Ally’s Pregnancy Journal

We are down to the last month till we meet our child!

Friday was the 35 week appointment - I gained 3lbs since the last apt so the total is 14lbs so far and the uterus measurements are dead on for 35 weeks. When I mentioned the pelvic pain and shoots of pain she said it was normal for some women to have unbearable pain at this point as the baby gets lower. She was ok with me using the heated rice pack I have been using to help diminish the pain since it is usually at it’s worst at night. She thinks everything is going great and said keep doing what I’m doing since eating wise it seems to be helping - I told her about my craving for nutella and strawberry crepes and seemed fine with it since it really has been nor more than once to twice a week max. I was surprised when she said to make an appointment for 2 weeks from now but I’m not going to complain since this week is so busy for me already work wise.

Sunday was our baby shower and we were both amazed at how many people came and how generous everyone was! It was great that so many of the new mom’s brought their babies with them, I really enjoyed spending some time - though wish I had more time to chat and socialize! They played the guess the girth game - my aunt Patty came in first being less than an inch off and my aunt Jinni came in second being just over an inch off. Everyone also wrote down advice on a card that I read off after collected then they brought around a tray to have everyone look at for a minute then write down everything they saw on the tray. I then was sat into a seat where I spent quite a lot of time opening presents. It was wonderful seeing all the books we got since Bryan and I both plan on reading to the baby every night and most nights for the last few weeks have already been reading out loud for the baby to get useto our reading voices and the last 2 nights I have read in a row some of the new books we got. I did cry when I read one Sunday night “Love you forever” it is soo sweet and of course with these hormones going crazy I couldn’t help it - Cyndi, Michael and Lauren got us that one! Last night’s book was “My mom is great” -my aunt Patty got that one. I didn’t cry but it was really cute and definitely a great book to read to kids, you have to say words like “Ta- Daaahhh” and “Weeeeeeee” so any kid would love hearing that read! The most touching gift by far had to be the knit blankets my aunt Patty made for the baby - one is a takehome blanket for the baby to be swaddled in and the other is a twin size blanket knitted the way my grandmother useto knit blankets and had taught her. I couldn’t help but cry since it meant so much that she took so much of her time to do something for our child that meant so much to me! I’m also in love with these 2 little ducks we got - one is for the bath and it quacks and the other is my first ducky and it smells like baby powder! Turns out we got a lot of ducky themed things.

Monday and part of Saturday we spent clearing stuff out of the spare bedroom (aka storage) since we have to make room for the baby’s things to have handy and to be able to take things out of our bedroom since the baby will be sleeping in our room till we move into a house. Though I do no think finding a house is going to take too much longer since the market is really changing right now in our favor.

This week Bryan’s friend Tim will be staying with us for a few nights and this weekend will be taking some pregnancy photos of us. At some point this weekend Bryan and I will also be doing the belly cast since they say 36 weeks is a good point to do that and plus we never know when I will go into labor!

Happy Valentines Day! Today I received a baby blanket from some co-workers and some chocolate!

2 weekends ago it was my birthday and Bryan surprised me with a full body massage at the Edamame Salon that specializes in prenatal massage and then took me out for dinner for Japanese at one of our favorite places OGA. I also got to pick up some nursing tops and nursing pjs since I only have so long till the baby comes and I wanted clothes that would make it easy to feed the baby.

Baby kicks to the ribs have gotten much more frequent - even more so after eating (think the baby gets upset that when my stomach is full that it has less room to move) and the pelvic pain has been getting really bad at night - I think sitting in an office chair all day is taking it’s toll so I have been using this rice pack that I can heat up to help with the pain - doesn’t make it go away but makes it a little less uncomfortable. For my birthday I also got a travel tempurpedic pillow to support my lower back and that has seemed to help me sleeping on my back since the baby still hates me on my side (I feel like I have internal bruises from the kicks I get if I do lay on my side - baby has even woken me up in the middle of the night with kicks if I happen to shift to my side in my sleep). All this tossing and turning I have woken up a few mornings only to find Bryan sleeping on the couch as my constant moving in my sleep wakes him since he is such a light sleeper.

This Friday I have my 35week appointment and from there I think I move onto weekly OB appointments, I wonder if my OB has any predictions as to when she thinks this baby will come - hopefully she doesn’t say late - though worse case on that is the baby will be here in 47 days since they will only let me go 10days past my due date!

