The results are in...

IT'S A BOY!!


James Lucca Hopkins

I knew all along, but I was still really excited to hear it and cried in the ultrasound chair. I could see the penis a mile away before she even pointed it out. It was just a normal 2D ultrasound, but it was really high res on the big screen and we could see every little detail of his anatomy inside. The technician pointed out all his little parts and organs, the umbilical cord, the placenta, my ovaries, my cervix (which is curved!), his little feet (they are big like his daddy's feet).... he is head down already and he's facing my back (I pictured him transverse for some reason), and the placenta is not covering my cervix. I think his face has a good shape for being an Allegretti face (those Italian genes are strong!) but he looks long and proportioned like Ash. They said either I'm a week farther along than I think I am, or he is a bigger baby. There is a New Moon on August 29th, so I'm liking the chances of the birth happening around that day.

The trip to UNC hospital was so... interesting. We showed up and were immediately overwhelmed by the size of the place and the hustle and bustle. There was a large open entrance with an escalator- it felt like a shopping mall. The women's hospital is right next door to the children's hospital, so there were sick, sad-looking kids everywhere. The place was really hot, which is weird because I thought hospitals were supposed to be cold. There was a woman crying in the ultrasound waiting room, and another woman came out of a room crying as we went in. Needless to say, it sort of put a damper on our spirits since we were there under such happy pretenses (and BOY ARE WE GLAD we chose to do a home birth). Our friends Lauren and Carter had their ultrasound technician write down the gender on a card and they read it later when they were alone, and now I really understand why that might have been a great idea!! I'm also really glad we found out the gender, I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and I can start really mentally prepping for the reality of parenthood.

If the ultrasound is right, then I will be 5 MONTHS PREGNANT next week. I didn't know time could move so quickly. I really don't look 5 months, and I still only weigh about 133-135ish. I still haven't found the time to go to a prenatal yoga class even once!!! I finally have some time tomorrow, I just have to drag my ass out there (everything is 30 minutes away from here).



After the ultrasound we went to the chiropractor who owed us some sessions after we played music at his party for him. He gave me my first ever adjustment! It hurt a little bit, so he just did a couple vertebrae in my neck and a couple in my back, and will do the rest next time. My whole body felt flooded with giddiness after the pops. I got a massage afterward too. Apparently my sacrum is tilted, which makes my right hip a whole inch higher than my left hip (which makes my left shoulder higher than my right shoulder). My posture is pretty good now (I need to lift my collar bone a bit more), but I slouched so much as a teenager that I almost have no lower back curve. The car accident I was in when I was 17 actually did more of a number on my neck than I thought, and all that violin playing as a teen did about as much damage as I thought it did. I don't know why I haven't gone to a chiropractor before!

I finished making that all-in-one cloth diaper. It looks really cute (for something sewn so poorly, haha), but I can't decide if I want to bother making more until I know how many I will be getting at my baby shower, or if the pattern/material is even any good and holds up in the wash. I think I will make some other projects for a while and come back to it if I want to. I bought some really nice wool felt, it's maybe 70% wool which is the highest percentage I have found so far. I want to make some little felt things, like animals and mushrooms and other pretty things that can be mobiles now and toys later.







My mom brings home random baby stuff sometimes. She got me some wipes (disposable... even my own mom has trouble listening sometimes!), some baby powder (does anyone use baby powder these days?), and some diaper rash ointment (I have no idea if it is compatible with cloth diapers though). Hopefully my pottying baby will never need the diaper rash cream, but it's good to have some on hand. She also got a pretty cool baby food musher. You just put whatever you are having for dinner into it, and instant baby food!





My parents implemented mine and Ash's idea of hiding all the dishes in the house except for one per person (so one bowl, one plate, and one cup each). So far it has helped IMMENSELY with cutting down on the kitchen mess. This is essential since my mom is going back to work and therefore the kitchen fairy has retired.

EDIT: Just looked up the Avalon Organics Baby products on consumerdatabase.com, and they got rated a 4 (moderate hazard) because it contains an ingredient that is an 8 (high hazard). SO I guess I won't be using those.

I got an ultrasound appointment!! April 1st. That's next Friday!! I will be 18 weeks next week so they should have no problem telling us what the sex is (unless baby decides to cross their legs oh-so-modestly).

It hurts where my stomach is. Not like a stomach ache, but like the muscle next to the skin right at the bottom of my ribcage (either my diaphragm or my upper abs) just hurts hurts hurts. It is often accompanied by middle back aching. I also get a lot of ab and round ligament pain after picking up the 14 month old (she is over 25 lbs). I'm going to have to start picking her up a lot less, which a 14 month old is going to have a hard time understanding. Especially a 14 month old who can't talk to express what it is she wants, exactly (sometimes she wants to be picked up because she is scared, sometimes because she can't see the source of a sound and is curious, and sometimes because she wants to point to something she needs). I also have to pick her up now and then for safety (she is trying to go up the stairs too fast, there is a car coming, etc). Remind me to have my next baby before my first one gets this big!!

