What's in a name?

Now for some audience participation. All those who are reading this blog every day but too shy to post a comment, now is your time to shine.

We are looking for names! We already have some favorite names picked out, but would appreciate some ideas from the world-wide peanut gallery. Some examples we thought of: Sebastian, Rudiger, Ethel, and the very appropriate "Awesome."

We look forward to hearing from all of you. Points and world-wide recognition for most creative entries!

Baby's First Photoshoot

As you can see from our ultrasound photos on Friday, we are really growing a baby! Baby is 17 weeks along now, and is growing like a weed. Baby is 7 inches long and a half pound according to the ultrasound. What an amazing thing to see our baby bouncing around on the screen, moving arms and legs, poking him/herself in the eye, rolling over, and gnawing on the umbilical cord. A truly great experience. Check out these beautiful pictures!

Mom's a punching bag!

Just sitting in class learning about intestines and what not and Mom's getting beat up next to me from the inside! Ahh!

Movin' and a Groovin' (4 Months)

What Baby is up to these days... Kicking Mom!!! Thats right, we felt Little Foot's first motions Saturday the 20th. We know its early, and we tried to ignore it at first as "just gas," but its really Baby! I (Matt) was even able to feel a little hand or foot punch my hand resting on Kristi's little lower belly. Its just barely perceptible at this point, and still something exciting. I will have to try to remember how excited we are to feel Baby in a few months, and remind mom of this when Little Foot is kicking her in the ribs.

And whats new with Little Foot's insides? Well, if Baby is a girl she is starting to form our future grandchildren! Yep, little ovaries are starting to form complete with all the eggs she will ever have, and now it will be our responsibility to make sure she doesn't use them a minute too early. And if Little Foot is a boy, well, nothing new, still growin' that penis. We all know boys aren't that complicated, right? At this point Baby is learning how to make faces with his or her new facial muscles and is working on emptying the bladder every 30 minutes or so, peeing out into the amniotic fluid and swimmin' in it.

This week Baby is between 4 and 5 inches long and weighs about 4 oz. Not a bad size if you're a panfish, but lets keep it growing Baby. We remember just a few weeks ago we were sizing up Little Foot at about the size of a lentil and weighing him or her in paper clips. Now Baby is the size of a quarter pounder with cheese and special sauce!

Mom: Well obviously the big news is Little Foot's movement! For a few days I had been hyper-sensitive to any sort of abdominal movements, but it was mostly wishful thinking. But on Saturday morning I was laying in bed and felt three distinct jabs in the same spot. And I just knew that it was Baby! Luckily Matt was right there so he put his hand on my belly and could feel the next set of kicks/punches. It was a pretty amazing moment. Wow, there really is a baby in there! Of course now I am constantly waiting for Little Foot to move his/her little feet, though I hear I will get annoyed with this in a few months. But for now, I am really excited and amazed by this! Little Foot, we can't wait to meet you!

Dad: Now that we have had 2 OB appointments and heard the heartbeat a couple times, and now that we can feel the little tyke doing some gymnastics periodically, it seems a little more real. Kristi has been growing a little more now too, and is finding it increasingly difficult to keep that cantaloupe under wraps. As you can see from the picture above, I have been working on my "Milwaukee tumor" as well. Not too much new to report from me, we'll blog again after this Friday to let you all know how Baby's untrasound went, and we'll share our first baby pictures with you all.

6 Months to Go!

Baby has been good this week, keeping quiet and not getting into too much trouble. Last week Baby was either forming a prostate or the ovaries were moving down from the abdomen to the pelvis. The thyroid gland started functioning, so Baby can now make hormones. Also, the palate (roof of the mouth) should now be completely formed. This week Baby is growing eyebrows and hair!!! That is incredible! Eyes and ears are now pretty human-like and in the right spot, though the ears will still move up a little bit higher on the head. Baby's skin is developing, and it is so thin that you can see blood vessels through it! The bones are continuing to grow this week and now they are starting to form the marrow (spongy insides of bones that will eventually take over the job of making blood cells). Baby is working on muscle definition this week; by the end of the week he/she will be able to make a fist!

