Week 26

This was my first week back to work after the holiday break and it has definitely been a good one. I'm really glad that I'm working again, not just because we need the extra money, but because it keeps me busy and active. I was so worried about not getting enough exercise while I was sick. So now I'm making up for it by carrying babies around all day! I love my job.
We have had a really exciting week. Here are the awesome highlights:
Aiden is now big and strong enough to make my belly move. Yes. At 26 weeks, I can watch my belly move on its own and it is really, really weird. Although I love it, I kind of feel like one of the unfortunates in Alien that get implanted with alien embryos. I'm expecting something to pop out of me at any moment and start singing "Hello my baby. Hello my darling. Hello my ragtime gal..." (Spaceballs anyone?). Dan finally got to see it the other night and was TOTALLY shocked. It was so funny to see the look on his face. I just love watching him experience new pregnancy things. It's so much more shocking for him because it's a sudden change, rather than gradual like it is for me.
We also had our first pregnancy class this past week. We are taking our classes at Bloomington hospital, which is nice because they are inexpensive and it's where we are delivering. So we get to spend every Wednesday evening for the next six weeks in the baby portion of the hospital. I'm also hoping to get us set up to take an infant CPR course that is a brand new offering from Bloomington Hospital. I'm already certified (obviously, as I work with kids), but Dan isn't and I think it would be really good for him. He has been so nervous about everything that could go wrong that I'm pretty sure I'm the calm, relaxed, and level-headed of the two of us now. I was telling him about one of our babies having a fever at work the other day and he was SO freaked out. "What do you do if a baby gets a fever? Wrap them in cold blankets and take them to straight to the ER?" No, honey. Give them some tylenol. Call the doctor if it's high and make them an appointment if needed. It's really okay. It's just like an adult getting a fever, only you feel worse because babies are cuter, and therefore more pitiable (especially if it's your own). I love him. He will be such a good father, nervous and freaked out, but a good one. I think the CPR class will at least help him feel better about handling serious situations (that will hopefully never occur). Anyway... we talked about birthing basics during our class and started learning breathing techniques. I already knew all the stuff we talked about, but the breathing techniques surprised me. I don't think I'll be using them. They keep promoting breathing from your chest. Which goes against everything I've ever been taught. YOU BREATH FROM YOUR DIAPHRAGM YOU MORONS. NEVER BREATH FROM YOUR CHEST!!! Trust me. I have studied voice since the age of seven. You want to have oxygen and lots of it- BREATH FROM YOUR DIAPHRAGM!!!

On a final note: Family (You know who you are)- Please let me know about labor and delivery calls. If I don't hear from you, you will of course still get a delivery call. However, if you would also like a labor call, I need to know. I'm trying to get my calling tree all finished up. So please help me out with this.

Belly Pictures!








Finally chose an outfit that shows I have a belly.











Yes. I know. It's getting huge.













And the momma view








*When is your due date? April 12, 2010

*What week are you in? 26 weeks

*How much weight have you gained? I think I'm up +10 lbs (I just weighed myself the other day, but I have an appointment on Tuesday. So we'll see what they say).

*Do you know the gender of your baby? If so, what? A beautiful little girl! One of the women I work with is from Iran. She told me that, according to her country's beliefs, she can tell our daughter will be beautiful from the way I'm carrying the baby weight. How sweet is that!?!

*Do you have a name picked out? What? Aiden Ryelle

*Maternity clothes? Of course

*Stretch Marks?Stretch marks? What are those? Your mean my skin, right? It's one big stretch mark.

*How are you feeling right about now? Conscientious

*Have you felt the baby move? Felt her move, watched her move. It's pretty cool.

*Sleep habits? Well, if Caina would sleep, I think I would sleep better.

*Any food cravings? I've really wanted salad lately. And bagels with LOTS of cream cheese

*Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore? Just cucumbers

*Memorable Moment of the Week: Seeing my belly move on its own! Our first childbirth class!

