Daniel is 10 weeks old today!  He stared smiling a couple weeks ago and is learning how to laugh now.  He has so many facial expressions and is awake a lot more during the day and likes to play right after he eats.  Today I was making noises at him and he tried to mimic me and it was the cutest thing ever!  He’s holding his head up a lot more now and we are giving him tummy time so he can learn to crawl.  He is talking a lot now too (not real words but sounds and noises).

When I weighed him today he is 12 pounds 1 ounce!  The little guy is getting heavy!  In his car seat it’s like carrying 20lbs up and down our stairs and it’s not fun especially since I’m sore from starting back at the gym to loose the extra baby weight.  He’s going through a growth spurt so he eats every 2-3 hours during the day and has been able to go 4 hours at night…once!  The pediatrician says when he can hold about 6 ounces of milk he will be able to sleep 5-6 hours straight at night.  So he is up to 4 ounces in the 1 bottle he gets a day from dad and I am pumping like crazy to produce more breast milk so he will eat more from me.  The idea is the more you pump AFTER he has already breast fed the more milk you produce because your body thinks the baby is demanding more from you.

Here are some recent pix from this month…

He is waiting to greet the world!  He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it’s likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds.  (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.)  The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

At our last doctor visit, we had an abdominal exam to check the baby’s growth and position.  We also had  an internal exam to see whether my cervix has started ripening: softening, effacing (thinning out), and dilating (opening).   We found out that we are already 1 centimeter dialated but he is still head up (breech position). 

We are trying at home methods to “encourage” him to turn on his own to head down position.  These include laying on my back with my hips propped up with pillows 9-12″ above my shoulders.  We have tried playing soft music through head phones down towards my pelvic bone because we read they like the sound.  I also put a bag of frozen peas on my stomach where his head is 3 times a day because babys don’t like the cold sensation.  He moves like crazy but hasn’t turned yet.  We also are trying a Chinese accupunture technique minus the needles called Moxibustion.  They are sticks you burn and place them near pressure points on the outside of each pinky toe.  He moves like crazy during this as well so hopefully one of these days he will just pop on down. 

I have been doing a lot of preparation around the house and have had some pretty intense and painful contractions but no labor yet.  My hope is to go into labor maybe Tuesday before we are scheduled for our Caesarean on Wednesday because in the early stages of natural labor babies have been known to turn to head down position and then we could continue with our original plan of natural child birth. 

Otherwise we have a scheduled C-Section for 9am on Wednesday June 18th.  I’ll stay in the hospital until Friday or Saturday and then be released with our new baby to home.  We are so excited that it’s only about 4 days until we get to meet this little guy who has been kicking, punching, and rolling around in there!

Last night we had our last childbirth class and we had some special guests. Grandma Marge, Nana Joan, and Grandpa Jim.

We just got the baby bath in the mail from Uncle Jason and Aunt Jen:

Testing out the new placement of the bassinet:

We started putting the freshly washed baby clothes in his dresser:

The baby clothes do not fit daddy, much to his surprise

Jen tries breastfeeding on for size

Maggie wants to get in on the breast feeding action:

Here are some photos from today. We dropped by the Marge and Dan household to borrow the Volvo, and saw the doggies, Cody and Zoey. We then drove the Volvo to pick up the crib and glider from a work friend of Marge’s. We disassembled the crib, loaded it up and returned home and reassembled it.

This week he weighs a little over 4 pounds and has passed the 17-inch mark. He’s rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren’t fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance) These bones don’t entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

As he fills out even more of my belly, lots of things are starting to change: Whereas before I was sashaying, I now have been waddling! Finding an easy position to sit in — let alone sleep — is becoming more of a challenge. And bumping into chairs and counters is par for the course.

We are slowly learning to distinguish body parts and feel his butt on my upper left side. He gets especially active when I’m eating a meal, at around 11pm or midnight when it’s time for bed, and in the middle of the day when I’m sitting upright. It’s beginning to become a bit distracting because sometimes the movements are large and long and sometimes painful.

