17 Days Left to Go-GO

I hadn't realized until yesterday afternoon that I really had begun to hope and believe this baby sweet potato girl of ours would be arriving before her due date... Anytime after Tuesday the 3rd, before the 18th, and I'd be thrilled.

Well, I saw my OB and in a week's time, my cervix has only dilated the width of his index finger's tip - - that's not even a centimeter. When he told me this, honestly, inside, I felt like bursting into tears = I'd been hoping for 2 centimeters = some real progress. When he told me, I said to him, "She's going to arrive on her due date, isn't she," spoken more like a statement of fact rather than a question. He simply smiled and nodded yes, and then he saw my face fall a little bit, and he piped up to add, "Who knows though, she could come this weekend - we just won't know." I again repeated, this time nodding my head, "She's going to arrive on her due date." And once again, he smiled a wide grin and nodded, yes.

This is good news! I do recognize this! Our baby girl is going to get her due time baking in the oven. Especially when there had been so much worry that she'd be small and have troubles and arrive early - - but she's reached 6 pounds now, we haven't had any developmental troubles, and we have only 17 days left. She's come a long way and done well. This is all good... BUT...

#3, I want to meet her! ~ #2, I want to hold her! ~ And in general, #1, I want her NOW.
And somewhere amidst all that, I'm simply tired of being pregnant: My back is the primary issue for me, really... I shouldn't complain and I really can't complain (as I sit here, quietly moaning about my back and ribs hurting).

Okay - For about 5 minutes after typing that last statement, I set my laptop down, slid myself off the couch to the floor on my hands and knees, and I began to cry = I let my back pain take me over. My honey-man ran over and proceeded to rub my back and ribs and to offer me pillows and his heartfelt sympathy. And now I'm fine. *sigh*

We're soooo fortunate for how things have turned out despite my initial stay in the hospital, and our 2-vessel umbilical cord, and in general. Actually, things have been going REALLY well...

And in terms of the physicality of pregnancy, my body has handled the changes rather smoothly, overall:
1) Sure, my skin was initially uber greasy, but that mellowed out soon enough and my skin's been practically perfect since. 2) I didn't really have many tricky troubles with food aversions or smells. 3) The frequency of my nose bleeds was initially alarming, but tolerable once I learned to expect them, and in the last month, they only happen now once or twice a week. 4) Despite the recent significant increase in midnight visits to the bathroom, I'm able to fall right back asleep after each trip. 5) And although 2 weeks ago, when sleeping at night had become an impossibility due to the crazy increase in both pelvic and back pain [For 3 nights in a row, I'd had less than 7 hours of sleep!], I figured out how to best use my Snoogle in combination with a downy pillow placed lengthwise beneath my tummy to relieve the side strain upon my back muscles due to my belly's weight, and I've been sleeping a lot better since. 6) I haven't been having any water retention issues. 7) Any swelling of my hands and/or feet happens only if I'm either standing or sitting around too long without a change in position. 8) I did go through some fierce sciatica pain, both my left and right, off and on for a couple months, but that's subsided significantly over the last month. 9) And rarely have I had any headaches - - only a handful of really bad ones. 10) And in 8+ months, I've gained only 20 pounds, most of which is the baby and her surrounding habitat. Oh, and one bit of news to note here: In the last couple weeks (basically right after I'd proudly noted I was without), the stretch marks appeared (pictures later), but even with those, I've seen a lot worse! Mine are pretty dang tame so far (fingers crossed).

So yeah, I'm doing well. In fact, I see so many other pregnant women who seem absolutely miserable. Not that I can make any direct comparisons, but I think I've had it easy, if not at least for the fact that I NEVER experienced any morning sickness. I really can't complain. I just need to be patient now.

There's a Big One

We've had 3 weeks of fetal monitoring now, and we've determined something: Our baby sweet potato girl just ain't that active in the mornings. This last session, she was waay chill. Even after drinking a Sprite, she didn't rise much beyond a 140 heart rate.



And also this time around, I got to see what "one of those" looks like on the monitor... yup, little, frequent, annoying, mildly uncomfortable contractions vs. a bigger 'ouch' contraction.

I Love Onesies and Baby-this and Baby-that

I have always had a preference for babies dressed in Onesies... ya know, those lil' baby bodysuits that snap between their legs? Some call them "infant creepers" - ?

