The Three B's

Hey kids, Happy ’09! Been away while Mrs. Jen did her thing on here. She’s done an amazing job staying on top of this weekly blog and I hope she knows how much I enjoy reading this along with you guys. I love screwing around on-line and coming across this page to see a new post. So to you, Sweet Girl; thanks for sharing your definitive captions on odd ultrasound angles, understandable fears of my impending fatherhood, and continuing laughable accounts of the last few months.

A few weeks ago I donned the ‘sympathy suit’ right in the middle of twenty total strangers. Imagine a flesh colored backpack you wear on the front stuffed with every article of clothing you own crammed inside. Then add forty pounds. And boobs. Embarrassing? Yes. Uncomfortable and heavy? Yes. However the ability to accidentally let my hands wander to new ‘body parts’ when the lights were out while everyone else in class focused on their deep breathing and relaxation techniques. Awkwardly mesmerizing AND hysterical! Until I received a piercing elbow to the shoulder urging me to cut it out.

One quick note on our class. Several friends and family members have been giving me grief for even wasting money and attending this thing. However, I now possess a slew of new terms and phrases to drop on you the unknowing at my convenience. You are now forewarned. Just try to keep the milk in your nose when I call you a floppy uterus...

Co-workers who rarely see Jen have wanted updates on her health and how she’s taken to carrying around my spawn. All that’s changed recently are her sleep patterns. She’s finally over her sinus issues but she’s up and down most of the night with bathroom visits. All of you who have been blessed to carry kids understand, but for those of us uninitiated, it’s a bit traumatic. Do you realize how much toilet paper we go through? Do you keep a map in your head of the quickest routes to the bathrooms of every restaurant, store, or gas station you’ve ever visited…in two states?

No worries. We thank all of you for coming by and visiting our crazy little spot here in cyber-land. We are currently looking for ideas for somewhere to travel for a mini vacation over Valentine’s Day Weekend before the little Tyrant Max arrives. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know.

-Matt

New Pictures!

Hi all! I just got back from another dr appointment and have some new pictures for you. I know you want to see them first, so I'll explain everything at the end.

Max was a little shy today and didn't want to give us a good shot of his face. This is the side of his face with his hand up over his eyes!

This is again the side of his face, you can see his eye, nose, and mouth. Little blurry, but he was moving around so much it was hard for the tech to get a good shot.

This one is a little bit closer up of half of his face - again those hands were right in front! You can see both sets of fingers at the top of his head almost like he's clapping (or praying that this lady would stop pushing on his head!) :)

Kind of hard to see - but this is the bottom of his foot (near the top of the picture).


Further proof that Max is a boy. Again, this is a view like he's sitting on the camera. At the top of the picture is one leg and the other leg is at the bottom of the picture. Then you can see the scrotum in between. The tech says there is no doubt. :)

Everything is going really well. He's measuring about a week ahead - just over 3 pounds right now. The ultrasound tech said she can tell he has a little bit of hair already. One of the worries initially was that the placenta was lying a little low, but it has moved up, which means no problems there for delivery...very good news! I also had my sugar test today to check for gestational diabetes, but won't know anything until Monday. If everything was normal, I won't hear anything from the doctor on Monday. If the sugar is high or I'm anemic, she'll call on Monday and schedule more tests for next week. So fingers crossed that I don't hear from the doc on Monday! :)

Hope you're all having a great week! Love ya! :)

Labor of Love

Happy Friday all! The last couple of weeks have definitely been interesting. We started our Childbirth classes, a 4-week series called Labor of Love. We meet at the hospital on Thursday nights from 7:00 - 9:30 to learn all about labor, relaxing during labor, orientating ourselves with the hospital, options for pain management, and caring for the baby after he's born. It has been interesting, to say the least.

The first week, Matt got to learn a lot of new terms. I won't go into them here because I don't want to gross you out, but he's definitely got some new vocabulary to share. We watched a video that week, but as most of it was animated, it wasn't terribly disturbing. The instructor warned us that the video shown in the second week wasn't quite as fun for the boys....

...And last night was the second class. Actually the video wasn't too bad. It did show "everything," but I was very proud that Matt only snickered a little and didn't pass out at all. :) She also quizzed us on some of the terms we'd learned the week before, and Matt got more answers right than anyone! I guess those terms were just burned into his brain. His "prize" was the chance to wear the "sympathy belly" for 30 minutes. I so wish I had a picture of it to post here, but he was wearing it during our relaxation exercises, and I didn't want to disturb everyone with the flash going off. Trust me, it was good stuff.

We also took a tour of the L&D floor of the hospital last night, and got to check out one of the rooms. They are surprisingly big and seem pretty comfortable, but I have a feeling that pink wallpaper will be my on my nerves a couple of hours into the fun labor process.

So we're finally in the 3rd trimester - less than 12 weeks to go! I can't wait! Next Thursday I'll take my glucose test to make sure I haven't developed gestational diabetes, and we'll do another ultrasound. We can't wait to see Max again! I hope to have some more pictures to post that day.

Hope you all have a great weekend! More soon...

Happy 2009!

Hi all! Happy 2009! We're more excited than ever about celebrating a new year, since this is the year we get to welcome Max into the family! It's so hard to believe we're (hopefully) less than 14 weeks away from meeting him. I hope the next 14 weeks go by fast, but I also feel like there is still a lot to do! We're starting to look into daycare centers...apparently around here you need to be on a list almost before the child is conceived! I wish I could find someone who keeps 3-4 children in their home, instead of a large daycare, but I'm not sure if that will be possible...we'll see!

We also need to start signing up for classes at the hospital. We'll at least take the hospital orientation one, and Matt is trying to convince me to take a lamaze class, just in case. We have a few showers coming up...no dates yet, but that's something we'll work out soon. I feel like we already have so much stuff, thanks to everyone at Christmas, but there is still a LONG way to go. It's a little overwhelming!!

I think I'm finally moving into the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy. It's becoming harder and harder to sleep comfortably, and my back is hurting pretty much constantly. Not complaining...I know it's necessary...but please keep me (and Matt, bless him) in your thoughts over these next couple of months as I'm sure it will become even more difficult to get around.

We go to the doctor for a regular appointment next Thursday, Jan 8. Then we'll go back 2 weeks later for another ultrasound and my glucose test. If all is well there, I'll begin going every 2 weeks for 2 months, then every week for the last month. Everyone says this will make it go faster because I have a standing 2-week milestone, but we'll see!

It was so great spending time with everybody over the holidays! I think we'll probably only make it home to Vardaman one more time pre-Max, so it was good to see so many people then. Hope you all have a great year!

Love ya! :)