Elena goes to school

Actually, it's her parents who are going to school. We are now 3 classes into our 6 session Child Birth program. So far, we are both skeptical. Is it bad that every relaxation technique I've been shown so far, I think "Well THAT'S not gonna work"? I guess I'm just not a lavender aromatherapy/Kenny G kind of girl.

It's actually funny because many of the techniques require equipment that we would have to take to the hospital with us. I am imagining Ray's Beetle chock full with a birthing ball, rice sock, CD player, fan, car seat, suitcase, etc. Where would this laboring momma sit!?!

We also had another appt. in AA today. Pretty run of the mill, nothing too special. For a moment I thought we might get a 3-D ultrasound pic, but Elena had herself situated so that there wasn't enough fluid around her face for a clear picture. She's gonna make us wait to see her (although Ray is convinced that she has her mom's nose).

The good(?) news is that she has FINALLY turned around to the right position. No more breech baby!! Hopefully she will stay that way for the next few months. AND her new position makes it SO much easier to kick me all day. We've really started to bruise...uh, I mean bond.

And she is getting heavy, too!! She weighed in at about 3 pounds 3 ounces today (43rd percentile for her age, up from 35th). So far I am comfortable with this. Given her "big boned" parents, I was thinking I might have to give birth to a turkey large enough to feed the whole B clan!!

Back to the Dr. in Okemos in 1 week and back to AA for probably the last ultrasound in 1 month. We're getting closer!!!

One, Two, Three...KICK!

I went to the Dr. last Friday for my first appointment of the third trimester (good result on the blood glucose test!!) They gave me some paperwork to read over that outlined things to know for this last phase of pregnancy. One new thing that I was instructed to do was start counting Elena's kicks, to help monitor that she is remaining active and healthy.

Now, the Dr. said the average baby will kick around 3 times per hour, and 10 times in periods of high activity. It's this ten kick hour that you want to make sure the baby has. The suggestion is to have a snack and then shortly thereafter, lay down and start counting. I don't have time to lie around for an hour and count!!!! So, ever resourceful, I devised a plan. I created a spreadsheet (I do love my Excel) that covered my hours at work. Since I am at my desk much of the day, I figured "I'll make a tick mark for each kick and track it that way. Not too disruptive, and then I can easily determine if she has kicked 10 times in an hour. GENIUS!!!!"

So there I was yesterday at 8:30am, sitting with my chart, ready to go, expecting 26 to 33 kicks over the course of my 8.5 hour day, based on the averages stated to me. Maybe a few more, since we all know this baby seems to have a bit more energy than others. Imagine my surprise (exhaustion, irritation) when 5:00pm rolled around and Miss Elena had kicked, swished, punched, head-butted, and poked me 99 times!!!!

Now, don't get me wrong, I am elated that this is an active baby, full of life (although I see some LOOONG nights in our future.) However, this exercise of drawing attention to how active she is MAY have been a bad idea. I think the genius plan will need to be revised so that once I have hit that ten kick mark, the chart goes away for the day, and I try to forget that I've got an aspiring punter with me!

A Day at the Fair

In our annual tradition, we went to the Michigan State Fair yesterday to see all that Michigan agriculture has to offer. It was a bit of a mixed bag. There seemed to be less agricultural displays and more sponsorship displays. It seemed a bit weird that the "Miracle of Life" display, formerly housed in a tent in the center of the fair, was tucked in a side building behind several rows of Chevy cars and trucks.

One thing that we had never done before was go to see the Anastasini Circus performance. It was pretty good. It was your typical, predictable circus stuff, but isn't that what makes the circus so great!?!

We only caught a bit of the pig races, which was OK with me. The group that put on the races really need to get a new show!! Another old standby that I love, even though the program never changes, is the lumberjack show. I love to watch them demonstrate with their saws, and also have log rolling contests. Being a lumberjack must be a really hard job!!