Dad's little girl

Those of you who know Michael's personality well might not be surprised to hear Leah is mimicking Michael in the photo above. Seriously, he makes that comical face whenever he sees a baby but his little girl is the first baby I've ever seen making the face back at him. Guess we know she is his little girl.

Leah was a bit cranky last night. We're not sure if it was rebellion against the camera flash or a result of mom's milk being spiked with dark chocolate. I didn't eat any chocolate tonight, I'm almost hoping she'll be fussy so I don't feel any urge to give up my favorite stuff. Of course, one data point can not be considered a trend so I'll surely have some other nights of chocolate gorging to be have confidence in my analysis.

There's also a possibility that some congestion is causing her troubles. Personally, I'm really hoping this congestion doesn't stick around. It's bothersome to Leah but it also causes me some challenges at night. Leah's bassinet is on the left side of our bed and Michael sleeps on the right side. Last night I had their heavy breathing in stereo, it was not fun. The loud breathing is one of Michael's characteristics I wish Leah didn't copy.

Leah got mail

We walked Leah over to meet the neighbors last night. "She looks quite regal," was his comment. At the time, Leah was sitting in Michael's arms with her hand on her chin.

On Friday we made a family trip to Dave's house for Leah's first photo shoot (http://www.dcmphotography.com/). She does not seem to be a fan of the flash so she might not be headed for a modeling career. As I just looked at this family shot I could not help but think, she looks regal.

Friday was a big day for Leah. Aside from her photo shoot she also became official, her social security card arrived in the mail. It was a little strange to see her name on the envelope. A mere few days after she was born, she already had a government issued identity.

Of course, the social security card is nothing compared to the GPS tracking device Michael is planning to insert before she starts dating.

19 lb Baby

One night in the hospital, Michael went to get Leah from the Nursery, after her nightly tests. She was parked next to a 10 lb boy baby. The nurse referred to that kid as Gigantor. Next to Leah that kid looked huge.

Last week a 19.2 lb baby boy was born in Indonesia. This boy, who was 2 ft long at birth, was about 3 1/2 times the size of Leah. I can hardly understand how Leah fit inside me, I can't even begin to understand how a 19+ kid could fit inside someone.

Hopefully that kid grows up to be healthy and Leah never encounters him in a dark alley.

Hello World

There comes a time in every person's life when you have to face reality...

It's time for me to move to this century and upgrade to a cell phone with picture taking capabilities. My handed down Nokia has treated me well although I have been known to beat up on it in return (it gets dropped and sweat on a lot).

The phone has finally rebelled. Over the past month it has lost communication with the SIM card almost daily. Like any good child of the 80's I responded with the classic Nintendo fix; I pulled out the battery pack and blew on the contacts. Works every time.

Although this solution kept the phone going the upcoming arrival of Leah made me second guess my insistence for keeping the old phone. After all, taking pictures of my baby, using my phone, seemed like a good idea. I'd intended to set up a knew phone last Thursday but The Boss had other plans for that day.

Michael pulled out his old Iphone this morning and got everything in order for me. I decided to test out the camera option, I wanted a new photo for my wall paper. I walked over to Leah and told her to look over for her picture. To my amazement she stuck her hand up in the air, looking as if she was waving at me.

So here it is, the one picture I have taken with my phone. My overachiever 10 day old is waving at me.

Okay... maybe she isn't as cognitively advanced as I'd like to believe but it was pretty impressive that she happened to wave at the moment I was taking the picture.

Limitations

While I was pregnant a lot of people asked me how I thought I'd deal with all the life changes I faced ahead. They wondered how I'd feel about working out less and scheduling activities around a child. I didn't know, I still don't know, I just know it's all changed now.

I was not planning to have a c-section but that's the way the cookie crumbles. One of the tough aspects of a c-section is the recovery, it's longer and maybe a little harder on your body.

While I was in the hospital I felt much less mobile than usual but the nurses laughed at me a bit, telling me how well I was actually doing. On the first night, my torso and below were 100% numb. One of the nurses asked me if I could roll over towards my side at all. I pushed down on my arms and shifted my entire body to face the side wall.

"How did you do that?" she asked in complete amazement.

"I don't know, I just used my arms. You asked if I could roll on my side."

She started to laugh, "You have no idea... most people can't move at all."

Here are a few of these changes / limits and my perspective on them 1 week after Leah's birth...

