This Weekend

I'll fill in a few other things from the weekend since Wes's post was all about the ultrasound. We spent the last weekend in Springfield (MO) with Wes' mom Cindy. Since I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday we were able to leave on Thursday night and spend all of Friday and Saturday there, which was nice. (It also meant three mornings of cinnamon rolls!)

Most of Friday was spent shopping for baby stuff, nursing bras--which are surprisingly hard to find--and a few other odds and ends things that one can't really shop for in the grand metropolis of Kirksville. Saturday morning we had the ultrasound and then in the afternoon I got a nap!!! We also found out at the ultrasound that the baby has turned head down (which is how she should be), which means her feet are in the perfect place to kick me in the ribs--which would explain why my ribcage has been sore for a couple of days!

Saturday night we went over to Landen and Greta's house to eat, carve pumpkins and talk--just generally enjoy our last time to hang out with them until after the baby gets here. (Greta and I also managed to get Brandi hooked on this wonderful new makeup I discovered, find out for yourself at www.pureluxecosmetics.com.) Doctor Greta said that Addison is just the right size and will hopefully get here on time, but, sadly, probably not early, something I was beginning to hope for at this point.

Then Sunday it was off to church, lunch and packing up to leave. On our way home we stopped at the Ha Ha Tonka State Park (just outside of Camdenton) and walked one of the trails. The leaves have all started turning and are much brighter in southern Missouri than they are up in the arctic of Kirksville, so we enjoyed the chance to get a closer look, but sadly we forgot our camera, so we don't have any pictures to share with you. We even braved a flight of stairs up to the top of a bluff that had a warning sign at the bottom saying only the physically fit should attempt the climb. I'm not sure a pregnant woman in her third trimester counts as physically fit, but we made it up and only had to stop once. All in all we had a wonderful weekend, thank you everyone!

Yellow-orange goodness

We went in this morning for our 3D/4D ultrasound, which was a lot of fun. There really isn't much of anything to describe about the experience, because you can see for yourself what we got to see. So, without any further adieu, here are some of the pictures.

This first picture shows what Addie was like during the majority of the ultrasound, about 20 minutes or so. Though Ame had recently finished off a latte, the caffeine apparently took its time entering Addie's system, so she seemed to be asleep for most of the 20 minutes. At first she had the back of her wrist in her mouth, though in this picture she's moved it slightly. In case it's not obvious, she's facing toward the right of the screen, and she has her two (yes, two) arms crossed in front of her body.

This second picture has a more frontal view of Addie's face, and in this one her mouth is slightly open. There were a handful of times where we could see her open and close her mouth. I think that she may have been doing this partly to get her hand or wrist back in. You can see in this picture her chubby little cheeks too, something which she must have inherited from her mother.

Here in the third picture you can see her trying to get the back of her wrist back into her mouth. Apparently Ame isn't feeding her enough.

Finally, we have for you a picture of Addie's skinny little legs (though I'm sure they'll morph into chubby little legs before too long). Her right leg is in front of her left, and her right foot is crossed underneath her left foot. If you look on top of her right knee, you can see her left hand with the fingers pointed downward.

We were relieved to hear the confirmation that the child in Ame's belly is indeed a girl. Addie was modest during the first ultrasound, and it took the technician 45 minutes to finally discern that she was indeed a she, which wasn't all that disconcerting except that the technician first thought that we were having a boy. So, we're quite glad that we're not going to have a little boy crawling around decked out in pink.

We also found out that Addie has a small amount of hair on her head. Ame was particularly happy to hear this, as she was born looking more or less like this, and was slightly afraid of having her daughter follow in her footsteps.

As before, here are links to the larger images, so you can (hopefully) get a better view of our adorable little girl.

One

Two

Three

Four

So there you have it, 7 months of development all wrapped up in a cute little yellow-orange package.

Week 32

Ame is now in her 32nd week of the pregnancy, though we are beginning to suspect that the current due date (December 18) may be a couple of weeks too late, because there has been a slight pattern of the baby doing things (such as kicking noticeably) earlier than the 'schedule'. However, the typical schedule is not a perfect fit for all babies, so we may be right on track. Either way, the following is something that I pulled from the Baby Center website explaining, in short, how the baby has developed thus far.

