6 months!

Ezekiel has started to do all kinds of things just in the past 2 weeks!

Last time we were visiting Sarasota my mom was watching him while I was in the shower.  When I came out she said he was wanting one of his favorite music boxes and rolled over to try and get it!  When we got home I was sure to watch him closely because I didn't want to miss him rolling!  Sure enough the next day Micah and I were sitting with him and he rolled over!  Ever since then he's been a big fan of rolling.  Funny thing though is he still only rolls to his left side.  It also seems like his right hand is more dominant as of right now so when he tries to get a toy that may be why he goes to the left.

It was all fun and games until he started to roll when going to sleep a couple of days later!  We had been using a sleep positioner that was inclined because he had been fighting a runny nose at the time.  One time he started crying in a way that was unusual for him so looked in the baby monitor and he was not on the sleep positioner, not even in view of the monitor!  I ran over to find him on his stomach in one corner, and the positioner pushed over in the other corner.  Some how he rolled over the sides of the positioner.  We had recently been thinking it was time to start weaning him from being swaddled and this made it definite.  Thankfully sleeping without the inclined wedge didn't seem to bother his nose too much.  The biggest problem was his determination to roll onto his stomach!  Of course this really got bad at about 11 pm when we were all ready to go to bed. I would lay him down on his back, and walk back to bed.  By the time I got into bed he would be on his stomach, crying because he doesn't like his stomach.  I knew he could roll the other way onto his back (he has been doing that for months now) but for some reason he wasn't doing it in his bed.  I kept going back to put him on his back and he kept rolling right back over.  After about 2 or 3 LONG days, he eventually figured it out.  Since that day he hasn't slept on his back since.  In less than one minute after putting him down he's either on his side or stomach.  If you would have told me this a month ago that this was going to happen, I wouldn't have believed you.  He hate hate hated tummy time!  Now he'll even happily play on his tummy for an extended period of time.  It's like something clicked for him and now he's fine with it!

Around that same time he not only started to bat at things, but also grasp!  He's pretty good at grabbing a toy you put in front of him.  He has become interested in trying to touch our faces, my phone, all kinds of things.
Which leads me into his next new interest, watching us eat.  He intently watches us as we eat or drink.  I originally planned on waiting until he was 6 months adjusted, but now I'm thinking I might start rice cereal for the next month. It'll depend on his weight check-in next week though.  He has always been on the low end for even his adjusted age so I might feel more comfortable starting rice cereal if his weight has caught up a little more.
He loves holding onto his feet too.  The other day we were driving in the car and there was a lot of traffic so we weren't moving much.  He tends to get ancy when we're sitting still so I gave him a toy to play with which he dropped after awhile so he had to entertain himself.  I looked back at one point and he was holding onto his feet waving them around and talking to himself.  It kept him entertained for awhile longer :)

His 6 month checkup is next week so I don't know his weight and length yet.  He was 11 lbs last month.  I'm guessing 13 lbs, Micah guesses 15.  I guess we'll find out in a few days!

Eze meets Becca

Congratulations to our friends, Jen & Jim.  Jen was 3 months behind me with her pregnancy.  It was fun to go through our pregnancies together, and now it's going to be even more fun having playdates together!  I'm so glad to have a girlfriend with a new baby.

It happened that Ezekiel, and their daughter, Rebecca, are almost 5 months apart by only 1 day.  We got to see their new family this past Wednesday.  Micah and I couldn't get over how small she was.  Neither of us could remember how it felt when Ezekiel was that small.  We couldn't remember him having that "newborn behavior" either.  It was nice to be able to see a newborn again.  It's funny how very quickly you forget what it's like!

Some of our other friends, the Harris fam, were there to meet Rebecca also.  Their kids adore Ezekiel, it's so cute to see them with him.

5 months!

Little man is five months!

This past Sunday he had his baby dedication at church.

We also took a couple trips to Sarasota recently, where I am from, so that Ezekiel could meet some of my friends and family.

While there we took Ezekiel on his first beach trip.

