I have some video from when we told our parents we were having a baby, and thought some of you might like to see it as well!
We made believe we were having a "celebration" because of our offer on the house, so we showed them a video of the house, then Melissa said we had something to give them as "thanks" for everything they've done for us, and went and got gift bags... inside the gift bag was a cookie that said "we're having a baby!" on it. Anyway, here's the end result! (push the play button underneath the black box)
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The best and worst of being pregnant
I'm feeling silly and giddy from lack of sleep so I thought I'd make a top three list of the best and worst things about being pregnant.
Top Three Worst
1. People not only want to touch your belly, but they think they are somehow entitled to the right to do so by the mere fact that you decided to get pregnant. (And no, making puppy dog eyes at me like I'm a big mean monster when I say no does not make me feel bad - in fact, that pathetic face assures me that you don't deserve to touch my belly.)
2. Everyone telling you that you shouldn't find out the sex of the baby because it's "one of lifes only surprises" and then repeatedly telling you how they wish they knew so that they could buy clothes for a boy or girl.
(While you're at it, why don't you give me a big hunk of chocolate and then tell me that I'm fat while I'm eating it.)
3. Never knowing when you wake up in the morning which part of your body is going to decide to turn on you that day and which is more essential to pack - a Warehouse sized bottle of Tums for reflux, a banana to ward off leg cramps, or ice packs for all those extra stubbed toes and bruised knees that result from not being able to see below the level of the belly button?
Top Three Best
1. That parents, especially mothers, automatically seem to trust me more as a Pediatrician.
(I know that it's really because they are thinking, "See, she knows what suffering goes into making one of these little monsters and will understand why I want my completely fever-free kid that is eating a popsicle, bouncing on the bed in the ER covered in stickers, and watching cartoons on TV admitted to the hospital overnight for observation just in case they get sick", but it's still nice.)
2. Knowing that becoming a parent is something that Matt and I are equally excited about and looking forward to having this special other person as part of our relationship forever.
(Yea, cheesy, I know. But how could it not make us appreciate each other more to see one of us spend hours building nursery furniture and hanging up chair rail while the other spends 23 hours on their feet for the independence to afford to buy the aforementioned nursery furniture?)
3. Always having company.
(Sure, sometimes it's in a creepy "Oh my god, I think this thing is going to bust out of my belly like the alien in that movie" kind of way, but looking at the hours I have to work for the next few years, it's comforting to have the baby safe in my belly right now and know I'm providing everything it needs and that I never have to miss him/her)
Honestly, these are my active attempts at being funny. I hope no one is offended, but rather gets a chuckle out of my overactive brainwaves at 3 o'clock in the morning on an eerily quiet night at the hospital...
Top Three Worst
1. People not only want to touch your belly, but they think they are somehow entitled to the right to do so by the mere fact that you decided to get pregnant. (And no, making puppy dog eyes at me like I'm a big mean monster when I say no does not make me feel bad - in fact, that pathetic face assures me that you don't deserve to touch my belly.)
2. Everyone telling you that you shouldn't find out the sex of the baby because it's "one of lifes only surprises" and then repeatedly telling you how they wish they knew so that they could buy clothes for a boy or girl.
(While you're at it, why don't you give me a big hunk of chocolate and then tell me that I'm fat while I'm eating it.)
3. Never knowing when you wake up in the morning which part of your body is going to decide to turn on you that day and which is more essential to pack - a Warehouse sized bottle of Tums for reflux, a banana to ward off leg cramps, or ice packs for all those extra stubbed toes and bruised knees that result from not being able to see below the level of the belly button?
Top Three Best
1. That parents, especially mothers, automatically seem to trust me more as a Pediatrician.
(I know that it's really because they are thinking, "See, she knows what suffering goes into making one of these little monsters and will understand why I want my completely fever-free kid that is eating a popsicle, bouncing on the bed in the ER covered in stickers, and watching cartoons on TV admitted to the hospital overnight for observation just in case they get sick", but it's still nice.)
