About 3 Weeks Until the Due Date!

Hello again everybody! It's January 22, 2010, a Friday night, and Natalia and I decided to spend a little time this evening doing some blogging. Natalia is now 37 weeks pregnant, still doing great, and is getting even bigger, as you can see from the latest pic.

Natalia says that the baby is still kicking a lot, but she feels like the baby has less space to punch and kick, and the baby's movement feels less like a "poking" feeling and now is softer and more deliberate as the baby gets bigger. The baby is definitely on the right side of her belly, facing the left, with the head low and the feet up towards Natalia's rib cage. This is a good position, and at this point it is likely the baby will stay there.

Natalia last went to the doctor about a week and a half ago, and she had gained 31 pounds, which would be right on track to gain about 35 pounds by the due date, and that's right where she should be. Natalia is definitely feeling more out of breath, and has had more trouble finding comfortable positions to sit and sleep in. She's still getting at least 5 hours of sleep at night before she first wakes up, so it's not too bad.

We've got the nursery well on it's way now. The latest thing we got was the travel system, which consists of a baby carrier that hooks into both a car seat base and stroller, for the non-baby experts out there. We were excited because once we had the car seat base in it's place we could envision carrying the baby out of the hospital and putting her in the car. We went ahead and left it in the car because it won't be long before we will need it! Very exciting!

Natalia has been swimming lately, a few times a week to stay active and she finds it enjoyable and relaxing. I haven't jumped in with her yet, but I probably will sometime this week. Last week I couldn't because I came down with a nasty cold and I was just not up to it. I'm pretty well recovered now, so I will probably swim next time.

We finished our Bradley class last Tuesday, and we are feeling very prepared. We're both determined to make this a natural birth. Natalia will do her best to stay relaxed during the birth and I'll do my best to keep her relaxed and make sure they don't start pumping Pitocin and other drugs into her, so that Natalia's body can do what it is supposed to. We've shown the birth plan to the doctors, and they were obliging. We've got things pretty well packed, and we're going to stay at home for as long as we can, until Natalia says, "This is it, let's go!" and then we'll be off to St. Vincent Women's Hospital to have this baby!

By the way, we've pretty much decided on the name, but we're still not telling anybody until she's born. We will say, it's not Borbanog, and it's not Klondike Mush.

Don't forget to hit up http://elkinsbaby.babypool.com if you want to be really cool!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everybody! We are back at Mom and Dad's for the holidays, and enjoying seeing everybody and looking forward to Christmas day. Natalia is still looking good, and feeling good. The baby is definitely growing, and the last time she was weighed by the doctor she had gained 28 pounds. That was Dec. 10, so she's right on track to gain about 35 pounds, which is the average, according to our Bradley class.

Natalia says that the baby has definitely grown, and she feels like it is taking up all the space in her tummy, and we've still got about seven weeks to go. We're starting to get very excited! The baby has also moved up in her tummy, and seems to be kicking in the upper right "corner" close to Natalia's rib cage on the right.

Other changes since the last update are, Natalia has felt like she's had to sleep on her side because the baby is getting really heavy, and she feels like its easier for her to get out of breath, and definitely more weight on the bottom of her stomach. The baby is still very active, but doesn't have as much space to rear back and really kick. It's been more nudging lately, as the baby has less and less space. Natalia still feels like the baby does shift around some, and we're going to ask Lee, our Brother in Law to see if he can feel what her position is. Natalia has felt cramps in her legs at night, but the last few nights that has gotten better.

We've been enjoying the Bradley class, and we're really starting to get into the heart of it. We are learning lots. This next week we are putting together a birth plan, which we will discuss beforehand with the doctors and the birth team. It's one of the most important parts of what we have learned so far, because it lets everybody know how we would like the birth to go. We want to have a completely natural childbirth, and want to try and avoid any drugs and/or procedural interventions which hospitals tend to present as conveniences which are "all part of the experience" but may actually harm the mother and/or baby. Yes, we would like to avoid that.

We had a hospital visit at St. Vincents Womens Hospital where we plan to have the birth take place, and we were very pleased with the visit, and happy with how open they were to a natural childbirth, and with their responses to our questions. They were very nonchalant when talking about a Cesarean section, but they have to make it sound routine for all the people who are half expecting or fully expecting that to be part of the procedure. The birthing room was very nice, as it had a shower, which Natalia expects she will want to use during labor, and they have beds which can be moved into different positions, and have a birthing bar for Natalia to hold onto during contractions. So in that, they seemed very open to the mom being in different positions for birth. Also, they stressed that during the birth, when the baby came out, it would immediately go on the mother's chest. That allowed us to check off some big items, and we're expecting the birthing plan discussion will check off the rest.

We have the nursery furniture in place and we're ready to start putting more clothes and things in it. Erin, my sister, gave us some of Kai's old clothes, so we've already some ready to go. We're planning on having the baby shower sometime in January, maybe towards the end, and my sister, Amy, is planning on hosting.

We want to mention the baby pool again, at http://elkinsbaby.babypool.com. It's getting close, and the prime slots are going fast, so get them while you can!

In this Holiday season we feel very blessed and thankful to have such great family and friends, and we are excited to bring another life into this world very soon! Merry Christmas to all! Love, Adam and Natalia.

