I’m cruising on a website for a great wrap carrier I heard about today. The gallery is packed full of pictures of parents all over the world with their babies in this carrier. Moms and Dads, newborns through preschoolers.
Tears are running down my cheeks. For the first time in a very, very, very long time I’m able to look at pictures of babies and smile with anticipation instead of feeling a cold grip on my heart for what will never be ours.
It’s getting a lot more real now. What a blessing.
Even though there isn’t much evidence to support it, this pregnancy is apparently marching along. (Or so the weekly “here’s how big yer critter is now” e-mails tell me, at least.) And while we’re kinda stuck waiting on nursery stuff until we find out the sex (*hopefully* next week!) I’m trying to start working on baby-related things.
My big challenge this week has been daycare. My reading tells me I have a lot of research to do, and to start sooner than later in case there’s a waiting list at our chosen facility.
There’s a (24 hour) daycare center called Kids ‘r’ Us across the parking lot from my office. I assumed from the time I found out I was pregnant that the baby would spend his/her days there, with me popping over for lunch and occasional cuddle-breaks. So this week I called and spoke with the director, got some preliminary info and made an appointment for a tour.
I toured the facility yesterday and was underwhelmed. My gut reaction was that Kids ‘r’ Us was dirty and disorganized. The staff didn’t recognize me as a touring parent as I wandered their rooms at naptime. They were either doing paperwork or sweeping up what I thought was an inordinate amount of random gunk off the floors. The infant room was less inspiring. I don’t think the cribs or changing area is sanitized often at all, and the linens are washed weekly. The cribs were scattered haphazardly around the room, and there didn’t seem to be much in the way of toys or stimulation for the wee ones.
I was pretty disappointed, especially since I really wanted this facility to work because of it’s location. But I just can’t see leaving our baby there. But I wanted to check out other facilities before I totally crossed them off my list, because maybe my expectations were way too high. (What do I know? I’ve never been in a day care before.)
So this morning I called a ‘corporate’ day care that I pass during the last 10 minutes of my commute to work each day called Kids ‘r’ Kids. (Where do they get these names?) The director answered and gave me a lovely spiel about their facility and their infant program which began with how often their cribs and linens are sanitized (daily) and finished with details of the sign language curriculum they start by 4 months. So many great things about this place, and from the looks of the photos on their website, it’s exactly what I expected a day care to look like. PLUS, the price works out to the same as the place by my work – and once the baby is on solids it’ll actually be cheaper because they supply the Gerber-brand baby food.
I’m touring Kids ‘r’ Kids tomorrow at lunch and I cannot wait. If I like what I see tomorrow, I’ll check out the place with the Bureau of Licensing and whoever else my social worker co-worker says I need to. (I don’t know what I’d do without my co-worker Kate. She is a font of incredible mommy-wisdom combined with no-nonsense social worker smarts.) I’ll take Paul to tour the place, and if we agree on it, we’ll put down a deposit to hold a spot in September for our wee one. (I’m hoping to be able to take 6-7 weeks off work for maternity leave; we can’t afford for me not to work, so I can only take off as much time as I can save up vacation & sick leave for.) Gotta love America’s (lack of) Maternity Policy.
I’m a little surprised at my visceral reaction of “I’m not leaving my baby there” to the first place, but it’s kinda nice to be feeling mom-like.
Eventually we’ll get pictures that you don’t need a degree in hieroglyphs to decipher.
Until then, y’all get these (click the picture to see ones with labels so you can actually tell what you’re looking at):
Not too much to update on between doctor appointments. I don’t want to be boring with stupid minutia that no one cares about, nor do I want to document a litany of bitching about the physical discomforts of pregnancy.
But to be honest, at a couple weeks into the 2nd trimester there isn’t a whole lot to recommend about bring pregnant – other than the whole “WHOO HOO, we’re pregnant!” part.
