Baby Blog

On Tuesday, Baby turned 33 weeks old in utero. She is approximately four pounds now, according to the literature.

Amanda and I were in the grocery store yesterday, and we happened past a stand of pineapples. I grabbed one that looked good and put it on the scale…it was 3.75 lbs.

Here is Amanda wondering if that thing would really fit inside there:

Amanda ponders baby Pineapple

And here she is showing her love for little baby Pineapple:

Amanda kisses baby Pineapple

Yes, really. That’s what they call it. And no, I didn’t spell either best or breast wrong. Melissa Prange thoughtfully sent us this surprise uber-boppy…and being the big kids that we are, we had to try it out. It was quite a coincidence that the same day we had a breastfeeding class and the instructor said that she greatly preferred this gizmo to the boppy, one showed up on on the doorstep!

Here we are demonstrating its use:

Drew demonstrating proper use of the “My Brest Friend”

Amanda demonstrating improper use of the “My Brest Friend”

Amanda had her 33-week ultrasound this morning, and everything is still going well. The placenta looks good, the fluid looks good, and baby looks good. I could see the valves in her little beating heart today, which is pretty amazing (sorry, no media this time). Amanda’s weight is looking good, and her blood pressure (which was slightly elevated last time) is in normal ranges.

The RN that we saw this time recommended spacing out the iron pills, because your body can only absorb so much at once, regardless of how much you take at a time. So having a morning and evening pill might help with absorption a little bit.

Baby is properly turned (head down) and growing like a weed…she weighs about as much as a pineapple now (~4 lbs)!

Thanks to Ivan and Dianne, we now have a very nice crib (with mattress) in our bedroom for Baby to sleep in when the time comes. The box that the crib arrived in was fairly beaten up, but there was no reason to worry…the packaging on this thing was bulletproof (in fact, I wasn’t able to get all of the packing materials back into the box, after I had taken the whole crib out).

Assembly wasn’t hard but it wasn’t trivial either. Here I am dutifully reading the instructions amid a sea of parts, holding my screwdriver at the ready:

Drew about to begin crib assembly

Here we’ve got it almost totally assembled, and Amanda is using the included hex wrench to seat a few last bolts:

Amanda hard at work on crib assembly

We’re still missing several things that we need* in order to make Baby’s nursery corner complete…foremost is the changing table (on order), and I’d also like to put all of this stuff on an area rug to set off Baby’s area from the rest of the room (and protect the room from Baby!).

This setup isn’t final, but we’ve got a lot of the goods in place here…crib, mattress, mattress cover, soothing aquarium machine (thanks Simon!), moo-cow mobile…and a pile of toys and stuffed animals that probably won’t live in the crib, but have no other home right now:

Current crib setup in the corner of the bedroom

In case you are curious, the white sheet of posterboard on the wall won’t stay there…it is where we are tracing Amanda’s belly (in the shadow of our main bedroom light) every month to gape at Baby’s growth. We won’t need it anymore when Baby comes home with us…

* need = want

A few days ago Amanda noticed that her work ID badge was getting (more) bent, so she went to try and straighten it out. It snapped in half, causing her to make a small scream of surprise. Apparently, when a pregnant lady (who has a history of needing rescue from the paramedics) screams, everyone in the office gets all worked up….

Today we took a tour of the hospital facilities where Amanda will (nominally) be delivering our baby. Baby will be born on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles! I’m not crazy about the big city, and it is sort of a hassle to drive down there…but still, that’s pretty cool.

The hospital is at 4867 Sunset Boulevard, and the parking garage is at 1549 Edgemont (for those of you who might be trying to find it for some reason). There is “Labor and Delivery” parking for us, but not guests, on the second level. Guests can park wherever there is space, just not in those reserved spots…it’s a big parking deck. When you go to the bridge that crosses over to the hospital, this is what you see:

Your Journey Begins Here - From the Parking Lot to Labor and Delivery

The little baby feet lead you (a rather long ways) to the Labor and Delivery ward, where all of the action will be:

The Labor and Delivery Ward

They showed us all of the facilities for high-risk pregnancies…women with scheduled C-sections, unplanned C-sections, heavy bleeding, or other complications. In that area they have Labor Rooms (where you wait out the bulk of the labor), Delivery Rooms (which are akin to operating rooms, really), and Recovery rooms. We hope we don’t need any of that stuff.

