Midwife appointment = Reassurance about the past

At my midwife appointment today, everything went swimmingly. BP, heart rate, belly measurement were all good. I lost a few pounds from last time, but baby is measuring beautifully. Midwife thinks the baby is head down with his/her legs splayed on either side of my belly. I'm not sure what's going on in there, but this kid is so active. I think there may be some Tai Chi sessions going on in my belly. Next appointment I get my cervix checked and that darn GBS test done.

I handed Midwife my water birth consent form and my "birth plan" (which wasn't very detailed at all!). She asked me if I had any questions, and I asked her the question I have been dying to ask her for the past 2.5 years: Why didn't Kevin get to cut Colin's umbilical cord? It was in our plan and it didn't happen. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether he did or not, but because he didn't, it made me think something was wrong with Colin when he was born and nobody told me about it. All I remember is Colin coming out and a flurry of hands, and me seeing him, guessing he was a boy just by what he looked like because I couldn't see between his legs. I remember not hearing him cry, him being gray, and him being taken away. I was lifted out of the tub by Midwife and Kevin and got on the bed to deliver the placenta. First time mom thoughts running through my head, I thought something was wrong with him. I didn't get to hold him for more than 10 seconds after he was born.

Her answer? She seems to truly remember his birth. Which, in my book, adds to her amazingness. She said the nurse that was there that night (and she knew specifically what nurse it was) had never assisted at a water birth before. So when he was born, she kind of panicked because it was unfamiliar to her. So the nurse (?) cut the cord and whisked him away. When the umbilical cord is still attached, babies are still receiving oxygen from their mothers, so they look up at the world and don't necessarily cry.

Midwife told me that in the past 2.5 years, she has changed how she does water births. In speaking with a nurse about how she felt about water births, the nurse shared that water birth moms don't get to hold their babies for very long after they are born. Realizing she was right, Midwife now lets moms hold their baby as they get out of the tub and onto the bed. The cord isn't cut until after mom is on the bed. This sounds so much more comforting and "serene," as Midwife called it, than the whisk-away and the "wait, what just happened?" that I experienced with Colin. I am so excited to be able to hug and smooch on the baby right away for an extended period.

And hopefully this time Kevin will be able to cut the cord. Although he doesn't express any desire either way to cut it or not, I know he'll feel important doing it. And if he doesn't want to, that's okay too. But at least it sounds like he'll be able to do it now.

I seriously can't express how much knowing that absolutely nothing went wrong when Colin was born makes me feel. And the fact that, barring special circumstances, this time will be different. Huge sigh of relief.

Colin's Top 3 Radio Songs

When he hears these songs come on the radio, he gets super excited. He says, "Turn song on, Mama!" And that means "Turn it up and don't you dare change the station because I'm about to get down like Charlie Brown."

1. Dynamite--Taio Cruz
*This one was facilitated by his love for a Jewish a capella group called The Maccabeats on YouTube, who sing a parody called "Candlelight." Which then lead to a series of another a capella singer, Mike Tompkins, who covers a lot of Katy Perry songs...

2. Firework--Katy Perry
*He sings "high, high, high" and "sky, sky, sky"

3. Moves Like Jagger--Maroon 5
*Hilarious. Especially the "moo-oo-oo-oo-ooves like Jagger" part.

32 weeks: Jicama

No, not this (Jamaica):

We will discuss this topic in a few more weeks.

This:

I know, much less beautiful. I'm *sure* it tastes delicious though. From the looks of it, I imagine somewhere between a potato, a rutabaga, and an Asian pear. Anyway, Raina weighs about 3.75 pounds and is 16.7 inches long. I should be gaining about 1 pound a week, and about half of that goes right to her. She'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival in this cold world. She now has cute little toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or maybe some peach fuzz if she's going to be a baldie). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up.

She certainly is growing, because I'm feeling her all up in my ribs. I'm ready to start the rapid outward expansion at this point so she doesn't end up in my throat someday soon.

