The problem with dates

40 weeks, 4 days…still pregnant.

40 Weeks

Cupcake is apparently too comfortable in there and no matter what we do, active labor proves elusive.

In hindsight, we never would have told people the actual due date, but a week later instead. And I also think it should be a “due window” and not a “due date.” But we are stuck now regardless, even though we waved hello and goodbye to good ol’ April 22 days ago.

The thing is, based on date of conception, Cupcake’s due date isn’t until April 29. But they say ultrasound-based due dates are more accurate, and since the little bugger was growing so quickly at first, the due date became April 22.

As each day passes, we’ve been doing some thinking:

• If he’s as late as that little blue ticker on the right said first babies are on average (8 days), we’ve only got 4 days to go.
• If he’s as late as his non-gestational mommy was (12 days, my poor mother), we’ve got 8 days to go.
• If he’s as late as the midwives/doctor will let us go (14 days), at the worst, we’ve got 10 days to go.
• Based on conception date, he’s not even due for another 3-4 days.

What all of this comes down to basically means nothing. We keep waiting and each day feels like an eternity. But we remain grateful that at this point, all we are waiting for is him to make his entrance out into the world. And until then, we wait, and walk and dream.

Waddling among the tulips

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Fun on Friday

We’re curious when you all think Cupcake will be done baking and how big he’ll be, so we set up one of those online guessing games. Feel free to log your guess and maybe we’ll send a little prize to the winner….you know, after we manage to become less zombie-like from the sleep deprivation 😉

(If the link doesn’t work for you now, try back later – that site can be wonky)

Also, I’ve created an image of Nutella’s belly (side shot) week by week so in the end, we could see the “evolution” of it. If you want to see that, it’s under the cut.

Full Term

It’s very tempting to make some sort of April Fools post, but I promise this isn’t one. We’re very happy about today though, as today marks 37 weeks and thus, full term. We will hopefully be meeting our little one near the middle to end of this month. Since my topics will be all over the place, I’m going to switch over to bullets:

• We now have a working shower again, completed as of yesterday afternoon. Thank goodness.
• Our professional photo shoot was put on hold until this coming weekend due to said shower catastrophe and what seemed like a rainy day. The rainy day actually turned into a beautiful one, so Nutella and I went out and took our own pictures with the spring blossoms (one appears at the end of this post)
• My boss invited my co-workers and I to a cookout yesterday afternoon during our lunch break. At the end of the cookout, he said “Wait, I have dessert” and ran to his car. He returned with cupcakes for all and a baby shower card for me, signed by everyone, with a $100 Target gift card. I hadn’t really thought they would do anything for me, and I was really touched and delighted.
• We had a good midwife appointment yesterday. Nutella does not have Group B Strep which means no antibiotics during birth- yay! Baby is still doing well with a beautiful heartbeat. Everything else looked good and we had our favorite midwife for the third appointment in a row.
• We have *almost* everything we need for this baby, but would be ready if he came now. The nursery is still full of stuff to be put away, but it’s getting there. I really want to share pictures of the room with you, but not while every surface is covered with piles.
• Finally, like one of the moms over at Reproducing Genius spoke about recently, I feel like I’m going through major emotional “housecleaning.” At this point, little else seems to matter to me but my wife and our child. I know what kind of parent I will strive to be, based on my own experiences and what I’ve seen around me. I also have no tolerance for people who do not respect the choices we have made and will be making, since all of our choices are made with the physical and mental health of the baby and Nutella foremost in our minds. I’ve been feeling very withdrawn lately, to my surprise, and have been avidly nesting. I am also feeling very overprotective of my little family and our home, and I can only imagine this feeling increasing when the baby is born.

That said, here’s one of the pictures we took among the cherry blossoms this weekend…Happy April!

belly and blossoms

Take these flowers, please!

35 Weeks

Our due date is exactly one month from today. We’re both truly feeling excited about meeting and holding our son soon. We have a few more errands to take care of before he gets here, a couple more Bradley classes to attend, a baby shower next weekend and our weekly midwife appointments…but I have a feeling that the time is going to fly by rather quickly. Nutella is ready to have her body back, too. She may have felt her first Braxton Hicks contractions this morning- slight cramping while laying in bed that disappeared when she got up. I’m excited to think that her uterus is preparing.

We went to a fancy gala in the city last night for PFLAG. Back in the first trimester, Nutella snagged a couple fancy maternity dresses from Freecycle. I asked why she needed those and she told me “You never know.” Lo and behold, we got serendipitous tickets to last night’s event just a couple days ago, and are also invited to a wedding 11 days before our due date. Thankfully, one of the two dresses was perfect for the gala and should be fine for the wedding, too. We were both thrilled to meet Alan Cumming at last night’s event and got a picture with him after he kissed our cheeks. I should’ve had him send some musical theatre vibes to our unborn child, although with Nutella’s theatrical background, I think that’s probably been taken care of already.

