A July baby

Unless I go into labor right now and have a super fast delivery I think it is safe to say we will have a July baby. I was also thinking about the fact that the baby technically can be born on two different dates if you look at Dutch versus US time..... how funny is that.
One thing I do know for sure is that Jr isn't here yet and I am starting to get quite uncomfortable. Pretty soon I will be desperate enough to start trying the tricks to induce labor like drinking pineapple juice, tonic, biking on bumpy roads etc.

Serious baby talk

I have to have a serious talk with Jr soon. This week the weather will get hot, Wednesday it will get up to 30 degrees C (90 F) and I don't feel like dealing with contractions then. So either today or tomorrow it needs to happen, but by now I am guessing we will have a July baby and Jr is going to stay put till next weekend. How about a 4th of July baby? Then both mom and baby have their birthday on a holiday..... me Sinterklaas, and Jr independence day.

Paternity leave

When Jr is born Sean will get 2 days off. At the moment the Dutch cabinet is deciding on an extension of this leave. One of the parties suggested 2 weeks, but this got rejected. Now they will debate about a 1 week leave. I hope they decide fast, it would be sweet if Sean got a couple of extra days!

What are the odds?

Lately I have been getting emails from some ladies in my aerobics class who already had their baby. This morning I started to notice the boy to girl ratio so far. One woman had a boy and seven had a girl (incl. one set of twins) so far. Also all my friends who had a baby recently or already know what gender the baby is that they are expecting soon after me had/will have girls.....
Does this mean we will indeed have a baby boy to beat the trend or is there just a big girl wave going on?

The other night by the way I dreamed again that we will have a boy. So boy to girl dreams is also 2 to 1 I think.... We'll know for sure soon!!!

Check up

Today we had a check up at the hospital. Nothing changed since my last appointment, my BP is still great (110/75), Jr's heart beat is too and still (s)he didn't drop yet. I was for sure that had happened because I felt something going on and seemed to have more space in my stomach again.... it was probably just wishful thinking.
So we have another appointment next week July 1st (no, not another week!), so it could very well be that Jr will be a July instead of a June baby.

As for now I am thinking of new projects. I have to start keeping myself more busy, because I start to sleep bad at night, I am just not tired enough. But on the other hand it can't be anything to elaborate because I am not allowed to after my bleedings. I think I will go get some fabric and do some crafting. Any suggestions on what to make?

Today is Jr's due date.....

.... without a baby..... but still with a big belly! It is not that unexpected since only 4% of deliveries take place on the due date and 90% of first born babies come in the week after the due date. But with our recent adventures and my liking of tight planning we would have hoped to beat the odds.
Any day now.










This is my last belly gallery of the last 9 months. I almost made a circumference of 1 meter (100 cm), as of yesterday it is 99 cm.

Maternity leave lasts too long when....

....you are happily willing to participate in a 15 minute phone telemarketing interview about pollution of the national airport. Everything at this point to kill time I guess!

Hospital sleep over.....take 3

Before Jr is born (s)he already takes over our complete schedule. Thursday morning at 3 am I woke up with yet another bleeding (take 3) which was pretty heavy. So another field trip in the middle of the night to the hospital was the result, and even though everything looked ok, like Jr's heart beat etc I had to stay in the hospital this time. Bummer... but because this had already been the third bleeding and because I had mild contractions and a high blood pressure the Dr figured it was time to keep me for observation.
Then the long waiting started since Thursday I wasn't allowed to do anything but stay in bed. Sean came to visit me a couple of times in between taking Clover out and taking care of other household things, but that was my only distraction the whole day. I had hoped to go home in the evening, b/c the bleeding stopped, but no.. I had to stay overnight.
This morning I was really sick of staying around with no activity going on besides Jr playing around all happy not indicating any sign of labor. By noon the Dr came and I was ready to go home. At first they wanted to keep me a little longer so I could mobilize and they could observe me during it, but I had my bags packed and was ready to go, so they released me under the condition of taking it very easy.
Hopefully tonight the bleeding will not start again.... it is getting old by now!

Midwife checkup at 39 weeks

One more week till our due date, but no baby yet. Everything seems to have calmed down and I am starting to wonder now if we will be one of the "lucky" ones who go till 41+ weeks. Junior seems to still have a great time in my belly and doesn't show any signs to want to come out soon. (S)he still didn't drop yet, my BP is still great (110/80) and Jr's heartbeat is steady and strong.
Jr is also still growing so (s)he can handle to cold outside world with a nice fat layer, but this makes the space very limited. My belly stays pretty much the same size, but my intestines aren't to happy and at night when I lay down I get reflux because Jr's butt is pushing into my stomach.

On the other hand we should be happy that everything is continuing to go so good and that Jr will be nice and strong to great the world around 40 weeks instead of being premature. We are just sooooooo curious by now!!!

The pressure is on

At the moment the European Championship Soccer is played in Switzerland and Austria. Holland is doing surprisingly well and will play in the quarter finals next Saturday - June 21st. One of the first games we watched with our friends Hettie and Maurice who live in our neighborhood. Hettie is due 6 weeks after me and thus we were cheering for the team with juice and our feet up!



