on the move...

Well, our little guy has definitely been moving around a lot the past few days. He's crawling around as I'm typing!

Some things that make him move:

Sitting at the computer, typing (I think it squishes him a bit when I'm bent over.)

Talking on the phone

Don talking to my belly

Resting/laying down (They say that the baby moves around more when the mom is at rest and is put to sleep by the rocking motion when she is walking/moving around.)

Loud noises (The other day, I got bread out of our bread container and the metal lid accidentally fell on the counter and made a loud noise. This was the first time I felt him JUMP like he was startled by a noise! Scared the poor little guy!)

I've had my first person in public ask to touch my belly. More of this to come, I'm sure... :) It was a lady that I ran into at a store. I was wearing a thick sweatshirt and she said she felt "flutters." I think it was wishful thinking on her part b/c I can rarely feel him on the outside unless he gives a good, hard kick (4 or 5 times this has happened) and Don hasn't felt him yet. I didn't tell her this, but let her think she felt him!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . .

(mountains by morning light)

(Joshua trees are scattered near the base of the mountains. It looks like a little cross of white snow in this one!)

(Didn't see any wild donkeys, but did see several signs like this one!)

Yesterday, it actually rained and snowed pretty much all day. It was really cloudy, too. This morning, Don was on his way to work and called me. I ended up taking his advice and going for a drive at approximately 7:00 a.m. It was early(I'm on vacation!), but it was WELL worth it. We don't normally see views like this out here. This is the first time I've seen this much snow on our mountains! One of the ranges (behind our house) is called the Sheep Mountain Range. Today, I could see why, because the range was covered in fleecy white! We hardly ever see snow up there!

(Sheep Range)

Brr! After my photography shoot of the mountains, I warmed up with some hot chocolate with LOTS of mini marshmallows ( A nice surprise - there was a coupon on my cereal - I got them for free when buying Rice Krispies yesterday!) ;)

rock-a-bye baby

Here is our new rocker (glider). The first night we got it, Don helped put it together. I tried it out while reading a book and almost fell asleep. Hopefully, it'll do the same thing to our little guy in the months to come! Very comfy! After we ordered it, I was reading one of my baby books - Baby Bargains, and it recommended Shermag brand rockers, giving it a high grade. I can see why! Love the color, too. It matches our crib and changing table perfectly!

Also, here's a close up view of the crib skirt/animals. I dropped the mattress level down a bit to see them. Off to do a little comparison shopping on mattresses...

Knitted socks from Nana Patti

Thank you, Nana Patti, for the great little knitted socks. They are so cute and you are so talented! Our baby will love them!

(Picture to come soon.)

Uncle Jason came for a visit

Our baby's soon-to-be Uncle Jason came to visit us. (pictured here at Jason's Deli - yummm! The food was delicious and I definitely ate for two that day. :) )

We were glad to have him here for a couple of days. It's always great to be around family, especially since we live so far away now. While here, he took some baby bump shots of me in our little nursery.

One of the nights that he was here, our rocking chair arrived. We had picked it out online with gift certificates from family and friends. It wasn't in the same "line" as our crib and changing table, but the wood color matches perfectly and wasn't hard to put together! It is so comfortable. The first night I sat in it, I almost fell asleep while reading and rocking...I'm sure it'll do the same for our little guy once he is born!

top names across USA

Updated list of popular names for

2008:
http://www.babycenter.com/top-baby-names-2008


Top 10 Boy Names:
Aiden
Jayden
Ethan
Jacob
Caden
Jackson
Noah
Jack
Logan
Matthew

Top 10 Girl Names:
Emma
Sophia
Madison
Isabella
Olivia
Ava
Madeline
Addison
Hailey
Lily

(Our baby name "hint" (not much of a hint): Our lead boy first name and the middle name are not on the top ten of the boy's list. )

faster than the pony express!

Wow! This cute little horse traveled faster than the Pony Express! He was sent from Michigan on Saturday and arrived Monday morning. He did not get caught up in any holiday delays at the post office!

So cute and sooooo floppy and soft! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

kicks and flutters

I have been feeling a lot of kicks and flutters! The other night when we went to church, he was moving around so much that it almost made me laugh! It kind of tickled my belly. He was definitely wide awake! Also, two nights ago, I was laying down reading a magazine and had one hand on my belly. He kicked hard enough to make me jump and it was one of the first times that it was hard enough to feel from the outside!

Congratulations go out to Don's sister and hubby. We just found out that they are expecting in June! Exciting news!!!

oh, BOY!

It's a BOY! :) We were so excited to find out the gender of our baby! Now, on to the hard part of picking out a name. I thought that it would be easy...but there are a lot of names out there! It's also a big decision since it is a lifelong decision. We'll also come up with a name for a girl...just in case. I've heard several stories where they say it is one gender but it pops out differently.

