Tales from the Scale

Some women have a really tough time watching the numbers go up on the scale as pregnancy progresses. Others consider pregnancy a 10 month vacation in which they are exempt from calories and pounds. Every woman is different with how she puts on weight throughout the gestational period, whether gradual or in spurts, mostly in the beginning or all at the end.

If you begin pregnancy at a "normal" weight (BMI between 19.8 - 26.0), the recommended weight gain is between 25 - 35#. Underweight women gain more, overweight gain less. Once a normal weight woman reaches the second trimester, her calorie needs go up 300 per day (not exactly "eating for two"), and her weight gain should be ABOUT 1# per week.

Personally, I am unphased by the scale. Not because I am unaware or unconcerned. I just look at it as "that's not ME, that's just what my body has to be temporarily to grow a person!" I also think that if you are eating well and active, you have to trust that your body will naturally do what it's supposed to in order to keep both mom and baby healthy. When you try too hard to control weight gain, whether to gain more or less, you're working against your body's natural design.

With Will, I started out at 125# (BMI 21.1) and gained 23#. This time, I started at 117# (BMI 19.8) and am gaining weight faster than the first time. I trust that's just what my body is supposed to do.

I've been walking and/or doing pilates and light weights most days. Yesterday and today have been so beautiful and I've taken my lunch hour to get in a 45 minute walk at work. At home I walk outside if it's nice, or on the treadmill in the evening. I like the treadmill because I can control my pace and add an incline to get my heart rate up. I can feel a difference in my body though. It feels heavy and sluggish, which makes me all the more determined to keep moving. Exercise during pregnancy is like "training" for birth. Just like an athlete trains for a race. I need a strong heart and good endurance to be prepared for labor. Birth day is no time to wimp out!

Anyway, enough with my soap box.

Here's a new belly shot at 15 weeks, 4 days. Look closely - you can see my belly button sticking out.



Here's 13 weeks, 3 days for comparison.



I can't believe it. I feel like there's been a HUGE change, but those pictures look almost identical. Current weight gain as of today (15 weeks, 5 days) = 6#3oz.

And here's a picture in clothes after our awesome sunset last night.

FAQ's

Most websites have a section on Frequently Asked Questions, right? Well I thought I'd add one on FAQ's most people have regarding my pregnancy. It's funny how there seems to be a standard set of questions that a pregnant woman is asked. So here are my answers:

1) I'm feeling pretty good. No, I never threw up. I did have a few solid weeks of unpleasant nausea that extended way past the morning, but nothing unmanageable and it's much better now. I am still feeling much more tired by the end of my work day than usual.

2) We don't know the sex of our baby, YET. But, yes, we definitely plan to find out (assuming he or she isn't shy during the ultrasound) and our appointment is set for December 4th. We are excited to share the news with all of you when we know. My current intuition is GIRL, but we shall see... We will be pleasantly surprised with either. Obviously, a boy would be more economical since we have all the stuff. Plus, I would love for Will to have a brother so close in age. But a daughter would be wonderful too.

3) My official due date is April 24, 2009. When I tell people I'm pregnant, I usually just say I'm due at the "end of April", because a "due date" is a relative term with an approximately 2 week window before and after that would be considered normal. So technically, our baby may arrive somewhere between April 10 - May 8. That's a big window! When you put too much stock into an exact date, people tend to panic when you pass that date... still pregnant. Our baby will be born whenever he or she is ready. I prefer not to mess with God's plan.

4) Yes, we do have names in mind, but we'd prefer not to share just yet. We're pretty set on a boy's name, but for a girl we have several. We're going to wait till December to really decide.

5) Will has no understanding of what's going on, so preparing him for that transition is basically impossible. He can say "baby" and I tell him there's a baby in mommy's belly, but I don't think he knows what a baby is. He also knows body parts, so he'll try to lift my shirt and poke at my protruding belly button and then just smile up at me. Right now we're mostly working on listening skills. His language comprehension is fast improving, even if he can't speak clearly. So it will be super helpful for him to understand "let's pick up our toys" or "please close the cabinet" or "pet the doggy nicely" when I don't have 2 hands free and the ability to chase after him as easily come spring. Then, when his room is ready, we'll work on transitioning to the big boy bed.

