Sleepless nights and a five pound baby

It seems that my nights of sleeping 10 hours (interrupted at least once or twice) are over. About two weeks ago I started to wake up more often because I just wasn’t as comfortable lying in bed as I usually am. Unfortunately this has continued and I’m no longer sleeping very well most nights. I think this might have something to do with the fact that Uni is estimated to weigh a little over 5 pounds. Even laying on my side can be relatively uncomfortable because Uni is quite an active baby and likes to move around a lot- even at 3 am. Fortunately, I’m not feeling overly tired and the sleeping situation is just annoying- for now. I have a sneaking suspicion that the sleep situation in the next 6 months is only going to get more interesting. Rather than getting up and wandering around the house trying to find an activity to put me back to sleep I’ll be sitting in a chair with the baby and the Boppy doing night-time feedings. Here I am trying out the Boppy (a pillow that quite a few mom’s have recommended to me for breastfeeding).

This week is my last full week of classes and I’m busily wrapping things up for my proposal which I plan to defend May 15th. It is hard to believe that I’m done with coursework and that from here on out I will pretty much be working on the dissertation and doing various teaching assistant-type activities. It feels so good to be almost completely done with school for the semester- and it also feels a little crazy as this means that Uni is almost here. We are now at 34 weeks and some change- meaning that we have about 4-6 weeks left give or take a week. Jered and I are both getting very excited and are slowly finishing up the nursery/baby stuff. This past weekend we even installed the car seat base, now we just have to drive over to the fire station and have it inspected. There are so many things to do before a baby arrives, but the physical preparations are nothing compared with the emotional/psychological preparations! Jered and I are becoming more and more aware of just how much our world is going to be rocked by this little one. That being said- we are both getting to the point where we are ready to start out lives with Uni on the outside!

Nursery Progress Pictures

Jered and I have been quite busy this weekend. We went out on Saturday and bought the mattress for the crib as well as some other baby items including a baby first aid kit and some baby bathing supplies. After a day of yard work yesterday (Jered did quite the nice job on our yard, it is now perfectly cut, pruned and mulched) we worked on the nursery today. This involved hanging the pictures Jered painted for Uni, installing the storage cones we painted a while ago and washing, folding and organizing the baby clothes, blankets and towels we got at our baby shower last week. Halfway through the process of getting the room done, Jered and I were both feeling a bit punchy and were both craving pizza- here are our pizza craving faces (be afraid)


We kept working through the hunger and did not give in to our craving for pizza. Instead we played around with the night light we got for Uni- putting it into the now completely assembled (with a mattress) crib.

I still have at least one more load of laundry to wash before all of our clothes and blankets are done- but we made a lot of progress today! We are slowly but surely getting the baby’s room ready to go. Our upstairs bathroom and guest room have also been cleaned out and worked on- we are definitely in nesting mode! Here is a picture of our changing table now that we’ve hung the pictures and the storage cones- we’ve decided to fill the cones with blankets, diapers and toys.

All in all, I’d say we had a very productive day- let us know what you think of our progress on the nursery by leaving a comment!

Getting ready for the baby one stitch at a time

After our shower on Sunday Jered and I came home and unpacked all of our goodies. We were so overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity- and by the fact that we now have quite a bit of baby stuff in our house, which can only mean one thing- Uni is almost here!
We decided to unpack everything and gather up all of the clothes and blankets to be washed in the next couple of weeks. We have an entire section of our laundry hamper full of baby blankets, onesies and crib sheets! Now that we have a pack of diapers in the house, as well as toys for Uni, a bouncy seat, an infant tub, a baby monitor, a Boppy pillow, baby bath robes, towels, and a diaper bag it has started to really sink in that another little person is moving in with us very soon! I think a preliminary “nesting” instinct has taken hold of me as I’ve started to go through the house room by room making an inventory of all of the things I want to get done before June. I’m done with classes May 5th, and after that I’m thinking I’ll have a solid month of waiting for the baby without too much to do. This is a great position to be in, but I know I might go a bit stir crazy. Having a list of things to keep me occupied will hopefully keep me from climbing up the walls! This will be the first summer in years that I haven’t worked at the clinic, taken classes or seen clients. I realize that this is the calm before the storm- and I have every intention of taking advantage of this down time!!!
For the past month or so I’ve been working on a blanket for Uni- I’ve mostly been knitting it in class, but now I have a bit more time on my hands and plan to finish it up when I’m not cleaning the house or folding baby laundry! Here are a couple of pictures of the progress I’ve made so far.

