Sciatica... SUCKS!

So there is this great thing about pregnancy. Sciatica pain. Pain that starts in my lower back and goes through my right butt cheek and down the back of my right leg to my calf. OUCH!!! It hurts to bend over, pick things up, get up, stand for long periods of time. Sometimes I even have to have Nathan move my right leg for me so I don't have to and then it doesn't hurt as badly. Online it says it could help to lay on the opposite side or to use heat or cold on it. I guess we need to buy a heating pad or something. I know it is part of being pregnant, but it has been a little bit more painful than I thought it would. Oh well - in the end I will have a beautiful baby to hold and love. It will all be worth it!

Don't "turnip" your nose at me! Baby Week 17

Good morning - not much to report around here.

I've been feeling really good and real pregnant, my days of even laying a little bit on my tummy are over. Back to training my body to be a side sleeper. Hopefully I don't keep Nathan up too much with all my tossing and turning.

Baby is just hanging out and growing. I haven't been feeling things on a regular basis, but that is fine. My appt last week went well. It was just a check up and the baby's heart beat was 156 - just perfect is what the doctor said. We find out on the 17th of April if we are having a boy or a girl. Any more guesses??

Here is the baby's quick update...

Your baby weighs 5 ounches now (about as much as a turnip), and he's around 5 inches long. The umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby can move his joints, and his skeleton (until now, rubbery cartilage) is starting to harden into bone. Some of it will remain cartilage for years after he's born. A newborn's skeleton has 300 parts (a combination of bone and cartilage). As your child grows, some of these parts harden and fuse together. By the time your baby reaches adulthood, he'll have just 206 bones.

Here are the baby pictures....

House Inspection

We had the house inspection last night - it went really well. There were a lot of little things that need to be taken care of. Lucky most of them will be a really cheap fix and we live really close to both a Lowes and Home Depot so that is convienent! It will be a nice honey-do/daddy-do list. Nathan and my dad will have lots of nice bonding time! And in all honesty I really am looking forward to that part in particular. The father-in-law/son-in-law bonding. My dad built my parents house with my mom's dad. It really brought them together and made them very close.

Nathan didn't have a lot of that father/son bonding experience growing up. He learned a lot at the hands of his Grandpa Wolfe, but it was different stuff than what we'll be doing at the house. Nathan naturally has knowledge of how to do them, but I can't wait for him and my dad to do things together. I'm sappy I suppose, but I think it will be great.

I wish I would be able to paint and participate, but that won't be the case due to my lovely bun in the oven!

I will have an update on this and a baby update for you tomorrow!!

OH - on a very happy note - we found out on Easter that my cousin Raelynn is pregnant and due two weeks after me!! That makes 4 of the 6 cousins expecting children this year. Kyle and Sarah are about 32 weeks along, my cousin Derick and his wife Wendy are 27 weeks, I am about 17 weeks and Raelynn is about 15 weeks!

It is going to be one hell of a good time at family get togethers!! I can't wait!

BELLY Pictures and House Update....

I only have a minute - it is a VERY busy Friday at the office.

My baby appt yesterday went great! The heart rate was 156 - which is perfect! My next appt is the 17 of April - same day as the BIG ultrasound! EEK!! I'm really excited.

Best news is - WE GOT THE HOUSE!! They jerked us around some, but in the end they accepted the offer. I'm really excited. Can't wait to get the signed papers back from them and get things rolling. I'm a happy camper. We will close the week of April 21st and that way we can paint and move in slowly throughout May which will be nice and much easier for me.

Here are belly pictures... I put week 12 and week 16 so you can see the difference. In the 16 week one - I'm not sticking my tummy out anymore than it already is - Nathan said that was a more "pregnant-er" stance. :-) Whatever works!

Nothing clever to say.... Baby Week 16

Another week has come and gone. Mom and baby are very much looking forward to spring. Between my last update and this one I have busted out of my regular clothes into maternity clothes. GOOD TIMES! Nothing like jeans with a sweatpant waistband! Other than that I've been moody and tired. A lovely combination and Nathan is loving it I'm sure. :-) Actually to me the 1st trimester was easier as this one I am having bad headaches and the moodiness and such. But oh well! I can deal - as can Nathan because he knows said moodiness/mood swings are brief (for the most part.)

That is about it from here...

This is what the baby is up to (with my own editorial comments:

At 4 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, and 3 1/2 ounces, your baby is about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, she'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling her weight and adding inches to her length. Her lower limbs are much more developed now. Her head is more erect than it has been, and her eyes have moved toward the front of her head. (Aunt Christina says she hopes the baby has Nathan's eyes... and here I thought I had pretty ones... guess not.) Your baby's ears are close to their final position, too. Some of her more advanced body systems are working, including her circulatory system and urinary tract. (Peeing in the same fluid it inhales and swallows... YUMMY! No one can said it is too gross as we were all in a uterus at one point doing the same thing!) Her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, circulating her total blood volume through her body many times. By the end of your pregnancy, this will increase to about 190 quarts. The patterning of her scalp has begun, though her hair isn't recognizable yet. (Will baby have Daddy's low forehead or Mommy's high forehead?) Although closed, her eyes are moving (slowly), and she's even started growing toenails. (And if the baby is a girl Daddy will have fun painting them just like he will mommy's when she can't see or reach her feet anymore this summer!)

We found a house!

We are putting an offer in on this house today!! EEK!! I'm nervous, anxious, excited, overwhelmed, hormonal, scared and a bunch of other feelings all rolled into one!!

http://pub.realcomponline.com/Detail/C/4/3/02CE64EF80CC43.htm

I'll keep you updated on how the offer goes and if/when get the house! Feel free to send a prayer or seven our way!

An apple a day... keeps the OB away??

