Must have popcorn

I ordered a book and some flash cards on how to teach your infant to sign.
Some friends of mine taught their little girl how to sign and it was very
helpful for them to know what the baby wanted before she was able to tell
them what was wrong and why she was crying. She's getting ready to go to
school later this year, and she's just a dream when we babysit for them.
She gets bored with us because we didn't have any fun projects lined up for
her to do, but she's just so smart and well-spoken. So, hopefully, this kit
will help us out when our little one arrives.

In other news, I'm craving potato chips and particular brand of spicy
popcorn. I think I'm going to have to stop at the store on the way home and
pick up a back of that popcorn or I'll die!

My godmother thinks it will be a boy. She didn't break out her tarot cards
or anything, but she's got good intuition. (Yeah, my family are pretty much
a bunch of hippies.)

****

palpitations

Woah! I just had a few heart palpitations. Crazy. I googled it and
apparently it's just one of those things that happens (like passing out)
during pregnancy and is nothing to worry about. Still, though, what a weird
sensation.

****

It's Facebook Official

I wanted to tell all of my good friends in person before sharing the news on
Facebook, so I made a special attempt to have lunch with my buddy who has a
3 month old who I don't see very often anymore. I kept trying to slip my
news into the conversation without just having to blurt it out, but there
wasn't a good time, or the baby was sleeping and I didn't want her to squeal
really loud and upset the baby. Basically, she talked a lot about herself
and the baby and every other inconsequential thing, and I found it hard to
steer the conversation towards myself.

So in the end, she had to find out on Facebook with the rest of my
acquaintances who didn't warrant telling in person or at least in an instant
message conversation.

There were lots of congratulatory comments and "likes". Very few people
were really surprised. We're people of a certain age who were recently
married, so I think it was expected that we'd be starting a family sooner
rather than later. My co-workers who found out on Facebook stopped by my
desk today to give their congratulations in person. I love my job! The
people are so great. I mean, it's boring, but the bosses are nice and
they're pretty lax, so I can't complain.

I filled out my FMLA paperwork today. Felt a little odd about it since I'm
not planning on coming back to work after the baby comes, but I filled it
out anyway. They'll be issuing my "Stork" parking pass soon so I can park
in the front row of reserved spaces. Someone on the BabyCenter group chided
me on wanting to park closer when I mentioned that my company offered these.
I'm like, "just because I have the options to park closer to the building,
doesn't mean I will. Geeze!" But I'll be damned certain to park there if
we have a snowstorm and the parking lot turns into an ice rink. People are
so judgy sometimes. It's like this person immediately jumped to the
assumption that I would park as close to the building as possible to avoid
walking while pregnant. Au contrare, I've actually been making myself walk
more since I found out I was pregnant, because, well, duh, it's healthy to
get some cardio every day. Anyway, that lady just ticked me off with her
snide comment.

Feels good to have the cat out of the bag, so to speak!

****

Videos?

Signed up for Bradley classes at Babyology with a woman who also offers doula services (though she's kind of pricey).  I have considered hiring a doula, but I was going to wait to see how my husband does in the Bradley classes.  If I feel like he isn't going to be able to provide the support I'll need, then I'll likely hire a doula.  There's a kind of hippy lady that I think I'd like that has a really reasonable fee and will take video if you ask her to.  I know, the video thing is probably not something a lot of people want to do and I wouldn't want one if the camera were pointed up my whowho with a crowd of blue gowns standing around yelling at me to push while I'm trapped up in the stirrups all sweaty and uncomfortable, but we are tentatively planning a natural water birth and I am planning on wearing a long shirt through delivery (the hospital lets you wear your own clothes), so I feel like I'd be comfortable with the camera recording the birth so long as the angle is from my back.  And I'd like some shots of us laboring together.  Ideally I'd like it if I could use my Nikon and do some shots with the focus coming in and out because I'd like to cut them together with a song for like a 3 and a half minute montage of labor and delivery, but finding someone who can operate the camera that I want to be in the room with us is iffy.  I have a good friend who's a photog and I could probably hire her, and cut the video myself (I went to school for videography, though I've never done it professionally since I went down the graphic design path instead), but she's youngish and doesn't want to have kids, so she might be freaked out about the idea of being IN the delivery room.  It's an intimidating prospect, I know.  And she works full time, so it may not work with her schedule.  I just downloaded an album the other day and hear the song "We Are Fine" by Sharon Von Etten and immediately had a vision of a labor montage in a brightly lit, sunny birthing suite.  Would be nice if I could make it happen.  I could definitely do it on my own, but I'll be otherwise occupied, so perhaps I can have others operate the camera and see what kind of footage I end up with.  I'm rusty, but I'm actually a pretty good editor.

