Seth Allen Haynes

Well, an hour into our trip we've pretty much decided on a name for our son. Always reserving the right to change our minds of course. What really clinched it was that our baby name book listed Lily (our top girl choice) as a sister of Seth AND both Eric and Amanda were listed in the same "style" (New Classics). We're finding it a little hard to top all that. So Seth it is.

22 weeks pics

Here we are, 22 weeks and 1 day.  Eric and I are leaving today for our trip to the Oregon coast, so probably not a lot of blogging until we get back.  If something really exciting happens though, I can always send a blog from my phone, don't worry ;)

1st present from Grandma Marci

Ultrasound recap

Okay, so we're all done with our appointment, and once again everything looks as it should. The ultrasound tech asked us before she started if we wanted to know the sex and of course we said "YES!" So I got all goo'd up and almost immediately she says "well there's the penis!" It was really unmistakeable, which was funny to me, I thought for sure it would be like a Picasso painting up on the screen with just a bunch of strange unrecognizeable shapes. It was actually much more clear than it appears in the picture below, so I'm excited to go back and watch the tape (we got to record the whole thing on VHS). I'm sure we will see the screen totally shaking because I was giggling a lot about "the goods." The rest of the ultrasound was pretty much a blur, but very VERY cool. That boy has some LONG legs, let me tell you. He measured 22 weeks and 6 days, so almost a week bigger than "normal." All his anatomy is normal, 4 chambers in the heart, etc. He was wiggling a LOT while she was trying to get a good picture of the heart. We also got a peek at his little face on the 4D ultrasound, which was really amazing. Not nearly as creepy as I thought it would be, even though it was pretty blurry and his little hand was in the way. But I am already in love with his little nose!

Our Stats:
Baby BOY's heart rate: 155-156
My Wt: 168ish
My B/P: 124/68

Follow up appointment was pretty quick, Dr. H said everything looks great. My due date stays the same just because they always figure + or - one week anyway. We talked about how I definitely need to get all the flu shots this year, the regular flu, the H1N1, & pretty much whatever else is available. And ASAP. Pregnant women are really pretty vulnerable for the flu, especially this year since the H1N1 is so new. Anyway, my next appointment is September 28th at 26 weeks. Then a couple weeks after that I'll get some labs drawn and after that I may or may not have to get a Rhogam shot (since I am O negative). So that's about it. If I think of anything else I'll let you know, but right now my head is in BLUE clouds! :)

Proof!

Its a boy! No doubt about it!

Here we go!!!

Eric is downstairs waiting to pick me up for our ultrasound.  I’ve drank my 20 ounces of juice in preparation and I already have to pee, which is good or bad depending on how you look at it.  I guess we can be sure my bladder will be plenty full for the exam, however, my appointment is not until 11, which is still 27 minutes away, yikes!  They better not make me wait.  Between Facebook and my blog poll, the votes are TIED 10-10.  So I guess at least half are right!  Can’t wait! 

Stranger danger

So last night I was wandering around Fred Meyer. I went in just to get two things – eggs and a jug of drinking water. However, I couldn’t RESIST heading over to the home/garden/bed/bath section. I have an OBSESSION with bedding, I swear, it is a sickness. Anyway, they were having a final clearance, 40% off the lowest marked price on a ton of sheets, duvet covers, etc. I found a sweet deal on some 600 thread count sheets and two packages of matching pillowcases. That is the trick I think, getting the pillowcases to match. Usually I find that everything on clearance is so picked over I end up having to go with a complimentary pillow case color. I just bought a new sheet set the other day, but I think I’ll take it back. After all, it is only 400 thread count J And no matching pillow cases. But I digress…

As I was making my way down to the other end of the store I noticed this woman strolling around with her dog. It was clearly not a seeing eye dog, and she was not even holding its leash. The dog was just running around dragging its leash everywhere. As I was pulling my eggs out of the case and checking them for cracks, this lady appeared next to me and her dog was checking me out as well. She commented on my top and said it was cute and asked when I was due. Then she launched into this little speech, something about how she had been learning from “the guy upstairs” that when you’re pregnant, if you forgive yourself and just allow yourself to be filled with love for your baby, then when it is born there will be no pain. I said “wow, thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Then I think she said she was trying to become a healer again, like she once was?? I just smiled and said that was nice and headed in the other direction. Seems like that one should have gone under the category of “weird pregnant dreams” but no, it really happened.

