quiet baby

ever since i could feel her, i've felt this baby move consistently throughout the day. if i feel like it's been awhile, i'd lie down, put my hands on my belly, and definitely within 15 minutes (that's the longest i've ever had to wait) she is moving all over the place.

our bedtime routine is this: jesse talks to the baby for a little bit, sings her a song or two, then says goodnight and reads out loud for me (it really helps me to fall asleep). when he talks and sings to her, she is very responsive to jesse's voice and moves around a lot. she'll kick and he'll poke her in the spot where she kicked and she will kick him back. it's like a little game they play.

so you can imagine how freaked out jesse and i were last night when we were trying to get her to move for nearly 2 hours with not much going on. i felt her a total of two times, both very weak movements. i tried switching positions, walking, marching in place. jesse talked to her, poked her, sang to her .... all to no avail.

after about an hour and a bit, jesse suggested i try drinking some juice and so i chugged down a tall glass of cranberry juice.

as frustrated and worried as we were that we couldn't get her to move, all the resources say you shouldn't count or keep track of baby's movements until week 28 (which is another 2.5 weeks for us). i knew if i went to the doctor or called the doctor's office, they would say it's too early for me to be worrying about this. but i feel like i already know my baby and she has never gone this long so quietly before, so i can't help but to freak out.

anyways, about 20 minutes after finishing the cranberry juice, she came back to life as rambunctious as ever. and this morning too and all day so far, she's been very active as per usual.

25 weeks old in utero and she's already got the ability to worry her parents sick down pat.

cravings now???

i can't stop thinking about a clubhouse sandwich. and normally i'm not crazy about them because the toasted bread always cuts up my mouth. what is going on....

but it has to be on bread - not a roll or bun. like this picture. and with real turkey, not the lunchmeat kind... oh my goodness, i think i'm gonna die unless i have one SOON.

who knew?

so i guess you can forget my last post. i went for my 25-week checkup today and the doctor told me i'm below the recommended weight gain.

what?

i feel like i'm eating CONSTANTLY... well actually, i AM eating constantly. i eat and then i'm starving again in like 2 hours. then i eat and then i'm starving again in 2 hours.

never in my life did i think anyone would ever tell me that i needed to eat more. i'm not gonna go crazy though. i'm just gonna keep doing what i'm doing. i don't think i need to overeat trying to make up the weight gain and it's not like i'm dieting or skipping meals.

and here comes the weight

according to my scale this morning, i've gained 10 lb since the beginning. i lost 3 lb in the first 2 months, then gained back 10. i'm pretty sure my weight gain is at a good pace, but i can't help but to gasp when i see the number on the scale. at my last appointment i was told my weight gain was right on track... i wonder what the doctor will tell me next week...

let the painting begin!

the walls have been washed, holes filled in, furniture moved off the walls, closet emptied. jesse and i spent yesterday evening taping around the baseboards and window. last weekend jesse went to home depot and picked out a color. we knew we didn't want pink or purple or anything too... well, girly... but we did want a nice happy color. so going back and forth between a light yellow and a light green, i gave jesse the responsibilty of picking the color out. so the baby's room is going to be "pear", which is smack in the middle between a light green and a light yellow! i think painting will commence on saturday, so it has plenty of time to dry over the weekend and ready for the crib when we bring it home on sunday night. things are slowly coming together...

linea nigra

just knowing my body, i knew i would get linea nigra and will eventually get stretch marks (though i'm moisturizing rather religiously). well, the first of the two is here. i just noticed it yesterday. this picture is not me, but for those who don't know what it is.... this (the picture) is what i'm talking about. this girl's LN looks a lot like mine in that it's not completely straight down the middle from her bellybutton, but more to one side of it.

oh, will my body ever be the same?

feeling blessed

some days, i just can't believe i'm pregnant. and many times, jesse and i talk about how lucky we are that it happened so surprisingly quickly. i got pregnant my second cycle off the pill. even at my preconception counseling, i was told it takes an average couple 6 months to a year to get pregnant, so i was not expecting anything to happen for awhile (not to say i wasn't disappointed the first month when i wasn't pregnant)...

everyone knows at least one couple, i think, who have a hard time getting pregnant or have had to resort to fertility help - whether that be meds, IVF, IUI, surrogacy, etc. i can't even imagine the heartache of someone who wants nothing more than to have a baby and can't seem to make it happen.

