Double Digits

Wow, while I was away, we slipped into the double digit countdown....as of today 96 days to due date! I don't know where the time is going. We are in the 26th week. Butterball should be close to 2 pounds now and gaining weight every day. I am myself, as you can see. My latest amazement is the stretching of my belly button. I am curious to know if I will be one of the women whose button pops out. Right now it is just stretching tall and wide and I can peer into its depths as never before. No worries though, I am not spending too much time on this exploration!

I had a really good time at the workshop last week and I learned an enormous amount that I hope to put into practice with my data. It consisted of very long days though and I was wiped out towards the end. I also found that I can no longer just sit for long periods of time. I had two days where my feet swelled by the end of the day. Not pleasant. Luckily I realized that if I put my feet up throughout the lectures then this wasn't a problem. I definitely want to avoid that in the future. It feels good to be back home for the weekend and Sean and Lily and I have enjoyed some nice long walks in the mornings that make me feel a lot better.

I am off to Colorado tomorrow. It has been over a year since I have been back and I am so excited. I can't wait to see everyone and kick back and relax as I gaze at the mountains. I do feel guilty leaving Sean to work and take care of Lily and pack. Yep, he has been packing like crazy. We have officially set our move date for August 15th. We have yet to get full confirmation on the house, but we are told that it should happen soon. And if we do get it, we will need to be in town for the closing and arranging of work to be done. If not, then we will be able to go around and look at apartments. In either case, it will be nice to be in NH and begin with my prenatal care there.

I feel I really need to get serious about researching labor and delivery. I bought two books yesterday that I can read on the plane ride and during my stay in Colorado. I got "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" by Henci Goer and "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" by Ina May Gaskin (author of spiritual midwifery). They both seem really great thus far. Anyone who has given birth have any recommendations or swear by any natural birthing methods? I don't know what our class taking options may be when we get to NH so I want to be as prepared as possible.

Well, once again, my next post will be in over a week when I am back from Colorado. Can't wait to see everyone there!

25 Weeks

Butterball is now the size of an eggplant! He should be measuring in at around 13 1/2 inches and about a pound and a half. This week is when he will really start putting on that wonderful baby fat. And he should be growing hair about this time. If we could see it, we would know the texture and color. The big question is whether he will be a ginger!

My belly in this photo doesn't look that much bigger than last week, but as I near the end of the second trimester, I am really starting to feel some of the aches and pains of the late stages of pregnancy. I have a harder time getting (now rolling) out of bed or standing up from sitting on the floor. My hips get achy at night from sleeping solely on my side. I get stiff from sitting at my desk at school for too long and my lower back can be sore. Goodness, that is a lot of complaint for still having a little over 3 months to go.

We were awoken with fantastic news this morning. Sean and I have a new niece. Annalise Elizabeth was born at 1:30am this morning. Her due date was yesterday so she was right on time. Both Kate and Jonathon are doing well and Anna is very healthy. We got some pictures and she is absolutely beautiful. I got quite teary looking at them. I can't quite believe Sean and I will be holding a new baby in just three months.

I am off to a Phylogenetics workshop tomorrow. I will be gone all week. I am looking forward to it as it should help to illuminate some of my analysis questions for one of my projects. I am hoping it will help me to focus on some of my dissertation writing. I need make a lot of progress this past week in analysis and I hope to write a portion of that while I am gone too. It is going to be hard to leave Sean and Lily and my comfy bed, but I am looking forward to a little travel. It will be nice to meet some new people too. So, my next post will be in another week.

Baby Traumatizing Products

I ran across this article and it is worth a look for a good laugh. I don't foresee myself investing in any of them for Butterball.

Top Twenty Baby Traumatizing Products

Pets and Babies and Dancing Bellies

Last night we attended the "Babies and Pets" seminar at Babies R Us. Initially, I was a bit skeptical of the seminars offered through Babies R Us, but then I attended the breast feeding seminar and I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. This led me to have high expectations for the babies and pets seminar. I fear it didn't meet my expectations, but Sean and I definitely agreed that the entertainment value was probably worth going. The gentleman leading the seminar had over 20 years of dog training experience and seemed well suited for giving this type of seminar, but he just really wasn't much for presenting to a group. There were only 3 couples and another 2 expecting mothers so it wasn't big. Maybe that is why he felt more relaxed and instead of giving much of a talk, he opened up for questions after a few general statements in the beginning. It was just a funny environment anyway as we were all sitting in the back of the store in the gliders for sale. This meant that customers were walking around trying to look at gliders, but could not actually test them as we were occupying them. I think one man in particular was very annoyed. Some of the questions posed by the seminar attendees were pretty straight forward: "What is the best way to introduce dog to baby for the first time?" "What do we do if dog is licking baby's face?" "My dog pulls on the leash, what about when I am walking dog with baby?" "Should we keep dog out of baby's room?" and so on. But, then some of the crazy questions started to come out. First, a woman asks about some case that she heard about in Georgia where a small dog jumped into the crib and ate the baby's feet! Seriously, this was a concern of hers. Sean said it must be the repercussion of them making those baby-feet-flavored dog treats. This sent me into giggles, but no one else in class seemed to even smile. Yes, we were "those" people. So the feet eating story led to another woman piping up about a story where the dog went after a baby with a soiled diaper and also mangled the baby's genitals. Seriously, picture the whole scene of 5 pregnant women and spouses lounging in Babies R Us gliders with customers checking out cribs and other furniture mingling about as these questions are coming up regarding dogs eating parts of babies. Sean and I found the whole thing just really bizarre and comical and couldn't stop laughing about the whole experience on the way home. So, just an FYI, skip the babies and pets seminar unless you are worried about your dog consuming your offspring, but even then I don't think a seminar is going to solve your problem.

