Saturday, March 26, 2011

Check out my Crib

Last weekend, my parents came down for a visit.  With them, they brought the crib that I slept in when I was a baby.  I wanted to use this crib for the baby, and I was glad they were willing to bring it down.  It is nothing fancy and brand new, of course.  But I don't care about that.  I wanted my child to have something that I had, and I thought the crib would be perfect.  It's still in great condition.  We only need to replace 3 springs, which can be purchased at Lowe's.  
As you can see, it has drop sides.  And somebody mentioned about how drop sides can be dangerous because baby could get caught on it and end up dropping a side.  Well, I am 100% positive that if my baby figures out how to get these sides down, I'll have more to worry about than the crib.  I even struggle to get them down! I'm pretty sure I won't be dropping the sides too often.  There isn't anything for the baby to get caught on anyway.  Please ignore the desk next to the bed.  That's going to be moved before the baby starts sleeping in the crib.  Anyway, I'm very excited to pass something of mine on to my child.  No, I don't have the mattress or crib set yet, but we've been told by certain people that they are buying those for us. ;) So, we'll wait to get those.  

But what was even more special and interesting to me than receiving the crib to pass on to my child, happened to be something that came with it! :)
Hand-written assembly instructions including illustrations by my father! :) Ha! These are great! First, I just love the pictures he drew! He had been very careful to try to make his images look as much like the actual parts as possible.  And he actually did a very good job! Another thing that's just wonderful is the 1980s printer feed paper complete with perforated edges with the holes! That line at the very bottom of the picture is the part where the two pages were joined and you had to separate them yourself! 

Lee and my dad worked together to assemble the crib.  While they were doing this, they came downstairs and my father showed me the most interesting part of the instructions!
As you can see it underlined in this picture, the date that these instructions were written was March 18, 1989.   Now, that might initially seem like nothing.  However, my parents just so happened to come with the crib on March 18, 2011! I just think that is the coolest thing ever! The crib was assembled on March 19th.  So, it has been exactly 22 years since those instructions were written until they were passed on for the next generation! My dad says he is sure he wrote them for my sister or myself to use in the future.  It is great that we actually are!

In other news, I'm now 23 weeks pregnant (as of Friday).  I feel the baby every now and then, but for me it is still often the butterfly feelings.  I think he has to be moving around A LOT or kicking/punching pretty hard for me to feel things.  I talked to my doctor about this and she said we can arrange an ultrasound for my 24 week visit (this coming Thursday) so we can see how the baby is moving and how much of it I'm feeling.  Of course, I'm elated to be able to see him again!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Oh my a Papaya!

I am now 22 weeks and 2 days pregnant, and baby is the size of a papaya! :) At this point, however, we will not be getting a new fruit every week.  Instead, baby will be the size of a papaya for 2 weeks.  I suppose growth in length slows down as baby starts adding things like fat now.  

Papayas are rather large.  Baby is supposedly 11-11 1/2 inches long and weighing in at about a pound! Some places say 15 ounces and some say 1 pound.  Honestly, there is only one ounce difference! So, he's close to a pound if he's not there already.

Being that he is at the size he is now, I have just reached the next milestone.  I felt him from the outside for the first time last night! My parents were visiting, and my mother felt my belly when I told her he was moving and she said she could feel him.  But I really couldn't tell.  Well, last night he was moving around up near my left side and I definitely felt him moving.  It was so exciting and I do hope to feel it again soon.  It depends on where he is moving as to whether I can feel him or not.

Anyway, that's all I have for now! :)