The second trimester is a miracle

After all my complaining about my pregnancy misery, I am offically feeling 100% better.

I can eat - and boy, do I. I am hungry all the time now and everything looks good (although meat and vegetables and I are still having our difficulties - this baby is consuming a lot of cheese).

And I am actually able to leave the house and do things like run errands and go to the gym.

It is a happy time.

An approximation of me, now that I'm in my second trimester.

Maternity clothes transition

I am officially starting to wear maternity clothes.

I can still (barely) get my formerly too big pants buttoned, but it's being increasingly less comfortable.

I have ordered a couple of items off of the Internet and yesterday Kevin and I did our first maternity clothes shop. I am trying to get multi-purpose items that I can wear for a while, we will see how that works.

I am much more comfortable with the change to maternity bottoms. Such is the exciting life of a pregnant girl!

15 weeks

Despite my best intentions, I have been remiss at posting pictures of my gradually expanding self. But here is me at 15 weeks:

I feel like I am definitely starting to show now.

We also went to the doctor (yet again) today. We were able to hear the heartbeat, which was great. Everything looked good and we will go back to both the main doctor and the specialist in another four weeks (at which point we will hopefully find out the sex).

Long Absences and Nesting cont.

Finally, the moment you have all been waiting for... kitchen pics:

Okay, In looking at the blog I noticed that it has been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted... Sorry about that. I tend to be a man of single focus and as of late, that focus has been turned to work and home repairs rather than blogging.

There is both good and bad in that because while I have been away from posting for a while there is a bit more to catch up on. So... baby wise, we had our 13 week check up. It was a bit of a scary time considering that most of the advice that we had gotten was that we shouldn't even tell anyone until that point because the risks were much greater beforehand. Fortunately, there was nothing to worry about as they said that everything that they can see with the ultrasound looked perfect. The baby is right on schedule with growth and development, the heart rate looks good, and the spinal cord seems to be developing appropriately. I wish you could see the video as the fuzzy pictures don't do it justice. You could see the little arms and legs, the skeleton was clear, and it looked like it was having minature hiccups. In the week and a half since Austin is feeling a bit better, so there is hope that her sickness won't be the 8 1/2 month kind.

Home improvement wise, we have taken several steps forward. The tile floor is in, and I think it looks great! I spent virtually the entire day yesterday watching and talking with our Romanian installer, Ray. The guy really knew his stuff and worked the entired day straight with no lunch break from about 8 to 8 to get it finished. I will hire him again in a heartbeat.

I stained the quarter round for installation when he seal the floor on Wednesday, and the Lewis's officially have their first permanent kitchen floor. The improvement is dramatic. Dramatic enough that I decided to replace our flourescent lighting with new track lighting to compliment it, and am having a really hard time avoiding the "self install granite slab countertop" websites even though everyone I talk to (including Ray) says it's a bad idea.

Also, in the intervening time since my last post, you have missed my trip to my grandmother's memorial service in California. She recently passed away at the age of 8

9 and my family got together to celebrate her life. It was both a sad and happy time, and a great reminder of what a wonderful family that I have and just how important family is.

Oh, and back to the baby... Austin's sister sent us a Massive amount of clothing from both their boy and girl from the ages of 1 to 3. I think it is going to make a tremendous difference for the baby. If I have my way... this baby will be in nothing but hand-me-downs. :-)

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath. My visits to the aquatic center now total 2.... not quite the 10 that I had planned on.

More visit details - A.

I am offically in my second trimester, but am still waiting for the whole more energy/feeling better thing. Here are some pictures (rather blurry) from the twelve week ultrasound:

It was very nice to hear that the baby is looking "perfect." I go back to my normal OB on the 12th.

Due Dads

For Kevin: to watch instantly on Netflix.Due Dads:Providing helpful tips with a big dose of humor, this informative program is jam-packed with valuable advice for fathers-to-be. Chapters on each trimester offer suggestions to ensure the comfort of your pregnant partner, including meal-making, cleaning and foot massage instructions. Perhaps most importantly, a discussion of the inevitable stresses of pregnancy presents coping strategies for men navigating this life-altering period.

