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.....

So this is 30...

It actually does feel a little different than other birthdays. Not sure how to explain it. I mean, I've been saying "I'll be thirty in June" for a while now so it's not like it sneaked up on me. But there was that sort of excitement or oh, you should feel bad for me sentiment associated with that statement. Now its time to get over it and so that's I guess what's different. Time to accept and move on. No pity party. And why should there be. I'm almost the youngest at work so it's not like I get any sympathy here. Or in my econ circles. Or even in other circles. Plus, I have much to be thankful for and no regrets like - man, I wish I would have done that before 30. Anything that I want to do can be done at 30+. I'm married with a baby on the way so not fearing the biological clock. Got a job in my field that pays well so I"m not obsessed with "getting ahead." I guess we haven't exactly reached our housing goal but that doesn't need to be done by 30. It's weird to see the number in print. It looks so different. Is that really my AGE? Anyway, I'm totally rambling.

They say kids will keep you young. That's good. Maybe they'll be a lot of kids there tonight at the musical Annie. I'll be in the young crowd then.

I've had three co-workers wish me Happy Birthday already today. I don't remember telling all of them. Maybe something is up....:) I was going to go get myself some ice cream at lunch to celebrate.

Last weekend of my 20s....

And what am I doing you may ask. Most appropriately, I'm going to a bridal shower. If there was one thing that characterized the majority of the youthful yet independent decade in my life it would be going to weddings and doing wedding related things. I've been in 8 weddings including my own, was invited to about 50 weddings including 16 in one year (2004, but only attended about half of those), attended close to 35 weddings, planned my own wedding, and became a wedding reception cooridinator for my church in the course of the last decade. And I loved every minute of it. I thought that going to weddings would be a drag after your own but it's great - where else do you really get to dance with your husband (beside your own kitchen when you're practicing your swing moves for the next wedding:) and think about your own marriage vows? Plus, you still think about what you liked and didn't like about how they did the wedding. There's no "oh, I wish we could have down that" because everything had a reason for having to be done the way we did it. And now I'm getting useful tips for the brides that I work with.

The baby decade almost always overlaps with the wedding decade. I think the baby decade probably started for me in about 2001 when my former college roommate had her first child. I was 25 then so maybe 25 - 35 will be the baby decade, although it might have to go longer if i want to have 3 or 4 kids. Don't want to have to pop them all out in 5 years.

Other plans for the weekend...watching a movie tonight. Going out to dinner with Martin on Saturday. And having lunch at a friend's on Sunday. So pretty low-key otherwise but typical.

Martin is taking me to see Annie at Wolftrap on Thursday. I've lived here almost 5 years and I haven't been to Wolftrap (outdoor stage / cultural arts center) yet. So very excited about that. That's been a goal of mine. Trying to get some folks together for a birthday party next Saturday. The good thing about having a b-day around the time of our Nation's b-day is that there are always fireworks! The bad thing is that most people are out of town. But it will still be a blast. Our place can probably only handle 15 people anyway.

Update - Week 20

This has been a good an exciting week. Obviously the ultrasound was exciting but it was so much better than I thought. I thought we were going to see this lesser formed human floating in water and not doing very much. On the contrary! We have a very active little boy! He was moving so much it was making him tired since he yawned during the ultrasound. I mentioned that I started crying when i saw that and I think that the reason was that realized how much of a little person he is already, doing things we do. He moved his arms a lot and I swear he seemed to be playing peek-a-boo with us. He looked like he was having a good old time. (Some may say that was due to the candy bar I ate earlier in the day.) It sort of gave me this feeling like he's not as helpless as I thought. Also that he's his own person, separate from me, which one knows but it's little things like this that make one realize them more or to a deeper extent. I will scan the pics tomorrow and try to get them up on the blog. That pictures don't do the ultrasound justice though. You see mostly the bones which make the kid look like an alien but I'm sure he's much cuter than that - just look at his daddy!

I got Martin a "I love my Daddy" frame for Father's Day. I told him to put the ultrasound pic in it and take it to work.....he didn't seem to think getting asked a ton of questions about it all day at work would be fun. He's not as much of a slacker at work as I am.

When I came home yesterday, I started looking at boy clothes online. I felt like I needed to pick some sort of theme. Baby blue is nice and I like strips (and plaid of course!) and some more medium blues. As far as theme though, I wasn't crazy about the sports or boats or Pooh clothes. Seem pretty cheesy. I guess we won't be able to get away from Blues Clues, which is fine. But I really liked the clothes with stars on them and especially anything dealing with space or a space ship. So maybe that will be the clothes theme. Still going with the pastoral sheep and bunnies for the eventual nursery since hopefully that will last through multiple kids. But the space stuff will be this child's thing.

