Week 17: Boo-yah!

Best Conversation of the Week...

Laura: I am so worn out today. We didn't do that much, but I'm pretty tired for some reason.

Ben: Well, you are pregnant.

Laura: Oh, yeah. I forgot.

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When I wrapped up last week's post I mentioned that we were going to a huge kids consignment sale in Chattanooga. At the time I had fantasies of posting a picture of all our loot and exclaiming, "We saved hundreds of dollars!"  Unfortunately, we ended up going home empty handed (our only take-away was a nasty bout of food poisoning that poor Ben got from dinner on our way home!). The sale was primarily toys and clothes, most of the good baby gear had been purchased during the volunteer pre-sale (as first time parents we were in the third or fourth wave of people to get into the sale), and many of the prices seemed a little higher than the other church-based consignment sale we visited.

Two "big ticket" items we were hoping to find were a stroller and a pack 'n play (i.e., portable crib/play pen). All the pack 'n plays had been sold (unless we wanted the ugly one with a pee pee stain), and they had all the strollers tightly chained together. This meant that you couldn't fully check out the condition of the stroller, wheel it around for a "test drive", etc. We did find a nearly new changing pad and a booster seat/high chair in great condition, but the check-out line snaked around 2/3 of the giant arena and we decided it wasn't worth waiting in line for an hour.

BUT THEN.....

I decided to look online to see if there were going to be anymore kids consignment sales. The seasons pretty much run February and March and then again in August through October. There was a consignment sale that started the following Thursday evening, but it was about 40 minutes away. I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth the drive, but Ben thought it might not be a bad idea to at least ride down and check it out. Funny enough, the church ended up being in the neighborhood where Ben grew up! (For any Lilly's reading the blog, it was at Kingswood UMC on the corner of North Peachtree Road and Tilly Mill Road.)

Boy oh boy am I glad we went! We seriously hit the jackpot. Not only was it less crowded, but the prices were by far the best we'd seen, the baby gear was plentiful (for the overall size of the sale) and in great condition, and all the volunteers and even some other shoppers were extremely sweet and helpful. There were a few laughable moments when we were trying to figure out how to collapse strollers, assemble and disassemble pack 'n plays, etc. At one point even the police officer who was keeping an eye on things took pity on us and came over to help us. :-)

Here's a look at what we found! (Note: three items were actually purchased at a different church consignment sale and were briefly mentioned at the end of last week's post.)

On the mantle (left to right): Music player with lights and fishies that straps on to the inside end of the crib, sling (got for free in the mail with a coupon), nursing cover (got for free in the mail with a coupon), in front of those two items is a container for bottle parts so you can wash them in the dishwasher, Ergo baby carrier (baby carrier that can be worn on the front, hip, or back from infancy through toddler years)

Floor, Back Row (left to right): Pack 'n Play (currently set-up in bassinet position with the changing table to the left. The mattress can also go flat on the bottom when the baby is bigger. It also comes with a light, music player/sound machine, and a mobile with teddy bears), travel-sized baby swing with fishes, lights and music, infant car seat.

Floor, Front Row (left to right): Bobby pillow (can be used to prop the baby up while feeding and you can also lay the baby in the middle of the "C" so he/she is reclining), breathable crib bumper (made of mesh- safer than quilted ones which are a suffocation hazard), Brest Friend nursing pillow and extra cover (helps prop up the baby and correctly position him/her for nursing. Also has a little pocket where you can store supplies, etc.)

Very Front: Play mat with hanging toys that has lights and music.

Left: Day-to-day stroller that collapses and unfolds with one hand. The infant car seat in the photo above snaps into this stroller, too!

Right: Jogging stroller.

While everything we bought is used, it is generally in great condition and just needs a little TLC. Everything with a fabric cover can go in the washing machine, and we're going to sanitize all the hard plastic parts with a bleach/water solution. I get the sense that most people buy brand new stuff for their first baby and just re-use it all when other babies come along. We're just sort of jumping straight into the second child stage with baby gear. haha

In all we spent about $270 on all this gear. If we take a look at current, comparable models (which we would have to buy if we didn't go the pre-owned route) it would have cost about $1,150!! We were literally high fiving each other on the way home because we were so excited about these awesome deals.

