Thanksgiving

(Written earlier this week!)

It doesn't seem possible that Thanksgiving is already here or that I'm already 21 weeks along!  Where has the time gone?

Last weekend we tailgated at the Northwest vs. Pitt State game held annually at Arrowhead Stadium.  We arrived literally second car in line at the gates so as you can imagine, it was a long day for this pregnant lady!  The weather was very chilly and windy but eventually the sun came out and it provided some much needed warmth.  This year I went prepared.  I brought hot water and tea bags, my heaviest snuggling blanket, and wore 4 or 5 layers of clothing.  I was still cold but overall fairly comfortable in my oversized lawn chair.  I have to admit tailgating while pregnant or at this stage of my life was not what it used to be.  I didn't miss the beverages at all nor did I even want one.  Watching Robin get crazy as usual was okay but this year I stayed in one spot the whole time and when 3:00 rolled around, I was done and it was time to go.  In years past, we'd stay the entire game and then go to a bar afterwards to enjoy eachother's company.  I have a feeling our days of tailgating to this degree is coming to an end, at least for me.

Did I mention some crazy decided to hit my car while we were all tailgating on the other side?  Ah yes, such a fun event to happen at 10:15 a.m.  Nice start to our day but thankfully they didn't contest the issue and we're well on our way to having it fixed.  All I have to do now is take it to the shop, order the parts, and take it back when it's time to get everything fixed.  Mostly this is just an inconvenience.

On Saturday we met Kevin and Leah for double date night, preggo style (as Leah and I called it).  We saw "Due Date" which I have to admit was really pretty boring for me.  It was one of those movies that shows everything funny in the previews and is mostly just annoying.  I think Kevin and Robin enjoyed it though so I don't think it was a complete loss.  We followed up with dinner at Jack Stack BBQ which was fabulous as usual.  Our waiter was quite possibly the most annoying human I've ever come across.  Let's just say I could see why he's a waiter and not a rocket scientist!  Finally we went to Starbucks, got some hot drinks, and lounged on the deck.  The Plaza is a really great place to people watch and the weather was fairly nice.  That was probably my favorite part because we just sat and talked for an hour or so and enjoyed the sights and sounds of late fall.

Sunday was a big day for us!  Robin and I are officially God parents of Miss Rowen Annette.  She was super adorable in a white onesie, white tights, white bow, and light pink tu-tu.  I got a few toothless grins out of her during the service as well.  I have to admit I never thought I'd be a God parent.  I'm not extremely religious though I do have faith and I'm not baptised myself.  I actually find that I believe a lot of things from a variety of religions.  But I feel very blessed and honored to be chosen and I take it very seriously.  In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm going to responsible for helping her grow up to be a good little girl and eventually a woman.  It's strange; I didn't think it would feel quite such a big deal!



Robin, Me, Rowen, Kellen, Phil and Marsha after Rowen's Baptism!

 And that brings us to this week and my pregnancy.  I've noticed my belly has begun to really bulge in the last couple of weeks.  So have others.  It seems adults lose their filters altogether when it comes to pregnancy.  For example, a woman who knew I was pregnant saw me preparing my lunch the other day and said, "Wow!  You really LOOK pregnant now!  Before you just looked chunky!"  I could have smacked her but I refrained and ignored her.  When trying to pretend that you're still semi-good looking to your husband and the public while pregnant, comments like these are really tough to take.  I do struggle now thinking I'm too big or too round but in terms of the doctor, I'm doing fine.  Robin doesn't seem to mind.  He still looks at me the same and nothing has changed between us.  I'm so thankful to have such a sweet, kind man in my life!

21 Weeks (My face says it all..."I feel HUGE!")

I also developed something of a side effect this week that I didn't foresee.  In fact, I'm a bit of an enigma to my doctor too.  I won't go into detail but what I will say is that the diagnosis is my immune system isn't loving something or other I either ate or came into contact with so I get to feel its wrath on my skin.  The doctor said it was really pretty bad so I'm on 3 meds, one topical and two oral, to get it under control.  I think the hardest part of this is that I can't eat bananas, peanut butter, or strawberries for a while because all of them have high alergen content.  BUT, the baby is doing fine so thankfully this whole issue isn't bothering her a bit!

