Life as LawWife

Today for the first time I’ve felt actual body parts instead of indeterminate kicks/punches/movement. This morning, I felt what was either J’s head or bottom sticking out from the right side of my belly. It stayed out 5-10 seconds, long enough for me to pat & rub it for a bit, before he pulled back. And just within the last few minutes, I’ve felt what feels more like legs or maybe arms (if he’s head-up instead of head-down) in the same general spot. This eclipses the positive pregnancy test as the coolest thing ever.

The other night, I had the craziest dream of my pregnancy so far. Somehow, I was pregnant with sextuplets (or perhaps septuplets…it was hard to tell!). I gave birth to four boys first, and then I had two girls who were in some sort of external uterus that came by mail. One of them wasn’t expected to make it b/c her heartbeat was so weak, but before long, I had two little girls, too. And then there was an outlier of a baby boy who looked like D’s uncle Irv (not really possible, since Irv married D’s aunt and is not a blood relative), including the male pattern baldness. Actually, he had hair that reminded me of Rocco Mediate’s (the pic is a little on the old side, as now Rocco has a little patch in front with a bald strip and then more hair behind). I guess that’s what I get for watching five straight days of the U.S. Open. I was freaking out in my dream, but one thing that stands out is that I was sad I couldn’t decorate the nursery for J since now that we had six (or seven?) babies, we couldn’t afford luxuries like crib skirts and valances.

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J has been moving a lot more obviously in the past week or so. The other day we seemed to be playing a version of whack-a-mole. He’d kick (or punch or whatever) one place on my belly, so I’d put my hand there. Then he’d kick a completely different part of my belly, and I’d put my hand there. He did this for a good minute or so. It was so cute and funny!

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I’ve built up a pretty good diaper stash so far. I have a dozen prefolds (the traditional cloth diaper) and a half-dozen fitted diapers along with six covers (five of this brand and one of this). I also have fasteners for the prefold diapers, doublers for the fitted diapers, and two dozen cloth wipes (one dozen of this brand and one dozen of this brand…the first ones are INCREDIBLY soft!). And I have one all-in-one diaper that also has a pocket so the absorbency can be adjusted (and now I see the brand is rolling out a new version of it…can I ever keep up?!). I plan on purchasing three more pocket diapers to see what works best on J; I can’t know in advance what sort of physique he’ll have (chunky thighs, skinny waist, etc.), so I’m getting these one size up from newborn to try out and see how they work. Ideally, I’d like to be able to use a combination of a one-size diaper that can be adjusted through various sizes and a sized pocket diaper, just to help the stash last longer. One-size diapers tend to get worn out. They’re more expensive than the pocket diapers, so parents may tend to purchase fewer and launder more often, making them wear out more quickly. I have no idea what will work for J, but I’m looking forward to trying them out!

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Gym.boree is having a sale this week, and I got J some clothes in this line. They just arrived today, and now I’m off to open the box and revel in the cuteness. I might melt from the overwhelming adorableness of this stuff!

Not me…baby J! He seems to be reading along in my Sears pregnancy book, and that book said movement really ramps up in the seventh month (so from when I hit six months until just before hitting seven months). J has taken this to heart. He now moves for longer stretches, and his movements are much bigger. D & I watch with amazement (and a good deal of amusement) as my belly moves.

I did figure out over our weekend away that J doesn’t wake up and move much in the car. Of course, we drive a seven-year-old Saturn that lets riders feel each and every bump in the road, so he was probably lulled to sleep by all the jiggling. He does seem to be awake more often overall. And I have to say that I’m loving it! I hope to learn more and more about him and perhaps even catch glimpses of his personality.

I’ve noticed that he likes a nice driving beat. During the American Idol finale, eventual winner David Cook got to perform with ZZ Top. J seemed to really like that. He went crazy with kicking both times I watched it. He also seemed to enjoy “Hero,” which the finalists sang together as a duet. So cute!

In other news, I may actually be able to take care of J’s diapering needs at this point. We now have a dozen prefolds (the cloth diaper most people think of when “cloth diapering” is mentioned) and a half dozen fitted diapers along with covers for those diapers and wipes to take care of messes. A friend is loaning me even more of the fitted diapers, so we’ll have a good stock of those. At least one thing is coming together!

And yesterday we hit 24 weeks, the viability point. Before then, many hospitals won’t even attempt to save a prematurely born baby, but we’re now in the range that most hospitals will try to save the baby. Yay! It’s so nice to hit these milestones.