Nelsonblog

Sue: Being pregnant is for the birds!
Me, in another room: um, don’t BIRDS lay eggs?
Sue: why can’t I lay eggs? …Then I’d get it OVER with and the baby can finish growing in the EGG!
Me: *speechless*

Isn’t that awesome?

Sue and I went on one of our last ‘date-nights’ for a while.

We had delicious schnitzel and spätzle at Gustavs Jägerhaus, after which we saw a cool production of ‘The Beauty and the Beast’ musical in Santa Ana performed by high-school kids!

They were suprisingly good-

At the end of the performance Sue was SO tired- the couple right in front of us had their little girl (dressed up as Belle, naturally) along with them and she started to fuss and cry at the climactic point of the show- Sue whispered to me- “I know how she feels! It’s my bedtime too!”

We had our 36 week check up yesterday. Everything appears to be on track for a due date of mid-March. I am 50% efaced – I have to be 100% efaced before I can begin to dialate. Baby is in position – head is pointing down and it is at a minus 2 station and heartbeat is strong.

Not to be gross – but it was quite amazing that the doctor could feel the baby’s head when she did the internal exam. Sometimes the thought of having a baby and the reality of it seems so far away – yet my child is within touching distance.

Only complaint this week from being pregnant are my poor feet. I have developed varicose veins near the arch of my foot – the left foot has an area that swells up to the size of golf ball and makes walking very difficult and painful – my right foot has a smaller vein but still hurts.

I’m also very fortunate that I don’t have many back aches – the muscles are very tight – but I don’t hurt that much which is a blessing considering I have scoliosis and my doctor cautioned me many years ago that if I became pregnant it could be very painful due to the curve of the base of my spine. I love proving doctors wrong! Not to mention – one doctor told me that I could have difficulty getting pregnant due to where the curve is of the spine. Well, wrong again – in just a few weeks I will finally get to meet the tiny miracle that has been growing in my for 9 monts.

great conversation we just had-

Sue: “I bought more girl clothes today…”
Me: “Oh yeah? Do you think it’s going to be a girl, now?”
Sue: “GIRL’S HAVE CUTER CLOTHES!”

Then she shows them to me.

Isn’t she adorable?

Another doctors visit! only a few more to go really…

Mom’s stats:
blood pressure: 119/74 – good
35cm tummy
50% effaced

Baby’s stats
Strong heartbeat
Head pointed down! At -2 position! Good news, there.

Doctor said that the baby should be on time-
And best of all- ought to be high sevens, maybe eight lbs. Sue was 11.5 lbs at birth, so she was very worried that our baby would be very big as well.

Good news all ’round!

We saw a segment of Cosby’s ‘natural child birth’

The went over vacuum and forceps (salad-spoons), breeches and inductions.

THEN we saw the c-section video. Ugh. Okay. THAT was gross.
It was only a computer graphic animation- but it was GRAPHIC.

After recuperating- the RN answered a bunch of questions about C-sections. Then came the high-light of the evening for me-

The RN asked for a volunteer mom to lay down on a mat with her ‘coach’. Then she picked 9 other dads to come up and be placeholders for the medical staff that would be present during a real C-section. She picked ME to be the doctor! Yay! I was the boss!

After all that hoopla- we heard about post-partum care.
Then came the labor rehearsal. We tried out a few of the most common positions and then did a bunch of breathing.

After that- we got our diplomas! Hooray!
Well, now all we have left to attend is the baby CPR class next week-
Why do I still not feel ready?!?

Sue and I are so tired. We’re off to bed.

So, I went to this great class. Daddy Boot Camp.
It was VERY cool.
There were two teachers/coaches that brought their kids a 9 month old and a 1 1/2 year old. The rest of a attendees were all soon-to-be 1st time dads. I’d say there were about 15 of us.

It was 3 hours long! I got alot of neat information out of it. A big one of these was the AngelCare Baby Monitor – it was a great find.

I took 2 pages of detailed notes, and I write very small-

I voluteered to go back in a few months as a ‘veteran dad’ and help out as well.

All in all a great experience.

Okay- this video ought to be easier to see-

Wow! That’s OUR BABY kicking in there! O.o
Pretty neat huh?

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