 

4 months, 3 weeks

His new favorite activity, sitting up with pillows!

Happy 4th of July!

Ezekiel turned 4 months old on 4th of July weekend!  

Ezekiel had his 4 month well visit check up at the doctor this week (except he was already 4.5 months!)  He's now 10 lbs., 9 oz., and 23 inches long!  His height is finally on the very bottom of the growth chart, but his weight still isn't quite there.  His pediatrician isn't using an adjusted chart because he doesn't consider him a low birth weight baby.  I, however, don't think it's fair to treat him as a 4 month old because he only had 7 months of growing in me so I think he's doing great considering he's only 2 months adjusted!

On Sunday, July 4th, we took him to the church nursery for the first time.  Ezekiel had been waking up the last 2 weeks during church.  I was able to keep him happy with his pacifier, but it was hard to listen to the sermon while pretty much worrying the entire time that my kid was going to start wailing.  Originally I stopped by the nursery to ask what age they start to take babies.  I wasn't going to sign him up but the staff said I could sit with Ezekiel for the first week or two if I wanted.  I was still hesitant, but we went ahead and tried it out.
Last Sunday Ezekiel was asleep in the car, and wasn't due to wake up for another hour.  For the 4th week in a row he woke up as we were walking into church!  It's as if he knows whats coming!  I was going to just bring him into church with us, but decided to hand him off to the nursery since he was wide awake by the time we got there.  It was the first time leaving him with "strangers".  I was nervous the whole time, but when I went to pick him up an hour later to go nurse him he was happily swinging away!

In unrelated baby news I tried a few recipes recently that were pretty good.  Good enough to add to my regular repertoire.  You should check them out if you're looking for something new!

Roasted Zucchini with Garlic

Steak Fajitas

Chipotle Ranch Ribs

Pop-Pop's Birthday

We took a trip to Japan! Haha, no just the Japanese Steakhouse for Pop-Pop's 60th birthday.  Our camera battery was dead so Micah took these with his phone, not bad considering!
While we were waiting to be seated, a man guessed Ezekiel to be 3 weeks old.  Kind of funny when we told him he's almost 4 months.  He was pretty close though if you go by his weight.  We're guessing he's around 9 or 10 pounds now.  We'll find out in about 2 weeks when I take him for his next checkup at the pediatrician.

It was SO nice to get of the house for awhile.  The food was amazing (it's one of our favorite restaurants).  I feel like I'm pretty easily entertained these days.  Anything out of our ordinary routine gets me excited.  It was fun to watch our food get cooked in front of us.  There were also a couple of crying babies around us while our *ahem* angel baby ;) slept.  Made me feel better to see other babies who would only be happy if you were up standing with them, and yet their moms attempt to get out the house too.


Ezekiel is talking it up these days with lots of smiles for everyone.  Every once in awhile we'll catch him studying his feet but he seems to be kind of over that for right now.  His new thing is putting his fist in his mouth and attempting to chew his elbow.  He's drooling a lot and pulling his ear.  That leads us to think he's starting to teeth.  Haven't seen any little pearly whites poking through yet though.  He still hates tummy time but when he is on his stomach he digs his feet in and pushes, with his upper body dragging along.  Still working on coordinating that :).

Ezekiel's Welcome Home Party

We originally had a baby shower planned in mid March, along with another one planned in my hometown that same month.  My due date was May 2nd, so we thought that was plenty of time.  Ezekiel had bigger and better plans, so the parties were delayed.  Last weekend we finally had a makeup party for him!  We had to wait awhile until we got the green light from his pediatrician to be able to take him into large crowds.  It was nice for our family and friends to finally meet him!

