My second due date

My due-date according to the ultrasound in week 11 is today, March 23rd 2015, two days after my calculated date 🙂

Due-Date Fun
Due-Date Fun

I’m happy the swing didn’t break under my weight. You never know.
A very good thing about our baby might coming later is, the later he comes, the longer I have parental leave 😀 If he’s born tomorrow, the 24th, I first have to go back to work next year on March 29th because of all the easter holidays being in between.
Just random thoughts coming up after your baby is due…

My 40th week baby bump story

40 weeks

How far along: It’s my first due date 🙂 (my second according to the ultrasound in week 11 is March 23rd)
How much do I weigh: 62,4 kg (+ 13,6 kg / + 700 g this week / 30 pounds in total)
Belly size: Circumference 104 cm, Top to Bottom 44 cm, photo taken on Friday, at 39 weeks 6 days

Baby Bump Week 40 - 39w6d
Baby Bump Week 40 – 39w6d
40 weeks baby bump
40 weeks baby bump

Belly button in or out: Even / Out
Sleep: Getting up once (sometimes first at 5:30 in the morning), so, very good with all of the boppy pillows surrounding me.
Food (non) cravings: Nothing special, I can still eat lots, unfortunately no loss in appetite. I was really in the mood for chocolate on Tuesday. Lots of chocolate. So much chocolate!!!
Symptoms: The belly is getting so heavy, it’s hard to get up from the couch occasionally, especially after I was laying down on it 🙂
Labor Signs: Very less Braxton Hicks, nesting (which, I think, is not a labor sign seeing my due date can be any day), I’m a bit bitchy – the things my boyfriend does/says annoy me fast.
Maternity clothes: They are getting tiiiiight – it’s uncomfortable to sit and wear maternity panties and pants, I wish I could just go naked down there (but – another symptom – a lot of vaginal discharge)
Stretch marks: None
Miss anything: Nothing
Looking forward to: giving B I R T H. Let’s see, some of my “easy-to-remember” dates have already passed

  • 03.03.2015 (I already have plans with a friend there though)
  • 05.03.2015 (I have an appointment for a foot care there though)
  • 15.03.2015
  • 19.03.2015 – Two months after my birthday
  • 21.03.2015 – Baby’s Due Date
  • 23.03.2015 – Baby’s second Due Date, according to the ultrasound
  • 25.03.2015
  • 27.03.2015 – 5 months before my bubby’s birthday
  • 30.03.2015

So there’ll be another zodiac sign with horns in our family. Our Baby-Boy might be determined, fiery, have executive skills, a born leader, impulsive, headstrong, opinionated, loyal, physical, driven, ambitious… Aries doesn’t match with Capricorn (me) or Virgo (the bubby) which I’m ok with, we’ll make it match. I have horns so it’s clear that the ram and the goat abut. But: Aries signs have excellent sense of humor, and they get along with almost everyone at the party (and they DO know how to party). Aries can be impatient, but we love them anyway because they are devoted friends, lovers and family members (aww) 🙂
Best happenings this week: On Monday I went to my fourth and last prenatal acupuncture. I got 12 needles – one in each hand, two in each of my knee areas, one in each ankle, one in each pinky right next to the nail (ouchie) and one on each foot. I walked into the delivery room at the hospital, the midwife looked at me and said “looks like the baby’s coming soon”.
She wanted to check me, I let her know that I’m having an OB appointment with my gyn that same evening, so she just checked how our baby-boy is laying, made a CTG and checked my urine. All good and I didn’t have contractions.
So, in the evening I had my second check for that day:

  • How far along: 39+2
  • CTG: all good
  • My Blood Pressure: 120/80
  • Cervix: 1cm dilated, soft
  • Baby’s weight: around 3100g (6 pounds 13 ounces)
  • Amniotic fluid: 11
  • Placenta: 95% intact
  • Baby’s head: around 34cm, not completely tight in my pelvis

My OB wanted me to get in touch with the OB who will be delivering our baby this same week, seeing she could still push baby’s head up a bit. Other than that she said the supply for baby-boy is all very good so there’s no need for inducing that soon. But that’s something the hospital and/or delivery OB will have to decide.

