Day ~185
Saturday morning, I went to yoga as usual. When I got home, I sat down to catch up on some emails, and suddenly became so very, very tired ... I actually got into bed and fell asleep for two hours! Take note: I never, ever nap. I am a night owl. And if I do lie down, I always lie down on the couch. The bed is for sleeping at night. But Saturday ... every cell in my body told me to go back to bed and sleep. So I did.
I was tired again Sunday, tired again Monday, tired again Tuesday. And Miss Belly, along with my tiredness, stopped moving around as often and as vigorously. So on Wednesday, getting increasingly worried, I went into the doctor's office. Blood pressure - perfect. Temperature - perfect. Lung sounds - perfect. Baby heart beat - perfect. So what was wrong? Was it sudden-onset third trimester symptoms? Something else? The doc, wonderful and compassionate as always, decided it would be "reasonable" to send my over to the hospital for a "Non-Stress Test." Oh, how hilriously named could it be!
So, I headed straight over, and walked into the maternity ward, and they put me into a quiet room with a nice, soft hospital bed, and strapped two soft belts around me, with round discs the size of coasters placed just so to hear Miss Belly's heart. And there we rested, for two whole hours. Her heart beat filled the room with its swishswish sound, and when she moved - she did move a few times - it echoed with a scratchy rumble. The monitor gently churned out a grid with the zaggy blue line that showed each beat.
Once - just once - the swishswishswish halted, stammered ... and stopped. I sat up in bed a little. Looked at the screen. Yup - the blue line dropped in a long V to the bottom of the grid. And then, swishswishswish, she picked right back up again. I called the nurse. She said she'd seen the same thing (they were monitoring everything from another room) - that is was probably totally normal - she was probably playing with cord. But she'd page my doc, and talk it over with him.
Long story short - they decided that although it really wasn;t too worrisome, and everything else on the test looked fine, we should test again. If there is another "variable," we'll do an ultrasound. If not - we'll proceed as normal.
Yes - everyone has recommended that I chug some orange juice ... drink ice water ... lie down ... play music ... none of it makes Miss Belly jump into action. She's given me a few kicks today - not as many, and definitely not as strong. My belly hasn't really jumped, I don't feel any rolling around or jabs. Just a few pokes, and few vague motions, a few times per day.
Miss Belly - are you just busy growing? I wish you could tell me that you were doing just fine ... I wonder if I should ask for an ultrasound anyway, just to ease my mind and to see you again.
Saturday, we leave for a week's vacation at the coast. Hopefully, my mind will be at ease by then, and both of us can rest, breathe the sea air, and grow ...
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Friday, June 09, 2006
Day ~183
Your party in Colorado was so much fun, Miss Belly. The aunts and grandma all got along (small miracles!), the food was lovely, and so many people came to celebrate you! Off the top of my head, the guests included Grandma Margie, your nonna (my mom), Aunt Linda, Aunt Sandy, Elizabeth, Aunt Debbie, Crinda, Aunt Kay's daughter-in-law Amy (who cried when she arrived - we all miss Kay so much) and her two little girls Alexis and Carly, my friends Bonnie (with sweet little Abby!), Amy M., Val, Alicia, Rita, Maia's mom Shirley (bearing gifts from Lorna and Paula), Christie, and much to my surprise my friend Annie, whom I met when I was just two years old and who was my very best fairyland imagination friend for many years. I know there were more people than that ... it was such a whirlwind, saying hello to everyone - that it passed in the blink of an eye.
You have your high chair waiting for you, and good silly books, and so many sweet little sweaters and jammies and socks! Bonnie even came with two bags of hand me downs from Abby, so we came home with four boxes and an extra suitcase piled high with things that will help welcome you into the world.
But you know - the "stuff" doesn't really matter, even though I'm grateful for all of it. It was being with all these great women, who are so very happy for me, and so excited that you are coming to join us.
And just think - our Portland party is next month, and all of your daddy's family will be there, and your very, very special Aunt K and Uncle R, and all of our wonderful PDX friends that we are so very lucky to have met when we moved here not knowing a soul. Now, if just one of them would have a little one for you to play with ... your mama and daddy are not usually the trailblazing type, you see, so it's exhilirating and a little scary to be the first ones we know to have a baby ...
Your kicks grow ever stronger. I am reading a fantastic book - Ahab's Wife - that is three inches thick and very heavy. When I rest it on my round tummy at night, your kicks actually send it jumping! And a few nights ago, daddy could feel you kicking while I was sound asleep ... how strange to think that you already have an independent life from mine, moving and testing your strength while I am snoozing away. Daddy felt lucky to have some special time, just you and he.
Just 14 weeks to go, Miss Belly. I'm treasuring every moment.
Your party in Colorado was so much fun, Miss Belly. The aunts and grandma all got along (small miracles!), the food was lovely, and so many people came to celebrate you! Off the top of my head, the guests included Grandma Margie, your nonna (my mom), Aunt Linda, Aunt Sandy, Elizabeth, Aunt Debbie, Crinda, Aunt Kay's daughter-in-law Amy (who cried when she arrived - we all miss Kay so much) and her two little girls Alexis and Carly, my friends Bonnie (with sweet little Abby!), Amy M., Val, Alicia, Rita, Maia's mom Shirley (bearing gifts from Lorna and Paula), Christie, and much to my surprise my friend Annie, whom I met when I was just two years old and who was my very best fairyland imagination friend for many years. I know there were more people than that ... it was such a whirlwind, saying hello to everyone - that it passed in the blink of an eye.
