25 Weeks!

Mango and I had a monthly check-in today with the doctor and everything went well! My belly is measuring right on track and blood pressure is good, Mango's heart rate is also perfect, although he did repeatedly kick the Doppler while the midwife was trying to listen, I found it pretty amusing! This visit was exciting as we're getting super close to the 3rd trimester (only two more weeks!) we started talking more about our birth plan and preparations for a smooth labor.

Mark and I have also made some serious progress to the nursery in addition to the mobile from my last post, Mark finished repainting our old dresser so now his room has almost everything it needs furniture wise! Now I get to do more of the fun stuff and add some color to the room, can't wait for the long weekend to get some serious crafting and painting time in (still determined to finish that Italy painting, and getting closer!)

Here are Mango's stats for the week: Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. His weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but he's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for some baby fat. As he does, his wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and he'll start to look more and more like a newborn. He's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture. This week he's about the size of a:Here's my bump today, getting big!

Crafting Mama!

Well I have more than a few ideas up my sleeve for nursery crafts... so I was quite pleased to actually complete one today! I thought an origami bird mobile would be awesome for a few reasons: after all of the origami birds at our wedding that originated from my first gift from Mark (an origami duck) they have personal meaning to us, they are beautiful and brightly colored and Mango's room is going to be adorned with lots of adorable animals! So I knew the first step was to make a bunch of birds, which actually proved to be a good way to pass the time at miss Edith's birthday celebration while we were waiting for labor to really kick into high gear.

Then came the challenge, how to assemble a mobile that was cute and looked the birds were flying BUT that the birds wouldn't get all tangled up the second we turn on the ceiling fan. So ended up borrowing ideas from a few different craft blogs and came up with the plan to paint crafting rings (for wreaths and stuff) white and then string the birds onto a wire firm enough to stand their ground in the breeze. From there, the mobile just sort of organically formed itself and I'm quite pleased with the results! Can't wait to add some more crafts to the room!

24 Weeks!

Wow, 24 weeks already, I had heard that the first pregnancy drags on...and maybe I'm not to that phase yet, but it seems like time has flown by! Not too much to report from this week, we didn't get too much done on his room this week since we had family in town (I know Chris and Tara came to meet the new babies, but it was still great to hang out with them, we can pretend they came to see us!) and then Mark was out of town the last few days. Just continuing to enjoy my pregnancy and we have started reading some books from our doula that are actually getting me excited to experience our birth, crazy right?!? So without much else to report, here's my belly this week:

Here is Mango's 24 week update: Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long, he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon. This week, he is the length of a:

I just love this and had to share...

So I've discovered a new little trick baby boy will do for me that just makes me fall a little bit more in love every time it works! I was thinking today how he wasn't kicking as much as normal and I wanted to feel a few little kicks, and I tried this yesterday so I thought it might work again... if I put my hands on my belly where he normally kicks (I don't push or anything, just rest them there) he kicks them. It's the cutest thing, I guess he can feel the warmth...but it melts my heart and I just had to share!

23 Weeks (and Mark's Birthday!)

Yesterday was 23 weeks and also Mark's birthday! We had a pretty uneventful actual birthday dinner given it was a weekday, but I did make one of his favorite dinners (breakfast at night, with french toast, eggs and potatoes) and a tasty angel food cake. We went out to dinner over the weekend and then went to a concert at the Embarcadero in downtown SD, it was a pretty fabulous time. We saw Dennis Deyoung (styx lead singer) singing in front of the San Diego orchestra... they even finished up the last song, Come Sail Away, with fireworks over the bay, pretty fabulous!

Other than Mark's birthday... this week has been good so far! Mark and I met with a few birth doulas since we are really hoping for as natural of a birth experience as we can in a hospital. We met an awesome doula who actually lives pretty much next door to us and is also a Bradley Method teacher. We're excited to take her classes starting in October and hopefully meet some other local couples! We also made some progress on Mango's room, he has nice blue walls now and his crib has been assembled. We also have his changing table, but haven't put that one together yet. Pretty exciting to see everything slowly coming together! Speaking of coming together, my belly is not hiding from anyone anymore! Yesterday I got told that I had a "pretty belly" by a stranger and also am pretty sure I heard a man tell his wife to "watch out for the watermelon" as he walked by me and tugged her to his side of the sidewalk... not sure what to think of that remark. Here's my belly photo for 23 weeks:


Not much to report about Mango this week, still enjoying my 2nd trimester... just getting ready for baby as much as we can before I get too big to be as active. :-) Here are his 23 week "stats": Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With his sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that he's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound , you may be able to see him squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing him 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 him when he hears them outside the womb. It seems like this weeks fruit is smaller than last week, but I guess we're back to weight now, not length... so Mango is now the size of a (in case you can't tell, that's a papaya):

22 Weeks

Sorry Grandma! She let me know last time I posted late that she was indeed checking regularly and was aware of my late posting, hehe. It's good to know people are reading my blog and I'm not just talking to myself, but here I am... posting late again! The real reason is that I was planning on posting a photo and haven't had a chance to take one so I kept waiting... but now I think it's time to just say I'll put the photo up next week huh?

Anyways, on to the real reason you're here- Mango is doing great in his comfy little home! Although my belly is certainly not little anymore, it is quite noticeable and has even started to develop that lovely little racing stripe that some lucky pregnant women get. Mango calmly slept through his baby cousin being born! The nurse was a little concerned with me watching the birth that I could have "adopted contractions" which I wasn't aware of before choosing to watch, but we were both able to watch the beautiful Edith being born and it was AMAZING!! Mango also had another friend born just a few days ago, Jason and Michelle delivered their gorgeous little girl (Harper) and we got to visit her in the hospital! With all these babies popping out Mango and I have had a few chats about how he will get to play with the girls, but not yet!! Nothing quite as exciting as babies being born has happened in our house this week, although his crib did come yesterday and I'm pretty excited to get it put together, like Mark said "it will look a babies room once we do that!"

Here are the growing boy's "stats" this week: At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash, in case you can't tell what is in the photo) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

21 Weeks

Pretty crazy to think we are now officially past the half way mark! Not too much to report, we had a little check up yesterday and all is well with Mango and Mama. He's definitely an active little guy, kicks are a daily treat for me and you can see them from the outside normally at least once a day! Even the Dr. seemed a little surprised by that, he's a strong boy! :-)

This is certainly an eventful week, aside from Mango, Katy will be having her baby tomorrow (unless we get a surprise today) so I'm taking the day off work so I can be there for her birth, so exciting! Katy is doing quite well, if not a little bit bored, in the hospital. Muffin is also doing well, we won't know how long she will have to stay at the hospital until she comes out tomorrow... so we are quite anxious to meet the little one and see how she does out of Mama's belly! I may not get in an update tomorrow depending how crazy the day goes, but I will update soon with news of the delivery!

Back to Mango's 21 week update, here are his "stats" for this week: Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long. You may soon feel like he's practicing martial arts as his initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to his activity as you get to know him better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now. This week Mango is the length of a:


I also took a belly photo this week, although I think the black shirt is making it look smaller because it looked much bigger in the last one a few weeks ago, hehe.