I know my body

Today I had another prenatal appointment. The nurse led us into a room, but it didn't have the ultrasound machine and both Ryan and I frowned. We wanted another one - you know, just to get a peek at the baby again and make sure all was still ok in there for her. Plus we wanted to make sure her head is pointed down, as it is pretty important for delivery...
When my doctor came in, we asked if we could switch rooms and she picked up on our hint right away and led us into the next room.

All is ok. Heartbeat 150 bpm. Measurements of head, abdomen, and femur all averaging at 31 weeks and 2 days... exactly where we are at today. Baby's weight estimated at 4 pounds. My weight... let's not go there.
Oh, and her head... pointed UP.
I knew it! I knew that wasn't a head kicking me in the bladder for the past 2 weeks!
And then my doctor commented, "wow, I guess you really know your body. I would have guessed by where the heartbeat was that she was head down so it's good we checked."
Yup . Glad we checked, but now hoping for a nice big flip-flop before labor in a few more weeks...

Good news is that she said after 35 weeks, she'll let me do more. Still won't be able to return to work yet. But at least in another month I can go walking a bit (although she said I probably won't want to much at that point).

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, my sweet husband brought me a lovely bouquet of flowers, which was so big that I was able to separate it into two vases. Lilacs, Roses, Orchids, Lilies, to name a few. So many of my favorites. And the fragrance: Wonderful.

Tomorrow after church we are planning to go have a family picnic at the Huntington Gardens over by the Rose Garden or perhaps the Shakespeare Garden, which both are in full bloom right now. Dylan can play on the grassy hill and run around while Ryan and I rest on our blanket together, enjoying the perfect 75-degree-California-weather that is forecasted for tomorrow afternoon.

And on Monday, as a VERY special treat (for all of us, we've decided), we are having our house deep cleaned. We both are pretty tidy people, who like the house in order as much as possible, but things have been sliding a bit in the past few weeks and it drives us both nuts. I've been dreaming of how lovely it will be to have spotless bathrooms, kitchen, and bedrooms again - all at the same time.

Ryan, kudos to you for making this year a perfect Mother's Day!!! (and I think he's just as excited as I am about the house getting cleaned)

Note: Too bad my son is too young to understand how great a gift it would be for him to just take a daily nap (he's nearly given them up entirely and I find myself begging for just a few minutes off my feet each afternoon now - never mind the modified bed rest orders folks... how can you do that with a toddler, I ask?!?)

Update: Today was fabulous. We ended up having lunch after church with some friends, then over to the gardens where we took some family pictures and rested on a picnic blanket while the boys played. And as a bonus, we went out for some ice cream before heading home (Dylan had his first very-own cone!). And tonight Dylan ate his dinner nicely and went to bed at 7pm without too much of a fuss.
I'm one happy mama.

Going BPA Free

Somehow the issue of BPA (Bisphenol-A) came up in our house this week. We've tossed all our old Nalgene bottles and replaced them with the Camelbak bottles, which are BPA free. And now I'm on the hunt for BPA free bottles for baby #2, as her arrival is only 8-10 weeks away. I was all set on the Born Free brand, but then found out tonight that Dr. Brown's has now launched a new BPA free bottle line. The problem: Which should we get? The Born Free bottles are pricey, but the new Dr. Brown's bottles are really hard to find still and are outrageously priced because of that. We used the Dr. Brown's ones with Dylan and he did great on those. But is it worth $50 for three of those suckers or to hunt all over town to find them with a decent price tag?

My friends have asked for a 'wish list' for this baby. I've settled on a few items, but still feel very torn on a few key items.
1. Stroller. Originally I had my heart set on the double BOB for both kids together. However Dylan is getting older and prefers to walk most of the time now unless he's really tired. Do I just use my BOB single for the first few months and carry the baby until she needs to be in the stroller herself?
Then there's the option of a sit-and-stand stroller. A friend of mine recommended the Joovy Caboose Ultralight, which is pretty sweet. But again, will it work for our family? Hard to tell until the time comes.
2. Carseats. I'm planning to borrow a friend's infant carrier/carseat for the first few months. But once she's a bit bigger, I'd like to put her in a rear-facing carseat. We had the Graco ComfortSport carseats for a while, but after lots of traveling that first year with Dylan, we've seen their limitations in durability. And after replacing one of them for a Britax last year, we realized how much better the Britax truly is. Eventually we know we'll need 1-2 more of those, depending on when Dylan is ready for a booster seat and graduates out of the Britax in my car. But for sure we'll need at least one more of those. And boy oh boy, those are not cheap!

Ok. And now I'm off to bed. Just thinking about all this stuff makes me tired.