What's In A Name

I’ll tell you what’s in a name… STRESS! I mean seriously! Matthew and I have know that we are having a baby for like 7 months and even the inkling of a name is unthinkable! It’s so easy to name pets, but somehow the thought of naming a human is much more daunting. Probably because you have to think about the name/nickname/how could the kid be teased… oh the pressure! Matthew and I lay in bed last night and brained stormed a little. Do you know where we got? NO WERE! I mean we were seriously grasping at straws by the end of our little session…. So much so that I grabbed a few of the closest book for inspiration (which included one on dragonflies, one on American birds and good camping places in California). We still are no closer to a name unless we are going to go with ‘green darner,’ ‘American Wigeon,’ or ‘Huntington Lake.’ Sigh! The name game did get pretty funny by the time we wrapped it up. We had progressed from considering normal/traditional names to things like “Dump station number 55”. No, we weren’t serious, but we were laughing a lot. So besides the fact that we are no closer to naming our little one, we had a great time thinking about it!

A Mans View on Pregnancy

I know that you are probably wondering why I have a picture of a ‘40’ on the blog… but it goes along with a great story. Last night Matthew and I met up with a handful of other people at a Sports Bar/Restaurant for a fundraiser for our friends Ballet studio. We all had a nice time talking, eating and drinking. Eventually our good buddy Aaron (see I told you that you would eventually do something blog worthy) asked me how much longer before the little one was born. I told him I only had a few more weeks (yes I know that 8 is not a few). Knowing that I had more than ‘a few’ he looked at me like I was crazy…. So I tried to explain that when you start at 40 weeks and now are down to only 8 weeks it feel like nothing… like a few! Aaron was still looking at me like I had gone off my rocker, when much to my surprise Matthew spoke up. He then had a great MALE analogy. He said “ok, if you started out drinking a 40, and now had only 8 ounces left, you would think ‘wow, I only have a few sips left… it’s almost empty or it’s time for another one. Not that wow, I still have 8 whole ounces to drink’” (Though he then quickly clarified that we are not thinking about putting another ‘little one’ in my belly just yet). But it was funny to watch all the guys at the table nod and actually get it! Who knew that pregnancy and a 40 of beer were so similar… I’ll tell you who, a man!

31 Weeks

Time is now officially on super warp speed! I mean, really, where did the past 8 months go? Crazy. So now the little one is a smidgen over 16 inches and weighs around 3 1/2 pounds! (Sorry, no picture... it's still about the size of the last picture and besides, Matthew got home from Boston at 2 am this morning, so needless to say there was no picture taking going on). Some very cool things happen this week n the life of the baby. The lungs are able to inflate properly and are now producing surfactant (which keep the lungs from collapsing when exposed to air)! So that's supper cool! Also its irises' can dilate and contract in response to light! The inner and the outer ears are totally formed now and the baby can hear better then ever! All 5 senses are working great at this point (though there isn't anything to smell right now). :) Also the baby's skin is nice and pink due to the white covering of fat over all those veins and arteries. Ahhhhhh, Our little one is growing up!

It's Finished

So here is the (almost) finished baby's room!

We just have a few things left to do... hang up that giant leaf thing, hang some frames and hooks and get a few baskets to go in the little cubby thing... oh and the little baby too... just a minor detail. :)

Baby Room Part 2

Next came the fun part... Power tools! I got to do all the cutting of the chair rails, which is always fun because it's like a mini brain teaser with each cut. But I got through it all without even messing up! Which was good because we didn't buy extra boards! :)


Matthew got to do all the nail gunning. Theres something about the nail gun that makes me nerviouse. I know it's strange that I I don't like them, give me a fast spinning saw any day.


Next we attempted to work on putting together the crib... but it was confusing...


Good thing Sonny was there to figure out that we were missing a small peice of hardwear. Seriousely though, I swear sometimes Sonny seems like he knows just what we are doing/looking for and it's like he comes over and helps. What a good dog.


We made a hardwear run (and were actually able to find the exact peice that we were missing) and were able to finish the crib the next day.


I love it! Hopefully the little one loves it too!

Babys Room part 1

Well, the baby's room is now complete! Between Matthew, Sonny and I, we got the room painted, the crib together and most of the decorating done! It was really fun to do... each time another part of the room was finished I would sit/stand there picture our little one in that area (walking, laying, sitting, playing...) and just smile. It might take a few posts to get through all of the room renovation pictures, so enjoy! :)
We went with 2 shades of green for the walls; 'Shy Blossom' and 'Pastel Sage'. They look really nice, calming yet playful.










