34 weeks and counting...

Two weeks closer to meeting little Taylor, and I am continuing to grow. :)

Much as changed since the last posting - nothing with the status of the little one, but just some administrative things. Jeff and I, after much discussion, have decided to have the baby at an off-post hospital in Korea instead of the one on post. With Jeff's company's insurance able to cover us at any off-post hospital here, I think it will be to our benefit to take advantage of the much more extensive OB maternity care in a larger Korean hospital instead of going with the combat support hospital with limited staffing and delivery rooms. Now the only real concern is what time of day (or night) I go into labor...:) Traffic in Korea can be quite...hideous. ;) The hospital is only about 2.5 miles away, but in Seoul traffic, it can probably take about 45 minutes to an hour to get there! Yikes! We're just going to hope that little Taylor gives us enough heads up before she decides to come into the world...or maybe she will just come join us in the midst of the night where there will be very little to no traffic...:) Who knows...

Anyhow, we went to our first visit to the new hospital on Monday afternoon, and they were very friendly and the one new thing we learned while we were there was the approximate weight of the baby now...the doc said she was about 2.2 to 2.3 kgs according to her size right now, which translates to almost 5 pounds already! I was a little shocked, but the doc said that's very normal and healthy...so I guess I'm on track. I only saw the doc for about 5 minutes, and pretty much all he told us was that everything was normal and things looked good - so that was a good thing. When the tech tried to get the heartbeat of little Taylor, though, she had the hiccups (again!) so she wasn't able to get an accurate reading. It was hilarious to see her on the sonogram hiccupping in there...my poor little baby...

As each day passes and my belly gets larger and larger, I have found that there are things I love and find difficult about being so pregnant:

1. I love being pregnant.
2. I love my ever-growing heap of a belly - it just looks so beautiful (to me), even if it looks like it's going to pop any day now and my bellybutton is flat.
3. I'm happy I can't see my gigantic elephant legs, thanks to my lovely belly, but it is a bit upsetting that they now rub together in places I never imagined they ever would. How embarrassing.
4. The extra weight is starting to take a toll on the bottoms of my feet, but thankfully, I am not swelling with water retention like I expected. Phew.
5. The weight, also, is taking a toll on my back, but not as bad as I expected either. I can still walk around freely and get up and lie down without anyone pushing me or rolling me over...hehe. I can also still put on my own socks and shoes, although it does entice some grunts out of me.
6. I love the excitement building between Jeff and me about meeting little Taylor in the next few short weeks! I know we have at least six more weeks to go, but it's just so close now! I love how much we can see and feel her move inside of me and how eager it seems for her to interact with us already!
7. I simply love being pregnant with Taylor and my loving husband Jeff. :)

Love,
Rosa

Eight weeks left...

In just a short eight more weeks, little Taylor is due to enter this world!

I had my 32 week appointment on Monday and it went very well. The doc said Taylor was in the head-down position and prepared to come out, and that she is a good size - not too large, not too small. This was a bit reassuring because I was a little concerned that she was going to be a very large baby like my brother and me. Who knows what will happen in the next eight weeks, but if I stay on track, she should be relatively on time and hopefully a good size. My weight is still gradually going up - about a pound a week. Not sure if this trend will continue, but I'm not going to worry myself about it. I'm hopeful that it will all come off after Taylor joins us. The growing belly is definitely becoming more cumbersome, though...it's getting a little more difficult to sleep at night. I think it's harder for me to fall asleep than anything, but once I'm asleep, I sleep OK. I do wake up, though, everytime I try to roll over...:)

Otherwise, things are going well - very minimal swelling in my feet at the end of the day, and I still have energy to move around, walk around, exercise. My lower back is sore by the end of the day, but not bad enough to immobilize me. Thank goodness. I'm still waiting for that morning when I wake up and my belly is just enormous...it's still growing pretty gradually now, so I can't really notice the difference...

Enough, enough! Hope everyone's new year is getting off to a great start!

Love,
Rosa and Jeff