Week 26 & 27: The Nesting Begins!

For those of you who know Colt and I well, this post may be shocking to you. We are probably two of the biggest procrastinators in the world, but with a little help from my "nesting" instinct, we've actually completed several baby related tasks this week!

Week 26 was a pretty busy week! We had Uncle Josh come to stay with us from Tuesday (last day of Week 25) until Friday morning. Colt loves it when Uncle Josh comes to town because it brings the added bonus of having a drummer at a few of his gigs! They always enjoy getting to "jam" (I hate that word--Haha!) together. I went to Meridian to hear them play on Wednesday night after church, and the baby was moving all over the place, listening to them play. Thursday night they played at Colt's regular gig at Cantina Loredo in Wiregrass Mall. Aunt Brenda, Chase, Tara, Peter, Lauren, all of their kids, and Buddy and Sharon came up to hear him play also. Uncle Josh gave Sydney and Ethan some drum sticks to take home, and they thought that was the coolest! Its so cool to watch those two grow, and see their different personalities develop. Uncle Josh and Colt were commenting later on how much natural rhythm Ethan had. He was drumming on a nearby chair, on beat! Sydney was staring at Uncle Josh's hands, and watching Ethan to get a handle on the technique, to find out the best, and most efficient way of learning to drum. They are the cutest! Uncle Josh left on Friday morning. We were glad to get to spend some time with him before the baby comes. I can't wait to see Aunt Heather in November for my shower! Ryan was in town last week as well! He played with Colt and Uncle Josh at Meridian, and Cantina Loredo as the bassist, although he is a really good guitar player as well. We always look forward to his homecoming and getting to spend some time with him. Poor Colt was exhausted by the end of the week as he had a gig every night except Tuesday, and he "jammed" with Uncle Josh and Ryan on that night! He even played on Sunday afternoon, which he never does. Thankfully he still had a little bit of time to take a nap when he got home from his gig, before church. He was so thankful for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off!

Monday kicked off our nursery rejuvenation project. It took me a while to choose a paint color. I kept putting it off because I didn't want to make the wrong decision, and then have to re-paint. Colt HATES to paint. I mean, he really, really hates to paint. Thankfully my parents agreed to come over and help him. They say pregnant women shouldn't paint due to the fumes as well as the chance that any paint on your skin could be absorbed and affect the baby. To tell you the truth, I don't know what they (the people that made this rule up) think is going to happen if you smell paint, or get it on your skin. I'm not really sure of the adverse effects that participating in the painting would have on the baby, but I abstained anyway. On Monday night, we met my parents at Outback and took them out to dinner, and then returned to our house to begin the painting. Colt had already primed the room with white paint before their arrival. While he was busy doing that, I decided to clean the windows on the outside of the nursery. I, being the bad housewife that I am, have never cleaned the outside of those windows. It showed. I had to use Lysol to break up all of the grime first, and then go over them again with Windex to leave a streak free shine! I think I used about a million paper towels. Al Gore would be very disappointed in me. Anyway, after dinner, Daddy and Colt got started on the painting while Mama entertained me in the living room. Later on, Buddy and Sharon stopped by to check on the progress and chat with us for a few minutes. The painting was done by 10:30pm, but there was still much more to do. The next day, we decided that we would re-paint the white border on the bottom of the room. This meant another trip to Lowes! We got the white paint, as well as a sample can of the paint we used in the living room to do some touching up and some new outlet and light switch plates! We also used Tuesday to shop for some new carpet for the nursery. By Tuesday night we had completely finished the painting which not only included the walls, but the white border on the bottom, then re-edging with the brown, as well as touching up the bookshelf that goes around the top of the bedroom. I am SO THANKFUL to have that behind us! I always think that I like painting, until we start doing it again. Ugh! So much to clean up! We found the new carpet yesterday (Wednesday) and it will be installed either tomorrow or Saturday. I know I'm nesting because I can't wait for the carpet to be installed so I can do a really "deep clean" on the room! My goal is to keep it clean enough so that I can just do a quick wipe down before we go to the hospital (assuming I have some warning of when that will be). I can't wait to start moving everything back in the bedroom, and getting it all set up the way I want it. Its hard to believe that there will be a baby in there in a few weeks, Lord willing. Below is a picture of me at 27 weeks (well, 26 weeks and 6 1/2 days) in the nursery with the new paint color.

