March 9, 2007 Update

Yet another doctor's appointment last night. Chris was a fancy travelin' lawyer yesterday going to client meetings but he actually managed to make it and hear the baby's heartbeat (always comforting), and help me calm down because I gained more than my allotted 1 pound per week these past two weeks. It seems there was an explanation for my weight gain, no, nothing bad like preeclampsia. My fundus was a week behind at the last appointment, but at this one I was a week ahead. (Well a day ahead since as of today I started the 35th week and I measured 35 yesterday.) So baby had a growth spurt. No wonder I'd been starving for three weeks straight! We don't have any estimates on how big he is, but since I don't have gestational diabetes or anything we're not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

This week I also got upgraded? downgraded? to weekly appointments. I'm far enough along they want to see me all the time. This is fine, except for the fact that my job is currently insane making daytime appointments virtually impossible. Heck, in a week evening appointments are going to be impossible. They only have evening hours on Mondays and Thursdays, but next Thursday we get to go to the awesome Mana concert. It seemed like a waste to go back in 4 days this coming Monday so they approved that I don't have to come in for 2 weeks. That made me happy because they obviously feel that the baby and I are healthy and doing well.

Speaking of work craziness I asked them to write me a note saying that I didn't have to work more than 8-10 hours a day. The midwife was appalled that I even had to ask her to write this note. "You're in your third trimester! Would they really try and make you work that much?!" Obviously she's never worked at an accounting firm during tax season. After I assured her that it was indeed a concern and in the past I often worked 12-16 hour days she got to writing. It doesn't give specific hourly guidelines (boo!) but it did say to cut me some slack and let me walk around and go to the bathroom and recognize that I get tired. I think Chris is hoping they don't honor these requests so he can sue my company for me. It's right up his alley.

At our Lamaze class on Tuesday we had a hospital tour and it reminded me of questions I had. So at the end of the appointment we just went over some more of my birth plan requests and they're very supportive of everything I want. Even though Beth Israel is kind of an old hospital (as clearly evidenced on the tour. I could pay $300 a night for a private room that still doesn't have a private bathroom. How is that possible?) I really love the midwives I work with and that will really make all the difference for me. I trust them and I love that they don't look at me crazy when I ask for things.

I had a baby shower in New York this past Saturday. My friend Addy did an incredible job. And I was so touched because about 27 people showed up. It is really comforting to feel like I have a support system here in New York since family is far away. My friend took a lot of picture with her camera and hasn't given me a cd yet so I don't have many to show you, but here's one from my friend's blog. Her name is Elise and her son is Dallin. He's huge, but only 4 months old. She kind of started the baby boom in the ward. She promised to go the baby matinees with me so I'm excited for that.

So as you can see things are still going great. I'm starting to get antsy, but I'm not so uncomfortable that every day is a torture. The baby is active all the time. Now he's waking up with our alarms and dancing to the music. Chris is getting wake-up kicks when we snuggle in the morning and are trying to ignore the alarm for just one more snooze. Sadly the naughty baby waits until I get up to leave me alone and go back to sleep. He's my own internal alarm, but it still doesn't prevent me from being late to work all the time. However, I am down to only 10 minutes late instead of 20. It is tax season, after all.

Love you all!

Dawnell & Womb-Baby (old habits are hard to break)