39 weeks, pre-birthday celebration and funny story

So I'm officially 39 weeks. I had my appointment on Thursday. It went well. The drive there and back was torturous! My husband is allowed to have a company driver, so we don't have a car here and don't drive. As his wife I also have a privilege to use company drivers, so they give me rides to the clinic and other places I need to go. Traffic is horrible in Moscow! No surprise it's a capital city with millions of cars and horrible road plans. Sometimes my rides to the clinic last forever. If the traffic is good it takes about 45-60 minutes to get there and back, if it's bad it could be up to 2 hours. Horrible.

Now my appointment. As I mentioned before my doctor is going to be out of town till November 10th. It was unexpected but totally possible, I guess. She recommended another doctor to fill in for her while she is away. I never heard her name but I'm looking forward to meeting her on the coming Tuesday. I have mixed feelings about the whole situation. I checked the new doctor's profile and I'm not that thrilled that she has only three years of experience opposed to many years like my doctor. At the same time my doctor wouldn't recommend just anybody, she will find someone she trusts etc., not to mention all doctors are good and professional there. I guess I'm overreacting as it's my first time and there is nothing I can do to change the situation. My parents are doctors and they say that 3 years of experience is good and that I and the baby will be fine. I sure hope so!

It was interesting to hear my doctor's ideas on my due dates. She said that most likely I will go in labor between November 7th and November 14th. If it doesn't happen until then, they will start induction on November 15th. It was exciting to hear the real dates. We'll see. My doctor is back on November 10th and I have an appointment with her in the morning, of course, if our guy doesn't decide to be born before that.

It's going to be very interesting as my husband's birthday is on November 8th and his Dad's birthday is on November 14th. We are wondering if our son will have his own birthday or steel it from either his Dad or Grandad :)

Speaking of Chris' birthday. We decided that we will start pre-celebration this weekend in case we won't get to celebrate his birthday on the actual date. Of course, his first question was if he is getting a gift tonight :) No, the gift comes on the actual birthday! So tonight I'm making home-made pizza and hot chicken wings with blue cheese dip. Everything sounds great! The wings are in the oven right now and smell awesome.

On Monday will be our 2nd Anniversary! Again, nothing big this year. I'll make special dinner and I have also requested to get a bottle of champagne to have a toast. I think that we'll just watch the video of our ceremony and have a nice quiet evening at home. We are not getting any gifts for each other as we have bought a good video camera and decided that it's our gift to us this year.

Now you won't believe what happened to me today. I went grocery shopping to our local store. So I got sausage, mayo, mozarella cheese etc. I was standing by the cheese shelf trying to decide what blue cheese to get when one of the guys passing by me says: Excuse me, you have water dripping from somewhere! At first, I did not understand who he was talking to and what he meant. He repeated what he said, adding that there is water on the floor around me. Of course, my first thought was:" Oh My God, my water broke! My heart jumped up. It took me about 20-30 seconds to realize that my pants are not wet. I thought: "How could it break if I don't feel it? Is it possible that it broke and is just there without me feeling it? This kind of stupid thoughts went through my head while I stood there staring at the guy and the floor around me which was wet with some white liquid. I wish I could see my face when I looked at the guy. He obviously saw my frustration or fear and said:" I think it's dripping from your basket!" It took me quite a few seconds to discover that it was the stupid mozarella pack leaking!!!! Can you believe it? Of course, it could only happen to me when I'm very close to the due date and it has always been my fear that my water breaks while I'm grocery shopping at the local supermarket and everyone sees it! Hilarious, right?

Well, we'll see what happens when it's all for real.

38 weeks

So we are getting there. It seems to me that time flies so fast. I always thought that it seems like forever for pregnant women to get to their due dates, I thought and heard that they cannot wait for the day as they feel so huge and uncomfortable and cannot sleep. I'm not bragging but I still feel well, do not feel huge and really lucky to sleep pretty well through the night. My Mom said that she had no problem sleeping when she was pregnant with me until the morning when her water broke and I was born later that day. It seems like our son is being very nice and caring so far :) I really appreciate it!

I had my 38 weeks appointment and everything still looks good. On a negative note I got a call from my doctor today and it turned out that she would be out of town from October 30th through November 9th and my EDD is November 7th. It sucks big times! At the same time there is nothing I can do about it and she is going to recommend another doctor who will fill in for her if I go in labor at that time. But she also hopes that she will be back by the time I will go in labor as it's my first time and it usually happens during week 41. We'll see. Today I started talking our son into not making his appearance until November 10th, hopefully he will listen. If not, all doctors at the clinic are professional, so I hope everything will go fine.

