Our Niece Lily

Lillian Grace was born 11/20/2009 and we just got to meet her this week. It was great to see my sister and Lily and most of all to be there to help them out. Lily is a great baby and it was nice to get some practice in before Bit gets here in Feb. I have been meaning to post about Lily for a while but I have been very busy with work.

A couple of things we learned (and will be sure to remember) this week is if you are breastfeeding you have to be sure to eat your share of calories, drink lots of water and get rest or you'll have trouble producing enough quality milk. Jennifer (my sister) has no appetite so it's hard for her to want to eat anything. So we tried to give her easy food to eat like cheese cubes, popcorn and mixed nuts.

We also learned how important it is to have some help. Jennifer was so drained and we just went in, cleaned up the house, and did the dishes. We ran some errands for her and made dinners for them. The most important thing was she didn't have to ask us to do these things we just did them. The last night we were there I put Lily to bed while Jennifer and Melissa watched Glee. It was the first time Jennifer seemed to relax. I think it was nice for her to feel normal. We were happy to help her, Chris and Lily out for a couple days. So help is great but only helpful if you don't have to ask for specific things. This was a great lesson since we were debating about when we should ask for people to come to our house after Bit's arrival.


In other news, we are doing great but Melissa is starting to feel some of the effects of the third trimester. Aside from heartburn from hell she's having a difficult time sitting for long periods of time, especially in the car where she can't move around a lot. But overall we have nothing to complain about except Bit still hasn't appeared to flip, but we are still working on that. So here is the latest and greatest at 29 weeks.

Memory Lane

I've seen on a few blogs that people are looking back to what they were doing a year ago, how they were feeling and what not. I guess the holidays brings that out in you. I had to look back to see what was happening and to my surprise this time last year I was recovering from my hysteroscopy and laperoscopy. In someways it seems like eons ago that we were going through that hell but other times I'm surprised at how close to the surface all of those feelings are. I wonder if I'll ever get over and recover from those agonizing two years of TTC to a place where I'm not easily angered by someone else's sheer happenstance of getting pregnant or anothers lack of reverence at how lucky they are not to have struggled.

This pregnancy has not erased the bad memories like I naively thought it would but it has slowly started to heal our shattered hearts. So to all the ladies struggling to conceive this holiday season and to those that where meant to have babies in your arms right now but sadly don't, please know we are still here for you and have not forgotten how hard it is to do what you're doing. XOXO

Still Breech

Had a midwife's appointment today and Bit is still breech. Apparently Bit is destined to be a Olympic diver because he/she is in the pike position making a V shape, with head in the upper right and feet in the upper left. Our midwife isn't worried about this and thinks that Bit will flip by 32 weeks. In the meantime she has given us some tips on how to encourage Bit to take a nose dive.

1. Go to a pool and do somersaults or handstands (ummmm...NO WAY! I wouldn't even be able to do this if I wasn't pregnant.)
2. Shine a flashlight down the side of my belly
3. Play music lower down on my belly
4. Apply pressure to the outside of my pinky toes

Needless to say I will be trying 2-4 and leaving 1 for some other brave soul.

Next visit we'll be doing the glucose tolerance test. I've heard all these stories about how nasty the drink is so I was prepared for the worst. To my pleasant surprise my orders are to eat a very sugary breakfast. The example given was pancakes with syrup, big glass of orange juice and some eggs (I will be rounding the meal out with some crispy bacon on the side). This might be the best test prep I've ever had to endure!!

Must Have Deals and Books

I've found a few sites where I go to look up baby buying deals so I thought I'd share and was hoping you could share yours as well.

So far my go to sites are (names are clickable):

bTrendie(it's by invitation only so let me know your email and I can invite you in)
Mamabargains.com
Baby Cheapskate
Amazon - Daily Baby Deals

Also, we have the following books, are there any other must haves?
- Happiest Baby on the Block
- Baby 411
- The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
- The American Academy of Pediatrics New Mother's Guide to Breastfeeding

Wedding and Belly Shots

Last night our friend got married and we celebrated the event with friends and family. It was so much fun because Melissa, Bit and I got to dance the night away. It was amazing that Melissa had that much energy to hang all night. We had to be at the wedding by 4 pm and we got home at midnight. I think Melissa is paying the price today. She is exhausted and has no energy. Here is a picture of us at the wedding last night.



In other news my sister Jennifer is about a week or less from giving birth to her baby Lily. We are excited to finally meet Lily. It will be the first baby in the family so everyone is anxious for her arrival. It will be helpful that Jennifer is going to have a 2.5 month head start on us. She can give us tips on what works and what doesn't for Lily that might work on Bit. Jennifer lives about 3 hours from us so we can go visit. Melissa and I plan to visit them the first of December to help out and meet our niece.

It's been a while since we have posted a belly shot so I'll end with a new belly shot. Bit has be growing like a weed over the past 2 weeks. Melissa is doing great and only major issue has been daily heartburn. Time should start flying due to the holidays. I can't believe we only have 3 months until Bit is here.