every two weeks

we had our fourth midwife appointment on friday. at about 7 months, that means we’ve almost only seen our midwife every two months. ha! things just turned out that way.. between our laid back attitude (we didn’t see her to start with until the tail end of the first trimester), her mini-vacation in the autumn, and then the holidays and gus getting a wicked cold, we actually did go between 4-6 wks between visits, depending. honestly, that’s been nice. we LOVE going, but it’s allowed us not to get too wound up about things either. so imagine what a shock it was, however, when at the end of the visit she suggested we start meeting every two weeks! yikes! ’cause that, like, means THE BABY IS COMING SOON Y’ALL! not as soon as every week, but it suggests a serious about this whole growing-a-baby-thing that we heretofore did not quite embrace. that is, at some point we should start paying attention to the fact that our family of three really is going to become a family of four sooner rather than later.

of course, having a due date firmly set in the spring makes it rather hard to consider that chilly is coming any time soon at all seriously. it’s FREAKING. COLD. outside, and the foot+ of snow we got last week has only *just* started to recede a bit. that spring, or better yet, a new baby, is anywhere near just around the corner seems a bit ridiculous to ponder.

yet here we are, scheduling two week appointments. craziness.

the baby’s heartbeat was faint (because of the fetoscope and the anterior placenta) but strong and jeremy heard it clearly like last time. i didn’t catch the bpm this time, but i imagine it was in the usual range. i gained 6 1/2 lbs just like last time (er, sort of, last time it was over about 4 wks and this time it was over about 6 wks, but whatever) despite the fact that over Christmas at my parents their bathroom scale said i had already gained 10 lbs. i guess their scale is a little off, because i certainly have not LOST any weight since returning to frigid new england after the holidays. it’s not like gus and i have been running any marathons out in the cold cold cold snowy outdoors (but we DO still walk a lot of places if we can, which i am proud of us for). i measured another 1 cm over the weeks i am, which is just interesting because gus was always about 1 cm under. 2nd babies are often bigger in general, so i will be curious to see how true that is for little chilly. i am gaining just about the same amount of weight on just about the same schedule as last time, so it’s of further interest to me that little chilly seems to be a little bit bigger this time even if i don’t. i’m also in better shape than i thought — my blood pressure was only 102/58! and my heart rate was something between 60-70 bpm (i forget). whoot! we don’t walk enough or exercise enough but still that’s not too shabby for a pregnant lady i’d say.

(s)he’s moving with a bit more intensity in this past week or two. like gus, this baby is not a big mover and shaker. most of what i detect is at night, and i haven’t noticed a predictable pattern just yet — just that i expect some movement around specific times and often it occurs about when i was thinking it would. it’s fun and i look forward to more and more moving around in there.

oh chilly, we’re really getting excited to meet you!