36 Weeks

I am officially, by all accounts, 36 weeks along today. It's a random day, but it means the risks of complications are so low that no doctor (that I know, anyway) would bat an eye at delivering me from here on out. So yay for that!

I had another check up with my midwife yesterday. This little girl must be as strong willed as her sisters because I'm 4cm and almost completely effaced, but she's hanging out and staying in there until SHE'S ready (just like they did). Everything else looked really good. I didn't gain any weight this week, but I've been gaining 2.5 pounds a week for several months and it's not unusual to stop gaining or even lose a little at the end of pregnancy. My blood pressure's still my non-pregnant normal, so that's good.

And the name game continues. We finally settled on a middle name, only to come up with another possible first name. So now we're trying to decide between our original first name and the new first name. It's beginning to look like even we won't know her name until she's born.

Still Pregnant (Go Me!)

Baby girl #3 is still hanging out just where she belongs for now. We've gotten to the point where the odds are hugely in our favor that she'll be fine whenever she's born, but obviously, every extra day is a bonus. I've worked with enough babies to truly understand that a near term baby is not a full term baby. Little things like being sleepier and skinnier and having a little more trouble with their suck/swallow/breathe organization can add up. Being more susceptible to infection (especially respiratory infections) and being born in cold and flu season doesn't help either. So we've relaxed a lot because we're likely past the point of a NICU stay, but we're still trying our best to get her to stay put for now.

Earlier this week, I had my appointment with my midwife and also her back-up doctor. Aside from having every early labor sign in the book, things look really good. I had the doctor confirm that she really is a she (one of the first things I said after Sedona was born was, "is she still a girl???" so I thought I'd go ahead and get that question out of the way now). She also looks like she's a good size for her age.

Not long ago, I had a very talented friend offer to take some pictures for us before I had the baby. Since the baby could be coming any day now, we decided to stop putting it off and get the pictures done a few days ago. Didn't she do a wonderful job?!?

Day by Day

My friends and family held a little celebration in honor of baby girl yesterday. They showered us with diapers and wipes and a carseat! So it seems only fitting to update on how things are going. I'm a little over 34 weeks now. I need to make it to 36 weeks (anything before that and the doctors try to stop labor), so I have to last another week and a half. I won't lie, I feel a bit like a ticking time bomb. Even though it's unusual overall (less than 10%), my labors with both of the girls started with my water breaking just like in the movies (random tidbit...it sounds like a carrot snapping), so anytime my back or hip pops I hold my breath for a second and wonder if that was THE pop.

My blood pressure is still good, which is good for her--high blood pressure can interfere with how well the placenta works. Her heart rate is holding steady and she's growing well. She's still head down, but has flipped over to lay on my right side (optimal positioning before delivery is for the baby to be on mom's left side). That actually might be a good thing for now, because her being in a less than optimal position makes it a little harder for me to dilate. Birthing malpositioned babies isn't fun (as I learned with Sedona), but I'll take that over delivering too early. Baby has dropped down already. It actually feels like she moves lower every 2 or 3 days.

The contractions have definitely started up though. Sometimes 3 or 4 minutes apart for hours at a time (but not getting closer together or longer). I'm about 2-3cm and 70% effaced, which is pretty on track with where I was with the girls at this point. I suspect I'll have another fast labor because of that (well, depending on when you start counting from...I tend to labor an hour at a time for weeks before actual delivery). I have an herbal medicine I take to stop contractions (I'm normally very skeptical of herbal treatments, but it worked great with Sedona and it's worked great this time without the side effects of the more traditional medicines). I also take extra calcium and magnesium each day now and that's calmed down the contractions.

So we're in a holding pattern. She could come any time now, but every extra day is a bonus and it'd be really great if I could last until 36 weeks. Maybe we'll have a Halloween baby.

Oh, and two of you have accurately guessed her name. I lied and told you that you were wrong though (which I said I would do, so I'm not sure why everyone keeps guessing!). Also, we changed Sierra's name (she was going to be Dakota) right before she was born, so who knows if we'll really stick with this name or not anyway ;-)

Teaching Money Management

Josh and I choose to follow a budgeting system very similar to what is laid out in the book America's Cheapest Family. I keep the budget on paper because we used a computer based system for years and it just wasn't tangible enough for me to keep me accountable. I briefly explained the system back when I first implemented it.

Sierra knows we have a budget book and has asked me questions about it and I've explained the basic idea to her. She's been dying to have a budget book of her own, but didn't really have any significant amount of money to apply a budget to.

Lately though, she's had a birthday, and the Tooth Fairy, and she and I have also been going to the medical school here in town on a regular basis to be "standardized patients" (we pretend to have a certain ailment and the med students practice their examination and diagnostic skills on us). The standardized patient thing in particular pays quite well. I keep some of the money because I'm the one who really has an involved story to memorize and act up, but if she's the actual patient (which pays more anyway since two of us are "working"), I give her part of the money. All of this has added up to quite a substantial sum in the world of a six year old and I decided it was time to put an end to the "can we go to the store so I can buy something?!?" and help her set up her own budget.

The first thing we did was a fairly quick explanation of percentages (by drawing a circle and showing her what 100%, 50%, 25%, 20%, 10% and 5% are). Then I dictated that she has to put money in savings first and since she is young and doesn't HAVE to buy anything herself, 50% of what she gets will go into savings.

From there, she got to take over. I explained to her what types of categories we have in our budget and she thought about what categories she wanted. She came up with: toys; candy/food; vacation souvenirs; books/learning; crafts/art.

Next I asked her what category was most important to her and which was next important, until we had prioritized the list.

Finally, we split the remaining 50% between the categories she had picked depending on how important the category was to her and how expensive things in that category are.

The final product was the decision that money she gets will be split as follows:
Savings 50%
Books/Learning 20% (p.s. how awesome is it that I have a 6 year old that not only came up with this category on her own, but also made it her number one priority with no input whatsoever from anyone else?!?)
Candy/Food 5%
Crafts/Art 5%
Toys 10%
Vacation Souvenirs 10%

There are some changes I would like to make, but I'd rather focus on her being excited about making and following a plan for her money instead of trying to push too much on her right from the beginning, so aside from the savings thing, I left all the choices up to her this time.