The ultrasound was pretty obvious and we trust the technician. However, the umbilical cord was also wrapped between our little guy's legs. Our doctor said, "Aw, he's a modest little fellow." He was hiding from pictures. We can stop back in at any time to do another "gender check" to see if they can get a clearer picture, so we'll probably do that sometime in December.

Update: We went in on December 11th for a quick gender check ultrasound b/c the umbilical cord was down there last time. The ultrasound technician said, "It's still a boy!" :)

it's a . . .

I won't announce what it is on here until we've shared with our family members. We were able to find out yesterday at our 20 week ultrasound.

Here is a sneak peak at a cute profile of our little baby.

growing belly website

This site has some neat photos of the growing baby. It also shows an example mom's belly that is growing month by month. For the growing baby, click on the photos on the right side of the screen.

This is the link to the "Month 1" part. Then, you can select any month.

http://www.parents.com/parents/multimedia.jsp?multimediaId=/templatedata/parents/multimedia/data/1182531854833.xml

baby pictures (of me)

I had Mom and Dad send me some photos of me as a baby. When my friend, Lori, told me that her baby looked a lot like her very own baby pictures, I wanted to look closer at some of mine and of Don's. ( I'll have to scan Don's at a later date.)

Here's me at 4 hours old:

9 months old:

10 months old:
Don saw this one after my crying incident when I put the crib together wrong. He got a laugh out of it and said it looked just like me. . . right down to the curled lip! :) :(

Waaaaaaaa!!!!

nursery set up

We are getting the nursery set up. The changing table and the crib are put together. We still need to pick out our mattress, but here is a sneak peak to give you an idea of what the bedding, etc. looks like with the crib and wall color...

Thanks for the little Pooh, Jason! :)

countdown continues...

I think this is updating on my former post, but I'll probably post the countdown from time to time so it appears on the front page. If you click on it you can see elapsed time and days/months to go...

crib notes

Thank you, Jason, for the crib! It has arrived!!! I was just going to peek into the box to check out the color of the wood and to see if it looked like it shipped safely. The next thing I knew, I had all of the pieces laid out while Don was working on the computer and I started assembling it. It was looking terrific when I broke down in tears realizing part of the directions hadn't been clear...AND I'd put two of the first two pieces together wrong/backward. And, I thought I'd ruined one of the pieces of wood by doing so. Tonight's mission? We'll be tearing it apart and re-building the back. Oops!!

:(

This is what it should look like when it is done:

(photo from the Target website)

Also, we got a call last night that we will have to reschedule our BIG 20 week ultrasound that we have been waiting to see! The ultrasound technician will not be in the office on the day they'd scheduled for us. So, we'll have to play the waiting game, I guess... Hopefully, there's a message later today.

(Target photo, too)

This is the part that I put together, which will later be able to be used for a headboard.

Interestingly enough, when looking for photos online of this crib, I came across a "Jason" crib that looks almost identical (also in espresso by Graco). I'll bet Uncle Jason didn't know there was a crib with his name out there. Also, found a Shannon crib. See below:

(Jason crib by Graco)

(Shannon crib by Graco)

19 weeks

Here is a little info. about the development during the 19th week:

"How your baby's growing:Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom . Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid."

link: http://www.babycenter.com/303_19-weeks_1615704.bc

Above: That was the picture they had to go along with the write up. He/she looks like a pretzel in that view!

Bebe sounds

This neat little device is something I picked up at Babies 'R' Us when I was registering for baby items. (Registering - a whole other story from Target and Babies 'R' Us!!! Fun! Fun! Fun!!) It says that it's most effective in the 3rd trimester, but I've already started to try it out. It does not use any harmful waves or currents and is powered by a 9 volt battery. It just amplifies the sounds. So far, I've been able to hear some kicks. They sound like one of those balloons on an cord that are "punching" balloons...but a bit smaller scale sound. I've also heard what I believe are the hiccups. It's sometimes hard to decipher what is what, since it picks up any noise around you (The neighbor's dogs sound like they are coming right through the walls when they bark and I have this on!). Also, I've heard my stomach growl so loudly I had to take the earphones off - ha!

