baby blog

*Updated with photos

This is a milestone day. Half way there. Our baby is 19 weeks.


It seemed fitting that I woke up this morning with a lot of big goals to prepare for the little ant. One is the beginning of our baby registry. Since most of the things we're interested we've found online Amazon has actually become a helpful resource. I'm also considering creating a sidebar with links to websites/items we're interested in. Strike that, I just decided that's what I'm going to do. I wonder if FB has anything like this?

And, I'm going to start to put out the call to all my family and friends with children. I love free gifts. Items that are free for you but a gift for me are one of the best things ever. If it's safe for our baby, and we can use it and fit it in our tiny house, then I'll take it. My mom informed me that she'll be driving up to meet her grandbaby so she'll have some room in her vehicle to bring up hand me downs.

In other baby news, I'm hounding Craig's list and Freecycle for items off our wish list too, if you want to in your neck of the woods for me I would love it.

I'm not just searching for things though, I'm searching for advice and I'll most likely start up a series on here called something like 'ask a parent' or something where I'll pose a question to all my parent friends for advice on a subject and inquire with my single friends about annoying or pitfall things to watch out for as we become someone's parents.


We hope to be able to get an ultrasound appointment within the next couple of weeks...anyone local know of an inexpensive, no insurance coverage option?

louder than words

After the 5 1/2 weeks of waiting to officially announce to the world (meaning the internet) that we're having a baby, I questioned my reasons again last night and realized that not only was I legitimately waiting to tell friends in person still, but I also had fear ebb and flow through my thoughts.

I wanted to get into my fifth month, to hear the baby's heartbeat and movement in my tummy before fully committing to telling the world. Because a part of me was afraid. Afraid that if we lost this baby like we lost our first son then I would have to make the devastating announcement to the internet...something I didn't have to do eight years ago.

I can't begin to describe the freedom I felt in staring the fear square in the eyes and hitting publish on my last blog. And when we sat in the room with our midwife this morning and heard Baby's heartbeat for the first time, there wasn't the sense of relief that would have been paired if the fear had still been there. Instead there was pure excitement and an overwhelming emotion of love. To share this moment with my husband might just be my favorite memory to date.

I thought you should know

We're pregnant.
the image above is not our stick, but
one posted by a dear friend who I wrote about
in a previous post. I stole her image cause they're
always prettier than mine.

Where to begin, I guess the day we found out.
The morning after I wrote the post about our friends being pregnant, I woke up and haphazardly decided to pee on a stick. My early morning decision was made for two reasons.
1. I had 2 tests left in the box I had bought the month prior
2. I assumed I would start my period that morning, and when I didn't I figured, what the heck, let's pee on a stick

After I replaced the cap, I set the stick on the edge of the sink, unintentionally upside down and proceeded to brush my teeth. What I recalled later (after we knew) was that 2 lines had appeared in the window before I had even laid it down.

As I brushed my teeth, I walked into the kitchen where Andy was making breakfast, and a moment of clarity hit me --TWO LINES?!?! I slowly walked back to the bathroom and turned the stick over. TWO lines stared me in the face. I couldn't think. I put one foot in front of the other and somehow ended up standing in the threshold to the kitchen, holding the stick and shaking.

Andy noticed me and said, "hey, you're shaking"
I held out the stick to him.
"you're pregnant!"

The rest of the day was a blur...all I could think was, I'm pregnant.

The next morning I took another test (cause why not? And if the first one was right, then I wouldn't be needing the last one in the box anytime soon.) And this time, the 'pregnant' line was darker than the 'it's working' line and appeared the second after I peed on it. It was just the little nudge I needed to really believe it was true.

My friend called her doctor to go in for a blood test to 'make sure' she was pregnant (she peed on two sticks also) and the doctor's office said something to the effect of, 'if the home test says positive, it's positive, you're pregnant. You can always get a false negative, but you can never get a false positive.'

Which leads me to June. In June, when all of you thought I was pregnant, me included, and my pee test came out negative, THAT was a false negative. I don't think my body had produced enough hCG for the stick to detect that I was pregnant because implantation was still happening when I took the test (which I thought was the shortest, lightest period I'd ever had).

We've either told personally, or attempted to tell all the people in our life this news one on one. But it's been about 5 1/2 weeks since we found out, and some times the stars don't align for the personal message to be communicated. At this point, just imagine you're all in our backyard at a fantastic bbq, and we just made our announcement. Now come give me a hug!

So. When we get further along, measurements will help determine a firm time frame. But for now, our midwife places us at 15 weeks today, with a due date in mid-february.

