Happy birthday, Sophia!

The big day has arrived - Sophia Emily Broadland (Sophie for short) was born precisely on her due date, March 28, 2007 at 6:52pm. She was 9 lbs, 1 oz, and has a fair bit of dark hair. Holly did a great job with the delivery, and we were well supported by one of our midwives, our two midwives-in-training, our doula, and Sophie's grandma, Star. (And, of course, by everyone who has been wishing us well!) We'll write more later, but for now, I can't think what else I should mention. Holly and Sophie are both doing fine, and here's a (fuzzy) picture of the newest Broadland!

Update on Slipper

Things continue to progress nicely. All signs point to the baby being healthy, Holly continues to get rounder and more prone to waddling, and the kicks have started to settle down into a more sedate rolling/stretching kind of motion. Very good. At the last midwives' appointment, I was able to hear Slipper's heartbeat via a wooden thingamawhatsis that might be called a fetuscope. No electronic gadgetry required! Hooray! Also, the midwives said that Slipper has his/her head down now, which is a good thing, as I understand things. As Slipper gets bigger, Slipper's accomodations get smaller, so turning around is less and less of an option, so the sooner we can get the baby pointed the right direction, the better.

I just took a few moments out from writing this to go watch Slipper's stretching antics. And now it looks like Slipper has the hiccups - possibly because I'm playing the Peter Gunn theme, and Slipper got so excited that hiccups were the result. This kid gets the hiccups fairly often - takes after Mommy, I guess.

That's all for now. Stay tuned!

Deep thoughts on the reality of babies

Tonight we went to a "Meet the Midwives" night at our clinic. The goal was to get to know the two new midwives who will be joining our team in the new year. However, one wasn't able to make it and the other was talking with clients, so it turned into a "Meet the Other People in the Waiting Room" night. This was interesting, as several of the people were little 4-6 week old babies. Real, live babies. Wow. They're incredible!

I was a little overwhelmed by how real those babies were. No longer bumps that kick, these were very small people. I know in my mind that we'll have one of them in the new year, but it doesn't always compute. Even when my baby is kicking me multiple times daily and giving ample proof of its existence, I can't fully comprehend this idea. Even if I don't know what I'm getting in to, I'm looking forward to the challenge of becoming a mother!

Saw my first kick!

We had an appointment with the midwives today. All went well and they let us listen to the baby's heartbeat again (140 bpm). While the midwife was moving the Doppler thingy around (yes, Doppler thingy is the technical term), the baby kicked really hard and I could see my belly jump! This kid just gets stronger and stronger.

We booked our next appointment for when I'm at 28 weeks. That seems like it must be really far away, but it's only six weeks in the future. I have a feeling the next four months will fly by and I'll be a mom before you know it!