December26

December 26, 2001

Week 32

It hasn't been that eventful of a couple weeks as far as the pregnancy goes, but at this point in pregnancy, non-eventful is a good thing! My friend April (due on Mom's birthday, Jan. 22) had a little scare last week. She spent a couple hours at the hospital being monitored just to make sure everything was okay. It is, thank goodness, her baby just had decided to have a restful couple of days. I'm just still so very tired all the time, but I guess this is just something I'm going to have to get used to, I doubt I'll be getting solid sleep again for a long time! I really miss sound sleep though. I never feel like I wake up completely refreshed anymore. I'm definitely sleeping better when I do sleep ever since I got my Snoogle pillow, but it's just that I'm up so often during the night that I never feel like I get solid time of deep sleep. If it's not jumping out of bed for yet another potty trip, I'm waking up dying of thirst or needing something to eat. Christmas morning I had every intention of sleeping in a little bit (much to the chagrin of my sister Sarah who wanted us to be at mom's around 6 or 6:30), but instead of sleeping until around 7:30 or so, I was wide awake at about 5:45. I had to get up and eat breakfast because I felt so hungry. At least Phil is getting to experience a small part of this. I can't pull myself out of bed very well anymore, so most times when I get up in the middle of the night he wakes up too so he can pull me up and over the edge of the bed. I'm pretty much feeling like a turtle stuck on my back when I try to get out of bed these days. I can't imagine how hard it would be to have a waterbed right now!

My hunger and appetite have definitely gone down considerably, so maybe Natalie has finished her recent huge growth spurt. I feel like I still eat a lot, or at least frequently (such as the midnight snacks) but I fill up really quickly. Probably because my stomach is up into my lungs these days! (Which means my lungs are somewhere else! Lost I think!) Even for Christmas dinner, after hardly filling my plate the first time I only had one more roll and a second helping of green beans, I didn't reach for seconds of anything else. Big change from Thanksgiving, that's for sure! I was beginning to feel like I could and would eat anything in sight there for quite awhile, as evidenced also by the two straight months of almost 10 pounds weight gain each time! At my appointment last week, I only weighed in at one-half pound more than I had the two weeks before that. I don't know about that, I still think I probably gained more than that (I was probably wearing heavier clothes at the previous appointment, so that might have added a couple pounds to that weigh in), but it probably wasn't too far off anyway. Everything else went well at that appointment too. Dr. Teague says she's still growing perfectly, and the baby is now in the head-down position, so that's good! The day before my appointment I had been wondering what position she is in (I can sometimes distinguish hard from soft parts of her body, but I generally can't tell what's a head and what's a bottom!) but after sitting at my desk that afternoon about a half hour after eating lunch, I decided she was almost definitely head-down. I felt her get the hiccups for the first time! Everyone had told me "you'll know it when you feel it" and they were definitely right. I felt a very rhythmic almost "tapping" kind of feeling, really low down by my bladder, that went on for about ten minutes or so. And it felt like it could be nothing other than hiccups! At the same time as the hiccups were going on, she was really active in kicking around up on top of my belly button too. I thought it was really cute. I've since felt her get the hiccups every couple of days, but I don't think it's ever gone on as long as the first time. She seems to be resting for longer periods of time these days too. I can still count on her moving around for a little while after I eat a meal, and then every couple of hours I'll feel her stirring for a few minutes again, but it seems like she's in there sleeping more often now too. And at least lately I haven't been woken up in the middle of night with her kicking. She still wakes me up many times in the morning, but through the night, at least if she does move around I'm not feeling it so much that it wakes me up. (Of course, who knows, it might be her moving around that makes me have to wake up to go to the bathroom so often!) I'm just hoping that these long periods of sleep are an indication of things to come! We'll see though!

Last week we also got our pediatrician lined up! His name is Dr. Kern and he's right in Gahanna. Phil and I went in for a prenatal meeting with him, with lots of questions in hand. We spent the first half hour or so talking with his nurse, who answered all the questions we had plus lots of other ones! We then had to wait for several minutes for Dr. Kern to come in because he was dealing with sick babies. When he came in (with a little toy squirrel wrapped around his neck on his stethoscope) he apologized up and down for making us wait, but we told him we didn't mind at all, we would MUCH rather be the ones kept waiting than a baby that wasn't feeling good! We felt like we connected with him right away, not to mention the nurse and office staff seemed very friendly too. That was a big consideration for us because of the way we get treated by the nurses and staff at our normal doctor's office is so awful, we know what a difference it makes. When we were getting ready to leave, Dr. Kern encouraged us to visit other pediatricians to make sure we had the right person, but we told him we didn't plan on looking around anywhere else he took both my current insurance and also the private insurance that we are looking into through the Ohio Bar Association, we really liked him and the office staff, and he was right there in Gahanna, so we were happy! All we need to do is tell St. Ann's his name when we sign in on D-day, and the hospital contacts him once the baby is born and then he'll be over there for her first checkup!