The reason I prefer Onesies is because they allow total easy-access for the nibbling of adorable, chubby baby thighs!!! Amongst my "Top 20 List of Things I Love," is my love baby thighs... no joke. Just gimme' a lil' barbeque sauce and I could live on chubby baby thighs! - those and dimpled baby hands. While on the topic of babies and things that I love, my three most favorite sounds are the following (in no particular order): 1) a kitty's purring, 2) my honey-man's voice whenever he calls me by any pet name, and 3) a baby's laughter.

When my friends and cousins began having babies, I began painting Onesies for baby gifts (I've been a bit negligent with this effort over the last couple years, with some many babies!!!). Back in October, this is the first one I made for our lil' baby sweet potato girl.

Well, Hello There!

Nothing edible can ever be left out to thaw or to merely sit upon our kitchen counter, for as soon as we leave the room, it will become kitty fodder. Consequently, foods that aren't meant to be stored in the refrigerator [e.g. artisan breads, baked sweets, aged or thawing meats, cooling pots of soup/stew, etc.] are often get stashed in the microwave overnight or a kitchen cabinet... This one, well, this one was a surprise to me:

I'd never before opened one of our cabinets to discover a raw roasting chicken plated for thawing! It actually startled me - - and then I nearly lost my bladder, laughing so hard.

Pink and More Pink

I began laundering all the baby's stuff a couple weeks ago...
Here 's the first two loads: Notice anything?

Lightly tinted dryer lint... Yup, "baby pink" lint!

Mah Pretty Kitty, Lil' Owenster

(click image to enlarge)

Fetal Monitoring, Thus Far: My Progress Notes

FOREWARNING: This post is meant more for my benefit, to provide me a record of all this. I can't imagine many will actually want to read all this.

February 9th: At our first fetal monitoring appointment, we were told my amniotic fluid level was a little low and that I should be sure to drink no less than a gallon of water each day. We were also told our baby girl was an 'overachiever' in terms of her fetal activity...

February 12th: The second fetal monitoring appointment, it was, um, disconcerting to say the very least. My fluid level had not improved at all, despite my drinking over a gallon+ of water each day since the 9th --not to mention anything else I was drinking in addition to the water. And during the monitoring itself, the observing nurse who came in to check on me and my readout every 10 minutes, she kept repeatedly asking me in various ways, while wearing various looks of either concern or skepticism on her face, if I was feeling anything odd or out of the ordinary, or if I was experiencing any unusual pain, "...lately?" or "in the last 5-10 minutes?" or "at all?" And once the 35 minutes of monitoring was over, she came in, tore off my graphic readout paper, shook her head back and forth slowly, and said she didn't like it, saying again that there were signs of distress, asking me again if I was feeling okay... and I was feeling just fine!?! All I could offer as to anything unusual going on during the monitoring was that I'd been reading what I 'd call "a smut magazine," then holding it up for her to see... it was some ridiculous celebrity gossip mag, like People or something, and as I'd been sitting there, reading it during the monitoring, I'd been laughing a lot and hard. Looking again at my readout, she again made comments about signs of distress, asking me again, using different phrasing again, if I was really feeling alright, pressing further for any admission that I was feeling anything but fine, without her ever volunteering what the hell "signs of distress" meant. And me, being pregnant and without my better half present (that would be my honey-man), my brain could only focus upon the word 'distress.' I was utterly bewildered, and entirely incapable of formulating any coherent line of questioning that I should of been asking in order to find out what "signs of distress" meant. She went on, asking me what I'd had for breakfast, how I was sleeping, if I thought I was having any contractions, etc... I tried to answer her questions honestly as I could, coming up with nothing really. She then held up my graphic readout paper in front of herself one last time, and declared with a smile, "Not bad." What?!! Huh?!? I was absolutely stunned. What the hell just happened? We went from "signs of distress," to "not bad?"

And the funny thing is this (although not as in funny, ha ha): I had chosen this session as the chance to record some of the fetal monitoring while in progress. During that video recording, I actually recognized and noted aloud that the baby's heart rate was not the usual... And what I referred to as "spikes of activity?" --those were the signs of distress. Turns out, the top line indicates the baby's heart rate and her activity, and the bottom line monitors my uterus action and the placenta's blood flow. I had confused the two lines.

