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Saturday, May 28
We're not quite in the homestretch yet, but the end is getting nearer. The skin on my belly will need to stretch quite a bit more before this is all over, but click here to see how much it's stretched already. Scary stuff!

Sunday, May 29
Supposedly, a fetus can start hearing sounds from outside the womb at about 25 weeks. Plaxico is apparently not taking advantage of this ability, because I have had several conversations with him/her about the appropriate times to practice kickboxing and/or gymnastics moves, to no avail (apparently Plaxico subscribes to the same school of thought as Angus and Spike do when it comes to listening to me - that is, they don't). I've tried to explain that, yes, it's very impressive that someone with Grossman/Reilly genes is so flexible and agile, and that, yes, we certainly appreciate the benefits of regular physical activity, but that 5 a.m. is not the appropriate time to partake in kickboxing and/or gymnastics, especially if you are leasing space in your mother and she's trying to sleep. Maybe Plax is trying to break me in gently, though, so that in a few months when I'm really not getting any sleep I'll be used to it!

In other news, Plax went on his/her first hike today. We went to St. Mary's Wilderness and did a 6-7 mile hike that was supposed to be easy but turned out to be a little trickier than we'd anticipated. Our guide book was apparently a little out of date because it said we had to cross a creek once, when in fact we had to cross and re-cross it four times. Fortunately, I had Tom to help steady me while I was hopping across the rocks, so my altered center of gravity wasn't a problem. And, overall, it was a fun hike, even if we spent quite a bit of time crashing around in the underbrush trying to find a trail that was actually on the other side of the creek - but we didn't know that because we thought we'd already made our one and only creek-crossing.

It's a good thing that Plax is getting in some practice hikes (we also have a hiking/camping trip coming up at the end of June), because Tom has decided that s/he definitely needs to come on our annual pre-Thanksgiving camping trip. I'm not so sure that we'll want to take a three-month-old camping at the end of November, but Tom feels that Plaxi definitely needs to be included. In fact, at our last OB appointment he had two questions: one was about a report he'd heard on NPR about the benefits and risks of episiotomies (yes, it was the Tom Reilly we all know and love who was quizzing the doctor on episiotomies - I was just as surprised as anyone!), and the other was about whether it was reasonable to take a three-month-old camping at the end of November.

Well, the doctor totally backed him up, and said that you should introduce your kids to the activities you like to do, and that having a baby shouldn't mean you totally change your lifestyle. She said you'll have to make adjustments, but that if you like to go camping you should take your kids along - obviously with a three-month-old you'd have to pay careful attention to safety, but it can be done. Then she said that she took her eight-week-old son on a day-long cross-country-ski trip and he was fine.

But she also said that if it was really cold, the "adjustments" might include a pop-up camper, which is what I'm lobbying for. I've even suggested that perhaps Plax and I could stay home while Tom went off camping, but he insists that he would miss us and wouldn't have as much fun without us - but after three months of sleepless nights and dirty diapers, he might re-evaluate how much he'll miss us! So we'll see...

Sunday, June 4
We had our 28-week appointment on Thursday, and despite some drama Plaxico's doing fine. When the doctor measured my fundal height (where she uses a tape measure to measure the outside of my belly), it was low so she wanted to do an ultrasound to make sure that Plaxico was growing OK. So I was rushed off to the ultrasound, where we found out that Plaxi is growing just fine, and also that s/he likes to show off for an audience by trying to put his/her fist in his/her mouth.

At this stage, the doctor wasn't too concerned about my low fundal height (fun game: work the word "fundal" into a conversation next week!) because I'm tall (so Plax has more room to go in before s/he has to go out) and Plax is all curled up in a little ball (so s/he's taking up less space). So assuming I keep growing at the proper rate, we won't get any more ultrasounds.

Of course, this was the appointment that Tom had to skip, because he had a meeting at work that he couldn't reschedule and we decided that it would be too much trouble to reschedule our appointment. So when he said, "Are you positive you don't mind if I miss this appointment?" I was all, "No, it's fine. They're just going to take my blood pressure, make me pee in a cup, and measure my belly. I'll be in and out in five minutes - you'd just slow things down." And then it turned out that he missed seeing Plaxi again.

Tuesday, June 21
We're on an every-two-weeks doctor schedule now, so we had our 30-week appointment last Friday. All looks good, and there were no further issues with my fundal height. And more importantly I got the all-clear to go hiking this weekend.

