32 weeks!

How far along? Somehow we have made it all the way to 32 weeks already. Sometimes I feel like it has gone by really quickly, but other times I forget what it was like to be able to touch my toes.

Total weight gain/loss: +28 lbs. Our little man is going through another growth spurt - I've been eating great and walking everyday, but I gained 5 pounds in the past 2 weeks. And I'm never full for long :)

Maternity clothes? I wore that shirt on purpose today - to show you how short it has gotten! If I don't keep pulling it down, you can see that lovely secret panel in my jeans :)

Stretch marks? My stretch mark under my belly has some new friends these days...

Sleep:  Ugh... sleep patterns during pregnancy must be training for taking care of a newborn. Will I ever sleep through the night again? Before he's in kindergarten?

Best moment this week: Ben and I have sat down at the table and eaten dinner together every night this week. It's been great! And he's not on call again for two more weeks - even better!

Movement: Henry has learned some new yoga moves lately. He's really stretching things out in there. I read today that for each pound I gain (about 1 per week) from now on, half of it goes directly to him. Uh... say what?? There's not room for 4 more pounds of baby in there!!

Food cravings: I saw a commercial for Dunkin' Donuts the other day. This time, I did not eat several boxes of them though - I made some strawberry whoopie pies (without any actual filling) instead. Yum! And at least they're whole wheat, right?

Nursery: No changes this week, but soon!

Labor Signs: Nope - I wonder at what point I will start having these? The last couple of weeks?

Belly Button in or out?  I keep getting bigger, but it keeps staying in place :) 

What do we want to teach Henry about?  How to swim!

What I miss: Bending down to get things off the floor, rather than squatting down. Seriously - so annoying!

What I am looking forward to: Trip to southern IL! This will probably be our last visit before the baby is born. Maybe not, but we don't have another one planned and I don't see that four hour trip getting any easier as I get bigger... :)

Weekly Wisdom: Sometimes people are not actually being more irritating. Sometimes it's just the hormones. If only it were easier to tell the difference...

Milestones: Are there seriously only 8 weeks left until our due date? That blows my mind. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. And tired - oh so tired.

Daddy's Thoughts:

My gosh we're getting close.  Too close.  Can we move further away or something?  Nicki keeps putting my hand on her tummy when Henry is kicking, and he's doing that all the time now!  I realize sometimes that I have taken care of babies in the NICU that were younger gestationally than he is now.  He could very well be here and that would be okay!  Of course our NICU bill would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that's neither here nor there.


I've been getting busier at work with my new responsibilities as chief, which has been great.  I'm going to have plenty more in the next year which will surely take up a bit more of my time, but the trade off I see is I won't be on call anymore!  Hot times!  Instead I get to be on Henry call, which will probably be a lot less demanding than a bunch of sick patients.


It's weird how I go back and forth on my anxiety about him being here.  Some days I'll be happy about it.  Some days I have no idea how I'll adjust.  Some days I'll realize that the majority of what he'll do is sleep at first, so really, what do I have to worry about?  So much.  So much.

Nicki keeps telling me that she's "really over the whole pregnancy thing".  I can tell.  I feel bad for her not being able to get comfortable most of the time, but apparently I started snoring recently too.  I've never done that before.  Good luck getting to sleep now, Vark.


32, 32.  Next week is one week closer!


  - Daddy

31 weeks!

In tonight's blog-venture we at Baby Rathert are going deep into the field to interview our local pregnant girl, Nicki Rathert.  After cutting through vegetation and baby formula advertisements, we finally found Nicki nested comfortably in her attic bedroom, stroking her ever growing tummy.

Baby Rathert:  So Nicki, you're 31 weeks pregnant now?  It's got to be getting more uncomfortable now, right?

Nicki:  Well Baby Rathert Blog Reporterman, I'm so tired right now I can barely keep my eyes open.  I've had about one decent night's sleep in the past 5 and, in general, feel like I'm carrying a cannonball in my stomache at all time.

BR:  A cannonball, whoa.  That's some serious ammunition there.  Seriously, though, how big is the little guy by now?

Nicki:  He's pineapple sized!  I found this horrible picture of what that would look like if he were actually a pineapple.

BR:  Guhh!!  That is awful.  He doesn't actually look like that, though, right?

Nicki:  No.  Well, less hair probably.

BR:  I think that will haunt my nightmares for some time.

