Big Mama at 31 weeks

Hello!

According to babycenter.com Baby Kumquat is now over 16 inches long and weighs over 3.3 pounds. This is apparently like carrying 4 navel oranges. Sometimes my stomach looks like several navel oranges are rolling around so I'm ok with this comparison.

I realized I hadn't posted a belly picture since week 24, so I'm updating that as well today. I am definitely bigger, but at least I can still wear the belly picture outfit! At this point I am grateful for the small miracles in life when dealing with my ever increasing size! I just noticed how much longer my hair has gotten, prenatal vitamins are amazing little things!

Tony spent the morning rearranging the garage so we can not only pull the Accord in, but I can actually get in and out of the car as well! I can't slide in and out of a partially open car door anymore!

Have a great week and Merry Christmas!

30 week update

A lot has happened in the past week that needs to be updated. Let's start with the produce comparison for Baby Kumquat.

Week 28 - Chinese cabbage
Week 29 - Butternut Squash
Week 30 - Cabbage, almost 3 pounds and 15.7 inches long

I went to the doctor today. Everything looks good, my blood pressure is good and was told that even though I've gained a little more weight than I should, there isn't anything I can do about it now! Have I told you how much I adore my doctors?! I now go to the doctor every 2 weeks until week 36 then will switch to weekly.

I finished my committments at UNCG this week so I'm officially unemployed for the next 8 months! I managed to get an A in program eval, an A in special ed. law and an A- in stats! I was shocked, but pleasantly surprised with the stats grade! Not bad at all for someone who completely checked out the last 2 weeks of class!

I think that is all for now. Have a great week.

28 weeks - produce & pics!

Baby Kumquat & I just passed the 28 week mark on Saturday. BabyCenter.com says that he is the approximate weight of a cabbage. Yick, hate cabbage, but whatever. I went to the doctor today as well to find out that he is a little ahead of the curve in size (Surprising, huh? NOT!) and is actually weighing in a 2 pounds 15 ounces. Dr. Seidel says that everything looks good, "normal" is the category we are getting in everything which is fine with me! The placenta has moved so that is no longer an issue, my blood pressure is great and weight is something we aren't discussing.

I'm including 2 ultrasound pics today. One is a picture of his face, but he has a hand slightly in front. You can almost see his finger extended and pointing at his eye. The other is a profile of him all balled up and holding onto one of his feet. I will refrain from uploading all of the ultrasound pics, but if you want to see them just email me and I'd be happy to forward along!

Have a great week. Its the last week of class at UNCG! That means only 1 stats class left. YIPPEE!!!

We have a crib and a closet full of diapers...

This past week in a successful attempt to procrastinate from completing a major law assignment that is coming due, I forced myself to tape off the ceiling and fix the trim work in the nursery. It looks much better and I didn't even have to call in a friend to help me with it like I was afraid was going to happen. I was determined to do it myself and not have Tony dash in to fix it for me.

The other major accomplishment this weekend was that Tony put the crib up, which is a real blast of reality. We can talk about having a baby, I can gain tons of weight and get bigger, but the crib is a major reality check. Tony also brought the diapers up that we have been given from our FABULOUS P&G connection. I thought it was funny that they take up so much room in the closet so I'm including a picture of them as well.

So, we have a place for the baby to sleep and diapers...if only that was all we need to be "ready" for his arrival. I have another ultrasound on Monday so I'll upload pics later this week.

27 weeks down...

This week Baby Kumquat is about 14 and a half inches long and 2 pounds in weight. That makes him about the weight of a head of cauliflower. Hopefully he's cuter than a head of cauliflower!

This weekend I began painting the nursery. Of course I wasn't really in the mood to paint so I refused to tape off the ceiling to get a nice crisp line at the top of the wall meaning I get to do it again. Tony is becoming frustrated with me about it, but we know better than to try to both paint in the room at the same time. I'll keep you posted on the progress...

