Made it to NH

We successfully moved from Akron and I am now writing from the granite state! Whew, the move was tough. I never want to have to pack everything up again. Poor Sean had to do all the heavy lifting as well. But, we survived and lived to tell the tale. We did really do it right with the U-Pack pod things. They brought them in on a big truck and forklifted them into the drive way. We had them delivered on a Tuesday and picked up on a Thursday. We managed to fit all our worldly possesions into two of them. They are now sitting in storage until we figure out our housing situation.

The drive to NH was not too bad. Sean drove his work truck and I drove the Saturn with Lily in the back. We broke the trip into two days and we were very happy to visit with our great friends, Mandy and Scott in PA. They have a beautiful son, Noah, who was a delight to meet. Mandy was so kind to show me some cloth diaper folding techniques and an assortment of baby-wearing wraps as well as give me all sorts of new mother tips. We stayed Friday night and headed out for NH on Saturday.

Well the housing situation has become such drama! Last week, before we moved we spoke with our agent who told us that the seller's agent said the lein holding bank was going to issue a letter of approval for the sale. Yippee. We were very excited. Then on Saturday, in the midst of our long drive, we got a call from our agent saying that someone had put a better offer on the house. It was the most agravating thing as we have a signed purchase agreement from the seller, and the house has not been listed in two months! I won't go into all the gritty details, but there are definitely some shady dealings going on and I fear the seller's agent is a big sleaze bag. I broke down and cried in a rest stop (hormones?). So, we were very angry, but over the past few days we were beginning to wrap our heads around the idea of finding a nice place to rent. Well, then yesterday, our agent calls us again and says we are still number 1 to purchase the house and that the bank is going to want to move quickly. Wow! This whole thing has been such a rollercoaster. Of course, this is still just talk as we are waiting for the official paperwork from the bank. Who knows what today may bring in terms of news on the house buying front. Nothing will surprise me at this point, however. I should put another poll up on the blog as to whether or not we will be homeowners. It truly is anyone's guess.

Well, onto the most important news. Butterball is doing quite well. Tomorrow marks 30 weeks and I will definitely get a belly picture up soon. Yesterday, I went to my first appointment with the practice in Concord. I was a bit nervous about it, but I was so pleased by the end. I ended up meeting with an OB instead of a midwife, but she was just wonderful. She took a lot of time to answer all my questions and she was on the same page with me in my hopes for a natural birth. It seems the whole practice is very liberal and will always take into account the costs versus benefits of any medical intervention.

We listened to Butterball's heartbeat and it was a strong 148 or so. She showed me the doppler reading the heart rate and showed that it was variable. She said this this a good thing, indicating that he is active and when we move around, we have different oxygen requirements which cause our heart to beat faster or slower to meet those needs. I am also measuring right on target for 30 weeks.

We discussed the previous 2 vessel cord diagnosis. She agreed with my Akron midwife that it is most often not an issue at all, but that we ought to monitor Butterball's growth in the coming weeks just to make sure he remains on schedule and the placenta and cord continue to deliver all of his oxygen and nutritional requirements. So, today, I went in for an ultrasound to get baseline growth measurements and then I will go again in 4 weeks to do a comparative ultrasound. I must say, it was wonderful to see him again today. I dare say, he is looking quite handsome. He is positioned head down and facing towards my left. He has his hands and feet by his face. You can see things are becoming more cramped for the little guy. Here is a profile:

Here, his face is forward. Hopefully you can make out eyes and nose. His mouth is hidden by his feet:

And this is the top of his head. It is really cool because you can see he has a lot of hair. Notice where the arrow is pointing and that is all the fuzzy hair on his head. The technician said he had a lot. She normally doesn't see it all over like this, but more often just a "Friar Tuck" pattern on the sides. I think the detail is amazing.

She did a lot of measurements and actually said Butterball is measuring around 32 weeks along! Of course, there is a margin of error to these things. My due date remains the same because the early dating ultrasounds (mine was at 12 weeks) are much more accurate. In later ultrasounds, the genetics of the baby determine its size. But, I fear this may mean Butterball could be a big boy! The ultrasound estimated he is just under 4 pounds right now. I suppose we will see in the next ultrasound. And I suspect we will discuss the details at my next appointment. I am now going every two weeks and I already have my next three appointments scheduled. I will be meeting with the midwives of the practice during those.

Overall, we are all doing well. Lily is loving NH and swimming almost daily. There will be much more news to come regarding our house and Butterball, so stay tuned.