Our Little Gemini

S/he's not even here yet, but Monkey is already showing two sides of his her personality.

Behold:

Sweet, smiling Monkey
and..Tongue sticking out Sassy Monkey!

Both of these images came from our 36 week growth scan this morning. According to Dr. Larmon, Monkey now weighs in at a whopping 6lbs 11oz. That means he/she is measuring about 8 days ahead of schedule, which is good news and means the gestational diabetes isn't turning Monkey into Gargantuan Baby! Babies gain an average of 1/2 lb a week at this point, meaning if I went all the way to 40 weeks, Monkey would weigh around 8.5-9lbs. But because of the gestational diabetes, Dr. Larmon doesn't want me to go past 39 weeks, so if I haven't gone into labor on my own, we'll be looking at an induction around June 11th.

But...Dr Larmon is pretty confident that I'll go into labor on my own before then. My first internal check this week showed I'm currently dialated 1cm, 50% effaced, and Monkey is at -2 station. Since we're already making progress, Dr Larmon believes I won't make it to 39 weeks, which is good for me. I've heard nasty things about inductions...

So that's the story from here. The doctor gave us the all clear to go up to the U.P. for the weekend, so Karl and I will get to visit with the Homburgs for a couple of days. I have been quite clear with Monkey that I don't plan to deliver a Yooper, so there will be NO BABY this weekend!

It's May....

Also known as the month before we have a baby. Or, maybe even the month we HAVE the baby. I know the norm is for first babies to be late, but well....I don't tend to be normal. You know those "rare side effects" they talk about with drugs? They could be replaced with a blinking billboard that says "Hey Steph...this is what's going to happen to you!" I should have known back in 2006 when my surgeon told me that within his practice only one gall bladder patient needs to be operated on without laproscopy every year. Of course that patient would be me. So yeah, I would totally not be shocked if Monkey decided he/she wanted to share a birth month with Mom. We'll reach 36 weeks right before my 30th birthday.

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here as we prepare for Monkey's arrival and the start of the 2009 wedding season. As Monkey's due date fast approaches we're spending a lot more time at the doctors office! Last Tuesday I had my first NST...that's dr speak for Non Stress Test. I quickly learned that NSTs really are nothing to stress about. Basically, it's my excuse to spend 30 minutes in a cushy chair with my feet up chilling with the monkey. Of course that "chilling" involves a contraction monitor for me and a heart rate monitor for the Monkey. I also get to hold one of those cool Jeopardy style buzzers and I have to press the button every time Monkey moves which makes a note on his/her heart rate tracings. The doctors want to see Monkey's heart rate go up every time he/she moves. It's actually really cool to watch. Our first NST was a great success because Monkey didn't like the heart rate monitor on my belly and spent a good 20 minutes trying to kick it off. The doctors got all the movements they needed to see and we were sent home with a gold star and instructions to come back in a week. The NSTs will be done weekly from here on out to make sure things are still going well in there while we deal with my gestational diabetes out here.

Thursday we had yet another ultrasound to check on Monkey's size. Gestational Diabetes babies can get too big, so we want to keep an eye on that. In typical Monkey fashion, we have very little in the way of cool pictures to share from the ultrasound. Not even having his grandpa present for the ultrasound could lure Monkey to show off his/her face! In fact, Monkey was so curled up and comfy it was tough for the tech to get some of the measurements she needed.

Here is what we did find out:

• At 32 weeks Monkey was measuring 4lbs 12oz. That puts him/her in the 66th percentile for weight. Based on overall size, Monkey is about 10 days ahead of his/her due date.
  
• Heart rate was once again in the 140s.
  
• Monkey is still head down and expected to stay that way for the duration of the pregnancy since there's not a lot of room to move in there anymore.
• Monkey's head circumfrence measured 2 weeks ahead. I told the tech she must be doing it wrong because that wasn't possible. She just laughed.

While we didn't get any face pictures (Monkey had his/her hands AND umbillical cord blocking his/her face) we do have a couple ultrasound images to share:

Pretty cool 3d view of Monkey's hand and foot. He/she is quite skilled in using those hands and feet to cause me some discomfort!

See those fuzzy lines in the middle? That's hair!! Monkey actually has hair already! I was bald until kindergarten practically, so this must be a Homburg family trait.

