Dear Everyone, I can't stand that the date says November 3rd for EVERY SINGLE POST. Therefore this blog is moving to mommybecoming.blogspot.com Hopefully we will not have this problem again. Unfortunatly I think you will need to re-sign up as "followers"
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
December 8. Fifteen weeks and 3 days, Moving
Baby is the size of an apple this week! If I were to shine a flashlight right on my belly, the baby would be able to tell the difference in light. Baby is also apparently breathing/swallowing amniotic fluid.
We moved last weekend. What a job! It went very smoothly for a move; I had everything packed except the cold goods and I had most everything stacked out in the garage. Nathan got home late Friday night and on Saturday morning the men came to move us. Our Pastor and his dad Terry came with their trucks, then Melissa’s husband Thomas and Marshall, another guy from church, came with Marshall’s truck and a trailer. They got everything moved over in one load, with the exception of our grill and Nathan’s motorcycle, which we’ll have to go back for. I spent Saturday and Sunday unpacking. Melissa was a huge help to me—she’s definitely a girl after my own heart in organization and cleanliness, among other things. I would say we’re about half way unpacked, but I have my entire kitchen and bathroom done, the living room mostly done, and the bedroom mostly done. What’s left is pretty much stuff like books (I have to wait to buy bookshelves), knickknacks, and various other random stuff.
And in answer to prayer, Marshall gave us a fridge, washer and dryer, and couch and loveseat. All we need (well, I’d like) a desk, dressers, and baby furniture. We also need some kind of outdoor dog run for Lily.
Melissa is staying with me for the week (Yay! Girl time!) and we’ll be able to spend time together, and hopefully do some more unpacking and make some Christmas cookies. As I mentioned, Nathan was home for the weekend which was incredibly helpful as it took the stress off me about “I’m not supposed to lift over X amount of weight but this is my crap so I should be helping…” In fact, he put me in time out at one point on Saturday morning, which I thought was funny. He stayed until after his jury duty on Monday morning, and left last night. His company was going to keep him gone until the 18th, but that’s when we’re supposed to leave for Ohio for Christmas with my family. Plus, our ultrasound is on the 17th and of course he really wants to go to that with me. I guess he called one of his bosses and they knocked down the number of stores he’s supposed to do from 4 to 2, which will put him home either this coming weekend or early next week. They’re not typically too flexible about work trips, but I’m reasonably sure that Nathan wasn’t being too flexible either. He’d already asked for the time off, and he really didn’t want to miss finding out what Baby is OR delaying our trip start. I’m so incredibly excited for Christmas and seeing my family! Mom says she’s got a lot of stuff planned and that I’m going to sleep all the way back to Texas. I told her that was fine since it’s a long trip!
Need blogger help
Can any of you guys who know blogspot well tell my why in the world every single post is dated November 3rd? And how I can fix it?
Moving!
Tomorrow we are moving!! I am so very excited and happy. We have been living for the past several months with Nathan’s sister and her husband. (We have not been mooching. We have always paid at least half of everything.) This is because we had decided at the beginning of the year to buy a house, and when we talked to a mortgage broker he told us we need to do credit repair on Nathan for 6 months. The lease on our rental house was up, and since Nathan’s sister was about to have a baby and needed financial help, it was decided that we’d live in their spare room and it would benefit both of us. Unfortunately, at the end of the sixth month period, we were 10, count them 10, points short of the desired credit score. “Wait another 3 months,” the mortgage broker said. “Let’s rent a place for a while,” I said. We decided to wait and stayed there for another three months. Then we had the credit checked again and we were 1 measly point under. At that point (mid-November) we decided to look for a place to rent . The living situation there had been becoming more and more difficult, and it truly was a “need” to find a rental house. The difficulty in finding a rental was that it had to be pet-friendly (We have a Basset hound and 2 cats), it had to have either a garage or a locking shed for Nathan’s motorcycle, and it had to be under a certain price.