The baby has continued to be really active at night, although I wouldn't say he is a super active baby. I think he "hides" throughout most of the day and surfaces around midnight. Not to say that he never kicks throughout the day, he does, its just not as frequent as it is at night. I can't remember if I shared this in my last post, and if I did, feel free to read ahead. Colt loves to feel my belly when the baby kicks! He was playing with the baby a few nights ago, and when the baby would kick, Colt would poke back at him, and the baby would kick his hand again. It was like a fun game of tag. Colt decided to lay his face down on my belly, and the baby started kicking his cheek. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. It seems that the baby kicks for Colt and I all the time, and although other family members have felt him kick too, he seems shy to move around for anyone other than his parents.

Last night (Wednesday-27 week mark) the baby got the hiccups for the first time! I was sitting in Ray Madrigal's class at church, and all of the sudden I started to feel what can only be described as a rhythmic movement, almost like a faint kick that was on beat. I think I've felt this before, but I've attributed it to my pulse or just several small kicks. Nope! Little man must be drinking that amniotic fluid too fast. This could be why he's so fat! He got them twice last night and I love it. I'm told this gets more annoying with time, but for now I think its sweet. I keep picturing his little chest jumping with each hiccup. I can't wait to see him do this out in the real world!

Week 26 was busy, but lovely all the same. Next on the agenda is getting the carpet installed, and moving the furniture back into the baby's room! I have a doctor's appointment next Thursday at which they'll give me the dreaded glucose test! Ahh! Thanks for reading!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAUREN!!! Love you!

"Love Man"

"Life is always a rich a steady time when you are waiting for something to happen, or to hatch."

-E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

I think this quote proves to be very true, although I think they should modify it to say, "During the second trimester, life is always a rich and steady time...". The first trimester, ehh. Rich, yes, steady, no. I was sick as a dog! I'm beginning to discover that there is truth to all the advice I got about how the symptoms that went away during your second trimester start to resurface during your third trimester, although they are different now. I think I would choose anything to throwing up 3 or 4 times a day though! Oh well, only two more weeks until my third trimester starts! Bring on the backaches!

This past week (Week 25), Colt and I bought a chest of drawers from Ikea for the nursery. We bought it on a Wednesday before church, and came home straight after to put it together. I was pretty impressed with how well it turned out, as neither one of us are born carpenters. Ha! During the final stages of putting the drawers in, I noticed some blood on my hand after wiping my nose. Turns out my nose was bleeding! I've heard this was a symptom of pregnancy, due to the increased amount of blood in your body, but I had never experienced this before. I didn't even get nose bleeds before I was pregnant. Of course, Colt and I got a good laugh out of my finishing the project with a bloody paper towel in my hand. Gross I know, but just reporting the facts. :) Anyway, it turned out great. I will post a picture for all of you non-Facebookers. The brownish paint is going to be the new color.

Thursday (the 15th) was the date of Colt's annual gig at his old high school. One of his former teachers who organizes the homecoming festivities calls him every year to ask him if he can get a band together and play for them. It always turns out to be a lot of fun! A bunch of the school clubs perform different skits, and the crowd judges the winners. Most of them are pretty lame, but every once in a while, you'll see a good one. I think its fun for Colt and the band, because the kids act like its a real rock show. As soon as they start to feel comfortable rockin' out in front of their teachers, they'll rush the stage and jump up and down to the music. This year it was Greg Ciampa on the drums, Warren Curry on bass, Danny Moody on guitar, and Colt on guitar and lead vocals. They sounded great! My friend Megan (Greg's wife), and I drove up to Ocala together, which made for a fun ride! For those of you that don't know she and Greg, they were married about a month before Colt and I, and have a sweet baby girl named Mia. Colt and I are in the process of arranging a marriage between Mia and Cash, as she is a very Godly, and stylish young lady. :) Its so nice to have friends with a baby that we can solicit for advice! While waiting for their show to start, Colt and I were sitting in the band room talking, and I felt my first kick to the ribs! It was actually more like he maneuvered a limb under my ribs because it was a constant pressure. It was painless, just uncomfortable and only lasted for a few minutes. It went away after I stood up. You'd think I would hate having that happen, but its kind of cool knowing how big the baby must be to be able to do that!

On Saturday afternoon we got to spend some time with the Venable side of my family. We all met at GiGi's Italian Restaurant in Pasadena, an old Venable haunt for years now. Our cousins, Eric and Mike were in town from Georgia, so we decided to get together and celebrate their arrival, as well as Uncle Clay's birthday! If you've never been to GiGi's, you must go. Order a pepperoni pizza and an antipasta salad. Tell them Aubree sent you. I'm just kidding, don't do that, they'll have no idea who you're talking about. HAHA! My mouth is watering just thinking about their pizza. We'll be back soon enough though as GiGi's is always my birthday restaurant of choice. GiGi's, Starbucks and a drive to look at Christmas lights is always my birthday wish!

