26 Weeks and Counting

I'm just checking in here; I am working on another post but it won't be ready for another couple of days. So in the meantime, here's a brief update for week 26.

Matt and I still haven't come up with a middle name for Odin. Honestly, we haven't even discussed it lately. Our calendars have been pretty full and I guess it's just not at the top of the priority list. But I'm sure we'll come up with something before the baby is born.

The nursery hasn't been painted yet; I still need to get all the stuff out of the room so we can paint the walls and then clean the floors. I've gone through some of the stuff in there (there are a lot of old papers in that room that can be recycled or shredded, so I wanted to go through those things and get rid of as much as possible), but there are still a number of boxes and small storage bins that need to be moved out.

A week ago I started the last class I'll take before I give birth. It's an 8-week class, so it will end just after Thanksgiving. While I am happy about knocking out another 3 credits before Odin comes, I am certainly not thrilled about having to manage school work while also trying to get things in order at home, not to mention getting ready for the holidays.

Speaking of getting things in order at home - I have just over a month before my baby shower happens AT MY HOUSE. That means there are a ton of things I want to get done before then, like small projects and a thorough cleaning, but also because there are likely to be enough people in attendance that I need to make my basement look decent as well as the main floor of the house (we're going to have to make it a two-story party!). This might not sound like a big deal, but my house is only one floor and the basement, so there is nowhere to store extra stuff that I might want to move out of the way. The house won't look perfect regardless of how much time I have to get it together, but I'll do the best I can to make it comfortable for guests - I hope they'll cut me some slack.

Odin has been very active the past few weeks, often making my stomach jump noticeably. Feeling him move is one of the few things I will really miss about being pregnant. It's just such an awesome experience.

As for me, I'm doing well except for near-constant back pain. It doesn't seem to matter what shoes I wear, how I sit, how often I stretch and move, it just hurts. And the pain wakes me up in the middle of the night, too, but that's not a huge deal since I usually have to get up to pee anyway. My belly is still looking the same as it did a couple weeks ago, so I'm not planning to do another belly photo until next week.

Coming soon will be a post about the five small, simple paintings I'm working on for the nursery. They are my very humble attempt at putting some personal art in Odin's room.

24-Week Sonogram: Disappointment and Relief

Yesterday morning I had my 3-D sonogram at work, but unfortunately baby Odin wasn't in the mood to be on display. When we started the sonogram, Odin's head was on my left side and he was facing down and towards my spine, so there was no way to get a good view of his face. Plus, he had his face smushed up against the placenta, meaning there wasn't much amniotic fluid between his face and the placenta (the more fluid, the better the image you get). I tried to get him to change positions by rolling onto each of my sides and poking at him. And lo and behold, he did change positions, but we quickly realized that while his head was then on my right side, he was still facing down and towards my spine. And his face was still smushed against the placenta. Aargh.

It was a bummer not to get to see much of his face in 3-D, but the sonographer did take a lot of time checking Odin's anatomy in 2-D and he said everything looks good. But that baby just did not want to cooperate with us! At one point he had turned his head a little bit so we were looking almost at his profile, and he lifted his arm up in front of his face the way you would if someone shone a flashlight in your face while you were trying to sleep. He was determined not to let us get a good look at his face; I guess he wants to keep us in suspense until his big birth day reveal.

Odin's head measured at 26 weeks instead of 24 weeks, which only added fuel to my hunch that he is going to come early by about 2 weeks. I've had that hunch for a while - though I don't really know why - and after having two sonograms where the tech commented that he is a little big, I feel even more sure that he'll show up closer to New Year's Day than MLK, Jr. Day.

Here are the three images of his face we were able to capture (we never got a still image with nothing in front of his face; first it was the umbilical cord and then there were just random things blocking part of his face, as you'll see in the photos):

Forehead, eye, nose, upper lip. That's about all we got. He's definitely got Matt's nose.

An unsuccessful attempt at a more straight-on look.

I think he looks quite comfy in this one.

So while I was disappointed that I didn't get to see his handsome little face very well, I was thrilled that everything looked normal and I could see that he's still growing well in there. I can honestly say, though, that I hope he's not always as uncooperative as he was yesterday! Maybe he takes after Matt in more than just the nose department. :)

23-Week Update: A Look Back, Upcoming Sonogram, & Baby's Name

Tomorrow I will hit the 24-week mark in my pregnancy. It seems impossible that so many weeks have passed by already. It's strange to look ahead and think about all the things I need or want to get done before the baby comes. But it's even stranger to look back at my pregnancy experience thus far. I am so used to feeling the Peanut move now that I get paranoid if I don't feel him move for a while. I've gotten to the point where I've accepted the fact that I just can't lift heavy things and I need to ask for help when I'm working on something that requires more physical exertion than I can handle. Sleeping through the night is a completely foreign concept, and back pain is a daily nuisance. I don't mean to complain; I have not yet experienced anything that isn't completely normal in pregnancy, and I'm grateful for that. It's just interesting for me to think about the things that have shaped my pregnancy experience up to this point.

