Photos and drum beats

Esther and I have finally downloaded the photos we have been taking, so let me walk you through what we have:

1.  Our new Passat. Still smells fresh and looks like when we drove it off the lot.
2. In other modes of transportation that require wheels, Esther and I drove the new car down to the Baby’s R Us to buy the baby-mobile.

   Esther posing with the baby carrierThe baby carrier/stroller/tank has a very cool system where the car safety seat locks on to the stroller and to a car seat base that stays in the car. It can be unlocked by a single hand motion, which will make getting baby in and out of the car super easy. The other nice thing about the “transport system” is that the stroller will work until the baby is a toddler and can be folded up with one hand (super easy as shown by the fact that both Esther and my Mom can do it).

So drum beats… Esther and I went to the doctors just after Christmas. She was supposed to have blood drawn, but it was for a series of test that we didn’t want to have. So after explaining it to the doctor, nurse and a second nurse, we were finally treated to hearing the baby’s heart beat again.I thought Esther’s iPod was dead, so no sound this time. The thing that was amazing about this time as compared to the first time, the heart beat was easy for the doctor to find and it was loud and steady. The first heartbeat was kind of a whoosh, but this one was a thumping sound. Take a second and tap your finger on your desk. That is what it sounded like. Crazy. 

Coming soon: Photo Post

I logged on to write a photo post and just saw that Jered has been working on one that he hasn’t quite finished yet. Soon to come: pictures of our new stroller/car seat travel system!

In other big news, our “big” ultrasound is scheduled for January 24th at 9:30- we’ll get to see the baby again, this time for at least 15 minutes while they take lots of measurements and fight the urge to tell us whether we’re having a boy or a girl

Baby Gear

Merry Christmas! We have had a wonderful holiday with Jered’s parents who have been with us since Saturday morning. Christmas Eve was spent with the four of us and the addition of my mom, Oma (who is visiting from Germany until January 16th), Clayton, Sarah and her husband Andrew. We had a nice evening full of food, fun and Christmas cheer. Jane suggested we buy a big puzzle to work on through the holidays and we have been steadily putting a 1000 piece picture together- it’s not yet done, and Jered and I may end up piecing the last bits together once everyone has gone back home.

Christmas morning came after a very late evening (midnight mass went until 1:30!), and was also at our house. Everyone came over and we did stockings, Christmas socks and gifts. We got a couple of really neat things this year- a digital SLR camera from Peter and Jane which will come in very handy to take pictures of the baby come June (and maybe some pictures of me when my belly finally gets big enough to be photo worthy). We also got a Garmin GPS unit for our car from my mom. It’s very nice and we’ve already used it to navigate to and from the mall!  My sister bought us some cute baby clothes and a blanket which we can’t wait to use- and we got an adorable “Sushi Baby” onesie from Aunt Joanna and Uncle Matt We had a very nice Christmas and are thankful we could share it with family.

Today we made our way over to Babies R’ Us to exchange some of our Christmas cash for a baby travel system. We bought the Chicco Cortina Discovery stroller/car seat combo. Jered has already assembled it and we will post pictures shortly. This was our first big baby purchase and we are both very proud. Stay tuned for pictures of the stroller/car seat and the new car!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

New car

Sixteen years from next June, when our baby is old enough to drive I am sure he or she will want a car. Well- we already have that taken care of. Our child can never complain that we didn’t buy him or her a car! This week Jered and I took the plunge and bought our first car together. We traded in my Beetle (which I’ve had since I was 17!) and got a used 2004 Passat. It is such a nice car- it has four doors which was the main reason we decided to get a new car, so that we could get in and out of the car with the baby and car seat more easily. The car is a great green-gray color with a grey interior. It is really spacious and drives like a dream. We have a car payment now which is a new thing, but we are both so proud of our “new” car!Here’s a stock photo- I’ll post an actual photo soon! 2004 Passat

Interesting Autism Study

Increasingly, I have found CNN the most useless news site in the internet. There was an interesting video today, which discussed the cause and detection of autism in infants.

Take a second (or 2 minutes and 53 seconds) to watch the video, I would have never thought that the child featured was autistic, which shows that with therapy and early detection, autism can be managed.

