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January 24, 2006

Open Letter to my Unborn Child

Dear Fetus-Growing-Inside-Me:

Since you have not responded to my multiple attempts to talk to you through my stomach wall, I have written this letter outlining several points which I would like to bring to your attention:

Point the First: Although your Daddy thinks it's cute/fun/exciting when you kick and he can feel it, it is not necessary to continue said kicking at all hours of the day and night. Inappropriate kicking times are:
-any time between 1am and 5am
-in meetings when I am trying to speak intelligently
-in the car when I'm trying to merge and it is icy.
All other times are acceptable. Please restrain yourself from beating the crap out of my insides except at the acceptable times.

Point the Second: That is my bladder, not a trampoline. Jumping on it is not fun for Mommy.

Point the Third: When you are ready to be born (not for several months) you will be pushing your head downwards. Pushing your head out the front of my stomach or up into my diaphragm is not necessary at this point of time, nor is it comfortable.

Point the Fourth: Whatever it is you are doing in there that is making my feet swell up, please stop. Mommy can't afford all new shoes. Nor does she like looking like she has club feet.

Point the Fifth: There is no point the fifth.

Point the Sixth: Your Daddy and I are both very excited about your upcoming birth. Please don't beat me up too bad between now and then.

With Great Anticipation for your Arrival,
Mommy

Posted by Terri at 09:19 AM | Comments (4)

January 23, 2006

24 Weeks, 1 Day

It was an uber busy weekend.

We went back to register some more. Found a car seat, travel system, play yard and high chair we liked. Thought we were done. Of course, then I checked on amazon.com and the reviews for the high chair were awful so we took it off the registry. Talked to a girl at work who had a baby last may to see what high chair she has. She's very happy with it. She's going to let me know. The funny thing is, the one we were going to register for is vinyl and we didn't register for it because of that. Hers is vinyl and she says it's so much better because it gets sooooo dirty. *sigh* She also said to register for a booster seat and umbrella stroller now, even though we don't need them yet, because that's one less thing to buy later. I guess we're not done. One more trip should do it (hopefully).

My mom is awesome. She came over on Saturday to give me a copy of consumer reports and told us she's buying the baby furniture for us. I mean, she's awesome even if she weren't buying us stuff, but she is just so good to us (and the baby).

We signed up for childbirth classes. We have our 6-week lamaze class, a breastfeeding class, a new baby class (to teach us how to bathe, change and hold the baby), a healthy beginnings class and I'm going with my mom to a grandparent class. The classes start in February. I think in February it's going to seem like we're on a speed track to May. (Thank goodness).

I finally filled out/sent in my hospital preregistration packet. The bad news is that I still have to go through outpatient registration when I arrive, in labor. I can't imagine sitting there, waiting for them to call my name, screaming in agony. Should be fun.

Carpet is in the bedroom. We'll move our furniture up next weekend and then we can start painting the nursery. YAAAAAAAAY!

The baby likes to kick me. I can start to see my belly ripple when I get an especially hard kick. It's weird and exciting all at the same time. It's kind of fun to know I have a little person inside me and I think I may miss that part of the whole thing. I won't miss the bladder kicks, sore hips, ruddy skin, swollen hands and ankles, zits, breathlessness, exhaustion or mood swings. I know Darren won't miss the mood swings either.

Oh, and for future reference for anyone... if you have the choice to wait a week or go to the hospital for your ultrasound, wait a week. The hospital charges you an arm and a leg and health insurance people are a bunch of buttheads.

That's all for now.

Posted by Terri at 11:15 AM | Comments (3)

January 20, 2006

23 Weeks, 5 Days

I went to the doctor on Tuesday and it was the awesomest of awesome visits ever. Why?

So on to worrying about non-medical baby stuff. Like registering... OMG! There is so much crap to buy! We went to Babies R Us last Saturday, filled out our form, got our gun and were turned loose on the store. We just stood there, dumbly, for a minute or so with NO CLUE where to start. It is completely overwhelming. We did manage to register for crib bedding, blankets, a bathtub, some toys, a mattress and some random other stuff that looked cool. We go back on Saturday, now that we've done some more research on car seats, high chairs, strollers and the like. It honestly makes your head spin.

Teh Registry

So after three hours, that's all we had registered for. We were both so babied out it wasn't even funny.

