22 weeks

In my hoodie.  No make-up.  No contact lenses (I cheated by taking my glasses off for the photo).  Just baby and me on a lazy Sunday night. I had a horrible stomach bug last Thursday.  I'm pretty sure I threw up everything I've ever eaten in my life.  (I know, TMI, sorry.  Yuck!)  It was so bad I spent half the night sleeping on the bathroom floor.  Guess what?  Being sick is not fun.  Being sick and pregnant is even less fun. Baby seems to have come through the ordeal just fine, though, and has been squirming around a lot today to his/her mommy's delight.  And I finally feel that I have made a full recovery (knock on wood).  Now my mission is to avoid all germs for the rest of the winter.  (Right - good luck with that one!)

From Loving the Life We Live

Pillow Talk

About a week ago, a huge package arrived on our doorstep. Meet my new pillow. I've felt great throughout the second trimester so far.  The only discomfort I've had has been related to sleeping.  I was waking up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom, and afterwards I had trouble getting comfortable and falling back asleep.  And, even though I've always been a side sleeper, I found myself going to sleep on my side but somehow waking up on my back . . . and my back hurt.  (You are not supposed to sleep on your back after around the 4th month or so of pregnancy - your abdomen puts a lot of pressure on your organs and your spine or something like that.)  I started sleeping with a regular body pillow (thanks for lending it to me, Janelle) to squish between my knees and hug my belly, but I was still having the same problems. So I decided to invest in this monstrosity of a pillow. I've been sleeping on it two ways.  Usually, when I go to bed, I sleep on my left side, wrapping my arms around the stretchy side of the pillow as it hugs and supports my belly, with my head on one end and the other end between my knees. I still wake up once in the night and have to go to the bathroom. Then I flip over onto my right side.  With my back against the stretchy side of the pillow, it keeps me from rolling over onto my back and cradles my back and hips. So far this is going well!  I haven't had trouble falling back asleep and I haven't woken up flat on my back or had any soreness. We'll see how it goes as my baby belly grows.  I have a feeling that this pillow may become an even greater source of comfort and a truly necessary part of getting a good night's sleep. As a bonus, there are a lot more ways that you can use the pillow.  It came with all kinds of pictures and suggestions.  (For those wondering, it's the LeachCo Grow to Sleep adjustable maternity pillow.  And for the record, I got a great deal on it.)  And the two ends detach and can later be used separately as nursing pillows. Greg says that I love my pillow more than I love him, which is not true. But I'm not kicking it out of the bed any time soon.

From Loving the Life We Live

The Procrastinator

On Halloween, I decided to pull out the bag of goodies that I got at my first OB appointment this summer, thinking that I should probably start looking at the info about childbirth classes at the hospital where I will deliver.  I was shell-shocked when, in big bold letters near the top of the page, I read the words, "Please register for classes by week 20 of your pregnancy." Holy cow!  That very day marked 20 weeks exactly.  I suddenly realized that I had been a procrastinator without even knowing it.  So I got on the hospital's website to register and felt slightly panicked when I realized that upcoming classes were full.  I was hoping that I wouldn't find myself relegated to having to take childbirth classes after my due date!  Seriously, what would they do if you didn't realize you were supposed to sign up so early and everything ended up being full?  I hope that they would make room for you somehow, but I don't know. Luckily, I finally found the calendar for 2011 classes and wasted no time in reserving our spot for the labor & birth series offered at the beginning of January. Whew - what a relief! Then I registered for a breastfeeding class . . . and a newborn care class . . . and a car seat safety class . . . and a newborn massage class. I'm also thinking of signing up for the labor relaxation class, which is specifically designed for those wanting a natural birth, even though I do not know if I have the guts to attempt that.  Either way, it probably doesn't hurt to have some extra techniques under your belt, right? So it looks like I'm going to be pretty busy for the entire month of February.  But I just can't resist the lure of FREE classes. Sometime, I really ought to get around to pre-registering our birth (so we don't have to fill out all the paperwork when I arrive at the hospital in labor).  But before we do that, we're supposed to choose a pediatrician.  Now, how on earth does one go about deciding that? *Sigh*  Maybe I'll be a procrastinator on that for a little while longer.

From Loving the Life We Live

Baby's First Pictures

This morning we had our 20 week ultrasound, and we're so proud to share baby's first pictures (well, the first pictures where he/she looks like a baby and not just a little blob).

Isn't our baby adorable?  Yeah, I thought you'd agree.  My favorite picture is actually the third one down, of the baby's face resting against its arm.  Once you figure out what you're looking at, it's really cool, because you can actually see the fleshy parts of the face instead of the scary-bony-looks-like-a-skull part and I actually feel like I'm looking at our baby's sweet little face.  That's an arm underneath . . . do you think that's the hand from the other arm in the top right part of the picture, with the palm of the hand facing out?  I feel like it might be the bottom of a thumb and some fingers.  I also like how baby has raised his/her arm in front of its face in the bottom picture.  The top picture shows how much room there is for our little smarty's big brain.  :)

I feel so much better now that we've had this ultrasound.  It was awesome to see our active little baby moving around and to confirm that he/she appears healthy with all the right parts.  :)  We clearly saw all four chambers of the heart, the stomach, two kidneys, the umbilical cord, the spine . . . I looked away when she was checking out the legs since we don't want to know if it's a boy or girl.  Greg continued to look at the screen, but since he's no expert on ultrasounds, he doesn't really know what to look for, so it didn't really matter.