2. Knowing that becoming a parent is something that Matt and I are equally excited about and looking forward to having this special other person as part of our relationship forever.
(Yea, cheesy, I know. But how could it not make us appreciate each other more to see one of us spend hours building nursery furniture and hanging up chair rail while the other spends 23 hours on their feet for the independence to afford to buy the aforementioned nursery furniture?)
3. Always having company.
(Sure, sometimes it's in a creepy "Oh my god, I think this thing is going to bust out of my belly like the alien in that movie" kind of way, but looking at the hours I have to work for the next few years, it's comforting to have the baby safe in my belly right now and know I'm providing everything it needs and that I never have to miss him/her)
Honestly, these are my active attempts at being funny. I hope no one is offended, but rather gets a chuckle out of my overactive brainwaves at 3 o'clock in the morning on an eerily quiet night at the hospital...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
29 Weeks
By this point in time the baby has almost reached their full birth length (50th percentile at birth is approximately 20"). Although the baby might not have too much more growing to do in that respect, they have plenty of weight to put on. The average weight for a baby at 29 weeks is around 3lbs whereas 50th percentile at birth is about 8lbs. As this fat accumulates in the baby's body, their skin will start smoothing out and the baby will look less wrinkly.
According to all the baby sites I like to read, the baby is starting to fill up my belly more and the kicks should be more vigorous and less erratic. I have found both of these facts to be 100% true. My belly feels "full" already and I even find that at the end of a particularly long shift, when I've been on my feet most of the night, that my whole belly actually even aches. It feels like I've been at the gym taking an hour long ab class with Jenn - which is laughable because I don't even think my ab muscles exist at this point in time.
In terms of "kicking", when the baby is awake, I definitely know it! The baby tends to be asleep or moving around less vigorously during the morning hours (6am-10am), then I am sleeping so I am not sure what they are doing (10am-4pm), there are only occassional big kicks in the evening (4pm-12am), and then they GO CRAZY in spurts overnight(12am-6am). The baby is so energized during the late night/early morning hours that I will just look down and see my whole belly "bubbling" like a pot of hot water at times. In all honesty, it's a bit disconcerting til you get used to it. It's not at all the comforting little flutter that I imagined listening to people talk about being pregnant. I'm not saying it's unpleasant, just much more forceful than I expected.
Finally, I know I already mentioned the bad reflux I was having in my previous post, but somehow in the 48 hours since then it's gotten MUCH worse. It's now progressed from some chest discomfort, to a burning sensation in my throat, to full fledged stomach acid coming up when I hiccup or burp. And I'm thinking it can only get worse from here...yikes! Anyway, not really complaining as I know what to do about combating it (more Prevacid!), but I'm just sharing for all the never been pregnant ladies in the room who want the REAL scoop on pregnancy:-)
Finally, here is a picture Matt took last night of my 29 week belly before I went to work tonight.
According to all the baby sites I like to read, the baby is starting to fill up my belly more and the kicks should be more vigorous and less erratic. I have found both of these facts to be 100% true. My belly feels "full" already and I even find that at the end of a particularly long shift, when I've been on my feet most of the night, that my whole belly actually even aches. It feels like I've been at the gym taking an hour long ab class with Jenn - which is laughable because I don't even think my ab muscles exist at this point in time.
In terms of "kicking", when the baby is awake, I definitely know it! The baby tends to be asleep or moving around less vigorously during the morning hours (6am-10am), then I am sleeping so I am not sure what they are doing (10am-4pm), there are only occassional big kicks in the evening (4pm-12am), and then they GO CRAZY in spurts overnight(12am-6am). The baby is so energized during the late night/early morning hours that I will just look down and see my whole belly "bubbling" like a pot of hot water at times. In all honesty, it's a bit disconcerting til you get used to it. It's not at all the comforting little flutter that I imagined listening to people talk about being pregnant. I'm not saying it's unpleasant, just much more forceful than I expected.
