How’s that?

It’s hard to believe that we are approaching the halfway mark. It seems like just a few weeks ago, I was in the shower, and Angie was peeing on a stick. The funny part is, and please don’t tell Angie, that I’m starting to get a little anxious about getting some of our stuff done. I’m the one that tends to procrastinate and not worry. Worry is a strong word, but I think we are going to carve out some time this weekend to go order our crib. We also need to find some time to register. We are trying to avoid registering at Baby’s R Us, but we’ll see. All we need is a few bottles, some diapers and a crib, right!?!?!

Angie has started to feel the baby moving around, and for the first time, I find myself a little jealous. I felt her belly a couple nights ago, and I felt “some” movement, but I couldn’t tell if it was Tater, or just mom holding one in. It should just be a few weeks before I am able to start feeling things. After all, Tater is about 5.5 inches (that’s rump to crown). They say he (yes I’m going with “he for now) is about the size of a sweet potato. Guess that means that “Tater” is a good name… though I’m a little worried it will stick. Won’t be too bad if we have a little boy, but I’d hate to have a little girl called Tater.

Angie was reading last night about how the heart develops during the pregnancy, and I have to admit, it’s amazing. I learned two new facts though. The first is that the mother’s blood never mixes with the baby’s blood. They come pretty close, and the nutrients transfer, but the circulation systems are completely separate. The second is that the baby’s heart has a hole it in which keeps the blood from cycling through the lungs… that is until birth. During birth, the heart seals, and for the first time, blood flows through the baby’s lungs. It’s just amazing how much happens, and everything that must happen in perfect order.

Finally, Angie goes Saturday for some blood work. This is where we will find out about any detectible abnormalities. The doctor prepared us though, since the readings should come back higher than normal because Angie is 35. Am I allowed to say that on the Internet? It’s anonymous on here, isn’t it?

If you can’t get enough about babies and specifically their 18th week, try the link below:

Baby Center – 18 Weeks

I’ve realized through this blogging experience that I think in incomplete thoughts. Or maybe, I only type or say part of my thought, and then I seem to fill in the rest with “…”. Anyway, a lot has happened in the past couple weeks. Seems like forever since I have blogged.

When we last left Johnathan and Angie, they had found the heartbeat, and had posted it to the website. The rest of that story is this… (there I go again)

We ordered a monitor that let’s us listen to the heartbeat. It’s a fiesty little machine, and it loves to make a racket when you don’t have enough gel or use it wrong. But that’s beside the point. It came the Monday a week before Christmas, and Angie and I were both excited. So when we got home from work, we immediately hooked it up to try and listen. Now the machine is not hard to use, but it does say use a lot of gel, and Angie took that serious… lots-o-gel. But we tried and had no luck… and we kept trying… but no luck. That was even more frustrating, but at some point you start wondering: 1. Do I suck at this? 2. Is the doctors machine just better? 3. Is this machine broken? or 4. Is something wrong. As much as we knew everything was ok, and didn’t get too alarmed, that number 4 is sitting there in the back of your mind. But after about 30 minutes we gave up said we try again on Tuesday.

So, Tuesday rolls around, and we try again… this time, we try for about 20 minutes and no luck… getting even more frustrating (and honestly, tired of hearing the thing squelch every time you move it). But finally we hit gold!!!! whoosh, whoosh, whoosh… it was awesome, and so reassuring. That’s what got posted. We’ve listened once more since then, but try to keep it to once a week or so. We have another appointment coming in early January. I’m hoping that we will do an ultrasound that time.

Ok… lazy day… tired of typing… so the rest of the story will come later. Aw… come on… you know you like the suspense. If you are lucky, Angie will read this and post some more. :)

I’ll have to come back and tell more of the story, but we recently received a baby doppler to listen for the heartbeat at home. It has a great feature that allows us to save it to the computer. There’s a lot of background noise that I need to figure out how to clean up, but it’s still amazing as it is. And to think we are just at 12 weeks!

Baby’s Heartbeat – 12 Weeks

Ok, so Angie mentioned (again) that it’s been a while since I posted, and this was my great idea. I’d like to point out a couple things from that previous statement… first that it was a “great idea” and second, that I have obviously not learned, since I am making my pregnant wife repeat herself.

For a day that started out crappy, it sure had a high point. I woke up this morning feeling like doodoo… and decided it would be best for me to work from home. Not sure what I have, but I didn’t feel like facing people, and more importantly I didn’t want to get people sick who are working hard on a project I have going. So that was my morning…

But Angie and I had a doctors appointment today and today we got to hear the heart beat! It was amazing. I’m sure it also comforts her to know that we are this far and everything seems to be on track. For me, it makes it that much more real, since other than the changes I see in Angie, it hasn’t really affected me yet.

Today was definitely cool. I called the house and left a message with the sound on it. It’s no the best, but I’m sure Kylie will be excited to hear it too. We are in the 10th week, and the baby is about 2 inches long right now, with its head being 1/2 of that. Hair folicles are starting to form, as are the nail beds and the baby is starting to stretch and roll around… It’s just amazing how fast things happen. We have a lot to do to get ready, and at some point we are going to have to start thinking of names.

After all that excitement, I stayed home from Bible study tonight so I could get some work done. Need to help balance out the day… can’t have too much fun.

It’s been a while since I updated the site, and Angie has told me that she’s not posting until I post, so here I go. I guess this goes back as far as Thanksgiving. It was great. Angie’s mom was in town and the ladies went shopping for maternity clothes. At first I thought it was kinda early, but I knew that they were excited about it (at least afterwards) and Angie said they were very comfortable, so that’s good. Angie’s mom spent a good amount of time hemming Angies pants, and preparing for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving itself was good. It was Angie, Kylie and me, Angie’s mom, my mom and barry, my brother Matt, our friends Vern and Barb, and Kwane and Bianca. It was expecially cool to be able to celebrate in our new home. There was way too much food which worked out well for the following days and nights. Surprisingly I never got sick of the food. Mom made green bean caserole, Angie made Spinach Madeliene, and Angie’s mom made turkey and chicken ‘n dumplings. They were all great.

Angie and I had a four day weekend, so I ended up using it to get a lot of stuff done around the house, and force myself to sleep in as much as possible. That was nice. No alarms, no early appointments. I got the garage cleaned out and somewhat organized. I’d like to put some cabinets in the garage for storage and because I think it will look good. We moved some large rocks from the lot behind us, and put them in the flower beds up front. Then Kylie and I worked on a castle that she had to build for her World History class. I’ll upload a picture later, but I think it turned out pretty nice… working draw bridge and all.

Angie is doing well. I know she feels sick from time to time, but she hasn’t thrown up yet. She is mainly just tired, and I’ve noticed a few times where her memory doesn’t seem to be as great (though I’d never tell it to her face). We are in the 9th week, which just seems amazing. The baby is no longer a little pea sized blob… but more like 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch . Angie is looking forward to the second trimester when she is supposed to get an energy boost! That way she can get back to laundry, cooking and cleaning. (Hope she doesn’t read that part.) Oh well, at least I don’t make her do it barefoot.