Books for Kids

I have a love-hate relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP. Much of the time, it's full of information that's useless to me, but today's issue was crammed with children's book recommendations. I'm looking forward to checking out many of them.

Since Nathaniel can hear my voice now (22 weeks, yay!), I read him his first story a couple of days ago. For obvious reasons, I chose Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. I didn't read this book as a child, so it was my first time hearing the story too. I was excited to learn that there's a whole series of Nate the Great books!

Drew and I are big readers and we can't wait to start the ritual of reading to our son at bedtime.

Week 20 - Halfway There!

I can't believe I'm at the halfway point! It seems like yesterday when I saw the word "pregnant" on that little digital stick.

I've been feeling pretty good and I'm getting more exercise. We recently bought Wii Fit Plus and I've been pretty motivated to use it. I also have some DVDs on the way - Summer Sanders' Prenatal Workout and Jennifer Wolfe's Prenatal Vinyasa Yoga and Short Forms 2 DVD Set. I'm trying to take advantage of the extra energy when I have it!

While I am feeling more energetic, I'm losing out in the sleep department. I've joined the 78% of pregnant women who experience insomnia during pregnancy. It started a couple of weeks ago. It's weird because I've always been a hard sleeper who falls asleep fast and doesn't wake up until morning. I guess my body needs a lot of preparation to get ready for those late night feedings.

Last week we met with and hired our birth doula. Rebecca seems great, and we're really excited to work with her. She's been a doula for about four years now and has attended over 100 births. We really liked her attitude, philosophy, and warm personality.

Warning...the next paragraph has a high ick factor.

Have you ever heard of placenta encapsulation? No? Neither had we. Drew and I read about this recently and my initial reaction was, "Eww! No way! I would never take capsules filled with my dried placenta." This is an optional service that our birth doula offers, so she gave us some information about it during the interview. I'm still leaning toward the no side, but after hearing the information and reading more about it online, I'm not as freaked out as I was when I first heard about it. There aren't any clinical trials that back the benefit claims at this point, so the evidence is really theoretical. Who knows, it could just be placebo effect - no one seems to be sure what effect the drying of the placenta has on the hormones/other stuff that are thought to be beneficial.  If anyone out there reading this blog has done this, please share your results in the comments section - especially if you've had two children and did it with one but not the other.

Okay, now that I've left you with that in your mind, time to move on and brighten the day for others. :) Happy Tuesday!

My Husband, A Father

When I first learned that we were having a boy, my initial reactions were:

• Sad, no cute girl clothes. 

• Yes! No teenage girl years!

• Aww! :) A little boy! We're going to have a little boy! :)

• I grew up surrounded by pink and Barbies. I love Gossip Girl. I loathe sports. What the hell do I know about (straight) stereotypical boy stuff? 

• Maybe he'll want to be in the glee club or star in his school's production of Fame. 

• My son has an enormous gift. The absolute best father and role model he could possibly have.

Unlike me, my husband has wanted to be a parent since he was a child. I was more interested in carrying a cap gun in my purse and striking Charlie's Angels poses around every corner of my elementary school, or staging a concert with my Cher doll.

When I was older, I still wasn't bitten by the motherhood bug. Even when my friends started having children,  it wasn't something that I was interested in doing myself. My first husband didn't want to have kids and I was happy about that.

But even then, I did have my moments. I went through three periods of time when I was interested in becoming a mother. The first one lasted a few months, the next one a few weeks, and the next a few days. I'm so glad that I never pursued a pregnancy because I would have done so with the wrong man in the wrong life.

When I finally met the love of my life, I wasn't that far past a divorce and the aftermath. When Drew and I first got together, I was concerned because I knew that having kids was a priority for him and I didn't know if it was something I would ever be interested in doing. Then I opened up. To life. To everything.

Drew and I have something that we call, "being open to the divine." Not closing ourselves off to experiences. Looking at what we're offered with an open mind and heart. We developed this together. Our lives have changed so much, become so much more, since we met each other. This is something we'll pass on to our child.

I can't even begin to describe how happy it makes me that our son is going to learn what it means to be a man from his father. A man unlike any I've ever met. Nathaniel is going to learn about patience and sensitivity, and how to express his emotions. As part of our Adventure Club, he'll be encouraged to explore and his sense of wonder will be nurtured. He'll understand what it means to be grateful and appreciative. He'll see what love looks like every day.