Outings

We've started to get a routine going these days with Ezekiel's wake time.  We start the day off with a bath.  I wanted this to be apart of his bedtime routine originally but I gave up on that for now.  Late evenings is his fussiest time of day, and bath time doesn't seem to be a comfort to him during that time.  Late morning I usually try to do some blanket/tummy time.  He's really against the tummy time, but we're working on it.  Early afternoon is when we try to get out, anywhere.  It's summer time, with highs in the high 90's and heat index in the 100's so that means no outdoors for us.  We usually run errands, or our favorite, go meet up with daddy over his lunch break.  Micah has been pretty swamped at work so unfortunately we don't get to do that as often as we all would like but when we do, it's a treat.  We'll usually go walk around the mall that's around the corner from his work.  Ezekiel is a fan of his car seat and will sleep through pretty much anything in it!  Yesterday we were walking back to the car and for probably the first time ever he opened his eyes and looked around for awhile as if he was trying to gather what was going on.  He's not used to waking up mid day on a weekday to seeing his daddy pushing him around in a huge store. :)

Smiles

These were a nice treat for momma.  He usually saves them up for the ceiling fan or the swaying palm trees outside. :)

3 months!

Ezekiel is 3 months old now!  Can't believe he's been home twice as long as he was in the hospital already.

He has really started to babble and smile.  Especially at ceiling fans and his crib mobile.  Not sure what it is about the fans.  My guess is that because they are dark against the white ceiling he likes the high contrast but who knows.  Micah's guess is that Ezekiel thinks they are big people mobiles :).

We started taking him outside more and he really seems to enjoy it.  He might be fussy inside and then we take him out and he'll just sit contently for quite a while.

We moved!  It was a pretty daunting task with a newborn but between my parents, and Micah's grandparents helping out, we got it done.  We don't know how we would have gotten it done without them.
We're still in the middle of fighting those short sales... we're currently on our 3rd place and we've been doing this since December.  We're hoping 3rd time's a charm... or well, that we make it to closing day at least!

Mother's Day

This past Sunday we celebrated my first mother's day!

Ezekiel was great the entire day.  He was content after pretty much every feeding and just hung out with us happily.  We started the day off with Micah making us breakfast, and opening mother's day cards.

 

Since his pediatrician said it's ok now to take him out into the public, we were able to go to church for the first time since he was born.  It was SO great to be back!  He slept the entire time, even through the loud music.  We went out to Olive Garden with Micah's grandparents for dinner, where he also slept the entire time until the very end when we were leaving.  As long as you get him in the car first, he'll usually be set for sleeping until it's time to eat again which makes it a little easier to take him out.
With this new found freedom of not being housebound we've been thinking of other ways to get out more.  We went and visited Micah at work to have lunch at a nearby park.

Technically this means the two of us could go grocery shopping during the day now, but there's just one problem.  Groceries, an infant, and 3 flights of stairs.  Haven't quite figured out how to coordinate that.  Our carseat is really heavy.  I don't think I could even carry the carseat and a gallon of milk at the same time up all those stairs!

2 months update

I'm sitting here with little man determined to get back to blogging.  It's a great way to keep you all updated, keep a record of his progression for my sake, and a cool way for Ezekiel to hear about his early days when he's older. Every once in awhile we'll have a day like this where I think we're finally getting the hang of things.  There's about 20 minutes of time where he's happily chilling out, laundry is running, dinner is defrosting, and I have a second to do something like this.  Then somehow we get way out of sync and this kind of day doesn't come around again for another week (this is why you haven't received your thank you cards, but I promise I'm working on them and that we are beyond grateful for your generosity!  Really, I don't know what we would do without all of your support!)  I would love to start from the beginning but that would take more time than I have and I would never get to the present time.  So for now, I'll just start where we are, and have the best of intentions of getting a birth story post up some day.

 In short, Ezekiel unexpectedly came 2 months early.  Our lives quickly changed on March 5, 2010.  He spent a month in the NICU while mommy and daddy stayed at the Ronald McDonald House about 15 minutes away.  It was much better than staying the 45 minutes away that we live from the hospital!  He did amazing considering he was born at 31 weeks, and 5 days.  We were able to get two steroid shots in me hours before he was born in order to help his lungs progress.  Normally babies that early would have to be on oxygen but Ezekiel was able to breath on his own from the very beginning.  The only reason he was in the nicu for so long was to start regulating his own body temperature, to steadily gain weight, and to be able to take a whole feeding by bottle and at least be working on breastfeeding (versus by a feeding tube).  We had picked out the name Ezekiel years ago and knew the name meant "God strengthens" but never knew how true that meaning would apply to him.  God truly has strengthened him, and continues to do so!