Go here to see an interesting visual on how, as the baby grows, organs are moved out of the way: Penn Health Slide the sliders to watch the growth. Wowzers, right?

FYI, I hate these pants. The belly band part just drives me nuts. Unless I'm wearing a shirt that goes way past my butt, you can see it in front. The fact that I've outgrown this maternity shirt also doesn't help.

And my tailbone hurts. Storytime:

Presidents Day, 1999. I was a senior in high school. Due to the holiday, I didn't have school so I headed up to the Mall of America with a friend for the day. I walked out of my parents' house and down the sloped sidewalk they used to have connecting the house to the driveway. Of course it's February, so it's icy. I found a nice little patch of ice, and did one of those banana-peel falls, where my legs shot in the air and I landed square on my derriere. Ouch. The tailbone was injured, but I knew there was nothing any M.D. could do for me, so I bucked up and lived with the pain for pretty much a full year after that. The end.

Fastforward to 2009. That same pain is back. My chiropractor told me yesterday that when tailbones heal, they never heal correctly, and they create a "false joint." So now that there's pressure (baby) pushing down on it, it's like it's broken again. Fabulous. My friend/co-worker told me that she had injured her tailbone prior to being pregnant, and it started hurting during pregnancy, and that it still hurt every once in awhile. She had her baby LAST MAY. Yeah...9 months after giving birth, it still hurts. Awesome.

I'm telling you people, if there is one thing you can avoid breaking, try to make it your tailbone. You won't be sorry.

Kev and I went to a breastfeeding class last night. That was interesting. I learned a lot, but was sort of uncomfortable at first seeing the instructor squish her boobs (while fully clothed, of course). Granted, without the visual, things would have been much harder to understand, so I thank her for that. And I know boob-squishing is part of her daily job as an OB RN, but still. In just about 8 weeks, I'll be squishing the boob, and I'm sure I'll be manhandled by someone else too. There's always something to look forward to!

Weekend nursery progress

We got 3 of the 4 jobs we planned on doing this weekend done.

#1: Install new extension jams. This didn't happen because we're having a stain issue. The maple of the door is different than the maple of the extension jams. Thus, even if we use the same stain that the door was stained with, it looks different. Not only does it look different, but it also looks...interesting. So Kev and his mom, the professional stainer, are working on that.

#2: Install new door. Check! Love it.


#3: Assemble crib. Check! Love it. FYI, in case you care, the brand is Babi Italia, and the model is Classic Eastside Single. The side doesn't drop down, but the springs can move lower as the baby gets bigger. It can also be converted to a toddler bed by taking one of the siderails off. We don't have the mattress yet (see next numbered list below), but I did put the crib skirt on, and the deer and squirrels on it are now locked up behind bars.


#4: Prep diapers. Check! Here they are after 4 wash/dry cycles with some ALL Free and Clear. Notice the difference between non-prepped and prepped!


We also went to Babies R Us and discovered a few things:
#1. We're pretty sure our car seat is being discontinued, and will have to choose another one. Not a big deal, but still...ARGH.
#2. Same goes for the crib mattress.
#3. Nothing we've looked at beats the Dutailier glider.

And...since I had my camera out, I took a picture of the Spring Chicken onesie I got at the GAP a few weekends ago. It's just way too cute not to share:

31 weeks: 4...count 'em...4 navel oranges

This week, Raina measures over 16 inches long and weighs about 3.3 lbs, which is the equivalent of about 4 navel oranges. Oranges seem to be a running theme here. First of all, 16 short weeks ago, back in week 15, Raina was the size of a navel orange. She was only 4 inches long and 2.5 oz at the time. Oh how she has grown! Back then, she was moving, but I couldn't feel it yet. Let me tell you, it sure felt like 4 oranges were tumbling around in my belly last night. After a long night at school due to having conferences (all the while, Raina was perfectly quiet), I got home at 7:45. I watched a little Biggest Loser, and I went to bed shortly after 10:00. I had to get up to go to the bathroom at 3:18, and didn't *really* fall back asleep after that. SOMEONE decided it was a perfect time for some acrobatics. For 3 hours. I usually get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Today I'm running on 5. ::sigh:: It's going to be a long day. And yes, I know it's just a warm-up of what's to come. Back to oranges...last of all, I love them. They are undoubtedly my craving. I eat one at least every other day, if not every day. They serve as dessert many nights. Yum yum yum.

