Birthing and baby classes

I forgot to mention that we finished our four week course on birthing last week. We met some great people, Melissa and andreas, won a baby toy elephant, and learned a lot about labor and delivery. We are more anxious than before but are glad we took good notes and are more aware of what to expect once I go into labor. We still have to write up a birth plan and really plan out what we need for that big day. I created a play list for some music I'd like to listen to in the birthing room. We also got to tour the hospital and see where all the action will happen. While there we got to see some tiny babies in the nursery. So amazing that we get to take ours home! The all about babies class was fun! We chose a gender ambiguous doll to act as our baby. We practiced swaddling, diapering, and bathing a baby as well as learning all about what to expect health wise with our little one when we bring him or her home. We learned about car seat instalation, safety concerns in the home, and met a pediatrician. That's our next step. Finding a pediatrician as well as a daycare person. So much to do! All about babies really is and will be our motto for a long time to come!

Less than 3 months!

Baby R is about two pounds now and we can really feel the little one moving. Dave has laid his ear against my belly and baby r has kicked him right back. I find it fun to watch my belly move and jump when he or she gives me a kick. It is an amazing yet strange feeling having a live human rolling and moving inside me. Dave thinks it is humorous that I keep making comments about myself and how big I am getting. I make comments like, just look at me and can you believe how big I am. Dave replies back, honey you're pregnant and you act so surprised that you are getting big. I think it is still strange to see myself with a pregnant beer belly like tummy. I know when I was little I'd stick a pillow under my shirt and image being a mommy. It is exciting to think in less than three months we will meet our flesh and blood son or daughter. We have begun playing the song, "you are my sunshine" for baby r and he or she seems to like it. The room has ben painted a nice light blue after several color choices like yellow or green. We decided on blue because if it is a girl we can paint clouds and butterflies around the room. If it is a boy we'll do some sort or air or boat theme. As I am typing this our little one is banging away at my belly probably loving listening to the tv instead the loud noises during the day of mommy teaching and my 2nd graders voices. Today you are active little one. Maybe it's the mint ice cream? In two weeks is the first baby shower already! 26 week doctor visit showed I am slightly anemic. I need to be eating more iron rich food to increase my blood count. Good news is my glucose test was passed so I don't have gestational diabetes. Yippee! Baby r's heart beat continues to be 140's so it's still a guess to as if it is a boy (old wives tale) or girl (grampees guess). Lois, our midwife, keeps saying we have a 50% chance of either! All we care about is that you are healthy baby r. More later. . .

Felt a foot!

We've been really busy the last few weeks planning the baby room, going to birthing classes, worrying about leaking (TMI), trips to the doctors, and a surprise ultrasound.  Let's start with the baby room.  David is really excited to start painting and putting up the chair rail in the baby room.  He plans on doing it while I am away visiting my family in Arkansas.  We might actually paint this weekend but are still unsure of the color!  Baby R's room will be adorable and is coming together already!  Birthing classes are fun!  I didn't think I'd say that, but we are learning alot and getting more comfortable with all that might happen during the labor and delivery of our baby! It is so cute to see Dave taking notes and getting a little anxious about the whole process. It makes it that much more real to both of us!  We met a great couple in the class and plan on meeting up with them after both our babies are born.  So far we've learned about the whole labor process including all the machines and interventions that might need to be used during delivery, all about epiderals and epiosiotomies, and even got to hear our birthing teacher practice moaning!   Relaxation techniques have been interesting with the use of ice in our hands and music playing in the background.  We have started thinking about how we want our birth to go and what to include in our birth plan.  It has become apparent that I don't like too much talking during pain and definitely like a laugh here and there.  With a wise cracker as a husband, that could go either way!  Will I want that during labor...hmmm...I am not so sure!  The two doctor visits this last week were due to my anxiety about whether or not I was leaking fluid.  Turns out both times the test came out negative so the consensus is that I need to practice my kegels more!  Also turns out that I have a touch of maternal anxiety, which leads me to my midwife, Lois, saying, "Let just do an ultrasound to be sure".   Well, ultrasound was wonderful!  Baby R looks beautiful and we even got to see him or her in 3D.  What a little cutie!  I am so excited to meet our baby.  I know I've said that before, but as I get bigger the feeling grows more intense.  I am so excited to be a mother and have Dave's baby.  I know he will make an incredible Daddy and talks to our little one all the time.   My appetite is definitely something to laugh at!  Dave can't believe how much I eat sometimes and we spent Valentines at Arezzo were I couldn't wait to eat!  I love italian and we both enjoyed great meals.  We had bought desserts from Cocoa & Fig (where we got our wedding desserts) and enjoyed those when we got home.  Then today I ate a big mac, fries, and a shamrock shake! I love me some shamrock shake!  I still manage to work out and walk on the treadmill but this baby might end up being a big one!  I need to slow down on the food.  I am going to end this blog with the fun event that happened tonight.  I was using Dave's Ipad and all of a sudden felt a kick to the Ipad!  I went and felt where I thought it was coming from and pushed in on it!  Then I felt a body part kick back and felt my actual baby's foot for the first time.   I've felt the baby inside but never felt an actually body part!  What another incredible pregnancy experience.  Baby R, I felt you for the first time today!   It is amazing how you can love something so much and I've never even seen you in person yet!  100 more days!

