Punkin Season All Around!

We're getting there!

First trimester is over and the morning sickness is (mostly) over. The nausea raises it's ugly head at random times, but usually is manageable. Last night it was caused by running through the Home Depot to get Jack to the bathroom in time. (We made it.) Too bad we're potty training a two year old while pregnant. Down the road I'm going to be VERY thankful for not changing two diapers at a time.

I've been back to the doctor and things are still looking good. Jack was there to "help" measure the belly and hear the heartbeat. God bless these ladies for loving children! The only bad news was that I need to bypass the regular glucose test and do the three hour one. Yucky. NOT looking forward to that one.

 Here's the belly at Week 16:
















Feeling especially pregnant now, but as there are five women pregnant in my building, yes, FIVE, many have said they feel bigger, faster, with the second (or third) one. Yeesh. I'm going to be the size of a barn. I'll give you time to adjust to how big that really is. 

....

Can you picture that? Yeah. Me too.

Anyway. Other exciting projects include renovating the basement bedroom (I have a knack for getting knocked up when hard labor is being planned...) and we carved pumpkins this weekend!
















This is a particularly good picture of Jack's participation. He pretty  much scooped and watched, but had a ton of fun doing it! Hopefully it's a sign of fun to come in the years ahead! The weekend was full of pumpkins, pumpkin puree for holiday pies, pumpkin seed toasting (trying an Alton Brown recipe) and peanut putter cookies. Meg came down and joined in the festivities too! Thanks Tia Meggie!

Looking ahead to Monday's glucose test (puke) and Nov. 2nd's ultrasound to find out the gender! Yay!

Baby Blog Numero Dos

So, here we are. Baby Kusek #2. I've been waiting for this first blog day to arrive because there's been a ton of funny stories already, and now that it's here? I can't remember them. Oops.

But one of the best has been Jack's reaction. When we told him that there was a baby in Mommy's tummy, he looked at me and said (very seriously), "No. Jack baby." Well, since I call him Baby on a daily basis, I guess I can't blame his logic. So I added some words, "You're right, Jack, but Mommy's going to have another baby." This seemed to make more sense. He asked, "Daddy baby too?" Well. Maybe. After that, we couldn't really tell what he thought. He ran back off to play... :o)

So now we're in Week 13 which is the boundary of first trimester and second trimester. The nausea is WAY down and the growing pains have started. Not sure how I feel about that yet, but at least I've been getting regular massages and intend to continue that as we go!

We did have our first ultrasound last week and I'll get those pics up as soon as I can scan them in. However, to tide you over, here's a picture of the (little) 13-week belly!

New Experiences

So, went to the doctor's again today. Things are well and he's cooking just nicely. However, I did finally ask for an internal exam to see how, well, the internal things are going. After being warned that it would be painful, we found out that I'm 1cm dilated and 50-60% effaced. So he's working on something in there! Not sure how long he'll decide to stay in there, but I did have a few more contractions today than normal, so hopefully we'll only have to wait another week or so! My mom's coming in a week, and while she'd love to be there to help during the birth, she's totally content to just show up and be Grandma. It's kind of funny to think about my parents being Grandma and Grandpa Mohs. Well, dad wants to be Papi, but I think we'll nix that pretty fast. :o) Just kidding!

13 Days and Counting

Of course the title refers to his due date and DEAR GOD he better at least be here by then. Today (July 7th) was a bad day for pain and discomfort. I'm still not having regular contractions, but he's got to be working on something in there with all this evilness he's wreaking inside my body. Little bugger.

On a happy note, we've installed his carseat and will have it checked tomorrow to be doubly sure our little Peanut is safe. We also bought a bunch of cloth diapers and two covers today to start our adventure in cloth. I really think that we'll be able to do this. We're doing it more for the cost aspect, and even if the daycare we choose won't do cloth, we'll save a bit of money doing cloth at home, right?

I kind of remember mom and dad trying this with Megan (Mitch does the same for when Greg was little) and I'm excited that the cloth technology is a bit better and cuter than it used to be! Here's a picture of his waterproof covers. How cute are they? My favorite is the little froggies. I'm still astounded that he's going to be so small. I stare at his clothes and now these butt huggers and can't believe that this huge belly is full of something so small. Wow.

We went back to the doc today. No internal exam (yet again!) so no news on my progress, but this time I did ask about the exam and since it's slightly painful and the results won't affect his progress at all, they deem them fairly unnecessary. Well poop. After such a reasonable reason, I can't even bring myself to ask for one now! We did get a rough estimate of his weight and we're working on a 7.5 to 8 pound little boy! Mom was 8 lbs. 1 oz. and Dad was 6 lbs. 13 oz. so right in the middle. Maybe. If he cooks too long, we'll get a little bigger. DID YOU HEAR THAT PEANUT? YOU MIGHT GET BIGGER AND THEN MOMMY WILL HAVE TO WORK HARDER!

