Baby!

Jen's Baby Update: Week 22

Sunday, December 15, 2002

Midwife Visit

I had an appointment with my midwives on Monday. Nothing very exciting there... just the usual. They did give me a schedule of the childbirth classes at our hospital, but I won't be able to take one until February. Seems kind of strange to take a class to learn how to do something that we've been doing forever, don't you think? I am interested in taking the Bradley classes, so I'll be looking into that a little more.

Movement

Definitely! The baby is rolling around all the time. I can see why people have trouble sleeping as it gets more noticeable. Right now, I just think that it is neat, but it isn't painful or anything. Travis has felt babies kicking before, and claims that what he is feeling in me is completely different because it is so dull (by which he certainly doesn't mean 'boring'), but I don't think he had tried to feel it this early before. I can feel it from the outside, but maybe only because I know that it is happening on the inside.

From the ultrasound, we now know that my (his?) placenta is in the front of my uterus, which is good, but it sometimes makes it harder to feel the baby moving because it is an extra layer of cushioning.

Symptoms

I'm incredibly itchy! My scalp itches so much that I actually had Travis check me for lice. I've never had it itch so much before! I don't seem to have dandruff, but I've switched to a dandruff shampoo to see if that helps. So far, no.

My body is very itchy, too. Especially my upper back, though that might be just because I can't reach it to scratch it. I keep our shower back scratcher next to the bed so I can scratch it at night when I wake up itchy. Travis is still willing to slather me with lotion, though it doesn't seem to help much except for the 10 minutes immediately afterwards.

I bought some Aveeno oatmeal bath stuff that feels nice and slimy while I bathe, but hasn't seemed to help much. Too bad, because it leaves the bathtub kind of gross and brown, so there is a cost with no benefit.

Insomnia

I still have insomnia. I've been able to go to sleep at about 9:30 or 10:00 at night, which is ridiculously early for me. However, I usually wake up at about 3:00 or 4:00 feeling trapped and like I can't bear to lie there anymore. I have been getting up and taking a bath or stopping by my favorite online chat room when that happens. It is too frustrating just to lie there and wonder why I'm not asleep.

Gifts

We've received two gifts this week. The first was a 'Rabbit' (from Winnie the Pooh) stuffed animal that my friends at work brought back for me from their trip to Florida. They went through a lot of effort to find the Disney store, and sought out the Winnie the Pooh toys specifically for me and the other pregnant woman at the office. The first thing I did when I found the stuffed animal hidden in my drawer was to hold him up to my belly so that he could talk to the baby. My friends loved that! I can't speak for the baby. Thanks Ellen and Christina and Chad!

Holly gave us Christmas/Baby gifts, including (as we had suggested) books! One book was 'Green Eggs and Ham', which of course I love! I love all Dr. Seuss because it is just so fun to read! She inscribed it, too, saying that her mom knew that she could read when she found her reading it to her little brother.

She also gave us a book called 'Baby's First Tattoo'. It is everything that you would expect from the title! It is a book of 'firsts', but ones like: 'First time baby ate dirt', 'Parents first threat to drop baby off at an orphanage', 'Baby's first body piercing', etc. Very funny! Travis and I got a lot of laughs from it!

She gave me a picture frame that says, "Mother is wisdom, guidance, and Beauty, whose life experience guide her children on the path to Happiness. Mother is the essence of Love." It almost made me cry because that's going to be me! I'm going to be a mother! Thank you, Holly!

Names

We are leaning toward 'Alexander' at the moment, though as I always say, nothing is decided yet! It has a lot of nicknames (Al, Alex, Aleck, Xander, Xan) that he can choose from when he gets old enough to hate whichever one we choose to use. It is a name that would be pretty difficult for other children to make fun of, though they usually find a way. Children are often mean.

For a nickname, we would probably go with Xander. We both like it (not just because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and it is slightly more unusual than Alex.

We still like Dorian, and that isn't out of the running, but if you leave the middle name out (which I hadn't ever tried) then the alliteration is a little annoying (as Julie had predicted).

Miscellaneous

Maternity Clothes!

I finally had time to go shopping for maternity clothes! It was great! It turns out to be very easy, because they size everything for your pre-pregnancy size, and because I didn't expect anything to fit incredibly well, I was able to just try stuff on quickly then buy it.

I was also surprised at how fashionable it was. I expected it all to be dowdy and boring, but I got some very nice bootcut jeans (the only kind I'll wear) and a pair of cargo khakis and a pair of just plain khakis. The first two have the big kangaroo pouch in the front, but the last pair just have a loose elastic waistband. I figure that those will be good for another month or two, and probably for after he's born. The other two pairs should fit throughout the pregnancy.

I shopped at Motherhood, JCPenney, and Kohl's. Kohl's had the smallest selection, though I didn't know that at the time because it was the first place I went to. I will take back nearly all the maternity clothes I bought there because the other ones I found were so much better.

I bought two pairs of slip on shoes. I've been having trouble bending over to put on my socks and shoes lately, and Travis isn't always awake when I leave for work. I really don't want to be dependent on him for that, anyway. I'll still have to put on socks, because it is winter after all, but at least I can save myself the tying of the shoes.

I bought a brown pair of Eastlands (so did Delia) that look really nice, and are very comfortable. I bought a pair of gray wool clog type shoes, which I've never worn before because they aren't really my style, but they are really comfortable and easy to wear!

