Gametes In Love

G is a growing boy. Yes, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but apparently I’m living in denial (or forgetfulness) when it comes to his feet. G outgrew his size 4 shoes and came home from daycare barefoot a few weeks ago. And guess what? We had nothing else to fit him that he would wear.

The key to this is ‘that he would wear’. You see, G hates, HATES hard soled shoes. Putting a hard sole on him might as well be putting shoes on a cat — he behaves about the same way. He stops whatever it was he was doing (before the shoes came on), squats, whines, and pulls at the shoes. Actually, a pretty great mechanism to get him to stay in one spot… provided you don’t mind the constant and pitiful “Whaaaaaaaaa!”s

So hard soles were out. Unfortunately, there aren’t all that many makers that make soft soled shoes in size 5, that also had material worthy of the adventures of a 19+ month-old. In addition, I’m not thrilled with the idea of having a 15 year old son who goes to school in ballet or Bunny slippers, because he doesn’t like the weight/inflexibility of tennis shoes.

Luckily for us Robeez’ 1st Step shoes are just perfect. It’s a hard-er sole, but with lots of flexibility. Now the trick was to get G to wear them. The first try didn’t go too well. However, we won on our second. What worked? Showing him the airplanes on his new shoes. Then he wanted to wear the “flies” on his feet. His second pair had soccer balls on the straps, so he was pretty excited about the balls on his feet too. Shoe trickery? Yes, but it’s a good path towards big boy shoes.

How far along: 8w
Weight: me = 125.6. Lost almost a pound from last week, but up a pound from Wed. My weight is whacked out.
Baby size: a wee over 1/2″ long
Sleep: Pretty decent.
Gender: TBD for another 3 months or so
Movement: Nothing yet
Feeling: This week has been pretty equal. I feel yucky, but in phases, and have occasional moments of feeling pretty normal. I have a theory that the reason I’ve felt so crummy this pregnancy was the Endometrin progesterone supplements I’ve been on. While pregnant with G, it was a different prescription, which as of Thu I’ve now been switched to. I’m REALLY hoping it’s the meds. The Endometrin lists nausea, vomitting, headache, constipation as possible side effects. So either, it’s all the meds, or just standard pregnancy symptoms. Great way to tell, right? The old meds will probably take a few more days to get out of my system, so I’m going to give it a full week before I decide if I’ve felt this way on account of the little one growing, or the Endometrin.
What I miss: Wearing non-maternity pants. I can’t zip up my non-preggie ones anymore.
What I am looking forward to: Ultrasound on Tuesday
Weekly Wisdom: Don’t take children for granted. They’re different, even from the start… and not afraid to let you know that comparison ends at how they came to be.
Food cravings: Nothing specific, but I do have sudden urges out of the blue for random stuff. LOTS of aversion to stuff though. For example, unless meat is in ground-up form, I don’t want to see it, smell it or taste it. Cigarette smoke makes me want to go and barf directly on the person emitting it. Alas, if only I could do so on demand…
Fetal development:
Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from the baby’s hands and feet, it’s eyelids practically cover it’s eyes, breathing tubes extend from it’s throat to the branches of it’s developing lungs, and it’s “tail” is just about gone. In it’s brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. The external genitals still haven’t developed enough to reveal whether we’re having a boy or a girl.

How far along: 7w
Weight: me = 126.2 (I gained 2lb last week? What?); beeb = less than 1 aspirin pill
Baby size: 1/2″ long, about the size of a blueberry
Sleep: All.the.time and at the drop of a hat
Gender: TBD, although our families are already making guesses. S’ mom has a 1 vote in for girl and my dad has 1 vote in for boy.
Movement: Too early to tell, but bowel movement is at a stand-still 🙂
Feeling: Crummy, but significantly better over 2 weeks ago. Plus there’s nothing better than hurling in my desk’s trash can to the listening ears of 5 people sitting around me. If this is not a key-off that I’m pregnant, I don’t know what is.
What I miss: Dropping G off at school. I need a long time to be able to get out of bed in the morning (as to avoid inviting the puke faerie over for breakfast) and getting up in time to take G in has thus far proven un-feasible. I’m hoping we can go back to our routine soon.
What I am looking forward to: New progesterone meds coming in this week. I have a theory that I feel poopie 1 part due to morning sickness, and 2 parts due to the Endometrin I’m on now. Looking forward to putting my theory to the test.
Weekly Wisdom: Sleep. It’s good.
Milestones: 1 u/s showed us a heart-beat
Food cravings: Anything I can hold down
Best moment this week: Seeing our 1 healthy little kid
Fetal development: Every essential organ has begun to form. The hair and nipple follicles are forming, and the eyelids and tongue have begun formation. Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs. The trunk begins to straighten out and the embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of the tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks. Both hemispheres of your baby’s brain are growing, and its liver is churning out red blood cells until its bone marrow forms and takes over this role. It also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby’s growing intestines is bulging into its umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from its tiny body.

A collection of random pics over the past 2 weeks

My angel sleeping. He’s got alll this room and he still prefers to hug the corner. [This photo was taken when G’s room was quite dark with a 50mm f/1.2L lens I was testing out. Yes, this is me nerding out for a minute 🙂 ]

Effects of the Elmo pacifier

Bubbles!

Neko naps

Daddy powered vehicles

Remember the swing G got from his Auntie K for his birthday? Well, it’s still a big hit at our house. The rainy weather though produced one pitiful toddler who would point to his swing through the living room glass doors. So S had the bright idea to bring the swing inside. The man is brilliant from time to time. He got some heavy-duty rope and tied it through the stair-way. Now G can swing to his heart’s content whenever he feels like it. It’s been awesome! It’s also been a big hit at play-dates, and I might I add has inspired a few other friends to look at indoor swing solutions.

When G was home sick with the ickiness that was Hand, Foot & Mouth, having his swing was so nice. It gave him a little bit of happiness to what was otherwise a sorrowful week.

My contribution to the staircase swing? The attachment of a rope, so I can pull G while sitting on the couch. Sure, it’s lazy parenting, but it’s also a convenient way to keep a kid happy while you need to finish other chores, like fold laundry and the like.