Wednesday, June 22
I read that by this stage, fetuses can distinguish their mother's and father's voices. So that means that we probably hit a parenting milestone last Saturday: the first time we completely humiliated our child. Our baby shower was last Saturday, and the hosts (and I) decided that karaoke would make it that much more awesome. So seeing as how Plaxi is able to identify our voices, I'm sure s/he was thinking, "Oh. My. God. I can't believe my mom's singing. And if she has to sing, couldn't she sing something other than Garth Brooks? This is so humiliating. I hope no one knows she's my mom." But I have to say that me singing Garth Brooks wasn't quite as entertaining as Tom doing his (in)famous rendition of "I'm Too Sexy," complete with an "English" accent and a sassy "little turn on the catwalk." (See pictures here.)

Karaoke aside, we had a very nice baby shower, and people were very generous. Plaxi will be a very well-equipped little baby!

Thursday, June 23
On Tuesday we toured the hospital where Plax will be born, and took part 1 of labor and delivery class. We learned that the birthing rooms have jacuzzi bathtubs, which got Tom all fired up until I told him that under no circumstances would he be allowed to relax in the jacuzzi tub with a cold beer during labor ("Mr. Reilly? Could you get out of the tub and dry off? Your baby's about to be born.").

As a result of labor class, I learned a valuable lesson: even if people ask you what you learned in labor class, they don't really want specifics. I will apply this lesson to actual labor, too. The day after labor class, I was eating lunch with some friends and they asked what I'd learned. I said, "Oh, not too much. You know we went over stuff like the stages of labor, when to go to the hospital, what to expect during labor, etc." Someone then made the mistake of asking, "What are the stages of labor?" So I said, "Well, it's like when your water breaks, the different stages of dilation, when you lose your mucus plug..." And they were all like, "When you lose your WHAT? What are you talking about? Did we hear you right?" So then I had to go into more specifics about mucus plugs, and no one wants to hear about that, even if they've asked.

At the end of labor class they showed that video, where you see someone giving birth. I tried to convince Tom that we needed to leave early so that I wouldn't have to watch, but he made me stay. I didn't learn anything useful, although I did notice that the lady in the video had a sassy little headband thing in her hair, and it made me wonder if I should start planning my labor and delivery hair accessories now or if I could leave it until closer to the due date. Tom however, picked up some good "encouragement" phrases from the father in the video, which he's been practicing. And in case you're wondering, I don't find it annoying at all when he walks around the house going, "You're doing great. This is the toughest thing you'll ever do. You're so strong - you can do this." His biggest worry is, "Should I break out the 'you're so strong' thing first? Or should I lead off with 'you're doing great' and then throw in the 'strong' stuff later?" while mine is, "What if I rip in half?"

Thursday, July 7
I'm falling behind on my updates (again)! A couple weeks ago Plax went on his/her first camping trip (and second hike). I found out that while ThermaRests are never super-comfortable, they are decidedly uncomfortable at seven months pregnant. I survived, though, and Plaxi got some in utero practice for his/her first "real" camping trip in November. (See pictures here.)

We had our 32-week appointment last Friday, and after seven months of "everything's fine" appointments, we had an "everything's probably fine, but there could be cause for concern" appointment. Because of my low fundal height at our 28-week appointment, the doctor wanted to do another ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid level. My fluid level was acceptable, but just barely - I’m not technically low yet, but I’m pretty close to the border.

The main concern is that low fluid levels can restrict the baby’s growth and/or indicate a problem with the placenta, which is obviously not good. Plaxi looked OK on the ultrasound, though, and his/her heart seems to be doing fine, so there doesn't seem to be cause to worry yet.

The doctor did not seem overly concerned, but she’s concerned enough that we’ve been put on a once-a-week appointment schedule, and we’re probably going to get an ultrasound every week to monitor my fluid levels and make sure Plaxi’s growing properly.

If the doctor were with us on the Fourth of July, she wouldn't need an ultrasound to confirm that Plaxi is doing OK. We went to see fireworks, and literally the minute they started booming Plax started going nuts. S/he'd been relatively calm all day, but once the noise of the fireworks started s/he started kicking and punching and rolling around... Tom thought she was doing somersaults in there. S/he only calmed down once the fireworks stopped, but by that point s/he'd gotten hiccups.