Nicki:  Yeah, get over it.  You don't have to look forward to pushing that pineapple man-thing out of you in 9 weeks.  I'm getting really ready for Henry to be here, but I'm still scared of actually getting him here.

BR:  Next question.  Which hospital will you be delivering at?  There are at least 3 hospitals to choose from here in the jungles of Peoria, how did you decide.

Nicki:  That was easy!  We're going to Methodist because it's the only place Ben's insurance covers!  Seriously, though, I've been up to Labor and Delivery lots of times to visit Ben on call, and the nurses seem really nice and friendly.  Ben even gave me a guided tour of a delivery room so I'll know a little bit more about what to expect.

BR:  Interesting.  This Ben fellow you mention, he sounds devilishly handsome.  He's the father of your son-to-be?

Nicki:  Yeah, this is his fault.

BR:  Right, right.  And how are your families doing in support of you being so pregnant right now?

Nicki:  Right now?  I don't know, watching the news?  It's about 9 p.m.  But they've been great really.  My parents are really looking forward to the big day, and my step-mom about cries every  time she sees my belly.  Ben's parents and sister are a lot of support too.  I really couldn't ask for more from anyone!

BR:  That's great!  As I understand it, Mrs. Rathert, you're very into the "hippie mother" thing as you call it.  What can you tell us about that?

Nicki:  I don't call it that.

BR:  Really?  We have dependable sources who say you do.  We have one person who says, and I quote, "Nicki's a total hippie.  Like hemp underwear.  Seriously."  What do you have to say about that?

Nicki:  Nothing.  You obviously just made that up.  There's no such thing as hemp underwear anyway.  Seriously, though, my homemade cloth diapers are really coming along.  I've made 11 so far and they're getting better and better!  If that makes me a hippie so be it.  Oh, and breastfeeding.  I'm way into that.  Henry's going to be one healthy little guy, if I have anything to say about it!

BR:  Well kudos to you!  How does Ben feel about all this?

Nicki:  Fine.  He's pretty excited about not making a lot of diaper trash, and he does a lot of the laundry now, so I don't think an extra load every day will change much.  Besides, he's way into saving money, and this should all help toward that.  Plus, breastfeeding is proven to be of invaluable benefit to little scampers, or so Ben tells me.  I mostly leave the medicine up to him.

BR:  Sure you do.

Nicki:  What?

BR:  Nothing.  Moving on to our final question tonight, what are you most looking forward to right now, when Henry gets here?

Nicki:  Hmm... probably cuddling with him.  He gets to be all snug up inside me and I don't even get to hold him or smell him or anything.  Whoa, serious mommy moment there.  I just like how babies smell, so I imagine my own little guy will smell even better.  That and taking him to the zoo eventually.  I bet he'll really like the giraffes and such.

BR:  Aw yeah, I bet so!  Well the last boat up the river will be leaving soon, so I'd better get moving so I don't miss it.  I understand you folks have some very dangerous predators around here.

Nicki:  Oh yeah.  Terrible.  Our people say they are fueled by hormones they can't control.  They also say they look a lot like me.  Which makes no sense, I have no memory of this.

BR:  I...see...

Nicki:  You haven't seen the movie "The Relic" have you?

BR:  No.  That'll about wrap it up!  Until next time Nicki!

Nicki:  (only a low pitched growling noise can be heard)

30 weeks - and a silly video!

While watching TV last night, (Biggest Loser anyone?) Henry made it very clear he wanted to say hi to you guys. So he helped me make you a little video. He's very excited to meet all of you!

How far along? 30 weeks! Can you believe it? Henry is nearly 3 pounds now, and we are both doing great. In two more weeks, he would be able to breathe on his own without a ventilator, and a month after that he wouldn't be considered premature anymore. He's going to be here before we know it!

Total weight gain/loss: +23 lbs Right on track! My OB told me today 1 pound per week from here on out and we will be right within our goal.

Maternity clothes? I now consider real pants to be for special occasions. At home and while I'm nannying I pretty much live in yoga pants. Hooray for cheap Walmart work out clothes!

Stretch marks? I hope the ones on my legs go away quickly after I give birth. Or I may consider wearing wet suits instead of swim suits...

Sleep:  I haven't decided which is worse for my sleep - having to pee every three hours or having to wake up to do a tri-point turn over in bed. :)

Best moment this week: On Saturday, a friend came into town and took maternity pictures with us! I haven't seen many of them yet, but we came up with some adorable ideas. I hope they turn out as cute as they were in my head!