I am now gaining weight faster than any other point in my pregnancy and they say the norm is 1-2 pounds a week!!! Most of my maternity clothes are still fitting the only concern is that as my tummy starts streching more outwards, the shirts are getting a little bit tighter.

We had our fourth child birth education class and we learned about Cesarians and we got a tour of Mary Birch Hospital for women, which is where we will be giving birth.

I was a little creeped out by the Cesarian stuff because it seems so harsh and the recovery time is a lot longer than I imagined.  She talked about emergency Cesarians, versus planned ones, versus having them because it’s necessary but not be an emergency.  If I have to have a Cesarian for any reason and it’s not a dire emergency to get the baby out, I can choose between a Spinal Tap or an Epidural.  She said if you already have an Epidural in place because you were using it during labor, they will just up the dose to make sure you are numb from the breasts down to the toes. 

The interesting part is that they have to make 2 incisions.  One through the skin, fatty layer, and tissue to get to the abdominal muscles.  They don’t actually cut the abdominal muscles but they push them aside so to speak and then they make a matching incision in the uterus.  Then they pull the baby out and from prep time to when I’m all sewed back up it’s about 1-2 hours.  You are on the surgery table with a sheet in front of you so you cannot see what they are doing and your arms are outward like you are flying but laying down.  After a Cesarian you have to stay at the hospital 4-5 nights versus 1-2 nights for a vaginal birth.  It then takes up to 6 weeks post baby to recover fully after you leave the hospital. 

The tour was good because it made everything seem even more real.  It was nice to see what kind of room we will be in, what to do when we arrive, what the policies are, etc.  All rooms in Mary Birch are private LDR (Labor, Delivery, and Recovery) rooms so you get to stay in one place until you go into the postpartum room where you stay 1-2 nights before going home.  They are the size of studio apartments and have private bathrooms with showers, a chair that folds out into a cot for the husbands and extra seating for other family members.  Not to mention a tv, and stereo so you can bring music to play.  We also saw the NCIU, which was not very fun but it’s good to know that Mary Birch has one of the largest NCIUs in the country and it’s rare that the baby has to get transported to Children’s Hospital (literally across the street) because the NCIU can handle all emergencies. 

Next week we go over circumsision, breast feeding, do a labor rehearsal, and refresh the breathing techniques. 

32 weeks down, 8 to go before we get to meet our little bundle of joy! Here’s what’s changing and going on at week 32.

He weighs about 3.75 lbs and is about 16.7 inches long taking up almost all the space in my uterus. I am gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to our baby. I finally hit the 20lb weight gain mark but the weird thing is that all my clothes still fit around my legs, arms, etc so I cannot figure out where all the weight is going. Our OB/GYN says that I look great and am gaining what I should and because I’m exercising I’m keeping off the excess weight gain that a lot of women go through these last few weeks. Our baby will gain a third to half of his birth weight during the next 7 weeks as he fattens up for survival outside the womb. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). His skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth.

To accommodate me and our baby’s growing needs, my blood volume has increased 40 to 50 percent since I got pregnant. With my uterus pushing up near my diaphragm and crowding mt stomach, the consequences may be shortness of breath and heartburn. I have been waking up 2 hours after I fall asleep like clockwork with heartburn that causes me to throw up a little so our OB/GYN said to take Zantac every night before bed. It did work the other night but last night I made the mistake of eating before bed and after the Zantac so I woke up again with acid reflux. It’s not fun to say the least but I’m getting practice not sleeping!

We had our third child birth education class on the 25th and this one was not quite as interesting to me as the last two. We talked a lot about interventions during labor and unexpected things, etc. She talked a lot about the epidural versus narcotics for pain management and I was not excited to hear about that. It was so interesting to me that if any of it gets transfered to the baby it can be dangerous but that they treat the baby with medication. To me that was like when I took migraine meds that had a side effect of a headache!!!

