Today was a busy day. This morning we had a midwife visit, which went well again- everything is still looking good, baby is head down. And then this afternoon, Greg's office threw us a really great baby shower. There was lots of good food and lots of very special people. We also received some very generous gifts, ranging from cute baby clothes to cool books on baby games. It was really nice to be around what feels like our second family to celebrate this occasion. Lots of Greg's RAs even came to help us celebrate. It was a really nice day.

Extra-Uterine Life
The title of this post is how our instructor referred to the baby after it has been born. We talked a lot today about how the baby might look right after birth so we won't freak out when we see the baby. I'll tell you now that we might not be posting any pictures for a few days until the ugly rubs off the kid. Here is a partial list of things that are still considered normal or acceptable if your baby has them:
pointy head
facial bruiseing from forceps
red marks on eye lids and around lips (stork bites)
raised white bumps on face (clogged sweat glands)
thick dark hair on back
flattened, and off centered nose
folded or flattened ears
green or blue spots on buttocks
veiny head or legs
enlarged genitalia
birth marks
white cheesy substance all over body
blue or purplish color

Most of these things clear up in a couple days, or are not very common. I am also sure that none those things will bother me, and I'll still think the kid is the cutest ever. Our class is ever shrinking... we started with 13 couples, and there were 7 tonight. We better get a perfect attendance certificate with this is all over next week. Next week is the last class, and I am looking forward to never having to sit in those horrible chairs ever again.

Good class, bad class
We had another night of class today. There was some good, fairly balanced info on pain medication, and how it is all administered. We also went over all the different tools that can be employed during labor. We saw the vacuum pumps, epidural needles, catheters, forceps, and a interesting, and slightly evil looking device. It is an internal electronic fetal monitor. I tried to find a picture online, but I think no one posts them because people would freak out if they didn't have a feeling for the size of the thing. Basically it looks like a small piece of spring like from a ball point pen. The little bit of spring is screwed into the baby's head to monitor the fetal heart rate. While I was searching for pics of the thing I came across a few fanatical natural childbirth websites espousing the cruelty of the thing, and other technologies used in childbirth. My favorite quote was that attaching an electrode to your baby's head adds a "profound footnote: your baby is a technocratic artifact too" It goes on to describe women as machines, and babies as product that need to be protected. You can read more about that here. Be warned that it is a pretty one sided article though. The bad part of the class was that while describing techniques for pushing, our instructor sat on a chair and pulled her legs back, held her breath and pushed -- grunting and holding her breath for ten seconds at a time. A mental picture would have been enough.

Back to the Grind
We had a pretty fun weekend, got to see some friends and do some shopping. We were both pretty wiped Friday, so we took a nap and had a mellow evening. Saturday we went over the hill for lunch with friends and spent the night at Christine's parents house. It was good to get away for Santa Cruz for a day, and not think about work. We topped the trip off with a stop by Best Buy. We decided to buy a camcorder and join the ranks of parents intent on forcing images of their kid on unsuspecting visitors. We did research for a couple of weeks, read a bunch of reviews, and waited until we found a good deal. We ended up getting the JVC GRD93. It is small and light, and it was on sale. It was $50.00 off, on sale, comes with a $50 mail in rebate, a $25 best buy gift certificate, and we paid $10 for the stupid Best Buy rewards program to get $20 more in gift certificates. All told $135 off their already low everyday price. It is pretty cool, and as we play with it, I'll post some pics and movies.

Officially we have reached week 34. The big change is now we will begin seeing the midwives weekly. Yes, we have appointments all the way into the first week of July (hopefully we will not need that many). As for the baby, it is at the point where it is just adding weight and maturing its lungs. Here's what webmd.com has to say, "Your baby measures about 19.8 inches from head to toe and weighs about 5 pounds. Baby is probably settling into the head-down position, although it might not be final. Organs are now almost fully mature, except for lungs, and the skin is pink instead of red. Fingernails reach the ends of fingers, but toenails are not yet fully grown. Baby might have lots of hair. Movements are less frequent because of the tight fit."

My left arm is heavy, oh it is so heavy
That is a line from one of the movies we watched this week in class about breathing techniques, and focused relaxation. The exercises were useful, but the dialogue was very unnatural. It is a pretty well known that I am a little squeamish. I gag easily, and I can't watch those plastic surgery makeover shows. So the class talks about different positions for delivering a baby. Last night we watched a video of women giving birth in a squatting position without medical assistance. The video was made in Brazil in 1979 and had a light hippie music soundtrack so you couldn't hear the noises the women were making. We had to watch a series of six women give birth this way. I am aware birth is an amazing process, and one that involves a lot of fluid and some blood. I am sure that I will be able handle things when our time comes, but watching 6 in a row was a little too much for my delicate sensibilities.
Our class is still really quiet, and some of the people don't really seem to like the instructor --there were also three or four couples missing from class this week. The material is a little repetitive, and maybe a little oversimplified, but we will stick with it and take what we can from the class.

Week 33 and webmd.com says, "Your baby measures about 19.4 inches from head to toe and weighs about 4.4 pounds. The next few weeks will mark lots of growth in the baby. The fetus will gain more than half its birth weight in the next seven weeks. Baby begins to move less now as it runs out of room and curls up with knees bent, chin resting on chest and arms and legs crossed." Wow, could you imagine growing half an inch in one week?! That's some serious length gain.

My post about week 32 is a little late because things have been really hectic at work. I like the updates from webmd.com better now because they seem less repetitive. So, straight from webmd.com, "Your baby measures about 18.9 inches long from head to toe and weighs almost 4 pounds. It fills almost all the space in your uterus now, either lying with the head up or sometimes still with enough room to do somersaults. A layer of fat is forming underneath the thin, wrinkly skin. Baby's practicing opening his eyes and breathing." The midwife thinks the baby is already head down, so let's hope that's how it stays.

We had our 32 week check up yesterday. Again, it was routine and uneventful (a good thing). My blood pressure is still in a good range, and I've gained 1 pound since my last appointment (2 weeks ago). My fundal height measured at 34- 2 weeks ahead of where we "should" be. Again, this did nothing to calm my nagging fear that our baby will be gigantic. The midwife said that maybe next appointment (34 weeks) they can begin to guess on a small-medium-large range. I have a feeling they can scratch small right off the list. As I was discussing this fear with Greg on the drive home, he assured me that it would be ok if our baby was big. At that point, I explained to Greg that I'm not worried about the baby being big for any reason other than the fact that I have to give birth to it and I would prefer for it to not be huge. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Of course what is really important is a healthy baby- even if it is on the big side- but I can hope for under 8 pounds (which I seriously doubt)! Does anyone know how much they weighed when they were born? Any encouragement out there?