22 weeks

The baby is now the length of a spaghetti squash. About 11 inches and weighs almost 1 lb. The teeth have formed beneath his/her gums, the liver is functioning and the pancreas is producing insulin. His/her sense of touch is well established, and apparently babies at this stage stroke their face a lot because of that.

I am getting bigger too. I've gained 16 lbs, and that seems like too much to me. But, it didn't seem like too much when I had 3 doughnuts at work the other day. (I can't resist doughnuts, pregnant or not). I regretted the 3 doughnuts this morning when I weighed myself. And then this week we are having this huge 4th of July celebration all weekend with tons of food. I'll be at 20 lbs next week. Wow, that sounds like a LOT.

I've been a little stressed this week too, about the nursery decor and this whole cloth diapering thing. I can't for the life of me figure out how cute little sock monkeys can freak people out.


But, I guess they do, and that plus the fact that I'm the most indecisive person on the planet made this a really difficult decision. But, we bought the fabric today, so our baby will officially have a sock monkey nursery. I'm still a little nervous.

And cloth diapers. There are thousands of types of cloth diapers. It's so overwhelming. We are taking a cloth diapering class on July 12. That is crazy. A class on cloth diapers? Well, turns out, we need one desperately.

And registering. Babies R Us is the most overwhelming store ever. As new parents, all of this stuff is foreign. We've been there twice so far, and we still aren't completely finished with our registry. It makes my brain hurt to go in there.

This baby is already a lot of work.

21 weeks

The baby is currently the length of a carrot. About 10 1/2 inches from head to heel and weighs about 3/4 lb. His/her tongue is fully formed.

My book says I will start having Braxton Hicks contractions anytime. That seems so soon! I thought those came at the end!

The results from our ultrasound were good! The baby is in the 62nd percentile in size, so it's not too small, like they originally thought. Everything looks, good, all the organs and brain are there and working. And they didn't put the sex on the report, so my midwife doesn't even know what it is! And, we can't change our minds now!

And I'm sleeping much better. Stacy suggested I get a snoogle, and it is fantastic!!


131 days to go!

Opinions needed!!!

Please tell me what you think! Especially those of you lurkers that never comment! I have a major decision here.

I've been having a lot of difficulty coming up with an idea for decorating our nursery. I couldn't find any bedding sets I liked, so my mom offered to make us crib bedding. I have not been able to find any fabric I like. I was looking for something bright, not really pastely, and kind of modern. I didn't want a theme, because all gender neutral themes are animals, or jungle, etc. I didn't care for them at all. I really like red, because I think it's really gender neutral, and it's not pastel. But I haven't been able to find any red fabrics, or red ideas. Then, today, my mom, John and I went to a quilting store and found something VERY themed, and I loved it. But, I'm a horrible decision maker, and I want to love our nursery, so I need help! What do you think of a sock monkey nursery? Here are the fabrics we are likely to use:






In person, the 2 red fabrics match better than they do in those pictures, and the light blue monkey fabric is a nicer blue. Here is a picture I took at the store:


We are thinking we'd paint the walls kind of a cream, and one wall is slanted for the roof, and we were thinking of painting that one light blue. All the trim would be painted dark brown. Then most of the decor in the room would be red.

So, please tell me what you think, even if you think it would be awful!!

P.S. I have been feeling the baby move for a couple of days now! John has been able to feel it too!

The sex of our baby is...

not unknown anymore. At least, to the ultrasound tech. She knows what it is. And it goes on some report that my midwife will get. (She said, in case we change our mind). I didn't know that everyone in the world would get to know but us! It was very tempting to let her tell us, John was more tempted than I was though. I just hope no one screws up and uses a pronoun or something.

So, if you haven't guessed, we had our 2nd and probably last ultrasound today. The baby was positioned very nicely this time on his/her back and we were able to see all the important stuff, like the brain, heart, spine, etc. Everything looks good! That is a relief, because last time they told us the baby was small and they way everyone talked about it was a little worrisome. We aren't having those tests to tell you if your baby has a chance at some chromosomal abnormality, so, it definintely worried me. Today she told us the baby has grown quite a bit, and it didn't seem too small to her. We will know more when we talk to the midwife.

We also learned that I haven't felt anything yet because I have an anterior placenta, which means my placenta is right in front, so I have some extra padding to feel the baby through. It doesn't cause any problems, I just have to wait longer to feel some movement.

We also learned that our baby is cute! The pictures are not great, but here's her/his cute little face!



You can see more of the baby in this one, and that is his/her hand up by the face.



And, here's a foot! With 5 toes!



And, some belly photos for those of you that don't see me often. Here I am at about 17 weeks:


And here's me today at 20 weeks:


That's a lot of growth in 3 weeks!

And I did sleep semi-comfortably last night in my pillow fortress.

20 Weeks

The baby is now the length of a banana. About 10 inches from head to toe. The legs have uncurled now.

