25 weeks

Here we go, movin' towards the last trimester! I'm feeling fine, and the babyman moves around everyday, so I guess he's fine too. All our doctors appointments have gone well. We're starting to do uterus measurements (he uses a measuring tape to measure from my pubic bone to the top of my uterus) so that's new. I should be growing a cm a week. This month I also did the diabetes test and went to the anesthesiologist office to watch the epidural video from the 80's. The most enjoyable parts were the big mustaches and other hairstyles, but the needle parts made me squirm around a little.

I'm also realizing that these are the last months in my pre-delivery, pre-nursing, pre-mom body. These are the last weekends of sleeping late and free time for at least several years. SO... I want to make a list of things I like and maybe next year around my birthday I'll make another list and see how things worked out.

I like to eat chips and salsa, Blue Bell ice cream, coca-cola icees, sour patch kids and I have a cup of coffee every morning. (don't worry, those are mostly splurges, I usually eat lots of VEGETABLES!)

I love my job. I enjoy going to work every day, sitting in my office, emailing students about study abroad, talking with parents, being on campus, talking with people in my office, getting to know lots of students, and being helpful. I'm the study abroad coordinator at ACU and I send 200 students abroad every year. I memorize most of their names, can recognize them on campus, and for a few I recognize their parents' numbers on my caller ID. I manage 3 great student workers 30 hours a week. I regularly make presentations to visiting groups of 3-30 people (usually prospective students) and the past few semesters I've traveled around TX with admissions to attend events and help recruit students to ACU. I love to talk about study abroad, especially our semester programs, and really Montevideo is my favorite.

At home I do the dishes a couple times a week and Curtis helps me do all the laundry every two weeks. I'm a pro at making grocery lists, listing items in order of where they're found in the store and making a total price estimate within a couple dollars.

Weeknights we usually eat at home, watch Wheel of Fortune and one more show (I like NCIS, Chuck, The Office and the bachelor). Curtis plays a lot of Mario Kart and I like to watch. When I play, I run into walls, get stressed out and lose.

I like to go to bed at 10:30. I take a shower every day. If I have free time I usually call my mom.

And here's some pictures:

23 weeks

I feel good these days. I'm never nauseous, I don't have heartburn or headaches, and I can move around easily. But for the record, pregnancy is a little weird. Besides having a whole baby boy inside me (which is very weird to think about) there's lots of strange things that seem to be normal parts of pregnancy. Hormones have given me some little dots on my face, three small stretch marks, and sweaty palms and feet. I also have a stuffy nose. It's cool - right now I feel thankful and content.

There seems to be a very long semester in front of me, and after that, the unknown world of parenting. Right now I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning at 11:00 when my 56 Spring '09 study abroad students will have left Abilene for DFW and airports around the world.

Sonogram Pictures

Ok, here's the sonogram pictures. They're fuzzy and not super cute, so I wasn't in a hurry to get them on the blog. The top picture is a foot. The second picture shows the heart cavity and the heart beat, it was much cooler on the video. The bottom picture is the baby's face. I think there's some umbilical cord floating in front of his chest or something, because his body seems like it's a weird shape/size compared to his head. Oh well. The face picture grows on you. :-)




Baby's doing fine. He kicks around every day, which really is encouraging to me. Yesterday I had a stomach bug. We called our doctor after I vomited the first time, and they said to just rest and drink fluids, so I stayed on the couch all day. I was glad that Curtis had the day off to stay at home with me. I'm fine today.

Monday starts another semester of Study Abroad fun! I really do love my job. I'm super excited about the Welcome Back Dinner (later in January) because we get to have it in ACU's new Hunter Welcome Center! I also like the spring semester because we have our annual Photo Contest. I'm looking forward to being in the office, working on my computer, seeing the students and rescuing my wilted office plant from the long Christmas vacation.

It's a Boy!

AHH! We're having a boy! :-) Curtis and I have been smiling, laughing, and kissing all morning. We're so happy that our baby is healthy, and we're excited to have a little guy around the house. The sonogram appointment seemed to fly by. The Dr. said he's 100% sure, and it's definitely guaranteed that it's a boy. He even zoomed in on our baby's little boy parts and showed us. We won't be posting that picture on the blog. He also gave us a picture of the baby's "face" but Curtis and I have come up with several interpretations of which dark spots could be eyes, a nose and a mouth... We also got a fuzzy picture of a foot, and we got to watch our baby's heart muscle pump while we listened to his heartbeat. I thought that was awesome. We did take a video tape (We don't have a VCR anyways) but the recording machine was broken, so we don't have to worry about converting that. We'll get the sonogram pictures up here later.

