What Does Thirty Weeks Look Like?

I'm thinking things are going to start happening now.

Thirty weeks is a big milestone. We're 3/4 done with what is probably the easy part of being parents. I feel pretty good, although sometimes I wish I was about 6 inches taller in order to have a little more room for her to move around. I have to watch how much dinner I have, because we are discovering new and exciting definitions of what "Full" feels like. My blood sugar is running just a bit high--not gestational diabetes high, but higher than my doctor likes to see. So I'm checking glucose levels 4 times a day which is super fun...

So here's what babyfit.com has to say about 30 weeks:

Your Baby This Week Now that your baby weighs about 3 pounds (1.3 kg) and measures about 17 inches (43 cm) in length, you're beginning to feel like your tummy will pop if she keeps growing!

Your little cherub is starting to look more like a chubby little cherub, growing plumper and cuter every day. Her hair is growing thicker on the scalp, and those lashes are lengthening. The hands and feet are now fully formed and baby's head and body are closer to normal proportions. Overall, your baby is beginning to look similar to how she will look at birth--just tinier. To prepare for her big entrance, your baby is now starting to control her own body temperature!

Yeah, that's about right. She moves around a lot! I notice it more in the evenings, when I slow down a little and try to relax. I've read that my movement during the day lulls her to sleep, and when I stop moving that's what wakes her up. We're going to keep this in mind after she gets here. Rob gets a little alarmed at how much my belly seems to jump around. It is a little weird to see :). I was at a meeting last week, and the people sitting across the table from me were pretty entertained by it.

So here's what 30 weeks pregnant looks like from the outside...


In case you haven't seen me in a while and have forgotten what I look like, I'm not the bride. This was taken yesterday at my assistant's wedding. The weather was beautiful, if a little warm. We're relaxed and smiling because there were A/C vents in the floor, and people didn't have a problem if the bride and the pregnant lady staked claims over the biggest vent.

We're just about finished painting the nursery--we just need to touch up around the very top of the walls along the ceiling.. Please note the change of verbiage from "spare bedroom" to "nursery". Yeah, that's where we are. The dresser is set up, and will be filled with very tiny baby clothes (seriously, the newborn onesies are impossibly small) this week. I'm not going to fold them, because I've been told they need to be washed. They're currently in piles, sorted by size. I figured that was as good a system as any for the time being. I'm open to suggestions about stuff like that, though.

I have a quick OB check this week, and then my next perinatalogist appointment is the first week in November. We'll have more ultrasound pictures then.

It's been a while

I think I'm at that point in pregnancy where not much is actually happening. She's growing and moving around a lot, but there have been no real headlines to talk about. My big symptom right now is that my sinuses have swelled up (along with the rest of me throughout the day) and I'm congested. My ENT says this is normal and common, and it will go away once she's born. Fantastic. We're making Puffs Plus rich this fall, let tell you.

Here's what babyfit.com says about week 27, which will start on Monday:

"It’s official—you’re starting your third trimester and well on your way to delivery day!

Your Baby: As growth continues, your baby weighs in at over 2 pounds (1 kg). And because his body is more developed, measurement no longer goes from rump to crown, but from tip to toe—about 15 inches (38cm)! Your baby can suck his thumb now, which is actually a good thing! It helps calm him, while also helping to strengthen jaw muscles and encourage the suckling reflex. Your baby can even cry now, but you won’t be able to hear him. "

Well there's some news--third trimester! Awesome!

The spare bedroom is now the nursery. We put some shelves up in the garage and we've been going through all of the Stuff that was in the room and the closet. There's a lot that we'll keep, but we won't be needing a storage unit! The crib and dresser have been delivered, and Some Assembly is Required. We're going to paint before we put anything together--that should start this week. The color is "mint truffle", and it's a nice soft green. We hope. At least the sample looks nice and soft.

That's it--I have a doctor's appointment this week, just a check-up for me.

Hi, I'm Kristie and I'm a Bounce House.

