28 weeks and 35 extra pounds...

Once again, I am a little off from my month by month picture, but here I am, in all my glory. My weight gain has slowed down, but I have still added about 35 pounds at this point.

One of my students, Brian, likes to refer to me as "Watermelon Belly", as he insists that it simply looks like I swallowed a watermelon. "The rest of you looks exactly the same. You just look like you have a watermelon in your belly."

In fact, that is the comment I seem to be getting from a lot of people. My face looks like the same, my legs (minus my poor ankles) look the same. Only my arms, Glenn tells me, look a little bigger. I told him that I have to get bigger arms to carry around all that baby stuff.

More and more, people around school are coming up and saying they didn't know I was pregnant. Every day, it seems like I get into the school elevator and have a different teacher from the third floor, who I never see, say to me, "Oh congratulations." There is an Asian custodian, who gets a big smile on my face every time she sees me and says simply, "It's a boy!" She could tell, simply by the way he was sticking straight out.

Another comment I get from my students is that it must be strange to have this feeling inside. Indeed, Jamie is making his presence known more and more. Not too many sharp kicks (unless I poke him, which he hates), but brushes and pokes, little pats here and there. Occasionally, he pokes me in two places at one time, making me think he is practicing his dance moves. According to my sister, he is quite active. While she was here, she felt a lot of little movements.

For me, though, these things are becoming as regular as feeling my stomach growl used to be. A little reminder that it isn't just me in this body, but nothing that makes me stop and take notice. Just a little "hello" throughout the day. It makes me smile and when I am sitting down, I do still find myself pausing to put my hand on my belly. I guess it is like saying hello back.

Today, for the first time, I felt two things that I have heard about. Earlier this evening, he gave two sharp kicks with what I am guessing was his foot, right where my belly button is. Just after the kicks, I felt the area and it was extremely hard. All around it was softer, leading me to believe that I must have come across his foot. Glenn actually got to feel this too and said it was unmistakable.

Later on in the evening, Glenn tried to make him move on command, by calling him "Boy". Imagine Glenn, with a southern accent, saying, "Kick, boy" to my belly. Jamie refrained from answering, as I instructed him not to. However, a few minutes later, as I lay there, I felt a rhythmic tap and realized that for the first time I was actually catching hiccups in progress.

It seems often like this point in the pregnancy brings few new occurences. I am used to this body and these feelings, and it makes it seem like there is nothing for me to write about in my blog. But then he does something like get the hiccups, and I am reminded that there is always something new.

I am Mechanical!!!

From the shower, Glenn andI had a few things to put together: a swing, a high chair, and (if you really want to count it), the Diaper Champ. Glenn pulled the Diaper Champ out of its' box on Saturday night and took to tackling the High Chair. He thought this was the easier choice. Two hours later he disagreed. Just when he thought he was done, I heard him say, "Why do I have an extra screw?" But in the end, it was put together.

The next day, I felt like it was my turn. I decided that I wanted to prove my independence by putting together the swing all by myself. Glenn grinned at me, got me a screwdriver and sat back in his chair. I must say, it wasn't too tough. Everything fit together logically and I got to flex my muscles with an Allen wrench a few times.





When it was all said and done, Glenn scoffed, "Man, I should have put that one together!"

Baby Shower #1

And so the baby food tasting, present opening, cake cutting, mingling begins. Yes, on Saturday, the first of our baby showers took place and it was great fun. Lindsay arrived on Friday afternoon with a huge surprise-- her co-host for the shower, my sister Sue. I haven't seen Sue since my wedding about a year and a half ago and I definitely was not expecting her to show up. Apparently, when I saw her in the car, my jaw dropped.

From that first moment when I saw them drive up, the good times began for the weekend. We spent Friday night shopping for necessary supplies and Saturday morning preparing with decorations and of course, Sue pulling out her Cooking Lite cookbooks and her full menu, from baked brie to buffalo chicken tenders to stuffed mushrooms and tomatoes. Needless to say, no one went hungry at the shower.

Speaking of eating, I got my first taste of baby food at the party. One of the games that Linds had planned involved the guests tasting various types of yellowish- orangish colored baby food. I felt confident to start with. I stuck my finger in the first one and tasted it... "Pumpkin", I thought. "This is definitely pumpkin." I wrote it down and moved on. The second one was easy as well and then I got to the third. "But wait," my brain told me, "this one tastes like pumpkin." And so it turned out that the one right after that also tasted like pumpkin. Come to find out from Jess, who kindly offered a hint, that there was no pumpkin baby food at all! Yikes! Now what? I changed the pumpkin to all the things that taste like pumpkin-- squash, sweet potatoes... and ended up getting a bunch right.

Post games began the opening of the gifts. When I was at Jess' shower last summer, I wondered why she was so self-concious about opening her gifts. But now I know. I must have been opening gifts for about an hour and I found that there is a skill to opening these things. You have to move quickly so that no one gets bored, while also making sure that every guest realizes how great their gift is, while also takihg the true time to appreciate what you have been given. It is hard to describe how happy I was with all the things I received. All of the clothing that we got, and there was quite a pile of it, was cute. We got a number of large items, and I even got 4 bottle basket cleaners for the dishwasher.

