They Really Think It's All For Them...

Right now as I type, there is a cat on the changing pad, one in the crib, and Frannie (our ultimate cat-baby) here asleep in the papasan. lol. I don't have the heart to chase them away, it's too cute. I'll just have to wash everything again later. :)

Childbirth Class (Part 2)

Thursday nite was our second childbirth class. It was pretty fun actually. We got to do a bunch of relaxation exercises and massage techniques. Mark found another equally immature father-to-be and they tried to outdo each other from across the room with inappropriate motions while they were suppose to be massaging their wives. That particular couple turned out to be very nice and we had a good chat about both of our goals of a natural birth. They told us about friends of theirs who had awesome natural birth experiences at Olathe Medical Center, so that was cool, and very reassuring to us.

Can't wait till next Thurs! That class is a good time!

I Heart My Belly!

I also heart my stretch marks!! This is probably the first time in my life that I'm totally in love with my stomach area. lol. Being pregnant is so amazing and mind blowing. I feel sad on a daily basis that Mark can't experience it on the same level that I do. Even all the aches and pains are interesting because there is a purpose to it all. And I'll never be ashamed of any way that my body changes because of pregnancy. Maybe because it's that I wasn't too attached to the way it looked beforehand, but I'd also like to think that it's because I totally embrace the transition from maiden to mother and everything that comes with it. Like Mark says, it's all about non-attachment right? Change is good!

Check out my funny looking belly button!

Week 31

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How your baby's growing:

This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

Sweet Baby Papasan

Got a great deal on this Fisher Price Baby Papasan from Sandy's cousin. It's so freaking cute!

We're also going to go on Sun. to look at a beautiful wooden high chair I found on craigslist. Excited about that, hope we come home with it! :)

Healthy Mommy; Sick Phoebe

My bloodwork from last doctor's appt. came back today and all is well. I think they were convinced that I was going to get gestational diabetes, but that hasn't been the case. I'm a healthy fat mommy! lol.

However, I caught an awful cold over the weekend I guess and felt like I was dying yesterday. I had a fever of 101 at one point and was in contact with the nurse several times throughout the day. I called Mark crying I was so frustrated. Being sick and not being able to take anything but Tylenol really sucks. He told me later it made him want to throw his desk out the window like Hulk and speed over to me even though there was nothing he could do. :) so sweet.

anyway, feeling much better today, fever broke overnight and now i'm just stuck with blowing my nose every 30 seconds and sneezing 500 bazillion times a minute. lol. I'm daydreaming about a nice big dose of dayquil right now.

Childbirth Class (Part 1)

We had our first childbirth class at the hospital on Thurs. nite. I really love our teacher, she's a hoot. lol. I tried to keep my questions to a minimum as to not embarrass Mark and come off like a "know-it-all." But even so, no one knew what the heck I was talking about anyway except the teacher. I didn't care really, I figure if there's anything in your life you should attempt to be a know-it-all about, it's your babies. The most important thing I'll ever do in my life will be to become a parent, and I'm going to use all the information and every resource available to me to help me do it better.

Important things I learned in class this week: 1) I can wear my own clothes, or no clothes!, during labor & birth! 2) I can labor in the tub even after my water has broken, but if I try to be sneaky and attempt a water birth, they will drain the water when I start pushing. 3) I really want to become a birth educator!

Oh, and we had a doctor's appt. yesterday. It wasn't very exciting. They did the 1-hr glucose test again, results next week sometime. I guess they were testing my blood for a couple of other things too. From now on we go every two weeks. Next appt.: July 7th @ 9:30am.

Cat nursery?

"But the sign says we can sleep here!"

"I was trying to blend in"

I Heart Garage Sales

We just happened to stop by a couple of garage sales on our way home from the store this morning and lucked out on some awesome deals.

Mark has been looking for a cheap drawing table on Craigslist for months without any luck. He found a practically brand new one this morning for 20 bucks! great deal considering they retail for several hundred dollars.

I picked up a Bumbo Baby Seat, which retails for $40, for an amazing FIVE dollars. awesome! and even better, a $140 Bumble Bags diaper bag (slightly worn) for $5. ridiculous!

