Head Down

We just returned not long ago from an appointment to check on this babe's progress. By simply feeling my stomach (and performing a few other checks), the doc could tell this little one is positioned head down, aiming for the exit. We don't even know our son/daughter yet, but he/she is already making us proud. Somehow this has assured us that the babe is right on track for delivering "right," and it has sense enough to start getting into position. I am a little nervous that he/she might change his/her mind and flip back up, but at 5 1/4 pounds and 18 inches long, this sucker's running out of room to maneuver him/herself. Now those jabs under the ribs and at my sides are making a lot more sense, as I imagine its little legs bending and straightening.

Good for the belly

There are two weeks left of classes left at WKU, and unbelievably, the beginning of Baby 101 will soon follow. Despite the nausea that has failed to cease (or ceased to fail?) during these past eight months, the time has gone faster than I imagined it could. The babe inside has now found a crevice under my ribs and delights in poking under them once in a while. When I feel movement, I put my hand on my stomach and feel its little bum, or elbow, or head... who knows!
To ask us if we feel prepared, our answer is wishy washy. The diapers are stacked up, little onesies are waiting to be spit up upon and the blankets are ready to swaddle.
But. We are not settled on names, especially in the male category. The car seat is not installed. And most importantly, will we know what to do with this new being? Will it love us as much as we are prepared to love it?
I thought I would include a photo of my recent purchases from the back up and running farmers market... this week we are enjoying asparagus, greens, strawberries, beets and new potatoes. And I was just out to our "farm" (ie; the community gardens) and was pleased to see large onion, corn, bean, and pea sprouts (along with a large crop of weeds!). I added tomato, pepper and squash plants to the mix and then called it a day before the rain rolled in.

Call Us Crazy

Or later you can tell us "I told you so," but we're giving the cloth diaper bit a trial. With a little twist... these are hybrid cloth diapers, otherwise known as gdiapers. They have a cloth exterior with Velcro® tabs and...

A removable plastic snap liner, which contains a disposable insert. Or one might use a cloth insert. The disposable option obviously makes it the hybrid. But instead of taking 500+ years to decompose, it takes two months. We're not trying to be weird, we just think this makes sense. Figuring how many diapers a babe goes through in a day/week/year, that's a pretty hefty plastic footprint. And expensive one at that. So we'll keep you posted, but for now, we are sold on them, and hope it is a successful venture.

Expanding

In another day I will have reached 33 weeks. The babe is now most likely around a whopping four pounds, and might be around 17 inches, head to toes. Today I took a walk up the hill from our house and felt those extra pounds I am carrying, along with the zapped energy this babe is sucking up from me.




Spring seemed quite a ways off when we discovered we were pregnant back in September. Now that it has descended upon us, the due date at the end of May seems quite tangible.



I love the way sun streams into this future baby room in the evening. As you can see, we have not done much transforming as of yet, but the babe clothes are certainly starting to stack up.

Farmin' and Egg Smashin'

One of the only things missing from the Colonel Crump house is a big, sunny backyard. Yet as luck would have it, the city rents plots of land at a nearby park for gardening. So Josh and I spent $30 to rent a 30'x60' plot of Kentucky soil. We arrived at our "farm" this morning and had quite a job ahead of us. This new garden is about ten times the size of our garden back in Roanoke, and we only made it through planting rows of corn, onions and greens before we had to break for the day (it did not help matters that each time I leaned over to plant it felt like I was balancing a basketball between my chest and legs). We are very excited about the potential of this garden, if we're actually able to get through planting everything!

Later in the day we headed over to Rachele and Scott's place for an egg smashing party. The goal was to decorate an egg in an appealing manner, which we then judged. Afterward we partnered up and knocked eggs with our opponent. The winner (unsmashed egg person) competed against another winner. In the end, it came down to Scott and me, and as you might gather from the photo sequence (thanks to documentarian Josh), I was a bit overly surprised about my win.

Three-way tie of best egg-designs

Ingrid's "smushed" egg

My trusty unicorn egg

(I just like that Mila's giving the peace sign in this photo)

The young spectator of spectacles, Mila

After all the eggs were smashed, Rachele and Scott made a salad out of the egg "guts"
(Thank you Josh for all of the photos)

Minnesotans in Kentucky

My folks flew in from Minnesota to visit this past weekend. Crazy as it sounds, the weather's been nicer in northern Minnesota than in Bowling Green this past month. So we were relieved to have at least one day of warm, sunny weather while they visited. In celebration, we headed to Mammoth Cave to hike on Sal Hollow trail. Along the way, we had to make a quick stop on the curvy road we were following and my folks were fortunate enough to witness me puking on the side of the road. Shortly afterward we ate our sandwiches and carried on with the hike we had planned.


Later that evening we made homemade pasta with Andouille sausage. In the photo below my mom and Josh are running the pasta dough through the "extractor" (much like those little Play-doh sets, except this is the grown up version). Saturday night's wind rolled in colder temps and a cloudy sky for Sunday so we had a leisurely breakfast of waffles and then made our way to shop for a grill and a table and chairs for the deck. After stops at a few different stores, we made our choice and officially graduated from charcoal to a gas grill with new "infrared heat" technology. We tested it out with some buffalo burgers and spent some time during dinner discussing baby names. Unfortunately, we did not reach a consensus.

My folks left this morning after dropping me off for work (ensuring that I got there early as opposed to my usual couple minutes late). They left me with their still nameless sixth grandchild warmly tucked in my belly, and will return in two months when the Meltzarp creation will have emerged.

To end, a view of the increasingly larger tummy. Josh took this photo while we were on break from our birthing class, where we were shown videos of babies emerging from their mums. It left me a little freaked out!

Vernal Equinox

It's been a nice week back in Bowling Green, as the sun has finally begun to make more of an appearance, and the weather's warming. The students on campus have come to life, doing more than hurrying along to class as they stop and play frisbee and sprawl out on grassy stretches (I just hope these weren't the students who were missing from my class last Thursday night!). Better yet, on my bike home for lunch the other day I passed a group playing beer pong out on their porch. It was 1:00 pm, the sun was out, why not? Class? What class?
I find it fitting that as everything begins to grow and come to life again, my belly (and babe!) is following suit. The kicks inside are no longer just flutters, but some serious pelts. One of my amusements of late is sitting and watching my bare stomach ripple. And as I've grown larger, people seem to be getting nicer and nicer. The other day at Home Depot as I carted around a load of mulch, I had about eight different employees stop and ask me if I needed help. As I made my way out to the car, two came running over to assist during the loading process. While I was kneeling down to get a jar of mayonnaise yesterday at the grocery store, a little girl appeared, muttered "I've just got to do this," and gave me a hug.
Josh and I have begun to attend classes that are supposed to prepare us for the birth. I was reminded again of how little space this babe's head and shoulders must squeeze through, and how my internal organs are continually adjusting for the expanding space that this babe requires (now the weight of a head of cabbage, or 3 lb.- whichever is easier to imagine). We worked on breathing exercises and the partners practiced pushing exercises, as they did not want the ladies spurring some early labor action.
Yesterday I went to join my friends Rachele and Scott and their now 4-month-old Mila who were picnicking at the park up the way. I received great instruction on how a Baby Bjorn works, what to check when the babe is unhappy, what different facial expressions might be indicating. It is a whole new language that I am anxious to figure out.