Oh and don't forget to vote!

If you haven't already, vote on what you think Lil Monty will be. For some reason, the Blogger poll app thing won't let me set the last day to vote as anything other than the last day of 2011. I think it hates 2012. So, even though we will have 6 excruciatingly long days of wondering in January, your time to vote ends in 2 days.

Tweener week update

There are few things to update you on:

1. We have movement people!

On Thursday evening, I felt a few little flutters and I was like "Hmmm....gas bubble or baby?" Then, Friday night, I felt a few more of those flutters but a little more intense so I had Ryan come running to feel - right as Ryan put his hand on me, Lil Monty let out a good kick so he could feel it! After that, I've felt flutters here and there (usually around 8pm) but Ryan hasn't been lucky enough to feel any of them. Today, Lil Monty has been pretty active - the flutters are light but noticeable and becoming more frequent. It really feels like a twitch whenever it happens...like when your eyebrow or your bicep is twitching involuntarily and you can see it moving? It feels like that, only on the inside of my abdomen :).

Hopefully Lil Monty won't be a soccer player though...soccer is not a Montgomery approved sport. :)

2. I'm learning to knit again!

On Christmas, Grandma D taught me how to knit. I'd learned before but forgotten so she sat down with me and taught me. She also sent me home with some needles and a BUNCH of yarn. I told her it was a great starter kit.

3. We painted!
Well, again, Ryan painted. The guest room was a nasty nursery yellow and we changed it to a nice, calm blueish grey. We didn't realize it had so much blue in it from the paint swatch but we REALLY like the way it turned out. Much much much nicer to be in that room. The yellow was just offensive.

Gross. The picture makes it look worse than it was, but that's ok. :)

Bye bye yellow! You can see in this picture, it's more pastel than mustard.

Aaah. Don't you feel so calm just looking at it?

Ok that is all for now. More to come with the 20 week post!

Week 19: Lots of Snow

This week has been an interesting one weather-wise. Sunday was absolutely gorgeous - 60º and sunny. Monday it snowed lightly with MAYBE an inch of accumulation. Tuesday and Wednesday melted most of Monday's snow. Wednesday night it started snowing and it snowed quite a bit (we got 8 inches at least)! So Thursday, the first day of winter, we woke up to a lot of snow on the ground. In some places in the backyard, Grover is up to his chest.

Deepest snow he's ever been in

Backyard Thursday morning

Having some fun in the snow.

In other exciting news, Lil Monty got his first present this week! Sent with love from Aunt Becky! The box was even addressed to Lil Monty.

Bathtub with toys!

Here are Week 19 bump pictures for all my fans.

Friday night we had a wedding to go to for one of Ryan's childhood friends. The ceremony was great - very short and to the point. I told Ryan we might have a challenger for shortest wedding ceremony ever :) The reception was fun - lots of dancing and good food. Here are a couple pics with a bonus bump pic just for you.

We painted!

Well, Ryan painted. I was banned from the general vicinity because of the fumes.

The room used to belong to a little girl whose favorite color was purple...so the walls were PURPLE. Then, it was our office and music room. Now, we have made a start on getting the room ready for Lil Monty. It's a nice shade of green now.

Before, as office/music room.

Away with the purple!

Dad :)

Finished!

Now we just need furniture and baby...

Grover is not responsible with his things

Many of you know we bought Grover an ottoman at a yard sale (for $5.00) so that he could look out the window - otherwise he was doomed to stare at the walls for eternity since all of our windows are high. Within a few days, this ottoman (which was in good shape) began to look beat up. Now, a mere 4 months later, it is pretty much ripped to shreds. He doesn't chew it, he paws at it to "make" his bed and the upholstery has died.

This morning Grover hit a new low. I found him snuggled UNDERNEATH the upholstery of which he has so diligently destroyed.

Observe.

18 weeks: Getting there...

I went to the post office and saw this card. Thought it was worth sharing:

Wednesday I wasn't showing all that much more than last week but then on Thursday I seemed to expand a good bit. I've been having more growing pains than normal so that makes sense.

We went to Ryan's work Christmas party last night and everyone was like "Oh you aren't showing at all!" to which I replied "Don't poop on our party!" We were excited to see a little something going on and I wasn't going to let anyone tell me otherwise. Granted, I don't look all that pregnant unless I pull my shirt in tighter and then you can see the rotund-ness that is becoming my abdomen.

a little closer...

Sunday the Broncos play the Patriots at 2:15MST. Oh boy. Once can only hope that Tom Brady looks like this most of the game, in this order:

I couldn't find an actual picture of the Broncos sacking him so I made one in Paint. :)

Heart disease increases in Denver...