For low-risk pregnancies (women who come in with regular contractions 1 minute in duration and 4 minutes between, no complications), there are family-centric delivery rooms. These are large comfortable rooms with fancy delivery beds:

Fancy delivery bed

Each room has a TV, stereo, bathroom, and basic monitoring equipment. There is also some mid-level treatment equipment cleverly hidden behind cabinets if Baby ends up needing special attention. We really hope we end up here…there is room for as many people as show up, although they only recommend one or two (i.e. Me) be around for the most intense parts of the process.

We were generally very impressed with Kaiser’s facilities and practices. There is no “nursery” per se. If the baby is healthy, she will never leave our sight. She will go straight onto Amanda’s chest after delivery and will immediately get a chance to feed, and will stay with us as Amanda recovers. We’ll get moved together to a recovery room once everyone’s vitals have stabilized. They call themselves a “breast-feeding hospital", which means they don’t even ask if you want to breast feed…they expect it. I’m sure you could make arrangements otherwise if need be, but that is our preference anyhow so we’re happy.

They also like to boast about being a “Level III” facility, which basically means they have everything. There will never be a reason to take Baby to another facility, and in fact babies are flown to Kaiser Sunset (yeah, yeah, I know…it reminds me of The Usual Suspects too) from all over, including the local Children’s Hospital and even the main Kaiser facility in Hawaii. They claim to have one of the best NICU’s in the country. I haven’t done a fact-check on that, but after the tour, I believe it.

We learned a lot of practical information like how they ’secure’ the babies (with wristbands, ID badges, and what sounds like a pretty sophisticated image recognition software system on their security cameras), when to work on SSN’s and birth certificates, when to provide a name, where the food is for the guests, how many guests are allowed in what rooms, where the waiting areas are, etc. We learned so much that we probably won’t remember it all, especially in the heat of the moment…but at least now we have an idea, and will know who to ask.

We had a busy, fun weekend! On Thursday night, we went to our first “Childbirth Preparation” (Lamaze) class, and then first thing Friday morning we stole out of Los Angeles for a weekend in Napa. We made a pit stop in Fairfield for a factory tour of the Jelly Belly factory, which I have been dying to see for years…ever since Amanda told me it was there.

Friday night we celebrated Tyson’s birthday and watched a movie, and then on Saturday we visited with the family (played cards, saw the high school soccer game, watched another movie, ate pizza) and mostly relaxed. Then on Sunday, the main event…Amanda’s baby shower in Napa with all of her friends from home. Barbora Hawkins threw a fantastic shower (from what I hear…it was girls only), and everyone had a great time. Here is an artsy shot of the invitation and party favors…which you probably can’t read, but are little jars of honey with the theme “Mother to Bee".

Shower invitation and favors

I showed up to the shower right at the end to pick up Amanda and start on the long drive home, but I did manage to capture the tail end of the festivities and say ‘hi’ to most everyone. Here is a quick snapshot of Babs, Amanda, and Joan, towards the end of the afternoon:

Babs, Amanda, and Joan at the Napa shower

And of course…now that we’ve been home for an evening, I have spread all of the gifts out to see what all of our generous friends and family gave to us and Baby to help us get started.

Napa shower gifts spread out on our guest bed

There are books, toys, bibs, clothes, shoes, hygiene products, gizmos (like a dishwasher rack and food grinder), blankets, and more. There are also some very special handmade gifts. Amanda’s Mom crocheted a blanket and clothing set (sweater, hat, and 2 pair of booties), and sewed a soft receiving blanket too. Here’s a photo of Amanda with the crocheted goods (as she joked at the shower…"This, folks, is 10cm…").

Amanda and her Mom’s hand-made gifts

Thanks to everyone who came to the shower and supported us with your thoughts and gifts. And especially thanks to Barbora for hosting the shower, and everyone else who made a contribution to the event. We appreciate everything you do for us!

It’s been a week since I’ve posted to the blog, and it’s has been pretty quiet. Amanda and baby are doing well, and Baby is getting bigger, stronger, and more active. It is to the point where Amanda can determine which appendage (head, elbow, fist, knee, foot) is hitting her in which internal part (kidney, liver, bladder, rib). Occasionally Baby is so active that you can see her kneading Amanda’s belly from the inside…I haven’t been able to capture this on video yet, but I’m trying. It’s getting much easier for me to feel her movements…although having me around does seem to calm her down, because when I try to feel her move she immediately settles down. It’s more than coincidence.

