32 Weeks (and 2,200 miles)

We (and by that I mean our marriage) managed to survive 35 hours in the car together, covering some 2,200 miles in a mere eight days. Is it too bold to say... If we can make it through I-95 holiday traffic, we can make it through anything. Call me naive, but I just don't see any forthcoming tests that might challenge us with discomfort, sleeplessness, confinement, and stress any more than that trip. Now, on to the child scheduled to come screaming from Kate's womb in February...

According to the Rex Hospital weekly email, here's the update on Baby Girl's development:

• She's approximately 16 to 18 inches in length and weighs 4 to 5 pounds.
• She is beginning to develop her own immunity to mild infections. If she were born now, she could survive outside the womb and resist some disease.
• Her appearance is similar to that at birth, but she will fill out more in the next few weeks.
• She may be positioning for birth with her head turned down toward the pelvis.

Dryden (Extended) Family Christmas

Kate got a belly rub from each niece and nephew at the Dryden Family Christmas in Newnan, Georgia. So, Baby Girl has met all of her cousins. 20 in all! (21 if you count Collin Hansen, just 6 weeks behind her in the womb.) She was compliant, as we hoped, and kicked away to the squealish delight of her aunts, girl cousins, and father.

This video gives a little sense of the organized chaos that defines Dryden get togethers. A little later in the afternoon, the adults swapped reading material in our second annual book exchange. To his forever amusement, Paul is now the proud owner of Who Cut the Cheese: A Cultural History of the Fart.

Thanks to Julie and Brandon for being gracious hosts.

Christmas Morn

Baby Girl started kicking at 5.30 this morning and didn't let up until it was clear her parents were awake and giving her their full attention. This does not bode well for our idyllic image of leisurely Christmas morns (a la the McKnight household). By some stroke of misfortune, this child seems to have those Dryden genes that prevent her from falling asleep on Christmas Eve and that waken her at ungodly hours on Santa Claus day.

Flash forward five years...Paul & Kate haven't grabbed a decent night's sleep since February 2009 and are looking forward to waking up slowly on Christmas Day. But the Devil-in-Dryden gene (that's loosed exclusively on Christmas morn, I hope) switches on at 4.30 am. She bounds into our bedroom and starts whispering. Wake up. That doesn't work. She starts poking gently. Too early for that to work. So she goes straight to four-alarm waling: Time to open presents! 

If she has the true Devil-in-Dryden gene, she persists until the only choices we have involve surrender or a deed that would bring Child Services to our home.

This is the Dryden way. My siblings and I did it to my parents, as they did to theirs, and so on and so on ad infinium. I suspect Baby Girl served notice this morning that the sins of the children shall be revisited upon them as parents. Sorry Kate!

Christmas Eve

Twas the night before Christmas, and we bundled up to walk through the dripping remains of the Great '08 Lock Haven ice storm to attend Eve service at the Great Island Presbyterian Church. Yet again, Kate donated her belly for communal benefit as churchgoers of all type rubbed and patted at Baby Girl's shell.

This is Paul's fourth Christmas in Lock Haven, and he's beginning to get the flow of the traditions. The only ones left...partaking of the "Christmas Story" marathon on TBS, and waking slowly in the morning for leisurely breakfast and utterly civilized gift unwrapping. Ah, Baby Girl, your parents had vastly different Christmas morning experiences growing up!

McKnight Camp: Brrrrrr....

Negative four degrees! That doesn't account for wind chill or the fact that these Drydens have developed decidedly Southern blood. These temperatures are nearly incomprehensible to Paul, and he has begun questioning the sanity of Pennsylvania living.

That being said, it's beautiful up here and so very peaceful. Walks in the brisk air are refreshing (when no skin is bared to the wind and the warmth of a fireplace greets your return). We always value our trips here, and we look forward to introducing Baby Girl to Camp next summer.

Baby Girl's 1st Snow (Prenatal)

At the McKnight Camp in Punxie, Pennsylvania.

31 Weeks

We made the long trip from Raleigh to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania yesterday. Kate shows off her festiveness with this 31 week belly shot. We're chillin' with the McKnights through Christmas.

From What to Expect:

This week your baby may be anywhere between 17 to 19 inches in length and weigh more than four and a half pounds. At this stage in fetal development, your baby could grow a full inch more this week alone — especially if he or she has been on the shorter side. Weight gain can range from a third more growth to a full doubling before the big debut.

The level of amniotic fluid in your uterus has reached its maximum at 31 weeks pregnant, making it likely that you have more baby than fluid now. That's one reason why you're probably feeling lots of nudges and pushes — there's less liquid to cushion the blows. (Of course that means you're even closer to your baby now!)

If your uterine walls had eyes, here's what you'd see: your fetus acting more and more like a baby, with his or her eyes closing during sleep and opening while awake. And because those uterine walls are becoming thinner, more light penetrates the womb, helping your baby differentiate between day and night.

And good news! Your baby has reached an important milestone about now: The development of his or her own immune system that (along with antibodies from you) will be able to provide protection from mild infections.