So I made the appointment with the baby-delivering-OB for Friday morning. I asked him to check me to see if baby’s head is tight so he first checked my cervix, 1cm and yes, Baby’s head is tight in my pelvis. Then he checked the Baby, he measured him around 3400g (7 pounds 8 ounces), the head around 34cm and he’s still got a lot of amniotic fluid, so he sees no reason for inducing (yay, I’m happy he sees it that way).
I have another appointment with him on Tuesday (40+3) where we’ll have the induction-talk and on Sunday (40+1), I’ll go and get checked by a midwife at the hospital where I will be delivering.

I try to find my peace with eventually getting induced which is hard. I try not to think about it and if I do think about it, I try to see it as ok, nothing bad, maybe even something good and helping my body to get ready. It just seems too planned and not natural. I don’t like that the doctors seem to be fixated on that one date, the estimated due date. For me, the estimated due date begins today and ends next Saturday, for me it’s an estimated due range of 7 days and not one day. I have an irregular cycle, my period doesn’t start from one day to another, my ovulation – no idea when that is. Setting an estimated time range for a baby to be born would take off a lot of pressure.

The OB also made a 3D color ultrasound of our Baby’s face, it was the best 3D I’ve seen, I could see our baby-boy and what he looks like! I even got a photo which might be the last in-uterus photo of our baby-boy 🙂

Ultrasound 39 weeks 6 days
Ultrasound 39 weeks 6 days with his arm before his face
Movement: Still doing his regular gymnastics. He’s been really, really, really active on Thursday evening for a long time and all of the sudden I felt his kicks in my right side, so I assumed he turned his back from right to left. I asked the OB on Friday and yes, our Baby-Boy turned, at 39 weeks 5 days, from one side to the other. I’ve read a few weeks before that it’s not such a big problem for the Babies to turn but it’s very very unlikely that they will flip so that all of a sudden their head is not in the pelvis anymore. I hope he doesn’t get too excited to meet us and decides to make somersaults!
I think he turned back on Friday afternoon… I’m not sure now, I feel his kicks, it seems, everywhere.
Gender: Baby-Boy Bruno
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy and Bitchy
Sports: I’m lifting a lot of weight 🙂 Going for walks and did yoga once.
Baby-Bump Week 40
Me giving kisses to a very photogenic baby 😉

Baby Baby Baby

baby-bump
baby-bump
I didn’t think my blog would turn into a mommy-blog so fast but, with being pregnant, the only things I can really think about are things concerning pregnancy and babies. Everything else seems to be so secondary now.

Baby’s Name

Well, a few days before our little boy should arrive we have still not agreed on a name for him. Well, we kinda have, but not really. My boyfriend knows I want my kids to have American names and not a typical German name. He’s still trying to get used to my favorite first name for our boy but still didn’t say “yes, that will be his name”. Our boy will have a second name too and I told my boyfriend he’s the one who’s allowed to chose that 🙂 It’s been the same name for months but now, all of a sudden though, he’s thinking of a different one… argh. I told him that, when I’m two weeks before my due date, I want to write our baby-boys name on my birth plan so that it will be spelled correctly, which I did. I wrote down our Baby-Boys full name, asked my boyfriend if he’s ok with it and he said YES, so… let’s see if that’s really his name.

Pregnancy Brain

trash-bags Luckily, I didn’t really do a lot of silly things in my pregnancy, yet. I went to the hardware store a few weeks ago and saw this great deal on compost trash bags so I grabbed them. Why would I buy trash bags at a hardware store in the first place, but whatever. pregnancy-skirt A few evenings ago I hear my boyfriend in the kitchen saying “WTF…” and I asked what’s going on? He just said he’s dealing with a never-ending trash bag and seeing I didn’t know what he meant he showed me what I bought.
Instead of 25 liter I bought 240 liter – 10 times the size we need. They really are never-ending! Anybody need 240 liter compost trash-bags?

