@ 35 Weeks

With about 5 weeks to go, Monica's beginning to look very pregnant. The kid's gone through some kind of growth spurt over the weekend--which is either what caused Monica to faint, or she was dehydrated enough that he swelled up like a sponge after she got all her fluids back up to normal. As my dad said last night on the phone, "you've been seeing qualitative change; now the quantitative change begins." ;-)

@ 34 Weeks

Monica and I went to the first of our every-two-weeks doctor's appointments on Wednesday this past week. Everything looked good: baby's heartbeat was loud and strong, he's gained some additional weight, and he's quite active at numerous times in the day. Following the appointment, Liz and Shelly--sweet people that they are--had arranged for a NMA baby shower for Monica and me, so many staff people gathered in the Founders' Room to watch as we opened a bunch of lovely gifts organized by our friends around the idea of travel: space shuttle baby plate, bowl, and spoon; children's books about adventures and travels all over the world; Ann's homemade blanket that "really is meant to be used" in the car, in the stroller, wherever...thank you, Ann.

On Thursday evening, Ann gave a talk at the Museum about her "Suburban Escape: The Art of California Sprawl" exhibition and catalogue, to which many of us at the museum had gone. Afterward, Ann, Amanda, Liz, Monica, and a few others, and I went to the Silver Peak restaurant in town to celebrate the conclusion of Ann's show, and to get a bite to eat. We all sat around the high tables in the pub (so much nicer without any cigarette smoke!) eating, drinking, and talking. Ann commented that Monica looked uncomfortable, and Monica joked about how the kid was probably pushing on her diaphragm. Suddenly, though, Monica said she thought she felt faint, so I moved my chair to the side, and told her I thought she should stand up. I wish I hadn't. As soon as her feet hit the floor, she fainted, and I caught her, trying to keep her from hitting head, butt, or belly on anything. I succeeded--as she didn't hit her head or her belly on anything--but it wasn't very graceful. As soon as she stood, she lost consciousness, and just sort of slumped down. When she got to the floor, she was kind of curled up in a fetal position against a pony wall in the restaurant, and I told Ann to call someone, and then held Monica's face in my hands for just a few seconds. I said "Monica! Monica!" and she came to. She couldn't have been out for more than ten seconds, and when she did come to, Monica thought initially that she had fallen asleep, until she realized she was on the floor, and then the embarrassment set in. All the tables and chairs had been moved out of the way, which Monica remembers hearing, but she has no memory of the episode otherwise. My first thought was just to get her out of the restaurant and home, but the paramedics were already on their way, thanks to Ann and Silver Peak staffers (thank yous in abundance, friends). When they arrived, which couldn't have been longer than four or five minutes after the call, the initial reading of Monica's blood pressure was 72 / 39. That's about half of normal pressure, which is usually 120-139 / <80.> Paramedics Adam and Keith checked all Monica's vital signs, asking her a bunch of questions to check her lucidity. She could answer them without any trouble, but we all concluded that she should be checked out more thoroughly in the ambulance, at least, and determine from there if we should go to the hospital. So Adam and Keith brought in the gurney, and Monica got loaded onto it, and wheeled out of the Peak, much to her later embarrassment. I have to say, though, that if there were ever a time for rubbernecking, most of the patrons at the Peak, from my point of view, anyway, were very gracious, and minding their own business, despite the fact that a four foot tall, six foot long, yellow cart was wheeling a prone pregnant woman by them as they ate. The paramedics re-checked Monica's vitals once in the ambulance, and her blood pressure had moderated to a much more normal 125 / 64, but even so, we concluded that the doctors should check her out, and with that, both Monica and I had our first ambulance rides. Had one now, so I'm good for a long while, thanks very much. Liz and Ann followed us and left the truck for us at Emergency, and we lay there for several hours as Monica was checked and re-checked, given IV fluids for dehydration, antibiotics for phylonephritis (a kidney infection relatively common during pregnancy, and probably unrelated to the fainting spell), and fetal heart monitoring. After about three hours in the Emergency room, with our O.B.G.Y.N's approval, the E.R dismissed us, and sent us to the Maternity ward for monitoring, which we thought would last the rest of the night, but after blood tests came back fine, and Peanut's condition was monitored for an additional hour, we were discharged to go home with a prescription for an antibiotic.
I'll just say that it was exhausting, and that neither the paramedics' arrival, the ambulance ride, nor any of the hospital checks gave me any concern like that which I experienced in the ten seconds or so that Monica was unconscious and non-responsive. You can imagine, I'm sure, the relief I experienced in seeing Monica's eyes open and hearing her wonder if she had fallen asleep at the table...
We spent most of the rest of the weekend laying low, tanking up on fluids, and watching the NCAA tournament, most all of which was good medicine (except the part about the Wolf Pack losing in the 2nd Round). I put together the crib, which I went ahead and got, and which is pictured here, and you can see that we're awaiting a little body to wrap in that awesome orange robe...Many thanks to all of our friends who helped manage Thursday night, especially Liz, Ann, Amanda, and Mark.

