The Tradition Continues...

Many moons ago there was a woman named Lani Davidson who had a husband named Bruce...Bruce worked with a man named Larry Bosworth who had a wife named Patti. As luck would have it Patti and Lani happened to become pregnant around the same time and in 1981 each delivered a baby boy. The Davidsons already had a daughter named Heather and the Bosworths later had a daughter named Mandy. Thus began the Bosworth-Davidson clan...

Throughout the years the Bosworth and Davidson families became very close friends - with their children occassionaly becoming confused on who was actually their sibling and who was not...Fast forward to 2009...
In the early summer of 2009 the respecitve parents of Mandy and Heather were on the phone with one another - each believing they had exceptionally surprising news to tell: they were going to be grandparents! - little did they know that the people on the other end of the line had the same news! So, it was discovered - Mandy and Heather were both pregnant - and due within about 10 weeks of one another!

Ah yes, a crazy tradition for Heather and I to keep - when we both realized what had happened we began fervently e-mailing to catch up and find out how each other's pregnancies were going. We also decided that it was vital that we get together during this crazy time and see each other in pregnant glory.

It worked out that on Halloween weekend Heather flew in to Oklahoma to spend the a few days. We had a great time talkin' it up, sharing pregnancy stories, walking the dogs, baking cookies, and carving pumpkins! We even took some time for some belly shots for the parents! All in all it was an amazing weekend (that flew by too fast!) with an old friend...now we have another generation of Bosworth-Davidsons (or Culver-Wadehras) to add to the family - I couldn't be happier to continue on this tradition that our parents began over 28 years ago!

Scary machine fitting to Halloween

When I made my initial list of things I needed for the baby, of course the infamous breast pump was one of them. When I told Ben we would have to buy one of these delightful contraptions his response was something along the lines of "Why? Won't you have the kid with you all the time?" Ha ha...ummm no.

So I researched all the brands and read the pregnancy magazines and narrowed in on the Medela pump that comes in a handy bag...fabulous. I ordered it from Amazon and it came the other day. Now, some people have asked me why I didn't just register for a breast pump, but my whole thought process on that is that I think my friends/family would have a lot more fun buying something a little less "intimate" than this particular machine!

To be fair, I have seen enough TV and pictures to know about what the breast pump was going to look like, but reality is a whole different ball game. Once the box came I opened it up to unload all the pieces and see how complicated this was going to be...let me just say this - looking at the pieces of this thing almost made me want to sit down - someone is going to have to explain to me where all this crap goes! And I didn't even see an instruction book! (There probably is one in there - I was just too flustered to see it). So, I now have every intention of taking this innocent looking "messenger bag" with me to the hospital when the baby comes so a nurse or SOMEONE can show me how to operate this thing! I swear, it looks more complicated than a Rubix Cube!

Ice Cream and The Biggest Loser

Ah...my own little pregnancy tradition. Now, this didn't really start as a "tradition" but one night (I believe it was premier night of the latest season) I decided it would be fun to "fight the man" (Jillian) and eat some ice cream while I watched The Biggest Loser. Of course, when I first became a Biggest Loser fan, I would fix the healthiest dinner I could think of on Tuesday nights so that I wouldn't feel bad to watch all those people suffer for 2 hours. Well, apparently that is all over! Now, every Tuesday night I say a little thank you to Baby Culver while I whip out the Slow Churned Ice Cream and prepare my Biggest Loser treat.

Now, I didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about my little tradition until about 4 days ago when Ben and I had our latest pregnancy check-up and I asked how I was doing on my weight-gain. Now, due to the early pregnancy sickies I had lost some weight in the first trimester, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't behind...little did I know! When Dr. Carson took a look at my chart she had a little smile on her face and said "Well, we want you to gain about a pound a week - about 4 between each appointment. Between your 1st appointment with me and your last appointment with Dr. Old Man (I don't remember his name) you hadn't gained any, but between your last appointment and this one you have gained 7." I don't think it is possible for Ben to have snorted louder! And ever so quietly he leaned in and said "that's almost double" - thanks Mr. Mathematician, I got it! Of course the doctor said it is nothing to worry about unless I keep up this trend for the next 3 or so appointments. But, of course as the conversation wrapped up Ben was (somewhat gleefully) letting me know that I might not need ice cream quite so often...whatever.

So, after all of this adventure I have decided that no, I am not in fact going to give up my Biggest Loser treat, but maybe I will try to have berries or something the other nights of the week instead of letting myself eat ice cream 3 or so nights...But don't you worry, tomorrow night at 7:00 (yes, Central time zone can be fantastic) I will be found on the couch with my bowl of ice cream - take that Jillian!