Yesterday we returned the dresser I posted about previously too.  After reordering parts that broke or didn't fit right, we finally gave up.  It is a horrible dresser!  Do NOT buy it!  We found one at Nebraska Furniture Mart which is slightly more expensive but is more sturdy.  We'll save up and get it sometime in the future.  Same goes for our rocker.  We went bright and early on Black Friday because it was 50% off only to find the store had ONE to sell.  ONE?  Please tell me how you put something on your ad and then you only have ONE to sell for the entire day?  Woosah!  On the bright side, it's still on sale today and tomorrow so we may end up stopping by tomorrow to pick one up.  It's just not quite the spectacular deal.

Finally, Thanksgiving is coming up in just two days and we're heading up to Iowa to spend part of the week with my family and then Sunday with Robin's back here in KC.  I am very thankful that we get the opportunity to see both my family and his during the holidays.  I do wish my sister was able to be with us and that Robin's mom, sister, and niece could come home too.  Juggling two families is not always very easy though our situation seems to be a little more so.  This year I am in charge of something (scary, I know!) which is making my Grandma's pies.  She is flying to Washington to be with her sister so it's my job to ensure we have our traditional desserts.  I'm actually excited because this is something I know I can handle.  I may not be much of a cook, but I sure can bake some stuff!  I'm also excited to see my Grandpa.  It sounds like he is doing very well recovering with both of his new knees.  He had a second railing installed on his stairway so he can now go up and down by himself.  The last time I talked to him he said he was getting a stationary bike to ride at home so that the knees wouldn't get stiff.  I am SO happy that the minor stroke didn't stop him a bit!

So to you and yours, Happy Thanksgiving!  And just to annoy my husband, "Gobble, Gobble..."

Registering for babies...

...is COMPLETELY overwhelming! 

Let's start with last week(end).  Friday I had a checkup with my midwife who went through the sonogram with us and did her usual checks on me.  She showed us with her tape measure how small the baby really is and I have to admit, those sonograms sure are misleading!  Baby Sol's femurs are no bigger than the tip of my pinky to the first nuckle!  Her head is barely as big around as a ping pong ball!  When I look at this growing belly I'm sporting, I think she must really be a big girl but then I realize that her mommy wasn't small to begin with and that she's just getting ready to go through her growth spurts.

Saturday we started at a consignment sale of baby and children's clothes.  Everything was a dollar!  We got 23 items for $23 and while I walked out feeling that was a great job, I then remembered this baby could go through most of that in just a few days!  How overwhelming!  After that, we went to Phil and Marsha's to take pictures of their family.  Kellen is 2 years old and Rowen was just born in September.  It was really fun spending the afternoon with them as we got to experience a little bit of life with two small kids.  First off, Kellen was my buddy most of the afternoon.  We sat and ate "pish" or his Goldfish crackers and "ships" or chips.  He shared too!  He is talking quite a bit now and it's really funny to hear how he is pronouncing his words.  It's also amazing to see the mood swings that a 2 year old goes through in a matter of minutes.  It's exhausting!  Second, I got to snuggle with Rowen a bit.  I don't know if it's normal or not but she was super calm and not very fussy as we sat and got to know eachother.  She even started to nod off at one point which was pretty reassuring that I might actually be able to help a baby get to sleep. 



Our first set of baby clothes, courtesy of a GREAT sale!

 We took quite a few pictures of the family clad (unfortunately) in Nebraska gear.  After that we went to a buffet and got some lunch, then headed to BabiesRUs where Marsha walked us through the store and gave us pointers on things we do and do not need.  We took some notes as we went through the store and though I felt a bit more prepared to register, I have to tell you that registering is not a fun experience!

Kellen, Phil, Marsha, and Rowen!  Thanks, Marsha, for registering tips!

Sunday we decided, "Sure, we're adults.  We can handle this registering thing!"  Within the first section (bottles, nipples, pasifiers, etc.) I was overwhelmed.  There are SO many kinds of bottles, levels of nipples, stuff that may work, and others that won't.  By the time we finished our loop through the store, I felt as though this poor baby is going to have nothing of use!  We went back this week and registered for a few different things, changed some things online, and second guessed everything but I'm hoping we're nearing the sit and wait game of showers.  Most of the time we go through the registry I think, "These things are going to help care for my child's life!  What if I mess it up!?"  Then I realize our parents and their parents and back farther did just fine with even less.  I just need to chill out!



