Baby!

Jen's Baby Updates: Week 20 - 2

Sunday, December 1

Midwife Visit

A bit of a misnomer, because we didn't actually see the midwives, but I want to maintain consistancy in these updates.

As you all know, we're having a boy! I pretty much knew that already, somehow. I've been having dreams about him, and though I don't _really_ believe that stuff, it just started feeling true to me.

We would have been excited to find out that it was either a boy or a girl, because it just makes it more real! Can you believe that we are going to be parents? We are very happy that he is healthy and active.

I think we'll do well with a little boy (and we would have been good with a little girl, too). I've always been somewhat of a tomboy (until I was in high school I wished that I WAS a boy), and we've both had experience with boy children. Travis, of course, IS a boy, and spent a lot of time with Ryan as he was growing up, so he has lots of experience with little boys. A little boy should fit right in to our family!

I've been thinking about it, and I think it would be good to try to avoid any societal gender conditioning of our child for as long as possible. I know that once he gets to school it will be forced on him, but for quite a while he should just be allowed to be a little person and make his own choices, not necessarily the ones that people expect of him. Yes, I plan on having dolls and Easy-Bake ovens and such around for him to play with, as well as trucks and sports stuff.

We came home immediately after the ultrasound, and everyone was gathered in the family room waiting for our news. Travis yelled it out as soon as we got in the door (he's not much for big fancy presentations) and there was a lot of hugging and crying (happy crying, I mean).

We passed around the ultrasound pictures and watched the ultrasound video. It was pretty obvious that he is a boy, and there were the requisite jokes about the size of his equipment. The way that they do the ultrasound (cross-section) makes it so that the penis is the only thing on the screen, which does make it look pretty impressive.

Go to the Ultrasounds page for more information.

The best news is that the baby looks completely healthy, as far as they could tell from the ultrasound. He's developing at exactly the right rate, and his due date remains April 20th (my birthday!).

It feels odd to me that there is nothing else to look forward to until the baby actually arrives. No more important doctor's visits, no more new information, just waiting. Everything else in this newfangled world can be done so quickly now... why does this still take so long? I mean, I could have built an entire house in the time it is taking me to build this baby! And a house would have been immediately useful. I can't say the same for the baby! :-}

Movement

Yes, I've definitely decided that the feelings I've been having in my belly are the baby moving. The first one that I felt was when Travis and I were talking to my parents in our living room, but I didn't say anything because I just wasn't sure. After two weeks, I've decided that was definitely him!

It feels like something just brushing the inside of my abdomen. Very gentle, for now, but I imagine it will become more violent as the baby gets stronger! I've heard that it will keep me up all night, which is great, because what I need is even less sleep! Ha ha ha.

It is pretty amazing... everything else has been cool, like hearing the heartbeat, or seeing the ultrasound pictures, but this is different and very immediate. Everything else could be a recording, but this is real! I'm in awe all over again.

Travis can't feel it yet, unfortunately, but he will be able to soon, I think!

Gifts

Sheryl brought two beautiful gifts for us... blankets that she actually made herself. One is made of flannel, with a lot of... well, not ruffles, but layers of the flannel stacked up and sewed onto the blanket in rows. It is hard to describe. She had a name for it, but I can't remember it now (chenille?). The flannel is really cute, with yellow rubber duckies and bath brushes and such.

The other is a knit blanket with that cool thread that changes color as you go along, so the blanket is multicolored, and is beautiful. As a kid, I thought that thread was the coolest stuff ever, but I never was really able to make anything with it other than those snakes that you make on your fingers and have no use at all... does anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyway... thank you very much for the beautiful blankets!

Barbara Meijer has been a friend of a friend of our family since I can remember... her daughter Erika was one of my best friends in childhood. Barbara sent a doll that is a child dressed in a bear suit, and it was a holding a cute little teddy bear, that Kayden (Troy's year old daughter) enjoyed playing with during Thanksgiving. She also sent a book called "Mothers", all about how wonderful mothers are. It reminded me that I'm going to be a mother (as if I ever forget)! Thank you!

Speaking of Kayden and gifts, we had our first chance to use the video baby monitor while she was sleeping upstairs during Thanksgiving! It worked great! We had a little interference from our wireless network, but I talked to the company and they told me how to avoid that in future use. We have too much technology in our house. Thanks again, Ellen and Mark!

Names

Now that we know that it is a boy, we can really start thinking about names! The current options, in order of preference, are as follows:
Dorian
Alexander
Zane
Gavin

Shortly after Travis's parents arrived at our house, my aunt Ellen called to tell me that she had a dream about my baby... she dreamed that he was a boy (and she's right) and that he was born early, in March, right after her birthday. That made him a Pisces, which is the water sign! So, she thought that Dorian would be a very fitting name. I do hope that he isn't born _that_ much too early!

Miscellaneous

Life

I miss Travis. This quarter has been very time consuming for me, and I haven't gotten to spend nearly enough time with him. During the time that we have spent together, I've been cranky and stressed. I'm looking forward to next week so I can spend happy and relaxing time with him.

He very accurately noted that even when I've been with him, I've been fretting about what I _should_ be doing. That is pretty much how I live my life, which means that I'm constantly stressed. I need to learn to live in the moment and just enjoy what I'm doing right now!

