August 27, 2001

Week 15

I've officially lost my waist. It was the oddest thing, I woke up last Thursday morning and I suddenly didn't have a waist. It was there the day before. Then it wasn't. I know I did sleep pretty wonderfully on Wednesday night, I guess while I was sleeping hard the baby decided to have a growth spurt and then push all the parts of my body that was in its way up and out of the way. :-)

I was getting a little concerned early last week, because once again I started the week with a really horrible headache, and once again, it didn't go away for a few days. But then just as suddenly as my headache started on Sunday night, it just went away on Wednesday, and I started sleeping really soundly that evening. I think part of it is also just getting used to sleeping in new positions, with lots of pillows. (Yes, Phil is still managing to find a little room for himself on the bed!) Ever since my car accident last year, I've pretty much only been able to sleep on my back (because otherwise my neck gets strained). It's becoming increasingly uncomfortable to sleep on my back, though, because of the weight that's beginning to press against my lower back. So, I'm now attempting to sleep on my left side, with a pillow propped up behind me so that I don't roll over onto my back (doesn't always work, sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and the back pillow has been flung off the bed and I'm on my back), a pillow in front of me to go under my right leg and sort of also wedged under my tummy for support, and then a third pillow underneath my normal head pillow, in order to prop my head up a little more so that my neck doesn't lay crooked all night. I just added the second pillow under my head the other day, and it seems to have taken care of the neck strain issue; it's possible that might be what was causing my headaches. Well, I'm sure my weekend eating habits weren't helping either. This past weekend I ate a lot of protein, and I'm also trying my hardest to eat much more frequently just like I do during the week, and lo and behold I didn't get a headache last night. Speaking of food, I now feel like I'm constantly hungry. And constantly eating. I realized toward the middle of last week that I was taking in a constant stream of food throughout the day I just didn't stop! Here is my routine: when I get to my desk in the morning I have a glass of orange juice (Kroger O.J. with added calcium is better than any name brand I've had!) and either a pop tart or a banana or sometimes both. Then I start drinking my water, and before long I'm going for Breakfast Step 3: yogurt. Just can't get enough yogurt, especially the fun fruity taste of Trix yogurt. I don't even want to think about how much sugar is added to each serving, but boy is it yummy. :-) By the time I've finished the yogurt, it's almost time for lunch. After lunch (usually consisting of a frozen dinner; I'm careful to avoid the chicken meals even though that's the majority of what frozen dinners offer!), after about 45 minutes or so, I crack open the little cup of applesauce. Toward the mid-end of the day, around 3:30, I'm eating a package of peanut butter cheese crackers. I try to eat these slow enough to last me through the rest of the day. Then of course at home I have a typical dinner and then some kind of snack later on. Then I usually have a glass of milk before bed, because I'm starting to feel bad that I don't think I've gotten enough calcium in that day. Overall, all the food probably isn't THAT much more than I was taking in before, but it just feels like I'm on a constant food drip. It feels like I can't go more than 45 minutes at a time without feeling hungry again. I suppose this is good, I'm definitely getting my "small, frequent meals" this way.

We're starting to collect more baby stuff! The weekend before last, Phil and I went garage sale shopping and we found a couple really great deals. We got a Graco 3-speed swing (push button, battery-operated, not the old crank-y kind), in great condition, for $5. We saw the same swing at Babies R Us for around $80. We also found a Fisher Price stroller, one of the big kinds (as opposed to a lightweight "umbrella" stroller, which we'll want too), for $15. Some family members were a little upset that we've been getting some garage sale things, but don't worry, there's LOTS more that we will need. Speaking of which, Phil and I took the plunge this weekend to our first journey into the dizzying array of items at Babies R Us, and we got our registry started. We haven't gotten that far on it, but we at least got it started (now that I've got lots more energy to walk around these huge stores!), and now I can start comparing brands and such to decide what we want. We've decided to go ahead with the Noah's Ark pattern, like we've been thinking about for a long time. I really like the Noah's Ark pattern that follows the Debbie Mumm style - it has bright colors on earth tone backgrounds, a little more arty instead of cartoony. I've really wanted to do the nursery in Noah's Ark, but I started having some reservations lately because it seems like so many people have Noah's Ark right now, I didn't want to just do what everyone else does. But I just love Debbie Mumm's style, so we decided to just go for it and not worry that every other kid born in the early 2000s has the same nursery pattern. It's what we like. :-) The only thing I wish was that we could find stuff that shows how the ark really looked, long and rectangular, and not how it's always portrayed, as a little boat with a house on top. Oh well, I don't think the Answers in Genesis organization makes nursery patterns. :-)

