34 Weeks

Hello, Kelly!Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which she'll need to regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies

We seem to have the lungs under control since he got some steroids last week. Now we just need to make sure he's nice and fat. At an ultrasound the other day, she said he was practicing his breathing. I couldn't see it, but she kept trying to point it out for me. So now we wait. And hopefully wait, and wait some more.

33 weeks and a pinapple (oww!)

Your pregnancy: 33 weeks

How your baby's growing:This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

I went in to the Dr. yesterday, with various complaints, one of which was pressure and a little cramping. She said you complain about this every time, but the pressure part got her moving a little. Yes, well it shouldn't be happening, so I'll keep complaining. And no, the complaint has never been cramping and pressure, it was contractions missy! So anyway, they hooked me up to some monitors, one to measure contractions and one for little buddy's heartbeat. No contractions, heartbeat good and all over the place like they like.
Then she did the stomach palpatation thing. She's wasn't happy. She said he's already engaged and that's where the pressure is coming from. Sooo, I get one steroid shot at the office for little buddy's lungs, and some meds to stop any contractions (that's right, the ones I'm not having). We got to go back to the ER last night for the second shot and were able to talk to a Dr. on the labor and delivery floor who told us engaged is just one thing they look for and it doesn't mean he's coming right now. Could be a couple of weeks. They keep trying to move the due date up to March 3rd, as I might have mentioned, and even after explaining to the Dr. yesterday that March 3rd was absolutely impossible, she said he needed to make it to my original 34 weeks, a week from today, but that the due date should still be moved up 10 days. Haven't you people every heard of a big baby?? We'd like him to make it to 36/37 weeks, so at our next appt on Sunday we're going to talk to my Dr. about keeping him in longer since my water hasn't broken. He might not come on his own before then anyway. EVERYONE'S FINGERS HAD BETTER BE CROSSED AND THOUGHTS OF "COME ON 36 WEEKS" SENT OUR WAY.
He's such a bad boy already!! Oh, I guess we'll have to get on that whole naming thing now.

Deaf and Dump

14 women graduate from police institute

Sunday, January 20, 2008

(Pictured)Policewomen who graduated from the Police Training Institute with their trainers and other officials during the graduation ceremony at the institute.

D*HA • The Police Training Institute (PTI) has trained the first batch of policewomen on the principles of communication between the police and people with special needs (deaf and dump).

Their words, not mine.

We have a Laugh Factory here, rather "The Laughter Factory", but who needs it when you can just read the local daily rags. If only this were the exception....

Church Service

He's not as angry today. It's kinda like watching church on TV, but just throwing open the window instead.

32 Weeks and a Jicama

Your Pregnancy: 32 weeks

How your baby's growing:By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

** I just noticed it said he'd be getting real hair. I don't know how much I would have liked him with a piece, so I'm glad he changed his mind about that.

She, I mean he needs to fatten up that belly with those next 3 or 4 pounds.
We started childbirth classes at the hospital Monday night. We missed a lot of it as I was double booked and had an appt w/ the doctor downstairs and P had a minor accident on the way to the hospital and had to leave his car behind. It should be interesting. It's two Swedish ladies and a local.
There is a couple in our class who also live in our compound and she's having an elective C-section. We (the 3 other couples from our compound) are curious as to why she's there. So far, none of the information has applied to her. We'll see how long they last.

Call to prayer

I can't get this right side up, but you don't really need to see the video anyway. Turn your speakers waaay up. I'll try to get better audio on the web cam later.

The speakers are suppose to be set up so that you can hear at least one in every part of town. We seem to be in a happening area. There are at least three. I can follow the first one for the 3-5 seconds it goes before the second and third ones come on. O.K., not really. You can also hear the guy giving the "service" over one of the speakers on Friday mornings. I'll have to catch that too. He seems angry.

And yes, it's raining. It has been for the last 3 days. Rainy and cold. I like it. And that's our back patio. If you saw the back of the exterior units, you'd know why we want to move. They have a little yard in the back and on the side as well as another carport.

Big Boy

We had another ultrasound completed last night to monitor the "liquor" levels. They're up, way up. It's now at about 15.8 up from 11.2 and 11.5.

Other than that, he's a big boy. She measured his head 3 different times as he moved around. It's measuring about 34 weeks 2 days, so almost 3 weeks larger. His abdominal circumference has always been right on or a little small at 30 weeks 5 days and his femur length is 33 weeks 3 days. We're going to have a tall, big-headed, skinny baby boy. He's almost 4.2 pounds (give or take 1/2 a pound)which is about a week and a half ahead.

When she first started the scan she was right over his face and he blinked for us a few times. Then she said she made him cry because his began rubbing his eyes with his little fists. Sooo cute and yet kinda creepy at the same time.

The MD that completed the ultrasound was an Indian lady. Dressed in her head scarf and long skirt with her white lab coat over all of it. We kept saying what a big boy he was and she giggle and affirmed that yes he was a big boy as she scanned down to show us his testicles. Niiice!

