Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Stuff for Baby Mama
I started reading The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy last night and so far it's hilarious. It's the best pregnancy book I've read yet. I will give it a more in-depth review when I'm finished with it. I haven't looked at the baby name book yet, since we already have a couple picked out, but I'll get to it eventually. Then Jenny sent me a link on "uddercovers" http://www.uddercovers.com/ along with a discount code. With my mom's advice I decided to go ahead and get the cover in the color I wanted. I also decided to get the set instead of just the cover, for a $5 difference. The cover has a piece of hard plastic in the neckline so that you can look at your baby, and also has an adjustable neck strap. Mom said that when babies get bigger they flail their arms and legs and will knock a blanket off, so she recommended the neck strap. Plus it's pretty.
The set also comes with a pair of breast pads and a bracelet that helps you keep track of what side you last nursed on, at what time, and for how long.
For all of this, ladies and gentlemen, I paid a grand total of $13.95 after shipping. I saved a total of $43.85, because the item was on sale and then I had the discount code from Jenny. Not a bad deal, I think. Then the website also sells a ten pack of breast pads for $32.95 plus $8.95 shipping. With that same discount code, when I order them next week they will only cost me $9.90--shipping included. I did a little price comparison: Target, 3 pair, $17.99, Babies r Us, Avent 3 pair (with all bad recommendations), $6.99. So I'm getting a huge deal. I may even order a couple of packs. I love a great deal!
11 weeks, 2 days
According to babycenter.com, Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden.She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming
Overall I enjoy being pregnant. It’s not always fun, but I like it. I was trying to explain it to Nathan but I don’t think he understands. It feels like I’m doing what I was created to do, and for the first time I might like my body. I like the feeling of life inside me, and taking care of it for months. I’m excited to feel movement and to get a real “baby bump”. Of course , around month nine I’m told that I will wish the baby belly would NOT be quite so big, and that the long-anticipated movements will then be bruising my ribs and making me wet my pants. Haha, well, I can enjoy it now!
Night on the town
I forgot to take pictures, but I did get some more clothes. My mom send me a package for my birthday. I got a shirt that is the same one as the one Aunt Nancy bought me (the teal one) but in one size up, and a pair of brown slacks. She also send me a couple of books. One of them is really special because all the preggo’s who have read it before me have written in it about their pregnancy. It’s kind of a devotional book with a little section for each day of pregnancy. It’s really neat, but I didn’t get far because I started seeing comments in my mom’s handwriting and then I started boo-hooing about how I want my mom. So I’ll return to that one on another day. Mom also enclosed a letter that she wrote for my baby, which is very special. Then Mom called and said she’d found me LOTS of things at goodwill. She sent me pictures but you know how phone pictures are. I want to see them in real life when they get here. My MIL, Daphne, bought the baby a Halloween costume for next year. I haven’t decided how I feel about Halloween yet. Nathan grew up trick or treating and celebrating Halloween, and I grew up NOT trick or treating. We carved pumpkins, and celebrated harvest time, but not Halloween. I guess I need to sit down and really think about how I feel from a perspective as a Christian. Many of the churches around here have a “Harvest Festival” on the night of Halloween and in my humble opinion that seems like a much better idea.
Stroller
Mostly this post is to praise my honey for being so helpful. He makes our dinner quite frequently, he asks me if I want him to do anything around the house (and if I do ask he typically does it), he gets me ginger ale in the evening when I don’t feel good, and he’s just being all-around great. I appreciate you babe! Thanks for all your help.