But, on to other fun news. Last night as we were laying in bed reading, Butterball was really active. At times, I think he was doing flips. Sean finally got to feel a decent kick. Then, we were actually able to watch as my belly danced before our eyes. We could see little ripples and pops as my belly moved when Butterball did. It was really exciting, but also very strange. This is such a wild experience.

24 Weeks

Only 16 weeks left. Just 16 more Fridays. Wow! I think I have officially "popped." Butterball seems to be expanding his real estate daily. I was really surprised by this picture though. I knew I was getting bigger, but I didn't quite realize how obvious it was.

Butterball's organ systems should be developing more and more with lots of work on the lungs this week. The weekly fruit comparisons actually switch to monthly at this time and we are still hanging in the papaya category. However, my book tells me that my uterus should be about the size of a soccer ball right now. I believe it. In case you don't, check this out:



That picture is Sean's doing. He found it quite amusing.

On other news, we have been having a nice weekend. Yesterday evening we went to visit our good friends, Joel and Sarah (aka The Two Loons), up in Cleveland. They are the proud parents of Adeline, who I think is just now around 4 months old. She is an absolutely precious baby and it was nice to get the perspective of some new parents. We had a BBQ and enjoyed the outdoors and chatted a lot. We brought Lily to visit with us and she did quite well with Adeline. She honestly just sniffed her and then was more interested in eating grass and getting into other mischief.

I was very proud of myself in that we didn't get home until after midnight. Quite the party animal. Sadly, I don't think I have been up past midnight since I got pregnant. We all slept in this morning however. I didn't get up til 8:30! That was way past Lily's normal walk time and she was ready to go. We went walking along a nice beaver pond and some swamps in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We saw lots of turtles and wood ducks and Lily went swimming for a bit.

We are having a bit of a rain storm now and lazing the day away.

Appointment and BF Seminar

This is just a quick update post. I had my 24 week appointment on Monday (at 23weeks, 3days). Overall, we are still just cruising along. I am measuring right on at 24cm (cm should correspond to weeks along). Butterball's heartbeat was a strong 157. The midwife went over the single artery umbilicus (SAU) that showed up in our ultrasound. Essentially, it is not something to worry about. In some cases it can be indicative of genetic disorders and she said that if we wanted to see a specialist we could. However, given that our NT scan showed us as very low risk, I opted to just ride it out and not worry about more doctor's appointments. The midwife said that she has seen a decent number of cases of SAU and has never seen a problem. The only thing is we will monitor Butterball's growth more closely particularly towards the end of the pregnancy to make sure the umbilical cord is providing enough nutrients, etc. In general, my blood pressure and weight are good and Butterball seems just fine. She cleared me for air travel in three weeks to go to Colorado which I am way excited about.

I also went to the Babies R Us breast feeding seminar on Monday. It was given by a nurse and certified lactation consultant. Overall, it was really informative and a good way to begin my research into the logistics of breast-feeding. On the other hand, the seminar lasted for 2 hours which I hadn't expected. The chairs were quite uncomfortable and they were really close together which just isn't all that nice for a bunch of pregnant women. The first third of the seminar was all about why breast feeding is beneficial too. Now, I think it is great to convey that information, but I figured if we were all showing up to a breast feeding seminar it was kind of like preaching to the choir. But, once we got into the actual action of breast feeding, I did learn a lot. I also think the woman convinced me not to go with the boppy pillow which I registered for, but to go with the 'my brest friend' pillow. Any moms out there use that one? At any rate, it was nice to have someone tell me a lot of information at one time versus trying to read about it. I feel so overwhelmed with all the reading I need to do right now anyway, between pregnancy books, child birthing books, breast feeding books, and oh yea, I am trying to write that darn dissertation (ugh!)

Quick update on the house hunting...we are still waiting on our offer, but we were told the lien holding bank was sending in someone to check out the house which made our realtor think we could hear something by the end of the week. Will they accept our offer? Ah, the suspense...

We Registered!