Yesterday afternoon was our 33 week OB appointment and looks like I was right - this baby is definitely head down. Everything is measuring on target so dispite everyone saying that this baby is going to be small or I must be carrying small - the measurements don’t lie. The doctor thinks that I’m just carrying differently and I don’t look all that big since I started out overweight before the pregnancy anyway. I went up 4 lbs from the last appointment 5 weeks ago so according to their charts from week 7 to now I am at a weight gain of 11lbs - she told me not to worry about any weight lost before that point since it was at the 7week appointment that my doctor said she would be happy if I gained 10lbs in this pregnancy. So they love the numbers (she said it is more common for overweight women to gain a ton more in the beginning and she expects me to have about a 20lb gain total in the end since this baby will be growing so much in these last few weeks). I handed in our birth plan and she looked it over, pretty basic. We also talked about what happens in the end game - she said they will let me go a week over if everything is fine but no longer than 10days over the due date so this means no matter what this baby should be here in less than 60days! The doctor also told me that if my heartburn continues like it is I can take over-the-counter Zantac 75 to relieve the pain proactively and if the 75 doesn’t help after a week or so I can move up to the 150. Lately it has been happening even from drinking water so I have a feeling I will have to give the 75 a try!

Last night I didn’t get any sleep and Bryan was sweet enough to sleep on the couch last night so I could surround myself with pillows and stretch out as much as possible. He is also looking into a latex foam topper for the bed as that may help relieve some of the pressure on my back and give us both a better night sleep.

These weeks seem to fly by and as I look ahead to things we are doing before the baby is born we pretty much have something in our calendar for every weekend till the second weekend of March though I’m sure the 2nd and 3rd weekends of March we should be filling with setting up a space for the baby.

I say setting up a space since we are still looking for a house and as the days tick down the odds of us being in one before the baby comes gets smaller and smaller every day. I’m not too worried about us moving with a newborn but our apartment just is not big enough for the baby to have a room. It is a good thing we planned on having a bassinette next to our bed in the beginning, just now we have to make that much more room for a changing table as well. It will be tight in there but knowing a house is not very far in our future will make it worth it, we don’t want to rush and end up in a house that we really don’t want just so we can get into a hosue before the baby is born!

Yesterday my grandmother passed away, she was my dad’s mom, whom I was named after. I had lived next door to her for 3 years growing up as well as lived with her one summer while I was in high school so felt pretty close to her, though over the last few years I hadn’t gone to visit her since it was really hard going since the last time I saw her she was in the hospital mental ward and really didn’t know who I was - I had been meaning to visit her with one of my cousins but we just never got around to it. From talking to my step-mom she says it is for the best since my grandmother no longer looked the same nor really knew who anyone was.

In baby news LP is getting much bigger and the movements much stronger to the point where sometimes they hurt so much that I can’t get comfortable no matter what I try to do! The baby is definitely very possesive about it’s teritory and if you poke in on part of the belly LP will move around to position to either kick or punch (can’t tell if foot or hand) where you are poking - this sometimes has been something I use to stop the other hurting pains since it will distract LP from the area it is pushing on to cause the pain. I haven’t seen hickups in a while but I now can spend so much time lying down and putting the remote control on my belly and watching the baby kick it - though it is barely pressing on the belly since it is really light the baby I guess can feel it and therefore goes to attack! between 9pm and midnight is when LP is most active so I’m wondering if that activeness will continue after birth as well!

Last night Bryan and I checked out a sale at Bob Smith’s Wilderness House since they are going under new ownership and Bryan ended up falling in love with a pair of Julbo sunglasses… for the baby!! He looked at me and said we had to get those for the baby and then when I saw they would be 20% off of $20 I really couldn’t say no! So now the only things we have purchased for the baby other than the take home outfit and book is gear! Between the booties and now the sunglasses I think Bryan is going to go gear crazy on this baby - I could just imagine if we knew if LP was a boy or girl, he would go even more crazy! I’ll have to find a picture of the sunglasses online and post them.

This afternoon we have an OB appointment and I’m hoping the Dr. can tell us what position the baby is in since I’m really thinking LP is head down and has been for the last week or so from the movements I have been feeling.

Other than that I am filling out the pre-admission form to turn into the hospital today, I have another form I need my Dr’s office to fill out and tomorrow night when we get together with our friends Ellen and John we are going to fill out a Healthcare Proxy form, the only other paperwork I want to do is a will as well as a Birth Plan (almost done) and then we should be all set paperwork wise!

