Baby!

Jen's Baby Updates: Week 18

Sunday, November 17th, 2002

Well, it has been a pretty tough week for me, so there isn't much in the baby update. Certainly not the day by day updates that I like to do. Here are the high (and low) points.

Midwife Visit

I went to my four-month pre-natal visit, and everything looks fine. My fundal height (where my uterus is) is 17cm, which is just about right. Cindy (one of the midwives) said that at around 20 weeks they start expecting the fundal height to be the same as the week number, so I'm right on schedule.

I had blood drawn for some routine tests, which I had forgotten would be happening, so I hadn't insisted that Travis accompany me. I'm happy to say that I didn't pass out! One of the women from the midwives' office came and sat next to me and distracted me, so that helped a lot. I suppose that I should get used to relying on them for support, anyway! I may try going it alone next time I need to have blood drawn. It wasn't so bad!

Movement

I'm not sure if I've felt him/her move yet. It is certainly possible that some of the feelings that I've been having in my belly are the baby moving, but as my midwife said, "no 'a-ha! moment' yet". Some people don't feel movement until the 25th week, so I'm not worried. I can still hear the heartbeat, and we definitely saw it moving on the first ultrasound, so I trust that it is doing fine in there.

The baby has obviously been moving for a long time. The mother begins to feel the movement when the space starts to get cramped in there, so that the uterus is actually pressed against the abdominal wall.

I feel a little guilty that I get to experience the first few movements and Travis doesn't, but he says that the idea of having something growing inside of him (because he's male) is disturbing, and he's happy to let me have the honor.

Gifts

I've decided to keep listing gifts here for as long as I can keep up. That way we can avoid duplicates!

My aunt Ellen and uncle Mark sent the coolest device we've ever seen... it's a baby monitor that has a camera on it so you can WATCH the baby, as well as hear it! Isn't that incredible? The picture is superb, and it can be used as a regular television set (albeit a 4 inch one) when you don't need it for the baby. Travis has already claimed it for his office. They also sent a baby head rest that is used to keep the baby's head from rolling around crazily while he/she is in a car seat or sleeping. It looked so comfortable that I slept with it the first night we had it! Thank you, Eno and Mark!

My friend BJ from Camp (and her fiance Greg) sent 'Oh, Baby, The Places You'll Go', a book based on Dr. Seuss books. It is adorable! It says on the cover that it is meant to be read 'in utero'. Evidently, they were doing research on whether or not babies could understand sounds while in the womb, and the book they used for the research was 'The Cat in the Hat'. Theodore Geisel thought that was very very neat! Anyway, this book basically gives an overview of all of his other books! It is written as a Dr. Seuss book, with his rhyming style and illustrations taken from the original book. It reminded me off all of the Dr. Seuss books that I need find. I love Dr. Seuss! Thanks, BJ and Greg!

Names

Small list of names this week... I suspect that it is because I missed some emails. If you suggested names that aren't on this list... send them again!

GIRL
Violet - Holly
Petunia - Holly
Daisy - Holly

Holly says that she is trying to achieve Baby Update infamy with her name suggestions. Keep 'em coming!

Miscellaneous

Clothing

My friend at work who is pregnant told me this clever maternity trick... you can keep wearing pants after they technically don't fit anymore if you use a ponytail holder (not the scrunchy kind) to hold them closed (put it through the hole then around the button). It has made it possible for me to keep wearing my bell-bottom jeans, which I figure I have to wear now because they'll only be in fashion for a short time longer (I realize that whether they are in fashion NOW is a matter of debate for many people, too, but I like them!). By the time I could fit in them again, for how long?).

Email Failure

My email system failed at the beginning of the week (not due to my actions), and was unreliable until Thursday. If you sent me email, I probably did not get it! I responded to everything that I did get.

To prevent future errors, I'll be using jwhite@cs.wright.edu as my email address from now on. jen@whitedoom.com will still work, but you should change it in your address book, if you use one.

The problems that were caused by this email problem are not yet all known, but I had to give my students an extension on the project they had due on Tuesday, and then another extension when the email system was not fixed by Thursday. The problem managed to bring down the email system at my office, though the system administrators there has been very cool about it, despite the fact that they had to be paged to come fix it. I also missed a lunch date, leaving my friend waiting alone at a restaurant for me!

It was all very embarrassing, not to mention inconvenient! I never remember how dependent I am on email until I lose access to it for a few days.

Teaching

Only three more lectures to go for my class! Two of them will require a lot of preparation, but the last one is just review, so I just need to be smart. Good thing, because the Karate test is that morning, so I won't have that time for morning preparation. I would like to get the final exam written before the review, both so that it is over and so that I know what is on it!

Cooking

I actually cooked two real meals for me and Travis. On Saturday, we had chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy, and even corn on the cob! On Sunday, we had pork chops, which were surprisingly good considering that I don't usually eat pork. They were about 2 inches thick, which is a lot thicker than the ones my mom makes, but they still tasted good. I've got to learn how to cook real meals, or at least put variety into the ones that I currently have, so I can be ready to feed a family! Kids can't live on chinese chicken, rice, and macaroni and cheese!

Isn't it odd how when you're a kid, your mom goes through a lot of work nearly every night to make delicious, healthy, wonderful meals, but the nights that you were most excited about were the nights you got to order pizza or have Kraft macaroni and cheese? That's how I remember it, anyway, and others have confirmed my experience. Now, I wish that my mom were cooking for me every night... I love her food! I'm going to try to gradually acquire all of her recipes. I didn't appreciate how much work goes into providing good food until I tried
to do it myself! Thanks, Mom!

I'm lucky to now have two moms with excellent cooking skills, though I admit to being a little daunted at the idea of trying to replicate anything Sheryl has cooked for Travis. He loves her cooking, and holds it above all others as the pinnacle of perfection. I've focused on her popcorn so far, and he has actually given me an 'almost as good' rating! I'm still working on it. My next goal will have to be 'chicken in the graveyard' (his favorite), though luckily she will be cooking that for Thanksgiving dinner. I'll try it at some less important time!