Ok, it's CRAZY that my bum and my belly are just about the same size. Good thing Matthew likes a round bum... because mine keeps getting more and more round! Watch out J-Lo I might be competition! Or like one of my lovingly sweet and sensitive brothers once told me, "You look like you could be in a rappers music video." oh so sweet. :)

Week 30

30 weeks down, only 10 to go! This week our little one is about 15.5 inches long... About the size of a Daikon (which is just a very large type of root).
It is getting more and more difficult to find a fruit/veggie that is the correct size to simulate our little baby. At this point I might have to start finding non-edible things... but we'll see. The baby weighs about 3 pounds now and is starting to lose its lanugo (the fine hair that was covering it to keep it warm) now that it's accumulating more body fat. Its lungs and digestive tract are almost totally developed and now has completely filled in eyebrows and eyelashes. It’s hanging out in about 1 liter of amniotic fluid, but this amount will steadily decrease as the baby gets even bigger and takes up more and more space in my poor uterus. Our little baby now has the ability to make tears! Not that it would have anything to cry about now... maybe just tears of joy! Until now the brain was relatively smooth and flat, but starting this week, all of the convolutions (the wrinkles/folds) are being formed. This allows our brain to increase its surface area, and store more information. Lastly, out little baby’s red blood cells are being made exclusively by the bone marrow (no more help from the spleen).

Funny Baby Stories

I am still in constant ahh over the fact that there is a living being growing inside me. It's strange how it has changed in my mind from just a Dot, to a Gremlin, to a living Baby. I am continually reminded that this precious little child can hear, move and respond to the situations that I am putting it in. AMAZING!

Anyway, on Mother’s day I was sitting in the kitchen talking with my mom and Matthew and Dad were in the other room working on remodeling stuff. Mom kept talking to my belly, trying to get the little one to wiggle or respond to her, sadly (this time) to no avail. Suddenly Matthew walked into the room and started talking and the baby (along with my entire belly) moved towards his voice! I thought that maybe it was a fluke, so we tried it again, and the same thing happened. I couldn't believe it, this baby is already SO in love with its daddy! Now any time that I want it to move Matthew just has to start talking and it will wiggle and stretch! Too Cute! It just goes to prove that even though this little one is still inside me, and we cant see it, it is very aware of all that is going on around it.

Along that same note, the other day Sonny heard something and suddenly started to bark. The little one must have been sleeping prior to the bark because it jumped to high that it whacked into my diaphragm. Poor little thing, Sonny scared it!

Even though I, without a doubt have a very nice little baby bump going on, I apparently am not caring the little one very far out in front of me. This means that the little baby is sitting inside me...somewhere. I wasn't really sure where, until the other day when the baby realized that it can really get some extra room if it moves inward opposed to outward. So I am sitting there and all of a sudden I get a kick INTO MY RIGHT KIDNEY! It momentarily felt like I was going to die! I mean I felt like I was on one of those Kung-Fu movies when one ninja punches someone so hard that they can reach in and pull out a still beating heart! Crazy Karate baby! Lay off the kidneys kid, I can deal with the ribs, but I need those kidneys functioning!

My FIRST mothers day!

My FIRST mothers day was wonderful! Matthew and I slept in (which is a treat in itself), then I walked into the kitchen to find a hand made card from Matthew with a coupon to use for any spa/massage package that I wanted! WOW! I'm supper excited. I think that I would like to use it now, before the baby is born... or maybe I could find one that is having a 2 for 1 deal and I could get one post baby too! Matthew and I then went over to my parents house to celebrate with both of our moms.


We made my mom and blue bird house and we planted a big wine barrel flower garden for Joyce.



We all BBQed (despite the rain) and ate way too much delicious food. Sadly mom had to go to work, so then Joyce, Russell, Matthew and I went and visited Matthews grandma for a while. It was really nice to talk with Helen. Her eyes would just lite up when we would start talking about the baby and decorating/painting the baby's room! It was really cute! After that Matthew and I went back to our house and relaxed, ate some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and watched a movie. It was a wonderful first Mothers day! Thank you all! :)

29 weeks and counting!