She went over the use of forceps, vacuum, and also episiotomy. It all just seems so invasive and not very good for mom or baby. She said they only use forceps if necessary but it does leave some bruising on the baby’s head near the temple. The use of a vacuum is also rare and only if necessary but that it leaves a big lump in the top of the baby’s head for up to a couple weeks as well as some bruising. Then of course she said that each doctor has their preference on whether or not they will do an episiotomy. I thought it was more or less the parent’s choice…but I guess not. I’m hoping that our doctor will be one that as I’m pushing will massage and try to help my body naturally stretch so that I don’t have to get cut. There are different degrees of the cut and if it’s a 2 or more you have to take stool softeners until the stitches heal, etc.

She also talked about the difference between external and internal monitoring when you are at the hospital. The external is the belly straps that measure the baby’s heart rate as well as my rate of contractions, etc. She said if you are having a great, normal, and uncomplicated labor they will do monitoring every 30 minutes instead of me having to wear the belts the entire time. They constrict the amount of movement and personally anything that confines me to the hospital bed is not good for a natural delivery because gravity and changing positions cannot be of use. Internal monitoring is only done if the baby’s heartbeat changes erratically or if they have not been able to get a steady heart beat from the baby. They stick this tube thing inside and break your water if it has not already broken. Then the tube thing has a little curly metal hook that actually gets inserted in the top skin of the baby’s scalp and they run another tube to monitor contractions, which confines you to the bed not able to move much at all.

I understand the concept of preparing us for all possibilities but it does tend to make some parents worry unnecessarily. I just don’t want to keep focusing on what could go wrong. We also learned the third breathing technique, which is called Patterned Pace. It’s similar to what you see on tv where they do the hee hee hee hooo breathing that sounds and looks ridiculous. I don’t like it as much as the other techniques but it might come in handy during really strong and painful contractions. You actually make a noise so we decided on “hee hee haa” and the idea is that you take in the amount of air as you need to breath and say those words out so it prevents you from hyperventilating. It sounds silly but if it works then great!

Next week we get a hospital tour and get to see the LDR rooms (labory, delivery, and recovery). It’s all done in one large comfortable room in Mary Birch Hospital instead of having to be wheeled somewhere else to deliver. There is a shower and full sized bathroom from what I hear and there’s usually a cot where the husband gets to sleep if an overnight stay is required. We will also go over the grandparents to be role in labor, delivery, and recovery. She said we could bring mom’s but mine will be out of town so we will just have to take notes. There’s another opportunity at class 6 for the mom’s to come so I’ll let her know

This is one of the outfits we were thinking of taking Baby home in…

Jen and Debbie at the Stone Brewery booth at the Avocado festival…. don’t worry, Jen didn’t partake.

… our dog daughter that is.

The belly at 31 weeks.

We had our second child birth class on April 18th. We learned about the mucus plug and that it sheds when you are getting ready to go into labor. She also talked about the 3 phases in the 1st stage of labor. There’s early labor where I will be doing most of at home. This is when contractions start and are very irregular and you can have one and not have another for 30 minutes or longer. It’s just your body slowly preparing and loosening the baby up. The second phase is where you go into the hospital and your contractions are anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart and are much stronger and you start pushing. The third phase is the birth of the placenta.

We got to see a video of a live birth but it didn’t show as much as I thought it would. I actually like watching it because I got to see what would happen, etc but what grossed me out was the birth of the placenta. It just looks so icky.

We also learned the breathing technique number two, which is up to double time. Basically it means I can take my inhales and exhales up to twice as fast as my resting breathing rate. I actually prefer the half time we learned in class one where you breath half as fast as your resting breathing rate because it seemed more calm and relaxing. But who knows what I will prefer when I’m in labor!

I also started feeling my first Braxton Hicks contractions a couple days before this class. It was weird at first because it was painful, and Braxton Hicks this early are not supposed to be painful. I realized that the pain was actually related to my round ligaments. These stretch and can cause sharp shooting pains in different areas of your stomach, lower abdomen, and groin area. I feel it if I stretch out too fast in the morning before getting out of bed but other than that it’s getting better. Now that I know what I’m looking for I can tell when I have a Braxton Hicks contraction because my uterus gets tighter, almost like what it feels like when you are doing sit ups and you are contracting your abs except it’s all over my tummy.

