Yay! I'm one centimeter dilated, and soft like butter. If I haven't had little bun by Monday, I'm getting a special massage to help things progress. If by Tuesday, I don't have little bun, I'm pulling out the big gun and going for the castor oil!

Today Tim and I went to the hospital to get our non stress test done..well not our stress but the baby's stress. We asked our Doula Melanie to come with us too. The nurse strapped two monitors to my belly one for little buns heart rate and one for my contractions. Little buns heart varied from 130-160. When she moved, her heart rate increased, and she made the monitors jump around. It was very funny to watch. She also got a little fit of hiccups, and we could hear those too. I didn't think that I would have any contractions, but for the twenty minutes that I was being monitored, I had three of them. I think I get them pretty regular without knowing I'm having them most of the time. The nurse said that our baby was doing great, and she sent us down to the first floor to have an ultrasound to check for the amount of amniotic fluid in my uterus. The amount was very good: 9.5. The most exciting part however was looking at the screen. The radiologist showed us her brain and her heart. Then she showed us parts of her body which I couldn't quite make out, but the best part she showed us was her little face. She had pudgy little cheeks, and her mouth made a suckling movement. So cute! Above is a picture that we got from the radiologist. It's not a very good one, but you can sort of make out the face if you try hard enough. This made us both even more excited to meet her. We go back again on Saturday at 10:00am to get another test done. Tomorrow, I will be going to Geri again to get a check up. She's going to check to see if I am thinning out, so I'm excited to know how that part of things are going.

No St. Pats baby!

Wednesday at 3:30pm is our appointment for the non-stress test and amniotic fluid test. I'm very excited about it. It'll be fun to see her once again if she is not out by then. So for the past two nights I've been having contractions. The ones early in the night are not painful at all. My uterus lifts up until it is very hard which makes it very difficult to breath and then sinks down again. Later in the night they get a little bit more painful. I feel them between 11pm and 4am. I'm not affected too much by them and manage to sleep through them pretty well, but last night when I went to the bathroom, some liquid dripped down my leg, so I think my bags might have broken or else my bladder was a little careless. I was mostly asleep when it happened. Today however, she feels a lot different. She feels lower in my abdomen. I haven't had any contractions today, but things are happening, and it's getting very exciting for us. Tim is going to stay home with me today to make sure we're okay!

Last visit?

Weight: 153lbs
Blood Pressure: good

Hopefully, today was my last visit with Jeri. She seemed pretty confident that it would be. We talked a little bit about natural induction which we won't worry about until next week if I'm still pregnant. If I don't have our baby by next Wednesday we'll have to go and have a stress test to make sure that my placenta is still delivering the rich nutrients to our baby. This would mean that we would get to see her in my womb one last time. I'm very curious as to what she looks like in there now that she is full term. While Jeri was feeling the position of little bun, I had a contraction. I couldn't feel it, but Jeri said that I had one. I've been feeling contractions early in the morning at times. It wakes me right up as I anxiously wait to see if this is actual labor. They don't last very long, and pretty soon I realize that they are not "real" contractions. Little bun was also very quiet last week, but her activity has picked up a lot this week. On Monday night, I felt her burrowing pretty low down for a few hours. On Tuesday night I didn't feel her at all...not once. Tim and I were very worried the next day and tried to poke her to wake her up. I ate some oatmeal and laid on my left side to count her kicks. She was alive!!! It's pretty scary when you think you're almost there and then something feels wrong. Family and friends have been keeping in touch and wishing me well, and thank you for that. I have a lot of you on my list to email as soon as I think I'm in labor, and some of you are programed into my phone to receive a text message. We are still shooting for St. Patrick's day to have the baby, but if she comes sooner that is just fine with us. This journey has been so amazing for both of us, and we are anxiously awaiting our little one.

Weight: 150lbs
Blood Pressure: perfect
Protein: a trace (normal)
Glucose: negative

Today Jeri talked to us about labor a little bit. She made it clear in a humorous way that I let go and become "animal" in the labor room. She told me that one of her patients peed on her, and she laughed about the whole thing. She's a really funny one. We learned in birth class about a place called "labor land". When you are in this place you are out of your head, and you are surrendering to birth. It's really amazing to watch women in this state in videos. It's as if they are hypnotized and as soon as the baby is born, the "love hormones" rush to the womans brain, and they snap out of it. There are so many benefits to giving birth naturally both for mother and child.

Week 35

Blood pressure: I can't believe how good your blood pressure always is!
Glucose: negative
Protein: negative
Weight: 148lbs

I went by myself to this check up. Tim has been working furiously lately trying to get his experiments wrapped up so that he can begin writing his thesis.

Jeri wants me to get my birth plan ready, and my expectations of her. I sort of laughed at her...what expectations? She said that one woman wanted her around from the very first contraction, and another woman wanted her to wear a doctors coat. She knew immediately that these woman had the wrong expectations of her. So, we are working on these things.