The best baby gift yet...

I am always amazed at how kind and generous people can be, especially when you are directly exposed to the generosity of strangers or those you only know through other people. This weekend we went to Cincy to get a crib from a friend and came home with the crib, a pack & play, bouncer, swing, a case of diapers, and several bags of clothes for Baby Kumquat. As much as I am in awe of the generosity of my friends and family, it was the gifts from 2 women that I've never even met that were the most amazing. One of my mom's friends made Baby Kumquat a gorgeous blanket that will match the colors of his room almost perfectly. She hand knitted this blanket...did I say its gorgeous?

However, the best baby gift so far has to be the Steelers gift bag from my mom's friend Twila. Again, never actually met her but she is definitely a front runner in the "who buys the bring home baby outfit!" (How cute is little hat?) Sorry Cincy family, the Bengals may have beaten us twice this season, but he will be raised from the beginning as a Steeler boy even though he is due to arrive right after football season is officially over.

Thanks to everyone for all of your love and support through this process. We are at 26 weeks currently and babycenter.com compares him to an English hothouse cucumber this week in length. I have another ultrasound scheduled at 28 weeks, so hopefully we'll have new pictures to post then. I probably should go be productive at school now.

24 weeks...

In an attempt to appease those of you who want to see my ever expanding belly, here is a picture from this morning before I left for campus. I thought it would be good to wear the same outfit as the last time since some things make me look bigger or hide my belly better than other things do. Enjoy!

Making room for baby

For the past few weeks Tony and I have been sorting through tons of stuff we have acquired in the five years we have lived in this house in the office and attic. We got my desk emptied out and stored in the attic for the time being. With this major project out of the way, we were able to move the "spare bedroom" furniture into the office area so that we can start working on the nursery. Although we were initially worried about how tight the office/spare bedroom might be, it actually seems to work.

I finally made a decision on what the theme for the nursery is going to be and ordered the bedding today. Once that comes in we will be able to choose a paint color for Max's room. (Honestly, I'll just be glad to finally be getting rid of the ugly "Hey Diddle Diddle" border that I never got around to taking down!) The set I ordered for the baby's room is called Alphabet Soup from Target. Although we really wanted to do an all Horton Hears a Who theme, it seemed like it was going to be entirely too hard and I wasn't really wanting to paint a mural on the wall. Instead, we are going with the alphabet crib bedding and will accent the walls with framed children's book covers. We will of course include Horton with an addition of a shelf full of Hortons that we have acquired!

We will keep you updated with the progress, but for only being 24 weeks I think we're doing pretty good! Then again, do I really want to be doing all of this at the end of December/early January when I'm out of school? I'm hoping to have the bulk of the decorating done by the end of December so when I'm really big and uncomfortable I only have organizing of baby things to do. Then again...we all know how ADD I can be so who knows!

Next update will be after my 24 week doctor appointment. Yummy glucose testing is this week!

Produce of the week!

In checking the blog, I realized I forgot to post last week so that everyone knows how big Baby Kumquat is now. At 23 weeks he was being compared to a large mango. This week, at 24 weeks, he is the length of an ear of corn. He weighs in at about 1 pound and is almost a foot long. He can now hear sounds around him, but I haven't started reading to him yet. I will admit to turning the car stereo really loud one day last week to get him to stop moving around so much while I was trying to drive though. It worked so I guess I know what to do when he gets upset in the car!

We have 6 weeks of classes left this semester! I have to admit, I will not be sad when these awful classes are finished! I did end up with an 83.5 on my stats midterm which was pleasantly surprising.

You learn something new every day...maybe.

I am now in my 23rd week of cooking Baby Kumquat. My weekly babycenter.com email told me that he is now the length of a spaghetti squash. Not being a big veggie eater, I had no idea what this even was. With the help of google and wikipedia, I now know that the spaghetti squash is also known as noodle squash, vegetable spaghetti or gold string melon (in Japan). Apparently it is low in calories and can be baked, boiled or steamed, but something tells me I'm not going to be running out to buy one for dinner tonight.

