Full-term baby!





Taking a little nap... this is of his face, the top of his head is facing towards the right, and you can see his nose sticking out.



This is at Chris' cousin's wedding this weekend on Boston harbor.


So now that Christopher is 37 weeks along, he is considered full-term. While the due date is June 18th, 95% of babies are not born on their due date, so it does feel like he could come along anytime he wants now. At the doctor's visit last week, they confirmed that he is in fact head down which is great. They also estimated his weight to be about 6 lbs 12 oz, so almost 7 pounds already. They also said he's got a head of hair - maybe he'll be like me when I was born with a head of big black hair!

We're all doing well and eagerly waiting his arrival. People keep asking me if I'm nervous about the delivery and I'm not feeling nervous. I know as much about it as I can without having gone through it, and the rest we'll take as it comes. I'm not sure if I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions or if its just some discomfort since his head has turned down, but nonetheless I've heard a lot about real contractions and that its hard not very hard to recognize them. So we're just waiting now. I hope he waits until his due date or afterwards to be honest, so he's nice and big and ready!

Have a great week!

Andrea

4 weeks to go!

Hi there,

Nothing much new to write about this week. We finished getting the nursery ready this weekend - Chris did at least 5 loads of baby laundry and I sorted everything and finished putting everything away. We're all ready, we just need the baby!

This past weekend we had a class on caring for a newborn. It was pretty good in that it was practical, but again with the classes there's nothing you either haven't heard before or wouldn't figure out pretty quickly. There was one other couple in the class, and she and I had almost the exact same due date. The funny thing was how absolutely miserable and cranky she was. Chris and I felt bad for the instructor, this lady had to wait outside 10 minutes because the door was locked and no one heard the end of it for the 5 hour class. I have one more class left that I was debating whether to do, the one on breastfeeding, which I suppose I'll just go ahead and do in case I learn something new.

In a few days we have another appointment and this time with an ultrasound which will be cool. The ultrasound is to make sure that he turned over, which I believe he has but don't know. We'll also be getting an estimate of his weight, so I'm not sure whether I should advertise that for those people who haven't voted yet on the baby pool! I'm thinking I gained weight over these past two weeks, there was another spurt I think because today a few people were completely shocked when they saw my belly which was pretty funny. According to a baby website, he should weigh about 6 pounds and be about 19 inches long.

Hope you have a good week, will post some ultrasound pictures next week when he'll be considered full-term :0)

Andrea

5 weeks to go...









Hi there,

Thought I'd post a few updated pictures. The nursery has so much stuff in it, I've been told there's no room for a baby in there - this doesn't include any of the equipment like the high chair, swing, etc.! Most of those things are set up and are around the house. I don't know where to fit everything, some things are down in the basement and we'll bring them up as we need them. If you look on the chair to the left of the picture of the nursery, you can see one of the piles of laundry to wash, there's so much stuff and its all so cute!! Today Chris' parents and my family came up for a Mother's Day BBQ, so I put a couple pictures from that up. It was a beautiful day out, I'm very excited for the summer.

Last week at the doctor she said I had lost a pound over the past two weeks, which was surprising because at the previous visit I had gained 7 pounds in the previous two weeks. She said it's just water weight and not a big deal. I wonder how much of not gaining this past week had to do with being sick, so maybe I was a little dehydrated or something? I did hear that in the few weeks before delivery women will lose a few pounds, so maybe that's all it was. She believes he did turn upside down, but in two weeks is giving me an ultrasound to be sure. That'll be neat to see, I haven't had one since early in the second trimester. My sister Tricia is able to come to that along with Chris so that'll be great.

Hope you had a nice Mother's day!

Andrea

6 weeks to go!

So this week I am 34 weeks along, the end feels near! Our birthing classes finished this past Friday. They were OK, nothing terribly surprising or anything, but I'm still glad we did them. I had actually watched so many videos online that I had already seen some of the ones they showed in class, but they were all new to Chris. The overview of medication options and when to go to the hospital were the most useful pieces of information.

The week before last I went to the doctor's, and I'll go again this week because now it is every two weeks. At the last appointment, she was a little concerned about the amount of water weight I had gained in the previous two weeks, because I had also complained of a headache. She did bloodwork and everything was fine. I guess the concern was about preeclampsia which has to do with blood pressure, which was fine. So she ended up saying I haven't been resting enough and need to rest more laying down with my feet up. That hasn't been too easy though as last week and this week are the final weeks of school, and I have exams and presentations. So needless to say I haven't rested enough and as of yesterday came down with an awful sore throat and cough. It'll all be done in a couple days though and I'll be able to take it easy until the baby comes.