i have to admit, though, that i'm just slightly worried about getting pregnant again (i know, i should probably focus on this one right now). my mom, her sister, and another aunt all had no troubles conceiving the first kid, but it took a lot longer to conceive the second. for my mom and her sister, it was 6 years. for my other aunt, it was like 12 years. so if genes play any role in this, i may have a bit of a struggle next time.

but like i say, i am focused on this little girl right now and making sure she comes out happy and healthy and stays that way. 17 weeks to go. i can't wait to meet her.

bottomless pit

that's the perfect word to describe my stomach right now. i can eat and eat and eat and eat (get the idea?) and i'm still hungry! mind you, i get full really fast, but then am hungry again not even an hour later. and as much as i try to fill up on healthy things like fruit (a half a flat of grapes in 3 days, a half a watermelon in one sitting, etc), i sometimes can't help myself reaching for the... crap. instant noodles, less than ideal foods for pregnancy - you know?

ugh, i don't know what to do. someone help!

baby's first play

it's been years since we've been to a play - and i was just reminded of how much i love plays. the last one we went to was the Phantom of the Opera at the Jubilee in Edmonton just before we got married.

i had heard the Lion King was in town through people on facebook who had gone and really loved it. i wanted to just check out the ticket prices and see if there were any good seats left when i found three tickets 5 rows from the stage near the center. even though they were $100 each, i couldn't resist - i hate having bad seats at a play and these were too good to pass. the clock on the bottom of the computer screen was ticking and i had to decide whether to take these tickets or not... and with jesse's encouragement, i bought the tickets.

the singing, dancing, puppetry - they were all fabulous. i felt like a little kid again as the circle of life came on and the animals came down the aisle (right beside us) to go see simba. it was almost magical.

at about "be prepared", the baby decided to dance to all this music and pretty much didn't stop until the end of the play. so either she loved it or hated it, haha, one or the other....

i can't wait til she is here and a bit older so we can go to these plays together. i was hoping to go to the Christmas Carol again at the Citadel Theatre in edmonton (i saw it two times already and would definitely see again), but i think that's cutting it too close to the due date to be driving back and forth to Edmonton.... oh well, maybe next year.

childbirth classes

okay, so i've been getting mixed views on the value of childbirth classes. are these really worth the $125? some have said absolutely not, the nurses coach you through it anyway. some say yes, this info is invaluable.

well, i've been contemplating for months now about whether to take it or not. but alas, i gave in and registered - i figure i'll learn something, but hopefully a lot... guess i'll find out!

if you're reading this and you've gone through it, what are your thoughts? i'd love to know...

LRC appointment

yesterday, i had my appointment at the low risk clinic with Marie, the midwife. two major things were pointed out to me:

the due date. when we went for our ultrasound, the sonographer told us our due date would change to dec 4, as the baby was measuring bigger. Marie, however, told me yesterday that they would not change it - the due date stays dec 9. the very first ultrasound at 7 weeks or so is the most accurate in dating the pregnancy. at this point, all babies grow at different rates and so it's not really fair to change the due date everytime ultrasound says something different. and it makes sense, because if the baby is not here by the 4th, everyone starts panicking and talking about induction, when really the baby's not ready for another 5 days or so. so we're back to the 9th!

sugar. now i'm not a sugar person in general. i don't like sweets, don't like dessert, don't like candy, not even a huge chocolate fan. after finding out i'm pregnant, i cut down my pop consumption to about one per week, even though i wasn't drinking much to begin with. plus, i haven't been drinking coffee, which i used to drink at least a cup of day before (i still take sips of jesse's coffee from time to time, but that's about all). i drink pure orange juice and cranberry cocktail. the most sugary weakness i have is probably iced tea and i've probably had about one cup in the last 5 months.

Marie pointed out to me that sugar is something a pregnant woman should avoid like the plague. like the empty carb sugars - pop, slushee, iced tea, juicebox, chocolate, etc. you can't avoid eating sugar in your food unless you're diabetic and consciously avoiding it. heck, even milk has 12 g of sugar per cup! anyways, i figured the reason was probably the baby is getting all hyped up on the sugar and probably getting fat on it as well, equalling larger babies to try to push out. Marie pointed out to me, however, that the biggest reason is that babies get so used to all the sugar, their bodies produce more and more insulin, and once they're born they have a hard time breastfeeding because breastmilk doesn't have all that much sugar. so they kinda go into like an insulin shock.

i had no idea. it's like making my baby a diabetic without even realizing it. so i've decided to really eliminate all those empty sugars i mentioned. i can't help too much of what i eat, because a lot of things i eat are also nutritious and needed (like milk, for example). i wanna give my baby the best possible start she can have.