Logan is doing great (as far as I can tell). I've been able to feel more movement that I can clearly attribute to his flailing limbs. Usually, it's a flip-floppy pancake type of feeling in one particular spot to the right of my belly button in which he loves to hang out. More recently, he's also discovered he has the ability to karate chop my bladder. That's a fun time, let me tell you. There's nothing like the intense sudden sensation that you're going to pee your pants right.this.second. only for it to (slightly) go away just as quickly as it came.
We (meaning I) started our registry at Target. The BFF and I went together one night and tackled the task. We (meaning The BFF and I) still have to get out to BRU to start that registry. Baby registries are ten million times harder than wedding registries, and the wedding registry almost caused a non-wedding. The problem with the baby registries is many-fold. (Prep for rant).
{1} Everything is about the safety of your child. Insert parent guilt making you feel like you have to research every. single. thing. you put on your registry. Is it BPA free? Does it meet CPSA guidelines? Does it pose a choking/smothering/intoxication/poison risk? Is it made well? Has it been recalled? Has any item similar to it been recalled? Is there a chance that it or any item similar to it will be recalled? OH. EM. GEE. And don't even try consumer reviews for answers. One set of amazon.com reviews for a travel system had the following two reviews one after the other: "Loved the carseat, hated the stroller!" and "Loved the stroller, hated the carseat!" Well, thank you for being no help at all! What all that boils down to is that every baby is different, every car is different, every set of parental circumstances is different, and no one else's review is going to help you decide what's right for you at all. It's absolutely infuriating!
{2} (After that rant, you forgot that I was working on a list, didn't you? lol) The internet is, for once, completely unhelpful. Yes, it's nice to be able to register and find stuff online, BUT. Babies R Us and Target both have a zillion choices for car seats, strollers, playpens, cribs, you name it. There are a zillion choices for each one, in a zillion price points. Online. Available in stores? 3 Travel systems under $200. 2 Cribs under $250. 5 Play yards, only one in a price that I would even consider asking someone to pay. What good is having a registry for friends and family to buy off of if you have to force them to buy stuff online, pay for shipping, hope it ships on time, hope it's delivered, hope it's in good condition, and hope the product is what you actually paid for? I don't know about you, but to me, half the fun of buying someone a present is actually shopping for it. Holding it in my hands, making sure it's of good quality, comparing it with other items within eye sight. You can't do that on the internet. (Don't get me wrong interwebs, I still love you. My life would be incomplete without Facebook. I swear.)
{3} You're buying things for someone you don't even know. How am I supposed to know whether my baby will be newborn-sized or 3-month-sized when he comes out? (Please be newborn-sized, Logan! Mommy will appreciate it more than you'll ever know!) How am I supposed to know whether he'll like the Breastflow bottles, or the Avent bottles, or the Dr. Brown's bottles? How am I supposed to know if Pampers or Huggies or Luvs will work best for him? How am I supposed to know if he'll prefer a swing or a bouncer? I feel completely inadequate and I'm not even his mom yet! Ugh.
End registry rant. I promise.
I had my 6-month check-up Monday, with yet another doctor. At least this doctor was okay, but I made sure when I made my 7 month appointment to get back with Dr. H., who I haven't seen in months.
At Monday's appointment, Logan's heartbeat was nice and strong - in the 150's again, and sounding like a freight train. Everything seems to be going along quite smoothly, but not smoothly enough for the doctor to let me make it out of JUST ONE appointment without being ordered a battery of tests. Wanna hear the latest?
- Fetal Echocardiogram ASAP
- Maternal Echocardiogram
- Eye Exam
- Starting at 24 Weeks: Full Ultrasound with consult every 4 weeks until delivery.
- Starting at 28 Weeks: Twice weekly Non-Stress Tests and once weekly Amniotic Fluid Indexes every week until delivery.
On a good note, though, the doctor literally guaranteed me that Logan will join our family before the new year. She even wrote it in my chart in big letters - "MUST DELIVER IN 2010." The earliest they would deliver him would be at 37 weeks, and that would require an amniocentesis (which I'm not thrilled about) and would require my blood pressure and blood sugars to be all out of whack, but at least we know that I won't be going overdue. So basically, we can pinpoint his arrival to any day between December 11th and December 31st. Any guesses?
This made me laugh! :) My husband and I did our registry back at like 20-ish weeks, I think? I wanted to make it a good experience for him so I tried to do as much research beforehand as possible, too, so I wouldn't be a deer in headlights when we got there. You're absolutely right about the consumer reviews--GOSH! Some were sliiiightly helpful, I must admit, but for the most part I asked my SIL who has a 22 month old, and a friend who was due to have a baby. The problem is that there's just SO MANY options out there! But I told myself that when we got to BRU we'd make it quick and painless. I mean, I could always go home and change it up online right??! So we were out in two hours which I think was a huge defeat! :) The only thing that really caught me off-guard and I had no idea about choosing were the bottles and breast pump. I just picked out whatever while I was there, did more research and asking around when I got home, and adjusted it later online. We set up a registry online at Target, but just FYI I have heard they're terrible about returning things. So I ended up not putting anything on it. I also registered on Amazon, even though I agree... I like actually going to the store and picking stuff out. That's half the fun! Glad you got it out of the way this early though. It sure makes things a lot easier :) Have a wonderful rest of the week!
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