Week 25

This has been an absolutely great week! With Christmas over and Dan home for a few days I was able to get SO much done! We put together the bassinet that my Aunt Pam gave us. We just need to polish it up and it will be ready to go. We did the tons of shopping (mostly for clothes) that Dan has been putting off for a while. Dan? Not want to shop? Who would have thought! I've done about six loads of laundry and the apartment has been vacuumed! Now I just need to finish relabeling the recently reorganized storage drawers and finish the dishes and I will be well on my way to some scrapbooking time! Yippee!
We had an awesome, spur of the moment, New Year's Eve bash. It seems to be turning into a tradition that we call everyone on December 31st and say "Hey! Come over and celebrate with us!" We always wait to see if someone else is going to do something and they never do. So instead of being lonely we get all the other lonely people together with us! Shockingly, this turned out to be about 15 people this year, as well as a few
friendly canines. Needless to say, our usually spacious apartment was QUITE full. But we had a good time and nobody (except the clumsy pregnant lady, aka. ME) spilled anything on our carpet. I don't think I could have asked for better. It was really nice to get everyone together, just to hang out for a while.
As for the baby, she has been very active. I feel her move most of the day now, which I absolutely love. I think she's been having the hiccups a lot lately. Occasionally I feel this really rhythmic: bounce up, down, reverb, repeat. It feels really weird and makes me laugh. I just imagine her sitting in there (although I'm sure it's too crammed by now) and just bouncing on her bottom when the hiccups come along. Not reality, but a cute image in my head. I can definitely tell she's starting to run out of room. She's started to painfully jab her pointy portions into me. I had an elbow or something jabbed in my right side for about 15min yesterday! I kept trying to convince her to move, pushing back- laying down- rolling over-etc, but she definitely took her time changing positions.
I also think I may have had my first actual Braxton Hicks contractions while grocery shopping the other day (it seemed different from the round ligament pains anyway). I kept getting a tight pain in my lower abdomen that was really uncomfortable. I had to stop walking a few times to just let them pass. I guess I'll have to talk to the doctors about that one at our next visit.
Other than those few complications, I've been doing fabulously and feeling absolutely wonderful! We even found Aiden's heartbeat with the stethoscope the other night. Dan and I decided to see if she would react to a flashlight (her eyes are supposed to be starting to open). No luck there, but we did manage to find her heartbeat a whopping 2 1/2 inches above my belly button! It was so cool! Well, I'm hoping and praying these next 14 weeks will be as good at this past month has been. I can finally say I'm starting to enjoy being pregnant, even though it IS more difficult to get around.
Now for some belly pictures:





It's about time to retire this shirt. It's just about too short!
















I think I'll start including a "top" view from now on.












And from the front: Those stripes really minimize the bump.






*When is your due date? April 12, 2010

*What week are you in? 25 weeks

*How much weight have you gained? +7 lbs

*Do you know the gender of your baby? If so, what? GIRL!

*Do you have a name picked out? What? Aiden Ryelle

*Maternity clothes? Yes please!

*Stretch Marks?I give up. I'll still put on the lotion because it feels nice, but I have no hope left.

*How are you feeling right about now? It's all acid reflux baby

*Have you felt the baby move? There's a little dancer in there!

*Sleep habits? Must remember to sleep on my side.

*Any food cravings? Does just craving food count?

*Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore? Well, I shouldn't have had that fondue last night. Oil just means acid reflux.

*Memorable Moment of the Week: Hearing Aiden's heartbeat with the stethoscope!

Yay for a bookshelf!

So my wonderful husband has spent last night and this past afternoon purging the backroom (soon to be nursery) of all the random junk that has accumulated over the years. After finding a little more room than there once was, we were able to put Aiden's new shelf together! It's in a natural finish. So it will match all of her other furniture and is really big! This means lots of storage space for stuffed animals, toys, and books!!! I'm really excited that we have something put together, even if we still have a long way to go. And not to worry... we've already had the "your star wars stuff is not staying there" conversation.

Week 24 and a very merry Christmas!

Caina and "Mr. Roper"