The male version of nesting...

I think that this weekend was a great example of how pregnancy begins to revert us to our "primal" instincts. For the first time in the pregnancy, Austin is feeling some of the emotional effects of all of the hormones coursing through her veins... There were a lot of tears shed during movies and yes, even commercials, this weekend. The need for cuddles has also increased markedly. :-)

I meanwhile, continue to have a stronger urge to build, improve, clean, and repair our house than I have ever felt before. The project during the week was having two dead pine trees cut down in our yard, then distributing the mulch over the weed bed bordering our driveway... very satisfying as they had been concerning me during the recent high winds we have had here in Georgia.

The weekend project was stripping the two layers of linoleum floor from our kitchen so that we can lay porcelin tile. The top layer came up easy in about a half hour. The second layer took about 4 hours of pouring boiling water on it waiting 15 minutes while watching TV, then pulling it up one section at a time. Finally, the felt backing for the second layer took about 8 hours between Friday night and Saturday of serious sweat with a razor scraper, boiling water, and Krudkutter (my new favorite cleanser/degreaser/paste remover). Seems like it would be a total pain... but it felt good.

Now, the rest of the flooring is in Home Depot's hands and I am Jonesing for my next project. Will it be sodding the backyard? Putting a patio in the backyard? Self-installing granite or granite tile countertops? Replacing our ever-leaking windows? Who can say... but I am anxious to do it while I have all of this father-to-be superenergy.

New Baby - New Products

There is a new world of BABY to explore.
G diapers The flushable disposable diaper.

http://www.gdiapers.com/

or the Bumbo Baby Sitter
The Bumbo Baby Sitter is a revolutionary new concept with world wide patent rights, uniquely designed according to the baby's posture. It is certainly a different take on high chairs and boosters. The baby seat will allow baby to independently sit upright from as young as 3 months up to an age of approximately 14 months. The baby Bumbo seat provides a snug and cozy environment for the baby. (Picture from The Image is Found.)

We will check out more, Austin, when you come to visit. Love,L.

12 week visit

So the doctor was uneventful. I did get a prescription for Zofran so we shall see how that works out. I also got my referral to a peri-natal specialist. We are going to see them on the 27th for an in-depth ultrasound to see how everything is going with the baby. Hopefully they will see only good things.

Absentee fathers and big days

So I see that it has been a week since I posted and I have left my sick and pregnant wife to carry the load for all of our readers... I would say that the reason was that work was just too busy and distracting this week, but that sounds a little ominous for our unborn LP.

Needless to say, I am very excited about our 3 month visit to the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully this time we will get to see something more exciting than a flickering grain of rice. Since this is the most dangerous section of the pregnancy, the anxiousness and excitement is tempered with a bit of fear, but I am certain that the experience will be amazing.

11 weeks, look at us go

I’m eleven weeks pregnant tomorrow. What’s going on with LP? He’s about the size of a fig and almost fully formed. The baby is already moving – kicking, stretching, and opening and closing its hands.

How do I feel? More of the same. Sick, sick, sick. And really tired, but from reading the above I can see why. Baby and I are very busy.

Happy Mother To Be Day !

Happy Birthday Austin! Love, L.

I know we all wish Austin the Happiest of Birthdays ! xoxoxoxo

click on the speaker to turn on the song.

The Reality of Distraction

A long trip to Charleston has left me slightly less long-winded than usual. So today, rather than the hard-core existentialism that you have come to expect, I thought I would just mention our current favorite family/pregnancy related show.

It's called "Jon and Kate Plus 8", and is on TLC. I'd tell you the time, but as a TIVO watcher who's wife does the taping, time is no longer a concept I recognize when it comes to television. :-)
Anyhow, it concerns the life of a family with 8 children: 2 twins and 6 sextuplets. It started shortly after the 6 were born, and in three seasons, has followed their lives for the past three years. It is oddly fascinating and quite a treat if you enjoy a little more reality in your "reality tv" than the standard fare.

