5 Weeks

Somehow, our adorable daughter is already 5 weeks old! I'm not sure how that happened, but I'm pretty sure that I want to slow things down. Evelyn is already growing up too fast for my liking, though I do have to admit that I am liking not having to feed her quite so often. Here are all the things that have happened since Evelyn arrived:

Feeding, sleeping, and pooping. Yep, she does that. Because Evelyn was so small, I needed to wake her up to feed at least every two hours. As she is her mother's daughter, she does not enjoy being woken up for any reason, even food, and let me know that she does not approve of this. While she's generally a very mellow baby, she doesn't like being woken up when it's not on her schedule. However, as of last Tuesday, Evelyn is now 6 pounds, 9 ounces and growing fast. We've moved on to demand feedings, though I don't let it go more than 3.5 or 4 hours at the most. Yes, you read that right, the baby likes to get 3 to 4 hours of sleep in a stretch at night. I love this child!

Three nights ago, we finally got Evelyn to spend an entire night in her cradle. We had been doing kangaroo care, with Evelyn sleeping on my chest every night. This was fine when she weighed 5 and a half pounds, but she's starting to get a little big for it. It took a couple of nights to convince her that we were close by and would comfort her if something was wrong, but now she's sleeping like, well, a baby.

Darling J has been dealing with all of the output that a child makes. He's been in charge of burping and diaper changes, which I have truly appreciated. I give her as much milk as she can handle and then get to hand her over for cleaning. It's nice. Unfortunately, J went back to work last Monday and I've had to take over both input and output operations. I was expecting the week to be hard and stressful, but it really wasn't bad at all. I spent as much time out of the house as possible and managed to catch up with friends and do a little shopping with my mom. By the end of the week, however, I was feeling a little cocky and thinking that I had this getting up, getting ready, getting the baby changed, fed, changed, and into the car thing down. As it turns out, babies have their own pace and their own schedule to follow. I had a chiropractic appointment on Friday morning at the early hour of 10:30 and thought that I had plenty of time to make it there. Evelyn, on the other hand, decided that she wanted to be changed, fed, changed, fed again, changed again, throw up all over the place, get a new outfit, and then get loaded into the car. Needless to say, I was a bit late.

My chiropractor is great. He's a bit more into the whole focusing energy and centering oneself than I usually go in for, but he does work magic. I saw him once a week for the last few weeks of my pregnancy and it was the highlight of the week. As it turns out, he also works with children and did some work on Evelyn when she was in the womb and then worked with her on Friday. It's pretty amazing to watch a baby go from tensed up to relaxing, smiling and falling asleep. I have no idea what he does or how he does it, but that man works magic.

Evelyn has been very bright-eyed and interested in the world around her from the get go, but she just becomes more interested, and more interesting, every day. This evening she was lying in her crib watching the mobile turn over her. She would focus on one of the bears and watch it rotate until it got to hard and then she would look at another one and do the same thing. She was quite content to do this for a solid twenty minutes or so. It's fascinating to see Evelyn's brain and body develop. She holds her head up for minutes at a time and loves to look around and watch her daddy and I. Too cute.

Evelyn had her first shower this evening. J got her undressed and ready to go as I got in the shower and made sure that it wasn't too hot. In the minute or so that it took to get ready, Evelyn managed to pee through her cloth diaper and all over J. That's the second shirt he had to change in about three ours, as the first one had been spit up all over. As for the shower, Evelyn was none too pleased when she first saw it. Her lower lip jutted out and started to tremble, but quickly got over it. I had to make the water warmer than I was expecting because she had goosebumps and was unhappy with it. Turns out she likes hot showers as much as I do! As I held her under the water, Evelyn kept leaning her head back to get it wet. I would pull her out from under the water and she would lean back again. She was definitely getting into this! As great as the shower was, getting out of it was no fun at all. I continued my shower while J got her dried off and back in diapers. She was screaming full throttle and was not pleased at the change in temperature. A warm blanket and some time on her daddy's chest warmed her up and sent her right to sleep. She's been sound asleep in her crib ever since.

