Week 24 - Welcome to 2011

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2011. Sean and I are so excited for this year and all the exciting and wonderful changes that are going to happen in our lives. We can't believe that it's only about 3-1/2 months until we meet our little guy!

I feel so blessed to have so many people so excited for his arrival as well! I forgot to mention in my last post, but we have received quite a lot of items from family already. My sister-in-law Janet actually sent us a huge box with cloth diaper covers that she MADE, as well as a few that she bought. They are really cute! We will definitely have to get more diapers so we have them in all his sizes, but these are a great start. I am really excited about cloth diapering. I know that it will be different than what I have experienced in the past - having never actually cared for a child in cloth diapers, but the benefits to the baby and to the environment are definitely worth it. I'm looking into trying a trial of a bunch of different diaper systems to see which styles/brands that we like best. I'm sure there will be a lot of trial and error, but I've had many friends go the cloth diaper route and love it, so I know that it is possible & very beneficial. These are not the cloth diapers of the 60's and 70's! No diaper pins here! See below for these cute diapers!



Also, our other family has really showered us with gifts already as well. This is the first grandchild on Sean's side of the family, so needless to say they are pretty excited. We've received quite a lot of cute little outfits as well as much of our bath-time stuff and other little tools and trinkets. I'm starting to think that we need to purchase the dresser soon so that I have someplace to start putting everything!

I'm at week 24. I'm feeling good. It barely even seems like I am pregnant most of the time, except for that occassional backache and getting up all the time to pee. =) For my birthday, Sean got me a membership to Massage Envy, and so I get a prenatal massage once a month! It's awesome. I had one last Friday and I asked her to really focus on my back and she worked it! It was great.

Today I had a Dr. appointment and it was probably the shortest one yet. They are actually starting to be a bit uneventful. Starting this appointment I now have to pee in a cup at the begining so they can check for sugar and protein in the urine. Then of course get weighed, blood pressure, pulse, check the baby's heartbeat, and a quick measure of the abdomen area and we were out of there. I think it was less than 20 minutes. I suppose this is a good thing. If there was anything to worry about with any of my vitals, or other tests, they would let me know. The biggest change this visit was my weight. My previous visit on Nov. 23rd (6 weeks ago), I had only gained about 6 lbs. However, now I am up to 13 lbs. I think that is pretty average considering you are supposed to gain about a pound a week. Of course I am not sure how much of that is actually the baby growing and how much is the holiday weight caused by pumpkin pie with whip cream and hot chocolates. Hopefully more baby than holiday induced weight gain! =) Thankfully the holidays are over and I can try to focus more on getting to the gym! (Ya - me and about a million other people for their new year's resolutions.)

One thing I did ask the Dr. about is my belly's size - since it appears to me that I am not getting all that much bigger every week and I am so much smaller than a lot of women at 24 weeks. When she measured my abdomen area she said that I'm the right size for 24 weeks, but it's just because I have such a long torso that I have a lot of room for the baby, so there is no need for my belly to pop out much at this time. That satisfied me, but it is kind of funny how women carry babies so differently. (See the bottom of this post for the most recent belly picture).

I am so excited that this month, Sean and I will get to fly down to Orange County and visit family and friends. My sister-in-laws, Melinda and Janet, and my cousin Danielle are hosting me a baby shower on Jan. 15th! I am so excited to see everyone. Many thanks to Melinda for hosting the party at her house and sendng out the evites. She even created a few regular mail invites for those who don't have email and for me to have a keepsake in the baby book! It's adorable and has a little whale on it to match the nursery theme. Even Sean saw it and thought it was awesome. He loved the little whale. (Even guys like cute stuff when it has to do with their kid!)



I am really looking forward to spending some time with my family and seeing a lot of my San Diego and Anaheim girlfriends. I feel like some girl time is much needed about now! It's honestly been a bit lonely not having any girlfriends up here to hang out with. Additionally, it will be a much needed vacation from the freezing cold that we've been having up here. I know that SoCal has also experienced a massive amount of rain lately, but so far the forcast for our visit is sunny and in the 60's! I know you people from SoCal think that's cold, but it's been in the 20's here for the past week, so +40 degrees is sounding pretty nice to me! I may even break out some open-toed shoes! =)

As mentioned, I've really missed my girl-time and I am really looking forward to seeing everyone soon. Lately it's been kind of hard, since I don't have many girlfriends nearby, most of them are work friends and they live in other parts of town. The friends that we made during our 1 year of living in Vancouver are now living in other states! The other girlfriends that I do have are fairly new friends and none of them are pregnant. So it's been lonely. Of course I can call some of my friends from SoCal, and I do, but it's just not the same as being able to get together for lunch or dinner or even just go shopping together. Sean is a good hubby and he is very supportive, but girls need girl time and guys need guy time. That's just the way it is! It is nice that my cousin Michelle lives up here now and that she is pregnant too, but we honestly don't see each other that much since we are both busy with work. But she did mention that she has a few other friends who are pregnant right now and is considering hosting a little get together with all of us, so that will be nice. I also have joined a couple of groups on Meetup.com to find other first-time pregnant women in my age group and who live nearby. I think the toughest thing is not having others to do stuff with and even just discuss birth and baby related stuff. Today, I met a couple women from my Meetup group for coffee (decaf of course), and it was nice to just kind of discuss different ideas, what types of births they have planned etc. I'm sure that I will also meet some women in our "Preparing for Childbirth" class which starts in February, but it's nice to start branching out now as well.

Anyway, that's basically what has been going on here. As mentioned we are looking forward to an exciting 2011! And for those of you who are wondering...."Have you picked a name yet?" The answer is no. Sean and I have discussed it a lot and we have a good list of names, but we've decided that we want to wait until the birth gets closer before making a decision. Also, we want it to be a surprise, so even when we do decide, we are keeping it quiet until he arrives. So sorry to bum you out if you really wanted to know! But you will just have to wait. =)

Much love to you all and best wishes for a great 2011!

Here is my 24 week photo (far right) along with some of the other weeks to show my belly progression. You'll have to click on the image to make it larger. (It's definitely growing!)