Dust off your 3-D glasses

Well, Mandy is finally letting me write to all of you. Just kidding, Mandy has been asking me to write to everyone the past couple of times and I finally caved in. On Wednesday we had our weekly doctor visit, but this time it was a little different. Mandy still had her normal activities, pee in a cup, get weighed, get her blood pressure taken; but we had a new experience in our ultrasound. We were in the ultrasound room looking at our baby when the technician asked if we ever had a 3-D ultrasound done. We both said no, so with a click of a couple switches and a new wand there our baby was – in 3-D!!! As you can see from the pictures, it looks like a baby not just some shadow outline. We sat for about 10 minutes just watching the baby move its arms, yawn, and just overall being active. We were all laughing at one point when it looked like Baby was dancing. I’m not bragging, but the technician and our doctor both said the baby looked like me! I said Baby still had Mandy’s chubby cheeks though. It was a good visit with the doctor and we will continue going to the clinic weekly to see how Baby is progressing and to see how Mandy is doing.



Back at home we are slowly but surely getting the house prepared, and are now just tying up some loose ends. I painted our bedroom last weekend and spent some time doing some long-needed filing. We’ve decorated our livingroom by finally hanging some of our wedding pictures. We’ve also finished the baby’s room. We hung some pictures and put our rocker/recliner in there. We think the room looks pretty good and Baby should really be happy in there. The house’s makeover is almost done, we just need gutters. The cat was really happy that the work was done; it got pretty noisy in the house with all the pounding. The street construction is still going on, but we did get a curb poured today.

Mandy and I have been having some fun too, in between all the work. We spent a Saturday afternoon at our church festival. I worked in the bingo tent and Mandy and our friend Erin Olberding (and baby Camryn) played bingo. Well it was Erin’s lucky day because she won the $50 coverall. With all the nice weather Mandy and I have been going for some walks around the neighborhood too. We went to the MN Twins game last night and watched a good game with the Twins winning 3-2. We also went to the MN Vikings home opener against Indianapolis. Even though we lost a heartbreaker, it was fun and I was able to wear my horns I received last Christmas from Uncle Jim (Mandy wasn’t embarrassed at all sitting next to me!)

Well, I think I did a pretty good job with my first ever blog. Maybe Mandy will let me write another one soon – November 3 will be here before we know it!

Whose baby is it?

Well, if you take a look at the latest ultrasound pictures from this morning, there's no doubt that this baby is mine - all you have to do is take one look at the cheeks. I was all cheeks as a baby as you can tell from my baby picture that we included with these. We included Aaron's just for reference, but he definitely doesn't have the same cheeks. So to all of you in Pennsylvania, have no fear - this baby seems to have the Fleming cheeks! It was kind of cool to see the change in the face from a month ago - baby actually looks more like a human rather than a ghost! In fact, the technician said she could see a full set of hair - we couldn't quite see that though. Aaron asked if the baby had a full set of teeth too, and she laughed.

The doctor's appointment was pretty eventful today. We started with an ultrasound during which baby continued to measure big - he/she is now in the 91st percentile, meaning that he/she is bigger than 91% of babies. They showed us some charts of baby's growth, and what we were able to tell is that baby's head and abdomen are just about off the charts as far as size is concerned, but baby's legs are just a little longer than average - so Aaron knows he had a part. After all, the Menkes tend to be short-legged. The head measures bigger than the abdomen, which is good apparently because if the head can get through the birth channel, then the abdomen can too. Now if only I can get the head out :) They estimate baby's weight at about 5 lbs, 11 oz right now, but really it's plus or minus a pound of that estimate, so baby is somewhere between 4 lbs, 11 oz and 6 lbs, 11 oz - let's hope for the former! The doctor estimates that at birth the baby will be in the upper 9 lb to 10 lb range.

Because the baby is above the 90th percentile, they did what is known as a biophysical exam on the baby with the ultrasound. With this exam they check baby's breathing (although it's really only practice breathing at this point) and also movements, to make sure it's moving around. They then did a non-stress test on me. Basically I had to sit/lie for about 20-30 minutes with two monitors around my middle - one that monitors my uterine movements to see if there are any contractions and one that monitors baby's heartbeat. They also gave me a button that I had to push when baby moved. This was to see if spikes in the heartrate coincided with movements. Everything looked good once we got the monitors and me in a position that would work for 20 minutes, but they'll continue to do these two tests weekly now. So every Wednesday we'll be headed to the doctor's office - I told them we'd be good friends before too long.