Pain Meds - There are a lot of pain medications prescribed to c-section ladies. I'd been told by others to stay ahead of your pain medication, it's tough when you get behind schedule. I listened to this advice but I also wanted to get off those things as quickly as possible. By the second night after her birth I started having some really bad dreams and my body was retaining a lot of water. Plus, I can't imagine those things are good to have in your system. So I've been doing my best to clear this stuff out.

Driving - No driving for at least 2 weeks, longer if I was still on the pain medication. I get cleared to drive again at my first postpartum appointment. Although this limitation makes it difficult to go run errands I'm perfectly happy to have Michael do all the driving. It almost feels like having a personal chauffeur since I sit in the back next to Leah.

Laughing, coughing, sneezing, etc - These activities are among the most painful of all, the incision sight is not a fan. For the past week I've been begging Michael not to make me laugh. Every time he says something funny I do my best not to laugh. When something gets in my throat and I need to cough I grab water and hope I can wash it down. The other day I cried a bit and realized it hurts to blow my nose. I've put a kibosh on all emotions.

Water Exposure - no swimming, no baths, no water applied to the stitches for 6 weeks. The swimming and baths is to decrease the chance of bacterial infection to my inside as well as my incision location.

Exercise - 6 weeks with no exercise. Everyone just kept telling me no heavy lifting and no strenuous exercise for 6 weeks. The OB on call during the weekend told me I could walk as far as I wanted. I finally started to tell the doctors I needed more details to prevent me from unknowingly doing too much.

Heavy Lifting = 10+ lbs
Walk as far as you want = You should not want to walk more than 1 block
Strenuous exercise = Yoga, Running, Cycling, Swimming, Weight Lifting, etc

Of course, I do admit, even a short walk through the hospital seemed like a tough workout at first. This video makes me laugh every time. I was so out of it that day. Too bad it hurts to laugh.

Good Eater Award

Leah's first pediatrician visit was Tuesday morning. Before going to Dr Louis's office we got to visit CPL to get a bit of blood drawn. She seemed to do pretty well having her heal poked yet again. Luckily the veins in her heal don't seem to roll like the huge ones in her mothers arms. Both forearms are still bruised from the 5 times I was poked for an IV last Thursday. The trails of veins in my arms could be used for a picture in an anatomy textbook but that doesn't mean they like to stay in place when being poked at.

Back to Leah's appointment...

We were happy to hear she weighed in at 6 lbs 2 oz. The doctor was sure to tell us there are often differences in his scale versus the hospital scale but in general this is a good sign. She's been an overachiever in the dirty diaper department (we know because we have a spreadsheet to record all of it) and has also been doing well eating.

Yes, my daughter is a good eater, we're giving her this weeks Good Eater Award. Unfortunately this has lead to some interesting side effects, mainly effecting yours truly.

The amount of milk the mom initially produces is partially a result of the amount of colostrum the baby takes in during it's first few days. Leah, being the good eater, got me all set up to produce enough food for a small army of babies. I now have a pleasure of two leaky faucets attached to the front of me. Or maybe we should call them leaking balloons, a faucet is much smaller than a water balloon filled to capacity, about to pop due to pressure.

Last night I had to make a trip trip to Target to purchase some new supportive undergarments. There were two in the maternity section for little people with big balloons. Michael tries to keep the spirit upbeat about this, "Some people pay big money for that." Somehow I doubt the leaking is part of their surgical reshaping. Of course, it would be much worse if someone who'd had plastic surgery started to leak for no reason. At least there's a usefulness in all this mess.

BTW, Michael is holding Leah in the picture above because she was already hungry when the doctor came in too see her. We knew she would not be too happy if mom held her and refused to feed her. It's a bit hard for a newborn to understand why it's not convenient to feed at certain times or places. Of course, I'm nobody to talk, I always carry a snack with me and have no problems sneaking them into my mouth whenever I want.

Sleep

Newborns sleep a lot! They basically eat, poop, pee, and sleep.

But something amazing seems to happen every night, Leah has some internal alarm that goes off at 10:20 PM. I think it's the get up and play fussy baby alarm. Then another alarm goes off at 5:30 AM, be perfect and cute.

I don't know for sure but it seems quite a bit too coincidental that 10:20-5:30 are the exact sleeping hours I've followed for the past couple of years. For 9 months these were the hours when her environment was not rocking her to sleep. Therefore, these were the hours when she was awake to move around and it appears her internal clock has not changed.

