nursery—phase one

Last night Josh painted the walls in the nursery. We just painted them a year ago when we moved in, but we decided we wanted the nursery to be something besides white. We chose an Olympic paint color called "Niagra Falls". The trim around the room still needs to be painted (which will be white to match the closet door) and then we can start assembling furniture. As always, click on the pic for a bigger view and a better idea of the color.

christmas in the womb?

Not even born yet and already celebrating the holidays with us.

My Mom made him up a stocking.

It was full of all sorts of goodies like:

a stuffed monkey & a little soft monkey rattle

onesies

and a bib and these adorable little booties.

So tiny!

My Grandma gave the baby a present (with a tag that said, "To: Baby [our last name] From: Great Grandma").

It's a little layette set with adorable puppy dog detailing.

The hat has little ears and so do the feet of the jumper.

Detailing on the jacket.

The baby even got a gift from two of our closest friends.

This little construction worker jumpsuit (I love the alternating pattern).

And this awesome Bob Marley onesie.

Thanks everyone—the Wee One is starting to accumulate quite a collection of clothes.

27 weeks

Went Friday for the glucose test. It really wasn't bad at all. The first thing they did was a finger prick to get a bit of blood for the pre-monitor. Then the technician handed me a 10 ounce cold bottle of orange liquid and said, "You need to drink this all within 5 minutes." No problem. It just tasted like Orange Sunkist that had an extra dose of sugar added to it. As soon as I was done, they noted the time and had me sit in the waiting room for an hour. Josh was with me and we ran into our nephew's aunt (on his mother's side and no relation to us) who was there for the same testing. We all chatted and looked at the reading material available so the hour went by relatively quickly. Then the technician called me back and took two vials of blood from my arm. That was it. I imagine I'll get results sometime towards the end of the week.

Childbirth classes start this week. I'm actually really looking forward to these and hoping they help clear up some questions and concerns I have about pain control through labor. I'm still feeling good physically although sleeping is getting tougher and my back is starting to hurt a bit at night. The baby kicks all the time now and we get tons of pleasure out of just staring at my stomach watching it move. We went to the annual family Christmas party at Josh's uncle's last night and got lots of "Congratulations" from all the family we only see once or twice a year. Of course they were all surprised since I'm 7 months along and most of them didn't know. That's where the picture below is from. The last Christmas of the two of us as just a couple. Unbelievable that we have less than 13 weeks to go!

ladies room

Tuesday while waiting in line to use the restroom I had my very first "When are you expecting?" from a stranger. For a split second I thought of saying, "What do you mean? I'm not pregnant.", but she was sweet little old lady and of course, I love being pregnant. So I told her and she smiled and chatted with me for a minute. She was ahead of me in line and when a stall became available she kindly offered it to me first. I declined—I could wait—but she made my day.

26+ weeks

Went to the doctor's on Friday. I have one more appointment next month and then I "graduate" to appointments every two weeks. That's means we are getting really close to the due date. Everything continues to be moving along in a seemingly normal manner. The babies heart rate measured in the 150s and my fundal height was 29.5 cm. the doctor said that I'm measuring a few weeks ahead but my growth for this period was consistent with what it should be (about a centimeter per week). I'm not sure was the measuring ahead means—I'm hoping a baby a little earlier rather than a really big baby.

Josh was able to go to the appointment with me, so he got to hear the heartbeat and meet the doctor. That made me happy, as it's been 14 weeks since he last heard the heartbeat and I wanted him to meet the doctor before I went into labor. I also got my paperwork to go get my glucose test done. Just have to set aside an hour or so one morning to go and do it. I'm not supposed to eat anything, but the nurse said I could have something small as long as it didn't have any sugar in it—and I tell the technician I haven't eaten (so sneaky).

Here's a lovely picture—and a rare glimpse of our kitchen—Josh took of me this evening while messing around with the camera. Looks like a whole lotta baby hanging out in that belly. Click on the pick for a much bigger and closer view of that goofy look on my face.

Poetry Speaks to Children

I was recently contacted by Sourcebooks, Inc. and asked to review a copy of The New York Times bestselling book, Poetry Speaks to Children. It's a beautiful hard cover book that contains 95 poems from various poets and is accompanied by a supplemental CD of 34 of the poets reading 50 different poems from the book.

One of the things that really struck me about the book was the eclectic nature of the contents. It really is a book for all ages. It includes silly short poems like, Mrs. Mitchell's Underwear by Dennis Lee next to deep and morally valuable poems like, Okay, Brown Girl, Okay by James Berry (which is one of the selections on the CD). Just skim through the table of contents and you'll see entries from some of the classic poets and story tellers such as Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lewis Carroll as well as contemporary poets you may be reading for the first time.


