23 weeks

As I write this, I reflect on how I am nearly 24 weeks, and the longer I am pregnant, the more the weeks tend to blur together. Hence, my blogging every 7-10 days has waned and when people ask me "how are you feeling?" I tend to come up with a pat answer of, "I'm feeling fine, thanks."

Which, all things considered, is the truth; it really is. Baby is kicking so often these days that I can hardly sleep at night and it is often distracting while I try to pay attention to lecture or study A & P. I wish I could honestly say that, oh, I just LOVE when baby kicks, but I really find it annoying at times. (I feel guilty even saying that at times.) It's hard getting used to a little somebody inside of me moving around! I was told long before I even was married or pregnant that when babies move in utero, it feels like butterfly wings. I have nothing to compare this pregnancy to, but I certainly do feel like this little one is assertive. Right now baby is sleeping, but- knock on wood- things could change by the end of this blog post.

I continue to have changes in my tastes for food. I'll make the same recipes I enjoyed or a recipe I know I would've enjoyed if I wasn't pregnant, and I just won't taste the same. For example, last night I made a huge recipe of chicken enchiladas- about 24 of them in all...for 2 people. (Sometimes, I get a little gung ho when meal-planning because I try to stretch out the recipes I make as long as possible.) Not only was it a little too spicy (and our spice tolerance is pretty high for white people), it JUST DIDN'T TASTE RIGHT. On Sunday nights when I was in college, PLU's cafeteria would make THE SAME THING. EVERY. SINGLE. SUNDAY NIGHT. Classic Sunday night dinner, they called it: rolls, pork tenderloin, some green vegetable blah blah blah. Gross. No wonder I gained all that weight eating ice cream for dinner. I remember not wanting to eat what they had in the cafeteria, but still being hungry...only I didn't know for what. It was like my senses were so dulled by mediocre food, I didn't know what I wanted to eat. Now my sense of taste has been dulled by pregnancy hormones so that I can't even cook as well as I used to or really want to eat what I cooked. All I know is I wish I would stop craving ice cream. I find myself apologizing to my husband for spending our grocery budget making meals I am really not looking forward to eating. He is a trooper, but I don't know if he can choke down all those spicy enchiladas.

Not only is my husband a champ when it comes eating my poorly prepared meals, he is trying to bear with me as I wrestle my way into a comfortable sleeping position each night. I first realized at about 10 or 11 weeks with all the funny feelings I was having that I couldn't sleep on my tummy (as often) as I used to. Now I really can't sleep on my tummy like I was accustomed to because I am just too big and baby moves too much anyway. According to Joe, I am a "furnace". It's January, and we typically have our down comforter on and the heat turned up. Now, I am not only thrashing around because I can't get comfortable, I also am too hot. I need the heater turned down and forget the down comforter!

(I suppose the next logical thing would be to talk about my raging hormones, but I won't subject you to that. Heaven only knows how Joe has had to lovingly endure this part of pregnancy.)

Sonogram pics

On December 20th, we went for our sonogram. Where I am receiving my prenatal care is a big HMO and they were running about 1/2 an hour behind. So I was sitting there, waiting for the ultrasound tech to call my name, rocking back and forth because my bladder was near full. The ultrasound tech promised lots of photos to make up for the fact she was so late. I was 19 weeks when this sonogram was done. They were unable to get a good shot of a view of the lower lumbar area and the face which would show whether or not baby has a cleft palate. This means I have to go back when I am about 25 weeks to get another ultrasound. Without further ado, here they are...

Why, hello there. My name is Baby Lindquist and I plan on making my debut around May 14th. In this picture, I am looking straight at you and my hands are touching my cheeks. You can see the ulna and radius in my arms.


You can see the biggest bones in my body, my femurs, in this shot. The first shot I gave everybody was a fairly obvious one if they intended to find out if I was a boy or a girl- my legs were right up over my head. My mom will confess that she tried to look and see which sex I was, but with my lightning-fast moves and her untrained eyes, she wasn't able to tell.


Here is a shot of my 4 chambered heart. My parents could see my heart pulsing at 140 beats per minute.


Here are my cute feet for you to behold.


And just because the ultrasound tech was feeling EXTRA generous, she included another shot of my left foot. You can decide which shot of my foot you like better.

Okay! okay! This is the last post for today, I promise!

I forgot to mention in my first post today: I can feel our baby kick and move! On Tuesday Dec. 21st, I was sitting at home reading a book in the recliner when I felt a little brushing in my lower abdomen. Baby kicks the hardest when I am eating and often catches me off guard with his/her punches to my poor tummy. We have an aggressive little one on our hands. Most of the time, it feels like when your tummy does a little flip-flop when nervous.



(Okay, I just thought this was funny.)



No, I will definitely NOT be a twilight mom.

Lindquist 2010 Christmas letter

This is our annual Christmas letter, penned by yours truly. It wasn't until I was at Kinko's and the copy machine had spit out about 65 of 68 copies that I realized this wasn't even the final draft I wrote. Oh well.

December 2010

Merry Christmas to our friends and family,

It’s always at various and random times during the year we’ll have experiences that cause me reflect on them as jewels to include in our annual Christmas letter. Then I actually sit down to write the letter with the intention of squeezing in a year’s worth of new thoughts we’ve had and things we’ve done and I can’t seem to recall with clarity what I really, truly want to include. It never seems to convey how we’ve developed as people- shouldn’t we mention something that we haven’t posted on Facebook? A Christmas letter shouldn’t be a laundry list of the jobs we’ve worked, trips we’ve gone on, or our newest little hobbies. Especially now, as we prepare to expand our family of two to three, our Christmas letter should reflect what we’ve learned as well as to what we’re looking forward.

