pregnancy – hellomelissa.net

33 Weeks

April 30, 2009July 23, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

Sean took this just over an hour ago. I am 33 weeks today. I probably should just give up on wearing my regular t-shirts, but I put this on when I came home from work, so it’s not like I went out in public in it. Does posting it on the internet count? Whatever.

I put some other pictures on my Flickr page (link leads to my entire set of belly pictures, so you can see the progression), including some with exposed belly. I’m not usually a belly exposer in public but I figure since there’s a baby in there, I can get away with it.

The pregnancy is going well. My feel are swollen and I’m still going for weekly non-stress tests, but in general I feel good, and Skeletor seems to be incubating as she should. She’s not totally out of room yet – she’s still kicking up a storm.

We start our prenatal classes on August 16th. We’re doing one full day of prenatal class, one evening class for baby bath and massage, and one evening class for breastfeeding. Hopefully we learn lots, and more importantly, the baby stays put until we finish all the classes!

30 Weeks, 2 days

April 30, 2009July 4, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

In anywhere from eight to 12 weeks, I will be a mother to someone who is outside of my body. Time is starting to go fast now.

I got a surprise shower with my family at our annual girl’s weekend. We better pray that Skeletor is definitely a girl because she got a lot of beautiful pink clothes. At worst Skeletor will be a cross-dresser for a few months. Men wear pink too, right? My cousin who had a baby girl a few years ago also gave me boxes of her old baby clothes, along with other baby things. It was really generous and Sean and I are very thankful for it.

I had to go for a non-stress test yesterday. It lived up to its name and was non-stressful. Just a belt with some sensors attached to my stomach to track the baby’s heartbeat and movements. I need to get this test done once a week until the end of the pregnancy due to having elevated AFP levels (that’s what made Skeletor’s risk for spina bifida so high). It’s more precautionary at this point I think, but better safe than sorry, especially when it is not an invasive or scary test.

So, we’re still kicking, squirming and incubating around here.

A long weekend is just a weekend, but with an extra day

May 1, 2009May 19, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

The Victoria Day fireworks have been going off each night since Saturday starting around this time (9PM). They really freak the dog out. I took Leia outside for a pee on Saturday night and it was the one time I’ve ever seen her run straight back into the house afterward – usually she wants to sniff and wander, no matter what the weather is like. Sean just took her out and she was so freaked out, she wouldn’t even pee – she just ran back towards the house. She’s been trying to find a place to hide ever since, but keeps changing her mind on where she wants to be.

We had a nice long weekend, but I don’t feel like I accomplished as much as I would have liked, especially in the garden. However, the weather was pretty crappy (mostly cold and rainy) so it wasn’t just an issue of laziness or procrastination. Sean picked up a lot of slack for me though – he edged most of the flower beds (and only quit because the edger broke); he also dug up the flower beds to get rid of all the weeds and grass that like to grow in them. This pregnancy thing does seem to have its perks! I still need to actually plant my flowers, but that will happen as it warms up this week.

A big step today…

May 1, 2009April 12, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

Today Sean and I went to Babies R Us to look at stuff. We weren’t planning to buy anything, but just wanted to look in person at what kind of baby stuff is out there. Sean made me laugh because he said being in the store made this whole baby thing seem awfully real. Dude, like it wasn’t real before! He then hightailed it out of there to check out the action figures. Don’t worry though – he did come back and look some more – he’s just usually a better buyer than browser and I think he wanted to avoid purchasing things we don’t need yet. Especially since a lot of things seemed very expensive. I took home the catalog for further research. It doesn’t have prices though, so it’s not as helpful as I’d like it to be.

In other baby news, I went to the doctor on Thursday. He said that the ultrasound looked fine, but he is sticking with his initial September 10th due date. His logic is that due dates are often give or take a week. I get that, but I don’t understand what the point of the dating ultrasound was if he’s not going to use that date since that is based on pictures and measurements of the kid. I figure I’m better off throwing a dart at a September 2008 calendar to figure out when Skeletor (that nickname has started to stick) will be born. It’s really not a big deal, but the back and forth does bug me a bit. My next appointment is next month, and will probably have the big ultrasound soon after. That’s the one that should decide what gender the baby is, and if all its parts are developing properly. I’m looking forward to that one.

It’s funny, I didn’t think I’d be one of those mums-to-be that only talked about her pregnancy and soon-to-arrive baby. But it seems that I don’t have a whole lot else going on right now except for the planning for Skeletor’s arrival. Everything else is kinda running on autopilot these days. Not to say that I’m slacking off at work or anything, but when people ask me what’s new, I don’t have a lot to report outside of pregnancy or baby stuff. I don’t want to bore people and overshare this stuff, but really, it feels like my world has gotten a lot smaller lately. My biggest concern these days is incubating this kid in the best way I can. Then hopefully Sean and I will become okay parents to it. I’m not thinking a lot these days about stuff that doesn’t directly relate to pregnancy or babies. I wonder if this is what they mean by “mommy brain”.

Update on the Little Critter

May 1, 2009March 29, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

I had my first appointment with my OB/GYN on Thursday morning. He must be well-liked as the waiting room was full of people (most of whom were pregnant ladies) when we got there. (He had been delayed due to being at the hospital attending a birth.) I like him too – most of the appointment was spent explaining how things work to Sean and I. He then asked if we had any questions, which a lot of doctors don’t always do since they are often so rushed, so I really appreciated that.

We got to hear the heartbeat at this appointment, which was something we were really looking forward to. The little critter’s heart was going at about 150 bpm, which seems ridiculously fast, but is quite normal in incubating babies. It was a real relief for Sean to hear it since he has been worrying that the baby stopped growing, even though I have been having normal pregnancy symptoms all along. We’ve done a bit of role reversal here – usually I am the worrywart and Sean is the one calming me down.

One thing that surprised me was that my due date may be further into September than we thought. My family doctor told me I was due around September 8th, so that is the date I’ve been fixated on. My OB/GYN said that I could be due on September 10th based on the dates I told him. However, when he measured me, he didn’t think I was that far along. So instead of being just over 16 weeks, I could be just over 15 weeks. So I’m being sent for a dating ultrasound to be sure. This is a standard procedure, but I think it’s usually done earlier – it just took me some time to get an appointment with the OB/GYN. I hope I’m further along, but the scheduler at the ultrasound said that my doctor is usually pretty dead-on with his dating, so I’m probably not as far along as I thought. I’m still optimistic that I will get my Virgo baby though – just like its mother! I do know that due dates are just guesses in the end and babies will be born when they see fit, but I like having an end-date in mind.

Somebody at work told me I was starting to show. I told them that it could just be my food belly showing and not my baby belly. I’m not sure if I’m showing baby yet, but I do think that my body is changing shape. (I’m in my grubbies right now, or I would take and post a picture.) Honestly, I’m convinced that my bottom is getting flatter, but I’m not sure if that’s a pregnancy thing or not.