The biggest news of the last couple weeks, which I've been saving for the very last part of this journal, is that I *think* I've started to feel the baby kick. I can't be absolutely certain, but I really think I might have. Things I've read say that it is possible around week 14, but I really didn't expect to start feeling anything for at least a couple more weeks since this is my first. But I just started noticing a little bit of "fluttering" feeling in my belly, and it was a feeling I had never felt before, so I started paying attention to when I felt it. Around the beginning of last week was when it started, and it usually seemed to happen about 45 minutes to an hour after I ate (usually one of my major meals and not just one of my many snacks!). I noticed it most in the hour after we ate dinner last week, I'd be reclining on the couch, reading or watching TV, and I kept feeling the same things. I felt it every so often at work, too, but typically it's just been when I've sat still for a long period of time and don't have many distractions that I've felt it. Another time was when we were in church on Wednesday night, and after service we have a time of prayer; after awhile Phil put his hand on my tummy and said he wanted to pray for the baby. I can't be certain, of course, but it really felt like the baby was moving while he was praying - it was pretty neat! I didn't feel much difference from these light "flutterings" until last night. I had a late dinner last night (around 10:00), and then I went to bed shortly thereafter. We were laying in bed, again, me propped up on my left side, when suddenly I started feeling MUCH stronger jabs, over toward the right side of my tummy and upward toward my right hip. It felt the same as before, but this time it was stronger and it happened over and over again. So after last night, I'm pretty certain that it is the baby moving around!



