13 Weeks and Other Weekend News

How your baby's growing: Your belly may soon be big enough to announce to the world that you're expecting, but your baby is still tiny. In fact, he's only about 3 inches long crown to rump — roughly the size of a jumbo shrimp — and weighs just about an ounce. Despite the small proportions, there's a fully formed baby inside your womb now. Much more proportional than it was a few weeks ago, his head is now only about a third the size of his body. His tiny, unique fingerprints are already in place. His kidneys and urinary tract are functional, and he's starting to urinate out the amniotic fluid he's been swallowing. As you start your second trimester, most of your baby's critical development will be completed, and your odds of miscarriage will drop considerably.

My Take: Good news- Jim says I’m not crazy. Apparently it’s a common side effect that pregnant women behave like they’re PMSing (illogical thinking, large mood swings, easily agitated, etc.) while pregnant. People keep saying “just wait” but I’m proud that Jim’s defending my sanity… so far.

Bad news- being pregnant has made my complexion break out just like when I was 13.

Other news- we had a super-cool last few days. On Thursday we celebrated G-Scott’s birthday (22) at my aunt’s and I won the Euchre tourney we had.

On Friday we had a bunch of folks over (Kathy, Martha, Dave, Rachel & Dale) who delighted us by getting along so well- they didn’t leave until 2:30am! We had a great time playing games and talking. Martha brought me this awesome tie-dye onsie and these amazing chocolates. Great time in general.

Last night we went to Benihana’s and played games (Sequence and a new dice game they taught us) with the Erdahl’s. They were very patient as I talked about the model house we went to see that afternoon extensively. Another great night!

I don’t want to go back to work! Being on vacation and sleeping until 10:30am each morning is wonderful!

After Christmas Activities

I’m trying to be conscientious of not being “that girl” who talks about nothing but being pregnant. This is strange because hour-to-hour I often forget I’m pregnant because I’m doing other things and it’s not that exciting (yet). However, every time I sit down to blog I feel the need to comment about something. Alas, I’ll make it short and sweet…

We (Jim and I) went to the doctor this afternoon to hear the heartbeat for the first time. The lady was barely done saying that “this might take a while to find” when she put the little device on me and it was there immediately. Sounded like a galloping horse. 152 beats/minute which is in the normal range of 130-160. Feeling my stomach the doc also said I’m “definitely progressing”. I have a bag of size 8 and 10 clothes for Sarah that I had been wearing and I pulled out some of my old size 12 stuff that I had shrunk out of but saved just for this occasion, so I will agree with Dr. Silver.

Christmas was great – lotsa family time between our two families Sat-Monday. And we’re goin’ back in for more on Thursday when we celebrate G-Scott and Grandpa’s birthdays. Jim got me a 5 hour spa package and a book where he, Sarah W and I are the main characters (we’re hospital nurses/doctors in a romantic escapade). My parents went overboard with kiddie stuff, pizza stones, remote controlled airplanes (Jim), roaster pan, etc.

Jimmy and I are watching 24 season 5 (?) now. After watching the 5th season of The Sopranos where each episode is a full hour (HBO) these 24 episodes seem super short at 40 minutes each.

I’m also making progress on my Professional Selling class prep. I did 2 chapters yesterday, will do at least 2 today and hope to keep that trend up the rest of this break. I ended up giving out 18 A’s and 11B’s in my B2B class- a class average that was a little higher than I expected, but like 5 people slid in with 90.0-91.0’s and that still merits an A. I get my evaluations back in about a month from the B2B class. If this semester is like last, they’ll ask me to teach the fall class around the end of January.

Anyway, this is quite long enough! Have a great day!

Kid Update

How your baby's growing: Your baby's hit the 2-inch mark (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce. Her face is beginning to look more human. Her eyes, which started out on the sides of her head, have moved closer together on her face, and her ears are near their final positions on the sides of her head. Your baby's intestines, which have grown so rapidly that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into her abdominal cavity about now. Her kidneys are secreting urine into her bladder. Her nerve cells have been multiplying rapidly, and synapses (neurological pathways in the brain) are forming. Your baby may have acquired more reflexes by now, including sucking, and she'll even squirm if you prod your abdomen, though you still won't be able to feel her movement for several weeks.

Karen's Take: My breasts have been replaced by cantalopes and I hear it's only going to get worse. Sometimes they hurt just existing. I've taken to full-time sleeping in a sports bra and that's a huge help. The prospect of buying all new bras is not a happy thought. The reality that they might not go back to their normal size is starting to sink in already...

