36 weeks / 9 months

All dressed up and nowhere to go. Except maybe the hospital.

People have been asking if I'm starting to become uncomfortable. Why, do I look like it?

My definition of that word has changed over the past few months. I feel like a kangaroo. When I grip my belly on both sides it's not as rounded as it once was. It's kind of bony - there are elbows and knees and a little bum. I can literally feel his body between my hands. Though I'm quite conscious of the space he's taking up right now, I'm not sure HE knows how big he is. He moves around in there like I'm the size of a gymnasium. He's recently started to "flutter kick" like he's in a spinning class, and other times it feels like I have a little chipmunk in there poking and scratching at the side of my uterus digging for seeds and nuts. I used to wonder why pregnant women pressed down on their bellies so often. Now I know it's to keep the little suckers out of your rib cavity.

His other habit is to sit on my sciatic nerve, which is rather startling. It's a sudden sharp cramp in the groin that makes me double over a few times a day. I've also taken to waddling a bit. Not because I'm big and fat (though I do feel kind of cow-ish at times), but because I'm so front-loaded that my balance is off and it's impossible to keep up a normal gait.

I just have to share one thing Jono said when I first bought sweatpants. This was awhile ago but I forgot to mention it. "How does my butt look in these?" I asked him. "Good," he replied. "It's more.... Latina."

Okay, so maybe it's not all in the front. They say that comes off quickly if you breastfeed. Sign me up.

He's a Bruiser

This is my first time at this so I don't know what's normal, but our boy seems to be rather active. His favorite thing is to punch the mattress when I'm lying on my side in bed. Whenever I talk about it Jono gets this proud little smirk on his face, and I know what he's thinking: "Just like his dad." Jono is fidgety. Actually we both fidget, so I guess the situation isn't surprising.

My doctor commented on it too. During my check-ups she feels around to see where he is, and I guess she can tell he's squirmy. "I think you're going to have an active little one here," she said. A few check-ups ago he kicked the sonogram machine when she put it on my belly. I think the machine is loud for him, but instead of waiting patiently for her to remove it he got annoyed and gave it two direct hits. Cutie :)

I can feel it now when he gets hiccups. They feel like mild, regular muscle twitches, and I can tell right where his head is when he gets them because of the location of the twitch. (He is often in the head-down position with his legs flailing up around my upper right side.) He usually has them for a few minutes, and it makes me want to pinch his cheeks or squish his leg rolls just picturing him in there hiccuping by himself.

Speaking of pinching, there are times when he sticks his knee or elbow out so far that I can actually grasp part of it between my thumb and index finger. Jono can be across the room and clearly see this or that little body part sticking out under my skin. I give him gentle squeezes, partly because I can't resist, but also because the doctor told me they like the physical contact. Jono used to say, “Don’t hurt him!” when I did things like that, but now that I have a physician’s permission I like to pat and prod him a bit when he’s moving around.

I think my body is just now starting to release the hormones that cause my hip joints to loosen up a bit in preparation for birth. Last week I was bragging to Jono about how spry I was still feeling. One should never brag while pregnant. I think the next day my left hip was wonky. I felt like an old lady when I got up in the morning, limping around for a few minutes like an injured bird until I was limbered up. I also have a hard time standing up straight right away after I've been laying down because my abdominals are so tight.

The hip thing went away after a few days, but I can't wait to find out what lovely side effect will show up next.

Moving to Hope Street

This past weekend Jono, me and Mona moved to Hope Street to live with Joel, Jessie and Louie (their dog).

The move was surprisingly un-stressful. Three weeks ago Jono's dad and step-mom came to help us pack. Two weeks ago my parents came to help us fill the U-Haul and unload everything into a storage unit. This left us with a (mostly) empty house, but it still took us most of Saturday and Sunday to get every last little thing out of it. Towards the end we weren't even packing things into boxes any more -- we just tossed them into grocery sacks and laundry baskets, or threw things like brooms, driftwood and my rock collection into the back seat.

Now we're settled, and have arranged our little upstairs apartment. I made the nook up there into a pantry for our canned goods. My shoes are lined up along the wall in two sections: dress shoes and regular shoes (read: OCD). Our clothes are hung on a portable thingy next to the stairs. We're using those terracotta plant saucers as coasters so we don't put rings on Joel and Jessie's little table.

