Long overdue update

Sorry its been so long everyone! I was going to use the excuse that nothing has been going on - the second trimester is boring. But thats only a half-truth - lots of little things have been happening. The real story is that I have just been so bogged down with work that I haven't had much time to post - and thats a pretty lame excuse.

Anyway, all's well in baby-land. Our little boy is growing like a weed (like a parasite?) and mommy is starting to feel a little bit cumbersome now. I can still get down on the floor with the dogs and get up from the couch usually by myself, but my back starts to hurt by the end of the day, especially if I've been sitting all day working. Actually, I have a feeling I'll feel a LOT better once I have time to exercise a little more and be out and about. Very soon - there are only 2 class periods left in the quarter and then I will be off for good - yay!!! For those of you who are unaware, I am taking the Spring off because the quarter would only be ending about 2 weeks before we're due, and thats cutting it a little close. Also I need to get my thesis finally finished - that will be a relief.

Click on the thumbnail at the right for the most recent belly pictures - I have updated with the ones from 22 weeks. They are kinda boring - I think we should start trying to be a little more artistic with those. We took a little intro class the other night to show us some more features of our new digital camera, and we really learned a lot. Need to spend a little time experimenting...

We (Dan) moved the dogs' accommodations to the basement. Their former bedroom here on the main floor will now become the baby's room, and we thought it best to get them used to the idea sooner rather than later. Plus we need to get a little work done in there - painting, etc. Well, Lucy was rather confused by the move - its been over a week and she still occasionally wanders in there sniffing around and whining. But they seem to like their new basement bedroom just fine too. Personally, I think its nicer for them down there - carpet on the floor, and the room is actually a little bigger too!

We had a follow-up Ultrasound this Wednesday. There was a little thing with the kidneys last time that they wanted to check again - but as we all suspected, it was nothing. He probably just needed to pee last time so it looked like there was a little fluid in there!! Anyway, he is most certainly still a boy! He now weighs about 1lb 8oz - he gained a whole pound in 1 month! From here on out, his main job is just to get bigger, so I guess he's on the right track! We are tentatively calling him Gregory (Sebastian for the middle name). It seems to be sticking, but we reserve the right to change our minds!

Speaking of gaining weight, I had not been doing a very good job of that, but for anyone who was worried, at my last appt 2 weeks ago I was up 6 pounds since the beginning of the pregnancy. So its going in the right direction! I think I have gained another 1-2 since then, and we have another appt on March 6th, so we'll see. Nothing to worry about - the midwife said it was totally normal to lose/not gain in the first half - but they like to see it start going up by 24-26 weeks. Well thats exactly where we are now, so it looks like its all going to be fine. And the most important thing is that the baby is growing well, and he's right on track - 50th percentile actually!

Alrighty, thats enough for now, and I promise to be more consistent from now on! I have no more excuses anyway!

Gregory - almost 24 weeks:

IT'S A BOY!!!

There is no doubt about it. And he's an active little guy, although I could've told you that. The technician could hardly get a decent measurement - he was twisting all around in there!! My placenta is at the back of my uterus, so its no wonder I've been feeling him moving since 13 wks! Anyway, he's perfectly perfect, if not a little bit camera shy, but we got a few good shots. Might be a thumb-sucker, though!! Right now he is about 6 inches long from head to tushie, and weighs almost 3/4 of a pound - has a lot of growing to do still!! Its amazing how tiny that really is...

We are absolutely thrilled to be expecting a son, but we would have been equally happy to have a daughter. Maybe next time?? Its just so fun to know! We have a couple of finalists for names, but there's a while yet to decide. We might just have to see his little face before we know for sure. Now we can really get going on the nursery. Its not going to be a specific theme, but the walls are already blue so I guess they'll stay that way! Then there's sheets and curtains, etc.... Ooo how fun!

See his little fingers above his nose?

hollydlr

This is a weird angle - a cross-section - you'll just have to take my word for it...

hollydlr

Tap dancer feet???

hollydlr

Hungry Baby

So we had a regular checkup on Friday and in spite of all the pie I ate over the holidays, I have lost weight!! I am now below my prepregnancy weight - which is not unusual or problematic, just funny. Apparently baby is hungrier than I have been keeping up with. It seems like I stuff myself at every meal but I can't eat as much as I used to. A half sandwich fills me up now, when I could eat a whole one before. It seems like I'm eating every 2 hours though!! But the seat of my pants just keeps getting baggier and my belly keeps getting bigger! Who am I to complain? At least the baby is getting what he/she needs and is growing just fine. I'm sure the scales will start tipping the other way soon - next month I will probably have gained 10 pounds!! Who knows? Pregnancy is a lesson in the unexpected!

