17 Weeks and counting...

Hi all!
First of all, you'll be proud to see that I actually did my hair so this photo is not nearly as difficult to look at. Also, I wore my regular pants so we're all back to the way things should be.
I'm feeling great! Our next appointment is WEDNESDAY...as in 3 days...as in I can't wait!!! I hope that everything goes well at the appointment of course. I can't wait to see the ultrasound and see how the baby has grown since the last ultrasound.

I definitely felt the baby move yesterday. It was a for sure thing and it was sooo cool! My kitty Karl was sitting on my lap purring and I think the baby liked it!

So, to keep things short, here's the latest picture! Baby is growing :) 17 weeks and 4 days.

On another note. For those of you who didn't know, we got a new bed! Oh. My. Gosh. It is amazing! We upgraded from a probably 20+ year old, hand-me-down, Queen size mattress which has either gotten smaller over the last 4 years, or Ross and I have gotten fatter. I don't think it's the second option...

This new mattress has those individually "wrapped" coils so you don't feel the movement of the other "sleeper". It's got a Euro Pillow Top with memory foam. HOLY COW! It's soooo luxurious. Plus we got such a great deal, like $500 off the regular price. Can't beat that! Anyway, here's the comparison pictures. Enjoy :)

Old Queen:

New, Luxurious King:

Hijacked!

Ross here, I've decided to hijack the blog for just a few minutes here and compile some of my thoughts on this pregnancy.  They're all good thoughts, and I'm quite aware that this is in no way as interesting as Heidi's normal blog postings - especially since it's not me who has a growing bulge.  But I'll be brief, so just skip to the pictures if you're bored.

Let me start by saying that I'm incredibly excited.  I know that goes without saying, but as you'll soon see there's a fair amount of pressure involved with fathering a child.  I'm super excited to take on the challenge, but let's take a look at why I'm feeling the pressure:

1) There are currently around 6.5 billion people in the world, and taking into account the number of people dying every day, and how long there have been people wandering around it's awfully difficult to estimate how many people have ever been born.  I did a quick search (which is widely regarded as the most scientific way to do these things) and the authorities on this have extrapolated data based on numbers gathered historically.  They believe that it's pretty safe to guess that there have probably been around 107 billion people born.  Let's give that number the weight it deserves, one hundred and seven billion.  That's 107,000,000,000.  Well come July/August, they can officially make that number 107,000,000,001.  Given that, I should probably not be nervous, it's happened 107 billion times before, but as you already know not one of those 107 billion times was it happening to me!  Whatever way you look at it we all started with 1 man and 1 woman... talk about pressure on those two!  I'll bet they had one heck of a time finding a qualified OBGYN.  I'll bet they found a qualified dolphin out there somewhere to help.  For argument's sake, let's call this dolphin Binky, MD.

2) I'm 26 years old, I'll be 27 when this kid laughs for the first time.  Are you kidding, I can barely tie my own shoes, let alone father a baby!  I don't know if you know this about me, but sometimes I have to ask Heidi where I've left my X.  You can replace X with any given possession that I may currently be looking for.  From what I hear children are pretty similar to this, and now they tell me that I've got to keep track of this little boy or girl who already has a tendency to lose things?  Oh, I do not see this going well.  I'm sure I can remember something as important as a child, but remembering all the accouterments that go along with this pint-sized person?  "Where did you leave your toy trolly?  No, I do not remember where you left your toy trolly.  How about your toy marimba?  Did you check in the vegetable crisper?"  I'm hopeless.

3) Let's touch on money for a minute.  No, I'm not concerned with paying for things like food, or walls, or a ceiling.  I'm very blessed to be able to say that, and in all seriousness I'll be so happy to support my family.  I'm also blessed to have a great support system in both of our families should we need a hand.  What I am more than concerned about is Disney movies.  There's like 213 of those things, and they never put them on TV.  Don't think that I haven't noticed that they're each twice the price of a normal DVD, and that they only break them out of "the vault" every five years or so, but I'm more than a little concerned about this.  I mean, look at me and tell me that you really think I have the conviction to tell my little kid that they may not have Toy Story 5 on Blu-ray.  It absolutely does not help that I love the things too, but this becomes a problem when the bank is foreclosing on my house (on it's fifth mortgage) but I'm smiling with Overacker-Junior watching Wall-e 3 on the front lawn.

4) Diapers. A gracious family member has been saving diapers for the last several months (did I mention how lucky I am?) and the number 800 got thrown around as the current stash.  So I laugh to myself like I know what's going on, and think that'll last well into our third child.  So another scientific research project later and I'm now looking at the number four thousand!?  When did that happen?  How many times can these things POOP?  Does anyone realize that that is exactly four thousand more diapers than I've ever changed?  Were you aware that I've never so much as diapered anything, and were you further aware that these diapers come in different sizes?  Great, just as I get used to cramming one plastic absorbent elastic thing onto my child's reputedly smooth backside when I need to adjust to a bigger plastic/elastic thing and a bigger backside.

5) Minivans - the automotive equivalent of the Death Star.  Cool features, but it belongs firmly to the Dark Side, and it's about as aerodynamic as a satellite dish.  Enough said.

But I've taken enough of your time if you're even still with me.  I lied about being short, and further I knew it was a lie when I said it, but that's just because it's become wildly apparent how little I know about being a parent.  But isn't that how we all start out?  Despite my ignorance, I am blown away with excitement to start learning.