Evelyn is a wonderfully calm baby and she's a pleasure to take out in public. She's been to numerous restaurants and walks around the neighborhood. She doesn't startle at loud noises and can sleep through anything. I can't wait to see the little girl that she becomes.

Evelyn at about 14 hours old. She looks just like her daddy.

With (Blue) Angels Overhead

Evelyn Pirie Zoe Noble was born on October 11, 2009 at 9:58pm. She weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces and was 18 inches long. She's a tiny little thing, but is perfectly healthy. She loves to eat, watch the world go by, and sleep and she hates having a dirty diaper or being changed. She's not too fussy and is just generally content to hang out and be cuddled. It's a tough life for her!

I had been having contractions for 3 or 4 weeks before I actually went into labor, so when I had a few more early Sunday morning, I didn't think too much about them. I had felt a little off all day Saturday, the 10th, and couldn't fall asleep that night, so I definitely felt the contractions when they started at about 3am. When I got up to use the restroom at about 3:50, my water had broken and we were a-go! Poor J had a nasty cold/flu thing brought on by his flu mist vaccine, so he had taken a Nyquil before going to bed. For future reference, don't take drugs that make you drowsy when your wife is due to give birth. He handled it well, but when I told him my water had broken his response was, "Ok. Do you want me to get up?" It was funny. I did. He did.

I called the hospital to let them know about my water breaking and they told me to come on in. Kaiser in SF fills up very quickly, so I was relieved that they has space for us! We took a quick shower and then headed on over. After checking to see that my water had actually broken, Iw as admitted to the hospital, strapped to a monitor, and then sent walking around the labor and delivery wing. J was incredibly helpful at getting me through the contractions as they got stronger and stronger. My mom helped out with some counter pressure, hand holding, and attempting to not look worried or distressed that her daughter was in pain. Good work, Mom! Thanks!

Labor was far more painful than I thought it would be. I was fine for the first 5 or so centimeters and then things just started to hurt more and I was just too tired to really deal with it. At one point I got back in bed and would fall into a sound sleep between every contraction, which were coming at 3 or 4 minutes apart. Finally I said the magic word and they ordered me an epidural. I made it through 14 hours of labor and was 7 cm dilated. w00t!

After sleeping for a while, I was ready to move things along. I really wanted Evelyn to be born on the 11th, as it is my grandmother's birthday as well. When the doctor had checked my cervix earlier, she had noted that there was a bag of water between the baby and my cervix and had commented that they could break that to move things along. At about 8:30 we asked the nurses to send the doctor on down to do this and she arrived a little while later. The sack broke as soon as she was checking me and I rapidly dilated from 8 to 9cm and kept on going. By a little after 9, I was feeling a strong urge to push, so they let me have at it. I pushed through about 4 or 5 contractions before the nurse told me to stop pushing so they could get the doctor in there. After she arrived, it only took 2 or 3 more contractions before Evelyn was born.

Evelyn let out a mighty holler at being born but settled right down as soon as she was on my chest. She turned her big eyes up to me, stared a little, and then proceeded to stick out her little tongue and start chewing on her hands. She was ready to eat! We got about an hour to bond and start breastfeeding before family started to come in to visit. She took to feeding like a champ and, with a few minor hiccups along the way, breastfeeding hasn't been too bad.

As for the angels overhead, last weekend was Fleet Week, so the Blue Angels were in town and they flew overhead doing their impressive routines as I sat in the hospital and labored. It was fun to watch them and now we can say that Evelyn was born with angels above. Disgustingly cute, I know.

I hope that all of this makes some sort of sense, but as a sleep-deprived new mother, I am under no illusion that this is the best thing I have ever written.

Belly Pic!

This pic is from about a week ago, so I was at 31 weeks. I'm comfortably into my 32nd week of pregnancy and still feeling pretty good, which is nice. I did, however, look down yesterday and realize that my legs have apparently been taken over by an elephant. I no longer have distinguishable ankles! It's not pretty, but if this is the worst thing that has happened to my body so far, I'm definitely not going to complain.

The nursery is starting to come along, with a cradle and a changing table. We have a few onesies and a Beco carrier, a carseat and a swing. We've even hung some pictures up in the nursery, which is quite an exciting thing for us as we have yet to hang anything in our bedroom. Can't rush these things!