On GOOD Friday, it was a typical morning where I was sitting in the rocker, holding Ezekiel after his morning feeding.  The pediatrician came by to talk to the nurse to update her on his charges for the day when I overheard him say "baby French can go home today".  I started crying, I couldn't believe they were finally letting us take him home, and it was so unexpected!  It was great timing since Micah was set to leave that next Monday for a business trip for a week to California.  We were so grateful to have that weekend together at home before he had to leave.

Since then it's been a blur of a month.  In some ways it seems like he's been at home for much longer, but then in other ways I still can't believe he's here! His original due date was this past Sunday, May 2nd.  We celebrated his "0th birthday" with a cake and Avatar (aka an excuse for Micah to buy Avatar).

He's still tiny but developmentally he's doing so well.  He had his 2 month checkup today and weighed in at 7 lbs, 4 oz. (born at 4 lbs, 3 oz.)  He's meeting almost all of the 2 month milestones.  At about 5 weeks old during tummy time one night he all of a sudden rolled from his stomach to his back and continues to do that pretty much every day!

  

Well, it's time to get him down for a nap.  Hopefully I can start updating often!

31 weeks

31 weeks

Wow baby ticker, 4 pounds, really?  He does seem to be rolling more than kicking these days.  When he does kick, he seems to favor my right hip.  I've been having pretty consistent pain in my hips again when I'm sleeping.  It was coming and going for awhile but has been pretty annoying these past few days.  I don't get what's going on but it's always the hip that's on the bed that hurts.  So I flip over, feel better for a bit, and then about 2 hours later I wake up in pain again.  Between the hip pain and bathroom breaks I haven't gotten a good stretch of sleep in awhile.  At least it's preparing me for when the baby arrives I guess!

Our first birth class was this past week.  I was pretty nervous about it going into it, but I actually felt better and more prepared afterwards.  Who knew, the birth class actually did what it was supposed to!  I think what stuck out to me most this week was the reminder of how important it is to stay hydrated at this stage.  I didn't know that dehydration can cause preterm labor, so I've been really working on getting 8 glasses a day.  There were a lot of other interesting things she went over that I won't bore you with :)  Point being, I got a lot out of it, and I'm glad we're taking this class!

I forgot to mention last week that at my last checkup at the doctor they confirmed that I had passed my glucose test which means I don't have gestational diabetes and I'm not anemic!

Just like any pregnant girl, I wonder a lot about how Ezekiel will look.  I'm especially curious how his skin color will turn out.  I know babies of color usually come out lighter and turn darker in time.  I really hope he has a good amount of color to him!  I've also been wondering about his hair.  Micah and I were both born with hair.  I, especially, had a thick head of black hair when I was born.  So I assume Ezekiel will be born with dark hair as well.  What's weird is that I haven't had any heartburn.  I guess it's just an old wive's tale but it seems to have some truth to it.  Heartburn or not, I'll be pretty surprised if I give birth to a baldie!

30 weeks

30 down, 10 to go!

My parents visited us today, and gave us the carseat we were hoping for!  It was nice to spend a few hours with them, and visit.

There will be a lot happening this week in the French household.  Micah will be out of town on business for a few days again.  He'll be back in time for our first birth class Thursday night.  I'm a little nervous about it for myself, but especially for Micah, haha.  Hopefully it'll be helpful and informative in a non scary way!  We are also back at hunting for a home as the offer for the townhome fell through.  Sometimes it feels like our heads are spinning with everything going on, but we are so thankful we have all of these things to be thinking about!