I basically left their office feeling totally deflated, and spent the rest of my day at work, severely subdued. I tried to reason with myself that if "signs of distress" had meant anything remotely serious at all, they would have kept me for additional monitoring, or they would have asked me to come back for a consult with the perinatal doc, or they would have ordered some tests... something. But none of those things had happened, and the appointment ultimately ended with a "not bad." However, although I tried to resolve my upset with this line of reasoning, and I had decided (intellectually at least) that I shouldn't be worried, deciding further that the nurse's comments were simply out of line, I could not successfully reestablish a sense of assured confidence regarding the matter.

February 16th: It was a holiday that Monday, and we had the angel boy-O with us for the long weekend. I totally forgot that morning's appointment. It didn't even occur to me that I'd even missed anything that day. After the angel boy-O was in the air, returning to Burbank, it was my honey-man, later that evening, who realized we'd spaced my appointment.

February 17th: I went in to make up my missed Monday appointment, and wound up hanging out at the perinatal office for over 3 hours... First of all, I had another low-resolution sonogram in order to check my amniotic fluid level, and it had finally improved -YAY!- up from an '8' to a '9.8' (and we want a 10). So that part was good. I was also told at that time that zee baybee had, indeed, dropped and centered. However, after the sonogram, they kept me for not one, but THREE fetal monitoring sessions - - I spent over TWO HOURS with monitors strapped to my bare, preggers belly, listening to my baby's irregular heart rate, which usually averages 145-155, but instead, she was lingering around the mid-130s most of the time. Different nurses came in and out of the room to look at my readouts, each sharing their opinions with one another as to what they were looking at. They used the 'stimulus buzzer' on my lower pelvis, placed near the baby's head each time, once during the first session, and then every 1o minutes for the second monitoring session, trying to trigger the fetal activity they wanted. I asked at one point during the first session, if the baby was maybe sleeping... "No, she's not asleep. She just isn't doing anything." Great. After the second session was done, I was told my uterus was showing "signs of irritability." Again, what the hell does that mean? Three nurses then agreed I should be kept for a third session, but before it was to begin, I had to drink a Sprite and eat a snack-pack of Ritz peanut butter crackers - - and this is despite the fact that I had arrived to the appointment after having eaten a banana in the car on the way there, and it had been only an hour after I'd had a purty decent breakfast. Turns out though, a nice blood sugar spike is was did the trick, as our baby girl resumed her pogo stick theatrics throughout most of that 3rd and final monitoring session.

February 20th: Before I went, I had a tall, HUGE glass of orange juice, a banana, and a bowl of cereal, and I ate a granola bar while I sat in the waiting room. My fetal monitoring session came first and this time around, it was MUCH, MUCH better than the previous two appointments. Baby's heart rate was normal, her activity was more than steady (I finally understood which line indicated what on the readout), and my uterine activity was fine, all in the normal range. And for the low-res sonogram, my fluid level was at a perfect 10! ENORMOUS relief! Annnd, the sonogram tech tried this time to really give me a good peek at the baby's face... zee baby sweet potato girl was turning and twisting her head around a lot, so the freeze shots taken are a bit blurry (plus it was a low-res sonogram, remember), but my goodness! She has the cutest lil' nose!!! I LOVE HER NOSEY! I can't wait to plant a big, fat kiss on it! I left their office pretty elated.

After my perinatal appointment for the fetal monitoring, I was off to my OB, who verified officially as part of my medical records that the baby's head is engaged and she's turned and centered, facing my back, ready for labor... BUT I haven't dilated at all - zip, zero, zilch. This was a lil' frustrating, because that day and Thursday, I was experiencing a lot of pelvic pain and I'd been hoping it meant my cervix was beginning to stretch. Well... I found out what all that pain was yesterday!

February 23rd: Like the last appointment, I arrived after having first eaten some good carbs on the way there. Once the monitoring began though, within 5 minutes, I could see the baby's heart rate was a bit (more like a lot) all over the place, plus the line indicating my uterine activity, I had 3 spikes on the readout. As as soon as the first nurse came to check on me, I was asking her a gazillion questions. Well, so it turns out all this pain I've been having for the last few days, which I'd hoped was either my cervix stretching or just the baby actively flexing her back, it's all contractions! Yup, during my monitoring session, like clockwork, I was having contractions every 2 minutes for up to 30 seconds at a time. I sure wish I'd had my camera to record that! Every time I would have a contraction, the baby's heart rate would skyrocket to 165 or higher, and once a contraction would subside, her heart rate would abruptly drop as low as 120, slowly climbing over the following minute, back to 145, just in time for the next contraction. I was stunned. I hadn't realized 'those' were contractions... I'd thought it was all her doing. So, now that I can really recognize what these smaller contractions feel like (having one right this minute!), I've felt relieved to know my discomfort over the last few days has actually been at least something productive. So yeah, this monitoring appointment was a revealing, enlightening, and positive experience, and all the nurses let me know they were pleased.

