35 weeks!!!!

35 weeks today, 5 weeks (or less) to go....

I am taking guesses on the date Jenn actually gives birth, Chris is sure that August 20th is the day (at exactly 38 weeks), that's 3 weeks from today!

34 week appt.

So Kirsten and I went to another doctor's appt. this morning. It went well! We were able to go over the ultrasound I had a while back. It showed that the baby was head down and in the 50th percentile for weight. She said he is probably close to 5 pounds now. It also showed that I have an anterior placenta. Everything looked fine on that.

I also picked up my vbac consent form, and we got to hear the heartbeat. All in all, a pretty normal appt. We will have one a week from here on out.

Pumping and exercise?

Is there a connection between the increased volume of milk achieved after exercise? For me at least it looks like there is. I have noticed that whenever I pump directly after a long run the volume of milk I achieve goes up significantly. Seems spooky weird to me, why would that be? Whatever the reason, I'm happy, and it makes me want to go do more exercise, can't fault that!

Pumping update

Pumping is going quite well. It's exhausting but hopefully it will be worth it. I get a maximum of three hours sleep at a time but I guess it's good practice for when baby Evan arrives!! I've now been pumping for two weeks and I'm getting just over 3 oz a day. It's not enough to feed a baby, but it's a start and if I'm lucky it will increase before Evan makes his arrival.

Nearing the End

I'll be 33 weeks on Friday, and I had my first clue that I'm nearing the end last night--I slept on the couch. For some reason toward the end of my pregnancies I always end up sleeping on the couch. In fact, with my first, my water broke in the middle of the night on the couch! I didn't do it with the twins only because I was on bedrest and wasn't allowed to go downstairs, but would have if I was allowed.

It's been SO hot these last few days (near 100 degrees today) where I live that even having the air on doesn't make any difference. But downstairs it is nice and cool even with the air off. Also sleeping on the couch helps with the inevitable heartburn I get in the 3rd trimester. So last night at about 2 am I had finally had enough of the tossing and turning and came down to the couch to sleep. I plan on doing the same tonight! :)

The hospital tour

Last night we went with Jenn on a tour of the hospital where she will give birth to baby Evan. There was lots of information, but much of it wasn't much use to us since we have already signed up for all our classes and Jenn is not too far away from giving birth! Since Jenn is also well practiced in the art of childbirth much of it we already knew. It was interesting to see the actual rooms where the baby is born, but I have to admit pretty weird and surreal at the same time. I still find it hard to imagine that in a few weeks Jenn will have baby Evan there and we will bring him home!

The most exciting part of the evening was watching Jenn's tummy moving in *waves* when baby Evan was moving during the tour, I think he was getting excited about being on the "out"!

Good or bad?

So, here is my first 24 hour pumping effort (just under 1oz). Doesn't look like much for pumping every 2 to 3 hours through the day and night does it?! I don't think baby Evan would be impressed. I already know this is going to be hard work. I hope things improve, it's early days yet, but being available to pump every 2 to 3 hours is very difficult! After today I can go down to every 3 hours, sounds like a huge improvement, I figure I can do 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 10pm, 1am and 4am. Sounds lovely doesn't it?!!

(The little people have already shown interest and Sarah has pointed out the lack of milk! Thanks for the encouragement little people!)

Taking it to the next level

Today Jenn is 32 weeks. Given that she is likely to give birth before 40 weeks it's time to start the next phase of the adoptive breastfeeding protocol, which is pumping and herb consumption. Given the size of the herbs it seems likely that I can just stop eating and survive on these alone! I have taken my first dose and cannot lie, I did gag. I hope it gets easier, I hate to think of the amount of calories in the orange juice I am going to have to drink to get these horse pills down each day. I am in two minds on the pumping. I'm excited to start, just to see if it works and but I'm not looking forward to being tied to such a heavy schedule especially while looking after the high maintenance little people. For the first couple of days the suggestions is to pump every two hours and after that every three hours, and yes that's all through the night too!!

I might as well get used to the lack of sleep, it seems from here on out between the little people, pumping and baby Evan's arrival, sleeping for more than a few hours at a time will be a thing of the past! I can't wait for my Mum to arrive to help me through this exciting but quite frankly overwhelmingly tough time!!!

Baby Saver....or not?

Yesterday Chris and I went to a baby saver class to learn how to do basic first aid on children (yes, I do realise we should already know this stuff).

During the class we had a doll to practice CPR on. During my turn at CPR my dolls head fell off.

Yes Evan, you should be worried, very worried.

I think I'm nesting?

It's hard to tell really, I'm such a clean freak anyways that I'm not sure if this is going further and "nesting" in preparation for baby Evan? I've started cleaning all the white woodwork around the house, it all has to be done before he arrives. It's something I would do anyway, but I am on a mission to have EVERYTHING in the house perfect before he arrives. I know that once he is here we'll be lucky to have time to think about doing things, much less actually doing them.

I am writing list after list of things I want to get done. I'd probably get things done quicker if I stopped writing lists AND stopped writing about what I'm planning to do on my blog!

The little people are having quiet time right now so it's time to go clean some more skirting boards!