It truly is amazing how quickly time flies. Our little one is now about 2.5 pounds and around 15.2 inches long... about the size of a rhubarb stalk. Around 3.5% of its own weight is it's cute baby fat. (I wish I could say the same for my body weight). Our baby is currently making billions of neurons every day now until it's birth! So needless to say it's skull it getting larger to accommodate its growing brain! Also its spleen is now totally in charge of hematopoiesis (formation and development of the cells of the blood), which is a pretty big deal. Also it is just now starting to be able to regulate its own body temperature. The little baby is urinating around 1/2 liter a day, which continues to mix with the other amniotic fluid and gets swallowed and peed out again.... AMAZING! Since we are now in the home stretch (with only around 11 weeks to go) our little baby is going to start to rapidly put on more and more weight, and its clear/pink skin is going to start to get its own pigment. I can't wait to see what this amazing little gift is going to look like!

Blushing

I have a great story! The other day as I was driving home from work, I was in the slow lane on the freeway when I noticed this car that was driving right beside me. It was neither speeding up nor slowing down, so I looked over, thinking that maybe it was someone that I knew who was trying to get my attention. But no, it was some man in a white Subaru that was staring and smiling at me. It made me chuckle and I kept on driving thinking ‘that was cute’. The car stayed right next to me past the next 2 exits, (which started to feel a little bizarre), so finally I looked over again and the guy waved and kept smiling at me. I think at this point I probably turned red and laughed out loud, feeling a little embarrassed both for myself and this guy, who had no idea that he was not only trying to pick up a married lady, but one that is 7 month pregnant! I looked back at this mystery guy and held up my left hand, and waggled my fingers and mouthed ‘I’m Married.’ The guy just shrugged and kept on smiling and driving right beside me. Thankfully a few cars were merging onto the freeway, so I slowed down a smidge and he had to finally drive away. All I could do was laugh as I thought about how funny the look on his face would be if he were to see me waddle out of the truck, baby bump and all!

Rugby Days

I know, you all were thinking that “Surely, rugby season has to be over by now!” Don’t worry I thought that too. But Matthews’s team is actually pretty darn good! Last weekend he and the team DROVE to Boise, Idaho for a national tournament where they took the top 32 teams and whittled them down to the top 16. The League did pretty darn well and are now ranked 9th in the nation! Incredible, I know. But this means that in a few weeks he gets to leave me (again) and travel to Austin, Texas for the next leg of the tournament…. Then if they win both their games in that tourney, they head over to Glendale, Colorado for the National Championships. You all are probably thinking that it’s impressive, and I should be really happy for him… I am, but at the same time I am really struggling with wanting my husband back. I feel sort of selfish (I know, not a big surprise). I mean, he and his team all have worked really hard to get as good as they currently are and a big part of me swells with pride to tell you guys about how well they are doing. Yet another part of me just keeps thinking when do I get to spend time with Matthew? I feel like there is so much to get done prior to our little ones arrival and I sort of feel like I am doing a lot of it on my own, since he has practice 2 nights a week and now has been having tournaments that last Friday to Sunday! So, this is me working on having a cheerful and supportive sprit… But sometimes I still have to vent.

28 Weeks!!!!

Holy Cow, I can’t believe that I am 7 months along! 28 weeks down, 12 to go! Sadly I don’t have a new fruit/veggie to share with you, but it’s because our baby only has gained 0.3 inches in length (making it around 14.8 inches long) and weighs around 2.25 pounds. So it’s still about the size of a leek… but weighs about as much as a Chinese cabbage! Over the next 12 weeks it will be gaining more in weight then in length as it lays down its subcutaneous fatty deposits. Therefore, my belly should be growing around a ½ and inch each week to accommodate the ever growing baby. Our little one now has hair that is visible on its head, eyebrows and eyelashes! It is blinking more frequently and is much more sensitive to light and dark. One of these days I am going to have to shine a flashlight on my belly and see if the baby moves away from the light (which is what supposedly is supposed to happen). Red Blood Cells are being made primarily by the bone marrow now, and its adrenal glands are producing androgen and estrogen as we speak. Its little milk teeth are now formed and sitting below the gum line and our baby should be going through regular REM sleep patterns. Which mean that more then likely the baby is starting to have dreams!!! I wonder what a baby dreams about since it hasn’t actually seen/experience anything other then womb life.