Some sort of pun about showering goes here

We've just finished a very successful baby shower.  Thanks to our many helpers, especially those people who took truffles home with them, as it means there are fewer to eat.  For those of you who like narrative captions, or couldn't be here because of work, flu, space invaders, or any other reason, I present to you...dum duh duh DAH!  Photos!

Beth's Baby Shower Of Awesomeness

Thirty-Three Weeks

Helloooo out there!  Thought it was [past] time for an update.

Sprout has been sprouting for 33 weeks now.  Evidently, that means she's still working on breathing, her digestive system, and regulating her body temperature, but is mostly just doing her best to gain weight.  We had to have her checked out via sonogram yesterday because she decided to have a good stretch during our regular doctor's visit, and her/my overlarge belly measurement was cause for concern.  I spent a couple of days wondering whether we were having a giant baby (yeek!), but no -- just a stretchy one.  She's slightly over 4 pounds at this point, which is right where she's supposed to be.

Since this was the third time someone told us Sprout was a girl, I think we can pretty much stop wondering.  The tech also commented on her long legs and pouty lips (and she wasn't kidding -- see the weird, grainy picture below for a nose-and-mouth shot).  They were able to locate a bladder this time... which, till yesterday, I didn't know was missing from the earlier anatomical sonogram.  Glad it's there, though.

Weird, grainy picture (she's sideways):

On other fronts, we're making progress in her room.  Matt has been putting up extra shelves and light fixtures this week; I've been sewing, and organizing the beginnings of her wardrobe.  Thanks to hand-me-downs from Max and the shopping savvy of the two grandmamas, we have a good start on what we'll need.  The stripes are painted on the wall, the prints are up, and the dressers are in place (thanks, Lisa, for your assembly help!).  It's starting to look right.  Lazlo has been thoughtfully testing out each new item to make sure it feels right, too.

The Little Things

I have never been quite as pleased to find out that someone has the hiccups as I was this morning. Woot! Go Sprout! Practice that breathing.

A fine curvature!

A curious thing has happened over the past few doctors' appointments -- because we're a low risk pregnancy, and there don't seem to be any complications, we're in and out of there in about as much time as it takes to cook a steak.  The big news from our last visit, it seems, is that Beth has excellent blood stats (no anemia, no diabetes), and more importantly, a fine curvature.  I didn't know this was a thing, but since it is, it's clearly time to document it.

Also there are baby clothes.

Sprout Art

Photographies!  I've just finished processing these, and they will be going up in the nursery as soon as they're printed.  We wanted something hyper-saturated, because (as you will see once it's put together and the pictures go up) the furniture and most of the walls are going to be done in relatively muted whites and blonde-and-really-dark wood tones.

Even as I write this, Beth is sewing together a super-colorful rug made of my old t-shirts (also being happy because it looks great and growling because it takes so freakin' long) -- the rug and these prints are definitely some of the focal points for the room.  Yay non-store-bought art!

Dear Sprout,

Please stop pressing up against my lungs.  It's alarming to have to concentrate on breathing.

Love, Mama

A window upon this, my future

I am all but positive that the Sprout will make this exact face at us.  I suspect that it will be a way to distract us from the fact that she has covered the cat in pudding.

Haiku for the Changing Season

Out of reach of hands,

My feet redden in the cold.

Seek clogs, tiny toes.

         ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sandals set aside,

No more slipping in and out...

Must prop foot on chair.

More to follow...

More actual content coming in the next day or two, but I just saw Beth's shirt bounce from a little baby dance move. It was the first time I've been able to *see* a kick. It was awesome. That is all.

Pregnancy belly revelation:

It's like an Etch-a-Sketch!

Photo session #5

Time for a guest star! This week's photos include not only the regular guest star, who is getting ever more lively, but also Lazlo, our feline sling tester. The sling in which he appears was lovingly crafted by miss Bethany from fabric that, I am convinced, is possessed by the spirit of Tim Burton. (The fact that he's still alive makes this all the weirder.)

Pregnancy is different from the vapors.

So, here's a new one for me. What happens when I have the flu and Beth doesn't? I am currently in the process of coming down with something, but I find myself struggling to do all the minor house-maintenance things that need doing. Trash, litter, recycling, all must go out tonight, so I start, get dizzy, Beth offers to help, I finally say ok (no, not to the litter, but to the recycling), and as I'm standing at the sink drinking a glass of water to get better, I look down and go "I know! I'll do the DISHES!"

Thus, things I am learning today:

1) The nesting instinct, it seems, is definitely kicking in for me, too.

2) Pregnant people need protection, but are not invalids.

3) Don't move Ikea furniture boxes when you're feeling crappy, it'll make you absolutely sure that you have the flu.

Yup.

