Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Welcome Kaitlin Irene Sherry

Photo titled Welcome Kaitlin Irene Sherry Welcome Kaitlin Irene Sherry by Corinne S.

This photo doesn't do our beautiful girl justice, but it'll have to suffice for now. Kaitlin (aka Katie) made her entrance into the world around 5:30 this evening. She weighed in at 9.3 lbs and was 22" long. She was ultimately delivered by c-section. Labor began around 9pm Sunday night after some gentle prodding from her parents (she was 5 days past her due date afterall). Contraction frequency increased to every ~3 minutes around 4am. We went to the hospital at 5:30 am. Our Doula Rebecca joined us at the hospital in triage and my own OB came on call at 8am. After a relatively short but intense day of laboring, I was fully dilated around 2:30pm though my water hadn't broken and Katie was still at -2 station. The doctor broke my water then, only to discover that Katie wasn't presenting her head properly (at the time they thought she was presenting her face). We tried laboring down and later an epidural, but she wasn't descending. We agreed to proceed to a c-section around 4:30pm. When they went in to retrieve her they got a big surprise: the cheeks they'd been feeling were of an entirely dufferent variety. Our girl was breech! So here we are in the hospital tonight. A new happy, healthy family unit. We expect to be here until Thursday morning. For more photos in the coming days go to www.Flickr.com/groups/Kaitlin. -Corinne & Benjamin

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Thursday, November 06, 2008

Missed a deadline

Photo titled Family portrait--40 weeks Family portrait--40 weeks by Corinne S.

The baby isn't yet aware of deadlines and how they're supposed to work. Yesterday was her due date, but she's still chilling out in my womb. We're planning to avoid medical intervention before 42 weeks if possible, though we'll probably try some natural methods to nudge her along if she doesn't make a move on her own pretty soon.

Check out our family portrait series slide show on Flickr to see my belly shrink as the evolution of this little being plays in reverse. ;)

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Plus or minus 2 weeks

Tomorrow I'll be 38 weeks pregnant and, according to BabyCenter, little Blueberry has been "full term" since last week. I'm now in the weeks where I could go into labor "anytime" [in the next 4 weeks].

(For those who don't know, the way they count the weeks of pregnancy the full gestation period is 40 weeks and normal full term delivery is 40 weeks +/- 2.)

While I'm committed to the idea of not inducing labor before 42 weeks unless medically necessary, the idea of being pregnant for 4 more weeks is quite unpleasant. It seems to me, as a first-timer, that the baby may be "dropping" already, which really wreaks havoc on the bladder.

My last day at work before maternity leave is Friday, so this week will continue to be quite busy. I'm looking forward to getting some extra sleep next week though. Baby--don't come before I get some good napping in! Okay?

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Last baby shower

Photo titled Knitted blanket Eileen made Knitted blanket Eileen made by Corinne S.

I had a ladies-only baby shower on Saturday with my family and a few friends. It was a really nice event, hosted by Claire. See more pictures on Flickr.

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Triage again

Photo titled Triage drive-through
Triage drive-through by Corinne S.

Friday evening I had to make my second brief visit to Triage at Swedish. Nothing was at all wrong though--they were just checking my blood pressure because of my hands and feet swelling and a few other things.

I just wish we'd been able to get my wedding ring off. I've tried the tricks and it's looking more and more like I'll have to cut it off. Damn.

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Thursday, October 02, 2008

Cute picture

Photo titled Corinne and Benjamin
Corinne and Benjamin by Rob Gruhl

Rob took this cute picture of us at his birthday party last weekend. :)

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The final 4 (fingers crossed)

Today I had my regular biweekly OB appointment and my doctor told me I have one more biweekly appointment and then I'll be on the weekly schedule.

After the appointment I went to schedule my next appointments and I ended up scheduling every appointment from now unitl my due date. How many is that? Just 4. The countdown begins. ;-)

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Monday, September 29, 2008

Threshold

I imagine that there's a threshold at which the discomfort of pregnancy outweighs the fears and responsibilities associated with childbirth and having a newborn and you think to yourself "Let's have this baby now!"

I'm not there yet, but I think I'm on that road. I'll endevour to arrive at that particular destination at the same time I go into labor. ;-) Wish me luck and timing.

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Friday, September 12, 2008

Triage

I just got to hang out in the OB Triage wing at Swedish for an hour and a half to rule out pre-term labor. Lucky for me, it's just my "irritable" uterus.

