She could come as early as 10 weeks from now - which is crazy to think about. I wouldn't mind if she came as early as possible, but we don't want her any earlier than mid-March. We want her to be ready, too!
With her arrival not so far away, I decided we need some more books on childcare, child development, and parenting. We have Nurture Shock, and Derek finished that about a month ago. I still need to read it, and I think it's a good book for realizing your overall goal for raising your children. We need more specifics, like references. Regarding that, I only have Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 and it's a great book. It has a lot of information about breastfeeding, injuries, etc.
In an effort to build a better "baby library," I've ordered these books:
1) Child Behavior: The Classic Child Care Manual from the Gesell Institute of Human Development - I got the tip on this one from thebump.com.
2) Touchpoints: Your Child's Emotional and Behavioral Development, Birth to 3 -- The Essential Reference for the Early Years - another thebump.com recommendation.
3) The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer - This one was recommended to me by my coworkers. They said it's simply amazing, and Dr. Karp has videos to help with swaddling and shushing.
4) What to Expect the First Year - This one seems obvious. I was given What To Expect When You're Expecting when I went to my new OB appointment back in August.
Obviously, I've been trying to review websites as well. I've been following BabyCenter.com very carefully. I like it a lot better than thebump.com. It seems to be more intelligent (I hope that doesn't sound elitist). Thebump.com seems to be more of a social site than anything, and it's nice for generating those cute little trackers. Most of the stuff I've read on there, though, hasn't been very informative. I've also subscribed to Parents.com, and that's been really helpful, too. That site actually shows you what your child looks like in utero, so that's been really cool.
Our pediatrician's office recommends healthychildren.org, and I've loved it. It's so helpful, and it's actually affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's helped me a lot with the cloth diapering. Apparently, there's some concern that cloth diapering can lead to a greater risk in diaper rash since it's not as absorbent as plastic diapers. That's one of the reasons why I've been looking into GroVia diapers to supplement my cloth diaper collection. However, cloth diapering is better for potty training since the child can actually feel the wetness and know when to ask for the potty.
I hope this is a good start. It's been hard for both of us to read a lot beforehand. I'm busy working on a paper for the American Conference for Irish Studies Southern Regional in February, and I have my next class (yay! for grading!) on January 4. Derek's been very busy with schoolwork. One of the books we ordered with our shipment of baby books was Introduction to Databases: From Biological to Spatio-Temporal. That one definitely has nothing to do with Stella... at least for now. Maybe she'll be into databases and things later on, haha. Even though we're both busy, we're really trying to know as much as possible before she gets here.
I'm looking forward to our classes, and I think they'll really help. I've babysat in the past, but Derek's never been around a newborn at all. I don't have much experience, other than a couple neighbors at Fort Stewart. I think the classes will be really great.
As far as how things are going, everything's going fine. This morning around 4:30 am, Stella woke me up and I was trying to fall back asleep. She got hiccups, and so I laid there and waited it out. Derek was even able to feel her bouncing around. She's definitely getting stronger, and some of her movements are really intense. They aren't totally painful yet, but they're definitely getting there. One night, I was convinced she was trying to escape through my bellybutton...
My next appointment is on January 12, so Wednesday after next. That's the dreaded glucose test.. dun, dun, dun! :( I'm really not looking forward to that. I did weigh myself about 2 days or so ago, and I had only gained 2 lbs since December 12 - my last weigh in recorded. I was happy about that. We'll see if it holds up at the doctor's office next week! I think I'm around a total of about 18-20 lbs at this point, and I figure that's not that bad. I've heard you don't gain as much in the final weeks (like 36 plus) since you just don't have room for a lot of food. I'd like to level off at 25 lbs, but I doubt that will happen. I'm thinking I'll be around 30 lbs, and depending on when she gets here, maybe the 35 lb upper limit.
I'll be glad to get this baby-weight off, though. I'm already scheming and plotting on how I'm going to accomplish it! Anyway, this post is long enough without me ranting about my weight. If anyone has any recommendations for good baby books or websites, please send them my way!
