Halfway There

Ultrasound: We had the "big" ultrasound two weeks ago. Bedo is tracking right around its due date (first time for us...yeah!!) Everything looks good except it has an enlarged ureter which means that it could have an enlarged kidney/kidney issues down the line. The 'worst case scenario' is an operation at a year old. Most likely though it will correct itself. We go back at 34 weeks to look again--if it is still enlarged we'll check again at 1 month old and 6 months old. The doctor goes through the issue and then says "But I really don't want you to worry about this at all." With 'worst case' being an operation at one and not 'your baby won't survive' which is what we heard a lot last time around, we both looked at each other, turned back to the doctor and said at the same time "Don't worry, we won't." And we won't.


Oh, and since my little "I'm still so small" post the pregnancy gods have bitten back. I feel HUGE all of a sudden (and apparently I'm "a lot bigger" according to A--how sweet :)).


Due Date: I think we may have the WORST DUE DATE EVER. I can say this, because Bedo is coming within DAYS of my birthday so I know what it is like. Let's face it--any birthday between Dec 20 and Jan 10 blows. No way around it. Holiday rush and holiday hangover. Doesn't get much worse. Andrew thinks I'm crazy, but what does he know....he's an AUGUST baby.


Sadly, I (well, we) did this to the kid. I can't claim innocence. Not gonna say I didn't want it a different time, but not gonna pretend I didn't know the potential consequences. So now the Christmas baby who spent a good while bitching about it, is having a Christmas baby and two January babies. Payback is a bitch. (My mother is thrilled).

Other than a lifelong apology, my current plan for all three kids is to do what my mom did--give me gifts on my 'half birthday.' I'm going to ask family members, if they feel like it, to hold off on birthday gifts and give them something instead during a "Xmas in July" celebration or something along those lines. As you get older there are some positives of a Xmas birthday, but as a kid getting all your gifts at one time is by far the WORST part about being a Xmas baby. When you are little you grow out of clothes in 6 months, and you like new toys in 6 months. So since I essentially did it to all 3 of them, I'm going to keep their parties (where they hopefully won't get gifts anyway) at their birthday times but ask family members to give gifts during the summer. We'll see if it works.


As for delivery date, the worst days appear to be 12/24, 12/25, 12/26 and 1/1, but none of the others are very sweet. Right now I'm shooting for a 12/29, 12/30, or 12/31 scheduled section. Any opinions??

Movement: Bedo is either lazy, really low key, or you feel things a lot less with one. Or I am remembering how much I felt wrong. With C/D it felt like once I started feeling movement they never stopped. C was ALWAYS moving (they'd tell me that every ultrasound too). D was typical D--she'd be really quiet for awhile, and then something would happen to set her off and she'd go crazy (read: LOTS of kicks to the bladder). Anyway, all in it felt like a lot more movement than with this one. It's been a rough few weeks and I'm not going to say that it doesn't worry me sometimes because I will go a long time without feeling anything.


Round Two: The resolutions have begun. Things I will do differently this time around:


--I will NOT get diapers with characters of any kind on them again for oh so many reasons. Hello Seventh Generation. Or maybe even G diapers.

--I will NOT think I am being a GOOD mother by microwave steam cleaning the bottles after each use. I cringe to think of it (though Andrew did tell me about an article that says the bpa/XX. I may even get glass bottles this time around.

--I will NOT let the kid chew on anything plastic, especially those damn rubber bath toys.

--I will keep the kid away from Target as long as possible. I know I've bitched about Target before, and I've learned to like it a LOT more. But my new issue with it is that EVERYTHING is commercialized there. I realize this may have to be done to keep costs down but as a parent trying to keep my children from falling into the corporatization of childhood abyss it makes going there a total pain in the ass. You can't buy a toothbrush without a trademarked character on it. Every toy and even piece of clothing seems to have some character on it, and princess crap abounds. It is too bad too because there are so many great things to find at Target for kids, but I'm resigning to try to go on my own as often as possible from now on. (Sometimes I worry too because things are so cheap there that it is easy to say "sure you can get that," even when you want to teach them moderation, etc. At the absurdly expensive toy stores around me it is a LOT easier to say "no").

There are others, but these are definitely the first ones that come to mind.

Here's a pic of monkey #3. I know it is 3D and that creeps some people, including me, out a little. But at the last ultrasound I realized that after my last pregnancy I equate the normal ultrasound pics with fear, worry, and anxiety so we're going with the 'creep out' factor instead.

And perhaps even creepier to some of you, here's a VIDEO. Look at that beautiful 4 chamber heart go!!