Friday, February 25, 2011

#ThingsInMyDreamNursery: Grey Wally Wall Organizer

Much like the person who posted this over at Apartment Therapy, I love two things about this: it's grey and it's a clever organizer for kids.  I actually love one more thing - I can see James using it to learn a little about letters as he gets older. 

This one runs over $200, but I don't really see it being that hard to replicate.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Sonogram images at 6, 17, and 23 weeks

We had a sonogram yesterday afternoon at 23 weeks.  If you read my previous blog, you know that I was looking forward to getting a better look at him.  All day yesterday and the whole drive to the doctor's office, he was his normal self, happily [I assume] boxing away at my insides and being an all around wiggle worm.  Once the camera was on him though, I guess he decided it was nap time.  He used the placenta for a pillow, burying  his face into it and refusing to budge.  The technician tried having me lay on either side, even tried grabbing my belly and jiggling it to wake him.  Don't get me wrong, I hope he is a sound sleeper, but I wanted to see his face so badly!


After many attempts, we got a good shot of his profile and a portion of his face.  It's not a lot, but I can tell he has started to fill out.  His cute little lips and cheeks seem fuller than they did before.  We didn't get a picture of it, but it was amazing to see his long limbs - definitely takes after Ryan there - all folded up.  He was folded in half so his ankles were up by his head.  It was very cool to see, although the pictures don't do it justice at all, but I will share them anyway!

6 weeks - my mother in law donned him with the nickname "Peanut" before we knew whether he was a boy or a girl.  He does kind of resemble a peanut here, doesn't he??
17 weeks.  Yes, he resembles an alien here.  You can see how bony he is still this early on.
17 weeks - the moment of truth ya'll.  In order to understand what you're looking at, imagine you are looking up at him sitting on a glass table.  His leg is folded under him (you can see the bone in his shin) and if you look close enough you can make out the tiny bones in his foot (right under his bum).  The hand pointer is indicating the most significant part of this shot...
17 weeks - still painfully bony to behold (the technician assured us it was completely normal).  You can see his torso and rib cage, his little bum, and his legs folded across each other.
17 weeks - his face.  He was posing wonderfully that day.
23 weeks - his profile.  You can see he had his face up against the placenta.  He was moving a lot in this shot, throwing his head back and stretching out as much as he could, but still didn't quite move enough to get a shot of his face.
23 weeks - the best shot we were able to get of his face.  I wasn't sure what I was looking at until the tech explained it to me.  See how his face has filled out more.  His lips are so cute! 

We may actually be getting one more sonogram, but I don't think it will be the 4D one.  A school in Temple does free sonograms and we might go get one more there.


I also did a glucose test yesterday morning to check for gestational diabetes.  Got the results back today - all is well and normal - yay!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Week 23: It's Getting Harder and Harder To Breathe

I haven't forgotten about this blog - believe me!  I think about it often, wondering when I am going to get time to update again and what would make a worthy entry.  Work has me swamped lately and I can't really spare a moment even to write at present, but one of the things I wanted to do with my blog was record my pregnancy symptoms and I have some significant ones that I've been experiencing for the past few weeks.

I both live and work up a flight of stairs.  In the office, my office is on the second floor, and we live in a townhouse style apartment where our bedroom and bath are upstairs.  I've always been glad that there is at least this activity that I have to do numerous times daily because most of the time I don't do any other form of exercise.  Normally, I can zip up them with no problem, but the past few weeks I have found that my chest tightens and I can't catch my breath by the time I get to the top.  It also causes my heart to race and takes several moments to calm it back down.  The heart racing is due to increase amount of blood (by the third trimester, my blood will have increased in volume by 150%), so I like to think that my heart is getting quite a good workout during this pregnancy (c:  I just read a short article to confirm what I already thought about shortness of breath, and it says, "while the number of breaths you take per minute actually changes very little during pregnancy, the amount of air you take in with each breath increases significantly."  Source.  It might also have something to do with my uterus being the size of a soccer ball... things are getting crowded!!!

Also, suddenly my belly button is of concern.  It is stretching, to be sure, and sometimes a little tender - I'm worried that it might start to really hurt!

Another complaint -- are you ready?  Two or three ribs on my right side hurt like crap.  It worsens the longer I am on my feet and later in the day.  A full dose of Extra Strength Tylenol brings little to no relief.  The rib pain comes from the hormone relaxin, which is helping my rib cage to loosen and spread... (eek).  Thankfully, this is to help make more room for my lungs to expand as James continues to hog the space I usually use for oxygen... (c;  

Despite all that, very thankful that we still have no signs of stretch marks (c:  And I'm still enjoying his kicks.  Sometimes his kicks/punches seem to come in a series of rhythmical spasms.  I read that this is probably hiccups.  He must hiccup a lot, I would estimate over 75% of his movements are these regularly spaced jolts.  That lead Ryan and I to ponder if hiccups are part of development because when we look back, we think that we both hiccup less as we have gotten older.

Mom mentioned that by this time next year, he'll be pulling himself up on furniture and cruising along, falling down, babbling, etc. getting his legs ready for walking.  I spent a lot of time yesterday daydreaming about what his face might look like.  Just happy thoughts.

On Wednesday, we will get another glimpse at that face.  Many of you have not seen the ultrasound pics from the gender appointment.  Once we found out that we'd get another appointment, I decided to wait to post those until I get more updated ones.  In the 17 week sonogram pictures, he was still so young that he hadn't started putting on fat yet, so to be honest, he just wasn't very cute, lol.  And I don't want anyone calling my kid an alien without knowing the facts (c;  I'm looking forward to seeing his face and features more filled out.  I'll post them all to compare the progression after Wednesday.