Our baby is still in the head down position, and Jeri can't believe what a strong heart beat she has. She has a strong heart beat and a strong kick! "Little Bun" has been kicking up against my rib cage for weeks now. Sometimes she moon walks, and it makes me squirm a little. You can actually see her foot moving up and down my belly. She also likes to flip around, but mostly her favorite position is sleeping with her back curved on my right side while her little head faces my left hip. Sleeping on my back has become very uncomfortable, but sleeping on my sides can be even more uncomfortable at times because my hips and thighs hurt. Anyways, I'm not too bothered. She will be born soon, and we are getting more and more excited.

Week 33

Blood Pressure: Excellent
Glucose: negative
Protein: negative
Weight: 146lbs
Iron: low 10.5

Today, we visited Jeri again. Jeri had delivered 6 babies that week! She said they were all 9-10.5lbs, so they were long births. It was very unexpected to her that all those women would give birth in one week. She talked about how each birth was like witnesses a great force. I'm so happy that she is still amazed every time she helps deliver.

Jeri explained to us that it was important to have a support network around us when we have our baby. She was explaining to us that generations ago the grandmother would help out in taking care of the baby for the first few weeks. She talked about how families have become so fragmented these days, and how America has become an efficient society in which women give birth and return back to work fairly soon afterwards and keep on going with life. She talked about countries where women could stay out of work for a year, and countries that had paternity leave for the fathers. Jeri said that the most important thing was for me to heal as much as possible in the first two weeks after birth. She said that if I didn't have people helping out that it could take as long as three months to heal as compared to a few weeks. I'm very lucky that Tim is going to stay with me after birth. She said that he should take the 3am - 6am shift so that I can get some rest. I'm also lucky that Tim's mom is going to be around too. I wish my mom could come out, so I'm going to see if she is able to. I know that she would love to, but she has her own family to take care of.

Jeri told me that my iron was low. I suppose that is why I've been feeling so exhausted lately. So, I need to take Ferric Sulfate as well as eat some iron fortified foods. She said that black strap molasses had the most iron in it and gave us a recipe for molasses cake: Tims favorite. I'm also going to be drinking a lot of prune juice to balance out the intake of iron.

Jeri usually uses a Doppler to hear "little buns" heart beat, but today, she used a fetoscope/stethoscope to listen to it. She said that eventually Tim will be able to hear the hearbeat through my stomach with his ear. She let Tim listen to the heart beat with the fetoscope, and he noted that her heart beat had slowed down compared to previous times he's heard it. It's at 140; that's a good number. She felt her head and hips again, and let Tim feel them. He said he could really feel her hips, and he looked joyed by that. Jeri also said that "little bun" was a very playful little one. I certainly know that. She's so lively in there.

I'm going to start meeting Jeri every two weeks now.

Week 30

Blood pressure: excellent
Glucose: negative
Protein: negative
Weight: 140lbs

Today's visit with Geri was fun. Geri looked well rested, and was very giddy. She told a couple of fun birth stories and spent some extra time talking with us. I'm glad that we are getting time to bond with her. It's important to me that we have a trusting relationship. Everything seems to be going well. My measurements are all correct for the week that I'm due. Jeri is able to feel our baby through my belly, and so far she is still in the right position. Her head is down where it needs to be. She felt "little buns" hips and again exclaimed how wide they were and said she's probably more like me. Her head size is the only thing that I care about being like me at this stage! Tim apparently had a big head at his birth. Well, he still has a pretty large head.

I told my boss that I am cutting down in February to part time. I think this is good for me. I need time to rest and prepare before she comes.

I've decided to work

27 weeks

Blood pressure: Excellent
Weight: 133lbs

When I get to Geri's office, I usually weigh myself . I weighed myself this time and found that I was 138lbs. I went into shock. How could I have gained so much weight? My clothes still feel the same. Anyways, I went and reported to Geri my weight gain, and she was very pleased about it. I showed Geri our ultra sound pictures, and told her that it was a girl. We went into the examination room and Geri measured my fundus, and checked the position of our baby. Geri found her head right away, and then found her hips. She laughed and told us that our daughter had a bubble butt, and that she was a renaissance girl. She had Tim feel our baby's hips which he found very amusing, but it hurt a little for me. Everything is going fine, and I'm becoming more and more excited. After our meeting, I exclaimed to Tim how much weight I gained. He said we should go weigh myself again, and I found that the weighing machine was five pounds off. I was so unhappy, but it did make more sense that I had not gained that much weight. Our next meeting is January 7, 2008.