This week, Raina is supposedly heading into a growth spurt. I suppose that means I'm going to be eating like a horse this week. Bring it on! She can turn her head from side to side, and she's plumping out as fat accumulates. Oh...and the website says this, and I quote: "[She's] probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy." My respective comments: "You don't say?" and "Oh good! At least the loss of sleep is worth it to know this."

Belly pictures:

Let there be light! and other fun stuff

We've had quite the productive, baby-filled weekend!

On Saturday, my parents came up here. My mom and I split off to do our thing, and my dad and Kev stayed here and did theirs.

The boys stayed busy crawling in the insulation-filled, sloped attic all in the quest to install the wiring for a ceiling light in the baby's room. See, none of the bedrooms or the living room in our house have overhead lights. They were just never installed. Hence, everything is light by lamp. It drives us batty. Today Kev and I went out in search of a light and found 2 of them for $20 at Lowe's. We put it up, and now the baby's room has some decent lighting. 1 room down, 4 more to go (eventually...)! And whenever the time may be to install some more wiring, we already have a light ready to go! The boys also ripped the shelves out of one of the closets and the trim off the window in the baby's room. A little deconstruction for some future reconstruction.

Meanwhile, my mom and I ventured across the border to pick up the crib at Babies R Us. After spending quite a bit of time there, we headed to Jessica's house to see Nolan. We had fun holding the sleepy little guy, and it was fun to see Jessica, too of course! The knitted afghan that is pictured in last Thursday's post is one I knitted for Jess and Nolan. My mom quilted a, hmm...let's call it a "floor quilt" for Nolan. It's just the right size to put on the floor for him to play on and roll around on some day. It was fun to hand over our handiwork :) My mom also had her first time experiencing using a Boppy. The next time I will hopefully see Nolan is in mid-March when he's 5 or 6 weeks old. I'm sure he'll look different even in that short amount of time!

After my mom and I got back, we all stuffed ourselves silly at Famous Dave's. The baby really wanted barbecue. It was delicious and hit the spot.

Oh! And one of my co-workers owns a doppler machine, and she lent it to me to use. I whipped it out yesterday so my parents could hear the baby's heartbeat. I think they thought it was pretty sweet.

This morning, Kevin and I went on a mission to look for a glider/rocker for the baby's room. We hit up 5 different furniture stores, hoping to find something that was a little less expensive than the Dutailier I had previously scoped out:

(Ok, not sure if this is THE model, but it's the colors I want it in). It has a multi-position locking lever, which I think is fabulous.

We were hoping to find something that we could use in the future that didn't look so baby nursery-ish. Two places had La-Z-Boy press-back rocker-recliners, so you could rock with the back reclined and your feet on the floor instead of up on the footrest. And, of course, you could pull the lever and recline with your feet up. I'm not sure how much I'd use that feature anyway. However, they weren't any less expensive than the Dutailier. The advantage to buying a La-Z-Boy is that it doesn't look baby nursery-ish when it moves to the family room (which, in reality, doesn't exist yet) someday. So, we're undecided about what we want to do, and we're back to the drawing board to do some weighing of options. Needless to say, our time is running out before baby comes, so we must think rather quickly, especially if the chair needs to be specially ordered.

Anyway, we got a lot done and I'm happy to be home lounging after walking around all day yesterday and today. Getting in and out of recliners today trying them out surely didn't help matters.