For those interested in baby's stats, here they are for 20w5d gestation:

• heartrate: 144 beats per minute
• weight: 14 ounces
• measuring: 21w1d (3 days ahead of schedule)

Our doctor said that our baby is proportioned normally and everything else that she looks for with this ultrasound is normal, too.  My weight and growth are good, my blood pressure is awesome as usual, everything is still looking perfect!  What a relief!  Right now the baby is in breech position, which is common at this point.  I just have to watch out for those kicks getting stronger and coming right down on my bladder!

Taking a look at our pictures, our doctor commented that our baby has BIG FEET.  Neither Greg nor I have big feet, so it will be interesting to see if I give birth to a baby with giant clown feet.  :)  She also thought that, with our pictures being as good as they are this time, we're going to get some really spectacular ones at the 32 week 4D ultrasound.  That will be our last scheduled ultrasound.  I didn't know they did 4D as standard at my doctor's office, so now I'm really excited about that!

What an absolutely wonderful day!  Baby enjoyed his/her first photo session, too; he or she has been squirming around the whole rest of the day from all the excitement!

From Loving the Life We Live

Half-Baked (20 weeks)

Happy Halloween!  Today marks 20 weeks into my pregnancy, which means that Baby Mueller is now officially half-baked!

From Loving the Life We Live

Weigh-In

Apparently I've gained 20 pounds. My book Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy says, "If you're at a normal weight for your size when you conceive, research suggests that gaining 25 to 30 pounds is healthiest for you and your baby." I am going to hope that I was considered underweight before pregnancy instead of normal weight.  Because I don't think it's very likely that I'll only gain another 5 to 10 pounds over the next 20 weeks.  My book also says, "Guidelines suggest gaining 1/2 to 1 pound a week in the second and third trimester."  According to my calculations, that would be 10-20 pounds.  So I bet I'm going to hit 160.  What do you think?  Maybe people should start taking bets on how much weight I'm going to gain by the time baby makes his or her appearance. Not that I mind gaining weight.  It's for a good cause, and I seem to be pretty much carrying it in my belly.  I haven't been puffing out all over.  Plus, my mother says she lost all her baby weight super fast after her first baby, so I'm banking on heredity here.  :) Also, I like to eat.  Call me crazy.

From Loving the Life We Live

My New Love: Craigslist

I have a confession. I have been researching baby products for literally years.  Even though we weren't planning on having kids quite yet.  Weird?  Possibly.  But I think it's good because I feel better informed about what I want. I have always maintained that people spend a lot of $$ on baby stuff they don't need, and spend a lot more $$ on the stuff they need than they really have to. Um, of course, I'm sure I'll fall victim to those two mistakes to some extent as well. As part of this philosophy, I have planned to turn to Craigslist once babytime came around to score gently used "baby things I want/need" instead of insanely dropping huge sums of money on brand new ones. Craigslist is my new love. A week ago, I got on Craigslist specifically to look for one item: an Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper.  Guess what?  Someone had posted one for sale . . . that very day . . . in Plainfield (the town right by ours) . . . and was asking just $75 for it (it retails new for about $140). . . and it had only been used a few months, so was in excellent condition. I didn't expect to find one.  It's not like a Boppy pillow, which people post every day.  This is an item that not that many people around here ever buy, so it was so weird that someone in my neck of the woods just happened to have one for sale. It was Love at First Sight.  We were Meant to Be. So here is my first "big" baby purchase.  It securely attaches to the side of the bed so you can have your newborn right beside you during those first few months of constant night fussing and feeding.  And the side can also be raised to use it as a free-standing bassinet.  Plus, it folds up kind of like a pack-n-play and stows in a little bag so it can be easily transported when traveling.  (We have a full-size crib already for the baby's actual nursery, thanks to Greg's sister Christy.  Right now it's still in pieces, but it's going to be perfect.)   The mom I bought the co-sleeper from was really nice.  It is in clean, perfect condition with the manual and everything else it came with originally.  I will need to get some leg extensions since our bed is taller, but I was so excited to bring home my new "toy" and play with it.  :) My first Craigslist purchase went so well - great price, good condition, nice mama, no axe murderers - that I am inspired to check it constantly for other things that I want. Let it be known that I DO have willpower.  I am only looking for specific things that I already know I want, and if one is posted for sale but not in my area (say, Zionsville), I am sadly turning a blind eye to it. I am about to make my second transaction - a Boppy Rock in Comfort Travel Swing.  Now, this wasn't exactly, precisely on my wish list, but I was just looking at similar travel swings in Target the other day and thinking it would be nice to have one, kind of a portable combo between a bouncy seat and a swing.  After all, I may need something to set baby down in once in a while so I can take a shower or make a sandwich, or to take along when we visit friends.  I looked it up and the overall reviews were really great.  Plus it seems like they aren't made anymore, or at least not readily available, and there is actually one listed on Amazon for $130 (craziness).  This nice mama is asking $25.  SOLD!  I'm going to go look at it this Wednesday and maybe bring it home with me. Did I mention that I also have an inquiry out on one other Craigslist item?  It's only been used once and they're selling it for less than half the retail price.  I hate to miss out on a great deal!  (And yes, this is something that was already on my wish list.) Ah, Craigslist . . . my new love.  Do you think I have a problem?  I don't think so . . . yet.

From Loving the Life We Live