Movement: He is moving so much more than he was before. Maybe he knows it's going to get cramped in his little home soon?

Food cravings:  The other night I made a peanut butter/banana/m'n'm sandwich - no bread involved. Ben looked at me like I was crazy. But to be fair, I would probably do that regardless of pregnancy...

Nursery: It's coming together! This week I put a hamper in there. I'm looking forward to getting the bed out so it looks less like a guest room. :)

Labor Signs: I've been having some contractions - not real labor of course. I imagine the real deal will be significantly worse!

Belly Button in or out?  I don't think my belly button has ever been so clean!

What do we want to teach Henry about?  Music! Ben and I both love music. The music I like is obviously better, but Ben gets it right sometimes too. (love you!)

What I miss: This week I have really been enjoying pregnancy actually. Today at the grocery store I kept running into the same family in the aisles. Every time the little boy could not stop staring at my belly. It was so adorable.

What I am looking forward to: Teasing my dad all weekend about turning the big 5 - 0! :)

Weekly Wisdom: Sit down, elevate feet, get up, walk around. Repeat all day.

Milestones: Only 10 weeks left! Tomorrow will be 9 weeks, 6 days until our due date. Single digits already!

Daddy is on call tonight, but I imagine his thoughts go something like this:

"Man, I wish these people would have their babies tomorrow. It sure would be nice if I had a soda. I miss Nicki. I wonder if it will be warm tomorrow. I miss Nicki." 

And on like that.

29 weeks! (+1 day)

Yep - I'm smuggling squash under my shirt now!

How far along? 29 weeks, 1 day. We were at a party with the family I work for last night, so blogging did not happen. But there was a lot of food - so it was worth it.

Total weight gain/loss: +23 lbs

Maternity clothes? The first pair of maternity jeans I bought did not have a stretchy part - just an elastic waistband where a normal waistband would go. My belly has dropped down enough that I can barely get them on. Luckily, it is warm enough now to wear all my non-jean maternity clothes too!

Stretch marks? I found a new one! Right underneath my belly. It looks lonely out there by itself.

Sleep:  I sleep great as long as I can get comfortable. Some nights my pillow nest is more effective than others. After we rearranged our bedroom last week, our headboard was too tall to fit under the eaves of the attic, so we built a new one! It was nearly a disaster, and involved some last-minute leg-sawing inside the house, but now that the sawdust has cleared and been swept away, I really like it! We covered it with some fabric I love - the scraps are going to go on the edge of a white duvet cover to match. 

Never mind the clashing curtains and sheet set at the moment...

Best moment this week: It's definitely a tie between our construction projects and finally purging the attic of all the unnecessary things we have been keeping. Today's task is to purge the nursery closet so we have space for some of Henry's things - other than the floor. 

In non-baby-related moments, it was my birthday this week! My sisters surprised me by driving up for lunch - and Kendra made some AWESOME cupcakes. Mmm. Ben took me out to dinner at June - for what was certainly the best meal I have ever had in my entire life. (And the most expensive). We did a tasting, so the cook chose what to make us - for SEVEN courses. It was amazing. The kitchen is in full view of the table too, so it was a lot of fun to watch him cook.

Movement: Last night, I thought he was going to break a rib. No matter which way I moved, he just wanted to go to town on that one spot.

Food cravings:  Nothing in particular. Just hungry all the time!

Nursery: I'm so excited for our cubby project to be finished! I know we could have purchased something very similar from Target or Ikea, but it was fun to design, build, and paint this ourselves. It only took one piece of plywood, some nails and paint, and I found the baskets at the Dollar Tree, so this was a very inexpensive project. One more coat of paint, and it'll be ready!

Labor Signs: Nothing yet. Let's hold out on that for at least another 10 weeks or so...

Belly Button in or out?  According to Ben, it's so flat now "you couldn't even stick a nose in there!"  I have no idea what this means.

What do we want to teach Henry about?  We want Henry to know how to make things with his own hands. Our favorite part about running our own house is crafting and building projects. We hope he loves it too!

What I miss: Am I allowed to say not being pregnant? Things are starting to get very uncomfortable most of the time now. Come June, I am going to be R E A D Y.

What I am looking forward to: On Saturday, a friend of ours is coming to take maternity photos. Eee! I don't really like having my picture taken, but maternity pictures can be so adorable :)

Weekly Wisdom: It's much better to just laugh about waddling around or getting stuck in a chair. Humor makes the days go by much easier.