30w1d Belly pics

I don't have to go to work/school today due to icy roads. It's always fun to have a "surprise" day off, but it's not fun today because I was going to give 2 tests today, 1 test tomorrow, and I had a principal observation scheduled for today. Now I have to reschedule my observation (and keep the same lesson because I've already over-planned it out, and I'm not going to do that again). I also have to give 3 tests tomorrow (spelling, math, and reading) which is NO fun on Friday the 13th/Valentine's Day party day. It also is so not cool because snow days are racking up...so far we've had 3. This means that the likelihood of having to make up at least 1 at the end of the year is a definite possibility, and that means one less day that I get paid since I won't be there.

But these are small consequences that I can live with if I'm safe and sound in my home, along with all of the students, my co-workers, etc.

How will I spend the day? I might see if I can go see my midwife today instead of at tomorrow's appointment. I'm pretty sure she's in on Thursdays. I might do some laundry. I wish I could do something fun and baby-related. I think the closest I'll come to that is maybe figuring out what to do with all of my Jafra crap. Do I take it work and see if anybody wants it? Craigslist it? Throw it away? Makeup and beauty products don't last forever. I've already thrown the stuff I know isn't good anymore away. Hmmm....thoughts?

And the title of this post is called belly pics. I suppose I should get to those :) Here I am in my snow day clothes this morning! I had already showered when I got the call. Bummer.



And here's where I show off. This is a blanket I finished knitting last week. Kevin can attest that a few times there were curse words thrown at it, and by the time I was finished I had knitted, taken out, and re-knitted about 10 rows of it. But it was all worth it in the end.

30 weeks: Squash/Cabbage

75% done baking, Raina is the size of a squash or a head of cabbage. She's about 15.7 inches and weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that will decrease as she gets bigger. White fat deposits under her skin are forming, giving her a surge of energy. During this month, all five of her senses become fully functional.

I will post belly pics here this afternoon.

I notice that my balance has been off recently. Especially when it's dark, like when I get out of bed and can't walk in a straight line right away. Call me a drunken sailor! And my energy *may* be decreasing. We'll have to see what the following week or so brings and see if it increases again.

On Friday, we "celebrated" Rocket's 2nd birthday. My poochie pie is growing up :( Here are some pictures.
A mandatory party hat picture:

Birthday treat--Frosty Paws!


This past weekend, I spent the weekend in EC with four of my bestest friends: Brooke, Kristin, Laura, and Steph. It was very fun. I bought a onesie I couldn't resist from Baby GAP. It's light blue-green and it has a picture of a chicken on it. And what does it say? "Spring Chicken" !! Way too cute to not buy. No picture to be found on gap.com though...sorry. :( The girls and I went to the mall, made upside down pizza, and just hung out and relaxed. I let them feel and see Raina moving around. That's something I always wanted to feel/see before I was pregnant, and never got a chance to. Can't wait for next year when we get together again!

Glucose Test

Apparently I passed since I didn't receive a phone call on Tuesday morning. My next appointment is next Friday, so we'll see if I was close to the cut-off, or if I passed with flying colors.

29 weeks: Butternut Squash

Baby Rain now weighs about 2.5 pounds and is a bit over 15 inches long. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature and his head is growing bigger to make room for his smartypants brain. I've got to make sure I get all my essential vitamins and minerals because his nutritional demands are increasing. I might also have to regularly partake in drinking milk during snack time at school because his bones are soaking up calcium like a sponge.



On Monday while I was watching The Bachelor online (I'm a week behind because Kevin gets the TV on Monday nights to watch 24), I hooked up my iPod and put the headphones on my belly for a little brain stimulation for baby. I tried to stay from crappy music (that I enjoy and hence is on my iPod, but Rain shouldn't be influenced by it at this early of an age) and stick to the classics like Bruce Springsteen and John Mellancamp. Rain's favorites (determined by the amount of movement going on) were songs and artists like "Minnesota Boy" by Jake Donze, "Santeria" by Sublime, and sadly, "What a Girl Wants" by Christina Aguilera. I wanted to change the song when I saw Christina had popped up, but there must be some good bass in it because Rain liked it. Oh well. I'd really like to get a classical baby music CD or something so he'll arrive in this world ready to play, at the very least, Chopsticks on the piano. ;)

Jess update: Here we are on Saturday at her shower. This is the last picture of the two of us together pregnant, because she might be getting induced right now! Keep her and Tony and Baby P. in your thoughts. I am so excited for them!