6) Hmm. What else? I already feel like I'm carrying higher this time, though still out in front (almost pointy) and not real wide. My belly button has been sticking out since, oh, about 7 weeks or so. It never went back to normal after Will - it was more like a half innie/ half outtie. But I don't mind, because I feel like that sort of confirms the look of a pregnant belly vs. just a fat one. That's the problem with this stage - you don't look obviously pregnant to the unknowing public - just like you might have eaten too much for lunch.

I think that's it... Feel free to add questions in the comment box if I overlooked any.

Happy Halloween from a Silly Spider!

We went to visit the grandparents in costume tonight, and then did a VERY small bit of trick-or-treating to a couple friends' houses in the neighborhood across the street. Will's still too young to understand so it's really more fun for us than him. He actually wore the same constume as last year. I ordered it in a size 6-24 months so it was a little big last year and PERFECT this year. The hat, on the other hand, was perfect last year and a mere joke this year. His dome is just too large. We gave the original hat one quick try and then laughed it right back into storage. Instead, I found him the antenna headband for $1.99 at a Halloween store.

First, here's a quick step back in time for a photo comparison of how much he's grown in one year.

Will at 4 months:


And Will at 16 months:


And here's some more pictures.


Getting tickle-kisses on his neck from daddy.

I love this expression.






Ooh! All the pretty colorful wrappers in Grandma Riedeman's treat basket! He seemed to be more interested in the plastic and crinkly noise than what was inside.

Grandma Skees gave Will a banana, some graham crackers, and a few quarters for his piggy bank. She bought him that personalized trick-or-treat bag last year to stick his goodies in this year. (Will really enjoys toys that he has to drop something into a hole or slot, like his shape-sorting toy or coins in his piggy bank.)

And right before heading for home, Uncle Zach was the highlight of the evening when he read Will a book. Better than any treat...





Hope YOU all had a Happy Halloween!

And finally, in closing, I wanted to add one more picture to better explain a previous post I made about whether or not to give Will his first haircut. Take a look at this photo:



Do you see those little whispy curls above each ear? That kid could get away with murder because of those curls. They make me melt. What kind of mother would I be to snip away such sweet little curls? Now you see why it's such a dilemma...

Good Morning.

I heard the most beautiful sound this morning. It was like a "woosha, woosha, woosha" and it made me smile. It was our baby's heartbeat and it was loud and clear.

I once listened to a motivational speaker at a work conference talk about how he recorded his unborn child's heartbeat and turned that beautiful sound (on a very loud scale) into his morning alarm. His speech was on choosing your attitude and what better way to start your day then with a noise that makes you happy. It definitely brightened MY day - I'm in a fabulous mood!

This morning was a routine prenatal check-up at my OB office. It was short and sweet - we're right on target. I'm feeling good and now we go back in 5 weeks. Usually they want to see you every 4 weeks, but in FIVE weeks I will be nearly 20 weeks gestation and we decided to combine appointments with the BIG ultrasound. Hooray! So on December 4th, Craig & I will get to see our baby via ultrasound again and how much he or she has grown since the first glimpse we got at almost 9 weeks. Also, we will hopefully be able to find out the baby's gender! We can't wait! I would say it's going to be a long 5-week wait, but considering how the time has flown so far, it will be here before we know it. It is so surreal that December 5th will mark the halfway point of this pregnancy!

Preg-tarded?

Call it Baby Brain, Mommy Brain, or my personal favorite... Preg-tarded. Whatever you call it, it is a fact that, during pregnancy, you lose MANY brain cells. I have entered the lovely stage of being a forgetful, babbling idiot. How is that different from my pre-pregnancy self, Craig wants to know? Well it's like walking into a room and forgetting why you went in there... x5! I am forgetting favors people ask of me, forgetting errands I meant to run, and doing stupid things. Last night I was baking some pumpkin and butterscotch chip mini muffins and I unrolled a stick of butter... right into the garbage. I realized it just as I was about to drop the wrapper into the bowl of my stand mixer. What a waste.

When I was pregnant with Will, it was worse. Once, when I got home from work with swollen ankles, I removed my nylons (I was wearing a skirt that particular day) and got busy getting dinner ready in the kitchen. Later that evening, I couldn't find where I'd set down my nylons. The next day I found them in the saran wrap drawer.

