Good appointment again today. Fluid and blood pressure were OK. Neil took a while to pass his BPP, but we didn't break out the M&Ms. He had the hiccups when we were in the waiting room, and I was a little concerned that he'd be too worn out afterward to perform well during the ultrasound.
It was a big case of the hiccups, which was unfortunate for Neil but fortunate for Matt because he finally got to feel Neil move. When I was first able to feel Neil move, Matt said that he didn't want to feel it because it seemed weird. I told him that he should do it just once because it's one of those experiences that you can't have after the baby is born. A month or two later, Matt mentioned that Neil didn't seem like his baby, not a question of Neil's paternity :) but a statement of his feeling that Neil was more mine at that point. I think the twice-weekly ultrasounds have been good for Matt. He gets to see Neil as often as I do and has gotten to know him a little and recently decided that he wanted to feel Neil move. We've sat on the couch a few times with Matt's hand on my belly, waiting for Neil to move, and nothing happened. So I've been trying to get Matt's attention when Neil moves so that he can hurry over and feel it. The problem with that is that I can only use gestures because Neil stops moving when I talk. Several times I've been sitting on the couch waving wildly and snapping my fingers while Matt sits across the room and stares at his laptop, oblivious to my insane gesticulating. So today in the waiting room we were sitting next to each other on a couch and I started elbowing him when Neil started moving. Matt didn't know what I was trying to communicate, so he started nudging me back. I gave up on gestures and spoke to him to let him know that Neil was moving and that I was trying to get his attention so he could feel. When I was quiet again, I realized that Neil was moving some more, and the regularity of the movement told me that he had the hiccups. I put my peanut butter granola bar on my tummy and nudged Matt so he could watch it bounce. He was then able to put his hand there and feel Neil move. The bouncing granola bar made him laugh, and feeling the baby made him smile.
So the hiccups were good for Matt, but they were a little rough on Neil. He squirmed a little at first during the ultrasound, but he didn't breathe or move around. He didn't even swat at the ultrasound tech when she started poking him. She did see him open his hands and move his fingers several times, which she says is a good sign that he doesn't have any chromosomal abnormalities. Babies with chromosomal abnormalities tend to keep their hands in fists before they're born. Eventually, Neil breathed for a while. And then the ultrasound tech turned the camera toward his head and said, "Oh! He yawned!" She was able to rewind it for us so we could see him yawn, stick out his tongue, rub his face with his fists, and nuzzle his head into my pelvis to get comfortable for nap time. It was so cute! The poor baby was so worn out from hiccuping that he needed a nap and didn't have the energy to perform for his BPP. He passed anyway, possibly from sheer cuteness. :)
Dr. Ackermann checked my cervix again today. It had been a couple weeks since the nurse practitioner had checked me. She was much gentler. When he started probing, I nearly jumped off the table. He announced that it was about 50% softened and 1 cm dilated. I have considered that it was 1 cm dilated only after he poked me so hard but not before. The 50% softened part is exactly what the nurse practitioner said two weeks ago. So at 38 weeks, neither Neil nor my cervix seems in a particular hurry to go into labor. If I've made no progress by my due date, I'll try home remedies and look for an acupuncturist to try to get things started without a hospital induction. I met an acupuncturist in Springfield that says she treats women who are 40 or more weeks pregnant for free to help them go into labor. I'd much rather nap with little needles (which I've done several times before) than get an IV full of hormones. I'm fine to let Neil hang out as long as he needs to (within reason), but I'd rather hurry him myself than have doctors do it.
Before we went to the doctor today, Matt's co-worker brought us a car-load of baby stuff, including a crib, mattress, and changing table. We put the changing table together tonight. I need to wipe it down, but it's in good shape. It needs a good changing pad with a belt restraint, so I'll try to get one at Walmart in the next week. I found a changing pad cover on clearance a few weeks ago and bought it, so all we need it the pad itself. And now that we have a crib and mattress, we need a mattress cover and some fitted sheets. The crib also converts into a toddler bed, and she brought us the conversion pieces. So Neil has somewhere to sleep for years to come. I got Neil a pop-up hamper like the ones Matt and I use, and I would like to get him a Diaper Genie before he arrives. If I don't get to it, we have lots of plastic Walmart bags that we can put dirty diapers in before throwing them away. That should get us by for a little while. Now I just need to finalize how I want to arrange the nursery and have Matt hang pictures. I'll post pictures when we're finished.
On the way home from the appointment, we stopped at CVS pharmacy. I came across a blog that gathers good deals: http://www.savingcentswithsense.net/. There are several of these kinds of sites. Another favorite is http://shoppingbookmarks.com/. The first site I mentioned told me about a sale on Huggies diapers that you combine with a CVS reward card rebate and a couple of online printable coupons that results in packages of diapers for only $3.50 each. I got a similarly good deal on Pampers diapers last week at CVS. And I just saw on the Shopping Bookmarks site that Amazon.com has Gerber PJs for less than $2 per pair, and they're eligible for free shipping. I'll have to check that out. And I'm watching a few cloth diaper supplies on EBay. I've already got some cloth diapers and pins from Other Mothers, but I need something waterproof to go over them. And I've also seen diaper closures that work without pins. I'd rather not stab my son in my attempt to be thrifty. I figure if I can get the closures and waterproof covers for about $10, the whole experiment will cost less than $20, a reasonable investment to try to save money on diapers.
So we're good, Neil's good, and we're pretty much ready for him to arrive. I'll post again after our Thursday appointment to let you know that Neil met his goal of 6 pounds at 38 weeks. And if we have more exciting news before then, we'll post, email, call or do anything else we need to do to get the word out.
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