Honestly, I don't know if it is tacky to blatantly advertise our registries on the blog, but I figured what the heck! And actually, I am calling all moms to critique the registries too. Sean and I did our best to come up with a good basic list of needed items, but I would love to hear from you if you think anything we added is just not needed. And alternatively, if we are completely forgetting something or if there is one thing you just couldn't live without when you had a newborn. I honestly don't know if we registered for too much or too little. I don't want a lot of useless items that "the man" is trying to market to us and it is hard to distinguish at times (if that makes any sense). I am sure we missed a lot of little things, but it is a start and your help will be much appreciated.

We have been really excited about cloth diapering and we listed all of our diapering items through Wildflower Diapers. This should literally get us through potty training and last for another child (if we so choose). We are going to be doing the old fashioned prefolds with wrap covers the majority of the time as that is the most cost effective, but we also registered for some of the fancy all-in-one pocket Bum Genius diapers. I know the name is great. These act just like disposable diapers in ease of putting them on, etc. We will use these when traveling or if someone is babysitting that doesn't want to deal with folding. They may also come in handy at night. I feel so good about the prospect of cloth diapering and I get all happy just thinking of Butterball's tush in cute cloth. I think that mothering instinct is kicking in!

Sean and I spent a good two hours at Babies R Us on Saturday. It was fun, but also exhausting. We were armed with our Babies Bargains book and it was still really tough to pick out things. It is hard given our lack of home currently to think about how to stock a nursery. We tried to go with good quality basics and then once we have a nursery we can get more into the decoration aspect. I like all the neutral bedding supplies we listed and I found I was really drawn to greens like sage while I was at the store so I think we can paint the walls and accent with greens and blues when we get a nursery.

So, because of our potential nomadic nature in the coming months, we are actually using Sean's parents address as a shipping address in hopes that nothing will get lost in our transition from Ohio to NH. I am looking forward to talking with our real estate agent tomorrow and getting the low down as to when we might expect to close if the lien holder accepts our offer. We are going to get serious this week about planning an actual moving date.

While we were at Babies R Us, we also signed up for two seminars. I am going to a breast feeding seminar tomorrow and then the following Monday, both Sean and I are going to a 'Babies and Pets' seminar in hopes of learning some tips for Lily's first introduction to Butterball. I am sure she will do great, but I want her to be really comfortable with the new addition to our family. I don't know how good the Babies R Us seminar are, but they are free and it will be good to interact with some expecting parents too.

I also have my 24 week check up tomorrow as they could only fit me in on Monday for next week. I do always get excited to hear Butterball's heartbeat even though now I can feel movement pretty frequently. I will have an update for you as to how that goes tomorrow. Until then, Cheers and have a lovely Sunday night!

Happy Independence Day!

And Happy 23 weeks to Butterball! He should be weighing in at just over a pound now and I think this is becoming obvious on my belly. I am feeling lots of movement these days, which is very exciting, but it is still too sporadic for Sean to get to feel. There have been a couple of strong kicks that I have felt from the outside, but they aren't repetitive enough for Sean to follow up on. I was just reading that Butterball's ears are very developed now and any loud sounds he gets used to hearing now (like Lily's barking when someone comes to a door) will be pretty normal to him by the time he arrives. I think that is pretty cool. He is also developing a good sense of movement and will appreciate my moving around. Guess I will have to start dancing to pass on my inherent groove.

I can't believe how quickly time seems to be passing now. The minute we hit the halfway mark I think time sped up and it is becoming more and more real that in four months Sean and I will have a newborn! We are quickly realizing that we need to prepare ourselves a bit for this and have started to research all of the accouterments that go along with a baby. We have been really excited about researching cloth diapering and we are both on the same page for our strategy there. We also have begun to research cribs, car seats, etc. It can all be very overwhelming. We got a book called Baby Bargains that has been beyond useful and I think this weekend we are going to go to Babies R Us for a test drive to see what we like, etc. I am looking forward to it.

This past week was kind of a doozy for me. I so enjoyed our trip to NH and then having my mom here. When all that excitement ended I felt very overwhelmed returning to school and thinking about the house buying and preparing for Butterball. I am feeling a lot better about it today having slept in and taken a nap today (man, I think my second tri energy is waning)! On the school front, I finished ALL of my data collection this past week! Now I just have to finish the analysis and write the darn dissertation. That is still a whole lot, but progress is being made and I just need to stay optimistic and take it one step at a time. On the house buying front, we got all of the inspections done (well, the water test will be done by Monday) and we are just in waiting mode now to get the approval of the seller's bank. We have been told this can take between 1-2 weeks, which is a little frustrating given our time scale, but it is apparently pretty standard in the short sale business. Regardless of what happens, we still plan to move to NH sometime in August and we are trying to figure out the best way to get all of our stuff out there. Yes, we have a lot on our plate right now!

Today, we are not doing much to celebrate the 4th. We had a really nice long walk with Lily this morning and tonight we are going to BBQ some veggie bratwurst (seriously good if you are in doubt...try the Boca brand), munch on some homemade guacamole, and satisfy my s'mores craving (yum). It really is all about the food these days with me :) We may be able to see the downtown fireworks from our front porch, but we decided not to battle the crowds. I hope you all have a fantastic holiday weekend!