For now, here's a picture of me, my belly, and the Christmas tree. I don't think I really look this big, it's some sort of optical illusion with the sun. But maybe I do. Anyways, Baby and I will just be getting bigger from here.

I'm also posting a picture of me and Tommy napping on the floor after we played in the backyard yesterday. Tommy likes to nap on the dining room floor by the sunny window. I had to wear the bandanna because the sun was in my eyes.

December

As I sometimes say, "Sheesh."
I've been avoiding my blog, on purpose.
In my office I've learned that if you have something difficult to email, keep it short.

I found out last week that one of my best friends had a miscarriage. I'm so sad about it everyday, and it's going to be a sad piece of my life for a long time.

This same week, I've felt my baby move everyday. I'm so thankful. Curtis has felt it once, and we laughed. That's a memory I'll keep.

Our midpregnancy sonogram is Monday, December 29th. We'll definitely be posting some news and pictures.

Can you feel the baby moving?

Can I feel the baby moving? Probably. Am I sure? No.

I guess I'm waiting to feel a definite punch or kick, but that's not likely for a while. It seems to me that some women tend to be more aware of their bodies than others. I'm sure there are women that can tell when they ovulate, when exactly they became pregnant, and when their two-ounce baby started moving around. That's not me. I'm lucky if I notice that I haven't been to bathroom all morning. I think, "Oh, maybe I should go to the bathroom."

According to some books and websites, I might be feeling a fluttering sensation in my tummy area. A "popcorn popping sensation" or "gentle brushing" is what I'm looking (feeling?) for. Hmmm. If I hold my breath and try to be very still so I can determine any non-Lauren movement, I just feel and hear my heartbeat. It gets louder and stronger the longer I wait, so I go back to emailing, Wheel of Fortune, sleeping, or whatever else I was doing.

I'll keep you posted.

Early Pregnancy Comments

I'm still waiting for someone to see me, know from my belly that I'm pregnant, and make a comment. It hasn't happened yet. Here's three recent pregnancy conversations I have had.

Today in my office one of my favorite study abroad students came to visit me. Jeremy is from Abilene, has known me several years, and even plays frisbee with my husband and friends. He came in my office, I stood up, walked around my desk to give him a hug, then I remained standing so he could see my belly and (hopefully) comment. We talked about Thanksgiving, his classes, his family, my family, but no pregnancy comments. We finished catching up with each other (I'm still standing), and Jeremy looked around my office and noticed the lists of nominated baby names my student workers keep on my office door.
He looked puzzled, looked at me, and said, "What's this?"
"Jeremy, I'm pregnant!"
My student worker, Tina, witnessed all of this and started yelling, "Didn't you notice her baby bump?! What, did you think she has just gained a bunch of weight?!"
Then I introduced Tina and Jeremy, Jeremy added a name to each list, and left.

I hesitate to put this one up here, because I don't remember it exactly. (hahaha, blame it on the pregnancy) Over the Thanksgiving break we met Curtis's family for dinner one night. I wore a small t-shirt so my tummy would be more visible. I knew that Curtis's family was excited about seeing the baby bump I've advertised on this blog. Eilene saw me, gave me a hug, and said something like, "Well, you're not that big." It's true, I'm not.

Before the Thanksgiving break I was working with the Admissions office helping introduce visiting high school students to ACU. While the high school students were eating lunch I went over to say hi to a group of four admissions student workers that I know (they'd studied abroad). One of the students, Dani, has been excited about my pregnancy ever since she found out a few weeks ago. When I walked up to their table Dani said, "Hey Lauren! Hey, I think you're gaining some weight!"
"Yeah, about five pounds." I looked at my tummy, she looked at my tummy. We were smiling.
"Well, at least your tummy isn't all flabby like some people."
"Oh, I think there's some flabby spots." I started poking the top part of my tummy to show her that it wasn't hard.
We realized that the other two students hadn't said anything in a while, and when we looked at them, they had awkward, embarrassed looks on their faces! Finally Dani said, "Don't y'all know that she's prego?! Oh my goodness!"
They thought that I had just put on some unwanted pounds and Dani and I were just chatting about it for fun!!

So far, my dad has been my favorite. We went to visit my parents over the break. When I got out of the car he said, "Hi Sweetheart, you look great!" and he gave me a hug. Then no more talk about my tummy for four days.
Thanks Dad.