There really has not be a lot of changes as far as baby is concerned other than my pelvis has been hurting more, which means it is widening more as well as these sharp pains started happening last night. I could feel the baby moving around and then all of a sudden this pain as if the baby pinched a nerve sending this pain down to my groin - it gave me the quick feeling like I was going to pee my pants! After talking to a few moms today about it they say they don’t know exactly what it is but it happened to them as well towards the end of their pregnancies so I’m guessing that the baby is head down since I don’t think anything other than a head (hmmm or maybe a foot) could get this far down, though I’m guessing head since at the same time I’m getting kicks to the rib cage! Bryan again was just the perfect hubby as he knew I was in pain, forgetting about dinner so he made me dinner and brought it to me while I was keeling over and then drew me a bath after since I have been able to somewhat be on my belly in the tub, which would hopefully get the baby out of that lower area (I lay with my elbows propping me up in the front and with buoyancy the belly doesn’t even touch the bottom of the tub).

I have been looking into doing a belly cast, my friend did one and it came out great, I think this would be a nice way to later show the baby how big I got with him/her inside. This same friend actually just had her second child today - she thought she was having a girl and turns out she had a boy - this is making me second guess myself now as she was as convinced as I am on what she was having. I know the next time we have a baby I will not be able to hold off on finding out - even more so since we really only plan on having 2 kids total though we are not ruling out a 3rd if we had 2 boys or 2 girls but 3 would be the absolute most since we know that more kids = more money!

The baby is moving around as we speak, very sweet, soft and slow movement - seems the baby does these kind a lot in the afternoon - the evening just before bed is another thing - that seems to be the time the baby goes crazy - I’m guessing the baby will be quite active in the evening once it is born as well, which is fine with me since the mornings are pretty quiet and at night the baby seems pretty relaxed in the movements. I just can’t wait till the doctor can tell me the baby’s exact position at the next appointment as I am thinking it is an elbow that runs across my belly while the feet are kicking the upper belly and the ribs while the other hand is punching my bladder, bowels and pelvis area! Oh and when I wear the belt I get all kinds of crazy pushing on that, not sure if it is a shoulder or arm, but either way the baby hates when I wear it! I also find that if the baby is moving around and I keep my hand or a finger pressed in somewhere on the belly I can not only feel the baby reposition itself, but it repositions to be able to kick or punch my hand or finger away. This is quite handy when the baby is poking out of one side really hard, I just poke on the other side of my belly to get the baby to move - this is something the ultrasound techs did early on in the pregnancy to get the baby to move, but I didn’t realize it would be that effective later in this pregnancy!

It is hard to believe we are down to the last 2 months before the baby arrives!

Sleeping has been a challenge lately, the baby is so active and moves so much I find it will stay on the quiet side only if I sleep on my back - though to do this it requires many pillows under each side of my back, a body pillow under my knees and my nice thermarest one under my head, this doesn’t keep me from waking up though - I have woken up a few nights with really bad heartburn as well as to the baby kicking. The other night I got my first kick to the underside of my rib cage. I have been wearing my support belt from time to time as the pressure below can get pretty bad too - if I’m not wearing it I keep it in my pocketbook just incase!

Last night we attended a Caring for your Newborn class and though I thought we had already read a lot and knew a lot from being around babies for years I found I still was able to take more than a whole page of notes. The class was given through Harvard Vanguard and we absolutely loved it, no pressure to change the dolls she sent around or to try the carriers she brought and so most of us attending all ended up participating. The instructor was very informed and really tried to keep everyone engaged.

Well we are almost 2 weeks into the new year now and time is counting down till Little Pike will be here - 72 days till the due date arrives, though Little Pike could come anywhere from 2 weeks before to 2 weeks after that date.

New Year’s Eve was wonderful, Bryan surprised me with a dinner cruise on the Odyssey Yacht out of Rowe’s Wharf in Boston. The food was wonderful, we danced and got to see the fireworks from the boat with the Boston Harbor Hotel in the background. Truly a night to remember and most likely our last New Year’s in Boston for a while as we know we will want to spend it at home as a family. Here are some photos from the cruise.

Here is a view we had of the Boston Skyline

Us at dinner

Bryan got me to put on the Happy New Year tiara

Us out on the stern of the boat

After having a few long weekends due to the holidays it was hard to get back into working full weeks but didn’t take us long.