As Nutella’s been getting bigger and bigger, she’s been wanting more attention from strangers regarding the pregnancy. People have been on their best behavior around her though- no random people have touched her belly or anything. However, last night, while I was waiting outside for valet to get our car and Nutella was still in the hotel, the woman next to me leaned over and asked “When’s she due?” I was a bit surprised, not having seen this woman the entire night, but had a conversation with her in which she got the details of our pregnancy and then told me all about her two early deliveries, etc. Then, when the woman’s car was pulled up, she ran inside the hotel to hand Nutella the tulip centerpiece she had taken after the event ended, explaining that she wanted Nutella to have it since she was expecting. People are funny.

33w 3d

We are currently the proud parents of….a beach ball.

The weather is gorgeous outside, so we ventured out into the city today. The belly is big. The belly makes Nutella, and hence me who is attached to Nutella’s hand, very slow. The belly makes Nutella’s legs and feet swollen. The belly makes Nutella hot. In short, we had lunch outside and then walked around, but the pace and energy were very different from what they used to be. When we got back to the car, Nutella was extremely relieved and fell fast asleep on the drive home.

We both anticipate Cupcake being on the other side of the belly soon. Until we get to that point, things will continue to be heavy, slow and hot, and patience is the name of the game.

Organic tattoos

Yes, those are stretch marks you see along the front of the belly in week 32. They appeared VERY low down several weeks ago in stunning, angry, dark purple-red diagonal lines and are slowly creeping up the curve of my belly. Despite our twice daily oil or lotion applications, they itch like a mo fo.

Cupcake still moves around a lot but his movements are very different from a few weeks ago. He is clearly running out of room to move in there. I can distinctly feel a tiny foot lodge itself under my ribcage (painful, as you may imagine) and once or twice we have felt the curve of his butt pressing outwards.

At this point, time is moving both quickly and slowly. I am literally counting the weeks until he is out and I can begin getting my body back. Yet the amount of stuff that is happening between now and then is daunting. We are busy nearly every weeknight with classes and appointments and we have 2 showers coming up soon. Then, ready or not, he’ll be here. And we are so very excited!

Tourists in Babyland

Today we went out to a “baby megastore” listed as one of the top 20 in the Baby Bargains book. This is the second store we’ve gone to at the advice of Baby Bargains, since the first store was good- better than BRU. Baby Bargains is somewhat of a bible to us now. We cannot, in good faith, add anything to our registry or even so much as think of purchasing a baby-related item without consulting THE BOOK.

So we went to the store, and everyone else is also carrying THE BOOK under their arms. It makes us all seem like tourists in babyland, albeit well-prepared tourists with a good street map who can kind of speak the language.

We found a dresser we liked, which was 20% off, and ordered it. It is Munire, from the Urban collection, pictured below:

There is no picture that exists on the entire interweb of the 6-drawer dresser we bought. So you’ll just have to imagine it until we’re able to post nursery pictures soon. The store’s delivery estimate was 10-14 weeks. If it takes 14 weeks, we’ll hopefully already be changing the baby on the floor. Luckily, many people have said to expect it much earlier than that.

I leave you with a 28-week belly shot:

Just for kicks…

25 week belly shot:

As usual, Cupcake is kicking the heck out of dear Nutella, even waking her up in a painful kind of panic last night whereupon I tried to talk to him to settle him down and let his poor Ima (and Mommy) get some sleep. We got a request to show some of this crazy kicking/movement, so below is a short (40ish second) video of Cupcake doing his “comb trick.”

Last post for 2008!

Back from Miami.  A lovely time was had by all.  The weather was astoundingly perfect.  80 degrees and sunny with a warm breeze during the day, dropping to a pleasing 74 at night.  Our internal season/time sensors were very confused by 74 degree temps and darkness at 6pm.  To us, if it’s that warm and dark out it must be fairly late in the evening and thus, time for bed. I could get used to it though, but bedtime at 9pm in South Beach is unheard of.

My blogroll had over 100 posts this morning, so out of deference to those of you who will be reading this from a similar vantage point, I’ll keep it short. 

• Today I am 6 months pregnant.  Running out of time!!
• Cupcake kicks and punches and rolls often.  Last night when we stopped at their house on the way home from the airport, Strawberry’s mother got to feel him and I think she was thrilled.  Cupcake says “Hi Bubbe!”
• My feet hurt a lot after walking around all day in Miami, but I did as well as could be expected. 
• Depending on what I wear, I can look not pregnant to the stranger’s eye.  Hence, I was taunted by restaurant hostesses announcing drink specials and questioned by waiters when I ordered decaf coffee.
• We are looking forward to 2009 and all of the success and excitement that it will bring, both to us and to all of you out there in blogland.  Happy New Year!

PS. Oh yeah, bikini pictures.  Here you go!

South Beach 12/28/08

Do you hear the ocean, Cupcake?