More Baby News

The Baby is definitely growing! Natalia has gained 16 pounds total so far. I believe it is normal to gain 25-30 pounds during pregnancy. Natalia says the doctor wanted her to gain 35 pounds. What? That's like 1/3 of her normal weight. Natalia x 1.333 repeating. Ha!

The baby is very active, and is kicking a lot. It's really cool to feel the baby kicking, and I can talk to the baby and I'm pretty sure she responds because she recognizes her daddy. Natalia said that she felt the baby shift last Sunday when she woke up, and then Tuesday after that. Natalia said she thought the baby had definitely moved. It seemed like weight moved from the bottom of her stomach to the right side. The doctor said this was normal.

We started taking Bradley classes two weeks ago and those are going well. It's a method of natural childbirth which focuses on relaxation. We're taking them from Amy Ferris, who is the wife of Jeremy Ferris, one of my chiropractors. My sister Erin teaches Bradley courses, and had originally trained Amy.

We're watching Natalia's belly moving right now. It looks like Jello moving on it's own.

Natalia says she is feeling healthy. She's had more trouble finding a comfortable position to sleep as she's gotten bigger, and she's also had leg cramps on occasion. She's also felt like she's had hot flashes, all of which I'm pretty sure are normal for a pregnant woman.

Here is a picture of Natalia. If you compare it to the previous picture, you can definitely see a difference!

Starting Preparations for the Baby

This past weekend we started the baby registry at Babies R Us. Our registry number is 44542971 in case you want to check it out. We went there both Saturday and Sunday, and we still have things we need to pick out.

We're not only shopping for the baby, but we are also preparing the room. The nursery will be in the bedroom next to the master bedroom, and we've got it completely cleared out except for the bed, which we are going to get rid of soon. We're planning on painting, at the very least (VOC free paint, of course), and perhaps adding a chair rail, and maybe some sort of surface below the chair rail.

We started walking yesterday, because we want to make sure Natalia's got the endurance to have a baby. We're going to try to get out and walk 2 or 3 times a week from now on, as long as Natalia feels comfortable doing so.

Don't forget to place your bets at http://elkinsbaby.babypool.com.

As promised, here is a picture of Natalia today, at 23 weeks and 5 days.

Adam and Natalia at Doug and Christina Husemans' Wedding

Baby Time!!!!!

Hi there everybody. Natalia and Adam here. We're having a baby!!!!!! Yay! Natalia says that I am the writer, so it is my responsibility to get some words on this page about the little baby that is on the way. It's been a while since we've written, and we haven't even finished the full honeymoon story, yes we got to Bali and we didn't remember what a computer was. We'll finish that later. First, let's talk about this little baby.

The baby's name is--just kidding, we don't even know that yet, and we wouldn't say because that would ruin the fun of the baby pool, which we have started at http://elkinsbaby.babypool.com. At this site, you can bet some money on the baby's name, weight at birth, etc. You can win 20% of the pool, and the rest goes to the baby's college fund. :)

We've already found out the gender of the baby--it's a girl! I think she's going to be a soccer player. She just kicked and I'm pretty sure I saw Natalia's stomach bounce out of the corner of my eye. Natalia definitely felt it.

Natalia is, as of this date 22 weeks and 6 days along, according to the fact that we had the ultrasound where we found out the baby is a girl last Tuesday, and it was 22 weeks and 5 days at that point. 8 day's later, and I think we've got it worked out correctly based off of that.

Natalia is feeling good. She had morning sickness for the first 3 months, but that has subsided for the most part. Now she is feeling fine, she has a good appetite, and she has gained 12 lbs, and is looking bigger. I'll post some pictures soon. Her bellybutton is starting to look pretty stretched, and her belly looks good overall. Very smooth and round, like she ate a watermelon whole. Maybe not quite that big yet, but you get the idea. She doesn't like it when I poke her bellybutton with my finger.

Natalia went to the grocery store and walked around there for 3 hours trying to find stuff for different recipes, and she felt like that was the most exercise she had gotten in a while. Thus we decided we are going to try and walk two or three times a week, but nothing to over-exerting. Erin, my sister, said this would be a good idea.

Speaking of food, Natalia has had a few cravings, such as pickles, and Nutella on toast. To be clear, not pickles with Nutella on toast, but who knows that might be good. Amy and Christopher had brought up some jelly and honey from their trip to the Smokey Mountains a few months ago, and sometimes Natalia will have that on toast. I've noticed she's definitely eating more carbohydrate laden foods during the pregnancy, and I think I have too. I've maybe put on one or three pounds myself. Ha!

Hmm, what else? That's all we can think of right now, but please respond with any questions you might have, and don't forget to check out http://elkinsbaby.babypool.com.

Talk to you soon. We'll keep you posted.

Adam and Natalia

Wedding Pictures!!!

Here's all the pictures Shelly took at our wedding. If you want the full size pictures let me know and we will mail you copies!

Wedding Day - Getting Ready

Wedding Day - Adam and Natalia

Wedding Day - Wedding Party

Wedding Day - Family Portraits

Wedding Day - Ceremony

Wedding Day - Reception