Just because it's cute.

Our second 4d ultrasound wasn't any more successful. Camden was still snuggled up in my placenta. We tried everything to get him to shift positions. The tech shook my belly like crazy, she had me stand up and do stretches, and she got me a drink of cold water. And still, he stayed put. On the plus side: at least he was awake this time. He kept moving his little arms. He seems to be especially fond of putting his wrist into his mouth- a move we saw several times during the 15 minute ultrasound.

Anyway, this picture is also low quality because half of his face is still covered by the placenta, but look at that smile!!

Introducing...

I figured it was about time to let you all in on our little guy's name, since I'm so sick of typing "him", and "the baby" when I blog about him.

So, on or around November 19, we will be welcoming Camden Miller into the world.

Camden is just a name Matt and I both instantly liked. In Matt's case, his affection for the name may or may not have something to do with this little venue:

We chose Miller as his middle name pretty much immediately after finding out we were having a boy. You might remember that my grandfather passed away back in May. His middle name was also Miller, so we thought naming Camden after him would be a nice tribute to a very special person who is missed more every day.

So, there you have it. Oh, and we'll be going to see Camden again on Wednesday evening. The 4d ultrasound place squeezed me in at 5:45pm for our retakes. Hopefully he'll be a little less fond of my placenta this time around.

Nesting, much?

Oh, the nesting phase. I kind of wondered how this inevitable stage of pregnancy would affect me since I have a tendency to be compulsively neat anyway. Well, it has officially arrived. And how am I handling it? Check it out for yourself:

First, I decided to organize all of the baby's clothes by size (newborn, 3-6 months, 6-12 months). I then labeled and bagged each pile and put them in the laundry room for my baby laundry marathon day. Hey, at least I didn't start that already.

Hmm, what next?! My house was already clean, so I wracked my brain for something else to "fix". Ah, perfect- my Tupperware! It looks like it needs to be organized, and this seemed like an essential task to get out of the way before the baby arrives. Why, I don't know.

You know what else? My pots and pans have no real organization. This must be fixed. Right this very minute. Oh, and do you see Maggie in the background? Are you wondering why she's wearing a sweater in mid-August when I live in the south? Well, it's because she was wet and therefore cold. Why was she wet, you ask? Well, because, I washed her too. No one is safe.

The best part? Nesting seems to be contagious, or at least it was yesterday. While I pulled every pot and pan we own out onto on our kitchen floor, Matt was diligently cleaning out every drawer in the house. Because you never know when the baby might need to find a pen or notepad...you know, while cooking up some dinner in our neatly organized kitchen.

Not exactly how we planned it...

We had our 3d/4d ultrasound done this morning. I had a feeling that we were going to have a sleepy little boy on our hands, as I hadn't felt much movement this morning prior to the appointment. I chugged a glass of orange juice on the way there, hoping that would wake him up. No such luck. He had a late night last night, and he was sleeping it off.

While I was prepared to see a sleeping baby today, I was not prepared to see a baby with the placenta covering his entire face. The tech tried her hardest to get some clear face shots, but he was nuzzled down face-first in my placenta, sleeping away. I mean, I'm glad he's comfortable and all, but it was a little disappointing not to be able to see his little features clearly.

As we were wrapping up, the tech told me I could come back and try again if I wanted. I think I'll take her up on that in a couple of weeks (considering it'll be free next time). My placenta won't move, of course, but hopefully he'll have shifted a bit so he's not face-planted right into it. It's worth a shot, right?

Here are a couple of the pictures we did get that were somewhat clear. You can see his features, but keep in mind that it's through the placenta, as if he's holding a sheet over his face. I do love the little hand tucked under his chin as he sleeps, I have to say.

Latest Developments

1. Back pain. OMG. This came on suddenly a couple of weeks ago and wow- it is not pleasant. At all. Normally, it starts in the late afternoon while I'm sitting in my chair at work and then persists into the evening. I now spend many, many nights in the recliner with a heating pad on my back.

2. Heartburn. Let me just say, I have a newfound sympathy for people who have chronic heartburn/acid reflux (my husband and my mom are two of those people). I realize my heartburn is only temporary but I am not at all enjoying it while it's here. Last night, I woke up approximately once an hour feeling like my chest and throat were on fire. Maybe that Dairy Queen Girl Scout Cookie Blizzard right before bed wasn't such a good idea, but it was fantastic.

3. This isn't a new development symptom-wise, but it's something I came across this morning. I was innocently flipping through a Fitness magazine that we subscribe to and came across an article about endometriosis. (Disclaimer: I have stopped seeking out articles and information that might scare me. At the beginning of my pregnancy, I spent far too much time on Google researching various worst-case scenarios. I gave that up around the start of the second trimester.) So, like I was saying, I very innocently came across this article and skimmed over it, only half-interested. Then this quote caught my eye: "New studies show that endometriosis is linked to pre-term labor and other pregnancy complications." Super. Just super. So then you know I had to read the article thoroughly and consult with my long lost friend Dr. Google again. Sure enough, there have been very recent Swedish studies that show both an increased risk of pre-term labor and an increased rate of C-section in women with endometriosis. After feeling stressed about this news for a few minutes, I closed my laptop and just decided that it's not going to be something I let myself worry about. I'm in the very capable hands of my doctors and they've never mentioned pre-term labor being a concern in my case. So, I'm letting it go.

4. Another non-symptom development: Matt & I officially know how to do both infant and child CPR. We took a class together this weekend and it was great. Really useful information. We practiced our newfound skills on the infant baby dolls (which had removable faces- just a tad creepy). Who knows if I'll be able to recall and use these skills accurately if a real emergency arose, but it's comforting to at least have some clue about how all of that stuff works.

