26 Weeks Pregnant

I don’t even know where to start with this one! I guess I’ll just jump right in…

Did you notice my new short hair? I had gotten it cut a few weeks ago when Travis did, but I decided I wanted more layers, so Travis and I made a team effort of it:

Before:

During:

After:

I think we did a pretty good job!

What’s new with Norah:

· Her eyes are fully formed! Next week she may be able to open them.

· Her lungs are still forming, but she would probably be able to breathe if she were to be born at this point.

· Brain waves for the auditory and visual systems are detectable. Last night Travis made up a bedtime story for her, complete with guitar sound effects. Too cute!

· She is probably around 13.5 inches long, and 1 ½ to 1 ¾ pounds.

What’s new with me:

· I’m experiencing occasional Braxton-Hicks contractions.

· I’m so tired! By 9:45 last night I decided I couldn’t stay up any longer. It’s not like I got up super early, either!

· I’ve started getting leg cramps sometimes in the morning. I’ve heard some pregnant women get them really bad…so far they’re not terrible. I guess it’s caused by some sort of deficiency? Maybe I need more bananas…

My mom came over last week and helped me rearrange and clean the kitchen. I love it!! We even made room for the baby stuff! Travis and I did even more after she left, and I LOVE knowing what we have and where to find it.

Before:

After:

Some of the stuff we got rid of:

Oh, and here’s a story with a happy ending: When Travis and I came home from our honeymoon a year and a half ago, we went to use some of our gift cards and realized that we couldn’t find them. We knew exactly what box they were in (a little green satin gift card box), and we looked everywhere we could think of. Finally we gave up. Over $400 worth of gift cards wasted. Well, guess what turned up when we cleaned out the cupboard above the refrigerator??!! The little green box was sitting pretty much all by itself in a plastic basket, with a few pieces of old mail. All the cards were there, and none of them expire! It was a huge relief to find them, and it couldn’t have been better timing. We’ve been making a list of things we need that we can now buy with gift cards! Woohoo!

I can’t wait to get to the rest of the house, but unfortunately the kitchen is the only room we’ve been able to complete so far. I’ve been picking at other areas, but haven’t made any serious progress. I guess one room a day wasn’t quite realistic! But I’m sure that was one of the hardest rooms to go through. The other tough one will be the art/computer room. I’m going to take before and after pictures of everything.

And now I get to tell you all about our Bradley class! Yesterday was our first class. We were sort of afraid there might be some weirdos in the mix, but everyone seems ok so far. :-P There were I think five other couples. We really liked the couple we sat next to, and we got to talk to a few other people during a group ice-breaker activity. We really liked the instructor, too.

She gave us an interesting history on childbirth and how the Bradley Method came to be, along with some statistics, such as maternal and neonatal death rates in America as compared to other countries. I would have been surprised if I hadn’t seen them before: 44 other countries are doing better than we are. South Carolina doesn’t fare well either – I think we are something like 34^th in the nation. There is also a direct correlation between the rate of c-sections and the rate of maternal deaths. (I don’t mean to be morbid. I should point out that the rate of maternal deaths in the US is still only 12 in 100,000, according to our instructor. The problem is that most of these are preventable.)

On to more upbeat topics… We did an activity where the wives checked off ways they have dealt with pain (physical or emotional), and then the husbands circled the ones that they could help with. I thought that was a very helpful exercise. Here’s ours:

Then we did some physical exercises: tailor sitting, squats, pelvic rocks, etc., and we all got back rubs from the hubbies. J I think Travis was the most willing and supportive and involved guy there, and I hope he knows how much I appreciate that.

Every day, I’m supposed to do:

· 5 minutes of walking (seems too easy…)

· As many squats as I can (some fast, some extended)

· Tailor sitting (like a meditation pose on the floor, or on an exercise ball) as much as possible

· 3 butterflies (Travis has to provide resistance)

· 60 pelvic rocks

· 50 kegels

Each week I have to work up to more and more of each exercise. The squatting is funny: neither Travis nor I can do a squat the right way (with knees staying behind or over toes) without falling over backwards, so we have to hold on to each other’s forearms and do it together. J

We also talked about nutrition. The instructor said to try to get 70-90 grams of protein per day. I have to keep track of everything I eat this week. So far I think I’m doing fine! It’s 4:00 and I’m up to 61 grams. I’m a big milk drinker, though…if it wasn’t for that, I’d only be at 27! I hope that’s ok…

Oh, also, we recalculated our due dates. The average first time mother is pregnant for 41 weeks and 1 day, rather than 40 weeks. She advised all of us to plan for that to avoid disappointment if we have to wait longer than we originally thought. My adjusted due date is May 23^rd.