As God does, he provided us with a place that meets all of those needs! We found a small brick home on the outskirts of town that has a one car garage (but is big enough for my car and Nathan’s motorcycle), is pet friendly, and has three bedrooms! Now, granted, they are small rooms but it is quite sufficient for us! We have a room for us, a room for baby, and a room for all of you who I know will want to come see us and our new little addition to the family! AND it is for a very low price, less than we were paying for the one bedroom house we lived in when we got married. We are moving in on Saturday. Unfortunately, on Monday night (or was it Tuesday?) Nathan got called to work to go to Arizona. We really need the money, so he had to go, which left it up to me to do the packing and figure out the move. For the THIRD TIME!!! I think he plans to go out of town whenever we have to move. So I have spent the past several days packing and trying not to pick up anything too heavy. Melissa is coming to stay with me tonight to help me finish up packing (or to sit around and look pretty depending on her level of pain—she just got a nasty tooth pulled!) and our pastor and his dad (and possibly other men) are coming Saturday morning with their trucks to help us move. Praise God for church family and for all of His provisions!
Here are a few prayer requests:
1) We need a fridge. For free. Please pray someone will be generous. I am really trusting God for this one, cause I’m out of pennies.
2) Please pray that many men with trucks will show up Saturday morning to move us
3) Please pray for my hips. I’ve had trouble with them hurting almost since I got pregnant, and all of the packing and carrying and overdoing it has left it extremely painful for me to walk.
4) We also need furniture (we have a bed!) and a washer and dryer. Obviously we can do craigslist or goodwill or garage sales, and I certainly intend to, but if you could pray that people could give us things that would be such a blessing. They don’t need to be new. A coat of paint is cheap and will work wonders.
As God does, he provided us with a place that meets all of those needs! We found a small brick home on the outskirts of town that has a one car garage (but is big enough for my car and Nathan’s motorcycle), is pet friendly, and has three bedrooms! Now, granted, they are small rooms but it is quite sufficient for us! We have a room for us, a room for baby, and a room for all of you who I know will want to come see us and our new little addition to the family! AND it is for a very low price, less than we were paying for the one bedroom house we lived in when we got married. We are moving in on Saturday. Unfortunately, on Monday night (or was it Tuesday?) Nathan got called to work to go to Arizona. We really need the money, so he had to go, which left it up to me to do the packing and figure out the move. For the THIRD TIME!!! I think he plans to go out of town whenever we have to move. So I have spent the past several days packing and trying not to pick up anything too heavy. Melissa is coming to stay with me tonight to help me finish up packing (or to sit around and look pretty depending on her level of pain—she just got a nasty tooth pulled!) and our pastor and his dad (and possibly other men) are coming Saturday morning with their trucks to help us move. Praise God for church family and for all of His provisions!
Here are a few prayer requests:
1) We need a fridge. For free. Please pray someone will be generous. I am really trusting God for this one, cause I’m out of pennies.
2) Please pray that many men with trucks will show up Saturday morning to move us
3) Please pray for my hips. I’ve had trouble with them hurting almost since I got pregnant, and all of the packing and carrying and overdoing it has left it extremely painful for me to walk.
4) We also need furniture (we have a bed!) and a washer and dryer. Obviously we can do craigslist or goodwill or garage sales, and I certainly intend to, but if you could pray that people could give us things that would be such a blessing. They don’t need to be new. A coat of paint is cheap and will work wonders.
"Things"--in no particular order
Things that make me cry
(And I’ll have you know that 4 months ago, if I’d caught myself crying at any of these things, I would have laughed at myself for being such a girl)
1) Love songs/sad songs/most songs on the country radio station
2) Commercials that picture a parent with their newborn (thanks a lot Huggies!)
3) Reading touching birth stories
4) Reading stories about miscarriages
5) Abortion pictures
6) Deliveries on TLC shows like “I didn’t know I was pregnant” and “Baby Story”, etc.
7) Pretty much anything that has to do with emotion between a mother and her baby.
8) Pretty much any Hallmark commercial
9) Thinking about anyone I love dying
10) Feeling overwhelmed
Things that make me really irritated
1) If I’ve gone too long without eating, I get irritable
2) Being woken up if I’ve already fallen asleep
3) People making my pregnancy into a competition—that doesn’t irritate me it makes me ANGRY!
4) Packing and moving without my husband’s help
Things that make me happy!