In the end, the shower was a fantastic time. I got to bring together a large number of people that I really don't see very often, played a few games, and even got the chance to talk to most of them. At times it felt like my wedding reception-- so many people, so little time to have a conversation with them. But just to spend any time with them was worth it. I must send out a thank you to everyone who shared their Saturday with me, and especially a thank you to Lindsay for putting it all together!!!!! And to Sue, for making enough food for Glenn and I to figure out 101 new recipes with buffalo chicken.

For more pictures of the shower, check out: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=186694353/a=9228246_9228246/t_=9228246

How to Build a Nursery in 9 months....

For a while, it was nothing more than a crib in the middle of the room, several inherited baby devices around the room (Thank you, Norm), and a glider in the corner (Thank you, Lindsay). But now, Jamie's room is really beginning to take shape.


I must say that I got a kick in the pants this past weekend, as I spent Saturday and Sunday with some very crafty people. Glenn and I went down to Roanoke and while he was carted off to move things off the lake property with his dad, his mom and I headed to Aunt Joyce's to visit with her and Glenn's cousin Suzy. Suzy lives in Ohio, but comes out occasionally, and usually when she comes, she brings along her fancy embroidery machine and everything imaginable is created. This weekend, that "everything" included burp clothes and a beautiful blanket. We headed off to Joanne's fabric to check out the patterns they had. After we picked up a bunch of fabrics for the burp clothes, I went to check out the paint supplies.


Painting has recently become my new passion. It all started last year, when I decided to paint some wooden animals for Jess' daughter Katie. I found it to be extremely relaxing and really a lot of fun. Thus, when the questions began arising of what we would be doing to paint the nursery, Glenn and I came up with the idea that I would buy a whole bunch of wooden animals and would paint them to be hung in his room. We didn't want to paint the walls. Instead we just plan to decorate them with various homemade things.


Over spring break, I began work on the first thing I know I want to do. That is a shelf and a bunch of little shapes. It was slow going, as I had two other projects to finish first-- one for my new niece Amanda and one for my pretend little sister Marla. With those now done, I am able to turn my attention to Jamie.


SO, that brings us back to Roanoke. I intended just to look for cheap paints and brushes to add to my supplies, but decided that I would go ahead and buy the letters for his name. Once back at Joyce's the three of them took to the embroidery machine, and I broke out the painting supplies and got started. I didn't give I would finish, as I had a limited amount of paints, but as the weekend wore on, I got it almost completely done.






With the exception of some very fine painting that required a brush I have at home, I got it all done. I then finished it up tonight.





I must say that the cow on the "S" is my favorite.

You may be wondering what the theme of all this is. Let me put a disclaimer on this, though. When I tell you what the theme is, let me say I am not looking for a wide array of items in that theme. It is supposed to be a cute, subtle theme. Just as with most other things, I have an idea in my head and am now bringing it to life.

Although I haven't formally mentioned on the blog, the baby's name is going to be James Morgan. The Morgan is a family name, that being both Glenn and his father's middle name. The James, although also a conveniently cool family name on my side, actually comes from a song by James Taylor called "Sweet Baby James." It is a song Glenn and I have been fans of for a while now, and have always thought it would be a great name for a child.

Thus, we are using the lyrics of that song as a base for the theme of his room. The first line is as such: "There is a young cowboy who lives on a range/ His horse and his cattle are his only companions/ He works in the saddle and he sleeps in the canyons/ Waiting for summers, his pastures to change..." The chorus, though, is my favorite part.

"Goodnight, you moonlight ladies,

Rockabye Sweet Baby James.

Deep greens and blues

Are the colors I choose.

Won't you let me go down in my dreams.

And rockabye Sweet Baby James"

And so from there, his room will be an array of horses and cows. Perhaps a moon or two, which is mentioned in another part of the song. The best part, though, is getting to find out how crafty I really am. Finding some hidden ability that goes to sleep every once in a while. It has often been said that there is an artistic Van Welzen gene and I love being able to assert mine.

25.5 week check-up!

Well, it was off to the doctor again today. Let me say, first off, that I so prefer appointments at the end of the workday. I had to go today around 11 and there was absolutely no parking at the hospital and then, I had to wait 40 minutes in the waiting room!

So anyway, all is still perfectly well with myself and with Jamie. My blood pressure was "perfect", as the nurse called it, and Jamie's heartbeat was "nice and strong", as the doctor said. The appointment itself was very fast, and left me feeling like I really am doing a good job of being a little growing ground for the baby. He never seems to have had any problems, and neither have I. Apparently, I am meant to be pregnant all the time. Haha, Glenn, just kidding.

But really, this doctor, a different one from the last time, didn't seem concerned about my weight, leading me to believe, as many have said, that it was just that one doctor. In fact, I had to ask him if it was okay because he didn't bring it up. For all those curious, I have now gained a total of 31 pounds. Granted, at the time that I was weighed, I must have been carrying at least 2 lbs. of water in my bladder. It felt like that much at least.