Book Reviews

Thoughts on some of the books I have read in the last little while:

Brain Rules for Baby was my favorite.  Written by a developmental molecular biologist who knows a lot about brain development, this book could have been a snooze, but it was actually the perfect combination of heartwarming, informative and funny.  And somehow the book is still just a synopsis of current and methodologically sound research about brain development and how it should apply to parenting. I couldn't recommend this one more.










Lost in Shangri-La was also a good one.  Thanks Adam, for giving this book to Brad. I promptly stole it from him and gobbled it up.  A synopsis of the book would be that it is the true story of the self-proclaimed greatest rescue mission during World War II. And if you think that you wouldn't be interested in a book about war or wouldn't be able to keep up because your history lessons went in one ear and out the other, I think that they mentioned things about WWII a total of three times during the entire book.  But basically some people survive a plane wreck only to be stranded in Papua New Guinea and have no way of getting out.  And they are surrounded by a primitive, warring/sometimes canabalistic people who have been completely undisturbed by other civilizations/people since pretty much the beginning of time.  If that sounds like a discouraging book, know that I laughed out loud quite frequently during my reading.  The author finds a lot of humor in the people he was writing about.





The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was gripping.  Oh my did it have a hold on me!  I had to read the plot summary on Wikipedia to keep myself from staying up all night reading. Also I am glad that I did that because then I knew what I was getting myself into. I recommend doing so.  It is an uber gritty book, and I had to skip parts to get through it, but the main reason that I liked it was that it made me think.  It also made me feel empowered.  The main character is not a victim in any sense of the word, although she would have legitimate cause to be if she wanted to act like one. It was liberating to look at life through the eyes of someone so unconventional and strong. Pretty much horrendous things happen but they don't traumatize her, so they didn't traumatize me.  It was interesting because normally I am a very sensitive person. Disclaimer: I am not recommending this book to everyone, and it would definitely be rated R if books had ratings just fyi.  I won't go into my philosophies on morality and entertainment here to justify why I read a rated R book, but I think I have good reasons. I will discuss them with you if you want more details - just ask.  Also, I will say that I don't plan on finishing the series.  Still glad I read this one though.







The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program was a quick read - approximately 1.5 hrs. But it works for my sister, so I am definitely hoping that it will do the same for me and my baby! And it makes a whole lot of sense.  And what parent doesn't want to their baby to get as much sleep as their little growing brains and bodies need?







This one is way more opinionated than it looks.  I was expecting an encyclopedia-type reference book, and it sort of is, but the couple who wrote it put their opinions in WAY too often for my taste.  And their opinions aren't based on scientific fact at all.  Which bothers me.  But I will say that it is still helpful and has tons of good information.  And the fact that they fight so hard for attachment parenting is good, because even though it sounds completely impossible to do 100%, attachment parenting seems to ask parents to be as unselfish as they can possibly be.

27 Weeks - 93 days left!

I hate my computer lately.  It is so slow that all I have patience to do is post this picture and write something short. 

I am loving this period of pregnancy! I feel her move all the time - it is so fun.  Just this morning before I had even got out of bed she had already been boxing the front of my stomach and tickling my sides.  She makes me laugh all the time! Its really fun.

I think I am getting more emotional though lately.  I get overwhelmed lately with all the things we have to do before she comes, but I am trying to stay calm. I just have a really strong desire to get everything ready as soon as possible - as in right now - so the lists of things to do get pretty long.  Nesting is real people.

Shoes!

These are my new running shoes!  I have been needing a new pair since before we got married, and last night we finally got these. 

We were walking the mall after we went to dinner because I am trying to either run/walk everyday, and we were walking past Foot Locker and decided to go in and just look around.  I even told the salesman who approached us that we were "not very serious" in our browsing.  But one thing led to another, and I was trying various shoes on and these fit like a glove! And I seriously love how well you can feel the ground through them as well.  They are also so lightweight - a huge improvement from my very old and heavy Nike shocks.  I feel so liberated when wearing them!

Brad and I both really like shoes, which is fun.  I gave him new basketball shoes for Christmas last year, and we gave each other shoes for Christmas this year.  We are going to have to try to be more creative in the future probably, but I kind of love shoe shopping with him (which is how we do it - we go together to pick them out - no surprises, but you get exactly what you want!). So even though he had just given me really nice boots for Christmas, my frugal husband was encouraging this purchase.  It was great!


So today was the second time this week that I made it to the BYU indoor track to go walk/running, and it was awesome.  I could feel new muscles in my ankles and feet getting a workout because of my new shoes.  Also, it feels so good to be more active again.  My nausea and sciatic pain induced inactivity has made me so out of shape, but I can feel improvements because of my small efforts all ready.  I don't get as much pounding in my head when I walk up a long flight of stairs anymore.  Yay!  I love feeling healthy.