Now, on every Fourth of July, I'm going to say, "Did I ever tell you the story about when I was pregnant with you, and when the fireworks started you went nuts?" A young Plaxico will probably find the story charming, and will ask me to tell about how s/he did somersaults and got hiccups. A pre-teen Plaxico will roll his/her eyes and say, "I've heard that story a million times. You tell it every year... it's embarrassing."

Monday, July 18
See more pictures of me here.

After several more appointments, and a lot more monitoring, it looks like we might be meeting Plaxi a little early. The doctor is still concerned about my fluid levels, and assuming things don't improve she'll probably want to induce around 37 weeks. Which is about two weeks from now.

Since we have three fewer weeks than we thought we did, we've been rushing around trying to finish up last minute stuff. Like picking a name. Last night we finally got serious about the name issue, but we haven't gotten very far yet. It's surprisingly hard to pick out a good name - as my parents found out the hard way, you can pick a nice, classic, seldom-used name (like, say, Emily) only to see it rise to "Jennifer" or "Heather" status 25 years later (yeah, I'm not thrilled that my name has become the "Jennifer" of the '00s - but whaddya gonna do). We don't want a name that's too popular, but we don't want anything too weird; and we're trying to avoid trendy names, while sidestepping dowdy ones.

If you want to have a lot of fun with names, check out the Baby Name Wizard. You can chart the popularity of any name over the past 100 years, and it's super-handy because it can help identify names on the rise that might be tomorrow's next "Madison" (check out the "Madison" curve for yourself).

We've also been trying to finish setting up the nursery. Anyone who's seen our house knows that we're not inclined towards the home-decorating arts, so it's not like we've been laboring over color swatches or anything. But we did make a trip to Ikea where we got a changing table and two dressers, and yesterday we made some efforts towards getting some pictures framed. We've also been washing, folding and sorting lots of teeny, tiny clothes - and I have to admit that I gave in to temptation and dressed one of my teddy bears in a couple outfits to see what they'd look like (Tom would like me to emphasize that he was not involved in the teddy-bear-dressing).

Monday, July 25
For those keeping score at home, here's our schedule:

Fri, 7/22 - Poker night at Brett & Carolyn's
Sat, 7/23 - John's going away party at John & Susan's
Tues, 7/26 - Book club at Anita's
Thurs, 7/28 - Car seat inspection at the fire dept.
Sat, 7/30 - Bob & Lisa's wedding
Tues, 8/2 - Have baby

Yes, that last entry is correct... we've been scheduled for an induction next Tuesday, which will be 37 weeks. My fluid level has been fluctuating, but it's never gotten higher than "very borderline" in the past month, so our doctor felt like it would best to get Plaxi out a little early. I'm not crazy about the prospect of an induction, and it's not the way I would have planned things, but it seems like the best decision with the information we have. And, secretly, I'm a little bit glad that I get to skip three weeks of being 8+ months pregnant in 100 degree weather (yeah, it hit 101 here today).

So right now we're going to the hospital at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, and if everything goes smoothly we should meet Plaxi sometime on Wednesday. We're pretty sure that we can post pictures from the hospital, so we'll get some pics up on my Fotki site as soon as possible (look under the Plaxico folder). We won't be able to update this site until we get home... and seeing as how we'll be taking care of a newborn, the next you hear from us might be news of Plaxico's graduation from kindergarten!

Now that Plax's due date has been moved up we've been scrambling to get everything we need - and for such tiny people, newborns sure need a lot of stuff! We spent over eight hours shopping this weekend, and it was mostly shopping for necessities like a crib mattress, a changing table pad, a breast pump, etc. After our shopping spree, the dowdy-o-meter in this house is quickly nearing the red zone. First it was Dansko clogs - but those could be explained away because "they're good for my feet." Then came the Volvo station wagon - but we "needed" that because it's so safe, and also it has a lot of horsepower. But tonight we may have reached the limit by purchasing a glider/rocker chair. Yeah, it's comfortable and we don't have any chairs suitable for nursing. But it's a freaking glider! It screams, "We have responsibilities such as a mortgage and a child, and if you want to have dinner with us, please give us at least a week's advance notice so that we can arrange for a sitter." Next thing you know we'll be driving a mini-van...

Tuesday, August 2
We're headed to the hospital... see ya on the flip side!