Now I'm going to take off to get some blood work done. Goodie, goodie!

How the Days and Weeks Pass

Sitting here on the couch with my laptop, going over my "Things that MUST be done before the Baby arrives" list for the umpteenth time, I began to think about how the last couple weeks have totally flown by... and as my mind began to wander, I logged into my Bloglines account and began to scan through the latest RSS feeds from Cute Overload and I Can Has Cheezburger, and I realized in a moment of belly shaking (and belly aching) laughter, I've fallen into a strange daily/weekly routine of sorts over the last couple weeks:

Mondays = Hate 'em more than ever! I need this day to recover from my weekend.
Tuesdays = I've ahhhlmost got my game on, almost.
Wednesday = The best, most productive day of the week for me.
Thursday = I want it to be Friday.
Friday = I want to go home.
Saturday = The day starts slow, so I spend the rest of the day over-doing it in an effort to make up for the slow morning.
Sunday = I pace it much better than Saturday, but still do too much.

A TYPICAL DAY:

5am-ish: Around this time, I've gone to the bathroom for what will be the last time before I must actually wake up for the day.

6am-ish: I'm so physically uncomfortable, I can no longer sleep without waking every 10 minutes or so, and I spend 30-40 minutes like this until I finally give up and get myself out of bed.

6:30am-ish: Once I do finally get out of bed, I spend 20 to 30 minutes getting dressed and made-up for the day, and during this time, I'm absolutely incapable of carrying on a coherent conversation. Instead, all I can manage is quiet, subtle moaning noises and looks of confusion if and whenever my honey-man actually tries to illicit any information from me before I've had something to eat.

7am-ish: Before I can have my breakfast, I will begin the first of what will eventually amount to several trips going up and down the stairs. With that first trip back up the stairs, I am hoping I'll remember all the items I'd forgotten to bring with me my first time down the stairs, so that I won't have to go upstairs again. This first effort is generally futile, considering my still empty stomach, and consequently, what little brain power there is up and running... but because of the low brain power, I bother with the initial return trip upstairs anyhow.

7:30-ish: I'm finished with breakfast, and now, with a full stomach, I'm remembering everything else I wanted from upstairs, and I am now very slllowly moving up and down the stairs, retrieving the rest of the items I'd forgotten to bring downstairs.

8am: I should be at work by this time, but more often than not, I am usually not so. Occasionally, I do shock 'em and arrive even a titch early, but those days are now few and far between.

8:15-8:30am-ish: I arrive at work and most everyone who works with me on a daily basis knows that although I can stand there and listen to stories about how so-n-so's last night was, I'm not truly coherent. Mind you, this is NOT an entirely new development. It's a well known fact that until 9am hits, you can't talk to me and expect me to have my shit together, and I'm like this whether I'm pregnant or not. NOTE OF CLARIFICATION: It's not that I'm cranky or bitchy or irritable in the mornings. That's not it at all. I'm just not all that capable of higher mental functioning in the AM.

9am-ish: I am now awake enough that those who work with me can actually talk to me and I can comprehend and respond intelligently.

10am-ish: I've drank at least 44 ounces of water and have already spent at least 20 minutes of the day going to and from the bathroom. And I'm hungry.

10:30am-ish: I've snacked on something and have finally picked up enough momentum that things are actually starting to get done, work-wise.

Between 11am and 3:45pm-ish: I've gotten a lot of stuff done (although some days are definitely more productive than others), and I have snacked on at least 5 different foods: an apple or a banana (or both), a light string cheese or a yogurt or a hard boiled egg, and either baby carrots with spinach dip or bagel chips with hummus (or both), and a very small handful of some kind of nut. And I have drank at least another 44 ounces of water, and have probably gone to the bathroom at least twice every hour, amounting to at least an hour of my day having been spent in the bathroom.

By 4pm: By this time, I am feeling pretty fried. My back really aches, my legs ache, and I may have a light headache coming on. I want to go home. I can't think anymore without some special moment of time granted in order to think clearly before I answer a question - - it's just about as bad as when I first arrived to work. It's not at all uncommon for someone to ask me a question, and I'll begin to respond like I know exactly what I'm about to say, but instead, I completely blank out, and I have to apologize and ask that the question/subject be repeated for me.

