Oi baby!

There are -4 days until your due date on February 17, 2008.
You are 284 days pregnant.
You are 9.3 months pregnant.
You are in your 10th month of pregnancy. (huh?)
Your 1st trimester: May 14, 2007 to August 12, 2007. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 13, 2007 to November 25, 2007. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 26, 2007 to February 18, 2008. (28 - 40 weeks)


You are definitely considered full-term now and you are probably anticipating the arrival of your newborn. The crown-to-rump length of your baby is around 15 inches and your baby is now about 21.5 inches long total. Your baby weighs about 7.5 pounds and your uterus is about 8 inches above the top of your bellybutton.

Your official due date will be sometime this week and you probably have a prenatal check up this week to check for labor progress. Try to stay calm while you are waiting for labor to begin. You should have all of your bags packed and ready to go and your birth plan should be in place. Your labor coach should know what your wishes are and you should be able to get in touch with your labor coach at all times. Use false labor contractions to practice breathing and relaxation techniques that you will use during the actual labor itself.

Your baby continues to move further down the birth canal and this is measured in stations. Station describes the degree to which the presenting part of the baby has descended into the birth canal. The 0 point is a bone landmark in the pelvis, the starting point of the birth canal. If your baby's head is at a -2 station, it means the head is higher inside of you than if your baby were at a +2 station.

After your baby is born, she will be weighed and measured. Your baby may cry loudly or she may be dazed from medications. The doctor will suction your baby's mouth and throat with an aspirator. The nurses will dry her off and place a hat on her head to help keep her warm. Security tags will be placed around her arms and ankles and your baby will be swaddled in a blanket. You will be given the chance to hold your baby right after you have delivered. Shortly after, the nurses generally take the baby to the nursery for a bath and other routine procedures. Your baby will be given Apgar scores according to her condition at 1 and 5 minutes of birth. A total of 10 points can be scored. A score of 10 is unusual and most babies receive scores of 7, 8 or 9. A baby with a low 1-minute score might need to be resuscitated and usually the 5 minute score is much higher after he has time to adjust to life outside of the uterus.

28 weeks preggo

There are 79 days until your due date on February 17, 2008.
You are 201 days pregnant.
You are 6.6 months pregnant.
You are in your 7th month of pregnancy. (huh?)
Your 1st trimester: May 13, 2007 to August 11, 2007. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 12, 2007 to November 24, 2007. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 25, 2007 to February 17, 2008. (28 - 40 weeks)





Your baby's crown-to-rump length is approximately 10 inches and the total length of your growing baby is around 15.75 inches. Your baby weighs about 2.4 pounds at this point. Your uterus is a little more than 3 inches above your bellybutton. Your weight gain at this time should be between 17 and 24 pounds.

Blood vessel in the umbilical cord. For several months, the umbilical cord has been the baby's lifeline to the mother. Nourishment is transferred from the mother's blood, through the placenta, and into the umbilical cord to the baby. If the mother ingests any toxic substances, such as drugs or alcohol, the baby receives these as well!

You will probably begin visiting your caregiver once every two weeks. Week 28 is an important week for testing. You will probably be have your glucose tolerance test, an iron level test and if you are Rh negative, you should have an antibody test. The antibody test will determine if you and your baby will have any reactions to each other's blood differences. The glucose test will check for gestational diabetes.

Your baby's brain continues to develop and is now forming the folds and grooves of a fully developed brain. The amount of tissues within the brain also continues to increase in large amounts. The hair that covers your baby's scalp is also getting longer. Your baby is now large enough for presentation to be determined and your doctor might be able to find out if your baby is at risk for being breech. If your baby is breech, don't panic. There is still time for the baby to rotate.

27 weeks preggo

Dates and numbers:

There are 88 days until your due date on February 17, 2008.
You are 192 days pregnant.
You are 6.3 months pregnant.
You are in your 7th month of pregnancy. (huh?)
Your 1st trimester: May 13, 2007 to August 11, 2007. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 12, 2007 to November 24, 2007. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 25, 2007 to February 17, 2008. (28 - 40 weeks)

My baby's heart rate: 146 bpm

I went to the Doctor yesterday. It was a quick visit. He asked if I had any questions ar concerns, then listened to my baby's heartbeat. I go back in 2 weeks for a glucose test, then I'm sure I'll go back another two weeks later.