In any case, it is a great way to spend your leisure time until "Ice Road Truckers" comes back.

Here is a link for more info on the show.

Come on...give us some comments...

So we were hoping this blog would serve as something of a dialogue and that we would be innundated with advice and thoughts from our family and friends. But right now, it's seeming a little monologue-ish.

Since many of you have children, we would love to hear your thoughts on what we're going though. Don't know how to leave a comment? Under the entry, there's a line that says "0 comments." Just click on that box and a comment form opens.

Or send us an email and we will post your message in the blog.

We would love to hear from you guys!

My Newest Baby Related Obsession...

Before I get started let me first respond to Austin's previous blog by stating that I think that she definately has the worse situation regarding when it comes to pregnancy. I would never in a million years trade places and teach kindergardeners while constantly feeling while I was going to throw up... so bring on the housework.
(I would have put this as a response within her blog like she does with mine, but only she seems to have that power).

Back to the title of this blog, my newest baby related obsession is... getting in shape. At least I think that it is baby related, could be spring related, or getting beaten by my little sis in a 3 mile jog while visiting her related, or her just finishing a half marathon while I spend most of my days in front of a computer related.

However... I have been thinking lately that some of the things I remember most about my father were going running with him at the local high-school track, the camping trips and hikes that we used to take, and just the general feeling that he was almost invincible in his strength, tirelessness, and health.

Meanwhile, the current computer time at my job, the many distractions around the house, and just the general feeling of inertia at the end of the day have led to a long time without working out. Overall, my sluggishness is at about an 8 on 10 point scale.

So, last night I decided that it is time to get back in shape and headed to the local lap pool. The 1800 yard workout was a stark reminder of just how far I have fallen from the triathlon days. The workout was cut short by a feeling of nausea that I can only assume rivals what Austin has been feeling, and the painful headache and numbingly tired brain led to me walking into the womens locker room to the surprise of a (thankfully fully clothed) woman.

Still it felt good to finally break some of the stagnant blood loose from my veins. I have signed up for a card good for 10 visits and have vowed to use them all up in the next few weeks.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Poor Kevin

It's true, I am one sick puppy. I am very tired and dizzy, but mostly I am sick to my stomach pretty much twenty four hours a day. It is wearing me down although I know it's a small price to pay.

In addition to feeling bad for myself, I feel bad for poor Kevin. I am less than no help around the house. Basically I work and then come home and sleep. On the weekends I mix it up with a lot of laying on the couch.

The end result is a dirty house and laundry that is climbing up the sky. Plus endless errands that I just cannot get it together to run. In conclusion, poor Kevin.

Hopefully this will stop soon.

Better Pregnancy Living Through Chemicals

Today's post concerns the trials of morning sickness (a misnomer as it appears to last all day) and a call for any ideas on foods or drugs that are beneficial and safe for the baby. Austin has been bearing up well to the constant feeling of nausea, but occasionally, during particularly bad bouts, I can see the panic in her eyes and know that she is feeling like she can't possibly endure this misery for one more day. I have only felt that way a couple times in my life and can't imangine going through it for two months straight.

So... in order to ease this misery, we have been trying a myriad of recommendations...
Saltines, ginger snaps, ginger ale, Emetrol, Sea Bands, Vitamin B-6 supplements, and lately Metaclopramide. So far, none of them seem to have any effect, and Metaclopramide seems to add the symptom of increased dizziness. Phenergan is next on the doctor's list, but Austin took that after her last surgery and while she enjoyed it thoroughly, and appeared pretty normal if a little sleepy on it. She doesn't remember most of the days where she was taking it... which is a little concerning.

Mike, a great friend, a NASA scientist, and probably the best dad I know that it roughly my age who has the added benefit of having an obstetrical nurse as a wife recommended Zofran and to a lesser extent Regulin with the caveat that they haven't been tested quite as throughly with pregnancy as the others, so these are next on our list.