Christmas morning at the Wisley homestead








Photo Carousel for Aiden's room featuring Dan's photography









This has definitely been a very busy week! Now that Christmas is officially over, I have a second to sit down and blog a bit. It has been so nice to get together with everyone, even if it was just for a few minutes (Sorry Grandma Wisley!). It just left me with no time for updates. Well, here we go:
I went to the doctor earlier this week because I've been suffering from some massive congestion that just would not go away. The doctor said it seemed to be viral, and I think she was right as I feel pretty good now without medication. During the appointment, I had a sonogram to check up on Aiden and BOY! Was she MOVING! All we could here for the first bit of the sonogram was this swoosh swoosh of her twisting, turning, somersaulting, kicking, punching action! When the doctor finally heard the heartbeat, it seemed almost masked by all the other noise from little Aiden, busybody! It was so incredible to be able to hear her moving around in there. She was pretty quite at our last sonogram, so this was a complete change. Poor Dan! I just thought this would be a quick diagnosis of my symptoms and out. So he was at work through it all :-( Hopefully she'll be up for another show when we go back on January 12th!
Speaking of performances, she was finally up for letting the grandmas feel a kick or two. My poor mother has been trying for weeks to get a kick out of Aiden and every time she puts her hand on my stomach, she stops moving. Stubborn child on the way? It's a definite possibility! Well, she finally went a major kicking spree yesterday and Grammy got to feel! Dan's mom got to feel quite a bit too, as we were over at Dan's parent's house in the early morning (that and evening are her most active times). So Kathy got to feel some good kicks!
Aiden has definitely been on the move and experimenting with lots of new positions. She likes to try the head down position when I'm walking around. This makes me nearly double over, but I'm not really sure why; it doesn't hurt. I can straighten myself back up, but it's so much pressure that I'm not used to feeling. It makes it difficult to compensate sometimes.
As for the excitement of the holidays: We have apparently found our calling in the candy-making business. Since we were broke, we decided on homemade gifts this year. The chocolate covered cherries, especially, were a big hit! I guess we know what to do next year.
As for our generous relatives: Thank you to Mum and Daddy for our new crib! What a fabulous surprise after all of the gifts were opened! I can't wait to get it all set up!
Thanks to my brother John we now have a new bookcase for Aiden's room, which we DESPERATELY needed. Our other two are full and overflowing. I've been having to store books in empty drawers about the house. Now all of our kids books can find their way into Aiden's room!
Thank you to Mark and Kathy who not only got us a sewing machine, which I am greatly anticipating trying my hand at (I can't wait to make some curtains, quilt, etc. for Aiden!), but also a video camera so we can catch all of Aiden's first and later moments.
And last but not least a special "Thank you" to Matt for the book on telling us how Not to screw up our daughter (even though it will probably happen anyway).
We have such a generous family! We will definitely be well prepared for Aiden when she gets here! Only 3 1/2 more months! Happy Holidays everyone!

Belly Pictures for this week:
















































*When is your due date? April 12, 2010

*What week are you in? 24 weeks

*How much weight have you gained? +6.5 lbs

*Do you know the gender of your baby? If so, what? A bouncing baby GIRL!

*Do you have a name picked out? What? Aiden Ryelle

*Maternity clothes? daywear and jammies

*Stretch Marks? I think some of the earlier ones are fading, but new ones are still making their debut

*How are you feeling right about now? Hungry

*Have you felt the baby move? All day, every day

*Sleep habits? Sleep, wake up, repeat 10+ times

*Any food cravings? Not really

*Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore? Just cucumbers now and I still haven't braved hummus again

*Memorable Moment of the Week: Hearing all of that movement during the sonogram! Spending time with family and friends for the holidays.

Week 23

We had another doctor appointment yesterday. Everything was looking really good. Aiden's heartbeat was VERY easy to find this time. So Dan didn't have to have another of his panic attacks. One awesome thing, besides hearing Aiden's heartbeat, that we found out at our appointment is that I'm officially GAINING WEIGHT! After the two pounds that I guessed I may have added before I started puking, I am up to six pounds! Initially she told me I was up 16lbs. After a minor freak out, she checked her chart and said "Oops. Just 6lbs then." The doctor says I don't have to drink whole milk and I can eat normally without worry. As long as I can gain about 1/2 lb. a week, I should be in pretty good shape. I'm so excited to be healthy and growing the way I'm supposed to be. This is the one time in my life I can be excited about gaining weight and I want to take advantage of it. I also found out that the pains I'm feeling when I laugh/sneeze/cough are probably round ligament pains. Although she did say that if they persist that I need to come in for some tests. Apparently, they have already had two moms-to-be with appendicitis. Since the pains are coming from that region, we are supposed to be keeping an eye on things. Hopefully it's just typical pregnancy pains! She also told me to be on the look out for Braxton Hicks contractions, as they are likely to start about this time.
Next appointment will be my glucose testing, which means drinking really gross orange liquid in a short amount of time right before my appointment. Please pray that everything comes back normal! Gestational diabetes is not something I would prefer to deal with.
In other news: I can officially no longer see my feet when I stand up and my belly button is starting to move itself to the outward position. Dan was the one that noticed, as I can't get that close to my belly button to examine it, as it is kind of on the down turn of my belly. He's betting it pops by our next appointment in four weeks. How weird would it be to have an outtie!?!
I do have one rant for the week:
To my mailman:
I have already indicated that Aaron Wisley does not live at my address. Please stop putting his living room center bills in my mailbox. As I wrote on the last letter "NOT HERE" that should indicate that YES! HE HAS MOVED! Do not respond to my "NOT HERE" notice. Simply stop putting his mail in my box. Also, it is none of your business who lives here now. If you had any brains at all, you would look at the names on the rest of the mail to figure that out for yourself. Your behavior indicates an obvious lack of intelligence in our postal workers. I hope your intelligence is not the reflection on the rest of that community.
Sincerely,
A very annoyed pregnant lady

That about wraps it up for the week. Now for the belly pics!









