Nested. And waiting.

We've been pretty set here for a couple of weeks now. Much thanks to my folks for coming out to help us get random odd jobs done, along with the fun of washing and sorting baby clothes. It's crazy how small newborn baby clothes are - totally hoping I don't lose all the socks in the dryer lint filter.

I even got the letters up for my babies' names in their room. (see pics below)

upgrading from the crib to the big kid bed. daddy built that new ladder just to make it more accessible for our little monkey preschooler.

so excited to use this crib again.  :)

It's exciting to be in the home stretch, but also a bit anxiety-inducing. I'm ready to have this guy already. And super ready to not be pregnant anymore.

Speaking of being ready - I'm scheduled for an induction tomorrow night if my hefty little guy doesn't make his grand entrance before then. I think 12/2 is a great day for a birthday.  It should be about 60 degrees here in Chicago then. Somehow that seems appropriate.

Now - I'm off to reorganize Bo's newborn clothes again and triple-check my hospital bag for the 10th time.

Anxious and Expecting... Still...

So my maternity leave from work has officially started, but my labor has not. The estimated due date we were given is today - but if my pregnancy with Annalee is any indication, this little guy is going to be hanging on/in until the bitter end as well... I sense an induction may be headed my way.

I was hoping for a Thanksgiving baby. And though I had a few contractions, nothing happened except maybe a little overindulgence in some delicious gobble-y morsels earlier in the day. Now I'm hoping for an 11/29 baby. I'm not sure why - but I like that date. The hubs isn't expecting this baby to drop until early December though - sometime near 12/5. I'm not too worried about his prediction - he's only right sometimes...

It's official! Anna is going to be a big sister!

Our news is officially official. We went Facebook public with the announcement of our growing family on May 22nd.  Our little blog did such a great job of keeping loved ones informed on the coming of our little Anna-bug. So now, of course - we're back to blogging! (Aren't you excited?!)

See the newsworthy announcement here...

And for those of you not on Facebook, this was Don's latest update on the newest member of our clan: The deets: Amanda is due Nov 28th, she just hit 13 wks so we should be smooth sailing into the 2nd tri and baby is the size of a shrimp. Just a normal shrimp, not one of those gigantic shrimp cocktail. Anyway we are starting up the old blog soon and will keep everyone posted! (wasn't it nice of him to warn everyone about the blog? Yeah - I thought so too.)

As of today, I'm officially 14 weeks along and new Baby is about the size of a lemon. Which is probably just a coincidence, but I've been craving tart things lately. One of the first questions people ask when they discover/uncover/reveal that you're preggers - besides 'when are you due?' is 'have you had any cravings?'. Well - first trimester all I could think about was donuts. I think I did a pretty good job limiting my time at Dunkin Donuts and I may have even made it past that there's-no-way-they-can-actually-be-what-my-body-needs craving. Although, admittedly, I am familiar with their Men in Black 3 products and think that entire partnership is kind of genius (and delicious - picture below)

Crave-worthy

Yummy, right? But thankfully, my unstoppable cravings have started to focus more on things like lemonade, salt and vinegar potato chips, pickles, relish & mustard (on hotdogs) - really, just anything tart. And soft serve ice cream (unrelated). This is not a typical pickles & ice cream preggo story. Although - I really wouldn't be surprised if that comes in about a week or two.

And really - that's all the news and updates we have for the moment. Maybe even more than you really wanted to know - but thanks a bunch for tuning in with us and caring enough about us Bratschies to read our blog. We have some of the best friends in the whole world!  :)

Love and hugs!

still preggers... and some venting...

and just waiting it out at this point.

So here's the venting:
When I'm out in public, it's common for some stranger to ask me when I'm due.  I've learned to stop saying "any minute now..." because they ALWAYS respond with "please don't have your baby here".  (It's become obvious that really no one wants to watch a stranger have her baby in public).

