Friday, December 30, 2011

This week, in Baby-and-Mom News

I'm just going to do this in bullet format because there isn't much new anyway, and it's easier!

  • This week, the baby has been kicking up a storm! I happened to be up at 2 am last night and noticed a lot of movement. Hopefully the Bee will learn quickly that night time is NOT the time for being wide awake!
  • Our previously-agreed upon names are being rethought a little bit. The first names are pretty set--I would be shocked if they changed. But we're wavering on the middle names. I think this might be something that isn't set until it's on the birth certificate. 
  • We have tentatively set the baptism date for Saturday, May 26th. Memorial Day Weekend makes travel much easier for our families, and it falls at the perfect time (the baby will definitely be born by then).
  • My wardrobe practically doubled over the holiday. My mom and I hit up the department stores and she got me a lot of great stuff. I also found a great sale at Motherhood yesterday and bought another three tops and a dress. I think I'm actually done with Maternity shopping now. I have plenty. Overall, I think I spent less than $100 (I got a lot of gifts, and lends from friends). 
  • I've been plenty irritable lately and muscle soreness has started (maybe these two symptoms are related?). Baths are nice. As are massages from my loving husband.
  • I'm weighing in at 139 for an official weight gain of 22 pounds. Which is just about a pound a week. I think I would be ok with gaining 40 the whole pregnancy. 
  • At week 23, I have reached the age of viability. If I had the baby tonight, the odds would be better than 50/50 for survival. Of course, the idea still terrifying. Keep cooking, baby!

A New Family Member in June!

No...not another baby....

My sister Emily got engaged this holiday season! She and her fiance Jim have set a date less than six months away--June 23rd! I am so happy for Emily and Jim. It was such a blessing to get to know Jim this Christmas. He is so perfect for my sister--he makes her laugh, smile and just--glow all the time (cliche! I'm sorry!). I've honestly never seen her so happy and I can't wait to have a new brother! (and maybe some nieces and nephews for the Bee in the near future).

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Kisses--A post from Dad.

I thought it would be fun for Josh to post every once in awhile. After all, this is really our story, and it would be a shame if his voice wasn't heard every once in awhile. So I'll be asking him to write periodically. Here's post number one!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hannah has asked me to write an entry; so here it goes. 

Last week’s ultrasound was thrilling!  Seeing the heart chambers pound open and close lifted my face into the biggest smile.  It was especially cute when the Bee waved and sucked its little thumb.  It is so hard to believe that the Baby is only ten inches long, yet at the same time it’s hard to believe that it’s already ten inches long. 

These next four months are going to be the longest of my life.  When I talk to my nieces and nephews, who are eagerly waiting for Christmas, it is exactly how I feel with Baby Bumblebee.  I can’t wait until it gets here! I can’t wait to see what gender we will be blessed with.  I can’t wait to hold it for the first time. There are so many wonderful moments ahead and I can’t wait to experience them with my wonderful wife. 

While I am at work (at a job I despise, I only work there because of the insurance) I spend most of my time daydreaming about playing with the baby.   In fact, my excitement for the baby has superseded my excitement for Christmas.  Christmas is on Sunday and it has never in my life come this quickly. 

So--long story short, I have never been this excited about anything (except my wedding).  And as much crap as I get from my guy friends about wanting a baby, I wouldn’t trade these moments for anything.  We are truly blessed!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Anatomy Scan!

This week, I am officially half-way through with the pregnancy and we had an exciting doctor's appointment--our anatomy scan! This is the ultrasound where the doctor checks how all of the organs and bones are developing. I was a little anxious in the time leading up to the appointment. Usually, if something's going to go wrong in a pregnancy, it will show up at the anatomy scan.


But there was no need to be worried. Everything looks perfect. We got to see the heart and all its chamber, the spine, lungs, bladder and lots of other great stuff. It was amazing to get to see my complete and healthy child.  He/she waved at the camera and we got to sneak a peak at the Bee sucking his thumb. Josh thinks the baby has my profile, and looks like a girl! I think he's nuts--there's no way you can tell on an ultrasound  what a baby is going to look like! But it's a very sweet sentiment. And Josh seems to be MUCH better at deciphering ultrasound pictures than I am. He can point out what's what in each of our pictures and I have no idea.

Baby weighs a little under a pound, which is normal for 20 weeks gestation. The heart-rate is still 140.  (heart-rates range from 120-160 at this time, so baby is right in the middle). The tech asked us before we started if we wanted to know the gender. This was our last chance to find out before the birth. I'm glad she asked us before we were actually looking at our little one, because it made it really easy to say "no". She told us later that the baby had its legs firmly crossed the whole time, so she wouldn't have been able to tell anyway. Apparently this baby wants to surprise us just as much as we want to be surprised!

Here's a couple of photos. Enjoy!

Waving its tiny fingers

Sucking it's thumb

Monday, December 12, 2011

Our attempts at a Green Life

Josh and I are making efforts to "Go Green" (you know...for the environment) in our lives. We've been slowing transitioning for the last year or so. Some of the best green advice I've heard is "do what you can, and don't feel guilty about the rest". I like this advice because we really could be doing more.  But the major changes we've made so far are:

We no longer use paper towels. We bought a huge pile of car rags and they work much better than paper towels. We probably use one a night to clean the counters, and then throw them into a little bin I keep under the sink. They get washed once a week

We no longer use tissues. This is a little more "extreme" but honestly, we love it. I cut up about a dozen old T-shirts into 12X12 squares that we're now using as tissues. We have a ton of them. They also go into the bin under the sink to get washed weekly. I never touch them after they're used, so it's not gross at all. They're so much more durable than regular tissue paper.

