Archie update

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.
Your uterus — which was entirely tucked away inside your pelvis when you conceived — now reaches up under your rib cage. If you could peek inside your womb, you'd see that there's more baby than amniotic fluid in there now.

So he is now a honeydew-- what a great kid. We went to the doctor yesterday and everything is looking normal and good and great. Arch is facing the correct direction for now, he could still flip around, but it isn't super likely. I am definitely in a waddle stage of the pregnancy, I am more uncomfortable at any given time, and more tired-- but I don't have to work anymore, today was my last day, so that works out perfectly. I don't mind being uncomfortable for a few more weeks, he'll gain weight and I'll gain weight and it will all be worth it.

Kate and Ben Jib Jab, by Kristen Brady

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Anniversary Breakfast... mmmmm

Ben and I have decided to make our lives easier. Instead of two people worrying about the planning and arranging of anniversaries and valentine's Days, etc. we have agreed to rotate. So this year I planned the anniversary, and he'll plan Valentine's Day, then next year we switch. No hurt feelings if someone forgets, no pressure for one person to always be the one to do it-- all of this equals more fun for both of us. So for this very wonderful and great day, that Ben has to spend at school, I thought a really big, delicious breakfast would be perfect. But, Ben isn't really a big breakfast kind of guy, he doesn't really love breakfast types of food... so I dug deep and decided to do more of a European style breakfast with a few twists.
Almost everyone in the family that lives close was here to help. Kristen helped make bread, we had three kinds. Dutch oven hard-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside bread, braided warm bread, caramel bread, oh and store bought crossiants. Kara and Devin arrived and set out the meats and cheeses beautifully, they also arraged the table and made everything look so nice, thanks guys. We had jams and butter, and fruit, and juices...oh and green olives. Spectacular. I wish we all could have eaten it together! There was a lot of food:) Alex, if you read this, I think you in particular would have loved it, plus no eggs--
So now, Ben is at school, I have to work, and it was a great morning.

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born — are filling him out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. Go baby!

Baby updates

I thought it would be fun to copy the information that the babycenter.com sends me each week, so here it is!

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

He is a pineapple--I can't wait to see him!

We also went to the county fair and saw vaulters, girls doing acrobatics on horses, it was really cool. The picture of Ben in the snake was our trip to the Mayan, a restuarant with cliff divers inside!
Last week Monday we went to a Beatles concert-- four men performing as the Beatles, their group is called Imagine, it was a lot of fun. Kristen and I have been experimenting with making bread. We started with thawing Rhodes rolls and rolling it out, stuffing it with olives, cheese, pepper, garlic and a few other things, then we braided it-- not our own recipe, we saw it in the paper. But since then we've tried other combinations, attempted some that have turned out better than others, but non have been inedible so far, so that keeps us going!
My doctor told me that doing water aerobics might help the achey-ness in my hips, I am going to start taking classes, I am pretty excited, I think Arch will like it too. According to our last visit things are looking good, and we are both healthy and both gaining weight, yea (well yea! for Arch, yea. for Kate) Ben and I have also started taking our pre-natal classes; a lot of information, and I am sure I just sit there and look stunned the whole time. There are so many things that I have no clue about! But we are learning- for example, amniotic fluid-- it is just baby pee, Arch pees, then breathes it in, then pees, I didn't know how to feel about that information at first. As long as other babies do it that way I don't feel so weird about my kid doing it that way.
Kristen is making more delicious carmel bread--- time to go, love to all!

Here are a few pictures that I have acquired from Kristen's blog; my camera hasn't been with me during these important moments. We did chocolate facials for chocolate night, went berry picking, made some delicious and super easy European bread, and Kristen dressed Alex in her tutu:)

bubble wrap

Good morning world. I woke up this morning from a really great dream. I hear that pregnant women tend to have more vivid and extravegant dreams than when in their non-pregnant state. This may or may not be the case for me, I have always had pretty lucid dreams, now I just dream more about little Archie, which is more fun.
Somehow in my dream I was back in school, and Ben and I were living next door to my parents. Dad (Mister) wasn't working so he was the baby-sitter all day everyday while Ben and I were at school and mom was at work. We would go to school, come home and I would walk next door to get Arch and Dad always had him carefully wrapped in bubble wrap; not his face, just arms, legs, torso, ya know the rest of him, as if this was a normal thing. I remember thinking in my dream how weird it was, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I took the squeaky, snappy, poppy, baby in my arms and went home and unwrapped him. It was like opening a present everyday!
If Archie has an obsession with bubble wrap throughout his life, we'll know where it comes from; well kind of, I guess if it was my dream it comes from me, but Dad was the one who wrapped him in it...

A post from Ben

Kate is getting big. There, I have offered the controversy of the week. It definitely looks like a baby, however, so it is beautiful baby big-ness. Today is Kate's father's birthday, so happy birthday to Mister (which is how his name appears in our cell phone;).

News from this side of the world isn't too exciting as of late. I am back in school now. I have a little cubbie in a room full of other cubbies where I sit and pretend that I like looking at a computer screen for 6 hours a day. I like school and I feel grateful to have days and weeks on end to dedicate to learning. It is truly remarkable that I can spend my days being mostly unproductive as far as life sustaining efforts go, and still be able to receive a sufficient, though modest income for my family. One day, as the dream goes, I will be able to earn a sufficient yet more than modest income while still spending my days learning, thinking and exploring interesting questions as to why dogs bark or why Kate likes chocolate...you know, the truly deep and troubling questions of our times. Maybe if I were to really dig deep I might explore the dynamics of a society which interacted without the seemingly divisive existence of money. I detest the position that money and our need to seek after it has taken in today's world. I am strongly of the opinion that this world is ha-mung-ous (a word from the world of Kate) and filled to the brim with resources, 'enough and to spare,' using LDS scripture. I guess my feelings, at least in large part, stem from my love hate relationship with capitalism. The innovation from which we currently benefit is undeniable, yet at what cost? What does the principle of comparative advantage have to say about respecting another's self-determinism? I think, and maybe presumtiously and over simplistically, that the human experience is one of seeking stability and meaning. Because culture is a variable in our lives, this meaning is relative to the life-worlds, or in a non-sociological word, the families and social environments in which we were raised. The moment that profit driven change sweeps the landscape in a frustrating search for efficiency and labor maximization is the same moment that profit (an arbitrary concept in and of itself) trumps the independence and self determining efforts of individuals. There is no opportunity cost calculus for rapid cultural change. I am not one for romanticising traditionalism, but change seems to be welcomed when we are doing the welcoming. Acting vs. being acted upon seems to be the difference between improvement and alienation. Okay, diatribe over...sorry for the harangue on capitalism. At the moment I am one of those that criticises without any answers to offer.

Maybe I will write about puppies next time.