Lately, we have been pretty lazy about playing music for the baby, so we decided to remedy this problem on Saturday night. I think we were up until about 4am playing with him! From what I can gather, he seems to be most active right around 3am on most nights. We started out with some of his favorite songs, "Love Man" by Otis Redding, "Return to Sender" by Elvis Presley, and "Bring It On Home to Me" by Sam Cooke. He loves "Love Man" so much, Colt has started refering to him as Cash "Love Man" Clark. As previously stated, he seems to really dig "60s Soul" music. "He's got the feelin', baby baby he's got the feelin'!" Haha! He seemed to really get into The Rolling Stones this time, and was movin' and shakin' to, "Start Me Up" and "Time Is On My Side". Hands down, his favorite song of this little experiment was "Shake a Tail Feather" covered by Ray Charles. He was all over the place during that one! At one point, he seemed to be kicking on beat. After a while, I started getting sleepy, so I told Colt to pick one more song, and then we'd go to sleep. He chose a song called, "Alright For Now" by Tom Petty. Its such a sweet song that could be about a baby, or a spouse. I love it. Colt had his arm on my belly, and the baby was very still during the whole song, but at the end, he kicked Colt's arm really hard. It was a nice way to end the day.

Week 25 was lovely. Its hard to believe that we only have 14 more weeks from today (26 week mark) until we reach the 40 week mark. Its cool to see my little pregnancy ticker in double digits! Keep those prayers going up! Thanks for reading!

24 Week Ultrasound

Colt and I went to our 24 week ultrasound (almost 25 weeks) at my Mom's office today and met with Jennifer, our ultrasound tech! We hadn't seen the baby in about a month, and couldn't believe how big he's gotten! She checked all of his major parts, including his stomach, bladder, kidneys, heart, brain, pancreas etc. He's running like a well oiled machine. Next she checked his heartbeat, and she said its still good and strong. She made sure that my placenta, uterus, and cervix were looking good as well. I'm so thankful that she's so thorough.

Now, on to the fun stuff. I'm happy to report he's still a boy. Ha! Our baby is not shy, and seems to enjoy showing his boy parts off. She measured his femur, which is how they determine how big he is measuring. From his femur measurements, he's at about 25 weeks, 5 days. I was 24 weeks 5 days at this appointment, so he's measuring exactly a week ahead of schedule. She measured his head which was about the same as the femur in weeks, but his belly was measuring at 26 weeks and a few days. :) He's a chunk. I love that about him. We got a few good views of his face in the office, but sadly, the pictures didn't turn out super clear. We got a really great picture of his nose and mouth, and she ruled out a cleft palate. I asked her if she could see any hair yet, still thinking it was a little bit to early. NOPE! She showed us his scalp, and said, "You see the fuzzy area...that's hair!" I'll post a picture of what she was showing us below. Its a picture of his head from the back, and his ear is on the left. Anyway, that was cool to see. Just as we were wrapping it up, we got another good view of his nose and mouth, and he started to eat! It was so neat to see his little mouth drinking the amniotic fluid. We've seen him move around before, but never something as "human" as eating. She said his little bladder was getting full and he'd probably be needing to go to the bathroom in a few minutes. That would have been cool to see! Haha!

So as of now, little baby Clark is measuring about a week ahead of schedule, and about a week and a half, ahead of schedule in his belly. He's weighing in at 1 pound 15 ounces, so almost 2 pounds! Jennifer (the ultrasound tech) said a lot of boys can go two to three weeks early, especially if they're big. I can't wait to see when he decides to make his entrance. Thanks for reading!

Picture of the back of his head (ear on the left). The fuzzy area around his scalp is hair!

Picture of his cheek, mouth and nose. His arm is covering the rest of his face on the right side of the picture (his left arm).