You are now in the third trimester, and last, of your pregnancy! Your baby's crown-to-rump length is about 9.6 inches and your baby's total length is approximately 15.3 inches! Your baby now weighs about 2 pounds 3 ounces and is going to grow rapidly during this last trimester! Your uterus is about 2.8 inches above your bellybutton.

If your baby were born now, it would have an 85% chance of surviving. Even though your baby is still not fully developed, she would be well within the limits of premature viability. You still have approximately 13 weeks left of your pregnancy, and during this time your baby must continue to grow and develop. If your baby was born at this time, she would have several complications that would require special attention. Because babies do not have adequate amounts of fat at this time, your baby would have to be kept inside of an incubator for warmth. Because the air sacs in your baby's lungs do not yet have surfactant, she would require an artificial respirator. Your baby's brain, liver and immune system still need to develop more also.

Make sure you take good care of your teeth. So-called `pregnancy gingivitis` affects most pregnant women to some degree, and generally occurs in the second trimester. If you already have gingivitis, the condition is likely to worsen during pregnancy.

Your baby can develop hiccups ... my baby did!

26 weeks, 95 days left

There are 95 days until your due date on February 17, 2008.
You are 185 days pregnant.
You are 6.1 months pregnant.
You are in your 7th month of pregnancy. (huh?)
Your 1st trimester: May 13, 2007 to August 11, 2007. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 12, 2007 to November 24, 2007. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 25, 2007 to February 17, 2008. (28 - 40 weeks)





By this week, your baby's crown-to-rump length is approximately 9.2 inches. Remember, that is only from the top of his head to his bottom and does not include his leg measurements! Your baby weighs almost 2 pounds and is beginning to put on weight. Your uterus is about 2.5 inches above your bellybutton and you will continue to grow approximately 1 cm each week. If you have been eating a well-balanced diet, you probably have gained about 16-22 pounds so far. Because your baby has moved further up, you may get occasional pain underneath your ribs.

After a month of having his eyelids sealed shut, your baby begins to open his eyes again this week. Your baby's eyes are almost completely developed. Your baby's eyes are blue in the womb and may change colors later in life. This is true for all races because the pupils do not have their final color until a few months after birth. However, some babies are born with darker or lighter shades of blue. Your growing baby will continue to put on layers of fat until he is born. He is still lean at this point of the pregnancy though. By the time your baby is born, he will assume the typical newborn's plumpness. Your baby's skin will still be wrinkled and red, but the fat continues to fill the skin out.

Finger and toe nails continue to grow.

Blood vessels start to develop in the lungs to prepare the baby for life outside the uterus.

Your baby's blood circulation is completely functional. The umbilical cord system continues to grow and thicken as blood travels with considerable force through the body to nurture the baby. The placenta is now almost equal in size to the baby.

Even though it is still way too soon for your baby to be born yet, the chance of survival withouth severe abnormalities is now 70% provided it is born in a hospital.

Pregnant woman gets punched

Saturday, October 27th

So, I haven't gone out since I've been pregnant because of risk of getting bumped into and whatnot. Not that I'm back in Colorado, I've really wanted to go country dancin' at this bar I used to go to with my mom and sister. It's a no smoking bar and people usually don't get that rowdy, but it isn't a good environment to be in pregnant.

We were able to get tickets to the "Shining Ball" at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (tourist town just outside of the Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park). It was a big deal! I made the tickets so my husband and I could go, a trade. They were $85 each. People paying that much for a Halloween Party are serious!

For those of you who don't know, The Stanley Hotel is where Stephen King was staying when he got the idea about the book/movie The Shining. The hotel is very old (opened in 1909) and there are a lot of haunted stories about experiences there over the years. In May 2006, investigators with The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) investigated the hotel for the SciFi Channel program Ghost Hunters. TAPS returned to the hotel on October 31st, 2006 for a live, six hour follow-up investigation. The people on the show are plummers who use scientific equipment to debunk/disprove haunted claims. That may be the reason she show isn't more popular, because more often than not, the "hauntings" they investigate are leaky pipes or breezes from cracks in windows or doors. TAPS did catch the closet door open and close on it's own on a night vision camera, and the glass sitting on his nightstand broke and the pieces were inside the cup, not on the table. The Today Show filmed a piece for their Halloween show. Here's a small picture:



Anyway, we were having a good time. We went as a white trash couple. Preston put holes in an old shirt and dirtied himself up, he looked great! I'm 6 months (24 weeks Monday) along, but I'm not showing as much as I'd hoped, so I put a pillow under my shirt, wore slippers, used my make-up to give myself a black eye and wore too much red lipstick. We were both holding cigarettes and I was holding a beer bottle.

