Week 15 – Oranges!

Posted on May 22, 2009 by David

As predicted, we’ve moved up in the world – from lemons last week to oranges this week. The fetus is about the size of an orange, so the baby websites say. Of perhaps more importance, this is the week that the fetus will start reacting to sounds that it hears around it. That means that when we go to our Decemberists Concert on the 1st of next month, the baby will get to hear it’s first concert as well.

It can also now make a fist. It’s a good thing that it couldn’t hear when we went to the heavy metal concert, because it would probably be sad it couldn’t throw one of these

It’s said that some women can start to feel movements this week, but it’s uncommon.

On a sad note, peanut butter cravings have ceased. I’ve waited for a while to post this, because I found it incredibly sad. The resultant mania that accompanied the peanut butter cravings is now over. Hopefully we’ll get some other strange and bizarre craving soon. I wonder how long it’s going to take to use up all the accumulated peanut butter in the house?

Week 14 – Lemons

Posted on May 15, 2009 by David

We’re starting week 14 today. Notable developments include the fact that the baby is able to frown. Last week it was able to smile. Next week I’m expecting it to make a sucky fish face

In other news, it’s getting bigger and bigger. The plum days are over, now all the webpages are describing the development in terms of citrus fruits (lemons right now).

What a bag of fetuses might look like

Things are starting to get hairy. ‘Lanugo’ is what the hair that’s starting to appear all over the fetus is called.

It sucks its thumb a lot now, as well as other movements.

We’ve cleared out our geek den. We used to have both of our desks in our bedroom, so that we can use the living room for… living purposes. But we’re going to need extra room coming up here very soon, so I moved one of our loveseats out of the house. Both desks came into the living room. There’s now a vast expanse of space (for very small amounts of ‘vast’) in our room that will be good for an infant. We have some time to go, but figured that while I’m off of school I may as well do the heavy lifting.

I’m reminded that I’m getting older during times like these. The next day I was crazy-sore. That night I slept like a baby.

Ending the first trimester

Posted on May 8, 2009 by David

It’s scary.

It seems like just the other day that we found out Jolene was pregnant. Now we’re starting week 13, and things like the teeth and everything are already in place. The ears I guess are still moving around, it’s practicing swallowing, and so on. The weirdest part is that one of the sites I’ve read says that it’s practicing smiling as well.

Can you imagine a smiling fetus?

I can’t.

I’ve started cleaning out stuff to make room for the eventual crib. We’re going to be moving a bunch of stuff out, and moving some computer stuff to the living room from the bedroom where it currently is. Not the best situation, since we don’t have that much room. However, it’s probably the only setup that will work in the small house we’re now trapped in.

There’s a lot of work to be done. I’ve started a savings account. I’m working as hard as I can to get things ready. I feel like we may never be fully ready, but I think that’s probably part of the way things go. I am sure everything will end up more than ok.

Allegro!

Posted on May 5, 2009 by David

Jolene had her first prenatal examination today.

The Doctor

Our appointment was at 3:30 in Bay City, and we went for lunch to grandpa tony’s first. It was a good lunch, and I finally ordered the size of spaghetti that I can actually eat rather than the ultra large size that I never finish. Afterward, we headed to Jolene’s mom’s house and killed some time. We wandered around downtown Bay City, since we were extremely early for our appointment. Antique stores were where we tread, though I don’t really understand why people would want most of the stuff. Truth be told, I was worried. What if we didn’t hear anything at the exam?

We went to the appointment, and I stayed in the room in the extra chair while the doctor did the normal lady examination. I am told that I have to go through all of these things with her, so there I stayed. Following this she took a machine off of the counter and put some lubrication on it. I had previously seen the machine but didn’t figure that was what she was going to use. I guess I was thinking it would be something more substantial.

She used the machine and we listened in… eventually, ever so faintly, was a really fast beat in the background. The doctor told us that it was about 160 beats per minute, about normal for this time. She’s scheduled for a blood check for genetic issues and such. Otherwise, everything else was just about normal.