Or at least in the Montgomery household...

This is why.

It makes no sense...but we'll take it.

Old Wives Tales: Boy or Girl?

Just for fun, I Googled different wives tales that are supposed to predict the gender of the baby. I'm dying to know!

Carrying high - Girl

Carrying low - Boy (may be too soon to really tell for sure)

Heartbeat 140+ - Girl (it was 155 at one appointment, 145 at the next)

Heartbeat >140 - Boy

Crave sweets - Girl
Crave salts - Boy (but this was true pre-pregnancy as well)


Chinese Gender Predictor: Takes the mother's age and the month the child is conceived. It says Girl.

Mayan Legend looks at the mother's age and the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it's a girl. If one's even and one's odd, it's a boy.
August 2011 - Even, Odd - Boy

Sick as a dog during the first trimester - Girl
Little or no morning sickness - Boy

Dreams that you are having a boy - Girl (however, my midwife said she dreamed she was having a boy and had a boy...actually she said she dreamed about a scrotum and had a boy. My dream had the whole baby and I didn't actually see his scrotum...)
Dream about having a girl - Boy

Graceful throughout pregnancy - Girl
Clumsy - Boy (I'm dropping more things than usual...)


Prefers resting on right side - Girl
Prefers to lay on left side - Boy

Dad-to-be gains weight while you are pregnant - Girl

Doesn’t gain weight - Boy 

Unchanged hair - Girl
Thicker hair - Boy

No increase in headaches - Girl

Having Headaches - Boy (almost every evening I develop a headache...this is a new development)

Final Score:

Boy - 8
Girl -  4





So, will we have someone that looks like this?

 Or like this?

17 weeks

Not much to tell about the week itself but I did go to the doctor on Friday and got another good report. Heard Lil Monty's heartbeat again (around 145 bpm) and that's always fun. Still haven't felt any movement but I suspect I'll be a late bloomer with that stuff since I'm a late bloomer with showing. Although, I am more consistently showing which is nice. Behold!

We also scheduled our next appointment which is the BIG appointment to find out the gender. It's on January 6th! Apparently they do the ultrasound for like an HOUR and then the doctor comes in to analyze it and give us the big news. I can't wait to see the ultrasound - our last one was at 9 weeks and it will be fun to see how big Lil Monty has gotten!

Sorry to everyone who was expecting to get a good laugh at this post. I know you come each week with high hopes of hilarium but I got nothin this week...I can't entertain you ALL the time...maybe next week.

:)

16 weeks: Picture update

Here are the 16 week bump pictures. I'm certainly "showing" more obviously at some times than others depending on the time of day, size of last meal, etc. :) Unfortunately I'm in that stage of pregnancy where I'm not obviously pregnant but rather perhaps look like I've started a diet exclusively of Krispy Kreme and Big Macs. To date, I haven't gained any weight from pre-pregnancy but I'm not quite the same shape...

Also, for your enjoyment, here are some pictures of Grover in the snow. It's been a snowy December so far. It snowed on the 1st, 2nd, and we're getting more snow tonight :). So far it's been fun having some snow around - especially since you can still drive and not fear for your life.

I like this one solely because of his little snow soul patch/beard.

Here he is wishing he could eat the squirrel that's chattering at him in the tree.

Same.

16 weeks = December 1 = Snow Day in Littleton

I can't believe it's already December. But at least there is some snow on the ground to make it feel a little more cozy and December-y. I don't have bump pictures of 16 weeks yet...all in good time. I do however have pictures of Grover.

If you read my post from yesterday, you know he had to be sedated to get his bottom parts worked on. I picked him up about 3:30pm and he was still very drunk. He had a hard time walking straight and going up the one stair into the house :) He was so funny. Poor guy. But, the report is a good one. The vet said he was able to get that junk out of there pretty easily and that it looked normal. No infection or anything to be worried about. He did infuse his glands with an antibiotic ointment just to be safe and then it was over.

Here are the pictures to document Grover's wild night.

If Grover was awake, he pretty much looked like this until he fell asleep again.

Asleep.

It's official: I'm a moron

Is pregnancy brain real or a myth? Well, I can tell you first hand now that it is real. I was skeptical but there have been far too many "Did I really just do/say that?" moments in the past week that it seems only fair to blame it on Lil Monty.

1. Still haven't found my deodorant. I probably threw it away because I thought that's where it belonged. Hopefully I won't do this with more valuable things.

2. I've backed the car out twice into the grass. Bear in mind, our driveway is straight. Then, in an effort to avoid the grass the third time, I concentrated very hard to stay in the driveway but ended up running my sideview mirror into the side of the garage. So now it's like taking a test every time I back out of the garage...it requires way too much concentration and discipline.

