My OBGYN

So my doctors are on the front page of the Washington Post (WaPo) today! For good reason though - although it must be a slow news day. Anyway, if you get the chance to check it out in hard copy, you'll see 2 of my 3 doctors (i.e. one of whom will probably be delivering our child!) - the guy with the beard and the woman in red. And then on the inside page you'll see nurse Jean who I really like. But there are no pictures online.

Boy/Girl Count

Today I found out that my friend Laura H. is having a boy too. (Yeah!) Seems like everyone is having a boy these days. But then I thought of all my blogging friends who have kids. Most of you all have girls (Nancy 2, Melissa S. 2, Jen L. 1, Catherine 1). But most all my friends from church and my grad school friends that are having kids have / are having boys (Krista 3, Laura H. 2, Laura B. 1, The Mills' 4, us 1). Laura H. said it must be the water. Well, it must be the Northern Virginia water. All those having girls are not in NVA. All those having boys are in NVA. This holds true with the Winstons too who have one girl, born in PA, and one boy, born in NVA. But then the Mills' and Larissa screw up my perfectly fit data because the first two of the Mills' boys were born in PA and IN and Larissa's boy was born in PA. But I can still draw some conclusions here: The likelihood of having a girl in NVA is nil. But moving from NVA to PA or IN would not guarantee having a girl either. Maybe MD.... Granted I need a few more data points here (but 20 isn't bad!), but I have some friends who are pregnant and not finding out so I have some more data coming in. Might be able to get some more solid conclusions then.

Update - Week 29

Still feeling good and the baby is kicking away. Glucose test was good. The baby supposedly weighs 2.5 lbs and is 15 inches long. Sometimes it feels like he's really stretching out in there because I'll feel something at the top of my stomach and something down at the bottom at the same time. Going to the doctor's next week.

I organized my maternity clothes in my closet and got some of them hemmed and dry cleaned the ones that needed to be dry cleaned. So I'm feeling better about what to where everyday. I still have a bunch of stuff that needs to be ironed before I wear it. Oh, and for some reason I got a bunch of red clothes. I'm not much one for red (I think I can only take it once a week) so I got the red rotation down now too...:) I'm thinking about going shopping next weekend to get 2 undershirts for all the tops I have that show too much cleavage (what is it with all these low cut maternity clothes?), a white blouse to go with this skirt I bought, and some nursing bras. It's a good thing that I'm pregnant in the summer since I got so many clothes from my sis who lives in FL. I'm finding I'm wearing a lot more skirts since they are more comfortable.

Also (as you may have read in my last post) we started organizing the desk and closet in the spare bedroom in order to make room for baby. Got a few things for Salvation Army and threw out a bunch of stuff. My dad is working on building us a changing table and that will go where the desk is.

Saturday I did my weights class and then Martin and I went hiking in Great Falls, MD. Well, Martin said it really wasn't hiking since we didn't go up any hills but if it's walking in the woods on a non-paved servace, then it's hiking to me and that's what we did. Only walked about 3 miles but it was good. Drank lots of water and tried to stay cool. Oh, we also timed it well in that we got to see a lock demo on the C&O tow path. Sunday we went swimming for a little bit. I did laps for about 10 minutes. And last night we played up-close tennis (where you stand close to the net) so that's been my exercise for the week.

We booked our "baby moon" yesterday. Going to the eastern shore of Maryland the first weekend in October. The bed and breakfast we are staying in is right on the bay. Martin will be able to do some bike riding around the area and I'll get some time to read. It's only about 2 hours away but it will probably be the last time we go farther than an hour away from our hospital/doctor.

Got an appointment with a pediatrician for next month. There are two practices that we are looking at. I think we might check both of them out before deciding. They let you come in for a free meet and greet appointment before the baby's born.

My friend Kelly (whose wedding I was in in Louisiana) was in town last week. I met her for ice cream and she gave me our first baby gift. It's this adorable long sleeve yellow body suit with a bear on it and it has a hat that's got bear ears on it. Very cute! (Catherine, your mom told me she had the gift from you in the car on Sunday but then they brought the other car to church. So I might get it this weekend on the retreat if they remember or bring that car to the retreat...:) Otherwise, I'll get it next weekend.)

So yeah, we're going on our church retreat this weekend. Sounds like there's lots of places to walk around the retreat center. Looking forward to spending time with 2 couples from our home fellowship group.

