38 Week OB Visit

I'm now 38 weeks, measuring 41 weeks! Dr. G. can still feel Liam's head above my pubic bone, so he says that he hasn't dropped all the way down yet. I know he's dropped some because I no longer feel him in my rib cage, and I'm getting up every 2 hours to pee EVERY night. As though it hasn't been difficult enough to sleep! His heart rate remains in the 150's, and I'm still expected to go into labor at any time! Yay!

Maya did not go to this visit. She stayed home with her "Papa" because I was told that Dr. G. would be checking my cervix today. I didn't really think she needed to be there for that exam. The nurse set me up with a lovely paper sheet to cover up with and instructed me to undress from the waist down. When Dr. G. entered the room, he said, "So, are we checking you today?" I said, "No. Not if we don't have to." He said that he didn't need to if I didn't want to, so I refused the exam. I figure I'll be checked plenty once I actually get to the hospital in labor, so I may as well save myself some unnecessary exams! In that one moment, I'm pretty sure I killed Will's soul. He's been dying to know if I'm dilated or not, and he wanted Dr. G. "strip my membranes", which is believed to jump-start labor, though it's not proven to work. I don't feel the need to know what I'm dilated to because if I'm not contracting, I'm not in labor. Nor do I want my membranes stripped. I had that done when I was pregnant with Maya, and I remember leaving the office in tears because it hurt so bad. No thanks. I'm confident that Liam will come when he's good and ready. I just have to figure out how I'm going to convince Will of that theory! I don't want to have interventions during labor and delivery, so I really don't want to start my labor with an intervention! It will happen when it happens... we just have to be patient!

Maya the Lizard!

Maya has always loved animals, and now she's really good at imitating their sounds and acting like some of them. Here's her "lizard!" It's so funny...

Is she not the cutest lizard you've ever seen?! At the end, that's her saying her own name, "Yaya". Every once in a while, she'll get the "m" sound out, but mostly it's "Yaya". She's requesting to see the video. The girl loves to see herself on film! What a ham!

37 Week OB Check-up

We have been taking Maya to my doctor's appointments, so she can get over her fear of going to the doctor. That fear started after she got vaccines at her 15 month well-child check-up, followed by a flu shot one month later. Two weeks ago, when I asked her if she wanted to go to the doctor with Mommy, she started crying. We were still at home. Yikes. I thought that we had better take her to as many appointments as we could, that way she could go to the doctor without being picked on, and she would see that there's nothing to be afraid of. At that first appointment, she laid down on the exam table (when I was done), lifted up her shirt, and started squishing her own belly, just like she had seen the doctor squishing my belly. Dr. K. (God bless him) noticed her interest in the exam, so he came over and squished around on her belly and told her, "Yep, everything looks good. Your belly looks good!" Once he finished her "exam", she kept pointing to her belly, then his coat, then back to her belly. It took me a second, but then I realized that she wanted him to listen to her belly with the doppler machine! I told Dr. K., so he pulled the little machine out of his coat, placed the probe on her belly, and turned it on. We all sat and listened to the static very intently. Maya was all business throughout her entire "exam". She laid very still and had the most serious look on her face. She was concentrating very hard on paying attention to what Dr. K. was telling her and listening to her own belly through the monitor. It was the cutest darn thing. From that visit on, I brought my camera, just in case of a repeat performance. Today, she hopped up on the table and pulled up her shirt before the doctor even entered the room! She's got it down! She'll squish her belly and say, "Be-ye, be-ye". It's really cute.

As for my stats: I'm measuring 39 weeks. Liam's heart rate consistently stays in the 150's. My blood pressure is good, and I'm due back in the office in one week! I can officially "go" any day now! I was told to return to the hospital if I'm having to breathe through my contractions or if my water breaks! I can't believe it's so close!

Maya Wants M&M's!

Since Halloween, Maya has been hooked on M&M's. She requests them at least once a day, and when you hear how she says "M&M's", you'll understand why it's so darn hard to refuse! I usually cave in to her plea for M&M's. She's so cute that I can't say no! Her daddy, on the other hand, doesn't mind saying no to the request for candy. You can see how she reacts when Will suggests that she can have some later...

Doing the Rounds

We met the last doctor in the OB practice that we have been seeing all these months. There are 4 doctors, and I have enjoyed meeting all of them. I can honestly say that I don't care who shows up to catch baby Liam because I really liked all of the docs! That's a wonderful feeling. Baby Liam continues to grow and take up more room than he should be by this point. I'm 35 weeks and 2 days, and he is measuring a solid 37 weeks. They assured me at the last ultrasound that he's not large by any means, so he must just be really stretched out in there! I can constantly feeling him under my left rib cage, which makes bending over for anything a real treat. Sometimes it's actually painful to bend over! It feels like his feet (or whatever) are going to bust right through my bottom ribs! I also get shoulder pain every once in a while, and I believe it's referred pain from him squishing my spleen (also located on the left side)! I remember always being able to feel Maya's butt in my left upper abdominal quadrant, but I never remember it being painful. He must be turned the opposite way, causing his feet and knees to take up residence where her butt used to be. I think I preferred the butt!