Here's a fun picture of Ben practicing taking the baby on a run! Clearly they are having fun as Dad "pops a wheelie" to entertain our sweet little baby. ;-)

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According to some pregnancy books and websites I've read, I should start feeling the baby move in the next few weeks! When I'm being still and quiet (particularly as I go to sleep and wake up) I try to focus on the baby and see if I can detect any little flutters or pops. So far I haven't felt a thing, but I have read that some people (especially first time moms) don't feel anything until closer to 20 weeks. According to the weekly update the baby can move his or her joints now, so hopefully I'll feel it move soon!

Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

I have a midwife appointment next Tuesday morning! It's just a regular check-up, but I will probably get to hear the heartbeat again. The appointment after Tuesday will include the anatomy scan ultrasound when we find out if it's a girl or a boy!! Wheeee!

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On a sad note, we lost a member of the Lilly family this week. Henry, the family golden retriever, finally wore out on Tuesday, March 20 and is now having fun in heaven with all the other dogs and people.

For me (Laura), Henry is the most special and wonderful dog I've ever known. Ben and I had been dating a few months and he invited me to meet his family for a holiday get-together in December 2007. I had heard about Henry and seen pictures of this great big dog, and to be honest I was less than excited to be around him. I just wasn't a "dog person" and was a little afraid of big dogs, in particular. I knew Henry was important, though, and I wanted to impress my cute, new boyfriend so I decided I would make an effort to at least tolerate Henry and considered patting him on the head occasionally. Most of the time I preferred to stay on the other side of the room, or at least keep one person between me and Henry.

As time passed I realized that Henry wasn't just a big hairy beast with dog breath and a slobbery tongue. He was just as much a part of the family as all the humans, and as silly as I feel saying this (I always rolled my eyes in my "not a dog person" days), Henry was a great friend. Even though I only got to know Henry for a little over four years of his 13-ish year life, he certainly made a lifelong impact on me. In some way, he'll always be with us (not just for the fact that there will probably still be tumble weeds of Henry hair at Ben and Peggy's house for years to come....you can't escape it!). I'm sad our son or daughter won't have the chance to play with Henry, but I am thankful that there are lots of other dogs around that he or she can know and love (and thankful I'm not scared of dogs anymore so I can play, too!).

Week 16: Ahh... Elastic.

This week, let's jump right in with a belly photo:

Just kidding! Last weekend I went shopping for some maternity jeans. I went to one maternity-specific store (the others were just regular department stores with a maternity section) and they had these little pillows you could strap around your waist to see how clothes will fit when you're further along in the pregnancy. It was pretty funny to see myself with such a large belly! Hopefully my real big, pregnant belly won't be lumpy like this pillow belly. ;-)

At this point I can't really fit into any of my non-pregnant jeans. I mentioned getting a "Belly Band" a few weeks back (the elastic band that you can use over unbuttoned regular jeans) it was terrible. In the few hours I tried to wear it, the band kept flipping up and it felt like a tourniquet around my waist. It went back to the store pretty quickly to say the least.

As a tall woman, shopping for maternity jeans was no easy task. Even in my non-pregnant state I often have a difficult time finding jeans (or pants, in general) that fit well around and in length and that are not ridiculously expensive. Adding the elastic waistband factor made it all the more difficult. Macy's was my last stop at the mall and they actually had a decent selection in their maternity section. I found some jeans that fit perfectly (for $35 with tax!) and I literally pumped my arms over my head in victory! I wore them pretty much every day this week and it was like heaven compared to my unbuttoned, too tight regular jeans. By the way, I had an elastic looped through the button hole and around the button so they weren't flapping in the breeze or anything! At this point, I don't really need maternity shirts. I tried a few on and thought they just looked sort of baggy, so I decided to hold off until my waistline is a bit "fuller".