Profile shot

24 Week Doctors Appointment

TWO POSTS IN TWO DAYS! I probably should've just waited to write one really long post today, but oh well! As the title suggests, today I had my 24 week doctors appointment. It was pretty standard I suppose. All of the appointments start with a urine sample, weight check, and blood pressure check. After that I go and sit in the waiting room again, and wait for a room to open up. Today I got to bypass the wait, and Colt and I were called right back. My blood pressure was slightly elevated, as it has been creeping up the charts since I've been pregnant. I think I have relatively normal (maybe on the low side of normal) blood pressure when I'm not pregnant. My doctor says I'm still within the normal range at 136/84, but I think they start to worry when it reaches 140/90. Supposedly the diastolic (bottom) number is the most important. I started out with the diastolic somewhere in the 70s. Anyway, my doctor isn't worried, so I'm not worried.

I asked her several questions about the swine flu vaccination, which has been a subject of controversy lately. There are so many differing opinions on whether the vaccine is completely safe, if it causes long term effects, etc. My doctor says I should definitely get it when it comes out. I'm still collecting information, and I'm going to consult a few other physicians before I make any decisions. I have previously been staunchly opposed to getting the shot, but now I've got some thinking to do. There was a news release the other day about doctors who were frustrated with the huge following of people that are not getting the vaccine, and telling their friends that its not safe. They say that it isn't much different than the regular flu shot, and it has been studied, and perfected, and is now ready for use. We'll see. I'll let you know what I decide.

We talked a little bit about the Glucose Tolerance test that I'll get at my 28 week appointment. This will tell me how quickly glucose is cleared from my blood. This should also tell me whether or not I have gestational diabetes. I hear the best part is drinking the super sugary drink before hand. YUM! I keep joking with Colt that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if I have gestational diabetes, because our baby is ginormous! :)

After the questions, she felt for my uterus, which is supposed to be about 1.5 to 2 inches above my bellybutton. It was higher than that, but the doctor said that's normal as well. In fact, the baby has measured "farther along" at almost every appointment, and at almost every ultrasound. Maybe I'll deliver earlier? She hooked me up to the fetal heart monitor and said all is well with his little heartbeat! Its steadily been around 135 throughout the entire pregnancy!

All in all, it was a good appointment. I always look forward to my doctors appointments, although I leave almost every time thinking how uneventful it was. I guess its better to be uneventful than "eventful". Thanks for reading!!!


P.S. Did anyone see The Office wedding tonight? LOVED IT!

Week 22-23: Vero Vacation etc.

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I've become delinquent in my blog writing responsibilities. We've had a busy two weeks! Colt has been playing a lot lately and I've been running errands, or tagging along. I am 24 weeks today which means I'm officially 6 months pregnant! Time is just flying by.

Last week were were thankful to take a little mini-vacation. My parents own a time share in Vero Beach, FL. Its on the east coast of Florida, a little bit south of parallel to Tampa. We left last Sunday afternoon after church to head out there. The car ride is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, which was fine with us, because we had time to listen to music and comedy routines on Colt's IPOD, and talk. We always say that you could put the two of us in an empty room with plain white walls, and we would still entertain each other for hours. We got there around 6:30 in the evening, and had time to drop our stuff off, check out the condo, and go grab some dinner. After dinner it was about 8:30-9:00, and we were surprised that there were almost no cars on the street. This became a recurring joke throughout the remainder of the trip. When we got back to the condo that night we were so tired! Colt fell asleep around 11pm, but I can never go to sleep that early. As I laid in bed, watching TV, the baby started to become VERY active. He was kicking so hard almost the entire night long. Usually I'll feel a kick here and a kick there, but he kicked so many times consecutively, and never seemed to tire! I was up until 3am with him having a little dance party inside my belly. The next day we started a routine that continued throughout the rest of the trip. Everyday we'd wake up around 11 or 12, put on our bathing suits and sunscreen, grab our beach blanket and head down to the beach for about an hour (or however long Colt could sit still). We enjoyed the "big" waves over there because its the Atlantic Ocean, and not the Gulf. My concerned mom would remind us everyday that there were Great White sharks and we should stay out of the water, or at least near the shoreline. She's so cute! One year, my dad actually almost caught a smaller shark near the shoreline with his bare hands during one of their vacations to Vero, so they must be out there somewhere. Colt and I had a great time going in the water though. The waves are definitely bigger over there. On one occasion, Colt and I were out past the point where the waves break hard, and we could just jump over an oncoming wave, instead of getting caught up in the surf. I was teasing him saying that I was going to body surf into shore (obviously a bad idea since I'm pregnant). As I jumped to escape the oncoming tsunami, I got caught up in it somehow, and my head went under. I was drug into shore underwater! I've learned from growing up near the beach, that if you get caught up in a wave, the best thing to do is not fight it. Just let it carry you in, and when you feel the water pressure letting up, just stand. The time I was underwater is obviously a blur, but I do remember putting my hands down, and opening my eyes to make sure I was far enough away from the sand that I didn't bump my belly. When I stood up, I had so much water up my nose, and my hair was everywhere. I was a little bit disoriented, but I started to look around for Colt. I spotted him where we had been standing, and he was laughing hysterically! "You look like Big Ern!" HAHA! I was laughing so hard. Of course later he asked if I was ok, but I think the initial laugh was exactly what I needed. In case you were wondering, this is a picture of Big Ern...