Oh one more thing about the doctor's appointment. She felt my belly and said Christopher is still upright, I guess most babies turn by 35 weeks and if they haven't by 37, the doctors will manually turn him around. The other day I felt him doing a weird waving motion side to side though that I haven't felt him do before, and Chris and I could even watch my stomach going side to side, so maybe that was him trying to turn!

Finally, last week was my shower and I'd like to say thanks SO much to everyone who came and for everyone who helped put it together. You did a great job! Below are just a few pictures from it, there are many more I will email out soon.



This cake from my mother was really cute - and good.



Chris' mom highly overestimated the circumference of my belly, more than anyone else!



My sisters and I



Zach, my mom and Sophia



My friends Angela, Tracy & Liz



My friend Jessica (also a big overestimator!)



Jessica's son, Sergio



Me & Chris' friend Christine, Chris' aunt & grandma

So thanks again and I hope everyone has a great week!

Andrea

8 weeks to go...

I thought I'd post some pictures of the nursery. Its pretty much all set as far as the basic furniture and bedding. We finished hanging up his letters yesterday, that was not easy! Trying to get 11 letters straight and centered took several tries, it is close enough though. The border wasn't nearly as hard to do!

A big thank you to Chris' parents who got this crib for us!



Chris did a great job assembling the crib and the changing table...



and apparently just watching Chris do all that work tired Molly out.



We started our birthing classes last week which were pretty good. It was very basic stuff, probably because it was the first class. There are two more, and tomorrow I also have a breastfeeding class (that Chris gets out of going to because he's working :0). In this class they just covered the stages of labor, what the partner can do to help (they said a lot of "don't take what she says personally when she's in pain") and just basic stuff like that.

Hope you enjoyed the weather today! Chris and I took Molly for a walk on the beach which was nice. It was a nice slow walk, as I don't move too quickly nowadays!

Talk to you soon!
Andrea

31 weeks (9 to go)...

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd post a picture of Chris and I this week. We've done a lot of work on the nursery, but its not all arranged yet, so I'll wait until we do that to post pictures of it.

I went to the doctors and the glucose test was normal so there's no need for the follow-up test for gestational diabetes. I'll be going again at the end of the month, then every two weeks, then every week.

This week also starts our birthing classes, will let you know how it goes next week!

Have a good weekend despite the bad weather we'll be getting!

Andrea

30 weeks along! (that means only 10 to go!)

So only ten weeks to go as of today, can you believe that. I started realizing the other day that fairly soon I won't be pregnant anymore, and how much I will miss it. I really love having Christopher with me all the time. Whenever I'm sitting in a meeting or class, or doing work, he moves around and reminds me he's right there and I will miss that. It's been very precious to me being pregnant, I've been lucky that things are going smoothly and I'm feeling great.

As far as the semester with school, there's three more weeks of class and then some exams and that's it. I have a lot of work to do on my master's thesis before he arrives, realizing I won't do anything with it this summer. I've been very busy and will keep it up as long as I can before he comes.

My sister Lorie who will be Christopher's godmother came up with an idea to start a poll guessing the baby's weight and birthday. I figured since I already have this website set up we might as well do it from here - so feel free to click on here and enter your guesses. I already put mine in!

http://www.expectnet.com/games/GuessDateWeight

I also thought I'd upload a couple of pictures that Chris' mom gave me yesterday on Easter. I like the one taken the day he was born!

On his birthday


At 15 months old

I'll have to get some pictures of me as a baby too at some point! Hope you have a nice week and had a great Easter yesterday.

Andrea

11 weeks to go...

Hi everyone,

So there's only 11 weeks left to go. I've been in the third trimester for a few weeks now, and up until the past few days I continued to feel great. The last few days though I've been pretty exhausted again, I feel a little like I did in the first trimester. I know its common to feel like that towards the end, but its a little too early for that now so I think it might just be that I've been too busy with school and work. Hopefully I get more energy soon!

Last week I had my doctor's appointment and everything is great. I don't know the results of my glucose test yet. After the next visit, I go to every other week. It's funny to think that Christopher would survive if he were born now, it makes it seem like he could come any day now or something!

The nursery furniture arrived at Babies R Us and some friends with a truck helped us get it this weekend. Chris set up the crib yesterday and the furniture looks great. When we set up the room I'll post some pictures of it.