That’s about it for the Bradley class this week…I’ll keep updating you on it!

Travis just informed me that he’s on the short list (along with only two other teachers) for teacher of the year! J Wish him luck!

See you next week!

25 Weeks Pregnant

Belly shot explanation: Travis bought me some really cool temporary tattoos. J

I have a lot to talk about this week! I’ll start with the usual stuff.

I can’t believe how big I’m getting! I need more maternity clothes! I think I’m starting to see a faint “linea negra” (the dark line that runs vertically on the front of pregnant bellies). Norah is now about the size of an eggplant. I’m not going to speculate beyond that – this seems to be the point where babies start to vary in size. No speculating necessary about her strength, though -- she is kicking surprisingly hard sometimes! All through church the other day I kept nearly jumping out of my seat because I was so startled by her acrobatics. I was sitting there staring at my belly because I could clearly see every move she made, and sometimes it was on opposite sides at the same time! It’s insane. What is it going to be like three months from now?!

She might be moving around so much because, according to The Bump, she is starting to tell the difference between right side up and upside down. Speaking of which, I asked the midwife what we would do if Norah was in a breech position. She said she would have me do some exercises/positions that would encourage her to turn, and if that doesn’t work we can do an external version. This involves going to some sort of specialist (I guess just an OB), who would give me muscle relaxers, and then, with the aid of an ultrasound, attempt to flip the baby around as shown here:

She said that in over 500 births she has attended, only two babies were breech and could not be turned. So I guess that’s one less thing to worry about! J

My appointment last week went very well. Everything is perfect, and I still feel great – I’ve even been getting fewer headaches than I normally do. My weight is up to 124.5 lbs, which she said is right on track, and my belly was measuring just one week behind schedule, which is completely fine. She said even if I was three centimeters (three weeks) in either direction, she wouldn’t worry much about it.

I told her that the ultrasound tech said Norah was a bit smaller than average, and she made note of that so that if I go a couple weeks beyond my due date (please, no), they will give me a little more time before they recommend induction, which is something I want to avoid if at all possible. Inductions are riskier than most people realize. If your body just isn’t ready, it won’t work, and the medicine (pitocin) creates unnaturally strong contractions which few women can stand without an epidural, which I also don’t want. If the induction fails, they will do a c-section, which I REALLY don’t want. Anyway, I’m glad I’ll be given some leniency if Norah wants to arrive late.

I really wanted to be able to tell you all about our Bradley childbirth class, which should have started yesterday, but it was cancelled because the instructor had the flu. We are so excited about this class – the midwife has nothing but great things to say about it. Since it will now start a week later and it’s a 12 week course, we will only have TWO WEEKS until the due date by the time it’s over! That is crazy.

This past weekend we went to Hobby Lobby to pick out fabric for the changing pad cover! I had been ridiculously excited about this shopping trip, because I’m just so excited to get everything ready for Norah. And since the changing table was the only thing I was going to get to decorate (not having an actual room for the nursery and all), I was just really looking forward to it. People have been asking me what colors we are using in “the nursery,” so I took a picture of the fabric in case you all were curious. Actually, Travis took the picture. Can you tell? J

We could have gone with a more subdued palette, but in the end we just really loved this fabric. It's very "us."

Now, here’s the REALLY exciting part: the more I thought about it, the more I found myself really wishing we were doing a whole nursery. The moment I said that to Travis, he was completely on board and ready to rearrange the house. So…I guess that’s our new plan! It’s been all I can think about since we got that fabric! I have everything completely planned out in my mind.

Step one is to pare down to what we need. Sunday we started in the attic. We went through most of the stuff up there, took a lot to Goodwill, consolidated stuff, etc. (I also found a huge stash of fabric up there – woohoo!) As soon as we have another free afternoon, we’ll be finishing that part of the project, and then we’ll go through the whole house the same way. Stuff that we want but don’t need out will go up to the attic for now. And I actually went through those two closets I was talking about last week. We took a lot of that stuff to Goodwill as well. I’m so excited to have less clutter around and to have more space to put things that we actually use. I also think it will appeal more to potential buyers. We probably should have done this long ago.

