25w6d - Hello Baby

Over the last two weeks, I've finally started to feel our little girl moving around quite a bit more. I can't believe some people feel this as early as 15wks! Just lastnight daddy finally got to feel a couple of really hard kicks. I'm glad it didn't take 4 weeks from when I really started feeling them for him to be able to.

We had decided after my last OB appointment to go in and have a 3D/4D ultrasound done. While the doctor wasn't exactly worried about lack of movement, she knew it give us more peace of mind and had no problem referring me to have another one done. Since I was going to be sent for one anyways, we decided it would be more fun to see her in 3D. I actually scheduled the appointment before the movements started to get more regular and noticable.

Today was the day that we got another look at our little girl. I scheduled it half way between my 24wk and 28wk appointments.

It was so amazing to see her today. She is moving around so much, I can't believe I'm not constantly feeling her. She kept playing with her umbilical cord. We saw her yawn and stick out her tongue, we caught a picture that looks like it could be a smile, and one that looks like she's giving a raspberry. From the 3D view it looked like she was rubbing her eyes, but when the shot was flipped back to 2D you could see her hands weren't as close to her face as it appeared. Best of all, she wasn't shy in the least in showing us her goods and letting us know that she's still all girl and didn't grow any boy parts in the last 6 weeks.

This kid looks to have some big cheeks on her. I can't wait to see her in person and find out who she looks like and get to know her true personality.

25w4d - Take a Lesson from Us

As mentioned in a previous post, our hunt for a stroller has been interesting. Since we wanted a non-neutral color/design, maybe it was our mistake in even looking at strollers before we knew the gender.

From the beginning of our search we found one that we absolutely loved, should our baby be a girl. It had pink in it, but not too much pink to look like a little girl's doll stroller. And then there was the more neutral purple and gray one. Definitely not as girlie, but we could have been happy with it.

Then big day came where we found of the gender. It's a Girl - yeah! Let the shopping begin! We returned to the store where we originally found the cute but not too frilly pink and brown stroller. It was gone! Aakk! Store clerk said it was discontinued, but the manufacturer's website might have more choices.

That's when we found Isabella. The super cute light purple and light gray travel system. I placed my order only to get a notification a few days later that my order could not be fulfilled. That is when I called the customer service department and thought we had reached the end of our hunt for a stroller as they were going to send one out to me.

Well, they did send one out to us, but it was broken in the box. :( What? Are you kidding me? The outside of the box didn't look like it had been through any more than any other box we get delivered, but the insides of the box told a different story. There were pieces of cardboard shoved in obviously not protecting anything. Had this item been returned? When we pulled the stroller out there were several small pieces laying on the bottom of the box. Sure enough, the mechanism that adjusts the handle height was broken.

I couldn't believe it. After all we had been through to get this stroller, and it came broken. I called customer service again and explained the condition of the item. They were going to send me a return label and once they had my return, they would process an exchange. A week later we finally had the return label and dropped it off so that it still went out that night.

A week later I hadn't heard anything about the status of my return, so I again called customer service. They had indeed received my return, but it hadn't been processed yet. One more week and I called again. Due to the low inventory of my item and the delay in processing my return, there were no more Isabella's in stock. They were issuing a credit for the item.

Somewhere along the way we went back to the store to take another look at that other purple and gray one that we sort of liked. That too was discontinued and no longer in the store. Sigh.

After running around a bit and looking at a few different travel systems at a few more stores, we found nothing. We did have a better idea of what we for sure didn't want. Once we got home, the online search continued. We found another that we really like and placed a pre-order. Apparently this one isn't coming out until early to mid-March. Considering today is already March 2nd, it shouldn't be long now. Fingers crossed all goes well with this order.

I'll wait to supply details on this new one until we have it in hand, all in one piece and thoroughly inspected.

So, the lesson to be learned here is if you see something you really like, BUY IT! It may be gone by the next time you get to the store.

25w0d

Wow - what a difference a week makes! Last Monday I was still just barely feeling any sort of movements or kicks, and now this week, I'm feeling them quite frequently. Unfortunately, still nothing hard enough that Mr can feel them. I really hope it doesn't take 4 weeks for him to start feeling them. That's the reference my OB gave me. Once I start feeling them, it should be about 4 weeks before they can be felt from the outside.

I've decided baby likes hot meals. Especially soup. Boy did she get active when I finished my Chicken Wild Rice soup yesterday! Since that's my absolute favorite soup, I thought it was pretty cute that she'd get super active afterwards. She must have enjoyed it too.

Since I did a show and tell of my diaper bag, I thought I'd include a couple of pictures of the daddy on the go bag. It's the Little Tripper by Land's End. He's got the black one with the red front. It seems like a pretty cool daddy bag. It's kind of small, but looks like it'll hold a lot. Perfect for those quick trips with daddy.



Project land is growing and growing. I still haven't made any more progress on the quilt. We had a little trouble with the wall letters and added a window covering to the ever growing list of things we want to do. Good thing we still have plenty of time before baby comes. We just might get through everything with time to spare. Maybe.

What's happening with baby: Weeks 25-28 (month 6): Eggplant 13.6 - 14.8in, 1.5 - 2.2lbs

Let your spouse put an ear to your belly -- he might be able to pick up baby's heartbeat (no stethoscope required). Inside the womb, the formation of tiny capillaries is giving baby a healthy pink glow. Baby's also soaking up your antibodies, getting the immune system ready for life outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and baby will soon perfect the blink -- perfect for batting those freshly grown lashes.

Watch the belly grow

The quality isn't the greatest, but here I am. Me and my growing belly!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

24w0d - Was that a kick?