This lady came up to me when we were sitting by the fireplace and leaned in a little. I thought she was gonna tell me something. She made a fist and punched my stomach. It really hurt, like, she actually PUNCHED me. I looked at her and said, "I'm really pregnant!" and she didn't believe me. I was like, "No... I'm REALLY pregnant!"

She felt really stupid and apologized over and over, but it really hurt! I played it off in front of people (there were another couple sitting across from us), but when Preston and I went outside, I told him how hard of a hit it was. I thought I'd be fine, but I really didn't know because it IS my first pregnancy. We stayed about 15 minutes more, then decided to go to the ER to make sure.

I got right in (the luxuries of living in a small town) and the nurse put two... what looked like over-sized stethescopes on my belly. She couldn't find the heartbeat for about 30 minutes, but just because my baby wouldn't stop moving. She said that was a good sign. We finally got the heartbeat, between 120 and 190, depending on how much he was moving around. It was neat to be able to hear all the movement :)

Everything was fine and I was able to get out of there in less than two hours. Thank god! It just scared me. Who punches someone? At a party? An adult richie hoity toity party? She looked to be in her early 40's or late 30's. It was so weird. She wasn't even drunk. Some people!

Oooh baby !!!!!!!!!

My 23 week old baby: photo taken 12:37:20PM
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007





Baby's heart rate: 160 bpm
Unfortunately, we couldn't determine the sex, we couldn't see :(
The nurse (she was awesome!) said, "During this whole ultrasound, I haven't seen any little boy parts, but I cannot definitely see little girl parts."

23 weeks preggo

There are 117 days until your due date on February 17, 2008.
You are 163 days pregnant.
You are 5.3 months pregnant.
You are in your 6th month of pregnancy. (huh?)
Your 1st trimester: May 13, 2007 to August 11, 2007. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 12, 2007 to November 24, 2007. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 25, 2007 to February 17, 2008. (28 - 40 weeks)

This week your baby's length, from crown-to-rump, is approximately 8 inches! Your growing baby has finally reached one pound. Your baby is about the size of a small baby doll and looks very human. The baby's face and body look similar to that of a newborn at this time. Your uterus can be found about 1.5 inches above your navel. Your total weight gain should be approximately 15 pounds at this time.

You might notice some Braxton-Hicks contractions around this time. These contractions are not regular and they should not be painful. Braxton-Hicks contractions prepare your body for the upcoming labor and they will get stronger as your pregnancy progresses. You might be able to feel the contractions if you put your hand on your abdomen and your baby can probably feel the uterus gripping and massaging her. It will not harm your baby, so there is no need for concern.

Fat is still being deposited at a rapid rate, but your baby still looks red and wrinkled. Skin is being produced at a higher rate than the fat is, so the skin hangs loosely. Your baby looks red because the skin is losing its transparency and pigment is beginning to form. You should be feeling your baby moving quite a bit throughout the day as she will kick and punch the uterus walls. Babies also run their hands along the umbilical cord and touch their body parts while they are in the womb. Your baby now can suck her thumb for real, where she was just sticking it in her mouth. Your baby will continue to swallow amniotic fluid and recycle it as urine. The liquids and sugars that the baby retracts from the fluid is a supplement to the nutrients that the placenta delivers. You might be able to feel small `jumps` inside of you when your baby gets the hiccups from swallowing fluid. The pancreas is developing and it will responsible for insulin production, to help break down sugars.

Oily fish in your diet could help boost your baby's health. (Women who eat oily fish while pregnant have children with better visual development, a major study at Bristol University suggests.)

As the baby continues to grow, it has less space to move around in the uterus. Bones, muscles and organs are growing steadily.

Your baby's lungs are in major growth mode this week, with blood vessels expanding and preparing to help her breathe after she's born. Although she's making breathing movements in the womb (so cute!), it's still just practice with amniotic fluid; your baby will get all of her oxygen delivered from the placenta until she's born. But here's why this lung development is so fabulous: If your child should happen to arrive early (though only 2 percent of babies in the U.S. are born before 32 weeks), her odds of surviving are significantly better now that her lungs are up and running. Of course, these and other important organs still have a long way to go to become fully developed, but most experts count weeks 23 and 24 as important, reassuring milestones when it comes to long-term healthy outcomes from preterm labor.