Now that you know more about my clothes than you ever cared to know.... ;-)

I continue to feel great on the "how are you feeling?" front. I've noticed a new pregnancy symptoms, though. Lately my joints have been popping and cracking. I'm not doing any of it on purpose-- I'll just stand up or move a certain way and it's "Snap! Crackle! Pop!". During pregnancy the female body produces ten times the normal amount of a hormone called relaxin that loosens joints in preparation for childbirth. I have a feeling this hormone has kicked in and that my looser joints are the reason for all the popping and cracking. Fortunately it's not painful or anything.

Here's what the baby is up to this week:

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

In my (real!) weekly belly photo I am starting to look a little more round. As I mentioned earlier, though, you can't really tell when I'm wearing regular clothes.

We're headed to a HUGE baby and kids consignment sale in Chattanooga this weekend to hopefully get some great deals on "baby gear". We went to another consignment sale at a church this past week and got about $165 worth of stuff for $36.50! I'll share all the details and photos of everything in next week's post since we'll hopefully have some more "wins" this coming weekend. Like the wedding industry, everything labeled "baby" is super over priced. These consignment sales have gear in really great condition at a fraction of the price, so it is a fantastic resource! More later... :-)

First Trimester Recap

Technically I am writing this post about three weeks late! I saw this on another pregnancy blog and thought it was a neat idea, so I'm going to be retroactive and post my version. 


Most exciting moment...


Hands down seeing the baby on the ultrasound and hearing the heartbeat whooshing away was the most exciting moment. Seeing the baby on the screen made the whole thing 100% real. Both of us got a little choked up and overwhelmed (in the best way possible), and it was definitely a turning point in our lives and marriage. Not that we didn't feel like a team before (we literally refer to ourselves at "Team Lilly" haha), but it made our bond that much closer.

Most challenging moment...


While this isn't really a "moment" it was hard to keep the pregnancy a secret at times! Particularly when talking about babies with girlfriends and getting the question, "When are you and Ben going to start trying?" haha


One thing I'm proud of...


Continuing to maintain a healthy lifestyle! I truly believe the fact that I eat well, exercise five days a week, and finding opportunities to be social and foster relationships played a big role in feeling pretty great for the first trimester.


One thing I wish were different...


I spent a lot of time over-analyzing every tweak and change and was super paranoid that we'd have a miscarriage (hence waiting a while before we started telling people). I don't know that it really took anything way from the experience or made it "bad", but it would be nice not to be a worrier about that sort of thing.


Favorite food...


Cheese! Cereal! Sweets! Dill Pickles! (note that this doesn't really vary much from my non-pregnant favorites...haha)  I also went through a phase of wanting baked potatoes and Caesar salad all the time.


Least favorite food...


Tomatoes floating in soup and meat (due to texture). (No worries-- I still get lots of protein from vegetarian sources and do eat a little meat on occasion)


My physical state included...


Middle of the night wake-ups, increased thirst, and other stuff that's too personal to mention in a public forum. ;-)


Symptoms I (thankfully) didn't have...


Morning sickness/nausea, significant fatigue, heartburn, roller coaster emotions, frequent headaches, and probably a host of other first trimester symptoms.


One thing that surprised me...


Lack of morning sickness and how long it takes for a baby belly to start showing!


Looking forward to...


Finding out if we are having a boy or a girl, and growing a big round belly!

Week 15: The Apple of Our Eyes

The baby is growing! According to the weekly update the baby is about the size of an apple. We've had fun saying the baby is the "apple of our eye".  :-)  Cheesy! (but we love it)

I've recently had a really strong feeling that the baby is a girl. This is somewhat noteworthy because throughout the pregnancy, and even before we started trying to get pregnant, Ben and I have always talked about the baby in boy terms. "When he does this...", "If we take him here...", etc. According to old wives tales we're sort of all over the map as to whether or not it's a boy or a girl. For example, the high heart rate (178 bpm at the nine week appointment) would indicate it's a girl, but my lack of morning sickness would indicate it's a boy. The Chinese gender predictor chart says it's a boy, and Ben's co-worker who has an uncanny ability to predict things (like telling Ben I was the woman he was going to marry after we had only been dating two or three months!) says it's a boy. Ben's still very much in the boy camp, but I haven't been able to shake this recent feeling that it's a girl. As Ben says, we both have a 50/50 shot at being right! haha  In mid-April we'll have the ultrasound with the anatomy scan which will tell us for sure!