Ok, sorry this was another long blog! We’ve had a lot going on, and I have a lot on my mind. See you next week!

24 Weeks Pregnant

Now that we know the baby is a girl and we’ve seen her on the ultrasound, reality is setting in even more. She’s coming…and soon!

Since I accidentally revealed it on Facebook and we’ve been pretty open about it to anyone who asks, I’ll just go ahead and tell you what our little peanut's name is:

Norah Claire Galloway

The name Norah came about because I wanted to pass on Lenore, which is my middle name and was my grandmother’s name. We just had a hard time thinking of another name that went well with Lenore, and I’ve always liked Norah, so we decided that was similar enough and sounded better with Galloway and other middle names that we could think of. Travis thought of Claire, and I really liked it too. I’m not sure what his train of thought was. Anyway, we think it’s a nice name!

Norah is probably still about the same size as she was at the ultrasound last Wednesday…she’s just over a pound (I’m not sure how they calculate that…I guess from the measurements they took of the lengths of different bones), and probably about 11.5 inches long. Her ears are supposed to be fully functional now, and her skin is getting more opaque and more pink. I can’t wait to see her rosy little cheeks! In the mean time, though, it makes me so happy to know that she’s having a good ol’ time in there just playing with her feet!

At the ultrasound, she was upright with her spine along my right side. I don’t think it’s a problem yet that she is still right side up, but I’m a little concerned because she seems to be in that position all the time (always kicking my bladder!), and I don’t feel her flipping around as much as I did when she was smaller. I’m going to ask the midwife about it tomorrow. I know there are different exercises (more like yoga positions) you can do to try to get babies to flip. (I’m assuming you all know what I’m talking about, but just in case you don’t, babies are supposed to be born head first. Doctors pretty much always do a c-section when the baby is in the wrong position.)

The other thing the midwife said we would discuss tomorrow is the glucose test for gestational diabetes. At an OB office, they would automatically administer this test, but since I have none of the risk factors, Amy said I can decide whether or not I want to do it. I don’t think I will.

Now on to fun stuff! We had been waiting to register for gifts until we knew the baby’s gender, so we finally got to do that this past Saturday! We went to Target and Babies R Us. It was actually kind of hard to decide what we would need! I think we got all the essentials. We didn’t register for any clothes because I’m sure people will pick whatever they think is cute, and that’s fine with us. We’re not too picky! We also were going to register on the cloth diaper websites we’re ordering from, but we decided it would be easier to ask for gift certificates so people won’t have to order one diaper and pay shipping on it and wait for it to arrive…

Mr. Travis Cleverpants found us another bargain while we were at Target! We had been a little concerned about finding a stroller that would match our car seat (you can put the car seat into any Baby Trend stroller…)

Oh! Norah says hi! She’s kicking hard! And it feels like she might be head down now!

Anyway, we had looked other places for a stroller that would work for us, and most of them were the complete wrong color. I mean, I don’t need it to be the exact same color scheme, but they clashed pretty badly. So at Target, the first thing we looked at were the strollers. They happened to have a great Baby Trend jogging stroller that was two different shades of gray, which would match fine with our gray, green and blue car seat. It had nice big bicycle type tires and a swiveling front wheel that can lock straight – just a really good quality stroller all around. It was a pretty good price ($99.99), considering we’d seen the same stroller several other places for $120, so we registered for it even though it is a pretty expensive item to put on a registry. But THEN, Travis walked down the aisle a little further and saw THE SAME stroller (except black and gray instead of all gray) in a slightly beat up box on clearance for $55!!!!! We didn’t really have an extra $55 lying around, but we decided it was ridiculous to ask someone else to buy it for us for $100 if we could get it for just over half that amount. So, we bought it and brought it home after first making sure that Target would allow us to return it in the event that we found something wrong with it.

It’s perfect! It’s completely brand new with no missing parts! I think it was just on clearance because it was considered a “seasonal” color!

I looked at a Babies R Us flyer, and their regular price for the same stroller/car seat combo we ended up with is $220. We spent about $115!! We just got really lucky, thanks to my hero, Mr. Cleverpants. I love him dearly. J

This is a long blog post. I’m sorry.

