We had an ultrasound this morning, and the measurements all checked out. Turns out, it's still a girl, as stated by the technician. What a relief she didn't change genders! The tech. also said that she'd estimate her to be 7 lbs. Yet she arrived at this number after asking how much Jack weighed when he was born at 39 weeks- (7 lb., 9 oz.). At least now, we can deliver at the Midwife Center with no question about my weight gain. As far as the pictures go, they were difficult to make out, so I'll skip the process of scanning them to post here. I know she's capable of much better.
1. My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!
2. At my midwife appointment on Tuesday, I discovered that I may not be able to deliver at the Center after all. They have a policy that you cannot deliver there if you haven't gained at least 12 pounds, and I've been having some trouble gaining weight throughout this entire pregnancy. At Tuesday's appointment, I was only a pound and a half short of that mark, so I'm sure my efforts to eat Frosties and other fat and calorie-laden treats even when I am not hungry have paid off. However, I had to schedule an ultrasound to make sure that the baby is growing fine, which is scheduled for Friday morning, and I'm not sure what will happen if I go in to labor before then. God knows, and I am sure that everything will work out fine. She's been moving as usual, and every time the midwives have felt the baby, they say she feels right on for size, so we're not really worried about her growth.
3. We spent yesterday afternoon in Grove City visiting my friend since junior high, Megan. After a long walk in gorgeous weather through beautiful shaded neighborhoods, we had homemade old fashioned ice cream and then walked around the wide-open fields and played with the trees of a nearby park. We really need to find more open spaces around us-- Jack loved being let loose, just able to stumble around wherever he pleased.
4. I don't know what has changed in him, but for the past week, Jack has seemed like such a big boy. Perhaps it is his increased sense of awareness and the way that he communicates with and responds to us now. It's clear that he understands most of what we say to him. He'll walk in his now very-fast-paced walk to the bottom of the steps when I ask him if he wants to go upstairs and then shimmies up them, giggling all the way. He gives the tightest arms-around-your-neck hugs when you ask for them. In the last day, he's also been demanding group hugs- which include Abbie. We can't go to the basement without him pointing up to his dolphin swing and cooing until we place him in it. Once swinging, he requests- by pointing and naming- to hold all stuffed animals in sight. He pulls them close and buries his face in all of them. It's quite a sight-- his head straining to peer out from a mass of stuffed animals and blankets- all swinging from a dolphin swing attached to the ceiling.
5. To add to my list of mind-loss-- yesterday, as we were grocery shopping at Giant Eagle, I was feeding Jack some raisins-- momma bird style (I chewed them a little first and then popped him in his mouth, you know, to make digestion easier). And just not thinking one time, I took the raisins from my mouth and proceeded to pop them into Mike's mouth. I was only snapped out of my silly behavior when he remained tight-lipped and uneager to have these wet squishy things jammed into his mouth. Of course there were plenty of onlookers to witness my absentmindedness.
6. We checked out the first season of Lost from the library on Friday and have slowly started to make our way through it. Now that we're able to watch it once Jack goes to bed and I am able to follow what's going on, I'm hooked. We get it for three weeks, and it was weird to think that when I drop it in the return slot, I will probably be carrying a newborn in the front carrier.
7. I'm tired. I can't think any more. Happy Memorial Day!
I was waiting to make some curtains, but the two fabrics I brought home didn't look as good as I envisioned them. And I found some yesterday that worked great with the little touches of girlie rustic patchwork I was going for, so the baby's room is finally complete (sans bebe in crib). I would have liked to take the blue carpet up in there too but decided that could be a project for when I have more time on my hands, like this summer. (Yeah, right. Or never.)
1. Happy Birthday to Uncle Tay, who celebrated his 19th birthday yesterday! (And to my aunt Holly, my Aunt Weegie and our friend, Erica Wilson- who are all celebrating their birthdays today!)
2. Jack has been talking up a storm. The general public may not make sense of it all, but we have appreciated his requests for "caacaas" (crackers) instead of the normal crying fits of frustration because we can't figure out what he wants. He's been expressing his desires with pointing a lot more too. He loves looking through picture books naming and pointing to the animals and objects- "ca-- fooomfooomfooomfooom" (car- vroom vroom...) "ca" (cat), "ca" (cow), "ball," "ca" (carrot)-- and lifting up my shirt, he'll say "bebeh" (baby) and hug my bump affectionately (though he knows what a baby is, I'm sure he has no idea what that really means and what it means for him in the next couple of weeks!)