Yay quilts!

I'm starting to love my mailman. Well, the USPS in general, I suppose as my mailman is prone to delivering mail to the wrong addresses all over the neighborhood. Yesterday we received an awesome quilt from our friend Kim's mom (thanks Kim and Mrs. Wachter!) I can't wait to wrap the Murloc up in this. If only the baby could come in such an easy way....

Coolest Sister Ever

My awesome sister-in-law Nicole made this murloc for the murloc. How cool is that?? This is quite possibly the niftiest stuffed animal a child has ever gotten. Thanks Nicole!!

Long Time....

Here's a pic of my belly from about 2 weeks ago. J took some more last night and I'll try to get them up soon. I'm a bit pointier than I was in this pick, but there's not a huge change.

I'm sorry I haven't written in forever. After returning from France, J and I headed to Seattle for a friend's wedding and then spent a couple of days kicking it in Olympia with J's sister and her boyfriend. We had an awesome time and it was a nice, relaxing mini-vacation.

Since then, I've been fighting two impulses: nesting and laziness. Unfortunately, laziness keeps winning, but the nesting urge is beginning to kick in enough that it may well win the battle. Also, I'm becoming less mobile by the day, so I know that there are things that I need to get done before I get too huge to do them.

As of today, I'm 30 weeks along! It's hard to believe that there are only 10 weeks to go, or 6 to 8 if I'm lucky. :) I'm totally happy with an early arrival, just so we're all clear. So far, the pregnancy hasn't been bad at all, though my back is starting to hurt more and more and I could do with a fewer kicks to the ribs and punches to the bladder! I'm still sleeping well and have a reasonable amount of energy and I get to eat like a pig. What's not to like about this?

J has taken to singing and talking to the murloc and he likes to put his head on my belly and listen to her heartbeat. It was pretty cool the first time he put his head on me and then got a look of wonder on his face. The murloc, on the other hand, isn't a huge fan of it and likes to kick him in the jaw whenever possible. Did I mention that she's an active one? The doctors have me doing a kick count every day, where I time how long it takes to feel the murloc kick, punch, roll, etc ten times. She has yet to take more than about 8 minutes and she has been known to get to 10 in under a minute. As I write this, my stomach looks like it has been possessed by aliens as she twists and turns.

It's alive!!

The murloc has taken advantage of her new size, muscle tone, and the extra room to get her kicks in for the past week or so. She's been bouncing, turning and kicking like crazy, which has been both a little uncomfortable and a lot of fun. It turns out that she is not a fan of turbulance as she did her best to remover herself from my belly when we hit a good patch of it on the flight over. I thought she was just going to crawl her way out of my belly button!

In the evening of our first full day here, an asshole on a scooter cruised by me and stole my purse off my shoulder, dragging me partway down the street with it. I'm a bit battered and bruised and I'm down a passport, wallet, camera and a few other goodies, but all in all, I'm fine. I was a bit worried about the murloc, but as I had managed to turn and land on my hip and elbow, she didn't get much more than a serious jolt of adrenaline. If anything, she's been moving even more since then!

My mom and I are staying in a little village in Southern France and just enjoying the area. I hear the wine is good, but I haven't had more than a couple of sips since we got here. We are close to the Pyrenees and there is some excellent hiking and kayaking to be done here and I'm determined to return sometime so I can take full advantage of it. For the most part, we have been touring castles, eating yummy food, driving around the area, and just generally having a relaxing break. It's not the most exciting trip ever (theft aside) but it has been very relaxing and a lot of fun.

We are heading to Paris on Thursday, where I'm sure my mom will be investing in several new outfits for her favorite grandchild. It does pay to be first sometimes!

School's Out, Baby's Healthy, Life is Good

I had my 23 week exam today and it looks like everything continues to go well. The baby's heartbeat is strong and she's kicking up a storm these days. Last Sunday was our anniversary and it was also the first day that J and I could see the baby moving. It looks like I have an alien in me trying to get out. Creepy, but kind of cool at the same time.