For the first time in, I think forever, I’m wearing skirts and leggings in winter. I love skirts in the summer but as soon as the weather gets colder I will not wear them. I’m a jeans girl, a flares jeans girl. breakfast And leggings? You’ll never see me in leggings when I’m not pregnant. Now, being high pregnant, of course they’re probably the most comfortable thing to wear but I’m not a fan of my legs in leggings. Not at all. So I put on the skirt to make those leggings look a bit cuter.

I tend to spill my drinks on our couch. The photo shows my typical daily breakfast (orange, half banana, half apple, yogurt, spelt flakes, cereal, applesauce) with my red raspberry leaf tea which I spilled. Oh well.

Maternity Leave

My maternity leave has been great. I didn’t miss getting up and going to work once. I normally try to do something each day, also if it’s something little like cleaning the oven. I honestly thought I’d miss my routine days at work, that I’ll be bored so much every day but nope 😀 I did so much the last few weeks that now, one week before my due date I have to slow down a bit (well, I want to slow down a bit).

Fear

I’m a lucky girl. I’m lucky because my nine months of pregnancy have been great, all the examinations of our baby have been great and I don’t have any reasons to worry or be scared. I’m lucky to have an attitude of “what will be will be” and so, a few days before my due date, I’m not scared about giving birth.
I’m not fixated on my “ideal birth plan” because, how could I be? I have no experience at all so I’m just going to let things roll how they’re going to roll.
Sure, no PDA would be nice, but if I can’t handle the pain anymore, why not?
Sure, a natural birth would be nice, but if the baby’s in danger I’m happy for our revolutionary medicine and c-sections.
Sure, it would be nice if no body parts of mine get injured, but if something rips – it’ll heal. I’m really happy I don’t freak out right now and that my attitude has helped me to keep calm during my pregnancy.

Hospital Bag #3: bringing our baby home

I love those cute little clothes for our Baby-Boy Bruno, they are just too adorable:

Clothes for bringing our Baby home
Clothes for bringing our Baby home
As we assume our Baby-Boy will be born sometime in March and as we know the weather here can be either sunny and warm or snowy and cold, we need to prepare.

I packed a few body suits, two caps, tiny tiny socks and “shoes“, a blanket to wrap him in (if he wants), cuddly pants and a cuddly jacket. If it’s really cold (or if we are being told we need it) we’ll put him in the snow suit.

He’ll be wearing the cute little romper suit which says “Thank heaven for little boys”

Thank heaven for little boys
Thank heaven for little boys body suit

Hospital Bag #2: after birth

Here are the things I’m going to take with me to the hospital:

Hospital bag for after the birth
Hospital bag for after the birth
Not sure what I need but the bag is big 🙂

  1. Throw away panties (why bother with huge pads)
  2. Breastfeeding pads
  3. Pads
  4. Panties
  5. Our Baby Book (so that I can write down everything right away without forgetting something)
  6. Warm socks
  7. Towels and wash cloth (who knows if I need towels…)
  8. Wrap around cardigan
  9. Normal longsleeve
  10. Longsleeve for breastfeeding
  11. Nightgown for breastfeeding
  12. Breastfeeding tops
  13. Jogging pants
  14. Ultra long and thick pads
  15. Bodylotion, toothpaste, nipple cream, soap, shampoo & conditioner, bodycream, ear-plugs, throw away wash cloths

My 39th week baby bump story

39 weeks

How far along: One week away from my due date, holy sh**!!
How much do I weigh: 61,7 kg (+ 12,9 kg / + 1 kg this week / 28 pounds in total)
Those last few weeks I’ve been gaining and gaining (well, quite constant, it’s just weird to see the scale showing higher numbers each week).
I wonder how long it will take me to get rid of my extra weight but I’m not that worried because up until now I’ve been quite disciplined when it comes to losing weight. Never tried to lose pregnancy weight though. And never thought I’d gain so much in the last 4-6 weeks. Yet, one morning I’ll weigh myself and the next morning I’ll weigh 1 pound or 1 kg more, then the next day I’ll weigh a pound less again. I’m pretty sure I’ll hit the 30 pounds, maybe even 15 kg?
Belly size: Circumference 102cm, Top to Bottom 43 cm