The only time it gets slightly painful is if he tries to move during a Braxton Hicks contraction because it’s as if the walls close in on him and he is trying to wiggle out of it so it gets a bit painful and uncomfortable. But all in all, it’s nothing to complain about.

So Jen has commented that she has been feeling less kicks and punches and more general movement from the baby.  Understandably so, he’s running out of room in there!

So last night, we were nearing bed time, just watching her belly, and the littly guy was doing something in there, because it appeared as if Jen’s belly was something out of an Alien movie.  It was out of this world… he was doing somersaults, stretching, who knows.  I can’t put words that do justice to what we saw.

Amazing, just amazing!

Jen and I attended our first childbirth prep class on last Friday (April 11).  There were quite a few people there, maybe about 26 or so.  We like the teacher, she is very outgoing and kind of over the top with her energy.

We learned one breathing technique where Jen breathes at one half of her resting breathing rate, while rocking back and forth in time with her breathing.  I can be doing one of two things: (1) either applying pressure on her shoulders as she exhales and rocks forward, or (2) rubbing her back, downward as she exhales and rocks forward and rubbing upward as she inhales and rocks back.

We also learned about some fun stuff, like bowel movements during labor.  The teacher highly recommends getting the enema before birth, it’s better for everyone involved :)  At the end of the class, we tried a relaxation technique.  Everyone lays on the ground, some soft relaxing music plays, and the teacher talks us through tensing and relaxing each part of our bodies from our feet upward.  Note: bring a nose plug or tell people to leave their shoes on, it smelled like sweaty feet.

Hello everyone, we have hit 30 weeks, it’s crazy, there isn’t much time left in this fantastic pregnancy of ours. Jen and I are so excited. So much so that we resort to 13 year old txt lingo, OMG!, LOL.

Anywho, here is the belly at 30 weeks.

Our baby is about 15.7 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in my uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it’s not very keen; even after he’s born, he’ll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he’ll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from his face.

At our last appointment on Friday, we heard the heartbeat, and my uterus measured 10 inches from bottom to top.  He has been hiccuping a little more frequently and instead of kicking, he has been moving his entire body, like a gymnist.  My feet have finally decided to swell and shoes are becoming harder to wear.  Luckily I have a live massage therapist, aka, the husband.

Today, we went to the beach for a couple hours, and my bathing suits don’t fit anymore  Looks like I’ll have to actually buy a maternity bathing suit for the summer  We now begin going to our appointments every two weeks (next one on April 25th), and we will keep everyone posted on our progress.

The first few months seemed to go by slowly for me and I kept wanting to have the cute pregnant belly. Once we hit 27 weeks it’s going by so fast and I cannot believe that in 11 weeks we will have a baby boy to hold! Here’s what’s new this week:

By now his head is more or less in proportion with the rest of his body. He weights about 2.7 lbs and is 16-16.7 inches long from head to toe! My uterus is about 3.5-4 inches above my belly button and I’ve finally reached the weight that I was supposed to gain by now. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain.

We have our next appointment this Friday and after that we will be going every 2 weeks and I hear that I will start having to record his movements. He’s also had the hiccups a total of 4 times in the past week! It’s finally to the point where putting on my socks is extremely difficult and just bending over requires a grunt and for me to hold my breath! I’ve completely switched to sandals and slip on tennis shoes for comfort I get tired more easily than before pregnancy and stairs are taking a little breath out of me. I’m still working out on my treadmill at home walking 2 miles a day to keep fit and active. That is supposed to make labor and delivery easier and also help me from putting on too many pounds that are not baby related! I’ve been eating healthy food but also give in to some cravings here and there so exercising is the only way I can get away with eating dessert or having that second helping!

