Happy New Year

Only 100 days left in the Baby Schrades countdown. Everything is going well and the time seems to be flying by. Shanna reminds me whenever possible that this will be the last such and such without a baby, ie. last Christmas, last GT football game, last winter solstice, etc. I'm starting to get the picture. Also, we start the Bradley method class next week which should be interesting. I'm mentally preparing for some awkward moments, like when they show the birth video. I'm not sure how I'll handle the birth video, especially watching it with mostly strangers. Hopefully I won't faint.

On the attic front, the attic is nearly finished. All that remains is painting the walls and doors. Good ole Rod Oberlin turned out to be reliable and did some good work. Here are some pictures:

Well, 2005 has been a great year and I'm looking forward to good things in 2006. I hope everyone has fun celebrating my birthday tomorrow night (my yearly joke) and I wish you a Happy New Year.

List of Names from Susan and Grandma Todd

When we returned from ATL we had two special cards waiting for us. The first was from Jeff's Aunt, Susan. She sent us a CD with Jeff's "family tree" dating back to his great, great, great, great grandparents. There are a few names in there that we've added to our list.

The second card was from Jeff's Grandma Todd. I was so touched to see that she had included a list of boy names that she said she'd taken note of while watching the credits on t.v. programs. Here are the names, in no particular order:

Pierce, Glen, Bill, Mike, Jack, Nelson, Stone, Phil, Boyd, Fred, Ray, Ken, Ted, Danny, Cody, Kyle, Myles, Shelton, Lesle, Sherman, Simon, Nick, Pat, Cory, Keith, Kane, Percy, Abner, Blaine, Wesley, Maurice, Stephen, Lucian, Stove, Benji, Percy, Rayland, Todd, Owen, Jed, Shane, Neal, Tom, Leo, Ben, Wade, Chet, Clide, Donald, Regg, Toby, Mitch, James, Tony, Hugh, Angus, Donny, History, Eaton, Eddie, Custer, Dublin, Cork, Ireland.

It's funny how you can eliminate a lot of names because you have a friend named that, a friend's kid named that, you knew someone in high school, etc. We have added some of the names to our list that we hadn't thought of before. Thanks Grandma and Susan.

Belly Cousins

Neil and Jenn are expecting their little baby on June 9th - just 2 months after Baby Schrades. As you can see from the picture below, Jenn is all legs and torso, so even though she's 16wks along she is still tiny. They find out the gender in just a few weeks. It will be fun either way - a boy would yield 3 little boys running around next Christmas and a girl would be the first granddaughter for my parents.

Christmas Pics

We were lucky that we both got to see our parents and other family members this Christmas. We drove to Atlanta on Thursday and got home late last night, so we stayed just long enough to not wear out our welcome at Neil and Jenn's house. Their home, with the decorations, was so cozy to spend Christmas in. There was a full house, plus four dogs, so that made it even cozier.

Most of the Family

Wesley in Lulu's bed

Tyson was a bit clingy all wknd

2 Shih Tzus and 2 Cocka-poos

Happy Holidays

Love - Jeff, Shanna and Tyson

Braxton Hicks Contractions

We had our first Braxton Hicks contraction this week. I usually do about 25 min of walking on the treadmill, but on Tuesday I did 10 minutes at 4 different cardio machines. As we were cooking dinner I told Jeff that my stomach felt like it had a bowling ball in it and it was really tight. I felt like I had to hold it up with my hands.

I didn't know that it was Braxton Hicks until the next day when a friend told me. I thought that it was a sign from my body that I had done to much at the gym that night, but 2 other friends that ran and did pilates throughout pregnancy told me that they would usually get them when they exercised. I'll still take it as a sign and slow down a little.

The books say that these start as early as 6wks, but you don't usually feel them until a little halfway into the pregnancy, which is exactly where we are. It's exciting to think that we are far enough along to feel these "practice contractions".

Belly Gallery - Week 24

Week 24

Week 20

O+

It turns out that Jeff is in pretty good shape if he ever needs a blood transfusion. We found out yesterday that he is O+, along with about 37% of the human population. O+ is the most common blood type, so Jeff can give blood to 85% of the population (O+, A+, B+, and AB+) and receive blood from 43% of the population (O+ and O-).

The odds were that he'd be positive, so we weren't surprised. This means that at our appointment on January 7th I'll have blood drawn to see if I have any of the RH antibodies. If I don't, which I should not, then I'll get the Rhogam shot at wk28. This will ensure that my body's negative blood cells don't attack the baby's positive blood cells, if he's positive like his dad.

On a lighter note, Baby Schrades is getting bigger. We can now consistently feel where he's located in my belly. I hope he doesn't mind us poking him.

Bath Night

Last night was bath night for Tyson. Our routine is that I get into the bath tub with him and bathe him. He just stands there and looks straight ahead while I massage the soap into his hair. Jeff comes in for the hand-off from the tub to the towel, and for the hair drying. We usually only get to dry him for a few min before we have to open the door for him to run around the house like a freak. I don't know why, but every time after his bath he does sprints around the whole house and attacks us while barking. It's good times.

Before/After

Freak Mode/Sleeping Beauty

Blog slacker

Sorry I slacked on my blogging duties last week. It's been pretty hectic around here with work, attic activities, and, my favorite pasttime, Christmas shopping. But I really can't use Christmas shopping as an excuse cause I haven't started. I usually like to wait until the 22nd or 23rd and then hit the malls hard with no specific idea what I'm looking for. Now that is fun. Actually, that was last year. I'm pretty much done this year.