3. We are now official members of the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library. When Jack was under one, we could take advantage of Friday Playgroup for free, but now that he's a toddler and there is a visitor fee each visit and we go there just about every week, we decided it would be worthwhile to get a membership.
4. I will be full-term tomorrow. The reality of how soon her arrival is hasn't sunken in yet. But I guess we are as ready as we will ever be, and at this point, I'd be fine with her coming at any time. In less than three hours, we'll be able to deliver at the Midwife Center (not that we will be).
5. We gave the van a little interior cleaning yesterday and I found my long-lost (for a couple of months now) cell phone under the front passenger seat ( a place I had already looked at least twice). I had been using Mike's old one, in which the battery may last a whopping two phone calls. So excited was I!
6. We went out tonight with some friends from college who we hadn't seen in a while, Matt Chastek and Dave Fields and his wife, Megan. It was nice to catch up with them and have dinner and ice cream afterwards at my favorite ice cream place, Dave and Andy's.
7. We decided on this name for our baby girl a few weeks ago, and we're certain enough of it now to reveal it to the public-- Abigail "Abbie" Veronica.
7. If you haven't noticed, we added some more pictures to our Picasa site a few days ago. (Pictures above were taken by my sister a few weeks ago in Maryland. The first she called, "Crouching Jack, Hidden Dragon")
A Dodge Stratus has occupied the spot for almost 7 months, but today, it parked its chrome body in Mike's work garage. Though I liked being a one-car family, especially since I saw that gas was $3.83 this morning, it's nice to have the option of going out if an emergency arises (or the desire to get out of the house with a restless toddler and have some Chik-fila). We let the car sit through the entirety of the winter fearing that if we got it towed to a body shop and it was too expensive to fix right away, we'd just have to have it towed back here. Well, it just needed some gas (which coincidentally was too expensive to remedy). Wouldn't that have been a slap on the knee? Actually, the guy said it was totally empty, though Mike did walk down to the gas station when it was first put out of commission and got some to put in the tank, thinking that might be part of the problem. But the biggest thing was just that it needed a new battery. Not too bad. And Jack and I did take advantage of our new freedom at Chik-fila today. Jack had his first Play-place experience, but I had to rescue him from almost getting mowed over. I think they were having a birthday party there today.
1. Our family was a real target for sickness this cold and flu season. And we were hit hard. I hope that this past week's episode was the last of it, as I have stated every time. We were all infected with stopped-up heads and runny noses and body aches, and Jack was infected with a complete loss of appetite for several days. The past couple of days have been spent trying to break him of his newly acquired habit of having an ounce of milk here and there, whenever he pleases- and spitting out all solid food that enters his mouth-- he's made a lot of progress.
2. We discovered the delay feature on our breadmaker. Very big deal. We threw a bunch of flour and milk and honey and walnuts and yeast and such into it on Thursday night and woke up to a hot loaf of honeyed walnut bread- deeelish!
3. Our new healthy meal regimen is in full swing. I cooked two meals with tofu this week (of which Jack did seem to enjoy when he was downing the solid foods), and the rest of the week's meals were generally a lot more balanced than our regular fare. It was a sad day for Mike on Friday as he watched Tay take two loads of food deemed not suitable for consumption (by Mike) out the door.
4. We finally have a nice bi-fold door hiding the contents of the pantry. And once again, my handy husband came through and attached the too-large door into the too-small space with some sanding and some sawing and some waving of his magic wand.
5. To celebrate Mother's Day, we tried out a an Indian Restaurant, Namaste- very good! Surprisingly, Jack loved the nan-- he normally rejects all bread.
6. After dinner, we had to pick up a few things at the grocery store, and Jack insisted on walking most of the way and helping us push the cart around the store (and taking items off of the lower shelves).
7. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!
Our Arm's Reach Co-sleeper came in the mail today. As I was figuring out how to set it up, I noticed that the instructions said to make sure to remove the baby from the co-sleeper before disassembling. Yeah? Do you think I should?
I just guess I've seen a lot of the obvious stated lately- like on a bag of nuts, a caution: "This product is packed in a factory where nuts and sesame seeds are handled." Maybe I could have mistaken the fact that I was eating a bag of nuts (excuse my sarcasm). And my favorites: "Do not use while sleeping" and "Do not use in shower" on my hair dryer. Perhaps a caution for those chronic sleepwalkers to put their hairdryers under lock and key at night?
I know plenty of these types of warnings exist, so I Googled it, and here were some humorous ones people have documented (I think I'm also in one of those moods where everything is knee-slapping funny):
"May be harmful if swallowed." -- On a shipment of hammers.