You know those inflatable bounce houses that people rent for their kids' birthday parties and stuff? And the kids get amped up on whatever it is kids eat (yeah, I know, we'll learn...) and drink and then they go inside the bounce house and jump around like this but much much faster (push play):


Yeah. That's me. Oof. During the day, she's either pretty quiet or I'm moving around enough that I'm just not feeling her as much. But when I lay down, or stretch out on the couch and try to relax, this child gets inspired to jump around. A lot. Constantly. She weighs maybe a pound and a half, and she somehow managed to gather up enough velocity to wake me up last night. I am officially nervous about whether she'll be like this once she's on the outside....nice and quiet all day and then she comes to life like a Tasmanian devil once the sun goes down.

This would be a good time for all of our friends who have already done this to tell us their stories about how their active little pre-natal beans got it all out of their systems and were happy little swaddled angels once they came out.

Stalked by the paparazzi

We're starting to realize that Miss Speck is not a fan of having her picture taken. People go to a lot of trouble to record every facet of her development, and she just doesn't cooperate. Like today, for example. Very important milestones needed to be confirmed, and she did her best to make everybody beg for it. She rolled around and flipped and put her arms over what they were trying to look for. But we did get some good shots.

Work with me here...
OK, if you squint a little you can see a big blob that is her head, looking at you (kind of scary, we know). The one little floating circle on the left is her right hand, and her other arm is folded over her chest. She spent most of the exam with her arms up around her head like that, much to the chagrin of the sonographer.

Another head shot. Top of her head is to the right, and the pointy part on the left is her chin. Her nasal cavity has formed, as have her eyelids and ears. Evidently, this is a good picture. We'll take the tech's word for it. She's beautiful :).

Profile! How cool is this!? The white spot above her head is her hand, in a gesture of drama and exasperation (she is my kid, after all...). Look at that little button nose. CUTE.


Another profile, and she's looking away now. You can see more of her torso, and that black spot is her heart. The tech looked at her heart quite a bit, and all four chambers are pumping furiously (136 bpm today...). The sonogram machine has a function that adds color to highlight bloodflow, so this one was all lit up blue and red. Super cool, that.


This is her right foot. The smaller blob behind it is her left foot. She crossed one behind the other like I do. Awww...

So that's where we are today, at 22 weeks. Speck has 10 fingers and 10 toes, and we also got to rule out spina bifida, which is what happens when the skin doesn't cover the spine (there's more to it than that, but visible spine with no skin is a big indicator of Bad Things Happening). Today was also really cool because I could feel her moving around while watching her move on the TV screen. It's just overwhelming. She weighs about 1 pound 1 ounce, and she's about 8 inches long. She's still measuring right where she should. We also re-confirmed in no uncertain terms that she is most assuredly a girl.

I'm back at the perinatalogist in 10 weeks. While I'm bummed that we won't have any new episodes of the Speck Show until November, this means that there's nothing that they're monitoring us for, no issues that we're anticipating, no reason to hurry back. She's healthy and growing, and there's nothing more that we would wish for.

It's Just Rob!

First, a bit of background...

You've all met Rob, a/k/a "Mr Hilarious". Years ago for Halloween, he dressed up as the androgynous character Pat from Saturday Night Live. In case you're not familiar...

The whole premise was that it never was revealed whether Pat was male or female. And it was impossible to guess. Pat's companion was named Kelly, and the sketches were full of clever red herrings. Pat's gender was never revealed.

That is, until now. Yeah, I know. Alarming. Disturbing. Shocking. And, to those who saw it in person, utterly hilarious. Jokes like this don't die in Rob's family. Oh, no; funny once, funny forever. So a few weeks back, before we knew that, unlike Pat, Speck was most assuredly a girl, Aunt Janice, Uncle Ken and Cousin Anna gave us a gift. Rather than tiptoe around the whole "we don't know if it's a boy or a girl" issue, they dove right in.


At that moment, I knew that the in-laws had truly accepted me and were welcoming our child into the hilarious fold that is the Family Berthelotte. Note the authentic wig and glasses. I was, and will forever be, truly touched by the gesture. Naturally, retaliation is both anticipated and expected. We'll get them back in true hilarious fashion.

