Week 30

How your baby's growing: Your baby's a bit more than 15 1/2 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and fills out your uterus. His eyes open and close, he's able to distinguish between light and dark, and he can even follow a light source back and forth. Once he's born, he'll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he'll respond to changes in light but will have a visual acuity of only 20/400 — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from his face. ("Normal" vision in adults is 20/20.)

How your life's changing: You may be feeling a little tired these days, especially if you're having any trouble sleeping. You might also feel clumsy, which is perfectly understandable. Not only are you heavier, your balance is off and your joints are loosened, thanks to pregnancy hormones. Those loose joints can actually cause your feet to grow a shoe size --permanently. Remember those mood swings you had earlier in pregnancy? The combination of uncomfortable symptoms and your hormones may result in a revisit of those ups and downs you felt in the first few months. -- note: don't mess with a pregnant woman.

Scott and I have had a busy week. I never even got around to writing a 29 week update and I am already 30 weeks. With ten weeks left until baby-time, we started our childbirth preparedness classes last Wednesday. The classes are once a week on Wed. night at the hospital where we will deliver in Richmond (an hour and a half away). It was our first look at the hospital and we will take a tour of the birthing center in the third week. We were relieved to find that it is a VERY nice facility with a huge fountain out front and marble floors in the lobby. The classes are pretty basic. We run through the stages of labor and watch frightening videos that bring a tear to your eye at the end. The best part was when Scott had to practice his massage techniques on my back for half an hour at the end of class. I told him he needs A LOT of practice and offered, selflessly, to let him practice on me every night. I think its fair to say that I look quite pregnant now. People walk by me and say "whoa," if that's a hint. I will try to get somebody to take a belly shot this weekend. Ross is going to be here for mother's day weekend, and I am looking forward to two days of wedding and honeymoon analysis. We plan to eat crabs, play golf and make brunch for mom on Sunday. Ross starts a new job on Monday and his training is in DC, so I think he is also catching dinner with the godparents Sunday night.

The big news of the week, however, has nothing to do with baby stuff. Scott and Dad had a big presentation before the Northumberland County Board of Supervisors for a 13-home cluster development on Hack's Creek. The property has 26 acres and 1200 feet of shoreline. Scott designed a very nice little community with modest and low-maintenance craftsman-style homes, a lot of open space, hiking trails along the waterfront and community access to the water. One of the most unique aspects of the development is that the homeowners will only own the property directly around their homes and the community will own and maintain the rest of the property - including the portion along the waterfront. Anyway, the board has tabled several very controversial cluster developments recently, and even looked at rewriting its zoning ordinance to address cluster developments, so we were all a little concerned that this proposal could be tabled with the rest of them. Scott spent the better part of the week working on a presentation, which he made to the 5 board members, county staff, and a room of maybe 40-50 people. Needless to say, he was very nervous. He pulled it off beautifully. A handful of neighbors got up during the public hearing to express concerns, but nobody voiced an outright objection to the project. Several people even got up and praised the development concept saying that this is just the kind of thing the county needs. Well, the board unanimously approved the proposal, much to everyone's relief. Scott and Dad (and another partner, David) are about to embark on a very exciting adventure together. I couldn't be more thrilled for them, and you are all invited to come buy one of the homes in the new development.

Poor Sarah Q. - for those of you who are following that - is still insanely pregnant and is due in only three days. Her doctor has told her, however, that the baby may not come until Memorial Day Weekend. Yikes!! Stay tuned for more news there.....

Happy Mother's Day to all you women - mothers and mother's-in-spirit both.

Much love,
Reid