Over the weekend we drove up to Napa for a shower with Amanda’s friends from home. It was a great trip (Amanda did very well, our driving legs were never less than 90 minutes, and usually much longer), and I’ll make a post on the shower in the next day or two. We got home late enough last night that we both just wanted to fall into bed…but stay tuned.

I’ve started driving Amanda to work in the mornings, just to eliminate any possibility that Amanda’s morning lightheadedness will cause an accident. Today was our first day at this, and it works pretty well so far. Parsons isn’t exactly on my way, but it’s not too far out of the way either. I think that it does actually take less gas for us to do this than for us to drive separately.

We just got back from Baby’s 31-week checkup, and she’s still doing well (and still a she!). Amanda is also doing well, although the doctor noted that her blood pressure is slightly elevated today. Nothing major, just another thing to start keeping an eye on. No more adding salt to anything…

We didn’t get any printouts today, but I did take a short video of the ultrasound, and this one is the jackpot. Baby is squiggling around, has her hands up by her face (maybe sucking her thumb?), she has chubby cheeks, and she even blinks a few times that you can clearly see in the video (the best one is at 0:21 or so).

This just amazes the heck out of me, I can’t believe she is in there swimming around and doing things that are so…human…like blinking and sucking her thumb. Can’t wait to see her in person…

We’ve had enough people ask us about hand-me-downs that I thought I’d make a post about it. In brief…yes, we love free (or cheap) stuff!

There are some things that Amanda wants new for safety reasons (i.e. the car seat) or sentimental reasons (i.e. the crib), and with a lot of things it’s just common sense (bottles, pacifiers, etc). But if you’ve got stuff to get rid of, particularly stuff that is sturdy but gets used ever so briefly (like instructional DVD’s, infant clothes, books, rugged & wholesome toys)…please drop us a line! We would definitely like to save some money where we can.

Yesterday afternoon, Amanda reported that Baby definitely had hiccups for sure. It was a fairly regular rhythm that didn’t match her heartbeat (you’d be surprised how strong her heartbeat is in her belly, sometimes it can be hard to tell). Every time Baby hic’d, she kicked Amanda in the bladder.

Since being pregnant, Amanda has made a few comments that were such gems that I had to write them down. I’ve now got four of my favorites, so I thought it time to share. Here are my favorite mental typso that Amanda has made with her pregnancy brain (and it’s ok to jest because we all know how smart she is):

• You made an ominous woman out of me! I think this one explains itself.

• Ravvers is a machine! Said as one might say “Lance Armstrong is a machine!” Only this was said about her car, a Rav-4, which actually is…well…a machine.

• I am detrimental to this operation. She obviously meant instrumental, but I didn’t have the heart to correct her.

• New England is a providence in Canada! My personal favorite, this one takes some explanation. Apparently the grouping of states known as “New England” isn’t really taught in California schools, and it does sound an awful lot like Newfoundland. So when I first met Amanda in Boston she made the glib statement ‘Before I moved here I thought that New England was a province of Canada!’ That’s been a running joke for years. But then during the pregnancy when she tried to repeat the joke, we got the delightful quote above. So now New England is where all good Canadians go when they die.

We’re doing it…trying cloth diapers for a while. Amanda found a good source online, and we ordered enough to hold us for a while (6 months or more?). Here’s a photo of all of the goodies:

Diapers, covers, and ‘pins’

We’ve got a stack of diapers, plus the first 2 sizes of the velcro vinyl covers. We’ve also got a handful of the new-and-improved diaper pin, these stretchy Snappi things that hold everything together with no actual pinning. I grabbed Amanda’s doll and went to town…here’s my first attempt at cloth diapering (sans cover):

Drew’s first attempt

This is Amanda’s attempt, which admittedly is much better than mine. It doesn’t count, though, because she went online and found directions.

Amanda’s first attempt

According to recommendations, I’ve already washed and dried all of the diapers 3 times (hot), for maximum puff and absorbency.

