Week 35 update

Starting to go to the doctor every week from now until the baby comes. Last time, the OB was thinking the baby may have turned head down, but said we should wait til this time to be for sure. This week, the OB says she thinks the baby is still breech. This past week, there have been many times where my belly looks like a square or a heart - two bumps sticking out on either side of my belly button. I told the doctor this, and after checking the heartbeat, she said the baby is probably transverse, with the head still up - given where the heartbeat was heard the loudest. She said that we'll keep checking weekly and that at some point, they will do an ultrasound to be sure. And if I go to the hospital in labor that we can let them know that the baby's position has been breech & they will check again at the hospital. She did say that she's know babies who have turned in the last week, so a c-section is not for certain just yet.

Merry Christmas!

We had a quiet Christmas this year. No tree or decorations, since we figured we've got enough to do with getting ready for the baby. And if the baby were to come early, we'd be in danger or getting in trouble with our homeowners association for not taking down our decorations in time. Wei Yan's family came up for dim sum at lunch, then we went with them to the chinese grocery store after lunch. His dad, aunt, grandmother and brother went back to greenville and we headed back to our house. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law stayed the night before they flew out to Hong Kong on the 26th. We had hot pot for dinner and even got a chance to take a quick nap before dinner.

washer scare

So on Christmas Eve we had a bit of a scare. I was running a load of baby clothes - onesies, tiny socks, blankets, etc. Our washer which is usually pretty loud, made some bad clunking noises and then stopped. We got a F02 error code and things were not looking good. No water was draining and the washer was not happy. We did some searching on the internet and got some buckets out. We took out all of the wet clothes, got as much water out of the drum as possible and then took off the front. The drain plug produced quite a bit more water and some of this did end up on the floor, but we did an ok job of getting most of this up. After poking around, found a bra extender (early pregnancy must) stuck in the filter/impeller. Basically, there is a small area in the front of our washer were any small baby socks or small items can get sucked down our drain. After letting everything dry out, the washer is back to working order and we'll have to remember to put all baby socks, baby mittens and other small items in a bag before throwing them in the washer from now on. But no service call at least!

Head down?

Well, the doctor says she thinks that the baby is turned head down. I think I must be measuring a little big, because she said something to the effect of "he doesn't seem like he's too big" when she was trying to feel my belly & see if he's turned down or not. It was a bit alarming, because I'm pretty careful with my belly these days, and she was just pressing in with her fingers to try to feel the baby in there and it was farther than I've ever pressed on my belly. When you are lying on your back (which I haven't done in ages!), I guess all the muscles relax. When I'm standing, sitting or lying on my side, gravity or something makes it so the belly is a lot more solid and not so squishy.

So by meeting the only female doctor in the practice, I've now met all the doctors who could possibly deliver the baby. This starts my once per week visits. And she said that she thinks he's head down, but by next week it will be more obvious. The heart rate was good and the baby was busy moving around in there even though I couldn't feel it, so I guess he does have a bit of room to move around.

Cord Blood Banking

So one of the decisions that we want to figure out before the big day comes is where to bank the baby's cord blood. Seems like there are 2 big private banks: Cord Blood Registry and Viacord. And there are also many public cord blood banks as well. Neither one of us has a history of diseases that are typically thought of for cord blood treatment, but since dna matters, they say that people of mixed ethnic origin should consider that matches are harder to find. I'm not sure if half japanese and half chinese counts, but either way seems like a finding a match is going to be hard enough as it is.

The cost of a private blood bank is a good chunk of change. The public cord blood banks run the risk of someone else having a match, the cells being used for research or maybe issues with access if it has not been used yet. I think right now we're leaning toward the public bank. If I died tomorrow and someone needed my heart, I don't think I'd want my family to deny that person a chance to live on the off chance that someone in my family might need it in the future. What are the real chances of us needing them? But then would I feel differently if it were my own child?

Shower thanks!

Thanks to my sister-in-law for throwing us a wonderful baby shower, and to all of our friends who helped us celebrate!