Maternity Clothes don't fit???

You know you are getting bigger when clothes you bought for being pregnant now don't get over the hips. That's right-- it's getting to be time to look for new pants.

In January, I bought several pairs of pants at Motherhood Maternity. At the time, I was very happy with the purchases. One of them was a really cute sleek (for a pregnant woman) pair of khakis. Too bad I wore them one time, washed them, and they didn't fit anymore. That, I think, has more to do with Motherhood Maternity than to do with me. Needless to say, I was rather unhappy that they no longer fit.

Another pair I bought was an army green pair of cargo pants. They were very cute and were even just a little big. I wore them several times before they got lost in my closet. The other day, picking out an outfit for work, I joyfully came across them. I pulled them out to wear, as I hadn't wore them in quite a while. However, pulling them up, I found that they immediately got snug when they neared my hips. There was no hope for getting them on. So there goes another pair of pants.

On top of that, my Old Navy jeans are getting a little bit tight, as are my black work pants. On those, I can no longer latch them and rely solely on the buttons to hold. Actually, I have found that elastic bands are much better than any kind of buttons on these pants.

All of this has really taught me, though, that I am not really that pleased with Motherhood Maternity's pants. I bought the size that fit me correctly and which even gave me a little room to grow. However, after one or two washes, they were rendered useless. As well, the underwear that I bought only about a month and a half ago, is beginning to unravel. It was my understanding that they really had quality clothes, and I have to say, that I have actually been much more pleased with the quality of the Old Navy and Kohl's Maternity wear. Just putting that thought out there....

25 weeks! And going strong!!!

So, here I am. Another few weeks bigger and still happy. I am a little late getting my monthly picture up, but better late than never, right? No, that picture is not photoshopped in any way. I really have gotten that much bigger!

I survived my time on my own, had a visit from my parents last week, happily greeted Glenn back on Sunday, and returned to work on Monday. The general reaction after having not seen me for 10 days, from my colleagues was: "Oh my goodness, what happened to you over Break?" Apparently, I bloomed over the break. It could, perhaps, have to do with the Hardee's burgers, chocolate pie, and extra snacks I ate in that week without Glenn. Regardless, I still feel great and have decided not to worry about how much weight I may or may not be gaining. I am watching what I eat, and notice that I'm just not as ravenous as I was for a while.

And who would have thought that a 6 month old fetus would keep to a schedule, but lo and behold, it has to be around 4 every morning that I start to feel the little one stretching out in my belly. Kicks here, punches there. Early in the morning he wakes me up, and when he does start to kick, it is certainly regular. Glenn has also finally been able to feel him on a more regular basis. When I put his hand on my belly in the mornings, he comments at how much the baby is kicking now. He has no idea!!! I feel it all the time!!

Mommy Training

As I get closer and closer to having the baby, I am finding there are certain things I don't normally like to do, that, as the "Mommy", I am going to have to do. I am not talking about anything too big and scary. It is really the little things.

This week, I am getting some crash course training of being the only one in charge, which will be good training for those times when Glenn is at work or off playing frisbee and Jamie needs something. Say for example, when there is a large camel cricket lurking in the corner, as there was this morning. Normally, I would whine to Glenn, he would come with a plastic cup and capture the bug and set it outside. This morning, when I came across one, I said to myself, "This is Mommy training." Soon I am going to have to temporarily lose my fear of bugs (or at least cover it) and kill them. So I picked up the box of Kleenex and frantically swatted at the bug. Mission accomplished. I, unlike Glenn, don't set the bug free-- sorry to all the camel cricket lovers out there.

And then, again, a mini-crisis occurred this morning. I began my list of "things to do" by lobbing a load of dirty laundry into the washer. I poured on the Downy and the Tide, set the washer and pulled the knob. But.... no noise. No flowing water. No power. Hmmm... At first I thought maybe turned off the water for some reason, but then I tried the dryer. No power. So now what?

Normally, I would wait for Glenn or call him to do the "man thing" and fix the problem. And yet, I had already dumped a bunch of Tide on my clothing and couldn't wait 5 more days. So I started to think about the limited amount of electrical and power related information that I have, and realized what needed to be done. I went to the breaker box, and played around, and what do you know, I got them both to work. Granted, I had to call my dad just to doublecheck that what I was doing was right, but I could have gotten it without him! I swear!

Not sure why it happened, but I got it to work again, so the why doesn't really matter to me. I will let Glenn figure out the why when he gets back. He loves doing that.... understanding the why, that is.

But for now, I am curious to see what my next Mommy training will be. Hopefully not too many more bugs...

Sprechen you English, Little Baby?

So yesterday Glenn and I began a discussion about how we are going to raise Jamie to be bilingual. It has always seemed a shame to me that both us would be fluent in German and not raise him able to speak both languages. My father is Dutch, and although I was obvlivious to what this meant, as a child, when I was a teenager and in college, I really wished my dad had taught me the language growing up. I ended up learning it, myself, when I studied abroad in 2001, but I am still not fluent in it.

In any case, there are several approaches to how Glenn and I would do this, but each of them comes with it's own difficulties. The most traditional way to do this is to have one parent speak in English and the other in the other language. But neither of us feels like we would be able to hold strong enough to speaking in German the entire time.