We don't use chemicals to clean. This has probably been going on the longest. We use vinegar and baking soda to clean the kitchen, carpets and walls. We mostly use the same solution in the bathroom, but I do use straight-up bleach sparingly in there (which is actually a naturally occurring ingredient, and breaks down without harming the environment).  Vinegar is pretty much a miracle liquid in my eyes. It's super cheap and will clean just as well as any all purpose cleaner. It's odorless when it dries and I think it is just fantastic.

We make our own laundry detergent. I've been making laundry soap using this recipe. I absolutely love it. I like the liquid soap better than dry recipes I've found (I think it works better if you're washing your clothes in cold water). It's odorless and my cloths just feel cleaner--there isn't a chemically smell or residue left on them at all. I'm in love.

Our newest thing is making our own dish detergent. I've hesitated to do this, because I've hear that homemade recipes can leave dishes pretty cloudy but I read up on different recipes online and finally ended up mixing up my own batch which looked like this:
4 packets of unsweetened lemonade (look for one with citric acid as the main ingredient).
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda
1/2 cup of salt
We've only used it on a couple of loads of dishes so far, but I really like it. It gets them clean and it is SO CHEAP. I'm sure we'll continue making our own for years to come.

Our next endevour: Cloth diapering. I just cringe at the through of throwing away ten diapers a day. And I also hate the idea of chemicals getting on the baby's bottom. So cloth diapering is definitely for us. I'm sure I'll be updating more about it when the time comes.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Whoa, We're Halfway There

Yikes, I let more than a week slip by without a peep from me. Sorry for the lack of updates. I promise it's because nothing new has been going on!

Tomorrow, I will be exactly 20 weeks along--the halfway point! Honestly, I feel like the last month has snailed by. I can't believe we're only halfway through with this pregnancy! At the same time, we're not nearly ready for the baby yet. We'll be very busy for the next 20 weeks!

So here's some average 20-week stats (we can compare them to what we learn at my ultrasound on Tuesday!)

Baby weighs about 10 oz. and 10 inches from head to heel

If it's a girl, she has all of the eggs she will ever have already inside her tiny uterus (or wherever eggs hang out before puberty...I should have paid more attention if sex ed.

Baby has already developed sleep habits similar to that of a newborn. It may even already have a favorite sleeping position.

Baby will spend the remainder of the pregnancy gaining weight and gaining strength. It now has all of it's organs developed and in the right place. They've just got to get stronger!

And here's some facts about me, during my 20th week of pregnancy!

Latest symptom: Heartburn. Not fun. And I still haven't looked up what a safe treatment option would be. I know Tums are not.

Gained: 17 pounds. A lot! But I was a thin girl before the pregnancy, and I imagine that I'll lose the baby weight pretty quickly if I work hard.

Baby kicks: At night and in the morning. Pretty much any time I'm super relaxed. I think he wants attention. The kicks are generally on the left side of my bellybutton.

Milestone: People are now asking me if I'm expecting from looking at me. I guess I look pregnant enough that people are feeling confident in their guess that I'm pregnant

Being a parent is f*cking scary!

Mom, I'm sorry for the (albeit censored) language in the post title.

I'm in this somewhat awkward period of my life where I have a child, but I don't fully understand what being a parent really means. I get tastes of it. I roll my eyes when the baby jabs me hard as I'm trying to fall asleep. I pray for that the baby will have a healthy and happy life. I get to dream about it's future, just like any parent would. But lately, the thing that has really made me feel like is parent is the FEAR. I have heard my father and other parents talk about how scary the world became when they became parents. I never knew what they meant before, but already I am starting to gain a better understanding. The world suddenly seems so much bigger, and frankly for the first time ever, I'm terrified of it. Current events--such as the scandal at Penn State and the Virginia Tech shootings are taking on more meaning for me than they ever have before. It's as if I'm seeing these events clearly for the first time. I didn't expect this feeling to overwhelm me  so much--and the baby isn't even here yet!

Josh and I are now faced with the reality that sometime soon, we are going to have to explain to our child that there are people out there that will hurt them if given the opportunity. How do you do that? And at what age? There isn't an age that is safe from the evils of this world. Even from a very young age, I can't protect this child all the time. Anything could happen! I don't know how to keep my children safe, and it terrifies me. What am I supposed to do?

Even now I can't protect him (or her). I can't keep my baby safe and I'm becoming more and more aware of that by events that surround me. A woman in my congregation recently lost her second son in her 24th week of pregnancy. Famous April mom, Michelle Duggar just lost her baby at 20 weeks. It breaks my heart to know how much pain this fellow mothers are going through. And it saddens me that the lives of their children were cut so short.

I'm aware that this post sounds somewhat panicky. I think being a mother is just going to be like that. I've never worried for myself, or anyone in my life like I'm already worried for my unborn child. It fascinates me, that such a change could occur inside of me so quickly. I didn't expect to love the baby this much at this point. I thought it would come later--when I'm holding it in my arms. When I get to see him and touch him. And it never occurred to me that this much love would come with equal amounts of fear.

I believe God knew what he was doing when he created the relationship between parent and child. My fears for my child come from my love for him. Only by God's design could I love this baby so much already. And it is only through trusting in Him to guide and protect my family that I can prevent myself from being scared all the time. I think it's important to acknowledge that there is pain and evil in this world. Even though I knew this before, I have a new perspective on it. And even though I knew that God was great before, I have a new perspective on Him as well. The life that is inside me is nothing short of a miracle and blessing of God.. Satan is real and he's powerful. My fears are not invalid. But God is real too and he is so much better. So I will put my hope and trust in Him alone.