29 weeks

29 weeks, 2 days

Every week I'm amazed at how much closer I am to 40 weeks.  As if I don't know that Sunday is coming, and that means another week along in my pregnancy.  I guess I never get over the fact that I'm a week further along before it's time to be yet another week along!
Had another check up today.  I'll be going every 2 weeks, until I'm 35 weeks where I'll start going every week (holy cow that's only 5.5 weeks away!!!).  Everything looked great again at my checkup.  My doctor said it feels like he's head down but he might wiggle around to another position, maybe not.
There is a new labor & delivery wing being built at the hospital.  It's scheduled to be done by mother's day, which is about 2 weeks after my due date.  I really really hope I'm not 2 weeks late, but that the construction workers get it in gear so that it can open early!

I'm a little late getting this 29 week post up because we were pretty busy this past 3 day weekend.  Now that Micah is out of town on business for the next three days I can focus on getting things like this done.  (My way of pretending like I don't mind that he's gone but really I hate when he has to go out of town!)  Micah & I had a great valentine's weekend.  We watched movies, made heart shaped dinners and breakfasts, exchanged gifts, enjoyed 3 full days off of work together.  It was wonderful!  I have to brag, Micah got me a cute gift.  I've been craving fruit my whole pregnancy.  So what did I get for vday?  A box of chocolate covered strawberries.  He knew exactly what I wanted.  And they were awesome.

Monday night the girls in our small group from church made a big dinner for our husbands.  I had a lot of fun spending the day in my friend, Kristie's, kitchen cooking.  I am so thankful we have friends like this here that we can do this with.

28 weeks

28 weeks today!

Ezekiel is about 2.5 pounds, 15 inches long

Had my checkup this past Tuesday.  The glucose screening test went well.  I chugged the drink like a champ.  I got a headache, my stomach flipped out for a bit, and I crashed when I got home, but it wasn't so bad with Micah keeping me company.  The nurse said they would only call if I failed the test, and that would probably be by Thursday. So it looks like it's safe to assume that I passed! Yes!  Everything else with me and Ezekiel seemed to be right on track and looking good.  Micah got to hear Ezekiel's heartbeat for the first time which was neat :)  Now I get to go for a checkup every other week!

A change I've noticed in the past week or so is that my appetite has really increased.  I feel like I'm always hungry!  I've woken up a few times in the middle of the night kind of sick to my stomach.  It's the feeling you get when you've been hungry for awhile, and you get sick from not eating.  I'm not sure if I'm getting really hungry at 3 in the morning or if I'm randomly getting nauseous.  Haven't figured that one out yet!

Yesterday we cleaned out the car that Micah usually drives.  I'm going to start driving that car, since it's a 4 door, and it will be a lot easier to get a baby in and out of!  It felt good to have a way to physically prepare for Ezekiel since I can't do much with his nursery yet.

Most of my students haven't made any comments since I first announced my pregnancy at the beginning of my second trimester.  I think they expected my stomach to pop out over night months ago.  It's been funny to catch some of them studying my stomach recently like they are just now noticing my stomach growing.  Some parents of other students in the school have started to apprehensively ask if I'm expecting.  It's been fun to have other moms to be excited with.  One boy in another teacher's class started to notice my stomach, and asked a couple of weeks ago if I was pregnant.  Last Friday I saw him at carline and he exclaimed, "GEEZ, is the baby gonna come out yet?!?"  It's funny to go from no one noticing or saying anything to this where I have a student who acts like I'm about to pop!

27 weeks

In my third trimester today!!!

I had a burst of energy for a few weeks that seemed to have disappeared this past week. I'm really hoping it was just a fluke and this week I get some of that energy back!  I really can't complain though.  This pregnancy has been going great!

