24 Weeks

A little update on how the pregnancy has been progressing...



How far along: I'll be 24 weeks on Christmas Eve.  The cool thing about 24 weeks is that most doctors consider 24 weeks the beginning of viability.  I think the chance of survival of a baby born at 24 weeks is between 40-70%, and the chances significantly increase each week thereafter.  By 27 weeks, a baby has a >90% chance of survival. 

 

Symptoms: Not feeling as spry lately.  Some intermittent lower back/ hip pain.  I've been trying to sleep on my side which should relieve some of the pain, but I still wake up on my back and stomach a lot of the time.  My midwife said not too worry too much about sleeping positions at this point, and that my body would let me know when I need to adjust.

 

Weight gain: 4 pounds during the last four weeks and 10 pounds overall. 

 

I'm still exercising regularly, but have notched down the intensity of my workouts.  No more long runs.  I mostly keep to walking and doing the elliptical.  I also do one round of the strength machines and an hour of yoga each week.  I aim for an average of 30 minutes of cardio each day plus the weekly strength training.  I think it's helped keep my weight in check, my symptoms minimal, and my mental health/ emotions balanced.

 

Fetal Movement: Still consistent.  She likes to kick me every few hours.  One day this past week she kicked me all day long!  Not sure why she was so active that day.  She is still breech, so she usually kicks me really low (below my waist line).  One morning she had flipped over for a short period and I could feel her kicking me around my belly button.  It was kinda neat because you could actually feel it from the outside.  Jason wasn't patient enough to keep his hand there long enough to feel her, but I thought it was cool.

 

Prenatal care: I had my 24 week checkup last Friday (a few days early) and the midwife said everything looked perfect (weight, tummy measurements, baby's heartbeat).  We'll be starting childbirth education classes in January with a doula the midwives recommended.  At my 28 week checkup I have to have a Rhogam shot (since I have a negative blood type) and do the glucose screening to test for gestational diabetes.  Oh joy.

 

Nesting: Umm not too much other than making the pennant banner for the nursery.  Once we get past the holidays, we'll need to kick up our preparations into high gear.  I still would like to paint the baseboards in her room before I loose all my nimbleness.  We need to order the crib soon too.

 

Worries: Not many.  I'm starting to feel the time crunch, but I'm sure we'll get everything done that we need to.

 

Looking forward to: Just watching the pregnancy progress.  I feel like I've been breaking up the pregnancy into little milestones every few weeks.  It makes the 9 months a lot less daunting.  So far milestones have been: finding out we were expecting at 5 weeks, our first prenatal appointment at 9 weeks, finishing the first trimester at 13 weeks (and hearing the baby's heartbeat at that appointment), the half way mark and anatomy ultrasound at 20 weeks, and reaching viability at 24 weeks.  I still have the following milestones to look forward to: entering the third trimester at 27 weeks and reaching full term at 39 weeks. 

Nursery Pennant Banners

Last weekend I pulled out the sewing machine and made a couple pennant banners for the nursery.  (Jason corrected me from calling them "pendant banners".)  It was a fairly easy process.  Just cut out triangles, sewed them together, and linked them together using double fold bias tape. 



 



Jason didn't like the way I had hung them first, so we tried another style today.  Can't wait to get the crib in there and see how it looks!

The Beginnings of a Nursery

We'll be turning our second bedroom into Matilda's nursery.  Since we moved into this house, I figured that if we had kids, that would be the nursery, so I've always kept that in mind when buying stuff for that room.  I also didn't know if Jason would want to find out the sex of the baby, so I've tried to keep it a bit gender neutral.  It errs on the girlier side, but I think we could have added more blues to make it a little boys room.  This is basically the room as is:

I've always admired this artist's work, so as soon as we found out we were pregnant, I ordered a few prints.  They now hang on the wall opposite the bed.

I also went to Hobby Lobby and picked out some scrapbook paper to make a mobile and alphabet poster.  I cut out clouds, hot air balloons, and sail boats and strung them together using fishing line.  I covered an embroidery loop with yarn and tied the fishing line to the hoop to make it a mobile.

 

For the alphabet poster, I simply outlined some letter stencils, cut them out, and glued them to a poster board.

 

 

The only other project we've really worked on is cleaning out the closet and organizing the items my brother, sister-in-law, and mom have passed along.  I bought some baskets from The Container Store to help organize toys, pajamas, diapers, etc. since we don't plan on buying a dresser.

The only furniture we plan on adding is a crib and maybe some open shelving for toys down the line.  We'll likely use the desk as a changing table.  I still want to add some Ikea spice racks under the alphabet poster to use as book shelves.  I also might sew a flag pendant to decorate the back wall.  Anybody want to come re-paint my trim for me?  :)

20 Weeks

Sorry for the lack of posting lately.  It's not that I haven't done anything exciting.  In fact, I've been doing something very exciting... growing a baby.  :)

 

 

How far along: I'm officially half way through the pregnancy, at 20 weeks now.  My due date is April 15th, Tax Day.

 

Symptoms: Hardly any at all.  Don't hate me.  I've had some minor cramping and back aches as my body has adjusted to my growing uterus, but I haven't had any nausea at all.  I was a bit more tired than usual, especially during the first trimester, but nothing too extreme.  No weird cravings.  I do seem to get hungry faster and more often than usual.  I try to keep fruit on hand for when the hunger sneaks up on me.  Also, I think I've probably indulged in more sweets than normal.  Baby seems to like cake.  Oh, I do have super weird pregnancy dreams!  I think that was probably my first indication that I was pregnant. 

