leg cramps

I got my first leg cramp while sleeping today. It woke me up out of my sleep. Fortunately I remembered to flex my foot, so it went away quickly.

I remember when I was pregnant with Lukas I would get 2-3 of them a night! And it was always hard for me to remember in the dead of sleep to point or flex my foot to make them go away.

Im gonna have to look up and see what causes them and what can prevent them.
So far Ive heard that calcium (milk) causes them and potassium (bananas) can help prevent them.
If you have any insight on this or recommendations on what has helped you, let me know. Ive got 20 weeks left and am not looking forward to already getting these leg cramps in the night.

Baby moving

Last night as I lay in bed, I could start to feel the baby move around a bit as usual. I grabbed Tony's hand and placed it on my pelvis, with a little bit of pressure. Waiting for the baby to move again in hopes that he would feel it on his hand. And he did! He said, " I felt something on my palm!" And I reassured him, yup, thats where it was at! He actually got to feel him move!! And at that moment, Tony leaned down to my belly and started talking to the little guy. :)
Its so neat that Tony could feel that. I think it wasn't until 24 weeks when Tony could feel it before. But now I think we both know what we are feeling and can pinpoint it more. How neat!

Update on Baby's Room

We've got the yellow circles on the walls. And though I wasn't that sure about it after they were up, I'm feeling better about it now there is more things in the room.





We also set up the crib, changing table, and picked up a tan microfiber glider/rocker off craigslist for $50 yesterday too!

Pretty sure on the name

and so it will be:

Brady Nikolas Howard

18w1d Dr's appointment

I had my monthly doctors appointment this past Wednesday and it went pretty good. I've gained 4 lbs. since my last appointment 5 weeks ago. So that puts me at 8 lbs. total.

He did a colposcopy on my cervix, meaning he just used a scope to take a look at it since I had an abnormal pap 2 months ago. He said everything looked good, and won't have to worry about that issue again until I'm 6 weeks postpartum when I get that pap done.

He gave me the lab slip for the Quad testing to be done at the hospital. And also the doctor's order for the 20 week fetal survey ultrasound that has to be done at the hospital as well.

Fetal heart beat was good and clear at 144 bpm. Although it always makes me nervous when it takes him about 30 seconds to actually find the heart beart. The longest 30 seconds ever.

I did mention to him that over the past couple weeks I started having some back pain, right in the tailbone region. Mostly in the late hours of the day before going to bed. Sometimes even feels like my legs would give out when I stand on one foot. Not that I stand on one foot a lot. Just when Im changing my clothes for bed and into loungepants. You've gotta lift one leg off the ground. I guess I'll have to remember to sit on the edge of the bed when doing this now, so I won't fall over. He said this is most likely my sciatic nerve that is bothering me and showed me some hip-menourvering sways to help it feel better. Also suggested laying with a pillow between my knees. Which I have been doing at night with this pillow.

Its called the Snoogle Total Body Pillow. And I love it! I bought this when I was pregnant with Lukas because I also had back soreness with that pregnany as well. And I used this every night. You don't even need your regular pillow when you have this. Just cuddle up right in it.

Early in the pregnancy, like now, I would use it this way with the pillow kinda helping hold my belly up. Then it doesn't feel like that little bump that is growing isnt without support under it when laying on your side.

And then I also love lying with the pillow behind your back, because later I tended to want to lay on my back sometimes to relieve the back pain, but having this pillow would stop me from doing that and gave a nice 45 degree angle of my body with the bed.

I remember when pregnant with Lukas and now its happening with this one as well. I wake up feeling so great in the morning after having this pillow, that I usually forget that I even had a sore back the night before.

So anyways, I think that was it for this appointment. I go back in another 5 weeks, instead of 4 since Dr. is on vacation in 4 weeks.

Official Ultrasound will be in the next 2 weeks as well. :)

Painting the Baby's Room

We picked up paint today from Lowe's and got right to painting the baby's room. We actually were gonna wait another month and wait for some nice weather to have the windows open and sun shinning and all, but we are a little bit more of a time schedule. The room was kinda of a mess this past month as we were taking the spare bed and book stand out of there. Its a good thing we haven't had anyone want to come look at the house. But now we do have a showing scheduled for Sunday March 22nd, so we'd like to get the room somewhat organized and get it starting to look like a baby's room. Its kind of a small room, so maybe it will be even better presentation when it is shown as a baby's room, rather than a spare bedroom or a room to stock pile crap, as what its been looking like this past month.

