A word on becoming a parent...

You've probably noticed, (if anyone is still following this blog and hasn't completely given up on me), that there hasn't been a post from us in a while. This, in spite of the fact that we've had so much blog-worthiness happening in our lives. Any parent can tell you, that if a new mommy and daddy don't make time to blog during the first 10 weeks of their baby's new life, it's completely excusable. However, I am disappointed, as there has been so much going on and so many funny stories to tell. I fear that few of them will be remembered and accounted for, but I'll do the best I can to catch you up with the "Cliff Notes" version:

1)Last night we put up our first Christmas tree with Claire. She stared at the lights like they were literally blowing her mind. It was delightful and a bit frightful all at once to see how enthralled she was with their glowing beauty. We wrapped an extra strand around the posts of her swing for good measure and in the hopes of keeping her occupied for a bit longer...

2)In preparation for the cold weather that we experienced so unexpectedly last week, (it got down to 15 degrees! That just never happens here!), we tried on Claire's new candycane striped long underwear onesie. She looked at us like, "really-I make ridiculous look cute." It was fantastic, and she stayed toasty warm.

3)In an attempt to get more rest and create a more peaceful middle-of-the-night nursing situation, I've been trying more often lately to nurse Claire in bed while lying down. I think it's working. This morning in the wee hours if you had see us you would have seen me laying there with a "hungry" infant sleeping next to me with her mouth open. I did wake up soon after I dozed off and got us back on track. Maybe it's too peaceful???

4)Claire's bathtime is an adventure. We use a "PUJ" tub, which is a foam mat that folds so that it fits snugly into our little bathroom sink. It works well and keeps her all snuggled up in the warm water. That is, until she hit over 14 pounds recently, and started kicking while we tried to wash her. Now we are pretty much at the PUJ limit I believe, and may be moving into the duckie tub soon. Problem is, that many babies at 15 pounds are starting to be able to sit up a bit, and she is no where near that...as she's only 10 weeks old. Hmm...New bath strategy ahead. Another favorite bathtime experience is the daredevil race into the bathroom from the changing table across the hall in her room. It's like naked baby roulette: someday she'll pee on us, but we never know when that day will come.

5)Car seat: she hates getting in and out of it. We've already had to adjust it. She's big folks, and that's all there is to it. She is a 15 pound baby in the biggest, heaviest car seat on the market: the Britax Chaperone. My physical therapist has actually banned me from doing any car seat carrying other than lifting her in and out of the car. Thank God for the Snap-and-Go stroller.

6)Physical therapy: when Claire was about two weeks old, I started to notice that by the afternoon I had a really sharp pain in my neck. It hurt when I looked down and brought my chin to my chest. I thought it was just stress or soreness and that it would go away, but 8 weeks later and I'm in physical therapy twice a week to cope with the muscle strain of carrying around my "petite" princess, the muscle strain of nursing and the added weight of my breasts. All in all, there's still a lot hanging off the front of me, even though I've delivered a baby and trimmed up splendidly. So, hopefully the PT will help, and I won't have a hunchback by the age of 30.

7)Belly button. The most peculiar thing happened around week 6 1/2...we noticed a little bloody sack protruding slightly out of Claire's belly button. We watched it for a day, and it got a bit bigger, so I called the pediatrician and we went in later in the day for a check up. Well, he'd never seen anything like it. He took pictures on his iPhone to show his pediatrician buddies. He called in the two other peds that were in the clinic, and they hadn't seen anything like it either. That's over 70 years of pediatric experience stumped at 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. No fun. We were hoping it would be a little less special than that. Something to just rub a little ointment on and sleep it off. Oh well. We were instructed to make an appointment with the pediatric surgeon at Mary Bridge Children's Clinic, which we did. About an hour and a half before her appointment with the surgeon, I hurriedly threw together the diaper bag and took her into the changing table for one last change before heading out the door WHEN...I lifted up her onesie, and what do you think happened? It fell off. The little bloody bubble that caused all this fuss just dried up and fell off into my hand. I put the sample in a ziploc and off we went. The surgeon just blinked at me and told me to come back in a couple of weeks. What a fiasco. Kids!

