new and
FINAL fruit!!! watermelon baby! and i am now considered "full term"!
average size: 18.9 to 20.9 inches, 6.2 to 9.2 lbs.
what's going on with baby: "At 37 weeks, your baby has reached full term. That means she’s developed her most crucial functions. Of course, she’ll get even healthier and stronger over the next few weeks, so don’t get too impatient. She's practicing some skills: inhaling, exhaling, sucking, gripping and blinking."
this past week we installed the car seats! YAY! that means we can actually take remi home from the hospital now since they won't let you leave without a properly installed car seat. my grandpa bought us this travel system that we had on our registry (and i'm in love with it so far!):
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3904367
and my aunt ria got us an extra base which is SUPER handy because that means each car can have it's own base installed and we can just swap out the carrier part to whichever car we decide to use. especially since once you install the base, you want to make sure it's REALLY tight in there, so switching one base from car to car would be annoying, time consuming, and possibly dangerous.
my aunt ria also got us this car seat protector since erik's car has leather seats. it's pretty great!
so first we installed the base into erik's car. and by "we", i mean, "erik did, and i took photos" haha...car seats now have this "latch" system which is really nice and secure! you just take the latches and clip them into your car's specified location for them then tighten like CRAZY. i mean, stick your foot in the bottom of the base to push it down on the car's seat, and PULL that belt as tight as you can. you know you've done a good job if after you lock it down, you can't budge the base more than an inch left or right. you also want to check your car's manual to see where they recommend you install your car seat. i'm pretty sure almost ALL will say in the middle (and rear-facing), but depending on your car's features, the safest might be on the left or right side of the car, so just check your car's manual real quick before installing.
here's erik locking it down after tightening it. he did such an awesome job! it didn't budge at ALL when we tried to shake it haha...
working so hard...being a great papa :)
and then we put the carrier part in to make sure it fit and that it was level (it has a little gauge with a ball on the side that tells you if it's in the right spot or not. love it!)
next it was my car's turn. no leather seating here, so it was easier to install without having to worry about lining up the protective mat. although, my car is significantly smaller, so it was tight to get in there and install it!
grabbing the carrier from the other car to check to see if it's okay
looking good....
yep! perfect! you should also make sure to clear out your car of random things because in an accident, things go FLYING. your car basically becomes a snow globe. wouldn't want something whipping baby in the face! so just stick everything extra laying around in the trunk.
we also took our cars to the fire department to get the bases professionally inspected (something you should definitely do since 80% of people install their car seats incorrectly), and the guy was super impressed! he even mentioned how rare it is that he sees one correctly installed :) so YAY! he was really nice, and went over a TON of information for us on what's best for her while in the car, how tight to make the straps around her, cautioned us about her wearing winter coats in the car seat because you can't get the straps as tight, said to not buy those mirrors that allow you to watch the child while driving, and just a bunch of other really helpful information! it was nice :)
my parents got us the matching play yard, and we set it up in our bedroom this past week too! i originally wanted to just move her mini-crib from the nursery into the bedroom, and turn it into a co-sleeper next to the bed for easy late night feedings/changes (and also because we have an air conditioner unit in our bedroom since the rest of the upstairs gets HOT), but it became too difficult to do. luckily, the mattress from the crib fits absolutely PERFECTLY in the play yard with no gaps!
no, kahlua! that is not a super sweet bed that we set up just for you! haha
erik added on the changing station which will be sooo nice in the middle of the night when i go to change her.
and i added on the aluminum foil so kahlua or sadie won't be sleeping on it before remi gets here lol...i've never tried this before, but i hear cats hate aluminum foil, so we'll see if this works! it has so far! he's wanted nothing to do with it for the rest of this past week!
we also finally installed the moon light above remi's crib in the nursery! we bought the "uncle milton moon in my room" light forever ago because it's PERFECT for inside the crib nook since i painted 4781297439816934 stars in there:
it took us forever to install it because we just never got around to switching out the light bulb that used to be there in the closet. the problem was that we had to take down the light bulb socket, and cap/cover up the wires since the electricity that goes to them is always live. so this past week, erik's dad helped us with it (he's an electrical engineer), capped off all the wires, and put a metal plate covering the hole where the socket was, so it wouldn't be dangerous anymore. YAY!
now, the next problem was that this moon is meant to be hung on the wall, not the ceiling. well...we wanted it on the ceiling, so we had to make some adjustments! i just measured, and drew out a similar hole style on the other side of the moon so that it could be placed up with 2 screws instead of just 1:
this was the only spot on the back that we could dremel into because there are wires or batteries or other random things in the back in other places. below is a photo after erik carefully dremeled the hole!
figuring out where to put the holes on the ceiling was a bit tough since there were two holes instead of the usual one, and they had to be EXACT or else the holes wouldn't match up and we wouldn't be able to attach it. so what i did was glob on some white toothpaste around where the holes were, then we centered it in the closet, and pressed up against the ceiling lightly, so we could see where the two holes were, then erik just put in the screws where the holes were!
we love this night light!!! it really completes the crib nook :)
it comes with a remote, so we can just turn it on easily with that.
YAY! this was a really productive week!
in other news, i had a midwife appointment last tuesday, and my midwife thought remi could be breech.
-UGH-
i told her that remi used to always be on my right side (for months), and her kicks used to be really high, but just over the past week or so, i now felt movements on my left side, and at bellybutton height. her eyes widened as i told her this. she said, "well, let me feel around a bit and see if i can tell where she is". she felt my stomach for a bit, but couldn't tell for sure if she was head down or not. when she checked her heartbeat, it was by my belly button, and not below it, but she said that's not always a good determining factor on how the baby is facing. she also checked my cervix to see if i was dilating yet or not, because if i was, then she would see if she could feel remi's skull bones. obviously if she could feel them, then that would mean remi was head-down, but unfortunately i wasn't dilating yet :( sooooo...we scheduled an ultrasound for today to peek in and see how she was facing. on last thursday though, after 2 weeks of being in her new, possibly breech position, remi randomly moved back to her typical old position with kicking my upper right side again, so i was hopeful...but then yesterday, i felt her flip back to feet being on the lower left again. how can she move around so much in there??? doctors always say that by this point they pretty much stay put because there isn't that much room anymore! lol...apparently remi doesn't care because she is flipping around all over the place still trying to find the most comfortable spot.
well, she is head-down! YAY!!! but she is certainly cramped in there! the tech said her body is in an "O" shape because she is so scrunched up in the fetal position. her feet are only about a few inches away from her face! she checked out everything else and remi is still perfectly healthy which is so wonderful to hear. heartbeat was 150, and right now she is estimated to be 6 lbs., 1 oz. which is a good range for week 37. my midwife said when they do estimates, it could be 1 lb. off in either direction, but she's looking good! here is a photo of her face (looking right at the "camera"). the tech said, "oh! she has long eyelashes!" hahaha...i had no idea you could SEE eyelashes on an ultrasound! but she said that when you can, that means they are long! erik and i both have long lashes, so i guess remi will too! here she is:
can't wait to see her in person!!!
oh! and here's the updated bump photo :)
closer and closer! :D
