Deather's almost complete room....

Well, the room is coming along nicely. I worked on it with my brother (thanks alfred) when he was visiting last week. We made lots of progress. Here's a few pics :)

The Hospital/Doctor Saga

So, with suggestions from others (thanks Jaime and Teresa) I searched the internet and talked to Miriam and Danny and I are in the middle of Bradley classes on Sunday nights and of changing doctors so that we can change hospitals. I started asking a lot of questions at my doctor's office and it was a bit disturbing to hear the answers. People automatically assume when you are inquiring about natural childbirth that the only issue is not having drugs. While that is a major point...there's still pain involved and it has to be managed...so just because you aren't going to force me to take drugs, doesn't mean you are going to support me in natural childbirth if I am not allowed to walk around, drink water, be in a position that is comfortable ... etc. It just seems like they set you up for failure and want to force you to take drugs. That irritates me. So, I am working on switching offices so that I can birth with a midwife at Lexington Medical Center where they encourage you to walk around (a novel concept) since it helps labor progress...who knew! :) (Pardon my cynicism...but if normal practice for any number of years was to birth in a cotton field and return to picking cotton once the birth was accomplishd...I don't really think women are ill equipped by God to handle the process...I am beginning to think that "technological improvements" are ill equipping us.) Part of this I'm sure has to do with timing of a fictional book I read. I like reading biblical historical fiction...and right before I started checking into the natural childbirth stuff I was reading the book "The Red Tent" which elaborates (fictionalizes) the story of Dinah (Jacob's only daughter). Well, there was a lot of midwifery and vivid descriptions of child birth and how it was handled in Bible times and it just got me thinking a lot about the whole process and how different it was then....and how much I wanted an experience more like that than many of the birth stories that I hear about today. My mom has great a great birth story for me and I like hearing it because she remembers everything (it was based on her fear of needles not her desire for natural birth...but whatever:)).
Anyway...so yesterday I had the 3 hour glucost test...which was fine until just as I was finally starting to eat at 1pm. I was shaking uncontrollably and dizzy and weak and I just wanted to go to sleep. At that point I was terrified of what would happen if I let myself go to sleep, so I forced myself to stay awake until my food had time to affect my system and I was not weak and shaking any longer. Not a fun thing!! So, the results should come back tomorrow or Thursday. We'll see.
Also, they looked at Deather's kidneys because there was fluid on them last time...there's still fluid this time...about the same amount on one and almost double on the other, so they are planning to continue monitoring in case it becomes evident that there is a blockage. I'm not sure how I feel about this since they won't do anything about it until after birth anyway...so why not just check them after birth and figure out what needs to be done at that point? If you can't do anything about it...why all the tests just to cause worry and stress? We'll see what the midwives have to say I guess.
In other news, (well, it's been a while since I blogged) Danny's brother Alfred got to come for a visit. It was nice to have him here. He helped Danny with panelling in Deather's room (it's almost done!) and just got to spend time with Danny. It was good for them. He got to out to the base with him and watch planes take off while being in a vehicle on the runway. For someone who doesn't do that everyday...it's really cool. He is gone now and headed to Missouri to do some construction stuff, so keep in your prayers. It's so yucky there with the ice and all and he is a warm blood from the south:)
I will put up pictures from the room soon...and show you some of the stages. Danny is getting very excited as he nears completion. Can't wait to show you all his handy work! :)

And Speaking of Expansion

So, as you can see the belly is growing. Danny has a great time teasing me about my belly button. A few people have mentioned that it's like a turkey thermometer...once it pops all the way out, then we know I'm done. He's highly amused by that...I'm getting better about it now that the belly button doesn't hurt anymore.

We had a comical morning today. I woke up several times with charley horse in the calf muscle throughout the night...which has been happening for about a month now off and on. It doesn't phase me so much anymore. I just roll over and stand up and as soon as I put my heel on the ground the pain stops. Well, this morning right after Danny's alarm went off I stretched...which of course resulted in immediate charley horse. (Keep in mind he snoozes about 3 or 4 times before he is actually awake.) Well, apparently I was still groggy myself because I didn't realize there was charley horse in both calves. So, as I went to stand up and relieve my pain...my legs didn't work and I ended up on the ground. So now I'm moaning in pain and crawling around on all fours because my calf muscles won't work and he's out of the bed...."what's wrong, slow down, how can I help you". I finally communicate that I need him to help me stand up and we get both my heels on the ground and the pain stops. He of course is totally freaked out because he just woke up to his wife screaming and crawling around on all fours in the bedroom. Poor guy! Once I was fine and he understood what had happened we had a good laugh:)

It's the Year of Expansion!

