Mover and Shaker

When Lauren could first feel Stella move I was so jealous and just could not wait until I got to feel her too.  Smallish kicks soon turned into jabs n pokes.  I was starting to feel them a little more, but still couldn’t really see them.  A couple weeks ago I felt my first big kick.  I was laying down to go to bed and Lauren was standing next to me saying good-bye as she left for work (working nights is awesome….ppppphhhhtttt!!).  I put my hand on her belly and said, “Stella should kick me real hard.” AND SHE DID!! Scared the crap out of me.  I yanked my hand back and maybe… possibly… pretty sure I screamed….. ok, yeah, I did.  I mean, I get that there is a baby in there, but holy crap, she kicked me!  It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  I have felt her a whole lot more since then, but it seems whenever I am not around she is putting on an acrobatic show for everyone else.  Lauren just stares at her belly as it dances in front of her.  The minute I am around, she stops.  (Lauren swears that my voice soothes her and she stops to listen to me.  LOL, right.) She tried once, in vain, to send me a video.  The lighting wasn’t great so I couldn’t see much. And it was faint, so it was hard to see anyway. (at that time, I think we thought that was a lot.  I’m not sure we realized a little ripple across the belly would turn into elbows poking out.)  Tonight was our first pre-natal class.  (Everything …. Well, ok, a few things you’ve wanted to know about breast feeding!! :-D). About half way through, Lauren jabbed me and nodded at her belly.  Holy crap!!  It looked like that dancing guy from Spaceballs (I know, I know.  That part was a parody of Aliens, but the Spaceballs guys was so much better!) was about to bust out of her.  I stopped paying attention and just stared at her belly.  I was finally getting to see what all the hype was about.  I only have a few more days on this crazy 12 night shift schedule and will soon return to a normal M-F day time, 40 hour a week job.  Then I get to hang out and stare at her belly for hours (to be replaced in a few months by laying around staring at our baby.) I’m also excited to get into the preparation mode with Lauren – who is already in full swing.  Before I started the fall outages, we were still mostly in planning mode.  Now her room is coming along nicely and most of her stuff is organized.  Just in time for our showers…. 

Lucky Ducky

We’re still here!  Baby is still cookin.  We had an ultrasound last Wednesday.  We got some great profile shots and a super cute one of her sucking her thumb.  She is looking good and still very active.  Lauren is already pretty uncomfortable because this little one just seems to be growing so fast.  I remind her constantly that we have a long way to go and she is just going to get bigger.  It’s not a very popular response.  Hitting 25 weeks seems huge to me.  I know we still have 15 weeks, but that’s not that long.  We are going into what I like to call the “Holiday Snowball.”  Once Halloween hits, this snowball of birthdays and holidays hits and the next thing I know is that it’s the New Year.  And then we will be within a month.  It’s going to be here so fast. 

If you are actually reading this during the 25^th week, the ticker at the top says, “My ears are much more sensitive this week.  So would you mind keeping it down out there.”  I am pretty sure this is a direct response to her Auntie Frankie.  Frankie is our derby sister and one of the loudest girls I know.  I’m a loud girl, too, so I absolutely love it.  She was extra loud when we saw her on Sunday at the bout (Divas 133 – HCC 100.  Go Divas!).  She loves to stand there and yell, “STELLLLLLA,” at Lauren’s belly.  She is also terrified of Lauren’s belly and Lauren chases her with it to freak her out. 

This is one lucky little girl.  Everyone around us is so excited to meet her.  Our family and friends are being so great and supportive.  We are having so much fun planning for her arrival.  People keep giving us gifts for her, which is so sweet and lots of fun.  She already has a pretty stellar shoe collection.  (I still need to get her some baby Adidas and Nikes.  I think we may get matching Nikes) We are just so grateful.  It’s already been an amazing journey and it’s barely just begun.  Motherhood is gonna rule. 

Wiggle Worm

The little wiggle worm is a super active little girl.  She likes to play when mommy lies down to go to sleep and again right before it’s time for her to get up.  Looks like are going to have a night owl on our hands.  The butterfly kisses have given way to jabs, pokes, kicks and bizarre alien movement.  Not only can I feel her, but we are just starting to see her move if we stare at her belly long enough.  Her nursery is coming along nicely.  She has painted walls, a crib, a comforter, curtains, a changing table and a bookshelf.  Lauren made the comforter and the curtains herself.  She is currently working on her mobile.  She also painted a picture for the wall.  I married myself a crafty little one, didn’t I?  I have been working a whole lot, so I haven’t had much of a chance to pitch in.  Once these outages are done, I plan on helping with the rest of the decorating and organizing.  Hopefully, we will have her dresser and the rug soon.  Once those are in, we can finish organizing and we will be ready to take some pictures!

