I should add that the baby shower was the high point of the weekend... but late Sunday night was the low point, when I discovered a bat at my mom's house! Not something I wanted to encounter for a second time in one week!
After it flew past us in the upstairs hallway, my mom and I both ran into our rooms screaming. Brian got back out of bed and got dressed. He went out into the hall to bat hunt while I alternately yelled to him "be careful" and "just get it out!!"
With the aid of a fishing net and a couple blankets, Brian caught the bat about 5-10 minutes later. He dutifully carried it out of the house and down the block before letting it go.
The next morning Brian and I my mom did a thorough search of the attic to see if they could find any more lurking. None were located, so I'm hoping for my mom's sake that it was the lone bat in the house. And I hope Brian doesn't have to perform any more bat captures for a long time!
I wonder what the baby is making of these huge adrenaline surges in my body?...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Showered
We had our first baby shower this past weekend, hosted by my Aunt Pat in Rockford, Ill.
It was such a great day! I got to visit with some of my closest high school friends and their moms, my rugby friend Nutter, my sister and sister-in-law, cousins, aunts and, of course, my own mom. It was a relaxing afternoon spent on Pat's deck, where we were able to pick up some advice about this coming bundle.
And Brian and I are so grateful for the gifts we received!!
Everything was great, but here are the highlights as I remember them (which doesn't mean much these days as my brain seems to be working only half the time):
Books — We got some classics and a collection of Winnie the Pooh stories.
Toys — Our baby will be grooving with the shake, rattle and roll kit and others.
Bumbo seat — We've heard only good things about this baby chair from parents we know. Hope our little one gets the hours of contentment that others have raved about.
Diaper bag — We got a neutral (silver) Eddie Bauer bag that can double as a man-purse when Brian needs to carry it :)
Diapers — Got some pampers cruisers and some cloth diapers to try out. I'm excited to give the reusable ones a go and see how we do with them.
Bedding — We got our adorable Classic Pooh crib bedding set! Can't wait to see how it looks in the crib... if we ever get it set up.
Baby 411 and must-haves — Cousins Genny and Jason gave us the baby Bible for all our dumb first-time parenting questions. They also gave an assortment of goodies that they use almost daily with their daughters.
Bottle sterilizer — A must-have for us, especially in our dishwasher-less kitchen.
Clothes — Got some onesies, hooded towels and hand-knitted booties.
Blankets — Sandy sent us a beautiful newborn blanket that she made herself. We also got a Pooh blanket, which may have to double as a bat catching blanket if my luck with the flying rodents continues.
Jogging stroller (!!!) — My mom and siblings went in on a top-of-the-line jogging stroller for us. It was one of the big items that we wanted most, so we're very excited about it! I can't wait to take the baby for a spin in it and get back into shape at the end of these 9 months.
I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting to mention from our pile of presents. Thank you to everyone who was so generous!! And we're looking forward to our "St. Louis shower" in a few weeks!
It was such a great day! I got to visit with some of my closest high school friends and their moms, my rugby friend Nutter, my sister and sister-in-law, cousins, aunts and, of course, my own mom. It was a relaxing afternoon spent on Pat's deck, where we were able to pick up some advice about this coming bundle.
And Brian and I are so grateful for the gifts we received!!
Everything was great, but here are the highlights as I remember them (which doesn't mean much these days as my brain seems to be working only half the time):
Books — We got some classics and a collection of Winnie the Pooh stories.
Toys — Our baby will be grooving with the shake, rattle and roll kit and others.
Bumbo seat — We've heard only good things about this baby chair from parents we know. Hope our little one gets the hours of contentment that others have raved about.
Diaper bag — We got a neutral (silver) Eddie Bauer bag that can double as a man-purse when Brian needs to carry it :)
Diapers — Got some pampers cruisers and some cloth diapers to try out. I'm excited to give the reusable ones a go and see how we do with them.