Our son is lucky. He's going to have a wonderful father. And a mother who won't mind if he wants to play dress up in her shoes.

Week 18 - It's a Boy!

We had our 18 week ultrasound on Tuesday, and yes, we found out that we're having a boy! :) We're going to name him Nathaniel Oliver Biehle and call him Nathaniel and Nate. 

Our ultrasound tech was cracking me up. It was taking a long time for her to get all of the measurements that she needed. She was like, "This baby is either shy or stubborn...It's been a while since I've had one like this...Challenging." He was wiggling around all over the place to dodge the uterine paparazzi. She had me turn from side to side, sit up and lie back down, and go to the bathroom just to try to get him to move into better positions for his photo shoot. Finally, she was able to get everything that she needed. We'll go over the results with our OB sometime soon.

Last week we signed up for childbirth classes. These are independent of the hospital and are based on the Birthing from Within book. I'm reading the book now and I'm really excited about the classes. We'll start at the end of April and go through May. It's a little early, but we're planning on moving into a new place at the beginning of June and won't have as much time between then and our due date. This week I'm going to start talking to doulas so we can go ahead and hire one soon.

Over the past few days, I've written Nate's name a few times and it made me smile so much. It's kind of like junior high when you want to cover your notebook with someone's name and a bunch of hearts. :) Yesterday I got my first baby gift - tiny little clothes. So adorable. I can't believe that we're going to have a person that's small enough to fit into them! I've also received a couple of wonderful birth stories from some friends of mine who've had great experiences with natural childbirth. They were very inspiring and reassuring.  

This is all so exciting! :) I've never been so happy.

Yes, I Felt Something!!!!

Today I'm CERTAIN I felt it. Quickening. Fluttering. First fetal movement.

There have been a few instances over the past week when I thought I might have felt something, but I wasn't sure. It could have been stomach rumblings, gas, weird creaks, or whatever. But not today.

This morning while I was sitting at my desk and I absolutely felt the bubbly feeling that I've been reading about. And this time, absolutely nothing else was going on in there for sure, so I KNOW that's what it was.

I've felt it several times today. SO FREAKING COOL.

Week 16

Yesterday was a great day.

• We got a "negative" result for our Quad Screen.

• We met and liked our new OB.

• We got to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time.

• We announced our pregnancy to everyone.

On March 9th we're having our second trimester ultrasound and we'll be able to find out the gender. I'm so excited!

In other news, we toured our first day care center on Monday. They will have a space available when we need it, so we're planning to go ahead and reserve it. There are some things that I don't like about it, but it seems good enough for a backup plan in case we don't get into one of the places we prefer right away. Given how hard it is to find infant day care in this city, it will be a relief to know that we'll at least have somewhere to take our child this fall and I don't have to leave him or her with random panhandlers or Starbucks baristas.

Tears + Laughter Is the New Normal

My hormones have been making me so crazy lately. One day, I'll feel completely overwhelmed, like there's no way I'm going to be able to do everything I have to do. Note: Some of the things I'm thinking about don't even have to be done for months and, when I'm thinking like I rational person, I realize I have plenty of time to do them. The next day, I'll feel on top of the world, super productive, Ms. Has Everything Under Control. It's even more fun when I feel one way for about 20 minutes, then suddenly switch to feeling the opposite way. Good times.

Also, the sappy happy tears have started. It happens when I'm watching TV and witness a tender moment between a mother and her child. Yesterday it happened in a coffee shop. A mother was holding her tiny newborn at the table next to mine. First, I had an incredible urge to reach over, rub his soft head, and smell him. No, I didn't do it. Then the tears started. Then the laughter. Just thinking about it is making me laugh again. I also got a little teary when I saw a young girl put her arm around her mom. I need help.

In other news, yesterday I started reading Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein. Having seen their documentary The Business of Being Born, I'm familiar with some of the material, but it's a good refresher and I think it will be helpful in generating questions that we should ask the OB we're meeting with next Thursday. I think it's also going to be a good resource to have when we write up our birth plan.

Next up: Blood draw on Monday for quad screen, results back in a couple of days or so, meeting with our new OB next Thursday. And probably more laughing and crying.