Quick Check-up

There wasn't much new at the latest check-up with Dr. Zawacki today. Heather remains in good health, as does Baby Woodruff. BW's heartbeat remained right around 130 bpm, and Heather's tummy measured 36 cm. This appears to be a run-of-the-mill pregnancy for the doctor (which we are very thankful for) ... she said that it's now just a matter of waiting. Though, she did mention that she could help to speed things up at the next appointment on next Wednesday.

Heel to the Ribs

As I sit here working on the computer tonight, I can hear Heather saying "Oooh ... owww!" Then she said, "Honey, come here and see what your child is doing." When I go and look, Heather is sitting on the sofa, rubbing her ribcage. She says that baby's foot is sticking up into her ribs, and baby's bum is jammed up nearly as far. Looks like space is at a premium in there, and BW is now strong enough to make mommy wince a bit.

Work Shower

On Friday, Heather's co-workers at Southwest Washington Medical Center hosted a baby shower for her at the end of the work day in the X-ray department.

Thank you to Cheri and Rand for organizing the event. Heather really enjoyed the balloons and the cake, which was decorated with a stork and "Happy Baby Wishes". Thank you also to Tacomis, who was the main photographer. Rick really appreciated all the interesting photos, including the smiley-headed Heather.

Heather was very thankful for all the generous gifts given to her by everyone in the department. Some of the highlighted gifts included hand-made stockings and hat by Linda, hand-made blanket by Heather, the baby-blue outift given by her boss Rhonda (who's convinced that BW will be a boy), and the group-gift from the department.

We now feel fully stocked up for the arrival of Baby Woodruff now!

More Checking

Heather visited Dr. Zawacki today for another routine, weekly check-up. Things continued at their usual steady pace, with mother and baby's health still looking good. Baby Woodruff's heartbeat was once again at about 130 bpm, and the position stayed at "head-down" (always good to know that) ... the only downside to that is that Heather is now getting some nice kicks into her ribcage (ouch!). Also, the tummy measurement checked in at 35 cm. And a good piece of news was that the strep test was negative.

This was also a chance for Heather to ask some questions about the upcoming delivery. After talking it over with the doctor, it appears that if the timing works out (no super-quickie appearances by BW), then she'll be able to use an epidural at a strength that allows for some feeling of the contractions. Another discussion was about Heather's blood type (O-), possibly leading to BW coming out a little jaundiced, which could mean baby's first visit to the tanning booth before the age of 1. Hopefully, the RH factor shot took care of that.

Only a couple check-ups left! ... the next one being a week from today.

36-week Photo

Heather and Baby Woodruff are now at 36-weeks! Only a month to go, and preparation for BW's arrival has picked up steam. The attention this past week was on getting the baby room ready, as shown in this photo. You can clearly see Heather's color scheme coming to life. We painted the block border, used Wall Pops for the circles, and then Aunt Charolette brought us the best part ... the baby dresser that she had painted with the room colors. It all looks fantastic. Thanks, Charolette!

Baby Activity Report

Heather went in for another check-up today with Dr. Zawacki. This visit was partly routine ... Heather's blood pressure is still doing fine at 112 over 68, so doing good there; and Baby Woodruff's heartbeat continued at a nice, strong 130 bpm. Also, the tummy measurement came in at 34 cm.

The new part was the doctor checking internally for baby's position. As confirmed earlier, BW's head is in the down position, and the little bum is definitely in the up position. However, it is not quite "go" time yet. But, Dr. Zawacki did say that if labor did start next week (almost 37 weeks), then she would let Heather give birth since BW would be at term.

They also planned ahead, as Heather got together her leave of absence paperwork for the doctor to sign. And then, she announced who her birthing team would be: Heather's very frightened husband (her words), her best friend Sara (Dany) and her sister Greta.

The next appointment will be next Wednesday, when the doctor will keep checking for dilation and baby's position.

Still Working

Heather is 35-weeks along, and still taking little BW to work, although with a slightly reduced schedule. She managed to change her Monday shift so that she can arrive at 9:00 am instead of 7:00 am, meaning she's only at work for 14 hours instead of the usual 16 hours ... not a huge change, but those couple hours of sleeping in mean everything to her and BW.

And the even better news is that Heather only has about 3-1/2 more weeks of work left before she takes maternity leave for 3 months!

Woodland Shower

Heather and Baby Woodruff attended their 3rd baby shower this past Saturday. The shower was hosted by Sara (Dany) Paul, Cindy Stephenson and Greta Verd, at Dany's country home in Woodland. The decorations were beautiful as usual, with the color theme being pink and blue, since the gender of BW is not yet known ... it was a lovely ladies' afternoon tea party. There were many desserts to choose from, and a nice light lunch. Heather would like to thank Dany, Cindy, Grandma Helen and Greta for all their hard work putting on a wonderful shower.

This shower was attended by many of Heather's family and close friends, including sisters Sheryl (with Baby Andy) and Greta shown in this picture. After Heather introduced everyone, it was time for some games. The first was "Guess Who's Pregnant", where many wished they had paid better attention in school science. The goal of the game was to match the gestational age of various animals with the correct animal ... for example, did you know that the gestational age of the African Elephant is a whopping 22 months, whereas the age for the opossum is only 13 days?

The next game was "Finish Mommy's Phrase". Heather was asked to fill in the blanks to finish the phrases on the page. Then, everyone tried to guess what her responses were on their own pages. Heather threw everyone a curve ball by mixing up her answers a bit.