Week 30

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

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

SPF Bucket

Ahhh, the memories.... It seems like just yesterday that I was 16 months old just like Ilena here. We would put on our SPF buckets, head out to the pool and taste test any moths that happened to dive bomb into our water table. Those were the days! :D

That moth had an "earthy bouquet" yet a disappointing finish.

Dreams

My dreams have become steadily more weird with a really creepy tone to them. I wake up all irritated at them usually. I don't think I've gone a night in a week or so with out feeling like I dreamed ALL nite, which is sort of exhausting.

Anyway, last night was as weird as ever, but there was one part that was sort of sweet, in a weird, creepy kind of way. lol.

Background: Alot of my dreams have been about Mark and I owning a house yet somehow I was still living at my parents and I can't seem to escape. The rest are usually about going back to high school, at 30, and everyone I went to high school with is there too. It's been like a mini-series about how our high school somehow convinced us all to come back for an adult education class, but we end up going through all of high school again. I try to start a rebellion against the school but no one listens to me. I keep trying to get away, but always end up back at the high school.

So this dream last nite starts off with me at high school cleaning out my lockers (apparently I had many). I'm filing trash bag after trash bag with stuff and wondering "how could they not have ever gotten rid of this stuff after 12 years? this is so weird! Didn't other people use these lockers?" Later, I run into my old friend Haley and we start talking about our pregnancies. Some other people are milling around when suddenly someone shouts "I can see something!" and points at my belly. I look down to see the shape of my baby's head and face through my skin. Then the whole baby is out, only still connected to me by a thin layer of skin covering it like plastic wrap or something. My perspective changes from looking down on my belly to facing my baby somehow. People are playing with the baby, it's holding their fingers and stuff. Then everyone sort of fades away and my baby says "What is your name?" I reply "My name is Phoebe, but you can call me Mommy" Then I think I started crying and blabbering "i love you" and hugging my baby. Then I get worried and tell my baby that she better get back in there, that she's not "done" yet. lol. The End.

Ya, these hormones are really something.

Diapering 101

Just found this on Happybottomus's website. It's got explanation AND pictures, which is really helpfull.

http://www.happybottomus.com/parentinginfo/CDinfo/Diapering101.htm

Yes, it is rather bright...

So, I know everyone is like "wtf?" about the paint color in the baby's room. I had to explain it to my dad last night which made me think I should just tell the story here as well.

We both agreed that green was a good color to go with, but our opinions on which shade turned out to be VERY different. Mark, who never has had a strong opinion on decorating in his life, made a stand in the middle of Home Depot for a seizure inducing neon green color (yes, more seizure inducing than the one we ended up with). I was going for a more natural color and so to end the dispute quickly we chose a green in between. Once it was up, it was clear to me that this was still a very scary green but Mark was in denial and proclaimed that he wasn't painting over it, EVAR.

So we worked with it. And it's growing on us. It's going to be okay....I promise. *pets your eyeballs*

Another Nursery Pic

We hit a Linens n' Things closeout sale yesterday and I bagged these sweet curtains for the nursery. It's really coming together now!

Cloth Diaper Registry

We are now registered for all of our cloth diapers/supplies at Happybottomus.

You can check it out here: (scroll to the bottom for ours)
http://www.happybottomus.com/registries.htm

Week 29

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.

Lactating Armpits & other awesome stories....

We jumped the gun yet again and went to our breastfeeding class last nite at the hospital like 2 months earlier than everyone else apparently. oh well, we like to be super prepared in advance i guess.

The woman who taught it was hilarious and I'm looking forward to having her as our Childbirth Class teacher (starts next thurs!5 weeks long). One of the stories she told was about a woman who had like 5 fully functional nipples, two of which were in her armpits! gross! but sort of awesome too. you'd have like built in armpit milk cannons! and no one could get mad at you for exposing yourself in public when you fed your baby! LOL.

