OB visit

Weight (mine): 159
Also, a tiny ultrasound on one of those portable monitors.

Our midwife practice has an associated OB, more or less in the event something goes "wrong" and surgery is needed there's a person appointed to do that. We were required to schedule (and pay upfront for) an appointment to meet her.

She strikes me as a total hippie. Which is perfect. I think The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe liked her, too.

During our 15 minute (or less) meeting, she asked for basic info: EDD, LMP, physical complaints if any, etc. and then she came out with this:

"Anything interesting about this pregnancy?"

She didn't say it in an unfriendly way, but what a funny question to ask a first-time pregnant person!

I laughed, because I knew what she meant, and said, "No, nothing that's interesting to anyone else." The sheet she gave us after specified: "Uncomplicated pregnancy."

She also took a small jab at the midwives, it seemed to me. While adjusting clothing so she could take the ultrasound, I said that I hadn't expected that because the midwives just feel for position and take the heartbeat. She replied, "I like to look, they like to feel. I don't like surprises. They don't mind a few surprises, because they have me there [...]" I don't remember how she ended that sentence, "if something goes wrong" or "if they need me" or what. But she quickly followed up to say that this group of midwives has a very low incidence of needing her assistance.

6th Prenatal Visit

Heartbeat (baby): 128-131 bpm

Weight (me): 158

Good news: the Guajolote has flipped! The midwife did this craaaazy thing where she manipulated my uterus - she pushed back and forth and sort of passed the baby to herself to identify which part she was feeling. That was pretty far out, I had her show me and that was nuts. I made The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe get up and she showed him too - it sort of gave him the willies. Like we shouldn't be disturbing the little guy* in there. I see his point but man this kid is disturbing me PLENTY now. :-P

Midnight (ok, 4am) snack

Sigh. We had fun sex again tonight, but I fell asleep afterwards. The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe had to work at midnight (logging in from home) and came to bed at 3:30. But the readjusting in bed woke me up enough I noticed I was hungry and here I am catching up on this blog instead of sleeping. I polished off the Cheerios though so now I will head back for a couple more hours.

Excer-who?

10 Facts About Your Pelvic Floor

What you should know before giving birth

Argh I better get on that. Don't want to be peeing myself from the age of 30 - I was hoping to save that till my 80s.

3rd Ultrasound

We went in and had the same ultrasound tech at the ultrasound place. It's in a swank building where the elevators are coded - the same elevator doesn't always go to the same floor! You have to check a console and then it tells you which next elevator will take you to the floor you want - there are no buttons inside (probably Emergency, but that's it).

Anyhow this was much shorter, she took some basic measurements of the femur and skull and then got to trying to get a shot of the major arteries. In the end, she ended up calling another ultrasound lady to take the image instead. That woman took the ultrasound wand and stuck it clear on my left side, outside the uterus, and dug in. Not comfortable! But effective I guess: they were both satisfied with that picture.

We felt a little better afterwards because it seemed the lady just had a hard time getting the image right - so perhaps there's no actual problem with the aorta & whatever else is a major artery. We'll find out next week at our next midwife appointment.

It was mostly fun. This kid is still breech (head up, not down) and was in fact "frank breech" which means butt down. He* was folded right in half: his feet were in front of his little face! The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe thought that it couldn't be a comfortable position - I'd seen it illustrated in books so I wasn't surprised but when he pointed that out I started to sympathize. We don't fold babies in half after they come out so why would it be good a couple months earlier? On the other hand, you aren't supposed to fully submerge them in fluid after they exit, either...

Guajolote, 27 weeks 1 day:

To the left is the head, the two ovals at the top center are feet, and I think the squiggly line trailing off to the right is the umbilical chord.

Don't be alarmed by the bullet holes - those are internal organs.

Missing being pregnant?

I first read about this on some forums. I thought that those women were surely insane. This pregnancy has been easy, and I think I am dealing with the body issues OK and our relationship is pretty good - but given my druthers I'd be 130 and look good in a bikini than be shaped like a beach ball.

Here's a slightly ridiculous list with possible rationale:

20 Reasons You'll Miss Being Pregnant

I skipped to the middle for the link because #11 is the only one I can relate to.

Some people are super earthy and in-tune with themselves and all that sort of thing. I'm not very much that way. But it occurred to me a few weeks ago that I am feeling this motion in my cavernous self constantly. When I sleep it's still happening (and doesn't yet wake me up, thank god). There are brief pauses but more or less the motions inside never stop.

I think I will feel... I don't know, boring? Or static? Or something. Well, I'll feel the lack of motions I guess and I am not sure how that will affect me.

I guess it's pretty common.

Reviewing that list (which I just read now as I searched for a relevant link), there are a couple other things that could make the transition hard:

• The Hottest Computer Scientist is really sweet, understanding, and attentive. Moreso than usual. I keep telling him that I need the mollycoddling AFTER this baby is all the way here and I am halfway to insane on sleep deprivation.
• People in stores and restaurants are really attentive and nice to me. I am not sure if it is my imagination, I usually get great service because I am polite and friendly to people and try to always smile at someone who is helping me. But we got a free dessert last week, a guy at Home Depot went across the store to bring me something, and the plumber working on our building teased me that "they got you working too!" when I brought in a 2x4 myself.

My dad pointed out today that once the wiggly baby is on the outside, screaming, I will have fewer friends in public places. I am sure he is right.

Brief house update

This is to remind my future self of the level of chaos threatening to consume us even though we don't have kids. For Guajolote #2 I will probably think, how the hell am I going to do this?? Fortunately, for Guajolote #1 we are juggling so many things I don't have time to obsess on that particular question (as I otherwise surely would).

• House is ours
• 2 months later, we will still not have moved
• There is no kitchen at all right now (or appliances)
• We had to replace
• - furnace and A/C
• - all interior pipes
• We are in the process of replacing
• - water line from the street
• - all electrical in bldg
• And then somehow we have to reinstall a kitchen. With what funds, I have no idea.

We plan to move once the repairs are done, despite the lack of a kitchen. This would not be feasible if there were other guajolotes already.