8)At 6 weeks she began to smile. It was so sweet. She had been making eye contact for about a week before the smiles set in, and we waited anxiously for them to appear every day. "Was that a smile? Or was it just gas?" Most of the time, with Claire, the answer to this question was the gas, but as I said, around week 6 she grinned knowingly at our faces and our silly charades, and we knew--with the certainty that we craved--that we were indeed the two most hilarious people on the planet. We should start booking comedy clubs and book a 2011 tour--we are funny, funny people, and you know how I know? Because Claire smiles, and that's all that matters.

9)Life is well and good with a newborn when it comes to diapers. Especially when your baby loves her changing table as much as ours does. And especially when you have a breastmilk-only baby like Claire is (it doesn't even stink!). And especially while your brand new angel is only creating small poops dispersed evenly throughout a 24 hour period.

But then...

You take your daughter to church for the very first time after you return from maternity leave, and you dress her in the cute new outfit from Grandma Cindy (pink courderoy dress, white turtleneck onesie, white tights, pink shoes), and she makes such a mess that you shudder in horror at the fold-down changing table on display in the cramped church nursery bathroom. Fancy onsie? Gone. Pretty pink dress? No match for Claire. White tights? Do I even have to answer here? Thank God we have a loving and gracious church family, and thank GOD that we had an extra change of clothes.

10) Aside from the stinky diaper situation, she smells wonderful, especially right on top of her head. And when she sleeps, she snores, and it's lovely.

More from the Claire Chronicles later...hopefully you won't have to wait as long until next time.

Claire Louise Thompson

She is here at last. She came on September 15, 2010 at 10:34 a.m, at St. Joseph Medical Center, weighing 10 lbs, 3.8 oz and measuring at 21" long. More on the birth and labor story later. For now I'm happy to report that it's been a bit day in the Thompson household, and a big day for Miss Claire-bear.

We've been getting to know her bit by bit, and today, we learned a very valuable lesson: she does not have to eat once an hour, that's silly. Mostly when she fusses once an hour, she just needs to be bounced, jiggled or rocked, and would prefer to have that accompanied by either a loud crashing train outside, a hairdryer running, static on the radio, or our obnoxiously loud dishwasher running. I've always hated this dishwasher, until today. It's been a rough go of it nursing-wise trying to sooth her by feeding once an hour (you can imagine what happens to my feeding anatomy under that kind of work schedule, so I'll remain decent and not go into detail about it). Now that we've learned some other techniques for soothing (and learned when we need to use them--thanks Mom), we are no longer dealing with both a crying Claire AND a crying mommy (me).

We had our first pediatrician appointment on Saturday morning (two days ago), which went splendidly. She weighed in at 9 lbs, 10 oz, which is a net loss of only 9 oz. She has no jaundice, and they let us go at the end of the appointment with absolutely no concerns for her. We go back on September 29th for Claire's 2 week physical and parenting class. We are really looking forward to the classes offered for free at Union Avenue Pediatrics, and have heard that it's a wonderful way to meet other families with babies the same age as our Claire.

She also had her first day with more quiet, alert wakefulness today. It was so fun to see her awake and calm looking all around and taking in her world. Her big blue eyes were tracking Luke across the kitchen as he put the dishes away, and would turn in my direction each time I spoke.

We also went on our first walk as a family. I'm not technically supposed to be doing any walking until my 2 week postpartum appointment, but it felt so good to get outside in the fresh air. We mainly stuck to the walk-way behind the building and did a loop around the Museum of Glass. We got a couple of great pictures by the glass sculpture, and Claire loved being outside, especially when we came back around the front of our building to head in and a long coal train came cruising by. They even spoiled her by blowing the horn nice and loud (she didn't even flinch!) I did okay with the walk, as my recovery is going well, and luckily, a stroller operates pretty much as a walker would, so I got the little extra support that I needed to make our jaunt enjoyable and pleasant. Still, I was feeling sore and a little winded (gasp!) by the time we were done, and I dream of the future when I'll be back to jogging again. I'd like to walk as a family in the 2010 Pierce County Hunger Walk (it's only a 5K), so I'm hoping that I'll be up to that by October 3rd. Seeing as how that is only a couple of weeks away, it could be a challenge--but it's good to set short-term goals, right? Right.

For now, my short-term goals for the rest of the day include: taking a nap (which will happen in about 3 minutes), eating a full meal tonight, paying the bills and FINALLY finding time to paint my toenails, which I haven't been able to do for myself in a couple of months.