 

I know I haven’t been updating this a ton, but I never know what will make a good blog these days.  At the beginning, every little thing was written down and recorded.  We blasted through milestone after milestone and you can go back and re-read each one.  Not much is going on now besides the belly getting bigger and bigger.  (I should say bellies.  Dang, it’s like I am eating for two, too.)  These days we spend a lot of time talking, planning and hoping for her future.  I don’t want her (or anyone else) reading into this and feel like we are putting undue pressure on her, so I haven’t really blogged about it.  It’s not so much “She will be a doctor.” or “She better get straight A’s.” It’s more general like, “She won’t be a bully and she will learn to share.” and “I just want her to try her best.”  I know I can’t literally dictate what kind of person she will be, but I hope through the things we teach her, the way we act and the way we treat her will help her become a good person.  I don’t care if she is rich, famous or “successful,” I just want her to be a decent human being.  There are so many people these days that still care more about money and power than doing what is right and helping others.  I’m not saying she has to be a missionary (but if she wants to be, that’s fine) but I would like her to volunteer, or donate to a good cause occasionally, or just be NICE to people.  There aren’t enough nice people these days.  I know I’m not always nice.  I don’t want her to be a pushover, either.  I think she needs to stand up for herself and for what she believes in. I just don’t want her to be one of those girls who is a bitch for the sake of being a bitch.  I used to know a lot of those girls.  I know what a lot of them are doing now.  If that ain’t karma, I don’t know what is.  My dad is pretty religious and I (surprise!) am not.  He did tell me one thing that has stuck with me though.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  Yep, the Golden Rule.  Not that hard.  And no, I am not perfect, but I at least try to consider other people’s feelings before I act.  There are times that my brain justifies turning that off (lying, cheating or blatant disregard for others), but I will let her figure that out on her own, if she so chooses.  But if I can get her to just take that away from everything else, like I did with my dad, I think she will be alright.

Half way there

Tomorrow is 20 weeks.  How on earth is it the middle of September??  I guess going back to work has a lot to do with it.  Time just seems to slip by.  I started my full time job Aug 22^nd and then went to Byron last Monday.  I was home this weekend, leaving again today, will be back this weekend and then gone for a couple weeks for the outage.  Rinse and repeat for October, but I will be home since it’s at Dresdan.  For those who can’t keep up, just nod and smile.  Half the time I feel like I can’t keep up either.  After this outage, I should be home for a while.  I will work some crazy hours, but at least I will be home.  Being gone has been particularly rough on the wife this time around.  Usually at the end of spending our summer off together, she is ready to get rid of me for a while.  I think the pregnancy hormones are getting to her.  She just hates me being gone.  I can’t lie, it’s been rougher this time for me too.  I am so afraid I am going to miss something.  I guess I better get used to that feeling.  She isn’t even here yet.   If only we were independently wealthy so we could both stay at home and stare at her.  On second thought, that just sounds creepy.   

I will be home Wednesday morning for her 20 week ultrasound.  20 weeks.  Yikes.  That is officially half way.  (40 week is how they calculate due dates.)  It’s been about 5 weeks since our last ultrasound.  I can’t wait to see how much she has grown. 

We got the nursery painted last weekend.  It’s a really pretty yellow.  It makes the room look so bright, I LOVE it.  The crib has been ordered and we are on the hunt for a dresser we love.  It’s not easy pleasing us when it comes to furniture.  We like unique, but not things that look unique for the sake of being unique.  That probably only makes sense to us.  We did decide to use the bird patterns we got at JoAnne a long time ago.  All the colors we are using for the decorations are based off that.  I posted pictures of it in one of my first posts. 

In non-baby news, I skated in my first public bout last night.  We won 81-79.  It was such an insanely good game.  Both teams played their asses off.  I think we proved more than anything that we, as a league, are going to be a force to be reckoned with.  Lauren, obviously, couldn’t skate, but she makes one hell of a bench coach.  I can’t wait until she can lace up with us again.  Stella can sit with her Momo and cheer us on!