19 Weeks!  Don't worry, I'm not as big as I look!

 I am just finishing up my 19th week and I'm really starting to notice differences in my body.  My belly button is still an "inny" but it looks different and I can still see my hip bones but there is a defining line where my belly is bulging forward.  My back is sometimes sore now and I notice more pain in my hips and ligaments.  My midwife says I'm doing great with my weight but I should admit I haven't been to the gym in a LONG time.  I'm hoping the holidays will be some motivation because I really don't want to go too crazy with weight gain during that time.  I don't look as huge as these pictures make me look (I SWEAR) but I was too lazy to take my sweatshirt off.  Give me a pass; Sunday nights are when I rest and the weather has gotten pretty cold lately!

And our baby's flavor is...

Here's a bit I wrote after we found out the sex of the baby.  I apologize for the long wait!  We took a video of the sonogram and had hoped to attach it here but it's too large so unfortunately, I can only describe what we saw!  I'll update some more in a bit!

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I chuckled while typing that title because my friend, Moira, said she was excited to find out what "flavor" our baby would be.  It is quite possibly the best way to say "sex" or "gender" in a more mild tone.  Thanks Mo!  I can't wait til you find out your baby's flavor either, though you're forcing us to wait until April!



18 Weeks!!

 Anywho, I am now 18 weeks and sporting an obvious bump.  There's no hiding this baby now!  I've started to feel little movements here and there, mostly on my sides because the baby is padded by the placenta which for me is in the front.  Apparently everyone is different there.  The first time I felt it was probably the most pronounced.  The last couple have been little flutters or twitches.  Probably the funniest time was when I waited WAY too long to go pee.  Right after, the baby nudged me fairly hard and I think it was saying, "It's about time, Mom!  Thanks for the room down here!"

The last week was pretty uneventful.  We've been trying to keep as busy as we can since we knew today was the day we were to find out the baby's flavor!  Most of you probably saw it on FB by now, but just in case....

IT'S A GIRL!

I (tried) to post a video of the sonogram above.  Robin was so proud, he took video on his iPhone during the whole thing!  The video is 20 minutes long so I can only imagine family will want to watch the whole thing but it's really interesting if you've never seen one before.  During the sonogram, the baby was laying with her butt and feet at my belly button and her head down towards my pelvis.  She was also facing my spine so it was really hard to get pictures of her face!  The sonographer definitely tried!  She pushes and prods and pokes at the baby to no avail.  I think this is going to be one stubborn little girl!  She even kicked at the pushing when we tried to get her to move!  Something else interesting is that she was laying on her belly and had one hand up to her mouth and was sucking on it.  The video shows that in the first few minutes.  Look close; you can see her little jaws going to town!  Looks like she'll be an eater, just like her parents!  She was also laying with her left arm/hand up over her head.  The really funny part is that Robin sleeps EXACTLY like that every night, though he does sleep on his back.  She's already picking up our traits!

The sonographer didn't see any abnormalities or defects and of course that was a big relief!  She showed us the bones in her legs and arms, hands and feet, spine, skull and brain, kidneys, bladder, and lips.  I have to say it was refreshing to see her as a human and not a blob!  The last sonogram just looked like a blob so there wasn't much there to see.  Also, the sonographer confirmed that our due date of April 3rd is within 3 days of when she'll be set for the world.  I still think she'll be late; she's stubborn just like me!

Family and friends have already begun to wonder what her name is and like I said, we're keeping that a secret.  We have started calling her by name at home when it's just the two of us and especially around Atlas so he becomes more familiar with it before she arrives.  As I told Robin, it's really REAL now.  The baby looks human, has a gender, a name, and is developing her own personality!  We plan to go to BabiesRUs with Marsha this weekend so she can give us pointers on what to register for, what's good, and what's bad.  Since she has two kids 2 and under, she has a good bit of experience to help us out! 

So that's our news and we're so thrilled to share it with all of you!  I am so thankful that so many of our friends also have or are having kids about the same time as us.  We'll have many playdates and won't have to miss out on time with friends this way!  I'm also thankful that our families have been so great and supportive!  Everyone seems excited which makes this a lot of fun.