25 Weeks

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25 Weeks- Development according to Babycenter:

Wow… I can’t believe it’s been 25 weeks already. I have had a human inside me for 23 weeks now, I guess. According to the weird counting method. I said to Jonathon the other day, “Can you believe it’s been 25 weeks already???” He was like, “Yeah, I can!” Hmm…. maybe I am more of a pain than I realize.

Speaking of pain, my back is about the same. There are good days and bad days. It is almost always worse in the evening- to the point that I can barely walk and just sit in a chair with a heating pad or lay in a warm bathtub.

Other than that, nothing really new. We were out yesterday and my ankles swelled a lot- I looked like a 50-year-old fat lady. I even called my doctor because it was so sudden but she said that was normal for how many weeks I am, and reminded me to be drinking lots of water- which I try to do! Jonathon reminds me a lot. I have never been a big water drinker so I really have to force myself to do it now.

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. The baby continues to kick a lot and be very busy. She seems to stay awake for really long periods at a time in the evening, but maybe that’s when I notice it because I’m sitting still.

Yeah, this sucks

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Continuing to fight with the wallpaper. Just taking a break now to give my back a rest. It is so much worse than we thought it would be. Went back to Lowe’s and bought some different sandpaper for the poor mangled wall. Got some primer to try to cover up all the patchwork from the people before us.

The wallpaper peels off in little shreds about 1/4 of an inch, after being picked at with my fingernail. Tried water and fabric softener, that didn’t work. Just got back from borrowing a wallpaper steamer from my friend Sarah so now we are trying that. It seems to be working better, but I could kill whoever hung this stuff. It still takes a lot of being picked at, even after the steam.

This is not a one-day project.

Painting the Nursery

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I am determined that we are going to get this nursery painted while we are both off work for Christmas. And get the curtains hung.

The problem is, the people who lived here before us had horrible taste. When we bought the house, one of the things we asked for in our offer was that they replace the PINK carpet in that bedroom with new neutral carpet to match the rest of the house, which they had just recarpeted. WTF- did they think they could just skip that room and nobody would notice? Oh yeah, and the blinds were also pink. The wallpaper? Some ugly dalmation stuff around the top, then pastel stripes and stars on the rest of the walls. They did not hang it right either- it is going to be a pain to finish taking down.

This is what we have to work with:

You can clearly see that the dalmations and balloons don’t match the stars and stripes AT ALL. And that it is peeling off in layers. Fun for us.

But today we went to Lowe’s and bought our lavender paint, and considering that we have become painting professionals since buying this house, it shouldn’t be too bad. Jonathon does the roller and I do all the edges with a brush. Over the past year, we have painted our whole upstairs with the exception of one bathroom and this baby’s room. This week we already finished painting the downstairs and redoing all the baseboards down there. And wow, does my back hurt after that! But I love the satisfaction of painting over someone else’s dirt and knowing that no one has touched these walls except us.

Welcome Baby Midwest!

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My friend Mae just had her baby! A little earlier than expected, but they are all doing well.

Today she went to her weekly ultrasound (33 weeks) and they decided that it would be best for her to stay at the hospital. She had a c-section this afternoon, and their little girl entered the world at 5:08 pm, weighing just 3 pounds 4 ounces!

Congrats to Mae and the whole Midwest family

Baby’s First Christmas– kind of…

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We got our bedding for Christmas- from my parents- the ONE thing that I asked for! For some reason, Babies R Us sells the bedding all in one package for a million dollars instead of selling each item separately. So I knew this would be one of our big items we needed for the baby. I didn’t want to wait to get it at a shower or something because I wanted to start on the nursery sooner. Because I like to have everything now now now!

Here is the stuff we are decorating with- it’s the Paloma pattern from Babies:

It actually looks a little washed out here because I couldn’t use a flash- but the lavender and pink are not as faded looking as they are in this picture. We got a matching blanket to put over the rocking chair, too.
And Jonathon made his first baby-related purchase: This cute bib for me- well I guess it’s really for the baby, huh… but I was excited about it- he put it in my stocking

The in-laws surprised us by sending a gift card to my parents house for us to open on Christmas. Do I feel guilty for complaining that they didn’t get us anything? Maybe a little. But it was still weird how they did it a month after we did “Christmas” with them. Anyway there is more than enough on the gift card for our high chair, which is what they had mentioned us doing with it. I know we don’t need that right away, but I like the pattern that is out right now and don’t want them to replace it with a different, tacky pattern in the meantime. This one will match our kitchen really well.

Merry Christmas

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24 Weeks- and More Baby Stuff!

