new things

I bought the cutest little boy onsie the other day...I know, I know. If baby jermin isn't a boy, well, Alicia or Abby or one of my friends, I'm sure will have a boy and I can 'pass it on'. But it IS cute, and I'm a sucker for red, big time.



And this is the bib we bought in Las Vegas for our little bean (we lurvvve m&m's):



I thought you would be able to read it, but this is what it says: "Somebody who loves me went to m&m world Las Vegas and brought me back this bib"

Anyone know why my pics are so pixelly?

23 weeks - starting 6 months!

If that isn't wild, I don't know WHAT is!?! I'm starting my 6 month of pregnancy, crazy!

Here's what developing:
Fetal development in pregnancy week 23:
At this point you’ve pretty much adjusted to the fact you’ve got a moving little gymnast inside of you, but now they’re going to kick up the party a notch because they can hear and react to sounds from the outside world. Sounds from your alarm clock, a thunder roll, or that darned car honking at you across the intersection can actually jar their little ears enough to elicit a kick or violent bout of squirming. Of course this also means that their little ears are picking up the sounds of your voice and those near you. So go ahead, sing a lullaby to your little angel—if they start kicking, it’s likely they just want you to stop… or maybe it was a kick of approval? You decide. Your baby's tiny taste buds are still growing and their bones are continuing to ossify (harden), their tiny veins are visible through their translucent yet wrinkly skin. (Think of it this way: they’ve been swimming in the equivalent of a long hot bath for the past 23 weeks, so you can’t blame them for being a little prune-like.)

And how's mom doing? If no one warned you about the joys of the pregnancy-sleep-challenge, you’ve probably already started to discover just how difficult it can be to find adequately comfortable sleeping positions. The good news is: some people actually invented pillows specifically designed to give a pregnant woman a better chance of sleeping through the night. There are a variety of different designs, but inevitably you’ll want some sort of belly support as well as a body pillow between your legs and under your belly to relieve a bit of the discomfort you're sure to be experiencing right now. If you choose to buy the (rather spendy) pregnancy pillows they've got on the market, make sure you keep the receipt as some women still have problems sleeping and fare better with their own unique pillow collection and set-up

As if there's not enough to keep track of already, are you remembering to drink lots of fluids? Plenty of good ol’ fashioned H20 (water) can help reduce swelling in your poor ankles and feet-- resulting from the pressure your now over-sized uterus is putting on your pelvic veins, thereby slowing fluid circulation to the lower half of your body. Also, if you want to further reduce the dreaded appearance of pregnancy “cankles” (calf-ankles) try to avoid sitting for long periods of time—and for the hundredth time: don’t forget to stay active! Keeping your fluid intake up is also good for your little resident swimmer as dehydration is frequently connected with premature birthing. Yep, it’s a lot of responsibility, but you can do it! You’re almost two-thirds of the way there already! Keep up the good work mom!

we have a baby bump

Literally, a baby bump =) My baby is very active and moves ALOT. I was laying down this morning after having some juice and the baby really got to moving. I told Jeremy to feel my tummy and see if he could feel the movement, and after about a minute, he asked if I was feeling anything. I said no, then, BAM!, and bump, it was precious. Jeremy said, "Was that it?" I said yes and it happened again. He felt the bump!! I was really excited. He said it was such a little thump, I assured him how little the baby is and it is just a little thump at first, but it'll get stronger. He said he's excited to be able to see my tummy moving, and I am too. I think it's just precious.

in the stillness of the night

Last night Jeremy had off work and we were planning on getting some work around the house done. I started to get a headache and decided I needed some sleep. I laid down and had quite a light show outside my windows as we were having a lightning storm. I love rain storms. And we are in dier need of some rain. Jeremy and I laid down and just listened to the storm. He put his hand on my tummy trying to wait for a bump and fell asleep. I was awake. The rain was falling, the lightning and thunder, it brought a very comforting stillness. I was reminded of my wonderful life and just had to thank God for everything He had given me. Even though my house is going through some changes and I tend to get a little stressed, I have a more than adequate home. I have been blessed with a loving husband who cares more about me then I could ever imagine. I've received the most wonderful gift anyone could ask for - the gift of motherhood. And to top it off, I even have the cutest little black furbaby around, Jake. God truly has blessed me and I'm eternally thankful.