Tony also brought down the crib from the attic so we can also put that together, maybe this weekend. We have the changing table in the garage and will probably bring that in as well. Hopefully have it looking somewhat as a baby's room in progress, when we have the showing.

Here are some pictures of before, during and after. Also once the green dries, Ill be adding large yellow circles onto the walls, maybe about 40 inches in diameter. I may also do dark brown ones as well to draw in some of the dark brown. You can also see the curtain valence hanging. The printed thing hanging on the step stool is actually the crib sheet that I used for a color swatch for the curtains I made and for the paint on the walls. So you can see a close up of the bedding to get a feel for the theme of this room.

Nicole also gave me an idea to try to make my own mobile. Which I think would be awesome to make one of Circles and Rings to match this. For wall decor, I think I might try to make this one, but with circles and rings and to match his colors. Will definitely beat their price of $150 that they want for theirs!!! And maybe also a smaller one above the crib to match.

February 13, 2009 U/S pics

Got the alien pics. LOL!

February 9, 2009 U/S pics

February 7, 2009 U/S pics -Its a BOY!!

Finding out that its a BOY!! This first pic will show you the round bottom, and the legs in yellow. and between the legs is the red arrow pointing to the pee-pee. :)

February 5, 2009 U/S pics

I do believe

that it is still a boy.

Why? you might ask...

Well this past Monday at work they were demo-ing a new ultrasound machine and have been using me as their pregnancy model to compare the machines. On Monday the GE company tech and the 3 other techs in the room all agreed that it looks like a girl!

Seriously?

Of course I had to find out more, and right away. So, I got a hold of Nicole and she hooked me up with her mom to come in and get a peek. She's pretty convinced that its a boy. The cord was sitting between the legs, hiding the penis, but she believes that she was able to see scrotum.

Just to make sure, the next day coming into work, I had a co-worker take a peak as well. And it took 25 minutes to be able to see good enough to determine that it is a boy.

I sure hope they are right, because we are painting the baby's room this Sunday and Monday.
Even though these could be considered neutral colors (brown, yellow, and green), if I were to have a girl, I totally wanted to through some pink or purple in the mix. Who wouldn't?? LOL!

I guess its still early enough that if we find out in a month or two that it is a girl, we could always change things up. Until then, here is a peak at the curtains that I have made. I also made the bedding and will post that when I can get a pic of it. Probably not until the crib is up, walls are painted, and maybe I'll throw a sheet on the crib so you can get the whole feel of the room. :)

Baby Movements and Baby Names

I think I'm now feeling movements of the baby. I started to notice a small tossing feeling within the last couple of days and just kinda blew it off as some gas in the bowels or such. But once again last night while laying in bed, I noticed it again and am pretty sure its not gas in the bowels. It feels like it just might be the baby moving within. Which I guess it pretty close to time. I'll be 17 weeks tomorrow and I think I first felt it with Lukas at 18-19 weeks. But at that time, I didn't really know what I was feeling for. Now I do.

Now that we all know its a boy, the next topic seems to be names. And I LOVE this topic. Even though with Lukas we had his name picked out for like 4 years prior, it was still fun to talk names and see different combinations. So far we have kinda had Brady picked out for a first name for a boy for the last year. We are open to looking at different names though as this wasn't a huge "Have to" like Lukas' name was. There really aren't any family names to pass on, so we thought we might make our own. Lukas' middle name is Anthony.
If there were to be a theme for our kids name, it would be to have a "K" instead of maybe a common "C". Such as Lukas with a "K", rather than a "C". This kinda comes from my days with my maiden name. My maiden name is Kohler. Which often got misspelled as Cohler. So I often said the phrase, "Kohler, with a 'K' ", whenever referring to my last name or if someone was writing it down. I know its probably going to be a hassle for the kids with all these odd spelling of names, but its seems to be the norm now, so I guess I'm not afraid to take that leap as well. At least the names I am using won't be unseen until I use them. These are variations of names that people have used before. In fact Lukas, the German spelling with a "K", was the #6 name in 2007!! And so for the next "K" name that I really like and will probably use is Nikolas. Also the German spelling. Which both German variations can like back to Kohler as well. Which is also German.
Wow, lots of rambling. Sorry about that. :P

So here are some choices for you to give me your feedback on. Spit out some combinations between the names too if you don't see the combo you like, then I'll add it to the polls! Or if you have other names like these, that I might like, spit those out too!!
The poll is in the right column. And you can vote for more than one. :)

(Name decor from What a Lovely Name.)