I kind of felt like a couple of hippies when we went around the room for intros. we were supposed to tell who our doctor was and where we were "delivering". all of the other girls said "dr. soandso is delivering our baby here" I wanted to say "uh, no one is "delivering" anybody here! I'm giving birth and my husband here is going to "receive" our baby and there will be a doctor or midwife to oversee the birth and a doula to assist." I think instead I just listed our "team" and skipped to the next question. then again, I was the only person in the class who admitted to knowing anything about breastfeeding, which was weird to me considering they were all about to give birth. I guess breastfeeding is a last minute or even an afterthought for alot of women.

but i guess i promised "other awesome stories" in the post title, so now I have to think of something.....

Baby's kicks are getting increasingly more powerful! Sometimes my belly actually "jumps" a little bit. I've been watching it carefully and I bet in a week or so I could get a video of it moving! Half the time though, she's kicking/punching straight down into what feels like the uh..."exit", if you will. lol. :D that's a pretty weird sensation. She also is doing some "rolls" or something, and if i were a more slender gal, you'd probably be able to see it. but seeing as there's several extra layers of "fluff" or "padding" between her and us, it's not as obvious. I was sort of bummed about it but I mentioned it to Mark, who thought that was kind of creepy, and was happy he didn't have to see the baby rolling about in my tummy. lol. I think he's content to feel a kick or two every once in a while.

Nursery Almost Done!

Week 28, Month 7, 3rd Trimester

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Milk , Milk , Lemonade

I kept assuring Mark that it was just fine if he went with me to this La Leche League (breastfeeding support) meeting, which is was...technically. lol. we showed up a few minutes late and Mark felt like a pervy alien right off the bat. Apparently the other mens don't really go to these things and some women MIGHT feel uncomfortable, even though we were assured that the majority of them didn't care. anyway, Mark lasted about 3 minutes and then slunk off to the car. I was bummed that it was weird for him. Although afterwards several women commented that they thought it was great that he was supportive and coming with me to all our baby-related events. Everyone was very nice and I got to hold a very very little baby that spent our time together working on a very impressive poo. Other small children, mostly babies and toddlers, played in the middle of our circle which was super cute. One little boy kept toddling over to me and poking me in the butt through the back of my chair. it was adorable. lol.

So I'm definitely going to join and go at least to the monthly meetings for now. I think our next baby related thing is a Holistic Parents meeting next week. I talked to a girl at La Leche about an Attachment Parenting meeting too, so I need to find out when that is. It's super cool that we're able to find these little groups in Kansas City. The internets are cool and all, but having some real life social time is pretty awesome too. :D

Disturbing Dream

I dreamed last night that I had twins, very very large twin babies. They could practically sit up on their own already right after birth. lol. So then I realize that I don't have any diapers for them or any other supplies except for car seats. I send Mark out to buy a boppy pillow and diapers and proceed to try to nurse them. I'm trying to hold them like they suggest in my breastfeeding DVD but I end up bending them all around in impossible positions. that part was scary. Then all of a sudden, my babies have been replaced and I'm trying to nurse two stuffed animals. lol. I keep complaining that "it's not the same" and wondering where my babies are. Then they are back. I'm starting to freak out and trying to keep track of them because they keep moving around somehow. At some point there's a party outside and some lady is trying to feed my newborn baby food. I freak out and scream at everyone for awhile. No one is helping me and for some reason this whole time, I'm at my parents' house. I woke up all weirded out. :(

Unexpected Trip to Midwife

Having never been pregnant before, some of these sensations are a mystery to me. So I look alot of stuff up on the internets, and call the Nurse at my OB/Midwife's office for the rest. Yesterday morning I was having my subtle on and off again crampy feelings again so I called the nurse, basically just wanting her to tell me "it's normal, no biggie." Instead I was asked to come into the office to check for a UTI and then see the midwife to examine my uterus. wow, didn't see THAT coming.

Chuck was nice enough to come home a little early and Mark and I scampered off to our appt. I thought the midwife was going to give me an award for "the best urine sample EVAR!" or something, I think it really made her day. lol. Everything else checked out great too and then we did some stretches and things to help my back and pelvis. I got a card to help me remember the symptoms of pre-term labor and a lesson in how to feel my uterus through my belly to see if it was contracting. I'm still not sure on that one though. But I am sure that I need to do my yoga stretches TWICE a day now and make sure I go use that massage gift certificate soon. The midwife practically ordered me to go get a bunch of massages. :D sweet.