(This would be a veeeery long list so I’ll try to cull it down. There are many many things my husband does but I will just pick my favorites)
1) When Nathan puts his hands on my belly and says “Hi baby”
2) When Nathan makes supper because I’m really tired
3) When he says, “Baby, I’m sorry but you need to roll onto your side” (This could be irritating, except I asked him to tell me and he does it sweetly)
4) When Nathan asks me questions about what’s happening with the baby
5) People who give me their old baby stuff for free
6) Moving into a new place
7) Advice from WELL-MEANING people
8) Cloudy, rainy days
9) My church family
10) Nice cool weather
(And I’ll have you know that 4 months ago, if I’d caught myself crying at any of these things, I would have laughed at myself for being such a girl)
1) Love songs/sad songs/most songs on the country radio station
2) Commercials that picture a parent with their newborn (thanks a lot Huggies!)
3) Reading touching birth stories
4) Reading stories about miscarriages
5) Abortion pictures
6) Deliveries on TLC shows like “I didn’t know I was pregnant” and “Baby Story”, etc.
7) Pretty much anything that has to do with emotion between a mother and her baby.
8) Pretty much any Hallmark commercial
9) Thinking about anyone I love dying
10) Feeling overwhelmed
Things that make me really irritated
1) If I’ve gone too long without eating, I get irritable
2) Being woken up if I’ve already fallen asleep
3) People making my pregnancy into a competition—that doesn’t irritate me it makes me ANGRY!
4) Packing and moving without my husband’s help
Things that make me happy!
(This would be a veeeery long list so I’ll try to cull it down. There are many many things my husband does but I will just pick my favorites)
1) When Nathan puts his hands on my belly and says “Hi baby”
2) When Nathan makes supper because I’m really tired
3) When he says, “Baby, I’m sorry but you need to roll onto your side” (This could be irritating, except I asked him to tell me and he does it sweetly)
4) When Nathan asks me questions about what’s happening with the baby
5) People who give me their old baby stuff for free
6) Moving into a new place
7) Advice from WELL-MEANING people
8) Cloudy, rainy days
9) My church family
10) Nice cool weather
Fire
Growing up in the bush in Africa I saw a lot of fires. Bush fires that you work frantically to beat out, house fires with the roofs ablaze and people screaming at the top of their lungs. Fires from lightning, from a cooking fire, from a stray spark. My brother, when he was little, he was terrified of fire. If we watched a movie with a fire scene we had to turn the TV off and fast-forward so he wouldn’t see it. But I wasn’t scared of fire. Dad (and Smokey the Bear) taught us to respect it and to be careful with it, but not to be afraid of it.
When I was 19 I was working in Niger as a dorm parent and one afternoon when I was making an after school snack for the kids I was heating up oil. I turned to the other counter with my back to the oil for just a few seconds and by the time I turned back around, the oil was on fire. There was no fire blanket, and the fire extinguisher was wired closed (REALLY? Who does that?) By the time the fire got put out the above-stove microwave was melted and there was soot EVERYWHERE. I had a huge mess to clean up, and I learned a lesson about checking the fire extinguishers, but I still wasn’t really scared of fire.
In fact, I enjoy fire. I love sitting around a bonfire or a fireplace and watching the flames dance and tell stories. Some of my favorite memories revolve around a bonfire. I guess I didn’t realize that subconsciously one of those past experiences must’ve made an impact. A couple years ago I was watching a movie and fell asleep. Some time later I was woken by the sound of a fire alarm. I pulled on my shoes, grabbed my jacket, and was headed for the door when I realized my friends weren’t moving. I urged them to get out of the house and they looked puzzled until one of them told me it was just the movie. A few weeks ago Nathan was watching TV and I fell asleep and woke up to a flickering red light on the wall. Heart pounding and adrenalin racing I bolted upright just to realize that it was the colors from the TV. Then last night a sound woke me up around 4 or 5 and I saw the light of a flickering flame one the wall. Again, I got a rush of adrenaline and my heart started pounding—the fight or flight response—until I rolled over and saw that Nathan had come home from work, and he had his lit Zippo sitting on the nightstand as a light while he plugged his phone in. “Nathan!” I gasped, and rolled back over.