I should've taken a pic while I was there, darn it. The nurse and doc were nice and I entertained myself with a magazine and my iPhone while they monitored me and baby.

Little Miss Blueberry performed well with her wiggling, heart heating, and oxygenating. Good girl.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Baby bomb

I recently heard someone mention a friend of theirs who went into labor after being rear-ended in her car. It made me feel like a bit of a ticking time bomb.

I suspect Benjamin's seen me that way for a while though, based on the way he reacts when I say "ow." I guess I can't blame him--he was born about 2 months prematurely after what must have been a particularly vigorous vacuuming session by his mother.

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Sunday, September 07, 2008

Showered with babies

Photo titled Rob and Keston
Rob and Keston by Corinne S.

Our big co-ed baby shower was today at Miller and Nathan's house. The place was flush with babies and it was great to see our friends. We received lots of adorable gifts and some seriously useful hand-me-downs. I only took two pictures, so hopefully Rob will post a bunch of his photos soon. I know he took a few that weren't just of his adorable son Keston. ;-)

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Monday, September 01, 2008

Our latest portrait

Photo titled Blueberry's family--30 weeks Blueberry's family--30 weeks by Corinne S.

Here's a photo of us from today. Blueberry is 30 weeks old now in gestational age and, as you can see, the nursery is now functional, if not complete. I posted some related photos as well that you can see at these links:

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Butternut baby

Photo titled Butternut baby Butternut baby by Corinne S.

This past week--week 29--the baby was supposed to be the size of a butternut squash. When at the grocery store the other day I decided to get a sense of this size relative to my belly. To clarify though, I think BabyCenter's baby-fruit comparisons are based solely on length and don't take mass or weight into account. I think our baby is still a little under 3 pounds. (Sorry about the crappy perspective, BTW. It's hard to get good photos of one's own pregnant belly without aid of mirrors.)

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

Oregon roads

Photo titled Oregon roads Oregon roads by Corinne S.

Benjamin and I are making a circuit in NW and central Oregon this weekend. While the scenery is beautiful, the hours in the car are wreaking havoc on my now third-trimester body.

We've also had hellishly bad luck with traffic on our journey, at least whenever I5 is involved. Friday we drove from Seattle to Salem and it took us 7 hours (4 hours is the expected travel time). We got caught behind two different major vehicle fires--one a Metro bus, the other caught the entire I5 median on fire and closed the freeway in both directions for a couple of hours. We also hit every misc and typical backup I5 has to offer. We were 2 hours late for the wedding that instigated this entire trip.

Yesterday we drove from Salem to Bend to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law who're living in John Day, OR. What little time we spend on I5 was a trafficy mess. My mom and Rich were at the wedding in Salem and drove to Bend, too.

In Bend we visited with my family, ate at McMennamin's, and had dessert at Goody (yummy, hard, cold ice cream). Then this morning we all ate breakfast at our B&B before disbanding.

The whole weekend it's been over 100 degrees during the day. Though I haven't been out in the sun much at all, I think I got dehydrated yesterday so I was pretty miserable last night.

Today we're driving from Bend to Portland for one last night in OR before we head home.

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Today's best thing

My mom likes to ask what your "best thing" is each day. When she asked me this question at 11:30am today all I had to offer was snuggling in the bed with the dog this morning.

While my day is still pretty far from over, I have a much more substantial "best thing" to offer now: Amazon announced this morning that, effective August 1st, they're increasing the percentage of salary paid and extending the duration of pay during maternity leave. That's great news at a great time for me. Woohoo!

I welcome additional great things to continue happening for the rest of the day (and beyond).

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Week 24

Photo titled Blueberry's family - week 24
Blueberry's family - week 24 by Corinne S.

Here we are 24 weeks into the pregnancy. I know this still looks like a messy office, but with Piper's help I am making incredible progress on cleaning out my stuff, moving into Benjamin's office, and turning this room into a nursery. Seriously.

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Claire's baby is here (on the outside)

Claire & Erik's new son Dashiell Alexander was born this morning at 10:10 am via planned c-section after an amniocentesis yesterday to confirm that his lungs were ready for the outside world. The c-section was necessary due to Claire's placenta acretia, but the surgery went quickly and flawlessly and mom and baby are now resting comfortably.

Dashiell weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces with a length of 19-3/4 inches. Head circumference was 13-1/8 inches. He cried a little on arrival and has since had his first bath and he's enjoying snuggling with mom on the outside of the womb.