Protein Intake

So, I have been considering taking Bradley Method classes to prepare for birth and I purchased the book "Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way". In the chapter covering prenatal nutrition, it recommends that pregnant mothers eat 80-100 grams of protein per day. There's a convenient glossary in the back of the book that lists grams of proteins for different foods, so I thought about what I ate today and about what I typically eat and did the math. I get nowhere near that much protein! I mean, I've been taking my prental vitamins like a good little mamma, and I even have a Carnation breakfast drink on most mornings, but that doesn't help me on my protein tally. I had done quite a bit of research on how to eat for pregnancy before we even started trying, so I'm completely take aback by this recommendation. I hear so much about folic acid and DHA, but hadn't really been away of the need for so much protein.

P.S. - Apparently, cottage cheese and powdered milk are fantastic sources of protein. I already have some powdered milk in the house, perhaps I should use it to make my morning breakfast shake instead of regular milk. And I'll definitely have to pick up some cottage cheese since I love it anyway.

Girl?

Visited with my in-laws tonight.  When I walked in the door, my mother-in-law said, "Hi there, little mama!"  She's a good foot shorter than me and I've got at least a hundred pounds on her, so I quipped back, "No, YOU'RE the little mama!"   I played the heartbeat recording for them a few times.  My mother-in-law is predicting a girl because she says 170 is fast.

I'm soooo tempted to order a fetal doppler off of eBay!  I keep listening to the recording of the baby over and over like a junkie!

I told my boss right after our appointment yesterday.  I knew she'd be really excited for us, so I didn't hesitate for a second.  But after I posted the story on the baby boards, everyone was all up in arms about how you shouldn't tell too early for fear of reprisals.  I know that won't happen at my current workplace, but I can see why some people have those concerns.

Now we'll have to decide if I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom. Telling my boss that I won't be coming back after the baby will be WAY harder than telling her I'm expecting. I left the company a few years ago for better pay at a high stress job that ended after some poor communication with management led to a toxic situation. That day I went home, posted to my Facebook wall that I'd been canned and she replied that she'd have me back at my old job in a heartbeat, so back I went. I gave up a bit of pay, but actually take home more since I don't have union dues anymore, and it's so much less stress that it's totally worth it! Can't grow a baby and be stressed all day every day!

Also, I co-manage an account with a guy whose wife is due about a week before me! I guess we'll be training a backup in the event that we're both out of the office at the same time.

We heard the heartbeat!!!

Had my first appointment with the midwives today. I saw the trainee, which I think is great because this area needs more midwives. Poor thing had a hard time finding my cervix, which didn't surprise me because I can never get to it either. She confirmed exactly where I suspected my uterus was, and they also confirmed what I'd calculated my due date to be. I told them that I hadn't had any real morning sickness and they sort of shrugged.

After a harrowing minute of searching, the trainee finally found the heartbeat!!! They didn't tell me the heart rate, so I counted a ten second interval from the recording my husband took and figured the beats per minute to be 174.




Afterwards, when I was heading out to the lab to get my bloodwork done, my primary midwife said, "nice strong heartbeat. Sometimes when they say they haven't had any symptoms I think oh we're not going to find a heartbeat, but thankfully I'm wrong most of the time I think that."

In other news, they took blood out of my hand since they couldn't find a good vein in the crook of my elbow. Owie! My hand hurts. It's all purple and swollen.

The front office has to put a call in to the insurance company, but the bill from their office will either be $220 or nothing depending on it our copay portion subtracts from out $1000 deductible or not.  Lab will bill separately as will the hospital, but so far we're right on target with the baby budget :)  And I've got a crib, changing table, high chair, stroller and car seat picked out already on a Target registry.  The big ticket items will run us just over $500 and I'll leave the smaller stuff to the baby shower attendees.