Gotta get serious about the boy name now. We have two names (with middle names) that we like but we're not sold on either one. We think we can come up with something better.

Still feeling good. Starting to notice my ankles getting a little swollen and I'm going the bathroom more. I flew to Boston over the weekend to visit my friend (and trainer!) Jen K. I could really tell the difference in the circulation in my legs during the flight. And it was only an hour. I need to stop cross my legs as much and putting my feet up. Jen and I had a great time in Boston. We walked around a lot on Saturday morning and watched some World Cup games and went to the movies and a museum. I didn't even crash when I got home. I have slept more this week though. But I did get up this morning and exercise! And we went to the pool last night.

Just last week I started to notice my pants being too tight. I started using this expander thing that my sister bought me. It's worked really well. This week I've worn just my bigger pants and that still works. No maternity clothes yet and hopefully I can hold out for about a month (with the expander things to help) until I get some maternity clothes from my sister. Going to FL July 21-24th. My sister is ready to deliver any moment although her due date wasn't until July 10th. Hopefully she'll have the baby next week, just not on my birthday....:)

I told my friend Alison (who will be at camp with us in August) last week. I also told my prayer group at work. I think that's everyone now. (Martin also told his friend Brian this weekend when he went to visit him). Now we have to go around again telling everyone it's a boy. I think I may stick to email for this news.

IT'S A BOY....(within a 95% confidence interval)

All is well according to the sonogram. It was really amazing seeing the face and watching him move his arms and legs. He even yawned while we were watching. I started to cry...

Only got one good shot of the between the legs view so that's why she said she was only 95% sure. But with that one shot she pointed it out to us.

He was moving around a lot during the sonogram.

Heartbeat was 139 bpm this time. Oh, and my due date according to the sonogram was moved up to November 4th.

Update - Week 19

Still feeling good this week. My stomach is getting really hard but not really showing yet. I've gained 2 lbs so far. Baby Center says baby is as long as a small zucchini. (Must be the kind you find in NVA Giants because in PA the zucchinis are much bigger and better.)

Martin and I went for a bike ride on Saturday - 22 miles! I felt really good and I didn't even crash the next day. I've determined that my fatique is totally random. Or at least based more on my eating which I'm being more aware of now. Got some more exercise last week when I had to park my car far from the metro at a friends house since the lot was full. I think I do more walking than I realize with my commute. Not enough for me to feel like I'm exercising but enough to keep me active during pregnancy. I still should do more exercising, esp. weights.

Update on the pediatrician search...I found another recommendation on the dc urban moms website. It was for a practice in seven corners, near where I used to live when I first moved to DC. I checked my insurance company's website and they were on there. But as I found out earlier that doesn't mean much. There were like 36 doctors listed in this practice. They have separate waiting rooms for sick and healthy kids and some of the doctors have privaledges at Fair Oaks so it sounded really good. I called and asked if they were taking new patients. The lady said well, what insurance do you have (oh, no, not again) and I told her but this time she said yes! She also indicated that they don't have a waiting list so I can just call back later to make an appointment to meet the doctor in October. They have free "expectant parent" visits. The receptionist was really nice too - a big plus for me. So I think we'll still ask around but now I know there's a least one good practice that we can get into.

I told my boss's boss this week. He was very nice and told me about his girls (ages 5 and almost 2) and being a parent. I think he's going to be a good ally. He said anything they need to do to keep me here and happy they will do. So that's really good. I started trying to contact the HR people too. Just getting a hold of someone over there is a project. I was encouraged by something on OPM's website though that sounded like to switch to part time I just needed to pick the number of hours (between 16 and 32) and get people here to fill out the form and sign off on it. Hopefully then all the calculations (salary, leave, insurance coverage) are done somewhere else automatically depending on the number of hours. I thought I would have less flexibility in choosing the number of hours to make it easy to calculate my leave for example. Maybe I'll try to keep it to even numbers just so I can keep track of it.

Stuff I've been thinking about...how much are we really going to use a stroller, especially in the early months which will be winter (i.e., do we need a "travel system'?) Along with that I'm trying to imagine where the baby will be when he/she is not sleeping or nursing or in the car. And should we try to hold the baby as much as possible (or as much as our backs/arms will allow us)? In the genre of "natural mothering" is this issue of baby carrying or baby wearing. See link. So what do y'all think of it?

I think Martin and I should probably read a parenting book or two in prep for the baby as we won't have time afterwards. Got some good suggestions from Catherine so that's next on the prep list.

Had my flower girl's family over for dinner last Friday which was really fun. I was drilling Linda with questions about birth and breastfeeding (her mom was a Le Leche Leaque councelor). Always good to see parents in action too.