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According to www.babycenter.com,

How your baby’s growing: Your baby’s growing steadily, gaining about a quarter of a pound since last week, when she was just over a pound. Since she’s almost a foot long, that makes a pretty lean figure, but her body is filling out proportionally and she’ll soon put on more baby fat. Your baby’s skin is thin, translucent, and wrinkled, her brain is growing rapidly, and her taste buds are developing. Her lungs are developing “branches” of the respiratory “tree” and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily.

I just love all the baby stuff. We got a new baby outfit for Christmas from one of Jonathon’s coworkers- and I swear I am not going to post pictures of every single outfit we get, but this one was really cute. The writing on the pants actually says “I love Mommy I love Daddy I love you” all over. And it’s so soft! It’s actually 9 months, so she’ll have to grow into it but it should be perfect for next fall/winter. Also, I mentioned that we got the rocking chair put together, so I thought I’d take a picture of that, too. Don’t mind the messy wall behind it or the junk piled in the closet- we still have a lot of work to do on the nursery before it’s ready!

All Kinds of Cool Stuff

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Yesterday, I went to get a pregnancy massage at The Face and the Body. It was great. And hour of complete relaxation. The exciting part was that I got to be on my stomach (kind of) on the massage table. It had a lot of padding around the sides so that my belly was just underneath me but there was no weight on it. She asked me about any areas that were bothering me, and worked on my back most of the time.

The good news is that in the area where I am having a lot of back pain, she said nothing was “wrong.” My muscles weren’t tight and nothing was out of place. So there’s nothing permanently screwed up with me. The bad news is that she said it’s probably just the position the baby is in that’s irritating it, so there’s really not much I can do about it. Like I can’t just go get adjusted at a chiropractor and have it go away.

Another cool thing yesterday was that I went to dinner with my friend Faith and we exchanged Christmas presents. She got me something off my baby registry that I was really excited about. When we registered for it, we thought it was cool but had never seen anyone actually use one. It’s to keep the baby swaddled- because they always seem to come undone or kick their way out of it!It is super soft and has velcro to hold it closed. The bottom section can just fold down on it’s own so that you can change a diaper without taking the whole thing off. It also has a little slot in the back so that you can buckle a carseat through it or fasted the belt on the swing while they are wearing it. The size we got is Small, so it’s for 7-14 pounds I think… if the baby still likes being swaddled after that size, we can always invest in the next size up. We’ll see how it goes.

Then today, our glider was delivered. It really does look exactly the same as it did online. Seems comfortable enough. I would have preferred that the chair was a little bit deeper, but with my feet on the ottoman it’s just fine. And it looks great next to our furniture- we couldn’t have found a better match!

Belly Pictures- 23 Weeks

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Last night we went to a little Christmas party, so I have some new pictures of the belly. Here is me at our house, getting ready to go and worrying about whether my shirt and pants fit.

This is with my friend Sarah, who is 34 weeks, and my friend Kim, who is 12 weeks. Had to get a pregnant girl photo together!

This is a strange craving

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My current weird craving- something I would never normally eat (at least this much!)

And I haven’t really had many cravings at all lately, so this surprised me:

Potty Training Time ?!?

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Just wanted to make a note that we have officially started to try to potty-train Alison. She has shown much more interest- and actually some success- in the past few days than she has in a long time.

Right now she is wearing those new wet-feel pullups, but when we are at home she mostly goes around naked and that seems to be working well. Although she just holds her pee forever and rarely has actual success on the potty… but the good news is she can control her bladder and isn’t peeing on herself! One small drip today sent her running for the bathroom.

She also told me when we were out to lunch that she needed to go, and I took her to the bathroom. So we’ll see how this goes. Not much peeing on the potty, but no accidents. And she has been drinking a lot, I think. I’m not sure where it’s all going. Except that when I put her in a diaper for nap I know she peed in it while in her crib.

Her Mom and Dad also went out last night and bought her some big girl undies and also some of those padded training underwear for when we get to that point. Right now we are just aiming to get her to actually GO on the potty regularly first.

Edited: Just had to add this- she just came up and hugged me and said, “You’re my best friend in the whole world, Tara!” Awwwwww if that doesn’t make the frustration all worth it

One Week Left

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One week from today… Christmas!!! I can’t believe it is almost here. My favorite holiday.

I am starting to feel a little less frazzled about not being prepared. This weekend, I baked like eight different kinds of Christmas cookies. A tray for Jonathon to take to work. A tray for a Christmas party tomorrow night. Some for my bedresting friend. Lots to take to my parents house on Christmas. Some for Jonathon and his brother to snack on this week so they don’t get into the ones that are meant for Christmas day.