Finally, I know I already mentioned the bad reflux I was having in my previous post, but somehow in the 48 hours since then it's gotten MUCH worse. It's now progressed from some chest discomfort, to a burning sensation in my throat, to full fledged stomach acid coming up when I hiccup or burp. And I'm thinking it can only get worse from here...yikes! Anyway, not really complaining as I know what to do about combating it (more Prevacid!), but I'm just sharing for all the never been pregnant ladies in the room who want the REAL scoop on pregnancy:-)
Finally, here is a picture Matt took last night of my 29 week belly before I went to work tonight.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Doctor Visit Today
As I said previously, I'm now on visits to the doctor every 2 weeks. The visits really only last for about 5 minutes and I'm not entirely sure what the point of them is, but I'll keep showing up because prenatal care is a good thing!
So the visit started off with the traditional calculating of the baby's gestational age (28 weeks and 5 days) and weighing me in. The verdict this time is that they saw no weight change from last visit. I attribute that to the fact that the night schedule I'm on has really disturbed my eating schedule and I pretty much always seem to have reflux (not just with meals) so eating is hard. The reflux is getting worse as well. It used to be more of just a feeling that food/beverage could and would come back up. Now I have that, plus a burning sensation and sour taste of acid in the back of my throat. I've had to up the ante from popping half a dozen tums a day to actually taking a low dose of daily Pepcid as well.
After that they checked my blood pressure and found it to be a nice healthy 100/60 - no pregnancy induced hypertension for this girl! They also checked my pee, as usual, and everything was clear. When I actually saw the MD, she first used the doppler to listen to the baby's heart rate which was in the mid 130s today. Then she measured my belly. The way she does that is to stretch a tape measure from approximately the top of the pelvic bone to the top of the uterus - which seems to be about 2-3 inches below my rib cage. I find this quite impressive as in its normal state the uterus is well below the pelvic bones and not palpable. Finally, the doctor told me that the blood work I had done over the weekend came back within the normal range which means that I don't have gestational diabetes.
At the last second, as the doctor was leaving the room, I basically begged her to see if an ultrasound tech was available to give me one more peek at the baby as they told me last time that I didn't need any more ultrasounds unless something was wrong. Although it really literally only was 1 minute, the tech was free and did do a quick scan to show me the heart beating and to take one quick shot of the baby's head with his/her hands up near the face. I think the picture is creepy actually, but Matt will scan it at work tomorrow and he can post it then.
That's it for now! Time for me to take advantage of the quiet time on the floor and work on some studying for Step 3.
So the visit started off with the traditional calculating of the baby's gestational age (28 weeks and 5 days) and weighing me in. The verdict this time is that they saw no weight change from last visit. I attribute that to the fact that the night schedule I'm on has really disturbed my eating schedule and I pretty much always seem to have reflux (not just with meals) so eating is hard. The reflux is getting worse as well. It used to be more of just a feeling that food/beverage could and would come back up. Now I have that, plus a burning sensation and sour taste of acid in the back of my throat. I've had to up the ante from popping half a dozen tums a day to actually taking a low dose of daily Pepcid as well.
After that they checked my blood pressure and found it to be a nice healthy 100/60 - no pregnancy induced hypertension for this girl! They also checked my pee, as usual, and everything was clear. When I actually saw the MD, she first used the doppler to listen to the baby's heart rate which was in the mid 130s today. Then she measured my belly. The way she does that is to stretch a tape measure from approximately the top of the pelvic bone to the top of the uterus - which seems to be about 2-3 inches below my rib cage. I find this quite impressive as in its normal state the uterus is well below the pelvic bones and not palpable. Finally, the doctor told me that the blood work I had done over the weekend came back within the normal range which means that I don't have gestational diabetes.