That's about it for this week! Only about 11 more to go!

Five Years in DC

I have friend who sends out an email on the anniversary of her move to DC every year. I'm not that nostalgic, but somewhat so, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to write about the five year anniversary of my move to DC on August 20, 2001.

This is actually a significant milestone in my career as well since as of this coming Monday, I will be vested in the government's defined benefit pension plan. For those of you know a little about pensions, DB plans are becoming more rare and so I am fortunate to have one.

But other than that, the milestone is just a chance to take a look back. Since Sunday I hadn't really done that much until last night. I was going through boxes of junk to make room for the baby and I've finding things I had put aside and meant to do since moving here. (Seems as though I have a box from each move though so all the stuff isn't 5 years old.) Some of them I no longer want to do and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I had such high aspirations. Now the priorities have changed and while I'm sure of the priorities now, it makes me sad that I never finished some of things I planned to do. Most of what I'm talking about is giving up on organizing things that I no longer wish to keep or organize. Then there are the books and journals I never finished or kept up with.

But probably what got to me most was the things that I meant to research. One, was that I wanted to keep up more with economics once I left academia. I found a list that said "ways to keep up my economic skills while working." One of the things on the list was "attend seminars at local universities." That sounds so absurd to me at this point. I have no desire to do that. Then I was going to research my mission as a Christian in the field of economics and look into if and how capitalism is Biblical and read all these Christian econ papers. No desire to do that at this point either. What does that say about my calling as an economist? I like my job and I try to do my best but I certainly don't do more than is required of me or think philosophically about my job. It's a job to me. Nancy had a post on her blog the other day about doing everything unto the Lord and not just looking forward to free time. I think that plays in here too. Am I doing my job unto the Lord if I'm not thinking about what my mission is for my job? Am I doing my job unto the Lord if I'm not fully integregating my beliefs into my profession? How easy it is after 5 years in the same job to forget why you are doing it! How easy it is to use my job to support me financially in order to pursue other endeavours.

Thinking about this is overwhelming to me at this point. I have a baby on the way, why am I thinking about this? Partly because decisions about continuing to work tend to keep creeping up. I am already counting down the days until baby #2 comes and I can quit for good. Will that excuse me from thinking about the field in which I was educated for 7 years and will probably go back to someday? Will I actually have time to catch up on these things that I have been wanting to do for years....probably not.

The research was not just economic stuff. I wanted to go back and listen to or read sermoms that I had missed or Bible studies that I didn't finish or material for training classes that I was supposed to read but never did.

I will probably never finish these things and I'm not sure I even have a desire to and that drives me nuts since I can't stand to have stuff go un-finished. I'd rather leave these projects lying around the house with un-realistic aspirations to finish them rather than call it quits.

Anyone else like me? Anyone have any advice for my neurotic behavior?

Well, this ended up being a pretty depressing post. So time to turn it around. Yes, I have less and less time for these projects but what have they been replaced with? Many new friends, many experiences that I wouldn't trade for finishing projects, and many things that I have done and completed, including things at work that made the Treasury better. Life has changed a lot in five years. Went from being single and thinking I wouldn't get married soon to being married with baby on the way in five years. Went from being a newcomer to being a oldschooler by DC standards and knowing my way around and the resources and social outlets that DC has to offer. All has been for the good.

I'm not saying that I shouldn't be thinking about my mission anymore but I shouldn't be creating these silly projects to fulfill that mission. Thinking is not something that I can cross off my to do list but it is something that will accomplish the goal of being intentional with whatever I'm doing at the time. (Blogging also helps accomplish this!) I'm probably all over the place thought-wise so if you're following this you deserve a metal. But this type of journaling is what I wanted to do with my blog.

So, here's to 5 years in DC - to meeting the man of my dreams and getting to marry him, to my awesome church and the friends I've made there, to my good job, to being close enough to friends from home to visit them, to free museums, great biking trails, ultimate frisbee leagues, and all DC has given to me!

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I guess there isn't a way to reorder post. See below for a posting (Tagged!) that I started last week and just finished today.

Update - Week 28

In this picture and outfit I actually look pregnant! I don't look like this all the time though. But I'm making progress.

I had my glucose test done on Monday. Haven't gotten the results yet so I'm assuming all is well. One of the receptionists at the doctors office told me I didn't look 28 weeks pregnant.

