31 weeks

The nurses noticed the absence of my husband right away. They are all very entertained by his tattoos, his ability to speak Chinese, and they still talk about the red mohawk he sported to our first apointment back. I am very boring compared to him! But we made do. Dr. Lee was much less rushed today, he had lots of time for questions and was very reassuring. When I ran out of questions he said not to worry, we'll go through everything when the time gets closer.

Our baby is measuring right on this week, meeting the 31 week average in all categories. (well average for Chinese babies...Did you know that the averages are different for Western babies?) Today we saw the heart and femur and sucking thumb (of course!) The photo is a nice face shot, we'll try to scan it and get it in. She is still in the right position and all looks good. I'm up to 69.5 kg (up 10.5 from when we started). Blood pressure normal. Oh, and the sugar test came back normal, too.

In the symptom department I am doing pretty good, I think. Yeast infection gone for now... (fingers crossed). No backache but I had my first leg cramp in bed. Yikes! I even woke Chester up. Only the one of those so far. My gums have been a little bleedy lately, something the book said may happen. Nothing major, just pink toothbrush sometimes and tinges of pink when I munch down on a nice, crunchy green apple. The baby is moving a lot more now, a little bit at school and more in the evenings. The movements are so much stronger now, she is really pushing lots and testing the limits of her aquatic world. Like the mime trying to get out of the box. I can feel little body parts, although I have no idea what they are. When I move my hand around my belly I can feel soft...soft...soft...hard. But then she pulls back and it disapears. Whatever it may be. I think I felt her head today, it was a pretty big spot and down low where the head should be about, maybe she was stretching her neck. I'm having a hard time figuring out the angles and stuff. I mean, I look at the diagrams in the book and I know what she is supposed to look like in there, but I don't quite get it yet.

9 more weeks!

Feeling left out

Our doctor has very funny hours at his clinic. He is mostly available mornings and this totally doesn't work with Nevada's schedule. He is however open Monday afternoons which is when we normally go. Nevada finishes work and then we head out but lately I've been tutoring on Mondays so we wait until 4:15 and then try and make it before 5. Today my students showed up late so Nevada couldn't wait for me to go with her. I'm totally bummed. I love looking at the ultrasound and seeing all the little parts in action. Because I can't feel the baby in me at all times like Nevada can this ultrasound time is really where I connect with the baby. Oh well...we start our every 2 week appointments now so I won't have to wait long to see my baby again...and then in 9 weeks she'll be here to stay!

Out of breath

I like to think I've been a good supportive husband during the pregnancy so far. I've remained patient and understanding but today I slipped up. We were busy getting the house ready for some weekend guests (the Wristons) and we had to make up the guest bed. We don't have a mattress for the bed but we have these thick foam thingies. We've been using them on our bed but now we had to transport them. We picked them up off our bed and rolled them up for easy transport. Nevada crawled across the bed and was a bit winded. Then we walked across the hall to the guest bedroom and by then she was tired. Once we dropped the foam thingies on the bed she needed a little break. I couldn't believe and I said some smart-ass comment, something to the effect of, "we only walked ten feet, how can you be tired?" Then she explained to me that she can't help it and that her diaphram is being squished or something. Oops...I'm usually able to handle these changes but I couldn't fathom a ten foot walk being tiresome. My bad...I apologize. I still have a lot to learn and need to work on my compassion skills. This thing is one big learning experience....and the baby's not even here yet.

30 weeks

Here are some 30 week pictures...(now that I am really 30 weeks ;) The baby is growing lots today, I can feel my skin stretching. She's been kicking a lot lately. Last week was especially violent, it was almost scary she was moving so much.

I came down with a cold this weekend, the usual Nevada Special complete with swollen glands, runny nose, and dry cough. I've been able to sleep lots and today was a half day of school and I am starting to feel better already so hopefully it doesn't last much longer. I didn't go to the doctor because I don't usually go to the doctor for this, and I didn't know if I should go to my obstetrician or just a regular doctor. (Answers anyone?) I didn't think I had a fever, and there is a tendancy in Taiwanese doctors to overmedicate like crazy. How the health insurance works is you don't pay for prescriptions, but they only give you 3 days worth at a time. So then to get a real dose of penicillian you need to go back three time or else just take the three days worth and hope the super virus you've created doesn't survive. The other medication thing is that with the peniciliian you usually get three or four other pills; one for the upset stomach the other pills cause, one for this and one for that...I don't know if they would do that to a pregnant lady but I figured I would recover on my own in a few days drug free, which it appears I am. Being pregnant is so much worrying!!!

10 more weeks. Someone pointed out today that it means 10 more weekends of sleeping in... That gives me some incentive to not rush things but enjoy each stage!

28 Week Video

I have to say that I am very dissapointed in the lack of comments on the nursing bra post. It took some guts for me, the dad, to post about bra shopping. I even included a picture...oh well, moving on. This week's video is sort of fast paced and kind of choppy. We went to the doctor's office right at the end of his day...10 mins before closing so he was in a bit of a rush.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing

I can't count

So, somewhere between summer and now I got off in my count. I thought I was 30 weeks, but I am actually only 29...Still 11 more weeks to go. (again). Sorry about that! From now on just look at the ticker and ignore me!

We had our monthly appointment on Monday and all was good. I've officially gained 10 kg (22 pounds). The baby is DEFINITELY a girl, I'll let Chris elaborate more on that with the video later this week, and is floating around in the correct position. She is skinny, her head is about the right size for her age but her abdomen and stomach are about 2 weeks behind. The doctor says not to worry, within 2 weeks of average is fine and I should go ahead and eat more. I did one of those sugar tests where you drink the glass of super sweet drink, wait an hour and give blood. They never said anything about it so I am assuming I passed. :) Come back in three weeks he said. And so I said ok.

Bra Shopping

Nevada has been growing a lot lately and that means outgrowing in some areas. We finally decided to go looking for nursing bras. We weren't sure how tough it would be...you see, asian women have smaller breasts so bras don't always fit properly on foreigners. We were told that SOGO (a major department store) would be a good place to check out. The women's underwear floor is convieniently also the baby/kid's stuff floor. We walked through the underwear section and as it merged with the baby section there were a few maternity underwear shops. Perfect, that was easy. We quickly spotted the nursing bras with the clips. One of the shop ladies started to help us immediately, she grabbed a measuring tape and sort of without asking whipped it around Nevada's chest and determined that she was an E 80. They use different sizing....centimeters I think. Then she showed us what styles that had in Nevada's size. Most of them had this cheesy lace that I didn'tlike and looked old ladyish but when in Rome. Nevada took a couple to try on. Just as she started to change the lady knocked and entered the changeroom in one move. She "helped" Nevada and began to praise the fit of the bra she had picked out. I was close by trying to translate between the two and was mostly successful. Nevada decided on one bra that had a little but of lace but felt comfortable and seemed to be the most maneuverable for nursing. It was a fun adventure!


As we walked around the baby floor we also found that we could get a lot of stuff. We weren't sure how easy or difficult it would be to find things we needed but it was mostly all there. The prices were similar to home or slightly more expensive but no worries, God will provide. Another successful day and another item checked off on the to-do list.