Speaking of hitting the 24-week mark tomorrow, I set up my next sonogram at work (which will most likely be the last one I have) for next Tuesday, September 25th. Just as I did when I was 10 weeks along, I have the opportunity to have a 3-D/4-D sonogram done here at the college. Now that I'm much farther along in my pregnancy, the images will actually look like a 'real' baby and not just a nub with arms and legs. I am, again, so excited for the chance to see what he looks like, and to just watch him move around.

Let us recall the images from previous sonograms:

8 weeks                                              10 weeks                                                    19 weeks

Who knows what the 24-week set of images will look like - all I care about is getting to see him! I will, of course, share images (and video, if I have one) here next week so you can all see him, too!

In other news, Matt and I finally agreed on a name for the baby (well, a first name - we're still working on a middle name)! We chose the name Odin. We like the way Odin sounds, and while it isn't especially common, we don't think it's especially weird either. For those of you who don't know, Odin is the name of a god from Norse mythology. In fact, he's Thor's father (I totally vetoed Thor for a name, but then suggested Odin instead). I've gotten some mixed reactions to the name (one person made a puzzled face and asked, "Is it a family name or something?"), but we love it and have been referring to him by name for about a week now. That's all the news I have for now, but check back next week for sonogram photos!

Belated 22-Week Update

I meant to post an update last week, but time simply got away from me and it didn't happen. My bad.

Check out my crib, y'all.

Matt and I did take a trip to Ikea over the weekend and were able to look at the potential nursery crib and dresser in person. It was definitely a worthwhile trip, because while we loved the crib (we've decided it's the one we want), we found that the dresser was too tall to be used as a changing table. So we're back to the drawing board on that one, but I doubt we'll have too much trouble finding something. Plus, since we know now that the one dresser won't work, we have plenty of time to find something else. Strangely enough, we actually left Ikea with only a trashcan. I don't think I've ever gone there and left with only one thing. I also looked at a rocking chair there, but the back of it leaned back so far it wasn't exactly a good fit for nursing. If all else fails, I'll hit up a Cracker Barrel in the dark of night and swipe a chair off the porch.

Baby has been moving a whole lot lately since he is still at a size where he has plenty of room, and being able to see him move in my belly is strange but incredibly cool. I love when Matt gets to feel the peanut move.

And, as promised, here is the latest belly photo, taken last Thursday when I was 22 weeks (thanks again to my surrogate little brother Mike Scrivener for the photo).

I'm hoping to get my 3-D/4-D sonogram scheduled here at work; I'll share some images/video when I get them in the next couple weeks.

17-Week Update (Feelin' Groovy), Nursery Planning, & Flicky Spasms

I am incredibly grateful for the second-trimester respite. While I still get tired even faster than I normally do, I have much more energy now; I'm able to juggle more things, which is good because there's a lot to do before the baby comes. In fact I decided to take a break from classes while I'm in my second trimester so I will have time to get things done while I'm feeling good and not yet the size of a walrus. But I do plan to take one more class before my due date, just to knock out another 3 credits.

The future nursery is still full of random stuff - it looks more like a storage room right now than a bedroom (because that's basically how we've used it for the past 3 years). The nursery is also VERY small, so I'm planning to try to be creative in how I furnish and organize it in order to maximize the space we do have. For instance, I'm putting a lot of thought into how to organize the small closet so that fewer things need to be stored out in the room itself. I have the feeling I'll be glad to shut the closet door and hide a lot of things like clothes, laundry baskets, etc. - for me, the more I can hide away, the better. Too much stuff/clutter stresses me out. (I know, I'd better get used to it with a baby coming, as babies tend to require a bunch of stuff.) I'll be posting more specific ideas for the nursery soon.

According to BabyZone.com, this is what the Peanut looks like right now (he/she is about 5.5" long):

I can totally understand why the baby would start playing with the umbilical cord; it must get pretty boring in there. And claustrophobic. In fact, I'm surprised I wasn't born mid-panic-attack as I fought to get out of what surely was a claustrophobic living environment; I'm sure my "plump" size didn't help matters - I was over 9 lbs so there couldn't have been much room to spare in there. As cool as it is to see these kinds of progress photos and drawings, my first thought when I see them is, "Oh man, it's getting bigger. And bigger. And at some point it's going to have to come out of my body." Seriously, you guys, it's terrifying.

I recently began feeling Peanut moving around in there, which is a very cool experience. I've read all sorts of descriptions of how it feels when you first feel the baby move, and it's clear that it's very difficult to describe, and also it seems that the feeling is different for different people. For me it feels sort of like a tiny muscle spasm in my abdomen, or like I'm being flicked from inside my belly. Other people describe it as popcorn popping, bubbles, or butterflies in the stomach, but I think for me the best description is a tiny muscle spasm. If that kid really is flicking me from the inside, I fear I may have an ornery, Dennis the Menace type on my hands. Time will tell.