Jared has been loving every minute and always wants to feel the kicks and movement even if it means he stays up a little later than usual. We keep glancing in the closet and see his little surf shorts and onesies and we both get giggly! I’ve been experiencing some back pain and minor cramping (aka Braxton Hicks) as most pregnant women do but I take it with a grain of salt. The little guy and miracle growing in there is enough to keep me from NOT complaining about pregnancy discomforts because it is beyond worth it! My feet have not yet grown longer but they do swell very quickly, as well as my hands so it gives me a great excuse to coax massages out of Jared Maggie follows me around when I’m working at home and sometimes takes naps with her chin on my belly. Sometimes when he kicks real hard Maggie looks at the belly, then at me as if to say “what was that” and then goes back to sleep. We have been training her and she has made some great progress! We are slowly completing our baby registries at Babies R Us and Target and are finding it a bit overwhelming. At least we have lots of people who have been there so they can give us pointers on what we really need versus what stores just want to sell you!

We are borrowing a bassinet from a friend of my mom’s and she picked it up from her house the other day and it’s so cute! Next will be the crib and glider from another friend of mom’s but we have some more time on that. At my Mary Kay retreat this weekend everyone let me go to the front of the bathroom line and held doors open for me so it was a nice treat to have people care that much about my well being!

Another side effect of pregnany is unexpected exhaustion at certain times of the day. And with that, I’m off to bed!

Here’s the belly at 29 weeks

So on Saturday we were officially 28 weeks 0 days along. That means only 12 weeks to go before we get to see the little guy in person! I had been hearing from other mom’s and reading in the books that the baby can get hiccups as early as 25 weeks but I hadn’t felt it yet. Then on Saturday night we were relaxing watching some TV and I felt a little flutter that could have easily been mistaken for a kick. He moves around so much nowadays that it all starts to feel the same. But then it happened again about 2-3 seconds later. And again…until I realized they were hiccups! Jared felt it and it was so consistent and totally cool! He was moving a bit in addition to the hiccups but you could tell it was a little flutter every few seconds and it lasted for a couple minutes when it finally stopped. I’m not sure what causes hiccups in the uterus but it was so cute! And of course I was super excited and giggling.

At 28 weeks the books say I might start leaking colostrum (I’m assuming that’s like milk), which is interesting. Starting at our next appointment on April 11th we will be going every 2 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. I had an hour long glucose test last week to test me for diabetes. I was not happy that I could not eat or drink anything prior and then they gave me this really gross stuff to drink, kinda like sugar water. I had to drink it within 5 minutes and then just wait in the waiting room for an hour to then have my blood drawn. So for a 3 second blood test I waited an hour…but that’s when the glucose is at the highest level in your bloodstream. We should get the results at our next appointment and I’m assuming if they do not call before then we have nothing to worry about. According to the books our baby’s heartbeat speeds up when I speak and he will be able to recognize my voice in the delivery room Jared has been talking to him every night so that hopefully his voice will be recognizable as well. He is about 14-15.75 inches long from head to toe, he weighs between 2-2.4 lbs, and is starting go fill out and look more rounded. Which means he’s getting the baby chub! Hehehhee

When we felt the hiccups they were lower down so I think he has positioned himself head down, which is good! He may still move around a bit before birth but it’s a good sign that he’s starting to know he needs to be head down that way he will be less likely to be breached

Here’s the latest of The Belly, at 28 weeks:

So… we had some fun. We did some nursery decorating on the cheap. 1 part decals, 1 part giggles… result: totally rad nursery. Mommy and Daddy tested, Baby Approved!

The Official Nusery Preparation Period is under way. A few weeks ago we cleared out my desk, the futon, Dylan’s (the gecko) large shelving unit thingy, and a bunch of other junk. Stuff in the closet got moved to the garage and some more shelves were put in (we needed them desperately). The right lower side of the closet has been cleared to make way for Baby’s hanging clothes (they look so cute and small in there).

We went to IKEA Sunday and picked up a white dresser (which when the changing pad is attached will double as a changing table), only to find that when we got home to try to assemble the thing, it was Black[/Espresso]. Black[/Espresso] is not white. So the next day we exchanged it for the white (which was incidentally $20 cheaper than what we paid for the first “white” one, score!). Jen assembled the dresser while I hung a shelf for diapers and wipes and some new blinds to help block more light.