I think that when the baby is born, I will have to swear off main stream media. With the toy recalls and all of the scary medical information that comes out every day, I don’t know if my newly defined fatherhood can handle the continual scares and warnings. I worry I would put my baby in a bubble.Anyway, enough scary medical stuff… until delivery… 

Pop goes the belly

This is what happens when you try on maternity clothes…

The first 100 days

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve officially been pregnant 100 days! I got a call from the doctor this morning with my results from the colposcopy last week- everything looks fine enough to ignore until after the baby is born. I was very relieved to hear that I didn’t have to go through any more tests or have any treatments done during pregnancy. 6 weeks after the baby is born I will go in for another exam just to be sure everything is ok and then I will be good to go!

My semester is winding down and I’m gearing up to study for my comprehensive exams. Right now I still don’t have my questions so I can’t really start studying, which puts me in the lovely position of having a few days off. I plan to do nothing but relax, get some Christmas shopping done and think about the baby, something I feel like I haven’t been able to do enough of during the semester!

I think I am just about ready to start to show, nothing major yet, but I am really hoping my belly will pop beyond it’s normal poppiness. I’ve read and heard from many people that in first pregnancies it’s not uncommon to not show until later- but I’ve still got my fingers crossed!

Keeping Momma upright

While Esther hasn’t really started showing yet, she’s getting ready to and finally science has provided an answer to why pregnant mothers don’t topple over due to all of that front leaning weight

CNN has a story about it.

Evolution provided slight differences from men in women’s lower backs and hip joints, allowing them to adjust their center of gravity   

…

Harvard anthropology researcher Katherine Whitcomb found two physical differences in male and female backs that until now had gone unnoticed: One lower lumbar vertebra is wedged-shaped in women and more square in men; and a key hip joint is 14 percent larger in women than men when body size is taken into account.

Now I’m not a “big” guy… but sometimes Esther and I compare our baby bumps (I hate that term) and right now I’m winning, I am ashamed to say. Why don’t I fall over? Not cool hip and back bones… nope.

But what about men with stomachs the size of babies or bigger? What keeps them from toppling over?Their back muscles are used to compensate, but that probably means more back pain, theorized Shapiro, who added: “It would be a fun study to do to look at men with beer bellies to see if they shift their loads.”  

“Officially” in the second trimester

Whew! Where have the last three months gone?

We are now in our 14th week, so I’m officially in my second trimester, which is really crazy- I can’t say the time has flown by, but it does seem like it went fairly fast!
Some really neat things are happening this week according to one of the books we have on how Uni is developing.
This week’s big developments: Uni can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck a thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, facial muscles are getting a workout as tiny features form one expression after another. Kidneys are producing urine (that’s just weird to think about). Uni can grasp, too, and if we were to have another ultrasound now we might even get to see some thumb sucking going on in there!

In other news: Uni is stretching out. From head to bottom, now measuring 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and weighing 1 1/2 ounces.

I’m still not really “showing,” but any day now I feel like something will just pop and that will be that!

Laying down a beat.

Esther and I had another appointment with the doctor. It was going to be a mixed bag. A few days ago, Esther got some questionable lady exam results. A nerve-wracking thing regardless of the time it is received, but particularly when we are taking about having a baby.Esther was a trooper, her husband, almost not. During the procedure, Jered was holding her hands during the uncomfortable bits, learning how truly uncomfortable those things can be. As the doctor was wrapping up, It must have been too much, because I nearly passed out. I was teetering on the edge of fainting, white as a ghost, clammy, sweating and light headed. This has proven that I can’t become a doctor, but has also made me a little nervous about delivery, not in Esther’s performance, but mine.The doctor’s outlook, after doing what was needed, was that it really should be nothing, and it is ultimately to stop something down the road, which is never a bad thing.The coolest part of the appointment was getting to hear the baby’s heart beat!The nurse brought in a little microphone and speaker and we managed to capture it below (you can press the play button to listen for yourself).After we heard the heart beat, Esther was much more relaxed (didn’t help me much…), and we were both a little teary eyed.”You look like you’re going to cry” Esther said to me.”Yeah, that’s a big thing [for being such a small noise].” The brackets are what I should have said, so please read them as though I did.So all in all, it was a good appointment, a little scary, but a lot happy![display_podcast]