Archive for ◊ 2010 ◊

21 Nov 2010 pregnancy highlights: 29 weeks.
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Pregnancy Highlights: November 20, 2010.

How Far Along: 29 weeks:  Month 7

Sorry this one is coming out late…I was going to write this post after we got home last night from celebrating Kari’s birthday with David’s family, but we had a lovely ice storm/freezing rain/etc., and it ended up taking almost 4 hours for me to get home.  I averaged about 10 mph on the way home, spending an hour stopped by an entrance ramp just north of 494 (entertaining to watch people drive back up the ramp in reverse or attempt a 27-point turn to go up the ramp forwards.  I also enjoyed the people wandering around outside their cars trying to figure out why we were stopped…they slid the whole way back to their cars.  I think we have our answer.)  I spent another hour driving the 3 miles from that entrance to the lovely bridge with lots of people stuck on it, where I hung out for another hour while really smart people just stopped in the middle of the road, blocking all the lanes.  It was fun.  Poor Kristen & Chad were stuck for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours!  Ugh.  At least Baby and I got to spend some quality time together.  She seemed to enjoy the whole experience, as she was having a great time kicking and punching.  Or maybe she was yelling at the really smart people in her own way!

Size of Baby:  Baby is a butternut squash this week, which excitingly enough, we ate for dinner last night!  (Sorry, Baby!)  She’s almost 16 inches long and weighs 2 1/2 pounds, although considering she actually weighed over 2.5 lbs last week, I’d guess she weighs closer to 3.  Since we’re now in month 7, she’ll be a squash of some type all month according to this website!  Or a basketball.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  I gained 4.2 lbs since my last appointment.  Since I’m no good at actually weighing myself consistently, I’m not sure what the gain was any individual week.  So I’m at a total of +16.6 lbs since my first appointment, about +19 total.

Maternity Clothes:  I really need to get on that.  My jeans are getting less and less comfortable, and since that’s what I wear everyday, not a great situation.  I wore my first maternity shirt to floorset.  David laughed at me because it looks no different from any of my other shirts…just a long-sleeved T that happened to be slightly longer!

Gender:  Baby Girl!

Movement:  In the past couple days she’s started moving around more throughout the day, rather than just when I want to sleep.

Sleep:  I miss sleeping normal.  I built myself a nest a few months ago with pillows (sorry, Mom & Dad, you’ll have to bring pillows on Wednesday unless you want to share the one I left in the guestroom!).  Sleeping on my back is still most comfortable even though I know I’m supposed to be on my left side (but then my left leg gets sore!).

Symptoms:  No change.

What I Miss:  Being cold at work.  Not that I enjoy being cold, but it’s cold in the store; just a fact of life.  Yesterday I had to take off my cardigan because I was so hot!  Everyone wanted to know why I was just wearing a tank top…because I was hot!  Goodness people.  We have how many people in the store plus Christmas lights in addition to the regular lights plus I’m running all over the place.  What do you expect?

Cravings:  None.

Best Moment of the Week:  Baby didn’t give me diabetes!  Woo!  And the doctor says I’m measuring perfect & Baby sounds great (not incredibly exciting, but always nice to hear)!

What I’m Looking Forward To:  Thanksgiving!  (Not Baby-related, but it’s a day off of work, so I like it!)

14 Nov 2010 baby’s 28 week photo shoot.
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Like I’ve mentioned, we got to have an ultrasound with David’s cousin’s wife, who teaches ultrasound with David’s mom at Argosy.  Heidi wanted to do between 26 and 30 weeks, and we ended up going at 28 weeks exactly!

Baby thought it was weird that something was pushing on her, so she figured she should push back; she was very excited about the whole thing!

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Here’s our little baby!

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She liked showing us her feet.  It looks like she’s flexing her toes here like I can do (that everyone thinks is weird).

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Seriously, how do you get your foot by your head like that?!