At the last second, as the doctor was leaving the room, I basically begged her to see if an ultrasound tech was available to give me one more peek at the baby as they told me last time that I didn't need any more ultrasounds unless something was wrong. Although it really literally only was 1 minute, the tech was free and did do a quick scan to show me the heart beating and to take one quick shot of the baby's head with his/her hands up near the face. I think the picture is creepy actually, but Matt will scan it at work tomorrow and he can post it then.
That's it for now! Time for me to take advantage of the quiet time on the floor and work on some studying for Step 3.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Another Nursery Update
Yesterday my dad came over and put up the chair rail. I think it looks pretty good! It definitely makes the whole two color thing look a lot better, and makes the room look more "complete."
After we were done with that (well, I still have to get the stuff to fill in the nail holes) I put together the dresser... I'm getting to be an expert at putting together furniture! It was a pain, but it wasn't too difficult... took maybe an hour and a half or so.
So that brings us to where we are now, a finished crib, dresser, painted walls, and chair rail! Now we just need to get a changing table... then we'll decide the best arrangement of furniture in the room.
After we were done with that (well, I still have to get the stuff to fill in the nail holes) I put together the dresser... I'm getting to be an expert at putting together furniture! It was a pain, but it wasn't too difficult... took maybe an hour and a half or so.
So that brings us to where we are now, a finished crib, dresser, painted walls, and chair rail! Now we just need to get a changing table... then we'll decide the best arrangement of furniture in the room.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Painting the Nursery!
We finally were able to work on the nursery today, and it's amazing how quickly it's coming together!
I hate painting, and Melissa's dad is good at it so he was nice enough to come and do the majority of it. Last night Melissa and I washed the walls and taped around the corners and stuff, and this morning Wayne came over and painted the room. Melissa was getting a (routine) blood test and once she was home she cut in around the corners to help out.
Here's some before, during, and after picures!
I hate painting, and Melissa's dad is good at it so he was nice enough to come and do the majority of it. Last night Melissa and I washed the walls and taped around the corners and stuff, and this morning Wayne came over and painted the room. Melissa was getting a (routine) blood test and once she was home she cut in around the corners to help out.
Here's some before, during, and after picures!
The "before" picture of the room
Melissa painting
(unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Wayne painting even though he did most of it!)
(unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Wayne painting even though he did most of it!)
All done painting!
Melissa painting the clouds
While Melissa painted the clouds, I put together the crib. My dad is coming over tomorrow to put up the chair rail, so it probably wasn't the greatest idea to start putting furniture in there, haha, but Melissa doesn't have many days off so I figured it would be nice to do while she's here! I have the dresser to put together too, but I'll wait until the chair rail is up to put that together.
Putting together the crib wasn't that bad, I'm getting pretty good at putting furniture together, haha... well, I guess I'm good if you consider making only one mistake "good" ;-) I got it almost completely together when I realized that the front part was backwards... oops. Luckily it was only a 10 minute fix.
And that brings us to where we are now! The crib is put together, walls painted, and clouds painted...
Here's the final product, with our current baby, moe.
Melissa painting the clouds
While Melissa painted the clouds, I put together the crib. My dad is coming over tomorrow to put up the chair rail, so it probably wasn't the greatest idea to start putting furniture in there, haha, but Melissa doesn't have many days off so I figured it would be nice to do while she's here! I have the dresser to put together too, but I'll wait until the chair rail is up to put that together.
Putting together the crib wasn't that bad, I'm getting pretty good at putting furniture together, haha... well, I guess I'm good if you consider making only one mistake "good" ;-) I got it almost completely together when I realized that the front part was backwards... oops. Luckily it was only a 10 minute fix.
And that brings us to where we are now! The crib is put together, walls painted, and clouds painted...
Here's the final product, with our current baby, moe.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Late night update!