Another scenerio has the parents speaking the target language at home and English amongst the rest of the world. For me, the issue there is that for the first year, the majority of the time with us will be spent at home, leading us to mainly be communicating with him in German.

Glenn heard a radio program (on NPR, of course) about raising bilingual children. Apparently, as they grow older, most parents worry about confusing the children about when to speak which language. However, as he says, the children are actually extremely (to a surprising degree) adept at understanding the patterns of when to do each. If you do it from the beginning, they apparently figure it out.

The other big difficult for us would be that no one else in either of our families speaks German, although my Dad likes to pretend he does. Thus, how would Glenn and I communicate with family when they were around.

In thinking, I came up with a solution that, at the moment, seems like the most likely scenerio. It all comes from the fact that in those first months, Jamie is going to be mainly home with me during the day while Glenn is at work. I can't imagine being home all day alone with him and speaking German to myself and to him. Although it would be simple for me, it doesn't always feel 100% natural. Thus, we are thinking that, in that time that he is home with me, I will probably speak English with him, so he is exposed to that, as much as to German. And if I go out, and Glenn is home with him, Glenn will speak English with him. But for the times when we are home as a family with all three of us there, we will speak in German. As well, this means that if we have company over, we will speak in English, so he realizes that with other people, he should speak English. But the main thing is that when we are having family time, we will be speaking in German.

It isn't totally decided that that is what we will do, but as of now, that is where we stand.

My new favorite maternity shirt...

Well, I got a new shirt today that I just had to share with anyone. Let me give a little backstory, first. At our school on Wed., we are going to be having Battle of the Classes, where members of each class will be competing in things like tug-of-war. Leading up to the Battle is the Spirit Week. There is a theme every day, and being the fun teacher I am, I have tried as much as possible to take part. I wore my pajamas on Pajama Day (not that that was a big struggle), I wore my UVA shirt on College Jersey Day, and then today, I had every intention of wearing a tie-dye tank top for Tie-Dye Day. But it was Monday and I forgot.

I went into school, shrugging and thinking, Ah well, the tank top probably wouldn't have fit anyway. I checked my email when I got in and had a surpising and exciting email.... "Frau W, Alex (a girl) and I made you a tie-dye shirt. We will try to come by in the morning and drop it off. --Sami" And what a smile it put on my face.

They showed up at 7:17 with my tie-dye shirt and I was really impressed with their work. I could never tie-dye the way they had. And even better... it wasn't just any shirt they had dyed for me. They had gotten a maternity shirt and dyed it. I tell you, I'm not sure what I do to be so lucky to have such great kids, but I really do feel blessed. (And the cotton is so soft too!!!!) Then again, I am touring UVA with Sami over Spring Break, so she better be nice to me. :)

Stop the train on the weight gain....

So, who would have guessed it-- apparently, I am gaining too much weight too fast!

I went to my monthly appointment today and met Dr. 3 in the OBGYN practice. I liked her as well as the other doctors, although she seemed a little more rushed, than the other two. In any case, for the first time in all my visits, my weight was mentioned. Apparently, in the last month, I jumped up by 9 pounds, meaning that according to the measurements they have taken of me, I have gained 20 pounds at 20 weeks. According to Dr. Couret, they prefer that I would have gained closer to 10.

In retrospect, I think that my eating habits in the last month, have turned to a little excessive on the sweets. My first three months, I was really good. But now cottage cheese has been replaced by cookies, apples have been replaced by chips. And maybe, when I went to Silver Diner at eleven at night, I should have picked EITHER the bread pudding or the large oreo malt shake, not both. So from now on, I will go back to my healthy snacking ways. Don't worry-- I am sure I will still eat as much as I ever did, but maybe I will just make the portions a little smaller and not eat until I am stuffed.

Here is the thing, though: suddenly, everything tastes amazing. Granted, things like crepes with Nutella in them are always going to taste amazing, but even things that are normally "alright" are now awesome! And snacking is just so much fun. These are feelings I have never had before.

Other doctor news:
-the doctor reiterated that everything from the sonogram looked as it should. All the organs are present and now they just need their time to grow and mature.
-for the first time, they used a tape measure to check my belly growth. The tape measure doesn't lie-- I am right on track for where I should be. Apparently, my uterus is now 21 centimeters long. That's just a little scary; I'm not gonna lie! (Scarier is the fact that at first, I accidentally typed inches instead of centimeters and it took Glenn laughing at me to go back and change it. Oops.)

Unborn and already he has a fan club....

So, I am happy to report that although he isn't born yet, my son already has a Facebook group dedicated to him. If you are unaware of what Facebook is, it is a networking web site, where you create a profile for yourself and people connect with you. It has been a great way for me to meet up with my old classmates from Oakton and touch base with people all over the world, who I may not have talked to in years!

Although originally created for college students, it has also become exceedingly popular among high school students. As such, one of my students created a group on Facebook called "James Morgan Rife". Already he has 21 friends! Can you believe it? So, if you are a member of Facebook and would like a good chuckle, search for his group and take a look. :)