2 Mommies and 2 Boys

Time goes much quicker when you have great friends to hang out with.

swish, woosh, woosh, swish, BANG, swish, woosh, woosh, swish, BANG

movement, heartbeat, heartbeat, hiccup, movement, heartbeat, heartbeat, hiccup

A friend of ours lent us a “professional” grade doppler. It is so cool!

He is now averaging the hiccups 4-5 times a day and Lois finds it hysterical to use the doppler. You hear the woosh, woosh, woosh of the heartbeat in the background, then loud bangs when he kicks at the doppler or has the hiccups. Then, he proceeds to reposition himself which sounds a little like a swish then a foosh.

Lois went into the doctor on Friday since she had been sick. The doc wanted to make sure the baby was not ‘in distress.’ After about 10 seconds into the ultrasound, she said “oh, yeah, he’s fine. He’s a little active, isn’t he? I guess he has no idea how much stress he is causing you!”

Yes, he has no idea. He’s just in there bouncing around all day long, having the hiccups all the time, hanging out just on top of the cervix, happy as a little clam.

THANK YOU BEVIN!!!!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SWEETNESS!!!

Poor, poor Lois!

I’ll begin by saying, I apologize for those of you who don’t like hearing about bodily functions, but when you are pregnant, or the significant other of someone who is pregnant, many conversations include terms that you hopefully never discuss with each other again.

She has spent the last 12 hours throwing up. It’s like the first 3 months of the pregnancy all over again. At the last point this morning, she couldn’t even keep water down. I feel so awful for her.

She keeps apologizing to me because she can’t get up and go to the bathroom. I give her a can, then I clean it up. Sorta like practice for when the kid arrives.

I am hoping this is a little quick virus that will be gone today. She’s absolutely miserable. One thing I keep thinking about is what pressure getting sick puts on your abdomen. We don’t want any more pressure than is already there.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - -

We have wonderful friends. I mean, really, really wonderful friends.

I feel like a schmuck because I am doing almost nothing. We have people come over during the day to keep Lois occupied. We have friends come by at night to bring dinner, make dinner, keep Lois entertained, do dishes, etc.

Salina, Ben, Shawna, Jody and Kari spent a huge chunk out of their weekend to hang in our boring little living room.

Just Tuesday and Wednesday alone, Lois got spoiled with Laura, Jody and Jess keeping her company at various times throughout the day. Then Billy, Loren and Harold brought over dinner. Wednesday, Kathy spent the entire day there baking cookies with Jess, bringing over lunch. Then Suzanne, K* and Liz showed up with nuts and cream puffs from Costco and Liz cooked pasta for dinner. We didn’t even have to supply the wine for the chef.

We currently have the following desserts in our house that have all been brought over in the past 24 hours: apple pie, Costco cream puffs, Entenmann’s crumb cake, Costco bag of mixed nuts, homemade oatmeal toffee cookies, homemade mint chocolate cookies (with melted Andes candies, yummy) and more! At least we have a box of clementines to attempt to balance things out.

I will find a way to thank everyone for being the best friends two girls could ever have!

I just can’t believe how many people have stopped to hang with us – and are now offering to come over and help me move stuff around the house to help get Chubby’s room ready!

I don’t know what we ever did to deserve such great people in our lives.

Time is running out!

If you get a moment, please check out these two blogs: Lesbian Dad and Liza was here

And if you choose, please vote for them in the

Weblog awards!

I feel so bad for Lois, not only for the bed rest, but because she seems so uncomfortable all the time now.

She hasn’t gotten too big and we think it’s because he’s already head down. The part of him that’s in her belly area is really just arms, legs and ass, I guess.

It’s not so much his motions that are making her uncomfortable, although he does get his foot under her ribcage an awful lot and seems to want to turn from side to side several times a day. It’s that he body is tired of lying down.

She can’t take being on her back anymore. The right side will work for a little while, then gets really uncomfortable. Then the left side gets really irritating.

Plus, she’s got a pregnancy pillow, regular pillows, blankets and one of those gigantic wedge cushions from a physical therapist friend.

