Favorite Things

I'm now almost 24 weeks pregnant, the sixth month mark. Time is going by fast. I can't believe January is almost finished. Then February will be a short month. Then our Bradley classes start at the beginning of March. They continue through April. Before I know it, Liam will be here. Well, he's already here close by. I just can't get to him yet.

Here are a few of my favorite pregnancy related things so far:

Favorite Foods and Drinks: I pretty much stay hungry or at least in a pretty constant state of "I could eat." That doesn't mean I eat constantly...but I do eat often. Some of my favorite things to eat are steamed broccoli, cheese, Honey Nut Cheerios, Target brand strawberry fruit bars, Annie's brand spaghettio's, and things dipped in BBQ sauce. I also really like to eat a whole wheat tortilla with cream cheese and strawberry jam on it. My favorite things to drink are milk and water. That's pretty much all I drink with the occasional glass of orange or prune juice thrown in for good measure. Early in pregnancy, I craved Taco Bell fresco bean burritos, but that craving has gone away...although I do still have one from time to time. I don't want to jinx myself, but my stomach has behaved itself since early November. Of course, I like to eat out. I really like veggie Chinese food (always! Richardson is blessed with two vegan Chinese places: both on Arapaho) and veggie bowls from Chipotle. Genroku is one of my favorite restaurants to go to for the veggie bento box. I am sticking to my vegetarian ways and I still manage to get 80-90 grams of protein a day ( I do eat dairy and organic eggs).

Favorite Maternity Clothes: I admit I have a basic maternity wardrobe. I wear everything I have, so there is no riff raff. I got a giftcard to Motherhood Maternity for Christmas, and was able to get a few things. Here is a link to my favorite maternity shirt (I have two of them and I wish I had more).
3/4 Sleeve Scoop Neck Top
My favorite maternity jeans came from Kohl's and they were on sale. I think these are them. All I know is they were less than $20 when I bought them!
Maternity Jeans
My favorite black work pants were actually $8 at Burlington Coat Factory. No link for them.

All in all, maternity clothes are comfortable and awesome. I'm totally used to not having a zipper on my pants anymore and it will be strange to go back to that one day. I'm still able to wear some of my non-maternity shirts that are long enough.

Favorite Stretch Mark Remedy: Ok, so I know there's no way to prevent stretch marks. Some people are just prone to get them, and seeing as how I have a few that are at least 7 years old...I am one of those people. So far, though, I only have one new one (as far as I can tell). Go me. I read that coconut oil can help reduce the appearance of stretch marks (lighten them), so I decided to go that route and hopefully curb the appearance of the stretch marks, since I can't prevent them. Therefore, twice a day, I rub organic coconut oil on my belly. I like that it's all natural, it makes my skin soft, and it makes me smell like a giant coconut macaroon.

Favorite Clothes for Liam: These Beatles onesies. Yes, The Beatles are my favorite band, and a baby wearing Beatles clothes is one of the cutest things ever! Therefore, my son will be sporting Beatles gear from time to time. The black one came from Target ( I still love it even though the song "All You Need is Love" is from 1967 and the Beatles pic they chose to use is from the White Album in 1968, so it doesn't match up, but oh well!). The Yellow Submarine one is from Old Navy.

Favorite Place to Buy Books about Parenting: Half Price Books. I got some great deals on Baby 411, a book about feeding my child organically (once he starts eating real food), and I got the Babywise book. A few people have recommended it even though people are pretty evenly divided on whether the system is whack or wonderful. It was cheap, so I will give it a read and possibly try it out once Liam gets here. Any other book suggestions? I still have everything to learn about being a parent.

Favorite Website to Look at Baby Stuff: Oompa I've loved the stuff on this website for years, and have ordered a few baby gifts for other people from there. I created a wishlist on a bored day at a temp job once, and I really hope I'm able to purchase some things from there. I especially like the natural, wooden toys. Locally, Buy Buy Baby has been the only place I've seen all natural, wooden toys. I also love colorful toys...really anything colorful in general.

Favorite Experience: Feeling Liam kick. I'm sure any pregnant lady would say this, but it's so true. I've been able to feel him everyday for about a month now. It's not constant, and the amount of movement varies day to day. Some days he's really active and others I may only feel him a few times. I admit, after he's had a couple of days of kicking a lot and then there's one of those days where I barely feel him at all, I worry some. I know he's always changing positions and some of those positions result in me not being able to feel him. I suppose he also sleeps a lot too. But there is SOME movement everyday, and I figure that's most important. I still have not been able to see or feel his kicks from the outside. Sometimes if he's kicking a lot, I put my hand there to try and feel it, and he immediately stops. Little stinker! But I love all his kicks because it's my little reminder that he's here and growing.

Update: A few minutes ago I was laying down on my left side and Liam was kicking my right. I put my hand where he was kicking and I totally felt my skin move! So I have felt at least one kick from the outside. 

Baby Stuff

Once we found out Liam is a boy, I felt like we could start acquiring stuff for him. One of the first things I did was buy some blue onesies. It made this whole baby thing feel very real. It's still hard to imagine my son will be wearing those clothes one day...one day this year! Up until that point, all I had gotten were a couple of burp cloths (Liam's first gift) and a couple of kid's books I bought.

One way to acquire stuff is to have a baby shower. In order to let people who are invited to said shower know what to buy, you register for gifts. So I recently registered for baby gifts at Babies R Us, Target, and Wal-Mart. Registering is a lot of pressure. You want to register for good, practical stuff because you don't want people buying stuff you won't use. Then some humbleness comes in because you realize no one will be required to get you anything, so you should appreciate whatever you get because someone was kind enough to spend money on you. Therefore, they should be able to get you whatever they want. However, I for one enjoy having a registry to go by when purchasing gifts. That way I know the person will like and use the gift. I'm just happy to be having a baby shower at all. I have no idea if I'll have one in Texas, but I'm looking forward to having one in Louisiana and seeing my family and friends.