I don’t know if this keeps happening because a lot of the house fires that stand out the most clearly in my mind happened after dark, or if this is just my brain’s way of standing guard. Either way, I could sure do without the adrenaline rush in the middle of the night. I takes a while to get back to sleep!
When I was 19 I was working in Niger as a dorm parent and one afternoon when I was making an after school snack for the kids I was heating up oil. I turned to the other counter with my back to the oil for just a few seconds and by the time I turned back around, the oil was on fire. There was no fire blanket, and the fire extinguisher was wired closed (REALLY? Who does that?) By the time the fire got put out the above-stove microwave was melted and there was soot EVERYWHERE. I had a huge mess to clean up, and I learned a lesson about checking the fire extinguishers, but I still wasn’t really scared of fire.
In fact, I enjoy fire. I love sitting around a bonfire or a fireplace and watching the flames dance and tell stories. Some of my favorite memories revolve around a bonfire. I guess I didn’t realize that subconsciously one of those past experiences must’ve made an impact. A couple years ago I was watching a movie and fell asleep. Some time later I was woken by the sound of a fire alarm. I pulled on my shoes, grabbed my jacket, and was headed for the door when I realized my friends weren’t moving. I urged them to get out of the house and they looked puzzled until one of them told me it was just the movie. A few weeks ago Nathan was watching TV and I fell asleep and woke up to a flickering red light on the wall. Heart pounding and adrenalin racing I bolted upright just to realize that it was the colors from the TV. Then last night a sound woke me up around 4 or 5 and I saw the light of a flickering flame one the wall. Again, I got a rush of adrenaline and my heart started pounding—the fight or flight response—until I rolled over and saw that Nathan had come home from work, and he had his lit Zippo sitting on the nightstand as a light while he plugged his phone in. “Nathan!” I gasped, and rolled back over.
I don’t know if this keeps happening because a lot of the house fires that stand out the most clearly in my mind happened after dark, or if this is just my brain’s way of standing guard. Either way, I could sure do without the adrenaline rush in the middle of the night. I takes a while to get back to sleep!
14 weeks, 2 days
Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.
We had quite an eventful weekend. We stayed with our friends Melissa and Thomas from Wednesday night until Friday afternoon. Thursday Melissa and I went to help with a Thanksgiving dinner the church was putting on for the homeless, but basically our entire congregation was there. Which is great, but sometimes too many hands just makes more mess. We stayed for about 10 minutes and then left. I think they should’ve had people sign up for shifts, rather than all show up at once. So we went home and got our dinner started, then went down the road to Melissa’s Grandparents house. They had some family drama, but I told Melissa that we were avoiding ours this year and we’d much rather watch theirs! We stayed for an hour or two and then went back to their place. We had our dinner late in the evening and Melissa’s mom and her boyfriend came over. It was very nice and relaxing.
Friday I had to work but my boss let me leave early. I went back to M&T’s and we hung out for a while, then Nathan and I packed up our stuff and took Lily (our basset hound) back to our house. Then we met up with M&T and went to the big Christmas parade in downtown Fort Worth! It’s an awesome parade—definitely the biggest this small town girl has ever seen! After the parade they light a ginormous Christmas tree right in the middle of the city. We received an unexpected blessing in the way of 4 tickets to sit! The planners or whoever line the streets with seats but you have to pay to sit in them—which is expensive! But this lady was driving along next to us and just offered us tickets, and she had four so we could all sit! How cool is that? (Disclaimer: I did not take these photos. I found them on the internet--thanks Mr. G.oogle!)
Saturday we went out to Nathan’s parents house so he could work on his truck. He wanted to go back out there Sunday after church but it was raining, so we went back to the house and sat around for the rest of the day. And I found out that Mellissa and Thomas are moving away.
Friday I had to work but my boss let me leave early. I went back to M&T’s and we hung out for a while, then Nathan and I packed up our stuff and took Lily (our basset hound) back to our house. Then we met up with M&T and went to the big Christmas parade in downtown Fort Worth! It’s an awesome parade—definitely the biggest this small town girl has ever seen! After the parade they light a ginormous Christmas tree right in the middle of the city. We received an unexpected blessing in the way of 4 tickets to sit! The planners or whoever line the streets with seats but you have to pay to sit in them—which is expensive! But this lady was driving along next to us and just offered us tickets, and she had four so we could all sit! How cool is that? (Disclaimer: I did not take these photos. I found them on the internet--thanks Mr. G.oogle!)