I'm at the perinatalogist's first thing tomorrow morning, and I should have a slew of cool pictures to post tomorrow night. Check back later!

Kick Me!

Speck has made her presence known. They tell you to expect a flutter, or some other really light delicate sensation. Night before last, I'm laying down poking around my belly hoping to feel something, and I guess she got tired of being nudged around and she SHOVED up against my hands. Scared the hell out of me. Once we established that she was indeed still safely in utero, we came to the conclusion that our offspring may turn out to be a bit, um, active. Pray for us and anything that is breakable in our home...

For the record, she's poking me right now, and has been all day.

This morning I had another OB check--heartbeat (hers, 156 bpm), blood pressure (mine, 112/60), weight (mine, no comment but still within reasonable parameters). Right now, she's about the size of an average banana. She's measuring right where she should, and we're feeling very smug about our ability to make such a perfect child. Remind us of this feeling someday, perhaps after we catch her borrowing a car without permission, or some other such shenanigan that may or may not have had a precedent set by one or both of her parents.

This weekend we'll be in San Diego, and we're really really REALLY looking forward to getting out of town. Between the weather (hot, sticky), work (crazy), school (Rob, and he's seeing the light at the end of that tunnel) and preparing for our Blessed Event, we're a bit frazzled.

That's about it. I'm back at the peri next week, so there should be pictures and much gushing from us :).

Half Baked!

Today, we are 20 weeks! According to babyfit.com...

Weighing in at about 9 ounces (.25 kg) and measuring over 6 inches (15 cm) long, your baby is aware of all kinds of sounds, from the beating of your heart and growling of your tummy, to songs on the radio and the buzzing of your alarm clock. If you feel a "bounce" in your tummy when you hear a loud noise, it's because your baby hears it, too! This is the start of your baby's active phase. You'll feel every twist, turn, and wiggle. You may also hear your baby's heartbeat through a stethoscope, and it's probably faster than you expect — 120 to 160 beats per minute.

That's pretty exciting. I can feel that there is *something* going on in there, but it's still pretty fleeting. I'll feel it but then it's gone. She's sneaky.

Last night, Rob looked at me and said "WHOA, you're showing!" I have been looking like I'm just swelling up all over, so this was good to hear. I look pregnant, and not just fluffy. I'll take a picture this week and I'll post it.

We're getting a lot of suggestions for names. Our niece in Virginia sent a rather extensive list of ideas. Alyssa, if you read this, you gave some good ideas. Bonus points for the excellent handwriting :). We're going to stand firm on the "No, we're not telling anyone what we're naming her" rule. You'll find out in January what the winner is.

In other news, we're making progress on the room.


Really, this is, indeed, progress. That desk is empty and by the end of this weekend it will be cleaned off on top. The bed is now up at the cabin in Utah. Note the stroller which is still in the box. Yeah, we'll get to it. I think I have an idea about what it will look like in there when it is no longer a spare bedroom and is instead a nursery. More on that when we get some paint happening.

Last weekend I went shopping. I waited until the whole boy/girl thing was determined, and I took some girlfriends and went to the mall and lost my freaking mind. Holy cow, shopping for baby girl clothes is so much fun! It's better than shopping for shoes! Everything is embroidered with little flowers and ruffles on the tush. This kid may grow up to be a tomboy, but for the first year or two, her wardrobe is going to be as girlie as I can make it. SUCH cute stuff.

That's about it. I see my OB in two weeks--probably just another measurement and heartbeat check, and then back to the perinatalogist in early September for more pictures.

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

Biggest news yet! Well, biggest news since actually finding out that a baby is going to happen...

In case you haven't noticed by the new decor, we have determined with 99% certainty (per the doctor) that Speck is a girl. Rob is already considering what convent she'll be moving into when she hits puberty, and I believe he's also eyeing the door on the soon-to-be nursery to see how hard it would be to take it off the hinges.

As the tech so eloquently labeled it, there is an absolute, unequivocal absence of certain key elements. So there we go. We're having a daughter.

