February 20, 2007

Hope

I just walked back to my office from lunch in the Cedar Center and my feet touched more than snow! That's right . . . there are patches of grass visible again! I think I know what Noah felt like when the dove brought back the olive branch. Ok, maybe not, but I've never been so happy to see the grass and walk through mud in all my life. I can handle the mud if I know that it means spring isn't too far behind. When I let Murhpy out this morning, I even heard some birds chirping.

I hate the cold. I'm sick of the snow. I'm ready for spring.

February 17, 2007

26 weeks



Here I am at 26 weeks! We went to a wedding this afternoon . . . congratulations John and Charmin. When Cindy bought this shirt for me back in November, I remember thinking, "It's huge . . . will this ever fit me?" The answer is no, it will not. It went from being huge to being too small in less time that I could have imagined. THis could be my one and only time wearing it. So, I took a picture to commemorate the event.

So, we've owned our house for 2 years and 14 days and everything seems to be falling apart. The sump pump (sp?) is broken, the bathroom counter in our bathroom is separating from the wall, we thought the garbage disposal was broken (but my genius husband fixed that) . . . the list could go on and on.

On a brighter note, we tried out the paint color for the baby's room today and we actually like it! THis is the first time in this history of painting our house that we both liked a paint color on the first try! This could be the only room in the house that doesn't get painted more than once! The color is "Dried Hydrangea" and is a light green color. It matches the vintage plane bedding from Pottery Barn Kids that we got perfectly!

I can't want too meet this little guy. It seems like it's taking forever but I know he'll be here before I know it!

February 14, 2007

100 days

I have 100 days left until my due date. Which means I'm hoping that I have about 90 days left until I deliver.

I feel down the stairs yesterday. It was a little scary. I slipped, my feet came out from under me and I slid until I hit the ground with a thud. It knocked the wind out of me, and my back really aches, but other than that, I seem to be ok and the baby's still pretty active.

So, I think I wrote in a journal entry a day or two ago that we had decided on a name. Strike that. We're back to the drawing board.

We still have a lot to do . . . for the baby, for camp and for school! While 100 days seems like it's still a LONG time, it'll go by pretty quick. I still have a pretty nasty cough I'm trying to get rid of. I cough so hard that I worry sometimes that I'm hurting this little guy, but everything I read assures me that he can hear me cough but it doesn't harm him at all.

I read this week that if you play music for your baby, it helps to soothe him after he's born. I have headphones on my belly and was playing the classical music from my itunes library. I noticed that he was kicking a lot, so I looked to see what was on and realized that I was playing Carmina Burana for him. Talk about a non-soothing piece of music. We've moved on to Scheherazade. :)

February 9, 2007

Heat Wave!

It's amazing how warm it feels now when it's 19 degrees and sunny. After reaching temperatures of 20 below (with wind chill, of course), I think I'll be ready to break out the shorts when we hit 50. Our last retreat is this weekend . . . well, it starts today. Starting Sunday afternoon, I'll be ready for the snow to stop and the temperature to climb. One can only hope . . .

A favorite past time of mine this week has become sitting in bed watching my belly move whenever the baby kicks. I'm amazed at how long I can sit and do that without becoming the least bit bored. It's still amazing for me to think there's a little boy in there moving around. We had another check-up on Wednesday and everything seems to be right on schedule and perfectly normal. I think I'll continue to experience a huge amount of relief with each "normal" check-up.

I had the chance to go to John and Lissa's last night to meet baby Gillian. She is precious! So, so cute and so tiny. It was seriuosly like holding a doll because she was so quiet and still. She didn't even twitch when Micki handed her over to me.

I got to eat dinner with Joy and Jeanette afterward and they commented on how fast it seems that my pregnancy has gone by so far. I'm glad it seems that way for someone. I feel like I could have had three babies in the amount of time that I've been pregnant. I've got 15 weeks to go and I think it's going to feel like 15 months.

I've had a little bit (and by little bit, I mean a lot) of congestion from the cold weather over the last few days. I've woken up hardly able to breathe every night this week. Usually, I take a shower around 3 AM and that clears me up. I've just found myself wondering if I'll ever sleep all the way through the night again before the baby's born. If not, it could be a REALLY long time before I get a full night's sleep.

