What to Expect at 28 Weeks

Kayla and I just went in for her 28 week appointment. It was a fairly interesting one this time. 28 weeks is when our gyno does the glucose testing. Testing for glucose is used to screen for gestational diabetes. When we first arrived at the doctors they had Kayla drink this orange sugary cocktail. She said that it tasted like a mix of Tang, and orange soda. After she drank this mixture we then proceeded to see the doctor as normal. We listened to the heart beat again, and our gyno measured her belly baby bump.

Since Kayla and I are both O- blood type, she was supposed to recieve the rhogam shot. This shot is to protect your baby from HDN or hemolytic disease of the newborn. According to rhogam.com if your baby's Rh blood type enters the mothers blood stream, the mothers immune system sees the babies blood cells as foreign and produces antibodies against them. Getting a rhogam shot at 28 weeks is necessary to prevent this from happening. Studies have shown that the rhogam shot will not cause harm to the unborn baby. The only way to make certain of a babys blood type is an invasive percedure. It is best to just administer the shot to all Rh- women because it won't cause harm even if your baby is not also Rh- . This link is a great place for any questions you may have about the rhogam shot.

Since the blood type is fairly rare, and the rhogam shot expires, we had to wait until the doctors next order came in. Kayla got her shot about two days later and she said "it was a painless shot in the hip."

After an hour had passed (for the glucose test) Kayla had to get two small viles of blood drawn. This gets sent to a lab to test for glucose levels. If her glucose levels remained high after the hour, then she would have to recieve a plethora of tests and blood draws to confirm whether or not she has gestational diabetes. Also, this is a wonderful place to get more information on gestational diabetes. This is about it for what you should expect at 28 weeks.

Be ready for a longer appointment this time. From now on we meet with our gyno every other week!!

Do It Yourself Toy Bin

Do you find yourself constantly picking up your childs Army men, legos, or action figures? Does your daughters barbie accessories seem to find themselves in the washer or wedged under the bed? Well this simple do it yourself homemade toy box is sure to fix that problem.

Items needed: One Purina Tidy Cats 20 lb litter tub.

That's it!! That is all you need. Just pull off the labels, obviously wash it out and wha la! You have a perfect bin for storing those pesky legos that your vacuum always chokes on. Simply sharpie the title of whatever you happen to be storing somewhere on the outside. This is a great way to keep small toys out of your puppies mouth. Also, it can be a great way to safegaurd against a curious toddler that wants to gum everything.

A friend of mine told me about this awesome trick and needless to say we are saving the next few cat litter tubs.

Why I Married My Best Friend

Marraige is a tradition that has been around for ages. It is a vital part of our culture and many others. Though a lot has changed as the time passes, I like to remind my wife that "back in the day, fathers would give their daughters to marriage with tracks of land." Needless to say, I don't seen any land coming my way.

I feel that it's important to marry your best friend because you must be able to be more than a spouse to them. In our 1.5 years of being married I have worn several hats. I have my husband hat; this is for daily life (cleaning the house, working, descision making, finances and protecting). I have my parent hat when it comes to advice and understanding (we live almost 2000 miles from our parents).I recently have my dad hat, and my most important hat is my best friend hat. Notice all of my other hats are for working, protecting, keeping up the house, understanding and descision making. The best friend hat is designed for relieving the stress that comes with all of these other metaphorical hats. My wife wears about 3 times more hats than me btw. She's amazing.

Relieving stress is so essential to getting a marriage off the ground and im sure keeping it off the ground. When we get bogged down by the week and this stress inducing world, we need to be able to do what best friends do. Whether that is veg (pronounced Ve-j, taking on the role of a vegitable) on the couch all day watching Hulu Plus, go on a picnic, or collect pictures for The People of Walmart. If you can't have fun and let loose with the person you love then why would you ever marry them?

