Parenting 105

I learned a very important parenting lesson today by watching the video below. It is not a basic lesson, very advanced, but very important. It makes me re-think how I am going to teach my kids about certain things. Enjoy. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHvDTTPW4z8

14 week appointment

On Tuesday we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. I was so fun! The doctor said it was in the 150s (whatever that means) and is good. Everytime I laughed or moved you couldn't hear it so I had to stay still.

My appointments from here on out aren't going to have too much excitement. I have to pee in a cup and they test that, they'll check the heartbeat, weigh me (I haven't gained any weight so far even though my belly is bigger!) and measure my belly.

Our next appointment is in 4 weeks (I'll be 19 weeks then) and at that appointment we'll get the Rx to have an ultrasound so that we can find out if it is a boy or girl (keep voting!). Soooo, we have about 6 weeks before we can start calling the baby something other than baby!

This is what they say about the baby at this age:

Week Fourteen:
Thyroid gland has matured and your baby begins producing hormones which will be used throughout his or her life.
In boys, the prostate gland develops.
In girls, the ovaries move from the abdomen to the pelvis.
Your little one may have learned to suck his/her thumb by this point!
Your child's bones are getting harder and stronger by the day!
Your baby's skin is very transparent still.
Lanugo (very fine hair) covers the baby's body and will continue to grow until 26 weeks gestational age - Generally this will be shed prior to birth. Its purpose is to help protect baby's skin while in all that water!
Your baby is aboout 3.42 inches long and weighs about 1.52 ounces - approximately the weight of a letter!

The baby is trying to show!

So my pants are getting tighter and I am having lots of trouble picking out what to wear in the mornings. Juli and I went shopping on Saturday and I got some stuff, but I'm trying to wait until I get bigger. After lunch is the worst time of day as the baby grows when I eat and my pants get even tighter! =)

You can start to tell that I am pregnant...well, kind of. If you know I am pregnant, then you can tell that I am getting bigger & if you don't know, I just look fat. I don't mind on most days. I do have some days when I feel fat, but if I put one of my hands on the top of my belly and the other underneath it, then I look pregnant and feel pregnant.

Adam took my picture the other day when I looked pregnant (now this was taken after lunch).

Here I am before baby:

Here I am at 12 weeks!

Experiment #1: I have food issues

I know you have been dying to know what happened with part 2 of my experiment yesterday.

I ate a waffle, a cup of applesauce and a banana at 8:30am. I was hungry at 11:20 and had to eat a snack (I love my goldfish!). I then wasn't hungry for lunch until 1:00.

Conclusion: No matter what I do, I will be hungry before I think I should. If I eat more sometimes I last longer between meal and sometimes not. I guess all of you who have had kids are laughing at me because you have long since figured this out, but I had to do some testing. My big problem is I don't get hungry anymore...I get starving! I miss the in-between step.

The moral of the story: always pack a snack!

Today the baby wanted Dunkin' Donuts and coffee sooooo the experiment will have to continue on Monday. =)

Experiment #1: Food Theory - the more I eat the longer it takes for me to get hungry.

I feel like a bottomless pit these days. I always seem hungry. I decided to start trying to figure out the best way to stay full and not get sick from being hungry. I get headaches really easily these days and being hungry gets makes them worse.

I normally eat 1-2 waffles in the morning and then get hungry for a snack, but not always so today I am tracking it.

Experiment for today: I ate 2 waffles for breakfast, 1 apple sauce cup and water. I started eating at about 8:30am and kept getting interrupted so it was about 9:20am when I was done. I made it all the way to 11:40am before I started feeling hungry!

Conclusion: not much of one can be made at this point. Tomorrow I'll eat 1 waffle instead of 2 and see what happens.

Watch for Experiment #1 Update tomorrow!

I'm 12 weeks today!

In one sense the time has really flown. I can't believe I am only one week away from entering my second trimester. On the other hand, time has passed really, really slow. I find myself wanting it to pass more quickly. I can't wait to go to the doctor next and hear the heartbeat. I am anxious for my belly to get bigger. My clothes are getting uncomfortable and there are a few things I can't wear, but I'm not big enough to buy new clothes yet.

I'm feeling pretty good. Normally in the mornings and towards the end of the work day I start to feel a little weird, but nothing too bad. Brushing my teeth when I am tired has become an adventure.

We went on our youth retreat a little over a week ago. It was wonderful, but it took me a week to recover. Everything is so different and I keep being amazed at how much my body is changing and how things affect me.

Adam and I went to Babies R Us on Saturday night. It was soooo much fun. We hadn't done anything like that since we found out we were pregnant. In true Adam and Angela fashion, we couldn't just go and browse, no we ended up picking out our furniture and pack 'n play. I think I'll go and browse once more before we register. I never imagined it would be so much fun. We will need a lot of stuff. I still have about 2 more months before we find out what the baby is going to be and that means 2 more months until we register. I'm looking forward to picking out all sorts of fun stuff for our child!

To answer the question that I have been asked so many times: do I have a feeling of what the sex of the baby is or do I want one more than the other . . . no. I go back and forth. I have always wanted a boy first (mainly because I always wanted an older brother), but then again it would be so fun to have a little girl and we don't have any baby girls in the family yet. I really don't know. I have found 2 girls names that I like and girl bedding and find myself more indecisive on the boy stuff. I could get philosophical and say it is possibly because I am having a girl or because I'm having a boy and God wants me not to have everything figured out and just trust Him. Either way, I just want a baby and have a long time until I find out. I'm just trying to keep my mind busy so I don't think about it too much.

Lastly, we have nicknames for the baby (well, other people have nicknamed the baby) as BB (short for baby and said the same way - more of an email nickname) and peanut. I just like to call it baby, my baby!