Keeping in Teutsch

Pregnancy Update: WEEK 24
Size of baby: around 12 inches long and weighs around 1 lb. (At this point in the pregnancy, his measurements could be ahead, so these are just averages; when I'm 32 weeks, I'll have another ultrasound and will get to see how big he is exactly; I'm not going to give the fruit comparisons anymore because for this week it says cantaloupe, but when you look at one--as I did in the store this past weekend--the measurements don't seem the same.)
Weight Gain: 16 lbs. (On a side note: I've decided to not talk to women with smaller stomachs in the waiting room anymore. Yesterday a woman that I was sitting next to barely looked pregnant--like if she had baggier clothes on you might not even realize it--and she was 32 weeks. Ridiculous! I REALLY didn't want to tell her that I was 24 weeks when she asked! Made me want to shove some brownies down her! I also had a male co-worker tell me that I looked like I was going to burst before November and asked if I was sure it wasn't twins. Oh, and he also said he thinks this baby is going to be huge. I wanted to shove something else somewhere else on him!!)
Movement: Yes. And, around 21 weeks we were all able to feel him kick from the outside! Juliette thinks it's cool. Matt says it's weird (he's not one of those rub-the-baby-belly type guys) and it just freaks him out a little bit that I'm walking around with a tiny, little human in me. Also, this past weekend, I finally saw him kick my stomach, but as soon as I called Juliette to come see it, he stopped. He tends to always stop kicking when I call her to come feel it (or in this case, see it). It's like he's already teasing her from the womb! She says he's a "stinker-poo" for not letting his big sister feel his kicks. :)
Sleep: I've been waking up more during the night and it's taking longer to go back to sleep. Not sure what the deal is with that, but I do not like it!
Symptoms: Feeling good other than my feet hurting when I stand or walk too long. Still no swelling (thankfully!). 
Cravings: None really.
Best Moment of the Month: Feeling John Hayden kick from the outside and just feeling his movements a lot more. He definitely has a sleep/wake pattern that I can identify now, and it's really comforting to feel him on a consistent basis and know he is okay in there. Also, all the shopping...it's been fun so far! I've done a lot of online shopping, so it's been fun getting all the packages in the mail. We also had fun registering for some small things that we need at Target. (My women's Bible study group is having a baby shower for me in September, which is why we registered. Juliette loved scanning the items that we wanted to register for with the "gun" they give you, so much so that she announced later that she really wants to work at Target when she grows up so "she can make things beep.")

I spent last weekend sewing, so here are some pictures of some of the things I made (my standard baby gift of the backpack with the applique name and some bibs and burp cloths):

 *I should have posted this update last Tuesday (June 26th) but I kept forgetting to take a picture, and then I just haven't had a chance to upload it until now.


Pregnancy Update: WEEK 20
Size of baby: comparable in size to a banana (length, not width obviously); 6.5 inches long and weighs 10.6 oz.
Maternity Clothes: pants, yes; wearing a mix of maternity shirts and regular shirts
Weight Gain: it's been fluctuating a lot lately, so I can't say exactly, but it's around 13-14 lbs. A pound or two more than I should be at this point, but I'm trying to watch what I eat.
Movement: Oh, yeah! This makes me happy! Some days he doesn't move as much as others, but I do feel him move everyday. I haven't been able to feel him move from the outside, but I'm sure I'll be able to any day now (and then Matt and Juliette will get to feel him too).
Sleep: Still sleeping good, but if I wake up in the middle of the night, it takes a little while for me to go back to sleep (and it really annoys me).
Symptoms: The oily hair has gotten much better; skin is still awful, though. I can still wear my rings for now and have no swelling (except when I go out in the heat and that's not really from being pregnant). I'm feeling really good, except when I go on a 4-hour shopping marathon and then I'm literally dragging the rest of the weekend. (This happened recently...lesson learned!) Oh, and my ankles have started hurting a little. Not swollen, just hurting if I wear flats for too many days in a row.
Cravings: Nothing particular.
Best Moment of the Month: This past month has been full of great news that we are incredibly thankful for. We found out it is a BOY, I started feeling the baby move, I had my anatomy scan at the doctor's office and baby boy looks great and is developing just like he should (in fact, a few days ahead) and I passed my 1-hour glucose screening. We've decided to call him by both names, John Hayden, and I've been busy shopping. (I said I was going to wait until the second ultrasound just to make sure he was still a boy, but that picture of his "boy parts" makes it hard to even think that he was a she, so I started shopping.) I've bought most of his clothing through 9 months, a diaper bag, fabric to make bibs and burp cloths (which I'm anxious to get started on) and have ordered his crib bedding. (I changed my mind on making the bedding after I got fabric samples in for both the fabric I was thinking of using and a crib bedding set from Land of Nod that I liked.) The other weekend we switched rooms with Juliette (we had the bigger one; yes, all of Juliette's and the baby's furniture will fit in the bigger room...I wouldn't have gotten pregnant if there wasn't room for both of them; and yes, our furniture fit in her room, although there is less space, but that's no big deal.) Later this summer we'll get the baby stuff out of storage.

(A side note to those reading who are wanting to buy clothes for him: Other than pajamas, I'm not purchasing any 12 month and beyond clothing until he is closer to that age/size. Due to when his birthday is and the incredibly unpredictable Louisiana weather and the fact that I can't predict how fast he will grow or what size he will be then (and have lots of friends whose boys wore larger sizes sooner than their girls), I don't want to buy 12 month winter clothes and him end up being in 12 month clothing in August nor do I want to buy 18 month winter clothing and him not be in 18 month clothing until late spring/early summer, so please keep that in mind if you are wanting to buy clothing. I would suggest sticking with 6 or 9 month spring/summer clothing since I'm certain he'll get to wear those. Also, no terry cloth sleepers please. Only cotton! It doesn't get cold enough in our apartment...he'll just sweat!)