Nothing too exciting to update as it's only been a few days, but I'm awake and figured I would post. Yesterday was a particularly awful day for me at work and I'm beginning to realize why many people don't have babies during intern year of residency. That said, I'm still 100% assured in our decision to have a baby now. At the very least, I like to prove to myself that I can do difficult things and this is clearly the most difficult thing I've ever done.
Anyway, here is rundown of a day in the life of a pregnant intern:
I was on call Sunday beginning at 8am. We had a very busy morning with many discharges to arrange, but a decent afternoon with just enough work to keep us busy. I was even able to take a decent lunch break, but needed to limit what I was eating to keep the reflux to a minimum. I even tried to spend a little bit of time teaching the two med students that were around, but one of them kept disappearing and the other seemed more interested in studying in a corner. By the time evening sign out came around (8-9pm) I was tired. Unfortunately, being tired is not an excuse for a busy ER or demanding nurses on the floor.
Between admissions, transfers from other hospitals, and answering calls from the nurses I couldn't even try to sleep. Also, let me tell you, it is not easy to smile and provide hypothetical answers regarding treatment to hypothetical questions from an over-anxious mom about non-existent symptoms in a peacefully sleeping child at 1am when you've already been up for 19 hours, but somehow I did it. I learned that I have the patience of during the second incredibly similar encounter an hour later with another mom. Finally, it was quiet and I went back to the lounge to update the sign out list and nap.
I had just drifted off to sleep around 3:15am when my senior resident paged me to meet him in the ER for 2 more admissions! This amount of sleep was not enough to refresh me, but was long enough to make my legs, back, and belly ache from lying on an uncomfortable couch clutching my pager in my hand for fear of missing a page and allowing the nurses to trump me and call the senior. To make matters even better, the reflux I was experiencing almost made me puke all over the elevator on my way to the ER. I made it back to the lounge an hour later around 4:40 and was finally able to sleep until 6 (with only 3 pages waking me up in between). From 6-7am I ran around checking labs, following up imaging, and trying to make myself familiar enough with the histories of all my patients to be able to present them adequately during sign out. By 9am I was passed out cold in bed with warm kittens surrounding me.
The only fun thing about this crazy schedule is that it seems the baby likes to be very active around 3 or 4 in the morning so I have him/her to keep me company.
Anyway, here is rundown of a day in the life of a pregnant intern:
I was on call Sunday beginning at 8am. We had a very busy morning with many discharges to arrange, but a decent afternoon with just enough work to keep us busy. I was even able to take a decent lunch break, but needed to limit what I was eating to keep the reflux to a minimum. I even tried to spend a little bit of time teaching the two med students that were around, but one of them kept disappearing and the other seemed more interested in studying in a corner. By the time evening sign out came around (8-9pm) I was tired. Unfortunately, being tired is not an excuse for a busy ER or demanding nurses on the floor.
Between admissions, transfers from other hospitals, and answering calls from the nurses I couldn't even try to sleep. Also, let me tell you, it is not easy to smile and provide hypothetical answers regarding treatment to hypothetical questions from an over-anxious mom about non-existent symptoms in a peacefully sleeping child at 1am when you've already been up for 19 hours, but somehow I did it. I learned that I have the patience of
I had just drifted off to sleep around 3:15am when my senior resident paged me to meet him in the ER for 2 more admissions! This amount of sleep was not enough to refresh me, but was long enough to make my legs, back, and belly ache from lying on an uncomfortable couch clutching my pager in my hand for fear of missing a page and allowing the nurses to trump me and call the senior. To make matters even better, the reflux I was experiencing almost made me puke all over the elevator on my way to the ER. I made it back to the lounge an hour later around 4:40 and was finally able to sleep until 6 (with only 3 pages waking me up in between). From 6-7am I ran around checking labs, following up imaging, and trying to make myself familiar enough with the histories of all my patients to be able to present them adequately during sign out. By 9am I was passed out cold in bed with warm kittens surrounding me.
