Thursday, March 29, 2007

Yeah!

Another appointment with the midwife today. I can't believe it's been a week already. I have a to-do list a mile long. I can't seem to get it all done, what with work, hypnosis CD's, and naps. Oh yeah, and I have to cook, eat, and wash dishes in there sometimes too. Good training, I guess, for having a baby.

Anyhow, for those of you wondering, the iron count is up. Good up, too. At 33.5 I am well into the normal range and not considered a risk at all. Whew. Oh, and speaking of normal, my midwife estimates that Goody will weigh from 7.5-8 pounds at birth. So lucky for me she will not likely be as big as her father at birth!

Friday, March 23, 2007

Progression of Pregnancy

Well, yesterday was my weekly appointment with the midwife. I had my blood re-drawn to make sure I've made it over the required 30 count for hemoglobin. Fingers crossed. I'll be super bummed if I don't make it, as I really really do not want a hospital birth. Not to mention all that heartburn for nothing (well, not nothing since the baby does need iron, after all)! I should have an answer on that by Monday.

Goody is still in her favorite position, head down and on my right side. I was worried about sunny-side up as I have an anterior placenta, but everything looks perfect so far! And of course, I forgot again to get an estimate of her size. Secretly, I must not want to know.

Internally, I am now 1 cm dilated and 65% effaced. She is at station -3, so it looks like birth is probably NOT immenent in the next 2 weeks as she hasn't really "dropped" into my pelvis. But she would'nt give me a definite on that, because really there are no definites when it comes to childbirth. She said she's seen women stay at 1 cm for 4 or 5 weeks, and some as little as a few days. It all depends! But she said the effacement and softness of my cervix was a great sign, as these are often hold-ups in labor. Anything that makes labor quick, I'm all for. Of course, not so quick that we can't make the 30 minute drive to Wenatchee...

Here is a link that explains what all this means.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Now we have a front door!

I always hated the front door that came with our house. This one is awesome. We orginally wanted for Tim to build a giant door with 2 sidelights, but time contraints forced us to look for a ready-made one. We found this set at 2 different liquidation stores, oddly enough. It is the same style door we would have built ourselves, with the added bonus of a nice stained glass insert, which I doubt we would've been able to afford. Anyway, the door and sidelight were at the liquidation stores because they had been milled too short. So Tim just bought some more mahogany (did I mention the door is mahogany?) and added some to the bottom. Viola! We now have a door tall enough for Tim to use without hitting his head!

I took a detail photo of the stained glass but it came out blurry. I may try again soon, but for now, it's a lotus branch the starts in the sidelight and carries over in the the door. Probably not the exact colors we would've chosen, but it does look nice. Click on the photo to bring up a larger version that will allow you to see the branch. Basically, thanks to Tim's excellent woodworking skills, we ended up with a door that would've cost thousands of dollars for about 400. I can't wait until the rest of the house is done! The siding is complete, and today Tim is putting the cedar shakes in the eaves. It is really coming together and will be such a nice house when we are done.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Iron is up!

In a rash of seemingly bad news (time extensions, insurance coverage issues, etc), I finally got some good news. Not perfect, but good nonetheless. My hematocrit levels are on the rise. I went from 22 to 29.1. I just need to get that above 30 in the next week and a half to be able to birth at the birthing center, and to be considered in the "normal" hematocrit range. So we are now adding a 3rd type of iron to my dosage.

Here's my regamin now:
  • Prenatal vitamin, Vitamin E, Metformin
  • 2 doses of Iron Citrate, taken with Vitamin C
  • Other iron supplement (?), B12, folic acid

Here's the clincher: I can only take the iron doses either one hour before or two hours after eating. Think about that for a second. Now add in that I'm 35 weeks pregnant and hungry all the time. No fair! Oh yeah, and the iron doses are taken with a delicious tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. I have the option of taking the vinegar either plain or stirred into orange juice. Yum!

And update on the baby: she was curled up in a little ball at my midwife's appointment on Thursday, so we couldn't get an accurate size guess. Next try will be March 15th.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Progress on the house


This is the back view of the house. Note the position of the laundry room door. It is in the same spot, so you can see the house is much wider than before. And the French doors open into the dining room. In fact, if you open the french doors, it will create a breezeway through the entire first floor, directly across to the front door. We really like that idea, sort of homage to old Mississippi architecture. Plus, not a bad feature as most houses here, including this one, do not have air conditioning.
To the left of the new back porch, you can see a new, small window. That is the window over the jetted tub in the new master bathroom. I can't wait!
By the way, the siding is not going to stay that color, although really it doesn't look so bad. Tim wants it to be an olive green, while I think that is too dark and "army colors" with the brown trim. I'm totally down for green, just a lighter shade like celery or sage. I also like the idea of federal blue. We're going to have to discuss it a little more.
Soon, the siding will be done around the front of the house. I'll post more pictures then. I have some photos of the inside of the house, but they are a little scary to post, knowing that the house is supposed to be done by the end of April (was December, then February, then March).

Rupert is a nutcase.



We get so much entertainment from this little brown dog. Tim reminds me that I didn't want to get him at first. Honestly, he seemed a little crazy to me at the time. I was right, he is crazy; but we love him to death. Super spoiled rotten little biscuit. Rupy biscuit, biscuit head, whisker biscuit.

Here's the "kids" playing in the yard with the flippy flopper (sort of a canvas frisbee). You can see that Misha thinks he is nuts, too!