Back in school
We had our first childbirth class tonight. It was less crowded that the infant care class, but the room is still pretty uncomfortable. The age grouping in this class was a lot different, we are probably close to the middle, on the young side. I had been warned that the class is kind of touchy feely, and that there is a lot of sharing. I don't think that is going to be the case with our group. Our teacher seemed a little bothered by peoples answers about what they hoped to get out of the class. People gave short answers and basically said they wanted to be told what to expect and what to do for the birth. All pretty straight forward people. There was one couple that seemed pretty uncomfortable and defensive. They giggled a lot and cracked a lot of jokes. We watched a video that was really cheesy, but they were laughing the most by far. Here is a highlight from the video: A woman was talking about her vocalization during childbirth and trying to make her sounds match the intensity of her contractions. She said she felt like a tigress pushing the energy of the universe out of her. It was that kind of video. There was also a guy named Bruce in the video who looked like he belonged in porn -- it was just something about his mustache.

I think the info from the class will be useful, and the instructor isn't nearly as cheesy as the video, so we should be able to get through it just fine.

So, now we are onto week 31. Just to change things up, this week's update is from webmd.com. "Your baby measures about 18 inches long from head to toe and weighs about 3.5 pounds. Rather than hearing vibrations, baby's nerve endings in his ears are connected now so that he can hear distinct sounds, like familiar voices and music."

As I was answering Meli's comment below in the comments section, I ran out of space. Luckily, Greg is way more practical than me and suggested just answering in a post. So, here goes. Why I did not want to find out the sex of our baby before the birth:
Firstly, I had kind of always wanted to wait. But secondly, it has always bothered me how once people find out the sex of a baby they automatically assign it labels- like strong and heartbreaker for boys or sweet and beautiful for girls. I know that our baby will get these labels once s/he is born, but I guess we can deal with that when it arises. I like thinking of our baby as strong, intelligent, beautiful, etc regardless of his or her gender. I hope our child can have a balance of "masculine" and "feminine" qualities. I can say that it would be much easier to settle on a name if we knew the sex!

I am always intrigued by the reactions we get from people when they find out that we are not finding out the sex of our baby before the birth. There are some people who we barely know who get very upset, but for the most part people are supportive of our decision. I am always intrigued by the reasons people give for their decision, so when I came across this article supposedly listing the pros and cons of finding out the sex, of course I was interested! But, as with much of the internet articles about pregnancy/baby topics, I was disappointed. It seemed like there were no real reasons not to find out. Which I guess is a commonly held idea, since 70% of couples do find out. I am just not used to an article which is supposed to be neutral seeming so one sided. Ah, the joys of finding information on the internet.

Mmmmm.. Garlic
Christine read an article somewhere on the internet about how strong flavors in the mother's diet can change the taste of the amniotic fluid. The theory being that the baby starts getting used to the flavors it will be taking in through breastmilk, and eventually the foods of the culture. I thought it was a bunch of crap, especially since we couldn't find the original article when I went to make this post. I found this page with descriptions of how the baby's senses develop. This article says:
The amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus can smell strongly of curry, cumin, garlic, onion, or other strong tastes from a mother's diet.

That quote is less disturbing than the original one that said the flavors could be tasted. I am sure the baby can taste the differences, but the original article made it sound like some poor scientist had to do a amniotic blind taste test.

My current plan is to make Christine eat more carnitas (which for her means any at all), more hot sauce, BBQ sauce, salsa, and after all that-- more TUMS. I think she gets enough garlic, but we might need to make a couple extra Vassili's trips just to make sure.

Today I discovered yet another little perk to being pregnant. No dental check ups. I had a dentist appointment today and I was supposed to get a check up and a cleaning, but since I am pregnant- I got to postpone the check up (because of the x-rays)! I know that I will have to do it later, but it sure felt good to just get a cleaning and then get to go home. I still don't understand how hygenists expect you to answer complicated questions (beyond yes and no) while they have their little tools in your mouth. I feel bad if I don't answer, but I feel bad if I do and interrupt their work. It's like a catch-22.

Good Sunday
Christine just finished putting the crib set on our new mattress. We got a good price on a well reviewed mattress at Toys R Us today, and we have been sitting on the crib set for a couple months. When the baby is in the crib we can't use the comforter, and the stuffed animals have to go, but for now it is all put together as a very cute death trap.