It’s down to hours now! 50 hours, 11 minutes! Get your votes in!

Fun, fun weekend!

Eric and I headed west this weekend to beautiful Sunnyside, WA.  On Saturday we played in the 17^th annual Sunnyside Community Hospital Foundation golf tournament, bright and early at 7am.  We had a lot of fun, even if we didn’t knock down the leaderboard… I will say this though: we weren’t last place.  Not only that, but I WON the women’s long drive challenge, which earned me $30 credit in the pro shop.  That was pretty exciting, Eric was beside himself with the idea that his pregnant wife won the long drive challenge!  THEN, they also had a drawing for door prizes and Eric and I both cashed in there as well.  Eric won a 1 night stay + 2 rounds of golf at the Wild Horse Resort & Casino in Pendleton, OR.  How perfect that we are going down to the Oregon Coast NEXT WEEK???  So we made our reservations and will be stopping over there on our way to Seaside.  Then I also won a $25 gift card to Red Lobster or Olive Garden.

After the tournament we had a few hours before we had to head to the SCH foundation benefit dinner.  We went back to our room at the Sunnyside Inn B&B to hang out and watch a movie.  The bed & breakfast was AWESOME.  It will definitely not be the last time I pick a B&B over a hotel.  Our room was right off the kitchen, so we could cruise out there any time and get drinks, coffee, etc.  Plus when we got back after the tournament there was a FRESH peach pie on the counter, still warm, and ice cream in the freezer.  YUM!  I couldn’t pass that up.  Our room had its own bathroom including a HUGE jacuzzi tub.  Seriously the tub was almost as big as my entire bathroom at home.  Around 6pm we headed to dinner, which was fabulous.  There were some amazing appetizers including bacon wrapped shrimp and little seafood tartlets – all made by the hospital dining services, which was pretty impressive.  Basically they had an open bar (just beer and wine) as well, which sadly I could not take advantage of, especially since we were in the heart of wine country and so there were so many great wines.  I did have a teeny taste of Rattlesnake Hills Merlot with my dinner, which was like heaven in my mouth.  Dinner itself was catered (not by the hospital) and was a little peach and goat cheese green salad followed by steak and salmon shish kebabs, with sun dried tomato orzo with italian dressing.  After the dinner there was a live auction of a bunch of random things, mostly private wine tours and things like that.  Lots of money was flying around that place, let me tell you.  But it was all a little out of our price range unfortunately.  We headed back to our room around 9pm because this mommy was getting a little tired and uncomfortable sitting in the plastic folding chairs, but there were lots of people out on the dance floor when we left.

When we got back to the room, OF COURSE we took advantage of the huge tub (not too hot of course).  We couldn’t really figure out how to turn the jets on but it didn’t matter.  Then we watched a little bit of a movie on the huge flat screen tv before going to sleep around 11:30pm.  In the morning we got up and had breakfast in the dining room, buckwheat pancakes with fresh peaches on top, bacon, and oatmeal, mmmm.  That was my least favorite part of the weekend.  I am not a huge fan of dining with strangers, but it was ok I guess.  I think everyone else there had come down to do wine tours and stuff, which I definitely want to do someday when I’m not on an alcohol restricted diet.  After breakfast we just packed up and headed home, where I promptly fell asleep on the couch for about 3 hours.  I guess I was a little tuckered out from all the weekend activities.

I do have one picture that I took of Eric and I after we got all dressed for dinner, but I haven’t downloaded it from my camera yet.  I’ll try to remember to post that tonight.  T-minus 3 more days until the BIG ULTRASOUND! 

21 weeks

Well here we are, officially past the halfway point.  I wrote a long post earlier this week about how I felt like time was standing still and I wished I would just have this baby already.  But when I got done and read it over again it just sounded really whiney – and really more about how I was bored with my job than with being pregnant.  So I deleted it. 