Last Saturday we had our Birthing Class that was given through my doctor’s office and we were amazed at how well the nurse did keeping everyone involved, answering everyone’s questions and telling us funny stories in-between to break things up. I was a little worried about doing an all day class but there were 2 breaks, a short lunch and the walk over to the maternity ward really helped break things up and keep you moving in-between all the sitting. There were 12 couples in the class and most of them were within a week or 2 of our due date. About half the class found out the gender of their baby and about 70% hadn’t picked out names yet - though most had a list of names they liked. It was nice to see that though I have had co-workers tell me that they didn’t think I was gaining enough weight that most of these women had a similar belly size to mine.

After the class we met up with my cousin Elizabeth, our friend Laura and her daughter who is 6 months old. Bryan was very much into holding her and I loved seeing how great he is with other people’s babies, I have a feeling I will be taking a ton of pictures of him with LP and couldn’t help but grab my cousin’s camera phone and snap a photo of the 2 of them! I so had wished I brought our camera!!

This week they also released the 2005 top babies names and I was very disappointed to see that Abigail is #3 on the top 100 list, I really hate seeing that there are soo many babies out there with the name we thought was a name that wouldn’t be that used from our family tree. So over the last couple of days we came up with an alternate girl name - Claire. Claire was my 4th Great Grandmother’s name. But because we couldn’t decide which other name to drop to become the middle name we decided that we would go with a double middle name - so she would be Claire Abigail Muriel Pike - quite a mouth full but it sounds nice. We also said that if the baby comes and is a girl and we really feel Abby is a perfect fit for her we will keep to our original Abigail Muriel Pike - just dropping the Claire. I’m really not crazy about a double middle name but from some research it is getting to be more common here in the US and it has been common for years in other countries such as Ireland.

Last week we also signed up for a Caring for your Newborn class as well as a breastfeeding class, due to other weekend commitments we had to make those weeknight classes. We are also trying to find and schedule a baby massage class but have been having a hard time finding one. We are unsure if it is better to wait on that one till the baby is born but we know it is something we will want to start right away.

The 7th was our first date anniversary - 7 years ago we started dating and we met 9 years ago - it is amazing how time flies!! We had celebrated instead on Friday and went out for Japanese at Takemura in Cambridge and got a bunch of house rolls and inside out rolls - all with cooked fish and all of them were excellent! We were amazed at the quality and definitely put this place at the top of our best sushi list!

So after work I met Bryan at my OB’s office - I let them know when I had drank the glucose drink stuff (btw.. mine tasted like really flat orange soda - not bad but not great either). About a minute before the hour mark I had to go up to remind them and she told me to just go into where they draw the blood -the girl said she was about to get me. I thought they just pricked you for a little blood, no they took 2 viles of blood - didn’t bother me though because they do a pretty good job there.

The pee stick test was obviously off because of the glucose test and I was amazed when she told me I had gained 3lbs guess I did better over the holiday weekend than I thought - plus the 1lb from the last visit (the emergency visit) so that is 4lbs added to my already 3lbs for the pregnancy - so now I am up a total of 7lbs!! Only 3 more to go by the end! I’m definately not worried about putting 3 more on in 12weeks!

After they had Bryan and I go into one of the rooms and my doctor came in, it was nice to see her again instead of one of the other doctors - she listened to the heartbeat (to which LP kicked the wand the whole time - doesn’t like anything pressing on it’s domain aka my belly!) Then she measured my belly and said everything looked great, we talked a little about the pains I have been having and she was not worried since they are getting better aka the baby is doing it less often, asked if I had any questions - I explained I did but would wait since the birthing class would most likely answer most of those questions.

She told me to make an appointment with one of the 2 other doctors I hadn’t seen yet in 5 weeks I had to repeat 5 weeks because I was amazed it would be that far out, but hey if that’s what she wants! So once I meet this other doctor on February 2nd I will only have 1 left to meet - so far I love them all so I’m not as worried about my doctor being avaiable as I was in the begining! I also am working on a birth plan document to have on hand, but don’t want to complete it till I have the birthing class and the tour of the hospital (both on January 7th).

I also have to start booking some of the classes that Harvard Pilgrim offers for expectant parents while there is room still available, looks like some of them I will have to book for late February since January classes are already full, my weekends are definately filling fast and I only have 12 weeks to go before my due date as of today - so that is really only 11 weekends, though with the next 2 filled with New Year’s plans and the birthing class next weekend that leaves me with 9 weekends! Did I mention that somewhere in there we plan on buying a house and moving?!?! So another few weekends will have to be used to move - even if we don’t get into a house I have a feeling we are moving anyway since we had mega carpenter ants last summer and the traps we had out then to keep them at bay we will not be able to use with a toddler around!!

