23 Weeks Pregnant

Welcome to week 23!

This past week was so much fun…we got lots of snow, and school was cancelled ALL WEEK! I’ve never seen snow stick for that long down here. We were trapped in our house – or I should say our cars were stuck in the driveway – from Monday to Wednesday, and it was still pretty treacherous trying to walk on our icy sidewalk until today. I don’t know how I’m going to find the time to make up everyone’s missed lessons, but it’s fun to be snowed in once in a while. J

On Saturday we decided to go and get our hair cut. Mine isn’t a drastic change, especially since I have a habit of cutting it short, growing it out, getting sick of it, and cutting it short again. I got something like three inches off. Travis, on the other hand…

Yep. It’s shorter than he’s had it for as long as I’ve known him, and long before that. I like it…I’m not used to it yet, though!

Oh, and by the way, he’s modeling one of the bibs I made. J I have to finish the sewing on some of them, and then they’ll be up on my Etsy site, which I’m finally going to give you the address to! It is: www.friendlybeasts.etsy.com. Check it in a day or two, and I promise I’ll have lots of bibs posted.

Ok, on to pregnancy stuff! I haven’t had any more Braxton-Hicks, which I’m happy about. It’s not that they were painful – it just kind of freaked me out. I’m starting to have trouble getting comfortable at night. It’s not terrible, and I haven’t resorted to surrounding myself with pillows just yet. I’m not looking forward to that. Also, I keep waking up with a really stuffy nose, which I’ve read can be a pregnancy symptom. Last night I woke up gagging and struggling to breathe because of it. I’m hoping it’s partly because I’m fighting off a cold, and not solely a symptom of pregnancy. I’ve been very lucky with my lack of uncomfortable symptoms so far, though. Thebump.com says I might be swelling up from head to toe by now, but I’m not, so I guess I should count my blessings!

I don’t think there’s much of anything new going on with the baby. Still kickin’! Last week the website said it should be about 11 inches long and weigh a pound or so, but this week it’s giving a range of anywhere from 10.5 to 11.8 inches, and 12.7 to 20.8 ounces, or approximately the size of a papaya. I’m hoping it’s on the small side! I’ve had nightmares about giving birth to a 13 pounder…

Last but not least, THE ultrasound is this Wednesday morning at 9:00! That’s only 37 hours and 22 minutes from now! I’m planning to do a bonus blog on Wednesday night to let you know what the gender is. I can’t wait to not have to call the baby an “it.” Poor baby! He or she needs a name! I feel like I’ve been waiting forever!

Don’t forget to check back on Wednesday! Until then…

15 Weeks Pregnant

I feel like this week has flown by! And Thanksgiving really snuck up on me this year. We’re spending it at my dad’s house, and Travis’s parents are coming too!

This week the baby is about 4 inches long and over 2 ounces. The legs are now longer than the arms, and the bones are ossifying. Taste buds are forming, and the ears are almost finished, but the baby probably won’t be able to hear until around 20 to 25 weeks gestation. I’m still just waiting to be able to feel it move!

Travis and I are rethinking whether we want to find out the baby’s gender. We mainly wanted to know so that we could have fun decorating the nursery, but since we might not be doing that anyway, is there a point in finding out? Let us consider the following points:

Reasons to find out:

To get to know the baby better while still in utero

To buy gender specific clothing and other items ahead of time

To only have to worry about coming up with one name

Reasons not to find out:

Part of the fun of the birth of the baby is announcing the gender. If everyone knows already, all you get to tell people is the length, weight, etc.

We plan to buy mostly gender neutral stuff anyway, so we can use it with our next child

We already have two names picked out J

Occasionally, ultrasound techs make mistakes. They’re only human. We wouldn’t want to prepare ourselves for a girl and then find out it’s a boy, or vice versa.

I think that’s all I can come up with at the moment. So it looks like the scale is tipping toward not finding out. We might not decide for sure until closer to the ultrasound date (January 19^th).

I have started clearing out the closet in the piano room, but I need to put away all the stuff that’s strewn about the room before my students start arriving at 3:30!

I got my blood test results back already. By the way, when I went back on Wednesday after drinking tons of water for 24 hours, I was worried that she still wouldn’t be able to get any blood out of me because my veins still looked tiny, but luckily she had no trouble. She said, “I knew it was going to work today because I prayed for you!” She was sweet, and she must be good at what she does because I had no lingering soreness like I usually do.

Anyway, as far as I am able to interpret the results, everything looks good! I’m immune to Rubella, I have no diseases (big surprise), and my blood type is O+. The “+” is referring to Rh factor, which, if present in the baby but not in the mother, can cause the mother’s blood to make antibodies against the baby’s blood, which can be fatal to the baby. So I’m glad it’s positive so we won’t have to worry about that! It is a fairly easily treatable problem nowadays, but still…

My students played well in last Thursdays’ recital, but after all the practicing I did to accompany for that voice student with two days’ notice, she came down with the flu that day. Oh well.

My church wants me to play for all sorts of things this month and next, which is fine I guess, but they usually don’t pay me anything. I just have to count it as good experience performing.

I have decided to make some things and set up an Etsy store. I have some ideas for personalizable (Is that a word? I can’t get spell check to leave it alone, no matter how I spell it…) bibs and animal shaped pillows, and eventually maybe a few other things. I’m going to start with the easiest things first so I can build up an inventory fast and start selling. I already made a bib pattern and looked through my fabric to decide what I can use. I only have enough fabric for two or three bibs right now, so I’m planning a trip to the fabric store probably tomorrow. I have everything planned out exactly, I just have to do it. I’m going to see how many bibs I can make in a week, and then have Travis help me set up my Etsy page. I want to do it right away because I think people would buy them as Christmas presents. I think they’ll be really cute!

Way back in one of my pre-pregnancy blog posts, I mentioned that I couldn’t wait to make baby things. That week, I made a diaper bag! I found the pattern on a website called http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/. I love it. It was fun to make, but sort of difficult, and it took a total of about 15 hours. Here are some pictures:

Front:

Back:

Inside of back outside pocket, with velcro:

Snap Closure:

Inside of bag, with bottle holders and zippered pocket:

Same zipper, shown zipped:

If I can come up with my own pattern that I can put together faster, I might eventually try to sell those, too. I would have to charge something like $65 for it to be worth my time, though.

Lastly, I have been doing better with exercising! I need to make sure I keep at it. I want to keep you guys updated on my progress so you can keep me accountable. Travis actually ran a 5K on Saturday! It was with a program called Girls On The Run. One of his 4^th grade students asked him to be her sponsor and running buddy, and she was a fast runner, so he had to keep up! They did really well and I think were among the first ten to finish, out of too many to count!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!