24 weeks: Oh that sweet August buttery goodness

It's hard to believe that in 2 weeks and 6 days, I will be in the third trimester. Scaaary.

Anyway, Raina is now the size of an ear of corn. She gained about 4 ounces since last week, which puts her just over 1 pound. She's almost a foot long. Her body is pretty lean (although I hope not as skinny as an actual ear of corn), but she's filling out and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is growing quickly, and her taste buds are still developing. Her lungs are developing branches of the respiratory tree as well as cells that produce surfactant, which is a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

My uterus is about an inch above my belly button, and is the size of a soccer ball. See?



In other news, we think we've decided on a boy's name. We have not decided on a girl's first name yet. This is another indicator that indeed this little one is a girl. I have a long list of girls' names, but Kevin's not so sure about most of them. We have 3 that we agreed on, but I'm not sure I love any of them enough. The middle name is pretty much decided on, unless the first name ends up not going with it. I know you're intrigued :)

Kevin put his ear to my belly the other day. Jen told me at our high school get together that her husband heard their little girl's heartbeat by doing this. Kevin didn't hear the heartbeat, but he did hear Raina moving around, and even a thunk. Hearing her is one thing he can do that I can't, which is cool for him. Last night, Raina was kicking pretty hard, so I told Kevin to come watch and maybe he'd see a bump from the outside. At long last, he did. We'd been trying to get him to see it since I saw it...was that 1 or 2 weeks ago?

And I guess I should've given my readers time to cross their everything (see post below), because 10 minutes after publishing the post, I called the auto body shop about my Escape. Not. Done. Freakin' A. They close today at 12, and aren't open again until Monday. If the dude who is fixing my dearly beloved decides he wants to work on Friday (please, please work on Friday--maybe even just a half day), he might have it done by early next week. I don't believe this though, because when we called on Monday, Dec. 15, he said it might be done by the 19th. Then I called on the 22nd and he said, "I'd tell you it would be done by Christmas, but I'd be lying to you, so I'm going to try for New Years." So I'm thinking, "Sweet, as long as I have it back before I go back to school, it's all good." Nada. Granted, there have been some holidays in this span, and it had to go away to get frame work done, and the parts weren't arriving in a timely manner. He admitted it had been a little neglected with the weather we're having. And he said that the insurance company is on him to get it done as well. Well, yeah! They're paying for my rental car! So far, I've had the dang thing for 42 days. I can't imagine how much that is going to cost the insurance company. It's costing me $756 so far in the $18/day insurance alone! But I dare take it off because of the morons that I can't trust not to follow me so darn closely in horrible weather quite yet. *sigh* Needless to say, I had a hormone-induced temper tantrum in the car on the way to the chiropractor after I hung up the phone with the auto body guy. I bawled my eyes out, and I called Kevin to pout to him too. I just want my car back! I want the world to revolve around me and my Escape! :)

Catching up in pictures

I know, I've been a bad blogger. I feel bad, I really do. But here's a post in pictures to catch you up with what has happened over the last few days.

In short, Christmas Eve was spent at Kev's Grandma L's. We saw Kev's cousin's son Tyler, who used to be a baby, but is now 3. We only see them at Christmas, and to see that he was a kiddo who was talking and playing with monster trucks on the floor was a real change from the 2 year old we saw last year.

Christmas day was spent at Kev's Grandma F's. Here we saw another cousin's kiddo, Mason, who is 2, I think. This is was also a crazy change from last Christmas.

