EDD

Our estimated due date (EDD) has come and gone and left me feeling a bit disappointed (mostly because I had to return to work today after a nice relaxing weekend). EDDs are always +/- 2 weeks so we're still well within a reasonable time frame; it's just that the waiting is agonizing and my body is ready to return to normal.

Isn't it so strange that at a certain moment, my body and Champ's little body will decide "It's time!" and things will start to change drastically?

There is, no doubt, some evolutionary benefit to the end of pregnancy being so uncomfortable. Until about a week ago, the last nine months has been rather pleasant and certainly transforming. It's been exciting to experience each new step of pregnancy and to receive so much positive attention from the people around me. Overall, I've had a very easy time of it (little nausea, virtually no leg swelling or heart burn, no trouble with sleep). If it didn't get a little uncomfortable in the end, perhaps more women would grieve the end of their pregnancies, or worse, feel more reluctant about laboring.

I am definitely getting fired up to get things moving. Kyle and I took a walk on Saturday, a loop that would normally take 10-15 minutes. I think it took us 30 because I had to walk so slowly and stop multiple times to catch my breath. After that and a quick errand, all I could do was lay on the couch while Kyle unpacked the groceries and waited on me with snacks and hot apple cider (he's the best). Additionally, the shear weight of Champ has been making it harder just to turn over in bed. I have to lie pretty far over on my side to take his weight off of torquing my back.

I'm pretty sure Champ is getting just as uncomfortable as me. When he does move, he seems like he's trying to stretch out and create more space for himself. When he pushes his feet outward, I can feel that they're full-sized!

This pregnancy has gone by fast and I'm trying to savor the last few days of it, but I'm also so eager to meet Champ and see what he looks like. I can't wait to meet this little creature that developed inside of me and discover what makes him unique.

I'm ready whenever you are little man...


(Photo not me btw.)

The Nursery

Since a few of you have asked, here's a few photos of the nursery. I decided not to do anything too theme-intensive since we're planning to sell the house later this year. Half the room is still being used as a storage and work-out room. The juxtaposition of soft, fluffy baby gear and hard, cold dumbbells is pretty funny.






The walls are decorated with adhesives that can be reused and don't harm the paint. There are super cool designs at http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/explore






I LOVE our new glider/rocker. I've already been rocking myself to sleep in it... Thanks Dad and Karen!


Cool bucket-drawers from Ikea for toys and books:


I thought about omitting this part of the room, but to give you the real-life effect I had to include it. I think it reflects the slow progression of how this baby is slowly- though not completely- claiming his place in our lives.



The balloons are usually in the crib to keep the cats out. The dumbbells are a part of Kyle's morning work-out routine. And the rest is, well, other random stuff I haven't had time to organize. Nice.

Any Day Now...

Here's a recent ultrasound image of our little man (profile of his head looking to the right and hand in upper right corner):

Video Camera

In anticipation of Champ's arrival and all of the documentation that we are going to want to have, we purchased a video camera! The camera arrived in the mail today. We ended up getting a pretty nice one because I'm hoping to use it for video taping Ultimate for instructional and promotional purposes as well. It's a Canon Vixia HFS200. Thank you to my parents who helped make this possible!

And, without further ado, here is the first video! I haven't decided if I'm more of a Scorsese or Coppola yet.

Urban Momma Photo Shoot (37 Weeks)

This whole idea was really Kyle's brain-child. He wanted to summarize our lives in Atlanta. The location is the Krog St. tunnel, a well-known landmark in our neighborhood due to it's tolerance of graffiti art and many concert postings. He also insisted that I wear my scrubs so as to capture my doctoring experience. Our friend Nick took the shots. It's certainly a different take on the usual soft black and white nude belly portraits!

36 Weeks

Champ's Development:
- Length 17-19inches
- Weighs 4.2-5.7 lbs and becoming chubby
- Kidneys and liver fully developed, lungs still finalizing
- Baby may drop into pelvis, becoming "engaged"



My development:
- Have gained 30lbs and am now starting to really feel the extra fluid in my womb
- Feeling Champ roll and squirm around all the time
- Mild ankle swelling, especially after my flight from MA (I had cankles for a day!)
- No heartburn, but increased frequency of burping
- Felt my first couple Braxston-Hicks contractions: These are early contractions that are supposedly helping prep baby (and especially Mom) for birth. It felt like a bad menstrual cramp and I was compelled to get on all fours and do some deep breathing. They only lasted about 30-60 seconds.