Finally! It's about time little one. I was starting to think all you ever did was sleep. Just this week I'm finally starting to feel a little something going on in there. It's about time dangit! I've waited long enough!

I had my OB appointment on Monday and at that point, I still hadn't really felt much. Being we've already seen baby several times and know she isn't missing any limbs, the doctor wasn't all too worried. Just figured it would come in time. She thinks I may just have a really mellow baby. (Which would be just how I was.) A little reassurance for the day was hearing the heartbeat again. Still hanging in there at 150bpm. Once again, everything looks like it's progressing right on track. This was the first time they did a belly measurement and I was just a little over 23cm, which was also perfect for 23w4d. I mentioned the finger prick blood insulin test that I did last week, and she said if I do that well on the Glucose Tolerance Test I'll be in good shape! That's encouraging.

It feels like we are at a standstill as far as projects go. It's still about 3-4 weeks before the furniture will be in, and who knows if it will be warm enough to actually get the staining done when it does arrive. Let's hope! I'm very slowly making progress on my quilt. Right now I've got it to the point of being basted and ready to be quilted, so I am getting there. Today the wooden letters arrived for my wall letters project. (Sorry, I won't be able to share pictures of that project with you.) I have to get those painted and ModPodged with a scrapbook paper overlay along with a wall plaque with a Daughter saying that I had on my wall when I was little. Maybe working on all these little things will help pass the time a bit.

Whenever someone asks me how I'm doing or how I'm feeling, all I can say is "I feel great!". I'm starting to notice a little shortness of breath from time to time, but other than that, I really have nothing to complain about. (Now that I'm feeling baby a little more I can cross that complaint off my list.)

Can you believe I'm just a couple of weeks away from the THIRD trimester!? Wow - that's just crazy.

By the way, totally feeling baby throughout writing this post!

23w1d - Valentine's Day weekend

This is it. Our last Valentine's Day as a family of two. To celebrate, we'll be having a quiet dinner in. Mister is in charge of dinner - my only request was a repeat of the dessert he made me for our 1st Valentine's Day together six years ago.

Zabaglione
[zah-bahl-YOH-nay]

One of Italy's great gifts to the rest of the world, zabaglione is an ethereal dessert made by whisking together egg yolks, wine (traditionally MARSALA) and sugar. This beating is done over simmering water so that the egg yolks cook as they thicken into a light, foamy custard. Traditional zabaglione must be made just before serving. (There is also a frozen version.) The warm froth can be served either as a dessert by itself or as a sauce over cake, fruit, ice cream or pastry.

It's been a pretty quiet week. After some frustration with my quilt project, my mom came over and helped get me back on track. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my first project, but the perfectionist in me isn't so happy with all of the intersection points. Oh well, live and learn.

While we aren't usually night owls, last weekend we did have a night that we didn't get home until close to midnight. That gave me my first real encounter with the feeling that baby was doing some sort of acrobatics. That was definitely cool to feel. Now I wonder if she's always active at night and it's still too subtle that it isn't enough to wake me up. This week I had a few more sensations from time to time, but really nothing that I can predict or encourage in any way. I'm starting to get impatient waiting for this!

Next week I have my 24wk appointment. Hopefully it goes as smoothly as the rest of them have. Then, next time, at 28wks, I have to do the Glucose Tolerance Test to check for gestational diabetes. When my mom was here yesterday, we checked my blood sugar level about an hour and a half after I had eaten lunch and it was 110. She said that was really good, but what will "they" say?

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not really into bags or purses. I buy a purse and keep it for several years. After some of the girls on our local board kept telling about the awesome deals they were finding on Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bags, I had to go see for myself. I found the Boxy Backpack in Wisteria Roll at a local TJMaxx. So what if it's a discontinued color? It made it about 1/3 the cost of a 2009 style one! I think it is sufficiently girly, for sure! Here it is:

22w1d - Nursery in progress

What an amazing feeling. After waiting so long to even be able to decorate a nursery, we have finally started. Last weekend was paint and assembling the crib (minus a mattress). It's hard to truly see the color in the pictures, but the wall color matches perfectly to the light peach color in the bedding.

The first picture is taken with the flash on - and the second with the ceiling light and what daylight was left at about 5pm. Once we get the mattress in there that will pull even more of the peach look vs pink as the crib sheet is solid peach.

This week I also pulled out my baby quilt project that I started before the holidays. This is my first attempt at any sort of quilt, so it's been interesting. I got all the blocks sewn together to form rows, now I just need to get the rows sewn together in sections to make the top. We'll see how long it takes me to finish. I was on a good roll yesterday and did 10 of the 11 rows. It should hopefully go quickly once I get to it. Oh yeah, and it will go really well with the Isabella stroller too!

Here's what it looked like laid out on our bed.

And since this post has a bunch of pictures, how about a new belly shot. This was taken today. I feel like this shirt isn't gonna make it much longer, it's already getting really short. Oh well, hopefully we'll be getting into some warmer weather here soon so I can dig into that pile of short sleeve tops my mom gave me.

I still have over a week before my next appointment. It's nice to not be running all the time, but sometimes 4 weeks seems like so long between appointments. I'm still not feeling a whole lot of movement, just an occasional brush against my inside. Certainly nothing that would be classified as a "kick". Every night before bed daddy gets in a little bonding time and rubs my cocoa butter massage lotion on my belly. One night as he was rubbing the outside, I could definitely feel something rubbing back from the inside.

What's happening with baby: Weeks 21-24 (Month 5): Papaya 10.5 to 11.8 in, 12.7 to 20.8 oz

Watch what you say -- baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn't be hard to figure out when -- just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.