Anyway, so being pregnant – not really boring.  Kicks are fun – getting stronger by the day it seems, which I love.  Sometimes I just lay in bed and wait for it and it just makes me giggle.  It feels so WEIRD!!  Anyway, I think now if you put your hand on my belly at exactly the right time, you could feel it.  The trick is knowing when it’s going to happen.  Between about 5-7pm seems to be the most active time of the day for Baby Haynes right now.  I do feel it other times of day but just a little thump here and there.  I think it’s also moving a lot at night when I’m asleep, although not enough to wake me up.  I just realized this today because I woke up at 2:15am and couldn’t get back to sleep until almost 4am, and it seemed like there was a lot of movement while I was laying there.

My feet seem to be expanding a little.  I don’t notice it much except when I wear this particular pair of sandals, this week it feels like they are just a little more narrow than they used to be.  When I look at my feet they don’t really look swollen though, and my sandals are tighter even in the morning when I first put them on.  I also got a little bit of heartburn this week for the first time.  I had a grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch on Wednesday and all afternoon I was paying for it.

Babycenter.com says the baby is now about 10.5 inches long, the length of a carrot.  Good GRIEF!  How much more ambiguous can you get??  There are carrots of ALL different shapes and sizes.  And what about a baby carrot?  Anyway, I like the one from the dad’s baby size guide on hisboyscanswim.com – which says the baby is about as long as a beer bottle. 

The countdown is on!  Less than a week until our next ultrasound, yahoo!!

Labor dream #1

So I finally had a dream, or more like a nightmare, on Saturday night that I was in labor.  It was very scary and bizarre.  On the one hand, I wasn’t in any pain really, just very uncomfortable.  Then the weird stuff started happening.  First, I didn’t have my regular doctor.  My doctor was there, but he wasn’t helping for some reason.  Then the other guy, I’ll call him Dr. “Mean”, was telling me I needed a C section.  Which I was freaking out about because literally at that point I had had like 2 contractions.  I tried to explain that to him and he just kept saying, “exactly!”  As in, that’s exactly why you need a C section.  But really the word he was saying was not C section, it was hysterectomy, which is even worse.  So then, I was freaking out and I crawled (yes, crawled) over to where my real doctor was and I said “I don’t like him.”  And my doctor says to me (something along these lines) “have you ever wanted to be a world champion ice skater?  Well, here’s your chance, you’ve pretty much guaranteed it.”

*blink*  THE END

Halfway!

Well here we are, at 20 weeks finally.  So is it all downhill from here or what?  :)

I just took a couple of pictures this morning.  Not my favorites so far but this is what I'm wearing to work today and I didn't want to change into a bunch of outfits to find one I loved.  I am waiting for a guy to come quote us on water heater/AC install so that would be awkward if he got here and I was in the middle of changing.  Not sure what is up with the lighting, it sure makes my belly look pale!  Maybe because it is...

I got a body pillow finally last night.  I had been trying to make do with my king size pillows but it just wasn't doing the trick.  The body pillow is actually quite a bit longer so I can hug it and still have enough left over to put between my knees.  I had kind of been avoiding getting one, but yesterday after work I got a massage and my massage therapist said I just HAD to get one.  She is 19 weeks pregnant with twins, so we had quite the pregnant gal chat for my entire massage.  Last time I had a 30 minute and we didn't exchange more than 10 words, but yesterday we talked non stop for a whole hour.  I didn't really mind the chatting because it was a good distraction from some of the more intense parts.  I feel a lot better today though, she did a good job.  Oh, and I'm putting in a vote on her behalf, which is for a boy :) 

Schoool's...out...for....ever!