On Saturday morning, we headed down to Roch to visit my family. We arrived and opened presents immediately. I got a new camera. Now I don't have to rely on Kev to bring his home so I can update my blog. So I practiced using the camera.


The camera has a color tagging function where you can choose a color to tag, and it makes the rest of the picture black and white except for everything that is the color you tagged. For instance: Study of greens:


It was a good time, and even baby got some Christmas presents; a couple pack of onesies and some books to add to the book collection. Baby thanks Grandma :)

Later that night, I went to the local (smoke-free. i heart smoking bans) pub. I invited a bunch of facebook friends I graduated with. About 20-25 showed up throughout the night. It was a lot of fun catching up with everybody. We didn't have a 5 year reunion, so this 9.5 year get together was a good time. Here are some snippets of our good times.




Then Jen and I took a belly picture together. But unfortunately blogger isn't letting me upload it. Boo.

Yesterday, I braved the wintery weather and met up with K mom, L Dawg, and the engaged Sarah and Grant at the Olive Garden. We indulged in soup, salad, and breadsticks and good conversation.


We also found out where the OG stores their cheese graters.


And, lastly, take a good look. This is the baby's room "Before" picture. Although, this is not in it's original state. This is our paint color of choice (as mentioned in previous post, "Swimming" by Sherwinn Williams). We've removed the carpet and trim to make room for the white trim tomorrow and the "wren" colored carpet on Friday. I shall post pictures when those two projects are completed.




And now I must be off to the chiropractor. Cross your everything that I get my Escape back today. I will be back later to post the weekly update, with belly pictures this time :)

23 weeks: Merry Christmas

My primary source of produce-comparisons slacks when it gets this late. A papaya=weeks 22-24. Thus, I rely on my secondary source for a few weeks. A little overlap here, with an adjective placed in front of it. This week, Rain is a large mango. He's just over 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. His sense of movement is well developed now, and if I dance around, he can feel it. Guess I'll have to hit the nightclub this weekend and shake my groove thing. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that he's hearing are preparing him for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now--me yelling at students :), Rocket barking, loud piano music--probably won't faze him when he hears them when he's out here with us.

No belly pic available. Kev's camera is not dans la maison. It's not here to capture memories of my girth, nor memories of Rocket opening his Christmas presents this morning. We got him a stuffed animal dog wrapped with a treat to coax him to tear open the wrapping paper. It didn't exactly work. We're interested to see whether he'll rip the dog to shreds like he did with his elephant when he was a pup:

Or be nice to him and keep him in one piece. And he also got a new tennis ball. Traditionally (and by tradition, I mean the last 2 Christmases because that is the extent of his existence), we get him a can of 3 tennis balls on Christmas, and give him 1. When he bites a hole in it, we throw it away and give him the next, and then the next. Then he doesn't get another can until next Christmas.

What did I get for Christmas? 1 of 2 things I asked for. I got Kevin's completed baby name list! We compared name lists today. There was 1 common boy name and 3 common girl names. From there, we came up with a list of 6 boy names and 5 girl names. Now we need to try them out and see which ones we love and which ones we don't. Wanna know what the names are? Too bad. We're not telling. You'll know in April, though. Muhahahaha! And what did I not get? My fixed Escape. The auto body shop said perhaps by the new year. Good gravy, I hope so.

And can't forget Kevin. What did he get? He gets the privilege of not having to carry his child. And a happy wife. A happy wife is a happy life, so that's a perfect give in and of itself.

Gender predictors

These are kind of fun:

Just mommies gender quiz
75% chance: Girl

Ancient Chinese Gender Predictor
Boy

Babyman
Boy

Sex Ratio
90% chance: Girl

The Bump Chinese Gender Calendar
Girl

Baby Gender Predictor
70% chance: Girl

Old Wives Tales
73% chance: Girl

Wedding Ring
Boy

Childbirth.org quiz
86% chance: Girl

In summary: 6 out of 9 (66%) predict girl, 3 out of 9 (33%) predict boy.

