Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is Valentine's Day and it's also Jantzi's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUPPERS!!!
TWO YEARS OLD! I can't believe it! It seems like just yesterday when Aunt Candace dragged you across the country in the back of her Honda and brought you to our house on April Fool's Day! You were so traumatized by the car for so long, but we knew you'd pull through! We're so proud of you! :)


Happy Valentine's Day, everyone else!

Week 14

Okay, so I was mistaken… for some reason, I thought the 13^th week was the first week of the second trimester, but I haven’t “officially” entered into the second trimester until THIS week. (my bad). But… my nausea is certainly subsiding and my energy level is making a comeback.

One thing I started experiencing very frequently this week has been these sharp pains in my lower abdomen (usually when I suddenly change positions or when I get up too quickly…). I wasn’t quite sure why this was happening but I just figured it was normal. Turns out I’m RIGHT ON TIME…. That this pain starts to appear around 14 weeks and it has an official name: round ligament pain. It’s basically what I figured it was; the muscles and ligaments of the lower abdomen stretching to accommodate the rise of the uterus into the abdomen. So, I’m not crazy, abnormal, or anything like that… I’m a perfectly punctual pregnant person. (p-p-p-p-pppp-p-p).

In week 14, the baby is about the size of a lemon and is becoming extremely active, moving almost constantly! The baby is learning “better posture” now… not slouching or crunching up anymore… His/her neck is getting longer and the baby is looking much more straightened out (if we could see it).

It’s very possible that the baby has hair now that could possibly be his/her final color! The eyebrows are filling in too. The baby is also growing hair all over… a downy coating of hair called “lanugo” that keeps him/her warm & toasty! The monkey fuzz will shed after the baby packs on some pounds… but if it’s anything like me, it’ll still have black hair all over when it’s born!!! Lol. My mom held me for the first time and then cried and said “She looks like a monkeyyyyyyyy” to my dad. Lol. It all went away during my first bath (Thank you, Jesus!)

The baby is also able to clench his/her fists. It can wiggle his/her fingers and toes and even suck his/her thumb! SO CUTE!

Week 14, but sweet... not sour

Build-A-Baby

Today I stopped into Build-A-Bear to pick up one of the sound recorders so that we can record the baby’s heartbeat at our next pre-natal visit (next wednesday, 2/18). We’re so excited! We’re going to put it into a little monkey and wait to buy clothes for it until we know the gender of the bambino. Such a cute idea, right???!!!

So we’re full of exciting news! Let me see if I can remember it all.

One of our friends told us about one of her friends who is an ultrasound technician in training at Jefferson University right over the bridge in Philly. They’re looking for “pregnant models” to come in and let them do ultrasounds as practice & for educational purposes. I can go as many times as I’d like, as they’re pretty desperate for “models” and each time, they pay for my parking, give me free pictures & videos and let us listen to the heartbeat! How cool is that!!! Our first visit is on Monday (2/16) at 5:30! If the baby is extra cooperative, they MAY be able to tell the gender or at least give us a good guess! It’d be especially easier if it is a boy, obviously… but how exciting! There’s a possibility we may know as soon as Monday!!!

Next, one of my friend’s aunts had twins a few years ago and is trying to get rid of two cribs and some other baby stuff depending on the gender (she has stuff for both!) She’s going to sell us the cribs and throw in a bunch of extra stuff for really really cheap! So, we don’t have to worry about a crib and my mom can have a crib downstairs! So cool!

Jason’s sisters have given us all these neutral clothes that are SOOOO adorable! We have like 5 outfits for newborn and 0-3 months and a few for 3-6 months! It’s so cute to look at the clothes and fold them and we set up a little drawer in our dresser for those clothes! It’s so cool to be able to see the clothes and picture a little baby in them! It feel so far away yet so close at the same time….

Also, Jason’s sisters helped me find a diaper bag that I LOVE and I’ll post a link to it if anyone wants to take a peek! I LOVE it!

Petunia Pickle Bottom

This image to the side here is pretty crappy quality but if you click on the link above, it will take you to Petunia Pickle Bottom's site which has all the bag's specs and you can enlarge a better image (if you're interested!). I LOVE IT!

Week 13

Well, it’s week 13 already and the baby is about 3 inches long and the size of a peach. Now comes the time for the baby’s body to grow grow grow to catch up with the head in terms of size. (Let’s hope it accomplishes this task efficiently and doesn’t come out looking like Aunt Kacy!!!). The intestines are now moving from the umbilical cord into their permanent resting place; the abdomen. Daddy is especially excited this week, as this is the week the baby’s vocal chords are developing and it should now be able to hear us! You know what this means…. Mozart Effect! Daddy’s been talking to Mommy’s belly like a crazy person and will soon start singing and playing music through headphones to develop the baby’s brain musically as far as tone, pitch, and rhythm are concerned. He’s been waiting weeks for this day!

The baby has fingerprints now! How cool is that!!! Also, if it’s a girl, she has over 2 million eggs! Crazy!