And, just for fun (Jered tells me that I remind him of these things almost daily) Uni weighs close to 4 and a half pounds now- that’s nearly as heavy as the “flour” babies we were made to carry around in middle school as part of our health class, whew!

April Showers…

Yesterday Jered and I were showered with gifts and well wishes at our baby shower. Around 2 pm we headed over to my mom’s house- she co-hosted with three of my friends from school. By the time we got there the party was in full swing and the house was full of people. Everyone brought food to share and it was delicious! Most of the guests were from in town, but my friend Karissa’s parents came down from D.C. to celebrate with us- Here I am saying hello to Scott!

After everyone was able to get some food and mingle a little Carrie gathered us all in for a couple of games. The first game involved everyone cutting off a piece of yarn to “guess” how big around my belly was. Almost everyone overestimated and Clayton was the winner- he came within less than an inch of the actual measurement, pretty impressive! Carrie, Kristi and Adele made really cute prizes for the winners of each of the games. Little bottles filled with baby M&M’s. Here Carrie is handing them out.

The second game we played involved trying to figure out the names of nursery rhymes given one line of each rhyme. Jered and I teamed up and did ok- we guessed 13 out of 26. My mom and Adele teamed up and got over 15!!!

After the games were played it was time to get down to the business of opening gifts. Everyone was so generous, and we even got gifts from family and friends who were unable to make it to the shower. Jered and I were overwhelmed with everyone’s generosity. Carrie’s daughter Ellie was my official gift hander-outer, she made sure that I didn’t have to twist or contort myself too much to reach any of the gifts, and she put together a very long chain of tissue paper as Jered and I unwrapped each gift.

As we were unwrapping the gifts, Sara, another friend of mine from school was jotting down short snippets of what Jered and I said as we unwrapped each gift. We didn’t know she was doing this. Once all the gifts had been opened these phrases were read aloud to the group but with a twist: apparently these were the sorts of things that we were saying the night Uni was conceived… a few highlights:
“Wow…that’s a big one!”
“Ooooohhh, oh yeah, that’s really nice!”
“Put a hat on it!”
“Wrapping on top of wrapping- perfect…”
and best of all thanks to Aunt Pam’s cute Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Mouse toy:
“He has beans in his butt!!!”

My mom and brother took more pictures and I’m hoping there are at least a couple with both Jered and I in them. We will post them as we get them, but in the meanwhile please feel free to check out the rest of the photos on Flickr.
Thank you all so much for your love and support- Jered and I are so lucky to have friends and family who care so much about us!

Dr. Bob

Esther and I went to our first doctor’s appointment with our new doctor. We had decided to change practices and it has been about 4 weeks since our last appointment when we should have been going every two weeks. 

We finally got to our appointment and I, for one, was pleasantly surprised. 

After Esther was taken away for a the normal questions, blood pressure and weighing, we were lead back to Dr. Bob’s office. I call him Dr. Bob, because he said in his practice people were known on a first name basis. We were in his office for about 10 minutes while he went over all of Esther’s chart and previous records, asking us questions that weren’t completely filled in.