Now, Monkey and I are off to finish prepping for tomorrow's wedding. We're planning to pack lots of snacks for the long day and I've threatened to oink at anyone who gets in my personal space. Gotta keep the swine flu away!

A Break from the Gender Neutral

Since we don't know whether Monkey will be boy flavored or girl flavored, there's a whole lot of green, yellow, and orange floating around our house these days. All three are great colors, and will make things easier when Monkey has to share his/her stuff with a sibling or two, but sometimes it is really fun to shop for a specific gender.

So with that in mind, we decided to purchase a boy outfit and a girl outfit to bring to the hospital for Monkey to come home in. Obviously only one of those outfits will get put to use in our family, but since we know SO many other mamas to be, someone else will happily take the unused outfit off our hands!

You know the package will be filled with goodness when it comes wrapped like this. Janie and Jack is normally out of our price range for baby clothes, but avid web stalkers can sometimes find a great deal. And really, you only get *one* going home outfit, so it's okay to splurge a little!

Here are the two options hanging side by side on Monkey's dresser. Which outfit will you wear little one??
A boy flavored Monkey will come home in this! Love the stripes and the little polo shirt collar...and the easy diaper change access snaps on the legs! But my favorite part is this...
There's a little frog prince! For those that don't remember, Karl proposed to me while I was wearing frog prince flannel pajamas.
And here's the girl flavored option, in a shade of my favorite color green.
And a closer look reveals another little frog prince in the girl pattern! Maybe we should be calling Monkey "Frogger" instead. :)

Showered

I'll admit it. It's currently Wednesday evening and my living room looks like this...

Behold, the aftermath of shower weekend. And that isn't even all of it! We've continued to receive presents all week from folks who weren't able to make it to the shower on Saturday. Karl and I are amazed by the generosity (and in some cases sneakiness) of our friends and family.

For those who couldn't be with us, here's a pictorial recap of Monkey's shower...

Truth: I have the most creative friends. Trish made everyone these adorable place cards featuring my signature lime green, and the cutest little monkeys!

And because the place cards apparently weren't crafty enough, Trish also made these BANANA flavored monkey cupcakes. Almost too cute to eat!

Barb stumped the guests with a hardcore baby shower game. See those bags? Each one contained a baby item starting with the letters that spell out Monkey. I think the most anyone got right was 3. As for the mom to be, well we're trying not to read too much into the fact that I only guessed ONE of the bags correctly.

After the games were over, I was given a huge and emotional surprise. My friends from WBIR in Knoxville put together a video for me since they couldn't come to the shower. I wish I could share the video here, but apparently I am not tech savvy enough to learn the uploading process. Hopefully I'll rectify that before Monkey gets here. But suffice it to say, the tears started almost instantly. Even though it's been nearly 5 years since I left my Knoxville home, I still consider those people some of my closest friends. I can't wait to introduce Monkey to everyone in November when we make a pit stop enroute to the farm for Thanksgiving.

Now, while there are no pictures of the video from the CH 10 folks, you will notice something in the following pictures. I am NOT a pretty crier. For the rest of the evening my face was blotchy and my eyes were bloodshot. Such is life for the fair skinned blue eyed girl.

Who knew I would come dressed to match our new travel system from my dad and Adele? Monkey is going to learn to love lime green too!

In addition to the amazing gifts they brought, the guests also made onesies and bibs for Monkey. I have such crafty friends!


Here I am with the girls who made the whole evening possible. I am so thankful for their friendship and support. I may not have sisters, but I know Monkey will have some pretty amazing aunties!

Karl avoided the shower mayhem until the end of the evening when he was called in to help haul the gifts home. We had too much for just my Escape.
We also had help in the gift hauling from Karl's mom. We were so lucky she was able to spend the weekend with us, even if most of the weekend involved me propping my feet up to get rid of my horrible cankles.

So here we are 4 days later and our living room looks like baby central. My goal is to have everything put away before Karl returns from trip #356 to Minneapolis tomorrow evening. But for now I'm enjoying admiring all of the neat little things we have for our baby....

including beautiful handmade blankets from Angie's mom (green quilt) and my Aunt Lorri (white blanket with matching hat and mittens)

THE coolest print for Monkey's room from my friend Emily, who couldn't join us because she was busy taking care of her brand new baby (and Monkey's future BFF) Mirielle
and Karl's favorite three gifts...the "manly" diaper bag from Trish and the gang, the super cool baby playmat from the Channel 10 folks (I think he wants one in grown up size), and the crib soother that plays nature sounds and has swinging monkeys.

