This week begins the third trimester ~ how exciting! Of course we’ve been looking forward to this trimester most of all: another ultrasound, baby showers, childbirth classes, and much more. I think it’s amazing that JT will only grow another 5 inches in length or so, but will probably quadruple his weight. Those are just approximations based on averages, but impressive numbers regardless.

Water aerobics have continued to live up to their reputation. I really look forward to class and come home feeling refreshed and healthy. I am disappointed that I can’t take them in May; between Young Life and childbirth classes, there isn’t an open night. It will be nice to start up again in June. The fitness center welcomes participants to take classes up until they deliver with a pay-as-you-go policy the month they’re due, so I will most likely continue in July as well.

My belly button is now an outie in the evenings, much to my dismay. Jim assures me that it will go back. 🙂 I weigh 145 pounds and my waist measures 36 inches now, a whole ten inches from where I started!

I have so many little updates, I couldn’t think of a good title for this week. This week was spring break for me, so I got a lot done!

First, I cleaned and purged like crazy this week and made room for a third person in our house. There is now space in the kitchen for bottles and such, room in the bathroom for JT’s baby wash and toys, and an entire bedroom for him to sleep in. His closet has little hanger dividers marking the sizes of the clothes from BabyStyle. I also got a shoe hanger, and it has his very first pair of shoes in it: navy and white Pumas from our friends Mike and Sunny (who are having a girl in August).

Second, we painted JT’s room. It is Laura Ashley “Wet Sand.” Think wet Hawaii sand, not PNW sand. It is neutral and wonderful. I can’t wait to have more things in the room, like furniture, but for now it has a rocking chair and a beautiful cradle that is a family heirloom. All of the Christensen kids (my mom’s side) from 1967 on have been in the cradle. It was made by my Uncle Jim when my Uncle Peter was born.

Third, we had a baby checkup on Thursday. It went just fine. JT’s heartbeat was about 160 bpm, which is normal and what it’s been all along. My belly measures right on target, and things are looking good. I have to take a glucose test next Saturday to monitor my blood sugar and some other things. I’ve heard the liquid you drink before hand is pretty gross. The nurse and my midwife both made comments about bringing a protein snack to eat afterwards so I don’t feel so disgusting. Good to know. We got our free diaper bag stocked with coupons and samples from the doctor’s office at the appointment. It’s black and basic, and Jim looks great with it over his shoulder. 🙂 I would still rather have the JJ Cole one that we registered for…

Fourth, I got JT’s baby book and the fabric for the quilt I’m making him. The baby book is from BabyStyle too, and it’s from the Urban Babies Wear Black line by Michelle Colman. The quilt fabric is pictured at the top of this week’s blog. I will start piecing the front together a little at a time and then beg my friend Sharon to let me finish it at her house, since she’s a professional.

JT is big enough that he can’t freely float anymore, so there is a lot more action. He has to touch the sides anytime he moves, which is often. This week I felt him on both sides of my belly at once, which was fun. Jim also got to feel a monster kick that made me laugh and cringe at the same time. We are finally under 100 days remaining, and have one more week in second trimester!

This week, I started prenatal water aerobics at Valley Medical’s fitness center. The class is two nights a week for about an hour. It is so much fun! Around 20 pregnant ladies are all floating around with noodles, styrofoam dumbells, and other pool equipment. It is actually pretty hard work, but it’s great because you feel fairly weightless. When the class is over, all the ladies make a beeline for the therapy pool. It’s like a giant hot tub with jets and everything, but only 98 degrees and perfectly safe (unlike hot tubs while pregnant).

Today I took an Infant CPR and Safety class through Overlake Hospital. It was a part of the baby classes package we got. The first half was all about how to safety proof your house, and I got some good ideas. While we won’t be gating off every room in the house, it does make sense to move the poisonous chemicals out of the bottom cabinets (although I knew that already). The second half was infant CPR and choking, which I have had before but it was a nice review.

The most exciting news of the week is that Cole Skagen, our god-daughter’s brother, was born! He came about three weeks early, much to his parents’ surprise, but is healthy and happy. I can’t wait for JT and Cole to hang out together. Mostly, they will be blobs for awhile, but eventually they will tear around the house with plastic swords and get into all sorts of trouble. Won’t that be fun?

This birthday felt odd for two reasons: first, it rarely falls after Easter, and second, it has never snowed on my birthday. Nevertheless, the day was fun and packed with yummy food and good friends. Jim made the most amazing french toast breakfast of his cooking career. We went to dinner and a movie with my friend Jessica, and came home to decorations, presents, and dessert (picture above). I got a few things from our baby registry, which is exciting to start, and a few things for me.

My birthday also marked 24 weeks pregnant, so we took new pictures. To compare these two to the 20-week pictures, click here. Twice this week complete strangers have asked me when I’m due, so I guess it’s really starting to look like a baby belly. Maybe that’s because it grew another inch this week! See for yourself…

On Saturday, we registered for all JT’s necessities at Target and Babies R Us (convenient links to the left). While Target is usually less expensive on baby basics, Babies R Us has a lot of things that you can’t find in other stores – so we had to do both. I’m going to leave the Amazon registry up too, since there are even more things that you can’t get in either of the other two stores. We had already picked out some of the big items (crib, car seat, stroller), so that was good. I don’t know how people walk into the store having no idea. There are so many different types to choose from! We didn’t register for many clothes, outside of newborn basics, because it’s hard to tell what we’ll need. What we do need is a lot of gear, since all our friends are still having babies and have to keep theirs!

