Georgia's Here!

It has certainly been a week of firsts at the Francis household. On November 9, 2007at 5:37 p.m., Georgia Lea (pronounced Lee/means meadow)Francis arrived. She weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and I feel so blessed. Other than some initial jaundice issues, Georgia is doing well. I can't believe how much she has grown in just 10 days! As of last Wednesday she had gained all but 7oz of her birth weight back. I have no doubt that at her appointment this Wednesday she will be 8lbs plus. Another Georgia first was her bath. She tolerated the sponge bath pretty well. Her umbilical cord has fallen off so she can now have real baths.

Brett had a first too. He went to his first Middle School dance. It was 80's themed. Making me feel really old, but I did have good fashion advice. He had his hair died blue (mine was purple and pink in the 80's), bought some checkered Vans (they are back in style) and wore two polo shirts with the collars up. He looked great.

Here are a couple of pictures until I figure the slideshow bit out.

Baby is ready to eat now. Have to run.

Friday is the Day

We are no longer on stand-by. HOORAY! My induction has been officially scheduled for Friday, November 9th at 7:00 a.m. I am very excited and nervous. I am ready to meet this baby and to sleep on my back. Have to watch those wrinkles you know. I went to the doctor's today for my last weekly check up. Everything is good to go. I have asked Lorna to guest blog for me while I am in the hospital. Both Lorna and Marnie will be in the delivery room with me. It should be very entertaining. Wish me luck!

On Labor & Delivery Stand By

So, it is bad enough to fly stand by. But, I believe that being on stand by for a room in labor and delivery is worse. On Wednesday, my doctor and I decided that I should be induced on November 9th given that Baby G is getting pretty big. Apparently, when the nurse called to schedule me, they were already booked so I was placed on 1st stand by. Right now, I don't really know what this means. Are they going to call me if a bed opens? Am I scheduled for Monday if Friday stays full? I think these are all good questions - yet no answers at this time. I do know if one of the women scheduled for induction on the 9th goes into labor on their own this week, I get the spot. I will keep y'all posted.

Earl Earns His Keep

Earl is the Siamese cat that my son and I adopted last February. He is a fabulous pet and normally earns his keep by just being himself. He has, however, displayed a new talent that catapults him to the top of the "cannot do without" list. Earl is a camel cricket hunter. For those of you in Virgina, you probably are familiar with the camel cricket. They do not chirp like normal crickets and they grow to enourmous sizes for supposedly small "nuisance" insects (see photo). The ones that make it into our house are usually too large to squish. When I first moved here, I would actually catch them and release them back into the wild. I then began to suspect they were bringing friends back into the house with them as the number of camel cricket visitors were growing exponentially. I finally ended up giving them swimming lessons in the toilet. The dogs never paid any attention to the crickets' Superman size leaps across the floor. Earl, on the other hand, has taken on the task of not only killing the crickets, but dismembering them. You will find a body here, leg over there. Cleaning up the carcasses is now the one time I do not mind bending to pick up something up off the floor at this point in my pregnancy.

Baby G Update and Finally Some Pictures

I hadn't realized the length between postings. I will try to at least post once a week. Today, I had my 36 week check up. I can't believe it is already 36 weeks. I had an ultrasound. Jennifer joined me for the viewing. Baby G is weighing in at 6 lbs and 9 oz. I was thinking that sounded rather large for a baby at this stage, but it turns out she is in the 58%, so not too big. We also found out that she has hair!! Hooray. I love wild baby hair and can't wait to see hers. On the Mom side, everything is good. My blood pressure, weight, etc. is all within the normal range.

Brett is traveling to Wichita Falls this evening for his grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary party. He is very excited. Me -- not too excited. The mothering hormones are running high. I told him that I wasn't too sure about him going; he basically told me to get over it.

Becky is coming to visit on Friday. This will be her first visit to my house in VA. It will be fun to see her. I am going to pick her up in Charlottesville. The foliage should be at its prime.

I have attached photos of me taken a couple of weeks ago and finally, the photos from the cry baby bead ceremony. Okay, I typed this last sentence prior to trying to download the pictures. At the moment, you get two pictures of the shower. I am going to have to call Jennifer to get tips from the pro.

The Evils of Seinfeld Reruns

Normally, I would not find anything evil in a Seinfeld rerun. I love the show. It still makes me laugh. Trouble started as I watched an episode with Brett (12 year old son). The episode involved women faking orgasms. This topic prompted the following questions from Brett: What is an orgasm? Why would women fake it? It turns out that in this household it doesn't matter how many sex ed books you have, it is better to ask Mom than to look it up yourself. It was a very interesting conversation as most are with Brett. He doesn't ask a question and then get embaressed by an answer. Nooo, it just brings to mind more questions. Now, I will admit that I have encouraged an open relationship where my son could ask me questions. Apparently, what I really wanted was to answer the basic questions and for him to learn the rest from his older friends. My friend Marnie, who would be happy to answer any question in world for her sons, has the opposite situation. They don't ask her anything.