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Cute little baby face; she’s looking more like a little baby rather than an alien baby.

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Cute little nose & lips.  Her mouth was open when we were looking at her face.

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Here’s the back of her.  She’s along the right side of me, head down!  Her shoulder’s up to the right in the picture, and you can see the edge of her ear above it.

13 Nov 2010 pregnancy highlights: 28 weeks.
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28 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights: November 13, 2010.  Merry Christmas.  It’s winter out now in MN!

Fun fact for those who didn’t read my Twitter/Facebook update from this morning:
On the way to work this morning, I saw 11 cars in the ditch!  That was not including:
a.  the other 2 cars on the side of the road that weren’t actually in the ditch
b.  the 2 cars and tow truck that were presumably attempting to remove the other cars from the ditch
c.  the car & semi that spun out and hit the guard rail/each other (or the police car that was there)
d.  the bus stuck/stopped in the middle of 2 lanes that was causing mass chaos as those were the only 2 (of 4) lanes that had been adequately plowed.

Fun fact #2:
10 of those 11 cars were between my exit and the 35e/694 interchange.  One was on my entrance ramp and one was just past the funny other entrance ramp (the old one that is currently not in use).

How Far Along: 28 weeks:  Third trimester!  (David doesn’t want to think about that, so don’t remind him!)

Size of Baby:  Baby is a Chinese cabbage; what a helpful description.  She’s about 15 inches long and weighs over 2 pounds.  Actually, our baby weighs 2 lbs, 10 oz.  We had an ultrasound with Heidi this evening & Baby’s measurements are all right around 28 weeks, 2 days.  Except her head circumference; Baby is extra-smart so her head is a little bigger!  It measures at 29 weeks.  Basically she’s on track size-wise to be born on time or a couple days early…now hopefully she’ll have been listening.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  Oh shoot, I never weighed myself this week.  That’s unfortunate…  I would assume about the same, maybe +1 pound?

Maternity Clothes:  Still holding out.  I tried on the dress I got at Target with my mom back in September and it fits now (it was a little big then), and oh my goodness, I looked super-pregnant as soon as I put it on!

Gender:  Baby Girl!  [Confirmed again; she is definitely a little girl.]

Movement:  She didn’t want me to go to work yesterday, putting up a little fight when I got off the couch to get ready to leave.  Sorry Baby, I didn’t really want to go either, but I didn’t really have a choice!  She got excited during the ultrasound; since there was a thing pushing on her, she thought she should push it back or kick and punch at it.

Sleep:  It’s getting less comfortable again.  Ugh.

Symptoms:  No change.

What I Miss:  Being able to pick things up that are on the ground…and be able to get back up again!

Cravings:  Nothing; certain things sound good when people mention them, but no crazy cravings.

Best Moment of the Week:  Ultrasound!  (We also got to see Tim & Heidi’s little boy who’s 1…he’s so adorable!)  I’ll put some baby pictures up later.

Random Comments Received:  (Yes, I’m adding my own section.)

Random customer [after yelling questions at me from across the store while I was on the phone]:  Are you expecting?
Random (different) customer’s boyfriend [the girl was wearing a headband and earmuffs!]:  Are you pregnant?

Um, yes?!?  I was tempted to say, “No, I just decided to gain 15 pounds.  On my stomach.”

What I’m Looking Forward To:  My actual last floorset tomorrow night.  Yes, I know I said that last time, but given a choice of working open-close tomorrow after not having a day off since last Monday or doing floorset (in at 7 pm) and having the next day off, I chose the latter.  I also have a doctor’s appointment this week (on my brother’s birthday!).  This is only 3 weeks since my last appointment, but my doctor’s taking Thanksgiving week off (really, that’s the week after next?!), then she has a meeting on Wednesday, which is my normal appointment day, so it was pushed up to Tuesday instead!  Then I’ll start the every-other-week appointments.  This time I ‘get’ to have my glucose tolerance test…we’ll see how Baby likes super-sugary Kool-Aid-ish-ness.