Milestones: I passed my glucose screening! Henry and I are still nice and healthy- no diabetes for us. :)

Daddy's Thoughts:   What a great week so far!  I was on call on Easter (this makes the 3rd holiday I had to work this year, something tells me no one was keeping track like they should have been...), but after that started vacation!!  Nicki and I have been knocking things off our "honeydew" list left and right every day now and I'm loving it.  She mentioned the headboard we made on Monday, which looks sharp and really works.  Seriously, I can't read in bed unless my back is up against something.  We even upholstered it complements of a Homer Rathert staple gun.  It was much easier than I thought it would be.  Her side of the bed is under the eaves of our attic bedroom and now she has to get out of the end of the bed.  She tells me this is actually easier than getting out like she used to, so good on her!

We read "Go Dog Go" last night.  I have to say I was genuinely riveted by the chain of events that came up.  Nicki said she hopes I keep reading to Henry like that when he's here.  I can't imagine I won't, it's more fun to be excited, anyway.  Storytime is actually really fun, so long as I don't have to sing along with music that comes in the book.  I make my own songs thank you very much.

I'm hoping that Henry is an easy baby on the two of us.  Last night, Nicki's boss and my attending was telling us about how she would make her husband take his turn to feed their babies every other time and that he would try to weasel out of it if he could.  I can't see that I'm going to try and pull any crap like that on Nicki, because, honestly, if he starts to space his feedings out to every 3 hours or so, we could potentially get 6 hours a sleep at a go.  That's not really that bad!  Of course, none of this is relevant until after the first month or so and she starts pumping.  That first several weeks she'll be doing the feedings, and I suspect I'm going to be up with her for a few of those every night.  Plus all the dirty diapers are mine to change then anyway.

I'm also hoping that we can teach Henrimonster a reasonable amount of respect for other people.  I assume this comes by giving him room to grow and try new things and generally respecting his ideas and such as he grows.  This obviously would start when he's actually old enough to comprehend such things, but I don't know.  I just don't want him to actually believe his life is unfair or anything, I would like best if he could appreciate how well he has it, without  constantly nagging him and reminding him about it.  Can't we just start with a mild-mannered 18 year old who's about ready to move out of the house and go to college?  I feel like I'm ready to be that kind of dad.

We went to a friend's baby shower on Saturday in Bloomington that was a lot of fun.  It's always good to see people you don't normally get to hang out with anymore.  This is making us think about our baby showers coming up here.  I'm not really sure what they entail beyond the one (1) I've been to in my life.  Hope we get some nice things we'll need.

So we're about halfway done with vacation week, and I'm still feeling good about the days ahead.  I can't wait until photo shoot day on Saturday with Mr. Kanne.  Hope it doesn't rain on us!

That's enough of my ramblings for one week, signing off,

Daddy

28 weeks!

Artwork by Daddy

How far along? 28 weeks. Wow. That means 12 weeks to go.... wow.

Total weight gain/loss: Still around 22 pounds I believe.

Maternity clothes? Now that it's getting warmer, I've found that some of my yoga pants still fit. Score!

Stretch marks? This week I was really hating the look of them for some reason. Before it wasn't really bothering me at all, but the ones on my legs apparently warranted a huge emotional outburst recently. Sorry Ben!

Sleep:  We rearranged our bedroom this week and gave Henry some new digs.

The room is much cozier now - although looking at this picture, the rug definitely needs to be switched out. (For a red one!)

Best moment this week: Ben and I got SO MUCH done this past weekend. Soon we will reveal the cubby system we built for the nursery closet. It was a somewhat complicated project, but we designed and constructed it ourselves, without any problems! (Other than the time we spent waiting around for the Lowe's guy to cut our wood.) I can't wait to get it painted. We are also almost done with a coat/hat rack to hang up in the nursery too. I was inspired by this:

shelterness.com

Ours is much smaller, and with brighter colors. I really like how it is turning out!

Movement: He is still rocking away in there. He's big enough now that I can tell when he flips his head into a downward position, which he does a couple times a day.

Food cravings:  All I want to do is drink milk all day long. And eat cheese and ice cream. Maybe his bones are doing some extra growing :)

*New Question: Nursery: Other than the diy projects we did over the weekend, I haven't touched the nursery this week. Except I did vacuum once. Heh. 