Congratulations to us; here's to Claire Louise who has changed our lives and taught us so much already.

Labor Day Weekend

This was the most bizarre Labor Day weekend I think we've ever had. The weather was great, and we both had time off from work like usual, but we couldn't make any plans! That might not seem like much, but to Luke and I who don't normally do things "spontaneously" very often, it was kinda fun to just sleep in, wake up, and see what the days brought for us. It turned out to work rally well. We went to the Dwyer wedding on Friday night (planned, but we hadn't been sure if we would make it until the last minute), walked a bunch and watched movies on Saturday, I worked on Sunday morning (boy, are the people at Mount Cross surprised to see me every time I walk through the door!), Saw Ben and Sarah on Monday afternoon followed by my parents in the evening, and yesterday, my mom came down on her day off to hang out and help me pass the time with Waldorf salad and chick flicks. Whew! Needless to say we had an active and fun holiday weekend, but it was just a different feeling to not know what was coming next. I kind of liked it, and I probably should get used to it!

Still, through all of this, no baby came this Labor Day. Oh well. It was nice to have a long weekend for the two of us to share...kind of like a last retreat! The due date is tomorrow, and I really don't feel like I'll be having a baby tomorrow (because I still generally feel pretty good). I certainly don't mind the baby coming a little past-due, and I certainly trust my body to know what it's doing...but I'm a little wary of needing to be induced, so I find myself desiring to send the baby this message:
"Please Baby, if you are listening or reading this blog, I am begging you: come out soon. We'd all like to meet you--you seem like you've got a great personality from what we can tell, and your parents are so brilliant and funny that you must be at least interesting to talk to. I promise that we'll take care of you and we'll even let you scream at us for hours if that's what you'd like. (I'm guessing you will be more interested in eating though...)

Love, Mommy"

The light at the end of the tunnel...

Here I am at 38 weeks. The baby had begun to "drop" by this point, and I was starting to be able to breath and eat again in relatively comfortable fashion. Mom and Dad Boye came down for a visit and we all agreed that I needed to take another profile shot to show off this impressive tummy.


We are getting extremely eager to have the baby, and are keeping our spirits up by staying busy mixed with intervals of rest and fun. This weekend (Labor day weekend), we were able to make it to a wedding of some very close family friends that we would have never thought we could make it to. Here's some photos from the photo booth they had set up at the reception. We all agreed that these are the most fun and hilarious photo booth pictures that we'd ever seen!

It was so great to be able to be at Chris and Michelle's wedding, and we had a ton of fun. The buffet at the reception was spicy thai food, and we thought that might do the trick, but alas, no such luck. Maybe if I had eaten, and then gotten onto the dance floor we might have seen some action, but most likely that would have just ended in indigestion. So, I didn't dance at the wedding, but it was a great time, and a great party with amazing people. I'm glad that we went, even though I kind of felt crazy being there at almost 40 weeks pregnant. I was so tired by the time we finished eating, and had to fight it to stay awake during the toasts, but we made it through and then made it safely home. The memories are priceless and it was totally worth it.

At this point I'm starting to think that the baby might never decide to join us. I know it sounds crazy, but you do definitely get to a point where you start thinking that you're just going to be pregnant for the rest of your life. Hopefully that's not going to be the case (we're 99% sure anyways!) All of our friends and family have been so wonderful and supportive-and that is really helping to keep us going. Last week was Luke's first week of school, so it actually did work out well that the baby didn't come last week. Also, several of our friends that we would want to tell right away were out of town this weekend due to the holiday. SO...the point is this (Baby): it is now officially a great time to be born into this world. Every night Luke encourages the baby to "move to the light at the end of the tunnel" and I'm sure that very soon the baby will start to listen to him. (And we all know that that might be the last time the baby listens to us ever again).

Shower at 36 weeks, Ultrasound at 37

I had a shower on August 19th that my mom, sister, aunt and cousin organized for me and it was an absolute blast! Just look at the tasty treats they served up! And check it out--what do you think? Most adorable toothpicks ever? Yes, I think so. It was amazing, and the entire table scape was so cute and fun. Aunt Sara and Bridget made delicious little cucumber sandwiches, and there was a delicious punch made from pineapple juice, almond extract and other yummy additions. Here are a couple of shots of the table:

Here is a pic of the wonderful swing that came from Andi and Paul Dwyer:


I am positive that it will be put to good use! Most parents I know say that the swing helped them calm and sooth their babies a ton, and helped them keep the babe occupied while they worked on other projects.