Christmas was great yesterday! It was tiring, but we ended up pulling together Christmas this year afterall! We found a cute little tree (yes, half dead already) at a lot for about $20 and had our house decorated by the evening after my work Christmas party. (Now the tree is already losing its needles, so we're probably going to go ahead and take it down this week for the trash. But at least it did make it almost two weeks, which was all we needed!) And I did manage to finish all my Christmas shopping, with even a couple days to spare! The hardest time I had was last week I went over to the Tuttle Mall area on my lunch hour, and I made the mistake of going into Wal-Mart to pick up a few last things and stocking stuffers for Phil. That place was absolutely packed with holiday cheer, and they had the heat turned up to sauna temperature in the store too. Or at least it felt that way to my overheated body. After trying my best to dodge through the mass of people in every aisle, I was finally ready to go. To go stand in line, that is. I stood in line, sweating profusely for another 15 or 20 minutes, while my feet were screaming at me for putting them through the torture. I should have known, I really try to avoid that store all of the time; in my eighth month of pregnancy I should have REALLY known better! Yesterday was really nice though, and as always, once Christmas day comes it all feels worth it. (Though I still wish I would have had the foresight to get my shopping done two months ago) Aunt Patti, Uncle Tom and Ellen were in town for the weekend so it was really nice seeing them. Phil, Sarah, Nan, Ellen and I pretty much sat all day (before dinner and after dinner) playing Monopoly. My biggest present was the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in: the Dutalier glider-rocker and ottoman that I had registered for from Babies R Us! Ahh, it is so nice. It's padded all around, and it rocks, swivels AND reclines! I had sat in every single glider rocker in that store and many other stores looking for the perfect rocker, and this one was definitely it. And there are three pockets on each side of the chair, where I'll be able to stick a TV remote, spit up rags, and whatever else I'll be needing to keep handy in the next few months! Phil got me some very nice things too, including a gold chain necklace that is short and sturdy enough to hold up against a baby's curious grasp. He also got me a storage chest for my scrapbooking supplies, some milk bath foam and a jar of REALLY nice extra-thick lotion from Bath and Body Works, AND a gift certificate for a foot massage! It was so cute, he included a little note, drawing "my" profile, pointing out the baby belly and my "poor abused feet" that took the biggest stress of the pregnancy. Phil told me that after I get the foot massage, he'll paint my toenails for me. I had told him I wanted my toenails painted for labor. :-) Phil always does a really good job with buying presents. He told me he learned well from growing up, always feeling so bad when all his mom got for Christmas were spatulas or other things that she needed for housework. He always likes to make sure I get lots of fun stuff. Next year's Christmas is going to be so different though, I can't hardly imagine how it's going to be. We're definitely looking forward to it though. Next year we'll have lots of toys to play with for Christmas again! :-)

I found out last week when I was filling out my new 2002 calendar that February 24th is Flag Day in Mexico. I thought that would be really funny if Natalie was born one day late - to find out I'm pregnant my birthday, Flag Day, and then for her to be born on another country's Flag Day. Not that I'm going to go through any heroics to get her to come on a certain date though. I'm hoping to avoid any induction at all because I've read it makes labor much harder! Not that I want her to come that early either; I hope she stays in there and cooks for the next eight weeks, but if she holds out for two weeks after that they often schedule an induction. I still think she may come a little early; she is Phil's kid after all. Speaking of labor and getting ready, this next week starts a month of lots of baby preparation activity! Looking at my planner for January, almost every day I've got something written in to do already! Almost reminds me of the month before my wedding again!

As a final note, we found out last week that Phil passed the federal bar exam! He can now try cases in federal courts and not just state courts, so from now on he won't have to pass up nationwide religious liberty cases that are sent his way. We are VERY excited about this!!!

It just seems unbelievable that 2001 is already coming to a close, and 2002 is starting. This is going to be quite the year for us! Hold on, the roller coaster is about to take off!