12 weeks, 2 days
Nathan's cousin's girlfriend had a baby shower this weekend, which was fun. She's having a little boy. Afterwards we went out to a fish fry at Cousin G's house. Cousin G is my favorite of Nathan's cousins. He and his wife have a little girl and a little boy, both of which are just too cute and funny! We had catfish and shrimp breaded with Zataran's and deep fried in a turkey fryer outside. It was SOOOO good! Especially the shrimp. Sunday after church I talked Nathan into trying out a little Mom and Pop cafe for lunch. They actually served RC in canning jars! I finally got to try fried green tomatoes, and had a chicken fried steak sandwich for lunch, and he (surprise surprise) had a burger. I thought it was good food and a cute atmosphere, but he didn't like his french fries. I love trying out little podunk eateries rather than hitting up Jack in the Box. We went down to his parents so he could work on his truck, but around 4 it started pouring. So we walked down to his Grandma's so I could play with my cats and he could watch the Cowboys game. Oh! I also went to a garage sale with Melissa on Saturday morning and scored a large box of maternity clothes for $15, about 15 bottles (4 oz size) for $2, a large coleman cooler for $5, a couple blankets for the outreach ministry at church, a christmas present for my neice, 6 pictures that are from England, and all for only $35. The pictures from England are the exact same ones that my parents bought after our boat ride on the Thames when we took our trip to London when I was 10. They were very expensive in London, but I got them with frames for $0.50 apeice. Yay for good deals and childhood memories!
As usual, the weekend was far too short.
12 Week Dr Appointment
On a less pleasant note, there is no heat at work today and it is very cold outside. It is 65 degrees in this office, people. These are not humane conditions. Prisoners of war are treated better than this. This is ridiculous!
13 weeks, 2 days
Saturday was my birthday. Nathan gave me some movies and a hair straightener which was what I asked for. His work had called and said he was going to Florida (and all points to Nathan—he asked me if it was okay if he left on my birthday and I told him yes because this is his off season and he doesn’t get a lot of work) So I had to drop him off at the office and then I went home and had a pity party in my bedroom. Then Andrea (SIL) and Daphne (MIL) got me a cake and cnadles and I was sitting there playing with Alie (neice) when Nathan walked through the front door! He said he didn’t have to leave until Sunday morning. What a waste of a pity party, I tell ya! So we went to the mall, and then to church because I had praise practice, and then we went out to eat and went home to watch one of my movies. We had planned to go into downtown to eat and walk around but I was too tired. It was a good birthday, once Nathan came home.
Here are a couple of belly pictures. 4 weeks...
10 weeks...
And 13 weeks!
14 weeks, 2 days
Friday I had to work but my boss let me leave early. I went back to M&T’s and we hung out for a while, then Nathan and I packed up our stuff and took Lily (our basset hound) back to our house. Then we met up with M&T and went to the big Christmas parade in downtown Fort Worth! It’s an awesome parade—definitely the biggest this small town girl has ever seen! After the parade they light a ginormous Christmas tree right in the middle of the city. We received an unexpected blessing in the way of 4 tickets to sit! The planners or whoever line the streets with seats but you have to pay to sit in them—which is expensive! But this lady was driving along next to us and just offered us tickets, and she had four so we could all sit! How cool is that? (Disclaimer: I did not take these photos. I found them on the internet--thanks Mr. G.oogle!)
Saturday we went out to Nathan’s parents house so he could work on his truck. He wanted to go back out there Sunday after church but it was raining, so we went back to the house and sat around for the rest of the day. And I found out that Mellissa and Thomas are moving away.
Fire
When I was 19 I was working in Niger as a dorm parent and one afternoon when I was making an after school snack for the kids I was heating up oil. I turned to the other counter with my back to the oil for just a few seconds and by the time I turned back around, the oil was on fire. There was no fire blanket, and the fire extinguisher was wired closed (REALLY? Who does that?) By the time the fire got put out the above-stove microwave was melted and there was soot EVERYWHERE. I had a huge mess to clean up, and I learned a lesson about checking the fire extinguishers, but I still wasn’t really scared of fire.
In fact, I enjoy fire. I love sitting around a bonfire or a fireplace and watching the flames dance and tell stories. Some of my favorite memories revolve around a bonfire. I guess I didn’t realize that subconsciously one of those past experiences must’ve made an impact. A couple years ago I was watching a movie and fell asleep. Some time later I was woken by the sound of a fire alarm. I pulled on my shoes, grabbed my jacket, and was headed for the door when I realized my friends weren’t moving. I urged them to get out of the house and they looked puzzled until one of them told me it was just the movie. A few weeks ago Nathan was watching TV and I fell asleep and woke up to a flickering red light on the wall. Heart pounding and adrenalin racing I bolted upright just to realize that it was the colors from the TV. Then last night a sound woke me up around 4 or 5 and I saw the light of a flickering flame one the wall. Again, I got a rush of adrenaline and my heart started pounding—the fight or flight response—until I rolled over and saw that Nathan had come home from work, and he had his lit Zippo sitting on the nightstand as a light while he plugged his phone in. “Nathan!” I gasped, and rolled back over.