Yippeeeee!  It is such a wonderful feeling to be done.  I don’t think it’s completely sunk in yet, I still have a teeny nagging guilty feeling, like “what paper am I supposed to be working on?”  But it’s all done.  Done.  Complete.  Sweet!  I was laying in bed this morning staring out the window and Eric came in and said “guess what you don’t have to worry about anymore?”  I said “School, yay!  But now I’m just laying here thinking how much there is to do to get our house ready for baby and it’s only 20 weeks away!!!”  There’s so many things I know I need to do, and probably SO many more that I haven’t even thought of!  Complicated by the fact that our water heater is NOT working right now, so that is first priority.  Luckily, Eric’s mom and dad are on vacation right now in Glacier, so we have been able to stay at their house all week.  Anyway, we have a guy coming out tomorrow to give us a quote on a new water heater as well as AIR CONDITIONING!  I’m pretty excited about that.  Probably not a whole lot will get done at our house for awhile after that because…

We have so much other excitement coming up soon…  Next weekend Eric and I are going to a charity golf tournament in Sunnyside, WA to represent INHS, and we are staying in a … Bed and Breakfast!!  That will be so fun!  I’ve never stayed in a B&B before but I can’t wait.  Our room has it’s own entrance, own bathroom (phew!) AND a jacuzzi tub!  Eric almost died when I told him we were staying in a bed and breakfast, I’m sure he can’t even bring himself to tell his friends about it or even utter the words “bed and breakfast” – but I think secretly he’s excited too.

After that, we have our ultrasound on the 27^th, YAY!  And on the 30^th we are heading to Seaside for a week, during which we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary!  Then Saturday the 5^th will be baby’s first concert – Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge.  Then after Labor Day it will definitely be time to really get down to business in the baby’s room.  Here’s my to-do list for that undertaking:

Move every stick of furniture from upstairs (both rooms) to the basement

Move living room furniture… somewhere, probably to the kitchen

Empty closet in baby’s room (upstairs)

PAINT baby’s room

Have carpets cleaned upstairs and on the main floor

Start filling up the baby’s room with baby stuff!!

Then there is a whole other project that has to happen too.  Eric and I are currently sleeping in the basement but we’re moving back upstairs to the master bedroom.  So we have to move all of our stuff upstairs and try to find a way to fit all of our clothes in the one closet in there that currently is FULL of only my clothes.  And of course rearrange the basement so we have a semi-functional guest room, office, playroom, etc.  And possibly get the carpets cleaned down there too, although I’m not sure how badly they need it.

It’s going to be a busy fall in the Haynes house.

BUT FIRST… now that I’m done with textbooks for good, I need something nice and frivolous to read before I get down to studying about parenting, newborns, breastfeeding, childbirth, etc.  Any thoughts?

Strollers follow up

Yowsers!  Lots of comments and advice on that one, I LOVE it!  Ultimately, for our purposes and budget, Eric and I have pretty much decided on the Chicco Cortina Keyfit 30 travel system, hopefully in “Adventure” which is a teal/green & gray fabric.  We have a few main reasons for this (not that I need to justify my choice, but for documentation): one – the car seat is the #1 rated by Consumer Reports, two – I like the idea of the larger “capacity” because of my previously mentioned fear of having freakishly large children, three – any color we get is pretty gender neutral, and four – I’ve read several reviews in which people mention how well the car seat fits into their smaller cars (Jetta, Civic, etc) without making the front passenger seat unusable.  I like my little Subaru – it’s paid for – and I want to keep it for a few more years at least.  I still do need to make sure the stroller fits in my trunk though I guess.  Anyway, the Chicco is a little more $$ than some but I’m not too upset about that.

I spent some time looking at the Uppababy Vista last night online and drooling over it – wow, that thing is cool.  Funny story – a couple weeks ago I sent Eric to Babies R Us to get a shower gift for my friend’s daughter.  I guess in the parking lot he saw this lady folding up an awesome stroller practically down to nothing and he thought that was pretty cool.  So he was trying to describe it to the people in the store to see if that had something like that (they didn’t).  So last night I showed it to him online and he was like “that’s totally it!”  But I think it’s a little more than what we need – and as much as I love him, Eric is way too cheap to spend that much on a stroller.  I’m not sure I really see myself doing a lot of running with it anyway, and definitely not in the rain or anywhere there are a lot of mosquitos, hehe.  When the kiddos get bigger though I definitely might look at the Uppababy G-Luxe or G-Lite for running around with.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I had some fun messing with someone this weekend.  Eric and I were out on a walk and these two guys came out of their house and one of them asked me if there was something in the water.  I asked why and he was rambling on about how he kept seeing couples around who were either pregnant or had kids with them.  So I said, “what do you mean, I’m not pregnant!?”  I could tell he got really worried at first but Eric laughed and said “yes she is!”

