Our baby - Week 22 (Check out my bump!)

This week, our baby weighs in at a whopping pound and measures nearly eight inches, about the size of a small doll. He/she can now perceive light and dark. He/she can also hear our voices, my heartbeat, my gurgling stomach, and the whoosh-whoosh of blood circulating through my body.

This week, my husband felt the baby moving. We were lying in bed reading and before I knew it, I was feeling very strong kicks or punches. My husband immediately assumed it was gas but I assured him it was not gas at all. His face lit up with happiness and pride. We can't wait to meet our little one in December. Some days it is scary and overwhelming but at the end of the day we wouldn't change a thing and anxiously anticipate our baby's arrival.

Here's the latest baby bump picture taken this morning.


In 2 weeks, I head to Wisconsin for our baby shower thrown by our parents. I am looking forward to the weekend home but will miss Adam terribly. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of him and for my post after I return. We already got our first baby gift in the mail this week and I am sure the baby's room will fill up fast.

2 Minutes & 8 Seconds of Fame

It's been about a week and a half since my husband's knee surgery. He is doing great and getting anxious to get past the next 4 1/2 weeks. His doctor was very happy with how the operation went. I was relieved the minute I saw the doctor's face. He had a completely different expression on his face after this surgery than he did after the first surgery.

I've posted some images of his surgery and knee after surgery. Do not click on this link if you think you may not be able to handle the interior images of my husband's knee. They aren't for everyone.

http://picasaweb.google.com/radavis78/AdamSKnee?feat=directlink

I am amazed that this donated cartilage and mixture of adhesive and probably some other stuff. The hole where the cartilage was missing was the size of a quarter wide and 1/2 and inch deep. Who knows if this would have been catch before my husband was in major pain if he hadn't been running a year ago and kicked his leg out which popped the cartilage loose. We are thankful things are working out for the best and he'll be back on his feet in time for the arrival of our first little one.

Since this procedure is fairly new and my husband's was the 2nd surgery performed in Michigan, he was interviewed by the local news. Click on the link to view the news clip.

http://www.wxyz.com/mediacenter/local.aspx

Scroll down to the Health Edge section.
Click on the "New Option for Knee Surgery" story.

Obviously I am bias but I think he did a great job on the interview after everything he was going through right after his surgery.

It's been a challenge to get into a new routine at home. We get up at 5 or 5:30 and start the day. If you have never been on crutches before, you may not understand how difficult it is to do things for yourself. Most of the difficulty comes from not being about to carry anything. I started going to work earlier since I am up and because I can get home earlier to help my husband after he's been home all day by himself. Not only is he focusing all his energy into work to take his mind off his knee, he also busy spending time on the range of motion machine we have at the house. It's not the most comfortable thing to lift off the ground but we are managing between the two of us. As of last night he was already at 83 degrees of range of motion. He's doing so great. It's not the easiest thing in the world to rely on others for simple things and be patient with recover from something like this. I am so proud of him.

Work-Life Balance: A True Test.

I experienced a true test of work-life balance today. I went to work with every intention of coming home at 1:00 pm to continue to take care of my husband. My husband is recuperating from reconstructive knee surgery. His surgery was on Tuesday and he is unable to put any weight on his leg for 6 weeks. 6 WEEKS!!!!

If anyone has gone through this type of recuperation, you can sympathize with his situation. I had two knee surgeries in high school and I don't know what I would have done without my family there to support me and (let's face it) wait on me hand and foot.

So today I went into work and wouldn't you know it, I was unable to leave the office until 4:30 pm. How did this happen? Is it lack of organization? Did I let co-workers convince me I could stay? Did I feel obligated to stay because its my job?

It's probably a multitude of things. I came up with an idea for a direct mail piece that was a Plan B to our failed Plan A. We had not time and so much money and other things were riding on this event. It's sometime hard to shine in the environment I work it unless I do something to stand out on my own. So I had to see this project through from start to finish because it was my idea and I believe it will work better than the projects we have done in the past. It was so hard to stay at work to finish out the project knowing that my husband was home trying to manage every day things we take for granted until we don't have them. When you are on crutches and pain medication, it's difficult to get around. There we multiple deliveries to the house today and I know he was frustrated I wasn't here to help him. Don't get me wrong here...my husband is very supportive on my job/career.

Today really made me think about how things will have to change when the baby comes in December. Work-life balance is very important and is something most people struggle with every day. I know things will definitely change when our baby arrives and changes more than just our home life.

How do you keep a good work-life balance?

My Pregnancy - Week 20 (HALF WAY THERE!)

Our baby is now the length of a banana. Can you believe it? He/she is now 6 ½ inches long and weighs almost 10 1/2 ounces!

Our baby can also hear sounds. At 20 weeks, he/she can cover his/her ears with his/her hands if the sounds are too loud and he/she may even "jump" inside my womb if any sounds startle him/her.

He/she is also moving around a lot. Many times, these first movements are described as a flutter, or may feel like bubbles or gas. It is said that I may be becoming aware of his/her sleep cycles.

(Source: Planning Family.com)

I can't believe I am half way through my pregnancy. It's been amazing so far. I have been able to feel the baby move but sadly Adam hasn't felt the baby yet. We'll have lots of time for that. We've been doing fun things together before Adam has his surgery on the 11th. It's been alot of fun and I can't wait to get back to doing those fun things after his recovery is complete.

I'll post the next month's baby bump picture next week. Stay tuned. I'm looking forward to heading back to Wisconsin for a family baby shower (minus Adam though - :( ). It's too much stress for both of us to travel while he is recovering. He can't put weight on his leg for 6 weeks after surgery. Maybe we'll set up a web cam so he can see & hear what is happening during the party. I'll have to consult my father-in-law on that one. He's the gadget king and I know he will be able to rig something up for us.

We are very blessed to have great families that are hosting this baby shower for us. Adam's parents are having the shower at their house and my dad was able to arrange to drive me back to Michigan after the party with all our baby goodies. My mom is also heading up here about a month after the shower to visit and help us out with whatever we need. We are so thankful to have great parents (soon-to-be grandparents) in our lives.

My advice to everyone that has great parents, siblings, friends or other people in their lives that sacrifice and do wonderful things for them is to be sure to thank them and tell them how much they mean to you regularly. Sometimes we forget to show our appreciation to those great people in our lives and I think it is so important to do that.

So to all those people in our lives that have been there for us, helped us and just been gracious to us...we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and feel blessed to have you in our lives.