Last thing, I promise: I’m nesting! Again, now that we’ve seen the baby and named her and everything, reality is setting in. We have to be ready for her! Also, we have two baby showers coming up in about a month, so we need to make room for Norah’s things. My plan is to reorganize one room a day and figure out what we can get rid of and actually do it! We have half a closet – come to think of it, half of one closet and half of another – full of stuff to consign or sell on Ebay or take to Goodwill, but I just haven’t gotten around to actually doing it yet. Anyway, I think one room a day (maybe just on my less busy days) will be doable. I had every intention of starting with the kitchen today, but instead I cleaned and vacuumed (thoroughly!) and shampooed the downstairs carpet, which took a LONG time. And it really needed to be done. So I forgive myself for not organizing the kitchen today. Tomorrow I have to run some errands, but hopefully I can start on it in the afternoon…we shall see.

I’m gonna stop ranting about my life now and let you get back to yours! Have a great week!

The Long Awaited News!

Sorry to keep you all waiting today! I had a lot going on.

I won’t keep you waiting any longer…

If you voted BOY… you were dead wrong! It’s a baby girl!!! (Did I trick you?)

We are so excited! I have felt all along like it was a girl, but I was trying not to take myself too seriously for fear of disappointment. Looks like a lot of you thought the same thing, though! Thanks for playing our little voting game!

The ultrasound was a lot of fun. We went to Greenville Tech, and an ultrasound technician in training observed while the technician who was doing the ultrasound explained everything to her. So we got to have the inside scoop on what they look for and all, and we were in there for over an hour! She kept saying everything looked perfect and beautiful and gorgeous! That was nice to hear.

And without further ado, here are some pictures of our little girly-poo!

Here’s a profile view. I think she looks like Travis! The little circle under her chin is a cross section of her arm.

Here’s another of her with her hand under her chin…she’s wise!

And here she is with her foot in her mouth…literally!

I love this one: she’s holding onto her foot! Her leg is the one pointing more like this: ( /) Her arm is more like this: ( \ ) If you look carefully you can make out her foot and her little thumb. The other fingers are wrapped around. ADORABLE!

Lastly, the proof! It’s definitely a girl! We got to see like four different angles because she kept putting her foot in the way and we’d have to look at something else and then come back to it. She’s a modest little thing!

Also, I am happy to announce that she is on the small side. J I don’t think that means the due date will be any different, I just think she’ll be a small baby. Thank goodness! They said she is just a smidge over a pound.

So there you have it! Now we don’t have to call her an “it” anymore!!!

Before I sign off, I would like to congratulate my good friend, Mindy (Bennett) Cotton, and her husband, Josh, on their little bundle of joy, who came into the world yesterday evening! Baby Jay weighed 8 pounds 6.5 ounces and was 21 inches long. Here he is! Adorable, no?

Hope to see you back here for week 24!

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…

22 Weeks Pregnant

Happy Snow Day! For those of us in the South, today is a good day to stay in. We couldn’t even see the outline of our street when we woke up this morning. I think one of our neighbors tried to leave, then slid all over the cul de sac and had to ask for help pushing the car back into his driveway. I guess he gave up. We’re not even attempting it.

At 22 weeks (5 months!), my belly button is getting pretty shallow. :-P Baby has eyebrows and fingernails now, and is getting stronger and stronger. Last night Travis got to see the movements for the first time, and he also felt some pretty strong kicks. The baby should be 11 inches from head to toe, and weigh in at about a pound! It seems like yesterday that we were measuring it in millimeters and grams! In the past week I think I have felt baby hiccups a few times, as well as some Braxton-Hicks contractions once for about ten minutes.

I want to use the rest of this week’s blog to talk about cloth diapers. I hope I don’t bore you to pieces. This is exciting stuff to me, but I’m weird like that. I’m kind of obsessed, really.

Travis and I decided a LONG time ago that we want to use cloth diapers. There are a whole slew of reasons to do it, and only one or two reasons I can think of not to. Some of our reasons for doing it are:

· - They’re adorable! They come in a bajillion different colors.

· -You never have to worry about running out of diapers.

· - I don’t think it’ll be that much work, and I don’t mind what work it does involve.

· - They’re better for the baby’s skin, and more comfortable.