A friend got us a surprise gift (thanks Heather!) that showed up in the mail this weekend…a night light for Baby called a TykeLight. This a very clever little night light that will help us get up in the middle of the night and soothe or feed Baby, without turning on any harsh overhead lights.

The TykeLight is completely sealed up except for a small hole for the charger plug, and there is a single sealed button on the bottom which cycles the modes. Press it once, and it’s on but dim. Press it again, and it’s bright. Press it again, and it’s bright, but fades to off after 15 minutes. It also glows reddish (ok, pink), which is good for night vision…and if you leave it plugged in, and the power goes out, it will light up. That’s one well-engineered night light alien.

Amanda and I couldn’t resist having some fun with it:

TykeLight alone on the bed, glowing alluringly

Amanda, Drew, and TykeLight

It’s so cute (in a scary sort of way) that it almost feels like a toy

Today Amanda took her SE exam…8 hours of testing that had her at the testing center from 7am until about 6pm, including lunch and breaks (Baby will be delivered before the results are). That’s a long time for a pregnant lady to sit at a desk and concentrate, but Amanda held up well…still, she came home tired and cramped, and Baby was well-rested and ready to play.

I had my hand on Amanda’s belly for a while when she got home and was laying down, and I could feel Baby wiggling around and pushing against my hand. This is the first time, I think, where I could distinguish between a punch or kick (a quick bump) and these extended pushes and wiggles. It was a strange and fascinating feeling for me…and Amanda has been feeling this for a while now.

Baby is really starting to kick now… Just a few minutes ago, she was particularly active, and while I had my hand on Amanda’s belly she kicked so hard that it startled me! Amanda’s belly must have moved a quarter inch or more…Baby is getting stronger! Amanda says that last night Baby kicked so hard that it moved her whole body…but she admitted that maybe she jumped.

Amanda had blood drawn with her most recent appointment, and just got the results back. It seems that her iron is still low (well, the test said the red blood count was, but the doc equated it to iron). Currently, Amanda is taking about 400% of the RDA of iron, including her prenatal vitamin and a dedicated iron supplement. The dosage the doctor recommended puts it up around 550%. I still threaten to take a file to a wrought-iron fence and put the filings in her salad…

Tomorrow marks 29 weeks in the oven (!) for Baby, and today we had yet another appointment to check in on how the baby is doing. And, she’s doing fine. Amanda got a flu shot today, and brought home a bottle of the orange sugar water for a glucose test that she has to take sometime this week. They took another ultrasound, which showed everything normal, and gave us the snapshot below:

29 Week Ultrasound

You can see her eye (which appears to be open!! although it’s hard to tell of course, since the ultrasound can see through to any depth if coaxed), her nose, her forehead, and the cross-section of a few appendages. Here is the same image, marked up:

29 Week Ultrasound - Marked up

I’ve started to get pretty good at interpreting this fuzzy B&W images.

The baby has her head down low in Amanda’s hips, her back curled up in to the left side of her belly, with her arms and hands both pointing to her right side. At least, that’s where she was at 2pm this afternoon…she has a ways to go before she’s locked into a position.

When we celebrated Thrace’s birthday on Sunday evening with the whole family, there were a few surprises in store for Baby as well. Ali has been continuously picking up cute things for our daughter as she has discovered them, and Mom and Dad also found some neat items at a store called Chocolate Soup. Here’s a photo of all of the goodies that I brought back from Kansas with me:

Goodies from Kansas trip

Pretty much everything in pink on the front row is from my parents (plus the Peter Rabbit book), while the shoes, leggings, sweater, DVD, and other clothes are from Ali and Colin. Thanks guys!!

This weekend I flew to Kansas City (Kansas) to spend a few days with my entire extended family on my Mom’s side. Ostensibly the gathering was for Mom’s birthday, which was in early September…but also we celebrated Thrace’s birthday, which was in early October, and simply enjoyed the first big reunion in a long time. My Dad arranged all of the travel details, which ended up working out amazingly well…all three of us kids arrived from different states on different airlines at different times, and managed to join up in just the right sequence to get the rental car and drive into town to meet the family.

When the weekend was all over, it was with some introspection that I said goodbye to everyone, knowing that it was very likely that the next time I saw any of them, I would be a father. There will be no Thanksgiving visit with my family, and my parents and my sister will likely come visit with Baby is very small…but things will be very different next time we meet. My visit won’t be focused on me!