34 Weeks: Turtle Power!

Today marks the 34th week in my pregnancy.  Brian has made this pregnancy so much more fun.  He's a hero in a half shell, TURTLE POWER! :)

Babycenter.com:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born — are filling him out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well.

Whattoexpect.com:

What's new this week? Your baby is clocking in at five pounds and could be as tall as 20 inches by now, and the vernix (the white coating protecting your baby’s skin) is getting thicker. This week, a boy's testicles start making their way down from his abdomen to their final destination: his scrotum (look out below!). In other baby-related developments, those tiny fingernails have probably reached the tips of his fingers by now — and getting ready for that first postpartum manicure.

Alphamom.com:
For mom--  Fatigue, heartburn, nausea, frequent trips to the bathroom. It’s like the Return of the First Trimester, only much bigger and rounder and gruntier.  Don’t forget to do your Kegel exercises, not only in preparation for childbirth but also to stop the unfortunate peeing-when-you-laugh-or-sneeze phenomenon, which can get pretty out of hand in these final weeks.  SO NOT KIDDING ABOUT THAT.

ME:

Yes, fatigue. Yes, heartburn. Yes, ridiculously frequent trips to the bathroom.  FUN TIMES!! But it's not that bad. I'm not going to go all drama queen on you and say that it's so hard because it's totally not.  (Well except for the bathroom trips.  You've got to be kidding me! I can hardly get anything done!) 
Next week begins my weekly trips to the doctor.  I'm nervous because I'll be seeing my first male obgyn ever.  Ewwww weird.  I'm sure it'll be fine.  I'm seeing two men in the next month in fact.  The rest are women but I have to see all the doctors in the practice because any of them could deliver Baby T.  So we'll see I guess!

We went to the After Baby Comes class last night.  It was informative.  We learned how to swaddle, soothe and bathe a baby.  Well... this doll actually...

(On the class evaluation form, there was a question asking how can they improve the class.  Andrew wrote "LIVE BABIES!" Don't worry, he also wrote just kidding.)

We sat next to a couple that were going to be adopting a baby girl in two weeks.  When they introduced themselves to the class and told their story, I will admit I teared up a bit.
How can you not? Stone cold hearted people you are!

Anyway, here are a few tidbits that we learned from the class:

1.) Bringing the baby to bed can be bad when the mother has a man besides the father in bed with her.  The father has the instinct to not roll over the baby where as a strange man is more likely.  This is a FACT that they felt the need to inform us in this class.  We all laughed.  But apparently enough mothers have strange men in bed with them (and their newborns!!!) that they have become aware of this statistic.  No joke.  So don't bed strange men with a newborn.  Got it!

2.) SHUSHING a baby is a great calming technique.  Now I've seen mothers ssh-ssh-ssh a crying baby.  That's no big deal.  But the video we watched, OMG.  This guy gets all up in the baby's bizness and goes, "SSSHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" like it's deaf! I actually covered my ears during the video because it was so disturbing to me for this poor baby! But apparently, the womb is a very noisy place.  I guess the sounds the baby experiences are as loud as a hair dryer next to the ear.  So the guy shushes very loudly and the baby instantly calms down. (He says you have to be louder than the baby's cry or he can't hear you.)  You can just see the baby's face relax and the eyes open and then start to shut.  It was INSANE!  Instantly calm baby.  So shushing or white noise are good for a baby.  Got it!

Here are some things we DIDN'T learn at the baby care class...