Therefore, I am booking a flight back to New Zealand to visit some friends.

Oh wait... that won't work... It's not a good idea to have an infant on the airplane that long (germs, etc). I guess we'll just have to endure this adventure like the other parents out there.

For now we'll just go with the tried and true tricks:

Sleep when the Baby Sleeps: (oops, not doing that right now)
That's what Michael was doing in the picture above. He got in a 4 hr nap yesterday afternoon, the longest stretch he and Leah have slept in the past week.

Do Not Wake the Sleeping Baby:
I learned another valuable lesson last night, do not wake the sleeping baby just because you heard her poop. Last night I heard a big gurgle from her and knew there was a mess awaiting. I debated letting it go until she woke up naturally but felt bad about leaving her in a mess. I woke her up at 11:30 instead of letting her wake up on her own. By 3:30 I was wishing I'd given myself a few extra minutes of rest, next time I might wait to get her up.

Who's the Boss

Leah's testing this morning showed a 1 oz weight gain over the past day and a decrease in the jaundice levels. She'd been feeding well but her crazy number of diaper messes had been all but eliminated. I was a bit concerned about the lack of bowel movements but since she'd had 17 dirty diapers in the past few days I figured it wasn't a big deal.

Our pediatrician cleared our glowworm to leave the hospital today. He wanted Leah to stay under the light until noon but said we were free to go home after that.

We spent the morning packing up all of our belongings and getting a bit more rest before getting discharged from the hospital. Everything was ready to go by about 11:45 but we decided we'd just stick around until 12:00 until turning the machine off.

As the clock struck 12 noon we flipped the switch and Michael got her into her onsie to return home. Just as her right foot was placed in her outfit we heard an explosion. We'd been waiting for 24 hrs for the first green runny poop and Leah had nicely saved it just for the moment we wanted to leave. It was a bit humorous and and also quite impressive when we saw the amount of mess she had been saving up.

Michael changed her diaper and we put her into the car seat, while in the room, to be sure the straps were adjusted correctly. They were a bit too loose, no surprise, and we made the adjustments to get it ready for her first car ride. While this was going on Leah began to show signs of hunger and I decided it would be smarter to just feed her in the hospital.

After spending a few minutes feeding her we got cleaned up and Michael went down to get the car. While he was out Leah started showing signs of hunger again. So I faced the fun task of unpacking all the feeding items and maneuvering us around the room alone. Michael walked in a few minutes later, "No way!"

"Yup, she's telling us who's in charge."

Cleaned up again, it was now 1 pm. We laughed at our nieve belief that we would just walk out at noon since that was what we'd intended to do.

All of a sudden we heard it... another explosion. Our daughter, who hadn't had a bowel movement all day yesterday, had just had 2 in one hour. Sweet!

Labor Report

Before I write too much I must reiterate one thing that I have heard many times throughout pregnancy, "Everyone is different."

Years before I even considered getting pregnant I had been told, "You're so tough, labor will be a breeze for you." During pregnancy I'd heard stories of other people finding labor to be easy or telling me I'd have no problems because I was in pretty good shape.

Well... I can tell you without a doubt, Thursday was the most painful thing I have ever endured. For me, it was a huge challenge and I commend all those other mothers out there who have gone through it.

Now... for what I remember (I've been told there is a bit of labor amnesia that occurs)

On Wends night (Sep 16th) Michael and I went to bed with the intention of getting up at 5am to go for our Thurs morning workouts. As I laid down I noticed a lot of gurgling in my belly and wondered if I'd actually make it too the pool. At 11:30 I woke up, pretty sure my water had broken, I changed into some clean clothes and laid back down for a bit. I woke up Michael at midnight to tell him my water had broke, "Are you sure?" We were both confused b/c we'd heard it would have a distinct smell but we didn't smell anything... or well... I didn't smell anything and Michael smelled something horrible for a short amount of time. He said he'd had a dream already that night about my water breaking. We called the nurse line, took a few last minute belly pictures, and emailed the people we were planning to meet up with in a few hours.

Then we were off to Seton. I've never seen Mopac so empty or feel as empty as it did during that drive, yet somehow we had a diversion when the off ramp for 35th st. happened to be getting resurfaced. Not a big deal but a bit humorous.

We checked into the hospital and it was confirmed that my water had broken. Doctor said I get 24hrs to get the baby out, after my water breaks, before she gets taken out for me.