We do have other pictures as well. The actual ultrasound lasted probably 45 minutes. She took a ton of measurements. Speck (we'll still call her this...) has 2 functioning kidneys, the right sort of stuff going on with her heart (aortas and veins and such) and good bloodflow through the umbilical cord. She's measuring right where she should for 18 weeks 2 days and she weighs 9 ounces.

This is her profile. She was moving around quite a bit, so we didn't really get a good clear shot of too much that translates well into still pictures. Plus, she had the hiccups. OMG so cute.


That's her foot. Awwww...

OK we're taking a leap of faith with this one, and we'll believe what the tech said about this being a really good picture of her face. I can't tell. Somebody give me a Mother of the Year award for not being able to identify my child's face.

So that's what happened today. Naturally, we would have been thrilled either way because right now all signs are pointing toward a healthy baby. I maintain that all of my friends who didn't find out what they were having are nuts because finding out today was no less of a surprise than it would have been in January.

So everyone who voted for "girl" in our poll, rock on for being right! And for the record, I knew she was a girl too. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. It's another good day :)

No news, but progress is being made.

Last week's appointment was a check up--more for me than for Speck, actually. We checked the heartbeat, which was solid and steady. Most of the time was spent on how I'm doing. For the last 4 months we've been focusing on Speck's health and it was weird to be thinking about my own again. Blood pressure is important right now--if it's too high it can be an indicator of something being wrong, and it can also be a risk factor in itself for all sorts of bad things. Mine is good. She also measured my belly, which can be affected if Speck is growing too large. While we want a good-sized healthy baby (not too big, mind you...), if the baby is growing too quickly it can be a sign of gestational diabetes. We want to avoid that :). But all is well. We didn't find out the sex, as she just used a Doppler to find the heartbeat. I'll have a series of ultrasounds at the perinatalogist this week and we *should* know after that. They make no promises and therefore we don't either.

In other news, we did make our first Big Purchase, as far as equipment goes. We bought a stroller and car seat.

Very exciting, right? Judging by the shape of the box, we're predicting that Some Assembly is Required. Let the fun begin!

Some quick Speck Stats

According to babyfit.com:

YOUR BABY THIS WEEK

Your baby is on the move, and you may start to feel it! Your baby weighs almost three ounces (.08 kg) and is close to 5 inches (13 cm) in length.

Your Baby: As this week begins your baby has fingernails, and the hair on his or her head is starting to grow. Although baby's brain is still tiny, it is beginning to send signals to muscles that allow arms and legs to begin moving. The motion, called "quickening" can be slight or more robust, but don't be alarmed if you don't feel it this week—you will soon enough.

Haven't felt anything yet for sure--maybe a couple of quick "something just brushed past" sensations, but that could also have been a result of the spicy food that has happened this week.

Well it's been a big week...

Just when we were starting to calm down and just sort of sit back and avoid the heat, we found a car that was just what we were looking for: big enough to haul a baby and accompanying gear, a 90 pound dog and accompanying gear, us and accompanying gear, but not so big that it would break us one $4.25 gallon at a time. It was rapidly becoming time to part with Rob's beloved Mustang, which has been a great car but is on the verge of needing some work if we were to keep it. So on Monday, Rob left the house in this

and returned that night in this



It's a Honda Pilot, and it is awesome. It's a 2006, and it's in great condition and we think it's going to be just what we needed. It's got enough ground clearance to get us into the cabin in Utah without getting high-centered. We're pretty happy with it.

Nothing new as far as the baby goes. I'm 16 weeks along, and everything seems to be normal. We're making progress on the room--the bed and desk are cleaned off and we have a plan for the rest. A couple more months and we should be ready to start making it into a suitable room for Speck :). Next doctor's appointment is on July 31, and then I see the perinatalogist on August 6. While I don't want to get my hopes up, I'm thinking that at one of those appointments, we'll find out if Speck is a boy or a girl. We'll keep you posted.

As an added bonus, here's a pic of how Gracie is staying cool this summer :).

Second Trimester! Hooray!