Below are a few pictures from dinner at my family's house this weekend I thought I'd share. My nephew Jacob, Chris, and my sisters Trisha and Jenn all managed to avoid getting their picture taken...



me and Lorie


My brother-in-law Peter. We're due around the same time.


My nephew Zach


Mom & Sophia


Cameron

Have a wonderful week,
love, Andrea

13 weeks to go...



Hi everyone,

I thought I'd post an updated belly picture, in which I'm wearing my old regular pajamas... I think they still fit ok, just a small shortage of material in the front :0)

I have a doctor's appointment not this week but next week, which is when I will get the glucose test done to determine if I have gestational diabetes. I guess its a long appointment, you have to take some stuff and then wait an hour or something like that.

According to a baby website I follow, Christopher should weigh about 2 pounds now and is about 14 1/2 inches long! That's pretty long. It also says he opens and closes his eyes, and sleeps & wakes at regular intervals. Unless he's moving around in his sleep, I think one of his "awake" times is at night before I go to bed. That's when I feel him the most. My mom actually was able to feel him last night, she's the only other person besides Chris to be able to. The timing has to be just right! To those of you who have been pregnant, did you feel your baby move all the time? I worry sometimes that I don't enough. I've been at the doctor's before while they were listening to him and could tell he was moving a lot, so he's fine, I just couldn't feel him. I only feel him move when I'm still for a while, like sitting in class or going to sleep. My boss' wife was saying she only felt her daughter move once or twice a day and she was very healthy.

Have a great week, and will talk with you soon.

love, Andrea

14 weeks to go...









Hi everyone,

Here's a few pictures of our nursery so far. Chris is enjoying the glider chair he successfully assembled! The only other peice of furniture we have is the changing table. Babies R Us hasn't been very good about getting the crib and dresser in, they both have come in twice and were damaged and had to be reordered. Hopefully they are here soon. The crib should be fun to assemble I'm sure!

In two weeks I will get a blood glucose test to determine if I have gestational diabetes. I asked if there were signs of it and the doctor said not always, but I'm guessing I don't have it. After that visit, I will be in my THIRD trimester already and will go to the doctors every two weeks. Wow is it going by fast!

I hope everyone enjoys the beautiful weather this weekend and will talk to you soon.

love, Andrea & Chris

25 weeks along (15 to go!)

Hi everyone,

Not much new to report this week. We were going to start our birthing classes last week but rescheduled because its a little too early. When I had called to initially schedule them, these were the only ones available so I just signed up. Now we'll be going at the end of April, which will be closer to the due date of June 18th which makes more sense.

Things are busy and stressful with school, but I am trying not to get too stressed out. After this week I will have a little breathing room which I'm looking forward to.

My family came over tonight for some dinner, it was great seeing them and below are some pictures. Christopher is going to have a big group of cousins to meet when he arrives!




Dad & mom


Auntie Lorie & cousin Jacob


Grandma


Cousins Sophia & Cameron


Auntie Trisha

Have a great week!

Andrea

6 months along! (24 weeks)



Just a quick belly update Chris took today while I was on the phone! Christopher and I are feeling great. Last week I got woken up with a leg cramp that was really painful, it hasn't happened again since but I do hear they are common in the second and third trimesters. We ordered some really attractive compression stockings that may help with that! I hope things are going well for you.

Andrea

Baby Christopher!!






I thought I'd upload a few pictures of Chris as a baby so we can make a good guess at what the baby will look like. For those who don't know, we're naming him after Chris - except I'd like to call him Christopher to avoid confusion! That said, Christopher is kicking around in there, I usually feel him the most before I fall asleep and when I'm sitting for a while in class or doing work.

I have been so busy with school this semester that I have a feeling the next four months will fly by. I have been feeling great, I am really enjoying the second trimester. Someone asked me today if the baby had a growth spurt recently, because I look significantly bigger than last week. I think it was just the top I was wearing, though I must say my belly has been itching like crazy today. I hear that can happen as the skin stretches, so maybe there is a growth spurt happening!

Chris isn't home so he can't take a picture of my belly this week, will try to post one soon. Hope you're all doing great and will talk with you soon.

Andrea

22 weeks...

Hi everyone,

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and it went well. It was a quick appointment because everything is fine, there won't be an ultrasound for a while now. I got weighed and have gained exactly 20 pounds, which feels like a lot but the doctor said it is good. My appetite has been pretty big lately, so I don't think that will be slowing down anytime soon! I do crave random foods that I don't normally eat much of. Just last week during class I heard the baby shout "send down a meatball sandwich immediately," so naturally, as soon as class was over, I had one delivered to my office. I'm very happy to oblige his food requests!

