Getting Things Ready

Well, we’ve hit the 36 week mark. By the end of this week, no one will try to stop her if Baby Girl decides to come early. As I think I’ve mentioned before, it’s my sincere hope that she comes before the end of June. Don’t get me wrong, I want her to be done cookin’, but if she’s ready to come out, I’d love it to be before the end of June. If she does that, we have no more that 13 days left of not being parents. Kind of a freaky thought, but I feel like we’re ready. I know it will be a HUGE adjustment, and there will be a rather large learning curve, but I think we’re going to be good at this.

We had our last of 3 showers this past Friday. It was fantastic. Katie and Andrea threw a couples shower, and it was awesome. And, when all was said and done, we got a lot of what we need for baby. So, since then we’ve been taking inventory, putting together the nursery (because I can go in there now…more on that later), and just in general trying to get the house and things in order before she comes. Slowly but surely we’re getting there.

With regard to the nursery, Andrea and Sarah did a fabulous job. I love how it turned out. Below are some pictures for you all to see. Eric got the glider put up yesterday, so I’ve even included pictures of that as well. And, the last picture is of her little bassinet/small pack-n-play that she’ll be sleeping in for the first few weeks while she’s in our room.

Getting VERY excited!!

The amazing monkey/lion red velvet cake from the shower - great job Sarah!

Crib...

Changing Table and light

Changing Table and Light (w/o the light on so you can see the pattern)

The glider (very comfy...)

Wall above glider (these will contain original artwork by our small group whenever they get it to me...)

Bassinet in our room - ready and waiting

Last but not least, our latest pic of Baby Girl, hiding her face with her hand (guess she already doesn't like to have her picture taken)

7 weeks left, and still a LOT to learn!

Sorry all for the long break in posting. So often I don’t think about posting, and then when I do I’m at work or church or somewhere that I can’t post. Obviously, by the time I get home, I forget again. But I’m back now!

We’re down to 7 weeks until Baby Girl’s due date. 46 more days. That’s crazy. Granted, she could come late and that number will inflate some, but still. Just over a month and a half and we’ll most likely have our baby girl here at last. We’ve already had two baby showers, which is fantastic. Lots of clothes, a baby swing, our travel system, and many other baby necessities. So much love from people and we still have one more shower to go! Then we’ll know what we still need and begin our own buying frenzy I’m sure.

I still have yet to see BG’s nursery. A couple of good friends of mine who have a lot more decorative style are putting the nursery together for me as a surprise. I’ve been told that I’ll be able to see it after our last shower (which is June 11), but I’m very anxious. No peeking for me yet, though I have been tempted!!

Eric and I have decided to go the cloth diaper route, though only with a diaper service. Eric was very overwhelmed thinking about all the laundry he would have to do if we didn’t have a service. Once he learned that the service wasn’t outrageously expensive, he was very much on board with the cloth diapers. The service brought by our first week’s worth of cloth diapers today and showed us how to do this thing. It was surprisingly a lot easier than I would have expected.

What else…oh, we’ve had a couple of people from our childbirth class have their babies already. If you remember, we’re going natural using a method called hypnobirthing. Both of the women who have had their babies have had labors of less that 8 hours. That is amazing!! And both have said it was a fantastic experience. So, even though I’m nervous, I’m getting excited for the big day. If they can do it, so can I!

I’ve been reading a book called “What to Expect The First Year.” This book is massive. There is so much to learn, I don’t know how I will remember it all. I finally made it through the general knowledge section and through the first month. I wouldn’t say that I’m ready, but I feel much more prepared that’s for sure.

I guess that’s about all I’ve got for now. I’ll leave you with a little 3D picture of Baby Girl’s face. We had our first weekly appointment on Friday, and during the ultrasound, the ultrasound tech was nice enough to give us a quick snapshot of BG. Eric thinks we’ve just taken the equivalent of a picture early in the morning, right after she’s woken up, with pillow lines on her face, sleepy eyes, etc. I agree that she looks like she has a smashed face, but I still think she’s cute!

In the double digit days!!

We are officially into the double digit days – 98 (give or take). I’m really hoping that baby girl doesn’t decide to prolong this journey, but at the same time, she knows best when it’s time so…we’ll see.

Tomorrow, we hit the 26 week mark. So according to the websites that means she may be able to not only hear me but to hear Eric’s voice just in our normal, daily conversations. She is breathing now (though obviously right now she’s breathing in amniotic fluid) to practice for when she comes out. She also may now be opening and closing her eyes as her eyes are now developed as much as they will be until she is born and her vision develops. I guess for now I hope she’s content just seeing the inside of my uterus. Kind of boring, but I envision her playing the “what does that spot look like” game like we play with clouds sometimes.