By 5pm: If I have not spent the 5 minutes necessary to properly prep myself to be out the door by this time, I could very well wind up in the office past 6pm, "just trying to tie up some loose ends" before the next business day.

By 6:15pm: If I have not eaten something more by this time, my patience with anything or anyone is NON-EXISTENT. I must have food, whether it be a bowl of cereal or a piece of peanut butter toast, I gotta have something to eat or I will explode with crankiness. SIDE NOTE: I don't really eat meals anymore.

6:30 to 8pm: It could be anything.

8pm-ish: Snack time and more water... and if I'm going to take a warm bath, this is about the time it will happen for me, and I will spend at least 45 minutes to an hour in the tub. If I take a bath, the rest of my time before bed will pass by with greater mental focus.

9pm-ish: If I have not granted myself some time to decompress, either by taking a bath or spending at least 30 minutes to an hour of downtime reading or dinking on the Internet, my body will be nearing full-protest mode. However, this hour may very well be the time when I finally lounge with my laptop to cruise my favorite frivolous websites or to catch up with world news. It's no coincidence that this is also about the time of night when I tend to get a bit giddy... uncontrollable fits of laughter regularly happen between 9 and 10:30pm. As does a small before-bed snack and more water.

Only over the last week had I consistently tried to go to bed before 10pm. It worked quite well one night, but the last 3 nights in a row have been hard - - not much sleep. It's now 10:30pm though, and for a few weeks now, I've been trying to get myself settled in bed no later than 11pm... so I gotta mosey up that way if I'm gunna make it. G'nighty night!

Dropped AND Centered

So it was kinda mid-to-late last week that I'd observed some changes indicating our baby girl has dropped into a lower 'engaged' position. Well, this past Sunday night, I'd felt she'd also shifted herself somehow, but I wasn't sure exactly how.... By Monday morning, I became certain she'd dropped AND centered, with her head down, facing inward, and her lil' bum just beneath my lower sternum.

Sooo, yesterday, I went in for THREE HOURS of fetal monitoring (that's another story), and while there, my suspicions were confirmed (and I must add, I'm so pleased with myself that I could recognized the changes correctly): Not only has she dropped, but she has, indeed, centered herself into an engaged birthing position. What does that mean? - well, frankly, this means she's in the right position for labor to begin! She could arrive in just 2 or 3 weeks from now, OR she could just come on time in 4 weeks, nonetheless. Generally though, her having not only dropped, but centered as well, the two together raises the possibility of an early arrival tremendously. It also means that if I stand still for 5-10 seconds, my feet will begin to turn purple (poor circulation), and it also means I feel short of breath most the time, worse than before since my diaphragm can't fully relax for a full intake of air, because her lil' bum is centered smack in the way, rather than off to the side - - and sneezing is really painful, as is yawning or coughing. Oh, and last week's lil' reclaimed bit of room for more food to be taken into my stomach? That's gone now - - plus I'm constantly feeling as though I gotta burp, but that it wouldn't be so good an idea to do so. Dropped and centered is no fun thus far. The latter listing of complaints could improve though in the coming week or so, when she continues to drop further down... with the exception of the poor circulation issue... oh, and my having to pee 1-3 times per hour. That'll just get worse.

This image shown below doesn't show a 'centered' baby, but does show the baby's head in a very, very low, "zero station" 'engaged' position. If the baby in this pic were also centered, the back of the baby's head is what we'd see.

Sooo anyhow, here's what I'm thinking now (especially after having had to get up to pee EIGHT TIMES last night!!!): I'm gunna be a reeeeally good preggers-girl for the next 2 weeks, takin' it super easy, not overdoin' anything. But after 2 weeks from now have past, once it'd be a-okay for her to come a lil' early, I'll be spending my days doing ANYTHING on the 'how to begin labor' list.

Spoke a Lil' Bitty Too Soon

Just today, while sitting through a 2 hour meeting at work, I sat and literally watched my hands slowly swell up, and I could feel my feet filling up my shoes. Apparently, I spoke a little too soon the other day... However, as soon as the meeting was over, the swelling fully subsided, and my hands and feet went back to normal... thank goodness!

Mah Pregnancy Observations, Continued

Here's a few I'd failed to mention for a few weeks, if not months now, plus one new development...

