I forgot

I forgot to tell you guys that Richard got to feel the baby move on the evening of Wednesday, November 21. : )
It was a fun moment for me and I think a pretty weird one for him. He said it was nothing like what he expected.

25 Weeks

I'm not keen on posting photos on the internet that show more of my skin than I would show on the beach, but this photo made me say, "Holy CRAP," when I looked at it last night. Richard said, "Yeah, you got really pregnant this week."

Here is a close-up photo of what's going on this week. *If you click on the photo, it will take you to the website. Drag your cursor across each underlined word and you can learn about DesvousJunior!
This week, Baby weighs about 1.5lbs and from head to heels measures about 13.5 inches. Isn't that cool?! It is about the size of an average rutabaga.

Baby is also beginning to "fill out" by gaining body fat. Its hair is also recognizable by color and texture, though it may change after birth.
Birth...which is getting closer and closer. I should get to work!

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I was flipping through Rolling Stone last night and came across this ad.

I can't believe how much it looks like me and Richard!

Doubtful

Just when I start to doubt myself and my future parenting skills, or patience, or energy, God uses something fun to give me the confidence I need in myself.

Like this little man, Easton James, my cousin's little boy.

I had such a blast spending the weekend with him.

Shredding documents found in Grandma's basement. The photo didn't turn out very well, but you get the idea.

The aftermath.

Normally this sort of thing would give me a stroke, but instead (after a moment's panic, I admit)I found it highly amusing. And hey, it kept him busy.

All in all, spending time with this dolly made me very excited for my own baby to arrive.

Thanks, E-man. Love you.

Futbol

Holy crap.

I just read that this week my uterus is the size of a soccer ball.
That's insane.

1926

My great-grandmother wrote to me on my birthday to tell me what it was like to be pregnant 81 years ago. I thought it would be fun to share.

Dear Erin:
I do wish you a very, very happy birthday. I'm sure Richard has something big planned for you. First of all, I want to tell you what it was like to be pregnant in 1926. I didn't go to the doctor right away. Nobody did. But in the 2nd month when my morning sickness was so bad, I went to see what the doctor would suggest. Mainly, it was just grin and bear it! Not to eat anything in the morning with milk in it and just something dry. Mine sometimes lasted all day. So, then he started to give me other orders for pregnancy. Be careful what you eat. Eat a well balanced diet, including plenty of calcium so your baby will have strong bones. Important to do exercises, not strenuous, but walking a lot. The next thing was to be sure you wore a girdle. In those days there weren't stretch girdles, they were all corsets, so he said to buy a corset with laces so you could make it bigger. His explanation was that you needed something to help you hold up the load in your belly. If the muscles had to do it all themselves they would stretch out too much. By giving support, they would regain their normal condition after giving birth. I didn't go every month, but went at about 4 months and he asked if I felt life yet and I said "no" and he said in about 2 weeks I would and he was right. So from then on it should have been 4-1/2 more months until I delivered. It happened that my baby was two weeks early. It was a boy, my son Charles. The doctor said it was normal for boys to be early and girls would be late. Then, after giving birth you stayed in the hospital 14 days and became so weak you could hardly walk. Then I got my mother to stay with me for a couple of weeks until I was strong and able to take care of the baby. Chicago at that time had a wonderful program for mothers and babies. Every month after the baby was born we went to a free clinic mainly to check out the baby, see if it had gained the right amount, if everything was normal and to be sure to continue breast feeding. If you had too much milk, they suggested you get a breast pump and pump out the extra milk. That way it was always fresh. And, of course, every other breast every day. At 4 months we would start feeding baby food. I think it was called Pablum at that time. At 6 months you could start feeding mashed potatoes or mashed carrott and things like pudding, even ice cream and from then on increase the food. So when you weaned the baby, he'd be eating on his own, drinking milk and water. The next thing they taught you when you went to the clinic in the early months was how to train your baby to be out of diapers by the time they were 15 months old. There were no Pampers, you just washed diapers. Certainly no one would have a baby in diapers at 18 months. The doctor said if the baby could say "mama" or "daddy" they could also say "potty". I took that seriously and Charles was out of diapers at 15 months and Shirley at 14 months. If you had a child that wet the bed, it was not a lack of training it was some ailment the child had and you just had to wait until the child outgrew it. So that was my pregnancy in 1926. In 1928 when I was carrying Shirley, I didn't do so good. I ate too much and I gained too much weight and so did my baby. My first baby was under 8 lbs. Shirley was over 9 lbs. So, it is important to eat right. So much for all of that.

I thought this was a very sweet letter. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

23 Weeks

This photo was taken on the last day of my 23rd week, so I am not sure it's quite fair to call this my 23 week photo. Oh well!