Dr. Bob walked us down to the exam room where he did the standard doppler and belly measure. We learned that the baby’s heart rate was 152, which Dr. Bob then explained the wives tale. Over 150 its a girl, under 150 its a boy. The nice thing was he was very clear to us and to his staff that we did not want to know the sex of the baby, we were both worried that in the transfer someone would accidentally tell us.

Whew.

The real reason why Esther and I are happy with our decision is because Dr. Bob talked with Esther and I about the melanoma that John passed away from. He reminded her to be putting on sun screen or avoiding the sun when ever possible. Because he went above and beyond a standard belly measure, I know Esther and I are very happy with Dr. Bob.

Insomnia kicks in

Now that Uni is getting nice and big (nearly 4 pounds already) I seem to be experiencing some insomnia. Last night I went to bed around 10, woke up around 1 am, again around 3 am and finally at 3:45 am. I tried to go back to sleep but I was wide awake. I laid in bed until 4:40 when I decided to go ahead and shower for the day. Imagine Jered’s surprise when he wakes up at 5 and I’m already showered and dressed. I had a very productive morning- I got 5 hours of writing in before I left for school this morning. Needless to say, I am absolutely exhausted! I’m hoping I will be so tired tonight that I sleep straight through the night, although I doubt I’ll be able to. The last time I was able to sleep through the night without any interruptions (think baby using bladder as a trampoline or punching pillow) was about two weeks ago! It’s a good thing I got nice and rested up. As my mom says, this is probably just good preparation for when Uni finally gets here- which is coming up so fast!

Speaking of waking up in the middle of the night- as the due date gets closer I’ve been thinking about when people want to be called. If we go into labor during the day there isn’t really any issue, but if things start to get interesting in the middle of the night do we wait until morning to let all of our important people know? I suppose nothing is going to happen too quickly, but I would hate to assume one way or the other! Feel free to leave a comment with your preference.

A letter to Uni and the State of the Uni-on

Since Jered decided to lift the embargo on the letters we wrote to Uni in our Babies class, I’ve decided to post mine as well.

Dear Baby,

If you can read this then you’ve come a long long way. You kick me a lot, which hopefully you don’t do anymore. I’m excited to meet you- we don’t know if you’re a boy or a girl, if you have brown hair or blond. I can’t wait to see what you look like and get to know you face to face. For now, I hope you’re enjoying what will undoubtedly be my very best mothering- all of your needs are met and all I have to do is sleep 10 hours a night and indulge in the occasional cheeseburger. I look forward to learning and growing with you- and hopefully your dad and I will be good enough parents that one day you will be able to read this letter yourself!

Love,
Esther/Mom

And while I’m updating you all- here are a couple of pictures of the state of the Uni-on. Here’s the belly at 32 weeks!

Jered says I look like a hippy- I’ll let you all be the judge of that!

A letter to baby

Now that the B.A.B.I.E.S. class is over, I think the embargo has been lifted on a letter I wrote during the class. This letter should be delivered to the baby when he or she is born.

Dear baby,

Hello, welcome, we have been very excited about you getting here. I can’t wait to get you home where your Mom and I can really have fun with you. We have 2 cats and a dog and you’ll get to know them well, you can even ride the dog like a cowboy or girl rides their horse.

We have a puppet for you and not to put any pressure on you, but your great grandparents are expecting a show, but not right away.

Your Mom and I hope that we are good parents albeit hippie ones. We are always trying to do our best to give you the things you need. I’ll be at home for the next two weeks. You and I can spend lots of time together, and don’t worry after I go back to work, we’ll still have lots of fun, like the doggie rides.

I think the baby class ladies want us to eat cheese cake now. It is not a regular thing, don’t worry.