By the way, our ultrasound is scheduled for a week from tomorrow, so we'll have lots to report then!

California Christmas 06

Well we have just returned from a fabulous trip to CA for the holidays. It was full of wonderful adventures with our family and we took a zillion pictures. My appetite did indeed return just as I stepped off the plane into the 75 degree sunshine, or was it when I caught the first whiff of ocean breeze??? Anyway, I was really naughty with my eating - I'm sure I consumed more white flour and high fructose corn syrup in the last week than in the entire past 6 months!! My digestion suffered for it too, but hey, it was the holidays. Now back to the old grind - it'll be easy to go back to eating well now that I really noticed the difference being lazy for a week. But actually we could have done worse - most meals were homemade, which wasn't too bad. It was the candy/chocolate/cake and ice cream that seemed to do the most damage. Though I have to say, I am totally glad I splurged on a piece of fresh Guava pie, made by Liz from guavas off of my parents' backyard tree. Raw guavas are gross, but in the pie, they were divine!! Gotta love all those fruit trees in the backyard! I can't believe people complain about it - I mean sure, maybe they're a little messy when the fruits fall on the ground and rot. But what we wouldn't give out here to have 6 different fruits growing out back!?

Anyway, we had a great time - once again generously hosted by my Aunt Vicky and Uncle Brian, and then adventures in Catalina with the whole crew. Even got to catch up with my old friend Anne for a bit, although sadly we were once again deprived of meeting the famous Dodger dog due to infamous LA traffic. We won't mention the upper respiratory virus we caught towards the end except to say that 1)having a cold while pregnant sucks, and 2)flying with a cold while pregnant really sucks. Fortunately, it seems short-lived.

So now the work of the new year commences. Dan and I both have so much to do work and home-wise, beginning with transitioning our dogs' bedroom into the nursery (they're going to love that!) We'll undoubtedly have lots of shopping to do, a mixed blessing: escape from cabin fever in the cold of winter, but also lots of obligatory money-spending. Maybe it'll be a lot of ebaying?? I know I need to get moving on my maternity wardrobe for sure! And we can't forget about actuarial exams and master's theses that need our attention too... Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and keep in touch!!

A few pics from our trip - click on thumbnail:

by hollydlr

Inspired

So as we've been thinking about how to prepare for this baby, we've explored a number of different ideas. But we keep coming back to an experience we had a couple of summers ago. We visited our friends Jenny and Troy and their 4 month old daughter Elsie in Minneapolis, and we were inspired by Elsie's room. It was like no other nursery we had ever seen - no crib, no cutsie characters adorning the walls, no loud plastic toys strewn about. Instead there was a regular mattress on the floor, the walls nearby were lined with mirror, and a small shelf with one or two wooden rattles was next to the bed. Black and white portraits of family members were mounted at baby eye level. Jenny explained that this was the Montessori way of doing a baby's room - natural for them, as Jenny is a Montessori teacher.

What struck a chord was that the room was for the baby - for her exploration and enjoyment - prepared for her specific needs. A stark contrast to the usual infant's nursery, where things are typically designed to confine baby or otherwise serve the convenience and/or whimsy of the parents. I freely admit that I have coveted the cute crib sets at the store - especially the chenille one with the bumble bees!! But the baby won't care at all about the cuteness of the bedding. The baby will care about seeing the world, making visual maps of the environment, absorbing information about physical relationships and laws, and as soon as possible, moving out to inspect things more closely.

Jenny recommended a few books and a catalog company called Michael Olaf, which we promptly checked out (see our registry). I'll try to summarize a couple of the more interesting ideas - Jenny correct me if I'm wrong!! One of the central ideas is that children develop best when provided with an environment that challenges them at just the right level. Too much difficulty leads to excessive frustration, but too much help takes away the opportunity for them to problem solve, develop new skills, and ultimately, build up their self esteem. So one of the most important roles of the adult is to monitor and prepare the child's environment. This allows the child to do things for themselves "just as soon as they are able." We love how this philosophy encourages kids from the very beginning to gain self esteem from their own accomplishments instead of from adult approval. How empowering for them!