I had my 23-week check up yesterday afternoon, and everything went great. I'm sure I'll regret saying this later, but Fern rejoiced (laughingly) to see that I am starting to gain weight! Finally! Ask me again in a month if I'm thankful... At this point, I've gained a total of seven pounds. 6 months along and only 7lbs? I'll take it. My bp was 120/62, the fundal height was 24cm (whatever that means), DesvousJunior's heart rate is still in the mid 140s, and everything looks great. Fern really put some of my concerns to rest (i.e. that I'm not getting enough protein and that my one caffienated beverage per day is going to kill my baby). She was very patient with me in going over my questions.

All in all, a very good visit.

My next appointment is on December 14th at 11am. Where we will be doing my glucose test. I really can't believe how fast this is going.

Thank goodness my nursery set arrived in the mail. Now I feel like I can start to really get ready!

Not Yet

I find myself repeating the same lines to different people.
"I'm almost 6 months pregnant!"
"I know, I can hardly believe it myself."
"I'm feeling really great, thanks!"
"I feel human again now that I'm in my second trimester."
"Ha. Ha. I know it doesn't show, but I can feel it flopping arond all the time." (This one in particular is getting pretty old.)
So, today, I said one I've been saying over and over to a woman I only talk to every once in a while:
"It just occurred to me this week that I'm almost 6 months along and I'm not ready!"
She said, "You're not?! Yikes. You'd better get to work!"

Um, thanks.

What's up?

One of my more troublesome guys called me into his office today to "chat."
He told me to take a seat.
How was I doing? How was the baby? Tell him about quilting.
I couldn't help but wonder, "What does he want?" the entire time.
Turns out, nothing.
I made the comment that I'm almost 6 months pregnant (I know!) "even though you can't really tell," and he said, "No, I can tell. Guys just don't really know what to say so we end up teasing a lot."
I just thought that was so nice.

In week 22, baby weighed-in at 1lb! (That's a package of hamburger meat! Or something less gross...) It measures over 10 inches long from head to heel. Its eyebrows are grown in, and teethbuds are showing beneath the gumline. Its lips and eyes are developed, though the irises of the eyes have not reached their full color potential yet.
I'm actually 23 weeks this week, so I will post more updated statistics later this week. I have another check up appointment on Friday afternoon.

Nuke 'Em

I brought in the rest of the cake from Naomi's baby shower to work.

People are very confused because I haven't had my baby yet, therefore it can't possibly be named Sophia Colette (though it hasn't stopped anyone from taking a piece).

Our VP just said to me, "Erin! What's the deal? Are you on the microwave plan for making babies? That was fast!"

I'm still chuckling about it.

I thought that was a good one.

Week 22

I looked at these photos tonight and said, "Wow! I look pregnant!"

Richard thinks there's been a big change in the last three weeks, but I guess I'm still not sure. For comparison's sake, here's 19 weeks.
(I'm not doing very well at taking weekly photos...)

I'm standing a lot different in the two photos. I can't tell if it makes a difference. Thoughts?

Aren't you glad I found the "pretty paper" again??

Tweener

OK.

I wore my "new" maternity jeans today (read: new as in I bought them two weeks ago and have not yet washed them because I'm afraid they'll shrink), which are really just too short. I was so excited about them initially and now I'm just feeling discouraged and frumpy.

I chose a fitted long-sleeved t-shirt and coordinating cardigan to wear with the jeans in the hopes of looking SOMEWHAT pregnant since my boss made another comment the other day. For some reason I'm desperate to prove that I actually am pregnant. (By the way, wearing jeans to work on a Friday is a MAJOR treat.)

Well, I got to work and discovered that if I wear my jeans low enough to make them long enough, the elasto-band squishes my sides and reveals my belly-button making me look flabby--NOT pregnant.

Is it appropriate to wear an oversized sweatshirt for the rest of the day?

See? Too short.

And yes, I wear crazy shoes.

It took major planning to take this photo. I nearly got caught twice. How would I explain this to my boss or co-workers?

Stronger

DesvousJunior's movements are getting a lot stronger.
I keep thinking my stomach is falling out, when really it's just a strong movement. Weird, huh?
Baby is the size of a large banana or carrot, which seems awfully skinny to me...
It weighs 3/4 lbs and is about 10 inches long from head to heel.


















I'm feeling very good these days (aside from my little neck issue) and am enjoying pregnancy quite a lot, though I find myself longing for the good old days when I wasn't "showing" and nobody cared if I drank a caffienated beverage, ate a soft cheese, or an extra piece of candy.

My conversations go like this:
Them: Do you know that has caffiene in it?
Me: Yes, I'm allowed to have up to 350mg of caffeine per day.

Them: Should you be eating that? It comes with blue cheese.
Me: It's pasteurized. I checked.

Them: Tuna for lunch? I thought that was off limits.
Me: Once a week is fine.

Them: Another coke? Are you sure you should do that?
Me: I want my baby to have a low birthweight. I stopped smoking last week. What else do you want from me??

I could go on.
Obviously, I don't want my child to have a low birthweight...answering that way usually stops people in their tracks. I KNOW it's only going to get worse from here, but some days I get really tired of everyone's "help."