Monday, January 31, 2011

...and then the doctor laughed at me

Many baby updates this week:

Firstly, a more full picture of our insulation story. When I posted last week about our insulation arrival, it was because I was anticipating one of the guys that Tim works with picking up the insulation that day.

Sadly, this did not happen. So that night, I told Tim we were going to Lowes to buy insulation -- I wasn't waiting any more! We made the first of what will probably be many visits to the marvelous store, and fond all the insulation we needed for: $19. Yep. Four months of waiting on a project that would give us some free insulation, and all we needed to spend was less than $20.

That said, we spent (well, okay, my participation has been minimal)the past few nights getting the insulation up, the wall up, and the mud on the walls. Tonight will be mudding the ceiling, already up for some months, and beginning to sand the wall. It's going quite well, though slowly, for that is what drywalling is. (In a funny side-note, Tim planned on spending Wednesday night shoveling snow instead of putting up the insulation, which I promptly stopped from happening by saying that I would shovel).

We've done a few other things as well - on Saturday, we spent our first day ever visiting Ikea in Baltimore with friends, which was a blast. We picked up a wardrobe for baby, who doesn't get to use one of the three closets in our entire house, and a changing table/cabinet for him as well as a few other staples like a rug for the floor, a couple of storage boxes and, to Tim's never-ending delight, a "tiny chair." Which is party of Tim's brilliant idea to furnish the room entirely with "tiny things," clearly not a great option, but one that he is in love with. Said chair can't be used until the poor kid is about two, and is not terribly kid-safe in the first place (easily tips over, etc.) but Tim was determined, to say the least.

As an inspiration of organizing storage spaces, we rearranged our only closet for all things not clothing-related, which is now in much better shape. I've also decided to get rid of my lingerie chest, which mainly helps me cycle my seasonal clothes in one place rather than storing summer/winter every year. Mainly doing this to save furniture space in our already over-crowded bedroom and make way for a small baby bed to use for the first few weeks of the little guy's life.

We've also decided to post pone our Pa. baby shower until later in March, as the invites were sent out really too late for many people to be able to come. The one in Mass is still on for Feb. 19 though, should be fun!

I was going to post on here about my doctor's appointment last week - my doctor actually laughed at me. I put on 7 pounds in the last month, which is both above the norm for me and the suggested average per month weight gain for pregnancy of 1 pound/week. It's true, I've been craving sugar like nobodys business, and have very little will power to stop myself from eating things that aren't good for me. I still have healthy meals and go to the gym regularly, but apparently the sugar outweigh those other actions :) My doctor sat down and started laughing at me - she was pretty surprised. She did say she can't tell where I'm putting it, which is always good to hear, but I need to lay off the sweet snacks! Which is hard to do in cadbury egg season, so I'm stockpiling eggs for now (my favorite candy ever, btw).

In good news though, I passed my sugar processing test (go figure, my body gets enough of it) so I don't have to have my arms stuck four times to see if I might be a candidate for gestational diabetes, thank goodness. My doc has also been sharing with me a few baby tips - we discussed feedings at my last visit. I've read from many sources (I over-research everything) mindsets of having your kid eat every three hours, regardless of what's going on (there's a name for this, I forget what though), for feeding your baby completely on demand, whether thats every 30 minutes or not until four hours have passed if they've been sleeping, and many beliefs in between. We talked about not waking the little one up at night to eat - if he's asleep when it's dark out, I need to entrench that habit, not mix him up - and then at least every three hours during the day, even if he's sleeping. Also - no more than every two hours, otherwise my body will become an all-hours-of-the-day buffet to the little tyke ;). all these things to remember!!

My doc also made a comment that our kid is pretty large - not so good for labor pains, joy. I know the guessing of baby sizes is certainly not an acute science, but she said my uterus is measuring two inches above my belly button, even though it's also being stretched down into my pelvis - which means baby is big enough to fill all of that space! I haven't caught up the past couple of weeks with my pregnancy week by week book, but I'm sure the boy is putting on weight!

3 comments:

  1. Oh, Holly. You are in for such a treat. Raising children is one of the greatest joys of life. Remember that if you have large babies, that's a whole new science. Ask me about it if you are nursing. My first two babies were 10 1/2 and 11 lbs. (My third was only 7 1/2 lbs.) so....I have a little experience with larger babies. LOL I delivered naturally and nursed them both. Would love to share my experiences with you to help you create a foundation of knowledge when you deliver larger birthweight babies. Just in case...

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  2. The size thing is entirely a guess. Vivian was supposed to be 6lbs and long at 40 weeks, according to our 20 week scan and the doctor's guess at my last appointment, hours before I went into labor. I went into labor at 36 weeks, 3 days, and she was 6 lbs, 10oz and almost 20 inches. They got the tall part right, but HOLY COW, if I had gone the other 3.5 weeks, I'd had delivered a toddler.
    ... it could have been that my baby, too, is a sugaraholic. Ben & Jerry's BOGO all winter was way too delicious to avoid. And the new flavors... ... ...

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  3. While I agree that feeding "any time a baby makes a peep" is going to turn mom into a 24/7 milk buffet, first, remember that if you're nursing, then THROW THE CLOCK OUT in the first 1-2 weeks. You HAVE to establish a good supply. Second, Elias STILL nurses every 1.5 hours (or so) through the day (7am-7pm), but only nurses about 1 or 2 times through the night, so while nursing more than every 2 hours may sound "incorrect" it is much wiser to follow baby's cues, and exhaust other resources prior to offering the breast if they're fussing before the 2 hours. Check if they need a change, if they're too hot/cold, and if they just need a change of scenery or to be held. If none of that works, then they NEED TO EAT, even if it isn't 2 hours since the last feeding, and even if they are more than a week or two old. If I made Elias wait at least 2 hours every time, he would fail to thrive-- he just NEEDS those feedings, and he's 7.5 months old. It works out to 10-11 feedings in 24 hours, which is perfect for him, and within the normal range for full time nursing babies. :)

    And, I agree-- the size thing is totally a guess, but some doctors and midwives are VERY good at what they do in that area, lol. Rebecca was small (VERY small for gestational age), but my midwife estimated Elias would be 9lbs at birth, and he was almost exactly that! With a lot of experience, they can be VERY good at size estimation. However, ultrasound estimation is generally a "give or take up to 2 lbs" and usually it is TAKE, not GIVE, so if you get an estimate of 10lbs, it's more likely they're overestimating than underestimating. :)

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