Also been thinking more about the birth and how that relates to my low blood pressure. Something to ask the dr about next time. Getting excited for the sonogram on Wednesday!

PS Oh, we took the fan to the ladies house on Sunday. She wasn't home but the guy that lives with her was. He was very nice and we told him the story of how we got the fan. He said it was luck and I said I thought God really wanted them to have the fan. He was really excited to tell the lady about the fan so hopefully he'll tell her that story. It wasn't nearly as big a deal as I was thinking it might be - in a good and bad way I guess. It was easy enough but then I was a little disappointed that we didn't get into a conversation about God. I guess I was thinking with something like this that there would be more opportunity, like God was doing something big. And he still could. She contacted my volunteer coordinator and wanted to send a thank you card to who donated the fan.

addition to the ruby tuesday

I forgot to mention another reason Tuesday was such a good day. My volunteer coordinator (Jennifer) emailed me that day to say that she had a case where there was a women who needed a fan. She was denied cooling assistance from the state and couldn't get one from the Salvation Army. So Jennifer asked if my church could help out. (This was one reason I wanted to do the financial education volunteering - to be more connected to the poor/needy in our area and be able to help them, possibly using the assistance fund that our church has.) So I contacted the guys that run the fund and they said sure and the one guy said that just last week his neighbor had asked him if he wanted a fan because he got one from work and couldn't use it! I was so excited to see how God provided. So I'm going to get the fan and deliver it tomorrow. Although now I'm nervous. I guess I thought one of the deacons would go with me (okay, one is - my husband - but he's just going to be there for moral support). I want to communicate to the woman my initial excitement over the fan and how God worked the situation out. And to ask if she has anything we could pray for her about. Not knowing much about the woman, this is pretty scary for me. I'm not a quick thinker and I often feel like I miss opportunities to share my faith in God. Even talking about how we got the fan is something that's not the norm for me. I don't get excited about much and don't express my excitement much or in a dynamic way at all. I've been thinking about it all week. I have a plan of what to say and my husband says I should just trust that God will use me and bless the situation and if He doesn't then I've still done what I've been called to do. Plus, he's like, you're bringing her a fan that she needs, what do you think she's going to do you - be mean? I had some folks ask me for directions this morning. I was totally comfortable talking to them and delighted to help them. I should have the same attitude tomorrow and not be nervous. Please pray to that end.

Our baby is the size of a "large sweet potato"

I always find the fruit/veggie comparisons amusing on baby center's weekly update. They also say that the baby is probably moving a lot now. My doctor asked me on Monday if I felt the baby yet. I said not really. I thought I had, maybe a few times. He said that that's how it starts and eventually you'll recognize it as the baby. If you gently tap the top of your hand that's sort of what it feels like to me, only it's coming from inside my abdoman, right below my belly button. It only last a short time so by the time I'm like, hmm, is that the baby, the feeling is gone.

Baby Center also said it's time to start wearing bigger clothes. I'm realizing that I've been wearing clothes that have been too big on me for the past two years. Two years ago, before getting married, I lost 15 pounds and never bought new clothes. So I've been fortunate in that i'm still able to wear most of my clothes. My sister bought me this pants expander thing so that should help for a while yet. One thing that I am going to have to buy now though is some new bras. I've been told that's the only way that you can tell that I'm pregnant now - because I'm getting more top heavy. So I've figured out a way to get Martin to take me shopping - promise to go on a bike ride with him afterwards. So we're going to the Leesburg Outlets on Saturday and then doing the west-most section of the W&OD trail. There's a LeggsHanesBaliPlatex outlet where i've gone before so hopefully they will have something that fits. I don't even know what size is bigger than what I'm wearing now - E? F? DDD?

Also, some news about my sister. Apparently the doctor thinks she will deliver at least a week earlier than her due date. So I might have a niece or nephew that shares my birth month (or even day!). And so they might even find out the gender of their baby before we do if she delivers really early. We'll see. Still planning on visiting them in July though.

Update - Week 18

Ugh, I can't believe this. I just typed a really long entry and it didn't post right so now I have to start over.

A lot has happened this week which I covered in some other post. But here's the regular update stuff. Feeling really good this week. My back even feels better. I did the Denise Austin workout tape on Tuesday morning. It's whimpy but it's good because I don't sweat enough to have to wash my hair afterwards and because it's short, so I can do it without being late for work. The tape is also good because since the footwork is easy she has you doing stuff with your arms the whole time so it's a good upper body work out. It also really loosened up my back which is why I think it feels better.

I realized on Saturday that I'm still prone to exhaustion and that I need to make sure I eat enough. After going to a picnic and then to babies r us and the grocery store we came home and I just crashed. I could barely get up to eat. Thankfully all we had to do that night was red up (straighten up, for the non-SWAP folks) the house which i was able to do on Monday and Tuesday. Saturday night we just watched a movie (Fun with Dick and Jane) and then I was fine on Sunday when we had lunch with Nancy and Duncan.