- This is about the time that most babies are head first and starting to engage the pelvis, but alas, Champ is still defying gravity (a future astronaut perhaps?) and maintains his breech position. I have been seeing a chiropractor who specializes in prenatal and pediatric work. She's been using a method called the Webster Technique to open my pelvis and encourage the baby to turn. At home, I've been practicing inversions, including laying on my inverted massage table, to try to get his butt out of my pelvis.

At this point, I've started to let go of my wishful birth plan (that of a natural water birth in the hospital) and have started to get realistic about the possible options and outcomes. Mostly, I've started to focus less on my own birth experience and more on doing what's best and safest for Champ. At my midwife appointment this week, if Champ is still breech, she'll refer me to an OB. The OB will ultrasound me and define Champ's exact position. If it's favorable, he will do external cephalic version (ECV), a brief, but unpleasant maneuver to manipulate Champ's position.



If it works, great. I'll be able to proceed with the plan. If it doesn't, there's a few possibilities. If he's frank breech, meaning butt down and legs up, I can deliver naturally with my midwifes (only 2 practices in Atlanta are still doing this). If he's any other type of breech, I'll have to have a c-section. This would be a little disappointing given that I've been hoping for the au-natural route, but like I said, I just want to do what's safe at this point.

So, keep your fingers crossed for a spontaneous flip or a successful ECV for me!

The Naming of Things (part II)

Ok, this going to be a quick one. Yesterday Sara and I were out at Bucket pick-up (Bucket is an elite level co-ed frisbee team that we both played on last season but are not playing on this year). While we were warming up a few of the players were talking about baby names. One of the women, a teacher, told (an urban legend?) story about a girl named "l-a." When she was in class and the teacher called her name as "la" she responded, "it's pronounced "ladasha." I couldn't help but think of this as a clever and simple way to play with the English language to create new words and sounds.

So, I present to you my new proposal for Champ's middle name - C'. This would be pronounced "Capostrophe."

Ok, so before you think I'm crazy, please read on. At one point there was a rumor or report that distinctively black names resulted in worse life outcomes for a child. However, more recent studies indicate that controlled for familial and economic circumstances that has not been found to be the case. Here's an actual study and here's a popular article on the subject. Anyway, it appears that names are typically an indicator rather than a cause.

Even considering that a name might impact a child's life outcome, in this case, we're talking about a middle name. I don't know about you, but I hardly use my middle name and most people probably don't even know it. On most forms or applications you are usually only asked for your middle initial. If, on reading the name, people pronounced the name as "C" that would not be inaccurate.

Interesting and semi-related side note, President Harry Truman middle name was actually just "S." The "S" didn't stand for anything.

Ok, so hopefully I've allayed your concerns about the Champ's life outcomes if we were to give him the middle name C'.

So, why do it? First, C' is interesting and unique. I can pretty much guarantee that no one else has that name. Capostrophe is unique by itself but C' takes it to another truly fascinating level.

I'm a big fan of voiceless fricative sounds for words and names. These are sounds that are made by pressing air out through small openings. "F", "Sh," "S," "Th" are the primary voiceless fricative sounds in the English language (each are made by pressing the mouth together at different points to restrict air flow). C' has two voiceless fricatives in in it: "Cap-Os-tro-fee." This is just a fancy way of saying that I like the sound of C'.

The first half of the name "Capo" is a word meaning "a movable bar attached to the fingerboard of a fretted instrument to uniformly raise the pitch of all the strings." Sara and I are both guitar players (in fact one of the first things we bonded over) and own and use "capos."

Finally, the middle name C' would start with the same letter as the nickname we've been using for Champ in utero.

Ok, so Sara thinks C' is crazy. I want to hear from folks that we are close with: is C' ridiculously awesome for a middle name or just ridiculous?