Our first experience with that was the Target check-out line.  I thought it was funny and blogged about it with good humor.  Since then, it's happened much more frequently - in restaurants and even in the elevator at my weekly OB checkup.  Almost everyone in the elevator got in on that one, much to my dismay.  I'm not sure if these people are joking around with me and just not funny, or if they seriously think that I could go from zero to sixty in the course of 18 floors in a super fast and smooth elevator ride (about 20 seconds).  And if they honestly think that just asking me not to have my baby would be sufficient enough for me to be able to hold it in until they're a safe distance away... 

And I think the most offensive part is that they assume that I would really like to have my baby there (wherever there is) right with them.  Yep - being in labor in a moving elevator with 6 strangers, none of which were doctors, sounds like an ideal birth story to me (or the Target checkout, or the local brunch spot, etc)... how about you?

So now, when people ask me when I'm due, I usually tell them that I'm not due for at least another week.  Which is kind of true.  But I have a feeling I'll keep telling them that if Baby's still hanging in way past the due date. 

And just to put everyone's mind at ease - I completely plan on having this little one at the hospital with my loving husband and the attentive labor and delivery team.  Apparently, they're the only ones that want to be around for this anyway...

just a little longer...

we're officially at 31 weeks now.  Just a few more days and we'll be at 32 weeks - or 8 months for those of you that don't want to do the math...

here's a picture (courtesy of babycenter.com) showing what Baby is up to now - it's kind of cool to see that Baby actually looks more like a baby now.  :)

No wonder my belly is getting so big that I waddle!  And Baby weighs about the same as 4 naval oranges (3 lbs. 3 oz.).  Again - here's a picture for reference:

I feel like we're in the home stretch now - only a couple more months - 10 weeks tops and we'll be welcoming our bundle of joy into this world.  I CAN'T WAIT!  :)

Hump Day Bump Day! (12/2)

We missed HDBD last week - I think I was in a turkey-induced coma, or maybe we were overcome with black friday deals...
Anyway - we're back and on track again.

Here's proof that Baby's in there - rattling around:

Can you believe I'm only at 6 months?  Sheesh. 

Photo Shoot #4...

Yesterday morning we went for the 2nd half of our Ultrasound.  Again, Baby was uncooperative.  However, we did manage to get one good shot from the ordeal.  Yes, it's fuzzy.  Yes, it's blurry.  But it's Baby, dang it.  And we LOVE Baby.

That's Baby's profile on the left and belly on the right.  It kind of looks like Baby is blowing bubbles here...

At one point, Baby's feet were rolled up over Baby's head!  It's getting to be tight quarters in there...

The "Big" Ultrasound

We had our "big" ultrasound this morning.  This is the one where doc and the tech were supposed to be able to see everything that was going on with Baby and my uterus/placenta/other relevant organs/parts.

At first, Baby was moving, kicking and practically somersaulting up a storm!  It was so cool to see all that movement because I'm still not really feeling that much - it's wonderful reassurance that we're on track and everything is progressing happily.

However, after we got going and got a few of the key measurements and pictures in, Baby decided to settle down... face down... and stay there.  It's good to know that Baby is already a lot like Momma - stubborn.  Baby wouldn't move for anything.  We even took a little break where I got up and moved around - did some jumping jacks, toe touches, side bends... heck!  I even had an impromptu dance party of just me and Baby!  But no - nothing except kicking legs and pushing arms around.  {sigh}
Doc said that we have to come back in two weeks to try again because they're still missing vital information.

At any rate - here's the few pics that were able to get at this photo shoot (aka ultrasound).  Enjoy!

My favorite is the little foot (second from the top)...

19 Weeks!

As of yesterday, Baby is at 19 weeks.  WOW.  I can't believe it's already 19!  One more week and we'll be at 5 months!  This seems like it's going by so quickly!