Bedding — We got our adorable Classic Pooh crib bedding set! Can't wait to see how it looks in the crib... if we ever get it set up.
Baby 411 and must-haves — Cousins Genny and Jason gave us the baby Bible for all our dumb first-time parenting questions. They also gave an assortment of goodies that they use almost daily with their daughters.
Bottle sterilizer — A must-have for us, especially in our dishwasher-less kitchen.
Clothes — Got some onesies, hooded towels and hand-knitted booties.
Blankets — Sandy sent us a beautiful newborn blanket that she made herself. We also got a Pooh blanket, which may have to double as a bat catching blanket if my luck with the flying rodents continues.
Jogging stroller (!!!) — My mom and siblings went in on a top-of-the-line jogging stroller for us. It was one of the big items that we wanted most, so we're very excited about it! I can't wait to take the baby for a spin in it and get back into shape at the end of these 9 months.
I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting to mention from our pile of presents. Thank you to everyone who was so generous!! And we're looking forward to our "St. Louis shower" in a few weeks!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Slappy
My friend Hallermann raised a good question about whether Brian and I have zeroed in on any baby names yet.
The short answer is: yes, sort of.
But a longer explanation is required about why I'm hesitant to share them on the blog. Brian and I discovered early on that there's a lot of criticism that comes up during the baby-naming process.
One of the first things we did after finding out about the baby was start pouring through a names book. Heck, even before the baby became a reality we'd spend time on long car rides batting around name ideas.
We're lucky to have a girl's name that we both like: Eleanor, which is Brian's grandma's name. We'll likely call her Ellie or Ella, maybe even shorten it to Nora... if we end up with a baby girl, that is.
And we started to narrow the field of boys names that we like — though there wasn't a whole lot of common ground on names that we both connected with.
We put a lot of time and energy into our names discussion, so it was really hard when we started sharing those with family and friends only to get our ideas shot down. Now some people were polite and would respond with, "Oh, what a great name," or something similar. But others would come right out with criticism.
I'd been warned by siblings and friends not to share our name picks because of this very reason. But Brian and I are so excited about everything with this baby, it's hard to hold back.
In the past few months we've learned to hold back. Or, if we do share our name choices (which aren't even finalized yet) we always preface the conversation with this type of background... so people know that we don't really want to hear negative feedback.
It's still funny to me that some people need to be reminded that this is our decision, not theirs.
But I guess now that I've put in this disclaimer, I may as well share our top choices for boys names. Leading the pack right now is Charles (we'd call him Charlie) or Samuel (we'd call him Sam). There's still others in the running and we may change our minds completely over the next few months.
For now, one of my co-workers has decided "Slappy" is the perfect name for the baby. I can't quite remember where this joke originated from. I think it stemmed from the suggestion that I create a baby naming pool at work and just let the winner decide on the name. We probably won't be doing that based on the suggestions thrown out.
But most of my phone messages at work these days are left for "Slappy's mom."
The short answer is: yes, sort of.
But a longer explanation is required about why I'm hesitant to share them on the blog. Brian and I discovered early on that there's a lot of criticism that comes up during the baby-naming process.
One of the first things we did after finding out about the baby was start pouring through a names book. Heck, even before the baby became a reality we'd spend time on long car rides batting around name ideas.
We're lucky to have a girl's name that we both like: Eleanor, which is Brian's grandma's name. We'll likely call her Ellie or Ella, maybe even shorten it to Nora... if we end up with a baby girl, that is.
And we started to narrow the field of boys names that we like — though there wasn't a whole lot of common ground on names that we both connected with.
We put a lot of time and energy into our names discussion, so it was really hard when we started sharing those with family and friends only to get our ideas shot down. Now some people were polite and would respond with, "Oh, what a great name," or something similar. But others would come right out with criticism.
I'd been warned by siblings and friends not to share our name picks because of this very reason. But Brian and I are so excited about everything with this baby, it's hard to hold back.