We've been watching the Olympics downstairs with Jessie every night. Jessie is knitting these fantastic booties for our little man, and I'm knitting a scarf because it's the only thing I know how to knit. It's all very cozy.

I feel like I'm on vacation somewhere. Mona does too. She was mopey on Sunday as we were getting the last of our things out of the house, but when she realized she was going with us she got over it. Now she gets to play with Louie every day and her morning walks are in a different neighborhood with new smells, so she's generally happy with the situation.

Throughout all of this, God's timing has been amazing. A couple of weeks ago we found a house we like on Orville Street near Boston Square in Grand Rapids. It's a short-sale, meaning it's in pre-foreclosure. Mainly we were impressed with the fact that it isn't trashed like all of the others we've been looking at in our price range. We made an offer with help from Jono's mom and her husband Jeff, who has a realtor's license. On Friday, the day before we moved out, we heard that our offer had been accepted. No counter-offer; just YES, IT'S YOURS.

Rundown of what could've been a bad situation, but then it turned good...

• We find out I'm pregnant and decide one of us needs to quit our job or work part-time. We realize quickly that our current mortgage payment is more than we are comfortable with under the new circumstances. We put our house up for sale in the worst housing market ever.
  
  
• We know it's likely we won't make very much on our house in this market, so after we sell we'll need to live very cheaply for a few months until we have the a down payment for our next place. Joel and Jessie live three blocks away and agree to let us live with them for awhile once we sell.
  
  
• We sell our house in a month and a half for a good price, when many homes in our city don't sell for nine months to one year (or more).
  
  
• Meanwhile we're looking at foreclosed homes in the city, but most of them are in terrible shape. We are anxious about having to completely re-do a house while I'm trying to get the baby to sleep, etc. Two weeks before we move out, we finally find a good house we can afford in a different area of the city. It needs very little work. We're shocked. We make an offer. We are told it could take three weeks for the bank to respond.
  
  
• One week before we expected a reply and one day before we move out of 135 Lowell, we hear they have verbally accepted our offer. We'll be able to move in 30 days after closing, which will be in two to three weeks. So we'll settle in on Hope Street for a month or two -- just enough time to save for a down payment.
  

There's more too, but I'll stop there. The point is, we are really thankful.

On the pregnancy front, I've had the song Another One Bites the Dust (QUEEN) in my head lately as each day I must put away another article of my clothing into a box destined for the basement. I am realizing I'm low on sweatpants and various items made of long, stretchy material. I am starting to feel the extra weight I'm carrying. One area where I thought I was safe was footwear, but even my shoes don't fit right any more. I tried to put on my favorite pair of sandals yesterday -- the kind with a toe loop -- and was confused when my toe was constricted by the loop. I innocently thought, "Now how were these packed? There must've been something heavy on top of them and it warped them." In the next moment I realized there was nothing wrong with the sandals. My feet are swelling. Yay.

Another new adventure I've been having lately are Braxton-Hicks contractions. What happens with these is the walls of the uterus contract for 10 to 20 seconds and you feel like you're walking around with a boulder in your stomach. They are not labor-inducing and are very normal -- I guess it's the uterus getting ready for the real thing.

Also, I've been packing for a camping trip and I'm realizing I'll need to wear my one pair of sweatpants or walk around in a sarong to stay comfortable. One thing I thought I'd never say: "Must have more sweatpants."

24 weeks / 6 months

Oh Mona, if you only knew what was coming...

We've hit the six month mark, and our boy is getting nice and plump. He should have some hair on his head by now, and all of his major organs are mostly developed. He is about a foot long and weighs about as much as a mango (the fruit references continue to be helpful). The most surprising thing I read about this time is: "If the baby were born in this month and given the proper care, he would survive". Of course, for multiple reasons we're glad he's staying in there for awhile (God willing).

He is rolling and kicking regularly, and the other morning while lying in bed I could feel his whole body move across my hand. Not just a foot or elbow, but a body. Sometimes I feel a little "off-kilter" and I look down at my tummy and realize that he is obviously hanging out on my right side with his bum pressed against the uterine wall. It sticks right out and makes my stomach look lopsided, which is pretty funny.