3. Sunday I started a crock pot of cheesy potato soup. I turned it on and timed it perfectly so it would be ready for dinner before church that night. I came back to check on it an hour and a half later to find that I had never plugged it in. Needless to say, it wasn't ready in time for dinner.

4. The other night Ryan used the word "consummate" in a sentence. I proceeded to make fun of him because I thought he misspoke and meant to say a different word. I said "Consummate? Really?" and he looked at me like I was crazy, assuring me that was the correct word to use. Then, I realized that I was in fact the idiot thinking that consummate referred to a type of diplomat. Like the Chinese Consummate. Or Consulate. Same thing in my mind.

5. I submitted a rebate to Ace Hardware online. After I submitted it, I decided I'd done something wrong so I called Ace Customer Service to fix what I had messed up. Toward the end of our conversation I realized that I had actually done it right but I continued to pretend I'd done it wrong on the phone in order to save face with the Ace rep. Not a huge deal but a big waste of time!

So to all of my friends at VSRP who think they miss me working there, count it a blessing that I'm not assisting in surgery or responsible for patient care anymore. There would be some messed up overdosed dogs walking around.

Speaking of dogs, Grover is currently at the vet. I had to drop him off this morning to be sedated and have an impacted anal gland expressed and flushed. In the past he's been a champ and lets this stuff happen without sedation but he's just too painful this time around. The vet was chaos this morning (as I guess most are first thing) with dogs being dropped off for daycare and other things. Grover cried more than I've ever seen him cry, especially when a few dogs started barking at him while he was trying to be friends. The staff seems nice and knowledgeable enough. We'll see how it goes. Probably won't be able to pick him up till 2 or so. Sad day for me.

15 weeks: Perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before?

On Thursday morning, I noticed a pretty bird outside the window so I said "Hey Ryan, look, there's a pretty bird outside the window." Next thing we knew, there were a BUNCH of birds outside our window. Our backyard went from desolate to Snow White's forest in about 2 seconds. We suddenly had 2 woodpeckers, 4 blue jays, 2 robins, a lonesome dove, and a couple squirrels. We watched them for quite a while - they were squabbling and being mean to each other so it was very entertaining.

The 'pretty bird' that started it all. Stolen from Google.

Thursday afternoon, we went to Ryan's parents to eat Thanksgiving food. Skyped with Randa. Ate too much.

Friday I had to bite the bullet and take Grover to the vet. Oh how it pains me to pay full price for vet care. I noticed on Wednesday that he had some bruising around his bottom parts and upon investigation noticed he had an impacted anal gland. Soooo, since I couldn't get that concrete out of there by myself I had to take him in. Once I was there, they couldn't get it either without him screaming bloody murder (poor dog...) so we opted to abort mission that day and I will be bringing him back next week to be sedated so they can do it a bit more peacefully..and hopefully less painfully since he'll be drunk.

Today, Poppa came over to help Ryan install a new power outlet in the basement. We are moving the office down there so that the current office can start turning into Lil Monty's room.

We also watched the NC State - Maryland game. It was on local TV here for some reason! At the half, State was down 41-14 and I was tired so I went to take a little power nap. Shortly thereafter, Ryan kept interrupting my slumber to tell me "State just scored." and " State just scored again." Once State had rallied 41-35, I got back up to watch the rest of the game. I'm glad Ryan kept watching because State won 56-41 - held the Terps to their halftime score and scored 35 unanswered points. Now they get to go to a bowl!

Here is a week 15 picture. I think you can see a little somethin going on here...maybe. I don't know.

14 weeks: a little of this, a little of that.

This week was pretty uneventful. Thought maybe I was starting to show a little yesterday but Ryan disagreed. So maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see :) In the middle of the night I woke up with a sharp pain on one side which the midwife says are normal "growing pains" of my round ligament stretching to accommodate and support my abdomen while it expands. So, I thought maybe I grew?! Who knows. If you wish to read up on this "pain" and don't believe me that it's not big deal, you can read an article here.

I will say that I really like my midwife. I like her even more after attending one of the free classes the practice offers to first time parents. It was mostly about nutrition, what to expect (like round ligament pain), yadda yadda. The other women there seemed much less informed than me based on the questions they were asking. There was one woman at 20 weeks asking questions that my midwife answered on Day 1. So, I'm really happy with how thorough she is.

I do think I've had some bouts of the infamous "pregnancy brain". Nothing too bad, just some moments of confusion. For example, yesterday I couldn't find my deodorant. And I still haven't found it. So I just opened up a new one and maybe one day I'll find the other one. There are only so many places deodorant could be, right?