Today was our 30 week check up. Yep, today marks 30 weeks. I have to say I am pretty pleased with how well things are going. I'm still mostly comfortable and all of the routine tests keep coming back the way they should. We go back in two weeks for more measuring and listening to the heartbeat. So babycenter.com has the following to say about development at week 30 "Your baby's lungs and digestive tract are almost fully developed. And while your baby may soon grow more slowly in length, he will continue to put on the pounds. This week your baby continues to open and shut his eyes. He can probably see what's going on in utero, distinguish light from dark, and even track a light source. If you shine a light on a your belly, your baby may move his head to follow the light or even reach out to touch the moving glow. Some researchers think baring your belly to light stimulates visual development. But don't expect 20/20 vision when your baby is born — newborns can see a distance of only about 8 to 12 inches. (Children with normal vision, don't reach 20/20 vision until about age seven to nine.) And to complete the picture, new eyebrows and eyelashes now frame your little one's peepers."

Victory is mine!
We have been catching up on the Family Guy lately on Cartoon Network. I have no idea how I missed the show the first time around. I am warning everyone in advance that as soon as our kid starts talking, one of the first things I am going to teach him/her is to throw his/her hands in the air and yell victory is mine! whenever they do something well, or triumph in anyway. Consider yourself warned.

Baby Cage
We put the crib together tonight. We still need to buy a mattress, but we are working on setting up the room. Here are a couple of pics. We will post more of the room as we get it set up.

Kickin'
So the kid can certainly kick. We are supposed to be doing a thing called a kick card now where we track how often the baby is moving so we can make sure it is still doing okay. So far we haven't been to worried about it because the kid is kicking often and kicking hard. Last night Christine was asleep (I guess she is used to the kicking) and I had my arm around her, and every time the kid kicked it would move my arm, and wake me up. The other fun thing is when the baby is leaving Christine alone, I can push on her stomach a little and the baby will usually kick at where I am pushing. She doesn't always appreciate that.

Week 29 and babycenter.com says, " This week your baby weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and is probably between 14 and 15 inches long from head to toe. His head is getting bigger, and his brain is developing billions of neurons (important for later learning) at an amazing rate." Since there is so much neural growth right now, I think I should eat ice cream everyday! Isn't fat good for myelination? In other news, there is a new study out about pregnant women eating chocolate and its positive effect on baby's moods. I hope my dislike of chocolate does not have adverse effects on our baby's disposition.

The Name Game
We sat down for a while last night with a baby name book, and the baby name websites. We are still thinking hard about good names, and me might have a few names to ask your opinions of when we think about it for a little longer. Suggestions are still welcome even though all we have done is shoot down the many offers thus far. We have been watching reruns of MacGyver lately, so I thought is was funny when the baby name book we have had a section with what famous people named their children. Apparently Richard Dean Anderson named his child : Wylie Quinn Annarose Anderson.

Here are some name websites in case anyone wants to play around and help us out:
Oxygen Babynamer
Baby Names
Baby Center names

So it sounds like week 28 is pretty standard. According to babycenter.com, " By this week, your baby weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and measures about 14 1/2 inches. At about this time, your baby can open his eyes and turn his head in utero if he notices a continuous, bright light shining from the outside. The fat layers are forming and the fingernails appear." One new thing is that this week officially marks the beginning of the third trimester... the home stretch.

Greg and I went to yet another prenatal appointment yesterday. Once again, very routine, sounds like everything is going well. We got to hear the heartbeat for longer this time and it sounds good. I am happy to report that my fundal height was 28, which is exactly where it should be for being 28 weeks pregnant. In other good news, my glucose tolerance test results were very good- so even with the frustration of taking the test, the outcome was positive- no gestational diabetes. We now will be seeing the midwives every 2 weeks... I guess it is speeding closer, even though it still seems far away.

Five Stars
We toured the Sutter Maternity Center yesterday to see the place where supposed to be having our baby. I always feel weird in there because the people who work at the information desk act like you should already know where you need to go. Anyway The maternity wing is upstairs on the right. I had heard that this place is nice, but that is an understatement. The rooms you stay in are better than most of the hotels we have stayed at (granted it is more expensive than any hotel we have stayed at) They do a good job of making it feel as little like a hospital as possible, but they are sure to let you know they are prepared for anything as well. With a normal vaginal delivery you stay there for two nights. Your baby gets to stay with you the whole time, and there is enough space in the room for family to be there but not be in the way, as well as a nice waiting area for when things get to crazy in the actual room. There is a virtual tour on their website if you want to check it out. Oh yeah.. the food is supposed to be really good too, but they didn't have free samples on the tour.