So I was 36 weeks at the shower, and here is a belly shot from a week later, at 37 weeks:

I feel happy and healthy and so does the baby, who is still hovering around the 90th percentile for size. We got an ultrasound done half-way through our 37th week. The pictures of this sonigram are much blurrier than our earlier shots, but here's a profile picture from the ultrasound:

Still busy and big at 36 weeks

We've been pretty busy the last few weeks, and while it's been a ton of fun, I think that it's finally time to slow down. Two weeks ago (I was at 34 weeks) we went camping over the weekend and met our friends Jesse & Crystal in Sequim. We shared a campsite, had a ton of fun, got "rained" on (which wasn't actually rain, but dew falling from the big trees we were under), and picked blueberries the next morning. We picked over 21 pounds of berries in under an hour! It was good fun, and THANK GOODNESS for our Aero Bed. It was the only reason I was able to camp, and made things a lot more comfortable. That, and the fact that Jesse & Crystal picked a site directly adjacent to the bathrooms :). Here's a quick snapshot of our site:
The next weekend, (this last weekend), we drove down to Portland on Sunday afternoon and I stayed the night down there with Luke. He had training at the Honda Training facility in Gresham, OR. While we were there we got to kick around downtown Portland and meet up with my good friends Matt & M'Lissa who live down that way. It was great to see them, and scare them with my pregnant belly and new haircut. I got to spend some time with M'Lissa on Monday, and then drove back up to Tacoma in time for my final childbirth class. Mom came down to come to the class with me, as Luke was still in OR. We covered postpartum care and briefly covered some newborn care. You should have seen me swaddle. Let's just say that I found my own technique. Here I am at a small park we found in Portland. It was near the restaurant we ate at with the Tabors, and it was made from reclaimed industrial land. It was a peaceful little oasis in the city, so we thought it would be a good place for our belly-shot:

Jammin at 33 weeks

Last weekend we went out to Graymarsh Farms in Sequim, WA (pronounced "squim") to pick raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. It was a nice day trip, and we came home with some beautiful strawberries and raspberries for making jam. I don't really recommend going for a full day of berry picking at 33 weeks pregnant...but if you have to, do what I did: leave the squatting for strawberries to your husband after about 15 minutes of effort and move on to arm's-height berries like raspberries. Also, blueberries really are the perfect berry to pick; their ripeness is easily detected, they do not grow thorns on their bushes, the bees generally leave them alone, and they stand at about 3-5 feet in height, meaning that they won't break your back reaching for them. There didn't happen to be too many that were ripe enough to pick on this trip, but we're hoping to get back out there in a week or two to try again. Here I am back at the ranch prepping the strawberries for the blender. Normally I insist on "driving" the blender, but strawberry prep can be done while sitting down, so it won me over. I just like "shifting gears" from "stir" to "liquefy". I usually downshift back down before I can feel right about pushing "off". Luke makes fun of me for this, but he is after all the man who pretends to shift while driving our Volvo (automatic transmission). I say, let each one find a way to shift in the way they are comfortable! I'm now going to attempt to shift my growing body and bottom out of this glider and get into bed...thanks for reading and more pictures soon!

32 week belly pics

Here I am at 32 weeks. Please excuse the tired circles under my eyes and the rumpled hair...it was hot and I had just gotten up from a nap. Luke suggested that I update the blog, and I agreed to at least take a couple more belly pics. I'm measuring at 33 inches, which is pretty much right on track for being 32 weeks along. It's the same measurement as two weeks ago at my last appointment, so my growth seems to be tapering out a bit (but not the baby's!). The books tell me that the baby is now somewhere between 3 and 4 pounds, and measures out between 16 and 19 inches from head to toe. It sounds huge to me, but judging from the amount of activity that I feel on a regular basis, I think it's still got plenty of room to move and stretch.