Dr. K. asked me a little about my labor and delivery with Maya and whether or not I had an epidural and if I planned on having another one. I told him that I did with her, and I'd really rather not have one this time around. He was very reassuring that I could get through without it, and basically just told me that if I can just make it to transition (7 cm is when that starts), I wouldn't have the opportunity to have one at that point because I'd be too close to giving birth. I thought that sounded great... If I can just get to the point that there's no going back, and it's too late to get meds, I can make it. He said labor and delivery will be easier this time, and he urged me to use the bathtub they have in each room. He was very encouraging!

Maya did really well at the doctor's office today. As soon as Dr. K. (a warm, older, grandfatherly-like man) walked into the room, Maya pointed at Will and said, "Dada", then she pointed at me and said, "Mom." Dr. K. just laughed, talked to her for a minute, thanked for the introductions, and shook her hand. Maya was clearly very proud of herself for helping. She sat on Will's lap during my exam (measuring my belly and fetal heart tones) and and listened intently to Liam's heart beat, bopping along to the beat of the music. It was so cute. Dr. K. asked her if that was her baby brother, and she shook her head yes and responded, "Ah-huh". After I sat up, she wanted onto the table with me. As Dr. K. was wrapping up the visit, Maya laid down on the table, pulled up her shirt, and started patting her belly. Dr. K. took notice and asked if she needed her belly checked. She shook her head "yes", so he mashed around on her belly a little bit, while she laid as still and serious as could be. When he finished, he said, "Well, everything looks good!" She continued to lay on the table and started pointing to his coat then back to her belly. It was when he pulled his doppler out that she shook her head "yes" and said, "Mm-hmm". Dr. K. turned it on, placed it on her belly and let her listen to the static for a little bit. She was pleased as punch! When he finished listening, he helped her sit up, told her everything looked good, and she gave him five and shook his hand. It was the cutest darn thing I've ever seen. I was so glad that she interacted so well with Dr. K., and that he was SO nice to her. It was easy to see that he got a kick out of her personality and curiosity. That was by far the most fun I've ever had at a doctor's appointment!

"Pie!"

Tonight, after Maya and I brushed her teeth, she was standing on the bathroom counter, looking in the mirror at her little naked self. She was goofing off, spinning in circles, laughing, and just having a good time playing with me and checking out her reflection. We had been singing the "Feeling Good with JoJo" song that goes, "... reach up, way up HIGH!" When I sing that part of the song, Maya puts her hands way up in the air and sings, "PIE!". Every time she put her hands up, I tickled her armpits, and she would crack up laughing. The best part was that she would not put her arms down! She would leave her arms up and just double over in fits of giggles. It was so cute! At the end of the JoJo song, she says, "That's me!", so now, when I finish singing the song, Maya goes, "ME!" and points to herself. I didn't even know she knew that part, and I don't sing that part. It blew me away when I finished that last verse, and Maya shouted, "ME!" I was like, wow, she's way more observant than I give her credit for!

Another favorite cartoon song of hers is from "My Friends Tigger and Pooh". It's the song that the Super-Sleuths sing when they are solving a mystery. Part of it goes, "When we have a problem, think, think, think...", and Maya sings, "tink, tink, tink!" as she taps the side of her head with her little index finger. It's really cute. She loves Pooh, now, by the way. Every time we go to the store, we look for "Pooh!" She thinks he's great and loves to say his name.

In case you're wondering, no, we don't watch TV all day long. Playhouse Disney is our favorite thing to tune into in the mornings. Usually we watch for about an hour, during her diaper change and breakfast. If she's really into whatever show is on, I'll leave it on for a little longer while I clean the kitchen. For the most part, once she's down from the table, she's too busy to actually watch the TV, so we turn it off. If she's being particularly cranky, sometimes those cartoons engage her enough that she not just fussing around the house. We'll just sit and watch them together. The nice thing about those cartoons is that I like them, too!

"Bubble Toes" (Da da dada da da...)

Maya's favorite song at the moment is Jack Johnson's "Bubble Toes", so we probably listen to it about 20 times a day (at least). When she sits down in her chair, she points to the IPod and says, "Da da". You will see her singing along with the "da da dada da da" part of the song on the video. She's a pretty good singer, and check out those dance moves!

Also, when she sits down at the table, she points out where "dada" sits, which is right next to her, and she'll say, "Sit! Sit!" It's really cute. If I'm not in my chair, she'll point at the chair and say, "Mom!" She knows where we're supposed to go and likes to make sure we're in the right spots, just in case we forgot.

We've also been practicing a few words lately. I'm trying to teach her to say "Liam", and so far that comes out as "Me-me". The other one we're working on is M&M's. She got some for Halloween and loves them! She calls them "meana-meana". LOL! It's SO CUTE! I'll try to get some videos of those words to post. Stay tuned!