Better late than never…. Merry Christmas

So the above was our Christmas Card we sent out. We had a lot of fun using our photo editing software to do it, definately a team effort with Bryan and I!

So we did the usual three family visit Christmas Day - Bryan’s mom’s for Breakfast, My dad’s for birthday cake (Nick is 21 this year), and my aunt’s (my mom’s sister) for dinner.

The baby even got a few presents - my mom got a stuffed bear in a red jumpshirt with a hood, my aunt got a baby carriage ornament and my cousin gave me a knit blanket and soft booties.

I contributed to that by getting Bryan a sushi burp cloth and bib set and a my first sushi set so he can teach the baby early about sushi - he really got a kick out of them! I also got my mother in law a “Read to me Grandma” book full of stories she can read to LP - she seemed to really like it and hope to put it to use not long after the baby is born. We really plan on doing a lot of reading to the baby and right from the beginning plan on doing a story a night, even if it is a short one, but I notice that both Bryan and I have a change in our voice when we read to kids so I think the fact that we are already doing occasional reading will help the baby be comfortable with those voices and we can turn it into part of our bedtime routine. I don’t know if we will be doing a lullaby as well, we can’t seem to find one that is unique or that we really like.

Today is my OB visit where I have to do the glucose test, I had to make sure no fasting was involved since when lunchtime came I was sooo hungry - though not sure if part of that was just the baby moving around like crazy. I still seem to be getting the pains for hours at a time and when I do they really hurt, I’m hoping I don’t have to put the belt back on since the baby is annoyed by it and spends all day kicking it!

I ate really good these past few days but I don’t think I gained any weight - I’m hoping my doctor doesn’t start putting the pressure on since I have not even come close to the weight she wants to see me gain and she only wants me to gain 10lbs - but with 28 weeks and only 12 to go I doubt I’m going to be able to gain even 8lbs by the time the baby comes - guess we will see when I get on the scale!

Still on the “Eat anything I want” method but I find I always want a salad - why can’t I crave hot fudge sundaes or something really bad for me - though a week or 2 ago I did have the want for ringdings - can’t say if it was a craving cause I didn’t feel I had to have it, but it popped into my head so we stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some - I had a big glass of milk with it. I have been having hot almond milk almost every night for the last few weeks to make sure I am getting enough milk, last night I did really good on creating a lot of foam and made one for Bryan too - he was a bit sore from snowboarding all day with my brother Nick!

So officially I am 90days away from the due date, doesn’t mean LP will be here then but that’s ok, atleast I have a target to count down to!

Lunch Yesterday we had the christmas party here at work and it went off without a hitch, the employees really liked it and I was able to sneak out just after 2pm to go pick up Bryan at work.

We hit this place in Brookline called Magic Beans and they had all kinds of baby gear and kids of all ages toys, Bryan spotted this vest called Dadgear, it is just the greatest thing, he tried it on and loved it and when he realized it was basically a diaper bag to go he just thought it was too great! Here is the link to it, though I paid a little less than they list it for http://www.dadgear.com/gear_detail.cfm?itemID=14#

I told him I would be more than willing to get it for him but he can’t wear it till the baby is born, he was more than ok with that since he lives in all his other vests and really thinks this will be easier to wear then for him to have to carry around a big diaper bag, though most likely we will have a little backpack he can wear to put a change of clothes, extra diapers, butt lotion, toys, etc in. but for hikes and just walking around town the vest will be great, plus he loves it even if he never used it for a diaper vest - it is the same material and same price he has paid for his other tech vests that he wears all the time!

We then went to the Paris Creperie where we split a nutella and strawberry filled crepe and we each got lattes (mine decaf)

On our way to our friends’ house we stopped at Isis Maternity in Needham to check them out, they do prenatal massage, classes, they have mommy groups, lactation consultants on hand as well as a store with some great products. Some of the classes and workshops are free to members and others members get a discount, it really seems nice and the location is convient!

We had dinner at our friends’ house and had their kids open the presents we bought, they really had fun with them (we got them both doodle pads that came with books and these learn to cross stich kits since they always like immitating their mom doing it)

This morning the festivities continued with free breakfast downstairs and then they had us come after it was over to grab extra bagels, muffins and fruit, figured I would get enough for us to have breakfast the days we are home since I have Monday and Tuesday off and Bryan is off all week!