Heather enjoyed a wonderful day, however some tears were shed. Dany began by saying a thoughtful prayer in memory of Heather's mom Karlene, and for the safety of Baby Woodruff. Another emotional moment was a poem written by Douglas Allegar ... the father of Justice, one of Heather's former volleyball players, and Billie's husband. And finally, Heather's cousin Michele surprised her with a crocheted blanket from her Grandma Myrtle, who passed 6 years ago.

Heather was overwhelmed with everyone's generosity. Many cute and much-needed gifts were given. Heather would like to thank some of her other special helpers at the shower, including nieces Meagan and Lindsey for taking these photos, niece McKenna for greeting and taking coats and helping clean up, Abby and Maya for helping with gifts (as shown in the photo), and niece Lindsey again for the lovely dance performance.

We appreciate everyone's love and support as we prepare for the new addition. We look forward to introducing he/she to you! Thank you so much!

35-week Photo

So very close now! Baby Woodruff is now at 35-weeks, and mommy and daddy can't hardly wait any longer. This photo was taken at this past weekend's baby shower in Woodland (which you can read about in the next post).

Dropping

Baby Woodruff continues the downward migration. Just looking at Heather, it's clear that the shape of her tummy has shifted to a lower position. More than a few people have commented on how they've noticed BW's change in altitude. Looks like the baby is nearly engaged and ready for descent!

34-week Photo

Baby Woodruff is now 34-weeks old, and getting bigger by the day. Heather is really beginning to feel the weight of the baby, mostly by how tired she is getting with packing BW around. That stroller that the Uhlenkott's and Johnson's gave us at the Baby Bash looks like it will be a life-saver!

Castle Rock Shower

It was baby shower-time in Castle Rock, better known as the "Baby Bash" as written on the invitations. The Piercy clan was together for another big party, this time at Kevin and (my younger sister) Julie Johnson's new house. It was a great time as always! Thanks to my sisters Lynne, Robin and Julie for organizing it, and to my mom for helping them out.

The party warmed up with some excellent food and snacks. And for fun, there was a guessing game, where about 15 photos of Heather at different stages in her pregnancy were randomly printed on some paper, and the goal was put them in order. There was also a betting game, where for $1 a guess could be made about either BW's height, weight, date of birth, time of birth, gender or first name initial. The guesses for the gender were split evenly between boy and girl, and it's interesting that the average guess for weight was about 9 pounds!

Then, it was time for the competition. First up, everyone cut a piece of yarn to the length that they thought would reach exactly around Heather's belly, with the closest winning. Here's a photo of Brock's attempt, with Julie looking on. In the end, the winners of the game were Gabe and Dad (tied), each getting within 2 inches.

The next game was for the kids, where each was given a baby bottle with juice in it, and the first to drink it all was the winner. The kids had to work pretty hard, since these were the low-flow nipples that give maybe a drop at a time. Here's a photo of Auna, Rielee and Parker working on their bottles. The eventual winner was Brock, with Rielee and Ainsley next.

The final event was male vs. female, in a game of charades (or drawing). The phrases to be guessed had words beginning with B and W, in honor of Baby Woodruff. The women would win this challenge, which meant Heather won some coupons for things like "One night without getting up" or "One day without changing diapers" ... lucky me.

After cake and ice cream, Heather and I opened up the presents for BW. We got lots of help from Rieliee, who loves opening presents. Everything that was given was awesome, and we are grateful for this family's generosity. Thanks to all for coming to the party ... we appreciate you and your support, and we look forward to the day when Baby Woodruff gets to meet all of you!

Guest Doctor

It was time for another check-up for Heather and Baby Woodruff. The regular OBGYN, Dr. Zawacki, wasn't available, so this time she saw Dr. Tuganis.

The doctor measured Heather's tummy at 33 inches. When she tried to measure baby's heartbeat, she struggled to keep up with little BW's location. She said that the baby was "doing gymnastics!" She eventually got the heartrate at 130 bpm. Then, she checked for the position of the baby. After a pretty thorough search, she said that based on feeling something hard down low, that the baby was in the head-down position. (That would explain why Heather and I felt something hard up high in her tummy ... it was little BW's bum! Plus, that accounted for the heaviness that Heather was feeling down low, and her difficulty walking lately.)

Heather was very happy to hear about BW's position. Her next scheduled appointment will be in 2 weeks.

Contraction

Yesterday while cooking up lunch, Heather doubled over. She was holding her tummy and had an "owwww?!" expression on her face. We got her into a chair, and after a few more moments, the pain subsided a bit. She said that her upper stomach muscles had tightened up, like cramps. The whole episode lasted about 20 seconds.

We guessed that this was a Braxton-Hicks contraction, based on what other women had told Heather, and what the pregnancy books described. Even though this wasn't the real thing, talk about a jolt of adrenaline for daddy! I was ready to race mommy and little BW to the hospital.

Hello 2008!

Happy New Year! It's now 2008, The Year of Baby Woodruff, as we like to say. And little (or maybe we should say BIG) BW rang it in at midnight with lots of kicks, punches and rolls. All that activity might have been caused by the dark chocolate peppermint shake from Coldstone Creamery that Heather drank on the way home.

The movements are strong enough now that we can see all of it really easily ... Heather's belly shifts around, with little bumps and ripples showing up here and there. It's just a beehive of activity in her tummy ... BW's own little pre-natal playground!