Armstrong Baby Blog

Sandy and I have decided that we will be naming our son Stewart Daniel.  The motivation for these choices is obvious — Grandpa Stewart and Grandpa Dan.  Honoring these two great men in our lives is the best way to pass on their legacy to our little boy.  I’m not sure what we’ll call him as a nickname yet, but we still have plenty of time!

To celebrate the naming of our son, I decided to do a little photo shoot in the backyard.  It documents the growth of my belly and was cheaper than having someone else do it!  I’ll probably do another one when I get really big.  Also, new pictures of the very bare nursery that will soon hold all of my baby shower gifts!

Hope you enjoy!

Love,

Mama Bear and Stewart Daniel <3

So my ultrasound technician told me that my placenta was in the front, and that’s why I wasn’t feeling a lot of kicking with my hands, even though I was feeling them in my belly.  Well, last night either that placenta moved or my baby got bigger, because he started kicking a lot harder!  It kind of freaked me out at first, but I think I’m getting used to it.

This has been a very relaxing holiday season with Great-Grandma visiting and Sandy having had last week off.  We bought a black crib/toddler bed/kids bed conversion at the baby store, plus a matching black dresser!  These were Great-Grandma’s gifts to her sixth great mo’opuna.  Sandy and I bought a fancy mattress to go with it that supposedly can do all kinds of things, like ward off mold forever and flip over to provide more back support for a toddler once he’s grown a bit.  Our nursery is starting to get crowded!

I’m so excited because next month my Aunty Laura is planning a baby shower for me in the Bay Area.  We aren’t sure exactly what dates but my mom and I will be taking a road trip out there sometime in the beginning of February.  It will be some great mother daughter bonding time before the little man arrives.  We had great fun last week playing a game my mom suggested: each family member wrote down five name suggestions for the baby on a piece of paper, then we all voted on how much we liked each name.  Here are the top ones (not necessarily in my book, but by consensus!):

Stewart, Dane, Samuel, Alexander, Heath, Cooper, and argh….one of Sandy’s favorites…Lincoln.

Lately I’m liking Samuel and Cooper (they shorten to such cute little monikers, Sam and Coop), but I’ve always loved Dane.  Sandy will not tolerate Dane under any circumstances, just like I won’t tolerate Lincoln.  Guess we’ll have to keep discussing it!

As I mosey into month six, I’ve got the following complaints: round ligament pain, a feeling that I will pop whenever I sneeze, and a general desire to eat all the freaking time.  I’m thankful I don’t have any other problems YET like back pain, excessive heartburn, and constipation!

Here’s the expanding Russian frontier, as well as my cute Tychi boy peeking around the corner of the nursery.

Love,

Mama Bear

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday consolidating Sandy’s and my closets (we used to have separate ones, now we just have “The Marital Closet”) so that we could make room for all our son’s things.  Now our Marital Closet is jam-packed (but super-organized, as is my wont), and our little boy has room to grow.  Is this part of the nesting instinct, or just practicality?

Also, here are two outfits that I bought celebrating the fact that we’re having a boy — it is a little harder to get excited about boy clothes (and always has been!) but in light of all the outfits we’ve been receiving from loving family and friends, I wanted to join the party and buy my son some clothes — look at the lil’ shoes!

Love,

Mama Bear

Here’s my rapidly expanding belly, which seems to be growing every day.  This morning I felt him kick with my hand for the first time (my hand just happened to be resting on my belly, and then bounce!) and I got my first Braxton-Hicks contraction.  My uterus hardened up like a rock and I felt it stay that way for like fifteen seconds and then slowly loosen.  It was the oddest sensation.  Guess the little guy’s busy in there!

I’m halfway there!  Also, I’ve been looking into planning an unmedicated birth with the help of a doula and a Bradley/hypnobirthing based program called Hypnobabies.  I’m hoping to labor at home for as long as possible before I go to the hospital.  More on this in the coming months.

Love,

Mama Bear

So much to our surprise, my gender ultrasound today revealed that we will be having a little boy!  I will post more about the experience and our reactions to it later on, but I wanted to get these ultrasound photos up so everyone can see our beautiful son!

Look at this handsome profile… he’s looking to the left of the computer screen!  I think he has Sandy’s nose.