This weekend, JT had two new friends enter the world: Sadie Hollander and Asher Shuck. In another month, Baby Boy Skagen will join the bunch. By the time JT is born, he will already have several play dates with other buddies. We are really blessed to have friends with kids at the same time. Life will be different, and very fun!

The only baby update is that we went water skiing on Saturday (we meaning I sat in the boat), and little JT started kicking away when Jim started the boat. Obviously, he was meant to be in the water like the rest of his family. 🙂

This week I turned in my requests for maternity leave and for next year’s contract. I plan to return to work in October, and to only work two days a week next year. My boss is very supportive of this plan, but I’m waiting to celebrate until everything is signed in ink. Jim always has a least one weekday off, so he’ll have his son all to himself one day a week. JT will spend the other day each week with one of his grandmas. We are so blessed to have two moms who live close by and are able to watch him for us. They will each get two days per month at our house with him (of course, the grandpas are welcome to participate as well!).

Today we had our check-up appointment. Here are some updates:

• JT is 95th percentile in size for his age. Nurse Peggy asked us if large birth weights ran in our families, and my heart stopped for a split second! She said that we would watch his size as we go along.
• My belly measures 21 cm (top to bottom, clearly not around!), which is exactly average for mid-pregnancy. Peggy said I can expect to gain about 1 cm per week until JT arrives if he’s growing healthily.
• Our next (and quite possibly final) ultrasound will be around 30 weeks – or about two months from now.

I got confirmation today that I will got into the Prenatal Water Aerobics class I signed up for at Valley Medical Center. It starts on April 1st and meets twice a week in the evenings. Everyone I know who has taken the class has loved it, so I’m looking forward to it. I think it will be pretty funny to watch all of us pregnant women waddle around in our swimsuits! I still do my workout DVD once a week and try to take Slider on a couple long walks each week. It must be paying off because my weight gain is normal despite the carton of cookie dough ice cream in my freezer that is emptying at a steady pace. 🙂

When I went to return a couple of library books today, the library book sale was going on. I looked around and found two books I’ve been wanting: What to Expect the First Year and Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn for just one dollar apiece. Nice!

As I type this, JT is going bonkers in there. In fact, just now, for the first time, I actually watched my skin jump as he moves around inside. It’s pretty surreal! (I think I could have seen this sooner, but it’s hard to roll down my pants and watch while I’m at work.) I can’t wait to show Jim. He’s such a proud dad already!

What a great day! We are so thankful to announce that our baby is a boy. While any healthy baby is a blessing, that is what we had hoped. Today we had an hour-long ultrasound. I had no idea the 20-week one was so intense. The technician measured bones, arteries, organs, and everything in between. Everything is functioning well and looks great. He measures a little ahead in size (6 days bigger than expected), but that doesn’t change my due date at all. His heart rate continues to sit around 150 bpm.

Are we sure it’s a boy, you ask? Yep! Since he likes to move around so much (both ultrasounds have confirmed what I have suspected for the last month, and both technicians have commented several times that we have a “very active baby”), it was hard to get a good shot of his boy anatomy at first. The technician pointed out some things and said she would proclaim with 80% accuracy that it was indeed a boy. A few minutes later, he turned, and she changed her odds to 90%. By the time he spread his legs and exposed himself all over the screen, we all laughed and the technician said “I’d say 95%… and that’s as high as I go!”

We are blessed! We can’t wait to introduce you all to our son, JT (John Taylor) Keene.

20 weeks! The halfway point. The baby is becoming much more active – I now feel something a few times a day. The movement is especially strong when I’m sitting, like in the car, at church, or at my computer at work. One time during a meeting there were definite thumps, as opposed to little taps, and that made me happy.

I’m also big enough where people are smiling at my belly in the store, and helping me carry big things without me saying anything… today at Costco I was loading the car and a man walked by and offered to push my cart back to the store for me. I think I’ll just take all the help I’m offered (even if I don’t really need someone to return my cart for me) since this only happens for a little while!

This past week we got to look through my old baby things as well as Jim’s. Both of our moms saved clothes, toys, and blankets from our baby days. We have picked out a few things from both sides that we’d like to pass on to our child.

Here are this month’s belly photos. You can compare with last month’s by clicking here. I’ve gained 14 pounds and my waist is now 31 inches. Our next ultrasound is Tuesday and our next checkup is Thursday. It should be a busy week!

The first big news is that Jim felt the baby move this week. The movements have been more frequent and stronger, so last Sunday I showed him where the baby was moving… then waited. My friend Emrie advised me not to say “Did you feel that?” since he might eventually feel badly that he was missing it, or think he felt something when he didn’t. So I waited. A few minutes later, right when I felt a pop or two, he looked at me and said, “Was that it?” It was so exciting! He kept saying, “No way!” and smiling.

Last night we went to The Music of Led Zeppelin at the Paramount (Jim’s Valentine’s Day present from me). It was awesome, and the baby was moving a lot during the show. The music was so loud I could feel pounding in my chest, so I’m sure the baby was aware of some noise going on! Jim is thrilled that his son or daughter already loves Led Zeppelin. (Last weekend our god-daughter, Aly, was listening to Led Zeppelin with us in the car and when the song was over, she motioned “more” and continued dancing to the next song. Jim was beside himself!)

The big project is finally finished… the rocking chair looks beautiful. (Before left, after right) Besides the fact that it was a little dated, it was also pretty scuffed up from several years of use. All the scratches (and the gold trim) are gone now, and we think it looks great. I added a rocking chair pad to our Amazon registry because it would be nice to have some padding, but it certainly matches the rest of our house very nicely now.