It is getting harder to teach. The energy that I had before is slowly vanishing, and I feel like I'm working too much. It takes a lot of patience which I seem to be loosing. The good thing is that I'm going to Wisconsin in a couple of weeks. I really can't wait! I need a break. I haven't had a break since May. I really don't know how I am still running.

23 Weeks

(These are the curtains that I made...cute!)

Weight: 125lbs
Blood Pressure: Excellent
Baby heart beat: Strong

Today was my visit with my midwife. Everything is great as usual. I need to eat more protein snacks, but she is happy with the rest of my diet. Today, I also had a pelvic exam, and she said everything looked great. Tim and I saw our babies "door", and I seriously believe that it is closed for business and there is no way that it is going to open up to 10cm. She measured my pelvic bone and said that I can give birth to a baby up to 9lbs, so I am pretty wide which I already knew. She said I was about as far along as 21-22 weeks, so maybe the baby will come later than March 14.

Tuesday November 20, 2007 at 1p.m. is the big day!!! I will be having my first ultrasound; a first sight at our baby. I'm so excited that it's very hard for me not to be extremely happy these days. I can't wait; it's all that I think about anymore. We are going to find out the babies sex, so I will let you know what it is next week. Tim and I have been thinking about what sex we would like the baby to be. We both of course don't care what-so-ever, but deep down there are always these tiny secret wishes. Tim would like to have a girl because girls are lacking in his family, but he can only think of fun things that he would want to do with a boy. I, on the other hand, would like a boy because they are lacking in my family, but I can only think of fun girl things that I would want to do, and I'm used to little girls. So, we are happily split, don't mind either way, and just want to see a healthy baby in me at this point. So, the next post should be a biggy....can't wait!

14 weeks!

Weight is 118lbs.
Blood Pressure excellent.
Need to gain weight!

My visit with my mid-wife went well on Monday. Tim was able to come along which was great. We spent about 20 minutes in her office going over the questions we had. She gave me information about nutrition, exercising, harmful diseases, and home safety. Then, she took me into the examination room. She checked my blood pressure which was good. Then she spent some time trying to find "little buns" little heart beat. Apparently, its heart is as big as a sesame seed...so tiny! It's really truly amazing this whole birthing process. Anyways, Tim's face was beautifully excited when he heard the heart beat. He listened for a long time. Geri said the baby has a very strong heart beat, and yes, I agree; it sounds better than mine. Geri made me feel where the top of my uterus is which is just under my belly button. I have a little shelf now. She showed us a little book which had an actual size drawing of "little bun". So beautiful. Its a tiny tiny little person fully formed now. Tim and I were both surprised actually by how big our baby is already. I feel like my time being pregnant will go very fast. I'm starting to feel better. I have a bid appetite today, and I need it because I have to gain weight. My next appointment is Monday October 15. We chose that date because Gramma Rachel will be around.

Welcome to your second trimester! This is a big milestone because it marks the end of a critical development period. All the basic structures of your baby's body are formed now. Head to bottom, your baby is just 3 1/2 inches long — about the length of a lemon — and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. She's starting to develop an ultrafine, downy covering of hair all over her body called lanugo. Thanks to brain impulses, her little facial muscles are getting a workout as she squints, frowns, and grimaces. She can grasp now, too, and she may be able to suck her thumb.

9 weeks

Weight is 123lbs.
Blood work normal
Blood Pressure excellent.
Need to gain 5 lbs. by September 10.

Midwife Jeri's homepage: Jeri Zukoski

Hello Family and Friends,
Today was my first real visit with my Midwife Jeri. She is so friendly and helpful; she's delivered 2000 babies! Basically, we did a lot of paper work, and she went over my blood tests which came back perfect. Apparently everything is going well. I have had nausea for the past month, along with fatigue. I don't ever feel hungry, but I eat small snacks every two hours. Tim makes me take my horse pill every morning. After I filled out the paper work, Jeri said we could listen to the babies heart beat. I was shocked. I didn't even realize that it had started beating yet! The beating sounded like a rush of horses, and I immediately became elated and started to giggle. Today was quite shocking. First, I found out that I was 100% pregnant. Then, I found out that all my blood work is great, and now I have heard the babies heart beat for the first time. I wished Tim was with me. I told him not to come because I figured it would just be a bunch of paper work, but next time I go in, we can listen to the babies heart beat again. Geri said that the baby had a very strong heartbeat, and because I have pretty bad nausea that the baby is very strong, and they are the ones that make it! I need to be careful these next three weeks and gain some weight.
I will be at the first trimester stage which means that I can tell more people, and my chance of having a miscarriage will have dropped a lot.

After the appointment with Jeri, I went to go tell Tim and we did a little jig. Then, we decided to celebrate by going to a really nice Chinese restaurant. We talked about the baby for a while, and now we feel like the baby is real and we are starting to connect to it. We are both so excited and happy, and we can't wait to meet our baby, and have our own family.