Great news is that we officially have the name and we told it to our families. We are very happy that everyone loves it! It's the name that we initially chose. I wrote here that Chris had doubts about it but after he mentioned it to his Dad all his doubts went away as it turned out to be his Dad's favorite name and he loved it. After that we told it to my parents and Chris' Mom. Now our guy has the name :)


The nursery decoration is in place. Chris is the Hero for spending yesterday afternoon putting the wall decoration. I helped a little at the beginning and held the tree when he was putting it on the wall but he did 98% of the work. I'm very proud of him. The room looks great and every time I come in here now I cannot believe that it's our room. Our landlord was totally cool with it. He is always cool, by the way! I called him asking for his permission to put a wall decoration in the nursery, immediately he said that it's no problem and then asked: What do you want to put there? :)) He had no problem with it!

I have also finished my two cross-stitching projects that I used for decorating the baby room.

So I guess there is not that much more to say. Here is my 38 weeks and a few days picture.

37 weeks

Full term!!!!! Wow!

I had my appointment on Tuesday. Everything still looks great, the baby measures right 37 weeks and he is still a boy. I started having scary pre-labor dream. The one that freaked me out was that I had a baby and was told that it was a girl. My first thought was: "What I'm going to tell Chris? He was expecting a boy." The second thought was "What are we going to do with all the boy's clothes?" :) Then later in the dream I went to check on the baby and it was a boy. It was funny that he had long body and long legs. I had to ask for a second blanket as one wasn't long enough to wrap him.

Anyway, my appointments were great. I got to see our Excellent Boy (my ultrasound doctor once called him that). He has some good cheeks now. His heart rate was also good. Actually, I monitor his heart rate every day now. The clinic gave me a special monitor that tracks his heart rate for 20 minutes and makes a chart. Then I send it to my doctor through internet and she checks it. I really like it. I like to listen to his heart and watch his heart rate increasing up to 160 every time he moves or kicks the sensors :) and sometimes he starts having hiccups during the test. It's funny!

Last week Chris got back from the states. Thank God he is back home. His next trip will be in January and my parents will come and stay with me and the baby here. So Chris brought all the baby clothes we bought and received as gifts. We have lots of stuff! Great stuff! I have already washed and ironed all newborn clothes and put them in the closet. One of the main things that are left on my list are to have major cleaning of our place and buy a baby carriage. Unfortunately, the cleaning lady I have found is constantly busy and just cancelled tomorrow's visit. I just hope that she will come next week. I want to get it over with. After the place is cleaned we will put our wall decoration in the nursery. I think it will look great. We will also have to practice installation of the car seat. We don't have a car here and we use our company's drivers for all the rides we need to take.

I'm a little upset as Chris has started having second thoughts on the baby name. We have chosen the baby name about 5 months ago and I kept asking him if he really likes it. He always said yes. So I started calling our little guy this name. Every day I liked it more and more and I think that it's perfect for my son. The problem is that I'm Russian and we have chosen an American name. I don't have any background information about the name, I just like the way it sounds. Actually, it's the only name I really liked after I looked through baby name sites. I can easily picture my whole family calling our boy this name, including grandmothers. After Chris got back he said that he is not sure about the name. He said that it sounds weird when he says it. I think that any name would sound weird as we haven't seen the baby yet and it's still unbelievable to realize that we are having the baby. I understand what he means. He is afraid to make a mistake and choose a name that he may not like later or people may not like. It's a huge responsibility. At the same time if we like the name, the family will like it. I think that he just needs to hear someone else's opinion. I don't know what to do. I really like the name we chose but I also want him to like it the same much. At the same time I don't want to ask for people's opinion and be forced into changing the name. It sucks! I wish it came up earlier not three weeks before the baby comes. At this point I feel like my boy is being taken away from me if we call him a different name. And the problem is I don't think I will like any other names. It was hard enough to choose the one we have chosen. At this point I'm afraid that if we choose a different name I will regret not using the name we have initially chosen.

37 weeks


It's funny that when I look at myself the belly doesn't look that big to me and I'm concerned that it's small :) I'm so used to it now but I still have no sense of how big my body is at this point as I always bump into doors or drawers. I took a few pictures yesterday and saw that the belly IS big! As Chris said, don't worry you look VERY pregnant!

The weather is changing here. Yesterday it snowed for the first time for about 15 minutes. Now it's the whole freaking process to go to a grocery store: put on warm stockings, pants, belly band, sweater, hat, scarf not to mention coat that I cannot button on my belly :)) and I refuse to buy a new one just for three weeks. Needless to say that I'm already tired after I get dressed. I guess I won't be out that much if it's really cold outside.

I have two classes left. On Saturday I want to go to a breastfeeding class. We'll see how it goes. I haven't bought the breast pump yet, maybe they will have some good advice on what to choose. I guess that's it for now. I just hope Chris will make his mind on the name and I so hope that he likes the name that have initially chosen.