Wow, I finally felt something!

OK, so as you can tell from Jenni's comments in her previous blogs posts, I'm not much of writer. It's not that I don't have anything to say, I just lack the grace of putting words together in an eloquent manner. That being said, tonight something happened that I didn't expect that's worthy of writing about.

For the last month or so, every couple days, Jenni would run up to me, place my hand on her belly with hopes that I would feel what she just felt. I would sit there, with my hand on her belly, in total quietness and deep concentration, waiting for something to indicate to me that what's been growing in her stomach the last 24 weeks would give me some kind of knock of life. Each time she felt something, she would ask "Did you feel that? How about now? You had to feel that!" Each time we came up empty...until tonight.

As I was sitting at my computer in deep concentration measuring the pros and cons of a miter cut vs a coping cut for a chair rail that I plan to install in our baby room, Jenni came running downstairs. She said that the baby was kicking like she hasn't felt before (I'm sure as a result of the 2 brownies she had for dessert!). She sat down on the sofa and told me this has got to be the time where I would feel something. I sat down next to her, place my hand on her belly and sure enough, I felt a kick! A sign of life!

What an amazing feeling. The fact that this little bean has grown into a 1 pound, 12 inch being inside my wife's belly is truly a wonder. It was a great feeling to finally feel what my wife has been feeling for the past month. Can't wait to feel the next kick!

Doctors and dreams

So my husband needs to write on the blog... But I will do a quick update. Baby is moving up a storm but Dave hasn't felt it yet. Every time he puts his hand on my ever expanding belly, baby r goes still. I can definitely feel our little one from the inside but not sure about the outside. Hopefully Dave will feel it soon. We had one scare with a trip to the ER a few weeks ago. Pain in my belly that ended up being round ligament pain but better to be safe than sorry. Ever since then, I have been feeling fine. Hip and belly pain on occasion but it is normal and the doctors say to adjust how I move and get up from a sitting position. Baby r is a mover at night. LO moves at the same time everyday from 6pm through the night. I am getting more and more excited to meet him or her. As we put the room together with some help from my parents and sister, I think about how wonderful it will be to hold our baby. We got a glider chair now and I even sat in it with a blanket just to test out how it would be to rock our baby to sleep. Goodness knows we will spend many sleepless nights in that chair with our crying child. Dreaming of that day...did I mention it is true about crazy pregnancy dreams? We won't go in detail about those. And daycare searching, I think I will let Dave tell you about that.

Baby Rothe is one normal, healthy, growing baby!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today after nearly 14 weeks without seeing our baby on the big screen.  Our little one was not into moving much, just squirming around on the ultrasound moving its arms, legs, and head and every once in a while giving us a yawn as to say, "come on, stop bugging me."  We got some great profile shots of our Baby R and Joyce, our tech, did a great job of concealing the gender.  She said she knew what we were having and David almost gave in to find out by asking me if we should.  But I stood firm.  We're going to wait and get a surprise.  Two relatives now have said the ultrasound profile looks like them!  It is hilarious.  Half the time during the ultrasound, we could tell what we were looking at.  But we are happy to report that our little guy or girl has all ten fingers and toes, four chambers of their heart, a good looking belly and brain, and two kidneys.  He or she is also comfy crossing their little legs and making fists.  Their bladder and heart are working great!  Although the 25 minutes ultrasound was exciting, we know really cannot wait to actually see him or her and get to know them in person!  As Bon Jovi would says, Ohhhh....wer're half-way there!  And my belly is getting huge.  It feels like it doubled overnight.  I have also begun to feel the rolling of our moving little one.  Baby R really likes to move around 6 pm at night till about midnight.  I feel what I can only describe as popcorn or that stomach like dropping feeling only its in my belly each time the little one moves.  Heartbeat has remained consistant at about 145 per minute, faster if it is later at night.  Dave is getting the feeling that this is for real now!  During the ultrasound he couldn't stop smiling or recording it on video using his blackberry.  He kept asking questions like what is that or is that his belly, arm...etc.  He is using he a little too much!  What if we've got a little Jenni in here!  I am stuck with using little one or baby r.  I am not sure what gender our baby is, but I will be so happy with either boy or girl.  Time seems to be flying!  We met with our first daycare prospect two days ago.  It has been a busy last few days.  Next I know I will want to do that nursery!  I've been hooked on searching the internet for bedding and ideas. Gender neutral is hard...but we are keeping firm about not knowing!  Here's to being halfway there and feeling good!  Here's to also knowing there is only one baby in there.  We got a little scare the other day while using the doppler...heard two heartbeats but realize now that one was the cord!  More later....

