Week 19

Week 19: Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby's skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.) You might actually get to see the vernix at birth, especially if baby is premature.  Average size: 6.0 in, 8.5 oz  Kaden was estimated at 9 oz at 18.5 weeks (last Wednesday).  So young and already an overachiever!

Again, no major changes to report.  I haven't had a change in weight over the past month, which I'm sure I'm going to get a talking to about at my next doctor's appointment on Wednesday.  I have discovered that it's not a good idea to eat 1 - 2 hours before going to bed.  I'm not quite sold on calling it heartburn, but the food doesn't feel comfortable when I head to bed.  No nausea, thank goodness!

Ryan's been working very hard on the basement this past month.  All the walls, with the exception of the bathroom, are painted their final colors!  Light blue in the laundry room, a reddish Terra Cotta color (same as the office upstairs) in the bedroom, and we carried the tan from the family room into the hallway and hall closet. Ryan also hung a drop ceiling on one side of the mechanical/laundry room which makes it feel nice and finished. 

The next step of the process will be to have Troy come over and concrete stain our bathroom floor.  If you don't remember, Troy is a firefighter that does concrete staining on his days off.  After Troy is done, we'll be able to have the carpet laid in the bedroom, hallway and closets.  Then we'll be able to relocated the office from up to downstairs and re-carpet upstairs.  I think we've got a busy summer ahead of us!

It's a boy!

We had our gender sonogram today and true to his roots, baby Kaden wasn't shy showing off his "boy parts." The sonogram lasted about 15 - 20 minutes and we were able to look him over head to toe. Everything looked good developmentally: brain/spine, no holes in his heart or diaphragm, two hands, two feet, and we were even able to see his eyes, nose, and mouth.

When we got to the heart, the sonogram lady did some cool thing on the computer and turned the display of his heart blue and red to see the blood flowing in and out of his heart. Heart rate was a healthy 130 this appointment.

After we looked him over the tech went for the money shot where Kaden showed off his stuff. The tech was 99.9% sure it's a boy, so that's pretty good enough for us to say it's a boy. The tech also estimated that he weighs 9 oz so the next question is how big is he going to get?!?

Week 18

Week 18: Your fetus has become amazingly mobile (at least compared to you), passing the hours yawning, hiccuping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking and swallowing. And, baby's finally big enough that you'll be able to feel those movements soon.  Average size: 5.6 in, 6.7 oz

Another week (4.5 months now) and nothing very exciting to report.  I did move some clothes around in my closet this weekend.  The clothes that I knew I had no chance of wearing until after my waistline shrinks back down were banished to either the top shelf of the closet or to the storage bins under our bed.

I went to visit my friend Suzanne this weekend.  Suzanne's husband Ryan and my Ryan have been friends since they were little (maybe 6 or so?).  She just had a son, Ethan, in December and he's almost 4 months old.  Hopefully our kids will become good friends just like their daddies.  She let me go through her maternity clothes and I found quite a bit that fit.  I think my wardrobe doubled because of the clothes she loaned me.  Yay for friends that hold on to maternity clothes!

Wednesday is the big day.  We'll be able to find out if it's a baby boy or a baby girl.  My poll showed 2:1 odds for a boy.  It'll be exciting to see the sonogram and what does (or doesn't) show up.

OMG!

(Oh my God! for those who don't speak text.) I was poking around on the computer during my lunch break today and words cannot describe what I found! Turn your speakers on, grab a kleenex if you tend to cry at sappy stuff and click the link below. You won't regret this!

Britains Got Talent Andrew Johnston

Save the Ta Tas!

I went to the new Barnes and Noble at 21st and Rock Road earlier this week (it's huge, by the way) and saw a very interesting bumper sticker on the way in. It read "Save the ta tas." The website has some very clever t-shirts and a portion of the proceeds from all sales go to cancer research. Click the picture below to see what they have to offer.

New Camera!

