Week 23

Today is the beginning of Week 23. According to my readings, Bebe Mus weighs about 1 pound now, his eyelids and eyebrows are well developed and the pancreas is developing. I've been feeling pretty good. I feel kind of mellowed out by the pregnancy hormones I guess and generally very happy. I still get pretty tired by about 9:30pm though. I'm still sleeping very well thank goodness. It feels really good to have decided on home birth for sure with Alice and Anna. Now, we've begun to try to figure out other things ... we got rid of the bed in the spare room and have begun working on redesigning the closet for his room. We're starting to think about cribs, strollers, carseats and stuff like that. I am thinking about paint colors and crib bedding, but of course that doesn't concern Mr. Muslera much.

Oh, according to my book I should have only gained 12 - 15 pounds by this time and I've gained more like 16. It feels so strange to grow by the day...

Alice

On Wednesday, Javier and I met together with Alice Levine, who is another midwife in town and she works together with Anna Bunting. I had previously met with Anna alone and she and I hit it off, but I was interested in meeting her partner and also wanted Javier to meet them both so we could ensure our team chemistry would be good. We both LOVED Alice. Anna happened to be under the weather and unable to join us for the meeting so Javier has not had an opportunity to meet with her yet. It was such a great relied to meet Alice and just feel like everything is finally in place. I'm looking forward to working with them both and the decision to do a home birth! At this point, we are their only birth scheduled for late November. That's comforting for me as I wouldnt want to have to compete for them with another laboring woman ;-)

So it seems everything is in place. Anna and Alice are both Certified Nurse Midwives with YEARS of experience and wisdom. They also work with Laurel Phillips, who is the person putting together the Santa Barbara Birth Center which is scheduled to be complete by November, but as the way most projects go, I'm counting on that happening later.

At this point I've gained about 15 - 17 pounds. Right on track for being a little more than halfway through the pregnancy. And I dont know if I mentioned this yet, but pregnancy is 10 months ... it is not NINE! According to one book I am reading the months look like this:

21 - 25 weeks: 6 months (I'm here, 22 wks tomorrow)
26 - 29 weeks: 7 months
30 - 33 weeks: 8 months
34 - 40 weeks: 9 months (notice, this is 7 weeks!!!)

Photos - 21 weeks

21 Weeks - Oh, and it's a BOY!!

At this point, time is beginning to feel like it is starting to fly. In the beginning, it felt like it passed so slowly ... waiting to be 12/13 weeks and to be "safe" from the risk of miscarriage. Now, as I look at my expanding figure and the photos from the 19 week ultrasound on July 1st, I'm amazed at how quickly this little one is growing! It is such a miracle. He weighed only 10 ounces at the ultrasound, yet he is very well formed. He even has a really nice six-pack already ;-). The ultrasound was amazing. Even though I walk around daily with the belly and I read religiously about his development, nothing could have prepared me for what it would be like to see him on the 40" LCD monitor. It was incredibly reassuring to see his well formed and strong spine, he beating heart and his beautiful brain. I don't believe that his face is well formed yet, but it's getting there. We'll wait for his arrival to really see what/who he looks like. I can't wait. That will be so fun! He is moving around a lot too. He likes to swim all around and is really fond of the fluttering kicks. I think he's getting a lot of exercise already.

Javier and I were recently home for a 4th of July visit to Hanover/Madison. We had a lovely time visiting with family. It was wonderful to spend time with my mom, Dennis, Trevor, my Dad and Chris. It was also very fun to see my cousins (Holly and Kelley) and my stepbrother (Jason) and their families as well. There are a lot of little boys in the family right now. In fact, out of the 6 kiddies, 5 are boys and there are 2 more boys on the way and one of unknown gender on the way (Holly's 4th!). It seems that all the cousins are having more kids than their/our parents did. I'm seeing this trend amongst my friends as well. It's interesting.

What's going on with my birth plan? Well, I have officially changed doctors. Javier and I met with Dr. Susanne Ramos yesterday. We really liked her. She took time with us and let us listen to the heartbeat for some time, which is always incredibly exciting and fun. She mentioned he is moving around a lot too! I told Dr. Ramos that we will more than likely be doing a home birth and she was very supportive. Very different from the response I got from my previous doctor. I explained to her that it is important for me to have a rapport with a doctor as well in the event that something does happen that prevents us from doing a home birth. I'm trying VERY hard not to have expectations about this "perfect birth" that I have envisioned for myself. I know that anything can happen so I want to be realistic, but I will say that I feel completely capable and even excited about giving birth at this point!

Stay tuned for photos. I'm getting BIG :).