Ahem... I mean. We're anxiously awaiting his impending arrival. :o)

Also including one more pic of me at 38 weeks:

Almost Full Term

So, here we are. 36 weeks and four days. Three days and he'll be full term, which means that he could be born anytime. (This train of thought is slightly derailed, however, at the next thought of - Wait! Kari's insurance changes on July 1st, so he needs to wait until after then so we don't have to deal with TWO insurance companies. Ahh the realities of adulthood...)

Complaints at 36.5 weeks - swelling, backaches, Braxton-Hicks contractions constantly, heat flashes, no sleep, fat ankles (not cankles yet, but any more and we'll get there), crazy absentmindedness.... I'm sure I'm missing some but oh well.

Best part of 36.5 weeks - knowing that we're almost there. It's almost time to hold him and get to know his personality more than I already do. (Ornery is what it is now.) I almost feel bad for him, knowing that he's just as uncomfortable as I am since his home is ever shrinking. He's measuring 38 centimeters (last Monday) and I'm guessing around 6.5 pounds. I'm going to see if they can get a more accurate weight next appointment on Tuesday.

Grandma and Grandpa Kusek are here this weekend and they are almost as excited as we are! They got the tour of his room and brought a little bassinet for our bedroom so he has a real bed for his arrival. We were just planning on using his Pack n' Play, so this makes it a little more official. Jane even stained it to match his other furniture! We bought a sheet for that as well and he's ready for home.

I guess that's the update for now, and I'll have more to report after Tuesday!

Getting There!

So, here we are, nearly 36 weeks along and I'm beginning to wish I was closer to done. I'm tired of baking! :o)

We've seen the doctor again and everything is going well. He's always measuring a bit big, but nothing shocking. At 34 weeks, he was measuring 36cm which was okay by everyone involved. Except me after I had a chance to think about it. Hopefully his head doesn't get TOO big! I have to birth this baby....

Everytime I go, they always ask if I'm having any pain, and the answer was always no. But then of course I left the hospital and during the course of that afternoon (this was Friday, June 12th) had 4 or 5 very sharp pains. I'd had a few before, but always associated it with Peanut treating my bladder as a trampoline. Getting a bit worried, I finally called the midwives and described the pain. Apparently, it's his head descending into my pelvis. And the process begins!

We go back to the doctor on Monday, and because of a week and a half now of "descending pains" and possible random contractions, I'm hoping I'm starting to dilate or efface. We start our internal exams in the 36th week, so I don't even have to ask them to check! Yay! One week until "full term" status is here and I really can't wait.

Peanut - you need to come soon so mommy can hold you!

Wow. Eight Months!

Well, here we are again. It's late and I'm procrastinating either the sleep that I wish I could get and the packing that needs to be done. At 7:00 AM the long day to get to Alliance begins and I'm not used to having to be up that early! I teach afternoons, dang it! :o)

Updates for the baby? He's SO active! I feel like my energy level is back to the first trimester (well, maybe not quite that bad...) but he moves so much now and each moment is both amazing and life-sucking. He takes his energy from me to do everything. The bigger he gets = more energy needed from Mommy!

However, a lot of 0-3 and 3-6 months clothes have been washed with Dreft (as I have been advised!) and put away in his dresser. He's got bath towels, wash clothes, and swaddling blankets ready and rarin' to go as well! I feel like I can clothe him now for the first week, right? Some days I think, "Man, I have NO IDEA what I'm in for!" Other days I wish he was done cookin' and would get his butt out here! I want my baby!

As the days heat up, water aerobics becomes more and more needed. Today I virtually dove into the pool because my body temp was so high. I'm sure I'm only getting to 99 degrees, but for someone who spends most of her life freezing, this sudden heat wave is pretty extreme.

One good thing? I FINALLY passed my glucose test. I took it for the second time on Tuesday and it was even rougher than the first one. At least this time it was a different nurse who was able to draw blood out of my arms vs. my hands. That really sucked last time. However, it was all worth it and I can finally prove that I'm not diabetic! How did I celebrate? Making a cake. No, seriously. I got a hankering for cake so I made one last night, ate two pieces today and will bring the rest to school tomorrow so I can't eat anymore. It's times like these that I do feel fat and pregnant. However, my ice cream habit aside, I've only made brownies once and now one cake. And at least the girls at work love it, right? :o)

Okay, seriously need to get packing now. I'm never going to make it through the morning at this rate... Love to all!