Mom: As you can just barely tell from the picture (you may have to compare it to one of the earlier ones below), Baby is taking up more room in my abdomen than before. I feel like I'm just getting chubby because it isn't a defined round pregnant belly, but I hear from other pregnant ladies that the "chubby stage" will pass soon. I wore maternity pants for the first time last week, but not because I really needed to. I got sick of the three pairs of pants that still fit me well and wore the maternity pants to alleviate the wardrobe limitation. Don't picture me swimming in giant pants cinched up at the waist. Much to my delight they make some pretty cute (and elastic-y) maternity clothes nowadays. Thanks for the Christmas present CarolAnn! My only other interesting thing to say is that I might have one weird craving/food obsession. People keep asking me if I have weird cravings, and the answer is no except for I have recently been really excited about drinking ice water with lemon in it. Then when the water is gone I eat the lemon slice. Then I get another glass of water and put more lemon in it. This cycle repeats itself until someone notices how much lemon I've eaten and I stop out of respect for my acid-attacked teeth. So who knows, maybe I just like lemon, or maybe this is related to pregnancy.

Dad: Our pet camel should be honored by his presence in the expanding family pictures above. His name is Humphrey and he is 10 months old now. He hasn't grown much yet, and is easy to take care of. Its hard to get into too much trouble with your legs nailed to a board. I hear thats not a good way to deal with a hyperactive child, but we'll see about that. Not much is new and exciting for me right now. No weird cravings, not getting any bigger, ho-hum. I have begun the arduous task of trying to shop for baby stuff though. I find it difficult to wade through the sea of expensive blues and pinks to decide what Baby really needs. So far I've only found one thing. A beefed-up Radio Flyer red wagon with extra large real air tires! Now that is something Dad can get excited about. Oh, and I have been informed by another father-to-be a few months ahead of the game that as the father-to-be I have the awesome responsibility of giving Baby his or her pre-natal name. So Baby's name will be... Little Foot! I know if Laura is reading this she will be excited. Other options high on the list were BigFoot and Tank. Next OB appointment is on Friday and we'll get to hear the heartbeat again which should be good for reminding us that, yes, there really is a baby in there. This little fact is easy to forget sometimes when the belly isn't there as a constant reminder yet. Then Friday the 26th is the ultrasound! Baby's first picture!!! So keep tuned in for Baby's first web profile picture. So Baby is growing hair this week. Glad someone is... this baby's gonna have more hair than baby's daddy in no time.

Long Overdue

After many concerned friends asked if everything was ok with the baby, we finally decided that it was time to post another blog entry. Everything is fine, so don't worry!

Welcome to the second trimester Baby! We have now entered into the middle third of pregnancy, characterized by an overall feeling of wellness, a growing belly, and that "pregnancy glow." Baby is 13 and a half weeks along, is mostly done forming organs, and now is just getting bigger every day. The major accomplishment recently has been forming boy parts or girl parts. Those are now almost fully formed. If we wanted to know the gender (but we don't), we could tell on an ultrasound in a couple of weeks when Baby is a little bigger. Right now Baby is about 3 inches long! That's a lot bigger than the lentil-sized Baby we were growing not too long ago! Other happenings in Baby: vocal cords are forming, thumbs are sometimes finding their way into Baby's mouth (though the sucking reflex is not developed yet), Baby is developing a neck so the chin doesn't rest on the chest anymore, Baby is practicing inhaling and exhaling movements, and he/she is looking more like a real human baby!

One exciting thing we haven't talked about is our doctor's appointment before Christmas. The highlight was getting to hear that little heartbeat! It was nice and strong at 160 beats per minute. Matt was actually the one who used the little Doppler machine to find the heartbeat! It was amazing to hear Baby's heartbeat; it made it real that there is actually someone in there! If anyone wants to see a video of it, ask Matt to see it on his computer sometime.

Mom: A tiny belly bump has started to emerge, and the stomach-patting by other people has begun. It's funny because I'm really not showing that much, but people still feel a need to touch my stomach... I won't complain though, just one of the quirks of pregnancy I guess. I received my first maternity clothes as a Christmas present from Matt's mom--a fun milestone. So far I don't really need to wear them, but I'm sure that day will come soon.

