25 weeks, 3 days

Hello,

I don't have much news, but it's been 2 weeks since I posted, so I figured I'd at least post a new belly shot. Holy crap, do I look pregnant in this photo! I think I was having an extra-huge day too. Some days I swear I can hardly tell I'm pregnant and other days I am humungous. It's strange.

Not much has been going on. I had a doctors appointment February 3, and it was uneventful as usual. I've gained 16 pounds now. Still 9 pounds to go until I reach my sophomore-in-college maximum weight. Only 2 pairs of my non-maternity pants still fit me now.

The hospital is starting up a childbirth education class, just in time. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go to Portage (our competitor)! They're offering the "trial run" class to employees for free at the end of the month. There are at least 7 pregnant women at the hospital right now! Crazy...the whole time I worked at Jackson Hole, I was in charge of the FMLA leaves, and there were exactly 4 pregnancies the whole time, out of 400-1300 employees. AKH has 440 employees and there are always tons of knocked-up employees. I guess it's just a different population!

Today we had record highs here - I think it reached the upper 40s. But last Monday we had a huge, huge dump. Check out our driveway. It was 18 inches. Alas, there was no enjoying it though, by me or Josh. He's not able to get out in weekday powder too much because he didn't buy a pass to Ripley this year - only Mount Bohemia.

On Saturday we are heading to the Florida Keys for a week! I can't wait. It's sort of our last chance to hang out just the two of us, I guess. We've been together for over 10 years, and living together, just the two of us, for about 5. So the vacation will be the last hurrah of our childless solitude!

We won't be the only ones with adjusting to do...check out this picture of Scout and her toys. Somehow we're going to have to figure out a way to teach her which toys are hers...and which are the baby's...hmm.

23 weeks, 3 days

Well, here are some "baby photos" for you. I have to say, they're a little disappointing. Apparently Baby Jenson wasn't cooperating and was facing the wrong way, so we couldn't get any of those cute profile shots or much of anything, really. Also, it was a student sonographer and I don't think he knew what he was doing. A full-fledged one was helping him and training him, but I think I'd rather place the blame on him and not the baby. The first one is the back of the head and you can see part of the spine too.

The second one is a foot.

They did give me one other one that they said was a face, but not only is it extremely skull-like and scary, I'm not even sure it is the face...I think they might've just seen two black spots and said "oh, these are eyes". It was a bad photo to begin with, but it got even worse when I scanned it - it turned out pretty blurry. So I'm not even going to post it. The good news is, Melissa, the sonographer who was helping the student, said I could stop by some other day when she's working and she'll get me in quick to try for a better photo. One of the perks of working at a hospital!

As I mentioned, we didn't want to find out the sex...but I think we might've, accidentally. Again I blame the student sonographer. We were all looking at the screen, and he was moving the transmitter-thingy around all haphazardly. He never told us to look away! We both think we might've seen...something. We should sue. Just kidding. But, we're definitely not experienced ultrasound-interpreters, so we could definitely be wrong.

Oh, they did say that everything looked normal. The heart rate was 145, which is good, and the baby weighs 1 pound! They also said my due date is probably closer to May 29, not the 22nd.

Here's also a new belly shot. Sweatpants are my friend. I tried

to wear maternity pants for the first time on Saturday, just to run some errands. I guess I'm not quite there yet, though, because they kept wanting to fall down.

22 weeks

Sorry if this post is a little morbid...some sorta sad stuff has been going on. First of all, my job has changed quite a bit in the past week. The CEO's secretary, Donna, her husband was dying of cancer. So she took some time off to be with him. They asked me to fill in for her...which is cool I guess. I wasn't sure if I should be honored that he wanted me as his secretary, or offended that they think of me as a secretary. But it's been fine. Basically, I've been doing my job but at her desk (I'm remoting in to my computer). All I have to really do extra is take his phone calls and be there as a sort of receptionist, and do a few clerical things here and there. One good thing is that her office is much warmer than mine. Her husband did end up dying on Thursday :( . I'm thinking about you, Donna!

Also, on Wednesday my Grandpa Otto died. It's sad, but not unexpected or anything. It was his 93rd birthday. He's had a long and productive life, and was still working up until about 6 months ago when he fell off a ladder in his shop. It was pretty much a downhill slide from there; he'd been in a nursing home since then. I wish I had a photo of him to put up as a sort of memorial on my blog, but I don't believe I have a single digital shot of him. Maybe I'll scan one next week at work. Anyway, Josh and I are headed to MN tomorrow; the funeral is on Tuesday.

In happier news, I had another doctor's appointment on Monday. Everything's coming along just fine. I've gained 12 pounds now! The heartbeat is still sounding strong and my "measurements" are good. I have an ultrasound on Thursday. I can't wait to see our baby again! Hopefully it has some legs now (the first ultrasound it was just a tail) - I'm pretty sure it does since it's been kicking every day.

Josh and I are planning a trip for mid-February. It'll be like our last chance to hang out with just us two. We're so excited. We're flying to Miami February 14, and taking a little road trip down the Florida keys. That's all we've really got so far-we haven't figured out any details yet. We settled on the Keys because we wanted to make sure we went somewhere where we could be pretty much guaranteed that it would be warm...but I wanted to stay in this country. I didn't want to risk getting Montezuma's revenge or some weird bug while pregnant. So we basically picked the southernmost point of the U.S. of A. When we get back, we're flying into Minneapolis, and I've heard I'm having a baby shower the next day. So we've started a registry; there's a link to it over on the right.