So this is the third trimester. I've been feeling like I have a lot of energy this week. Not sure if it was the sugar from the glucose test, the fact that I exercised/walked a lot last week, or the fact that I was stressed out and on an adrenline rush this week from being overwhelmed with all the stuff I had to catch up on getting back from vacation. But it's nice to have the energy.

The stress hasn't come from work but from a bunch of things on the to do list that are almost but not quite done so the to do list is long and overwhelming. Plus, we have a leak in our bathroom and we don't know where it is coming from - possibly the neighbor's pipes in our ceiling. This is going to be a major pain to fix.

I'm starting to get that itch for a new house. I've lived in the current place for about as long as I lived in my last place. That's only about 2 years but that was the longest I lived in one place since I was 18. Just feeling like we don't have enough room especiallly with the baby (even though we have 2 bedrooms). But we'll hold off until next spring, when hopefully the market and interest rate situation is more stable and when we've saved some more money.

Visted my brother and grandparents and aunt and uncle and parents and a Jen L. and her family last weekend. It was a whirlwind tour. Good times though, good times. Won't be back in PA before the baby!

Signed up for a breastfeeding class in a few weeks. I'm finding I don't have much time to read up on that so I'm going to take the class instead. Plus I have my mom (the WIC queen), my sister, a lactation consultant, and a Le Leche League member to help me out too. The class is right down the street from us so that's cool.

This week I haven't done too much baby prep except talk to people at work about my leave plans. I found out it's definitely better to take Leave Without Pay (LWOP) rather than drop down to a part time employee. By doing LWOP, I still keep my same life insurance coverage that I have now and I'll still get full time "creditable hours" for promotions. I will only get half time for annual and sick leave and for my annual (non-COLA) raises though but I totally expected that. So I told my boss my plans and he liked them - particularly the part about me teleworking on MWF so I wasn't incommunicato 3 days a week. He was fine with me only working 20 hours to start. So now I have to start the paperwork for the teleworking. I'm going to try it 2 or 3 days in Sept and then once a week in October until 2 weeks before my due date when I'll only telework. The only disadvantage to LWOP is that I think they don't want me to do it for more than a year. So after a year, I'll either have to go back to full time or change my position to part time. However, I really don't want to have to change it to part time since at that point I'll be ready to try getting pregnant again. And I plan to quit my job after the second child. But lots can happen in a year and a half and I shouldn't be thinking too much about that now since there's not much I can do.

Not getting anywhere with names. We're not going to tell until the baby is born anyways, but I can tell you that we have not agreed on a name. Martin is pretty set on one that I'm not too crazy about so I have to come up with something better. But I might cave in the end. I made the mistake of telling Martin that I never really had a boys name picked out because I assumed my husband would come up with the boy name. The name isn't bad, I'm just not sold. So we'll see.

Tagged

My first tag! How exciting! I was tagged by Nancy.

1. One book that changed your life: Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World
by Tracy Kidder
2. One book that you’ve read more than once: none (although do books that I started and then quit and then restarted count? if so then Little Women)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: Bible

4. One book that made you laugh: I remember chuckling while reading before but I don't remember which books I was reading at those time. I usually read non-fiction or depressing fiction. So I'm stumped on this one...

5. One book that made you cry: Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen

6. One book that you wish had been written: Wedding Horror Stories by me and Melissa N.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics (aka Stokey/Lucas).

8. One book you’re currently reading: Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. For book club.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: something on breastfeeding

10. Now tag five people: I tag Catherine G., Amy L., Martin E., Cara H., and Dave M.

Pictures of Steven and my sister and her family

Update - Week 27

I was at camp all this week. I definitely think the Lord gave me supernatural endurance (thanks for your prayers!). I walked sooo much and never really got tired. I was slow but I walked a lot. The weather was great at camp, although probably a little too cool for the pool. Well, the water was too cool. I'm still feeling really good. Although my belly is getting bigger and with that comes more discomfort in sitting and trying to sleep.

I had to tell the folks at camp that I was pregnant though. No one suspected until I told them.

I think I may be going to exclusive maternity clothes this week because if I put on regular clothes they may fit when I'm standing up but are uncomfortable when I sit down.

Filled out the registration form for the hospital this week and talked to the insurance company a little bit. I did need to get a pre-authorization from the insurance company but my doctor already took care of that. So that's good.

Martin's mom is going to make the invitations for the shower. That'll be cool and will allow her to be a part of the shower even though she won't be able to make it.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll have a picture in the next update.