By now, your baby probably weighs almost 4 pounds and is almost 17 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. She has tiny toenails now, and her fingernails have grown in, too. Some babies have a head of hair already; others have only peach fuzz.

We have made something of a nightly tradition of playing with Addie before going to sleep. It usually takes her a few minutes after Ame has lied down to get going, but once she starts kicking around she doesn't seem to want to stop. Usually, I will put my hand on the bottom left side of Ame's belly, which seems to be the location of a foot or two. The added pressure from my hand generally piques Addie's interest, and it's not long before she's prodding at it insistently. We like to think that she's trying to communicate to Ame, "Hey mom, there's something over here that you might want to check out," but I think that we may tend to over-personify her at times. Either way, it makes for a fun five or ten minutes before drifting off to sleep.

We've also tried to get into the habit of reading to her, as she can hear quite well (which she has been able to do since around the 23rd week, according to www.pregnancy.org). She is particularly responsive to rhythmic sounds, as we found out first hand when we read Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish to her. Something about the cadence excited her, and if I recall correctly she began kicking rhythmically at one point. Reading to her is also supposed to hasten her mental development, and it gives us an excuse to unashamedly pick up armfulls of children's books when we're at the library.

I guess that's all that I have for right now. I'll put up another picture of Ame's belly, this one from around 8 weeks, for even more comparison to how tubby she is now. And again, I'll be sure to put up the 3D/4D ultrasound pictures this weekend or shortly thereafter. That's all for now.

So that's how it works...

First off, I apologize for it having been so long since our last update. It doesn't seem, to me at least, that there is much to give an update on, but perhaps that is because I'm used to all of this, so whatever happens just seems normal and not necessarily update worthy. Still, I have a funny little entry this time around, so sit back and enjoy.

Ame and I had the pleasure of working in the preschool nursery during the church service this morning. While we were there, this boy named Caden sat down on this little Playskool workbench thing, and I asked him to stop sitting on it, telling him, jokingly, that he was fat. (Caden's not really fat, but he's a fun kid who's fun to mess with.) He then replied, "I'm not fat. You're fat," at which point Ame chimed in with "I'm fat. I'm pregnant. I've got a baby in my tummy," which, as you may imagine, led to quite the inquisition.

Most of the other children weren't even paying attention, and the ones who were couldn't have cared less about what Ame had just said. Caden, on the other hand, was just about mesmerized. Wanting to be sure that he hadn't misunderstood, he wanted her to repeat what she had just said. "There's a baby in your tummy?"

"Yes. It's right here, in my tummy."

"Can we see it?"

"No, it's inside my tummy."

"Well, open it up," he demanded.

Apparently Caden isn't too aware of the ins and outs of basic human anatomy, but I think that's excusable for a 3-year-old. Still, Caden's curiosity was not to be quenched. "How did it get in there? Did you swallow it?"

"Well, not exactly..."

Still being pressed as to why Ame had a baby in her tummy, we tried to skirt the issue by telling him, "God gave her to us." This, however only opened the door for more questions.

"Why did God give her to you?"

"Because he wanted us to have a baby."

"Why did God want you to have a baby?" Now the kid was approaching theological questions that I don't think either of us had a real answer to.

Being unsatisfied with our current batch of answers, Caden then moved on to a perhaps more pressing issue: "How do you get her out?"

I gave Ame the floor for this one, to which she replied, "Well...she comes out eventually." I think it was at this point that we were afraid of getting in over our heads and having to apologize profusely to Caden's parents. He did, however, eventually begin to move away from this fascination, though never entirely. Perhaps the funniest exchange came when Caden asked, "Can she open her eyes?"

"Yes, but there's not much to see in there. It's dark."

"Can she turn the lights on?" Umm, not exactly. Still enthralled by Ame's belly, though uncertain about it, he then asked if the baby was in her shirt, and Ame showed him that the baby was in fact in her belly by pulling up her shirt a little way and showing him her belly, which opened up another can of worms. "Show me your tummy again" was a phrase heard more than once during the remainder of the afternoon.

Thankfully, Caden's excitement began to wane, though he was still amused enough to ask Ame, "Is it okay if we laugh at your fat tummy?" I think I may go home and ask the same question.


Though we may not update this again any time next week, check back next weekend (around the 21st), because we go in on Saturday for our 3D/4D ultrasound, which should produce some really cool pictures. Maybe then we can start the arguments of who Addie looks like most.

