Making Progress

I had my 26-week appointment today, and everything is still looking good. I am measuring right on schedule and Lily's heart rate was fine. Each week I have been getting significantly bigger, and last Thursday I had at least 4 people make a comment about how big I am and questioned whether I am having twins. I became a little worried that this could indeed be the case, seeing as my mom is a triplet, Lily kicks all the time from several angles at once, and the size of my belly really has increased a lot in the past 3 weeks. Nonetheless, Dr. Thorton has assured me that 1) the nurses would not have missed a second little one on the 20-week sonogram, and 2) I really am not that big (I would be measuring about 30 weeks now instead of 26 if I did have twins). Thank goodness! Twins would be fun, but I don't think we're prepared for that right now.

I have been super busy with the start of the hockey season, and my weekends are now pretty jam-packed with concerts and games. Therefore, last week Jeff and I decided to take a day off from work and go up to Oakbrook to register for baby showers. We had a really great day going to Pottery Barn Kids and Babies 'R' Us. Everything at PBK was so cute, making it hard not to register for the entire store. We did find a bumper for her crib that was on sale for $20, and we decided to buy it and bring it home. Luckily, it looks perfect! Shopping at Pottery Barn Kids was all about the accessories and fun stuff, but Babies 'R' Us was a different story. When we got to Babies 'R' Us, we were greeted right away and given a list and a scanner to start doing some major registering. The store was set-up so nicely (the registry list was color-coded and corresponded to different departments within the store), it was very easy to navigate. We started at bottles and diapers and worked our way around the perimeter of the store until we ended up in the clothing section. Jeff and I had our own list that we had made after reading our Baby Bargains book, but having both our list and the store's did not really relieve the overwhelming feeling that I started to get when I saw all the different brands, gadgets, and accessories. Looking at the large wall of bottles, I started to feel very unprepared and worried about being a parent. As we moved on to the bath section and butt cream area, I felt a little worse. We couldn't decide which diaper rash cream to get and that's when I told Jeff how I was feeling. Before that moment I felt like "Hey, I can handle this. I have babysat before and have younger siblings and cousins. I can take care of a baby." Somehow, knee-deep in butt creams, that feeling changed, and luckily Jeff was there to calm my worries. As we were looking at the first aid kits, medicines, cotton balls, rash creams and humidifiers, he soothed my worries by saying, "Katie, we're humans too, and we don't come with a manual. When we get a rash or get sick we go to the store and buy something for it. We don't have to have everything on hand for the baby. We'll be fine." From that moment on, I totally relaxed and figured if we didn't register for enough or for the right things we could always buy them later. No big deal. The pressure was off, and we had a good time once we got past that bottle, medicine, and butt cream area!

Jay and Buster still seem to be oblivious to the change that is about to take place in all our lives. Buster still tries to leap across my big belly and I have to catch him in mid-air before he touches down. The one time he did hit my belly, Lily kicked right back. Jay may have some idea that something is going on because he doesn't seem to like it when we are in the nursery and begs to be held whenever we go in there. We try to tell the dogs that they are going to have a little sister soon, but unfortunately their English is limited to "hungry," "go out," "upstairs," "treat" and the like. Luckily, both dogs do love kids and are very good with them. Hopefully, they won't be too jealous and will love her as much as we do.

I go back to the Doctor in a month, and at that time we will have our 30-week sonogram. Yeah, we get to see her again! It's not too long now, and we can't wait to finally hold her...and pass her around to all of you.

* The picture above is of Jeff wearing the head of "Chip," our hockey mascot. Chip is the mascot for the Bloomington PrairieThunder and happens to be a Buffalo. Buffalo Chip is sponsored by Kitchen Cooked Chips. Coincidentally, there are still great tickets available for all PrairieThunder home games this year, so come on down and bring the kids!