Tuesday is my next ob checkup.  This is also when I have to take that glucose screening test that I am d-r-e-a-d-i-n-g. Ya know when you're a kid and you know your dentist checkup is coming?  Yeah, that's how I feel. I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I remember that's coming up.  I didn't want to take off of work so I made my appointment for 1:30 (the earliest after lunch that they schedule).  My ob only says you have to fast for an hour beforehand but if this is how much I am dreading the one hour test, I am determined to do all I can to prevent from having to take the 3 hour test.  Some girls fast hours before so I think that's what I'm going to do.  Just eat a bland breakfast at 6am and fast from then on.  I'm just really scared of passing out or getting sick from this whole thing.  Thankfully, after overhearing me whine about it to multiple girlfriends, Micah has decided to take a half day at work to go with me for support.  That makes me feel better.  At least now if I get sick he'll be there to hold my hair back while I puke.  That's romantic.  No, I'm sure I'll be fine, hopefully... :)

A friend of ours let us have her old crib bumper that she used with all of her kids.  This is what we'll base the theme and colors of the nursery off of.  I think it's super cute and I love that it reminds me of them :)

Speaking of the nursery, we haven't started clearing out our current office/guest bedroom because we put an offer on a townhome! That actually happened back on my birthday, December 28th. It's a short sale so the bank has 90 days to respond and we are at about day 30 now.  We could potentially be moving a month before my due date! However, we're just ecstatic that we're able to be shopping for a home right now!

26 weeks

Today begins the last week of my second trimester! Wow!

By this week Ezekiel should be almost 2 pounds, and a total length of about 14 inches!  Ezekiel's little room in my belly is about the size of a soccer ball. That's frightening from my perspective.  His eyelids in the past few days have finally separated and he's able to see around him! Also around this time they start to grow the hair on their head.  If the amount of hair that his parents have is any indication, I have a feeling that's well on it's way.

We have a crib and dresser on the way that we're really excited about.  Micah's grandma has very generously offered to purchase both for us, and ordered them last week.

Originally we had picked out a crib that was a dark espresso. It seems like that or white is the most popular choices out there right now and it's hard to find a natural wood color like this. Most of our other furniture we already own is dark, but we decided it didn't look right for a nursery. We found this crib and dresser in natural, and really liked how much "happier" it felt.  I can't wait to set them up! Or well, for my wonderful husband to set them up ;)

25 weeks

24 weeks

24 weeks

One night this past week after work Micah and I had to get a new battery for Micah's car. There was a long wait at the auto parts store (apparently the cold weather was killing everyone's battery, who knew?) so we decided to get some dinner and come back. I don't know what it was about dinner but something happened, and my stomach grew a few good inches before we got back. I even had my first stranger to ask me when I'm due, who was the man behind the counter at the auto parts store. It was like I became obviously pregnant in one hour! I thought it might go down, but it hasn't since (see picture). This past Friday one of the girls at work stopped dead in here tracks from across the room and exclaimed, "WHOA, where did that come from?!?" haha.

I'm definitely experiencing some sciatica pain in my left hip which makes working at a Montessori school more interesting, where most work is done on the floor. I'm guessing I should buy one of those body pillows but I refuse to by a snoogle that kicks my husband out of bed, and takes up more space than I do myself.
I'm actually feeling pretty good, considering my body is making a human being who is almost 2 pounds at this point and 14 inches long. It's starting to become more real that in just over 3 months we will have a real live baby in our lives. It's pretty daunting when I think of all that we still need to do and all the responsibility this little bundle of joy will bring. Then I remember that I only need to worry about what I can do today. Today I need to find a pediatrician. That I can handle, *phew*.

23 weeks

Taken at 23 weeks exactly

Had a check up today.  Everything measured as it should. Ezekiel's heart beat was nice and strong at 157 bpm. 

For the past month or so I've been experiencing a tightness of my whole stomach every once in awhile.  At first I thought maybe Ezekiel was pushing his whole body against me.  But now that I've gotten bigger I've decided there is no way that feeling could be him. I feel like one huge, over inflated basketball when it happens. The doctor today said it's probably Braxton hicks. I had no clue that's what those things felt like.

Next appointment is set for February 2nd, where I will get the joy and pleasure of taking the Glucose Challenge Screening where I get to drink a nasty concoction. Any moms out there with a suggestion of which flavor is better? Orange or lemon-lime? Ew...