Update - Week 26

Well, I'm surviving the heat. It hasn't been too bad since I haven't been outside much but I had some killer commutes this week. Tuesday and Wednesday were awful, awful, awful both ways on the metro. And I didn't get a seat (of course).

I wore two maternity outfits this week. The picture shows one of them. (I could have sworn I was smiling in that pic. I meant to.) Thanks to my sister for the cool clothes! I should have taken a picture each day since I look so different depending what clothes I wear. The day after the picture was taken I wore a black khaki skirt and regular shirt and I couldn't even tell I looked any different than normal. I've gained 11 pounds during the pregnancy.

Just doing the class at the gym but no other exercising. Martin hasn't been getting up to go for a bike ride since it's so hot and find it very difficult to be motivated to get up before he does.

Had a doctors appointment on Wednesday. All is good. Next time I go it's for the yucky glucose test. Fun. I'll be starting appointments every two weeks now.

The baby is moving a lot. He's very active.

I've been getting up every day at 3:30am to go the bathroom. Must be preparation for when the baby comes.

Went to Babies R Us last Saturday. Laura B. and I were there for 2 hours. I'm still undecided about the stroller. I'll probably make one more trip (and take Martin) to make the final decisions. Still getting input from other moms.

Martin and I have been having lots of name discussions. Still can agree on a name. I know we have three months but it feels like we aren't getting anywhere or haven't come up with anything new in a while.

I think all the breastfeeding and child care classes may be taken up so I don't think we are going to do those. But we will do the childbirth classes since I'm already signed up for that.

Going to camp on Saturday for a week. Hopefully the walking and heat won't be too much. I think I'm going to take the camelback and wear it all week so that i'll drink enough water. Looking forward to being outside and not thinking so much about what I have to wear everyday. Hopefully I get some reading done too for my book club and the parenting book Martin and I are reading. And of course it will be fun to be with friends and the kids at camp. My next update will be a little late because of camp.

Are you a Lactivist?

Check out this CNN article on the debate about breastfeeding in public. Personally I don't see what the big deal is since practically every woman who breastfeeds in public does it discreetly and you see a lot more boob walking down the street in the summer time or on the beach or on other magazine covers than when you see a mother breastfeeding or what was on that mommy magazine cover. I don't understand thinking that it's gross either - that's what they are there for...hello? As long as the woman is discreet, I can't see how someone can be bothered by the fact of just knowing that it's going on. You probably won't see me at nurse-in however, so I'm not sure if I qualify as a lactivist.

Update - Week 25

Today I'm wearing maternity clothes for the first time. I'm wearing the dress that my sister wore to her shower when she was about as far along as I am now. It's a loose spandex dress and I still don't look pregnant, certainly not what Carrie looked like at her shower...enough of my weekly whining about not looking pregnant....

I'm feeling great! Still sleeping more (and exercising less though). But I was in the pool last weekend a bunch and I will hopefully make it to the gym this weekend so I'm at least working out once a week.

Last weekend's visit to FL to see Carrie and family was great. Steven is sooo cute. I didn't want to leave him. Learned a lot about parenting and newborn care and breastfeeding. The running joke over the weekend was how many breastfeeding conversations Martin had to listen to. He was a really good sport though and appreciates being included in all the decisions/discussions/etc. for which I am grateful.

One thing I came to a conclusion about regarding newborn care is that pacifiers aren't bad. I thought I was against them (and Carrie was at first too) but after seeing how they are useful and don't substitute for my sister, I'm for them, at least at first. For two year olds, that's a different story.

I also learned that even after you go through the checklist of baby's needs - hunger, needs diaper changed, wants to be held - he/she can still cry! I guess at some level I knew this but it becomes more a reality when you experience it. It's somewhat frustrating to know you can't do anything to comfort the child because you either you don't know what it is or you can't help it - like stop their hiccups. And Steven is a really "good" baby too - he sleeps a lot and is usually content - yet I still realized this.

This weekend I'm going to go to Babies R Us with Laura B. who is due the same month I am. Hopefully we'll narrow down the decisions on a lot of the stuff. We are both reading Baby Bargains.

Looks like my friends from Bible Study are throwing me a shower here on Sept. 23rd. That should be really fun. My mom and sister will actually be able to make it too.