When Lois needs to switch positions, it’s sort of an event.

There’s got to be something I can do to make her more comfortable!

We are at 31 weeks today!

We’ve been a little lax about checking out the weekly progress calendars online for some time now, but each week mark has more relevance at this point.

1. The rate of physical growth slows down just a bit, but even though he doesn’t get much longer, he will gain a lot of weight the rest of the pregnancy.

2. Fat continues accumulating. This layer of fat turns his skin from red to the rosy pink he will have as a newborn.

3. Calcium, phosphorus and iron are being stored and his bones are growing and hardening.
Your baby is 16.2 inches (41.1cm) long and weighs 3.3 pounds (1502gm)

4. His brain enters another period of rapid growth, producing hundreds of billions of new nerve cells! Amazing!

5. He may move to the rhythm of music. Studies with heart rates show that he also prefers some types of music to others — already!

6. Lungs are the only major organ left to complete development. Remember, that while you may be anxious to meet your little one that these last few weeks can be vital – with each day increasing your baby’s ability to breathe on her own.
(courtesy of pregnancy.org)

We think Chubby’s closer to 3 lbs and 6 ounces at this point. And we hope that the steroid shots will help speed up the brain and lung development a little. But he is doing very well!

During the ultrasound appointment on Monday, our doctor spent a ton of time with Lois.

Our little guy now has the hiccups 3-4 times a day. He is more active than ever and the doctor told Lois on Monday that it was a sign of a healthy baby and that he had a “very nice shaped head.”

Not sure what that means.

We’re hoping that the bed rest is preventing the molding of his head into a cone shape. He has been head down for well over a month already.

Oh, and the babycenter.com activity of the week is to pack a bag for the hospital. We should include clothes and a toothbrush and some of the following:

• A photograph or object to focus on during labor
• Snacks to keep your energy up and gum or mints for bad breath
• Your favorite pillow, cozy socks, and slippers
• Books or magazines. Nothing too heavy — you won’t be able to concentrate
• A nursing nightie and nursing bra
• A going-home outfit for your baby
• A camera or camcorder, fresh batteries, and film, if necessary

We don’t have a going home outfit for him yet, since we weren’t thinking about having a preemie (we still might not have a preemie) and I definitely have not considered nightgowns or nursing nighties or anything like that.

And a video camera? I know I’m not taping the “event”! Lois would kill me.
She’s going to be one of those “vocal” types.

I have a feeling our bag (and I should pack it very soon) will include these items:

- Jelly Bellys
- Gummy bears
- iPod with Melissa Etheridge playlist
- laptop computer or Gameboy with Snood
- little white socks
- Yahtzee or Phase 10

Any other suggestions? Lois’ Christmas presents this year will most likely revolve around stuff to keep her entertained and stuff she needs for the hospital.

Lois just called.

Three possibilities can explain what happened
1. the ultrasound tech was really far off on Friday
2. our doctor is really far off today
3. Lois’ cervix mysteriously grew back 3 mm in the past 3 days

Whichever it is, our OB said no change had occurred since the last u/s she did 7 days ago, so she wasn’t going to send Lois to the hospital.

She’s still considered to have 1.2 cm left of cervix! Yippee!!

The even better news is that since my best friend Jess will be in town a little this week, and since some of our friends have light work schedules, Lois is opting to stay at home instead of her parents’ house!

This means she has internet access on the laptop and her own home to be comfy in!

Here we are at day 20!

I made Lois an apple-scented foot bath and it made her weekend!

Tomorrow brings another appointment and we are thinking it might end in an admission to the hospital. And I think we’ve pretty much accepted it.

If the cervix is deteriorating to below 1 cm, we don’t want her to be at home by herself if something happens, or if it’s at a critical point.

I tried to show what’s going on with this “incompetent cervix” thing.

Here is a normal 30 week pregnancy diagram.

Here is my attempt at showing what Lois’ uterus looks like. The blackened area is representing what is pretty much now amniotic fluid. Something like that.