How Much Weight Should Mommy Gain?

Gaining Weight is very important during a pregnancy. Though you may be eating a lot more food, you want to make sure that it is still fairly healthy. Sweets wont hurt in moderation, but if you realize that what you eat is building your baby then you may be a little more careful. During the pregnancy you don't want to gain too much weight because this can lead to gestational diabetes. Also, you want to make sure you gain weight because low weight gain can lead to a low birth weight (babys weight). Kind of a tricky situation but if you eat fairly healthy and get moderate excersise then you should be just fine.

So how much weight should mommy be gaining? A healthy mom should gain 25 to 35 pounds during the entire pregnancy. Now most of this is not fat, actually only about 8-9 lbs of it is fat, protein and other nutrients according to BabyCentre.com. Your baby at birth will weight about 7 lbs, the placenta weighs about 1.5 lbs, And fluid (blood, Amniotic,) accounts for almost 4 lbs itself.

So mommy needs to be reassured that she is NOT getting fat because really shes not. Obviously if she is overweight then she will need to gain less weight and the oposite if she is underweight. She should be gaining 1-4 lbs in the first trimester, 1-2 lbs per week in the second and 1 lbs per week after that. This should lead to a healthy weight for mommy and baby.

Breastfeeding

I guess always figured that my wife would breastfeed our baby. To tell you the truth, there are a lot of rules that go into it. She can't breastfeed after having a few drinks the night before. She has to make sure to pump at regular times every day to keep comfortable, and if you plan on keeping a supply on hand in the fridge or freezer, then that is a whole other ball game. The biggest part of it is how much money you save by not having to buy formula weekly. It's like his/ her own little protein shake. It is important to my wife to breastfeed Ryker if possible. Some mothers are too sick, or the baby just refuses it, but that is not terribly often.

If you are concerned with you wanting to feed the baby also then you can actually get storage conatiners and keep some in the fridge. You will need to find out how to rotate new and old so that it stays fresh and all of the other rules like expiration.

Another bonus to breastfeeding is that it helps mommy lose the pregnancy weight.  "The study, which looked at data for more than 25,000 women participating in the Danish National Birth Cohort, measured how long women breastfed and also how intensely. Each woman received a breastfeeding score. Results showed that women with higher breastfeeding scores were more likely to lose their pregnancy weight six months after giving birth." (Caroline Wilbert, Web MD). 

Breastfeeding offers a perfect balance of essential nutrients that is a lot harder to get from formulas. Also, your childs milk is always perfect temperature, readily available and is a lot easier for your baby to digest.

Gynecologest Appointment 24 Weeks

We had another appointment yesterday morning. My wife is at 24 weeks and is at the perfect size for this stage of pregnancy. We got to hear Rykers heart beat again, it is so nice to hear it. As soon as she put the wand to Kayla's stomach his heart beat was super loud. He must have been in just the right position but it sounded like a strong young man's :). Her tummy is measuring at 24" if I remember right. I'll have to verify with her.

Our doctor told us that we should look into the two hospitals we have here and decide where we want to have the baby at. One has a birthing room and the other you have the baby and then get wheeled to a birthing room (this one has a queen bed though so I would'nt have to sleep on a chair all night). She also told us that mommy needs to make sure she is eating plenty of protein. This is because right now he is creating the building blocks of his body right now and needs plenty of nutrients. Calcium is very important now too because his bones are starting to ossify ( turning into bone or boney tissue). This appointment went really good.

In 4 weeks we have another appointment for the rogam shot, and glucose test. After that we start having appointments every 2 weeks!!

I have to buy what?

When you find out that your going to be a dad a lot of things start going on. You have all these thoughts rushing around your brain about providing, expenses, security, etc... This is perfectly normal. I happen to have the answer to all of these problems.

1. Providing: As long as you understand that it is your sole duty to provide for your family then you will be just fine. Money will always come and go. It's what you do with it when it comes that makes the difference. Prior to baby being born you should be saving like a mad man. Save wherever possible. Put money in savings, save a coin jar, collect all those beer cans and recycle. It will add up and give you a little cushion.

2. Expenses: Cribs, diapers, clothes, and strollers are no doubt expensive. So shop around for a crib. Look on Craigslist, check the newspaper, ask around. We got an awesome crib w/ baby changeing station from a friend for $100. Start buying diapers once a week. This will slowly build you an "armageddon supply." (the picture on the right knows whats up!) This will keep the cost from being so staggering all at once. Build up to this over the course of the last couple months.