	December 26, 2001 Week 32 It hasn't been that eventful of a couple weeks as far as the pregnancy goes, but at this point in pregnancy, non-eventful is a good thing! My friend April (due on Mom's birthday, Jan. 22) had a little scare last week. She spent a couple hours at the hospital being monitored just to make sure everything was okay. It is, thank goodness, her baby just had decided to have a restful couple of days. I'm just still so very tired all the time, but I guess this is just something I'm going to have to get used to, I doubt I'll be getting solid sleep again for a long time! I really miss sound sleep though. I never feel like I wake up completely refreshed anymore. I'm definitely sleeping better when I do sleep ever since I got my Snoogle pillow, but it's just that I'm up so often during the night that I never feel like I get solid time of deep sleep. If it's not jumping out of bed for yet another potty trip, I'm waking up dying of thirst or needing something to eat. Christmas morning I had every intention of sleeping in a little bit (much to the chagrin of my sister Sarah who wanted us to be at mom's around 6 or 6:30), but instead of sleeping until around 7:30 or so, I was wide awake at about 5:45. I had to get up and eat breakfast because I felt so hungry. At least Phil is getting to experience a small part of this. I can't pull myself out of bed very well anymore, so most times when I get up in the middle of the night he wakes up too so he can pull me up and over the edge of the bed. I'm pretty much feeling like a turtle stuck on my back when I try to get out of bed these days. I can't imagine how hard it would be to have a waterbed right now! My hunger and appetite have definitely gone down considerably, so maybe Natalie has finished her recent huge growth spurt. I feel like I still eat a lot, or at least frequently (such as the midnight snacks) but I fill up really quickly. Probably because my stomach is up into my lungs these days! (Which means my lungs are somewhere else! Lost I think!) Even for Christmas dinner, after hardly filling my plate the first time I only had one more roll and a second helping of green beans, I didn't reach for seconds of anything else. Big change from Thanksgiving, that's for sure! I was beginning to feel like I could and would eat anything in sight there for quite awhile, as evidenced also by the two straight months of almost 10 pounds weight gain each time! At my appointment last week, I only weighed in at one-half pound more than I had the two weeks before that. I don't know about that, I still think I probably gained more than that (I was probably wearing heavier clothes at the previous appointment, so that might have added a couple pounds to that weigh in), but it probably wasn't too far off anyway. Everything else went well at that appointment too. Dr. Teague says she's still growing perfectly, and the baby is now in the head-down position, so that's good! The day before my appointment I had been wondering what position she is in (I can sometimes distinguish hard from soft parts of her body, but I generally can't tell what's a head and what's a bottom!) but after sitting at my desk that afternoon about a half hour after eating lunch, I decided she was almost definitely head-down. I felt her get the hiccups for the first time! Everyone had told me "you'll know it when you feel it" and they were definitely right. I felt a very rhythmic almost "tapping" kind of feeling, really low down by my bladder, that went on for about ten minutes or so. And it felt like it could be nothing other than hiccups! At the same time as the hiccups were going on, she was really active in kicking around up on top of my belly button too. I thought it was really cute. I've since felt her get the hiccups every couple of days, but I don't think it's ever gone on as long as the first time. She seems to be resting for longer periods of time these days too. I can still count on her moving around for a little while after I eat a meal, and then every couple of hours I'll feel her stirring for a few minutes again, but it seems like she's in there sleeping more often now too. And at least lately I haven't been woken up in the middle of night with her kicking. She still wakes me up many times in the morning, but through the night, at least if she does move around I'm not feeling it so much that it wakes me up. (Of course, who knows, it might be her moving around that makes me have to wake up to go to the bathroom so often!) I'm just hoping that these long periods of sleep are an indication of things to come! We'll see though! Last week we also got our pediatrician lined up! His name is Dr. Kern and he's right in Gahanna. Phil and I went in for a prenatal meeting with him, with lots of questions in hand. We spent the first half hour or so talking with his nurse, who answered all the questions we had plus lots of other ones! We then had to wait for several minutes for Dr. Kern to come in because he was dealing with sick babies. When he came in (with a little toy squirrel wrapped around his neck on his stethoscope) he apologized up and down for making us wait, but we told him we didn't mind at all, we would MUCH rather be the ones kept waiting than a baby that wasn't feeling good! We felt like we connected with him right away, not to mention the nurse and office staff seemed very friendly too. That was a big consideration for us because of the way we get treated by the nurses and staff at our normal