I can usually see his movements on the outside now. The other day Jono was listening for him and got kicked in the ear three times :)

This six-month mark is also turning out to be the time when I'm having to leave behind my "prego-on-a-budget" wardrobe. By this I mean the little pink rubberband I was using to keep my regular pants on with. On the way to Chicago with Grant on Thursday I looked down and saw my rubberband, which had come to seem like an old friend, snapped and lying in my lap. I spent the rest of the evening with my pants wide open and a tank top pulled most of the way down over it. I guess it's a sign that I'll need to wear prego pants exclusively now, or just make sure I'm wearing clothing with a quality piece of elastic. I'm really learning to appreciate the merits of elastic. Someone needs to give the guy who invented it a big shiny medal.

Lately

Not much new is going on with Gordito, as we're calling him ("little fat one", in Spanish), other than he gets bigger and more active every day. Therefore this post isn't really about him, just things we've been up to lately.

Cadillac...
We went up to Cadillac to see Jan & Dad Klooster (Jono's dad and step-mom) a few weeks ago. In stereotypical fashion, Jono and his dad put in a fence around their backyard while Jan and I went garage saling ;) Jan got a kiddie camp chair so that the little guy can eventually sit with us around the fire, and I found sweet tie-dyed onesies with matching socks. Here we are with Jan and the two huskies. Dad K. took the pic.















One thing that was monumental that weekend is it was the first time someone asked me if I knew what I was having without asking me if I was pregnant first! Risky business, but I was pretty happy about it. As I've said before, the beer gut look ran it's course with me pretty quickly and I was ready to look pregnant.

Nordhouse...
A couple of weeks ago we went camping with a big group at our favorite spot in Michigan, Nordhouse Dunes. It's 12 miles of state wilderness along the big lake. This trip was in honor of our friends Rhoda and Johan, who were home from Korea for a couple of weeks.

We backpacked out a couple of miles and set up camp in the woods a couple of dunes from the lake. It was a little rougher going than usual because a tornado had come through the area two weeks before and we had to crawl over downed trees to get to our spot.

We spent the next day on the beach lying around, swimming, and sharing a trashy mag. It's a tradition of Nordhouse females to take at least one of them out there for "lite" beach reading, but it's funny how often one of us is looking for the communal mag and a guy has it. Once one of them picks it up, it's really hard to get it back.






























































We see unbelievable sunsets out there, sitting on the top of the dunes or on the beach, usually sipping red wine (or the latest drink I'm making hip again, apple juice). It's almost always completely isolated. We go a few times each summer, and we like it so much that we haven't really camped anywhere else in Michigan over the past couple of years.

I'm sure we'll get back there at least once more before the little dude arrives. Although we may have to shorten the hike a bit and camp closer to the trail head when I can hardly waddle down the beach anymore.




















Holland...
My cousin Jenna came up for the night on business, so I went down to Holland to see her and the rest of the fam for an evening. We went to the beach and got ice cream at Captain Sundae's, which apparently was visited by George W. Bush a couple of years ago, and he is plastered all over the place for your viewing pleasure while you're picking out the flavor you want. I guess I don't blame them. He was kind of a big deal.















I knew Mom would love it if I took this pic. These two are in Haiti right now working with teachers. Mom gets to go to an orphanage where some of the kids her work is placing live.










Jenna always cracks me up. We laughed a lot while she was here. And Mom felt Gordito move for the first time.

Brett just moved to Phoenix! He took a PE teaching position in Scottsdale. So this was one of the last times I hung out with him before he left. The next time he sees us, there will be four (counting Mona).

The last night I saw Brett, my family was over and everyone was trying to get a turn feeling the kid kick. Not much luck until the end of the night, as they were about to leave, I laid on the couch and UNDER PRESSURE tried to coax him into kicking or punching me. I was so happy when he did, and Brett and Grant both got to feel him. (Way to go buddy!)

Now that you're sick of all these beachy, sunset pics, here's a classic 70's silk screen shot to wrap this up:

The 50/50 chance...

We had our 20-week ultrasound this morning. I was instructed to drink 16 oz. of water in the span of an hour right before I came to increase the quality of the footage. I was nervous about having to pee so badly I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the baby, so I paced myself.

When we got there, the technician brought us into a dark room and had me lay on a table next to the ultrasound screen. First she asked if we "wanted to know". We eagerly said yes.

She worked quickly, squirting the goop on my stomach and moving the little sensor around. First she checked my ovaries, placenta and the umbilical cord. It was hard to tell what anything was. Then she moved to the baby, and we saw it's little face! I could hardly breathe. I wanted to look behind me at Jono to see his reaction, but I didn't dare look away from the screen. I heard him laugh a little.