communication withdraws

I am writing this in Microsoft word as my internet server is down, and so is my cell phone, humph. I’m not sure what’s up, but I’m having communication withdraws. I woke up somewhat early around 7am and turned on the tv to watch one of the only two channels that I shamelessly can signal through my bunny ears. Which at 7am that means, either the today show or good morning America. I personally prefer the today show, but because the signal is better with gma, I tend to go with it. I was intrigued last night when I saw the advertisement for the mornings show when they were going to be talking with a pregnant teen from a school in Massachusetts, where they recently made headlines for having 17 girls pregnant in the small high school all at the same time. The reports claim the girls made a pact to get pregnant and support each other through this endeavor. I wanted to watch the report. I woke up, used the bathroom, and noticed my cell phone powering down. I thought it was strange as I completely charged it yesterday and no way the battery could be gone by now. I went to start charging it about 30 minutes later and in the process realized, I have no signal. I gave it some time, still no signal. I figured they have a problem. Got online and no internet. Grrr. This isn’t cool. No cell phone and no internet. What in the world will I do with myself? I need to go back to bed. I went back to bed thinking after things are up and going we’ll have signals again. Besides last night when I was going to bed we started in on a big thunderstorm and maybe a tower or something got hit, I don’t know. I went to bed. Jeremy came home to tell me neither one of us has cell phone service, I mentioned the internet. He had to leave for work. He came home a little bit later and found me sitting on the couch just eating a banana and looking at Jake. He said, “You don’t know what to do with your cell phone or internet, huh?” I was quickly reminded of our strong dependence on modern technology. It’s my generation. We are so used to it, it’s ingrained in us. We don’t have a landline telephone, so we are very dependent on our cell phones. It’s pretty crazy.
Jeremy told me I guess you’ll have to clean the house today then. That’s definitely something I’ve been putting off. We just have so much to do with it and I’m overwhelmed. We need to box up and store and even sell alot of our things. We have too much. We just do. And we don’t have room for it. And when we get to remodel our house we will need to move things from room to room and the least amount of things that we have to move, the better. So, now it’s a matter of what to keep and what to toss. I could very easily toss everything, Jeremy not so much. And that’s good. Surely we can create a happy medium, where I would toss everything, he would keep everything, there must be a balance. At least the things we can’t toss permanently we need to be able to box up and store for at least a year. So, maybe, hopefully, between checking every 30 minutes to see if I have internet or cell phone service, I’ll get a few things accomplished today. It’s 10:13am, and nadda so far.

ETA: Obviously, I'm back on, and so is my cell phone. It happened at around 11am.

I felt the baby!!!

I was sitting here, catching up on facebook, and felt a little movement in my womb, so put my hand on my belly for just like 2 seconds and BAM! there it was, a kick or punch or something! I kept my hand there to see if it would happen again and it did, right away =) I'm sooooo excited!

catch up belly pics

I have a few pics to catch up with since I was out of town during my 20 week update. Here they are:

follow up on previous post, I sat here and sat here and nothing, nadda, then I'm not kdding, as SOON as I took my hand off my tummy, BAM!, a kick. That little stinker ;)

one-handed typer

I'm sorta a dork but the baby has been relly active lately, and I've yet to feel kicks or movement on the outside yet. So, while I was sitting here I thought I'm just going to put my hand on my stomach and wait, surely the baby will move soon! It hasn't happened yet, humph....so this one-handed typing thing is a pain, it's not working all that well. Hopefully I'll feel the baby really soon, I really want Jeremy to get in on the action.

22 weeks!

I start my 22nd week today, it is so exciting, I'm growing and I feel this baby moving alot. I still can't feel it on the outside, but inside it's amazing =)

Fetal development in pregnancy week 22:
The grow must go on! No wonder you’re getting so big, you’re now housing a wonder-baby who weighs nearly a pound and measures nearly a foot in length. Their perfect little pancreas is now further developed and they’ve also started producing their own hormones! Your baby's future in the circus as a world-famous tight-rope-walker is secure: their inner ear is now developed to the point that they have their own sense of balance. Lucky for your little explorer, balance also promotes physical dexterity, which has them actively feeling out their surroundings where skin, body parts, and the resident umbilical cord are the big sensory experiences. Your foot-long baby, is looking a bit like an oversized raisin right now as more and more wrinkles are showing up each week. Not to worry, all that excessive wrinkling is just their skin’s way of planning ahead for the time when they’ll start piling on that irresistible baby chub.