Party @ Piedmont

On Saturday, March 10, our good friends Mike and Eryn Branch, and their two little girls, Hannah and Caroline, hosted a "boys welcome :: no silly games (besides horseshoes)" baby shower for Monica and me at their lovely place--known as Piedmont--north of Reno. Many good friends and even some relatives descended on the Piedmont hilltop to eat, drink, talk, and celebrate the impending arrival of the one we're 90% sure is a boy. Cousins, an aunt and uncle, and cousins-once-removed came in from Fallon and Carson City. Brad and Vicki were able to make it over the hill from Grass Valley; friends Meg and Paul and their little Ethan came down from Truckee; and quite a few L & E and NMA friends were able to swing by: Michael and Valerie; Rachel, Pete, Gracie and Sugar Ray; Liz; Shelly; Jim; Steven and Brianne; Kyhl and Marian; Dave, Inger, Seth, and Allar; Bob and Vicki; Rebecca; and others, whom I'm forgetting at the moment. The party was great fun, helped in no small part by Eryn's having successfully brokered a deal with the weather man for the day, as well as her stuffed mushrooms...mmmm mm. Here are some pictures of the day.

Welcome, Charlie!

First, take a look at the three photos in my last post on March 4, the ones from our friends' 3-d ultrasound. Then look closely at the photo to the left. It's him! Our friends Jeff and Alissa welcomed little Charlie Luke Hutsler on Friday, March 9, 2007 at 4:36 a.m. He came a wee bit early, about three weeks, actually, but he's healthy and, at 5 pounds, 13 ounces, I'm not so sure Alissa would have wanted him to wait another three weeks. Haven't you seen pictures of those two 13-pound sumo babies that have been born this winter--one from Mexico and the other from Japan!? Alissa explains that her water broke at 9:30 p.m. Thursday night. I'm not sure what she was trying to prove, but she arched her back, writhing in pain until 4:00 a.m., when Jeff somehow wisely convinced her they needed to go to the hospital (Jeff--any tips, brother?). Alissa claims her only memory of the trip is telling Jeff to "run the red light...run the red light!" but they arrived at hospital at 4:20. Upon their arrival, nurses told Alissa the baby's head was crowning, hooked her to a monitor by 4:31, and he came out at 4:36. Need I say that the story succeeds in drumming up the "Holy Crap!" response in me? What ever happened to the hospital being the last stop in advent? The place to wait, impatiently, for the arrival of the impending baby? Sheesh. They might not have even had a chance to get the kid's seat in the car to take him home on such short notice! (And, for those readers who gave birth in the '70s or before, they won't even let you take him out of the hospital without the seat installed properly...none of this "I held you in my lap as we left the hospital" stuff. Ralph Nader's probably responsible for that, too!) Seriously, many happy congratulations to Jeff and Alissa, and welcome to the world, Charlie! We're glad you're here, and we'll be looking forward to meeting you soon!

@ 33 Weeks

Monica's friend and former co-worker, Alissa, is about three, maybe four, weeks further along in her pregnancy than Monica is. Their little guy, who you see here--affectionately known as "Buster," I believe--is to arrive on or about March 26, so he's coming...soon. We're not far behind. Alissa had the opportunity to have a 3-d ultrasound on Friday, which is why these images look so much more like regular photographs than do standard ultrasound images. "From my appointment two hours ago.They woke him up to take these pictures. He wasn't happy. It appears he has Jeff's nose and what my mom and dad called my "ashtray lip" when I was not happy as a child," Alissa wrote. What's amazing to me is how well you can see him: his eyes, the umbilical cord on the left, and his little arms scrunched up by his chin and neck.
Peanut continues to indicate acrobatics may be in his future. Each day, we're supposed to keep track of how many minutes it takes for Monica to feel him move ten times. The first day, last Tuesday, it took him not quite nine minutes. We are spending many happy hours "watching the belly"--it's endlessly entertaining, actually. We have no real sense of when or how he'll move, except to suspect that he's about to begin a period of activity, so each movement he makes is a surprise, a gift, which yields the same surprised joy in us each time. We'll be watching the belly, and seeing just small movements--maybe a little wiggle, or nothing at all--and then, suddenly, her stomach changes shape so radically we gasp and laugh, because we'll have seen, just for a moment, his head or his rump push out well beyond her body and return to some other position.