Why yes, I AM making all the turkey bacon in the house because it's the only acceptable snack food. Thanks for asking!

What Once Was Icky Now Is Not

Hello all.

So... many of you know what a bizarre week we just had, but in case anyone missed it, here is the official recap. Oh, my.

I'm supposed to be feeling some stretching out at this point, so I wasn't particularly surprised when I started having abdominal pains about a week ago. What did surprise me was that they became near-constant, really intense, and woke me up twice in two hours on Saturday night. Hm. After a phone conversation with the on-call OB/GYN at the hospital, we realized that we couldn't rule out appendicitis... so we decided at about 2 AM to pay a visit to the emergency room.

I won't give you a play-by-play of the 5 hours we spent at the hospital. A few highlights were going in for the ultrasound and finding out (from the tech, he of the six daughters) that our Sprout is very likely a girl. Squee! There was also the random white-coated guy -- who probably didn't even work there -- who kept popping in on the heels of the nurse or doctor to tell us exactly what we'd just been told, or ask us what we'd just been asked. I wonder if we should have reported him to someone. To sum up, we finally left without a diagnosis, but more knowledge:

It wasn't preterm labor.

It wasn't a kidney stone.

It wasn't a cyst.

They couldn't find my appendix, but it didn't present exactly like appendicitis.

My white blood cell count was up, so it could have been viral.

They prescribed something for pain and something for nausea (yep, I spared you some details, didn't I?), and sent us home to self-monitor.

Yeah... I wasn't getting better. By the time I made it to our doctor's office on Monday, I was shuffling, moaning, and pale (luckily, no one cried zombie -- I was able to avoid any panicking mob activity). I managed to get to my appointment (barely), and as far as Matt's parents' house on the way back (barely again). I wouldn't have made it at all, but Matt took the day off, and my lovely mother-in-law drove us in my lovely father-in-law's Avalon (so I could lie down in the back). Go team!

Our OB/GYN suspected a bladder infection or UTI. She prescribed a fetus-friendly antibiotic accordingly, which began to work its magic right away; I gradually went from zombie to fairly uncomfortable and bedridden to able to eat and drink normally, and pretty much walk around, in about 5 days. Meanwhile, Matt ran interference. He made calls and appointments, filled prescriptions, and kept me supplied with books and provisions. When he had to be away, my lovely mother-in-law Amy filled in; thank you, support system!

In any case, we were supposed to go in for a follow-up appointment and diagnosis on Thursday. We went... but our doctor sheepishly had to admit that they'd, um, forgotten to send out my sample to be cultured. No diagnosis for me. Next week, I am to sneak in during a staff meeting and leave another sample, so they can at least see if the infection is gone (seriously -- doctor's orders). So! That is the exciting conclusion of our week of drama.

If this story has a moral, I think it has to be that, as complicated as pregnancy can be (because, you see, I'm currently more susceptible to a number of delightful ailments), it doesn't mean that the main player is as affected as the rest of us. Example: we had a Wednesday ultrasound -- one that we'd scheduled a month ago -- and during all the tense checking and re-checking of measurements, Sprout looked straight at us and yawned. We're running around all zombified, and she's just not fazed at all, no sir.

Ahypothetical

Over the past week or so, the sprout has really started to move around (and do so pretty much all the time). S/he seems to have a pretty steady routine: we wake up in the late morning, demand breakfast, do some calisthenics, have a day, and stay up late watching movies and doing more calisthenics. It's certainly pretty cute to feel a little thwap from time to time, but there's a side effect that I wasn't quite expecting, too. As some of you may recall from the first couple of posts I put up, I started off by connecting to the baby-growing process via the gadgetry. In large part, that had to do with it seeming kind of hypothetical -- I mean, there wasn't really any physical evidence, Beth seemed just as normal as ever (ahem), and we needed to use a machine to even see the kid, so for all we really knew we could have been watching ultrasound data from a baby in South Island, New Zealand. (Yes, I chose New Zealand. It's far, vaguely mysterious, and full of sheep.) In the last week, though, the sprout has stopped being a hypothetical construct and started being a member of the family. I suspect this happened earlier for Beth, who isn't here to ask just at the moment, but being able to actually feel the motions that the sprout is performing (my guess? Tai Chi.) has made this process real for me, and done so all at once. (For example, the thought process goes like this: The sprout responds to meal times; well, *I* respond to meal times, too!! Yay!!) It's the first of many surprising things s/he will do, I'm sure.

And speaking of awkward grammatical constructions, we'll hopefully be finding out (to use Will Baldwin's phrasing) whether we're having a sprout or a sproutette this coming Wednesday. Just *think* how much simpler the pronouns will be!

(Lastly, this is another iPhone-composed post. Evidently, it works well when you're *not* stuck on a plane, too.)