Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Kicking, Naming, Baby's Room, Random Comments

Yes, we’ve got a kicker! I am a bit scared actually. I mean this is week 23, we have 17 weeks to go, and already she’s kicking very hard. She started kicking yesterday, and I grabbed Justin’s hand and put it on the spot. She kicked for probably 5 minutes. A few times she kicked so hard that I could see Justin’s hand move. I mean isn’t this early for this hard of kicking? I knew she had strong legs (see leg photo on this page), but this may get dangerous. Also, the kicking is still low, meaning she is still breech, and kicking the bladder sometimes. Not the best feeling. Please flip over Baby Girl!
The name…..we have not yet completely decided on the name. We think we have one, but we need to be sure before we announce it. It has got to be perfect of course. Also, we’re trying to decide if we should name now, or wait to see her first. A lot of people have said to wait until you see her to name her. It’s a hard decision for me, because I really want to start calling her by her name. Okay, I do call her by the name we are thinking right now, but we’ve only been thinking this name for two weeks. We’ll be taking our time with this decision. I mean we “should” have about 17 weeks.
Baby Girl’s room is painted! We picked out a neutral color since all the bedding and everything from the shower was neutral. It’s a light green, kind of on the yellow side. It'll still go great with pink or purple. I’ll post pictures when it’s finished. Justin did all the work, so I can’t take any credit. Now we have to fix some places that were messed up on the trim, then we can start moving stuff in. We picked out the crib; thankfully my parents are going to make that big purchase for us. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) Then I need to hang up all of her clothes, so I can see what sizes we have enough of, and etc.
An added bonus of being a teacher is the constant comments about being pregnant. I never forget I'm pregnant for more than about 4 minutes. Now that I’m for sure showing students and faculty members have many things to say. Most are very sweet, and I am thankful to work with great people, but some are like, really? You really just said that? I’ll share those with you.
A Teacher: “Oh look at you, maybe now you’ll have some hips!”  
- Okay does this mean I was scrawny before? (Not thinking it's this one.) Or does this mean I’m fat now? Either way, THANKS.
A Student: “Mrs. Wolfe, you getting chubby (points at my stomach). Oh that’s right, you’s pregnant.”
– I have no comment for this.
A Student: “What? You can only feel your baby when she moves? You’re not a very good mother.”
– Thanks sweetie.
I’ve had many great comments, but those seemed the most interesting to share.
Today I’m 22 weeks 4 days, week 23.  Here is her development.
How your baby's growing:
At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. Her lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and she's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. Her eyes have formed, but her irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers her body and the deep wrinkles on her skin, which she'll sport until she adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside her belly, her pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

GOOD DAY!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

And Baby is..A GIRL!

Baby cooperated today, she is not grounded anymore. She let us know she was a she. We are SO excited! Thanks for all who took the time to vote. It was fun to watch:) We have a million pictures, which I will post soon. Right now we are rethinking all of the names we had thought of earlier. We had the boy name though... not helpful anymore..I love knowing right now though. I am at a peace a bit more now that I can call her little lady, and plan for everything else.

The pictures showed her completely normal, healthy, with the biggest measurement being her little belly. This, as many of you may or may not know, is from Justin. He may look small, but he's got a stomach! 2 weeks ago I finally passed him in stomach circumference. We should have taken pictures together the whole time! Baby girl was also breech and kicks at my bladder. Perfect for me, cause I never had to pee before anyway. (That's sarcasm, I'm a pee-er.)

Gotta work on these girl names! Feel free to make suggestions. We are picky, so beware!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Tomorrow we "should" know!

Tomorrow is our appointment that is suppose to tell us if baby is a HE or SHE. It has been driving me completely crazy. I just want to know. I want to call the baby something other than baby. I know it will help us to focus on names. We have some ideas, but we are waiting to share until we are sure.

My students have all taken the, "Is the baby a boy or a girl" poll. 3 of the 5 groups of students say girl, yet of the 2 groups that said boy, they said boy by a much higher margin than girl. One class was about 73% boy vote and 27% girl vote. Yes, I'm a math teacher. Yes, I teach Probability and Statistics, and that was clearly an important study we did together. Very real life! 

As you can see in the title, we "SHOULD" know tomorrow. I say that should with such emphasis because of the last attempt to look at our child. As some of you may know, we tried to find out early at 16 weeks what we were having. The baby did not want to show us. As soon as we tried to see if there was anything in that spot to be a boy, we could only see the umbilical cord. I tried to convince the doctor to just poke the baby and move him/her, but apparently that's not how they do things. Tough love I say, but it was a no go. We were disappointed, but it was still very exciting to see baby actually looking like a baby and moving like a crazy! She/he was kicking and punching like a little working out baby! (See how nice it would be to just say either He or She instead of both. I know!) Justin did tell baby that he/she was grounded for not letting us see what he/she was. It's sad when your baby is grounded before they're born. Luckily baby really has nowhere to go right now.

Although this happened at the last appointment, I'm going to stay optimistic and assume we WILL find out tomorrow. Justin and I do not have a preference on boy or girl, just a preference of knowing tomorrow.

Today is 20 weeks and 3 days, so in week 21. Here is the baby update.

At about seven inches in length (head to rump) and almost 11 ounces in weight, your baby is about the size of a large banana.
 
By
21 weeks pregnant, your baby swallows at least several ounces of amniotic fluid each day —  not only for hydration and nutrition, but also to practice swallowing and digesting — skills your baby will need as soon as he or she arrives in your arms. And keep this in mind: The taste of the amniotic fluid differs from day to day depending on what you've eaten (spicy enchilada one day, sweet carrots another). And that smorgasbord of tastes won't be lost on your baby. That's because your little one has very developed taste buds already. In fact, researchers have noted that babies who were exposed to certain tastes in utero via the amniotic fluid were more eager to eat foods with that same taste after birth. Want your baby to eat his or her broccoli later?  Eat yours now!

Don't forget to vote your guess of boy or girl by tomorrow! Hopefully we'll all know by tomorrow evening :)