Our Little Baby Blog

27 Days to Go...

Since we last posted, we've started our weekly baby doc appointments, started transitioning our second bedroom to a nursery, and started getting slighly impatient with this lovely period of time called pregnancy. I can't help it, I'm ready to have this baby... NOW.

During our recent doc visits we've learned that the baby seems to be average size, so that's around 7 lbs or so. Her head is down, which means we likely won't be dealing with a breach position. It's no guarantee but babies typically pick their position around this time and stick with it. This is my 36th week. Prior to the 37th week the baby is technically considered pre-term, but starting next Tuesday she'll be considered full term. Yeah! That means we're in good shape if she decides to make her appearance.

My hospital bag is packed and ready to go, should the need arise. Our cord blood banking kit even arrived. For those of you unfamiliar, there's a lot of debate about whether to privately bank your baby's cord blood. The science around this is still in its very early stages and it's unknown whether the cord blood will actually be able to provide the stem cells your baby needs if she's faced with a life threatening disease. And it's very expensive to privately bank the blood, $2-3,000. Neither our doctor nor the American Academy of Pediatricians recommend it.

We decided to publicly bank our baby's cord blood so that it's available to anyone who needs it, rather than privately bank it. This is free and it goes into a public bank like a blood donation, but you have to order the kit and arrange for it yourself. It was the last item on my hospital packing list and it's finally arrived.

Our second bedroom is in a period of transition still. Mike has packed up the vast majority of our CDs, books and games and put them in storage containers. He also purchased a laptop so we could pack up the computer desk and get ready to start using the computer in the living room while our dear baby sleeps. We have't gone crazy with decorations or painted murals or anything like that, mostly we've just gotten the crib set up and started putting her clothes and toys away. She'll sleep in our room for the first couple of weeks anyway so it's mostly just an effort to get things organized so we can access them once we bring her home. I had originally envisioned this cute little nursery that looks like a little girl's room, but I don't think I'm going to be achieving that objective.

At this point, I'm just trying to make it through each day and cross a few items off my list. It's amazing how tired I get these days. Mike has been wonderful, totally driving the nursery transition and helping me with just about everything. I read these things in the baby books like how we should be making up casseroles and freezing them so that we have stuff to eat when the baby comes home, but I can't see that happening either. I am lucky to get dinner on the table for us now, let alone plan a month ahead. Sometimes I think those books are written with the assumption that every expectant mother lives close to their own family and that casseroles will be rolling in with every ring of the door bell. It's just not our reality, unfortunately.

I plan on working right up until the baby comes so I'm trying to do the best I can to get things done during the weekends. We still have a few major things to get, like the glider and the breast pump, but I'm hopeful we can cross those off this weekend.

It's an odd feeling, knowing that you could suddenly give birth at any moment. Both nerve wracking and also exciting. I get so eager to just start this next phase, get the baby home and see how Mike and I cope with this new change and then at the same time you have be patient because I could easily be in my current condition for another 4 weeks. There's no telling. No matter how many questions I ask, my doctor can't tell me when I'll go into labor. So we'll wait and see. At this point, 27 days and counting... her arrival will come not a day too soon.