We're going to a couple of Christmas parties this weekend, one of which has a beer and chilli theme. This is a great idea that ensures no one will (can) linger around more than a two or three hours. Also on tap for this weekend, more painting. Hopefully, it will be as fun as last weekend. Note to those concerned: Shanna won't be getting near the paint this time, and if Baby Schrades is born with serious malformations due to minor exposure to latex paint fumes, I'll take the blame. However, I really don't see that happening.

That's about all I have for now. We are heading down to the ATL on Thursday morning for the weekend. Just in case I slack off again next Friday, have a great Christmas. And finally, from an episode of the Daily Show that made me laugh out loud:

"It's nice to see the president
estimating casualties with
the same inflection you use
to guess how many jelly beans
are in a jar."

Pregnant Friends

Here's a picture of Wendy, Kim and me from Wendy's Christmas party last weekend. Wendy is due 2wks ahead of me and Kim 2wks after...

It's hard to tell here, but Wendy is showing a little more than me and Kim is hardly showing at all...

Hangin' Out

Baby Schrades has been hanging out on the left side of my belly. It's cool...the right side of my belly is soft and the left side is hard....full of baby. Here's my view:

normal

on the left

Bottom of Belly Button

My belly button has always resembled a little hole that I couldn't see very far into. Over that past couple of months it has transformed into a slightly bigger hole and now has a "floor". The baby's home, my uterus, has expanded from an inch below my belly button to about 2 inches above, so it makes sense that it would be pushing whatever makes an innie into an outie. I thought that I would not like this change, but it's fun to look at my bb everyday to see if it looks different.

Where's Jeff?

Jeff is sorry for not posting on Friday. When he wasn't working this weekend he was working on the attic. We told the contractor that we wanted to do the painting ourselves, but we didn't know that "painting" meant the primer coat as well. I used to be a hard worker when it came to painting our house, but I was kind of a sissy this weekend. I took a lot of breaks from my easy trim work. Poor Jeff had to pretty much paint the whole thing himself. To put it in perspective, we usually use a gallon of paint when we paint a room, but the attic took 3 gallons. Anyway, it looks good and they are coming to wrap things up this week.

Boys, Boys, Boys

Baby Schrades is so lucky because it seems that all of our friends are having little boys. He'll have lots of little dudes to wrestle and play with in the mud. My brother has little Wesley and we'll find out what my sister is having in early January. I think she's having a boy. Johnny and Erin found out yesterday that they are having a boy, and my friend Kim just called with the same news. Then he'll have his older cousins, Max and Ben, and Carter Dixon to show him the ropes.

In case you were wondering, this is in line with the US Census 2000 results:

"The nation's male population grew at a slightly faster rate (13.9 percent) than the female population (12.5 percent) over the last decade of the 20th century, resulting in a lessening of the gap between the number of men and women."

Five Month Appointment

We had our 5 month appoinment with our midwife this morning. Aside from waiting for 45 min to be seen for a 5 min appointment, it went well.

The little guy is measuring at 23 wks, which is just a few days ahead of where we think I am. He continues to measure a little bigger than we expect, so that means we should expect him early, but I still feel like he'll be a few days late. The "due date" is April 9th, which is Master's Sunday, so at least we'll have something interesting to watch if he's not here. (Someone suggested naming him after the winner of the Master's, but Tiger or Vijay don't go well with Schroeder). His little heartbeat is down to 144, which Mary Charles said was normal. I guess he's not growing as fast as he did in the 1st trimester, so the rate slows down.

They gave me the "juice" to drink before our next appointment so that they can test for gestational diabetes. Jeff also got his blood drawn to see if it is positive or negative. If it's negative then I won't have to get a Rhogam shot next time, but only 15 % of the population is negative, so chances are he's positive.

I've put on 14 lbs since our first appointment. Even though I know I will gain 25-35 lbs, it is still weird to see those #s on the scale keep going up!

Cool Invention

I went to ATL for my sister's wedding shower this weekend. It was an amazing shower with more food than most families have at Thanksgiving dinner. Jenn also turned 25 on Saturday!

There was a set of twins at the shower. Check out this cool baby bottle invention. I guess when you have twins you have to take advantage of whatever you can.

My grandmother (Mom) and Jenn at the shower

Belly Gallery - 22 Wks

Week 22 - Front and Side Shot

Wk 20

Shallow Thoughts

I've been pretty busy (honing my web surfing skills) today and haven't had a chance to think about what to blog. So here are some random thoughts for a Friday afternoon:

I'd like to give a shout out to the Virginia Department of Transportation for blocking a stretch of the left lane on 95S with orange barrels the Sunday after Thanksgiving for no apparent reason.

I think they are running out of things to write about on the OC. The story lines are getting pretty ridiculous. And by pretty ridiculous I mean really bad.

I've been working out for about 10 years now and I'm still about the same size and strength as I was 10 years ago - sweet.

Canned mushrooms are disgusting.

I'd rather spend a day in the hole at a Mexican prison than show up at Wal-Mart on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Seriously.

George Bush has the oratorical skills of an eighth grader.

I just heard that Mr. Miyagi died. Then I learned that Ralph Macchio was 44 years old. Daniel-san is 4 years over the hill! How is that possible?

I hope Shanna doesn't start wearing mom jeans after Baby Schrades is born.

exclusively at JC Penny

Until next time...

Belly Movement

The little guy is getting stronger every week. This week we have been able to see him move through my belly. It is funny when he has the hiccups and my belly jumps every few seconds. It is still hard to believe that there is something in there that is alive and moving.