T-minus 20 days!

This morning, Jeph and I had the privilege of selecting our daughter's birthday! If everything goes according to our new plan, Gwendoline will arrive via scheduled c-section on Sunday, August 26. She's still staunchly expressing her independence by remaining a breech baby. We learned this morning that her exact position is called "frank breech," which means that she is completely vertical, with her legs extended above her head. My doctor likened her to a diver doing a front pike. Though that doesn't sound the least bit comfortable to me, Gwen seems completely undisturbed and ambivalent about the whole thing. Be looking for Gwendoline in the 2032 Olympics!

Other than being breech, Gwen is really bulking up and looking great this week! She's up to 5 pounds, 12 ounces now and falls somewhere around the 25th percentile. A huge improvement from the 9.7th percentile of a few weeks ago! The doctor estimates she will weigh around 6.5 to 7 pounds and be tall (19.5 to 20 inches) at birth.

We are eagerly looking forward to holding this little sugar in our arms very soon! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers- we truly appreciate them!

I'm sorry... Does that say watermelon?
Where do we go from here?

Healthy at 34 weeks

We had our appointment with Dr. Zaretsky, our favorite high-risk specialist, this afternoon and he gave us a great report! Yes, Gwendoline is confirmed as a little nugget. But she gained an appropriate amount of weight in the last two weeks (almost one pound) and now weighs in at 4 pounds, 9 ounces. That puts her close to the 13th percentile (12.9th, to be exact)! Dr. Zaretsky says that is just fine and there is nothing to be concerned about. He even shared that each of his own three babies measured around the 9th percentiles when they were born. Dr. Zaretsky hypothesizes that Gwen will weigh a little over 6 pounds at 40 weeks (full term). We'll take it! Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support- it means so much to us and makes these victories even more special.

Now if we could just get her to do a flip... That's right, she's still breech. We still have some time for her to rotate, and knowing Gwen, she's going to make us sweat it out till the last minute. While we're thinking positively and sending her strong "flip vibes," we'd appreciate more prayers for her rotation. After attending the first half of our childbirth class this weekend, I feel even more strongly about having a natural birth. So Miss Gwendoline, obey your mother and FLIP! :) 

Guess who looks like her daddy?

But those are definitely Giddens lips she's puckering!

The best things come in small packages

Gwendoline, Jeph, and I had our 32 week visit this afternoon. If you recall, this appointment was for a growth scan, in addition to the normal check up. The results of the growth scan make it official that we have a tiny bun in the oven. The good news: Our bun seems to be completely healthy despite being tiny! The less-than-good news (though not necessarily bad): She only weighs in at the 9.7th percentile (3 pounds, 11 ounces). Weights under the 10th percentile are cause for more investigation, though Dr. Holt says she doesn't begin to actively worry until a baby's weight drops under the 5th percentile. But since everything else looks healthy, Dr. Holt thinks Gwendoline has just inherited my small body habitus. Just to be cautious, Dr. Holt has referred us back to the high-risk specialist, Dr. Zaretsky, at UTSW Children's Medical Center. We'll see him in two weeks for another growth scan and to get his opinion on Gwendoline's growth and overall health.

The other thing we learned at the appointment today is that Gwendoline is still in the breech position. The doctor says she usually likes to see babies in the head down position by 30 weeks and that it must be done by 36 weeks to avoid a c-section. So little Miss Diva has four weeks to flip herself around. Dr. Holt says this is more than enough time for Gwen to work her way around, she just has to do it!

While we are encouraged by this visit because our little one got a healthy report, there is still plenty of room for some specific prayers to be said. For those of you praying for our growing family, we ask that you pray for the following specifics:

• Pray that Gwendoline would begin putting on weight rapidly to get bumped up to a more acceptable percentile. 
• Pray that she would flip herself around to the normal head-down position as we'd prefer to bring her into the world naturally rather than through c-section.
• Pray for continued overall health and that the high-risk specialist would also find no cause for immediate alarm.

In other baby-related news, Jeph and I have started our childbirth and parenting classes. They are a lot of fun (for me, at least) and make us feel so much more prepared! So far, we've completed Infant Safety & CPR and Baby Care. Still to go are Childbirth (a two-part series), Breastfeeding, and Daddy Boot Camp.

Gwendoline Celeste @ 32 weeks

We didn't get many good photos of her today (she decided not to cooperate and didn't show us her profile). The above picture, if you can make it out, is of her head and face, staring at you straight on. The top of her head is to the far left, with her mouth to the right a couple of inches.

Third Trimester & Babymoon

We've made it to the third trimester! Only 10 more weeks to go. I can't believe how time has flown by. Our last few appointments have been what my doctor calls the "boring visits." All she does is measure my belly to make sure growth is on track and listens to Gwendoline's heartbeat. They're quick and easy appointments, which is nice since we're going every two weeks now instead of every four. But I miss seeing my baby's face on sonograms, so I'm very excited that our next appointment in two weeks will be a "growth scan" sonogram to make sure that she's growing at an appropriate rate. My belly has been measuring slightly small, so we're expecting a petite little girl to show up during the scan. Her size is still within the standard deviation of normal, so the doctor isn't concerned; we're just curious.

The Gwendoline Bump @ 29 weeks, San Antonio Riverwalk

Double bumps, triple babies! Amy @ 30 weeks,
sister-in-law Keely @ 28 weeks with twins!

