critter preview

There’s been a lot going on and finally I am getting around to uploading some pictures. Olive was born at 6:57PM. She was 5lbs 11oz, and measured 20 inches long.

Nicole is waiting for the c-section to begin. Apparently it was c-section day since we were the 5th of 5. It was delivery day in general since all the c-sections were moved to the surgery wing for recovery.

Me waiting in my scrubs for the c-section.

Olive is being checked out.

Still being cleaned up.

These toes are definitely from Douglas' side.

Olive’s toes are the first part that I saw and recognized from my side!

Nicole looking across at Olive.

Olive is clean and waiting for everything to be over.

Olive blowing bubbles!

                 A quick update for the past 10 weeks. I decided after dealing with substantial bleeding since the beginning of my pregnancy and not getting any where with the Midwives practice I had chosen,  to change practices. The new doctor took one look at the cause of my bleeding (which was a very infected polyp) and said that needs to be removed before you go into premature labor. So we scheduled a surgical suite at the hospital and I had a very simple albeit uncomfortable procedure done and have not had a single bleeding issue since.  I now  have great confidence in my new doctor which is a lot more than I could say before about the old one.  I was thrown a wonderful baby shower by my great friend Julie Wilson. That girl can really plan a party. Doug and I had such a great time with all of our friends and family…and can’t help but think what awesome friends we have…they came to an outdoor shower on the hottest day of the year and didn’t complain or faint….Yay!  We also took a trip to Reno to see Doug’s parents and aunt. It was a great time but I swelled up like a big balloon when we got back and the doctor said that was the end of my traveling. It put a damper on the planned trip for later that month for his aunts surprise 80th birthday party…but the doctor was right because The night of the party I had my first bout with false labor and was glad I was home in my own bed and that Doug decided not to go to Reno without me…I think I would have been pretty freaked out to deal with it alone…it was intense!  We are also almost done setting up the baby’s room and have even been a little crafty…We re purposed an old makup counter stool I bought from Gotchalks when they went out of business into a table for the baby’s room (picture included). Last night I had another bout of false labor ..which was not as painful as the first but lasted a lot longer…8 hours as opposed to 3 hours. I’m not convinced I will make it to my due date in 4 weeks…I think Olive will be here earlier…I’m on her schedule now!

We have become really busy with all the house fixing up and baby stuff procuring that we haven’t been on top of keeping up the site…So here we are at 25 weeks!

I think she resembles my side of the family…But I hope she gets some of her pa’s awesome attributes like Doug’s nice legs, gorgeous green eyes and his big brain! 

Here’s critter moving around in her 20-week ultrasound. She was uncooperative at first in letting us see the gender, but once that was out of the way there was more activity. Everything is where it should be and size is normal. Yay!

The password is once again: critter

20 week ultrasound from Douglas Jones on Vimeo.

You can also see the larger version here.

During my first trimester I gained very little weight and was over all pretty impressed with my self because I felt I was eating all the time. Now In my second trimester I am more cautious of what and how much I’m eating but my belly is coming along at a surprising rate. Although my weight gain is within normal range it’s kind of shocking to gain half a pound a week. The body is an incredible thing in how it knows exactly what to do. I have also discovered that I’m running into things more because I no longer know the parameters of my butt. Not quite sure how I feel about that one. All and all I fell good and am excited and happy with the changes taking place.

Belly at 16 weeks

Had a little bit of a scare this morning and so they wanted to take a peek…Everything is fine and these are the most recent pics. I will say that I’m really done with having ultrasounds! I’m afraid Critter is going to grow a third arm soon.

I am fairly certain Doug has given me a giant baby. Both he and his sister were 9 pounders. Where as my brother and I were 6.8 and 7.2 respectavly. I will be 14 weeks tomorrow and am already showing. I shouldn’t be surprised because when we went for our genetic screening they said Critter was measuring a full week bigger than its age. Also I would expect significant weight gain… But I have only gained 3 pounds. My body is just shifting weight around….It’s really odd. All complaints aside it really amazing to watch the changes …And I plan on getting into a prenatal Yoga class and doing some swimming..I need to get strong for the Giant Critter!

If you want the full-size video you can download it here. I warn you that it’s a 200MB download, but it’s hosted on my ISP so hopefully it should download as fast as your connection allows.

You’re going to want to right click and save the linked content to download the file. This won’t stream and you need to look at it with a local media viewer.

During the ultrasound I recorded it on my camera. Unfortunately I had to do it from across the room with my arm extended to get it as close as possible. This worked fairly well except when I had to change positions because my arm got tired. I edited out most of the critter searching and machine operation to leave you with 97% total critter video. No audio in this one. I can also put up the full resolution movie that hasn’t been compressed by a streaming service if anyone wants.

The password is, unsurprisingly, critter.

Larger size 12 week ultrasound from Douglas Jones on Vimeo.

Critter is starting to look human here. You see it better when watching my recording of the ultrasound, but this is still pretty good. Also we learned that critter’ heart rate is now up in the mid-150s (normal). Nicole wasn’t as pleased to find out that critter is measuring one week larger than actual age.

This is critter’s heartbeat recorded at 11 weeks. It’s about 125 beats per minute which is normal for the age. Nicole thinks it sounds like a steam locomotive.

critter heartbeat – 11 weeks

These two images are from an ultrasound performed at 7 weeks. Not much more than a blob, here, but we were able to see the heart beat.