Baby Essentials

Well, we survived our first baby class. This past Saturday, Josh and I sat through a 4 hour baby essentials class. I originally signed up for this class thinking it would be good for my husband, er, i mean me, to take. It covered an array of different things but mostly focused on the first 2 weeks of life: everything from putting a diaper on a baby, holding a baby, giving baby a sponge bath, and swaddling a baby. I knew I had made the right decision to sign up for this class, when the teacher asked the dads to pick up their newborn (fake baby of course) and Josh enthusiastically grabbed our baby under the arms completely and 100% neglecting the neck/head. Not that I'm too worried, I have a feeling when a real newborn is lying there he will be overly cautious but just the site of his big grin after he thought he had done the right thing was enough to make me forget the whole incident :)

Next we were on to newborn/child safety. One piece of advice given in class was to turn down your water heater to below 120 degrees. Apparently anything above 120 degrees and a child can scald themselves in less than a minute. Anything below it takes at least 4 minutes. As all of this was being explained, Josh leaned over to me with an honest and utterly confused look and said "Hon, that doesn't apply to us because our water heater is in a closet in the garage...there is no way our baby can get to it". No I am NOT joking. That is literally what came out of his mouth. I thought he was completely kidding until I saw the utter look of truthfulness in his eyes. So, I did what any normal wife would do and politely said "are you kidding right now?! They are talking about the temperature of the running water in case they are washing their hands or taking a bath". Followed by my sweet words of encouragement: "That might be one of your dumbest moments yet". Don't worry - no fights were started...we both just had a good laugh and this will go down as something we (or I) will NEVER forget. All in all it was a good day and I look forward to our upcoming classes.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful aside from a family lunch on Sunday and the horrible Jets loss on Sunday night. Below is a picture from our family get together...thought you all might like to see the growing babe.

Home Stretch

This past Monday we officially started our 3rd trimester (28 weeks). I can't believe it! I remember when I first found out I was pregnant I truly felt like the 3rd trimester was light years away. And now, its here. Just as everyone said the 2nd trimester was a breeze and much easier than the first and I can already tell will be much easier than the 3rd. I'm definitely at the point where I'm starting to feel the affects of my ever growing belly. Sleeping is difficult...as I mentioned last time, without a pillow my sleep would be non-existent, so thankfully I have that. However, making sure the pillow is constantly under you when you change sides is enough to ensure your sleep is disrupted every night. Not to mention the constant kicks and movements throughout the night as well as the bathroom breaks every couple of hours. Sum it all up and what you have is a not so restful nights sleep. In addition, my stomach is getting so large that it is just flat out getting in the way and to think that it is supposed to grow the most these last couple of months truly freaks me out. I'll be lucky if I'm able to walk by the end. You know how they always say if barbie were real she would topple over?! I'm afraid I'm going to feel that way, only it will be due to a large gut vs. amazing boobs.

I've also noticed that Dr's visits are getting less and less exciting and more and more monotonous lately. Here's the drill: pee in a cup, weigh in, get blood pressure checked, have Dr. check heartbeat and measure stomach and done. It is down to a science. I'm usually in and out in 20 minutes or less. Now instead of doing that drill every month I get to do it every 2 weeks...awesome.

In other news, we have our first baby class tomorrow. I'm very excited and I'm sure this will make for one heck of a post next week. Tomorrow's class is "Baby Essentials". We (and I stress we for the sake of my husband) will learn how to change diapers, bathe the baby, feed the baby...you know, all the basics. Should be classic. Can't wait.

The Stuff Nobody Ever Tells You Part 2

So I told you this would probably be an ongoing post. As suspected, 10 more weeks and I've got a whole other list of things that I was never really prepared for. Yep, today we are 27 weeks preggers (holy cow) and have only one more week in the 2nd trimester. Crazy! Now, time to get to the point of this post.

1). A body pillow is not a luxury but a necessity. I always heard people talk about having a body pillow to rest up against at night but I never realized it was a necessity until about 2 weeks ago. Literally 2 weeks ago I started noticing how uncomfortable my stomach felt at night. I couldn't figure out why until it finally hit me that my stomach has gotten so huge that when I lay on my side, gravity forces it down and it is literally pulling away from my body and super uncomfortable. So...no more talk about how nice that body pillow was....if you talk to me, I'll tell you that there is no other option.

2). When your belly button pops it does not feel good. For days I had this terribly uncomfortable and a bit painful tingling sensation behind my belly button. I was actually starting to get worried about it as I couldn't find anything in any of my 10 pregnancy books that talked about it. One evening it was so uncomfortable that I finally vowed to call my Dr. the next morning. Well, low and behold the next day I woke up pain free with a belly button sticking out. At my next visit I asked about it and my Dr confirmed that your belly button has lots of nerve endings and when your cervix is stretching it pushes up against these nerve endings causing pain and sensitivity. Ah ha!

3). Baby kicks feel great, unless they happen in the middle of the night or early in the morning. I always knew that my baby would kick...I mean, that is having a baby 101. What I didn't realize is how intense the kicks would become and how difficult that can be if it occurs in the wee hours of the night. I've been able to feel our baby since about 17 weeks, but just within the last 3 weeks have the kicks, movements, etc become so intense that it has either kept me up till the wee hours or woken me up at the wee hours. A few weeks ago baby Murphy started practicing karate around 4AM and didn't calm down until 7AM...right in time for my alarm to go off for work. I've also experienced the opposite...being so sleepy that all I want to do is doze off, but for some reason baby Murphy thinks it is time for practice and doesn't wind down till 2AM. Trust me, I love those kicks more than anything, but I just wanted to give all my soon to be mommy friends a fair warning.

4). If you don't find out the sex of your baby, be prepared to defend yourself 24/7. People these days have a REALLY hard time understanding why you would not want to find out the sex of your baby. They will inundate you with questions...how can you not know? Is it killing you? What color are you going to do the nursery then? How will you pick out clothes? Aren't you dying to know? I can't believe you don't know!!! That last one is more of a statement that everyone likes to throw in there at the last minute. So for all of you reading, let me say this, We don't want to know, We've never wanted to know, We've never wanted a pink or blue nursery anyway, We are not anxious or dying to know, We are just excited we are having a baby and when we do go into labor I will be very excited to hear the doctor announce "Congratulations, its a X"! Done, end of discussion :)

22 lbs Later

As of today, I've gained 22lbs so the 25lb weight gain is without a doubt going to be surpassed. Luckily it really doesn't bother me. Its the strangest thing to get on the scale and see a number so high that it doesn't even feel real. I usually just shrug my shoulders and say "huh, gained another 5" and then go on with my day. I'm just grateful I have this attitude...otherwise, I'm not sure how I would handle the fact that I've already gained 22lbs and I still have 3 months to go. Crazy. Here's a pic of my ever growing belly...



In other news, this coming Tuesday we will be exactly 3 months away from our due date. Where has the time gone?! I'm excited the time is going fast, but nervous as to the million things I still need to do. I mean a month goes by so quickly to me now that I can only imagine these last few will quickly fly by. One thing is for sure...I'm MORE than ready to find out if we are having a little girl or a little boy. One day I think its a boy and one day I think its a girl, so officially knowing will be amazing.