Now what we used to call “The Second Bedroom” is now officially “The Nusery”

We’re just waiting for the bassinet and crib which we are getting from some friends. We’re still trying to decide if we want to decorate some more. We both agree painting is too much money and effort especially if we plan on moving any time soon. Maybe some decals of some sort. Who wouldn’t want to sleep in a jungle, or underwater, or amongst traffic?

Pictures coming soon!

So I have been still feeling kicks but I feel much more actual movement now. I can tell when he is moving his entire body, which is a very strange sensation on the outside! I’ve seen body parts move from one side of my belly to the other, although I cannot determine yet what body parts they are.

This week actually marks the beginning of the third trimester!!! He is a little over 2 pounds now and has started opening his eyes and blinking! Crown to rump he is about 9.6 inches but from head to toe he is about 15.3 inches. That’s over a foot. I keep looking at my belly wondering where all that can fit and it’s only going to get bigger! Now that he is opening his eyes and blinking he is starting to recognize light and about 3 weeks ago he started being able to hear the outside world (not just mommy when she talks). It’s so amazing the development that is going on in there to make a baby from just a sperm and egg.

At our last appointment we asked the doc if his moving all the time was too much movement and she said no, it’s a sign that he is healthy. He moves more at certain times of the day and I’ve even noticed he moves at certain moods I’m in. When I’m happy and excited or energized he is very very active. When I’m on the treadmill exercising that actually lulls him to sleep. At night when I sing to him in the shower to relax him he starts to go to sleep. Then around midnight without fail he decides it’s exercise time for him so he starts moving like crazy! I don’t mind since I have the luxury of working from home and can sleep in.

Our next doctor appointment is at 30 weeks and it’s so weird to think that at that appointment there will only be 10 weeks left before we get to hold him in our arms. The first 5 months went by so slowly and now this last part is flying by! Our childbirth education classes start on April 11th for six weeks so we will update you on if they have a “red asphault” type movie but for child birth!�

Belly growing at 27 weeks.

Mommy at work, using the Pink Mary Kay phone.

Mommy at play, belting out some tunes on the ol’ karaoke machine!

Here is the belly at 26 weeks

We’re at 25 weeks and 6 days.

The first Daddy and Baby photo… Daddy looks scary!

Waiting for Dr. Goodwin at our latest OB/GYN appointment.

Mommy giving Daddy a lesson regarding anatomy and the female reproductive organs.

We got to hear the heartbeat again at this appointment. It is really strong. He gets his heart rate up with all that uteral aerobics

The belly at 24 weeks:

Here is the belly at 23 weeks… getting bigger

So I just keep getting bigger and bigger. I saw mom last week and we had dinner with them last night and she said I looked bigger even just 5 days later. I’ve been reading the books and it seems like we have an early developer…I’ve been experiencing things a little earlier than most books/internet says I should. I felt movement for the first time at 16 weeks, that “normally” doesn’t happen until 17 or 18. And I’ve also finally started feeling him move a bit when I’m standing up, which I’m not supposed to feel yet. Our last appointment went well, it’s getting much easier to find the heartbeat and he is about 8 inches crown to rump (probably about 10 inches head to toe). I’ve only gained about 7 lbs through the entire pregnancy and by week 24 the normal weight gain is 10lbs so I’m a little behind The doc said it’s nothing to worry about as long as I’m getting the right nutrition, etc. I’ve been adding little snacks in between my 3 meals a day hoping that will help a bit with the weight gain. Some cottage cheese, apples, granola bars, etc and then my normal meals. I also realized why I look so big…when you are short waisted you carry higher so that’s why it looks like my belly pops out starting at my ribs instead of just my lower belly. My uterus is about an inch above my belly button so I’m starting to feel kicking higher in my tummy, which is different. I’ve been exercising but still get fatigued faster than pre-pregnancy but as long as I keep up walking/biking I will have an easier delivery (so the doc says).