We are expecting our first baby around May 14th! We learned we were expecting on September 27th, when I was 8 weeks along, and as I write this I will be 18 weeks tomorrow. They tell me the 2nd trimester is the “cute” stage of pregnancy because you’re sporting a little basketball-sized bump and you don’t need to waddle when you walk (yet). I never thought I would anticipate so much my tummy getting bigger. You may have heard by now that we are not going to find out the sex when we go in for a sonogram later on this month. And to top that, we’re not sharing the names we’ve picked until baby arrives. We’ve received some surprised reactions from many, but we figure that there’s no better surprise than baby telling us for themselves on their birthday and then announcing their name to everyone.

As I think of the arrival of our first child a short 4 ½ months away (!) , I think of how my time is really no longer my own. Actually, since we got married 3 ½ years ago, we’ve both realized this more and more. Our time, not to mention our hopes and dreams, revolve around each other and they will certainly around our new addition. Parents chuckle when I tell them we are expecting our first, “You don’t even know how your world will change.” I politely smile and think how God really is giving me a taste of my own medicine. We don’t have any friends or family nearby who are currently pregnant or have children of their own (except for my parents). I’ve always favored figuring things out on my own as opposed to someone showing me a step by step example (there’s so much more gratification) and now I really get to figure things out independently.

As I progress in my pregnancy, questions arise in regards to my work as a Nursing Assistant at ManorCare, a geriatric facility where I’ve worked for the past 2 years. I can’t do the heavy lifting and frequent bending my job requires past 20 weeks. I am working with ManorCare to find some lighter duty tasks to see me through the rest of my pregnancy, but so far, my employer has been coy in giving me a straightforward response. Joe reminds me that God has always provided for us throughout our life together, often times in unforeseeable ways.

Speaking of providing, Joe has been a wonderful provider for our family and a good steward of the income he earns as secondary choral teacher for the Steilacoom School District. This is his third year in the district and his first teaching at both the middle school and high school. He eats his lunch on the road between the middle school in DuPont and the high school in Steilacoom and is steadily growing tired of ham sandwiches. He shares his victories of the kids finally matching pitch and his struggles in teaching 15 year old girls how to sing like women. He earns a little extra on the side teaching beginning guitar and piano lessons after school. His approach to fatherhood is blossoming. He dutifully reads his wife’s copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting before bed many nights. Although there is a small section of the book just for fathers, I really think a book should be written entitled, What a Husband Should Expect When His Wife is Expecting. Joe relishes the thought of holding a tiny baby but had to work harder to stay interested when registering for baby things. He mentions to me how we feel as though we are outgrowing our transitory 20’s, yet still feels somewhat impermanent because we have not yet bought a house complete with a hefty mortgage.

Our dream of being homeowners is a goal we hope to accomplish in our 30’s along with getting me through nursing school and established in my field. In the meantime, we have to be patient. As time and money allow, I am fulfilling my prereqs for nursing school one class at a time and, if I’m not careful, I just might have enough to apply for nursing school. I am taking the spring and summer quarters off from school to be a mom and will start back up in fall 2011.

We hope that this letter finds you well, not stressed by the short days and long Christmas preparations, and looking forward to God’s blessings in 2011.

Blessings,

Joe & Katy




Leo & Millie

Christmas in Orange County & 1/2 way done!

In October, we decided to travel down to Orange County, California, for Christmas 2010. We originally were not going to fly anywhere for Christmas (out to Minneapolis, like we usually do) and just stay in the NW to save money. However, the rest of my immediate family and spouses were all going and we actually haven't spent Christmas down in SoCal since 1996, so it was time for a trip. It truly makes my heart ache to know that we hardly ever get to see my SoCal relatives; if we do get to see them, it's for a wedding or a funeral and we never know when the next time we'll see them will come around. It could be two years or five years. Needless to say, this was money well spent. I often remark to myself when we do get to spend time with my extended family how so many of our mannerisms/facial expressions etc. are alike despite living apart across the miles for so many years. It's almost eerie how many idiosyncrasies we have in common. Plus, this was the last Christmas that my family will not have any grandchildren included in our celebration. Since airfare is so expensive, we decided not to exchange gifts, instead just giving stocking stuffers. (I made a little jar of chocolate hazelnut spread for everyone.) Unfortunately, my camera refused to work past the first day in OC, so I am posting the first few pics from the trip and I promise to post more as I figure out how to download from my phone and I receive the pics I took from Heather's camera.


Joe & Dad playing checkers at home in Oregon


Joe's accompanist, Shirley, loaned these awesome antlers to him when he conducted his all-girl's choir, Celestial Singers, at Steilacoom's annual Christmas tree lighting at the town hall


Grandma makes us Christmas dinner (our flight was delayed in PDX so we didn't actually sit down to dinner until almost 10pm)


Chelsea & Uncle Chuck open gifts



This is St. John's Lutheran Church in downtown Orange, built c. 1913. We attended Sunday services there the day after Christmas with Grandma.


Kris, Heather, me, and Joe after church


This is the traffic circle in the middle of Old Town Orange, with a beautiful fountain in its middle. At night, it's illuminated with vintage Christmas decorations. I expected to see a Santa and Snowman, but a manger scene? That's something you'd never see in our neck of the woods. One holiday season recently, there were picketers/rioters from liberal groups protesting the Christmas tree by the Capitol building in Olympia. (So you can see why I was shocked to see this!)


And last but not least, here is the "halfway done pic". I was 19 weeks, 6 days in this one.



Those are the best pics I have to post now, and I promise to post more soon.