Other than that, I physically feel great. Eating Spree candy in the car was a big help for the first leg of our Van Wert Christmas trip yesterday. And- bonus!- 15 of them constitutes a serving and that's only 50 caleries!

Time

Time is an interesting thing. When we’re young we can’t wait to grow up. A comedian once joked that “children are so eager to get older they count their age in fractions”. And it’s true. Ask a 6-year old how old they are and they’ll tell you “6 and a half”.

When we enter high school and want to feel “adult” we try to validate our relationships with time. Things that sound silly to us now as adults came out of our mouths at age 16: “Mike and I have been going out for 3 months” to which our girl friends would reply “ohhh, you guys must be serious.”

Sometime around 25, I think, we want time to start slowing down. We realize how fast we blew though our irresponsible years and now the full force of adulthood is looming- mortgages, car payment, student loans, etc. Then the cliched "anniversaries" of our 29th birthday start...

It’s curious to me how pregnant women revert back to time being measured in increments. Ask Lindsay how far along she is and she’ll tell you exactly: as stated in her blog, on Monday she was 27 weeks and 5 days. Pregnant women count in fractions, just like grade-schoolers. Even if my answer to how far along I am is “11 weeks” I know in my head that I'm 11 weeks and 4 days. WEIRD. Cute, I guess.

I wonder if Lindsay (and me, and others) will start counting in negatives nearer to the end. The answer to how far along will be: “only 36 days left”.

It all adds up to...

Another “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN” – the big 2-8 and firmly seated in her “late twenties”. Ha! Jen was nice enough to let me tag along to her birthday dinner at the Olive Garden. Good times, good company.

After dinner with Jimmy, we settled in to watch Castaway. A movie I’ve seen before and didn’t remember liking, I literally BAWLED when the damn volleyball floated away and when Helen Hunt cries that he was the “love of her life”. Geez… I'm getting to be such a softie in my late twenties.

After the movie, Jim asked me for help with his finance model for work. Why was this exciting? Because I was so flattered that he thought I could actually help him (and I did figure it out!). I know I have my MBA and all but normally anything relating to business numbers I try to stay far far away due to distaste (not, obviously, ineptitude). I felt quite proud of myself for being able to assist.

Weekend of 12/15/06

Here’s the baby update for the week:
Your fig-size baby is now fully formed — measuring 1 1/2 inches long and weighing in at a quarter of an ounce. His skin is still transparent, allowing many of his blood vessels to show through. Some of his bones are beginning to harden. His fingers and toes have separated, and he may soon be able to open and close his fists. He's already busy kicking and stretching, and his tiny movements are so fluid they look like water ballet. These movements will increase as his body grows and becomes more developed and functional. As your baby's diaphragm develops, he may also start getting the hiccups. Because he's still so small, you won't feel any of his aquatic workouts or intrauterine gulps for another month or so.

How do I feel? Like nothing is going on. If I continually graze I don’t even hit a 1/10 on a “morning sickness Richter chart”. And I feel REALLY REALLY lucky about that.

Quick weekend recap: Was off on Friday as you know, bowled out on Saturday morning and watched Sopranos (season 6) most of the afternoon with Jim. We attended my XU Marketing Christmas party, which was nice as I got to meet EVERYONE for the first time. Sunday was more Sopranos watching and then dinner with the Williamses before heading to the Polley’s Christmas Concert at their church (which was really lovely). All in all, a low-key nice weekend.

Jim's another year (well, day) older!

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, JIM!! Another decade to your name and still hot as ever!

This is the sign that was in our yard (from Dad) when I got up this morning!

We went to Mom and Dad’s for dinner last night for Jim’s birthday “party”. Mom made lasagna for the family, Jim and I, and Dale. We opened presents and ate blueberry cobbler and ice cream and played a little Domino’s. Special shout-out to Dale for his creative b-day present to Jim: a blue t-shirt that says “wingman” on it. I got Jim some pistol laser thing he wanted. I don’t know anything about that stuff, but I can follow directions well when the online bookmark he set up is clear with the model number. :)

I’m off work!! Only 3 ½ more days left of the year!!! What have I accomplished so far at 9:30am? I got my very last Christmas card out the door (previously ran out of letters!), read everyone’s blogs, ate breakfast, writing this… I’m having lunch with Jamie C this afternoon, Christmas shopping, Christmas wrapping and then I’m going to spend HOURS on my spring class material. Fun fun…

Two final notes:
1) Lindsay is a very cute pregnant lady
2) My brother Mike vehemently bashed bloggers last night (he claims we’re “time wasters” so now we all have to hate him.