It is, however, disconcerting to see Austin only able to eat a fraction of every meal and with dark circles under her eyes, so if you know of any remedies that worked for you that I haven't mentioned, please post in the comments.

Power Mad with Blogging...

Okay, okay.... I know that I opened this blog by indicating how much more Austin was going to post than me, but now that she is too sick to post I am drunk on the thrill of online publication :-)

So today my thoughts are centered on sheer number of items that are available for babies...

Last weekend, Legacy Park, a very large and somewhat affluent neighborhood near where Austin teaches school held its annual communal yard sale. This event is apparenly known far and wide for its veritable treasure-trove of high quality lightly used baby loot, so we both decided that though we are months away from needing most of the items in question, it would not be wise as cost-consious parents to skip it.

I think that the trip was a successful one... as we picked up a jogging stroller, bouncy, Baby-Bjorn, and Pack-and-Play for veritable peanuts... my only problem is that I have no real idea whether these items are useful or not.

While doing our yard sale rounds I was struck by two things: The first was that there are a whole lot of baby items out there that look like they cost a lot but that don't look like they were ever used. The second was a comment from the woman that we bought our jogging stroller from when we were looking at her car seat. She was an athletic and alert looking woman who struck me as a bit of a friendly type A triathlete. "Eight weeks along!" she said,"Well then I am sure you have read that book on all the baby items that you actually need." Austin and I nodded knowingly while she went on to describe the reasons why car seats that hook in directly to the floor are much better than the "death traps" that just use a regular seat belt around them. In truth, we had no idea what she was talking about.

So my questions to anyone who is reading are these... What is this mythical book she is talking about? How will I know that I have the book that is steering me around the crap that I don't need and not the one that is a marketing ploy to direct me right to it? and In the absence of said miracle book, what are some items aside from those mentioned above that are indespensible to parents to be? On the opposite side...what are some that are completely useless?

Sleepless nights...

I generally fall asleep quite easily and am a very sound sleeper but on occasion I have nights where what in the daytime seems to be an utterly boring idea fascinates me so completely that I refuse to let go of it in order to actually fall asleep.

Last night was one of those nights and I tossed and turned for a couple of hours (much to Austin's chagrin I am sure). This is only relevant to this particular blog because the ideas I couldn't rid myself of were mostly baby related.

I think it all started with how much I enjoyed it when my mother read to me as a child and how that led to my overall interest in books, how their stories shaped my life views on what is good and evil and who I want to be, and how I think that more than anything is what led to my success in school.

This led to thoughts that I really wanted to read to our LP and questions about if Austin wanted to read to him/her too, and how we would decide who gets to. I wondered whether we would have to alternate... in which case I need to work on my inflection and voices so that I will be the more popular reader :-) This then led to questions about the many diverse genres that mom read to me and how she chose the books that she did and questions about when a child actually starts to enjoy books like the Chronicles of Narnia and Tom Sawyer, and how I can get LP to that point faster. :-)

Somehow this moved on to food preferences and learning and how quickly you can actually teach a kid about his/her physiology and why things are good for them, which degenerated into I was going to teach our child about trigonometry and how to determine the height of our telephone pole outside. I must've been really tired at this point because somehow that morphed into me spending my last 30 minutes of wakefulness trying to figure out how one calculates the force on a spinning object if you know its rpms and the radius of rotation.

Ahh, the thoughts we have when we know we should be asleep...

In any case, I now officially have babies on the brain.

Our child is going to be raised to be a total dork, isn't he? Good thing you're so cute.

9 weeks pregnant and it feels so...pukey

At nine weeks LP is now no longer an embryo but now a fetus. Good for him! He's the size of a medium green olive. Also, "The head has straightened out and is more fully developed, the ears are much more prominent, and some new organs (the liver, spleen, and gallbladder) are forming. Your fetus is also making spontaneous movements of his or her arms and legs now that minuscule muscles are beginning to develop."

All in all, baby and I are really quite busy.

