She came into our lives 4/21/06, and I'll do my best to post pics, stories, and what she's learning about the world!
Friday, January 27, 2006
It's Friday!
Or, Fryday for Mom, Dad, Kelly & Jason. I love Friday afternoons--it's so nice to look forward to a relaxing weekend. Not that work hasn't been relaxing lately though. :) Too bad it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow, which happens to be my sweet husband's birthday. I love rainy Saturday mornings when I can sleep late and listen to the rain. I am going to enjoy every Saturday that I don't have to get up early because in a matter of weeks, I will never be able to sleep late again! Or for that matter, I guess I'll never be able to sleep again...
As another afternoon of depression sets in, I went looking for Bible verses to put things in perspective. I know in my mind that it's stupid to be so sad over little things, but I needed something to convince my heart. So, I came across this verse from 2 Corinthians. 4:8-9, 16-18.
"We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed... Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
I love how a verse like this can completely change my mood. Before I started this blog I was fighting back tears, and now I am good. I will re-read this when the inevitable mood swings strike again (I am not going to fool myself into thinking they won't). Friends, I urge you to do the same. God is good!
OK, so even though I'm just about down to the last trimester, I really haven't had any cravings so far. No more than I normally do, that is. I have had aversions, but not cravings. But today I had this overwhelming desire for Lay's sour cream & onion potato chips. It has been probably at least 10 years since I've even had those, and I didn't even think I really liked them all that much. But I got some, and I've eaten way too many of them.
On a similar note, I haven't really had any mood swings up to now, or been particularly emotional. However, today has been a fairly miserable day, mood-wise. I am hoping that doesn't stick around for the remaining 3 months. If it does, I apologize in advance to those of you who see me regularly.
I think she had hiccups! I know a lot of babies get them around this time, but I haven't noticed anything until now. Then, Saturday while I was sitting on the couch, I noticed what felt like small kicks, but they were evenly spaced at about 2 seconds apart. It happened again last night, and both times it only lasted 1-2 minutes. Awww, well they say a spoonful of sugar can cure hiccups, so I guess next time that happens I should just eat something with lots of sugar. :)
I have mentioned this before, but this baby likes to KICK! I'm sure she's no different from any other baby, but I wouldn't know. Sometimes I sit at my desk and am distracted by the movements every 1-3 seconds. It's good--it means she's alert. But sometimes I wonder "Hey--what are you DOING in there???" Especially when I'm trying to go to sleep at night and she decides it's playtime. Or time to get comfortable, or whatever she decides. Jay has been able to feel her, but sometimes the sneaky little girl likes to stop kicking when he puts his hand there. The other night he leaned down and said to my belly, "Hello in there, can you hear me? This is your father." It was too cute. :) He'd probably be embarrassed for me to post that on here, but that's OK. :)
I feel so blessed, and I feel like this baby is going to be so very loved. Definitely she will (and already is) by us, but I have gotten such great support, advice, and blog comments! And thanks to wonderful friends, we have lots of hand-me-down baby stuff to have or borrow (and some very cute girly outfits), and I have lots of borrowed maternity clothes that I would be very miserable without. Thanks, friends! It's probably time for more pics, and once the bedding that I ordered off ebay comes in, I'll surely post pics of the nursery.
Yesterday at my appointment, I had an ultrasound and for the first time, I realized there is a PERSON living in there. I feel her move every day, but it was so cool to actually see her in action. We saw her at the last ultrasound, but this time she was clearly sucking her thumb and it was so cute! :) It's not too clear in the pic, but she was sucking her thumb, touching her face, and generally moving around like babies do.
I was so excited that I wanted to call everyone and tell them she was sucking her thumb, and that's when I realized I am going to be the type of parent I didn't want to be--the one who tells everyone all the cute things her kid did. So if you see me often and I do that, feel free to call me on it. We'll try to keep those cute milestones like "oooh, she turned her head" or "guess what--she pulled my hair" between Jay & I.
Everything looked healthy, which was of course great news to us, and the only bad news was that I gained too much weight. Oops. It was no surprise--I knew I needed to lay off the ice cream & candy. And lay off it I will do (notice I didn't say eliminate!)
We are starting the preparation for the arrival of this little person who will, as we are discovering, completely take over our house. We haven't bought anything new since acquiring the lot of baby stuff from the people who were getting rid of it, but we have since gotten a lot of hand-me-down diapers that were never used by the babies they were intended for. No, they weren't used or anything--just too small or a brand that didn't work well for that baby. Which works well for us, because now we have lots to choose from! Of course, most of them are newborn, so I'm hoping for a not-too-big baby in more ways than one.
Well, since the plan is to find a daycare to put the baby in after my maternity leave is over, we decided we better find one! We have only looked at 2, but the one we looked at today may just be a winner. I had a pit in my stomach after we left the first place, and I was thinking I just can't leave my baby here. Not the greatest feeling. I figured I'd feel that way about all of them, but today I felt much better after leaving. They were nicer, cleaner, and much more informative. The interaction between the workers and the babies was nice, and they're both right on the way to work. I'm not thrilled about leaving a baby in any daycare, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. I don't think I have ever felt more like a grown-up than when I started making a list of daycares and pediatricians to try out. :)
I read that a fetus born between 22-25 weeks usually survives. This week is 25 for me, so from this point on, she would have a good chance of survival if born. Obviously there would be problems, but that is amazing and hadn't occured to me before. Throughout this whole pregnancy, I keep thinking I have a loooooong way to go. I still think I have a long way to go, but when I look at a calendar or hear things like this or see pictures of what a baby at this stage looks like, it kicks me into reality gear and I realize that she will be here before we know it! The second half of anything usually seems to go by faster than the first, and at the end of this month I'll go into the 3rd trimester. If the second half goes by faster, the last third must be even faster! Wowzers!
OK, OK, here it is--the 24 week pic. I never really know how far along I am in months--only weeks. Since a pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, most of the books use lunar months, which count one month as 4 weeks. So really a pregnancy lasts 10 months. So in that case I'd be 6 months along, with 4 to go. In calendar months, it's not quite 5 1/2. But anyway, it doesn't really matter because the point is I'm THIS BIG already and I've still got almost 4 months to go!!!!
I don't know what it is about frogs. I've always thought they were cute, but somehow I've developed a magnetic attraction to cute frog things. I always thought that my baby's nursery would be decorated in a sea life theme, because I LOVE tropical fish and sea creatures. But when I started looking at bedding and baby stuff, the sea life stuff just wasn't that cute. They come in obnoxious electric blue colors and they just don't really match. Don't get me wrong--I still want to have plenty of fish stuff, but I just won't go so far as to have it as a theme. So then I thought I'll just do animals. Animals are great--they are all over baby stuff and I don't have to be limited to just one.
Then we decided to paint the nursery green, and from there it kind of exploded. I thought, I'll paint a few random frogs on the wall, because it would look cute with the green. Now I have discovered that apparently everyone likes frogs because I am finding frogs-a-plenty in baby bedding and decorations. Not only am I finding them, but I am drawn to them. They are hypnotizing me with their green, but not too green color, and their big, froggy eyes. So here it is--the theme is animals, but I have a feeling there may be a bit of a frog bias there... Anyway, these are a few pics I took before the digital camera battery died. Keep in mind that I'm not quite done--I've still got to touch them up in places that the color overlaps where it shouldn't. Hey--just because they're cartoon frogs doesn't mean they don't have to be perfect. :)