Saturday we went out to Nathan’s parents house so he could work on his truck. He wanted to go back out there Sunday after church but it was raining, so we went back to the house and sat around for the rest of the day. And I found out that Mellissa and Thomas are moving away.
13 weeks, 2 days
Baby is about the size of a peach this week! Only three and a half more weeks until we get an ultrasound to try to find out the little shrimp's gender. Be a good baby and cooperate for Mama and Daddy!Saturday was my birthday. Nathan gave me some movies and a hair straightener which was what I asked for. His work had called and said he was going to Florida (and all points to Nathan—he asked me if it was okay if he left on my birthday and I told him yes because this is his off season and he doesn’t get a lot of work) So I had to drop him off at the office and then I went home and had a pity party in my bedroom. Then Andrea (SIL) and Daphne (MIL) got me a cake and cnadles and I was sitting there playing with Alie (neice) when Nathan walked through the front door! He said he didn’t have to leave until Sunday morning. What a waste of a pity party, I tell ya! So we went to the mall, and then to church because I had praise practice, and then we went out to eat and went home to watch one of my movies. We had planned to go into downtown to eat and walk around but I was too tired. It was a good birthday, once Nathan came home.
Here are a couple of belly pictures. 4 weeks...
10 weeks...
And 13 weeks!
12 Week Dr Appointment
Yesterday was Baby’s three month doctor appointment. We got to hear the heartbeat, and Dr. H felt my uterus and showed us where it is, and then…drumroll please…announced that we will be having our ultrasound at our next appointment! I will be almost 17 weeks so if Baby cooperates we will find out the gender, and we will get to see it and hear its heartbeat. This appointment will be the day before we leave for Ohio for Christmas, so if all goes well I’ll be able to tell my family what it is. I’m also hoping that by that time I will be feeling the baby move, although others probably won’t be able to feel it yet. A childhood friend of Nathan’s sister has offered to give us some kind of home Doppler so my family will be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat as well. LOTS to be excited about next month. And, Saturday is my birthday!
On a less pleasant note, there is no heat at work today and it is very cold outside. It is 65 degrees in this office, people. These are not humane conditions. Prisoners of war are treated better than this. This is ridiculous!
On a less pleasant note, there is no heat at work today and it is very cold outside. It is 65 degrees in this office, people. These are not humane conditions. Prisoners of war are treated better than this. This is ridiculous!
12 weeks, 2 days
According to babycenter.com, this week: The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.Nathan's cousin's girlfriend had a baby shower this weekend, which was fun. She's having a little boy. Afterwards we went out to a fish fry at Cousin G's house. Cousin G is my favorite of Nathan's cousins. He and his wife have a little girl and a little boy, both of which are just too cute and funny! We had catfish and shrimp breaded with Zataran's and deep fried in a turkey fryer outside. It was SOOOO good! Especially the shrimp. Sunday after church I talked Nathan into trying out a little Mom and Pop cafe for lunch. They actually served RC in canning jars! I finally got to try fried green tomatoes, and had a chicken fried steak sandwich for lunch, and he (surprise surprise) had a burger. I thought it was good food and a cute atmosphere, but he didn't like his french fries. I love trying out little podunk eateries rather than hitting up Jack in the Box. We went down to his parents so he could work on his truck, but around 4 it started pouring. So we walked down to his Grandma's so I could play with my cats and he could watch the Cowboys game. Oh! I also went to a garage sale with Melissa on Saturday morning and scored a large box of maternity clothes for $15, about 15 bottles (4 oz size) for $2, a large coleman cooler for $5, a couple blankets for the outreach ministry at church, a christmas present for my neice, 6 pictures that are from England, and all for only $35. The pictures from England are the exact same ones that my parents bought after our boat ride on the Thames when we took our trip to London when I was 10. They were very expensive in London, but I got them with frames for $0.50 apeice. Yay for good deals and childhood memories!