Two interesting points to mention:
1. Not sure why, but most of the websites that picked girl gave me a percent chance. The websites that predicted boy never gave me a percentage.
2. The last few mentioned orange juice. Oranges are my newest "must-have." Not so sure I'd call it a craving, but I just love them so much right now. I eat one every day, and now that we have OJ in our fridge, I drink that in the morning. Shhh don't tell my midwife though. She doesn't want me drinking juice, the silly lady.

A happening

I saw the baby kicking today! She was kicking pretty hard, so I looked down, and within a few seconds a little bump rose and fell. It was super cool. Hopefully she'll do it more tonight so Kevin can see. He felt her kicking again last night. Lovin' it!

I'm feeling the itch to register soon. Within the next month, at least. I spent some of the snowy morning today researching cribs, mattresses, and rockers/gliders in my Baby Bargains book. It was a bit overwhelming, but made me change my mind about our previously made-up minds regarding the crib. At first, we were turned off by the selection at Babies R Us. Cheaply made furniture does not float our boat. We considered going the Amish route, which was WAY too expensive. Then we considered the homemade route by asking my dad to build the crib, which after today, I realized wasn't a good idea because of safety concerns. Not that I think my dad would build a deathtrap, but because the cribs you buy have to pass certain safety standards. I realized today that there's so much more to it than having a crib made in the brown maple we love. Even down to the nitty gritty things like hardware, it's better to have something that I know has passed safety standards. So, we will buck it up and buy a decent-quality crib at Babies R Us and be happy.

We braved the snow this evening to go to Wal-Mart for groceries. As usual, I wandered the produce looking for the food item that represents my baby this week. I had never paid much attention to papayas or spaghetti squash before, but holy moly they are big. I held it up to my stomach (and when I do this, I wonder if people are wondering what the heck I'm doing), and I told Kevin I was unsure about pushing something that size out. He was so kind to remind me that Raina has many more weeks to grow, and she'll only get bigger. I weighed the produce, too, and was semi-comforted that they weighed a hefty 3 pounds, which was 2 pounds heavier than Raina is right now.

22 weeks: Mama Paquita

Mama Paquita
Mama Paquita buy your baby a banana,
A ripe banana, and a papaya.
A ripe papaya that your baby will enjoy!

Rain is the size of a papaya (or a spaghetti squash) these days, which is the equivalent of 11 inches, and we know he weighs at least 15 oz. His nipples are sprouting, and his cute little face is fully formed, including his eyes. He has lanugo (fine hair) that covers his body and deep wrinkles, which will fill in when he adds a padding of fat. His pancreas is developing steadily. He can now hear outside noises. Last night Kevin and I read "10 Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" to him. The book was a gift from a friend. I was the narrator, and Kevin was unenthusiastically the doctor. A very annoyed one, to say the least, even though he had the easiest part. Hopefully the baby enjoyed it, though. Rain is starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12-14 hours a day.

I may start noticing stretch marks at this point. Let's hope I've kept them at bay. I've been using Jafra's Royal Almond Body Oil religiously lately, as I've heard that it works to keep stretch marks away. I also notice I lose less hair, which makes my already thick hair thicker. After baby's born, I might lose the excess in clumps. Scary! My rings are getting harder and harder to take off each night. I'm not sure what I'm going to do--wear them as a necklace, or buy an inexpensive, plain band in a size bigger to wear until my rings fit again. I just don't want people staring at me--pregnant, no rings--wondering if I'm an unwed mother.

Ultrasound update and more

'Ello there! Just wanted to stop in and tell you about our ultrasound we had on Friday.

First up, I only gained 1 pound since my last visit. Grand total: 11 pounds. The baby is measuring right where she should be. She weighs 15 ounces. I'm not sure on the length. Her heartbeat was 124 bpm. We saw the four-chamber heart pumping, the stomach, the kidneys, the spine, and all sorts of other cool stuff. It was amazing to see her in there moving around. At that moment, she was head down with her legs up and around my belly button. The doctor seemed to deem everything as normal and working beautifully. We didn't get to see Raina's face because she was facing towards my back, but that's okay.