And how's mom doing? Take a moment to think about this: your uterus has now stretched to such unholy proportions that it extends beyond your navel! The not-so-exciting part of this remarkable fact is that growth like this tends to leave stretch marks and can itch like nobody’s business. If it makes you feel any better, stretch marks on the belly are extremely common. Don’t get suckered into buying really expensive creams that supposedly make stretch marks ‘magically disappear.'Stretch marks are scars on your skin and won’t disappear with a topical cream . But feel free to apply all the aloe-vera (and other anti-itch lotions) to alleviate the itching. In terms of preventing their appearance, cocoa butter-based creams and creams full of Vitamin E have a reputation for helping-- but there's still no guarantee that those pesky stretch marks won't show up despite your best creaming-up efforts.

Also, your doctor may offer you a glucose screening test sometime in the upcoming weeks. The test checks for a high blood sugar condition that some women are susceptible to during pregnancy. At most, 5 percent of women actually test positive for this problem, but if you do, you will probably have a few more follow up tests to be sure. If you end up with a positive test, make a plan with your physician or nutritionist for treatment. Untreated, the high sugar content in your blood enables the overproduction of baby fat for your little one, and often results in overly high birth weight which can induce premature birth and/or the necessity to deliver via cesarean.

And my growing belly:

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!

And I'm SO excited =) I have so much to catch up on, but I'll be posting pics very soon, we had a blast!

that's why I love him...

Jeremy has been telling me he doesn't know if I should go swimming while on vacation, because he doesn't want the baby to drowned! I know, I know. Well, today I was so stressed with a million things to get done, and he says, I've got it. I know how we can make this work. I'll just strap some scuba gear around your belly button, and the baby will be good to go =)

Now, I give Jeremy a hard time for his wharped sense of humor and act like I don't think he's funny, but throughout the day I kept smiling and giggling everytime I thought about that. But shush, don't tell him....

National Doughnut Day!?!

How in the world, didn't the pregnant woman get THAT memo?!? But that's what MSN is saying, National Doughnut Day, well, then, a doughnut I must have. Besides, I am a loyal, law-upholding citizen and it just wouldn't be right to NOT participate in a national holiday - now would it?

insanely distracted

Oy, we are leaving for our fabulous vacation in less than 24 hours =) I'm making a list of things to do and so far the list is half a page long. But that's okay, because I'm getting organized on everything left to do. However, the OCD in my life is hendering me. I can not find my swimsuit, grrr. The thing is is this is a cute, new maternity swim suit and I want to wear it, I need it. And I cannot find it. I have almost tipped this house upside down. Jeremy is telling me to look for it later and get other things done, uh, I can't do that, I just can't focus on anything else until I have that in my suitcase. Umph.
Please pray for me, I even looked in the refridgerator =) That maybe, just maybe, had an alternative motive behind it!

the bean's first photo op

After almost having a mental breakdown and crying uncontrollably because my hair wasn't looking good and the flat iron wouldn't work right - which I contained only because I kept reminding myself that my makeup looked good - (gotta love those pregnancy hormones!) we had a very good day at the dr's office. Kari, please forgive me, I know that sentence is wrong in everyway possible, but it gets the point across and it's late ;)

Jeremy went with me and we were so excited about the ultrasound. I know he was happy, and so was I, but I sorta knew what to expect, he didn't.
After he kept mentioning that the wait was taking too long and he had an appt scheduled for that afternoon and didn't know if he would be able to stay for the whole appt, I gave him that "if-you-leave-me-here-and-miss-the-u/s" glare, he decided it was in his best interest to stay =) Seriously, if he would have left, I would have sat there and cried and cried, it would have been embarassing.

But the appt was wonderful and he was glad he stayed. And truly, the thing is, is that he didn't tell his boss what he was doing. If he would have called her and explained everything she would have no doubt rescheduled the meeting for later. Thankfully, he was able to leave just in time to make everything.

When my dr tried to find the heartbeat, I was nervous. He wasn't getting it. I thought oh, no, I made it this far and now what?!? He moved the doppler around and around, I just closed my eyes. Finally, after what seemed like 10 minutes (it wasn't nearly that long) he picked up a heartbeat. It was music to my ears. I said you had a hard time, he replied, well, I knew the baby was moving so there had to be a heartbeat because all I picked up was the water slushing around, that baby is active! He turned on the u/s machine and stressed several times, WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!!, he was perfect with it. He looked around and took lots of pictures and measurements. Tears welled up in my eyes, that was my baby and it was perfect. It has the most perfect round head and it's tiny little arms were waving at me, my little star even gave me a 'high-five', it was perfect. And the baby was so good during the ultrasound. We discussed that this was it's first time to show momma and daddy how well-behaved it was and how good it would be at picture taking! Everything looked great. My baby is skinny he said, but looked healthy. It's about 10 - 12 inches long and weighs about 9 ounces. The nurse said, that IS little, but that's okay. I was a little baby, so, I don't expect to be popping out a 9 pounder!