In the past few months we've learned to hold back. Or, if we do share our name choices (which aren't even finalized yet) we always preface the conversation with this type of background... so people know that we don't really want to hear negative feedback.
It's still funny to me that some people need to be reminded that this is our decision, not theirs.
But I guess now that I've put in this disclaimer, I may as well share our top choices for boys names. Leading the pack right now is Charles (we'd call him Charlie) or Samuel (we'd call him Sam). There's still others in the running and we may change our minds completely over the next few months.
For now, one of my co-workers has decided "Slappy" is the perfect name for the baby. I can't quite remember where this joke originated from. I think it stemmed from the suggestion that I create a baby naming pool at work and just let the winner decide on the name. We probably won't be doing that based on the suggestions thrown out.
But most of my phone messages at work these days are left for "Slappy's mom."
Thursday, May 21, 2009
My hero
With as often as I've blamed Brian over the past six months for "getting me into this," I'd be remiss if I didn't take the time to praise his heroics at our house last night.
We were fast-forwarding through the Tivo-ed American Idol finale around 10 p.m. with several lights on and both dogs sleeping peacefully. Suddenly a bat flies into the room and starts doing laps around the ceiling.
I tried to actually sink inside my chair as I watched in horror. Even writing about it now I can feel my heart rate climbing. I am NOT a fan of bats after being terrorized by them on many nights at my mom's house in Rockford.
Brian could tell I was losing it and told me to get outside while he took care of it. I ran to the front door and fumbled with the locks, sure that the bat was bearing down on me from behind. I finally flung open the screen door and threw my body onto the front porch — not sure if this was intentional or if I tripped, but I have the scraped up foot to prove it.
Once I was safely on the other side of the screen, I tried to yell encouragement to Brian. I told him to get a blanket to throw over the bat. He got one and chased the bat upstairs into our bedroom (ugh!!) where he was able to capture it within a couple minutes. He came downstairs holding the blanket bundle and walked down the street to release the bat.
I suggested burning the blanket, but Brian seems to think washing it will do the trick.
My screams and the bang of our front door flying open attracted the neighbors' attention. They were glad to hear we were dealing with a bat and not being savagely attacked.
I know I should probably be embarrassed by my total meltdown in the face of this small, flying rodent... but I've never claimed to have any bravery when it comes to bats.
Brian was truly my hero in getting the bat out quickly, and then going along with my request that we scour every window and other potential opening in the house before we went to bed. I still had a very freaked out night of sleep — not much sleep was had, actually. But I know it would have been much worse if Brian hadn't been there talking me off the ledge.
The baby and I owe him big time... I may even try to curse him less when delivery time comes :)
We were fast-forwarding through the Tivo-ed American Idol finale around 10 p.m. with several lights on and both dogs sleeping peacefully. Suddenly a bat flies into the room and starts doing laps around the ceiling.
I tried to actually sink inside my chair as I watched in horror. Even writing about it now I can feel my heart rate climbing. I am NOT a fan of bats after being terrorized by them on many nights at my mom's house in Rockford.
Brian could tell I was losing it and told me to get outside while he took care of it. I ran to the front door and fumbled with the locks, sure that the bat was bearing down on me from behind. I finally flung open the screen door and threw my body onto the front porch — not sure if this was intentional or if I tripped, but I have the scraped up foot to prove it.
Once I was safely on the other side of the screen, I tried to yell encouragement to Brian. I told him to get a blanket to throw over the bat. He got one and chased the bat upstairs into our bedroom (ugh!!) where he was able to capture it within a couple minutes. He came downstairs holding the blanket bundle and walked down the street to release the bat.
I suggested burning the blanket, but Brian seems to think washing it will do the trick.
My screams and the bang of our front door flying open attracted the neighbors' attention. They were glad to hear we were dealing with a bat and not being savagely attacked.
I know I should probably be embarrassed by my total meltdown in the face of this small, flying rodent... but I've never claimed to have any bravery when it comes to bats.