5. I am convinced that this baby is constructing a major city in my uterus. There's just no other explanation for all of his movement. I picture him in there, wearing a hard hat and carrying a hammer. The movement is no longer simple "pops", but exaggerated rolling that lasts for several minutes. Matt said he feels the baby often during the night if he puts his arm around me or if I lay pressed up against him (which is further evidence to support my previous hypothesis that this child is awake all night long).

Next up: 4d ultrasound (yay!) and Gestational Diabetes test (boo!).

Sleeping at Night is for Sissies

Over the past week or so, I've been trying to pay attention to this little guy's kicks to try to determine if he's on a certain schedule. I figured that way I'd have a small idea of what to expect when he makes his debut in 3 months. What I have determined is this: this kid doesn't sleep much. And he's definitely nocturnal.

Without a doubt, his busiest time of day (or, more accurately, night) is from around 9pm-12am. That doesn't sound so bad, right? If, as a new mom, I am in bed by midnight every night, I would think I'm doing pretty darn well. The problem is this: I am asleep after midnight these days and I'm fairly certain he is not. I just can't keep accurate track of his late-night parties in utero because I am passed out. So why don't I just assume he is also sleeping like a good little baby? Well, because I wake up roughly 8930853958 times a night. Sometimes it's to shift positions (left to right; right to left- it gets SO uncomfortable. Back and stomach sleeping, I miss you so much). Sometimes it's to pee. And whether it's at 2am or 4am, I normally feel at least a few small punches before I drift back into my restless sleep.

And when I wake up first thing in the morning? Good morning, Mom. Here's a swift kick to get you up and moving. Not enough? Here, have another. And another.

So there you have it: the reasons why I am convinced this child does not sleep (much) and is a night owl. He's a bit quieter during the day, and especially in the late afternoon so I suppose I'll just have to become nocturnal in order to accomodate his schedule. When all of my posts are time-stamped at 3am in a few months, you'll know why.

Nearin' the Home Stretch

Umm, could it really be possible that I am only a couple of weeks away from the third trimester?! Depending on what day of the week (or minute of the day) it is, this knowledge either makes me really freakin' excited or just really freaks me out.

I am so ready to meet this little boy growing in my belly. I want to see the tiny feet that use my bladder as an ottoman. I want to kiss the little fists that have spent the past several weeks using the walls of my uterus as a makeshift punching bag. Quite simply, I want to meet my son.

However. Yikes! It's almost the third trimester! There's still so much left to do. The nursery is not even close to being ready. There's still so much left to buy, to clean, to rearrange, to babyproof. Oh, and there's also the fact that I am going to be completely responsible for a little, tiny perfect life in a few short months.

It's just a lot to take in. But overall? I couldn't be more thrilled that this little boy and I are entering the last leg of the race. Bring.it.on.

What's Next?

When I was in sixth grade, I had to write a paper about what I thought my life would be like when I was "grown up". I don't remember much of how I described my future back then, but I do know what I thought my career would be: a teacher.

Fast forward to my senior year of high school. At the beginning of the year, another teacher had us write down what we thought our lives would be like 10 years from that point in time. I remember very clearly what I wrote this time: I'll be 28 years old, pregnant with my second child, happily married, and a teacher.

Guess what this year is? It marks 10 years since I wrote that paper during my senior year of high school. And my predictions? Well, I wasn't too far off the mark. I am, in fact, 28 and happily married. I am pregnant, though not with my second child. I guess I couldn't have predicted then that infertility would not agree with my carefully planned timeline. But a teacher? That I am not, and never have been.

Somewhere during my senior year of college, I decided that maybe teaching wasn't for me after all. When I graduated from school and subsequenly moved south, I took a position as a recruiter with the company that I have worked at for the past 6 years. I'm old enough now to know that we can meticulously plan out our lives all we want to, but ultimately, circumstances that are beyond our understanding will lead us to where we're supposed to be at that point in time.

And I don't doubt that I spent the last 6 years where I was supposed to be, career wise. I started at this company when I was 22 years old and kind of an aimless soul, fresh out of college. I can safely say that I grew up while working there. I hardly remember the girl that first walked through their door just two short months after her college graduation.

But now, it's approaching the time to close that chapter of my life. In less than two months, I will no longer work there. The impending change is bittersweet, like most changes are. So, what's next for me? Well, what I know for sure is that I'll be staying home with this sweet boy for at least a year. Possibly a bit longer. But there will come a time when I will need to go back to work, and I've already begun prepping myself for that new beginning.

And what could be more appropriate than returning to my roots? I've wanted to be a teacher for most of my life. Why put it off any longer? Sure, I'll have to take some classes to get my in-state certification. No, that probably won't be super convenient when I'm also a full-time mom. But if there's anything I've learned over the past couple of years, it's that persistence ultimately pays off. And the things we appreciate most in life are the things we've worked the hardest for.

So that's what's next. I think both twelve-year-old Kerri and eighteen-year-old Kerri would give their stamp of approval.

Da Belly

How far along? 24 weeks, 2 days

Total weight gain: Up 11 lbs!

Maternity clothes: Yeah. There's no turning back now.

Stretch marks: Nope (knock on wood).
Sleep? It's just not happening.
Food cravings: I pretty much like everything again...hence, the weight gain.
Gender: Boy.
Labor Signs: Nah...not yet.
Belly button: Still an innie...when will this change?!
What I miss: Running, wine, sushi, feeling sane (ha).
What I am looking forward to: My 4d ultrasound!
Milestones: 24 weeks, which I heard means viability.