"This product not intended for use as a dental drill." -- On an electric rotary tool.
"Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover." -- On a pair of shin guards made for bicyclists.
"Not intended for highway use." -- On a 13-inch wheel on a wheelbarrow.
"Do not drive with sunshield in place." -- On a cardboard sunshield that keeps the sun off the dashboard.
"Caution: Shoots rubber bands." -- On a product called "Rubber Band Shooter."
"Warning: May contain small parts." -- On a frisbee.
"Caution: This is not a safety protective device." -- On a plastic toy helmet used as a container for popcorn.
and finally, "Do not use near fire, flame, or sparks." -- On an "Aim-n-Flame" fireplace lighter.
35 weeks... we're finally starting to realize that the birth of this little girl is imminent. So we're starting to consider things like people to contact to watch Jack when the time comes, giving the van a good clean (since there's no room for even another tiny human being in it right now- besides via my uterus) and maybe pack an overnight bag (since we ended up packing minutes before we left for the hospital to have Jack, who was about a week early). I'm still fine with waiting another four or five weeks, but we'll see how my tune changes once I'm full-term in two and can deliver at the Midwife Center.
1. At my appointment on Monday, the midwife pointed out that I was having a contraction as she felt the baby. I couldn't feel it, but I could feel them starting that evening. On Wednesday night, right when I got in bed to go to sleep, I started having really strong contractions for a while, so I started to keep track, though I knew they were only practice ones. I just never had them this early with Jack-- or as strong ahead of his birth. They were every 2-3 minutes apart for a few hours. What the? I was only 34+ weeks! I think it was the three miles of jogging, which I probably did a little faster than normal, that must have triggered them, but they sure shook up Mike-- and made us both think that we really need to get some things done around here! And think of a name for this kiddo.
2. So we got out the name book and hit it hard one evening this week... she finally has a name that feels right-- to both of us. More on that later.
3. I pointed out a turtle in a book I was reading to Jack tonight and he yelled, "turtuw!" excitedly. The other day, as I was feeding him, he said "keeyee cat" in response to a kitty cat in his baby animals book. Usually it's just a "Ca" for a cat or carrot or a 'Ba' for a bunny, ball or banana, but we're working on the follow-through.
4. Inspired by the author of this blog and her Dinner's Ready blog, and due to the discovery of magnified health issues this week, we have decided to make a lifestyle change in our eating habits. I'm really excited about the prospects of cooking more natural, healthful meals, and that Mike is now on board- even if he's not thrilled with the idea of tofu. Though, at our dinner out last night, he ordered a tofu and eggplant dish on his own volition. This is not the same man I married!
5. A week or two ago, when Mike and I were waiting to see our date-night movie, we strolled into Brookstone. We like looking through their catalog to see what pointless gadgets they've combined- I think they've combined a flashlight with every other appliance out there- and also to guess the outrageous price of these hybrid trinkets. Would you believe we actually ended up purchasing something from their mall store? I've been holding Mike's large PDA for tunes when I go on walks/jogs, so we got a pair of headphones with the MP3 player built into them for such occasions. I love them-- and no cord to accidentally yank or catch on the treadmill! They were in the tiny 80% off section in the back of the store.
6. Yesterday, I found a stuffed dog, an ornament, a bath toy and some other random items mixed in with Jack's dirty diapers in his diaper champ. I didn't put the dog in the hamper fast enough because as soon as I took it out and put it on the floor, Jack took him and proceeded to put him on top of the pail and flip the top, sending the poor dog back inside the smelly pail.
6. We welcome my cousin, Kenzie's baby boy, Jetson Dalek Moss, born very early this morning. His name was originally going to be Jetson Pilot-- wouldn't that have been cool? Jet Pilot!
7. I keep trying to capture the acrobatics going on inside my uterus. She was as wild and wiggly as she's ever been in church this morning, but this little snippet is the best we could do...
Oh, the intimidation of a bread machine that has become separated from its manual in time and neglect! Mere mortals cannot bridge this gap (though I suppose I could have called the toll free number printed on the front of the machine). Over Easter, my Great Aunt Jean bestowed on me her unwanted bread maker along with a huge bread machine recipe book. Luckily for me, the internet now has just about every instruction manual one can dream up. So this afternoon, my machine's idle kneading blade was reunited with its intended task. We had a pound and a half loaf of yummy oatmeal bread to enjoy while playing cards with Tay this evening (no, we didn't eat the whole pound and a half, htough I would have liked to).
(Wow, color!)