Brian was truly my hero in getting the bat out quickly, and then going along with my request that we scour every window and other potential opening in the house before we went to bed. I still had a very freaked out night of sleep — not much sleep was had, actually. But I know it would have been much worse if Brian hadn't been there talking me off the ledge.
The baby and I owe him big time... I may even try to curse him less when delivery time comes :)
Third trimester!
I'm officially in my third trimester now!
I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. It's very encouraging to think that the three-month span I have left is the same amount of time that just flew by during this last trimester. Brian and I are going to be holding and loving this baby in no time! (And THAT is a scary reality I'll return to in a later post...)
I'm really am trying to focus on the excitement of being in the home stretch .... and ignore all of the warnings about the discomfort that comes during these next three months. But it's hard when everything I read and hear from others is about how I've got a rough road ahead of me.
I feel pretty lucky about how good I've felt over the past few months. My energy level has been high, my mood swings haven't been too frequent and I've felt good most days.
The nights have already been getting hard to deal with. I'm up for the bathroom several times each night and in between those trips I wake up for various reasons — hip pain, back pain, sweaty-hotness or freezing. I can't say I've gotten up well-rested any time in the past few weeks. I'm guessing it will get worse as the weather heats up and my stomach continues to balloon. But at least Brian and I got the air conditioning fixed in our house over the winter!
I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. It's very encouraging to think that the three-month span I have left is the same amount of time that just flew by during this last trimester. Brian and I are going to be holding and loving this baby in no time! (And THAT is a scary reality I'll return to in a later post...)
I'm really am trying to focus on the excitement of being in the home stretch .... and ignore all of the warnings about the discomfort that comes during these next three months. But it's hard when everything I read and hear from others is about how I've got a rough road ahead of me.
I feel pretty lucky about how good I've felt over the past few months. My energy level has been high, my mood swings haven't been too frequent and I've felt good most days.
The nights have already been getting hard to deal with. I'm up for the bathroom several times each night and in between those trips I wake up for various reasons — hip pain, back pain, sweaty-hotness or freezing. I can't say I've gotten up well-rested any time in the past few weeks. I'm guessing it will get worse as the weather heats up and my stomach continues to balloon. But at least Brian and I got the air conditioning fixed in our house over the winter!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Area formerly known as my waist
I'm a little gun-shy about writing about my weight and belly size these days. It seems like every time I do make note of my growing "bump," it just gets bigger!
OK, maybe that's at least partially due to the progressing pregnancy. But it is amazing to me how much this belly is growing.
I don't think I look too different from head-on. But put me in the right shirt, turn me sideways and WHOA! I've heard women talk about carrying the baby high or low, and how that can be a predictor of the sex, etc. I think I'm carrying the baby all over! The curve basically starts at my rib cage and runs all the way down to the area formerly known as my waist. Not sure what that means about the sex, but I'm expecting it means I have a big baby in there.
My siblings and I all weighed-in at over 9 pounds at birth. Brian was in the 7-8 pound range. Plus, I have a hard time picturing this Wallheimer baby inheriting a small bone structure from its parents!
The doctor says I'm still in the normal range for size and weight gain. I've put on more than 20 pounds already... but as long as the doctor says I'm fine, I'm trying to keep from thinking about what the scale says.
I know I drive Brian nuts sometimes worrying about my size and weight, but I've carried extra pounds almost my entire life. I don't want to come out of this pregnancy with weight gain that's going to take years to undo.
And it's hard not to worry about that when the doctor and everyone else keeps reminding me that my body is "never going to be the same again" after having a baby. Well, what does that mean? I wish there was some way to get a mock-up of what my body will look like on the other side of this so I could know and stop imagining the worst.
In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep lubing up my itchy, growing belly with lotion and try to avoid looking at my backside in the mirror!
OK, maybe that's at least partially due to the progressing pregnancy. But it is amazing to me how much this belly is growing.