My mom and I went to weigh and sort bulk foods for our food coop this morning. A very social 8-year-old girl there offered to teach me sign language! So I learned a bunch of signs this morning. The word "like" (as in "I like bananas") looks like you are pinching and stretching out your nipple.... so weird. But I'm excited to teach my baby sign language so we can communicate early on. Apparently there are some baby signing books/DVDs that aren't actual American Sign Language!! So you have to be careful what you buy. I think I would be better off just learning it online off of ASL websites.

First ultrasound image!

I delayed posting about this until I had scanned in the photo...



At my visit to my regular GYN on Thursday, I mentioned the left side pain. She decided to go borrow her husband's little ultrasound machine to check to make sure the fetus was in my uterus (it was not the kind usually used on babies, because she couldn't do a full anatomical check or anything like that). So I got to see my baby in there!!! There is apparently only one, and his little heart is beating just fine and I even got to see that. It was going flutter flutter flutter. Holy cow, so cool, I cried on the table. Too bad Ash wasn't there to see it. The ultrasound dated my baby the same as I had, due on September 1st.

My GYN is a very cool lady, and she used to be an OB who regularly backed up home births in the area. She told me all the questions I need to ask my midwife to make sure she has good judgement, and she is sending me a list of OB's at Durham Regional who she knows provide good care. I figured I would go visit one, get an ultrasound at about 15 weeks, figure out if any of them are supportive of natural birth (that way I know who they are if I get transfered there), and they can have all of my info already on file. My GYN said she would see the home birthing mothers once per trimester, just so she was familiar with them and their pregnancy. She is also going to send me the European guidelines on home birth transfer, since Europe has a lot more home birth going on over there. She also told me not to attempt a home birth if the baby is breech, just because it is my first birth.

Yesterday I started crying because Ash said the word "pregnant" and I was like "YES I AM PREGNANT THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT". Crazy, crazy hormones!! I ate mostly veggie straws and canned pineapple all day yesterday, the thought of any other kind of food made me literally gag. I sat on the couch all day, blowing my nose over and over and over... if I had a quarter for every time, I'd be a millionaire by now. The humidifier is helping, but I can't take any expectorant because it is a class C drug and has been linked to birth defects!! So I will just have to get it out the old fashioned way (coughing up a lung).

Fever finally went down, I actually SLEPT last night which was a HUGE relief. It's really hard to not sleep or eat when you are pregnant! I went to the doctor yesterday (which was like hell... really really hard to sit in that waiting room) and she recommended I get the flu shot as soon as I get better, just in case this isn't the flu or in case I get hit with another strain later. I hope the baby kept on growing that whole time I wasn't eating and I had a fever... POOR LITTLE GENE SWARM. I think it is making up for it today because BOY am I hungry.

A cousin of mine ended up in the hospital for emergency surgery this week with an ectopic pregnancy. SCARY. Especially since I had a terrible pinching pain on only my left side last Sunday, and now whenever I get what I think is gas I only feel it on my left side. Is this why people get ultrasounds so early in their pregnancies? Because I thought it was just to guess how far along the woman was (I already know the answer to that since I was TTC, so I haven't bothered with an ultrasound yet). Of course I meet zero of the criteria for a risk of an ectopic pregnancy, so I'm being silly.

I think I should go ahead and pick a backup OB, but I have NO IDEA how to go about doing that, so I was just going to wait and talk to my midwife about it at our appointment on Feb 8th. I know I have to get her to write a referral if I want to get an ultrasound, but she will do all the blood work herself.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Ash and I found another baby consignment shop on University drive, with really awesome prices and a really large selection! It's called "Baby Bear". It was the first time Ash and I had gone shopping for stuff together, so it was nice to get a feel for what kind of things he liked and what he didn't like. He doesn't like prints. ANY PRINTS. Not even cute animals prints. I couldn't even get him to go for stripes, but he did find a tie-die onsie he really liked (see picture). The rest of the ones he picked out were plain, brightly colored onsies. There was also a full set he wanted but it was for about an 18 month old (sweater vest with button up and khaki shorts) so we didn't get it. We spent about $14 and we got 8 pieces. The tie-die one was the most expensive, at $5.




Some of these baby things are sized by month, some by pound, some by sm/m/lrg..... how are you supposed to compare them? Holding them up to each other only works sometimes, since brands vary. How old is a baby that weighs "13-18 lbs"? How much are they assuming your baby weighs if the shirt says "3-6 months"?