11 Nov 2010 christmastime is here.
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Well, not quite, but it’s getting close!  And by watching commercials, we seem to have skipped straight from Halloween to Christmas; forget Thanksgiving.  [It’s just food…nothing else to spend money on, so why bother with that?!]

One of the fun pre-Christmas things to do is peruse the plethora of photo Christmas card designs online.  I should say it’s fun to look at and design them, but it’s kind of overwhelming if you’re not prepared for the overabundance of choices!  Last year we got ours through Shutterfly, and that’s our plan this year too.  [Because (a) they’re fun & super-easy to make, and (b) they’re doing this great promotion right now where we’ll get 50 cards free because I’m writing this post!  So any other interested bloggers, get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly; sign up at this link.]  They have a good variety, plus frequent promotions like free shipping or $ off to make things even better!

This year’s collection is fun; there’s a great selection of simple 4×8 cards that you can just pop one picture into and call it a day, and then there are the more elaborate ones with multiple pictures, initials, etc.  Check out the Peppermint Pink and With Love Blue…those are two of my (current) favorites.  Comment & let me know what your favorites are!  We’ll see what ends up in people’s mailboxes this year.

And P.S., for those who are extra-lazy, I mean busy, they’ll also stamp & mail them for you for an extra charge!

This will be our last year with cards just with us…next year we’ll have Baby too, which means cards will be even more fun.  [Having pictures of babies always makes things more fun.]  In coming years, I may have to get calendars from here too; you can add photos and personalize them with birthdays & anniversaries (which would definitely save the time of writing in the same information every year!).  And as a sidenote, they also have adorable baby announcements.

08 Nov 2010 getting ready for baby, part 3.
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David’s parents came over to help us paint on Saturday.
His mom did the taping (after we quick busted out the Baby’s room so the guys could get started painting in there), while I did arts & crafts.

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You can see the paint color along the ceiling and corners.

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Bones thought she was getting new toys; tape is delicious.

“What?  How can you possibly think I’d steal rolls of tape?  I only did it twice…”

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Completely safe.  I always encourage people to follow ladder safety, at home & at work.

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David has skills.  He can remove a vent while holding a trim cup!

They got all the green painted:  Baby’s room, hallways, and entry.

Kristen & Chad stopped by to see how things were progressing, eat snacks, and play with Bones.
Then Kari came by with her laminating to cut out; she enlisted her mom’s help when the taping & hanging off of ladders was complete.

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I had fun with arts & crafts.

Step 1:  Make a pattern.

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Step 2:  Pin it together & see if it works.  Puppy sniffing is optional.

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Step 3:  Pin pieces of curtain panel together.

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Step 4:  Make loops for top of curtain.

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Step 5:  Sew curtain panel together.

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Step 6:  Add cute ribbon to cover seam.

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Step 7:  Put mobile together & admire its cuteness!

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The final product!  Light green walls painted by Daddy & Grandpa; cute animal artwork; lamp from Grandma & Grandpa; and mobile decorations, pillow, & curtain made by Mommy!

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(The little rocking chair will move elsewhere until she’s big enough to use it, but for now, it’s here!)

Check out my baby album on facebook for more pictures!

06 Nov 2010 pregnancy highlights: 27 weeks.
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Pregnancy Highlights: November 6, 2010 (really?  It’s November already??)

How Far Along: 27 weeks

Size of Baby:  Baby still continues to be a vegetable:  she’s a cauliflower this week (a rather squirmy cauliflower…I didn’t know they typically moved around that much!).  She could also sit in a ladle and be as tall as its handle.  She’s 14.5 inches tall, weighing about 2 lbs.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  No change this week…+15 lbs from original (give or take a pound or two).

