much has changed in 30 years. But here are a few I  have noticed.

1. The Pregnancy Test
The pregnancy tests are so much easier today! All Nicky had to do was pee on a stick. The ones I took long ago had about 20 steps and you had to look for a circle at the bottom of a tube. If it was disturbed in the least, you had to start all over with a whole new kit. Expensive and double UGH!!!!



2. Pregnancy Math
30 years when someone asked how far along you were the response was a guess "Oh about 4 1/2 months". Now Nicky has an app on her phone that tells her she is ____weeks and ____days pregnant and counts down how many days until the due date. It also tells her the size of the baby in comparison to fruit. I doubt she is looking forward to those pineapple days.

3. Food 
I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted (that was on days I could actually get food in my mouth). Today these young ladies can not have a grocery list of foods that were just fine before, including several different types of cheese like brie, goat, or feta (listeria), hot dogs or lunchmeat (nitrates),  buffet food (listeria) hamburgers with any undercooked meat and the absolute worst.... a nice juicy STEAK!! (e-coli). No wonder Ponderosa went out of business.

4. Beware the BPA and other chemicals
I could use and microwave plastic dishes and containers, clean my oven with oven cleaner, or spray insecticide without cause to worry.

5. Maternity Clothing
We went clothes shopping at Destination Motherhood when I was visiting Nicky and I was pleasantly surprised by the maternity clothing. Today there are way more types of maternity clothes to choose from. She picked out a lot of cute things and some of them were even on sale. When I was pregnant all of the maternity tops had the same style and it was like I had to shop at Tents-R-Us.

6. Baby Showers
Our baby showers were BORING. For some reason having the men around makes them more fun. Also I think the shirt I got Ben was pretty cute.


7. A long, long wait
30 years ago we had to wait the whole long 9 months (or more!) to see what our babies looked like and you found out the sex when you gave birth. (No gender reveal cakes for me.) Now you can get an ultrasound anytime you want and see what that precious little critter looks like, pictures to take home and a DVD too. This is way cool, but I think the 3-D version is just a little creepy.


8. Rules for Sleeping?
I could sleep however I wanted (If I could lay down to begin with). Now Nicky is supposed to lay on the left side every night.

9. Sweet Dreams are Made of These
We did not have a snoogle pillow to sleep with. But it looks super comfy and I am ordering myself one even though I am not pregnant!!!!


10. Bottle vs Boob
Nobody made a real big fuss over breast feeding as formula feeding was typical. Dr Patterson mentioned breast feeding to me once and never again after the look of sheer horror came over my face the first time he mentioned it. Now there is a whole "breast is best" campaign and the doctors want you to at least try breast feeding first. Many hospitals won't even give you free formula anymore. All I can say is thank you Similac for being around!

Looking over the list it seems like a lot of change in just 30 years. I wonder how different things will be when I become a great-grandmother?

Ultrasound photos!

Ultrasound photos are pretty much one of the coolest things you get during pregnancy, and having one elective ultrasound I really understand how people justify paying for one out of pocket later in the pregnancy. 20ish weeks is a long time to go without seeing your little one again. An ultrasound is also one of the things that you can show friends and family without things being too weird. Other things like stretch marks, hernias are not so good for showing off. I also know that generally it is hard to tell what you are looking at so I tried to label things so everyone could tell exactly what is what. These are some of the better photos I have from the ultrasound we did to find out the baby bunny's gender at about 17.5 weeks.

This is a nice profile shot where I've labeled the back of the head, the nose and mouth area, and the spine. I'm pretty sure this shot was taken when the baby was eating so he was opening and closing his mouth a lot. 

This picture is of the other end and is looking up from underneath. If it helps you can imagine you sat the baby on a photocopier and made a copy and are looking out at the picture that came out of the copier. The photo shows both legs, an umbilical cord, and boy bits. If you look closely near the arrow, you can even see the balls. This picture is one of the ones I got as proof of the gender.

The last photo is similar to the first where is it a profile of the baby, but he is turned a little so you can see his ribs and even an eyelid, though it is still fused shut for the time being. This picture is a little creepier, as he seems to  have a very large smile.