Does anyone read those things?

There is much debate on the inclusion of a Holiday Letter (a formal “year in review” for friends and family) in Christmas cards. I'm predisposed to writing a letter, as I am a blog, because I assume people care about what I did all year. Also, my dad writes a letter every year so I’ve grown up with them. Thirdly, I live in Ohio… writing a letter is just too Midwestern for me specifically not to do.

I also really like it when others send me their letters for the same reasons. It’s great when you see the return address on an envelope and know on you count on a little 2006 synopsis to be included. Like blogs, I harass friends who don’t write letters (ahem, Karen C) to do so. Most of the time they don’t listen to me. I'm getting used to it... :P

Anyway, my feelings won’t be hurt if people comment that they don’t care about the letter. I’ll write it anyway. It’s tradition. I will repeat again though that I really like to read others’ letters.

This is why Christmas is so special

'Dear Santa' letters flood North Pole, Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- It's a name that needs no address. Everyone knows Santa Claus lives at the North Pole.

So letters sent to the roly-poly icon find their way to the small town of North Pole deep in Alaska's interior, including those simply addressed to Santa. Last year, 120,000 letters arrived from 26 countries, not counting the thousands with no return address.

Those that do have return addresses usually get a reply and a North Pole postmark in a holiday effort that has delighted children all over the world for decades.

Letters trickle in year-round in the community of 1,600, where light poles are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Santa Claus Lane and Kris Kringle Drive. Around Thanksgiving, they start pouring in by the thousands each day as Christmas approaches. Even stampless letters get through, a rare exception for the U.S. Postal Service.

"This is special because it has Santa's name on it," said Debra Cornelius, a supervisor at the main post office in nearby Fairbanks, where the letters are processed during the holiday rush.
"It's what makes Christmas magic for children," Cornelius said. "Why not make that available for them?"

Full Story: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/09/santa.mail.ap/index.html

Weekly Update on the kid (10 weeks- 25% done with this whole pregnancy thing!)

How your baby's growing: Your baby is no longer an embryo! Though she's barely the size of a kumquat — just an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, she now has completed the most critical portion of her development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in her body rapidly grow and mature. Her vital organs — the liver, kidney, intestines, brain, and lungs — are now in place and starting to function (although they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy). Her liver continues to make blood cells, and the yolk sac, which previously supplied these cells, is no longer needed and begins to disappear. During the next three weeks, your baby's length will more than double to nearly 3 inches. Her head is proportionately smaller now than it was a few weeks ago, but it's still almost half the length of her entire body. Her forehead temporarily bulges with her developing brain and sits high on her head; it will later recede to give her a more human appearance.

Each day, more minute details — including tiny fingernails, toenails, and peach-fuzz hair — start to appear on her body. Her fingers are now completely separated; her arms bend at the elbow and curve slightly; her hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over her heart; her legs are lengthening; and her feet may be long enough to meet in front of her body. She is busily swallowing amniotic fluid and kicking her legs.If you could take a peek at your baby this week, you'd be able to clearly see the outline of her spine through her parchment-thin skin. Spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from her spinal cord.

Weekend of 12/8/06

Ahhh, Monday morning. Does anyone like them?

Weekend was good. We went to PF Chang’s for dinner on Friday night with Jim’s boss and his wife. Following, we came back to our house for brownies and cards. Jim’s boss, John, made a funny comment towards the end of the evening when he asked if Jim knew any card tricks. Being as how this was the manner that won me over for dear Jim, I laughed and asked if he (John) was referring to the night we (Jim and I) met. “No, I don’t know that story,” he answered, “card tricks just seem like something Jim would know how to do. He excels at all these one-off’s. Like ping pong.” Funny, and so true.

Saturday we bummed around, watched Deadwood, I read People, Jim researched CFA certifications and we did a little Christmas shopping. We had 3 party invitations for that evening (in Mason, Colerain, and Hyde Park… in that order. Can’t get much more geographically diverse). We went to the Cetti’s for dinner first – notable thing about their party was that there were no kids last year and 5 babies this year! Around 9 we arrived at the Lewis’s to hang out with them at their Christmas party. We left their place around midnight and I was way too exhausted to head to Andy’s party (I know, bad friend of the year award).