All in all, maternity clothes shopping was painless and fun, and I am so much more comfortable now! I hadn't realized how uncomfortable I was until I actually had on clothes that fit my belly! It is interesting to note how much more pregnant I look now that I'm wearing maternity clothes. Before, I just looked a little thicker than usual. Now, I have an actual belly.

You know, it occurs to me that I've said that before, and every time I really mean it, but I keep getting bigger and then the previous belly seems inconsequential.

I love looking pregnant! Just one more excuse to talk about it, because strangers come up and ask me about it!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

We went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which was quite good! The baby seemed to enjoy it, too, especially the loud noises in the scene with the big spider. I think he wanted to see what was going on!

Madrigal Dinner

At the last minute, the Engineering Advisory Board invited Travis to go to the Madrigal Dinner at Wright State. It is really a neat event. You can get away with formal wear, which I love, and they feed you incredible food. The entertainment is done by the Madrigal Choir of Wright State and the local Society for Creative Anachronism. The choir performs madrigals while you eat, and the SCA performs dances and stages little shows. They are all dressed in renaissance garb, and speak with fake medieval accents. We love it!

We had gone twice already, once alone in the first year that we were here, then again last year with our friends. I sent out an email to our friends to see if people were interested in going this year, but the response was tepid, so I never ordered tickets. People seemed to agree that once every other year was enough. If it were free we would go every year but it tends to be a bit pricy, and the show doesn't change much. The menu doesn't change at all, but that's fine, because the food is exquisite!

Anyway, on Tuesday Travis called me at work and asked if I wanted to go this year for free, and of course I did! Mike (and Delia) were also invited and any event that includes the Raymers is bound to be fun.

I wore a floor-length burgundy skirt that my sister gave me, along with a velvet top that I bought at Express on Monday. I think I looked very nice, and obviously pregnant! People definitely noticed and commented, which I loved.

The event was fun, the company was good, and the food was excellent, so we had a good time!

Weekend

Friday I went to work, then I went over to Holly's house so we could go out to dinner and talk about her engagement and soon to be wedding! It was so much fun! She is so happy and that makes me happy! We went to a restaurant in the Oregon district that had excellent food! We split a garlic/tomato/cheese pizza and an order of gnocci, and both of them were unbelievably good. I ate everything on my plate, but Holly, not being pregnant, had leftovers to eat over the weekend. The amount of food that I can consume is amazing, considering how small my stomach must be right now.

We went back to her house and talked for house and looked at wedding magazines and cake books and potential wedding bands and other cool wedding-related things.

I could talk about wedding stuff for days because I had so much fun at my own wedding, and everything turned out exactly as I wanted it to. Talking about someone else's wedding just brings up memories of my own and how much fun it was choose my dress and make the wedding mine. My mom did such an excellent job planning the entire event... it was really the best day of my life! It was so perfect! Thanks so much, Mom!

We had friends over on Saturday to play a game, which took pretty much all day. I made Cincinnati Chili for everyone, which was excellent. Not because I made it (because it comes from a package, so I can't take credit for that), but because it smells like Christmas to me, and it is warm and yummy and makes me happy.

On Saturday night I went to my office Christmas party. It was really fun! Christina was so excited to see me there that she ran up and hugged me! Ellen dragged me upstairs immediately and we danced to a few songs. They music was really loud, and I worried afterward that I shook the baby around too much, but he is moving around fine today!

I won $25 gift certificate to the movies, which I imagine will be used to see The Two Towers when it comes out this Wednesday. I'm not a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, in that I'd never read the books and therefore was quite confused and irritated by the first movie (I had no idea that there was no actual ending, and I had trouble figuring out the difference between Sauron and Saruman because they sound so similar when spoken). However, they are pretty spectacular to see on the big screen, even if you don't know the story.

Anyway, the party was definitely fun, and I'm glad that I went!

Today I got up late, because I need lots of sleep! I went out with Frank to go Christmas shopping at Best Buy, which I was dreadfully afraid of, but it turned out to be fine! We didn't even have to wait in line to pay! Amazing! Because that went so smoothly, we went to Kohl's and bought more Christmas gifts. The entire event took less than an hour.

I was planning on dedicating the rest of the day to catching up on my baby updates and updating the web site. It is woefully behind the times, and I think that all of you non-local people will be shocked at how big I am now! However, I did NOT get everything updated, so you'll have to wait even longer. Some webmistress I am!

Teaching

I turned in my grades today! Or rather, Travis turned in my grades today. I went to work and so didn't go to the university. I'm not sure I'll need to go there again for quite a while. Too bad I paid for a parking permit for the entire year! Oh well, it is only $30 a term, and they took it out of my paycheck pre-tax.

The class turned out fine. My average was about 82%, which is higher than the usual 75%, but certainly not unusually so. My standard deviation was 11%, so that was about perfect. The nice part was that there weren't any students that barely missed a grade, so no one should be coming after me looking to get me to change a point here or a point there.

Teaching was an experience that I'm glad that I've had, but I don't think I'll do it again. It was far too large of a time expenditure. Now that I'll have a baby around, I doubt I'll want to pick up a class that will take an additional 40 hours a week away from him. Realistically, it would probably take less time the second time around, but I'm not willing to bank on that.