@ 32 Weeks

At 32 weeks, Peanut now weighs upwards of four pounds, and Monica's blood volume has increased by as much as 50 per cent, meaning she has 50 per cent more blood and plasma in her body right now than she did before she was pregnant. This is due, of course, to the baby's increasing needs, but it also helps to offset blood loss during birth. He's now getting big enough that Monica's having a slightly harder time breathing (he's pushing on many organs, including her lungs) and sleeping (he's making her abdominal muscles stretch, and his growth is making movement in Monica's sleep more difficult). You can see in this illustration, courtesy of babycenter.com, that Peanut's big enough that he's more or less in one position (though he's DEFINITELY moving a LOT), but notice how, in this picture, the baby's little rump is pushing out towards the tummy--the last couple of days, we've really noticed how there's a little spot that's quite hard right in the center of Monica's belly, just above her belly button. This illustration is only a representation of an average, but that little hard spot we're feeling is his butt, methinks.
Monica's gaining about a pound a week at this point in the pregnancy, and fully half of that weight gain is actually the baby's. He's also got most all of the hair he's going to have at birth, whether that's a full head of it or peach fuzz. One of the craziest things to me is that pregnancy hormones cause Monica's ligaments to loosen. This would seem--logically, I think??--to be for the sake of loosening her skeletal structure in order to push out the baby. The fact, however, that a hormone causes ligaments to loosen in order for a baby to be pushed out between bones blows my mind. We have doctor's appointment at 9:00 o'clock this morning...more after that.

@ 31 Weeks

Peanut is now gestationally ten weeks older than that little baby born at 21 weeks gestational age, who is going home from the hospital this week in Miami. When that wee little one arrived, she weighed less than a can of soda; she goes home this week weighing close to four pounds. Peanut, if he's in line with averages, already weighs more than three pounds, and he would now be considered premature only if he were to arrive between now and April 1 or so. Otherwise he'll be considered "preterm" all the way through May 6th or so. He's becoming extremely active. Last night he kicked and/or swatted in two different directions--up towards Monica's ribs, and down towards her left hip. That has got to feel odd. He got me in the back last night a couple of times--enough to wake me up, briefly. I wonder if it's an effort to prepare me for the waking hours of the night that are just around the corner...

Tracking Light @ 30 Weeks

By 30 weeks, the baby can open his eyes--he could do that several weeks ago--but now his eyes have developed enough that he is able to respond to light sources. Apparently, if we hold a flashlight or headlamp to Monica's belly, Peanut will now be able to track the light, though whether he will or not is more about his will than his ability. The baby's vision at birth will be, at best, about 20/400 or so, and for some time he'll keep his eyes closed much of the day while they continue to develop; when he does open them, he'll only be able to see things clearly within a few inches of his face.

We've recently been reading a book written by an obstetrician that our friend Meg recommended to us. The doctor's convincing theory is that humans give birth at nine months because we aren't physiologically big enough to have a gestational period of 12 months, when many more of the body's systems are more well-developed and functional. She argues that many animals--foals, calves, various ungulates--are able to run and, to a certain extent, take care of themselves at birth. Humans, on the other hand, are born pretty much defenseless, relying on their parents to care for and protect them until their brains and bodies are developed sufficiently that they can take care of themselves. In the first three months after birth, another dizzying round of development takes place in the baby's organs, tissues, and brain, much of which could not occur in the womb, this doctor argues, because of the physiological limits of the human body. Ultimately, she's trying to provide a cogent sense of the baby's needs in the first three months of its life, what she calls the "fourth trimester." It's pretty convincing to me, but then, I don't have any experience yet. I'll let you know what I find out about the flashlight...

Hippos & Crocodiles

Here's a picture of some cool fabric that Monica is going to mess around with to see about making our own crib sheets and bumpers. Fun, huh? The design, called 2-D Zoo, was created by a guy named Alexander Henry. I believe he has an appropriately kiddish sense of fun in design.

@ 29 Weeks

The baby in the belly grows. He moves a lot, too. At 29 weeks, the baby began another rapid growth phase--he's gained more than 20% of his total body weight in the last 10 days, and now weighs approximately two-and-a-half pounds, and measures pretty close to 15 inches, head to heel. Among the craziest things this week is that had Peanut been, say, one of three triplets conceived through in vitro fertilization, the doctors would have already delivered the babies--they do so in the 27th week in such cases. Were our Peanut born this week, his chances of survival after premature birth would increase by 30% or more just from last week, largely due to the difference in lung development between the 25th and 27th-30th weeks. A truly dizzying array of developments takes place in this short period. His skeleton is hardening rapidly, as a result of 200+ milligrams of calcium being deposited in his bone tissue each day. You can tell it, too. Last night, Monica's belly had a bit of a torque in it, because the baby's body (we think head) was crammed into her right side. He kind of buldged out there, while her left side looked flat. All evening long, he punched, kicked, headbutted, swatted, and pushed on Monica's belly, making waves on her skin's surface. He could just as easily be called the "little earthquake" for how much seismic activity is occuring under the surface--but as much as it's a bit uncomfortable for Monica, they actually begin recording his movements now because he's supposed to be that active. On other baby fronts--yes, it really does seem like there's a second baby boom going on right now--Monica's cousin Dave and his wife Joleen learned yesterday that their first child, cute little Mitchell, will be welcoming a baby sister in June. Amy Oppio, colleague and friend from the NMA, and her husband, Jeff Erickson, will also be having a baby in July. Sugar Ray Hartsough and Caroline Emerson Branch both continue to glow at one month and four months of age, respectively, helping their older sisters learn to play well with others.