The BebeDeux Baby Pool is now closed. Congratulations to Kristin, who guessed 11/1/11, 9:00am, 6lb 3oz, 19.5″!

Tick, tock, tick, tock, the time is near! With just a few days left until my due date, I thought it would be fun to create a baby pool.

The best part? The winner — or the person whose guesses come closest to the actual date, time, weight, and length — will win a $60 gift certificate to Artisanal Premium Cheese! (Certificate expires 11/29/2011.) They are located in Manhattan, but offer overnight delivery within the United States. And you can read some great reviews about their cheeses and services via my friend Serena’s blog at Big Apple Nosh.

Entering the baby pool is easy: simply fill out the Google Docs form below!

[This poll is now closed.]

Some facts that may help out with your guesses:

• BebeDeux’s due date is 11/3/2011
• Claire was born 4 days before her due date, on 9/30/2010 at 9:35pm, weighing 6lbs 7oz, and measuring 19″ long.
• My OB guesses that I will have “another 6-pounder” (but then again, doctors have been known to be off by as much as 2lbs!)
• I have no idea how much I am currently dilated or effaced.

Good luck, and may the best guesser win!

This is the scene outside our window right now:

They say that we should be expecting up to 5 inches of snow tonight.

With just a few days to go until my due date, I am a tad bit worried, to say the least.

I know five women whose due dates were within a week of mine — three of whose due dates were after mine — and they have all given birth already.

I have also been getting a bunch of broken nails in the past couple of days. And I distinctively remember my nails becoming more brittle and fragile the week before giving birth to Claire last year. (Was this a sign of impending labor for any other ladies?)

There’s also the fact that practically all the major events in my life are accompanied by bad weather. (There were severe thunderstorms the day Claire was born too.) And looking at the 5-day forecast, I do not see any additional rain or snow headed our way.

I have also been craving spicy food like crazy…

Will BebeDeux be an October baby or a November baby? Anyone care to guess?

This morning I went in for what may be my last regular OB visit before BebeDeux arrives. Once again the exam went perfectly fine and the doctor tells me that there is no need for any worries.

I declined an internal exam because heck, I was only 1cm dilated 12 hours before I went into full-on labor with Claire, and while the doctor offered to strip my membranes if I were wildly uncomfortable, I refused because when I had my membranes stripped with Claire I went into labor within 48 hours…and I still want BebeDeux to stay in there for another week! (Exactly one more week would give us the 11/1/11 birthday I’ve been hoping for!)

Now that I am in the home stretch, my weight gain seems to have leveled off, and I have even lost a couple of pounds between last week and today (which is perfectly normal). Comparing my belly pictures from 36 weeks and today, there doesn’t seem to be too much of a difference:

I still remain VERY uncomfortable. As you can tell from the picture, BebeDeux has certainly “dropped” and has her head firmly planted right above my nether regions. This, unfortunately, adds another two symptoms to my already-mile-long “ohmigawd this pregnancy is going to KILL me” list:

• Severe tailbone pain (because she is pressed RIGHT UP against my tailbone). Now, even sitting is uncomfortable. I want to lie in bed all day.
• BebeDeux’s hiccups now hurt like heck. And she gets them at least thrice a day.

I can wait it out one more week. I will wait it out at least another week.

The good news is that I have finally made the preparations for BebeDeux’s arrival. I got all of Claire’s old clothes out of storage, washed them, and organized them in drawers. (I can’t believe how SMALL she used to be — she was too small even for premie-sized clothes, and they look like they can only fit dolls!) We purchased items such as newborn-sized diapers and nursing pads. We’ve packed a hospital bag, and I’ve even started sleeping with puppy training pads under me just in case my water breaks in the middle of the night.

I still can’t believe there’s a full-sized baby inside of me right now! (image source)

As was the case with Claire, I am not too worried about labor & delivery. I do not have a birth plan, and I trust the doctors and nurses to do what is the best for me and the baby. I was not too scared about pain the first time around, and this time I am even more relaxed — after all, I’ve been through it before, and even the doctors tell me that the pain I experienced from my appendicitis was worse than labor pain.

And if I end up having to get a c-section? No big deal. I’ll get through it.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers in this final phase of the pregnancy!

In Claire news…

She said her third word! Her first was “umma” (the Korean word for mommy), her second was “baba” (the Chinese word for daddy), and her third was…

Can you guess?

“NO!”

As in, shaking her head while proclaiming her refusal “No!”

We’re in for one heck of a ride.

She just said her fourth word hours after I published this post! Her fourth word was “Bye,” which she said while waving to her dad as he left to walk Comang.