Week 15 is here!! 5 more weeks and we get to find out if it is a boy or a girl! YAY! I'm looking forward to that!

I felt the baby move for the first time on Monday. It happened twice and was a sort of flutter feeling (and no it wasn't gas). :-) Today I have felt more like a tickle feeling that I can't get at. It is still pretty early to feel things consistently, but I enjoy what I do feel. Remind me of this in 3 months when the baby is kicking my ribs and bladder and I'm grumpy. :-)

Another part of being pregnant are having really vivid dreams. Yeah that is great and all when they are NICE dreams. But last night I wake up to having a dream about my parents being murdered and my brother not caring and Nathan was no where to be found and I was all by myself. It was HOOOOOORRIBLE!! Seriously jacked up. I woke up crying and woke Nathan up and made him hold me until I felt better. I hope I don't have one of those dreams again anytime soon!


As for the baby - here is the update:

Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump (so that isn't even counting its legs!!), and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple). She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but she is forming taste buds. Finally, if you have an ultrasound this week, you may be able to find out whether your baby's a boy or a girl! (Don't be too disappointed if it remains a mystery, though. Nailing down your baby's sex depends on the clarity of the picture and on your baby's position. He or she may be modestly curled up or turned in such a way as to "hide the goods.")

The first picture is a real baby from a 3-D ultrasound taken at 15 weeks. I think that is pretty cool!! Amazing how much detail you can see!

The saga continues... buying a house

Wow has it been a stressful weekend. Friday was a horrible day, but that is another story for another time and not baby related at all. So that is good.

We looked at more houses on Saturday - found another one we liked in Saline, but we have decided to pass on it after much discussion last night. Mostly it is me who wants to pass on it and Nathan is so relaxed about it all and if one of us doesn't like it then end of story.

I think we are going to open our areas of interest to include Ann Arbor - we hadn't intended to, but we can always move before our kids are in middle school/high school. I really don't want them going to high schools that big where they are only a face in a crowd. I loved going to high school where Nathan and I did (and Kelsey - you know you loved it too!) I mainly loved it because I was Lindsey Hunt to people and not just a face in the crowd. Because the school is smaller I could do the sports I wanted, the clubs I wanted, the theater I wanted, the choir I wanted, etc etc... there were a crap-ton of other kids wanting to do the same thing. At the schools here you have to be a phenom in order to make the teams and I want my children to be about to do that too. I know it might sound dumb, but it wasn't until we really started thinking about houses and being pregnant at the same time that I really realized what kind of school I wanted for our child. I don't want them to have to be the best just to be able to participate...

but in all seriousness our children will probably be the best because after all - they will be MY flesh and blood and I rock!!! :-) Yes - I'm joking....... for the most part. hehe

When life gives you lemons.... make a baby!!!

A question - you do realize my titles for the weekly update are in regards to what they say the baby is the size of? I hope you do or I would feel like an idiot and since I'm not an idiot you must understand. :-)

We are in the 2nd trimester!!! YAY!!!! That seemed like it took forever.... at least to me. I'm thinking the next 6 months will go by pretty quickly. Plus winter will be overwith - I hope - and spring days will be a nice change. I am really sick of this snow - we got another 5+ inches last night with a little dash of ice... it was lovely. I woke up at 5:10 this morning to the sound of snow blowers out side my window. While it is very nice that we don't have to do that job - 5:10 in the morning?!? REALLY?!!? Oh well.... Just means I need to go to bed early tonight. I'm tired today!

Here is the latest and greatest....

This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.

In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

Lindsey's baby is an angel...

FINALLY! Baby Wolfe cooperated for about 10 seconds and the sonographer was able to get one measurement. She said she usually takes a couple, but she'll take what she can get. It was still very fun for me though.

My mom went with me and she enjoyed it - we were able to hear the heartbeat again which was fun. And the baby was moving a lot again - maybe the OJ helped - who knows. It kept waving its hand in front of its face kind of like it was on an acid trip... "oooooooo.... trippy!" NOT that I would have any clue - I just am assuming based on what you see in movies. (and seriously - no I have not done acid.)

OH - and the baby looked like it had the hiccups. I'm not sure if it did, but the way it was moving looked like it. So flippin cool.

So now no more looking at the baby until April 17th - I'm fine with that. We have been rather spoiled seeing the baby three weeks in a row. That is my update!

Oh and I got two pictures, but they are basically similar to the previous ones. Go look at the face one and a profile one and pretend I added them today.

House Hunting

We have started the effort of finding a house. It is scary and overwhelming. They say the three biggest things in your life.... getting married, buying a house and having a baby.

It seems Nathan and I are doing a two-for-one special on the house and baby front. Too bad we are already married or we could be batting 1000!

Anyway - we found a house we really like in Chelsea. 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, 1400ish square feet. There is even a finished bonus room off the back of the garage. It is a total Man Cave! lol I'll just send Nathan out there when he is bad. :-)

We haven't put an offer on it yet as we are going to look at a few more houses this coming weekend before we decide one way or the other.

We talked to the mortgage guy yesterday and we can afford it, but then we realized that at the end of the this year I would be going back to work and the baby will need day care (ugh) and how are we going to pay for it. We had a friend who was going to do it, but she backed out. That sucks and day care is REALLY expensive. So that is the problem right now. We need to do some money crunching. I feel bad because Nathan is really putting all of this on him. He wants to get a second job and/or get a new job that pays more. I wish he didn't beat himself up so much. We will figure it out - we always do.

I brought some OJ with me this morning so that I can drink it before my appt and give the baby a sugar high so it is bouncing off the walls of my uterus! lol Hopefully my fluid levels are better and the baby cooperates. At this point I am kind of whatever - but I do hope it works out.

I'll update later!