He’s giving a thumbs up to Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, and Great-Grandma!  Letting us know everything’s okay in his womb-bed!

Okay, for this one, imagine that the two white dots in the middle are his butt bones and he’s sitting on a copy machine.  See the boy evidence?

Here are the “frank and beans,” note where the arrow’s pointing!

More later, promise!

Love,

Mama-of-soon-to-be-son!

I think I will have this local lady take my maternity photos when I hit about 8 months!

http://www.peanutphotography.com/indexN.html

Just got back from Dr. Harter’s office – he measured the baby, let us listen to the super-rapid heartbeat (and kicking!), and answered various questions I had about my possible hypoglycemia (confirmed) and my returning IBS.  Note to IBS sufferers — pregnancy makes this worse, so be prepared!

I am not sure if I’ve felt any kicking yet.  A couple of times I thought I might have, but it’s hard to tell at this stage, so I’ll just wait a few more weeks.  Dr. Harter says almost everyone feels it by Weeks 19 – 21.  Apparently she kept kicking and then running away, so he had to chase her with his sonogram stick.  Haha!

On December 17, we get to have the gender sonogram.  Grandma, Sandy, and my mom and dad will be there to see if it’s a boy or a girl.  I’m betting girl!  Also, Sandy and I have bet against one another as to when we think my belly button will pop.  I think before my birthday (judging from the weird shapes it’s making now), and Sandy says December 22.  I’m not looking forward to the pop – I’m actually kind of scared!

Here are current pics! Look at my belly! My butt has grown to match!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a great one with Nanny and the girls (unfortunately sans Susan) in Palo Alto, where we went to visit Nanny at her new home in a Jewish independent living facility.  When we were teenagers, Nanny knew we were going to be together forever and would probably start making babies eventually, so she knitted us a baby set in case she wasn’t around when we got pregnant.  Well, she is, and here is the family with various baby items!  Thank you Nanny, we love you!

Grandma Ros, who is traveling on the east side of the country for the holiday season, also got us an adorable Ohio State Buckeyes onesie, so our baby knows who to root for should the need ever arise!  Thanks, Grandma Ros!  We missed you at Thanksgiving!

Signing off for now,

Yummy Mama Bear

So apparently the strange, vivid pregnancy dreams have started — over the past two nights, mine have involved vampires running on a giant clock which only I can control; being pursued by the Kuomintang; cagefighting men with enormous penises (I suppose the opposite of the Kuomintang, heh); me trying to shoe horses with no nails; and my mother abandoning me to greedy bazaar saleswomen in China with me having no money to pay for something I supposedly bought.  One of these dreams a night would not be out of character for me since I often have vivid dreams and remember them, but all of these in the past two nights can only be chalked up to the insanity of pregnancy!

Also, I seem to be having pregnancy hypoglycemia.  I know that normal pregnant women are always hungry and turn into rabid bears when they don’t get to eat, but when I don’t get to eat I get dizzy, have shaky hands, get lightheaded, and sort of feel like passing out.  Hopefully this doesn’t continue past my due date, or I’ll have to start being like a grandma who has a big purse full of hard candies.  27 is too young to carry a large purse!

Will post some pictures later on — my belly is kind of obscenely big (at least in my world), I have like three shirts that fit me, and I have to clean up a reasonable amount before I take a picture.  Geez, think I didn’t care about hair and makeup before – now I care not at all, and I suppose that’ll only get worse.  LOL.

Love,

Breakfast-hunting Mama Bear

So my friend Cola has taken up sewing and made me a bunch of amazing baby items!  To date: 10 burp cloths, 2 changing pads (she doesn’t like the bright one but I do!), 2 bibs, and a bottle cover.   Now she wants to make me a diaper bag, too — say it with me, folks: Cola, you are awesome.

So after getting out of the shower, I noticed a dark line running from my belly button on downward.  I knew this was a sign of pregnancy, but I couldn’t remember what it was called.  After looking it up, I learned that it’s a linea nigra, a hyper pigmentation that occurs during your second trimester as the muscles in your stomach separate to make room for baby.  I have my very own linea nigra!  Welcome to the second trimester, Peekaboo!

Love,

Mama Bear