Snowbound Herpetologist

Since I’m getting pretty close to the end here, I decided to make a list of the things that surprised me (and those that didn’t) during my pregnancy because I’ll never remember them all later.  I read approximately 7000 pages of pregnancy books before getting pregnant, so I thought that I had a fairly good idea of what I was getting myself into - I was right and I was wrong.  This list might evolve over the next week if I think of more things to add.... Things that were far worse than I expected: Oh, the drool!  Copious amounts, coating my hair, face, pillow, and clothing any and every time I lost consciousness.  Pretty disgusting, and definitely not normal. Back pain - I did nothing with my life but ice my broken lower back, twice a day at least, for the last four months of pregnancy.   Yup, four months .  Primates are not optimally designed to be both bipedal and pregnant. Nasal “congestion” - not real congestion, as there was nothing in there!...

Just a few photos from the big day :) Abby got some turkey, too! White Thanksgiving - just a dusting Making stuffing, my favorite :) Dad chopping veggies My mama and me Way too preggers for my own good If you don't stir the gravy, you get lumps - oh, the horror! Hope you all had a fantastic day, too!

Today's bird walk = pregtastic! P.S. This is my first attempt at a mobile blog post!

In case I don’t get a chance to post tomorrow after my midwife appointment (parents are arriving, so excited!!!), this is the 38 week update. Yep, still pregnant!  Nope, labor is not imminent! And...that’s about it. After an absolutely abysmal Wednesday (including the worst yoga class of my life) during which the baby was so low that I felt like she was going to fall out of my vagina, baby shifted.  Upwards.  Which is the wrong direction.  Now I’m walking more comfortably than I have in weeks , but my entire upper right belly underneath my ribs - which is where her butt is sitting, as she has rolled to ROT - is now incredibly bruised and unhappy due to the increased pressure.  Sometimes I just lean way over to the left to give her some extra room there and walk around pitifully sideways...well, if no one’s looking. Another sad note - the Epi-No training is sssssslllllloooooowwwww.  I had thought that I’d be a total champ at this, and the early ...

Probably because I will hit 37 weeks tomorrow, I woke up this morning thinking about cutoffs.  On this side of some arbitrarily imposed line, you’re in Box #1.  On the other, Box #2.  And in pregnancy as in life, it can often be incredibly hard to transfer out of a box once you’re there. If I had the baby today (I won’t, full moon last night notwithstanding), she would officially be premature and my medical record would be flagged forever as having had a “preterm birth.”  This designation would immediately (in the US, at least) send me down a different path of management options for any subsequent pregnancy, since I would have fallen into a “higher risk” category.  But if I had the baby tomorrow, no mention would ever be made of this “normal” pregnancy and “term delivery” and I would be offered a different, “standard” set of management options.  The biological difference between the two?  A few hours. I faced this same sort of dilemma with my...

Very quick post - yesterday’s palpation-based fetal weight estimate from the midwife got me thinking.  I pulled this equation from somewhere at some point, but this is the original citation: Nahum, G. G., & Stanislaw, H. 2002. Validation of a birth weight prediction equation based on maternal characteristics. The Journal of Reproductive Medicine 47(9): 752-760. General caveats This equation is only meant to work for: Caucasians (or Hispanics, Nahum et al . 2004) singleton pregnancies no complications (gestational diabetes, blood pressure issues, etc.) babies delivered after 37 weeks no fetal abnormalities ( e.g. , chromosomal) non-smokers women with accurately dated pregnancies Equation birth weight (g) = gestational age (days)  × [9.38 + (0.264 x fetal gender) + (0.000233 × maternal height (cm) × maternal weight @ 26 weeks (kg)) + (4.62 × 3rd trimester maternal weight gain rate (kg/day) × {parity +1})] where fetal gender =...

I was right - the countdown from 36 weeks is going to rock!  Finally, interesting things are happening. This morning’s appointment was awesome (reiterating for the millionth time how amazing my midwife is).  She helped me palp myself to better identify all baby body parts (which can be confusing!) and orientation - baby is solidly left occiput transverse (LOT) and while not quite engaged, is apparently “dipping” in and out of my pelvis.  She says 1) keep walking (lots!!) and 2) do some squats to help the baby engage.  She says not to worry too much about the fact that I lean back a lot on my futon while working in my office - I’ve never been a good chair sitter, but now it’s just torture - causing the baby to spin posterior.  Just keep walking as best as I can.  She also thinks that there’s now very, very little chance that the baby will flip back to breech before birth - yay! I also asked for a fetal weight estimate, which with experienced midwiv...

Two weeks left to go until ( early ) term! Today I am exactly 35 weeks, which means that there are exactly 35 days remaining until my due date - the famous 35/35.  It's like a golden birthday or something, a unique occurrence.  Still nothing of interest to report - I am approximately the size of a whale, tired, unable to concentrate on anything , sore, and crampy (which is a new one).  And in all likelihood, I have - at the very least - 5 more weeks to become more of all of the above.  I fervently wish that I had been more productive with work this fall, as I didn’t meet any of my goals at all (honestly!) and feel that I’m only barely holding on to the most important of my professional responsibilities.  Guilt abounds. Can you tell that I CANNOT WAIT to get back to feeling like myself again? :) On a more positive note, I have managed to get pretty much all of the initial “can’t-live-without-it” baby stuff ready.  Clothes, wipes, and diapers are...

Just in time for Halloween yesterday, *this* happened. Yup. I thought about dripping some red nail polish around the edges of the hole to scare the trick-or-treaters - which would have been hilarious - but I was wholly unable to find my stash of nail polish since I never use it.  Husband said that by the time he came home (I had pre-warned him about the carnage on the porch), the squirrel was guarding the pumpkin so fiercely that it kind of scared him.  They are voracious little beasts! When I lived in Arizona, we had javelina that would eat the pumpkins, but they were smart enough to simply come in the night to do it - and they ate them much faster (and more cleanly)! But for our sweet Halloween treat, the baby had her first set of hiccups last night while we were passing out candy to the neighborhood kids.  It was *kind of* adorable :) Tonight is our three year wedding anniversary, so we are going out for a fancy dinner.  I'll take and post some photos...