Thanks for sticking with the blog!  I know Heidi's said it before, but I am definitely excited to meet this little person, and to watch each and every Disney movie.  

Holy Bulge!

I've been slacking with the picture taking. But you'll be shocked to see this next one. At least I was. The prior picture was taken on February 6. This one was taken February 21. So there's a good 2 weeks between these two, but holy crap! I have a feeling, at this rate, I'm going to be enormously huge by the time this baby comes! Here I am at 16 weeks, 4 days.

I messed up and wore the wrong pants to compare to the previous picture - I won't make that mistake in the future. And, I apologize for my nasty hair. It's Sunday and snowing and I didn't go anywhere and I didn't do anything but put it up so it's pretty gnarly! 

Ok, I hope that some of the shock of my bulging belly has worn off. It has not quite done that for me yet. In regard to other items, I'm getting so excited to learn what we are having. Our next appointment is less than 2 weeks away on March 3rd. I hope that baby cooperates and we can see what s/he's got! I'm anxious to meet our little person, but I'm trying to enjoy every day of this. It's already going so much faster than I thought!

Last week I had the quad screen done so I hope to hear good results at our next appointment. While I was sitting in the waiting room though, I think I may have felt the baby move but I can't say for sure. I haven't felt it too often but every once in a while I feel a sensation that is different than anything I've felt before. I can't really describe it, but one time it felt like popcorn popping.

That's all for now :)  Make sure you let the shock wear off before standing up or operating heavy machinery.

I'm sitting here on the couch with my feet up (a more than typical setting for me these days) and looking down at my growing belly. I think that it maybe just hit me. This is actually happening! Holy cow!

Earlier this week, I was having a LOT of pain. Standing to sitting, sitting to standing, bending, twisting...anything. On Tuesday morning I was in so much pain that I got sick (eew). So, I kinda freaked out. You'll have to give me a little slack, I haven't done this before. I called the doctor to see if this is normal. He had me come in just to check. All is well! Phew - baby's heart beat was 152 BPM. (Guess all you want on the sex, we'll hopefully know for sure in 3 weeks).
The thought was that I might have a bladder infection. For those of you who don't know me well, or don't know this about me, I have 4 kidneys. When I was a wee one, this caused me some problems and I had surgery to make sure they all worked. Which supposedly they do now, but I pretty much get a bladder infection about every 3 months or so (give or take). Having said that...I KNOW when I have an infection. I've known the symptoms since my earliest memory. I didn't have any of these symptoms, but he decided to put me on antibiotics just in case. Just to add more complexity, I'm allergic to the two medicines they typically prescribe to pregnant women. Well they found a different one, phew! I feel so much better now a few days later! Maybe that's what it was and my symptoms were just different! Yay to my doctor! :) He's great!

So that this doesn't get too boring, here are some cat pictures followed by a few anecdotes. :)

This is our beloved cat Hannibal - Aka: Hannibal Sam, One Eyed Pete, Slinky Sam, Friendly Sam, Prowling Max, Fridge-type Pal, Sicky Sam, Stretchy Ol Pal, Sayin Hi Guy, etc. You get the idea. He is rarely just Hannibal. He has so many nicknames because he has such personality!!! He is so fun and funny. 

When I adopted him, his previous owners had just dropped him off at the shelter and were still there. His name was Buzz. The previous owner told me, "Curiosity killed the cat with that one." I thought, "Yeah...you just don't know what cats are like, which is why you're giving him up." But of course smiled and brought home my new kitty! Well, previous owner was right. Hannibal must be everywhere we are, doing everything we do. When I work, he works too.

When we shower, he sits on the side of the tub and plays with the water falling down the curtain (no pics of that).

When we get a drink with ice, he dances at the freezer (bottom freezer) until we open it.

When we're lazing on the couch, he is too. 

When we pack, he wants to go along.

He's always got to be the center of attention. 

I think that Hannibal has been a bad lil' cat lately to get that attention. Someone has been making messes just about 1 foot outside of the boxes. One foot! He knows where the boxes are. He knows how to use them. Should at least. I hope this isn't a behavioral thing. He's been sneezy lately so I'm wondering if he's sick. If not, I hope that he comes to grip with the baby coming.

14 Weeks

Well, I had another appointment this week. The heartbeat sounded good, although the doc didn't say what the BPM was. And that was pretty much it...

I have to do the blood work for the quad screen in a few weeks. Hoping that goes well.

Here's the latest picture of the belly growth. None of my pants fit anymore except this pair that I'm wearing in all these pictures. I have had these pants since college and at this rate, I will NEVER get rid of them! Anyway, enjoy! :)

Babies R Not Us

This weekend I went shopping. Babies R Us, Guys and Dolls, Target, etc. It was baby central! I'm standing in the aisle of Target, browsing the...um, I dunno. At that moment, it hit me that I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing! I don't know what anything is for. I'm reading the descriptions and they mean absolutely nothing to me. I don't know what I need and what I don't need.
My mind starts racing to the future and it becomes this completely overwhelming moment. How am I going to know what to do? I mean, I realize that babies need to be fed and need to sleep and I think I probably will figure that out. But it's the other things, the things you don't think about that I worry about.
I read an article today that most women are completely over prepared for delivery and totally under-prepared for new motherhood. Great! Just what I needed to hear.
I realize that women have been becoming new mommies for centuries and I'm not the first. When there's someone else's life is in your hands, it becomes such a bigger deal! And women have been doing this for centuries but I haven't done this for centuries.

If you had to give a piece of advice that you would've loved to know, what would it be?