We have now been to two childbirth classes. We’ve decided to go the natural route – more because I’m terrified of an epidural (the catheter in the spine part not the needle part) than anything else. But we had heard some great things about “hypnobirthing” so we are going with that. It focuses a lot on self-hypnosis, which we’re finding is more about very deep self relaxation than anything else. As I find it VERY difficult to actually shut my brain off even in non-stressful situations, I’m not sure that I’ll ever reach a super relaxed state. But, as I told Eric tonight, I will no doubt be much more relaxed after having taken these childbirth classes that I would have been without them. So, keep the pain stories to yourself from now on – I don’t want to hear them And just know that regardless of what you say I’m determined to make it through this birth naturally. It’s my own personally challenge to myself.

We’ve been doing our “relaxation” cd (a 24 minute relaxation exercise) every night before bed. Eric has yet to actually make it through the cd without falling asleep; I think I’ve made it through once. So I think I may need to start listening to the cd when I’m not laying down at 10pm.

I’ve uploaded a couple of prego pix – one from two weeks ago (week 24, gray shirt) and one from tonight (the eve of week 26, orange shirt. If you look closely enough you can see that in this weeks picture, my arm is so red it almost matches the color of my shirt. We went to opening day on Monday, and I unfortunately forgot to put on sunscreen. I’m now suffering through a pretty nasty sunburn, particularly on the top of my chest/bottom of my neck. I will not be surprised to wake up to blisters tomorrow morning. I’m hopeful, however that tomorrow morning my arms will no longer hurt.

14 more weeks!!!

24 weeks

26 weeks, only 14 more to go!

Birth Plans and Baby Kicks

Last week (in apparent boredom/productivity), I decided to work on our “birth plan.” For those of you that haven’t had a child in the last 5 years, you may have never heard of a birth plan (or at least many of the mothers of children over 5 I’ve talked to hadn’t). In essence, this is a checklist of almost every possible scenario under the sun that could come up while you are giving birth to your child and how you would like it handled. You give it to the hospital staff so that they are informed of how you would ideally like things to proceed (note – I am not naive enough to think that if even if everything goes perfectly that this birth plan will also be followed to the letter – you’re in a hospital…).

Can I just say that like seemingly everything else involved with babies, creating this birthplan was amazingly overwhelming.  First of all, there were questions and terminology on this list that I was absolutely clueless about. We start our childbirth classes next Wednesday, so I’m really hoping that some of these questions will be addressed. I fully intend to revisit this birth plan long about the middle of June to make sure I still agree with everything previously chosen.

Baby girl has definite ups and downs as far as her activity. In fact, it seems she has “active” days and what I would call “inactive” days. Those inactive days tend to freak me out quite a bit as I can go almost a whole day without really feeling her at all. But I try to be encouraged by the active days and trust that those other moms who say inactive days are normal are right. Trying very hard not to worry about things.

Over 23 weeks along. According to the websites, if I dance she can feel it now because her sense of movement is well developed. Probably won’t do that as I’m sure my lack of rhythm would only make her sick. Plus, no one really wants to see me dance. She also is becoming used to some sounds like my voice, the vacuum cleaner, and the incessant barking of our two dogs. According to the experts, if she does get used to these sounds now, they will not be as likely to wake her when she’s born (I’ll believe that when we get there). I can already see it now – we struggle for an hour to get her to sleep and just as we lay her down the dogs start barking because someone in China coughed. I will refrain from killing the dogs but they will definitely get a yelling at from me.

22 weeks along

We’ve made it past the halfway mark, but it still very much feels like this pregnancy is DRAGGING along. Every mom I talk to says that the time will fly by with all the registering, showers, nesting, etc. that you do in the last half of the pregnancy, but I’m surely not feeling it yet.

We did go registering at Babies R Us a couple of weeks ago. That was  a trip. We took some good friends of ours along with us because they have 3 kids already and could give us some ideas of what we really need & what we don’t need as well as tips for what things are important when picking out things like cribs strollers, etc. They were amazingly helpful – so thank you Hickman’s!

Since then I’ve been slowly adding things to the registry there. Plus I’m also trying to register at Target. It’s all a little overwhelming really as I have no idea what I need, what’s good, what’s bad, etc. Eventually I’m sure we’ll get it squared away.

Two of my good friends – Andrea and Sara – who have more decorative instincts than I do are volunteering to decorate the nursery for us. So I actually will not have much of an idea of what it will look like until they’re done. To some that might seem scary but to me it’s a huge burden off. They’re giving me little hints along the way, and Andrea has given me options as far as bedding is concerned, but other than that I’m clueless. Rest assured that when it’s done I’ll be sure to post pictures.