Another evening when I walked into the bathroom to take a shower, I was mostly undressed and had to pee before getting into the shower. So my 2 tasks before showering should have been:
1) remove underwear and toss into the hamper
2) sit down on toilet to pee
Instead, I removed my underwear, lifted the toilet lid, and dropped said underwear into the toilet. And it's always like you realize your stupidity one second too late... I just started laughing and told Craig what I'd done. He said "Good thing you realized it before you peed in the hamper!"

So I know I'm probably in for more ridiculous, preg-tarded behavior. I just hope I don't try to feed my poor child the dog's food or forget to pay the electrical bill or something tragic like that.

In other news, Will has taken a fancy to cavorting around in the nude whenever I let him. Heck, I wouldn't want to be stuck in a diaper 24/7 either! And I used to love running around naked when I was a kid. So before bath time or between diaper changes, I've been letting him run around in his birthday suit to... air out. As long as said cavorting is done over an easy to clean floor, we're all good. I am proud to tell you that my son has never had a diaper rash. Well, except once in response to an antibiotic, but it was minor and gone in a day.

In the last month or so, Will has stumbled upon his private parts during bath time. He's quite intrigued with them for a few brief moments and then the plastic fish and rubber ducky win over his attention for the remainder of bath time. Daddy is so proud.

A 2nd Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

... this time we brought dad.





How stinkin' adorable are my two boys?

Will loves to look out the window at cars going by or people entering or leaving our driveway, but he has to stand on tiptoes. So this weekend, I put our old nursing foot stool out for him to get a better view, and he LOVES it!



Also, I want to run this by you, but I think our kid's a genius. So he's on the changing table yesterday playing peek-a-boo with me and I start reciting this book he got from the doctor's office with a bunch of baby faces in it... "Peek-a-boo, I see you, Thinking, Laughing, Crying too..." (I have like 75% of Will's books memorized.) Anyway, he gives me a look like "Hmm... I know that one." And as soon as I get him down from the changing table, he heads straight for the diaper bag. He NEVER gets into his diaper bag. It sits beside his hamper and diaper pail, sort of out of sight. So he's trying to get into it, and I'm thinking No Way... But sure enough, he gets the flap open and pulls out that book!!! How the heck did he remember that that book is in the diaper bag?! We honestly don't travel with the diaper bag all that much anymore and he didn't even go searching over in his bookshelf where he ALWAYS sits and looks through his books. Genius!

He just LOVES books. And he always holds them right side up and turns pages the right direction, which I've heard are good early-reader skills. This weekend while I was cooking in the kitchen, Will was laying on his back in the dining room doorway holding a book up over his head and flipping through pages. Every so often, he'd roll to his belly and look through some more... then back to his back. It was so cute - he looked much older than he is. And if you sit in his glider chair or on the floor, he'll bring you a book and climb into your lap for you to read it to him.

Also this weekend, Will can climb onto his rocking horse and rock. It's the first time he's coordinated that motion. And he said "neigh" for a horse sound today.

Craig & I have been debating whether or not to give Will his first haircut pretty soon. He sort of has a mullet going, but sometimes it curls up around his ears and I love that. We'll probably just trim the bottom and let the rest go. We'll see. Why is this such a big decision for me? I feel like it's too soon, like he's just a baby. Craig's torn too, but not for sentimental reasons. We both just like Will's hair kind of shaggy.

Oh My God! It's TWINS!

Ha! Not for Craig & I, if that's what you were thinking. My sister Casey and her husband Wes had their first ultrasound yesterday afternoon to see their baby's heartbeat and figure out the due date. And wouldn't you know? There they were... TWO strong, little hearts beating away. The doctor said everything looked as good as you could ask for at this stage. And although they determined her due date to be June 18th, the doctor anticipates she will likely deliver in May. So our children may be just a month apart. Our whole family is overwhelmed with excitement! Casey & Wes are being blessed twice for all the wait and heartache it took to get to this point. Wow. Just wow. I can't even wrap my mind around the idea of twins! What an adventure they are in for!

You can view Casey's new blog at: www.clrethman.blogspot.com.