Baby Bump Week 39 - 38w6d
Baby Bump Week 39 – 38w6d
Belly button in or out: It’s even/out now 🙂
Sleep: Still not complaining! Getting up once. After my bubby gets up for work though (around 6 am) I couldn’t get back to sleep anymore two days this week, the rest of the days were just fine.
Food (non) cravings: Nothing special. I have a big appetite though, especially after I’ve been running around. So close to birth I’m thinking I better give my body what it wants so that it can store the glycogen I need for the big day. Just like athletes do before they run a triathlon… I eat a lot of fruits (bananas, apples, mangos, blueberries, blood oranges), cereal, yogurt, veggies, bread with vegetarian spread and cheese. I just can’t get enough of cereal with milk, but that’s been a craving of mine before pregnancy as well.
Symptoms: a lot of pelvis and popo pushing. It feels weird and I wonder if it’s possible that a baby breaks the water with its fingers and not the hormones 😉 *jk* Other than that, heartburn and a sore body when sitting or laying.
Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks contractions sometimes. Ok, since Friday, 38w6d I have them quite often, especially in the morning. So I guess my uterus is practicing for its big event.
Maternity clothes: Pants, for my last two weeks of pregnancy I bought a maternity t-shirt which I can wear the next few months as well. It’s getting too warm here.
Stretch marks: None
Miss anything: Nothing this week
Looking forward to: That moment when I know “I think I’m going into labor”. Still hoping our baby-boy will be born in the week from the 21st to 28th, but actually I’d love to have him here now already.
Also looking forward to the OB visit (it will be the last with my gynecologist), wondering what she’ll say about inducing and when I should see the gynecologist who will be delivering our baby.
Best happenings this week: My OB appointment on Monday (thanks Mom for coming with me)

  • How far along: 38+2
  • CTG: all fine. In the beginning he was sleeping so his heartbeat was a bit low, but then I had to drink water and the doctor’s assistant gently shook my belly and then he was more active and everything was fine
  • My Blood Pressure: 110 / 70
  • Cervix: wasn’t checked
  • Baby’s weight: around 3 kg (7 pounds). He’s getting chubby cheeks already 🙂
  • Our Baby-Boy rubbing his eye at 38 weeks 2 days
    Our Baby-Boy rubbing his eye at 38 weeks 2 days
  • Amniotic fluid: he still has quite a good amount
  • Placenta: light calcification
  • Baby’s head: around 34cm

Other than that the weather was lovely and I even got a bit of tan.
I met with two of my colleagues for lunch on Tuesday and visited some other colleagues afterwards and went to a bazaar on Wednesday with my sisters and bought some tops for our baby-boy. 95% of the clothes for newborns / half year old babies were PINK! Only girl’s stuff! Afterwards I called the hospital to see if I could come by to get my third prenatal acupuncture, the midwife said yes so I drove there then.

Baby Clothes
Baby clothes I bought for 6 EURO
Tonight, Saturday, we’re going out for Running all-you-can-eat non-fish Sushi one last time, looking forward to that.
Movement: Still doing his gymnastics regularly
39 weeks baby bump
39 weeks baby bump

Gender: Baby-Boy Bruno
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy and excited that he can come any time. We are all sooooo nosy to know when he’ll come 😀 Actually I’m happy I didn’t go into labor on Friday the 13th. I don’t believe in that but still.
Sports: Just the regular getting things done in the city and stairs. On Thursday for example, I washed two loads of laundry and walked 454 stairs! The washer and dryer are in the basement, so down – up – down – up – down – up… Did Yoga on Friday.
Pregnancy Yoga
Pregnancy Yoga
I also did some gymnastic for pregnant women and now I have a sore back. Maybe I shouldn’t start with new exercises in my 40th week…