  Try to find a friend who just had a baby of the same gender to get baby clothes. They will grow out of those newborns in the first 3 weeks (roughly). Don't spend all of your money on a bunch of nike/under armor outfits unless there on sale. You are not expected to up front all of this money to buy these things. Have a friend or mom throw your wife a baby shower. throw yourself your own manly baby shower with plenty of pizza, beer and Sportscenter.

3. Security: This is a big one. You wan't to know that your wife and baby are safe. Especially when your not home. I am in a career field that is constantly on the road or deploying. For this reason my wife and I are moving on base in April. That way I am sure that they will be safe and have help nearby if needed. Whatever it takes for your family to be safe whether you are present or not is what you need to do.

Hope these 3 quick tips are helpful. This was pretty much my first major worries that bothered me from day 1. I am happy to say that they bother me no more.

Our First Sonogram

For all you first time daddys out there, a sonogram is a computerized picture of an internal organ. They actually use sound waves to create the image and not X-rays. Which is considered to be extremely safe for a baby. It's a pretty neat deal actually. The technition squirts a little gel on mommys tummy and then uses a transducer wand to emit the sound waves, thus creating a picture. The only inconvience in our experience was that my wife had to drink like 60 ounces of water before the appointment (to inflate her stomach) then let half of it out in the bathroom right before the test. Other than that it was very easy and smooth. It was wonderful seeing our baby boy up on the screen.

As soon as the tech put the wand to her stomach, Ryker made his gender well known (as you can probably see in the picture.) Luckily we wanted to know the gender or else he would have ruined the surprise for us in the first 5 minutes. "He's a very proud young man." The tech told us. I will just leave you with this... I wonder where he gets that from :).

So Do You Wan't a Boy or Girl?

So do you want to have a boy or a girl? This is probably the #1 question I was asked leading up to our first ultra sound. My answer... I would love to have a boy someday but as long as he/she is healthy then that is all I can ask for. Can you blame a man for wanting a boy? No way! It is in our DNA to not only reproduce but to have our name survive, to live on and ultimatly conquer... Okay maybe not that far. I think you get the idea.

Not to say that I was not super excited when I saw the "it's a boy" picture on the TV screen. The key to answering this question is to tread very lightly. It depends on the person asking the question. Are they your in-laws? Your friends? If it is your in-laws then you have some upstream navigating to do. Make sure they know you will be pleased with either outcome but it is okay to have a preference. This news will undoubtedly reach your wife/girlfriend. So don't dig a grave you arn't willing to lay in.

In the end it's all about having a boy healthy baby is it not? If you are truely disapointed in the outcome then shame on you! It is a blessing either way, unless you happen to live in China then you only get one shot. That is a different story.

Either sex has it's pros and cons. Both can be taught to play sports, play pranks on mom, and someday drink beer. Depending on your geographical location the latter would not be considered very "lady like." My end point is this, be happy either way. This is not like Walmart where you can make exchanges. If you are having a different gender then what you expected then find something you can have in common, whether it is fishing, cooking, sports, school, dolls, sewing you name it. But then again maybe you are a dad that really want's to have a girl, that is awesome and more power to you! I know that if we are so blessed as to have another child I would love to have a girl. I really dont think that it is a big deal either way for you to have your preferences, just do it tactfully.

Learn to be a crafty dad if you have too!

I will post our 1st ultrasound pictures later this week, so stay tuned!

What Kind of School Will my Child Attend?

As you get closer to your having your darling bundle of joy, you may want to think about an important question. What kind of schools will my child be attending? I know this is far off in the future, but if you start talking about it now you may decide that you arn't in the best school district (academically, safe, etc...) Where I am from we have 3 cities all linked together called the Tri-Cities, one of these cities does not have the kind of environment I would want my child growing up in (basically because of gangs and sketchy neighborhoods.)

Thinking about this early on will give you a few years to plan on moving to get your child near a school that would be better suited for them. I don't know about you, but I want to feel safe about my children walking home from school (distance permitting.) You're baby is going to be spending half of his/her day at this school, a good parent would make sure that it is a safe bet. Granite you can't see the future but you can still do everything possible to error on the side of saftey. If you do dedcide to move into a better school district this will give you plenty of time to find a place to live without being slammed for time.