Would you like some gumbo with that smoke?

Perry invited some folks over for dinner tomorrow. The recipe says to make it a day or two ahead in case you burn the place down. Wait, I think it said it tastes better if it sits for a day or two. Details.

Wooo-hooo! 31 weeks!

Your pregnancy: 31 weeks

How your baby's growing:This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

He's been head down the last few times we've been in, so no somersaults. Just some gut punches and rib ticklers. He kinda slides from side to side too...feet in the upper left one day, punches in the lower right the next, good fun.

This pictures doesn't seem to show it, but I've put on twice as much weight in the last 3 or 4 weeks as I should have. Still have 9 weeks and 9 pounds to go. At night, I'm not sure where it's going to go. It hurts! Then I wake up the next morning, and it all seems to have worked itself out for another day.

Besides my hips painin' me as I try to sleep, I get the lovely, and oh so vivid pregnancy dreams.

This time, I took Avery (21 months old) to the Met in NYC. As dreams go, it's not exact. There was a huge fountain out front in a park. People were swimming in the fountain, so I hopped on in and tried to get Avery to go with me. She didn't want to. I told her to go back inside (up all those stairs and into that huge place) and find her mom. I didn't want to have to take her, I was swimming. Of course she didn't go back inside. Jill came out looking for her and she was gone. I couldn't decide whether to off myself (in my dream) or not. I told P about it this morning and said to go ahead and call social services because clearly I'm unfit and little buddy's not even here yet. And I'm never going to that museum with a small child in my custody. Screw culture. (sorry dad)

My birfday

Gifts from P. The thing on the left is a wooden carving. It looks gold or metal in the picture, but it's not.

Is that a crab in your pocket?

P went down to the "fish market" and bought some crab. He puts them on ice to "put them to sleep" he says. That's so he can rip their guts out without getting pinched. Then he steams and shells them. Obviously a stinky process. The varmints are still hanging out on our back patio.

Hellfire

The first picture is of Maggie after her baptism with her cousin Avery. The second picture is of the hives Maggie developed that night. At least there wasn't lightning during the service.

Read along

Yesterday I was talking to Megan, Maggie and Katherine over the web cam. I had the books that Jill had just sent to our fetus next to me and started reading a polar bear book to Maggie. She told us to hold on, she had to get something from her room. A few minutes later she came back with the same book. We thought that was big fun. From now on, we're going to need to buy 2 of each book for read alongs.

I'm also thinking about recording our conversations. I was showing Avery the shower gifts that my friends sent in the mail the other day (thank you to those people and I'll post pictures soon)and she thought that was pretty funny. Avery picked up Maggie's chuckle over Christmas. It's kind of a "that's humorous" combined with a "I'm appeasing you" chuckle. Funny when a not quite 2 year old knows how to work it.

Time to come home

I think P's being influenced by the local culture a bit too much these days. I'm lucky I'm not having to walk 1o ft behind him and compete with a second wife.

We went to an Indian restaurant before the holidays with a bunch of the neighbors. It was great food. The best baba ganoush we've had. It was much smokier with a lot more eggplant and less yogurt than most.

P suggests that we figure out the secret.

A few weeks later P asks if I've looked up any recipes.

Nope.

Last night, P brings home some eggplant, "for your baba ganoush you wanted to make."

Me, "What?"

Today, P's leaving to go to the sailing races and I'm booking it to the grocery before it gets too crowded. "Did you find out what else you need for your baba ganoush recipe?"

Me, "Do you want to die?"

I'll let you know if stray cats like eggplant...or P, because he might not survive.

Bagels

Mmmm....bagels. Not something I eat a lot of at home, but I've been keeping an eye out for when Mom and Dad come to town since bagels are a staple of their diet. P was pretty sure I wouldn't find any, the Muslims not being big on the Jewish, but I persevered and bought three bags today. We've looked at bakeries, Starbucks, grocery stores, but not a bagel in site until today. I'm not saying these are going to last until they get here....I should start looking for a recipe. And while that might look like a lot of cream cheese, it's a 3rd less fat, so you're suppose to add a 3rd more. It's in the instructions. They also had the Quaker instant flavored oatmeal, another of their staples, but it expires in February. I might be able to score a couple more jars of peanut butter before they get here. Fingers crossed.

While I'm on the subject of hard to find foods, Megamart just got a shipment of Frito Lay chips, so we had Tostitos last night for the first time since I've been here. Bought some Fritos as well. Very exciting. They seemed to get a late shipment of holiday food supplies too. Now they have lots of marsh mellows, pre-made pie crusts, cornbread mix, all of those things I couldn't find or wasn't fast enough to get over the holidays. It puts a "fun" new spin on cooking when Mom's recipe calls for an 81/2 oz package of Jiffy cornbread mix and you get to whip up your own to add to the cornbread casserole.

Back to a cabbage

Hopefully they're just running out of fruits and veggies, not that little buddy is somehow shrinking...
Your pregnancy: 30 weeks
How your baby's growing:Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after he's born, he'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from his face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)