How 2 B a good husband during your wife's pregnancy...

Ok ladies so I found this insightful article on www.beagooddad.com . It is pretty funny and pretty true if you ask me! So far, Ryan is doing a pretty good job of handling the pregnancy hormones and what not (it probably helps that I have been a superior pregnant lady but that is just my opinion). He tries to be understanding of what I'm thinking and feeling, and he is attending childbirth classes with me. Poor guy I know it can't be fun for him looking at pictures of uteri and mucous plugs (ew! there is seriously a mucous plug?), he even signed up to wear the empathy belly and learned how to give me back massages to keep my mind off of contractions when those start. What a great guy. Well the guy who wrote this must have learned a few things by experience so tell your men to listen up and put on a damn smile while you are going through this! (my comments are inserted in pink)

Stop telling her to rest. First and foremost, quit telling her to sit down and rest or take a nap. She has stopped trying to keep the baby in. She is tired of resting and waiting. The best way to get the baby out seems to be moving. Let her move and hope gravity helps speed up the process. (hmm I haven't encountered this one yet)
Stop telling her she looks tired. She’s always tired and therefore will always look tired. Reminding her of this will only remind her that she has a few things to say to you and that scruffy hair growing on your face (and the "sympathy weight" you may have been acquiring)
Buy her stuff. Little stuff. (big stuff)Magazines, videos, crossword puzzle books. (clothes, jewelry, purses) Anything that can help an hour or so pass as quickly as possible.
Buy the baby stuff. Diapers are good. Cute baby pajamas are better. I recommend only getting one thing at a time. Just seeing a cute baby something is enough to get a smile. Would you rather have a smile every couple of days or just once when you buy a whole new wardrobe at one time? :-)
Take care of low stuff. Pick up stuff off the floor before she gets around to it. Move the laundry so she doesn’t have to bend over. My wife likes to remind us that she only can bend over a handful of times a day. Don’t make her waste those bend overs doing chores. (YES thank you! Someone tell Ryan I can't get up off the floor to turn off the lights or put in the DVD once I have already settled there!)
Take charge once in a while. Instead of saying, “I’ll help with dinner. What should I make?” just make a decision and run with it. Sure she might get sick of Mac & Cheese and frozen pizza but she’ll be happy to not have to make the ever stressful what’s-for-dinner decision every night.
Try not to look antsy. Don’t sit around waiting for the baby. Tell mom that you are taking the kids somewhere and she can come if she wants. Instead of sitting around staring at mom’s belly, start a tickle fight or coloring project with the kids. The general happiness will help keep mom’s spirits higher.
Try to make the house as normal as possible. Talk about normal things. Try to eat normal things. Try to keep the kids on normal routines. Don’t give mom a chance to think that everybody is fidgety/bummed/nervous because she can not entertain the world.
Don’t constantly look at her belly and say “Get out of her belly” in a bad Austin Powers impersonation. (ladies this is just where you can either choose "ignore" or "silence")

Pretty good advice huh? Well I hit 27 weeks tomorrow, I will have some more to post tomorrow!

Sneak peek..?!

I thought it would be fun to see what our kid is going to look like! So I found a website that will mesh your two pictures together to show you what your kid might look like. Of course it's just for fun...and kind of weird! Oddly enough, this kid looks pretty much just like when I meshed my picture with Justin Timberlake's! hahaa!

Week 26 has been pretty uneventful. I think the little one is starting to run out of room in there because she has not been as active this week as she was last week! Last Friday I had another doctor's appointment. Everything was good, baby's heartbeat is sticking around 145-150 so that is good! I have one more appointment in 4 weeks and then after that I will be going every 2 weeks until the baby comes! Ah! I just can hardly believe it has been going this fast. Back when I first found out I was pregnant, I felt like 26 weeks was SO far away but I am here! I am so blessed that everything has gone well so far and we are praying that she will be healthy and born on time with no complications! Every day she gets sronger and has a better chance of being born healthy. This week I experienced my first stranger asking when I was due. I don't know why but I was a little shocked like "who, me? you can tell?" haha, it was kind of weird. How did he know I'm not just packin on the pounds in the midsection? That would have been embarrassing for him if I told him I wasn't preggo! ha!

I would just also like to take the opportunity to share the weird thoughts that creep into my mind on occaison like...if I am feeling seasick with this ONE baby's kicking, imagine how Kate Gosselin or the Octomom felt when they were pregnant! Could you even imagine? The constant moving, kicking, bladder punching, peeing, no sleep, always worrying etc. Wow. Well anyways, more weird thoughts from Melissa to come I'm sure. I don't have a belly pic this week because I am lazy. Have a great week!