I'm going over to the hospital later today so I'll take pictures and hopefully get some posted tonight.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Thump, thump

Photo titled Birthday belly Birthday belly by Corinne S.

It's official--Blueberry is in there and she's an active little berry. Last night Benjamin felt her move for the first time. Up until a few days ago her movements were pretty indistinct and I only felt them sometimes. It's still not super dramatic, but I've noticed lately that when I eat she does sommersaults--yowza. I think that might hurt when she's bigger.

So last night Benjamin and I were watching Buffy and had jsut eaten a late dinner. I was feeling her move around a lot and started trying to see if I could feel it from the outside. She started repeatedly kicking the side of my belly in one spot and I could feel it a bit from the outside so I quickly put Benjamin's hand there. He was skeptical that he'd really feel anything, but he did.

Go little berry go--start kicking your parents and letting them know who's boss right from the start. ;-)

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Monday, June 02, 2008

Here we are

Photo titled Blueberry's family (week 17)
Blueberry's family (week 17) by Corinne S.

Though I'm hanging onto my regular pants by the skin of my teeth, Blueberry is starting to peek out (in the form of my belly). Here we are--17 weeks into the pregnancy--in my insanely cluttered home office, which will eventually be Blueberry's room.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Yummy baby

This week the baby is about the size of an avocado, according to BabyCenter.com's fruit-oriented size comparisons. This is an especially pleasing size to me since I'm a big avocado fan. Just remind me not to eat the baby.

My belly is starting to show a bit and my pants are getting tighter. Now that we're officially 4 months in, it might be coming up on time for me to start wearing maternity pants. But I'm still in that awkward transition phase where I mostly don't need them and they feel funny and tend to be a little big (or just fit really oddly) so I will probably continue to push the boundaries of my pants a little longer. ;)

To learn more about what little "Blueberry" is up to developmentally this week, check out Your pregnancy: 16 weeks on BabyCenter.

PS> I stole this picture from Becca's Baby Blog.

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Friday, April 11, 2008

This time, the baby photo is mine

Photo titled Our little "blueberry" at 10 weeks
Our little "blueberry" at 10 weeks by Corinne S.

If you read this blog at all, you're used to seeing me post photographs and ultrasound pictures of other people's babies. This time, it's all mine (okay, Benjamin's too).

This is our future baby, code named blueberry. While you've probably seen a million ultrasound images before and they don't look like much, it's completely different to see this miniature baby-like being on the monitor--moving! To realize there is a tiny human inside me that can move of its own accord. Well, it's just astounding.

Blueberry's ship date is November 7th, but s/he reserves the right to make schedule changes without notice.

On Wednesday morning when this picture was taken, blueberry was 2.9cm long (~1.15 inches) and 9 weeks and 5 days old by "gestational age."

We'll get to actually hear blueberry's heartbeat in mid-May, but we won't *see* him/her again until June, which is when they do the "big ultrasound" (aka fetal survey) and we'll also hopefully learn his/her gender.

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Claire's got a little boy on the inside

Ultrasound image of Claire's baby boy at 20 weeks Claire had her gender-revealing 20 week ultrasound this week and found out they're having a little boy. Pretty exciting! Good work on managing to get one of each naturally, guys.

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Another baby is here

A photo of baby Felicity I just got an announcement today about another baby in our circle of friends. This little beauty was born to Benjamin's friend since childhood, Jonathan, and his wife Yuka. Their baby girl is nearly 2 weeks old now. And if you're wondering, the answer is yes: we have more pregnant friends. ;-P Felicity Natsumi was born on July 18th at 7:32 pm. At birth she weighed 7lb 6 oz and was 20 inches long. According to her mama, the name Felicity is based on the Roman goddess of good luck and success, and also means happiness. Her middle name, Natsumi is a Japanese girl's name, meaning 'summer beauty'.

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Come out of there!

Our friend Sylvia is now more than 40 weeks pregnant and ready for her baby, Sabrina, to join us in the outside world. Maddy took this fabulous picture of Sylvia, who says that this is "what I really do all day now that I’m not at work." ;-)

You can see more beautiful pregnancy photos of Sylvia, taken by our friend Ola, on Flickr. Sorry, the sexy photos are marked as private. So there! ;-P

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Sunday, February 11, 2007

In utero

A photo called 'Pregnancy Favs' on Flickr Pregnancy Favs by Amelie81 So many women in Benjamin's social circle and mine are currently pregnant. There are actually four that I am aware of, but that feels like a lot. I think our "group" is about to explode with babies, as it were.

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