Jeph and I recently went on a mini "babymoon" vacation- our last weekend away together before we become parents. And probably our last weekend away without a baby in tow for quite a while. Since I'm still having some nausea and am a bit of a nauseous flyer to begin with, we decided not to fly anywhere. And since my doctor calls me "not her lowest risk patient," we didn't want to be too far from home, just in case. I also didn't want to be in the car for more than 3-5 hours for comfort reasons. Therefore, we picked San Antonio as our babymoon destination! In addition to the required eating of meals on the Riverwalk, Jeph and I enjoyed visiting SeaWorld and the Alamo! Jeph had never been to either place (and it had been more than a decade since I'd been), so we had a lot of fun. We also took some time to relax by the hotel pool and take naps whenever we wanted. It was a fantastic weekend and a lovely way to celebrate the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

Remember the Alamo!

Crazy pregnancy strength

SeaWorld, San Antonio

Nursery update #3

Due to requests from several interested parties, here are some updated nursery photos! I'm having such a blast getting the nursery ready for our little girl. I think it's almost done! Just a few more items to hang on the walls...

Courtesy of Pinterest and etsy, I recreated these prints all by myself! By doing it myself, I saved a ton of money and was also able to alter some of the wording, design, and colors. They'll be hung over the dresser/changing table.

Courtesy of Granma, we have the cutest curtains in the land! Granma has been on her sewing machine constantly lately, making all kinds of precious things for Gwendoline and her room. We also got our glider this week. Jeph assembled it in record time and I'm already enjoying rocking in it.

Closed curtains so you see more of the cute!

Last but not least, I got Gwen's name hung over her crib. Again thanks to Granma and our painting party, these letters add a personal touch to the room. Obviously, "GWENDOLINE" would have taken up quite a bit more room, and she'll be going by Gwen most of the time anyway, so I stuck with "GWEN" for the wall.

Newest piece of equipment: Britax B-Agile travel system with B-Safe infant car seat/carrier. I picked this one based on great reviews- both ease-of-use and safety- and a couple of recommendations. Ultimately, I wanted something safe but also non-bulky that I could see around. Mommies, if you have this system, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! 

So the high-risk specialist is nice...

We had a little scare this week. Thankfully, our daughter is just a bit of a diva and our God is BIG. We went into this past weekend with everything looking and feeling great. But by Saturday night, I realized I hadn't really felt Gwen move much since Friday. When the non-movement persisted through Sunday, mommy got nervous. I know it's still a few weeks early to be "kick counting" in earnest, but the baby had been moving and shaking in big and consistent ways for several weeks, so the decrease in movement was definitely drastic.

After a quick phone call, my wonderful OB/GYN, Dr. Catherine Holt (I cannot recommend her highly enough!), squeezed me in Monday morning for a quick check. And quick it was! Everything looked fine- healthy heart rate, optimum fluid levels, and Gwen was moving around a little bit, just not sharing those movements with me. We even saw her hiccuping! But Dr. Holt reminded me that there is cause for concern anytime there's a dramatic decrease in fetal movement like I was experiencing. So we decided to give our little ear of corn (her size this week) a couple of days to get out of her funk and start dancing again. But by Wednesday, I still hadn't felt much movement, so in we went for another quick check that afternoon. This one turned out to be not so quick. The first several, long seconds of the sonogram revealed a dramatically slow fetal heart rate. It quickly picked up to an acceptable and normal rate, but that little blip, combined with the decrease in fetal movement, was enough for Dr. Holt to refer me straight to the high-risk specialist for another "quick check." She was concerned that what she had seen was a fetal arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).

After a sleepless night, Jeph and I found ourselves in the waiting room of Dr. Michael Zaretsky at Children's Medical Center this morning. We have been so blessed to almost haphazardly find wonderful physicians, and Dr. Zaretsky and his staff are no exception. After an extremely long and detailed high-def sonogram, including 3D, Dr. Zaretsky could find no evidence of an arrhythmia! And he checked everything from heart rate (several times) to umbilical input/output, kidney function, and even femur length. It turns out that Gwen is in the breech position, folded in half with her legs up over her head, all crowded into the left side of my tummy. This position, combined with an anterior-facing placenta, probably accounts for the seeming decrease in movement. Dr. Zaretsky assured me that Gwen has several weeks to flip around into the proper position, so we shouldn't worry about that or anything else, including her movements or lack thereof. And I confirmed with him about ten times: NO ARRHYTHMIA! Jeph and I left with big smiles on our faces, a skip in our step, and loosening anxiety knots in our backs.

I officially declare this the end of over-worrying for this pregnancy (though rational caution will never stop). Next time, I'll just remind myself that we have a little diva in the oven and a BIG God in Heaven.

For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise! (1 Chronicles 16:25)

Gwendoline Celeste's profile @ 24 weeks

Look at that baby sucking her thumb!

24 Weeks (Nursery Update 2)

We started week 24 yesterday and I have the bump to go along with it (see below)! Jeph and I are still having a lot of fun getting Gwendoline's nursery ready. This weekend, we picked up the crib (thanks, Granma and Papa Gary!), Jeph assembled it, and I loaded it up with bedding. I feel like we're making really good progress. Pretty soon, the only thing we'll have left to add is a little Gwen! We're hoping she appreciates girly-girl decor; otherwise, we'll have a lot to redo in the future.

Gwen's bump @ 24 weeks

Pink chandelier and sky (thanks, Dad!)