According to our babycenter.com email, Baby is approximately 8.5 ounces and measure about 6 inches from head to rump - or, in produce terms, is as long as a large heirloom tomato.  Because "large heirloom tomato" is quite vague, I'm including the official picture again.  Here it goes:

Again - use the quarter for comparison.   Because of the latest produce comparison, Don has enlightened me that a heirloom tomato merely means that the tomato is not a hybrid, but a pure tomato.  So - the quarter is even more helpful than I thought... (here's the wikipedia article for anyone that might be a doubter out there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_tomato).

Week 18! - Bell Pepper

Baby is about the length of a bell pepper this week (5.5 inches long).  Wow!  This little one is growing FAST!  The gender organs are also developed at this point too - but no, we're still not going to find out if it's a Brat-he or a Brat-she. (HA!  Get it?  A play on our last name?!  I'm so funny!)

Anyway - I included this babycenter.com picture to help anyone who may not know what size bell pepper these peeps are comparing Baby to.  It might help to use the quarter for comparison...

Enjoy!

16 Weeks! And Babies are Really Just Produce...

Baby is 16 weeks (4 months) as of yesterday.  Wow.  We're almost halfway through this pregnancy thing.

According to our Babycenter email - Baby is roughly the size of an avocado and is growing toenails, among other things.  The first thing I thought when I read that was, "Getting toenails is the first step to pedicures - YAY!"  (If Baby is a girl, that is - not that boys don't get pedicures, but they don't usually talk about it).

The second thing I thought was "what size avocado?"  Out of pure coincidence, we made guacamole last night - yeah, I guess that's a little sick in retrospect but take heart in knowing that it wasn't planned.  Of course, now we might actually try to work whatever produce item Baby is currently the size of into our menu.  I kind of think that would be funny.  Anyway - we used 5 avocadoes and they were all such different sizes!

So - back to this idea of Baby being the size of produce - Babycenter has this slideshow that compares Baby's development every week to a 'common' produce item - to help give people a better idea of how big their baby is getting.  (As if a giant belly wasn't enough of an idea)...
They have everything from a sesame seed to a pumpkin.  That's right - a pumpkin.  

The key to note here is that the growing baby is like this produce item in some way, usually weight or length.  Otherwise, some of these don't make sense - like an ear of corn at week 24?  I can hear it now "What?  My baby is like an ear of corn right now?  NO WONDER I'm uncomfortable!"

Latest Checkup - 10/1

We had our monthly checkup yesterday morning.  It was what they call a "belly check".   I just go in, pee in a cup (they check it for potential problems), get weighed (up a few pounds from last month), and wait for the doc to come in and make sure Baby and I are doing great.

This time we had Dr. Chen.  He was quite personable and very funny.  He commended me on using the old hairtie-wrapped-around-the-button-hole trick.  And then - he pulled out this special "heartbeat listening" device so that we could hear Baby's heartbeat!

The first heartbeat we heard while that thing was on my belly was my own.  lub. lub. lub.  We heard my heartbeat through my belly - cool.  Doc found Baby's heartbeat shortly after that.  Baby's heartbeat was much quicker and not quite as loud - Doc guestimated Baby's heartbeat at 140 beats per minute!  Wow, that's quick!  :)

Then, to top it all off - I got my first ever flu shot!  Yay for parental preparedness!  :)  But - my arm is still sore.  :(

Feeling Any Movement Yet?

According to all the baby stuff we've been reading, I should expect to feel Baby moving any minute now.  Of course, it could take up to even a few more weeks to feel anything too.  It depends on how active Baby is and how alert I am to Baby's movements.

And the fact that I don't really know what I'm watching out for makes it a little bit harder to watch out for it.  But I got some tips to help me out - like I'm more likely to feel Baby's movements when I'm just lying down and relaxing or right after I eat.   So - at least until I feel Baby move, I plan on doing a lot of lying down, relaxing and eating.  I want to make sure I'm giving Baby optimal conditions to help me feel Baby movements.