OB Visit

The gynechiatrist visits are now every two weeks through this last stretch of the pregnancy. Dr. Richardson measured Kate's belly at 31 cm, and we heard Baby Girl's heart humming at 150 beats per minute. All looks good, and Kate excels at filling a sample cup on the shortest demand.  

Turns out Dr. Richardson is only a week behind us in her pregnancy.  Some how I doubt she'll be the physician wearing the catcher's mitt when Baby Girl makes her grand entrance into the delivery room.  The good news though...she is -- like us -- delivering at Rex Hospital and will use whatever OB happens to be on call when she goes into labor. Yes, it would have been disconcerting were she to go to WakeMed or insist on using a gynechiatrist not available to us.  This chef eats at her own restaurant. 

30 Weeks

We're getting oh-so-close to single-digit weeks in our count down, and there are mental preparations in the making.

At the GMH Christmas party, Deborah told us the story of birthing her second child in Holland. She went into labor, the doctor told her there was plenty of time, but she got in the car for the hospital anyway.  Half-way there, she told her husband to pull over...it's time!  Within minutes she had given birth from the passenger's seat of her Saab, pulled over on the Dutch thruway.

Kate is listening much more intently to these sort of stories now. She has since estimated the    

driving time to Rex Hospital from virtually any location she might reasonably find herself over the next two months, and she's beginning to quiz Paul to make sure he knows, too.  For example, she believes it's 15 minutes to Rex from our home in good traffic. But you better bake in an extra 5 minutes during rush hour.  From the office, it's only 6 minutes.  From Paul's office, it's 12 minutes.  Et cetera.

There's no way Kate will allow her Baby Girl to enter this world in the front seat of a grimy Mitsubishi on the side of I-440!  Nor the backseat of a Greyhound Bus.

According to the weekly emails from Rex Hospital ...

• Baby Girl is approximately 15 to 16 inches (head to toe) and weighs 3 to 4 pounds.
• She can use all five of her senses: hearing sounds; seeing bright lights in the womb; and tasting, touching, and even smelling the amniotic fluid surrounding her.
• Her toenails have grown and are completely formed. 

Baby Shower in Concord

Our friends threw a shower, and Baby Girl came away with some killer loot. Kate Morrison hosted and so many girlfriends came in from Charlotte, Columbia, Raleigh, Louisville, Chicago...it was a wonderful weekend topped off that evening by watching the Davidson Wildcats beat UT-Chattanooga 100 to 95 in Belk Arena.

29 Weeks

Kate is feeling very well, and we're enjoying feeling Baby Girl kick more and more. Kate has started feeling Braxton Hicks contractions (though Paul still thinks these are Baby Girl's head, butt, elbow, etc.).  According to What to Expect...

As far as growth goes, your baby's still on a roll, measuring an impressive 18 inches and weighing in at more than three pounds. At 29 weeks pregnant, you can still expect your baby to gain at least three to five pounds, possibly more, before you two meet.
 
Your baby's brain is working overtime these days, developing faster than ever.   Connections between individual nerve cells are growing at a frenetic clip, and your baby can now perceive information from all five senses. Sure, your baby can't smell anything right now, but that's only because he or she is still submerged in amniotic fluid and needs to be breathing air to get a whiff of anything. Lucky for you — and your baby — yours will be one of the very first scents your baby breathes in, a scent that will quickly become his or her very favorite.

So what's your little dove doing all day while you're busy feathering your nest for his or her arrival? Making faces, hiccupping, swallowing, breathing, pedaling with little hands and feet along your uterine wall, and even sucking his or her thumb. In fact, some babies suck their thumbs so vigorously while in the womb that they're born with a callus on their thumb (what a little sucker!).

MJ(M)'s Wedding -- Lake Junaluska, NC

We got up at 4 am to make the drive from Kiawah Island to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina to celebrate Melissa Jakeman's marriage to Ted Mitchell. The ceremony and all the activities were a perfect reflection of Melissa's personality, and we enjoyed sharing the moment with all her friends and family.  It was also a great chance to catch up with some old friends from Auburn High School, like Kimmie Schmidt and Ryan Duncan.

Kiawah Island

Our annual trek to Kiawah Island to run the half-marathon, joining George & Katie and Michael & Beth. This was Kate's first time sitting out in seven years, so she and Katie tended to 3-month old Emma while Paul and George sweated out the 13-miler. Beth also did the half, but Michael (insane man that he is) turned right to tack another 13 mile loop when every half-witted runner knew to turn left and cross the finish line. He's the stud of the weekend, and thus the well-deserved trophy hoisted on his shoulder.

A little video of the weekend (sorry about the jerky motion on Google Video)...

Corn Syrup Redux

Kate was kind enough to record her syrup binge for Paul's entertainment. Her face tells the full story. Enjoy this important (and for some of us, entertaining) milestone in development of Baby Girl...

The Dreaded Corn Syrup Drink

Kate goes in to see the gynechiatrist tomorrow for the gestational diabetes test.  Part of the joy is drinking this concoction beforehand.  She's been looking forward to it for two weeks now.  Mmmm...good.  Paul hates being in Dallas and missing the entertainment of watching Kate throw back some heavy duty sugar water.