Well, Christmas has come and gone and we are now in 2007, the year our Deather will join us! We had a great holiday season. It's funny how we were thinking about all the things that will be different next Christmas. We didn't travel, which was nice for me because road trips are not so pleasant right now. And an extra blessing was having everyone over to our house for Christmas! I got to cook all our favorite "traditional" dishes (Danny and I started our own traditions during our first Christmas) and share with friends and family.

An added bonus for the holiday season is that we celebrate our anniversary. As of December 3oth we have been married for 3 years. We spent the day as true expectant parents, purchasing a "new" car to replace the "dangerous" SUV that we had. So, we are now safe and ready for car seats in either vehicle:) Danny traded in the VUE for a 2001 Volvo S40. So, with my 1998 Volvo V70 we feel quite certain Deather will not be in excessive danger regardless of which vehicle we must carry him/her in:)

Also, we finally got started on Deather's room! One piece of pannelling is attached to the wall! Danny is doing some electrical work to reduce the risk of fire hazards in the room as well. I took some before pictures yesterday, so as soon as he gets them downloaded to the computer we can show you our progress!

Update

Well, things are going good here. Heather is progressing very well, getting bigger and bigger, and happier and happier. As for me, well, I couldn't be more excited. It just seems kind of 'real' now and things are seemingly falling into place. There is, of course, never enough time to get the house into order for Deather's arrival, but we are trying hard to make things live-able for the arrival.
I'll start on the paneling for Deather's room this week, so I should have pics of that soon. Still have lots of things to 'aquire' for the baby, but all will fall into place I'm sure lol. Other then that, not much new going on. Merry X-mas is just around the corner....yay!
danny

Check-Up

So, today I went in for a routing check-up. I anticipated a short visit...unfortunately the short visit only involved the time I spent with the doctor not the time I spent in the office. It all started fine...but then a mom came in (to the OB/GYN mind you) with a little boy that looked to be between 4 and 6 who was sick. He was coughing every 10 seconds and every third cough his mom would say, "cover your mouth, honey." I'm sitting there thinking ... "Do you see all of the swollen bellies sitting around you that do not need to be exposed to this illness? Not to mention the 3 newborns!" But I of course sit quietly attempting to breath as little shared air as possible with this germ infested kid. Finally a chair comes open across the room and I am able to move. But all in all I was in the waiting area for over an hour, just to have my belly measured, my weight, blood pressure and iron checked...and hear the heartbeat. All of that was easily accomplished in ten minutes. Oh well. Things are good though. Deather's heartbeat was b/w 150 and 160 and the doctor said that her increasing heartrate is indicating that his brain is developing properly:) The doctor also mentioned Bradley classes for natural childbirth. Has anyone reading this blog ever taken those? I was disappointed at my last visit because I found out that with this doctor's office, Baptist is the only option for birth...and they do not offer doulas like Lexington does. When my sister was pregnant, I remember going to tour Lexington with her and hearing all about the doula thing and really thinking that was an important part of birth. Mom and Danny have committed to being doula for me...but I need to find out how to get them the info they need to do an effective job. Any tips?

Pregnancy Pics

So, we went to get our Christmas pictures made and they ended up taking some really cool pregnancy pics. Here are a few of our favorites. This is our little family with Deather at 23 weeks:)

Here's the latest and greatest of Deather.

Big Belly Nelly

That's the nickname Heather's been given. Here's why :)

We have picked out Names

So, since we are planning to not find out the gender, we already had our discussion on names. We agreed on a boys name in one night: Jackson Kai McNeil. It took three nights to compromise on a girls name: Gabrielle Elisabeth McNeil.

It seems as though the first thing everyone does it try to figure out nicknames. Why is that? I mean, we chose names that have a variety of options for nicknames...but what's wrong with actually calling someone by their name? There are plenty of people (me for example...my husband for example) who actually go by their given name...is it really such a stretch to think that my children could actually be called Jackson and Gabrielle?

Deather's Ultrasound Pic

This is our first ultrasound where we could actually see the baby. They estimated that Deather was 13 weeks 6 days at this time. Based on that measurement, we have a due date of April 10th. Our next ultrasound is November 21st, where they will be able to measure everything and see much more! We are hoping to not find out the gender until birth, so as long as Deather doesn't get into awkward, obvious positions, we should be good to go:)