Since I became pregnant, I discovered I only have to shave my legs about twice a week or less, compared to every day, not that I've ever shaved my legs every single day, but if I wanted to maintain truly smooth legs, that's what it normally would take.

Although shaving hasn't been all that necessary, the hair on my head has been growing like crazy... Mind you, I haven't gone to a real hair dresser since December 2007, so the fast growing hair has proven to be a test of my patience, as I'm the one who's been cutting my own hair for over a year now. Having to trim it every 3 weeks has been a big pain in the patootie. At first I'd thought all the growth would provide a great chance to grow my hair out, but the initial ugly-phase was immediately apparent after just 5 weeks without a trim.

I haven't really experienced any of the swelling that's supposed to be an inherent part of pregnancy. Yup, so far, I've yet to retain much water and all my rings still fit my fingers, and my shoes still fit my feet, although I can kinda tell my feet have sorta spread out? - as if they've somehow widened. However, my Danskos have been perfect, and my pink 'wannabe Crocs' as well.

Throughout the month of January, I'd gotten into the habit of taking a long, warm, bubble bath with a book to read, at least twice a week. Over the last couple weeks though, I've been taking a bath nearly every other day. I'm almost certain that when the times comes for me to imagine my 'relaxation destination', going into full transition labor, I'll be imagining myself in the tub, surrounded by fragrant peachy bubbles.

Over just this last week, sometime between last Monday and Thursday, I think our lil' babycakes has 'dropped' - see "engaged" or "lightening" in any pregnancy/labor and delivery book. Why do I think this? Well, I've noticed in the last couple days or so that I can really generate a deeper cleansing breath than I could a week ago, and I can also eat more before the heartburn kicks in, annnd I now have to pee about every 15-25 minutes during the day, and every 2 hours or less throughout the night (I had to get up to relieve myself FIVE times last night!?!). This all means I have more room to breath and to eat, and less room for my bladder, all of which could only be the case if she's moved into a lower position. Yeah. Soooo, unless I'm not mistaken, this means we could have 2-3 weeks before I deliver this baby!?! We'll just hafta wait and see ~ whether she comes in 30 days (and that's when she's due now) or 3 days, I just hope she has a safe arrival.

Guilty Confessions #12 & #13

#12: I used to feel kinda (more like really) critical of pregnant women who complain in their last month, wanting the baby to come early... I would think, "How can you say or even think that? Baby needs to cook as long as possible, right? You should want the baby to go to full term, right?"

#13: Well, I now understand why women in their 8th month say they want the baby out and really mean it... I want her out, now.

Adding to the 'Littles'

The following was taken from an earlier instant messaging convo with a friend of mine, regarding what we think may happen once the baby arrives as the new addition to our 'littles' family, counting Otis and Owen.

(1:38:12 PM) hellodaly: and the furries?
(1:38:23 PM) Annejelynn: ah, they're so clueless. They won't know what hit 'em!
(1:38:46 PM) Annejelynn: except when we set up the crib, IMMEDIATELY, like seconds, Owen hopped up into the crib and settled down on the bedding for a nap!
(1:39:06 PM) Annejelynn: he was so pleased and purring and looked at us like, cool, I like my new bed, thanks
(1:39:58 PM) hellodaly: omg, that is so cute
(1:40:17 PM) hellodaly: wait until he sees a stranger in there, he'll be looking at you like "someone is in my bed!"
(1:41:42 PM) Annejelynn: yeah, we think Owen will be fascinated, but wary - - and Otis? He'll use her like a bun warmer

Sneak Peek: Again, Just think 'Cheery'

Here's a sneak peak at the cubby shelf I've been working on for zee baybee girlie's room. It's not yet done... the mottled purple-ish cubby will be actually painted red. And the bookshelf just needs a couple touches, but my batteries failed when I tried to take a pic of it this morning, and what I got looks bad without the flash. That'll hafta wait until later this week.

THIS Scares the Crap Outta Me!!!

RIP, My Dearest Amish Friendship CAKE Starter

I don't know what happened. Something like this has never, ever happened to me before in my long 9 years of keeping Amish Friendship CAKE starter. It was time to feed my starter and I was planning to make a cake with it last Friday night, just before we were to spend the evening with some of our friends, but I took my container of starter from the fridge and this is what I found:Moldy and ruined! I had to dump it all down the drain... not sure when I'll 'start' another starter. Last time, I had to start over, I was nearly heartbroken. Right now, I'm pissed off. We'll have to wait and see.