You have your high chair waiting for you, and good silly books, and so many sweet little sweaters and jammies and socks! Bonnie even came with two bags of hand me downs from Abby, so we came home with four boxes and an extra suitcase piled high with things that will help welcome you into the world.
But you know - the "stuff" doesn't really matter, even though I'm grateful for all of it. It was being with all these great women, who are so very happy for me, and so excited that you are coming to join us.
And just think - our Portland party is next month, and all of your daddy's family will be there, and your very, very special Aunt K and Uncle R, and all of our wonderful PDX friends that we are so very lucky to have met when we moved here not knowing a soul. Now, if just one of them would have a little one for you to play with ... your mama and daddy are not usually the trailblazing type, you see, so it's exhilirating and a little scary to be the first ones we know to have a baby ...
Your kicks grow ever stronger. I am reading a fantastic book - Ahab's Wife - that is three inches thick and very heavy. When I rest it on my round tummy at night, your kicks actually send it jumping! And a few nights ago, daddy could feel you kicking while I was sound asleep ... how strange to think that you already have an independent life from mine, moving and testing your strength while I am snoozing away. Daddy felt lucky to have some special time, just you and he.
Just 14 weeks to go, Miss Belly. I'm treasuring every moment.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Day ~176
Tomorrow morning, wee babe, you and I will get on a plane together for the first time! We're going to see your great aunts, great cousins, and great grandma Margie. They are throwing us a party, all in honor of you, the 6th generation first born girl-child.
We're going to Colorado, to a beautiful town tucked right up against the Rocky Mountain foothills, where your great-great-great grandfather immigrated in 1901. He got on a boat in Italy with two of his brothers (they left the youngest one behind with their mother and father), and made his way all the to wild west, where he started working in a coal mine and married your great great great grandmother. She was a wonderful, magical woman - you might even be named after her. I am lucky enough to have memories of her, since she was still alive when I was a little girl. That's right - we had five generations of first born daughters alive at the same time! One day I'll show you a picture of all of us together. You are the next one in the chain ...
So we will go the town where your great great great grandmother raised her children, and then your great great grandmother did the same. And then your great grandma raised my mother, and then I was born in that very same town ...
The party will have lots of food, because, well, that 's what Italian women do. They don't always get along very well in the normal way - too much hot blood and opinion and everyone talking at once. But they sure do know how to eat!
I'm sorry I have this terrible cold, and that it makes me sneeze and jostle you all around in there. And toss and turn all night long ... I hope I feel better in Colorado, where the air is nice and dry, and the sky vast and blue. We will sleep all tucked in with your grandma - my mom - and maybe she will be able to feel you kick in the early morning, the way daddy does now that you are growing so strong! We watch you move, from outside, now. We can see my belly jump around, and now we're waiting for you to get big enough that we can see the point of your little elbow when you roll over, and maybe the poke of a tiny foot.
And when we come home to beautiful Portland, where everything is green and wet and the people are quirky and interesting, we might set up your crib and start washing and folding some of the tiny outfits that have been piling up on the "second bedroom" (soon to be your room!) floor since we found out you were coming. That's right - Nonna has gone a little crazy at the thrift stores. She does have the magic touch, though! All kinds of pretty, brand new little things just for you, at about $1 apiece.
I'm glad you're all curled up in there, busy growing. I bet the next time we're on a plane together, you'll be a lot louder ...
Tomorrow morning, wee babe, you and I will get on a plane together for the first time! We're going to see your great aunts, great cousins, and great grandma Margie. They are throwing us a party, all in honor of you, the 6th generation first born girl-child.
We're going to Colorado, to a beautiful town tucked right up against the Rocky Mountain foothills, where your great-great-great grandfather immigrated in 1901. He got on a boat in Italy with two of his brothers (they left the youngest one behind with their mother and father), and made his way all the to wild west, where he started working in a coal mine and married your great great great grandmother. She was a wonderful, magical woman - you might even be named after her. I am lucky enough to have memories of her, since she was still alive when I was a little girl. That's right - we had five generations of first born daughters alive at the same time! One day I'll show you a picture of all of us together. You are the next one in the chain ...
So we will go the town where your great great great grandmother raised her children, and then your great great grandmother did the same. And then your great grandma raised my mother, and then I was born in that very same town ...
The party will have lots of food, because, well, that 's what Italian women do. They don't always get along very well in the normal way - too much hot blood and opinion and everyone talking at once. But they sure do know how to eat!
I'm sorry I have this terrible cold, and that it makes me sneeze and jostle you all around in there. And toss and turn all night long ... I hope I feel better in Colorado, where the air is nice and dry, and the sky vast and blue. We will sleep all tucked in with your grandma - my mom - and maybe she will be able to feel you kick in the early morning, the way daddy does now that you are growing so strong! We watch you move, from outside, now. We can see my belly jump around, and now we're waiting for you to get big enough that we can see the point of your little elbow when you roll over, and maybe the poke of a tiny foot.
And when we come home to beautiful Portland, where everything is green and wet and the people are quirky and interesting, we might set up your crib and start washing and folding some of the tiny outfits that have been piling up on the "second bedroom" (soon to be your room!) floor since we found out you were coming. That's right - Nonna has gone a little crazy at the thrift stores. She does have the magic touch, though! All kinds of pretty, brand new little things just for you, at about $1 apiece.
I'm glad you're all curled up in there, busy growing. I bet the next time we're on a plane together, you'll be a lot louder ...
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