Nursery Reveal

Decorating nurseries is so much fun, and I have had a blast creating this little nest:

 

 

My absolute favorite thing in the nursery is the vintage toy highchair. It belonged to my grandmother, and I adore it. We were very close, and I love being able to include something that belonged to her in the room.

 

 

So as far as gender neutral well ...

 

If it is a boy the dress will go, but if it is a girl a layer of pink shall fall on the room like snow in an Alaskan winter. Not to mention a bunny chandelier I have been eyeing on Etsy. My husband vetoed it for a boy, but I have given it the green light if we have a little girl. Somewhere along the 15 years we have been together, I guess we did learn to compromise. Well, at least on chandeliers.

 

 

Cute, right?

 

 

 

 

The art is from an artist by the name of Sue Rupp. She created AMAZING watercolors, and I am a Fan with a capital F. Especially since I tried painting a few bunnies in the room that my friends and hubby declared looked like yellow $%&*.

That's ok. I never claimed to be an artist, but I really do appreciate people who can create such beautiful work.

  I switched out the blanket that came with the bedding for something more appropriate for a little Texan..

 

Now we are just

 

 

My sweet baby

 

 

 

 

32 Weeks

.

Sorry, I'm a bit late with the 32 week update. But the report came last week, and almost everything is perfect in the comfortable normal category.

 

 

 

 

Baby's head is almost full term and still measuring large.

 

Should I  dare say "his" head?

A large head circumference with a significantly lower biparietal diameter measurement will present with a lower cephalic index. Ours is 68 which is below normal, but not so low as to be scary.

 

 Early on in this pregnancy, we took up residence in the normal zone, put our feet up, unbuttoned our pants  and got really comfortable. This abnormal territory is unknown. The clinic reassured us that there is nothing to worry about. But as parents,  worry warts is kind of our moniker.

Worrying is our thing

 It is what we do...

 A CI measurement below 70 is known as Dolichocephaly -  a condition where the head is long. It is rarely harmful to brain development, and it can be simply caused by genetics. Which is why as of late, my interactions with my husband all end with him lamenting "Quit staring at my head"

So why do I think we are having a boy?

Dolichocephaly is 3 times more likely to effect boys than girls.

The old wives tale says a heart rate under 140 is a boy

 

Baby is almost 5 pounds at 31+5 gestation

We all know calling things prematurely ALWAYS bodes well.

 

Well, maybe not

 

So I guess it is still too early to call , but you have to admit their is a lot of evidence pointing to Team Blue...

 

For IP's, here is a little handy dandy growth percentile calculator

 

 

 

 

 

 

May The 4th Be With You

 

 

Happy Star Wars Day

Is this celebrated by my nerd kind everywhere or just here in the U.S?

This nerd and former Girl Scout felt a need to be prepared, so we signed up for a "safety" class covering general baby care, infant CPR, and choking. I kind of agree with the other bloggers that the baby care part of the class was a bit of a waste of time. But the infant CPR, and specifically how to handle severe choking, taught me some new skills that would be good additions to any new parent's tool box.
 

I pondered what I was going to say when people asked why we were taking the class, since I thought they should clearly see I am not pregnant.   Do I really need to explain all this to these strangers?

Should I tell them - We like to learn new things, and the cooking class was full?

But then no one asked. So did they seriously think I was pregnant? A small woman I am not, but pregnant?

Well this ego-bruised someone is donating the dress she wore today, and not missing her Pilates class next week.

Also, just curious - is anyone else bombarded with "breast milk is best; don't feed your baby poisonous formula"?

Which my pediatrician did...but even despite this, I adore her so she is sticking around. In a 30 min interview (where she knew this was a surrogacy arrangement), she gave me a 15 minute lecture on how much better breast milk is than formula. I explained to her that our clinic doesn't ask the surrogates to breast feed. She went on and on about how much better it is for both the baby and for the birthing mothers, and recommended that I push the issue.  I asked the clinic if acquiring breast milk at a milk bank was a possibility. Unfortunately, I have been informed that New Delhi doesn't have milk banks.

Now between my pediatrician, the baby class instructor, baby books, mommy blogs, and anyone with  two cents to put in on the subject have me concerned that if I do not find breast milk in New Delhi, my baby will develop harmful intestinal issues. Now intellectually I know this risk is small, but it is hard to hear. My hands are tied - I can not produce breast milk and my clinic will not ask the surrogates to pump.

This Mom Guilt is some serious business.


Fortunately, I put this concern to bed with one single thought. If I pursued pregnancy I could provide breast milk. But I can not carry to term, and it is much healthier for our baby to be full term than to have breast milk. We did the best thing for him/her with the choices we were given.

It is what it is, and the fact that our little one is coming in 9 weeks. IT is beautiful.