Last weekend, we mosied (is that spelled correctly?) up to IKEA to look at cribs. I honestly had no intention of buying one since it seems a little soon to be doing that. However, IKEA on a Saturday can make you never want to go back again, which is why Will insisted we not leave there without one. That way, he wouldn't have to go back. And so we bought a crib, and a chair for rocking and nursing as well. Big baby stuff!

Knowing that Liam's wardrobe cannot consist solely of 3 onesies, I've started looking at baby clothes on sale. I scored some Beatles onesies and a t-shirt for him at Old Navy for about $2 a piece. I had already bought one Beatles onesie at Target. He will probably have one for every day of the week. Also, my friend Amanda gave us a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of baby boy clothes a few days ago! Liam now has lots of clothes in various sizes thanks to her generosity. I love free stuff!

So yeah, lots of baby stuff acquisition going on right now.

Baby Pictures!

I remember waaaay back on October 25 (seems like forever ago), when we got visual confirmation that I was pregnant, being amazed at the tiny little baby inside me moving around. The first words the sono tech said were, "I do see a baby in there." And there he was swimming around and moving his tiny little arms and legs. Of course, we didn't know he was a he at the time. We called the baby Ponyo, because he looked like a fish doing all that swimming. I feel kind of bad about that now because Ponyo the cartoon fish is actually a girl. Oh well. Here are couple pictures from that day.

He was only an inch and a half long then, but still so cute.

Ten weeks later, he had grown to over 8 inches and weighed almost a pound. No wonder I was so hungry the previous 6 weeks. This kid was growing and growing. January 3rd was the day we found out he was a he and that he appeared to be doing great with his growing and developing. I'm so proud of him!

He moved and squirmed the whole time and didn't let us get a profile shot. He preferred to face us most of the time and lay his head on the placenta like a pillow. He did lots of moving those arms and legs just like before. I figure it must be his favorite thing to do. It looks like his has Will's long and skinny feet.

The sono tech was "as sure as she'd ever been" that we are having a boy. That was a good day.

We mostly got really short video clips of him that day. Here's one of him moving a little bit. It may not be possible on here, but it's more satisfying if you put it on a loop!

Name Revealed!

Big week! HUGE week! We now know we're having a little boy...and now he has a name! Everyone needs one of those, right?

His name is: Liam Edward
You may or may not recall from the Baby Names post a few weeks ago that we were planning on naming a boy William (after his old man) and calling him Liam. We never actually agreed on a middle name.

Then once we found out we were having a boy, Will's dad suggested we give him the middle name Edward. It's Will's middle name, his dad's middle name, his grandfather's middle name... You get the idea.

We hadn't really thought about the middle name Edward before then because William is the name we were going to use, and then he'd be William Edward, which is Will's name, which would make him a junior. No juniors allowed, so it was pushed aside.

Once we realized it's a family name, we reconsidered it and liked the idea of carrying it on. Therefore, we decided to not name him William, but just Liam. It will make his life much easier that way, anyway. He won't have to correct teachers on the first day of school and stuff like that.

So yeah, Liam Edward. Close enough to Will's name without being a junior.

In case you're wondering what our girl name was, it was Penelope Jane. It's going in the vault for a future daughter if we are so blessed one day.

Gender Revealed!

As I think all of my readers are directed here from Facebook, this is probably already old news. But I'll say it again: We're having a boy!!

Not that I wouldn't be just as excited to have a girl, because I totally would be. I'm just glad I was right for once on a gender prediction. I thought I was having a boy, and lo and behold, I am. It makes me feel smart, or intuitive, or motherly. Something like that. I also don't have to worry about getting buried under a mountain of pink. Blue I like; pink I can't handle in large doses.

So I'm now 20 weeks along: halfway through. Everything still seems to be going really well. Thankfully that was confirmed with the ultrasound yesterday. The ultrasound lasted 30-40 minutes, mainly because we have a little stinker on our hands who refused to cooperate for the requisite profile shot. The sonogram tech was determined to get it, but eventually she had to give up. In the meantime, she looked at and photographed all his organs. They all looked great and were doing what they're supposed to. His heart has all 4 chambers and was beating at 154 bpm. His brain, kidneys, and bladder looked normal. She measured his head, femur, and overall length. All were in the normal range. He is 8.1 inches long (which I think is actually a little shorter than I expected) and he weighs 13 ounces. He has two hands and two feet, with what appeared to be the correct number of digits on each one. It's not the most detailed thing in the world, afterall. He does not have a cleft palatte, and overall his face has the normal features. Using the colored doppler, we got to see the blood going to and from the baby through the umbilical cord, exactly as it's supposed to. We got to see him lay his head down on the placenta like a pillow. We got to watch him move around alot. He especially likes to move his arms above his head. We got to see him open and close his mouth and kick his legs. She took a good picture of his foot, which is long and skinny like Will's feet. I envision size 15s in his future. Poor kid will have to order his shoes off the Internet.

Overall, he was just completely perfect. Nothing to be concerned about. I'm healthy too. I've gained 12 pounds so far, with 10 of that being gained in the last 6 weeks. I don't know if that's normal or not, but I have been extremely hungry since the beginning of December! I hope the weight gain does slow down, though.

I'm very happy to know that my child is healthy and growing at a normal rate. I'm excited about having a boy. God is great! I really am blessed to carry this child.