So last night, after my freak-out, I tried my best to calm my nerves by doing what comes most natural to me at 2am: surfing the web.

And by the dim light of my laptop, I noticed something interesting about my nipples.

(I have been sleeping topless for the past month or so, because this is the most comfortable in my heavily-pregnant state. Don’t judge. )

The skin on very tips of my nipples was flaking.

So of course I had to carefully grab a piece of hanging skin and pull…and it came right off.

I then grabbed a pair of tweezers to continue peeling off every last bit of the flaking skin. For a moment, I reminded myself of Goldmember, except with humongous, pregnant boobs. (Oh, and I didn’t eat the skin.)

(image source)

I remember the bleeding, cracked nipples from breastfeeding. And I remember the skin on my nipples regenerating itself over and over again to compensate for the bleeding and cracked nipples.

As such, I can only conclude that my breasts must be readying themselves for the new baby. Because the new skin that now covers my nipples? A bit tender, but pink and new, as if to say, “I’m ready for some sucking action!”

Has this happened to any other moms? Or are my skin-shedding nipples just abnormal?

In related news, now I am craving a shot of buttery nipple. Damn you, pregnancy cravings…

Our Claire Bear has an ear infection.

She woke up several times last night, which we had attributed to teething, and this morning flat-out refused to eat. Then, she woke up from her morning nap with a fever and proceeded to just cry and cry.

Coincidentally, Claire’s 1-year pediatrician visit was scheduled for later today. I called the doctor’s office and they told us to bring her in right away.

Our pediatrician prescribed us some amoxicillin, advised us to administer ibuprofen if the fevers persist, and told us not to worry too much.
 

(image source)

Thanks to the ibuprofen, Claire’s fever is now down and she is starting to smile again. But she still refuses to eat, and although we’ve put her down for a nap so that she can get some rest, she is fussing in her crib. (We cannot hold her or carry her to sleep because she has not been able to do that since we sleep-trained her at 4.5 months.)

This is the first time that Claire has been sick. I know that I should feel lucky that our daughter has not fallen ill for the entire first year of her life, and that I shouldn’t worry too much since ear infections are one of the most common illnesses among babies. But I can’t help but be overly concerned — I have been reading up on ear infections as soon as we returned from the doctor’s office — and I have even shed a few tears, just thinking about the pain and discomfort that my daughter must be going through.

If any parents can chime in on what has helped with your children’s ear infections, I would greatly appreciate it!

Now, onto BebeDeux…

I can’t believe that there are only two weeks left until BebeDeux’s due date! There isn’t too much to write in terms of an update — I am still feeling very uncomfortable — and while at this point of the pregnancy with Claire, I couldn’t wait for her to come out, I am hoping that BebeDeux stays in there for as long as possible because I’m still scared sh*tless about becoming a mother to two children who are just 13 months apart.

I had my weekly OB visit yesterday, and it was a memorable one because my doctor asked if I would mind if a medical resident joined us for the exam. I agreed, and as the doc began the ultrasound (I get one every visit because our OB practice has a small ultrasound machine on premises), he began a little lecture:

This patient presents a special case because she was diagnosed with acute appendicitis during her second trimester and had to have an appendectomy as a result. Can you tell me what to look out for with appendicitis in pregnancy?

Additionally, the doc would point out specific things on the ultrasound, ask further questions, and so forth…heck, even I learned quite a few things!

And the entire time, I couldn’t help but be extremely fascinated, because it felt exactly like I was a patient on one of my favorite medical shows, like “Scrubs” or “Grey’s Anatomy”!

(image source)

Once again the doctors couldn’t find anything to be concerned about — I have tested negative for all possible infections and complications, my blood pressure remains normal and steady, there still remains plenty of amniotic fluid, and BebeDeux remains head-down and rear-facing.

I asked the doctor if second children usually tend to be larger than the first, because that’s what everyone’s been telling me, and he said that this is another widely-believed myth. He took BebeDeux’s measurements and estimated that she will probably weigh in the 6-7 lb range, just as Claire was at birth (she was 6 lbs 7 oz).

He offered to do an internal exam to see if I am dilated or effaced at all, but I refused. Remembering my experience with Claire — I was still only 1cm dilated and 30% effaced just 12 hours before going into labor — I know that these numbers really can’t predict much about when the baby will arrive!

One last thing about the exam: when I told the doctor that I am hoping for a 11/1/11 birthday but how J wants me to go over my due date so that BebeDeux can come on 11/11/11, he laughed and said that if I do go a week over my due date, he will schedule me to be induced on 11/11!