Yesterday we opened up our registry at Babies R Us, just to get the ball rolling. We were told by a good friend that we should register early (before we know the gender) for as much as we can so we’re sure to pick as many neutral things as possible (so we can reuse them when we have more kiddies). So, we registered for some of the big stuff… and got totally overwhelmed by all the millions of little things on our registry checklist. I have a feeling the registry process will take 4 or 5 trips! It was totally intimidating! There are just so many things on the list, SO many choices and we (never having a baby before) have no idea which kind/brand/etc will be the best. We felt totally clueless for the first time. (I’m sure that will become a very familiar feeling in the months to come).

Lisa & Laura (Jason’s sisters) have been giving us newborn and 0-3 baby clothes in neutral colors… We’ll really only need maybe a couple newborn outfits, but we’re basically already set! It’s awesome! We’re making a list of all we have so that we know what to ask for or register for as far as sizes go. It’s also really cool to be able to look at the clothes and imagine a little tiny body in them!!! (Thanks guys!!!)

Still waiting for the random nausea and chronic fatigue to ease up……… should be any day now………………

Wow........

So, of course (since my body hates me right now) I’ve been picking up every little bug; sniffles here, sore throat there… Well, sometime this weekend I caught the mother of all bugs. I can’t even call it a bug… it was a plague! It started off with a sore throat and stuffy nose… I went to sleep and woke up with a very sore throat, very stuffy nose, huge headache, body aches all over, and stomach pains. The stomach pains were what kept me from being able to sleep so I just laid in pain wherever I was… I spent about 4 hours laying on the bathroom floor because I was sure I was going to need to call Ralph on the big white phone. Of course, that didn’t happen until I was back in my bed with my little trash can.

I hadn’t eaten anything so being violently ill was extremely painful… after this episode, I sucked on a starburst (it’s what was close) to get the taste out of my mouth and in about an hour it started all over again. It was this knot in my chest that hurt so bad… then seemed to grow and grow (ever so slowly) until it was time. I couldn’t keep anything down… clear liquids, beef broth, tomato juice (which is supposed to be a sure bet… it always stays down)… nothing. I was getting so upset because I knew that the baby was starving inside of me (not to mention probably dehydrated as well) but I couldn’t do anything about it. It was terrible. Jason was seriously considering taking me to the hospital because we didn’t know what else to do.

Suddenly, I had an idea. Why don’t I try something solid like crackers? I know I can’t hold liquids down and that’s supposed to be the first step, but maybe the problem is partly being caused by this post nasal drip thing I’ve got going on here… and maybe something solid would absorb that a little. So, Jason went out to the kitchen and came back with Goldfish Crackers… Meanwhile the next knot had already been forming and growing so I was a little nervous to try the crackers quite yet, but I did it anyway…. I was amazed!

With each cracker I ate, the knot grew smaller and smaller again and finally disappeared… I hadn’t been without that stomach pain since the morning so I was finally able to sleep for a few hours (on the floor of my closet, right outside the bathroom where I had moved…). Ah, man I was quite a mess… and still feel pretty horrible but now it’s only full-body achiness, severe headache, and congestion. That’s NOTHIN! (not compared to last night, anyway).

Let’s hear it for Jason, my mom, and Pepperidge Farm!!!

Awesome Venn Diagram

Compliments of a dear friend, Christy B...... uh....... I mean H.

Week 12

The little strauberry weighs about as much as half an ounce now, and the crown-to-rump length is about two and a half inches (roughly the size of a large plum — busily working his or her way through the whole produce department!). You should have seen Jason and I with our mini tape measurer in Acme… The produce lady thought we were nuts!

It’s hard to believe since I don’t look or feel all that much different, but the baby has more than doubled in size during the past three weeks!!! The fetal digestive system is beginning to flex its digestive muscle as it starts practicing contraction movements, a skill the baby will need after birth to push food through the digestive tract. The bone marrow is making white blood cells, which will one day help him or her fight infection once he/she’s out of my safe haven. The pituitary gland at the base of the brain has started producing hormoneswhich will enable him or her to make babies of his or her own in a couple of decades or so!

This week marks a turning point for baby Straub. At 12 weeks, the herculean task of developing new bodily structures is nearing an end as most of the baby’s systems are now fully formed. Now comes the maintenance phase, during which the baby’s systems continue to mature for the next 28 weeks and the organs get to work…. which still sort of grosses me out if I think about it too much… so I don’t.

I had my first maternity clothing issue this week… even though I’ve lost 15 pounds since I found out I was pregnant, I TOTALLY had an underwear issue the other night! I woke up in the middle of the night in so much pain because my underwear were DIGGING into my hip bones! I don’t know if my hips are already expanding or if it’s just my baby bump making them squeeze tighter around my hips or what but it was SO painful! I got up and changed into a pair of Jason’s soft & comfy boxer briefs and all I could think about as I was trying to fall back asleep was “these are SO comfortable!!! But they would totally bunch up in my jeans!” Why on earth don’t they make women’s underwear that comfortable & soft? Oh no… they reserve the goodies for the guys, as usual! For us, we get grannie panties, yarn that rides up the crack, elastic that digs into the crease of your thighs if you end up with the wrong brand/pair… I mean… come on! Can’t we think of something better than this?

I can’t believe I’m a week away from my second trimester already! What on earth!??