The kitchen was an absolute disaster all day Saturday and Sunday. I should have taken a picture, except I think I would be too embarassed to post it. And I have started noticing “simple” things that are harder because I have a belly in the way. Like reaching the hand mixer in the cabinet above the stove/microwave. I can’t lean toward it as much because my belly hits the oven handle. And it was really hard to get the flour and sugar off the floor of the pantry. Jonathon had to clean the floor for me when I was done– tons of sprinkles and also a spilled bag of salt

I finished wrapping ALMOST all of the gifts last night, so I’m feeling better about that, too. And Jonathon finished his shopping for me and wrapped everything! Yeah! This morning Alison and I went to Target and I picked up the remaining gift items I needed, so I have just a little bit to wrap tonight while we watch tv.

Then on Wednesday, Geoff gets here (Jonathon’s brother). His flight doesn’t come in until like 7 pm, then he leaves at like 8 Sunday morning, so the visit shouldn’t be too long or stressful for anyone. I am expecting him to be an easy houseguest, I just don’t particularly have the energy or motivation to play hostess right now.

And the back pain this weekend! We went to drive around and look at Christmas lights on Friday night, and my back hurt sooooo bad in the car. Saturday night was bad, too… to the point that I was having trouble walking and getting in and out of bed. Today it’s completely fine. Hopefully it will be one of those things that just vanishes, like my heartburn. I haven’t had that for a while. Knock on wood.

Baby’s First Sleeper

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So our baby got her first girly jammies! I went to lunch the other day with my friend Sarah, and she gave me the cutest little sleeper for her. I am so excited about all this girly, flowery, butterfly, pink stuff that comes along with having a girl baby I had actually purchased a sleeper a few months ago, but that was before we knew what we were having, so it’s just yellow with a duck on it. This is much more exciting.

I just had to post a picture of our newest baby item– thanks again, Sarah!

23 Weeks Already!

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• Proportions of the body are now quite similar to a newborn although thinner since he hasn’t begun to form body fat.
• Bones located in the middle ear harden.
• Your baby is able to hear. (Dads, did you know: low-frequency sounds mimicking a male voice penetrate the abdomen and uterine wall better than the higher frequencies of the female voice?)
• The eyes are formed, though the iris still lacks pigmentation.
• The pancreas, essential in the production of hormones, is developing steadily. She has begun producing insulin, important for the breakdown of sugars.
• If born now, your baby has a 15% chance of survival, his odds going up with each passing day. .
• The average baby at this stage weighs 1.1 pound (501gm) and is 11.38 inches (28.9cm) long.

Little Bit of Christmas

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Not much to say today… just waiting for the weekend to get here so I can rest. Wait- who am I kidding? I have to finish making the Christmas gift bags for Jonathon’s work and our church group, clean out the guest bedroom where his brother will sleep next week, and bake tons of cookies. But in the meantime…

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I absolutely love wrapping presents, and buying wrapping paper and bows. I tend to only use gift bags if the item is a weird shape or I have several things that go together and don’t have a suitable box for them.

2. Real tree or artificial? Never had a real one, so artificial is just fine with me.

3. When do you put up the tree? Normally, the weekend of Thanksgiving. We were a little late this year because we were in Oklahoma then.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually around New Year’s. Once, in my apartment, it didn’t come down until sometime in February. That year, Jonathon helped me carry it down to storage without taking it apart. It was great.

5. Do you like eggnog? YUCK!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I got my first bike for Christmas one year- that was pretty cool.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? I had a hand-painted one that my grandma made, but now it’s at my mom’s house and I have the Christmas village instead.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Dad or Grandpa

9. Easiest person to buy for? Jonathon, and then I’m sure the baby will be much easier than him

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? This year Jonathon’s parents gave me a feather duster with a really long handle to dust the ceiling fans, and they gave him this thing that looks like a huge mascara brush– apparently it’s for cleaning out the lint thing in the dryer.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Charlie Brown Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Sometime in October, but I get really serious after Thanksgiving and like to be done by the first week in December.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Plead the fifth here

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? cookies

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? clear

17. Favorite Christmas song? Blue Christmas by Elvis- my mom and I used to dance around the living room to that when I was little- played on her record player of course!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? yep

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Stores being crowded- even if I don’t have Christmas shopping to do, I try to avoid the stores in general- I hate how even the grocery stores are nuts.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Giving gifts/watching people open them… eating cookies… driving around with Jonathon to see the Christmas lights

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