February 7, 2007

Another sleepless night

Somewhere between balancing the checkbook and being defeated at minesweeper, the clock struck 3 AM. Why am I still awake? Partially because of the nasty cough I have. Partially because I'm so hungry but I know if I eat I'll have heartburn that keeps me awake more than the hunger does. And partially because I just can't get comfortable.

It is so cold outside that I can hardly stand it. I wanted winter weather for our youth camps, but this is just outrageous. School was canceled two days in a row because of the cold temperatures. On Monday, Kyle didn't have practice because of school being canceled so we did a little shopping (we bought our crib set from Pottery Barn Kids), finally finished our registries (for now at least) and went out to lunch (at Red Robin . . . which was one of the best dining experiences I've had). It was a pretty good day. Oh, and I think we finally have decided on a name . . . at least tentatively. But it's top secret.

We have another doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'm not fearing this one like I have all of the others. I think I'm beginning to calm down and be a little more positive. I was thinking back to my first appointment, and I don't think I ever blogged about the nurse we saw that day. We spent a good amount of time with the doctor, but afterward, we were left with a nurse to go over . . . well, not much of anything. We spent most of the time with her watching her fumble around with the computer not knowing what she was doing. We needed to change our phone number in the information and that took her about 15 minutes. At the end of a very tedious session with her, I asked her about DHA supplements. I had been taking them at the advice of my pharmacist (who we got to know well over the summer). I had forgotten to ask the doctor about them, so I thought I'd see what she knew. Her first response was, "You don't need DEA supplements. THat's ridiculous." DEA? No. It's DHA. SO, I corrected her and she looked confused . . . like she had never heard of it before. Let me back up and say that I had already done my research. WebMD called DHA, Calcium and Folic Acid the "Big Three" that pregnant women need. And she had NEVER heard of DHA supplements but continued to tell me that they were a waste of money.

So, I asked her if I could speak to the doctor once more before we left just to see what she thought. She left the room for about 20 seconds and came back in and said she talked to the doctor and she said DHA supplements were a waste of money. WOw. That was fast. Then, she said, "Since you seem to be so concerned with the health of your baby, here's a pamphlet that might interest you." First, who isn't concerned with the health of their unborn child? Second, the pamphlet was on the dangers of using illegal drugs during pregnancy! WHat about me made her think that illegal drugs might be a problem for me? Kyle said she was probably the one using the illegal drugs.

Alright, there's more I want to write, but my stomach's getting the best of me. I'm going to get a snack.

Oh, and in case you're wondering . . . whether they're a waste of money or not, I'm still taking the DHA supplements.

February 1, 2007

Ups and downs

Today was Kyle's first day not subbing since the beginning of November! We celebrated it by going to Ann Arbor and finishing up our registries. We still have a few things we need to add, but for the most part, we're done. Yay! We're registered at Babies R Us, Target and Pottery Barn Kids.

The hard part of the day was that I didn't feel this kid move at all. Not once. Now if you remember the day I had like this a couple of weeks ago, you know that the nurse freaked out that I waited overnight before calling and told me to come in right away.

So, when we got home from Ann Arbor, I laid down for an hour with ice water to do a kick count. I didn't feel him once. Fearing the wrath of the nurse again, I decided to go ahead and call right away. This time, my call was greeted with indifference and encouragement to "wait it out." Because it was the end of the day? I suspect that. She told me to drink a glass of pop, a candy bar and do another kick count. So I did.

And I felt nothing during that next hour.

So, I kept drinking my Mt. Dew and eating my candy. At about 8:30, he started kicking like nothing I've ever felt. I thought my belly might explode. In fact, I actually saw my belly move when he kicked once. So, all is well. But it's 11 PM and he's still kicking.

John and Lissa's baby was born on Tuesday. Her name is Gillian Faith. It's so hard to believe that she's already here! It seems like not too long ago that she was telling us that she was pregnant. That'll be me in less than four months.

It was so exciting for us to get the news of Gillian's birth, but it came after a day of hard news. A girl that I knew from my church growing up that I hadn't seen in a few years died in a car accident on Monday night. Ironically enough, her name was Jilian. It was a profound reminder of the brevity of life.

This week has been full of ups and downs.