I don't think I look too different from head-on. But put me in the right shirt, turn me sideways and WHOA! I've heard women talk about carrying the baby high or low, and how that can be a predictor of the sex, etc. I think I'm carrying the baby all over! The curve basically starts at my rib cage and runs all the way down to the area formerly known as my waist. Not sure what that means about the sex, but I'm expecting it means I have a big baby in there.
My siblings and I all weighed-in at over 9 pounds at birth. Brian was in the 7-8 pound range. Plus, I have a hard time picturing this Wallheimer baby inheriting a small bone structure from its parents!
The doctor says I'm still in the normal range for size and weight gain. I've put on more than 20 pounds already... but as long as the doctor says I'm fine, I'm trying to keep from thinking about what the scale says.
I know I drive Brian nuts sometimes worrying about my size and weight, but I've carried extra pounds almost my entire life. I don't want to come out of this pregnancy with weight gain that's going to take years to undo.
And it's hard not to worry about that when the doctor and everyone else keeps reminding me that my body is "never going to be the same again" after having a baby. Well, what does that mean? I wish there was some way to get a mock-up of what my body will look like on the other side of this so I could know and stop imagining the worst.
In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep lubing up my itchy, growing belly with lotion and try to avoid looking at my backside in the mirror!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Kid mode
During this pregnancy, I've gained a new respect for the time spent hanging out with my nephews Mason and Jay, and my niece, Alora.
I feel like I've been on high-alert for any and all teaching moments in the kid department over the past seven months. I did a little babysitting when I was a teenager, but really I haven't spent a lot of time with babies and toddlers. I'm trying to learn a few things before my own little one arrives, but I also understand that I'll have to learn along the way (as I have with so many things about pregnancy).
Here are a couple mental notes I've made during visits with "the kids"...
• Fruit is a winner (as evidenced in Mason downing most of a cantaloupe in a single sitting)
• Chores can be fun (i.e. Mason having a blast helping me plant flowers)
• Kids, like dogs, still fight over a toy even if there's another one exactly the same sitting untouched
• Tears are usually fleeting ... try not to gasp when Jay or another kid bites the dust
• Kids — like me with pregnancy hormones — are devastated one minute, laughing the next
• Many wonderful crafts can be made with cardboard boxes from the recycling bin. So what if they say "Sam Adams Variety Pack"...
Luckily, I have several family members and friends with young kids who are generously showering me with advice. I'm happy to get tips on everything from breastfeeding to diapering to discipline from those who are living it right now :) Obviously Brian and I will have to develop our own style in many regards, but I'm happy to hear what's worked well (and what hasn't) for others.
Here's a few pics from my trip out to visit Jim, Sandy, Alora and Jay in Nebraska.
I feel like I've been on high-alert for any and all teaching moments in the kid department over the past seven months. I did a little babysitting when I was a teenager, but really I haven't spent a lot of time with babies and toddlers. I'm trying to learn a few things before my own little one arrives, but I also understand that I'll have to learn along the way (as I have with so many things about pregnancy).
Here are a couple mental notes I've made during visits with "the kids"...
• Fruit is a winner (as evidenced in Mason downing most of a cantaloupe in a single sitting)
• Chores can be fun (i.e. Mason having a blast helping me plant flowers)
• Kids, like dogs, still fight over a toy even if there's another one exactly the same sitting untouched
• Tears are usually fleeting ... try not to gasp when Jay or another kid bites the dust
• Kids — like me with pregnancy hormones — are devastated one minute, laughing the next
• Many wonderful crafts can be made with cardboard boxes from the recycling bin. So what if they say "Sam Adams Variety Pack"...
Luckily, I have several family members and friends with young kids who are generously showering me with advice. I'm happy to get tips on everything from breastfeeding to diapering to discipline from those who are living it right now :) Obviously Brian and I will have to develop our own style in many regards, but I'm happy to hear what's worked well (and what hasn't) for others.
Here's a few pics from my trip out to visit Jim, Sandy, Alora and Jay in Nebraska.
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