30 weeks at the Rose Garden

Here I am at the Point Defiance Park in North Tacoma. Luke and I strolled over there a couple of nights ago to visit the duck pond and see the Rose Garden, one of my favorite places! Can't believe that I'm at 30 weeks already. Time is moving faster than a pregnant lady towards a bowl of ice cream! Lots of kicks and squirming is coming from the baby these days, and most mornings it wakes me up at 4:30 a.m. and is ready for breakfast. I can see how easily my child is going to train me (wink wink).

Graduation, Crib Assembly, & Shower "oh my!"

It has been such a busy June already! Luke graduated from UW Tacoma with his Master of Ed. on June 11th. The hooding ceremony was on June 10th. There are some quick snapshots of us at the hooding ceremony with our friend Jesse, who went through the same program and also graduated:

More pictures from graduation to follow. We took several lovely ones with Luke's parents the day after commencement. (Due to the size of the class of 2010 and the commencement location-Tacoma Dome-we weren't able to get many great shots during the ceremony.) We held a small open house at our apartment right after graduation and welcomed family and friends alike to come and help us celebrate Luke (and Jesse's) achievement. It was a fun time, and we are so thankful to everyone who showed their support--it's been a lot of work and we couldn't have done it without our friends and family and church family.

Also happening that weekend was the baby shower hosted by the members of Mount Cross Lutheran, our home church. Again, more photos to come from the shower. I didn't get any on my phone or camera because I was otherwise occupied during the festivities! We received so many beautiful and generous gifts including: 3 bouncers/baby-rockers; a stack of blankets a yard high; over 15 onesies; sleep sacks, crib sheets, teddy bears, lots of books and board books, 2 Baby Bjorn carriers, a sling carrier, a gender neutral diaper bag, a towering "cake" made of diapers, bottles, binkies, booties and rattles, about 20 different rattles and toys, a large blow-up rubber ducky bath/pool, baby legos, a Boppy nursing pillow, 3 bath sets including a miniature bath robe that is so cute it breaks my heart, a first aid kit and lots of other delightfuls as well. The two large group gifts given at the shower were 1) a $400 gift card to Babies R Us (WOW!) and 2) $645 towards the cost of moving a vehicle out from Michigan this summer so that I can have my car back! It was so overwhelming and so exciting. We feel so blessed to have received so much. There are too many people to thank. (We tried, and fell overwhelmingly short of expressing our true gratitude.)

One special gift from the "grandparents" otherwise known as Luke and I's parents, was our Crib! During Luke's open house we were presented with the crib, and Luke was so excited about it that we had it set up the next morning. Here are some pictures of the set up (he took the wise advice to set it up in the room where it will live--often people set up their cribs in other rooms, go to move it in to the nursery and then find that it won't fit through the doorway! We fortunately didn't have that issue!):

Birthday fun and another belly shot!

A lot has been going on since our last post, and I'm sure it's just an indication of the many busy times we've got ahead of us. At the end of May we celebrated Memorial Day weekend by enjoying a lot of quiet time around the apartment and taking a day trip to Olympia. We had a great time walking in Olympia; the sun came out and we haven't ever really gotten to spend much time there. As a cool and unexpected bonus, we found this statue titled "Motherhood" and I just had to get my picture next to it!We also found this pretty little garden near where the Olympia farmer's market normally is. It's a garden that is kept and maintained by the botany students at the Washington State University Extension program. I was ready for a break anyways, so I took full advantage of this pretty little bench in a quiet resting spot. Plus, it had been kind of a long time since I'd had so much sun on my face, so I rather enjoyed it.
June came and we started to get ready for all the excitement and activity that it brought with it. I have two showers in June, Luke graduates with his Masters of Education from UW-Tacoma, which his parents are coming out for, and it was my birthday at the beginning of the month. Here's a lovely shot of my chocolate raspberry cake with curly-cue candles before I tore in to it with a vintage cake cutter. The cake cutter was the high-light of the evening, as it looked like a large, straight, thickly pronged comb (or as I pointed out at the table, "worst toothbrush ever!"). I think I figured it out though, and by the third or fourth piece I had worked my technique perfectly for slicing and thumping each over-sized piece of cake on a plate. There were many jokes around the table about this--you know me, always good for providing a laugh (usually at my expense somehow!).Although it was cloudy and drizzling on the day I celebrated with my family, my actually birthday turned out to be a pretty sunny day, and it was a good thing, because we spent he evening at the ballpark here in Tacoma. We had a staff outing planned for all the church staff and their families to attend a game at Cheney Stadium to watch the AAA league Tacoma Rainiers face off against the Reno '51s. This turned into a double-header due to the rain the day before so we got two games for the price of one (only one hot-dog though...). Here's a shot of us between games. Notice that it looks as though I've stuffed a football under my shirt (I'm already at 26-27 weeks!)

