35 Weeks Along (Friday, 1/16/09)

On Saturday we got eight inches of snow. Needless to say, we stayed in that day. Paul worked on the mural and I did some house cleaning. Fun stuff. Betsy has been gone for one week now. We still expect to hear her nails on the wood floor. I dropped some food on the floor and no one ran over to gobble it up. It just sat there until I cleaned it up myself. That was odd.
Sunday we went up to Davison for my last baby shower, thrown by my mom at the Davison Country Club. It was my biggest shower and it was really nice. The decorations and cakes were adorable and the brunch was very tasty. I know renting the space and paying for all the food wasn’t easy or cheap and I really appreciate all my mom did for me. Two of my friends from the south side of the state, Jill and Krista, couldn’t make it due to the massive amounts of snow and ice they got. This has been a really harsh winter. But everyone else made it and I think they had a lot of fun. I got some baby books including an adorable book/stuffed animal, a winter jacket, an exer-saucer, Boppy pillow, burp cloths, placemats, bibs, sleep sacks, another beautiful quilt handmade by my mom, diapers, a lamp, baby shoes, headbands, a teddy bear, a health care kit, baby wash, a temperature sensing rubber ducky, money, hooded bath towels, baby wipes, a baby relief kit, a bath time kit, a bunting, a blanket, washcloths, a pack and play, bowls, pacifiers, spoons, lap pads, a mobile, an auto mirror, an activity mirror, a snap and go car seat stroller, an off-road stroller, stroller hooks, lots of baby products, and lots of cute clothes. Paul came with me to Davison but hung out with my dad, Joe, Mike, and Ean during the shower. Here are some pictures from the shower:

the adorable cake that was on each table-

the table of mom's work friends-

the table of mom's card club friends-

the table of family and neighbors-

the table of mom's high school friends and their kids-

Mom, Grandma, and I-

opening a present from Carol-

the pets quilt mom made me (Nolan, Betsy, Reiley, and Amber)-


The work week was pretty uneventful and bitter cold. The temperature on our drive to work was -13 on Thursday and -17 on Friday. Brrr! I am ready for winter to be over. I hope it warms up considerably before Lily is born. Paul spent almost every night working on the mural. I didn’t accomplish very much this week. Lily has been keeping me up a lot at night kicking and I have to get up to pee at least three times each night so I have been pretty tired throughout the days. My appetite has increased and I have felt a few more Braxton-Hicks contractions but they have been pretty minor.
On Friday after work we had our first Lamaze class. We signed up for a two day condensed childbirth class through the Lamaze Family Center of Ann Arbor which was 3 hours on Friday evening and will be 3 hours on Saturday morning. The teacher was really nice and laid back. Most of the people in the class are due around the same time as us. One couple is due on the 10th, one on the 18th, and three on the 28th. There were nine couples total in the class. For our first class we covered labor and birth terminology, pre-labor signs, how to know when you are in labor, when to go to the hospital, what’s normal and what’s not, different breathing techniques, different laboring positions, how the partner can help, how to massage, etc. We focused more today on early and active labor. At the end of the class we watched a birth without medication (not graphic). Tomorrow, we will watch one with an epidural and medication. I was really relieved that the class wasn’t all about how you should do everything naturally and not get an epidural because I am getting one, dang it. Instead it was very non-judgmental and seems to be covering all options. We got home around 10 p.m. and Paul worked on the mural a little bit but I went straight to bed and actually slept pretty well for once.

News from the womb…
A baby delivered now will tend to lose considerably more weight than a full term baby because its digestive tract is still too immature for complete independence. As a safety precaution, the baby is storing nutrition from me to help itself in case of an early birth. The baby’s skin now looks pink and smooth because the underlying deposits of fat have masked some of the redness of the capillaries. Even babies who will have darker skin later may have a pinkish cast now because their skin itself is still unpigmented.