 

Weight gain: 6 pounds so far.  2 of those were gained during the first trimester, only half a pound between weeks 13 and 17, then 3.5 pounds between weeks 17 and 20.  I'm basically shooting for a pound a week until I deliver. You can tell from the pictures above that I didn't really look pregnant until after week 18.  Jason just said I looked "fluffy" during most of my early pregnancy.  What a lovely description.

 

When I had Veteran's day off from work, I went and picked out some maternity clothes.  I'm still wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans, but maternity work pants seem to be much more comfortable during the week. I like the maternity tops too.  They seem to flatter the baby bump much more than normal clothes.

 

Prenatal care: I'm seeing a group of midwives and will be delivering in a hospital.  As long as I stay low risk and don't have any complications, the midwives will assist with the delivery.  If any complications were to occur during pregnancy or delivery, I would be referred to a doctor in their practice. 

 

I've really liked the quality of care I've received so far.  The midwives do everything a doctor would do as far as monitoring development, prenatal testing, etc., but the visits are longer and we talk more about how I'm feeling, if I have any concerns, what kind of care I would like to receive before, during, and after delivery, etc. 

 

The hardest decision Jason and I have had to make so far is whether or not we'd do the genetic testing (NT scan or quad screen).  I stressed over it for days, but after a lot of research and talking with friends and family, we opted out of both.  The midwifes were good about informing me of the pros and cons of the tests, and in the end when I explained why I was opting out, they supported my decision. 

 

Nesting: I'll probably do a separate post about the projects I've completed so far.  We've bought some decorations, I made a mobile and poster, and we've cleaned out the baby's closet.  My brother and sister-in-law have already passed along some hand-me-downs (which we are so grateful for) and my mom just pulled out a ton of clothes she had saved from when my brother and I were little to give to me. 

 

Worries: A lot of my worries were relieved after the anatomy scan on Monday.  Baby looks healthy and is growing on schedule.  Now I just need to keep progressing through the second half of the pregnancy.  I'll have to take a glucose test at 28 weeks, but it doesn't concern me too much.  I'm also closely monitoring an existing health condition of mine (thyroid), but it seems to be under control for now. 

 

Looking forward to: Stocking the baby room.  Other than the few decorations we've bought or made and the hand-me-down items, we haven't made any major purchases (crib, stroller, etc.) so I'm looking forward to that.

 

~ Enough about me!  Let's talk about the baby! ~

 

Gender: Girl!!!  Just found out this week at the anatomy scan and we are very excited!  I kept having dreams that it was a boy, so I was pleasantly surprised. 

 

Movement: She is a mover and a groover.  I felt the first kicks/ nudges at about 16.5 weeks, and they have picked up since then.  She is most active mid-morning and mid-afternoon when I'm quietly working at my desk, but lately she's been moving during the early morning hours as well.  It's like she's telling me to get up and start my day.  Watching her squirm around during the ultrasound was fun.  She was even playing with her feet which was super cute.

 

Name: Matilda Jean. 

 

We didn't want a name that was popular during recent years, and heck Matilda hasn't been popular in the US since the 1800s.  It's popular in England and Australia though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it rises in popularity in a few years.



Our little Matilda Jean at 20 weeks.

Running (and Spectating)

Jason's been busy running races the past two weekends and I've been busy watching Jason run races.  Last weekend he ran the Houston Half Marathon. The race was supposed to start at 7 am, but got postponed an hour due to heavy rain and lightening.  We hung out in the parking garage with some of his running buddies while we waited for the storm to pass.

 

 

At 8 am, the rain was still coming down, but the lightening had stopped so the race began.  I watched the race with a friend and we were both soaked at this point.  We had even changed into the boys' extra shorts and T-shirts since our first outfits were wet and cold.

 

Jason did awesome in the race.  You can see him heading towards the finish line in the picture below - he's wearing the red shirt.  He ran the half marathon (13.1 miles) in 1 hour 22 minutes, which is about a 6 minute 16 second/ mile running pace.

 

This weekend, we headed to Huntsville State Park for Jason to run the Rocky Raccoon 25k (which is about 15.5 miles).  We camped last night.  The weather was nice, but unfortunately the people in the campsite beside us stayed up past 2 am and were quite loud.  It was frustrating to say the least. 

 

 

Jason's race started at 8 am.  You can see him starting the race in the picture below - he is in the aqua shirt.  While he was running, I went back to the campsite and packed up.  He finished the race in just under 2 hours.

 

The boy is a running fool.  It's a bit crazy, but whatever makes him happy.  :)

Zucchini Bread

Now that fall weather has arrived, I've been in the mood to bake.  A few weeks ago I made a caramel apple blondie pie featured in my Southern Living.  Yesterday, I made a couple loaves of zucchini bread.  The zucchini bread came out really well, so I wanted to make sure I memorialized the recipe.  It's a modified version of this recipe.

I also realized the trick for getting Jason to eat my baked goods - cut the sugar at least by half if not more.  :)

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-4 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Sift the first 5 ingredients together.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the next 7 ingredients together.

3. Add the dry ingredients from the first bowl to the wet ingredients in the second bowl.  Mix well.

4. Stir in the zucchini and walnuts.

5. Bake 65 minutes on 325 degrees.

6. Voila!  Let cool and then enjoy! 

Texas Renaissance Festival

Last weekend we headed to the opening weekend of the Texas Renaissance Festival. We went all out and made it a two day affair. We even dressed up for the occasion. 

Here we are - the rogue hunter and peasant wife. Don't we make a lovely pair?

Similar to last year, there were people in awesome costumes...

 

Fun shows to watch...

 

Cool shops to peruse (I mean, who doesn't need medieval weapons?)...

 

And yummy food to eat. 

Jordan and his girlfriend joined us camping for the night and made their RenFest debut in German Lederhosen and bar maid costumes. 

Despite all the rain, we had a really good time.