Anniversaries and Weddings - Week 14

Well, this has been a good week. We've continued to be way too busy, but things are moving along nicely. Jennifer is showing more and more and we're getting close to her being able to feel the baby moving. Everyone keeps asking when we will know what the baby's sex is. This week, Jenn had a doctors appointment and set that appointment for four weeks. So, that will be like the second week of July. We're really excited about finding out.

This weekend was my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. We had a big party at Red Oak and everyone came to hang out at Ma & Pa's house afterwards. Together, with my Aunt Tucka, we put together a video with pictures from each of their childhoods all the way to present day. I think they really liked it.

It's really neat that they have been together for 50 years. In today's world you don't hear about lasting relationships much. Everyone  (it seems) is getting divorced or living together. It's refreshing, I think, to see a couple that have made that kind of commitment. 

As part of this whole ordeal, my parents flew in from Phoenix. They stayed with us for a little while, then went down to Red Oak to help with all the anniversary festivities. They will be staying here through next weekend (the 21st) for Jason & Sara's wedding, which is on Saturday. Jennifer and I had our 5th anniversary on the 7th, so June has been a busy month for us. 

I found out that I got a new job this week. I am (as of this post) finished with my work at Star Buildings and will be starting at Cornerstone Architecture on Monday. I'm really excited about this opportunity and am looking forward to getting back into the architecture game.

According to BabyCenter.com, "This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.

In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active."

See you next week...

Ex-freaking-hausted - Week 12 & 13

For the thousands of you who waited in hot anticipation for last week's post, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I promise I'll try harder to post on time. 

This whole world has hit hyper-drive for me the past couple of weeks. This is my week lately:

Monday - Work all day, class until 8:00

Tuesday - Work all day, BLN ride until 8:30

Wednesday - Work all day, class until 8:00

Thursday - Work all day, NEBC softball until 10:00

Friday - Work all day

Saturday - Ride early, junk at the house all day

Sunday - Church all day

Jennifer has mentioned to me that most of these things I've volunteered for and if I've got too much going on, I should drop something. That may happen before too long, but I'm not ready to drop something yet. The way I'm looking at it, this is good practice for having a young baby. If I'm sleep deprived going into it, then it won't be a shock to my system when the reason I'm tired isn't the softball double-header, but the screaming child in the other room. 

Now, I know that this blog is to talk about my upcoming baby and the whole soon-to-be-parent situation, but I'm exhausted right now. I'm done griping, I'll get back to the task.

These past two weeks have been kind of "same day, different shirt". Jenn has an appetite again and she's happy about that. Eating has become less of an event that happens a couple of times and more of a state of mind that she constantly lives in. In the evenings, it is a race to eat and go to sleep before she becomes hungry again. I would see that as a race that you couldn't help but win. If you get to sleep, then you are asleep and everyone loves to be asleep. If you don't get to sleep, then you get to eat again, which should be an enjoyable experience. Something that Jenn is dealing with (that I never thought would happen to her) is that she is eating so often that she is sick of eating. Eating has always been one of Jenn's favorite things to do, so to be in this place is like A-Rod being absolutely sick of playing baseball. Ridiculous...

Baby is growing like a mad dog. For week 12, the most dramatic development is reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder. For week 13, fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.

That's all for now, I'm going to bed.

Keep growing, Baby...