Beer with my ladies and BBC...

So, one of the few unfortunate things about pregnancy is the inability to enjoy a good drink when you want to! Well, this unfortunate problem presented itself in-force when I was in St. Louis hanging out with my good friends Kim and Celeste. Kim was kind enough to take us to the Budweiser brewery for a tour (which was pretty freaking amazing) and then afterward the brewery gives everyone 2 complimentary "tastes". Now, I have been on similar brewery tours before, and like most people, the complimentary tastes are my favorite part! So, I was a little disappointed going along the tour and thinking I would be unable to partake in this little piece of St. Louis. Now yes, there are many who have told me "oh, a little bit here and there can't hurt you" and while I appreciate their well-meant advice, I also know that *knock on wood* if my child came out with 6 fingers on one hand it would be tough not to blame that "little bit here and there"...so, alas I am not one who partakes in alcohol right now.

Little did I know that Budweiser also produces America's well-known non-alcoholic beer O'Doul's and O'Doul's comes in both pale and amber flavors! Who would have thought! So, When it was all said and done Baby Culver and I were able to sit and have a pint (or close to it by Budweiser tasting standards) with our friends Kim and Celeste...good times!

Why are you kicking me?

So yes, the baby kicks. I actually felt him/her move for the first time a few months ago, but it has become much more regular recently. Mostly I can just feel when the baby completely turns around or moves from one side of my stomach to the other. As we saw on the ultrasound the other day, the baby still has a lot of room to swim around, so I don't fell everything. It was pretty funny to see him/her scissor kicking on the screen the other day and I was just feeling little pokes - so much work for so little effect on his/her part!

However, don't go thinking that the kid can't pack a punch when it wants to. There have been quite a few instances so far when I can feel that the baby is TOTALLY stretched out and stiff-legging me to my side. I jusually try to rub his/her foot back into place inside my belly, but that usually only results in me getting kicked on the other side. I tend to blame this behavior on Ben and tell him that his child must have the same kind of temper that he has.

All in all, the kicking hasn't been too crazy yet, and noone else can feel it from the outside - I figure it is only a matter of a couple more weeks before that happens - although I haven't tried my friend McKenna's trick of laying on my back to see if someone else can feel! I am sure you all will hear about it as soon as kicking can be seen/felt from the outside!

Baby Culver's Second Viewing...

Yesterday we had the second official viewing of little Baby Culver. Once again I had to drink an insane amount of water and then lay still while the lady moved the probe around on my belly - she swore she wasn't focusing on my bladder, but I don't believe her! This appointment was mainly to take all the pictures of the baby's parts (organs and limbs mostly) to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be and working properly. It takes about an hour and I can tell you that the baby and I were both a little over it by the time it was done!

Although this is the appointment where you "traditionally" find out the baby's sex, we don't want to know, so we told the technician that up front to be sure she didn't show us. She was really careful about it and while she measured the legs she made Ben stand in the corner. She said you could definately tell what it was if you looked, but we didn't find out. She did say "The baby sure is showing us everything it's got" - so read into that what you will!

The only real bummer about the appointment was that by the time she was going to take some profile pictures for us the baby was so irritated it was kicking like crazy and then curled into a little ball. So, when you look at the picture if it looks like the baby has something growing out of his/her face it is actually a hand...

Because sometimes you can only get nagged SO much...

Yes, a blog...I have become a blogger...not that there is anything wrong with bloggers, I know some very nice bloggers, what is funny about my becoming a blogger is I do it somewhat under protest. Many moons ago (or at the beginning of this journey into motherhood) I thought it would be amusing to blog once in a while when I thought of something humorous; I began that blog on TheBump.com and shared it with a few people. Some of those people decided that I wasn't coming up with humorous things to write about quite often enough (and you know who you are) so I was getting constantly "reminded" to update my blog...sounds good, except I didn't have anything funny/interesting to say. So, now I am one of "those" bloggers - the "I will write it even if you don't give a darn and hopefully once in a while it is interesting!" kind of blogger. Ha! But, I will begin it here because TheBump blog is hard to use and personalize, so I figured more people will have access to this one. I will also re-post the blogs that I wrote on TheBump, and in the next week or so update what has happened since those blogs... To see the older blogs be sure to look under previous months on the right of the blog page because I will post them with their original date...



I officially dedicate this blog to not only Baby Culver, but also his/her grandparents (even the "adopted ones"), our awesome family spread far and wide, and our terrific friends ("adopted aunts and uncles".