24 Weeks/6 Months

Here I am at 24 weeks and 6 months. I can't believe that there are only 3+ months to go.

It really looks like I'm carrying around a soccer ball instead of a baby, but I've heard the heartbeat each month, so I know that the baby is in there. Which is a good thing, because we don't have room for any more sports equipment! I finally just figured out where we would store the hockey bag! The baby is moving very frequently on most days and is a strong little stinker. I've already had a couple of nights where the baby has either kept me awake or woken me up from a dead sleep by tumbling around. I don't think this would be such a big issue if it weren't for the fact that I get so excited each time I feel it move. It's really become quite a distraction and I think I need to become a little more disciplined with myself before the baby actually gets here.

Luke's Birthday and a Garden too!

We got together with my siblings and parents this weekend to help create a vegetable garden in their backyard. Luke and I were particularily excited for this, as we don't have space for a garden. Even I got to help out, although most of the work was (thankfully) done by my Dad, Luke and my brother. It was a beautiful and sunny day, and we ended it with a delicious meal and birthday cake for Luke! That's right: Daddy is now the big 2-8, which as I keep reminding him is another blessed year closer to 30.

The baby and I are now at 23 weeks and growing by the minute. The great thing about this garden is that by the time the pumpkins that are planted are ready--it will be just in time for baby's first Halloween! (and I'm sure that all the other nutritious snacks we are growing in there will be appreciated too).

For his birthday, we all decided to get Luke a flaming pan of cake!

Mother's Day 2010

This year Brittany and I took our mom to a Mother's Day Tea at her church Holy Spirit Lutheran, and it was a really nice way to spend a Saturday. I helped decorate our table, and we got to dine on miniature sandwiches and brownies. We even got a portrait taken and had time after the tea to sit in the sun with the dogs on their deck and drink "virgin" Bloody Marys for a couple of hours. It was pretty much perfect, and I was happy to be with my mom and sister on such a special day.


On Sunday, (Mother's Day proper), I told Luke, "all I want to do today after church is eat, nap, then go for a walk!" And that's exactly what we did. We also found time to sneak in a few more belly shots:

After a walk that was absolutely lovely, but probably a bit too long for my ever widening hips...we decided on greek lamb wraps for dinner and shot up the hill in Old Town to the Met Market for supplies. I remembered a very funny "mama" (Lisa Ganung) telling me that they had an "expectant mother's" parking spot...it was worth checking out and cashing in on! Sure enough, we found it and it was vacant when we pulled it. I made my proud papa Luke take a picture, that I'm thinking might be a favorite of mine for a long time:

All in all, a pretty fine weekend. Although Luke and I both agree that I still have a lot of work to do before I'm a bonafide Mother on Mother's Day--we had a great time celebrating the little one who will be heading our way in a few months. I can't believe I'm already at 22weeks!

comic relief

My dear friend Kim found a book for me that has been an excellent source of stress relief and humor over the past couple of days. It's called "It Could Happen to You!" by Martha Brockenbrough, who met her husband in Tacoma, and now lives in Seattle. It's written in a loose "diary" style, and follows the candid observations of a woman and her husband through their first pregnancy. As I read from her chapter on the first trimester this morning, this passage gave me those old "warm & fuzzies":

Still, I was counting the days until I got to hear the heartbeat. And when the day finally arrived, I was thrilled...'What's it going to sound like?' I wondered. I grew less rational from there. 'What if we can't hear it? What if this is all some sort of mistake? What if something is wrong?' I felt myself get very cold as I lay on the table and waited...[then] the room was filled with steady drumming, like the sound a horse makes when it runs across hard ground. It's a dancing rhythm, filled with energy, a music that made my chest squeeze with joy. Then the nurse moved the probe to pick up my heartbeat as well. Mine was a slower, rushing rhythm, like moving water. Together this was the sound of two lives sharing a body, a curious, beautiful song that I could have listened to for hours while I tried to find the meaning within. Maybe this is why all human cultures have music. It's the way we bring our heartbeats outside and share them, and say, 'We're alive.'

