Nursery Part II

This is part II of the nursery. We finished decorating/reorganizing it. We want to thank everyone for the gifts we received. Jordan will be living in the lap of luxury.

The Big 3-0!

It's official...I have reached the 30 lb weight gain milestone! Ironically, I am watching The Biggest Loser as I blog about my weight gain hahaha.

Keeping us on our toes

Holding to her pattern of keeping Jamie and I on our toes Jordan decided it would be a good idea to spice up this pregnancy journey yet again last night. We went in for the first NST (non stress test) at the hospital.  We were able to get it scheduled right before our birth class which is also at the hospital.  For the NST they hook Jamie up to the machine that they would when you go into labor, it monitors the babies heart rate and the contractions.  Jamie was given a little Jeopardy style thumb clicker to hit each time she felt the baby kick or move.  So we arrived, Jamie was hooked up and the nurse stepped out of the room for a minute.  The following is as close as I can recall to the conversations that took place next, presented to you in Play format:

Enter Nurse:
Nurse to Jamie:  "How are you doing?"
Jamie:  "Fine"
Nurse: "Are you feeling any contractions?"
Jamie:  "No?"
Nurse:  "Ok well we will have you on this for about another half an hour."
Exit Nurse

Jamie sits in the bed while Josh meanders around the room rummaging through cabinets and the refrigerator trying to pass the time.

Enter Nurse
Nurse to Jamie:  "Are you feeling any contractions yet?"
Jamie;  "No, but I really don't know what they would feel like so I am not sure."
Jamie looks at Josh confusion on both their faces as to why the nurse is so hellbent on contractions

Nurse:  "Well according to the machine you are having regular contractions about two minutes apart."

Josh and Jamie look at each other again and the confusion has intensified to complete bewilderment.
Nurse:  "I need to contact your doctor to see if she wants to come in and examine you."
Josh and Jamie in a confused voice:  "OK"
Exit Nurse

Josh:  "What the hell is going on, are you randomly going into labor right now?"
Jamie:  "I have no idea, I don't feel anything.  That nurse sure seemed a little on edge"
Josh:  "I know good lord what are the odds that you come in here and then go into labor"
Josh can hear the nurse talking out side the room to another unknown man.  He is telling her that Dr. Guida is actually out of town and she needs to call the other doctor.

Josh:  "So seriously what the hell is going on.  This is sort of crazy.  See I told you we should have packed your "GO" bag a month ago.
Jamie (sort of laughing):  "Yeah no kidding, apparently everyone was right about this baby coming before October."
Enter Nurse
Nurse:  "Well the doctor said that he doesn't think he needs to check you, but you need to watch for any signs that you are going into labor like (note:  gory details of symptoms omitted from this play).  So if you notice any of that you need to call us and come back in right away.
Jamie: "Um, ok"

The nurse unhooks Jamie from the machine and we leave and go down to admitting to get pre-registered.
The End.

So yes in hindsight we should have asked some more questions to find out what was actually going on, and was this normal for a woman still 5 weeks away from her due date.  Both of us were to shocked at the moment to really think of anything.  Luckily we had our birth class right afterwards and talked to our instructor after the class about it.  Her reaction did not help the situation.  I believe her exact words when we told her that she was having contractions two minutes apart was (in a voice of total shock) "WHAT".    No one seemed to concerned but it set the tone for the night of wondering what could happen.  Needless to say when we arrived home I made Jamie pack a go bag just in case, charged up all of the cameras and video recorders, and cleared a path to the car for a quick evac if needed.

This morning has come with no changes.  Jamie feels like she has for the past few months (pregnancy pain) and we both set off to work.  It seems this time it was a false alarm but Jordan sure likes to keep us on our toes.

Big Belly

Rub the Buddha belly for 10 years of good luck!

(shown at 34.5 weeks)

The Road Home Has Many Turns

Our last doctor visit revealed that baby Jordan is the only one who can determine her birthplan. She has stubbornly decided not to assume the vertex (head down) position within the womb yet, thus complicating the birthing options and ravaging mom's ribcage with the top of her head. If, by our next appointment, baby Jordan is still breech then we will have to undergo a procedure called external cephalic version in which the doctor will attempt to manually rotate the baby by not-so-gently massaging my belly. The purpose of this procedure is to try and avoid going into labor while the baby is breech (since vaginal deliveries of breech babies are extremely dangerous to the baby). However, this procedure is only successful 50% of the time and does not come without its own risks, including premature labor, premature rupture of the bag of waters, damage to the placenta, and the pinching and or twisting of the umbilical cord--all of which can lead to an emergency C-section.

If the external version is unsuccessful and the baby remains in the breech position then we will go ahead and schedule a C-section for approximately 1 week before the due date. But if the procedure is successful and the baby remains in the vertex position, we're back on track for a "normal" delivery.

I received a handout describing a few different positions that I can try (mostly old wives tales) to try and influence baby Jordan to rotate on her own, but so far those haven't worked. I don't necessarily have any reservations about having a C-section, but it is a major surgery and there is always a risk when undergoing surgery--not to mention a longer recovery time! It would sure make things interesting for the work baby pool though if I knew my date and everyone else had to try and guess!

In the meantime, I will be doing a weekly "non-stress test" at the hospital before childbirth class to monitor the baby's heart rate and make sure she is not under duress. I have never done this, so I don't know what to expect...so stay tuned!

What's in a Name

Naming your child is one of the important decisions you make before (or in some cases soon after) they are born. The name will follow them for the rest of their life. It must withstand the verbal creativity of those elementary kids, and as they grow older you want their name to not sound like they are still three. As we scrolled through book after book and online "best of (insert year here)" lists we wanted to find a name that was somewhat unique yet not so far out there that no one could pronounce it since she already has to deal with explaining to everyone how to say and spell Femreite. A while back we found a name that just seemed right, when we both heard it we looked at each other and said "I like that one!". After hearing others tales of finding the perfect name only to find another one they liked better later, we thought it best to just wait and see how the name we liked so much stuck. After a few months of saying the name and looking through other lists, books, dictionaries, thesauruses, ancient scrolls, and seeking the advice of a spiritual lady named Zelda, no other names have sounded so right.  Then comes the middle name.  Do you pick something random, use a parent name, grandparent, great grandparent, or even the family pet's name?  We decided (before we knew the sex) that if it was a boy we would give him the middle name of Thomas after my eldest living Grandfather.  If it was a girl she would have the middle name Jeunette after Jamie's eldest living Grandmother.  So without further ado, we introduce to you:

Jordan Jeunette Femreite