According to babyfit.com, when you hit 14 weeks you're officially in the second trimester. This is a significant milestone, as many (not all) of the early risks of Something Bad happening are not quite as likely. Speck is now between 3 and 4 inches long and weighing about an ounce. I ended up not having an ultrasound this past week, but I did get to hear the heartbeat.

Early blood tests came back--chromosomal issues (like Downs and some other particularly unpleasant conditions) have been ruled out. I go back to the perinatalogist in August for more tests to determine if there are any spinal issues. At least I think that's what will happen. Quite frankly, they have thrown a lot of information at us, most of it scary, and we just kind of nod our heads and look thoughtful until we can get home and figure out what exactly was said. Based on the good results we've had thus far, we've decided to be conservative as far as further testing goes, especially the more invasive stuff.

Florence's daughter who lives in Canada sent our first official baby gift.

It's super cute and is evidently all the rage as far as baby toys go. As I was trying it out (it's very soft and pleasing to the touch...) I found a squeaker, which immediately got the attention of the dog. I learned at once that baby toys and dog toys are quite similar, and we may have to come up with some sort of strategy for making sure that Gracie keeps her nose on her own toys. This reminded us of a moment right after Rob moved in when Gracie found an autographed baseball on a low shelf and immediately claimed it as her own. Hilarity ensued.

Rob has decided that he's going to pass his love of San Diego sports on to his child (fine with me--I've seen my share of baseball games and I'm willing to relinquish my position on the couch).



Really, how cute is that stuff? I'm all pherklempt about the booties.

There's nothing to report.

We've been taking it easy for the last couple of weeks. Because of the excitement in the ER, we postponed a trip to San Diego (which would have been wonderful because I hear it's not 112 there like it is here) so it's been pretty quiet. I haven't gotten the blood test results back from the perinatologist, and that doesn't exactly make us happy, but we're not stressing out about it too much. I had an ultrasound on Wednesday, and Speck is still hanging out and growing and all is good there. I'll have another this week, and hopefully I'll have a new picture to post.

There's quite a bit of speculation about whether Speck is a boy or a girl. I've heard very convincingly that it MUST be a boy because I look so fabulous. Seriously. Evidently I glow, and this means that there's no little girl in there absorbing my essence (?). I've also been told that in no uncertain terms that this is a girl because I never had any morning sickness. So if you have a theory about who we'll eventually be meeting in January, please don't hesitate to share. I have my own prediction as well, which I will naturally keep to myself :).

OMG Get a load of this bed.

Don't read anything into this, but if it's a girl, wouldn't this be fabulous?!

PS, no, we don't know yet.

The Scary Doctor was Not So Scary...

...but the genetic counselor thing was a bit freaky. We're sitting there all content and only just a little bit worried about stuff--the usual, lately--and she starts talking about chromosomes and testing and risks and she drew a little diagram of my family, genetically (she left out the loop that originated in the Ozarks...), and of Rob's (again, no flourishes) and we determined that we're not related to each other (as I suspected we were not). What we learned today is that at this point, Speck is chromosomally complete, and all that's left from here on out is growth. So they can test for all sorts of scary genetic conditions and tell poor unsuspecting expectant parents that there's a 1 in 3000 chance of this or a 1 in a bajilillion chance of that. There is some blood work that they're waiting for the results on, and when that comes in, we'll figure out just how much we want to know.

And then they took pictures and we heard the heartbeat, strong and steady. Hooray!

So here's Speck at 12 weeks:

In this one, Speck is turned away so here's a good shot of the spine and back of the head (head is on right).

Nice profile shot here. Good looking kid. That's the umbilical cord on Speck's belly.

Speck is facing us, and she was nice enough to label where the face is. Speck has eyes and a brain, all of which should come in very handy at some point. You can see the two halves of the brain on the right, and the eyes are just to the left of that.

And this last one....here's the money shot. Speck offers up a full moon. It was easier to see live, but rest assured, it's there. The little white horizontal smudges on the left are legs.


It's a good day. We go back to this doc in 6 weeks.