Love,

Jered / Dad

Graduation

Jered and I are official graduates of our B.A.B.I.E.S. class (I think it stands for Birth and Bonding Infant Education and Safety). Tonight was our final class and after 12 weeks I would say that we did pretty well for ourselves. We started the class the week we had our “big” ultrasound, hard to believe that was 12 weeks ago! Along the way we learned lots of useful information including how to work through the pain of childbirth, how to swaddle Uni, how to baby-proof our home and how to perform infant and child CPR. I’m glad we took the class when we did, many of the couples we started the class with did not finish because they had their babies. It was strange being the least far along of all the women there (don’t they say you can’t be just a little bit pregnant?)- but I am glad we started early and were able to attend all of the classes.

Tuesday evening we took a breastfeeding class that was incredibly informative, if not a bit anxiety provoking! I had no idea how complicated breastfeeding can be. The class also acted as a reality check for me. Until just recently Uni’s due date has seemed far away and somewhat abstract. June still felt far away in March. Now that it’s April and we’ve finished all the education classes we wanted to take it is really sinking in that this little one is almost here. At the breastfeeding class on Tuesday that reality sunk in a little more for me. Breast pumps and football holds, swaddling techniques and babyproofing- all things that were not even part of my vocabulary 7 months ago. It’s not that I didn’t anticipate how much of a life change having a baby would be, but now that our little life change is almost here it’s all starting to sink in. In two months it will be the three of us, instead of just the two of us. We will be parents, and we will have a child who is dependent on us for all of his or her physical and emotional needs. Heavy stuff.

Having said all that, I am at once terrified and at the same time incredibly excited about this new chapter in our lives together. I suppose a few pre-partum jitters are normal for first time parents! If any of you out there experienced feelings like this I know Jered and I would love to hear about how the experience of becoming a parent was for you. Feel free to leave comments or send us an e-mail!

An out of town visitor

Jered and my friend Liz surprised me big time yesterday! Jered had asked me about a week earlier what we would be doing on Sunday the 6th- I had no plans, and when I told him this he started talking about some surprise he had planned for me. Sunday morning I woke up to find a very nice breakfast waiting for me, complete with fruit salad, brie, toast and fresh hot decaf. Thinking this was my surprise I was very pleased. Waking up to a nice breakfast on a Sunday morning is a great way to end the week! Little did I know, the surprise had yet to make its appearance. Around 10:30 Jered tells me to go to the front door, at this point I’m thinking that something has been delivered or that we are going somewhere- the last thing in the world I expected was to see my friend Liz at the door!

Liz was out here visiting a friend of hers in Delaware and she decided to stop by and see us for a day on her way back home. It was a great surprise- and I have to give both Jered and Liz credit for pulling one over on me, Liz had even called on Friday and said she would call me again later that weekend to catch up! We got to show Liz Uni’s room and all of the baby-centered objects that seem to be finding their way into our house. It was nice to spend some time with her before things get really hectic around here!

On Saturday night (before Liz got here, before I was even aware anyone was coming to visit!), Jered and I were sitting around watching Star Trek (see previous post) and I asked him for a bit of a foot rub. Being the ever-sensitive and accommodating husband he is he instantly obliged. As he was rubbing my feet I commented that it would be nice to have one of those little foot baths with the jets and the bubbles. The thought was fleeting in my mind, but no more than 15 minutes later we were standing in the check-out lane in Target purchasing just such a contraption. Jered insisted. So now we have a foot spa- it is lovely, and if you ever come visit us, and have tired feet, you are more than welcome to use it, or you can always just ask Jered for a foot rub!

We are now 31 weeks into this pregnancy, meaning we have less than 10 weeks left. I am amazed how quickly time has gone by. Some mornings I still wake up and am shocked by the size of my belly. I have been fortunate in that I have moments when I can almost still “forget” that I’m pregnant. Usually these moments happen when I am lying down and the belly is supported by a few pillows and I’m half asleep- but I am grateful that they still exist. As the baby grows, the belly grows, and that undoubtedly strains my back and feet in ways they haven’t been strained before. Nine weeks seems manageable- of course I say this with a 3 and 1/2 pound baby in my belly and not a 7+ pound baby, but I remain optimistic!