Traditionally from the side








From the front where we will soon see a tiny bump of a belly button that has reversed itself

















No more feet!






*When is your due date? April 12, 2010

*What week are you in? 23 weeks

*How much weight have you gained? +6lbs!

*Do you know the gender of your baby? If so, what? GIRL!

*Do you have a name picked out? What? Aiden Ryelle, meaning "little fire on the rye hill"

*Maternity clothes? And giant sweaters

*Stretch Marks? Look kids, its the rare human zebra

*How are you feeling right about now? Hungry

*Have you felt the baby move? All day, but mostly at night for the past week

*Sleep habits? Sleep? What's that?

*Any food cravings? I would really like an egg and cheese biscuit from Mickey D's. Sadly, it's past noon

*Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore? I feel like my taste buds are changing their preferences week to week. What was good last week, may not be good now.

*Memorable Moment of the Week: Hearing our little girl's heartbeat!

Week 22

Me and my flan! It wasn't exactly my thing, but it looked so "muy bonito" (Spanish for "very pretty". Flan is a Spanish dessert). Dan, Sara, and Nick were so brave to be my guinea pigs :-)



Well, I'm getting this one up a little late (sorry to those of you who read this regularly). I went back to work this week and although I'm only working about 15-20 hrs, it's still an adjustment. I was so glad when I emailed BDLC and they really wanted me back. We could use some extra money with the baby on the way and I absolutely LOVE working with the babies in Lamb 1 room (nursery). It has been so much fun to get out of the house and back into the real world a bit. Everyone has been really nice and accommodating. I've never had so many people offer to do my job for me before (Ie. "don't pick him up. He's too heavy. I'll get it" or "I can change her for you. She's kind of wiggly"). It's nice to know that I can ask for help if I need it and to know that they care. For those of you who are now freaking out, I work in a nursery. All children are under the age of one. I'm not straining myself. The doctor said I can lift up to 20lbs. These kids are fine. So I'm okay (don't give me that look)...
We have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday to hear Aiden's heartbeat, take my measurements, etc. Hopefully I will have gained a little weight! I think I may have gained a little, after reading my scale a few times (it's really fickle and will fluctuate about 10lbs depending on when, how, where you stand on it). Hopefully all will be shaping up a bit better than it has in the past and we will be on our way to a normal, healthy 6th month!
We have been getting much strong kicks from our little girl. Dan even felt her do a somersault yesterday! He said it felt really weird, like something was rolling around just under my skin (I guess "something" was!). Hopefully my mom will get a chance to feel this Sunday, since Aiden refused to cooperate last week. An Ares child... what have we done to ourselves?!
I've been feeling really great. No morning sickness for weeks now. Although I do get nauseous much more easily, I've noticed. Something that would normally have just made me say "Eww... gross" now makes me want to hurl. I haven't, but I've thought about it.
My meat cravings are dying down. I don't feel like I need it every day. The days I do, I take an iron supplement and get on with the fried chicken.
I've also been getting strange pains in my abdomen occasionally when I laugh, sneeze, or cough too hard. One more thing to add to my list of what to ask the doctor when we go in for our appointment.
Well, I think that's it with the big update. Now onto pictures...

Here are the weekly belly pictures:








Farther away (kind of looks like I'm hiding a basketball)



















Closer up


















From the front (my belly button is starting to be weird)







I didn't get my ultrasound pics up before, but here they are now! Our beautiful little skeletal baby girl!




Aiden laying on her tummy. This is how she spent most of the time during the ultrasound and also the rest of her time off screen. I can always tell when she moves from this position because she feels really weird in my abdomen.











A view from the top of Aiden's head. Her brain was developing perfectly well, as well as the rest of her!














A view of her arm. All of her bones are looking good.












