Week 39 Update...Next it will be time to meet Quinn

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

Happy Thankgiving everyone! We had a good holiday, though I was sick earlier in the week and am still recuperating. I've had a reasonably nasty sinuus infection for the last few weeks and my doctor FINALLY gave in and gave me an antibiotic at our last appointment on Wednesday. It may have been one of the happier days of my pregnancy as frankly, all the coughing AND being 9 months pregnant was not my favorite. I'm feeling a bit better now, but managed to somehow bruise or pull a muscle in my side with all the coughing which is making it pretty hard to sleep. Oh, well. As everyone says, I won't be sleeping much for awhile anyway, so I guess it is just good preparation.

Regina, Chris and Napoleon (Turner's sister, bro in law and our dog nephew) came in for the holiday. They got in on Wed. in time for Michelle's traditional Wednesday Thanksgiving. Then on Thursday we managed to have two more Thanksgivings with Nichole and Pete and Craig, Kari and Corbin. This is a good week for Quinn to be putting on his final lbs. as I think that he's had more access to food (via his mom) than ever! We did some shopping on Friday and met up with some of Turner's old college friends and today we watched the SC Gamecocks game (stupid Clemson!) and went out for dinner and then some Golden Tee... We've had a really good time, though I'm pretty sure I'm kind of on the uninteresting side as a hostess at this point as I spend so much time just vegging out.

All that said, a little over two days until we will have Quinn. I can't quite believe it and am vacilating between excited and slightly terrified.... I know that we are as prepared as we can be, but there is no way to know what exactly he will bring.... At the same time, I couldn't have a better partner than Turner, and he makes everything easier so I'm sure we'll be just fine.

Still, cross your fingers for us!

Love to all,

J

Testing, testing... Is this thing on??

So, as a very soon to be new dad, I feel that it is my duty to be fully prepared to videotape and distribute an unseemly length of my child's life to our friends, family, and anyone else who'll watch. To that end, I've spent the evening honing my video editing skills (David, I managed to get Windows Movie Maker to work!!!) and I present you with the following:

This is a little ditty I put together from video taken at the shower that we had at Michelle's house. Enjoy!!!

Week 38 Update and General Update...

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Meanwhile, we went to the doctor yesterday and all is well. Still no dilation (which is good as I want him to get as big as he can). He sounds good and my belly is getting bigger though this week I actually lost a lb. (Quinn is now stealing my food)! On the not so upside, Turner and I both have nasty, flu-like sinus infections. The doctor thinks they are viral which basically means we have to suck it up instead of getting antibiotics, but she recommended that I get lots of rest, drink lots of juice, etc, to try to get over it before Quinn comes. With that in mind, along with the fact that the last week or so has been pretty uncomfortable, today is actually going to be my last day at work so that I can use next week to rest, relax and do some final nesting.

Hope all of you are doing well!

Love to all,

J

37 Week Update...

(This is swiss chard. I have no idea what it is or what you do with it and it isn't very attractive, but this is the size that Quinn is now.... I bet he looks cuter than this weird looking vegetable when propped against a gate!)

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Final Ultrasound!!

Hey everybody! This post comes to you courtesy of Turner. I know that I've been lax, but Jessica is so freakin' good at this that it feels a little unfair to have to try to compete with her!
Anyway, I have the honor and privilege of bring you the pictures from our final ultrasound. We managed to get the same tech that we had for the last ultrasound and she was fun to work with and did a great job. They're beautiful and I think you're all in for a treat!

First up are the 2D black and whites that you're used to...

Jess thinks that he looks like Winston Churchill in this one. I think he looks a little like Alfred Hitchcock...

This one's pretty much the same.

Now this was a little more difficult to see, so I circled his face. He's looking straight at the camera and you can see the nose in the middle with eyes on either side.

Ok, now for the fun ones. We tried to do one of these at the last ultrasound, but it didn't come out all that clear. These are absolutely amazing!!

First up is the one that I find the most amusing. My boys got some jowls!!

This one was one of the sweeter pictures and probably our favorite of the lot. He looks very cozy in there.

And I'll close out with the last few. The only issue that we had is that he seems to have his head pressed tightly against the uterine wall, so it looks like he's wearing a hat!

I can't tell you what a rush it was to get to see him on the monitor. The ability to get these 3D pictures was incredible. He looks great and both the tech and our doctor said that everything looks good and right one track.
Jess and I are so incredibly excited and the day can't get here fast enough. His room is ready and we're ready, he's the one who's taking his time. Actually, we want him to stay in there as long as he can, we're just anxious to meet him.

Since I haven't written much on here, I should take this opportunity to say what a lucky man I am to have such an amazing wife. She's trooped through pregnancy like a professional and loved almost every minute of it. She's never stopped being her amazing, beautiful self for a minute and I love her all the more for it. She is going to be an incredible mom and Quinn is a lucky boy to have her.

-Turner

Week 36 Update...

Sorry this is late...
Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

Well, we should have more info tomorrow as we have another appointment, but meanwhile, as of last week, our brilliant boy was already head down and ready to go. I'm not dilated at all though, which is good as our goal is to avoid going into labor. We should have some more ultrasound pictures tomorrow so I will try to get them posted as well.

Love to all,
J

More Halloween Shower Pictures...

Michelle, Nichole and Me at the Shower in our Masks...






A picture of Tracey (one of the co-hosts) and Natalie and me at the Shower






Turner and I doing some of our famous present opening...










Jim Thome's spotted rump is visible in this picture. He's one of Michelle's dogs (and I have to say, our favorite as we have dog-sitted him quite a bit). He oversaw most of our present unwrapping





In case you can't tell, our hats say "Quinn's Mummy" and "Baby Daddy"

Big Ol' Belly....

WARNING: If you are icked out by pregnant bellies, I'm going to recommend that you skip this post... I don't want to be responsible for emotionally scarring anyone!!!

WARNING: If you are icked out by pregnant bellies, I'm going to recommend that you skip this post... I don't want to be responsible for emotionally scarring anyone!!!

Well, if you've made it this far, I'm assuming you know what you are getting yourself into. That said, my friend Becky is a great photographer and yesterday she came over to take pictures of my big ol' belly (AKA Quinn). Since I have no idea if I'll ever be pregnant again and moreover, since this has been such a wonderful journey for us, I wanted to capture it. Becky did an amazing job and I'm so happy with how they turned out so I wanted to share a few. I, of course, was not the easiest subject as I was constantly fidgeting and making generally hideous faces. Becky was a trooper to stick it out.

Oh, and these haven't been touched up or anything. In case you find them confusing, I have scars on my belly, etc, from the surgery I had last year. I don't actually mind the way they look as if it weren't for that surgery, we wouldn't be about to have Quinn...

So that's that. If you were brave enough to look, that's what I look like really preggo :-)

Love to all,
J