It has been a couple of months since our last informational post about Baby Brandt aka Conrad the Conqueror and a lot has happened in that time. We moved from California back to Durango, Colorado – Erin flew and Matt drove himself and Stella – our furniture arrived on a big truck, Matt went to Paris for work, Erin transitioned into the 3rd Trimester with The Conqueror, Matt flew back to California for work, and we’ve been slowly putting our home together with the help of family and friends.
Baby Brandt aka Conrad the Conqueror is still officially nameless but we have a working list of 18 names so when he makes his big debut we’ll hopefully have something picked out by then. If you missed it, we did announce the sex of our baby back in June, you can read about that here!
Conrad the Conqueror is doing great at all his check ups i.e. my belly measures on target with how many weeks I’ve been pregnant and his heartbeat is in the “normal” healthy range. Yay! I’ve included belly bump pictures below at about 29 1/2 weeks and some folks may think, “what a tiny belly!” Apparently, I’m carrying this baby nice and close without a lot to show for it. Please do not mistake this for a light belly because I still feel like I’m packing around a lot of belly & baby!
We’ll officially be 30 weeks tomorrow and have made the transit to midwifery care instead of going to an OB/GYN. Our plan is to avail ourselves of the opportunity to have a waterbirth in the birthing center at our local hospital, where our midwives (we have 3) practice. We are super excited to make the switch and already feel like we are having a more positive experience. I’ve been to two prenatal yoga classes with plans to go back every week until the baby comes. I’m also looking into yoga aquatics offered right across the street from our condo at the rec center! I like the idea of taking some of the weight off while stretching my body.
Matt has been busy, between all his travels and work, putting our home together, assembling baby gear, and reading up on pregnancy/birthing. We have several more weeks of work and a lot more baby gear before we could say we are done but we do have some time (10 more weeks!). Matt also had a great time with me at a lactation class where we learned all sorts of tips and information about breastfeeding. His biggest take away was making a sandwich with the breast.
(If you hover over the pictures the captions will pop up.)
As for our move to Durango, it went as smoothly as a move with a pregnant person and a cat can go. Matt surprised me with an upgrade to first class for the San Francisco to Denver leg of the trip and it was luxurious! The ability to recline comfortably and eat like a champion made that first part of the trip super easy and helped ease my sad hormones – I was leaving Matt in California for two weeks and that was too long for my pregnant self to cope with. At least the people in the security line gave me space to just cry it out.
The next part of the trip will make lots of sense to folks who have tried flying from Denver to Durango in the summertime with afternoon thunderstorms. Due to unsafe weather conditions all flights were grounded – the delay lasted 5 hours before they finally cancelled my flight. By then I was a complete mess (and would argue that even if I wasn’t pregnant my reaction could have been similar) – I called Matt’s Aunt Becky who lives in Denver and she came to rescue me. Mind you, I was sobbing and barely coherent, but Aunt Becky calmed me down, swept me up, fed me, and tucked me into bed. I cannot express how incredibly grateful I am to her for all the help and support – it was a wonderful gift to feel safe, secure, and cared for! Thanks Aunt Becky!!
And then, very anti-climatically, I hopped on a flight the next morning and arrived in Durango to be greeted by my parents who are very excited to have Matt and I back in the area with their third grandbaby (more like grand-fetus, at this point)!
Matt left California two weeks later with Stella and his bikes all bundled into the car. Stella slept on his lap from Mountain View to Flagstaff, Arizona where they had a hotel room. Stella is a trooper when it comes to car travel but their final leg from Flagstaff to Durango proved to be too much and she peed on Matt’s pillow. Almost made it!
Despite some major travel for Matt (he was in Durango for a week, then gone to Paris, back in Durango for a week, and then off to California!), we are settling into our new home.
I think that sums up most of what we’ve been up to in the last two months and I’ll try to post more frequent baby bump stories as we begin the countdown.
All our love and great big baby kicks,
Erin, Matt, Conrad the Conqueror, and Stella (meOW!)