We left, and scheduled an appointment for a ultrasound. That will be happening June 9th, at 5pm at the Bay City hospital. That should be an interesting trip indeed.

Our Anniversary

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary of our wedding today, and our 5th anniversary of knowing each other. It was a nice day. Allegro means ‘fast and bright’ in Italian. It’s the same beat per minute range that we heard on the little machine just a few hours ago. Jolene gave me allegro today for our anniversary. It’s probably the best gift I’ve been given for an anniversary.

It’s been a good 5 years.

Week 12: Micturition

Posted on May 4, 2009 by David

Well, it’s been a busy weekend….

Graduation

Friday night I went through my graduation ceremony at Delta. I dressed up, of course. It’s about making mom proud, after all. I got there at about 5:55, and stood in line for an hour while the graduating class of 2009 got assembled around me. This seemed the longest, since I did not know anyone around me. An older lady, presumably in charge, kept reminding us to go to the bathroom. I have a nervous bladder anyway, so this didn’t help. It was like she was our substitute mommy.

Eventually we got in 2 lines, one on each side of the hallway. It was hot there, with little air circulation. I wasn’t looking forward to the gym, figuring if the hall was this hot the gym was probably going to be worse.

5 minutes late, at 7:05, we walked into the gym. I had enough people in front of me that I figured that I would be in row three or so. Ultimately though, the line on the right side stopped and let the line on the left side progress. I ended up in the front row, right on the very left edge. The lady that I was sitting next to was overly friendly. She treated me as though I was her best friend for years, which was kind of odd since I just met her minutes before. The gym was surprisingly very cool, and not bad at all.

I sat through the ceremony. Thankfully, the little old lady reminded me to go to the bathroom earlier, so I was a-ok. The entire thing only lasted an hour or so, and all culminated in this moment:

Video – Walking Across

After that, I sat and watched a large amount of people I did not know graduate mere feet from where I was sitting. I contemplated what would happen if someone really did have to go to the bathroom during the ceremony. I pictured random graduates as they walked across, regretting that bottle of water they drank just minutes before the ceremony. Overall though, it was nice, with refreshments afterward down in the commons area. I ate many many brownies. I drank a ridiculous amount of punch, having only drank a bare minimum of liquids that day. Again, I didn’t want to have to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t be that guy.

Saturday

We got home late Friday night and got up early Saturday, as per normal with the beasties. For some strange reason, they get up earlier on weekends than they do on weekdays, when they’re hard to wake up and get going. I don’t understand it. It’s probably one of those things, like how women go to the bathroom in flocks. Just strange behavior.

Anyway, we went to a pancake breakfast for Ben. I looked quite well rested..

… well, maybe not.

Ben was nominated as an “incredible kid”, and got free pancakes and all sorts of accolades.

Sunday

We woke up at noon and eventually made our way to Ghengis Kahn, a mongolian bbq place here. My parents took everyone out to celebrate my graduation that Friday. Afterwards, we went to their house for some cake…

… which was very tasty indeed. Thanks mom, it was a nice day. I got nice gifts, and I’m thankful for all of this.

Regarding The Baby…

I looked up the information for the development through this week, and it’s getting incredibly human looking

Also of note, vocal cords are in place, fingernails and toenails, the brain is fully formed, and facial features are in place. Most importantly for this entry, it has developed kidneys and have started to secrete urine. The cycle is complete. From me at graduation, to a large drunk man at the concert, to the fetus, this entire blog post is urine related. I’m not sure how I’ll top this.

Tomorrow is both our anniversary as well as the first doctors appointment wherein I’ll hear the heartbeat and see the kid. It should be interesting!

Oh, and if you’re still confused as to what Micturition is…

Week 11 Begins

Posted on April 25, 2009 by David

Of most importance this week is that the baby is visibly becoming a girl or a boy. We all know how I feel about that. The most critical parts of the development are now over, but there’s still of course a lot to go.

The baby can now move and kick, and is exploring the new world. The uterus is still cathedral-large to the fetus, so it’s not able to be felt. It probably doesn’t echo either. Some places note that the fetus begins at this point to explore the fact that it has a mouth with it’s hands.