Week 25-excuse me child, that is my bladder you are playing soccer with

Hello everyone! So today is the beginning of week 25. Nothing much new to report except for the constant kicking I am feeling and the fact that Ryan still hasn't been able to feel it! AH! It is driving me insane that he hasn't been able to feel her kick yet. Of course my sister felt her the other day. Ryan says he's not jealous but come on man. You know, I don't know why but whenever a pregnant lady would say "oh this baby is kicking me in the bladder", or "he/she is sitting right on my bladder", there absolutely no way I would have been able to imagine that feeling, I actually thought it had to have been some sort of metaphor or something. Pardon me if it is too much information but this child is seriously kicking my bladder HARD! Like she is trying to squeeze every last drop out! haha! It's no big deal when I am at home but when I'm at work and on the phone for several hours, it can be very nerve-wracking! Oh well, a small price to pay for a healthy, kicking baby. Other than that, I have been sick the past couple of days with bronchitis and pretty bad head cold but I am starting to feel better. This of course doesn't faze little one at all, she feels fabulous so don't worry. Here are your week 25 fun facts. Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

What the heck is a rutabaga you ask? I was wondering the same thing so I found a picture of one...

Ehhh ew. That doesn't look very good....or cute in any way. How about this...

A little cuter but rather creepy...oh well. Have a great week!

Ok here's your belly pic!

Here is me at 24 weeks 5 days. As you can see, my regular shirts are a little too short now!

Under Construction: Baby's room

So we finally did it! We started the Baby's room! I don't have any "before" pics but there was some ugly, nasty, old blue/grey carpet here. Ryan started pulling it up and we both expected to see an equally nasty wood floor underneath. To our surprise, the wood floor is beautiful and pretty much perfect! Check out that shine! We are painting the walls green and cream to match the bedding.

Sofie approves the room too!

Tomorrow I hit 24 weeks! For those of you who haven't been perusing baby websites and joining pregnancy boards, you may not know that this week is kind of special. Week 24 is the week when the baby hits "viability". This means that if any complications were to occur and the baby was born, she would have a chance of survival outside of the womb. Of course we want her to stay in there every precious day possible but it is very reassuring and comforting to know that we have already come this far! Every week she stays in there, her chances of survival outside of the womb increases like 10% or something like that. I can't do math but I know it's good! She is still being a rebel by the way, her dad still hasn't been able to feel her kick even though I can feel those little feetsies kicking me HARD in the bladder all day!

Another little point, a little off-topic is that I started my second-to-last class today! That means I only have 12 more weeks before I am DONE with school and have my Master's in Management! WHEW! It feels like I have been in school forever!! Which I guess I pretty much have been. It will be nice to not have to worry about that anymore. The graduation ceremony is on June 27th, only like 3 days before I am due! I don't care, if I can move I will be walking across that stage darnit!

Here is a small sample of what my upcoming months will look like...

March-Start 6 week birthing class at Mercy

April - Baby shower at Molly's house, start last Master's class

May-Baby shower at Mom's house

June- get done with school, work all week for the dance recital, Rebecca's wedding shower (my brother's fiancee), graduation ceremony, get everything ready for baby

July-HAVE BABY, Boss's wedding....etc etc, the list goes on!

PS...Ryan took a picture of me tonight. I swear I did have full intentions of posting it here but now I refuse to slap that pic up into cyber space...it is just not pretty and I will not subject my loved ones to that! I will have him take a picture of me on a prettier day. Sorry!

"Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon"

Week 23 - What a rebel

I am happy to report that another week has flown by and I am now on week 23! Another milestone hit this week when I actually felt a HUGE kick from the outside of my belly. So far I have only felt her moving from the inside of course and I was waiting for her to get big enough to feel with my hand from the outside. I was laying watching TV with my hand on my belly and BOOM! It kind of scared me and there was no doubt it was her. I say that she is a rebel because it has happened several times since then but whenever her dad tries to feel for it....nothing...nada. It's like she knows he is waiting for her and I can just imagine her snickering in there, playing games. Oh well, she has to stay entertained somehow! Ryan mentioned something about how the baby is controlling my body now and I said, yeah that's ok, pretty soon she will be controlling you! It's so true, she is going to be a little daddy's girl I can just see it. This week also brought with it a major baby bump (ie belly) as well! I'll get another pic for you soon. Here is your week 23 update.

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

This is a large mango incase you are wondering!