20 weeks

We are going into our 20th week. Our baby girl is about the length of a banana and is curled up like that most of the time. She weighs about 1/2 a pound now. Yay baby! Her head is now finally a little more proportional to her body and she looks more like a baby than a little alien from now on.

As for me, I have reached the point that the "bump" can't really be hidden anymore and I am feeling the effects of that in my low back by late evening. I am typically a back sleeper but I have had to start side sleeping since that low back pain is waking me at night. That and my persistently full bladder are the first real pregnancy signs that I have felt and as annoying as they should be I actually find them novel and reassuring.

Found out today that anemia is still a bit of an issue for me. I guess I am not that surprised since I am still cold all the time except for my belly which is apparently getting all the blood flow because it is always warm. A more sentimental explanation is that my little princess is just radiating warmth from the inside out. :) You are welcome to think that is cheezy...I just think she is sweet and all I know is that I do feel warm carrying her inside of me.

A day in the life...

We had our 20 week prenatal appointment today. I actually thought this might be a good opportunity to show what a typical Midwifery appointment is like. This is something that I get a lot of questions about. I used to think it was an odd question but I guess I have come to realize that the whole concept of homebirth is so foreign to most people that it naturally elicits a certain curiosity.

I have become aware in conversations that there are many people who imagine that Midwifery care means that I meet with a Wiccan who is dressed in a broomstick skirt and Birkenstocks so that she can burn sage around me and rub herbs on my belly to bless my baby. This kind of notion always just makes me laugh but in an effort to dispel this and other crazy ideas about prenatal care from a Midwife I am posting these pictures and a real description of a typical appointment.

For those who find this odd...keep in mind that I have a lot of clients and friends whose curiosity about---all things birth related---is borderline obsessive. We call ourselves 'birth junkies' and this kind of thing fascinates us so if you aren't a birth junkie feel free to pass on this post. :)


This is a shot of the exterior of Nurturing Hearts Birth Services or NHBS. In my previous pregnancies I was fortunate to have the luxury of 'home visits' wherein my Midwife came to my home for prenatals. The home visit is becoming increasingly less common as the "valley" has spread making the travel time for Midwives ridiculous. It does make sense for us to come to them whenever possible and if I have to have an appointment that isn't in my home then at least it gets to be in the lovely home-like atmosphere of Nurturing Hearts.


This is the waiting room outside the offices of NHBS. My kids love it here and they are always welcomed graciously by Stephanie and Kate since the Midwifery Model of care sees pregnancy and birth as a family affair.

When Stephanie steps out to get us from the waiting room we move into her office where there is a little couch for me and a toy area for the kids. The beginning of the appointment starts with a casual chat on the couch about how I have been feeling in the last few weeks; do I have any concerns or ailments bothering me; questions I might have for my Midwives or questions they have for me about my nutrition and general health.

Today we went over my ultrasound results which was nice because I found out from Kate that the report showed that my placenta is anterior (this means at the front of my uterus) which likely explains why I have yet to feel the baby's movement. It puts a little 'pillow' between me and the moving baby so it finally makes a little sense and puts me at ease about the fact that this is the longest I have ever gone before feeling the baby move.


After we chat for a bit I move over to this little cot where Kate checks my blood pressure (as seen here---Notice Hayden's fascination with the process) and measures my fundal height (how far up the uterus has grown in the last month) and in this particular appointment also drew some more blood for another panel to check out my anemia---which; unfortunately; I am still battling.

Notice anything missing from this "exam table"? That's right...stirrups. That's because V.E.s are rarely performed prenatally by midwives. There is really no medical benefit to V. examinations at this point and most pregnant women find them---and the narrow, cold exam tables to which they are attached---very uncomfortable. Even when/if a V.E. is necessary such as when a GBS (Group B Strep) culture is performed there is really no benefit to the use of stirrups---that archaic contraption (torture device?) which was invented by a man and does not account for the comfort of a pregnant woman in any way shape or form.


After all that "boring" clinical stuff we get to listen to the baby's heartbeat with the doppler. (This actually has clinical benefits too but the kids and I just like to hear her heartbeat! This is Nate's favorite part of the appointment---he is on the left in this picture.)



Finally we wrap up the appointment with more questions and conversation. I never feel rushed and always enjoy our chats since I feel like all of my concerns are addressed and we are also building a great rapport which helps a lot when you consider that at the end of this ride I am going to be spending hours with these ladies in my home waiting for the baby to make her appearance. Pictured here are Stephanie Soderblum, my Midwife (in brown) and Kate Cunningham, her student (in green).



All in all the appointment takes about an hour and I can honestly say it is one of the best hours of my month. I look forward to it which is such an enormous juxtaposition to the dread I used to feel when I went for my OB appointments in Caleb's pregnancy. And THAT is a day in the life.