Maternity Clothes:  Well, I tried on some maternity jeans, but apparently pregnant women aren’t supposed to be little.  I tried on the smallest size they carry in the store (one size down from my normal clothes) and they felt like they were going to fall off if I wore them for more than about 30 minutes.  So I’d have to order from online.  That sounds a little ridiculous to me, especially since who wears 2 sizes smaller when they’re 6 months pregnant??  Good grief.  And yes, I know nobody wants to hear about how I can’t find pregnancy jeans small enough, but it’s my blog!

Gender:  Baby Girl!

Movement:  Her kicks are mostly when I’d prefer to sleep, but sometimes she rolls around during other times of the day, causing my stomach to be awkwardly lopsided.

Sleep:  About the same…some nights I have to get up multiple times, others I just wake up a couple hours before I plan on getting up.

Symptoms:  No change.

What I Miss:  Feeling comfortable in the car.  I am not a fan of the button on my jeans pushing against my baby!

Cravings:  On Wednesday night she wanted chocolate cake, so Kristen & I stopped at Festival and got a Black Forest cake.  Delicious!

Best Moment of the Week:  We painted today!  Well, David & his dad painted, his mom taped, Kari cut out laminated things, Kristen & Chad played with Bones, and I was domestic and sewed curtains, a pillow, and decorations for the mobile!  (Pictures to come as soon as I assemble the dresser & get that all in order.)

Comments I’ve received this week:

Lady working at Auntie Anne’s:  “Boyorgirl?…[points to my stomach]…boy or girl?”
Random tourist customer (we get lots of those, being at the MOA) [pointing to my stomach]:  “When you due?  You so tiny!”
Former co-worker:  “You look so pregnant!”
Random weird customer & her daughter:  “Can I touch?”  [already leaning over the counter with her hand out.  Not much I can do at this point to stop you, Lady.  P.S.  Personal space, much?!]

What I’m Looking Forward To:  Ultrasound with Heidi next weekend!  Also, I think next week I start the third trimester.  Whoa!  Baby and I had another discussion yesterday on how she has three more months, then I expect her to come out (we started having these discussions last month).  David says these are unnecessary as doctors don’t typically let you go past 41 weeks anymore, but I figure she needs all the reminders I can give her so she doesn’t take after me and think it’s okay to hang out almost 3 extra weeks!

03 Nov 2010 getting ready for baby, part 2.
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DSC_0910Thanks for the fun Pack N Play, Grandma & Grandpa in Fargo!

This will not be the final location of the Pack N Play, but I thought it would behoove us to at least learn how to set it up before I’m like in labor or something!  Bones is scared of most baby things, so I distracted her by putting her toys away—it’s hard work to get them out of the crate!

DSC_0912Oh good, she got her chicken-flavored NylaBone out.  Gross.

As we start November, we come to elections (we may move to ND, or SD, or WI at this point.  Or Canada.  Depends on if they have to recount & what the results of that are), Thanksgiving, and T–(less than) 3 months to Baby.  The Thanksgiving part is what I find most pressing about November:  Black Friday, or as we call it at AE and aerie, Green Friday.  I want to get the major Baby stuff done before then, as work craziness doesn’t end until about New Years…and I’ll be 35 weeks at that point!

DSC_0913 Thanks for the cute mobile, elephant, & lamp, Grandpa & Grandma in Farmington!

Hmm, we’ll have to think of some way to distinguish grandparents…both last names are H’s!

We have the majority of the furniture assembled…I just need to put together the dresser this weekend.  I also created another fun project for myself to do while supervising/documenting the painting party.

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I am going to attempt to be domestic and make cute curtains (just 1 panel, so it shouldn’t be too hard!) and a little canopy and sleeve for the mobile, which (a) Bones is scared of*, and (b) has adorable animals on it but it looks a little naked as is.

*I should clarify:  Bones loves the little animals; she thinks they’re toys for her.  But she runs away when I turn the music on!

More pictures to come after painting fun on Saturday!

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