My plan was to give it my best to get through labor without any drugs but I knew I would have to see how it went. As my OB told me later on Thurs, this was not something I could train for.

At 1am I was at a "generous" 1cm of dilation. By 6am I was starving of hunger, and 1.5cm dilated. There was no choice, I was given Pitocin, medication to induce contractions. The painful part of the day soon began. Within an hour I was having intense contractions at a rate of about 3 min on, 1 min off. Michael tried to assure me, "It's just like doing 800m repeats at the track."

"But I've got about 100 of them to do," I replied half joking and half fearful of the pain to endure.

"I think you have a lot more than that." He was not joking but at the time of the statement we didn't realize how true that was.

Over the next 6.5 hours I went through the most painful thing I have ever endured. My contractions got closer, and at times they began to overlap. The few I remember the most were the ones that didn't seem to let up, when I would have a continuous bout of pain for 10 minutes. I couldn't hardly talk, I could not relax, I could hardly stand. At some point Michael had to leave my side for a moment to go to the bathroom and I could hardly deal with the agony of having him step away.

Mid morning the anesthesiologist came in to ask me if I'd like an epidural. I told him I wanted to keep trying and he said he would be available if I changed my mind. He also mentioned that it's rare for people who are induced not to get the epidural b/c you don't have the same progression of pain as natural labor.

I tried my best all morning to cope with this pain, after all, I believed I was supposed to be able to deal with it. After about 3 hrs of labor I really wanted to take the epidural but could not bare the idea of given up. Michael kept assuring me I was doing fine. I'm not real sure what he was thinking but that's what he told me b/c he was doing his best to support my efforts to make it through without the epidural.

If I am not mistaken, I believe I was at about 3.5 cm by 10am. As noon rolled around I was seriously questioning my ability to keep going. I could hardly stand up on my own and my body was getting fatigued. My nurse said my contraction patterns were looking like someone who is pretty far in labor, and we got excited for a moment. She checked my cervix, "You're at 9cm!, opps... I slipped you're still at 5.5 cm." She told me that most people could expect to dilate about 1 cm / hr up to 10 cm now. Once I'd get to 10 I'd have to push. After 6.5 hrs of this I was not sure if I could make another 6. The internal battle was huge but I asked for the epidural. I almost felt as if I was a quitter. What if I speed up and get to 10cm in 2 hrs from now, I could do 2 more hours. No, logic said it was unlikely and I should let myself get the epidural to have energy to push.

I got the epidural and almost instantly the baby's heart rate started to have trouble. A swarm of nurses and doctors entered the room and I felt even more guilt, that I'd made a decision that was hurting my baby to keep myself from feeling pain. This was actually not the case, it was the effect of her position and the constant contractions on her head leading up to that point. Her body was having trouble with the intensity and frequency of the contractions, and a decreased heart rate is her way of telling us she is unhappy. This decreased HR did occur a few more times during the day and was not considered to be good, a sign of fetal distress. To control the heart rate decrease, the nurses had to reduce the amount of Pitocin to reduce the contractions, which reduced the rate at which my cervix would dilate.

After the scare subsided I realized what had happened. Maybe I should say I realized how much pain I'd truly been in. All of a sudden I was able to relax and carry on a conversation. It's no wonder why so many people just tell you to take the epidural when you are given the chance.

For the rest of the afternoon I was stuck in bed, hoping my cervix would dilate and Leah's body would be able to cope with it well.

At 8pm, the doctor on call checked my cervix again, and discovered I was only at 6.5cm. I had progressed only 1cm all afternoon. Things were not looking good for a vaginal delivery. The doctor also expressed concern about the shape of my pelvic arch and the ability to have a vaginal birth. Even though this conversation was hard to have, the doctor did a great job of presenting this to me in a very professional manner. I had a good cry, but knew what choice had to be made. At this point, things moved the quickest they had in hours, by far!

At about 8:10pm I was wheeled into the OR. I was prepped for cesarean surgery, and Michael was prepped to watch. The room was full of people who were doing a great job keeping me in good sprits. One nurse by my side blurted out "We're havin' a birtday party!" The doctor announced when she made the incision, which was clearly one of the most stressful points in the day. The doctor eased the tension by mentioning: "wow, you have not body fat." I said 13%. She asked where, and Michael blurted out "boobs and butt". Great place, the doctor said.