My favorite part was when we saw her little hand waving at us.

The latest baby dream went a little something like this: It was our first day home with the baby, who was a boy (again). He needed his diaper changed, and it was the first poopy one, so I called Kevin over to come and help me so he could learn. I set the baby on the floor in this tiny, wood-paneled room, and looked up to see if Kevin was coming. When I looked down, the baby was a white piece of paper cut out like a gingerbread man. He had brownish yellow stains on him, which was the poop. We got him all cleaned up (at least I assume, because I don't remember this part of the dream), and put him down for a nap. Then the next thing I remember about the dream is sitting around a table talking to people, and all of a sudden thinking, "Oh my gosh! I have a baby! I can't just sit here! I need to go make sure he's okay!"

My parents came up on Friday night and stayed until just about an hour ago. My mom and I spent almost all of yesterday baking cookies (and this is after reducing our numbers from last year). Meanwhile, Kev and my dad worked on the baby's room. They tore the carpet out, and tried to find a way to put an overhead light in the ceiling. The ugliness and uselessness of the room in its present state is more than enough to motivate us to get the new trim and carpet installed ASAP. Maybe (just maybe) over Christmas break I'll spend some time painting the trim, since it should arrive by then. Then all we need is some carpet, a closet organization system of some sort, and we're ready to move in!

Today, my brother, Kathy, and Zach came up to celebrate my dad's and my birthday. We had quite the feast (ribs, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, fruit salad, bread), and now we have quite the leftovers! 'Twas grand times.

Just say it.

There's no doubt I'm showing.

Week 21: Bananarama

Raina is the size of a banana this week! Up until this point, the produce measurements were taken from crown to rump. This week starts the head to toe measurements. She's about 10.5 inches long and weighs about 12.7 ounces. We'll find out for sure on Friday at our REAL ultrasound how she's measuring up compared to her peers and bananas. She's busy gulping several ounces of amniotic fluid every day, both for hydration and nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. Her taste buds are actually working now. Apparently, some studies show that after birth, babies are most interested in tastes they've already experienced through amniotic fluid. Do you think it's true or they're just saying that so it makes me feel guilty for not eating enough vegetables?

Kevin felt Raina move for the first time last night! She was kicking away, so I put my hand on my belly where the kicks were, and felt one on the outside (as I have felt before), so I called Kevin over, and he finally felt it too! It was just one little tap, but he was pretty excited about it, in his own little way.

My dear friend Jessica, who is 28 weeks pg, and I got a chance to meet up this past weekend. We hit up Babies R Us and the Mall of America for some baby and maternity shopping. Mostly, we discussed the essentials. She found a crib she liked and ordered. Then we moved on to strollers and infant car seats and made a big decision together in those aisles. Nothing big--just what we plan on using for the stroller. We're both pretty excited about it, though. She bought me the book Baby Bargains for my birthday/Christmas/congrats, you're having a baby! gift. Surprisingly, when I got home and read the section on strollers, the authors agreed with us! We are so smart. Our plan is:
This:

Plus this (or something like it, you get the idea):

Equals this, being used by Naomi Watts. Click on the picture to see the whole thing.:

We figured that since we'll have infants in the summer time, what's the use for the big, heavy travel system when the baby is just a bitty thing? This is the compact way to go.

We also took some time out and paused by her Christmas tree to take a picture together. Me=20.5 weeks, Her=28 weeks. She knows how to turn her body to be flattering, and she's wearing black, which is why you can't see her cute, cute belly.

21 week belly pictures to come soon!

Fo reals?

A parent of one of my students told me today that I've popped. I have noticed that my stomach is noticeably hard. Every week my belly button gets shallower and shallower, rounder and rounder. I had a dream a few nights ago that my belly button popped out and looked like a mushroom. Scary thought.