The Garguile Family: 38 weeks

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Lots to report this week. I started my maternity leave officially on Saturday but my last day was Thursday. There is one little baby I'm still planning to deliver, assuming I haven't popped myself first, but after that I'm officially done with delivering babies with the exception of my own for at least 2 more months. So far I've kept busy pretty easily. I had a conference up in Sacramento on Monday and Tuesday, on electronic fetal monitoring (which I won't have). G's blanket got finished up thanks to my conference, I usually knit to keep my mind from wondering. The yarn is actually an organic cotton I got with a gift card from Tim and Mary back before Dominic and I got married. I had always planned on making a blanket but just never got around to it. When I found out we were pregnant I figured this was the perfect opportunity. The colors remind me of a teddy bear and it's crazy soft. The biggest fan so far is miss eclair!

Last weekend we did the belly cast. It was pretty rough and I wanted to touch up a few areas, since it's just Dominic and I and I couldn't see below the belly or the boobs those areas were a little rough. I did the touch ups this week and sanding should start today. I really want to get it painted more than just a single color, although I am certainly not really artistically inclined when it comes to drawing or painting so we'll have to see what I come up with. I've seen them done with mosaics, and really considered that, but that seems like it would make the cast heavy. At least it will be smooth and hung before G's arrival.

A few more details of the delivery nature were ironed out too. We have talked for a while about what to do with the placenta. Being a midwife I have a terrible time just throwing out the placenta. Most people hardly want to SEE the placenta, but understanding the job that organ does, it BUILDS YOUR BABY PEOPLE, I could NEVER just toss it out. At the same time I'm not really a fan of just keeping something around for posterity, especially with our limited freezer space. That left us with planting it or consuming it. As much as I appreciate placentas I'm not about to just carve it up and eat it, but there is a nifty little trick where you dehydrate it and turn it into pills. The nutrients in the placenta are still there but you just don't feel like you're eating it, only swallowing a pill. I'm sure many people are still going 'there is NO WAY' but this is what we've decided to do. Before we send the placenta off to a local lady to turn it into capsules we're going to do a placenta print or two. I just picked up the paper and ink today and I'm thrilled to see the results. This means G will have at least 2 things in the room from before he/she was born (the belly cast and the print) the print ends up looking like a tree and often times people have no idea what the 'stamp' actually was that made the print. Remember I did this for a patient and blogged about it here. I got a little bit bigger paper and the ink is green instead of black so it will resemble more of a tree...hope Andrea and Dominic can pull it off. Here are a few examples:

Then today I decided to add another project to the list..you know, to keep me busy! I had seen on the bump.com that some of the ladies had made closet dividers that were SOOO much cuter than those you can buy. Crazy as it sounds, I hadn't purchased those yet and they were on the list of things to pick up if we don't get them at our last shower on Monday. I decided instead on making them today! They really weren't hard to do, directions are here, and they aren't perfect but unless you're critiquing them they're wonderful. This first set isn't quite complete, I had to run out for another set of numbers, but the second is.