Finally a face shot! She has her mouth open, drinking in that amniotic fluid. The hungry little girl already had some in her tummy! Dan swears she has my nose :-)







*When is your due date? April 12, 2010

*What week are you in? 22 weeks

*How much weight have you gained? I think I may be up to +2lbs, if we can trust my scale. I guess we'll see at the doctor on Tuesday.

*Do you know the gender of your baby? If so, what? A very active little GIRL!

*Do you have a name picked out? What? Aiden Ryelle (Hysterically enough, it seems as though we are naming her after our honor attendants. Not the intent, but a cute thought.)

*Who is going to be with you during delivery? Dan and my parents

*Maternity clothes? I never noticed how short normal shirts are...

*Stretch Marks? Make me very sad

*How are you feeling right about now? Sciatic nerve is hurting me to stand up and sit down. Suggestions?

*Have you felt the baby move? Every day! Multiple times a day!

*Sleep habits? Tossing and turning and trying to figure out why my pillows won't cooperate, while also trying to convince Aiden that 2am is not play time!

*Any food cravings? I think I satisfied the Reeses craving last night!

*Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore? I feel like my taste buds are changing their preferences week to week. What was good last week, may not be good now.

*Memorable Moment of the Week: Dan feeling not just a kick, but a somersault, too!

Week 21 and Over the Hump!

At week 21, we are past the mid-way point and are on our way down the hill toward Babydom! I can't believe that we are already more than half way toward seeing our little girl. She is getting so much more active lately. I can even feel her kicking and moving around when I'm up and about, which is new and exciting! Less and less of my old clothes (the ones I left in my closet) are fitting nowadays. I'm starting a fashion trend of old baggy sweaters and such (which really don't look quite so baggy any more). I'm finally starting to be HUNGRY! Which for most people is not great news, but for me it's the BEST! I'm hoping that through this hungry phase I'll actually be able to put on a little bit of weight to help Miss Aiden Ryelle on her way to growing into a healthy little girl.
We just finished up most of our registering over this past week. Registering at BabiesRUs was especially great, as we got to meet up with our friends, Lilly and Jim while we were there! Happy Reunion! While I may say that Target is slightly less expensive on some products (not all, as I was shocked), BabiesRUs is way easier to use. I know that BabiesRUs is an exclusive baby store and Target is not, but I now wish that we had done ALL of our registering at BabiesRUs instead of pulling our hair out at Target (For those of you who live closer to Target, that was for you!). However, we've got about half and half at each store (okay, maybe a little more at BabiesRUs- what can I say: I LOVE THAT PLACE!). I feel pretty good about it all. I just need to finish up registering for clothing basics and I'll be completely finished! Yippee!
On the home front:
I'm going back to my old job as nursery support staff, as subbing was NOT steady enough. So that will be very fun. Plus it will get me back into the swing of having babies around all the time. And that's something I could definitely go for. Maybe I'll be able to get Dan to visit and actually come in the room (he's scared of other people's children- he swears he will break them). But he's got to get used to babies some time. He is going to have one of his own in a very short amount of time (Only four more months!).
On another happy note, we have all of our Christmas decorations up. So hopefully we will be able to get some pictures taken and maybe even send out holiday postcards! I think it would be fun :-) My friend Natasha, who lives downstairs, has been showing me all her scrapbooks and it's inspiring me to get my tushy in gear and do some of this sentimental stuff. It could also be hormones...




My handyman and his little helper, fixing some lights that just won't light!










Stringing the lights on the porch with Cainy Clause to help!












Even Dublin was having fun watching us decorate while snuggled into the light boxes.

















Decorating our beautiful tree










Belly pictures! Dan took these so they look much better than my in the mirror photos.




















*When is your due date? April 12, 2010 (more than half way there!)

*What week are you in? 21 weeks

*How much weight have you gained? It was +1/2lb last week, I'll have to weigh myself later to see if this eating this is helping

*Do you know the gender of your baby? If so, what? GIRL!

*Do you have a name picked out? What? Aiden Ryelle

*Who is going to be with you during delivery? Dan and my parents

*Maternity clothes? Yep! The last of the non-maternity clothes are in their final days.

*Stretch Marks? :-(

*How are you feeling right about now? Good. A little burny from the jalapenos I just ate, but other than that, good!

*Have you felt the baby move? Every day! All the time :-)

*Sleep habits? Neck and leg cramps are making sleeping difficult.

*Any food cravings? Apples and string cheese and poultry!

*Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore? Well, I probably should lay off the spicy peppers, but I REALLY don't want to.

*Memorable Moment of the Week: Constant kicking while I'm walking! She's going to be an active one.