So that wraps up the big shower recap. It's hard to believe that I'll be 30 weeks tomorrow. Since we're pretty sure the gestational diabetes will mean Monkey makes an early appearance, that means we could be showing him/her all of this cool stuff in just 2 months!

Thank You Mystery Person....and Mystery Solved!

This afternoon this super cool high chair arrived on our front porch. It matches the pack and play and swing we registered for and it goes well with our current decor. We love it. What we don't love is that it came without a packing slip!! So we don't know who was kind enough to send it for Monkey!

So whoever you are: THANK YOU! And please drop me an email or call me and let me know so I can send the proper thank you!

Update: This morning Karl decided to unpack the high chair so we could take the box to the cardboard dumpster. Upon opening the box, he discovered the babies r us folks had opened the box and placed the packing slip inside before carefully resealing it! So the mystery has been solved...the super cool high chair came from the Homburg Grandparents!

You're invited....

There's been some more progress on Monkey's room this week so we thought we'd invite you in to see how things are shaping up!

This is the view from the doorway. Next time I take quick pics of the room someone should remind me it's very very bright in the morning thanks to that east facing window. I have a feeling Monkey is going to be an early riser!

That big comfy chair has been with me since my Knoxville days. I plan to spend lots of time snuggling a certain Monkey there! You can also see the super cool valance Karl made out of fabric we bought at Joann's. Just one of many monkey touches in Monkey's room.

Looking back towards the door now. The bookshelf already houses some really cool gifts Monkey has received in the past few months. S/he has monkeys of all shapes and sizes, and even a Sock Monkey Jack in the Box from Em and Spud! The bottom shelves will house books for us to read together as well as Monkey's first scrapbook!

You just knew Walker was going to squeeze into at least one picture, right? The dresser will also serve as Monkey's changing table. It's hard to see here, but the right side of the dresser is a cabinet for storage of diapers, etc.
The view from the corner of the closet. Can't wait for there to be a baby in that crib!!

So, we've still got more work to do, finding homes for everything and getting stuff up on the walls. It's hard to believe we're less than three months away from Monkey's arrival!

Well it's about time...

I've said it before. There is something insanely funny to me about the child of two photographers being camera shy inside the womb. But that's the way Monkey has been from the very beginning: hiding his/her face behind arms and legs or flat out rolling over so there's no way to get a clear look!

Today's appointment started off the very same way. It didn't take long for the tech to tell us she was clearly going to be "earning her paycheck" with this baby! Monkey was quite comfy with his/her head down and tucked in towards my back. Attempts to move Monkey resulted in nothing more than me getting some very forceful kicks and punches!

But we were patient, and when Dr. L, our perinatologist, came in to continue the ultrasound, we tried a couple of different positions. We were rewarded with a couple of neat profile shots and the thing we've been waiting months for: a nice 3d face picture!

Look! Our kid has a face!!! It's a little shadowy because of how nicely tucked in Monkey was, but at least there there no limbs obscuring our view!

The first thing I thought of when I saw this one... I think he/she is going to have the Anderson mouth. That means if Monkey is boy flavored, he's going to need to grow a mustache to make up for the absence of an upper lip.

Apparently this ultrasound thing is boring. Here's Monkey yawning in profile.


One more profile shot. You can see his/her little hand coming up near the chin!

Other important info from today's appointment:

• heartrate: 145 beats for minute. Still on the "girl" side of the old wives tale.
• Approximate weight: 2lbs9oz
• Measuring about 28weeks5days ( one week ahead of my due date)
• Head measuring about 28weeks (the first time she checked it measured 30weeks2days. Cue panic on my part. Thankfully she got a better view the second time she measured!)

Since we're still keeping a close watch on growth because of my gestational diabetes, we'll get to see Monkey again in 4 weeks! The cool thing is that the next visit coincides with a visit from "Grandpa Anderson" so Monkey gets to show off in the womb!