Author Archives: Chantel

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Sneak peak of baby shower invites

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The invitations to the baby shower are almost done – I just have to print them. Why is the preggo one making her own invites? Well, I want them to be eco-friendly (i.e. on recycled paper, as little waste as possible, etc.) and Target doesn’t sell any for the shower hostess Jenna to buy. Plus, I was a graphic designer in  life prior to blind people so I wanted to be creative. And I’m a friggin’ control freak. Stop asking so many questions.

Sneak peak of what they’re gonna look like ->

Hey that looks like me!

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Baby ninja on board

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Judging by the movements going on in my belly, baby is either a ninja or a breakdancer. He’s just going crazy in there!

And he’s reacting to music he either really likes or really hates – he’s either moshing or beating me (Blake really) to turn it off. So far he’s loved/hated System of a Down and some Lil Wayne song (both Blake’s tunes, obviously and strangely). Blake had to turn off the music because I thought I was gonna vomit up a baby!

And I think he’s nocturnal. He really comes alive in the evening.

I can feel him no problem. When I call Blake over to feel the belly, baby hides so Blake has only felt the acrobatics twice.

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Let’s play catchup!

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So I’ve been lazy/tired/pre-occupied/busy/lazy and haven’t kept up with the weekly updates. Let’s catch up now (starting with the current week).

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22 Weeks {from BabyCenter.com} – this week

22 Weeks

At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he’s even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you’d be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he’ll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

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21 Weeks {from BabyCenter.com}

21 Weeks

Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like he’s practicing martial arts as his initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to his activity as you get to know him better. In other developments, your baby’s eyebrows and lids are present now.

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20 weeks – 5 months

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Another update from BabyCenter.com:

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He’s also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby’s legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the “crown to rump” measurement. After 20 weeks, he’s measured from head to toe.)

He’s swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He’s also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you’ll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

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Prenatal class starts Aug. 5

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Starting August 5 (my birthday/our 7 year wedding anniversary/the day the Earth stands still for my reveling), Blake and I will be attending a weekly prenatal class at the hospital where the baby will be expelled.

The class includes:

  • Anatomy and physiology
  • Stages of labor
  • Comfort measures
  • Variations in labor
  • Cesarean sections
  • Anesthesia
  • Postpartum care
  • Newborn care
  • Car seat safety
  • Birthing films
  • Hospital tour
  • Breastfeeding

That sounds like a lot to cover in a grand total of 8 hours of classes. And sounds like some really not fun stuff – really, who wants to watch childbirth? It’s scary enough just thinking about it. Can I watch a gruesome horror movie instead?

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Sprout Organic Baby Food

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I'd seriously eat all these foods. Weird?

Even though I just posted that we don’t plan to buy much, if any, pre-packaged baby foods, I would consider the Sprout organic baby food line. It’s organic, yummy for adults (if you got really hungry I supposed), concocted by a top chef, and the package is recyclable. (Learn more about Sprout: www.sproutbabyfood.com.)

Not only is the package recyclable, it’s part of Terracycles upcycle campaign. Terracycle accepts used packages from Frito-Lay chips, Nabisco cookies, Capri-Sun, and many others. You collect the wrappers, send them to Terracycle, they donate 2 cents per wrapper to your favorite charity, and makes those wrappers into a new, fun product. (Learn more about Terracyle: www.terracycle.net.)

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Making your own baby food

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At Barnes & Noble this weekend, I plopped my increasingly plump heinie in an overstuffed chair with a bunch of baby-related texts. My favorite from this particular trip was the book Blender Baby Food by Nicole Young.

Blake and I both love the idea of making your own baby food for several reasons:

  1. Environmental: less waste on the packaging of store-bought baby food.
  2. Nutritional: by making the food, we know exactly what baby is eating and we can choose to use organic ingredients as plausible.
  3. Aesthetic: as Blake said while perusing the baby food aisle of Target, “I can’t expect the baby to eat food that looks like vomit if I won’t eat it.”
  4. Cost: it’s cheaper to make our own food than getting the individual servings. And we can make a bunch at once and freeze leftovers so it’s not inconvenient.

This book had tons of info, had meals plans for the different months, and lots of easy recipes.

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Cravings

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I’m addicted to Herr’s Hot Cheese Curls. Only available at my Walgreens around the corner – until I bought the last and they have yet to re-stock.

People have been asking if I’ve had any weird cravings. No, nothing weird.

The first few months, I wanted milk. Several glasses a day. Went through a couple cartons a week.

Nowadays all I want is spicy. Spicy popcorn. Louisiana hot sauce in my ketchup. Hot sauce on my Taco Bell. That is odd for me because I usually hate spicy stuff, like zero tolerance for it.

The craziest thing of all is that I’d prefer potato chips over chocolate – what the what?! Before baby, I had to have chocolate everyday without fail. Now I could totally go without and I often do.

I read that the salty/spicy cravings means it’s a boy. Well so does the pecker on the sonogram. 🙂

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19 Weeks

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What a weird picture! Super cramped in there... no wonder I'm feeling some movement now.

From BabyCenter.com (“she” changed to “he”):

“Your baby’s sensory development is exploding! His brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that he may be able to hear your voice now, so don’t be shy about reading aloud, talking to him, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.

"Baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom." {BabyCenter.com}

Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. His arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. His kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on his scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on his skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.” {BabyCenter.com}

My next doctor’s appointment is tomorrow and I’ll have another sonogram at 20 weeks, so in the next week or so.

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New Study Reports Children’s Exposure to Advertising is Making Them Sick

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From Center for a American Dream:

Born to BuyA new book, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture by consumer expert Juliet Schor, explores the damaging effects advertising and marketing have on children. According to this breakthrough research, the advertising-saturated culture our children are exposed to is causing an array of psychosomatic symptoms.

Purchase Born to Buy

Schor, a board member for the Center for a New American Dream, had unprecedented access to the inside operations of children’s marketing and found advertising agencies using insidious new ways of reaching children. Advertising aimed at children is everywhere, from television and movies to the internet and even in school classrooms. According to the survey, children’s involvement in consumer culture affects their well-being. Children who participated in the survey reported suffering from depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and psychosomatic complaints such as headaches and stomachaches due to high levels of exposure to advertising and consumer culture.

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