I found out that the pediatrician that was recommended to me does not take our insurance for new patients. Apparently they used to take it and will still take it if you're an existing patient which is why i found them on my insurance company's website. So back to square one on that.

Beside telling the folks at the wedding and the crew at work, I also called my former boss and friend/mentor Lisa to tell her. Through a conversation with her and with Nancy I was thinking more about why I think I'd prefer to have a girl. Girls tend (I'm totally generalizing here so bare with me) to like structure. They can be disciplined/trained more easily and earlier. I like structure and discipline so I'd like that. Examples of girls who do well with structure - my sunday school class (I've had just girls lately and it's been great - they color and do the craft and listen), Lea (my flower girl who I babysat), and Amelie (Nancy's daughter who Nancy said has a much longer attention span than her friend who is a boy). Of course there are boys who like structure too (Calvin). In fact, what made me think of this is when Lisa reminded me of my last summer at camp when I was the boss to two completely different personalities (Kyle and Angie - the bride from last weekend) where the guy was the one who was more structured. Being Kyle's boss was easy. But i learned so much being Angie's boss about respecting different people's personalities and learning from them and learning how to motivate people to use their gifts when they are different from mine. One of the things I've been praying about is that I would learn a lot from and be outdone as far as being a Christian by my child. So bring on the boy! (But the little girls' clothes are soooo cute!!)

a ruby tuesday

Just thought I'd share my day yesterday with y'all. It was good day (aside from the 1.75 hour commute on the way home - which all the good stuff trumps). On my way into work, I saw the first dogs. Closer than I ever had - no fence between us. I thought I had my camera in my purse but I didn't or else I would have posted some pics. I would have pet them but Barney was taking off down the alley between Treasury and the WH and Mrs. Beazley was going nuts over the sniffing dog that just went passed in the SS van. The two (yes, two!) official federal presidential dog walkers didn't seem to mind too much that Barney was off to the races. I guess they figured the SS would stop him from getting too far.

I get into work (oh, need to mention that I hadn't told my boss about the pregnancy yet at this point - Monday, when I was going to tell him, was a busy day at work) ready to tell the boss man and get an email from him saying that he won't be in at least until the afternoon because he was in court. I figured he had jury duty but then was reminded by his secretary that this was for this crazy case that he had told us about where he was a witness for the defense. His neighbor was charged with public drunkness and resisting arrest when he got beligerent after complaining about these cable guys who were working after midnight (the man didn't think they were really cable guys even after the police told him they were). Anyway, the guy ended up copping a plea to a lesser offense and my boss made it into the office before the time staff lunch ended at 1pm. I got asked to go to a congressional hearing on the Hill at 2pm and I had to leave at 1:30 so I had from 1-1:30 to tell him. I figured it was a good time since he was in a good mood about not having to testify and telling us all about his court experience and because he wasn't entralled in some project at that time. Still, I was really nervous - my heart was beating out of my chest. But I did it. I think I freaked my boss out in the way I introduced it. I asked if I could talk to him about an adminstrative issue and I shut his office door and said I had some news. He thought I was leaving for another job. So the pregnancy announcement was a relief for him. I told him about my expected maturnity leave and that I wanted to cut back on my hours/days when I come back. He was fine with all that and said he was willing to work things out and accomodate and be flexible. He said congratulations and that it was good news. Although I think I could see him thinking about how this would affect the office and that it would be a pain. Maybe I'm just reading into it too much. Plus, I guess, what's he going to do? And this is better than me leaving. Anyway, I'm glad that's over. Although I still have to come up with proposal for cutting back my hours. I didn't tell him what I was thinking exactly.

The hearing on the Hill went well and I felt like the expert because I went with this legislative affairs person who I was able to school on the issue. So that was fun. And it was fun telling others in the office. My boss's secretary gave me a big hug and was very excited. I was afraid that I was starting to show but it seems that no one caught on because of that. One guy (this happened today so I guess its not part of the ruby tuesday) said he knew it because I had been glowing the past few weeks. He also said another hint was that I hadn't gotten my hair highlighted again (when the roots started growing in from my highlights that I got a year ago). That is one thing I would not have expected a guy to pick up on. He said specifically it wasn't because I was showing because I wasn't.

When I got home yesterday, there was a package waiting for me - the baby bargains book! My friend Nancy got it for me and it was delivered so quickly! Started thumbing through that at breakfast this morning.

So that was my fun day.

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i changed the settings so anyone can comment now (without setting up a blog). so please do! sorry amy that i didn't do this earlier. but now you have a great blog!