Hopefully on my next post I'll have some baby pictures for you!

20 weeks, 4 days

Hi everyone,

Here's that belly photo as promised. It's starting to get a lot more noticeable...I'm over halfway there now! Crazy. I don't really have any other news...Josh did assemble the crib and changing table. They look pretty nice. They weren't even a matching set but they pretty much look like they are. I'll put some photos of the nursery up soon.

We've gotten a lot of comments from people showing concern for Scouty. It's true...this baby thing is going to be very hard on her. She really hasn't forgiven us for bringing a cat into the house to steal some of her thunder, plus she hates little kids, so we're not sure how she's going to deal with a baby. She gets so jealous, and of course she wears her heart on her sleeve, so if we so much as pet Daria, she looks at us like we just kicked her. We'll have to do some reading up on this topic, I guess...but if anyone has any advice, we're listening!

Oh, I also created a poll, over there on the right. See if you can guess if baby J will be a boy or a girl! We're not planning to find out beforehand, either. We think it'll be more fun that way. Some people seem to have a strong "feeling" one way or ther other what their baby's sex is. I haven't had any feelings like that, although Josh had a dream it was a girl. Neither of us really have a preference. I think I'll be just as happy either way.

19 weeks, 5 days

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun New Year's Eve. We had a pretty chill night at Ruth and Chad's house and they made a delicious Indian feast, which was awesome. I made lassi, which is this yummy Indian yogurt drink, so that was sort of my booze substitute. I was just happy I managed to stay up until midnight!

Our exciting baby news of the week is that we felt and saw it moving! I had been feeling something, maybe, for a week or so, but I wasn't really sure if it was the baby or just gas or something. It didn't feel like much and it really didn't feel like the "flutter" you always hear about, so I just didn't know. But then on Monday night before bed, I was reading my tummy a book, "Are You My Mother?". It's about a baby bird...whatever. Anyway, about halfway through the book I started feeling something; I guess "poking" is the best way I can think of to describe it, not flutter. It was pretty strong and I knew it wasn't gas. Then I looked at my tummy and I could actually see it - like, it was poking and you could see it through my skin. Frickin' weird! So I yelled for Josh and he came up and got to see it too, and feel it as well. It was so cool. I guess I was surpised because I was under the impression that I'd be able to feel it for a long time before Josh would be able to. Maybe I had been feeling it for a while but just didn't know it. I wonder if the baby liked that book, or the sound of my voice, or if it was just coincidence I felt it kick while I was reading to it.

When we were down in the Twin Cities last weekend for Christmas, we went on a little shopping spree and got a crib, a changing table, and a "pack and play", which is basically a playpen. It was a relief to get those two furniture pieces out of the way. I'd love to "keep it up, keep it in the U.P.", but I had done some research before we left, and there are just no stores around here that sell any of the kinds of cribs we wanted.

I'll take another belly photo this weekend for the 20-week mark.

18 weeks, 1 day

Okay, so I got a lot of crap from people about the last belly photo. Apparently it wasn't big enough for some of you! Well, it was something, anyway, and it was all I had. :)

I hope the new photo satisfies you. I'm actually now starting to outgrow some of my skinnier pants. Thank you, Jack and Jean, for the "BellaBand". That thing is the best! For those of you who don't know, it's this wide stretchy band. It's meant for that in-between stage when you're too big for your clothes but too small yet for your maternity clothes. You wear your regular pants but unbutton them. Then you put the band around them so they don't fall down, and it also smooths over the bumpiness from your fly being open. It has been a lifesaver. What a great invention. Of course, I'm not wearing it in the photo, because I'm just wearing sweatpants which are already stretchy.

We've been getting dumped on here - the snow won't stop. I still enjoy it even though I can't ride. Josh went up to Mount Bohemia yesterday with our friend Cameron. I've been out XC skiing twice now - the trails are in great shape. Here's another photo, of a snowman we made the other night.

We're heading to Hastings on Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on the weather) for Christmas. So we'll be seeing a lot of you soon!

16 weeks, 4 days

I think I'm finally starting to get a belly! I hope this photo isn't inappropriate for mixed company; after I put it up I realized I feel sort of self-conscious about it...I promise I'll put on more clothes for the next one! So, I had my 3rd doctors appointment on Friday. Josh came with and we listened to the heart beat again. Once again it was a big relief. I've also gained 5 pounds. All the pigging out must be paying off! I'm very grateful to say I'm really enjoying being pregnant. I really haven't had any unpleasant symptoms to speak of. Even the zits went away!

Winter's in full swing up here and it's a little depressing to know that I can't snowboard. Wouldn't that be a bummer if it ends up being a huge snow year up here and I can't even enjoy it! I am planning on cross-country skiing a lot though. Josh still has to tune up the skis, but I think we're going to go this weekend. Other than that, I've been doing the usual 45-minute dog walk pretty much every night.

I don't have much else to say, but here's an image I took from babycenter.com that shows what the baby looks like right now. It's the size of an avocado. Yum! I love all the anatomical labels.