· - They’re way cheaper than disposables in the long run. This is an important point. The cost of using disposable diapers for one child (birth to potty training) is estimated to be around $2,000 in the US. Our cloth diapers will cost us around $350 TOTAL. (We plan to do diaper laundry every 2-3 days. It’s not a good idea to let them sit much longer than that.) If you factor in that we plan to reuse the same diapers on two or three children, the savings is humongous. If we have two kids, the disposable diaper total is around $4,000. $350 is less than 9% of 4,000! That’s like buying a $35 pack of disposable diapers for about $3.

· - Lastly, I don’t feel good about putting 4-ish years worth of diapers in the landfill. Nobody even knows how long it takes for them to break down…they pretty much just sit there forever, and they have chemicals in them that aren’t good for the environment. And poo. Gross.

Ok, now that I’ve filled you in on why we plan to use cloth diapers, I want to tell you about the specific diapers we chose.

There are a whole bunch of different “cloth diapering systems.” The cheapest are prefolds with covers. This is the old fashioned type. They involve folding the diaper a certain way, fastening it onto the baby, and then putting some type of waterproof shell overtop. You can fasten them with diaper pins, but these days they make something called a snappi that has little tiny hooks that hold the diaper together. These are safer and easier to use than pins.

At the other end of the spectrum (most expensive and most convenient) are all-in-one diapers. You use them just like you would disposables, except you throw them in the wash instead of in the trash. They snap or Velcro, and usually you buy them in sizes, so you have to buy a set of smalls, a set of mediums, etc. Another note about these is that they take forever to dry since they’re all in one piece.

The diapers we chose are somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. The first, which I found months and months ago, before I was pregnant, are called Best Bottom diapers, by Nicki’s Diapers (www.nickisdiapers.com).

This diaper is an “all-in-two” system. It consists of one-size waterproof covers (adjustable to fit babies from about 8 to 30 lbs.) with sized inserts (small, medium, and large) that snap into the covers. These end up being one of the cheaper systems to use because when you change the diaper, if the shell is pretty clean, you can just wipe it out and snap in a new insert. That way, you don’t have to have as many covers. (The cover is the expensive part.) I also like them because they won’t take up much room in a diaper bag and will make less laundry than other types.

The other diaper we plan to use is the GoGreen diaper, from www.gogreenpocketdiapers.com.

This is a pocket diaper. It consists of a waterproof shell with a soft fabric lining that has a pocket that you stuff with an absorbent insert. This particular brand is the least expensive of this type that I’ve seen that still gets wonderful reviews. The cost is $9 per diaper, while most other well-made pocket diapers cost around $20. I like it because of the cost, the adorable colors, the soft lining, and the fact that it, too, is adjustable to fit a baby from about 8 to 30 lbs.

So, why are we getting two different types? Both diapers get excellent reviews. They don’t leak, they fit well on babies of all shapes and sizes (some cloth diapers look really bulky), they’re cute, they’re well-made (don’t fall apart in the wash), and they’re cost effective! Honestly, we were having a hard time choosing one over the other, so we just decided to get some of each. Also, I think the Best Bottom will be better for outings and trips, while the GoGreen might be slightly more comfortable for the baby and will work well at home and at night, since you can stuff extra inserts into the pocket to absorb more wetness while the baby sleeps.

And that’s my dissertation on cloth diapers! I hope it was interesting enough that you actually made it to the end. J

If you haven’t voted on the gender yet, you have until the day of the ultrasound: Wednesday, January 19^th! Vote! Hope you have a good week!

21 Weeks Pregnant

Not a whole lot is new this week! We’re just getting back into our regular routines, which is no fun, but I’m looking forward to resuming my bib-making and other things I haven’t had much time for lately.

Baby should now be about 10.5 inches long from head to toe, and around 13 ounces. It also has a new trick: it now gets some of its nourishment from the amniotic fluid, since it is developed enough to swallow and digest it. Also, the “bone marrow spaces” (is that a technical term?) are producing red blood cells now, whereas before they were produced in the spleen and liver.

This is a photo of a baby that was reportedly born at 21 weeks gestation.

The open eyes make me think it might be a little older than that, since the eyes are normally still fused shut according to what I’ve read. I’ve also read that 22 weeks is the absolute earliest a baby could be born and survive. Anyway, even if the baby in the picture is a week or two older, it’s amazing how well developed it is!

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for this week! I hope 2011 is treating you well so far!