Mom Pants!

Carlyn and I had a nice Memorial Day Weekend. We spent Saturday up in the Port Townsend area walking on the beach and soaking up the sun. However, when we were leaving in the morning Carlyn realized she didn't have any shorts that fit. I tried unsuccessfully to convince her to just wear an old pair of my rugby shorts. When that didn't work, I agreed to stop at Old Navy to get Carlyn some shorts on our way out of town.

Clothes shopping isn't ever fun, but it especially blows on a sunny Saturday when you're trying to get out of town. So in an attempt to speed thing along I tried to help Carlyn pick out some shorts. I found what looked to me like a perfectly acceptable pair of maternity shorts and said "How about these?" Carlyn took one look at the pair of shorts I was holding and said "I'm not wearing those, they look like Mom Pants" I paused for a second and replied "Ah honey, I think that's why they're in the Maternity section...and I hate to break it to you but...."

Needless to say she ended up buying the maternity shorts that didn't look like "Mom Pants."

-Wes

Misshapen Belly

So – the baby inside my belly is growing quite rapidly these days. I’m able to put my hand on my stomach and at times feel what I believe to be his behind, back, head and/or feet. He likes to move around a lot while I’m sitting, which is amazing and slightly uncomfortable at the same time. Because of his size, I can feel even small movements on his part. He’s doing a good job of letting me sleep comfortably at night. Wes likes to poke at my stomach and wait as baby pokes back a lot of the time.

The one thing that is kind of funny is that depending on where he’s hanging out that day, my belly can be quite misshapen at times. When I wake up in the morning often he’s migrated up to one side of my ribs giving me a lopsided front. Maybe I can tell more than others as my view of looking straight down at the baby bump gives me a different view than those looking straight on.

Baby at 33 weeks

All of the organs are now developed and some are functioning already just as they will after the birth. More and more subcutaneous fat is forming so your baby's wrinkles disappear slowly but surely. The skin becomes a rosy color and the fine downy hair that was on the skin is replaced with vernix caseosa. This "baby cream cheese" prevents the skin from drying out. The fine downy hair comes off and floats in the amniotic fluid. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood. For the time being, the baby is continuing to grow. For the next four weeks on he will gain up to a couple of ounces a day. Depending on the time of his birth he will become a seven-, eight-, nine- or ten-pounder. Little girls are generally a bit smaller and lighter and the oldest (first) children are generally lighter than the following children.

Go Mariners!

We went to the Mariner's game on Sunday - and they won! Wes survived even though baseball is not his favorite sport. We all got a bit of sun sitting out in left field!

More Shower Pictures

Baby Shower!

Thanks to all who were able to attend my baby shower on Saturday. I had a great time and people definitely showered me with generosity. I am lucky to have such great friends and family.

The soon-to-be Grandmas!

Four and a half generations

My wonderful hostesses

Opening Gifts

First Mother's Day

On Sunday we celebrated Mother’s Day with family. It was cute as it was my first Mother’s Day – kind of. Both sets of grandparents-to-be got me cute Mother’s Day gifts and so did soon-to-be-dad, Wes. It was a nice laid back day. Wes and I are both lucky to have such great moms and grandmas. It’s hard to believe that next Mother’s Day we’ll have a 10 month old!

-Carlyn

Happy 26th Birthday Wes!

May 12th was Wes' 26th birthday. Over the past few days we've celebrated Wes' birthday with a few different parties. The old man is now more than a quarter century old!

Hospital Tour!

So last Friday during our baby class we got a tour of where we’ll be having the baby. I was really excited to see where this whole thing is going to go down. It’s a really nice place. I’m looking forward to the room service from the great café downstairs that is provided to new moms!

People notice different things when visiting a new place. Because of our large web of family and friends I always look around at how a space can accommodate people. One thing we noticed is that during “off” hours – 7pm – 7am there is only a small waiting area, so hopefully you all aren’t planning on waiting out the progress at the hospital. If you are, I’m sure you’ll get to know each other really well.

Also - In the room there are three seats – so we may have a BYOC (bring your own chair) policy if you come and visit at the hospital.

-Carlyn

In Defense of Boob Class

In my defense - when I signed up for the class I asked if it was a mom-only class and the person I spoke with said no, that guys were supposed to come too.

When we got there there were a bunch of pre-printed name tags for the guys who had been registered, but were too chicken to show up. So I had no idea it would be Wes and a bunch of girls!

-Carlyn

Boob Class

According to everyone and everything we have read, breast feeding is the best choice because of the numerous health benefits to both baby and mom. So naturally that is the way we are planning to go. Since neither of us knew anything about this topic Carlyn signed up for a breast feeding class yesterday.

I asked numerous times "are you sure I won't be the only dude in the class?" Carlyn assured me that the people at the hospital said most of the women bring their husbands along.

Sure enough I ended up being the only male in a class full of pregnant chicks. All the other women said "wow how did you get him to come?" or "there is no way I could have got my husband to come here." Turns out there is a lot more details to breast feeding than you would think. After three somewhat uncomfortable hours I now know all about the different types of nipples, holds, positions, latches, nipple shields, pumps, etc...

They used a surprising amount of real photos. Which wasn't too bad when they moved through them quickly. However, the nurse kept getting side tracked for long periods of time while standing in front of the projector screen stopped on a slide. How are you supposed to look at someone and pay attention when they have a 6 ft x 4 ft photo of a boob next to their head?

Time is flying I can't believe the time is almost here!!!

-Wes