At almost 6 months along, I have gained a whopping 1 pound. According to the doctor, babies are parasites and they will take whatever they need from my body, so just keep eating as much as I want and we're good to go. I have to admit that I'm a fan of this! As long as I don't lose weight, everyone is happy.

Monday was my last day of work and, while I was sad to say goodbye to the kids, I'm really ready for a break! It was a crazy run at the end there, trying to get kids to graduation. I'm so proud of all of the hard work they did though, so it was all worth it. Now I get to sleep for a few days and then ramp up for a friend's wedding festivities and my impending trip to France.

Ah, France. How I can't wait to see thee! We fly out on Monday and are heading to Marseille. We'll spend a couple of days there and they we head to a little town in the Pyrenees for a week before heading up to Paris. It's looking to be a lovely vacation and, with my new Kindle in hand, one full of relaxing reading. Too bad it won't be with a glass of wine in hand. I am bummed about having to stay away from the awesome cheese and wine that will be available, but I'm sure that all things in moderation should be fine.... :)

I realized that I don't have any recent belly pics, but we'll try to take some at the wedding this weekend.

Week 18 Ultrasound

Creepy yet oddly compelling baby pics!

From Week 18

"Mom! Quit looking at me! I'm naked!"

Bouncing Baby, Hold the Pink

We had our ultrasound today and, after much deliberation, decided to find out the gender.  We're having a girl!  A girl who has a really big mouth....  She apparently takes after her father.  :)

J will be posting ultrasounds pics in a little while, but they aren't as clear as the old ones, so I'm not sure how much you'll actually be able to see.  The murloc was sleepy and yawning and not moving around as much as she was last time, but all her fingers and toes and heart and kidneys and everything were there and working.  It really is amazing to be able to see all of that.

With the latest news of a healthy growing baby, it looks like it's time to book a flight to France!  Hold on to your gender-neutral-or-at-least-not-too-pink-finery, Paris.  I'm coming to see you!

Not so quiet on the baby front

I'm sorry that the blog hasn't been updated more regularly.  It turns out that there is just not that much going on (at least visually) between weeks 14 and 18.  The murloc has been growing and doing his/her own thing in there, but I couldn't feel much.  My pants were getting tight though! 

Now, at 18 weeks, the fun stuff is starting.  I can no longer fit in my pants and J loves to talk to my bump.  He's a big fan of all the new curves that come with the pregnancy, though he's not so thrilled with the resulting tenderness.  I hear that this gets better too.  My students have all figured it out and I've been told by several girls that I'm having a boy as I'm carrying kind of low.  I'm thinking I should turn all of this guessing into a fundraising tournament... the schools always need more money!

I first felt a little bit of stirring way back at about 13 weeks, but it wasn't distinct or ongoing.  These days, however, the little jumping bean in my belly is starting to get going.  S/he's now big enough and strong enough that I can feel the kicks and bumps.  It's not very strong yet and you certainly can't see it, but it's there.  Most people describe it as a weird gassy or bubbly feeling and there's definitely an aspect of that, but it's also really tickles.  I'm not a particularly ticklish person, but I almost started giggling in a meeting yesterday because of all the movements.  I can't wait until I can feel it more!  On the other hand, I'm hoping that the murloc is not too much like baby Natalie, who spent quite a bit of time punching her mother in the cervix.  Ouch!

In other exciting news, it looks like I'll be taking a "last hurrah!" trip to France with my mother this summer.  We figure that it will be the last time that we can pick up and spend a couple of weeks in a foreign country without having to be responsible for the welfare of anyone else.  Yes, my dad and J can feed and clothe themselves.  It will be a lot of fun to get back to France one more time and just hang out, eat wonderful food, lust after tasty wine, and buy cute baby clothes.  

We have our next ultrasound next Tuesday and it will be neat to see the baby again.  I do think that doctors do too many ultrasounds and tend to meddle more than is necessary, but it's a bit addictive to be able to see what's going on in there.  My fingers are crossed that the baby isn't hopping around quite so much this time so that the doctor can get a good look and make sure that everything looks good.  We'll keep you posted!