Got a lot going on this next week before camp - I'm meeting with some new financial education clients tomorrow, then Monday I have a meeting with the STEP tutoring evaluation group, then doctors appointment and Bible Study (which we're leading) on Wednesday. Plus we have to finish planning and packing for camp and go grocery shopping one more time. AAHHH. Guess I'll need the vacation. Been feeling like I need to spend more time in prayer and more time in the Word and in prayer with Martin lately. Being submerged in the Christian community at camp for a week will be good. 9 more days...

Pictures from trip to Panama City

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Me and Martin at Mexico Beach.



Steven in his swing.



Carrie and Steven at the beach.



Me with Steven at the airport.



Grandparents looking on.



Our neices and nephews: Erik, Rachel, Butterball, and Pixie.



Baby and mama.



All dressed up for church.

Update - Week 24

Here's an updated picture. Not much different from two weeks ago. I think my belly is more barrel-like than rounded. Still not getting seats on metro or wearing maternity clothes and people still say I don't look pregnant. And now I can say I'm 6 months pregnant!

Still feeling good although I did have an episode this week. On my way to the bus on Tuesday morning, I felt tired and faint-ish. Had to come back inside and wait a few minutes and drink something and eat something before going to work. It might have been the extreme heat but honestly I wasn't out there long and I was feeling faint and my heart was racing even before I got to the bus stop. So I don't know what it was and I was fine shortly after it.

Sometimes I can feel my heart beating really strongly. Apparently this is normal. It's just weird. Like I'll be lying on my side and my whole body will move with each heartbeat. I feel it in my belly a lot. I know it's not the baby by my heartbeat. I guess it's from the increased blood flow that's being pumped through my body and to the baby.

Went to the gym on Saturday and did the weights class. Still enjoying that. There was another pregnant lady there and she did all the lying down exercise on an inclined step so maybe I could try that. She didn't do any abs at all. I think I'm fine doing abs on the ball. I don't lie on my back at all which makes them less effective but I'm still getting some ab work.

Been sleeping in a lot this week. Still eating alot. Although now it's hard to tell when I should stop eating. Before getting pregnant I knew how much I needed to eat so even when I felt I could eat more and wanting to I knew I should stop or I would gain weight. Earlier in the pregnancy I would eat until I was full and that wasn't too much. Now I feel I could eat a ton and still not be full. I guess I should just keep eating healthy stuff and then I don't need to worry too much about quantity.

Going to FL on Friday. Getting on a plane again. This time for a longer period. Should be fun.

Starting to think about where we're going to move the desk in the spare bedroom to make room for the baby stuff. Other than that haven't done too much preparations this week. Oh, I did get some maternity clothes from a lady at church. Got some good stuff there. Also got some tents mascarading as clothes. Will I really get that big?!

Well, I guess that's all for this week. More soon!

Update - Week 23

Sorry I meant to put a new pic up but I didn't get around to it. But I don't look much different than I did last week. I'm starting to get jealous of my friend who is 3 weeks behind me and looks really cute and pregnant. I want the attention of people noticing that I'm pregnant...wah. I know it should be a blessing that I'm not showing right? But I not one of those women who feel like bad about getting big when pregnant. I mean it's not like the "oh, you've put on weight" type of feeling, there's good reason and it's a different kind of weight/size gain. But it's also a good thing because I haven't bought any maturnity clothes for work. Only have to make it 5 more work days until we leave for FL to see my sis and Steven and the rest of the fam and get her maturnity clothes.

Really looking forward to meeting Steven and spending time with a newborn. Hoping also to help my sister and bro-in-law out with their other kids. Chuck E. Cheese here we come!

Still feeling really good this week. Haven't exercised as much but I did do the weights class on Saturday and swimming on Sunday. Hoping to do the weights class again on Saturday.

Been pretty hunger lately. Maybe that means the baby is getting ready for a growth spurt. Last night I inhaled a plateful of speghetti. When Martin saw what I had done, he gave me the rest of his. Now, for those who haven't dined with us before, this is HUGE. First, Martin eats really really quickly. So for me to finish before him is a feat. Then for him to give up his food. That's something you mark on the calendar. (We always have an abundance so it's not like he wouldn't sacrifice if he needed to, like he did last night.) And then for me to eat more than Martin. Even being pregnant hasn't enabled me to do that until last night. So I ate 1.5 plates of speghetti and then I had 2 pieces of pie at Bible Study last night. You should have seen the look on Martin's face when I finished the first plate of speghetti, it was like who are you and what have you done with my wife! And he was so sweet and insistent that I take his food. And so quick about it too, he didn't even think twice, it was like, you definitely need this.