In other news, we did survive midterms this week. I also realized that I only have 5 face to face class sessions left in my stats class! This makes me VERY happy. I don't think Kumquat was super excited about the stat exam yesterday either and showed his dislike by shoving his heel into the top of my ribs throughout the exam. It was really strange to rub under my ribs and feel an actual little foot! I have truly been taken over by an alien being, the proof was in the foot!

Not much else going on here. Tony & I are in the process of clearing random stuff out of the office, spare bedroom and attic. The ultimate goal is to move the guest bed into the office and make the spare bedroom the nursery. I suppose we'll get there sooner rather than later, at least we'd better!

Hope everyone is doing well. Until next week...

21 weeks down...

This week, I am at 21 weeks and baby kumquat is the approximate length of a carrot. He should be about 10 1/2 inches long from head to toe and weighs 3/4 a pound. Where the heck is the rest of this weight coming from? I've really slowed down on the Moe's!

The big excitement for the day was that Tony & I started our Babies 'R Us registry today. Holy moly is there a LOT of stuff! Tony enjoyed playing with the scanner gun, who knows what he actually put on there when I had to go to the bathroom! I really thought I had somewhat of a clue in terms of what baby stuff we'd need to register for, but oh my gosh! How do you choose a baby monitor? Does it matter what brand gas relief medicine you give your baby? How do you adequately choose a car seat/stroller? We obviously didn't complete it, but at least its started.

Next week I have midterms at school, the only positive thing about that is that it also means I am over halfway done cooking a kumquat! Until next week...

20 weeks down, 20 to go

This week Baby Kumquat is being measured from head to heel and is the size of a banana. Do you think that is why I have been wanting to eat a banana every day? Strange...

Went to the doctor today and was told that everything is on track and fine. I am becoming HUGE though! Just this week I had about 5 different people at school say to me, "OMG! I didn't realize you were pregnant!" Since I now seem to be moving into the realm of people wanting to touch my belly I thought I would go against my better judgment and just show you all how big I'm beginning to get. I'm sure I'll regret this so enjoy it while it lasts.

Week 19 Produce

Not much to report on the pregger front so instead I will update you on the "produce comparison of the week". We are now in week 19 which is an heirloom tomato. Remember this is just head and torso, legs or arms aren't included. I'll let you know if anything exciting happens this week, but I wouldn't hold your breath!

Baby Kumquat is a boy!!!

Went for my level 2 ultrasound today at Duke Perinatal in Raleigh. (Thankfully a scale was NOT involved since I have been non-stop eating for the past 2 days!) The doctor says everything looks good in terms of all the measurements that were taken. Baby Kumquat was actually rather sleepy today so no hyperactive child in the photo shoot process. I didn't really get any great ultrasound pics, but I'm including one of his foot and a profile shot. Its sounds as though I will be getting another ultrasound at 28 weeks because the placenta is a little close to my cervix, but they weren't overly concerned about that.

So, biggest news is that Baby Kumquat is a boy! Unless something drastic happens between now and his arrival, his name will be Maxwell Ivan. These were the middle names of my great-grandfather and grandfather on my mom's side. I guess that means you can refer to him as Baby Kumquat or Max, whichever is fine at this point. Poor thing will probably be called Kumquat his whole life!

We'll continue to keep you posted.

Produce of the week

Many of you have enjoyed finding out what produce of the week that Baby Kumquat is being compared to, but I have been really bad about relaying this via blog. I am going to go ahead and give you the updates from the time we started getting produce updates to current. Keep in mind that this is information coming from babycenter.com and they are only referring to the baby's size from "head to rump" no appendages included at this point.

Week 9 - grape

Week 10- KUMQUAT!!!!