Labor Signs: I had a few more Braxton-Hicks (maybe?) contractions this week - these aren't actually labor signs, but a little unnerving anyway. This morning I woke up to a horrible cramp in my calf, and I kid you not, my first thought was "Please don't let labor feel this bad". Lol. I have a feeling I am in for an unpleasant surprise come June...

Belly Button in or out?  I noticed this week that I am carrying Henry lower than I was even last week. From my perspective, my belly looks smaller than it used to (though it doesn't in the mirror). I wonder if this means my innie is saved?

What do we want to teach Henry about?  Catching bugs and playing in the mud. :)

What I miss: Being able to easily reach my feet when I dry off from a shower.

What I am looking forward to: Ben and I have the entire next week off together! He's been on a fairly easy rotation, so we have been spending more time together than normal, but I am so excited for us to both be off work at the same time! :) 

Weekly Wisdom: I finished my breastfeeding book this week. I was worried that the information might be too much of a good thing - but I think it was really great! I read "Breastfeeding Made Simple". I have never actually seen anyone breastfeed - nor have I ever really talked to anyone about it - most of the mothers I know bottle-fed their babies. I feel much better prepared and confident that if something goes wrong while I am establishing feeding with Henry, that I will know what to do about it. I'm actually really excited about it!

Milestones: Today starts month 7 of our pregnancy! Only 3 to go! (You know - because 7+3=9. Why do they lie and say nine months when it's really 10?!)

Daddy's Thoughts:

I've been thinking about my impending fatherhood more and more, probably because it's inescapable at this point.  I think about my own dad and what he must have felt like in my shoes. First they had my older sister Carrie, which was probably a trial, I'm sure (here's looking at you Care, ;).  Then, two years later, they had me.  And boy what did they get there.  I'm sure I was nothing that dad was expecting:  I read a lot, played video games a lot, and was generally a nerd in about every way you could imagine.  From what I'm told, in his pre-daddy life, dad spent a lot of time out with his friends, playing softball, fishing, and generally raising hell.  He was a farm boy and a man's man and, from what I've gathered, the exact material from which you would expect a dad to be made.  

True, maybe he did overdo it a little at times.  I remember grandma Gladys telling me once that she honestly never thought dad was going to settle down with anyone, and then he met mom.  When she met mom, she told me that she understood that there was someone out there who would be willing to settle him down.

Anyway, I can't say I feel like I'm really that kind of "daddy material".  I still play video games a bit, I read, I'm a pretty big nerd over random facts and figures, and maybe I got a little too excited when I learned the definition of "millinery" this week?  (it's hat-making)  I know that pretty much anybody who tries will make a pretty good dad, but I know that whatever kind of dad I'm going to be is not at all like the image of "dadness" that I'm familiar with.

Seriously, my proudest moments in high school?  Probably getting the leads in the school musical and being scholar bowl captain for a couple of years.  And maybe speaking at graduation.  Worst moments?  3 years of playing football terribly and 1 year of playing golf even more poorly, letting my loneliness for a girlfriend constantly get the best of me, and squirreling all my thoughts away into my green "thought journal" that I guess I would somehow use someday?  I don't know.  When I think about dad, I wonder if he was ever able to relate to any of that.  It's just so far removed from the farm work and social activities where he always seemed most comfortable.


And yet, he was always there.  If it was important to me, he'd be there.  Even my scholar bowl meets he would try to make it to if he got the chance.  We'd talk about the questions he knew the answers to after the meets and I always found it them to be rare moments when I felt like we were touching each other, across the difference of our lives.  He'd come to both nights' performances of the spring musical when I had the lead, and you have to understand that my dad is not the kind of man who can sit through a sermon, let alone an entire 2 hour high school production easily.


I remember yelling at him, misunderstanding him, and generally being mad at him.  As high school drifted on, though, and college became a prospect, then a reality, I remember how things began to get easier and easier between us.  I was and still am as weird and geeky as ever, but that really didn't seem to matter as much as it used to.  I realize now that as different as I was back then, I don't think there was ever a time dad said something that said he wished that I was different.  Maybe it would have been easier if I were the son who like baseball and sports and all the things that I was supposed to like, but from what I can remember, I don't think dad ever said he wanted me to be anything else than I am.  He just gave me the opportunities and let me choose what I wanted.


How to be an understanding father, even when your son's as weird as I was.  Huh.  Just one more important thing he's taught me, I guess.


Love you dad,


  Ben