20 Weeks Down... 20 to Go

Yesterday marked our halfway point! In exactly 20 weeks from yesterday (or 5 months... however you want to look at it) we should have our new baby in our arms! Yikes! It seems like forever away and also RIGHT around the corner! Are we ready? Will we be ready? No... :)

The baby nursery and color scheme has been selected. We're going with a vintage airplane theme with light blue, dark blue, red and white colors. The nursery walls will soon be painted. The bottom 1/2 of the walls will be dark blue and the upper 1/2 will be light blue. A white chair rail will be between the two colors (which is already up and in that room anyway).

Why the theme? Well, I love all things vintage and well loved. It's rather difficult to have a vintage baby nursery when it's a boy... unless you go the vintage airplane route!! Additionally, my father's father (thus my grandfather) was an artist for the WWII airplanes. As a result we have some incredible pieces that my father has kept over the years (his brother has a few sets too). I've always been a huge fan of family and family tradition and especially in carrying on traditions. So, this seems like an appropriate way to add our son into many of our family traditions. Here is a photo of the nursery decor:


We aren't going with the cheesy lamps, wall hangings, mobile, etc... We are going with the crib set, the curtains, and the changing table cushion cover though. And I got it for SUCH a steal! All of the nursery furniture will be black (we already have some of it) and we've started to fill our registry due to the various requests from family out of the area.

I have a very visible 'baby bump' which cannot be entirely blamed on gas anymore - though the gas definitely attributes to it's size! Many of my clothes no longer fit, and I've started finding creative work wardrobe selections. There's only so much I can do though, you know?

Steve is full on excited and is getting geared up for his 'Baby Daddy' days. He thinks he'll be able to watch the baby all day long while I work, and then go to work himself at night. I'm waiting for reality to knock on the door for him. Theres no way he's going to be able to pull off both, and do them both well. If I go back to work, I would prefer to see our child in some kind of childcare, at least for half of the day, so that Steve can come home and get the quality sleep he will so desperately need. We'll see how it all ends up going down. :)

Poll Results....

So many of you were on the same wavelength as me - we were thinking GIRL!

However, according to the sonogram technician.... it's a BOY! I interrogated him a few different ways to make sure he knew what he was talking about and that there couldn't possibly be any confusion. He is 100% POSITIVE that our bean is a boy.

I'm 100% positive that I'm waiting to decorate the nursery until my doctor tells me it's a boy. :)

So, to answer a few questions.... we have a few names we're thinking about. My family has oodles more they'd love to suggest. If our bean does turn out a girl, some of the names we've been thinking about are:

Isabella Lynette
Isabella Jane
Elizabeth Lynette

However, since all of the signs are pointing to BOY.... we're thinking about some of the following names (and some of the "suggestions" are):

James Russell
Frederic Russell
Eric Russell
Jordan Russell
Wutang Lee
Ollie Oxen

The nursery decor (if we continue on the path we're currently on) will be in light blue, sage green, a light tan with a vintage airplane theme. My grandfather, Raymond Francis Beste, painted artwork on planes during WWII. I've always loved the pieces my father has collected, and I hope to get high end scans of them so that we can have copies of them in our sons room.

That's about it for this installment.... I'm not disappointed. Instead of planning a trip to Paris, we're going to plan a trip to Belgium. The most important thing is that our baby is healthy - and healthy it definitely is. He's growing like mad, and my baby bump has made it's official appearance.

New Knowledge...

I took the opportunity to fly down to South Texas and visit my parents in their new house, and my sister and family. I had a great time, caught up on oodles of sleep, and ate hordes of delicious food (Mom - you ROCK the cooking game!). While there, I also was able to find out what the sex of our baby. My sister is an ER Trauma Nurse and is friends with the sonographer on staff. Well, he told her that since he was on call that if he was called in, and if I wanted to come in, he would give trying to find out the gender of our baby a shot. We now have a gender. So, for fun, before announcing it to the world, here's a little blogger poll - what do you think the gender of our bean is? No fair, if I've talked to you and have already spilled the news!

Will Baby Ales be a boy or a girl?
	Glittery Girl
	Bouncing Boy
pollcode.com free polls

Heme Iron IV Transfusions

For anyone who knows me, it's no surprise that with this pregnancy, my anemia has taken on a whole new low level. My doctors have been increasingly worried with where my iron levels/stores are and even with trying different supplements, brands, and types, my iron levels continued to drop.

After meeting with the Hematologist, I had my first prenatal intravenous iron transfusion last Tuesday. Yuck. It is a 4-6 hour process. They started me on a saline drip, added a Benadryl drip, and then when that was done, added the heme-iron bag. My arms still hurt and ache. I haven't felt any changes yet, but the doctor said it would take about two weeks for my iron stores to bulk up. The bruises that I have are INCREDIBLE! When I called Bekki (my RN sister) to ask her about the arm pain and bruising, she told me it was completely normal. I'll go back on the 15th for another treatment. Sitting in the treatment room with the other patients was an incredibly humbling experience.

I walked into the treatment room thinking about all of the things I needed to get accomplished at home, and at work, and other things that I just had pressing on my mind. For those of you who don't know, most hematologists (blood doctors) are also oncologists (lots of blood borne cancers), so the majority of the other patients who are there for treatment are going through chemotherapy. While it's obvious that they are quite exhausted, tired, and sore, they are kind, uncomplaining, and peaceful. The things which were pressing on my mind in the beginning were suddenly so minor when placed in comparison to where each of these other sweet patients lives must surely be. When I left 4 hours later, I had a much greater appreciation for my life and my current health status.

While I really haven't noticed any problems being overwhelmingly tired (anemia side effect), the doctors all said that the transfusion should help with my energy level. My iron stores were really really low, so I probably won't notice it for 10 days, or right before my next transfusion. I honestly can't imagine having more energy. I work 10-12 hours a day, so it's not surprising that I'm tired when I get home. I'm pregnant - aren't all pregnant women tired? It will be very interesting to see how my body reacts!