Baby Update: I went to the doctor on Wednesday. Everthing is on track. Baby is growing; mommy is not. HOORAY!! My glucose and blood volume tests came back fine. All is well. I have the option of induction the week before I am due, but at this point have decided not to go for that. The doc did tell me that they won't let me go to 41 weeks, so it looks like Thanksgiving week will be the latest. We are now in the 10 week count down and doctor visits are every two weeks.

Slacker

Yes, that is what I am. A blog slacker. Here I had all the great intentions of updating my blog at regular intervals and already I have failed. It has been a busy two weeks. Brett returned from Colorado, escorted by my Mom. It is great to have Brett back home. I need my little bird in the nest (except now my little bird is taller than me and his voice has deepened). In addition, he has been on his best behavior. I give it another two weeks before that falls apart.

Last week my Mom provided slave labor around the house. It was fabulous. She put up drapes, put together my new glider and crib. We were also able to get in several hours of skip-bo. She and Brett worked hard. I think I am in pretty good shape for Gigi's arrival.

I had my baby shower last Saturday, hosted by Marnie and Lorna. It was wonderful. We had a nice brunch followed by what is now known as the crybaby bead ceremony. Marnie and Lorna found a chakra bead ceremony for the mother-to-be. It began with everyone writing down a wish/prayer for the mom (me) and one for the baby (Gigi). Then they picked a bead. The strand of beads had already been started and each guest added a bead and then said their wishes for both of us. We didn't even get started and most everyone was tearing up. I have all of the wishes written down and will put them in the baby book. And, I now have the strand as my focal point during labor. If anyone wants to send a bead, feel free and I will add it to the strand.

I will get the pictures posted as soon as I collect them from everyone.

Are you sure you are only having one baby?

Is never an appropriate question! Ever! As a curvy woman, I have never had any one ask me, "Are you sure that is only one arm, thigh?" But am constantly amazed at the number of women who do not hesitate to ask me if I am having more than one baby when they know I am only having one. Not to mention that being of advanced maternal age, I have had 8002 ultrasounds. Another good comment is, "that is going to be a big baby." Granted, the baby will probably be 8+ pounds as I am not small, neither is the donor. Brett would have been 10+ pounds had I gone full term. As I love chubby babies, I am okay with this. As for the questions, comments, I have decided to go with the positive side; that I look very pregnant as opposed to just fatter than before. For those of you who have not seen me lately, I will post pictures this week.

On another note. For those of you who are cat owners, I have a warning. It turns out that some cats, my Earl for instance, likes to chew on toothbrushes. I caught him in the act the other night and threw my toothbrush in the dishwasher since I didn't have any spares lying around. My only worry now is how many times did I not see him chewing on my toothbrush?

Finally...

Okay, so my intent was to start this blog in January when I decided that I wanted another baby. The fact that I had not had a date in too many months to actually mention, let alone a willing partner, was no longer a factor. I figured I had two choices, ho myself out at a bar, or be adult about the process and choose a donor. In other words, I could know the name of my partner and little else, or I could know almost everything medically, genetically, but not the name.

I knew I had been at my current job too long, when I narrowed down my donor choices, gathered medical information, essays, cryobank impressions and baby pictures, polled my friends and family for their opinions, put all the data in an excel spreadsheet and assigned various points for different criteria. My highest criteria was to match my ex-husband, and therefore, have this baby be close in physical appearance to my 12 year old son. My friends and family did the deeper dive into the medical history, personality traits and interests. In the end Donor 1915 won. (I was hoping he would).

Being of advanced maternal age, I told myself I would try it six times and whatever happened was in God's hands. I ordered my three vials as I was assured that it would never take the first time and shipping is pretty pricey. After one month of practice reading the ovulation sticks (yes, it is rocket science), I was ready the next month and called the Doc when I was sure the timing was right. I showed up for my first appointment and dove in headfirst. Twelve days later, I couldn't take the suspense anymore. Even though I was supposed to wait two weeks, I bought a pregnancy test that, to my disbelief, has made remarkable progress in 12 years. It was actually going to tell me pregnant or not pregnant. I took the test, held my breath and it was PREGNANT. I was so excited and shocked that it had worked. I don't think my Doc could believe it either. I had two more blood tests to make sure it was accurate and then my first ultrasound at seven weeks. One of my male friends has an interesting theory on why it worked the first time -- amazing things happen when you put young fish in an old pond. My due date is 11/22, Thanksgiving. And, as another male friend pointed out, from turkey baster to turkey baby.

So, here I am a SWF, 41 (in two weeks) and 25 weeks pregnant with a baby girl. It has been very exciting. I also have two vials of sperm left. If anyone has any ideas on what to do with those as they are not returnable, I am open to suggestions.