20 weeks, 38 inch circumference and happy, happy happy.
The baby only weighs about 12 ounces and is about 7 inches long,
so we've still got a long way to go!
I feel great and am enjoying my 2nd trimester energy and attitude. Can't wait for the weather to warm up a bit so that I can get outdoors and play in the sun.

20 (ish) weeks and looking good!

We had our 20 week ultrasound this morning and it went so well that we had to rush some new pics on the blog right away. Our ultrasound technician was really great and so knowledgeable. She took her time and allowed us to simply watch the baby move around on the screen for quite a while. Here's a look of the baby's face. It's amazing how clear it is; you can see the eyes, nose, and lips!



Here is an adorable profile shot. The baby tried for several minutes to suck it's thumb. This was taken right before we think that the thumb sucking success was finally achieved. You can also see the outline of the skull and the spinal column at the bottom of the shot.





Here is another profile shot with a better view of the spinal column. You can also see just how curled up the little babe was for the entire ultrasound. Because of this, we didn't get an exact length, but the technician estimated somewhere just under 8" long. Weighing in at 12 ounces as well, we learned that currently our baby is in the 80th percentile for size. This may be due to an early growth spurt, or it may be that I am a little farther along than they thought. They are not moving my due date (technically), but the technician said that she would estimate a due date of September 1-4th instead of the 9th.


High Five Baby! This shot really got the technician excited because she said it is often difficult to get a picture of the hand opened up. You can actually count all the fingers! (and good news, there are 5!) The dark spot in the center of the chest is the heart, beating at 137 beats per minute.







Here we can see the left hand again very clearly with all its fingers and a beautiful little thumb in addition to the left forearm, right in the middle of the screen. To the left you can see the head and part of the umbilical cord.




As the picture clearly states, the anatomy most clearly seen in this shot is the left foot-as we are looking straight down on it. Again it was so fun to count the five toe knuckles on this little stinker. A shadow of the right foot is hovering right above it in the shot.

*pop!* *pop!* *pop!*

Well, I felt the baby Thursday for the first time. I'd love to say that it was amazing and magical and that it was full of gentle flutters and little swishes...but to be truthful, it felt like popcorn popping inside me, and I was pretty confused at first! My first reaction was (of course) to gently push back on the spot where I felt the popping and after I did, it responded and "popped" back, so that was pretty fun. Since then, I've been feeling the baby more and more. Last night I attempted (about 10 times) to get Luke to feel it as well, but the baby always stopped right when I'd get Luke's hand on my belly. Silly baby. It was actually really funny, because it was like it knew when Luke was there and it got all still. Then, when he gave up and pulled his hand away, "pop!"

Hopefully the baby will be kicking and moving a little stronger soon, and it will be really easy for Luke and others to feel. All in all, it's amazing how the activity just keeps on growing and changing. I'm so excited to meet this little kicker!

17 Week Belly-Photo! (17 wks + dinner to be fair)
I know you've all been waiting.
We'll try to take them more often from now on.
Right before we took this, Luke looked at me and said,
"I thought it was bigger than that."
Precious.

New Stuff & A New Room

Today we worked on the "Baby's Room", which until now has been our second bedroom catch-all. There are items in this room ranging from my sewing machine to Christmas decorations, to my high school track t-shirts and Luke's roller blades. Most of the work had to do with shelving books, (we've had the books and the shelves, but had yet to put them together...), and filing/shredding papers. We also proved our spacial abilities by successfully reconfiguring the closet in this room so that it would hold even more on it's shelves. My hope is that someday soon I'll be able to convince myself to finally get rid of (recycle-of course) the LARGE box for my kitchen aid mixer, under the logic that the mixer never ever sees that box, yet we have carted it around with us for the past five years. I keep thinking, "yeah, but, what if we move" (we won't) "and then I'll want to move the mixer in it's original box to cut down on the chances of it getting damaged..." (we won't even really use it though--I always personally hand deliver it from point A to point B whenever it's moved. Can you blame me?). Pathetic I know, but if we can get rid of that box we'll have room for yet another Rubbermaid tote! That would be huge, as the shelves in our bedroom closet are also bulging (some might say that they are rebelling). Anyways, here is the "before" picture of the room. I hope to someday get to the point where we can post a successful "after" picture to complete the set!