I'm a liar

A big 'ol bold faced liar. Well. Not intentionally, but frankly, if you read my last post and then noticed there haven't been any additional posts for over 2 weeks, then you'd assume I'm a liar.

I didn't post anything about our trip south. I apologize.
At first it was mostly because internet service was slow and even my cell service was spotty so tweets became unheard of, I practically fell off the cyperspace radar system. But frankly, I didn't mind it one bit. It took me back to the days when people left you a message on your home machine if you didn't answer, and they patiently waited for you to return their call. Or your friends found out about your trip because you all sat around the table at Taco Bell and showed them the glossy prints from Thrifty's photo center. These were simpler days, days when you enjoyed being with the people that are present in the room with you.

Since returning to the land of connectivity, I've practically slowed my net-interactions to a turtle's pace. No one needs to know everything, and they especially don't need to know it now.
Better yet, I've taken time to talk to the people that live in my town and invest in people 'on the web' with a more personal approach...less writing to the masses and more writing to one person. Thus, this blog has stayed pretty silent. But, it all still has a place in my life - as is obvious by this post - and I won't be deleting my twitter or FB accounts anytime soon. But I'm learning not to make any grandiose promises about my behavior online.

Baby's birth day

Stolen from Marianne's Blog:

Penelope Grace Alene Scrivner
Born 6:21pm at home on August 20th 2009
10 pounds 14 ounces (after three poops)
22 inches long with a 15 1/2 inch head circumference
(she just couldn't let the boys out-do her in any way)

taken with my iphone an hour after birth

Marianne is an amazing woman, to say the least. After 2 c-sections she successfully delivered a healthy and big baby girl at home with the assistance of her loving husband and mother, a doula, a midwife and assistant.

I was privileged to sneak in for the last 3 hours of the birth and experience the joy with the birth of the newest Scrivner. I took many photos and I'm sure Marianne will post them just as soon as I drop them off to her. What a blessed woman I am to have been given the opportunity to share in this moment of strength with Marianne. The moment Penelope wiggled out I was overcome with tears of happiness...I still well up every time I think of that moment. Marianne is a brave, loving mother and I am honored to call her friend.

If only I was there right now

We've been busy lately, obviously, and there are a lot of things, yes, things (that's as detailed as it's going to get) going on. We are on our way to California next week. And I can guarantee there will be tons of twitter updates, FB photo uploads and perhaps a slue of picture heavy blogs to come.

For the most part, we'll be camped out at Andy's parents house on the hill, enjoying some San Miguel heat and family fun for a week, yes, a week. I'm looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing, so if you're around, come out and visit me. Most likely I'll be in the pool, lounging with a book, taking a nap, eating something, or playing Wii with 10 little kids and their parents, along with doing 'nothing'. It's going to be a blast.

We aren't checking bags, just carrying on, so I've been planning my suitcase packing for some time now. Luckily, with my hair short, the supplies I'll need can be at a minimum, plus I'll be bringing lots of bobby pins and headbands to make it easier. Shoes are the one things that always cause a hic-up in packing light for me. I'm trying to figure out if I can sneak a pair into Andy's bag somewhere.

One nice thing about traveling with a man is that it's very likely he won't utilize his 1-quart size bag of liquids, so I can put manly looking bottles in his carry-on that are filled with girly items.



I'm very happy in the difficult yet necessary task of choosing what books to bring along for the trip as well. So far I think I'll be able to keep it at a minimum. One long form novel (thanks Heidi!), and one book of short stories from the most amazing female writer of all time. I'll pick up 2 magazines in the airport, a tradition - Nylon and People or US Weekly whichever looks more intriguing, and I'll be set with every possible reading need met.

Here's to 3 flights from Eugene to SLO with carryon baggage only, airport food for breakfast and lunch, and a purse filled with things to occupy. At least it's summertime so I'll be able to wear easy shoes to take off and put on, which coincidentally would have taken up the most room in my bag, so double score.

I thought about it so I wrote it

A friend just called, I won't say who cause it's their news not mine to share, but she called to tell me they just found out they're pregnant. She called because she's my friend, but also, she called because she knows we've been trying to get pregnant and she wanted me to hear it from her first.

For them it was a surprise. They already have children and weren't planning anymore anytime soon. I am thrilled for them, obviously, and I'm a little surprised that I'm not sad for me. Of course I would love to be pregnant with a friend, and we all know I have had many friends over the past year become pregnant and my wish has always been to share this experience with a friend, so this would have been great. But I'm happy and that's it. That's where the feelings stop. There isn't anything else there. No regret, no sadness, no frustration, no worry, no jealousy, no self pity. Just happy for them and content with me. I like this place I'm in.

(minus 10 and counting)