A few seconds later, though what felt like an eternity, we heard some crying. The nurses dropped the drape so Michael could see Leah for the very first time. She was quickly moved over to a cleaning area and prepared to go the transition nursery with Michael. He and the nurses snapped a few pics and video and before I knew it, they were gone, and I was being cleaned up and taken to the recovery room.

About 20min later, Leah and Michael rejoined me for the first feeding. We got about 15min of feeding in, which the nurse said was pretty good. At this point, we were all very exhausted, but still had a lot of sleepless, though well worth it, hours ahead of us.

It's impossible to know what cards you will be dealt for your labor, however you can be assured it will be the most memorable experience of your life.

Leah Madison

Leah Madison Garel
Born: September 17, 2009 @ 8:32pm
Weight: 5lb 15.5oz
Length: 18.5"

Mom and baby are healthy and doing great.

Labor report may be posted eventually....

Baby G's Library

I just finished Baby G's library... okay... maybe not quite the picture above but it's still a good collection.

A few months ago Juli told me she had some books to pass along to Baby G. On Friday afternoon I made a trip over to her house to gather up the newest treasure. I had no idea what she meant when she told me she had some books. I assumed it would be a box or two of favorites that I would be able to add to my growing collection from friends.

After spending a few hours loading up an entire CRV full of books I was a bit overwhelmed. I made a trek to the Container Store on Saturday to buy some milk crates for organization (we need to set a good example and use the ones without a "property of..." stamp). I had to go back today because I had underestimated the amount of books I actually had. 10 crates later, I think I've got a good handle on them.

Now I'll just need to be sure I have enough building blocks that she doesn't begin to use her books to make forts when she gets to the construction age. If she takes after her mother she might realize how useful heavy books become when you want to be sure a sheet will stay draped between two pieces of furniture. This of course is not quite as destructive as using books to create a large scale domino game.

Euro Pregnancy

For those of you wondering... still no Baby G. My efforts to convince her to come out yesterday were useless. I hear it might take some jalapeno eating too con her into coming out to play.

Yesterday afternoon there were two European couples at a gathering we were at. They've each had children in the past couple of years and one of them is pregnant right now. At one point the conversation turned to the topic of drinking alcohol while pregnant. One of the husbands commenting, "It's fine to drink while pregnant as long at you don't get stinking drunk."

They were pretty surprised by the warning labels on the beer that said not to drink while pregnant. They were even more surprised when I told them of all the signs posted in restaurants which warn people about the dangers of drinking while pregnant. Apparently if you are having a Euro pregnancy a few drinks a week is perfectly fine.

It's interesting to think about all the cultural differences out there. Aside from this whole drinking concept there are differences in views of what pregnant ladies can / should be doing. For example, do you think there are a lot of women in third world nations who get put on bed rest for the last month of pregnancy? How many of them are tested for gestational diabetes or get concerned about gaining too much weight? How many countries have a 12 week maternity leave?

Sometimes it's worth while to take a step back and think about how different we all our. What would things be like if you were born into a family on the other side of the world or even one on the other side of town?

09-09-09

In the middle of the day I realized it was 09/09/09. No Baby G on labor day, no Baby G today. Wonder what day she's going to arrive...

----

I've been wearing the same TYR swim suit since the beginning of the year. Somehow the miracle suit has lasted / stretched through my entire pregnancy. A few weeks ago the strap stitching started to come apart and I worried, what if it breaks before Baby G arrives? No worries, I'll just keep wearing it until it stops stretching or breaks.

When I took it out of my swim bag after practice I noticed the strap had broken, no bueno. If you look carefully in the picture above you'll see a broken white strap. Carla thinks it'll be fine on top of another suit so we'll go with that for a while and see if it lasts until Baby G arrives.

Shortly after taking this picture Ali arrived and I told her my bad news, "My swim suit broke."

"At your stomach?" she asked.

We all got a good laugh at that image, my suit stretching so much at my stomach that burst apart like a Hulk Hogan shirt.

Benchmark testing

After 9 months of being pregnant there's some inevitable physiological changes that take place. There are the shrinking parts; non-existent bladder, highly compressed small intestine, and all the muscles which have been working out less. Then there are the growing parts; you can see some of them but there is also a growth in heart and lung size.

This implies some potential fitness benefits, such as increased VO2 max, which I don't have a means of testing right now. Instead I have been subjected to a more simplistic testing protocol: the stair test.