Also this week: I was shopping at Safeway and one of the manager's happened to be my cashier. I overheard him talking to another employee about how they are understaffed and he doesn't even have enough people for the schedule next week. Then, he looked at me and said "Do you have a teenager that wants to work here?"

Ok...so let's all take a moment to pause. At first, I didn't think anything of it. Then about 5 seconds later, I think I probably looked something like this:

And said: "Do I look like I have a teenager at home?"

He then began a series of uncomfortable dig-out-of-hole-just-dug attempts which were entertaining. I mean, I know I have some grey hairs now, but COME ON! :)

Ok so now for more boring pictures. Gotta give the people what they want.

The End.

Oh but also we've been watching Once Upon A Time - new series on ABC. The only reason we were initially interested was because the writers of LOST are the writers of this show as well. As you may know, a giant hole is still left in both of our hearts because LOST ended. This show is not yet what LOST was..but it is entertaining, suspenseful, and has painfully slow development of plots characteristic of the LOST writers. It's going to be great!

The End again. Or, Happily Ever After.

The FAQ's

Here are some questions you might have for me because it seems like everyone has them! I thought I'd just answer the most popular ones all in one spot...

How are you feeling?

First trimester I felt pretty poopy. Just a lot of nausea and feeling flu-ish. At first it was only for a couple hours in the afternoon and then it increased to all day everyday. I never actually vomited - just an overall feeling of sick. Probably the worst part of it all was my aversion to food - I would literally make a meal because I thought it sounded good and by the time it was ready, I couldn't bring myself to eat it. Brought me to tears once :) Now that I'm in the second trimester, I don't really have any of that going on. However, I'm still not 100% on wanting to eat a lot. I hope that passes soon..it's really annoying being this picky! Not to mention, hungry!

When are you due?

May 18 or so.

When do you find out the gender and do you want to know?
We find out at 20 weeks (around New Years-ish) and um, YEAH we want to know. We are far too scheduled and planned to leave that kind of thing a surprise. But, if you read my last post, there is a chance they won't be able to tell us and we'll be forced to wait. But, if the doctor can know, we want to know, and then you'll know. :) Be sure to vote on what you think Lil Monty will be!

What names are you thinking about?

We have thrown around a few names but aren't really getting excited about anything until we find out the gender. Also, we aren't sure we'll be sharing the name before Lil Monty is here because we don't want anyone to make us feel bad about our choice. For example:

Person: What name did you pick?
Me: Gertrude Horace Montgomery. We love it!
Person: **stares blankly and blinks a lot because they want to be nice and say they love it too, but they obviously don't and don't want to hurt our feelings so they force a smile** oh, that's...unique.

Or even better, the person who is comfortable telling you that that name is terrible and we should choose a different one.

You see? Why would we want to set ourselves up for that? It's better if we've chosen a name, it's on the birth certificate, and no one can say or do anything about it!

Are you excited?

Well, at first, I was like:

But as the weeks go on, I'm getting more and more excited. Still very much overwhelmed by the thought of raising a child but fortunately I am married to a great man who has been super supportive and helpful and I'm sure that will continue once Lil Monty is here.

Is Ryan excited?

Of course.

Is Grover excited? How do you think he'll do with the baby?

I don't think Grover has any clue anything is different. They say some dogs can sense the pregnancy and become super protective and awesome...well, Grover has not shown any of these tendencies. He's a great dog but I don't know how sensitive he is to this type of thing.

With that said, we don't suspect he'll have any issues with Lil Monty at all. He's not a terribly jealous dog and he is about as tolerant of getting his eyes poked, ears pulled, pushed around, food and toys taken away, etc as they come. Our only concern is that he is 70lbs of hyper so he may accidentally knock a child over or scratch them...but that is something we'll just have to be on alert for all the time. So much for leaving the infant alone with Grover to babysit while I go to the store...



If there are other questions, let me know...I'll add them. I'm sure I've forgotten some.

13 weeks: Heard the heartbeat!

I went to the doctor on Friday (13 week checkup) and we were able to hear Lil Monty's heartbeat with a Doppler. It was at about 155 bpm which she said is a great heart rate so hooray!

These pictures were also taken on Friday...sorry, again, they aren't that exciting yet.

We also learned that we only have one more ultrasound left (at 20 weeks) as long as everything is going smoothly. The 20 week ultrasound is also the gender-finding-out ultrasound. The midwife said it's a one-shot deal and if they can't tell the gender by that ultrasound (like if Lil Monty is turned a certain way or is crossed-legged, etc) then we just have to wait until the baby comes out to find out! So, hopefully they'll be able to tell!