I can feel baby girl kicking and moving quite a bit these days. She’s especially active in the mornings between about 8:30 and 10:30. At one point, I had my belly resting against the edge of my desk, and she kicked my pretty good right smack in the belly button. It didn’t particularly hurt, but it felt much different than the typical kick. Unfortunately for Eric, and much as he tries to feel her kicking, she won’t do it for him. She could be kicking up a storm until the moment he touches my belly, and then all of a sudden she just stops. He’s got a calming touch to her I guess. Hopefully that continues even after she’s born.

Next appointment I get to do the glucose test. I’m getting to go to Reds Opening Day on April 5 for my birthday (I’m not nearly as excited about the fact that it’s Reds Opening Day as much as I am that they’re playing my Cardinals). The glucose test is the very next day. So I’ll have to be good about what I eat at the ballpark. I really don’t want to have to do the follow-up glucose test that requires fasting and drinking a lot more of the glucose stuff, and obviously I REALLY don’t want to have gestational diabetes.

After that doctor’s appointment (will be mid week 25), I’ll have another regular appointment a month later (mid week 29). Then my next appointment will be 2 weeks later (mid week 31) and after that I’ll have them every week until baby girl comes. Because of the protein deficiency I have, they have to monitor her heartbeat with ultrasounds every week as we get closer, so we’ll get to see our girl every week until she comes. Pretty excited about that part of it.

I guess that’s about all I have to say right now. I’ll try to keep you all updated as we get closer. Pray the time flies for me!

Baby Anks is a…

Tuesday we had the gender appointment. I was pretty nervous and very anxious. As you know, girly is not a word anyone would ever use to describe me – EVER. Tomboy yes, but girly no. So I definitely feel much more prepared to have and parent a boy that I do a girl. And I really want a boy.

So I was a little nervous about the outcome of our appointment. I had dedicated the last two weeks to preparing myself for the possibility of having a girl, but I was still very nervous. I was ok with being a little disappointed if we found out we are having a girl, but I certainly didn’t want to be crushed or anything. More than that, though, I was nervous that Baby Anks wouldn’t cooperate and we’d walk out of the doctor’s office without knowing what we were having.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. As you can see from the picture below, Baby Anks is a girl.

For those of you without the trained ultrasound eye, what you see to the left is her cute little butt and the legs are stretched out to the right. I guess it’s the absence of a “salute” that makes the ultrasound tech sure it’s a girl. She said it’s a sure as it can be, though they never tell you it’s a 100% (covering their behinds in case they’re wrong).

We didn’t have her tell us at the doctor’s appointment, but instead turned our heads when the gender shot was taken. She put on the pic the gender and then when she printed it put it into an envelope. We took that to a restaurant to open it at dinner. A little more intimate of a setting that me with my shirt rolled up, jelly goup on my belly, and the ultrasound tech poking me with whatever you call that ultrasound poker. So when Eric handed me the envelope,  I pulled out the picture, saw the gender, and I think my first words were something like, “Ok-ay, here we go.”

A tiny bit disappointed, but for the most part excited. I still wanted a boy, but I should tell you both Eric and I were pretty sure the baby was going to be a girl. Eric says he’s thought our first child would be a girl since we got married. Crazy I know, but he says it true. So now I have softball, soccer, basketball, or whatever sports she ends up playing (and I’m confident she will) to look forward to. Prom dresses, boy troubles, and the joys of the dramatic and hormonal teenage years too, but I’m confident I’ll make it through all of that and maybe even enjoy it.

She’s currently about 9 inches long and weighs around 11 oz. Heartbeat was 138, which the tech said was great. And I haven’t heard a peep from the doctor since Tuesday (the tech said they’d call if they saw anything wrong or concerning in the ultrasound pics), so no news is good news. I’m 20 weeks today, which is the halfway mark. Definitely showing now, and maybe someday I’ll grace you all with a profile pic (if I ever stop feeling like I just look fat and not pregnant).

I’ll leave you with some more picks from the ultrasound, starting with my favorite of them all – a picture of her sucking her thumb already. The ultrasound was absolutely the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced – hearing her heartbeat, watching her wiggle, and then seeing her actually sucking her thumb. It was awesome. Anyway, here they are:

Her head is to the right, and her right hand is in the upper center of the picture...with the thumb in the mouth.

Her feet are to the left there, one leaning on the other like the way feet fall when you're on your side.

You're look at her like you're standing over her looking at the top of her head. In both the left and right pictures, the hand is on the top side.

Profile pic. She's laying on her back, head to the left side. If you look close you can see her cute little nose and even her ears. I think she's pretty dag on cute already

update…

Sorry everyone…we find out out on February 23rd whether we’re having a boy or a girl. Let’s just hope Baby Anks cooperates!