Dad: Well it was sure exciting to find the baby's heartbeat at our first OB appointment shortly before Christmas. That is very good news for the baby, now that we have entered the second trimester and found a healthy heartbeat, lots of risks go way down. I feel like we have entered a kind of "maintenance phase" of pregnancy now, the initial schock and excitement of the news has faded some, and it is beginning to feel more normal to be expecting. But I still get a touch of the freak-outs whenever I see parents attempting to corral their young ones, and find it difficult to imagine myself in that role. If Justin and Jessica are reading this, that means you! Recently Kristi and I did some browsing of the after Christmas sales in the maternity sections and wow, can you find some nice pants there! I'm thinking of getting a real stretchy pair for those Florek Family Get-Togethers, 'cause if theres one thing the Floreks love to do when they get together, its eat! Right Mom & Dad? It'd be nice to have a pair of pants that lets out a little in the corners. Well, thats about all the news to report for now... Oh, and if you're one of our friends living in Colorado and we haven't heard from you in awhile, make sure you let us know that you've not buried under all that snow! Thanks for keeping up with us.

Baby Tribune Week 10

This is what Baby's eyes look like this week. A little creepy, no?


This week in Baby News:
Baby is now 10 weeks old. Sometime in the last week or two he/she officially became a fetus, but I (Kristi) hate that word, so I prefer to just call it a baby now. All of the major organs are formed at this point. Isn't that incredible?! The tail has disappeared, and the fingers and toes are fully separated. No more paddles! The bones of the skeleton are beginning to form, but they are made out of cartilage instead of calcified bone for now. Baby is anticipating eating steak later in life by forming teeth buds now. (Don't ask us what teeth buds are, we don't know). Ears are beginning to be distinguishable as ears on the outside, though Baby can't hear anything until about week 18. Baby's going to be a smart one; 250,000 new neurons are being produced in the brain every MINUTE! If Baby is a boy, his little testes will begin producing testosterone this week. Baby is about an inch long and weighs about 15 grams (0.3-0.5 ounces)!

Mom:
I made a mistake in my last posting. I haven't actually gained 3 pounds. I weighed myself again the following week and have actually only gained a pound and a half. I think the discrepancy is because I was wearing a heavy sweatshirt and heavy shoes the first time. So the current tally is 1.5 pounds. I apologize for lying on this blog. :)
Nothing much is new with me. Feeling about the same--some nausea but no puking. Really can't complain. I was reading online some journal entries from other pregnant women who are so miserable and every smell makes them sick. Praise the Lord that I am doing well! I have been praying that I would be able to make it through the first trimester and the fall school semester without being really sick and missing lots of class (or puking on Matt since he sits next to me!). Only one week of class left and then a welcome 2 week break. We have our first OB appointment next Tuesday (the 19th) where we will hopefully be able to hear the heartbeat! Baby's heart has been beating for a month now--WOW! We will post another entry after our appointment since I know you will all be eagerly waiting.

Dad:
So this week we went with some of our pregnant friends to a "childbirth collective" class. This is where you get together with about a dozen other pregnants and talk about how great it is giving birth in a rented water tub in your living room without any medication for pain control. Yikes. Now I'm not saying we dont align ourselves now and then with some of the crunchy hippy granola ways such as cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and homemade babyfood and baby wipes, but we draw the line at the practice of "tandem nursing" (nursing 2 non-twin kids at once). In fact, I think that if the kid is old enough to ask for it or start unbuttoning things, its gone too far.
Well, our landlord here in Duluth has officially been notified of our baby-to-be situation, and while he is happy for us it also means we will be looking for new place to live. The thick plaster walls in this old house are less soundproof than those Japenese paper walls and thus not condusive to certain baby noises. So if anyone knows of a cheap place to rent from June to October or so, or any of you fellow med students want us to take over your place when you move out in June, let us know! Our only requirements are 2 fireplaces, a 3 car garage, his and hers jacuzzi and full-time nanny services. If you could help us out it would be greatly appreaciated.
Heres a tidbit of interesting info we recently came across in our coursework: did you know that amniotic fluid is really just baby's pee? I know, gross.

If you would like to post a comment, just click on the "comments" link immediately below this post. You can either identify yourself or post it as "anonymous" if you'd rather. Thanks for keeping up with us!