January 4th, 2011

Happy New Year! So excited to think that 2011 is the year our baby will come into this world!
So how did our winter break go?  Before the holiday break even started, the year ended with a bit of a cry/meltdown at work.  I thought the emotional thing was done!  I had a bit of a cry when I couldn't handle my students chaos of the last day before the winter break.  They were out of control with excitement.  I teared up and had to leave the room because they wouldn't be quiet for the math lesson after repeatedly stopping  the lesson.  Ugh...Good thing, my co-teacher was there to take over.  Baby R sure does hear me go through many emotions from yelling to crying to laughing while at work.   Our little one will know their mommy has a majorly emotion filled job! After a quick recovery, many hugs, apologies, and pats on the belly from my kiddos, the day ended with laughs and a little sadness that I wouldn't see my students for a few weeks.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I was happy the winter break and the student-break had started!  The holidays were fun and exciting with 4 Christmas' and a nice long break.  We got to have our Arkansas family, the Bennicoffs, here at our house for the holidays.  Mom, Dad, Karissa, and the Bennicoffs came over and we had the first big family Christmas in our house.  It was truly special to have them all here.  Next we ventured down to Wisconsin for the two more Christmas' with the Isaacsons and the Burkes.  We finished our break traveling down to Miami to see our Rothe family!  What a nice time we had exploring Miami with VEG and D & G Rothe (otherwise known as mom and dad).  We enjoyed seeing Glen and Velvet's new home and of course, playing with Evan!  Donna and Glen even took time to throw us a surprise baby shower: Our first one.  It was so kind of them and we got some adorable gender neutral clothes and baby supplies that we very special to us!  All our immediate family members got to hear the baby's heartbeat during our visits.  Each niece and nephew seemed excited about the new baby.  Liam had to try and listen to the baby using a 'kid" stethoscope.  Lots of questions were asked about when the baby would get here and how big it was.  Liam and Evan both have names for the baby including smoke and march april bennicoff.  All kiddos said hi to the belly and told him/her how much they loved them.  It is so adorable to see them so excited about their new cousin coming soon.  Baby Rothe enjoyed the pats on the tummy and was especially happy during the break with the cookies and holiday meals that we were fed. My belly is getting bigger!  I don't know if it is all baby cause I know there must be some "fat" in there too.  Dave swears I look adorable but he is just a great husband. We spent the New Year at the Pachners celebrating with David's cousins and aunt/uncle!  Family time is always so wonderful!  And now we are back to the grind of work and home life.  I love being with my families, but it is good to be home with my new family...and soon Dave and I will be more as a family of 3.   Feeling really good....have flutters here and there.  I can't wait to feel it for sure.  Right now our LO feels like it is tickling my belly.  Hip pain and sore back are some of my fun symptoms right now.  Tings and pangs of pain come and go but overall I am feeling good. Memory loss and jumbled thoughts seem to be in full force. My belly is certainly hard and at times (especially at night) is huge!    I am seeing the spider veins coming too! Oh the joys of getting older and of course, those that come with being pregnant. But one thing is for sure, this baby is going to loved so much!  There is so much excitement by our parents, siblings, and especially the little niece and nephews for this little one to come.  Baby R, you know mom and dad can't wait to meet you!  More to come!  Our next appointment is next Tuesday!  One week till we get to see you on the big screen little one!  It has been too long since we got a peek at you!  David promised to post next so now let's see what he has to say on the blog.....