I don’t know if this keeps happening because a lot of the house fires that stand out the most clearly in my mind happened after dark, or if this is just my brain’s way of standing guard. Either way, I could sure do without the adrenaline rush in the middle of the night. I takes a while to get back to sleep!
"Things"--in no particular order
(And I’ll have you know that 4 months ago, if I’d caught myself crying at any of these things, I would have laughed at myself for being such a girl)
1) Love songs/sad songs/most songs on the country radio station
2) Commercials that picture a parent with their newborn (thanks a lot Huggies!)
3) Reading touching birth stories
4) Reading stories about miscarriages
5) Abortion pictures
6) Deliveries on TLC shows like “I didn’t know I was pregnant” and “Baby Story”, etc.
7) Pretty much anything that has to do with emotion between a mother and her baby.
8) Pretty much any Hallmark commercial
9) Thinking about anyone I love dying
10) Feeling overwhelmed
Things that make me really irritated
1) If I’ve gone too long without eating, I get irritable
2) Being woken up if I’ve already fallen asleep
3) People making my pregnancy into a competition—that doesn’t irritate me it makes me ANGRY!
4) Packing and moving without my husband’s help
Things that make me happy!
(This would be a veeeery long list so I’ll try to cull it down. There are many many things my husband does but I will just pick my favorites)
1) When Nathan puts his hands on my belly and says “Hi baby”
2) When Nathan makes supper because I’m really tired
3) When he says, “Baby, I’m sorry but you need to roll onto your side” (This could be irritating, except I asked him to tell me and he does it sweetly)
4) When Nathan asks me questions about what’s happening with the baby
5) People who give me their old baby stuff for free
6) Moving into a new place
7) Advice from WELL-MEANING people
8) Cloudy, rainy days
9) My church family
10) Nice cool weather
Moving!
As God does, he provided us with a place that meets all of those needs! We found a small brick home on the outskirts of town that has a one car garage (but is big enough for my car and Nathan’s motorcycle), is pet friendly, and has three bedrooms! Now, granted, they are small rooms but it is quite sufficient for us! We have a room for us, a room for baby, and a room for all of you who I know will want to come see us and our new little addition to the family! AND it is for a very low price, less than we were paying for the one bedroom house we lived in when we got married. We are moving in on Saturday. Unfortunately, on Monday night (or was it Tuesday?) Nathan got called to work to go to Arizona. We really need the money, so he had to go, which left it up to me to do the packing and figure out the move. For the THIRD TIME!!! I think he plans to go out of town whenever we have to move. So I have spent the past several days packing and trying not to pick up anything too heavy. Melissa is coming to stay with me tonight to help me finish up packing (or to sit around and look pretty depending on her level of pain—she just got a nasty tooth pulled!) and our pastor and his dad (and possibly other men) are coming Saturday morning with their trucks to help us move. Praise God for church family and for all of His provisions!
Here are a few prayer requests:
1) We need a fridge. For free. Please pray someone will be generous. I am really trusting God for this one, cause I’m out of pennies.
2) Please pray that many men with trucks will show up Saturday morning to move us
3) Please pray for my hips. I’ve had trouble with them hurting almost since I got pregnant, and all of the packing and carrying and overdoing it has left it extremely painful for me to walk.
4) We also need furniture (we have a bed!) and a washer and dryer. Obviously we can do craigslist or goodwill or garage sales, and I certainly intend to, but if you could pray that people could give us things that would be such a blessing. They don’t need to be new. A coat of paint is cheap and will work wonders.
Need blogger help
December 8. Fifteen weeks and 3 days, Moving
Baby is the size of an apple this week! If I were to shine a flashlight right on my belly, the baby would be able to tell the difference in light. Baby is also apparently breathing/swallowing amniotic fluid.