Pinewood Derby

Whew! It's all over. Okay...so it wasn't THAT bad. :) I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of the boys cars and explain them.



Nater wanted to make a wii remote for his "car" and this was the design we came up with. And yes...there is actually a 3-D "B" button on the bottom. Sorry it doesn't show here.



The boys love the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series in which Percy Jackson finds out that he is a demi-God: Poseidon's child. Out of his love for these books, Caleb chose the trident as the main design for his car. Percy's sword in the book is called Riptide---hence the name on the side of his car.



Caleb placed 3rd overall for the Webelos age group and Nate won 1 of his heats. This last picture is of his car winning. If you look close you will see the nose of the other car on the left of the picture.

Building Stuff With My Boys

Okay so every year when Pinewood Derby rolls around I am filled with dread. Rob isn't really into stuff like cutting out cars on the jigsaw so it kind of falls to me to help the boys with their cars.

The funny thing is, I dread it because it stresses me out that I will mess up the block and have to start over but then we get going with it and it ends up being really fun. I like working with them and we have a lot of fun watching the cars---literally---take shape.

Yesterday we cut out Nater's and sanded it and in the evening the whole family went ot Home Depot to get some paint and another bit for the Dremel so we could work on Caleb's today. Nate got a Home Depot gift card for Christmas that he's been chomping at the bit to spend so he was able to buy his own paint with it there and he even wanted to buy the Dremel bit with his card as well. There is a reason we call him Nate the Tool Man.

Today we cut out Caleb's car and sanded it and we got the base paint on both of theirs. That means tomorrow we will lacquer them and add the wheels on. Geez...did I say it was fun? It may be fun but it is a lot of work. My neck is totally jacked up from bending over the Dremel.

I guess ulitimately it isn't really about building the cars but about building the memories. We have some good ones from this year. Here are a few pictures Vicki took of us.





Hey...check back for pictures of the finished results! The boys had some really cool ideas this year. (If you click on the first picture of Caleb and I to enlarge it and then look really close at his block you will get a sneak peak at his design.)

I shall call her...

The kids have decided that since we are not telling anyone the baby's name and they are tired of rotating other names; the baby needs an official one that we can call her around other people.

They decided on the name Helvetica. Ha ha! They are so funny. Nate came up with it actually but there was a quick vote taken and the 'Ayes' had it.

I said she needs a middle name and ever since watching the movie Mrs. Doubtfire I have always loved the name Euphegenia...Mrs. Doubfire herself...Effie for short. That name cracks me up. I don't know why. I'm weird like that.

So her official moniker until she is born (or until someone accidentally lets the cat out of the bag) is: Helvetica Euphegenia Halliday. I love it.

It's a...

Drum roll please.........It's a girl!! So I am a couple of days behind but we had our ultrasound on Monday and they told us it was a girl.

The way it took place was very anticlimactic which kind of stinks but at least we know. The thing is; the tech was searching and searching for gender but couldn't find anything. Then she said, "I'm guessing girl because your baby is face down and has been really active so with all of that movement and gravity I am sure I would have seen 'something' float into view if it was a boy. So my guess is more about what I DON'T see than about what I see."

Then finally she says, "Yeah. I'm going to go with girl because I finally see something that looks like a girl." I saw what she was seeing as well but she was so casual about her pronouncement I thought, "So is that official or...???" Rob asked that exact thing and she nodded emphatically and said, "Oh yes. For sure...I'm calling it a girl."

So it wasn't an "A HA!!" moment but we finally got what we wanted. The kids were thrilled. Especially Hayden.

On a separate note...our concern about the occasional bleeding I have had seems to be unfounded. Placenta looks great. Cervix is closed. There is no evidence of any bleeding IN the uterus. (There is usually a dark spot on the endometrium---uterine lining---if there has been a bleed.)

Still no real explanation for it but as I tell clients all the time when they have this issue; if you get a random nose bleed you don't assume you have a brain tumor...

Ultimately, the ultrasound showed a very healthy VERY active baby. So active the tech said, "So you haven't felt movement yet? Cuz when you do, this baby will be keeping you up nights. I think it is the most active fetus I have ever seen in an ultrasound!"

I concur! I couldn't believe how wiggly she was. Her arms and legs were literally pumping...it looked like she was jogging in place. Maybe that is why I haven't felt her yet---her movements are mostly in her arms and legs and those small movements are not as easy to feel as flips and somersaults.

Guess we are getting a busy little bee. I don't mind that at all. I am just so happy to see her very healthy.

For those who follow stats: She measured 18w. 4d. and FHT was 154 bpm. The tech put my EDD as 8/1 as opposed to 7/28 but most of you know how little stock I put in EDDs so go figure.