ONE MORE DAY AND I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL!  AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strollers!

Yesterday Eric and I went to Babies R Us and grilled the sales person about strollers and car seats.  I had no idea there was so much to consider!  Here’s what we learned:

-       Graco and Chicco are generally the best quality, and their plastic doesn’t break or wear down as quickly as some others

-       The other cheaper brands have patented the triangle and zig zag car seat handles (hence why you can’t get a Graco or Chicco with one, sad)

-       The Chicco carseats are only good for babies up to 22lbs (which seems like a lot considering little Emma, but I have a nagging feeling Eric and I are going to have a freakishly large child)… although…

-       I can’t imaging lugging around a 10lb car seat with a 22lb child in it, dang!  The empty car seat was plenty for me to do some bicep curls with in the store and get a decent workout.

-       Chiccos collapse and lock nicely, and the car seat sits more securely in the stroller (as opposed to “on” the stroller), but they don’t have much “flair”

-       Graco has these horrible cheap flimsy pieces of plastic that hold the stroller together when it is collapsed, and they can pop off and easily get lost

-       A “travel system” is easily the most bang for your buck, especially if you don’t have a stroller already

-       The extra pedestals can be up to $80 alone!

-       Next test … will it fit in the trunk of my car?

Anything else we should know?  What do you guys have?

Another pregnant moment

So today my sister and her roommate had their first annual "Women and Wine" party. I was the first to arrive so I thought I would jump in and help out. Natalie was making a crab dip so I started to put it together for her. When I got to the part where I was to add the crab boil seasoning, the baby translated "teaspoon" into "cup" for me which resulted in such an insanely salty dip that no one could possibly eat it. Then Natalie was teasing me a little bit and I pretty much started crying, it was awesome. I got over it and we managed to salvage it by adding an entire additional container of cream cheese, more crab, and more mayonnaise. Everyone said it was great, thankfully. But I felt like a total idiot. I totally knew better, too, as I was adding the crab seasoning I thought to myself, this is way too much. Oops.

19 weeks and kickin'

I realized the other day that based on my December 31st due date that today I am actually 19 weeks and 1 day. But I like having my week change over on Fridays for some reason, I look forward to it all week! So I'm sticking with it. Baby Haynes has been moving all around and I love it! I can tell HE is getting stronger, every once in awhile I feel a good thump in there. Still most often about 20 minutes after I eat but also when I lay down at night I get a few squirms and bumps. Almost halfway there (or maybe more than halfway, who knows??)! Oh, and today the baby is supposedly the size of a large heirloom tomato. 6 inches long and 8 ounces or so.

I have been really emotional lately. Everything I watch on TV or read makes my eyes fill with tears, especially if it has anything to do with kids or families or babies. I watch the occasional Baby Story and I cry every time. I have been following this other couple's pregnancy blog and I cry reading all of the posts on there (but have learned a few things too!) lately. I read Mandy's blog today and cried over that as well. I have always been a crier but this is ridiculous!

Next Friday I will be 20 weeks, PLUS I will be done, done, done with my MBA. Actually I will be done on Wednesday, so just 5 more days. Holy cow that is so exciting! This weekend I have some homework and studying to do to get ready for two presentations I'm doing but oddly I am not stressed about it at all. Now that I'm at the very end it seems so insignificant in the big picture of all that I've been doing for the last 3 years. What's really funny though is that this morning I was walking by McDonald's on my way to my building and thought how I wouldn't really mind going back to work there! Haha, can you imagine?

Attack of the baby brain

So, I just went thru the Starbucks drive thru, paid for my drink and drove away. Without my drink. Doh! What next?

18 week pictures

Well, these are 18 weeks and 2 days I guess.  I had Eric take a couple on Friday night but I didn't really like them, even though they featured my spiffy new hair cut.  The lighting wasn't too good, and there was no way to crop out all of my extremely messy room in the background.  So you'll just have to wait.  Maybe when it cools off a little one of these days I'll have the patience to blow dry my hair on a weekend so you can see it.