	August 27, 2001 Week 15 I've officially lost my waist. It was the oddest thing, I woke up last Thursday morning and I suddenly didn't have a waist. It was there the day before. Then it wasn't. I know I did sleep pretty wonderfully on Wednesday night, I guess while I was sleeping hard the baby decided to have a growth spurt and then push all the parts of my body that was in its way up and out of the way. :-) I was getting a little concerned early last week, because once again I started the week with a really horrible headache, and once again, it didn't go away for a few days. But then just as suddenly as my headache started on Sunday night, it just went away on Wednesday, and I started sleeping really soundly that evening. I think part of it is also just getting used to sleeping in new positions, with lots of pillows. (Yes, Phil is still managing to find a little room for himself on the bed!) Ever since my car accident last year, I've pretty much only been able to sleep on my back (because otherwise my neck gets strained). It's becoming increasingly uncomfortable to sleep on my back, though, because of the weight that's beginning to press against my lower back. So, I'm now attempting to sleep on my left side, with a pillow propped up behind me so that I don't roll over onto my back (doesn't always work, sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and the back pillow has been flung off the bed and I'm on my back), a pillow in front of me to go under my right leg and sort of also wedged under my tummy for support, and then a third pillow underneath my normal head pillow, in order to prop my head up a little more so that my neck doesn't lay crooked all night. I just added the second pillow under my head the other day, and it seems to have taken care of the neck strain issue; it's possible that might be what was causing my headaches. Well, I'm sure my weekend eating habits weren't helping either. This past weekend I ate a lot of protein, and I'm also trying my hardest to eat much more frequently just like I do during the week, and lo and behold I didn't get a headache last night. Speaking of food, I now feel like I'm constantly hungry. And constantly eating. I realized toward the middle of last week that I was taking in a constant stream of food throughout the day I just didn't stop! Here is my routine: when I get to my desk in the morning I have a glass of orange juice (Kroger O.J. with added calcium is better than any name brand I've had!) and either a pop tart or a banana or sometimes both. Then I start drinking my water, and before long I'm going for Breakfast Step 3: yogurt. Just can't get enough yogurt, especially the fun fruity taste of Trix yogurt. I don't even want to think about how much sugar is added to each serving, but boy is it yummy. :-) By the time I've finished the yogurt, it's almost time for lunch. After lunch (usually consisting of a frozen dinner; I'm careful to avoid the chicken meals even though that's the majority of what frozen dinners offer!), after about 45 minutes or so, I crack open the little cup of applesauce. Toward the mid-end of the day, around 3:30, I'm eating a package of peanut butter cheese crackers. I try to eat these slow enough to last me through the rest of the day. Then of course at home I have a typical dinner and then some kind of snack later on. Then I usually have a glass of milk before bed, because I'm starting to feel bad that I don't think I've gotten enough calcium in that day. Overall, all the food probably isn't THAT much more than I was taking in before, but it just feels like I'm on a constant food drip. It feels like I can't go more than 45 minutes at a time without feeling hungry again. I suppose this is good, I'm definitely getting my "small, frequent meals" this way. We're starting to collect more baby stuff! The weekend before last, Phil and I went garage sale shopping and we found a couple really great deals. We got a Graco 3-speed swing (push button, battery-operated, not the old crank-y kind), in great condition, for $5. We saw the same swing at Babies R Us for around $80. We also found a Fisher Price stroller, one of the big kinds (as opposed to a lightweight "umbrella" stroller, which we'll want too), for $15. Some family members were a little upset that we've been getting some garage sale things, but don't worry, there's LOTS more that we will need. Speaking of which, Phil and I took the plunge this weekend to our first journey into the dizzying array of items at Babies R Us, and we got our registry started. We haven't gotten that far on it, but we at least got it started (now that I've got lots more energy to walk around these huge stores!), and now I can start comparing brands and such to decide what we want. We've decided to go ahead with the Noah's Ark pattern, like we've been thinking about for a long time. I really like the Noah's Ark pattern that follows the Debbie Mumm style - it has bright colors on earth tone backgrounds, a little more arty instead of cartoony. I've really wanted to do the nursery in Noah's Ark, but I started having some reservations lately because it seems like so many people have Noah's Ark right now, I didn't want to just do what everyone else does. But I just love Debbie Mumm's style, so we decided to just go for it and not worry that every other kid born in the early 2000s has the same nursery pattern. It's what we like. :-) The only thing I wish was that we could find stuff that shows how the ark really looked, long and rectangular, and not how it's always portrayed, as a little boat with a house on top. Oh well, I don't think the Answers in Genesis organization makes nursery patterns. :-) The biggest news of the last couple weeks, which I've been saving for the very last part of this journal, is that I think I've started to feel the baby kick. I can't be absolutely certain, but I really think I might have. Things I've read say that it is possible around week 14, but I really didn't expect to start feeling anything for at least a couple more weeks since this is my first. But I just started noticing a little bit of "fluttering" feeling in my belly, and it was a feeling I had never felt before, so I started paying attention to when I felt it. Around the beginning of last week was when it started, and it usually seemed to happen about 45 minutes to an hour after I ate (usually one of my major meals and not just one of my many snacks!). I noticed it most in the hour after we ate dinner last week, I'd be reclining on the couch, reading or watching TV, and I kept feeling the same things. I felt it every so often at work, too, but typically it's just been when I've sat still for a long period of time and don't have many distractions that I've felt it. Another time was when we were in church on Wednesday night, and after service we have a time of prayer; after awhile Phil put his hand on my tummy and said he wanted to pray for the baby. I can't be certain, of course, but it really felt like the baby was moving while he was praying - it was pretty neat! I didn't feel much difference from these light "flutterings" until last night. I had a late dinner last night (around 10:00), and then I went to bed shortly thereafter. We were laying in bed, again, me propped up on my left side, when suddenly I started feeling MUCH stronger jabs, over toward the right side of my tummy and upward toward my right hip. It felt the same as before, but this time it was stronger and it happened over and over again. So after last night, I'm pretty certain that it is the baby moving around!