By request for those who haven't been able to see me pregnant. Another black and white shot of the growing tummy. this one actually shows that it's growing a bit clearer than the one below.

tummy

For those of you who have been wanting to see how my tummy is growing, here is the latest shot (from this morning - November 17th - 18.5 weeks). It's starting to pop out a bit. By the end of the day it seems to look a bit larger since gravity is pulling everything, including "Gummi" down. From here on out, I'll try to post a belly picture a week so you can see us grow. It's surreal to think I have a little baby growing in me!!

arrivals

Some of the items I've ordered have been arriving at our doorstep. The picture above shows part of the detail of the decorative quilt from Pottery Barn's Alphabet Soup line. So cute! The blocks below are going to get cleaned up and glued around a mirror for the baby's room. They came in the original Playskool wagon.

nesting

I've been doing a little bit of "nesting" around the house already. I've definitely felt the urge to get organized at school and home. We found these great organizational cubes at Michael's. Even better yet, Michael's always has those great coupons. Some of them we even got for 50% off. My craft and scrapbooking "stuff" is getting organized (and out of the guest room to make room for guests and baby). :)

a new birth

Our friends, Mike and Lori had their baby yesterday on Nov. 16th. Can't wait to meet little Henry!

baby counter

Also, I found this photo online of a 1965 LIFE magazine cover which shows a real photo of an 18 week old baby. This gives you an idea of the size/looks of "Gummi" at 18 weeks.

We get to go for our "20 week" ultrasound on the 25th. They'll be able to determine the gender and we're pretty sure we will find out. At first we were thinking of letting it be a surprise, but curiosity has gotten the best of us. :) We'll most likely hold out on telling family what it is until we are home for Christmas.

Can't wait! :)

growing tummy

Well, my tummy is starting to grow, or stretch at least. My skin has been itching on my stomach and sides, so I'm assuming it's from this growth spurt. I bought some Palmer's organic "Tummy Butter" which is supposed to help prevent/relieve stretch marks. I found that it was kind of grainy, cold and hard to rub on, so I've devised a little trick. I've been heating it up with my blow dryer's hot air for a few seconds and it melts it just enough to smooth it out for easy spreading...and it's not cold on my skin.

Also, some of my socks that I will use for the baby sock advent calendar (see previous post) have arrived.Update (11.23): Found more socks for this project from Old Navy:

Update (11.25): Added metal ring tags and stamped numbers on them. Can't wait to see what everybody's socks look like!

baby sock advent calendar

A group of us from work who have kids or are expecting are going to be making this cute baby sock advent calendar.

(Martha Stewart link: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/baby-sock-advent-calendar)

We are going to do a sock exchange. Each of us will pick out a certain number of socks, label them with numbers, and exchange them to have the complete set.

17 weeks

Today we have reached 17 weeks! In the past week, I have started to feel some of our baby's movements. I feel them mostly at night, right before bed when I am lying still on my back. I can also feel it when I roll over on my side. My tummy is starting to "pop" out more and more. I have definitely moved on to the world of maternity clothes - much more comfortable than trying to squeeze into my old pants. The most comfortable pants I've found are khakis from Kohl's and jeans from Old Navy. I've also purchased some maternity shirts online through Gap and Old Navy and have borrowed a few from a friend at school.

Your baby is hard at work honing his sucking and swallowing reflexes—all the better for eating that 2 AM (and 5 AM, and 8 AM ...) meal in a few months! The finger- and toenails are beginning to grow from their nail beds, which would explain why he'll need them trimmed almost as soon as he's born! Your baby weighs nearly 5 ounces and is a little over 5 inches long—about the size of a baked potato (load on the butter and sour cream, please).

from : http://3dpregnancy.parentsconnect.com/calendar/17-weeks-pregnant.html

mommies-to-be

I received a call from Erica last night. We are due within weeks of each other. We'll be able to compare bellies when we home for Christmas. How exciting to be pregnant at the same time as a good friend!!!

a work in progress...

A work in progress...

I started crocheting this baby blanket a week or so ago. Neutral and SOFT white yarn, since white will go with everything! ;)

books and readings...

I have been really reading and writing lately. My two journals are The Belly Book (found at Pottery Barn Kids) and The What to Expect When You're Expecting companion journal (Thanks, Shannon!) . It's fun to follow along in the books and read up on what to expect through the pregnancy and to record what is actually happening along the way. Thanks to cousin, Angie, for a quick delivery of other books to read!

blueberry buckle

Sadly, Blueberry Buckle baby food by Gerber is no longer being produced. :( If you look hard enough, there still may be some on the shelves in a few areas. :)

I am an OFFICIAL Gerber baby - born in Gerber Memorial Hospital in Fremont, MI, where Gerber products and headquarters are located.

found more items

It's like a scavenger hunt!

Above: Images from another mom's website using the Pottery Barn Alphabet Soup theme.

Below: I found two more items...a lightweight blanket with the cute little animals along with another cribskirt for an unbeatable price! I'm not going to use two crib skirts...the plan will be to use the material to make the animal valance or coordinating items for the nursery (pillows or lightweight quilt).