Still polishing up the registry.  I'm now seriously considering going with those new smaller cribs instead of a full size one.  Space is going to be really at a premium for us and I haven't heard anything bad on those yet.  Break ovar, back to work!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

James' Stuff

Been working a lot on figuring out what stuff we will need to get/register for for this kiddo.

I have a list of things I think we'll need that I've compiled from a few different sources.  A lot of you probably have different opinions on what is REALLY needed, so please make suggestions if you see I'm missing something or if you think I have listed an item I won't really use.

And now, in no particular order:

  • Bath stuff
·        Shampoo, soap
I love the colors of this bath set - it's a hooded towel and some washcloths with old cars on them.
·        
Grooming kit.
·        
Bath thermometer.
·        
·        
Bathtub.
·       
Another towel.


  • Travel
  • I'm not a germ-a-phobe and I think kids are better off not being protected from every little thing, but Walmart grocery carts are one thing I don't want him chewing on.
    This stroller was one of the higher-rated ones for safety, features, ease of use, etc. on Consumer Reports that was reasonably priced.  Plus I think it's cool looking (c:
    Large diaper bag.
    Smaller diaper backpack.
    Carseat canopy.
    Super awesome playpen.
    • Carseat (getting 2 from cousin Katie)

  • Clothes (trying really hard not to get too much in case we are gifted with a lot!)
  • Registered for these in 12 moth size.  Love to think about him toddling around in little overalls.
    • Mittens (to avoid scratching face… does anyone know how necessary these are?)
    • Socks (lots of them)

  • Comfort
  • Sling from Seven
    Boppy pillow.  Supposed to be mainly for nursing, but my friend, Grace, recommended the other pillow I have listed later.  I still think this will be a good one for him to play on though.
  • Nursery
    • Bassinet (my amazing Grandad is making an heirloom bassinet.  My cousin Megan will use it first for her March baby and then I’ll get to use it in June)
    • Blankets (between my mom and Ryan’s mom, we have tons of blankets)
    • Bedding (My aunt Susan is making a quilt and bumpers for him… custom!) This is my inspiration for his bedding.


    • Sheets (I’ll get them to match after the other bedding is done)
    • Lighting

    • Crib, mattress, mattress protector, and mattress pillow top.
Thanks again to Consumer Reports, we found this crib that was very highly ranked.  It is made by Ikea, which means it's also one of the least expensive cribs we've looked at.  It's not the prettiest, but I don't feel too picky about that.  The only down side is that the mattress is not a standard crib size so we will have to alter crib sheets for it.  All of the reviews have said it's worth it though.  Oh yeah, it also transforms into a toddler bed.


  • Feeding – I plan on breastfeeding
    • Feeding pillow
A strap-on nursing pillow called (hehe) My Breast Friend.


    • Rocking chair
    • Burp rags
    • High chair


    • Bumbo
Ellie Mae has one of these with a little tray and it's great for a portable high chair.
Tray that goes with Bumbo.

    • Bibs

·        Diaper Duty - Another thing I spent a lot of time researching yesterday was cloth diapers.  I had thought I would go with the Flip system (I talked about it in a previous post), but now I am leaning towards bumGenius.  It is the best-selling cloth diaper, competitively priced with Flip, it is a pocket-style  (which means a trimmer fit which is more important for boys since they wear pants instead of dresses), and they have better color options.  Whit is looking at cloth diapers too so I look forward to swapping notes with her when we get time.

o       6 One-Size fits all covers (the bumGenius website says you need to start with 12 but I plan on splitting between the One-Sizers and the smalls – anyone have pointers on this?)
o       6 Small covers – I figure that he will need the smaller diapers when he is little and the one-size ones will fit better when he is bigger…?  Help!)
o       36 diaper inserts
o       36 cloth wipes
o       Changing pad
o       Changing table

o       Covered Laundry can
o       Deodorizing disks
o       Diaper sprayer… do I need this?
o       Diaper area wash… do I need this?
o       Diaper detergent… do I need this?
o       Rash ointment
o       Pee Pee Tee Pees! hehehehe
I'm looking to avoid being peed on.
  • Health
    •  Ear thermometer
o       Healthcare kit


o       Baby Orajel
o       Baby gate


  • Toys
    • Johnny Jump Up!

So that is basically my list, minus a few little things.  Please let me know if I’m missing something important or that will just make our lives easier (c:

Friday, February 4, 2011

More Snow

Just some pictures from today.

Scary redneck (c;
Reflective redneck
He could not take pictures with his gloves so he gave them to me.
Here you go, James, this is snow.
OK that was fun - can we go now??
Yes he is getting a tattoo in the video game.
Caught ya being a nerd!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Love God, Love People

I want to introduce you to some really special people in my life.  These are most of the women at the bible study I go to.  Many of them have been through harder things than I can imagine, and it has made me wonder if I need to go through hard things in order to get the perseverance that they have.  That is for another blog as I'm still working that out, but to me these are faces of real life with God.  We all come from widely varied backgrounds and are at different places, but one thing that our group has-more than any other group I've been a part of-is love for God and respect for each other.  This group has made the concept of "come as you are" real to me.  It's oddly refreshing to see people in church struggling, crying, desperate, instead of pretending they have it together.


Sisters' Keepers (c:


It boils down to gaining a deeper appreciation for what Jesus did.  I know in my head that the "good deeds" we do in no way can justify or sanctify us, that is something his sacrifice was enough to cover.  On another level I am starting to understand that I am inherently incapable of saving myself, gaining freedom from guilt for the places I fall short.