The ears are moving up to where they belong. This is important, as they need to be in place for quality music to start getting pumped in. No, I’m not joking.

It will start developing a swallow reflex as well, and continues to develop the taste buds. Some people believe this is the first time period in which the sense of flavors are developed. As I write this, I think back to last night when Jolene ate peanut butter flavored snack mix. It’s either going to love or hate that stuff. We’ll see.

Morning sickness seems to be gone for the most part, but super-human smelling ability isn’t. I swear, the woman can smell the fact that I’ve had onions for lunch before she hits the driveway.

Week 10 Begins

Posted on April 17, 2009 by David

Jeesh, it’s going by fast.

During week 10 the tail has completely dissapeared from the fetus. Which is a very important thing, lest we name our child ‘fido’ or similar.

The baby websites all make reference to the fetus being as big as a plum right now. I don’t like plums. I don’t eat them. Still, plum this, plum that…

All I can imagine is one of these inside of Jolene at this time:

Course, it’s supposed to look more like this, a fetus at 10 weeks:

I guess the head kinda looks like a little plum. I dunno.

It has taste buds now, too. Which means I guess that it’s going to develop it’s love of peanut butter.

The websites also say that there will be mood swings and such at this time because of changing hormones. In the wife, not the fetus. I haven’t noticed any yet. Jolene is, as always, just delightful. She’s still exhausted all the time though. Oh, and they say her gums might bleed. I’m not sure why. Are babies a leading cause of the gum disease gingivitis?

Week 9 begins

Posted on April 11, 2009 by David

So week 9 began yesterday. Of important note, apparently the fetus had a tail up till this point which is now gone.

Also, baby websites show that the fetus is a convenient size for snacking

It’s about an inch long, and the page that I retrieved this image from notes that it’ about the size of large grape. It’s a very strange way of showing the size, with the fingers like that. I can only assume the writer was hungry when they made that page.

It’s also apparently an arsonist, which could be helpful in us getting a new house

There are also miniature teeth, a heart was finally formed, and there are now supposed to be earlobes.

This guy isn’t really as important to Jolene anymore;

the peanut butter cravings seem to have subsided somewhat. Although she is sleeping a lot now. I guess that tail dissolving business is tiring.

Week 8 Starts

Posted on April 3, 2009 by David

So today marks the beginning of week 8. Not a lot has happened, we’ve been pretty busy with other things in our lives.

Apparently at this point the fetus is as big as a lima bean. Maybe a pinto bean.

In addition, it apparently likes to do that Macarena.

All very cool. I did, however, order a shirt for Jolene for our trip to Columbus to see the Decemberists this summer. I saw this in their store and, well, it ended up getting bought:

Click the image for more detail, of course. It’s a very cool little ‘onesie’

I figure everyone else is getting shirts for the concert. That and we’ll have the hardest indie-rockin’ baby around if we have them dressed in this.

And so it begins…

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Jolene

Saturday night, after an evening out with friends, David needed some pancakes to soak up his beer. We stopped at the Texan for ‘breakfast’ and it was yummy… and short lived. We didn’t even make it half-way home when I was spending some quality time in the rain by the side of the road. Lovely visual, eh?

Last night, after eating a late dinner, I ended up sick again. Poor Ben has the sad luck of having the bedroom right across the hall from the bathroom. I could hear him calling for me while David was pacing the hallway trying to make sure I was okay… ummm… no, no I wasn’t. LOL

After scrubbing my teeth, I went into Ben’s room to explain morning sickness to him, only to have him reply, “but it’s not morning” which launched into another discussion about how silly of a name it is. He went to sleep satisfied that I was perfectly fine. And I was. Once the food is forcibly evacuated, I feel perfectly normal… which is a good thing, I guess

And so begins the period of arbitrary food evacuation.

(peanut butter cookies seem to be staying down just fine, though! LOL Made Grandma Malley’s recipe tonight, but I altered it by adding splenda in place of half the sugar… not grandma’s cookies… but close.)

The Cooke Family Website

Category Archives: Baby