Sunday I was plagued with a horrible migraine that left me in bed the whole day except for church and lunch. Jim went out to buy me some Tylenol and that blissfully knocked me out (finally!) for an hour. I felt well enough then to go to mom’s for a Wolf tradition, strudel-making, for several hours. Then home and back to bed. Mostly wasted day. : (

Good news of the day: only 7.5 working days of the year left!

Tribute to Kisses

Unlike many women, I have to be in a special mood to actually eat plain chocolate. I'm just not normally into a simple bar of it, even Godiva. I do however enjoy a Hershey kiss every now and then. I think it’s the cute shape and the reasonable portion size.

I was very excited when Hershey expanded their Kiss line to include almonds, Hugs, peanut butter and especially the Caramel ones (still the best). While the cherry ones are good, I miss the actual cherry in the middle.

Anyway, I was going to write a nice little tribute to these adorable candies and I found this picture on the Hershey website with all the varieties of Kisses. I had no idea there were so many!! Where are these things marketed at? Obviously not anywhere I am. I’d love to try those coconut ones. And the cookie ones just look crazy.

Am I the only one who was in the dark about all these choices?!

Thursday and beyond

I’ve had a really great week at work. I haven’t hardly sold anything, but so many new opportunities have crept up that I'm really hopping and my 2007 is looking brighter. Hooray!

In other news – this weather totally screwed up Cincinnati traffic. I have no idea how it’s possible that all three lanes on I75 North can come to a complete stop for over 3 minutes at a time.

Being Knocked Up

I have really great friends in my life and I'm blessed to be reminded of this regularly. Thanks, all, for the cards, CD, well-wishes and emails - I can’t tell you how appreciative both Jim and I are for your constant love and support!

Jim and I get weekly email updates as to what the kid is doing and the progress that it’s rapidly making. This week, we were informed that the baby is the size of a grape. That’s up from the kidney bean it was last Saturday. Not too shabby.

Also, I made my first step towards this whole pregnancy thing being more “real” this week. Sarah F and I were IMing and at the end of our conversation she told me she loves me, as she normally does, and then she added in “and I love your grape too!” I think I smiled for the next 2 hours over that one sentence.

Weekend of 12/1/06

This weekend, like so many lately, was a blur. I took Friday off initially because I planned on going to Akron to visit Sarah, but ended up using the day to go to the doctor, do some Christmas shopping, and enjoy the break from work. Jim and I did a whole lot of nothing that night, if I remember correctly, but went to bed early to be up for traveling on Saturday.

Saturday morning we got up and rushed around to get ready to head back to Spencerville. We sold Jim’s old Grand Prix, hit up a 2:00 wedding for the sister of one of his childhood friends, and then went to the reception. We didn’t leave the reception until 9:30 which made for a REALLY long day of visiting. The night was capped off well though as Jim got to break the “big news” to his aunt and uncle when we got back to their place.

Sunday morning breakfast was a whole family affair and more rounds of good news was shared. We were surprised by a call from Jim’s mom and Doug that they were at the truck stop waiting for us so we left Spencerville a little early to go down and spend a few hours with them. They’re seriously considering moving to AZ in January for a total lifestyle change (no more trucking, but normal 9-5 jobs) so it’s nice to squeeze in this time while it’s convenient to do so.

Bowling was awful on Sunday night. The second game I got no marks at all and therefore didn’t break 100. Blech. I did manage to get a $6.99 pizza from Papa John’s for dinner though so at least we ate well, albeit late at 9:00pm.

This morning at work my bosses had a huge champagne breakfast for us with made-to-order omelet’s, hash browns, pancakes, juice, etc. It was amazing. I’m in charge of brining in something next Wednesday for both me and for Jim’s office. This’ll be hard to top!

The Buzz in Fairfield

So, now that I’ve been to the doctor this morning and gotten the thumbs up on life being great and my body being normal, I’m happy to formally announce that …

Jim and I are pregnant and due on July 7, 2007.

So far so good – I have little to no morning sickness, I haven’t gained any weight, and if I’m being moody Jim and my co-workers are keeping their mouths shut about it. Really, it still feels like I’m talking in third person because it just doesn’t feel real.

On December 27th we get to hear the heartbeat for the first time and the month after that we get to have our one and only ultrasound where we DO intend on finding out the sex of the baby.

Both sets of parents are completely elated as you can imagine. What’s neat about the timing is that our kid and Mike & Lindsay’s will be in the same grade. They are now about 4 months ahead of us as of yesterday when they moved her due date up.

Anyway, that’s all I got! I’ll keep you posted as much or as little as you care to be!