As usual, the weekend was far too short.
Stroller
My mommy bought us a Graco travel system yesterday!! I’m not sure if she found it on craigslist or if she got it on the Cedarville classifieds but she got a really good deal on it. It’s used, but looks to me like it’s in perfectly good condition. And it'll work for a boy OR a girl.
Mostly this post is to praise my honey for being so helpful. He makes our dinner quite frequently, he asks me if I want him to do anything around the house (and if I do ask he typically does it), he gets me ginger ale in the evening when I don’t feel good, and he’s just being all-around great. I appreciate you babe! Thanks for all your help.
Mostly this post is to praise my honey for being so helpful. He makes our dinner quite frequently, he asks me if I want him to do anything around the house (and if I do ask he typically does it), he gets me ginger ale in the evening when I don’t feel good, and he’s just being all-around great. I appreciate you babe! Thanks for all your help.Night on the town
Saturday night Nathan and I and friends went to Uno’s Chicago Pizza in downtown Fort Worth. It was SOOOOO excellently yummy. That’s my new favorite pizza. The crust is flaky and buttery goodness, the sauce was great, and it had lots of cheese. MMMmm. It was really fun to walk around downtown at night. It seems like the trendy thing to do and there are art galleries and street singers and it’s just a neat experience. There are carriage rides and people dressed up and, well, people not dressed much at all! When my brother was here we went to a comedy club downtown and took him. I won the tickets through a work thing. I wasn’t really impressed with the comedy, but then I’m not impressed with most comedy because of the crudity. It was, however, a neat experience and something that I’d never done before. Sunday after church we went to Nathan’s mom and dad’s so that he could work on his truck (76 chevy longbed-being-converted-to-shortbed) He worked on his truck, and I went inside and watched the Hallmark channel. They were doing a marathon event of the movies off Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly series, which I read many moons ago.
I forgot to take pictures, but I did get some more clothes. My mom send me a package for my birthday. I got a shirt that is the same one as the one Aunt Nancy bought me (the teal one) but in one size up, and a pair of brown slacks. She also send me a couple of books. One of them is really special because all the preggo’s who have read it before me have written in it about their pregnancy. It’s kind of a devotional book with a little section for each day of pregnancy. It’s really neat, but I didn’t get far because I started seeing comments in my mom’s handwriting and then I started boo-hooing about how I want my mom. So I’ll return to that one on another day. Mom also enclosed a letter that she wrote for my baby, which is very special. Then Mom called and said she’d found me LOTS of things at goodwill. She sent me pictures but you know how phone pictures are. I want to see them in real life when they get here. My MIL, Daphne, bought the baby a Halloween costume for next year. I haven’t decided how I feel about Halloween yet. Nathan grew up trick or treating and celebrating Halloween, and I grew up NOT trick or treating. We carved pumpkins, and celebrated harvest time, but not Halloween. I guess I need to sit down and really think about how I feel from a perspective as a Christian. Many of the churches around here have a “Harvest Festival” on the night of Halloween and in my humble opinion that seems like a much better idea.
I forgot to take pictures, but I did get some more clothes. My mom send me a package for my birthday. I got a shirt that is the same one as the one Aunt Nancy bought me (the teal one) but in one size up, and a pair of brown slacks. She also send me a couple of books. One of them is really special because all the preggo’s who have read it before me have written in it about their pregnancy. It’s kind of a devotional book with a little section for each day of pregnancy. It’s really neat, but I didn’t get far because I started seeing comments in my mom’s handwriting and then I started boo-hooing about how I want my mom. So I’ll return to that one on another day. Mom also enclosed a letter that she wrote for my baby, which is very special. Then Mom called and said she’d found me LOTS of things at goodwill. She sent me pictures but you know how phone pictures are. I want to see them in real life when they get here. My MIL, Daphne, bought the baby a Halloween costume for next year. I haven’t decided how I feel about Halloween yet. Nathan grew up trick or treating and celebrating Halloween, and I grew up NOT trick or treating. We carved pumpkins, and celebrated harvest time, but not Halloween. I guess I need to sit down and really think about how I feel from a perspective as a Christian. Many of the churches around here have a “Harvest Festival” on the night of Halloween and in my humble opinion that seems like a much better idea.