So needless, to say, that my feel of acquiring too much "stuff" as a result of our family's new addition is a legitimate concern. And do you know what is keeping me from sticking to my minimalist mindset that would otherwise prove to be so successful and would keep my husband happy??? The simple fact that baby stuff is so bloody cute. Here: take a look at some early arrivals that have already come in from grandparents (if you look close you can see the tiny shoes and sandals that my mom and I picked up on sale. Ridiculous!) Also, a favorite item that is so over the top cute is this sleep sack, which just so happen to match Mommy's rubber ducky "Jesus Quilt" from Elaine Bassett. Check it out! How cute will we be?...

Sigh. I am being totally won over by this stuff. Also, I haven't even mentioned the stack of children's books that we've already acquired or borrowed. It stands a yard tall when stacked up together. What can we say? I'm a sucker for everything from Goodnight Moon to those pesky 'Berenstein Bears'. I think that I will feel better when we can get our furniture for the room, and I can start putting things away. Other than that hope though, I am afraid that this is just one of the many instances that I am sure are headed my way where I will have to just let up, give in, relax, let go, and move forward all that will accumulate from now on. Once again I assert, that the entire parenting process is a difficult but rewarding and essential challenge for these two first born parents-to-be.

Raising a family in 1000 sq. feet? Bah-child's play! Cooking for more than two in a kitchen that has virtually no pantry space? Bring it on! Carting a family around with one vehicle? Tricky, but who doesn't love the smell of a challenge in the morning! Coordinating a work schedule with the loving demands of spouse-and-parent-hood? I was born ready! And yes: storing an entire child's worth of stuff in a room with no closet? How might you ask? Just get a little creative, and make some much needed "cuts" and it's smooth sailing. The secret, you ask, of our continued "success"? We pray--a lot.

Warning: Baby in Motion!

We had our 16 week checkup on Monday with the midwife, Heather, and it went really well for such a short visit. Standard procedure mostly; they took my weight (i've gained 7 pounds so far-right on track!), my blood pressure (118/59-great!), temperature (97.3-normal for me), and then it came time to check the baby's heart rate, and the fun began. I so look forward to this part of the appointment because there is something so magical, moving and really, so reassuring about hearing that speedy lub-dub. However, it wasn't quite so easy this time. The second that she put the monitor on my belly, the room was filled with noise: my heartbeat and a lot of other loud noise that I couldn't distinguish.

Normally it takes a few seconds to pick up a clear signal on the baby, and then the monitor is held over that spot long enough to record the heart rate. This time however, we still hadn't found it after about 30 seconds. My midwife looked calm, but at the point where I could literally hear (and feel) my own heartrate accelerate, I asked her, "is something wrong?"

"No, No, No!" she laughed, "I'm sorry, I should have said something, but I was concentrating. The baby is definitely there, and definitely fine--all that extra noise we hear is a lot of extra movement! You've got an active little one in there!" Man, was I relieved. From that point on, all we did was laugh, as each time that Heather picked up a signal we'd hear the baby throwing a left hook, or turning a somersault, or kicking up a storm. It was hilarious.

We finally got the heart rate. 135-140 beats of excited and busy beating. I felt so proud of my little busy body that I almost teared up thinking of all the things this child would some day do with all that energy.

Still can't feel any of these acrobatics, but that will come soon I'm sure. Maybe a couple more weeks (or a couple more days???). It's a feeling I just can't wait to feel.

Belly Shots

Here I am at 7 weeks. We'll consider this my "starting point" and see where I end up!









Here I am at 11 weeks, and we're beginning to see some growth! I thought it was all in my head, but Luke confirmed that I was indeed looking a little "bumpy".









Here I am at 14 weeks! Definitely starting to feel uncomfortable in
"normal" clothes. Despite my best efforts to convince myself that
I'm not really growing that much, I think this photo proves that
even after a work out and before dinner, I'm getting bigger!
I have my next appointment at 16 weeks and my next ultrasound
at 20 weeks, so it's going to be an exciting couple of months.