Now that Holland is playing the quarter finals Sean thought it would be funny to get Jr a t-shirt "My first EK". But that also means the pressure is on. Either on my/Jr's side to make sure Jr comes before June 21st. In case they loose there will not be another change to wear the t-shirt anymore. Or the pressure is on on the Dutch team to play well and make it all the way to the finals, which are June 29th.

By the way

we would like Jr not to arrive tomorrow.... Friday the 13th just doesn't sound like a good start.

But besides that we don't have many wishes, we want Jr to come, but not on certain days! Poor baby.

Midwife checkup and take 2

So this morning at 6 am we had another bleeding episode..... take 2. Luckily it was a lot less than last time, but still enough to get us worried. I decided to wait with calling the midwife since I had to go there a couple of hours later anyway. Sean went to work to finish of an experiment he had started and worked on for the past 2 weeks, but didn't feel comfortable leaving me and came home right after he had finished it. We went to the midwife together. She did the standard tests, like my BP (110/80), looked at my belly and listened to Jr's heart beat. That was all great, but the bleeding she didn't trust. She called the hospital to discuss the issue with my gyno, but he was in the middle of a delivery. Since the bleeding kind of stopped again, she didn't think it was necessary to rush to the hospital right away, but we have to keep an eye on it and call if it were to start again. After 10 days since our false alarm she thinks it is necessary to make sure it is still all ok and that the bleeding is indeed still not caused by the placenta. As a "bonus" I need to take it (even) more easy, not lift anything etc.... Great, my patience is going to be tested even more.
So overall we are still doing fine, but both me and Sean stay a little nervous and wish it would just start instead of keeping us on our toes for another 2-3 weeks.
We'll keep you posted.

Nice weekend

This past weekend Sean and I enjoyed ourselves at home. Also we had some visitors (my parents and my MSc supervisor from Vermont who happened to be in town for a meeting) and we went out for dinner. It was a very nice dinner, but these "last-time-just-the-2-of-us-things" are also just weird.

Here is me at 38 weeks pregnancy in my dinner outfit :)

It feels like the waiting has begun

Ever since our false alarm Monday night it feels different. I don't want to go to far away from home and since I still have the feeling there is some activity going on it feels like waiting till Jr announces for real.
I realize it could still take 2 more weeks, so I don't want to just sit on the couch, that would make me unhappy. So today I went to the garden center to get some plants for the yard. These little projects keep me busy and occupied. Although it felt funny, Jr hasn't dropped into my pelvis yet, so in case my water breaks I have to lay down (When a baby's head hasn't dropped yet, there could be the danger of getting the umbilical cord stuck). The idea of me laying down in the isle with indoor plants actually made me laugh when I thought about that in the store....

In the evenings we also just hang out at home. Last night Sean, me and Clover were sitting in the baby room wondering how it will be real soon!


Clover is also excited!


Pretty soon I will be feeding Jr in the rocking chair.

False alarm

I ended my last post commenting on the fact that as of today we enter the "normal" delivery time-zone.... well that was almost not a joke anymore.
Last night we spent in the hospital from about 1.30 - 4.00 am, because I had woken up and was bleeding heavily. At first I called my midwife who recommended us going to the hospital right away. There they did all sorts of test, checked me and the baby and made some more ultrasounds to make sure the bleeding wasn't caused by the placenta. Everything looked fine and thus the bleeding was probably just coming from my cervix getting ready for delivery. Also I had some mild contractions, but they weren't actually doing anything useful, besides practicing my uterus. So false alarm and we got to go home again. The gyno told us you can't predict anything from this bleeding, we might be parents really soon, but it could also last another 2 weeks. But a 42 week pregnancy isn't very likely, so this made us realize all the more how soon we will be parents.

The one good thing that came out of this was the fact that we got to rehearse driving to the hospital. All the bags are ready and we seem to be well prepared and were able to handle this stressful situation very well together. Sean did a great job taking care of me and the baby and all the stuff. He even brought the car seat into the hospital which we got to take home again (empty).....

Ok, time for a nap now, I didn't get much sleep last night!

Midwife checkup at 37 weeks with my mom

My mom came up yesterday. For one reason because I am on leave and it is nice to spent some time together and also to join me to my midwife checkup.
Everything is continuing to look good for both mommy and the baby. My BP is 120/80, my belly is looking good still and the baby's heartbeat is strong. Junior didn't start to drop yet, but the midwife wasn't to worried about it. There is still some space in my belly so why would Jr decide to drop and get his/her head stuck? Good point.
So my mom got to feel Jr's head and butt and she got to hear the heart beat. She really enjoyed feeling her grandchild and to see what had changed in the 30 years since she had her checkups for me. The midwives at the practice I go to are always great in involving the person (like Sean or my mom) who joins me. It is not all that easy to schedule my mom visiting and the midwife visit in one day, so this was a very nice experience for both of us.

So in 10 days I am going back to the midwife. But as of tomorrow (when I am 37 weeks pregnant) we enter the official "normal" delivery time zone..... Jippie.

Me and my mom 2 weeks ago for Mother's day...