We tried to get a 3-d shot but my placenta was in the way of the face. Maybe we'll try again in 6 weeks or so.

The most spectacular part of the whole thing was Jeremy. I have been attached to this baby in everyway possible, literally!, since day 1. But Jeremy not so much. I know it has everything to do with the fact that he can't feel the baby, I can, he doesn't go through the hormonal and physical changes, I do, and besides hearing the heartbeat one time, that's about all the 'attachment' he was had with the baby. And it's completely understandable if not normal. And that is really why I wanted him at the u/s. Yes, I would have pictures, but it's not near the same as watching the baby move around on the screen. Jeremy said it was amazing. He felt like it was for real, we are parents, and we are having a baby.
Tonight we looked at the pictures again on the computer, and he said it's just amazing. Amazing that that is growing inside you. That my little microscopic sperm and your itty bitty egg could create that, a real, live, moving human. It's just stunning.

I am so thankful to God for this miracle. I'm forever greatful.

"Don't believe in miracles - depend on them."
Laurence J. Peter

eta: I've gained 2 lbs, a total of 4 lbs

Jeremy's mom stopped by today and I asked her to take a couple of pictures of us, after finally getting Jeremy to cooperate and not act like a clown, we managed to get a couple worth showing.



And for the first time EVER, I'm bigger than my husband, oy.

19th week

whew, time is flying!

Fetal development in pregnancy week 19:
Your amazing little baby is now around 10 inches in length! If this seems a bit shocking, you’ll be relieved to know they’ve not actually grown over 3 inches, but that their little legs are now straight enough to be measured. This is when doctors begin measuring fetal growth from head to toe, (no longer “crown to rump” or CR). Lanugo (little hairs) covers their whole body now, trapping that charming cheese-like vernix caseosa (see week 18) to the surface to the skin. This week your lil’ fetus will start on an appetizing diet of amniotic fluid which they are now capable of swallowing, digesting, and passing the fluid as far as their tiny “large” intestines. Fortunately for you, this nice little lump of baby-poop won’t be coming out while they’re still in your womb. Some time shortly after they’re born, this fun lump will become the first in a long line of baby poops. (What finally comes out— commonly known as “meconium” to the science world, will be black and sticky, and you’ll be very glad it happens only once!)


And how's mom doing? Unlike generations of women before you who were taught pregnancy was practically an ailment (10% of women DID die in childbirth back then), we now have scientific evidence that exercise is a good thing when you’re pregnant. In fact, most physicians recommend continuing or starting a pregnancy-friendly exercise regimen. Walking, running, swimming, weight training and yoga (see week 20) are all good for your heart and overall physical stamina during this physically challenging time. Not to mention proper exercise can do a lot towards increasing your overall flexibility (at a time where your body wants to stiffen up) thereby somewhat reducing the pain and tension during labor. Last but not least, exercise can keep you from gaining unnecessary amounts of weight (which you’ll have to fight off later after birth if you don’t do it now). Obviously, you’re going to want to avoid sports where you are at risk of falling or being hit in the stomach. Basically, stay away from sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer, and skiing. Instead, opt for the pool, weight room, and/or yoga class. We’re not saying you should stress yourself out trying to be a world-class athlete, but if you’re eating right and getting enough sleep, exercise during this health-critical phase of your life, will keep your collective energy levels higher and increase your feeling of well-being, as well as ensuring that you and your baby are in top physical and mental condition.

tiffany knew best

On one of my several shopping trips searching anxiously for ANYTHING to fit and be comfy, Tif made me try these on. I really didn't want them, but she stressed how much I would love them, they would be so comfy, I needed them for the summer, they are cute, yadayadayada....
Well, I'm proud to announce, that Tiffany knew best, she did, and I bought them and I LOVE them. They are SO comfy and light weight and cool and cute. I need at LEAST one more pair.


Thanks Tif, you did know best!

ps: they are from jcpenny!