Slacker

I have been slacking on my blog.  I know.  Work, derby and actually taking care of Ms. Mama have been taking up all of my time.  We found out 2 weeks ago we are having a girl and it has sort of sunk in.  We call her "her" all the time now.  I love that. 
We got a metric crap-ton of stuff from our friends who are moving to Tennessee.  Steph, Mandi and Sandi- You guys are amazing.  We got a huge box from our friend Nina a while ago, too.  We have loads of NB and 0-3 month clothes now.  I think we are going to concentrate on shopping for bigger clothes.  We also got a badass pink studded belt from our friend Natalie. Ooooh and a little black and white striped convict onesie from our derby sister, Felony Frankie. Seriously, the spoiling of her is already out of control and I LOVE it.  I will try to curb it someday, but for now I am just excited and ridiculously thankful.  I've always been the one getting excited for my friends' kids.  Now they are all getting excited for mine and that is SO FREAKING COOL.  It's all very strange, too.
Lauren started feeling flutters a couple weeks ago.  Those have turned into stronger kicks and movement.  I could sort of feel it tonight for the first time.  I can't wait until she is punching and moving all the time and I can see her doing it. 
We started taking belly pics a couple weeks ago.  We took one at 13 weeks and one at 16.  The difference is remarkable.  Pictures are necessary every week now.  I don't want to miss anything.  I make her wear the same shirt in each picture.  I want to really be able to compare the pictures.  Plus at the end, I can put them all together in a slide show and watch her belly grow! 
Shower planning has already begun.  (Thank you, Meg and Mom!)  I think we are going to do a Rockabilly theme.  More specifically, I like the idea of Crybaby.  Lauren can be Pepper and I can be.... I dunno, Traci Lords.  I've had the song Crybaby stuck in my head ever since we talked about it.  We'll see. 
As bad as I want her belly to get big, to feel all the moving and kicking and to finally meet her, I kind of want time to slow down a little.  Time seemed to creep by during the first trimester.  We just wanted to make it through that and know that everything was ok.  Since then, time has flown!  I can't believe she is 17 weeks already.  How did that happen??? 

On Cloud Pink....I mean 9

I’m still working on the vacation post.  I haven’t touched it in days.  I was almost done and my laptop died (I didn’t realize it wasn’t plugged in) and I hadn’t saved it.  Autosave was about 3 paragraphs behind me, so I have to retype quite a bit.  I have to leave it alone for a while or it will be super short and I will leave a lot out, just because I am annoyed. 

We have been having fun looking for girly stuff.  I LOVE knowing what we are having.  I honestly was ok with either a boy or a girl; it’s just so nice to know.  We bought a bunch of clothes on Friday.   Momo and Popo (my mom and dad) bought us a jogging….well, skating stroller.  That way when we go skating out on the trails next summer, we can take her along.  Popo also got her a little train toy (he works on trains.) 

So, it seems that our friends and family are just as excited to spoil our little monster as we are.  Not that the gifts are necessary, but it’s so incredible knowing how excited everyone is!   About 10 minutes after I told one friend she sent a text saying to expect a present in the mail this week.    It’s so crazy knowing some people are almost as excited as we are.   

We started our registry this week.  It was fun, but exhausting!  Babies need loads of stuff!  The registry is basically for the practical stuff.  After all, you can’t find “Future Derby Girl” or Blondie onesies at Babies R Us.  I started a wish list online for all the non-mainstream things I want.  I can just slowly buy things off of it as we go.  I just have to try not to keep adding too much. 

We had another Doc appt. today.  Her heartbeat was 152 BPM.  The doctor said the baby sounded happy.  We didn’t tell him we knew it was a girl.  We have an ultrasound in 4 weeks (@20 weeks!!!) where they check the measurements and do a gender check.  We can just let them tell us again!  I started to say confirm, but that sounds like we are doubtful.  We are not.  

Team Pink

We were joined by my mom, Lauren's dad, Lauren's step-mom, our friend Sam and our niece Syd at the ultrasound this morning.  Everyone was very excited to see a very active little GIRL on the screen!  We have some really great pictures and the tech said she is 90% sure it is a girl.  I looked up a bunch of pictures and I would say it's closer to 95-99%.  She was very cooperative.  She was also waving, sucking her thumb, kicking and crossing her legs.  So we are officially having our little Stella Lucille.  Let the shopping begin!!