11 weeks, 2 days
According to babycenter.com, Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden.She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming
A lot of the first trimester symptoms are starting to ease off a little. I’m usually only queasy at night now, rather than all day. I’m still really tired, and my hips hurt very badly. I actually got a night last week where I didn’t have to get up to go to the bathroom. And it seems like even though I’m tired, I haven’t slept well since about five weeks. I wake up several times through the night and wake up wished I could sleep another five hours! Sometimes it would be nice to be a cat. Eat, sleep, play a little, sleep, eat, sleep, sleep, sleep…
Overall I enjoy being pregnant. It’s not always fun, but I like it. I was trying to explain it to Nathan but I don’t think he understands. It feels like I’m doing what I was created to do, and for the first time I might like my body. I like the feeling of life inside me, and taking care of it for months. I’m excited to feel movement and to get a real “baby bump”. Of course , around month nine I’m told that I will wish the baby belly would NOT be quite so big, and that the long-anticipated movements will then be bruising my ribs and making me wet my pants. Haha, well, I can enjoy it now!
Overall I enjoy being pregnant. It’s not always fun, but I like it. I was trying to explain it to Nathan but I don’t think he understands. It feels like I’m doing what I was created to do, and for the first time I might like my body. I like the feeling of life inside me, and taking care of it for months. I’m excited to feel movement and to get a real “baby bump”. Of course , around month nine I’m told that I will wish the baby belly would NOT be quite so big, and that the long-anticipated movements will then be bruising my ribs and making me wet my pants. Haha, well, I can enjoy it now!
Stuff for Baby Mama
I'm not the only preggo at work. One of my supervisor's, Kristine, is pregnant and due in late Jan/early Feb and Jenny, who works downstairs, is also due around then. Yesterday Kristine gave me two of her books that she no longer wanted, as this is her last baby.
I started reading The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy last night and so far it's hilarious. It's the best pregnancy book I've read yet. I will give it a more in-depth review when I'm finished with it. I haven't looked at the baby name book yet, since we already have a couple picked out, but I'll get to it eventually. Then Jenny sent me a link on "uddercovers" http://www.uddercovers.com/ along with a discount code. With my mom's advice I decided to go ahead and get the cover in the color I wanted. I also decided to get the set instead of just the cover, for a $5 difference. The cover has a piece of hard plastic in the neckline so that you can look at your baby, and also has an adjustable neck strap. Mom said that when babies get bigger they flail their arms and legs and will knock a blanket off, so she recommended the neck strap. Plus it's pretty.
The set also comes with a pair of breast pads and a bracelet that helps you keep track of what side you last nursed on, at what time, and for how long.
For all of this, ladies and gentlemen, I paid a grand total of $13.95 after shipping. I saved a total of $43.85, because the item was on sale and then I had the discount code from Jenny. Not a bad deal, I think. Then the website also sells a ten pack of breast pads for $32.95 plus $8.95 shipping. With that same discount code, when I order them next week they will only cost me $9.90--shipping included. I did a little price comparison: Target, 3 pair, $17.99, Babies r Us, Avent 3 pair (with all bad recommendations), $6.99. So I'm getting a huge deal. I may even order a couple of packs. I love a great deal!
I started reading The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy last night and so far it's hilarious. It's the best pregnancy book I've read yet. I will give it a more in-depth review when I'm finished with it. I haven't looked at the baby name book yet, since we already have a couple picked out, but I'll get to it eventually. Then Jenny sent me a link on "uddercovers" http://www.uddercovers.com/ along with a discount code. With my mom's advice I decided to go ahead and get the cover in the color I wanted. I also decided to get the set instead of just the cover, for a $5 difference. The cover has a piece of hard plastic in the neckline so that you can look at your baby, and also has an adjustable neck strap. Mom said that when babies get bigger they flail their arms and legs and will knock a blanket off, so she recommended the neck strap. Plus it's pretty.
The set also comes with a pair of breast pads and a bracelet that helps you keep track of what side you last nursed on, at what time, and for how long.