Ryan and I bought a new camera recently. Our old camera, a Canon Powershot, decided to call it quits after a good 5+ year run. Ryan had that camera before we met and we took it on all our vacations including Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Mexico, St. Lucia and Martinique.

Our new camera, another Canon PowerShot (SD750), is quite the upgrade - slimmer, sleaker, not to mention 7.1 mega pixels instead of 5.1. This camera was recommended by my friend Jen - it's the same one she has and has worked very well for pics and videos of her family. I highly recommend this camera and CNET ranks this camera as one of the top 5 digital cameras available right now.

I was reading the user manuals this weekend and found a really cool feature. You can use the camera to select a color and it will highlight that color and make everything else black and white. Here's my mom modeling this feature:


And here's another one using green instead of red:

It's turning out to be a very awesome camera and I'm excited to keep using it!

Week 17

Week 17: Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints. Average size: 5.1 in, 5.9 oz

Nothing much new and exciting happening. Still no weight gain (which I can bet I'll get a conversation about that at the next doctor's visit if that keeps up). I've felt the baby move a few more times. It still doesn't seem real yet that I have an actual person growing inside of me. I'm sure it won't hit me until he or she is born.

We've had a guy muding our basement over the past few days and is almost done. Just one step closer to finishing the basement! It'll be nice when we have more usable room down there.

Baby Bump, No Laundry

Here's a picture Ryan took on 3/31.  This is the most recent baby bump picture I have, but certainly not the last.  I was 15 weeks and I think this was just after we ate, so some of that bump is food :)

I officially am off the hook for doing laundry right now!  We have some people coming over in the evenings mudding and taping the walls so we can paint them later.  They might (?) be done by Sunday, if not, don't be surprised if you live in Wichita and I show up at your front door with a laundry basket full of dirty clothes.

After the guys finish in the basement, Ryan will kill then paint the walls.  (Kills is a primer that will cover up any mud or tape marks. It just sounds fun to say that he's killing inanimate objects.)  After that's done, we'll have Troy back to concrete stain the bathroom floor and Jesse to install the carpet in the hall, closets and bedroom.

After that's all said and done, we'll be able move the office downstairs.  Then comes the most exciting part of all this planning - we'll get to paint Baby Snyder's room!  I'm looking forward to that.  We have carpet literally sitting in the garage to re-carpet the upstairs so Baby will have a brand new room to move into in September.

Reminder - We get to find out if a little boy or girl will be joining our family on April 23rd.  If you haven't voted on what I'm having (which all 8 people who ever read my blog probably already have once, if not twice) vote over on the right under our picture!

May Contain ...

This was almost as good as the grapes.  

I ate lunch at City Bites where they have amazingly huge baked potatoes and very big pickles - the kind you get at the zoo and are about 5 - 6 inches long.  

I was surveying my fountain drink options when I spotted Hi-C Fruit Punch.  The best part about it?  In small print on the bottom of the fountain label: Contains 0% juice.  If there's no fruit juice in the fruit punch, is it just punch then?

4 months! Week 16

Week 16: Watch what you say... tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean the little one can now pick up your voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. Average size: 4.6 in, 3.5 oz

We had a great trip to Denver this week and I even felt the baby move a couple of times! We ate at a really cool Mexican restaurant called Casa Bonita. The outside of the place was very deceiving - it looked so small. The inside of the place had multiple levels, buildings, palm trees and even 30 foot waterfall. It's over 52,000 square feet and seating for 1,100 guests!

We also went to Dave and Buster's. Think a giant Chuck E Cheese's for adults. There's food, beer and tons of games to play. Ryan and I won enough tickets to buy a very cute 19" stuffed elephant.

The doctor's appointment on Tuesday was routine. The baby's heartrate was 148 this time and I got to hear it again. The gender sonogram is scheduled for April 23rd. So in another 2.5 weeks if baby cooperates we'll know if it's a boy or a girl.