I was starting to feel better and I wasn't hating pregnancy so much, for about a week, and then as I got closer to week 20, everything got bad again. I'm having some periodic heartburn, I'm staring to get some leg cramps, I have to get up twice a night now to use the bathroom, and I can't sleep on my stomach anymore. I couldn't sleep at all last night. It was awful, I was so uncomfortable. I'm going to make a pillow fortress tonight and see how that works. I've gained 13 pounds so far, which is right where I should be, but I'm supposed to gain 1 pound a week now, and that puts me at 33 pounds, and my goal was 25. Although our midwife would like to see me gain 30. I don't know about 1 pound a week though, I gained 3 just last week. And, my tailbone hurts nearly all the time. Weird. No wonder I can't sit comfortably at the Tiger games.

Also, John and I have decided to cloth diaper. It's cheaper and so much better for the environment. Disposable diapers take like 500 years to decompose. And cloth diapers are so darn cute! We haven't decided for sure yet, but we will probably use disposables the first couple of days, and then maybe when we are out in public. We aren't too interested in carrying a dirty diaper around with us. But maybe there is some magical solution to this and we can use cloth all the time. We'll see. Babies also potty train faster this way. I'm not interested in changing diapers for 3 years.

Non-pregnancy stuff actually happened this week, my godson and nephew, Marcel turned one, and was baptized!

Here's some photos!

Marcel being baptized.


Marcel, his parents and godparents.


Marcel getting his first (and only) small taste of cake


Uncle John and Marcel.

Oh my goodness!!

The Tigers won!! With John and I in attendance!! I really think they've turned it around now...if they can win with us there. I do need a few things for Tiger games though, now that I'm getting bigger. I need a maternity Tiger shirt. And, I need a pad to sit on at the game. Isn't that crazy? I need a pad to sit on??? I just can't stay comfortable at the games anymore. Last night we had to get up and walk around for an inning. Oh well.

Also, a couple weeks ago, my mom and I went on a scrapbooking retreat, and I never posted my pages...so here they are! Click on them to see them larger.

19 weeks

The baby is now the size of a slice of watermelon. I feel like it's the size of the whole watermelon, but I guess that comes later! He/she weighs about 8 oz, and spends about 6 hours a day awake and 18 hours a day asleep. Funny to think the baby is awake inside me, since I still can't feel anything.

I've gained 10 pounds. And I really have a very noticeable pregnant belly. I'm officially wearing maternity clothes now. Which is unfortunate because it is 90 degrees and I don't have a lot of options. My mom and I spent Saturday looking for dresses. My mom insisted that I could wear a non-maternity dress with an empire waist. So, to prove my point that I likely could NOT, we tried on a thousand dresses, all styles, and all sizes. They just don't fit right. Lots of regular dresses have zippers, and lots of maternity dresses don't. Zippers do not zip over a pregnant belly in a regular dress. I could wear some, but they wear either really ugly, or something I'd outgrow in a week. So, we went the maternity route. Maternity clothes can be pretty cute. Not so with maternity dresses. They are ugly potato sacks. Even if they are cute on the hanger. It took a while, but we did find one that was reasonably cute. But, I did look about as big as a house in it anyway. Here is the dress we found. I don't think this model is pregnant. Because the dress does not make HER look like a house.



I'm also having aches and pains. I have pains in my abdomen, my groin, and my back. I didn't think back pain came this early, but according to my book, I'm right on track. It doesn't hurt all the time, but if I sit a lot, or stand a lot, or lift a patient. Today at work, I need to lift a patient, and I got some help, and it wasn't what I would have thought was too much, but my back was really aching afterwards. I was shocked. I could have done three times the work before I was pregnant without any problem. I guess I need to take it easier than I thought.

I forgot to mention last week that my mom and I went to a scrapbooking retreat, where I basically caught up on all my current pictures. That's nice since I will never feel that way again, once we have the baby. My scrapping friends that we went with had a little surprise baby shower for me, which totally surprised me and was super sweet of them. It was really strange to open baby gifts, since my mom is the only person who has gotten me anything. We got some clothes, toys, a thermometer, wipe warmer, bibs, and lots of Tiger clothes! This baby will be well dressed in Tiger gear already and I'm not even 5 months pregnant yet! It is crazy that we have baby toys in our house right now.

We also have bought furniture. We got a great deal on a set of matching furniture from craigslist. It is in great condition, and we got a crib, changing table, armoire, rocking chair, ottoman and toy chest.

This is all very overwhelming.

18 weeks

I'm a little late on this week's post...but here it is. I'm 18 weeks pregnant, and the baby is now the size of a large baking potato and weighs about 7 oz. I should be feeling kicks any time now, though I haven't felt anything yet. My book says to drink a large glass of cold orange juice and lie down. I'll try that and report back if I feel anything!

As for me, I'm getting bigger, I definitely have a baby bump, and I've gained about 8 pounds now. Fortunately it's all in my belly. I think I feel more energy, although between the cold I have been recovering from, and late nights because of hockey and baseball games, it's hard to tell. And, I'm having a hard time deciding when to start wearing maternity clothes...I have some, and my clothes still fit, but only certain pants, and I don't know if I'm stretching my shirts out, but I still feel a little small to be wearing maternity....hmmm...

In sports news, the Tigers suck, the Pistons REALLY suck, and hopefully the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup tonight to make everything feel a little better around the Murray household and the whole Detroit area.