Avenue BabyCue

Today was the BabyCue baby shower. Thank you to all of you who attended or sent gifts. We're humbled and speechless. BabyCue will look cute in the outfits, on the blankets, and with the stuffed animals and other playthings. Big thanks goes to my colleagues Jayn and Rachel for co-hosting the shower! Jayn worked with a local baker, Yumi's, to get an Avenue Q-themed cake and Rachel made frog mints. Plus. the shower "game" was making picture frames. Very crafty.



If you prefer your slideshow as a music video, try this:

Sneak Preview

The emergency ultrasound did have a silver lining. We got to see BabyCue again:



For those of you keeping score at home, I am convinced he looks like my brother. There may be a reason for this: SmileyCue had wanted BabyCue to get UncleCue's curly locks and piercing blue eyes. Apparently, the hair and eyes were part of a package deal: we got the cheeks, nose, and lips, too. As Sesame Street's Ernie and Elmo would say, they're all part of one fine face. A face we'll see face to face in a few weeks.

Some readers and friends have asked if we have a name. We have a few names in mind. We had thought about Rickrolling you, an internet prank. We would have posted a teaser, "BabyCue's Name Revealed!" and then a link -- except the link would not have gone to BabyCue's name, but a YouTube video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You up." SmileyCue wisely talked me out of it. We figured a third of you would have had a good laugh about it, another third thought we were going with the name "Rick Astley McCue," and the other third would have emailed us, politely letting us know that the link to BabyCue's name did not go to the intended site but to a music video.

We promise that when BabyCue arrives, you'll hear it here. No RickRolling. But if you want a hint...

Watch SmileyCue Grow.

Any way you look, SmileyCue's belly has been growing.

From the left:


From the right:


From the bottom:


And up close:

pineapple upside-down cake

It was kind of fun getting an ultrasound so late in the pregnancy. We saw feet and toes and fists and the head exactly where it is supposed to be! We got some great pictures of Babycue, and are trying already to figure out who he/she looks like. Now that we are reassured about that, and we have a crib mattress (the last big thing we needed), we are in better moods.

We are also excited to welcome a new female cousin to Q's family! She joined her parents and brother on Ash Wednesday, and we look forward to meeting her. Babycue will be blessed with several cousins, both recently born or on the way, and that is something to look forward to.

My piano student got to see the ultrasound pictures, and tried to subtly ask if he and his mom can come see the baby once Babycue is on the outside. It was really cute to see his fascination with the baby pictures and seeing the baby. I told him we'll see how things go, and when I call to cancel lessons we'll talk about it.

Just bouncing around in there

Tomorrow we get a third ultrasound. Dr. B is 80% sure Babycue's head is where it should be, but he said the baby is "bouncing around" above my pelvis too much and he couldn't tell for sure. Keep in mind he's trying to do this while I have been sitting for over 30 minutes in a gown on the exam table, after drinking a big glass of chocolate milk, and my stomach is growling and the baby really is bouncing around.

So he ordered an ultrasound immediately, and told us to stay at the hospital after and he will share the results as soon as he gets them. If the head is down, no worries, but if it isn't, then we have options, which all basically end in c-section.

We could go to a specialist in Des Moines or Iowa City who will try to turn the baby, but it may not work, and they may need to do an emergency c-section. Or, we just schedule a c-section here in town at 39 weeks.

I guess we'll know more tomorrow. I hope Babycue is doing what he/she is supposed to.

Busted!!!

Apparently, when one eats most of a bag of Valentine's jelly hearts before bed, and then wakes up at 4:30 a.m. hungry and eats homemade pink frosting followed by chocolate milk, her urine has glucose in it. So, they had to prick my finger and check my blood sugar. I still hate having my finger poked. Fortunately I had the best shot nurse in the clinic, and Q distracted me by talking about soup, and it wasn't so bad. My blood sugar came back fine, by the way, but I have been cut off from candy. Unfortunately, sour candy has been my one pregnancy craving.

In other news, Babycue's head is in the right place, and I am not dilated at all. And I wish the doctor's office would get bigger cover-up sheets.

Prenatal class

By the time Dr. B mentioned taking prenatal classes, we had missed the January sessions. We couldn't have made most of them anyway, so we figured we would just take the February ones, except the next classes aren't being offered until March. That is a little late for us, so we set up a one-on-one class, which was really nice of the hospital to do.

Thursday we showed up at 5 p.m. for our class. We were sent to room 221, and started with our preadmit stuff before getting into the book the nurse gave us. The Gift of Motherhood is very thorough, and we really only spent about an hour and a half going through what the nurse thought we should definitely see or know about. We learned about old placentas, the stages of labor, some medical jargon, the various happy pills available, and breathing. Q was reassured when the nurse kept mentioning that the doctor will want to rush things but the nurses will get him out of the room and take care of things their way.

The nurse left us with a video and suggested which parts we should watch. Before we got into that though, we headed down the hall to visit a coworker of Q's who had just had a beautiful little girl on Monday.

We watched about an hour of the video, and were finished. We are glad we didn't do all four sessions or spend a whole Saturday doing the class.

Baby Name Update

Many people have asked us what we will be naming BabyCue. Here is one name that we won't be using:



(h/t to FailBlog for the image.)

How does the baby come out?

I teach music at a daycare once a week. There are seven classes from 1 year old up to preschool, and I spend a half hour with each class. (By the way, why are daycare classes named after animals?) Lately they have really taken an interest in my belly and what is inside. The babies don't seem to notice, except that they don't fit on my lap anymore, but the older kids definitely notice.

They've started asking questions. One asked me, "how does the baby come out?" I distracted that one with something else and didn't have to answer. One kids always wants to know why the baby is still inside. And last week, the best question yet was, "Why are you so fat?" After his teachers and I looked at each other with 'yeah, he really did just ask that' looks on our faces, I said something like, "oh, you've noticed that my belly is getting bigger, haven't you? Well, there is a baby inside..." and this week he kissed my belly button.

That is another thing. They all want to show affection to the unborn, either by crashing into me, or by timidly touching, kissing, or hugging my belly. I'm glad the baby hasn't jabbed anyone yet, and I'm curious what they will do when there isn't a baby inside anymore.