In other baby-room related news, we get carpet in our bedroom tomorrow, which means within a week (once it stops smelling enough for me to sleep there) we can move our bed and stuff up into our actual bedroom (YAAAAAAAAAAAY!) and begin work on painting the nursery. Darren got off easily. Nursery Plan #1 was lavender with a little darker lavender in geometric - probably circular - designs on the wall. That got scrapped in favor of Nursery Plan #2: Making the room look like a child's drawing, complete with fluffy clouds, a house with a chimney and smoke, stick people family, birds, sun, a tree with that hole in it, and maybe some flowers. Too much work, so we went for Nursery Plan #3: Light sage green with a white chair rail and white trim. Right above the chair rail would be sponge painted flowers. The actual nursery plan is not much different than that. Nursery Plan #4 (the final as of right now) still has the white chair rail and trim, but there is a border that comes with our crib bedding and matches our crib bedding, so that will go up above the chair rail. The room will either be green or yellow, depending on which looks better with the crib bedding. We will have to get samples and bring them to the store to match them up with the stuff we registered for.

And then there's the furniture. My sister-in-law was nice enough to give us the crib she used for her two kids. It's a really really nice crib. So at Babies R Us, there is some furniture that kind of matches - a dressar and a changing table. I was fine with that. It was cheap. Just to humor Darren, we went to the store where the crib was purchased to see the furniture that went with the crib. It was considerably more expensive but it was SOO NICE! So guess which furniture we're getting. Of course, it will last until the baby moves out, because it is that quality furniture, whereas the other would only probably last a few years. So I was sold on the good furniture.

That's all for now. I have a doctor's appointment in 4 weeks but I'll probably post before then. Probably to complain about the amount of stuff we have to register for.

Edit: (a little later in the day) I called the pediatrician I want to use (who used to be my pediatrician) so we're all set up with that. Yay! Another thing to cross off the list. Woo Hoo to the third!

Posted by Terri at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)

January 13, 2006

22 Weeks, 5 Days

This is only moderately baby-related, so bear with me...

Why is it that everyone keeps telling me I look good? I mean, pre-pregnancy I could go into work with a cute new hairstyle and my make up done and a snazzy new outfit and not a peep. Now, I'm too tired to do my hair so it's pulled back into a low ponytail, and I'd rather get a few minutes extra sleep than do my makeup, not to mention the fact that it looks like I ate a basketball. But without fail, everyone at work that sees me says, "You look really good." Not to be ungracious, but NO, I DON'T! I look tired, and big, and less put together than usual, which is pretty bad. What is it about me that looks good? Do you feel obligated since I've recently become sphirical?

I don't get it.

Posted by Terri at 01:53 PM | Comments (2)

January 09, 2006

22 Weeks, 1 Day

First of all, let me just say:

HOLY CRAP WE'RE AT 22 WEEKS ALREADY!!!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?!

Ahem. Ok, composed now.

So yeah, the ultrasound was a few weeks ago, but I was otherwise occupied the week of the ultrasound and then I got sick, so I'm only getting around to updating now.

First the bad news.

I have no pictures. *big sad face* When I scheduled the ultrasound, I couldn't wait another week, and my doctor's office was closed the week after Christmas, so I went to the hospital. Instead of nice scanable pictures, they gave me film - as in X-Ray film - which is not so much scanable.

So off Darren and I trekked to the hospital at 7:30 in the morning. We then had to wait to check in. We then had to wait up in radiology. Meanwhile, I had to drink lots of water and not go to the bathroom. Fun. But it was all worth it when we went in there. There is a baby! And we saw the baby!!!

The baby did not so much like the ultrasound, and has a new trick. First, she curls up into a ball and then stretches out arms and legs and head as far as they will go. Over and over and over... it feels really great, let me tell you.

I still haven't gotten the official results from the ultrasound, but the tech said that nothing looked abnormal to her. We then of course wanted to know the sex of the baby. For those of you astute enough to notice my use of pronouns, you already know. But the tech told us she is 75% sure that the baby is a little girl. (Of course, I've been 100% sure that it's a girl since my hips and thighs and butt got just as fat as my stomach.)

And she loves to kick. Darren has only felt her twice, but I think there is something wrong with his hands, because I can feel it from the outside when I sit with my hands on my stomach. Because she likes to kick HARD. And at 3:00 in the morning. And the other day, she found my bladder, which is absolutely weird. It's like, you don't have to go to the bathroom at all and then suddenly it's an emergency, and then it's gone.

My next appointment is a week from tomorrow. I can't wait to get on the scale. /sarcasm

More updates after then.

Posted by Terri at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2006

Bringing Smiles Already

Let me set the picture for you. It is Christmas morning, lying in bed after a horrible Christmas eve, Terri reaches over for my hand and places it on top of her belly. She wanted to know if I could feel any little kicks that were happening. After a few minutes of me saying no, I didn't feel that either, we were laying back thinking the warmth of my hand on her belly was just causing the baby to settle down and then the baby gave one good kick which made my hand move. It was an amazing feeling. I have never felt any baby kick from the womb but this wasn't just any baby, it was our baby. So after such a bad Christmas Eve, our unborn baby gave me the greatest Christmas present I have ever gotten, letting me know that she/he was in there. Let the countdown to May begin!!

Posted by DarrenS at 10:59 AM | Comments (2)