I promise that I’ll write more when there’s more going on…
Quickest appointment yet today. But I guess I’ll be having more like this for the next couple of months.
Took a quick look at the baby, mostly to check the heart rate (160, just like it has been.) Didn’t get a measurement, but the critter obviously bigger than it was two weeks ago! (According to the intertubes, it’s 3-3.5″ or roughly lemon-sized.) It was just kicking back, with it’s arms up, like laying in a hammock. The tech got two pictures, but they’re pretty fuzzy. It was bobbing it’s little head, but not dancing like last time. (This appointment was at 3:00pm, whereas my others have all been before 10:00am… so maybe afternoon is siesta time?)
Dr. Schwartz went over my 1st trimester screening results with me and things are looking great.
Downs Syndrome result is 1:4800 (chances of the baby having DS are one in 4800 similar births.) The baseline chances for someone of my age with my health profile was 1:320, so the actual test results tell a MUCH better story.
Trisomy 18 result is 1:2350, which I guess is very good. Dr. Schwartz says anything over 1:100 is fabulous.
Based on these numbers and the great results on the nuchal fold screening, there’s no need to seek further testing (like a CVS or amnio) at this time.
My a1c is down to 6.3 from 6.5 when I first got pregnant. (The a1c is like a 3 month report card on my blood sugar control. Anything below 6 is non-diabetic territory, so I’m doing fabulous in this regard which basically negates any diabetes-related risks to the baby.) Thyroid is creeping up a little, which is expected. My thyroid meds will prolly get adjusted at my next visit, if for nothing else than to negate the fact that I’ve got 30% more blood volume now. My blood pressure was lower than it has ever been – which means the new med (Methyldopa) that was added to my regimen last time is working. Still on the high side, but Dr. Schwartz was happy to see some movement on that, finally.
I e-mailed Dr. Schwartz yesterday with a couple of questions, so he’d be ready to be interrogated. Got some surprising answers, not what I was expecting from the reading I’d been doing in books and online.
Delivery: Currently Dr. Schwartz is planning on letting me go to 39 weeks – so delivering around 7/10/10. (If I went to 7/11, this would be the 3rd kid in my family with that birthday, which includes my brother!) He wants to avoid a C-section if at all possible. Vaginal delivery has a lot of benefits to the baby, but mostly he doesn’t want me to have to deal with recovery from abdominal surgery. He feels that at my current weight and as a diabetic, recovery would be less than optimal and that I would be in a lot more pain & have a longer recovery than average. He’s totally open to a C-section if it becomes necessary, but has every intention of inducing me first and letting me at least attempt to labor. He said that actually he expects me to do well with a vaginal birth. So YAY for that. I’m not all crunchy granola and ‘needing’ to try to push the kid out – but I’m totally open to the experience. I am also totally open to the epidural as soon as they’ll let me have it. :)
OMG pains: Apparently mostly what I’ve been experiencing in the last two weeks has been “low pelvic pain” as opposed to “round ligament pain” My pelvis is splitting apart and it’s totally normal. Hurts like hell and scares the crap outta me when it takes my breath away or wakes me up in the middle of the night, but it’s normal. So whee and hooray for being pregnant.
Bedrest: Currently not a big concern. Dr. Schwartz says I’m doing fine and that he avoids complete bed rest if at all possible. Apparently high risk pregnant women are at higher risk for DVT (blood clots) when on complete bed rest. He didn’t rule out modified bed rest for the last month or two though – which would mean that if I’m not at work, I’m home with my feet up. (Honestly other than the fact that modified bed rest would mean baby/house prep has to be done sooner, being ordered to go home and put my feet up sounds pretty good actually.)
Next appointment is first thing in the morning on Wednesday the 27th. Dr. Schwartz says we’ll try to figure out the sex at that appointment, but if we don’t get an answer then we will for sure at the next appointment which will be the “big” anatomical ultrasound. So hopefully we’ll know soon!