17 weeks and counting

As of Thursday, we’re at 17 weeks (so as I write this, 17 weeks and 5 days). That means we’ve got 23 more weeks to go (give or take) until baby Anks makes his (or her) triumphant entry into the world. Right now I feel like that day can’t get here soon enough, but according to what everyone keeps telling me the time will fly by (I have yet to see any evidence of that whatsoever). But, I should say that anyone who knows me would tell you that patience, more specifically delayed gratification, is not a strong suit of mine. So I’m guessing the next 23 weeks will DRAG on for me.

We had another doctor’s visit today. Everything was fine – the baby’s heartbeat was good, mom’s blood pressure was good (I never can remember what a good blood pressure is, so I always have to ask the nurse if mine is good – and apparently I have great blood pressure at this point). Eric and I were kind of hoping that like the last time, baby wouldn’t cooperate with the doppler and we could have another ultrasound (read: Kerri doesn’t like delayed gratification and would really like to know NOW whether this baby is going to be a he or a she), but as the nurse fished around there was that strong steady heartbeat. Great to hear – don’t get me wrong.

As I’ve mentioned before, I would really like this baby to be a boy. Quite honestly I don’t think I’ll know what to do with a girl unless she’s as much of a tomboy as I was. But, I’ve had many more dreams that we’re having a girl (somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 dreams) and only ONE that we’re having a boy. People tell me that means nothing, but I almost wonder if it’s God’s way of telling me to get ready because it’s going to happen (having a girl I mean). Mom says it could also be my subconscious playing tricks on me. Either way, I tried to make a list of the “pros” of having a girl. While I’m fairly confident I could come up with many pros – whether financial pros or personality pros – for having a boy, I could not come up with ONE single pro for having a girl. Not one. Yikes. It took a conversation with my mom to even be inspired for one, and even still it was more of a con for having a boy than a pro for having a girl (the projectile peeing that takes during diaper changes is much easier to deal with if changing a girl). So I reiterate my constant prayer that we’re having a boy so I don’t have to worry about completely scarring a daughter for life.

March 23. Mark the date. As long as Baby Anks cooperates, this will be the day we find out our future

Hat Shopping…

Let me let you in on a secret (although not a very well kept one) – hat shopping with my husband can be very difficult. It has nothing to do with the how picky he is or his fashion style, but more to do with the diameter of his head. You see, my husband has a very big head (physically). And as a baby, his mother was told he was going to be a huge baby based on the size of his head while en-utero.

Why do I tell you this? Yesterday, I went to the doctor kind of last minute. I thought I had been feeling the baby move this weekend, but then hadn’t felt anything since Saturday night. When I called the doctor, she said it was probably nothing but if I wanted to come in to be checked they could work me in. While I really don’t want to be that woman who worries over everything and calls the doctor once a week, I knew I was only going to worry for the next two weeks before my next appointment if I didn’t go in. The heartbeat was found, everything looks fine, but while examining me, the doctor asked how far along I was (my doctor wasn’t in, so I was seeing a different doctor). 16 weeks today. She pushed and prodded on my abdomen, and proceeded to tell me that my uterus is measuring 17 and a half weeks. The original ultrasound is more accurate she told me, and measuring the uterus is not an exact science, but nonetheless I’m bigger than 16 weeks typical is.

How did that translate to my ears? You’re growing  a BIG baby. Not exactly what I want to hear. I’d prefer to have a nice, normal sized baby – not one with a large head. I’ll let you figure out why the large head would concern me. But, I’ve wondered since I got engaged to Eric if I was going to have to deal with large heads on babies. Hopefully the doc was wrong, but I’m not so sure…

In other news – I’m 16 weeks today. Kind of exciting. According to what I’m reading, Baby Anks is somewhere around 4 1/2 inches from head to rump and weighs about 3.5 ounces. He’s started growing toenails and is pumping about 25 quarts of blood a day. He has learned to breathe (taking in amniotic fluid) and his facial muscles are developed enough to make squinting and frowning expressions.

Pretty cool to think about. 24 weeks from now (give or take), we’ll have a baby. Love it.

Baby’s first blog

At 14 weeks (end of the first trimester), mom is supposed to start feeling better. For me, I hadn’t felt bad.

Now I do. When most people start feeling better – I started feeling worse. And every time I have a couple of days in a row where I feel good, inevitably Baby Anks seeks revenge for a couple of days.

I keep hoping things will get better, and keep up faith that eventually it will (even if that’s not for another 25 weeks.

Other than that, though, things are going pretty smoothly. I definitely wish my doctor’s appointments were 4 weeks apart, because it should would be reassuring to hear a heartbeat more than once a month. But I have no reason to believe anything is wrong, so I just keep pressing on.

I had Eric take my first side pregnancy shot. While I do feel like I’m starting to show, right now it just looks like I’m fat. So, that picture will not be showing up on here  any time soon (sorry…).

Keep up all the prayers and I’ll try to keep you all updated!