Here is a photo of the belly at 21 weeks:

Relating to Mommy’s last post, her belly has literally popped out. Don’t take my word for it… see below.

As you can see, our current 7 year old dog-bear daughter, Maggie, feels left out and forced her way into the background of the photo. The sibling rivalry begins

I didn’t believe people who told me one day you wake up and suddenly your belly “pops” out and you suddenly look pregnant. I figured it wouldn’t happen that way because I look at my belly every day and that I would notice changes. Well it happened. Yesterday I woke up and suddenly my belly was bigger than it was the day before. It was very surreal. A couple nights ago we also finally saw my belly move on the surface when the little bugger kicked. That was most definitely a cool thing! The other strange thing that happened that same night is that I could see my upper belly (above my belly button) moving to my heart beat. It was strange because I never thought you could see a heartbeat through someone’s belly!

This morning/afternoon I am working on my computer and have been feeling much stronger movements in there. It’s very strange to feel something moving around so consistently. I’m so used to it now, it just seems like a normal every day thing but then I find myself smiling and laughing reminding me that this is a miracle There have been some times this morning where it feels like bubbles in my belly and I’ve also started to feel him move entire limbs. I think (since I cannot see in there) he is moving his entire arm or leg as if to stretch and I can feel this strong pulling sensation against my belly. It’s very odd if you are not used to it!

I’m excited that instead of looking like I don’t know how to do crunches I actually look pregnant! Mom even commented yesterday when we went to see a movie that I finally looked pregnant! I sometimes still can’t get over that there is a little person growing in there that I will get to see in 4 months. It’s just the coolest most magical thing on this Earth! I’ve been going through strange hunger spirts where sometimes I am not hungrier than I was pre-pregnancy and then there are days where I can’t seem to get full! I had lost some weight in the 2nd and 3rd month due to morning sickness but luckily most of the weight was lost in areas that could afford it (by thighs and butt!). I was concerned as to how I would be able to catch up to the appropriate weight gained for someone my height, etc. Well I’ve gained 10 pounds total since we conceived and so I’m back on track for normal weight gain. Now I’m just trying to find the energy to get my butt out of bed in the mornings to get some exercise.

Our next appointment is on Valentine’s Day so I think we will hear the heart beat again and get to ask any questions that have come up. We have not been as good about taking pix of my growing belly week to week but I’m going to try to get better at that so we can post it here and see just how fat I get!

So, it finally happened. Jen’s belly is big enough for her to use it as a cupholder when she is sitting on the couch. She displayed her new skill to me the other day with a cup of tea. I was so proud of her. Now she has one to match mine (hopefully as hers grows, mine shrinks ;)).

Also related to the belly, the little tike is kicking a lot more in there, and they’re getting stronger. I am able to feel them more easily and more often. Jen and I have even seen her belly move from a kick or punch.

We started practicing our touch massage in preparation for birth (19 weeks and some odd days away). The idea is that Jen will learn to relax certain muscle areas upon my touch. So, to practice, Jen tightens up a muscle area that is commonly strained during childbirth (e.g. her lower back), and I touch and gently massage that area as she relaxes. I have learned one thing during this process, sternly saying to her: “relax”, that doesn’t work

So tomorrow is the halfway point of the pregnancy. Jen will be 20 weeks. The baby has been very active and Jen can feel him moving around in there and reacting to the outside world. So far, he likes Mom’s singing, action movies (especially with guns), horror flicks.

I’ve felt him kick a few times and it’s so cool. He tends to get stage fright when I put my hand on the belly, but there have been a couple kicks where I was in the right place at the right time. I can’t wait until he’s a little bigger and we can see mommy’s belly move. Of course, I can’t wait until the little guy is born, too! We’ve got 19 weeks and 6 days until his (projected) World Premiere!

Head on over to www.jaredashlock.com/index.php/baby-boy-names to vote in our baby name poll.