How am I feeling? So nauseated from morning to night that I could cry. A small price to pay, for sure, but still sucky. Also incredibly tired and prone to nodding off whenever Kevin and I are on the couch watching something.

So that's baby and me at nine weeks.

Baby's First Photo

Here is the first ever picture of LP.
He's about the size of a grain of rice and has a strong heartbeat.

...Welcome to Our Blog...

Kevin and I were very excited to find out in March that we were pregnant! We decided to create a blog to share with our family how our planning and pregnancy were going. Right now our tentative due date is December 3, which puts me at about eight weeks pregnant. I hope to use this blog as my pregnancy journal to reflect on all the emotions and changes that come along with a pregnancy.

Parasites and lameness and Babies..Oh My !

That last post brings disturbing images of Alien to mind...

Regarding the lameness and psychoticness of my description of you... I was going for cute and sweet. Does that mean that what I find cute and sweet is in actuality lame and psychotic?

(Maybe...if so it's good we found each other...)

Interesting questions that I am sure we will all enjoy answering through experimentation with our unborn child's psyche. :-)

Babies on the brain

It's true I think about LP (litle peanut) quite often. But it's hard to avoid seeing as how I constantly want to vomit. It's easy to remember that I'm either sick or host to the Worst. Parasite. Ever. Thanks LP, you're doing a good job staying on my mind.

Mildly interesting things...

The oddest part about becoming a father to be is that I really don't feel any different. I can conceptualize how huge of a change it is going to be to become a father. I enjoy thinking about what it is going to be like to have a child and have someone who is completely dependent on us for their physical needs, their education, world view, direction in life, and their fundamental health. However, it still seems just as abstract as it did a year ago even though it obviously is not...

I know that the baby is on Austin's mind constantly, even amidst the wild and needy children of her kindergarten class and the everyday directions that she is pulled. Strangely, for me... it is not. I find that I can still get wrapped up in work, meetings, or phone calls. I can even be happily describing it to people in the course of conversation while going hours before the thought "I'm going to be a father" creeps back into my mind. It is still surprising to me every time that it does.

It is funny how even when it is below the surface of my mind it changes my behavior, though. I find that I am suddenly interested in completing all of the projects such as repairing our deteriorating yard, replacing our kitchen linoleum, our leaky windows, and our leaky fireplace flew that have been present for the last 4 years. Cooking balanced meals and the ingredients in them now holds my interest where I had very little in it before.

It seems that my body is programmed to respond to the most exciting events in my life in the boy scout "Be Prepared" mode of operation.

In any case it is an odd combination of being deliriously happy and excited and yet feeling somewhat numb. If the books are to be believed, this will soon be replaced with a feeling of the "realness" of the child.

I'll keep you posted.

-K

Inaugural Post - Baby Blog: The Father's perspective

I am excited about this opportunity to write about the beginnings of parenthood from the father's perspective. I should first qualify by mentioning that I do not possess my wife's or her sister's technical saavy with blogging nor their artistic capabilities and most likely all of the pictures, backgrounds, and cool links that you see on the page will be their doing.

I also don't think that I possess anywhere near the range of emotions that they have to write about. At any given time, when asked how I am feeling, I will answer with one of six things... really happy, loving, excited, sad, angry, or (the far more common) pretty good. (1) My wife on the other hand has a rich boquet of emotions to describe which I often have difficulty processing. Such as... disappointed, frustrated or hurt (they all mean angry near as I can tell)... wanting to unzip you and zip myself inside or gobble you with a spoon (2)(a combination of happy,excited and loving), depressed, lonely, exhausted, or melancholy (all various gradations on sad) (3)
Finally, I am likely to be less prolific... I simply don't possess the cleverness to be an everyday poster. That being said... I do have some mildly interesting things to write about today...

Footnotes by Austin:
(1.) Sometimes you're hungry. There, that's seven
(2.) You've totally made me sound psychotic, which I'm not.
(3.) I am also often happy, why do I sound so lame in my husband's description of me?