Each poem is juxtaposed on the page with a gorgeous illustration by one of three women artists. All the illustrations appear to be done in a traditional medium such as watercolor, pen and ink, or pencil and adds not only to the richness of the subject matter of each poem, but to the overall aesthetics of the book as you turn each page.

The CD is a unique entity in itself. It was really interesting to listen to the poets reading their own poetry. To hear the intonations and pauses they would make and how that contrasted with the way I read the poem offered a whole new life to the work. You could listen to the CD on it's own or while you were looking through the book—as each track on the CD is listed on the page it accompanies in the book. Not only could it function as an audio book of sorts, but it could also function as a way to help your child learn to read (hearing the texts and seeing the words on the written page).

The book has an age group of 4 and over on the back cover, however, I think you could start much younger than that with many of the entries. As a matter of fact, we've already begun reading it out loud to our child who is only 26 weeks in utero! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to enrich their children's lives as well as their own. Beautiful, heartfelt, and ageless.

For more information, check out these links:
Poetry Speaks to Children at Amazon.com
Poetry Speaks to Children at Sourcebooks.com

25 weeks

Dear Baby,
Less than 15 weeks to go before I hit that 40 week mark. I can't believe that in just four days we will only have double digits left until your due date. I still feel so unprepared for your arrival, yet we can't wait to meet you.

Your Dad has been busy scraping the paint off of the hardwood floors in your room (that was so kindly left by previous owners) but we haven't moved all of his equipment down to the basement yet—which to me is when it will really start to feel like we are making some headway. Tim and Laurie gave us a beautiful crib that is still in pieces down in the basement (and needs a mattress so you aren't sleeping on the wooden bottom. Gam bought us a glider and rocking ottoman set for Christmas this year that has nice creamy colored cushions which will go great with your bedding. We are planning on painting your room too—probably a sage green or blue color. Once that is done and the closet is cleared out, we can start filling up your room with the furniture and goodies.

I'm getting bigger and bigger everyday, but you must be too because your new favorite thing is to kick and squirm all over the place. You're strong enough that it's really obvious when you're moving around inside of me. We've started reading books to you and it will be interesting to see whether or not you have any recollection of that once we start reading them to you when you're in our arms.

Slowly, but surely we are acquiring things that will help to make your transition into the outside world a safe and comforting one. The barrage of goodies won't come until your shower—which will probably be in February. That will be so much fun. Hopefully we will get a lot of those necessities for you then and I won't have so much anxiety about not being ready for you.

In just over two weeks your Dad and I start our "Birth, Babies, and Beyond" classes. They are for two hours on Tuesday nights and run for six consecutive weeks. I'm not sure what all will be included, but again, I'm sure they will help ease our anxieties. On Friday I have another appointment with the doctor. I'm really looking forward to this one because your Dad will finally be able to come along and meet the doctor as well as hear your heartbeat again. He hasn't heard it since you were just 12 weeks old and it's one of my favorite parts of each appointment. I'm sure he's excited for that too.

Love,
Mommy

picture at 24 weeks along

milk, milk, lemonade...

Saw my first bit of colostrum today.

Gross ya out?

Too much information?

Perhaps, but I thought it was cool. So much so, that I came out of the bathroom after my shower this morning and said to Josh, "Hey, wanna see something cool?"

ebbs & flows

The baby has started a new trend of kicking all the time now (well, except when my Mom is around and she wants the baby to kick). My Mom is so cute all (while putting her hand on my belly), "This is Grandma." To which the baby replies with a big old nothing. Anyhow, as I said, the baby is kicking all the time now which is cool in itself, but the best part is that it is really visible. My entire stomach moves now when he gets on a roll.

Thursday night Josh and I were kicking back on our reclining love seat and the baby was going to town kicking and squirming. It was so repetitive and obvious that I looked down and saw my entire stomach go up and down—several times. Of course, for me the best part is that Josh got to see it too when it first happened. It's great that he's here for all the milestone movements—I imagine it helps that the baby likes to move a lot at night when we are both home relaxing.

I'm working on capturing the movement on video. When I get enough good footage shot, uploaded to the laptop and edited into a reasonable timeframe (with all the boring waiting shots edited out) I'll work on getting it posted here. Until then, I'm just going to enjoy all the kicking and have a talk with the baby about performing next time we are with my Mom.