The only fun thing about this crazy schedule is that it seems the baby likes to be very active around 3 or 4 in the morning so I have him/her to keep me company.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Belly pics!
Hey there... Matt here. Welcome to the new blog. Just thought you might be interested in seeing how Melissa's belly has been progressing!
27 Weeks
That last pic was actually taken today... Hard to believe the "arrival" should only be a few months away! And I'm sure Melissa finds it hard to believe that the baby has 3 more months of growing to do, haha...
6 Weeks
14 Weeks
20 Weeks
27 Weeks
That last pic was actually taken today... Hard to believe the "arrival" should only be a few months away! And I'm sure Melissa finds it hard to believe that the baby has 3 more months of growing to do, haha...
27 Weeks!
Baby and I are in the 27th week of pregnancy now and fast approaching what I like to consider the week of viability. The basic rule you learn in medicine is that the 28th week is when the lungs actually "mature" or start to produce surfactant which increases lung compliance and allows for easier breathing. Yup, I realized I just lost everyone except Jackie and perhaps Dave, so I'll leave it at that...Anyway, I know very well from working in the neonatal intensive care unit that babies can survive before 28 weeks, but it's still a milestone to me and I'll be happy to reach it next week!
Basically, by now the baby is about 14 or so inches long and should weight around 2lbs. If we were to meet him/her right now they would look almost like a normal newborn except smaller because they wouldn't have any extra body fat as that really doesn't start accumulating until later on in pregnancy. Since everything has been in place for awhile now things are just continuing to mature. As I already mentioned, the lungs are working hard to mature as is the immune system and the brain.
I went to the doctor's office last week and had a quick check-up. I've gained a grand total of about 10-11 pounds, my blood pressure remains in a healthy range (100/72), my belly seems to measure where it should, and the baby's heart rate was in the 140s (also where it should be). I'm now up to visits every two weeks. According to the doctor I don't need to get any more ultrasounds unless there are any problems, which is quite unnerving to me. I liked to be able to see him/her and know what kind of growing they are doing in there...let's just say I popped down to the newborn nursery to visit the baby's future pediatrician this week and saw AN ELEVEN POUND BABY which may have traumatized me for life. Other than that, I'm doing alright at this point. The reflux has continued to get worse, and I'm now taking Pepcid, but everything else seems to be in proper working order. I'll probably be making most of my future posts in the early morning as I'm working the night team (8pm-9am). It's clearly not ideal, but it's only a month and I've already got one week down!
Matt and I are planning to begin work on the nursery in the next week or so, so stay tuned for pictures of our progress!
Basically, by now the baby is about 14 or so inches long and should weight around 2lbs. If we were to meet him/her right now they would look almost like a normal newborn except smaller because they wouldn't have any extra body fat as that really doesn't start accumulating until later on in pregnancy. Since everything has been in place for awhile now things are just continuing to mature. As I already mentioned, the lungs are working hard to mature as is the immune system and the brain.
I went to the doctor's office last week and had a quick check-up. I've gained a grand total of about 10-11 pounds, my blood pressure remains in a healthy range (100/72), my belly seems to measure where it should, and the baby's heart rate was in the 140s (also where it should be). I'm now up to visits every two weeks. According to the doctor I don't need to get any more ultrasounds unless there are any problems, which is quite unnerving to me. I liked to be able to see him/her and know what kind of growing they are doing in there...let's just say I popped down to the newborn nursery to visit the baby's future pediatrician this week and saw AN ELEVEN POUND BABY which may have traumatized me for life. Other than that, I'm doing alright at this point. The reflux has continued to get worse, and I'm now taking Pepcid, but everything else seems to be in proper working order. I'll probably be making most of my future posts in the early morning as I'm working the night team (8pm-9am). It's clearly not ideal, but it's only a month and I've already got one week down!
Matt and I are planning to begin work on the nursery in the next week or so, so stay tuned for pictures of our progress!
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