Heartbeat

This is about two weeks overdue at this point, but better late than never! At our last appointment, we got to hear the murloc's heartbeat for the first time:



The murloc, being an aquatic creature with minimal aerobic activities, nevertheless has a strong, rapid heartbeat.

* Can't play the audio? Get QuickTime.

Week 13 Ultrasound

E and I had our 13 week screening ultrasound today; the one that screens for chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome . The murloc was in rare form, confounding the technician's feeble attempts to measure its Nuchal translucency thickness, by spinning, twisting, punching, and generally rocking out. (E swears she saw it throw the horns.)

The happy end result is that between the ultrasound and her previous bloodwork, Eliz has the effective risk level of a healthy 20 year old: the murloc has less than a 1/10,000 chance of having Trisomy 18 or Down Syndrome. That, and the murloc has a normal looking brain, with two hemispheres and a corpus callosum, a complete spine, rib cage, nasal bones, a working stomach, kidneys, and bladder. The murloc was happily swallowing amniotic fluid, fluid which it had just finished peeing into, probably.

All in all, it was a good day.

Update: Pictures!

From Week 13

Two things that go great together!

Early pregnancy and the stomach flu!  Apparently pregnant women are more likely to get cols and flus and then have them last longer and be worse than non-pregnant women.  It seems that my immune system is up to other fun things instead of fighting off the icky germs that teenagers bring me.

All in all, I don't feel too bad these days, though how I long for solid food!  The baby is unaffected by the stomach bug, so it has no idea that anything is up, which is nice.  I was glad to hear that it will be fine regardless of how I feel.  

I found this really neat video of a 10 week old fetus in action and thought I would share it on.  It's really cool to think that there's a little human being inside of me doing jumping jacks and the breast stroke.  He's getting more exercise than I am right now!

Murloc On Board

Due Dates

We have been given two different due dates: October 10th and October 12.  I'm personally hoping that the baby will show up on the 11th, my maternal grandmother's birthday.

Photo evidence of the elusive Murloc in its natural environment

This being week 8 of our little endeavor, it had come time to do a little meet and greet with our obstetrician.  So, today, E and I headed down to our friendly HMO for our first appointment.

Then, exciting things happened.  Meanwhile, I waited in the lobby.

Eventually our Ob/Gyn, heretofore named "Dr. C.", brought me into the examination room, and proceeded to sonogram E and Murloc. At this point, Murloc is about the size of a large raspberry.  (Mmm, raspberries.)  Its heart is beating at a fit-for-a-hummingbird pace of 150 beats per minute. And if Murloc is raspberry size, its heart is no larger than one of said raspberry's aggregated drupelets.  Suffice it to say: extremely hard to see.  But sure enough, there it was! A rapidly flashing set of heart-shaped pixels, in a vaguely heart-appropriate lo

cation!  E tells me I broke out in a huge grin when I saw it.

Now, it gets even more interesting when you blow up that picture, as our Murloc's Murloc-nature becomes even more evident.  The large, pupil-less eyes, the protruding tongue, the webbed hands; I think this one's going to be a swimmer!

Six Weeks Down

As of tomorrow, I will be 6 weeks pregnant, more or less.  These things are a little tricky to guess at when you haven't been to the doctor yet.  The first doctor's appointment is on the 24th and we will know more then.

Thus far, pregnancy has been an interesting ride.  I started getting morning sickness at around week 3, rather than the usual week 6.  I'm curious to see what this week brings and if it gets any worse.  Last Friday was the first day that I was actually throwing up instead of merely being nauseous.  It's kind of amazing how crummy an upset stomach can make you feel.

Not many people know about the pregnancy yet, as we want to keep it on the downlow until we know how things are looking.  I do not have to go back to all of my friends and have to explain to them about a miscarriage or anything else that may go wrong.  Our parents are thrilled with the news, but unhappy that they don't get to share it.  I thought my mom would have a harder time of it than she seems to be having, so good for her.

At 6 weeks, the only thing that has really changed is the size of my boobs.  I did not sign up for having my boobs go up two sizes over the course of a week.  As if not having any bras to wear wasn't bad enough, the new and exciting playthings are WAY too tender to touch.  Such is life, I suppose.