It happened again

I'm just saving Wes the trouble of letting everyone know that the whole laughing/sobbing thing happened again last night. Our friends Jason and Heather invited us over for dinner last night and after dinner we were all sitting around telling funny stories and I got a little too amused and suddenly I was sobbing in in the middle of someone else's living room. Embarrassed, I excused myself to the bathroom and Wes came and hugged me till I got over it. How do you begin to apologize about crying over someone's funny story? They of course were very nice and understanding about it. They didn't even call a padded wagon to drive me home. All things considered I think this is a rather minor pregnancy affliction-when one compares it to hemorrhoids or stretchmarks or peeing every time you sneeze (for everyone out there who isn't pregnant-yes these are fun little things you forget to think about BEFORE getting pregnant), but it is a great deal more public also. But, all in all if I were given the choice-I would definitely choose this over hemorrhoids. (Wes brought to my attention that I might want to let you know that this is thankfully not something I suffer from yet)

They laugh until they cry

I have been delegated to enter this update because Ame is apparently too embarrassed to do so. Last night she was curled up reading a book by Garrison Keillor, a humorist, and had been laughing pretty frequently through it. Then, she got to a part which was evidently too funny for her to handle, and she started laughing until tears began to well up in her eyes, at which point she began moving away from laughing and towards crying. She says it's pregnancy hormones, but I think she may just be crazy.

Rewind to this past June, and this little scene becomes just part of the ongoing saga. We were in San Francisco visiting Ame's sister and had decided to go on a sort of date night where we got dressed up and went out to eat. Afterwards we headed over to a nearby shopping center and stopped in a Borders bookstore, where we gathered up a handful of books and parked ourselves in the cafe section. So here I am thumbing through a few baby name books (and deciding that our baby probably doesn't need an Albanian name) while Ame is reading a book called The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, and she gets to a section describing, in apparently hilarious detail, the various afflictions of pregnancy, where she begins laughing. Having undergone a few of these afflictions herself, Ame was so amused that she just couldn't stop laughing. Then, you guessed it, the tears began to well up, and in a matter of seconds she was bawling. (Keep in mind that we're still in the cafe section of the store, surrounded by about half a dozen people.) I wasn't sure whether to laugh with her, laugh at her, or try to console her. I imagine that I probably did a combination of the three. So I did my best to usher her out of the store, though not before putting all five or six books back into their proper places, a move that I don't think she appreciated.

I think that the bookstore experienced helped her, though, because last night she never really got to the point where she was just crying; she was fighting back most of the tears with laughter. And it certainly helped me, because I knew what was going on and was able to just laugh with (or at) her without needing to really be too concerned. Really, I kind of look forward to more of these little laughing/crying fits; it's not often that one gets the chance to really unashamedly laugh at a crying woman.

Bellies and babies

Okay, so there's only one belly and only one baby, but we've got multiple pictures of each here. The first two pictures are, quite obviously I hope, of Ame's belly, which is still continuing to grow. She's made a habit of breaking out the measuring tape and seeing how far around she is, and I'm sure she'd be more than happy to tell you that she's broken the yard mark. Anyway, for the pictures:

August 10, 2006:

October 1, 2006:
Comparing these two, it seems to me that she's grown quite a bit, but she seemed disappointed that the change wasn't more obvious. Still, I think that the belly is larger in person than the pictures imply. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it for now.

The baby pictures come courtesy of a place called Ultrasona in St. Louis (though the company has locations elsewhere as well). It was a lot cheaper than going to the doctor for an ultrasound, and we both had a good time being able to see the baby. We even got a VHS with about 15 minutes of baby footage and a CD with a couple dozen pictures.

This first one is the best picture that we were able to get of the baby, and we are both happy with how clearly it shows everything. If it's not obvious, she's facing down with her head on the left, her spine is across the top, her belly is rather prominent in the middle of the picture, and her little chicken legs are on the right. Though it's not indicated by the picture, she does actually have arms, hands, and feet, which are shown in the next two pictures.

If you want to see larger, more detailed pictures, you can follow these links:
Baby
Hand
Foot

I suppose that's all for now. We're scheduled for another ultrasound in three weeks (this time in 3D/4D), so we'll be sure to add those pictures when we get them. Until then, perhaps we'll keep you updated with a funny pregnancy story or two. Bye.