We spent the rest of the week going to the beach, shopping, and going to see a couple movies. The theatre there had a weekday rate of $4.75 per person! Colt had to play on Thursday, so we headed home on Wednesday night. It was a lovely little break from our normal routine!

On to the pregnancy happenings! These past two weeks have rendered many new "surprises". Last week Colt noticed that I'm starting to get the "linea nigra" or the pigmented line that runs vertically down the abdomen. Right now its very light, but its definitely there. Its funny how some things that aren't necessarily flattering about pregnancy, can be exciting once they start to surface. I can remember seeing some of my family members with this "pregnancy line", and thinking, "They're far along into their pregnancy now!" I'm also getting a little bit of the pregnancy mask. I've noticed a few dark spots under my eyes that weren't there before. My mom said she had a little bit of the pregnancy mask with me, but it faded soon after she had me. It doesn't really bother me, it just looks like a weird tan.

Another not so fun side effect of pregnancy is charley horses. One of my favorite things to do in the morning when I wake up is stretch out my legs and flex my calf muscles to stretch them out before I get out of bed. One day last week when I woke up, I started to stretch, and got a horrible charley horse in my right foot and calf. I had to JUMP out of bed and walk on it, and it went away. Every morning since then, when I do my "morning stretch" I have to be very careful how far I stretch the muscles because I can feel a charley horse threatening! Now that I've learned how to avoid them, they aren't a problem. The baby sleeping on my sciatic nerve on the other hand is completely unavoidable, and not fun. I had a numb leg for several hours the other night.

My dreams have always been fairly vivid, when I can remember them. Since I have been pregnant, it seems that I have very vivid dreams every night, and I can almost always remember them! I have had several dreams about the baby, and even when I don't dream about the baby, I am always pregnant in my dreams. I've had dreams where the baby can talk, dreams where the baby has had a lot of brown hair, dreams where he's had very little blond hair, and a dream where he was born on January 20th, a week before my due date. I can't wait to put all of these dreams to rest, and get to see what he looks like, and his personality for myself!

Lately, Colt and I have been taking long walks everyday. Its so weird gaining weight when you're pregnant. Its a complete 180 from what you've been accustomed to your whole life. When you're not pregnant and you gain a few pounds, you workout and eat better and lose the weight. When you're pregnant, you aren't supposed to lose the weight! Walking at least helps me feel like I'm doing something productive to manage my weight gain. If I can't be thin, at least I can be toned! Haha! I'm still right on target with how much I'm supposed to have gained by now, but sometimes it can feel overwhelming. Most of the time, six months pregnant feels great! I can still do everything I could do before (although shaving my legs is slowly becoming more of a task). The only time six months pregnant doesn't feel great is after dinner! I go to a website called babycenter.com frequently to read the message boards and talk with other soon-to-be mothers who are in the same week that I am. I mentioned this problem of feeling extremely bloated, and mostly just FULL after dinner, to see if anyone else was feeling the same way. I was amazed by the response! There were so many women who are feeling just like me! Some of them asked their doctors what they can do to combat that feeling of "extreme fullness", and the advice was just to eat several small meals throughout the day. Supposedly we can't eat like we used to be able to because there isn't so much room for our stomachs to expand anymore. Its horrible because I get a backache, its uncomfortable to move around a lot, and its almost harder to breathe! Thankfully, its only after eating dinner, and not all the time. I'm going to start eating a small dinner around dinner time, and another small dinner later in the night so I can be full, but not FULL!

I have some important dates coming up! I have my 24 week doctor appointment tomorrow, and another ultrasound on the 12th! I don't know whether they are going to do my glucose tolerance test at the 24 week appointment or my 28 week appointment, but that's coming up soon also. I'm also trying to coordinate some time with my sister so she can take my pregnancy pictures. I might end up setting the camera timer and taking a few myself, but we'll see. I've got some really cool, artsy ideas for them, so stay tuned!!! Thanks for reading!