Here's what the baby is up to this week:

Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple). She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but she is forming taste buds. 
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I continue to feel great (with the exception of one nausea filled morning when I took my vitamin before eating breakfast!) and have been able to keep up with my normal exercise. The midwife said it's fine for me to keep it up since I was exercising regularly and lifting weights before I got pregnant. Actually, she said the worst thing I could do would be to stop or drastically decrease the amount of exercise. Keeping up my regular routine is supposed to help make pregnancy more comfortable, can have a very positive impact on labor and delivery, and will speed my recovery time after the baby is born. I have to make a few modifications like not laying flat on my back or twisting, and I'm not supposed to increase the amount of weight I lift (maintaining is fine).

Even though I've felt comfortable (physically and mentally) with my current exercise routine I decided to check out a few prenatal exercise DVDs from the library. To sum it up, both were a total bust. I didn't even take off my sweatshirt after one DVD that was 40 minutes long! I'm guessing they must be more geared toward women who didn't exercise regularly before pregnancy. The DVDs are going back to the library and I'll be sticking with kick boxing and weight lifting classes and power walking/light jogging. No worries future grandma's and grandpa's.... I'll be sure to take it down a notch when it starts to feel like too much. :-)

A friend of mine is a yoga instructor and one of her classes happens to be a gentle/pre-natal yoga class! I was able to attend for the first time this week. It was really nice and my lower back felt awesome afterwards. Most (non-pregnant) days I lay on my back and twist and stretch and rock around, but now that I'm in the second trimester I cannot do such things. A few yoga poses loosened things up, and I'm also glad to have them in my "back pocket" if I ever want/need to do them at home. The prenatal yoga class happens to overlap with one of my favorite classes at the gym so I probably will go every other week or every two weeks. Also, I have to pay per class and the classes at the gym are included in my membership. Perhaps as my belly gets bigger and more awkward to maneuver I will start going to the yoga classes more frequently.

Last, but not least here is the picture of the week! Starting to look a bit more pregnant in tight clothing, but I still look pretty "normal" in regular clothes.

This weekend I'm going to try and find some maternity jeans! It's time to begin five and a half months of elastic waistbands. :-)

Week 14: Already Hyper

Earlier this week I had a midwife appointment and everything checked out great! The baby and I are right on track, and the midwife said our job over the next four weeks (when I have my next appointment) is to grow. I think I can handle that. :-)  During the visit I got to hear the heartbeat again! The midwife gelled up a little wand and pushed it around on my lower abdomen. At first it was a plain "white noise" type of sound, sort of like when you listen to old recordings of astronauts in space. Eventually it turned into a fast "whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!" then there was a different noise and back to "whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!". When it made the different noise the midwife said, "Hey! We can already hear it moving around!" It was pretty cool. When I relayed it all to Ben by phone after the appointment (he's just coming to the "big" appointments and not the five minute check-up type appointments like this one) he said, "Great... our baby is already hyper!" haha We decided it was moving around because the midwife was pushing on it, and my heart was probably pounding because I was nervous and excited. It's still so cool to know and have confirmation that there really is a little person growing inside me!

When we went to take the picture for the week Ben started to frame the photo then lowered the camera to say, "You really have a little bump going on there!" What do you think?

It's still quite small, but definitely starting to get more "legit" looking.  :-)

Here's what's going on with our hyper baby:


This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.


In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.


In other news we've gone through a bunch of options as to which room to use as the nursery. We decided that it makes the most sense for Ben to move his office into our current guest room (we'll be getting rid of the  bed, etc. so it all fits), and we'll make his current office the nursery. It's the biggest room upstairs and it's right across the hall from my office so if I'm able to have the baby home with me during part of the work day it will be convenient. Also, our current guest room is over the garage, and we were worried that the garage door opening and closing would probably wake up a sleeping baby. That room also has a sloped ceiling on both sides and I was paranoid that we'd accidentally bonk the baby's head when we were picking it up from getting changed or picking it up out of the crib. March is a fairly busy month for us, so we'll probably start making progress on getting everything moved around, painted (probably just the guest room which never got painted a color), etc. in April.