We have been impressed with the implications about baby accessories and toys in particular. First, it suggests that unrealistic toys are of little use to a child whose purpose is to learn about the real world. Give them things made of real materials: wood, metal, cloth. Montessori has lots of carefully designed and time-tested toys that are not only lovely, but have characteristics that present fundamental information about size, shape, color and movement separately so the child can focus on these different features without distraction or overstimulation. Second, it reveals how a lot of the gadgets we have for our convenience could potentially hinder the child's development in various ways, or at the very least, reduce or postpone certain learning opportunities. Swings, cribs, bouncy chairs, etc., might work to soothe baby (or parents' minds) but in the long haul, really just restrict baby's movement. Another interesting example, the high chair: a fabulous thing to confine baby during mealtime, and raise them up off the floor to save Mom and Dad's backs as junior learns to eat solid foods. Montessori suggests that the child can learn more by using a child-sized table and chair instead. The child has to learn the consequences of getting up before the meal is over. They become responsible for their own behavior - an important lesson I have also learned from dog training. They can also be taught from a much earlier age to help set and clean up their table. Yes, you're most certainly asking for more messes in the beginning, but you deal with it...kids and floors are washable!

Anyway, I don't want to end up repeating the entire contents of several books here, but hopefully you sort of get the idea, and maybe you're just as intrigued as we have been. Ultimately, we are going to give these funny ideas a try to start out. We're going to make the Montessori nursery, and we want to try to provide the simple toys and other environmental things. We want to try to go without a high chair, swing, bouncy seat, etc. We want to avoid the crazy plastic baby entertainers and the like. In general, the simpler it is, the better. This style feels right to us and really fits in with a lot of the other lifestyle changes we've made in the last several months - trying to purge artificial chemicals and unhealthy foods and products from our home. It is definitely less convenient this way, but we're already sort of used to giving up some convenience for a worthwhile benefit, so it doesn't bother us!

Now this doesn't necessarily mean we are going to send our kids to Montessori school - we haven't decided about that yet! About a year after we first visited Jenny, Troy and Elsie, we saw them again and asked if they thought the way they did things was useful, or made any difference? They couldn't say for sure, but Elsie is certainly happy, precocious, independent and self-assured. Maybe its just her personality, but the Montessori lifestyle probably didn't hurt. And for us, its aesthetic is appealing enough to make it worth trying. Maybe just like a lot of other things for babies these days, its just to make the parents happy anyway!

Belly Pics

Ok, here you go...click the thumbnail


by hollydlr

2nd Trimester

We've officially been inducted into the second trimester - yay!! Its going by so quickly, and yet it also seems like hardly anything has happened. My belly popped out a little bit around the 10th week, and hasn't seemed to change much since then - I don't know, maybe its a little bigger. Anyway, I'm still in the "little bit fat" looking stage. We'll probably take a picture tonight and put it up here. Its good to have a record.

So, the midwife said today that the baby is perfectly fine - growing appropriately, so nothing to worry about. The heart rate was around 160, which is just fine, although baby didn't like the cold of the gel, or the pressure of the doppler or something - kept moving out from under it while she was trying to count! BTW, according to the old wives' tale, a heart rate of above 140 means its a girl - but that relationship has not borne out in statistical comparisons - in other words, its not true. I guess we'll see!

Speaking of moving, a lot of people will tell me I'm imagining things, but I'm pretty sure I've felt the baby move a little bit this past week. I just was noticing these funny little feelings that didn't feel like anything else (i.e. gas) and of course it was getting my attention during times when I was sitting still - in the car, on the couch, trying to fall asleep. Its only been a handful of times, just this past week, but the midwife said its possible and thats probably what it is. Anyway, its kinda neat and I can't wait for it to get stronger and more frequent. I'm sure I'll be regretting I wished that when he/she is kicking me in the lungs and jumping on my bladder!! Otherwise, I still don't want to eat much and I'm still tired all the time - they say thats supposed to get better soon. I guess the holidays will certainly tempt my appetite!

So, in about a month we get to have our ultrasound to check out ALL of baby's parts - we'll let you know what we find out!! They'll also check my blood sugar and insulin then, since its always a worry for me. In the meantime, have a great Christmas and New Year's - especially those of you we won't get to see - we miss you!