27 Weeks + New Pictures

We had a very successful appointment today-- our little guy is doing great.  He weighs 2 pounds 4 ounces (which is the 56th percentile) and was moving all around during the ultrasound.   I'm also happy to report that I passed my glucose test (e.g. no gestational diabetes) and I'm not anemic.  So both mom and baby are healthy and doing well!  And Ben is doing good too, whenever we have an uneventful appointment it is a victory for him too :)  

Other good news from the last 24 hours: my supervisor met with our executive director and it sounds like Iowa City Hospice is going to keep me on as a consultant (at 50% FTE) when we move to New Mexico.  So I will be able to keep working...but from home...in pajamas... with a baby in my lap and a dog by my side.  Not a bad set-up!

Below are pictures from Harlan's daycare day this week.  I love the great dane in the picture-- look how huge he is, he is standing on all fours and his head is the same height as Harlan who is up on his hind legs.  It takes a BIG dog to make Harlan look small.

26 Weeks

Almost 27 weeks pregnant!  We are in the third trimester now (hard to believe, this has flown by...).  We have an appointment tomorrow with an ultrasound, so I'll have a better update then, but for now here is the 26-27 week update:

What is happening with your baby?

*Baby is over 13 inches long and weighs about 2 and a half pounds
*Around the 27th to 28th week babies can open and close their eyes, and has eyelashes
*You can feel the baby hiccuping
*Your baby has also developed a regular wake and sleep cycle


We had a great Thanksgiving holiday in Minnesota, splitting our time between Mankato and the the farm in Wisconsin.  Ben and I are making a Thanksgiving dinner tonight as well, we just didn't get enough from TWO thanksgiving dinners apparently :)   The picture below is from the burn at the farm.  My guess, from the looks on our faces, is that we are watching Harlan and Thina do something rather unintelligent down by the fire.

25 weeks!

One week to go until we start the 3rd trimester!

My baby app is telling me that our little boy is the size of a cauliflower this week, being 13.6-14.8 inches long and weighing anywhere from one and a half to two and a half pounds.  I believe that he's that big, his kicks are now visible from the outside and I'm feeling a lot more of them, I think he's getting cramped in there. 

Our next appointment is November 29th, I'll do the dreaded glucose test and we'll have our 4th ulstraound at that visit.  We are really looking forward to another sneak peak at our little guy :)

Harlan at Daycare

Canada!

I just returned from a lovely visit with Carly.  It was my first time in Canada, and I must say I really enjoyed Winnipeg.  There was no snow when I landed on Friday, and we ended up with over a foot.  The first blizzard of the season is always the best (especially when you don't have to drive in it!).  Carly surprised me with a spa day on Saturday, we got massages, facials, and manicures while drinking tea and eating scones.  We went to dinner with her friends Saturday night, Brian and I watched bits and pieces of football games, and we spent time with her dad on Sunday.  It was really a lovely trip.

We had similar boots and thought it would be fun to take a picture of them, but  my center of gravity is off (I'm quite front-heavy these days) and I started to fall... this is definitely an action shot...

Heading out to dinner

Not sure what the quizzical look is for-- this was at a place called Un-Burger.  We had bison burgers, sweet potato fries, and truffle aioli...DELISH.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

This is from dinner tonight (back in Iowa).  Both Ben and I are sick, and I decided that the only thing that sounded good to me was... wait for it... not chicken soup, not tea with lemon, not something soothing and warm... I wanted thanksgiving dinner.

Good call me.

24 Weeks

Happy Friday!

Our little boy is now 24 weeks along, which makes him a foot long and anywhere between 13 and 20 ounces.  (The fruit equivalent is a cantaloupe, although he is anything but round... all the fattening up is in the weeks to come). 

Ben returned from New Mexico this week after a successful round of intense interviewing.  He had great things to say about the people he currently works with, and was very impressed by the never-ending supply of "toys" that Sandia possesses.  He will likely receive an offer for the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellowship in 4-6 weeks. 

I let my supervisor know yesterday about this opportunity, and it has yet to be determined if they will keep me on staff to work remotely from New Mexico.  If it doesn't work out, I'm sure I'll have my hands full :)

This weekend I get to visit Carly and Brian in Winnipeg!  They are getting their first blizzard of the year tonight & tomorrow, with 8 inches of snow and temperatures in the teens.  Looks like winter starts now!

23 weeks

I had an appointment today, just a short and sweet check-up, that went really well.  This time there were no oddities, red flags, or surprises-- which was a nice change of pace!  In fact everything looked, in a word, perfect (to use the word of my OB, not me).

We were able to hear his heartbeat after some battling.  The punchiness we observed during the first ultrasound was very apparent again today.  At first when she would push on my belly with the doppler, you could hear the "swish swish" of him squirming away from it (baby does not like being poked).  A couple of times she came down right on him and when that happened he would punch/kick the doppler and a loud crashing sound would come out over the speaker.   Finally we were able to pin him down and hear his heartbeat, 150 bpm, strong and fast... I now believe that sound is the greatest thing on the planet.