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.

Midwife appointment

I re-scheduled my appointment to be today instead of tomorrow. So...here's the stats:

My weight: up 1.5 lbs since 2 weeks ago. This is "perfect" and puts me at a total weight gain of 18-19ish lbs
BP: good
Glucose results: 114 (140 is where we worry, so no worries there!)
Hemoglobin: good
Baby's HB: 140 bpm
Belly measurement: On track
Baby's position at time of appointment: Head down. Feet are on my right side, where all the big movements are. I still feel fluttering in the upper middle and lower left though. My midwife said that if the baby is head down at 30 weeks, he/she will usually stay that way. Let's hope so, shall we?

I also turned in my pre-admission form and officially signed up for childbirth education classes, which will be held the evening of March 13 & all day March 14.

I was given my next piece of homework: Birth plan. It's not due until after we finish up class. I think I know at least half of my preferences on the sheet right now though. However, I will hold off until I learn more.

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!

Psudo Nephew is here!

Jess' baby, Nolan David P., was born today, weighing just over 5 lbs. I can't wait to meet and hug the little peanut man!

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!