Because big babies and gestational diabetes go hand-in-hand, they also wanted to test my blood sugar levels again today. They couldn't do the regular test because I hadn't fasted, but they checked my blood sugar & it seemed ok, but because of some other things (don't ask me what) they want me to do a modified diabetic diet, really I'm just to watch the amount of starches I consume. So no more cereal for breakfast - here we come eggs! This will probably be the hardest part for me because I love my starches, especially since I've been pregnant - the more breads, pastas, rice, potatos I can eat the better, but I guess I'm going to have to eat more meats - ick! I have to fast before the appointment next week as they want to do another test - fun!

I think that's everything from today. We hope you enjoy the cheeky pictures and we'll give you an update after next week's appointment. In the meantime, we'll continue to prepare the house and hope that they're done banging on the roof and walls soon. The house should hopefully be done by tomorrow - it's looking good :) Hugs to all of you -

Under construction

As you can see in the photos, things around here are changing in lots of different ways. The city of Bloomington decided to put in curbs and refinish our road this summer; they began the project a few weeks ago, but in the past week - we had new lawn "ornaments" delivered and the street dug up. Last night as I walked home from the bus stop, I wasn't sure how I was going to reach the house as the pile of dirt they had dug up was so high. But I made it home and by the time I got home tonight, all of our lawn "ornaments" had been buried in the dirt street. I think Roni will be happy as this as the house has been vibrating a lot as they dig and return the dirt.

While the construction has been going on outside, we've also been redoing the inside of the house. We moved my office downstairs to make the other upstairs bedroom the baby's room. This reorganization was pretty big as we then had to move the TV upstairs which required reorganizing both the upstairs and downstairs living rooms. The house was in a bit of chaos for a while, and we continue to have lots of the decorative stuff still lying around without a new home, but overall we like the new arrangement. The baby's room remains a little empty at this point; the crib is put together and we moved the dresser upstairs, but that's it for now. We've ordered a rocker recliner that will go in there and Nana's bookshelf will serve to hold all the books that everyone has given to baby. I'm sure once we get the rocker and the crib bedding, it will look a little more finished.

And finally, we're expecting to have a new outside to the house within the next week as well. We had some hail damage to the house from a storm that came through at the end of May and thanks to our insurance company and Jeff, we're getting all new siding, roofing, and a lot of the trim. So, we've picked out a new color and we're anxious to see what it's going to look like when it's finished. The "team" is to begin this weekend, so we'll maybe have photos of the finished product next week for you.

And finally, baby continues to be "under construction" as well. I think I grow a little more each and every day. When I saw the pictures we took to post, I was startled to see just how far I was sticking out, and here I thought black was supposed to be slimming! It's hard to imagine how much more my stomach can possibly stretch, but I know it must have some stretch left as baby has about another 8 weeks until the due date. At our last doctor's appointment (about a week ago), the doctor said my stomach is measuring big, not because I've gained too much weight but because I'm just all baby. And I think she's right, from what we can tell, baby hasn't yet taken a toll on the rest of my body. We have another ultrasound scheduled for this coming Monday, September 8, so we'll see how much baby has grown in the past month. Baby continues to move around, but I think the space is limiting the movements a little, I feel a little more rolling and stretching than kicks per se, but I'm never really sure what I'm feeling when I feel baby move.

We're half way through our birthing and parenting classes, so far we've been pretty much focused on the birthing part. I often leave feeling a little apprehensive about labor, but Aaron continually reassures me that I'm stronger than I think, and I remind myself that millions of women have done this before me, so we'll see. We had a pediatrician come visit the class this past week, gave us some other things to discuss and think about. Our goal for next week is to choose a pediatrician; after all, these next two months are sure to fly by-

This week also brought about the first week of classes. I'm teaching a new course this semester - Intro to Hispanic Linguistics - I'm pretty excited about it, but it's very different than what I've taught before and at a much higher level. I'm working on finding a sub to take over for me when I go on maternity leave, but it's a little trickier than I had anticipated because there are so few in the department with the qualifications to teach the course. Aaron continues with the job process but not much new to report. We'll keep you posted -

We hope this finds you all well and we promise to not let as much time pass before we update you on all the construction going on around us. In fact, we'll probably have an update after the doctor's appointment next week, may even have new photos, so check back again soon. Less than 2 months to go -