I imagine that breastfeeding will help with that a bit. I mean, all I'll be able to do is sit there, several times a day, for up to an hour at a time. I will _need_ to do that, so I won't be able to feel guilty that I'm not cleaning or working, etc. I'm looking forward to it.

Announcements

Good news! Holly called on Tuesday night and told us that she is engaged! Yay! She sounds so happy, and we couldn't be happier for her!

Very sad news... Mike and Delia's cat Juniper died this weekend. It is very sad... they doted on that cat. He was really a part of their family. He was a beautiful cat and he had a very unique and interesting personality. I'd known him for nearly as long as I've known them. <sigh>

More sad news, Dave's cat Orion is very sick, and they don't know what is wrong with him. He's got a lot of fluid around his lungs that has to be sucked out every other week.

Teaching

I taught my last lecture on Tuesday... yay! Finally no more lecturing!

I've been keeping an eye on my submission program for the last project I assigned, and NO ONE has turned it in yet. I gave them a lot of time on the project because I knew that it was a long one, but evidently none of them saw fit to start it early. That means that they'll be working on it during finals week. <sigh> That wasn't my intention! I thought I was being nice, but I should have just forced them to turn it in before Thanksgiving.

I didn't write the final this weekend. I was really just so burned out that I couldn't do anything. I'll have to spend a lot of time writing it next week. The nice thing is that there is a deadline, so I know it will get done.

Doom Parent Visit

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year, as you all know. Travis's parents arrived on Tuesday night so that they could get some work done on the garage. I had just gotten home from teaching class and shopping for Thanksgiving but I managed to whip up some fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner, which I thought turned out perfectly. Yum! I'm glad I got that recipe from my mom! Travis now refers to it as 'Tasty Chicken'.

On Wednesday, I had to go to work, so I don't _really_ know what happened that day, though it looked to me like Travis and Ronnie did all the electrics and put up insulation in the garage while Sheryl spent the day in the kitchen.

It turned out that they weren't able to get the garage done, because we don't have the right drywall tools and there wasn't enough time. Travis was expecting that they would have the drywall up, walls painted, cabinets up, and everything put away again. I don't think he had thought about the enormity of the job. Trying to do it over Thanksgiving weekend may not have been the best plan, either. They really only had one day to work on it because there were so many other things going on. They are planning on coming down again later to finish it off.

We went out to Outback Steakhouse on Wednesday night, and I got to have crab legs, which were exquisite, as usual. They make them so well there, and they saw the exoskeleton in half for you, so there is very little work involved. I don't miss cracking the shells at all.

Thanksgiving

Thursday was Thanksgiving, of course, and it was wonderful! I loved having everyone here, even if it was exhausting! Everyone arrived at nearly the same time, and then there was a lot of sitting around and chatting while eating summer sausage, cheese, and crackers, as well as the requisite working in the kitchen, at least by the women. Next year, I think that the guys should handle the cooking!

The food turned out great, I think, and no one got sick! Excellent! I had my turkey skin, so I was happy. I don't actually like turkey all that much, but the skin is just divine. Nancy and I always fight over it... it is nice to have someone around who isn't telling me how unhealthy it is! I figure that if it is only once or twice a year, what's the big deal?

The best part of Thanksgiving was that all 18 of us got to sit around one huge table! We set up the our two tables (one from each set of my grandparents), and together they made a single table big enough for 18. It was perfect! I bought matching tablecloths, and other than the little 'step' in the middle, you couldn't tell that there were two tables.

There was too much food, of course, even though I had panicked about the size of the turkey when they said that it was only 19 pounds (instead of the 20 I had ordered). Turns out that 19 pounds is way more than you need for 18 people.

Everyone helped on the day of Thanksgiving, but Sheryl put in a lot of effort that day and the day before. I couldn't have done it without her... or I could have but it wouldn't have been as good. In particular, she made apple pies, which made a lot of people happy! Thanks, Sheryl!

We played some games that night, then everyone headed off to their hotels to play in the pools. Thinking back, I should have gone with them, but I was just too tired that night and it didn't occur to me. I went to bed pretty early while Travis and Ryan played Unreal Tournament.

Friday morning we went to the ultrasound, as you know. Afterwards, everyone ate or sat around and talked, or just played games or napped. It was very laid back, which is what I needed by then. I was very tired. That is becoming quite a refrain for me, isn't it? I need a few days of really good sleep to catch up from the past 10 weeks of working far too many hours. I even had some trouble staying awake while talking to people. It was pretty ridiculous.

Weekend

I fell asleep as soon as everyone left on Friday, and I slept for 4 hours. I managed to wake up for a little while, but was asleep again by 11:00. I was really exhausted. It felt so good to sleep.

Saturday and Sunday were very relaxing days, finally. I went out and got books and movies from the library, and we watched them all (the movies, that is)! We watched Spiderman, Men in Black II, Josie and the Pussycats, and Chain Reaction. They were all reasonably entertaining, but I have to say that Josie and the Pussycats and Chain Reaction were the best. I was not impressed by Spiderman or MIIB.

I read about 10 books over the weekend, too. I didn't touch my computer. Sorry to everyone that was hoping for email responses from me, but I just couldn't get near it... I needed a break. It was perfect.

I should have written my final, but I didn't. So there.