We moved last weekend. What a job! It went very smoothly for a move; I had everything packed except the cold goods and I had most everything stacked out in the garage. Nathan got home late Friday night and on Saturday morning the men came to move us. Our Pastor and his dad Terry came with their trucks, then Melissa’s husband Thomas and Marshall, another guy from church, came with Marshall’s truck and a trailer. They got everything moved over in one load, with the exception of our grill and Nathan’s motorcycle, which we’ll have to go back for. I spent Saturday and Sunday unpacking. Melissa was a huge help to me—she’s definitely a girl after my own heart in organization and cleanliness, among other things. I would say we’re about half way unpacked, but I have my entire kitchen and bathroom done, the living room mostly done, and the bedroom mostly done. What’s left is pretty much stuff like books (I have to wait to buy bookshelves), knickknacks, and various other random stuff.
And in answer to prayer, Marshall gave us a fridge, washer and dryer, and couch and loveseat. All we need (well, I’d like) a desk, dressers, and baby furniture. We also need some kind of outdoor dog run for Lily.
Melissa is staying with me for the week (Yay! Girl time!) and we’ll be able to spend time together, and hopefully do some more unpacking and make some Christmas cookies. As I mentioned, Nathan was home for the weekend which was incredibly helpful as it took the stress off me about “I’m not supposed to lift over X amount of weight but this is my crap so I should be helping…” In fact, he put me in time out at one point on Saturday morning, which I thought was funny. He stayed until after his jury duty on Monday morning, and left last night. His company was going to keep him gone until the 18th, but that’s when we’re supposed to leave for Ohio for Christmas with my family. Plus, our ultrasound is on the 17th and of course he really wants to go to that with me. I guess he called one of his bosses and they knocked down the number of stores he’s supposed to do from 4 to 2, which will put him home either this coming weekend or early next week. They’re not typically too flexible about work trips, but I’m reasonably sure that Nathan wasn’t being too flexible either. He’d already asked for the time off, and he really didn’t want to miss finding out what Baby is OR delaying our trip start. I’m so incredibly excited for Christmas and seeing my family! Mom says she’s got a lot of stuff planned and that I’m going to sleep all the way back to Texas. I told her that was fine since it’s a long trip!
December 09, Moving the blog
Monday, November 2, 2009
Maternity Clothes
The thing is, I need extra long shirts to modestly cover the half unzipped pants. I have a few, but not enough for all week. So last weekend I was planning to go buy some longer shirts. But, Friday night I got home and found a package from my Aunt Nancy! As a "Congratulations on the Baby" gift, she sent me two pretty maternity shirts and a rockin' tote she had made for me in Niger. What an answer to prayer! Now I have five shirts that are appropriate for work that also cover the zipper and I have room for my belly to grow. I will shop the second hand baby stores for used maternity wear now. I found a really nice shirt for 5 dollars that was about 40 brand new!
This is one of the shirts from Aunt Nancy. It's a brown and white pattern with smocking on top and a tie in the back. Sorry the pictures on some of these aren't great...the lighting in my bedroom is bad for pictures.
This is the teal one
This is the sweater I got from Motherhood Maternity
This is Nathan modeling the sweater! Hahahahah! He didn't know I was going to put it up here. You can't really tell from the picture but he had a 9 month pillow belly and was waddling with his hands on the small of his back. It was hilarious!
Then there's me wearing the teal shirt (that's the real color) and the shirt with the sweater unbutttoned. These are from Sunday morning before church. It was my week to sing to I was trying to dress up. I ended up not wearing the sweater though because it was warm.
That's it! I will try to put up pictures when I get new stuff.
10 weeks 2 days
This doctor was doing a spinal surgery on this 21 or 22 week old fetus. Legally, he could’ve aborted it, but he chose to heal instead of kill. I don’t mean this post to be morose, but seeing these pictures really hit hard. May God give my baby health and enough time in my uterus to grow and be healthy. And may Obama not pass the health bill, or at least not the part about abortions.