doctor's office is so awful, we know what a difference it makes. When we were getting ready to leave, Dr. Kern encouraged us to visit other pediatricians to make sure we had the right person, but we told him we didn't plan on looking around anywhere else he took both my current insurance and also the private insurance that we are looking into through the Ohio Bar Association, we really liked him and the office staff, and he was right there in Gahanna, so we were happy! All we need to do is tell St. Ann's his name when we sign in on D-day, and the hospital contacts him once the baby is born and then he'll be over there for her first checkup! Christmas was great yesterday! It was tiring, but we ended up pulling together Christmas this year afterall! We found a cute little tree (yes, half dead already) at a lot for about $20 and had our house decorated by the evening after my work Christmas party. (Now the tree is already losing its needles, so we're probably going to go ahead and take it down this week for the trash. But at least it did make it almost two weeks, which was all we needed!) And I did manage to finish all my Christmas shopping, with even a couple days to spare! The hardest time I had was last week I went over to the Tuttle Mall area on my lunch hour, and I made the mistake of going into Wal-Mart to pick up a few last things and stocking stuffers for Phil. That place was absolutely packed with holiday cheer, and they had the heat turned up to sauna temperature in the store too. Or at least it felt that way to my overheated body. After trying my best to dodge through the mass of people in every aisle, I was finally ready to go. To go stand in line, that is. I stood in line, sweating profusely for another 15 or 20 minutes, while my feet were screaming at me for putting them through the torture. I should have known, I really try to avoid that store all of the time; in my eighth month of pregnancy I should have REALLY known better! Yesterday was really nice though, and as always, once Christmas day comes it all feels worth it. (Though I still wish I would have had the foresight to get my shopping done two months ago) Aunt Patti, Uncle Tom and Ellen were in town for the weekend so it was really nice seeing them. Phil, Sarah, Nan, Ellen and I pretty much sat all day (before dinner and after dinner) playing Monopoly. My biggest present was the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in: the Dutalier glider-rocker and ottoman that I had registered for from Babies R Us! Ahh, it is so nice. It's padded all around, and it rocks, swivels AND reclines! I had sat in every single glider rocker in that store and many other stores looking for the perfect rocker, and this one was definitely it. And there are three pockets on each side of the chair, where I'll be able to stick a TV remote, spit up rags, and whatever else I'll be needing to keep handy in the next few months! Phil got me some very nice things too, including a gold chain necklace that is short and sturdy enough to hold up against a baby's curious grasp. He also got me a storage chest for my scrapbooking supplies, some milk bath foam and a jar of REALLY nice extra-thick lotion from Bath and Body Works, AND a gift certificate for a foot massage! It was so cute, he included a little note, drawing "my" profile, pointing out the baby belly and my "poor abused feet" that took the biggest stress of the pregnancy. Phil told me that after I get the foot massage, he'll paint my toenails for me. I had told him I wanted my toenails painted for labor. :-) Phil always does a really good job with buying presents. He told me he learned well from growing up, always feeling so bad when all his mom got for Christmas were spatulas or other things that she needed for housework. He always likes to make sure I get lots of fun stuff. Next year's Christmas is going to be so different though, I can't hardly imagine how it's going to be. We're definitely looking forward to it though. Next year we'll have lots of toys to play with for Christmas again! :-) I found out last week when I was filling out my new 2002 calendar that February 24th is Flag Day in Mexico. I thought that would be really funny if Natalie was born one day late - to find out I'm pregnant my birthday, Flag Day, and then for her to be born on another country's Flag Day. Not that I'm going to go through any heroics to get her to come on a certain date though. I'm hoping to avoid any induction at all because I've read it makes labor much harder! Not that I want her to come that early either; I hope she stays in there and cooks for the next eight weeks, but if she holds out for two weeks after that they often schedule an induction. I still think she may come a little early; she is Phil's kid after all. Speaking of labor and getting ready, this next week starts a month of lots of baby preparation activity! Looking at my planner for January, almost every day I've got something written in to do already! Almost reminds me of the month before my wedding again! As a final note, we found out last week that Phil passed the federal bar exam! He can now try cases in federal courts and not just state courts, so from now on he won't have to pass up nationwide religious liberty cases that are sent his way. We are VERY excited about this!!! It just seems unbelievable that 2001 is already coming to a close, and 2002 is starting. This is going to be quite the year for us! Hold on, the roller coaster is about to take off!