Chris and I went to Babies R Us today and changed a few things on the registry, including the entire theme for the room. I saw the one we had picked before and decided I didn't like it anymore, so now we're going with a Winnie the Pooh theme. Below is the website if you want to check it out, its really soft and cute. Chris doesn't have to repaint the nursery again which is good!

Although I have felt the baby move for about a month now, I only felt him kick strongly in the past week or so. Chris had his hand on my belly yesterday waiting for one and felt him kick for the first time which was really nice.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/prodpop.jsp?LargeImageURL=http%3A//TRUS.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pTRU1-3049420dt.jpg&displayTab=enh&productId=2415172&totCount=0

I hope you have a great week!

Andrea

Will post more later this week, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon which I'm not sure what will happen at - I'll let you know! Hope things are going well.

Andrea

20 Weeks (we're halfway there!)



Hi everyone,

So this week makes the halfway point for us which is exciting (though I think it was probably the easier half, we'll see!). According to a baby website I follow, he should be about 10 inches long and weigh about 10.5 ounces. I wonder if he weighs more than that though because at his ultrasound three weeks ago, the website said he should have weighed about 5 ounces but the doctor estimated he weighed 9 ounces. He might be a fat little guy! Also according to this website is that he is now covered in that greasy white stuff called vernix to protect his skin, and that's his digestive system is getting practice by swallowing amniotic fluid.

Chris and I registered for our prenatal classes last week. We get a tour of Women and Infants during one of them which is good, I've never been there (as a patient) so I wouldn't know where to go, as all my visits with the d0ctor are down near my house. We signed up for three, the usual birthing class that's for a month, a breastfeeding class, and a caring for mother & infant class for post-delivery. Chris can attend all of them which is great.

Have a great week and will write more soon.

love, Andrea

18 1/2 Weeks along...





Hi everyone,

As you can see, we are getting the nursery ready for the baby, well, Chris is more the one getting it ready since I'm not allowed to do any painting right now. What we did was pick out a theme for the room, which is under the sea, and brought one of the pieces from it home so we could match the wall color to it. You can see the theme on their website if you want:

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2407318&cp=2255986.2290652.2290950&parentPage=family

Its a nice color, I think the room will look great. What setting up this room will entail is switching around out other rooms, so while Chris is up to it, he's going to paint our new bedroom also.

I had a doctor's visit the day before yesterday which wasn't anything special, just a check in and everything seems normal and healthy she said. My average weight gain for the 2nd trimester has been 1.5 pounds per week, which is right on target as they say I should gain 1-2 pounds per week from now on.

One last update, I felt Christopher fluttering around for the first time a few nights ago! It was very cute. It took a couple of times for me to realize what it was, now I can recognize it easily. I have almost always noticed it only at night, its just a gentle flutter very low in my adbomen which is always neat to feel.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Andrea

It's a boy!!!

Hi everyone,

Today was our third ultrasound and as you can see, it's a boy! We're so excited. It was a great visit, we saw so much of his anatomy. The skeletal system was visible, down to jaws and fingers. They also were able to show his blood circulating from the umbilical cord to the heart (in color), that was really neat. All his organs seemed to look fine, meaning there were two when there was supposed to be and they were on the right side of his body. She said I should be able to feel him kick soon, that sometimes if the placenta is on top the mother doesn't feel it because its acts as a cushion, however his is on the bottom so it should be any time now. I also read it takes longer for first time moms to recognize a kick, because they don't know what to expect. He moves a lot, I should feel that soon.

Below are some pictures from today. The quality is pretty poor, and I don't know about you but whenever I saw someone else's ultrasound pictures, I could never figure out what I was looking at. I can make everything out on these pictures because on the monitor at the appointment, it is ten times larger and clearer. But here it goes... remember, you can click on a photo to enlarge it if its too small to see.

This first one is of his arm, his head is on the right. The technician said it was important to see his hand was open, for some reason that rules out several problems.


Another view of his arm.


Here is a typical profile view. his head is on the right, facing up. The white lines are his bones, you can see his jaws, spinal cord, and face bones well.


Lastly, she said there's no doubt about it - he's definitely a boy.


Will post an updated belly shot next week, when I will be 18 weeks along. By the way, according to his measurements today they came up with a due date 9 days earlier than mine, though again there is error in those measurements so my doctor wants to stick with the date of June 18th. Its funny that every ultrasound has given me a week earlier of a date though!

Talk to you soon,
Andrea