You're gonna miss this...

We had another visit with Dr. Sidel yesterday. We were able to hear the heart beat for real this time. Previously we have only heard a fake heart sound based off of the speed of the hearts movement, but this time we got to hear the actual heart (and Alison laughing which was pretty funny ;) ). I know I have said this before and I am sure this will not be the last time, but it was pretty incredible.

We have another two weeks until we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I am really excited about that visit. I have been wanting to know since day one. It must have been really hard to be pregnant 50 years ago when you weren't able to find out the gender of the baby until the doctor said "Congratulations, it's a _____". Hooray for modern medicine.

There is a song by Trace Adkins called "You're gonna miss this" that I can easily relate to right now. The song pretty much tells of people's situations where they can't wait for something to happen and then he goes on to say that they will miss this when it's gone. When I was thinking about it, that really is true. People end up always waiting for the next big thing (graduating school, getting a job, moving into a house, getting married, having kids etc) and don't sit back and enjoy what is going on right then. I know Alison and I are really excited about the baby coming, but it is also really nice to just take it all in now because we too will probably miss this time when it's gone. We are very fortunate to have each other, I love each and every moment that I am able to spend with Alison and our little growing family.

I guess for the time being, I am going to try to enjoy this time and the excitement leading up to finding out if we will have a bouncing baby boy or girl... (Hopefully we won't find out if they REALLY bounce though).

Once upon a time...

I have started reading to the belly. I know that sounds kind of funny, but I have seen a few sites that recommend reading to the baby while they are still in the womb. Most of them say that by about 18 weeks the baby will be able to recognize your voice; I am starting a little early mainly because I found a book I wanted to read. As our pregnancy progresses I plan to continue reading out loud for about 15-20 minutes a night. I start off the story telling with a few taps on the belly to let the baby know what’s going on. I like doing this so the baby can get used to my voice as well and I think it is good practice.

I don’t really remember many books from when I was younger other than the Golden Books and the Shel Silverstein books (Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends etc). Alison and I were at Barnes and Nobel the other day waiting for the rain to let up a bit before we headed out to our car and we looked around in the kid’s book section. I didn’t see any Golden Books though. I hope they still make them, if not eBay is a pretty useful tool. I am really looking forward to reading to our baby. All the parenting sites and books say that it is really good for the child’s development and helps with their attention span and learning ability for the rest of their lives. It’s pretty cool that something so simple (and fun) would have such a wonderful effect on our baby.

And on that farm he had a... umm cucumber?

A while ago, Alison and I had made a trip to the local Farmer’s Market and we picked up a bunch of young vegetable plants. We got tomatoes, green peppers (Alison’s favorite) and cucumbers. Other than a few cherry tomatoes, we haven’t gotten all that much from it. I went out today to water our little garden and I went over by the cucumbers and saw that there were about six really good size cucumbers, so I was pretty excited about that.

Over the past few years we have been trying to eat healthier foods, buying some things organic and when possible buying local fruits and vegetables. We were considering joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program this year, but I think we will for sure next year. It is a pretty cool idea and it is good for a few different reasons. You basically buy “shares” in the farm and you get a portion of the crop every week. It ends up being a box of fruit and veggies that you would go and pick up all season long. It would be nice to get a locally grown product as well as get something that doesn’t have to be processed and shipped half way across the country before it gets to the store.

When we have our baby, I think we are going to attempt to make at least some of our own baby food. I say attempt because I have no idea how tired and exhausted we will be, but it’s a nice thought. I feel that using locally grown produce will be a nice alternative to getting processed jars of food; it will also reduce the amount of waste and garbage etc. Now that I have a baby on the way, I want to try to do my part so that the world he/she inherits is a healthy place for their family. I am not going to stop driving and only eat what I grow, but a few little things here and there can go a long way.

Well, it's for sure now... we must be having a baby.

Today I had one of those "oh wow, we really are having a baby" moments. I cleared out the office baby's room and painted it with some primer. Now it is officially a blank canvas, ready to be covered with pastel colors and little cute baby things.

The walls were a dark blue so I had to put two coats of primer to try to block it out. Right now it is just white, we will paint it after we find out the sex of the baby. Alison and I were talking about what colors we would like to paint, what kind of decorations to use, what color furniture to get etc. There are so many options to pick from, it will be a tough decision. We talked about the layout of the room and where we would put the crib, I think that we decided that it would go where my old desk used to sit. I have had this huge corner desk for a few years and it was starting to fall apart (after a bunch of moves), so it went to the dump today. Now there is plenty of room for the crib (that was the moment I had today). It felt good to start working on the baby's room.

Having a child is really exciting, every day it is becoming more and more "real". I can't wait to find out if we are going to be having a boy or a girl. It is really hard now to picture our baby since it goes back and forth from a little boy to a little girl. Either way, I know we will love our baby and that's what really matters.

Kindermusik Demo Class

There will be Kindermusik demo classes at most Babies R Us stores on Saturday. Since I have never actually seen a class, (even though I have worked for the company for well over a year now) we will probably go.

I have a feeling that our baby will get a few Kindermusik toys and probably go to some of the classes since I get a pretty good discount and from reading the response from parents, the classes seem to help their children a lot with learning to share, pay attention, communicate and socialize etc.

Babies need instruction manuals

This weekend Alison and I went out to see a movie with Jeff, Jenn, Anna, Audrey and Sue (Jenn's mom). We all went to a second run theater that served lunch during the movie. The movie was "Horton hears a Who". It was actually really good and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After the movie Alison and I decided that since we were down in Raleigh and pretty close to a Babies R Us it would be fun to stop in and take a look around at some stuff. I did get one thing out of the trip...babies require a lot of stuff.

Just walking up and down the isles at the store you see all these things. I am sure you don't really need them and you could raise a perfectly happy, healthy, normal baby without a nursery monitor / night vision camera but I still want one. :)

It is kind of overwhelming to think about all the things we will need. Car seats, strollers, pack and play, swings, bouncy seats, high chair, diaper bags, toys, dressers, changing tables, cribs, clothes etc etc... When we registered for our wedding we had someone go around with us and told us what people normally register for... hopefully we will have that this time around too... if not, we are in trouble.

Second ultrasound and our baby was doing jumping jacks.

We had our second ultrasound yesterday and it was pretty amazing again. The first time I was floored by seeing the little heart beating but this time it was like watching a gymnastics meet. The baby was rolling around moving his/her arms all over the place. It was crazy. I had read that the baby would be moving by this time, but I was not expecting that. The purpose of the ultrasound this time was to measure the skin on the back of the neck covering the spinal cord and also check for the nasal bone. Anything under 4mm is good and our baby was at 1.23. That along with a blood test determines if the baby will be susceptible to about 95% of known birth defects. The spinal cord and nasal bone accounts for about 85% and our doctor said it looked great. Our next ultrasound will be in 6 weeks and we will be able to determine the sex of the baby. Almost everyone seems to be sure it's a boy. The most important thing is that our baby will be healthy.

In two days we will be in our second trimester. This weekend is 4th of July and I think that we might start working on the baby's room a little bit. I have been ready to put up the wainscoting and paint since the pregnancy test read "Pregnant" but we decided it would be best to wait until we knew everything was ok with the baby. I attached one of the pictures from the ultrasound. I labeled some of the features so its easier to make out. (You can click on it to make it bigger)