Whole Grains

Brad and I love the cooking show on BYUtv "Chef Brad's Fusion Grain Cooking".  The premise is to add whole grains to everything you make.  The food looks delicious, and Chef Brad is hilarious.  He says "Oh my goodness" every other sentence and bounces up and down on the balls of his feet sometimes because he gets so excited about the food he is making.  Oh my goodness it is funny.

But he has actually convinced me to start trying out various grains in my cooking.  I started tonight with a recipe from "The America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook", Butternut Squash and Barley Risotto.  Sounds so fancy!  It was good, I think Brad and I both approved of the recipe, although it was very time consuming to make.  My next task in this grain quest is to actually step foot in a health foods store to get the real whole grain-y things.  Who knows, if this goes well, I might even buy a pressure cooker some day to speed up the process!

119 Days and Counting!

I am so excited!  I love that the number of days till our baby comes is getting lower!  When we are finally under 100 days left I am going to be so happy!  I can't wait!

So I am now 23 weeks along, and am getting bigger all the time and I have been enjoying some new symptoms lately.  Some are good, some are bad.  But the bad symptoms are off and on so it is good.  The best thing is being able to feel our baby move all the time.  Every day I feel her more and more!  Brad has also felt her many times, although definitely not as much as I can feel her.  I am looking forward to when we can see her move through my stomach... The timing hasn't worked out yet, but I'm sure it will soon!  Other new things - did you know that your belly button skin is actually incredibly soft when it is all stretched out and near enough to the surface to feel?  Pretty funny little trivia if you ask me :) 

I have also been having sciatic nerve back/leg pain in the right side.  I have also had some pretty painful round ligament stretching in my stomach, mostly on my left side.  But neither of those things have lasted.  The back pain was for about a month, and the stomach muscle pain only lasted a few days.  So now I am feeling great!  Just more easily tired than usual.  I did a bit of exercise plus shopping and shooting (don't make fun, guns are heavy!) yesterday, and it totally did me in today!  Oh my...

So here is a current belly photo.  Below that, my new boots Brad got me for Christmas, and below that, all the outfits that our baby got for Christmas.  She is going to look so cute!  I am in love with every single outfit that we have so far.  And we have a lot of clothes already!  It is so fun.  Brad and I even gave each other clothes for our daughter for Christmas, we are that excited :) The pictures at the bottom are the beginnings of our nursery.  The room is a mess, but we have put together the rocking chair and changing table anyway... We are too excited to wait!

It's a girl!

We are having a girl!  We are so excited!  The ultrasound was so much fun!  I feel like writing a lot of exclamation points right now just thinking about it!! Ha ha.  So to decode the above pictures for you, the one on the left is a picture of her little bottom and two legs spread with nothing in between, so she is definitely a girl! The one on the right is a profile of her face with her little arm up in front of her face.  She is so cute already!  And according to everything you can learn from an ultrasound, she is perfectly healthy and developing great! We are so happy about that. During the ultrasound she seemed to be waking up from a nap.  At the beginning she wasn't moving around very much, but she got more and more active during the half-hour examination, eventually doing huge stretches for us, arching her back and neck, and then flailing her arms everywhere etc.  It was adorable!

So for months now, I have been thinking that our baby was a boy.  I guess I didn't realize how completely convinced I was of this until we got into the ultrasound and the tech said it was a girl. After she said that I felt so completely shocked and kept thinking, "Is she sure"??  Because seriously, all I could ever imagine was having a boy.  This is probably because because that is all I am familiar with because of my three nephews.  I didn't meet my niece until she was a toddler, so in my experience, infants are always boys :) This is a bit ridiculous, I know.  But I just couldn't wrap my head around it, so after a few minutes, I asked the tech to check the gender again!  The second picture was more obvious, and I was finally convinced.  It took a little while to picture being the mother of a little girl, but I have definitely adjusted mentally.   I am so excited! I am so excited about how excited Brad is as well.  He is going to be the best dad.  And he is really happy about having a girl.  But within about ten minutes of leaving the ultrasound, he very seriously looks and me and says that he is already worrying about her.  Worrying about everything I think, but he did mention that he was specifically worried about teenage boys and his daughter... :) Ah, so cute!

So we have to address my guilt about the fact that it has taken me so long to write this post.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that I am anything but SUPER excited, I am just a long-term planner and so my first reaction to the ultrasound and being at the half-way point of pregnancy was to go into planning overdrive mode. Every time that I get on the computer I have been so busy doing research on things that we need to buy for our daughter, it has been a week and a half and I am just getting around to writing this.  But I have already pretty much planned the nursery with its furniture, sold my desk to make room for the crib and am close to deciding on which car seat and stroller I want.  Yay!  Plans help me feel calm. There is so much to do still, including figuring out our moving situation, and tons of decisions to make, I think of very little else, but I feel confident that we can get it all done... And I think it is going to be a lot of fun!

19 Weeks

We really need to get better at this picture taking thing.  In this one I look so short! Oh well.

In other news, we have begun our Christmas decorating! We got off to a good start when Brad's mom gave us this adorable wreath for our door.  I love it!