Week 11 - fig

Week 12 - lime

Week 13 - medium shrimp

Week 14 - lemon

Week 15 - apple

Week 16 - avocado

Week 17 - turnip

Week 18 - bell pepper

Tony initially tried to stick with the produce of the week, but baby fig newton didn't go over so well with mommy-to-be so this baby will forever and always be "Baby Kumquat" to us and all those who love him/her! We should know the sex of the baby later this week so I'll update again then.

Another craving...

I haven't given much of an update on my eating habits since I pretty much want to eat anything and everything. However, there is one thing in particular that has been a special treat craving of mine for about a month now. (I have cut down my dry roasted peanut intake dramatically!) Its called Pucca and comes from Japan. I can't even buy this stuff at a normal grocery store. Ai, grad school friend, has to get it for me from the Greensboro Grand Asia Market! I think I love it so much because it is both salty and sweet. They are pretzels shaped like fish filled with chocolate. She also bought me some with white chocolate and strawberry, but so far the original are my fave. I highly recommend you make a trip to your Asian market to find some!

16 Week Doctor Appointment

Baby Kumquat & I went to the doctor today. No ultrasound, but did get to hear the baby's heartbeat. I am convinced that Kumquat is going to be hyperactive since the doctor had to practically chase him around my uterus to keep track of his heartbeat! We go to Duke Perinatal in 2 weeks for our level 2 ultrasound. It will be done through them due to me being over 35 (medical term for OLD) and they like to get extra measurements, etc. Hopefully we will be able to find out for sure if Kumquat is a boy or girl. I won't even make a comment about the amount of weight I've gained already. More later...

Baby Kumquat started school!

Well, Baby Kumquat and Mama have officially started back to school at UNCG. We are on campus Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of every week working in the doc office for the Specialized Education Services Department during the day and taking class in the evening. Thankfully, our fabulous friends Pamela & Jerry let me crash at their house on Monday nights after class which saves a little bit of driving. I don't think I could pull off the 90 minute drive each way all 3 days! We'll keep you posted on how things go, but this semester is program evaluation, stats & law! YICK.

How will the baby wear that?

Grandma Cathy & Grandpa Tom sent Baby Kumquat a gift yesterday. Since it came with "flipper slippers" Tony asked how the baby was going to wear it. I had to explain that it was a combo blanket/stuffed animal for Baby Kumquat to hold, NOT wear. That made MUCH more sense to him. Too funny! We have a long way to go don't we?

Baby Kumquat's first gift!

Baby Kumquat just got his/her first gift today! Thanks to Auntie Nisey for the "Horton Hears a Who" costume for our first Halloween... next year!

Here is Baby Kumquat!

Let's start by saying this is your official, "Jennette and Tony are having a baby" notice! Surprised? So were we initially, but when God throws a lightning bolt your way you're just glad you don't catch on fire.

Although it may seem like a strange way of doing this, with parents in 3 different cities across the country and friends all over we thought this would be a good way to keep you posted with my "growth" each month. Although I will embarrass myself with pictures of me and my food cravings...there will NOT be pictures each week/month of my ever expanding belly. (Sorry Denise & Robin, I have to draw a line somewhere.)

Here are a few of the 12 week ultrasound pictures. So far everything looks great and he/she is right on target. Right now my due date is February 20, 2010 which means only 1 semester of class this year. More on that later...

Hardly the size of a kumquat anymore, at week 10 I read that the baby was about the size of a kumquat. This has definitely been the most exciting fruit that the baby has resembled so far (week 9=grape, week 11=fig, week 12=lime) so from henceforth we are having "Baby Kumquat". OK, when we know for sure if we are having a boy or girl I suppose we can change over then to a baby name, but for now this will do.

Until the mood so strikes me to post again...

Horton out.

I love peanuts!

Did you know that you can get 52 ounces of dry roasted peanuts (with sea salt) for under $6 at Sam's Club? Delicious!