My wife is fun, smart, goofy, nerdy, caring and above all else the most amazing best friend ever. She is there for anything I could possibly need and allows me to still be me. I am 1000% happier being married to her than not.

Marriage is for life, so if your married and not living, I suggest you try it some time. Maybe your the one without the best friend hat.

Sympathetic Pregnancy

Are you gaining as much weight as your wife during her pregnancy? Are you experienceing morning sickness, nasea, or food cravings? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you may be experiencing Couvade Syndrome. This is when the male has similar symptoms as the female during pregnancy. These symptoms can include, rapid weight gain, moodiness, cravings, morning sickness, vomiting, headaches, and diarrhea.

The best part about sympathetic pregnancies is that you never know if it will affect you or not. The symptoms can begin during the end of the first trimester but, there have been those who start feeling them right away. These symptoms can last until the third trimester or until mommy gives birth.

 I am not a doctor but, the human body does some weird things sometimes. Think about it, when bills arrive in the mail who stresses over paying them? When the car breaks down who does it effect? The answer is both of you! Stress can sometimes make us sick in ways that we could never imagine. Stress leads to ulcers and heart attacks. Why can't stress lead to sympathetic pregnancy. That may be a long shot because I don't think there is any predisposed marker to Couvade Syndrome, but it seems reasonable. The man of the house is suddenly responsible for feeding another mouth, this requires making more money which requires putting more hours in at work. You can see how it snowballs. I wouldn't be surprised if this could cause weight gain, headaches, maybe not morning sickness but like I said, I am not a doctor.

Grab some tums, and try not to complain more than your partner, who actually has a baby inside her!

What is your take on Sympathetic Pregnancy? Do you think it's real?

Should I read to baby in the womb?

There is little scientific evidence to support the idea that your baby can learn while he/she is in the womb. After 23 weeks of pregnancy their hearing has developed, whether it is music the television or conversation. Imagine that you were blind folded at a german rap concert. There are 4 key problems here.

1. You know nothing of their language.
2. You cannot see a thing.
3. Your rubix cube is keeping you very busy.

These problems are abstractly related to what your baby is going through. Baby has never experienced "our world," They know nothing of english nor can they relate our words to anything they have ever experienced. All they know is the womb. Also, their little bodies are growing like crazy. Their brains are so strapped with learning simple necessities and setting the framework for growth that it is probably not an ideal situation to be learining in.

How do you feel you would fair in the situtation presented above?

The reason I love to read to my baby in the womb is because I feel that he may be able to at least get the rythm. I have mainly been reading Dr. Suess books for this reason. In the situation presented above, you may not be able to pick up much of the words to the rap song, but you would definatly be able to understand the rythm and most likely recognize it if you heard it again. Obviously our brains are far more developed then that of an unborn baby.

Studies have shown that babies can recognize their mothers voice, this shows that the memory part of their brain has developed enough for simple memory of tones and pitch. By reading books that have a rythm, it is possible to assume that when they hear them again after birth they may recognize the rythm. This may not be accurate but am I really wasting anyones time? Nope. If anything I am causing the bond between me and my unborn son to only grow deeper, to show mommy that I will be the best dad I can be, and to broaden my own skills of being a dad.

Should I read to baby in the womb? Who knows he may just end up being a genious.

A Great Gift Idea for a Pregnant Mommy

My wife and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on December 23rd 2011. For this I got her an awesome gift. One which she just redeemed today. This gift was a mommy massage. A massage just for pregnant women. Which is great because when it comes to massages there are some rules to follow. Certain techniques/ styles/ movements cannot be performed on pregnant women and it is important to let them know before hand that she is pregnant.

Pregnancy stresses the body to the max, they're off balance, sometimes cannot sleep right, her back may be sore etc... A massage is the perfect gift to give to just let her go and relax for an hour or so. Also it may score you some bonus bedroom points!! shhh I didn't say anything!  So check with the massage places in your area to see if they offer a mommy massage!