It’s a boy! We had the ultrasound today and found out that our little baby is a boy! The little fella was squirming around in there. It was surprising how much he moves around in there… probably trying to get comfortable. It sucks being in a uterus for 9 months without a laz-e-boy.

The Grandparents Ashlock and Marge were there. They didn’t let us take video or photos during the exam, and the posse couldn’t be there during the first part. But after the tech verified two legs, two arms, spine, and head, everyone was able to join us for “The Search for Privates”. The tech said that she wouldn’t tell us unless she was 100% certain of the sex. Sure enough, our baby is packin’.

Elbow	His Boyhood	Arm
Face	Fingers	Head
Mouth	Spine

Tonight, the Grandparents Ashlock are coming into town, for the fetal anatomy ultrasound party that takes place tomorrow morning. We’re going to dinner tonight and then probably conking out early for our 7:30 in the AM appointment (ouch).

Let the bets begin…

Since I felt the first kick, the baby has been very active. Luckily for me, it hasn’t been too bad at night so I have been able to sleep All the books said that the baby might not kick regularly until after 20 weeks, but our baby is an over-achiever and has been kickin’ up a storm daily.

When my grandparents came to visit in early January, I was eating all the food that passed by my mouth (or with arms length). However, lately, I have been just eating normally. I’m upset that I do not crave much dessert, as this was a food group I couldn’t live without pre-pregnancy.

My cold (I’ve had one for the last week) is finally dissipating, and I’m coughing up a bunch of grossness, making me oh so attractive In other news, I haven’t needed an adjustment at the chiropractor so the baby is making my body work well.

In two days, we have our “fetal anatomy” ultrasound, so we’ll let you know what we’re having so you know whether we need pink or blue stuff. Oh yeah, we just signed up for our childbirth prep class, we start on April 11th. This will teach me how to breathe through the pain of a natural birth without smacking Jared in the process.

Today we had our third OB/GYN visit (they are every 4 weeks at this point). Everything appears to be good. They swore it was going to be a quick check-up with nothing exciting, but then they told Jen to get naked, and my heart started beating faster.

Unfortunately, it was to do a vaginal culture that they forgot to do at our first appointment.

Then we got to hear the heartbeat again. This time, the doc found it really quickly and it was very strong. The doc told us also that those other noises that we thought were Jen’s organs were actually the baby moving around and doing uteral aerobics.

This morning I woke up feeling very ill, with a cold, due to my lack of rest and non-stop activities this weekend (I was on a fun retreat for Mary Kay). Being sick I was in a bad mood, however, my mood quickly changed at around 2:45 this afternoon. I felt something in my belly. No, not gas, this was a little different. It felt like a little flutter, like a butterfly flying away and a little bit of pressure against my stomach. I waited a little bit and felt it again. I think our baby peanut is going to be a little soccer player and is practicing on mommy’s abdomen. It was very exciting!! And I can’t wait to feel more Of course when Jared put his hand on my belly to feel it, there was nothing. But then five minutes later, I felt it again.

We looked it up online to verify that it was indeed kicking and not just and impending fart. Sure enough, kicking is supposed to start anywhere between 16 and 22 weeks along. It describes some women’s explanations of what it felt like and one of them was indeed a butterfly fluttering around. It looks like the baby is going to take after mommy and sports. We can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the next coming months.

Apologies for the lack of updates. I’ve been busy and lazy all at once. Our next OB/GYN appointment is scheduled for January 17th, 2008 at 11:30. It’s supposed to just be a simple checkup, nothing too exciting. What is exciting is that Jen will be 18 weeks along on Jan 19th, which means that we can schedule the ultrasound to determine sex, to see if our baby has an inny or outty if you catch my drift

I’ll see you next week after the appointment, cheers!

Here is some video footage from our second OB/GYN visit on December 14th, 2007. The nurse uses the doppler so that we can hear the baby’s heartbeat. It took her a while to find it because the baby was pretty low on Jen.

Doppler Video

… before getting your wife pregnant. This is what hormones do to her.

Actually, neither of us remember what that face was all about. I probably threatened to not get her food immediately.