Reading about strollers this week. I think we are going to get a travel system (I like the convenience of snapping the car seat in) although I want to make sure to find one that's lightweight at least when it's just the stroller. There are frames that you can buy that just carry the car seat and don't convert to strollers but by the time you buy that an then a stroller later, even a smaller cheaper one, you've already spent the cost of the travel system.

Oh, we got a preregistration form for the hospital last week at the doctors. They want to know on the form the insurance number for the baby. But uh, the baby's not born yet. Anyone know how this works?

Looking into family care child care (where you take your child to someone's home and they have like 5 kids that they watch). Seems like there's a network in our county but I"m not sure if the caregivers near us have openings. The woman I emailed about the program was not very helpful. Seems like you needed to sign up for this info session but most of the sessions were during the day and those that weren't were one days I'll be out of town. I guess I don't need to think about it until the baby's born but I'm just thinking those three months of maturnity leave are going to go by so quickly, especially with the holidays. Plus, a lot of pregnant ladies around here do day care and you have to set that up months and months ahead of time so I feel like I'm behind on that.

I just started the month-by-month-what-we-need-to-do-before-baby checklist. Theknot.com has a wedding one, but I haven't found a baby one so I made my own.

Having a pretty fun week with having book club on monday and with my former roommate in town. Going to the movies - girls night out - tonight. Fun! Going to a wedding on Saturday. I thought I'd be needing a maturnity dress but guess not.

See Below for this Week's Update

Sorry, my posts got out of order....

Our nephew Steven

Update - Week 22

Okay, so by popular demand my first profile picture...I think I'm finally starting to look pregnant, depending the clothes that I wear. Still have only gained 5 lbs.

It's been a really good week. I've been feeling great. My legs don't hurt much at all. I think that may be because I exercised a lot more this week. Went to the pool on Sunday and Tuesday, went bike riding on Monday, did a class at the gym on Saturday, and did videos at home on Monday and Tuesday. Got a good report from the dentist on Wednesday.

Doctor's appointment went well this morning. The heartbeat was much more distinct this time. They measured my belly for the first time. Doctor said that based on the size of the baby as determined by the sonogram, he is a week ahead of schedule. So either that means he'll come early or I'll have a 9lb baby. (The doctor actually said "9 lb baby" and asked us how big we were at birth - we were both in the 7 lb range.) Doctor said that means that if the trend continues (and by the end he's 2 weeks ahead size-wise), then they won't let me go passed my due date. I really don't want to be induced, nor do I want to give birth to a 9lb baby. So hopefully he'll just come early.

Got an email from Babies R Us this week saying that they are now independent from Amazon. I think this will be good news in the long run; however, their website is having lots of problems now. But the small registry that I started seems to have been transferred smoothly. Seems like a lot of stuff is still unavailable online but hopefully that will be fixed soon. Still reading about car seats. I looked on this website and found that the infant seat and the convertible seat that Baby Bargains recommends seem to fit in both our cars although the infant one may only fit well in the center of the Civic and the convertible one may only fit well on the side (outboard, so they call it) of the Maxima. Not sure if that matters though.

Martin and I got a book from our church library on parenting. It's called Successful Christian Parenting by John MacArther. I have a devotional of his that I liked but other than that, didn't really know too much about the author. And I was a little hesitant about the title - like was this going to be twelve steps to make sure your child turns out to be a well-behaved Christian. Well, the author defines success, not on how the kid turns out but by how well the parents stick to Biblical principles. And the principles aren't extra-biblical rules like a lot of Christian books try to push on parents - like thou must homeschool or something. He looks at specific passages of Scripture that speak to parenting and fleshes those out. Okay, well, actually I've only read the first chapter since Martin and I are taking turns reading the book and discussing after each chapter, but sounds good from the first chapter. (Catherine, I think we will still get the Sproul Jr. book but MPC library didn't have it so we're starting with this....as soon as I get enough mypoints to get a gift certificate to B&N, I'll get the Sproul book and then donate it to the library when we're done. ;)

I'm an aunt!

This morning at 4:32 CDT my sister gave birth to her first child - Steven Remnar, weighing 7lbs, 4oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. Mother and baby are doing very well.