My OB's office is on the 5th floor of her building. I've been assessing my fitness throughout pregnancy based upon my ease for climbing the stairs to her office. I must admit, today I had to take a deep breath at the top of the stairs. Trouble is, this test is flawed since I am currently congested and can not breath well to begin with.

The slightly negative results of today's test are counterbalanced by the fact that I beat another lady who took the elevator to the fifth floor. This (non-pregnant) lady boarded the elevator at the ground floor when I entered the stairwell. I'd already begun signing in at the office when she entered.

Therefore, I have concluded; I am still rating highly on my stair climbing test. If I could just find someone to give me a VO2 max test a month after pregnancy I'd actually have some numbers to analyze.

For those of you who doubted my ability to actually do a pull up on my own, I have no comment on the matter. Instead, I've added a couple pictures taken yesterday morning.



I have no clue why the publishers over at Fit Pregnancy haven't called me for my photo shoot...

Fund Raising

Michael and I always joke, "I saw a lot of fund raising on MoPac today." Whenever we see cops pulling people over every couple of miles we joke about it. Today, I saw a lot of fund raising while driving to Whole Foods. Luckily, I've grown so uncomfortable in the car that I've started to drive more like my brother (Miss Daisy) than my mother (Mario).

Funny thing about this discomfort in the car... I feel as if Baby G is quite cramped when I sit so she's constantly trying to push my ribs out of the way. Every so often I set my hand on the top of my bulge and try to gently rub away the discomfort. It's so strange to be poking at yourself and not actually feel like you are poking yourself. If I poke my leg I feel it, if I poke my arm I feel it, but if I poke my belly I might not feel anything. Or... well... I feel Baby G's bum but I don't feel my poke.

I can't reach

I bought my blue IKEA step stool during orientation week at CMU, 13 yrs ago. It's been on many adventures and has been quite useful to it's mildly short owner.

Over the past few weeks I've encountered a new limitation, my belly has gotten in the way of my ability to bend and reach. I feel as if I'm 6 again, I can no longer reach the bottom of the washing machine or reach the glasses on the 2nd shelf of the cabinet (forget the third shelf, those have always been too high). When I was younger I would merely climb onto the dryer and reach down in the washer or climb onto the counter to reach a glass. For some reason I seem to be a bit less agile right now. The stool is getting a little more use these days, glad I've been holding onto the $3 item for so long.

The stool was quite useful today as I was reaching for small clothes at the bottom of the washer. Yesterday Michael and I picked up a car load of goodies from some people moving to CO. Among the pile were a lot of 2T & 3T clothes. It's funny, right now we have a lot of 0-6 month and 2T-3T. In between are a few items but not nearly the collection of hand-me-downs for the other sizes.

As I was sorting clothes into piles I remarked to Michael, "Darn, this pair of pants already has holes in both knees."

"No problem," Michael smiled, "she'll need clothes like that when she's working on the airplane."

The Mammas and the Pappas

Last night Raul and his Run-far crew put on the Zilker Relays. Once we found out Todd and Beth were expecting their second child I decided it was absolutely necessary to create a Jack and Adams maternity team for the Relay.

They were a bit hesitant at first, "Michelle, it might take us all night for 4 x 2.5 mi."

"Good news, there's a walking division, 4 x 1 mi."

We were all set to go; 4 pregnant mammas to walk, 4 proud pappas to run, and an entire crowd of onlookers to worry that their team might get chicked by some pregnant girls.

The shots above were from before the race started, before the wind and the impending doom of the oncoming storm system.

I'd write more about our evening but I've got a new pile of handed down baby / kid items to go through... time for some more "nesting."

Max Capacity < 1 NB

Last week I joined Michael and his co-workers for lunch. One of them was mentioning his theory on pregnancy, "Women become so uncomfortable the last month that they'll do anything to push that baby out."

It seemed like a relatively humorous comment at the time but it has now become a reality for me. Almost like clockwork, 1 month before my due date I started to become very uncomfortable. It's as if I've completely run out of space for Baby G and she's left with no choice but to push on everything she can find. Who knows, maybe she thinks my ribs will eventually break or my pelvis will just move out of the way.

I guess this is why some people don't have any stretch marks until the very end of pregnancy. She's got a few weeks more to grow at a rate of .5lb/wk. That does not sound very promising for any thoughts of getting more comfortable before she arrives.

On the bright side of all this, it seems like I have a strong, determined little girl.