Baby

Jen Baby Updates - Week 25

Sunday, January 6th, 2003

Happy New Year, everyone! This is the year that my baby will be born!

Exercise

We set the treadmill up, and it works great! It fits exactly where I thought it would (in my office) and is reasonably quiet. I can read while I'm walking on it, and I put a tv right in front of it, too. Perfect! It did feel a little strange to be working out... my belly felt a little twingy. I slowed the pace a bit, and felt better nearly immediately.

My goal is to walk two miles a day, in short spurts or in one long one, as long as I get the distance in. They've shown that the distance is what matters, and that you burn as many calories and such by walking two miles as you do running two miles. It isn't as good in a cardio-vascular sense, but I'm not up to running right now. My skin is so stretched out that I feel that it would be unfair to expect it to support the extra weight while bouncing. Walking feels good, anyway.

I also did one of my prenatal yoga tapes, finally. It was interesting, and not all that much easier than my usual yoga tapes or classes. There were a few positions and moves put in that were specifically to help through labor, and the meditation times were spent communing with your unborn baby, if you believe that is possible. Interesting.

I wish that I could go to a ballet class and just do the barre work. I adore barre work, and have found it to be an excellent work out. I have a videotape of a ballet workout with barre work, but it gets boring. I did check around, because I'm sure I could talk a ballet teacher into letting me just do the barre work (for a price, of course). Unfortunately, the school close to my office has closed, and the Wright State classes aren't at a good time, as long as I'm working, anyway.

Other People's Babies

Jimmy and Jack Kiley

Travis's college friends Jim and Ellen came to visit us from Pittsburgh over New Year's Eve, and brought their two sons, Jimmy (5) and Jack (2). Jimmy and I were good friends already, but this is the first time I've seen Jack since he could talk. I was extremely impressed with the boys. They are both very mature for their age, and amazingly well-behaved! Jack is just adorable, and repeats everything that Jimmy says. Jimmy likes to play with adults, and is capable of playing adult games (which amazed me), but is also capable of playing by himself. We set up the Playstation in the loft, and he played Gex for hours.

I'm afraid that I was a bit of a troublemaker, though. I was in the shower when they arrived, and they had sent Jimmy and Jack to the guest room for a nap. I saw them lying there (awake but calm) and had to jump on the bed and start playing, getting them all riled up. I kept throwing them on the air mattress from the real bed, and they loved it! They didn't calm down again until the evening. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been picking Jimmy up. He weighs 52 pounds (as he told me), and that's probably more than I should be lifting over my head right now. I just can't remember that I should be careful!

Jimmy and Jack were both so even tempered and happy all the time... I hope our son is like them! We were very impressed with Jim and Ellen's parenting techniques, so we paid close attention!

Ellen said that she would mail me her breast pump, because she isn't using it anymore. That was amazingly generous, because they aren't cheap! It is in a slick black case that looks like a laptop case, and she said that while she was still working in a big corporation, someone stole it (she got it back)! Can you imagine their surprise when they opened the case and found a breast pump instead of a laptop? That made me laugh really hard.

Kira Nyrise Brehob

Our friends Mark and Kat, who I mentioned in the previous update, sent me email on Friday night to tell me that Kira had been born on New Years Eve! I went over to see her on Sunday, and found that I'm still afraid of babies! They look so fragile, and their necks are so weak. They offered to let me hold her, but I said that I'd have my own in just a few months, so they should let her keep sleeping in her grandpa's arms. I don't really trust myself with anyone else's baby.

Kira is very cute! Then again, really, all babies I've seen have been cute. It is their only defense mechanism, you know. I've never been the kind of person that gets all googly over babies, because they just don't do much. I prefer children once they can interact with you in some meaningful way. I used to joke that I wanted to have my kids when they were about 10 or 11 (or 18 would be even better), because then they would be able to hold an intelligent conversation.

I'm sure that once I have my own I'll find babies a lot more interesting. I hope so, anyway! Anyway, I'm glad that I happened to be in town because I wanted to see Mark and Kat to congratulate them, as well as pump Kat for information about labor and childbirth. People forget the details so quickly (which is probably good) and I wanted to hear as much as possible while it was still fresh in her mind.

Names

No new names right now. Everyone seems to really like Alexander, though I have heard of three babies named Alexander recently, which makes me leery of using it. I don't want him to have such a common name! We're still talking about it.

Miscellaneous

Traveling

This weekend I went up to Michigan by myself to see my parents. The holidays were nice, but were a little hectic, so I wanted some time to just relax up there. It was perfect! I went to see my grandparents on Friday night with my parents, and on Saturday we did a puzzle and played euchre and went out to dinner with my aunt Becky. Sunday we just relaxed in the morning, then in the afternoon I ran some errands.

Everyone got to feel our baby move. He has been very active lately, and I was able to catch him at times when he kept moving even with hands on my belly. Too often I'd invite people to come feel, but he'd stop as soon as someone got close.

I got to show off my belly to a lot of my parents' friends who were over on Sunday afternoon. They all got to watch me grow up, so they are very excited about my pregnancy! It is always so interesting to hear what people have to say about pregnancy and childbirth. Another friend of the family told me that we should have more than two, because children are just so amazing and different that you should have as many as you can handle. We're going to start with one, but we would like to eventually have more than that.

The Baby Room

I started getting ready for the baby's arrival by cleaning out the baby's closet. It was full of stuff that we had put in there when we moved in, and never organized. So, I just took it all to the basement. Our basement is getting to be a big mess. However, the rest of the house is very organized, without anything hanging around that isn't actively used, which is excellent. That makes me feel good and streamlined. One of these days, though, I'll need to spend a week in the basement getting organized.

Wow, my back was really sore after all of the carrying from the second story to the basement. My calves felt it too. Too many steps! I didn't ever take much in any one trip, to be careful, so I ended up making a lot of trips. Travis helped too, of course.

Anyway, I don't think that we'll paint the baby's room or anything, because we just aren't that kind of people. We'll probably wait until he's old enough to choose his own wall color. I'm thinking that he'll probably sleep in our bedroom for quite a while, anyway, so doesn't need his own room right away, though I'm sure we'll keep the baby stuff in there.

Web Site - http://www.whitedoom.com/

The web site has been updated! Finally! Pictures of me up to the current week are there, as well as the new (20 week) ultrasound pictures, and all of the old updates, in case you missed one. Enjoy!

Travis

In case I haven't mentioned it recently, Travis is the best husband ever. He has been so great during the pregnancy, very appreciative of the cool changes that I've been experiencing, and has exhibited limitless patience and enthusiasm for listening to my obsession with the pregnancy. He's appropriately protective, but not smothering.

I've been able to spend a lot more time with him lately, which has made us both happy. It is a pleasant change from when I was working and teaching at the same time.