She moved to the top of the head and made all of these little measurements with her tools. She slowly worked her way down the body, making sure everything was there and functioning: arms, legs, fingers, toes, spine, heart, kidneys. She told us what we were looking at as she went, but for the most part we could tell what things were before she said it.

I kept thinking "private parts, private parts, get to the private parts..." even though I was loving the entire process. I noticed I'd been clenching the towel she had draped over me in my fists and my legs were fully flexed and straight as boards. I tried to relax. She stopped giving us the play-by-play as she moved around to the baby's bum. We had a full view and both of us thought the same thing:

"Hmm. Is that...?"

....

"Looks like it's a boy," said the technician, in a nonchalant, "I-do-this-every-day" sort of way.

!!!!

I started laughing, and the ultrasound screen got all blurry as my uterus moved around. "Sorry," I said, and tried to stop. But all I wanted to do was laugh. I laughed the first time I heard his heartbeat too and the doctor lost track of it.

Afterwards she gave us five pictures of him and told us he is about the size he should be for his age, and his heart rate is normal. When she left the room we were all giggly and smirky about it. Both of us secretly felt more comfortable with the idea of our first being a boy, since we have six brothers between us and wouldn't know quite what to do with a little girl. (Of course we're hoping we have one eventually, and we'll love her to pieces if and when we get her). Last week I had two vivid dreams that he would be a boy, but as my dad pointed out, "There's a 50/50 chance, so I don't see why people think it's so great when they guess right." So true.

Anyways, HERE HE IS!!!
















Isn't he cute? And I think he's sucking his thumb in this one. See his little hand? (You can click on the picture to see a full-size version).

The other four pictures are of his profile (sans the hand), arm, feet, and "gender". It's on our fridge if you want to come over.

Over the past few days his movements have been getting stronger, and I've been able to feel him on the outside too. He wasn't doing much during the ultrasound, but when I woke up this morning at around 6:00 he was engaged in some serious acrobatics. I woke Jono up and put his hand on my stomach -- he felt him at least three times. I feel him moving around in there five or six times a day for a few minutes each time. We've been joking that he is "squirrelly" like his dad and that I'm in for another few months of interior pummeling. I don't mind. It's nice to know he's alive.

So that's that. I guess this means Jono's step-mom Jan can stop buying "gender neutral" clothing at garage sales, which I'm sure she is relieved about :)

The Quickening

The other night Jono and I were talking about how I would probably be able to feel the baby move soon. When there was a lull in the conversation he said ominously, "the quickening". I told him that had always sounded like the title of a horror film to me (imagine a big booming voice saying "the quickening" for a movie trailer). Ha ha.

I'd been told that you're supposed to feel the baby move between 18 and 22 weeks. I just hit the 19-week mark, so I've been trying to concentrate on what might be going on in my abdomen. Two nights ago while lying in bed I felt what seemed to be a little bubble or a sporadic muscle twitch moving around just below my belly button. At first I wrote it off because everyone has been telling me "It feels just like a butterfly fluttering gently in your stomach." Hmm. This wasn't really that gentle or fluttery. It was kind of firm and meant business, at least moreso than a butterfly. So I mentioned it briefly to Jono but decided I needed to wait a few days to see what else came along before getting too excited about it.

Today at work I was kind of slouching in front of my computer as I typed. My tummy was pressed against my desk, and I started feeling that little bubble stirring around in there again. I stopped typing and concentrated on it for a few minutes. This time it felt a bit stronger and was in the same general area as before. It pretty much felt like you would think it would feel to have a tiny organism rolling around in a little pouch and kicking in different directions. That's when I remembered my mom saying it didn't feel like a butterfly for her - but instead like....a GAS BUBBLE. I had a little moment of truth and called her up. She confirmed that the butterfly comparison didn't apply to her either and that the movement was too strong to feel fluttery. She then told me about the first time she felt Brett move. Tyler was sitting on her lap and kind of squishing her tummy. Brett gave him one swift kick and Mom knew exactly what it was. And so began a long rivalry... ha ha ha.

So I think we've confirmed today that what I am feeling is most likely the little dude or dudette exercising in my womb (!)

It's what they call THE QUICKENING...