36 mere DAYS Left to go!?! - EKK!

Our Lil' Five-Plus Pounder!

We saw the perinatal doc again this morning for another ultrasound and our first of what will be many fetal monitoring appointments. Yeah, I will now have to go in for fetal monitoring twice a week from here on out, not including my regular OB appointments. Anyhow, no bitching about that!

Our baby sweet potato girl now weighs 5 lbs and 6 oz now and measures about 17 inches long!! She's gained over 2 pounds since our last appointment!?! and I'm pretty freakin' pleased about this, as it means we're now almost sure that she'll reach a healthy, respectable 6 lbs and some-odd change by the time she's born; not real big, but not too tiny... Right now, she measures in the 38 percentile when compared to other babies as far along as we are. What else... um, my amniotic fluids are a bit low, but they're not too bad. They use some index to gauge the fluid measurements, and I'm an '8,' when a '10' is considered normal. However, the doc said although they'll need to monitor my fluids each week, he has lil' reason to believe she'll arrive before her due date. Again, we're very pleased to hear this as well! We want her to bake in there as long as possible before her due date arrives! Oh and the fetal monitor tech told us we have ourselves a lil' overachiever in terms of her activity. The norm is 2 spikes of activity every 10 minutes... We counted 9 distinct spikes in 30 minutes' time!?! And during the ultrasound, all the freeze-frame shots were blurry, because she's always squirming around.

I'm totally excited to see just how much of a wiggle worm she may turn out to be once she's here. Even when it's 3am and she's rocking around, waking me up, she totally cracks me up!

Think 'Cheery'

These scans aren't that great, but here are some of the fat quarters of fabric I picked to make quilt squares for our baby girl's bedroom curtains and a couple matching pillows. The yellow swatch with random polka dots is for her glider chair cushions.

Will She Have My Squinty, 'Smiley' Eyes?

This coming Tuesday, I'll be 35 weeks along = I have just 5 more weeks... I can't wait to meet my baby girl!

Some of these range from one semi-extreme to another, but most are meant to demonstrate I'm aware there's quite a range in possibilities... and some simply demonstrate my growing curiosity:

Will she prefer to be swaddled at night or will she sleep with her little arms and legs spread free?

Will she come when she's called or will she run away, giggling and defiant?

How old will she be when she wants us to change the paint colors of her bedroom walls?

Will she be content to take her time learning how to walk, or will she wanna be on the go as soon as she can get herself upright?

What will her first words be?

Will she be fascinated by the kitties, relentlessly trying to follow them around the house? - will she terrorize them? or will she totally ignore them?

Will she enjoy listening to music as much as I do? or will she feel that music is too distracting, too much like noise?

Will she be a cuddly baby or will she be a lil' squirmy worm, eager to be set down, to move independently and be free?

Will she be a quiet, contemplative introvert, or an outspoken extrovert?

Will she talk to herself and make noises, always motoring away, or will she be a lil' lady of few words?

Will she be shy and reserved, or brash and compulsive?

Will she eagerly eat her green beans and mushrooms, or will she be a picky eater?

Will she feel compelled to share her feelings and opinions, no matter the subject, or will she keep the majority of her thoughts to herself?

Will she like to sing?

Will she be a little chatterbox or quiet as a mouse? or a little of both?

Will she be a deep and long-night sleepy dreamer or will she fight it every night, afraid she'll miss out on something once she's in bed?

Will she be delighted to play in the tub until the water goes cold, or will we have to drag her to the tub?

Will she have a sweet tooth? - chocolate or vanilla?

What will her favorite color be?

Will she be a daddy's girl or a momma's girl?

Will she like using markers and crayons and paints or will she not be able to care less?

Will she be an active, agile athlete, or will she prefer to keep her two left feet planted firmly on the ground?

Will she be oblivious to dirt, or will sticky stuff on her little fingers drive her nuts?

Will she love nature, and hiking, and a weekend of camping with her family, or will she prefer a day at the mall?

Will she cooperate when mommy needs to wipe her snotty nose, or will she thrash and scream?

Will being told 'no' be enough for her, or will she insist that she test out what she's been told?

Will she wait patiently in her crib for someone to come claim her in the mornings, or will she squeal and scream? or will she take matters into her own little hands, like a lil' jail bird planning a break out?

Will she favor dinosaurs or pretty princesses?

What will her favorite food be? - - If I have any influence upon that one, I know it will be cheese...