For all of this, ladies and gentlemen, I paid a grand total of $13.95 after shipping. I saved a total of $43.85, because the item was on sale and then I had the discount code from Jenny. Not a bad deal, I think. Then the website also sells a ten pack of breast pads for $32.95 plus $8.95 shipping. With that same discount code, when I order them next week they will only cost me $9.90--shipping included. I did a little price comparison: Target, 3 pair, $17.99, Babies r Us, Avent 3 pair (with all bad recommendations), $6.99. So I'm getting a huge deal. I may even order a couple of packs. I love a great deal!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Maternity Clothes
My mom wants a post about the maternity clothes I have so far. I had bought myself a pair of pants and a sweater. I don't wear the pants yet because they are too big, but my normal pants don't button very comfortably any more either. I could go buy a pair of oh-so-fashionable low rise jeans like many pregnant women wear, since they go below the baby bump, but every time you sit down your butt sticks out of the pants. So they are out for me. What I'm currently doing is doubling a thick rubber band through the loop and hooking it on the button. Then I zip the zipper about halfway.
The thing is, I need extra long shirts to modestly cover the half unzipped pants. I have a few, but not enough for all week. So last weekend I was planning to go buy some longer shirts. But, Friday night I got home and found a package from my Aunt Nancy! As a "Congratulations on the Baby" gift, she sent me two pretty maternity shirts and a rockin' tote she had made for me in Niger. What an answer to prayer! Now I have five shirts that are appropriate for work that also cover the zipper and I have room for my belly to grow. I will shop the second hand baby stores for used maternity wear now. I found a really nice shirt for 5 dollars that was about 40 brand new!
This is one of the shirts from Aunt Nancy. It's a brown and white pattern with smocking on top and a tie in the back. Sorry the pictures on some of these aren't great...the lighting in my bedroom is bad for pictures.
This is the teal one
This is the sweater I got from Motherhood Maternity
This is Nathan modeling the sweater! Hahahahah! He didn't know I was going to put it up here. You can't really tell from the picture but he had a 9 month pillow belly and was waddling with his hands on the small of his back. It was hilarious!
Then there's me wearing the teal shirt (that's the real color) and the shirt with the sweater unbutttoned. These are from Sunday morning before church. It was my week to sing to I was trying to dress up. I ended up not wearing the sweater though because it was warm.
10 weeks 2 days
According to babycenter.com, this week: He's the size of a shrimp-- a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.
I also read in another book that the brain is developing 250,000 neurons PER MINUTE now, isn't that crazy!!!
Usually I get my weekly photos on i-am-pregnant.com but I didn't like the one for week ten so I used google images to find it. What came up on my screen were heartbreaking, graphic images of little 10 week old aborted fetuses It’s not like I haven’t seen those kind of pictures before—I have. But they seemed even more heartbreaking to me now because that’s what I’m carrying inside me. The pictures I put up every week are great, but I don’t know if they are pictures of real babies or if they are wax models. These pictures are obviously real babies. I am not going to put them up here because they are very graphic, but you can find them if you really want to see. They have perfectly formed little fingers and itty bitty toes. Their heads and torsos are still a little out of proportion, but they still look like teeny humans. It makes me cry to see them, murdered because their someone didn’t want to be inconvenienced. I distinctly remember when my dad told me about abortion, and how it was done. We were driving along the road and it was just us. I was either 10 or 11, the year we were in the States and I went to public school, and I was asking him because girls at school were talking about getting them. When he told me what they did it made me so sick I almost had to throw up on the side of the road. Then when I was older I saw this picture somewhere.
This doctor was doing a spinal surgery on this 21 or 22 week old fetus. Legally, he could’ve aborted it, but he chose to heal instead of kill. I don’t mean this post to be morose, but seeing these pictures really hit hard. May God give my baby health and enough time in my uterus to grow and be healthy. And may Obama not pass the health bill, or at least not the part about abortions.
This doctor was doing a spinal surgery on this 21 or 22 week old fetus. Legally, he could’ve aborted it, but he chose to heal instead of kill. I don’t mean this post to be morose, but seeing these pictures really hit hard. May God give my baby health and enough time in my uterus to grow and be healthy. And may Obama not pass the health bill, or at least not the part about abortions.
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