We went for the elective ultrasound today and at first the baby was NOT wanting to cooperate, but the sonographer kept working at it and we finally were able to see that it's a BOY!


We are SUPER excited! And, thankfully, we already had a boy name picked out: John Hayden. (We didn't have a girl name really.) We may call him by both names, but we're still undecided on that. I've always thought double boy names sounded a little snobby until Juliette started saying his full name whenever we talked about that the baby might be a boy. We like the way it sounds, but we haven't decided 100 percent if we will call him John Hayden or just Hayden. (John is a family name and the first name of a lot of the men on Matt's side. Matt's name is actually John Matthew.)

While she was trying to get pictures of him and get him to move some, he was moving his arms a lot and at one point it look liked he was waving to us. He also looked like he was about to start sucking his thumb and then decided not to. We did get a few 4D pictures of him, but because he's so little and still has so much growing to do and has virtually no fat on him yet, they aren't the best looking, so I'm not going to post them. He's still very skeleton/alien-like. :)

Here's a good profile pic we got of him. The black circle is his heart and you can see part of his arm and hand as well. You can't really see much of his legs in this picture.


Now it's time to start really planning, although I'd pretty much had a idea of what I wanted to do for crib bedding, etc. before we found out. I am going to attempt to make his bedding, possibly, but I'm not going to start ordering fabric and working on anything until we go for the 20 week ultrasound on the 25th and get a second confirmation that it's a boy. Although that first picture above screams boy, so I'll be incredibly surprised if it's wrong! :) I'm looking forward to working on making bibs and burpcloths and shopping for boy things. The nice thing about it being the second time around is that you don't have to buy all those expensive essentials and get to spend your money on the cute little gender-specific stuff! So, I'll be spending a lot of time at the sewing/embroidery machine this summer and I'll definitely be showing it all off on here.

Pregnancy Update: WEEK 16
Size of baby: comparable in size to an avocado; 4.6 inches long and weighs 3.5 oz.
Maternity Clothes: pants, yes; wearing a mix of maternity shirts and regular shirts
Weight Gain: 8 lbs. 
Movement: still some of those "phantom" butterflies occasionally, but nothing that I can say with certainty is the baby moving (I started feeling Juliette moving around week 16, so I'm hoping any day now those phantom kicks turn into real ones)
Sleep: still sleeping well, thankfully
Symptoms: occasionally tired, but nothing like I felt while in the first trimester on Prometrium; I am hungrier now, but eating mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks helps curb the desire to stuff my face; have had some round ligament pain (basically pain from my uterus growing), but thankfully it's only been a couple of times; baby keeps hanging out on the right side and pinching a nerve, so I've had a few days where my right thigh has been killing me; I severely dislike the oily skin; and my hair has been oilier (my shampoo doesn't appear to "work" some days on it...it's weird...I never had that happen with Juliette)
Cravings: Nothing really...most everything that I would normally eat sounds good!
Best Moment of the Month: making it into the second trimester, hearing the heartbeat again, and hearing the baby kicking at the doppler wand at my appointment today--sounded like thuds. We WERE counting down the days until we find out whether it's a boy or girl (27 days until 20 week ultrasound), but when I went to the doctor today, she asked if I was going to find out the sex at this appointment and I was like "what are you talking about? I'm only 16 weeks." She said, "You can find out today...you just have to pay a $50 fee. And we still do the normal 20 week ultrasound at your next visit to get all the measurements." I was so bummed. I didn't have Matt and Juliette with me because they hadn't told me I could do this at 16 weeks, so I had to refuse. I had already been thinking about going to an elective ultrasound place later in the pregnancy to get some good pictures, but now we are going Friday afternoon to find out the sex of the baby!! (This place has all kinds of packages but we are just getting the basic "hamburger or hotdog gender reveal package" and it's just $15 more than our doctor's office would have charged.) Now, instead of 27 days, it's 3 days. SO exciting! (And, just in case you're skeptical, this place is the only one in town--there are multiple ones--that only hires medically-certified sonographers and if they aren't 100 percent sure of the sex of the baby--or the baby is being modest--you get to come back for free later for them to try again. Also I've only read good reviews about them online and didn't see any in which people were told they were having a girl when it was a boy, or vice versa. And, obviously, I'll get a second confirmation at my 20 week ultrasound, and although I might start buying a few things, I won't buy anything that can't be returned should they be completely wrong--which I really doubt will be the case since technology has come so far now days.)

Check back Friday evening for some ultrasound pics and the big news of whether Matt's going to be outnumbered in this house or we get to level the hormones out around here! :)

Then for Easter weekend, it was our year to go to my parents. Since the other kids weren't going to be there on Easter Sunday (but were there on Friday), we hunted eggs that day that my sister had filled. All the kids had overflowing baskets (and can I say, my sister hooked us up with some awesome candy in those eggs...oh, and some money too!).



Here is Juliette's Easter basket. It's kinda hard to see what is in it, but she got a movie, a CD, some candy, a nightgown, and other things I can't remember now that it has been almost two months since Easter.


 And Easter Sunday wouldn't be complete without a family picture before church that Sunday, complete with an overturned play house in the background. (The girls had been playing "tornado"...I guess they were working on conquering their fears.) We didn't notice it was behind us when we hurriedly sat down on the swing and said, "Quick, take our picture before we leave for church." Easter Sunday Picture Fail.