Carrie's water broke last night around 9:30 but she was not having contractions. They went to the hospital and contractions started around 1:30am. She said it was only bad for the last half hour. I can't believe how quickly she gave birth. She was telling them call the doctor, call the doctor, the baby's coming. She went from 2 to 10 cm in no time. She said the doctor was only there for a few minutes and the baby was out. She went natural. I'm hoping this is in our genes.

Steven (or little Peshda (sp?) as my sister is calling him - only my HS friends will understand that one) did very well at latching on to my sister (for feeding) but apparently he takes two sucks and falls asleep. I'm sure he'll be sleeping a lot.

Praise God for the answer to our prayers for a quick and safe delivery and a healthy baby. (I was also glad that the baby is a boy - because our boy will have a boy cousin his age and because the middle name that Carrie and her husband had picked out for girl takes a lot of explaining...:) (I was also very glad the baby was born on July 1st - 2 days away from my birthday and in a different month...:) He was still about 2 weeks early from his original due date.

Update - Week 21

Still feeling pretty good. It's just my lower legs that are sore. Like my calves and shins. My ankles seem a little bigger but not much. Yesterday my one friend was like, I thiinnnk I can tell you're pregnant. It must have been the dress I was wearing because this gal that I saw at the bus stop both days said to me this morning, "now today, you don't look pregnant at all." Apparently yesterday I did. But I heard this is the month that I will "pop." So by the time we go to camp I'm going to be big.

I"m reading about car seats now in Baby Bargains. Fun stuff, NOT.

Signed up for a childbirth class for Sept 30th. That's the earliest I could get a class that I didn't already have something going on on that day. Hopefully it's not too late (I'll be 34 weeks at that point). Debating whether to sign up for the breastfeeding and child care classes. The childbirth is $150 and the other two are $55 a piece.

Signed up for NetFlix. We're on the 2 per month plan until the baby comes and then we'll go to unlimited so I can watch movies while I'm breastfeeding in the middle of the night. This has come highly recommended by 3 different friends.

So anyone know what's up with Babies R Us's website? I know their in some dispute with Amazon but it doesn't look like they have much available online. All the stuff I'm looking at says "currently not available." Maybe we'll register there but just do it in store and then do Walmart or Target for anyone who wants to buy us something online.

I've noticed that whenever I eat a lot at once (as opposed to smaller meals) the baby really starts kicking a lot. After lunch on Tuesday, he was kicking/moving for like 2 hours. I was paranoid at first like, oh no, my child hates pizza (what I had for lunch) or worse, he's allergic to something - like cheese which I ate a lot of that day. But I think it was just cause I ate a lot at once and so he was up. So said the ladies on babyfit.com.

Oh, had lunch this week with a gal from Treasury who is pregnant and due in August who is also coming back less than full time. I think she's going to do 30 hours though. But she shared with me some stuff on day care (14 month waiting period for the Treasury sponsored day care - ridiculous!) and nannies and working part time. Oh, and I found out that there is a lactation room in the Treasury building. It's a conference room with a refridgerator. It's 4 floors up but there's an elevator close to me now. Apparently I just need to get a key to use it.

I'm afraid that I ended up being a little misleading with people who I've told that I'm going to cut back my hours or go less than full time. I think they assuming that means I'll be working at least 25 hours a week but probably more like 30-32. Maybe I'll work up to 24 or 25 but I'm thinking 20 hours when I first come back. Maybe once I don't have to breastfeed as much I can do more. The hard thing is I don't want to give up any of my issues. I will gladly share but I don't want to be taken off them totally. The sad thing is that I think I can still do most of my job in 20 hours a week on most weeks. Like this week has been pretty quiet. But I don't want to tell anyone that because then it's like you're telling them that you don't have enough work. Then it's like they feel they shouldn't be paying me as much or that I should be done more or they feel bad for not giving me enough work. I would have gladly done more work but it's actually more work for my boss to find me stuff to do. I guess I'm supposed to be proactive and find things to research but it's so hard to know what you may need to know in the future and what's relevant. I don't really want to know all the idiosyncrasies of the farm credit system or the deposit insurance system. Plus, that's the stuff I would be giving up working less than full time. Maybe that's the argument I make to my boss about how I can still handle my issues. Hey boss, I just won't be doing the extensive background research....(...that I haven't been doing anyway....) I really have a bad work ethic. Another reason I shouldn't be working full time.....