sylvie is finally at the age where she is totally digging books. we read books together all day long. her favorite is brown bear, brown bear, but i think it’s only because i do a bunch of different voices and make all the animal sounds when we read it. she also loves chicka chicka boom boom. i think the graphic illustrations really get and keep her attention.
we read her a book every night now as part of her bedtime routine. it is one of my favorite parts of every day.
how far along?: 30 weeks!
total weight gain: as of my appointment last thursday it was 10 pounds
stretch marks?: there are none so far on my belly or thighs!
sleep: it’s been inconsistent. some nights i’ll get 4 or 5 straight hours before my bladder wakes me up. other nights i feel as if i make a trip to the bathroom every hour or so! the calf cramps don’t help things either!
best moment this week: we picked out a TON of books the fill the nursery bookshelves! more on that later.
movement: i feel her throughout the day here and there. night time is a horse of a different color! she moves ALL. NIGHT. LONG. she also gets the hiccups at least once a day, sometimes more.
food cravings: nothing overwhelming
gender: she’s still a girl, i hope. our last ultrasound was at 19 weeks and i’m not sure if we have another. i really hope there are no surprises on delivery day!
labor signs: none. thank goodness.
bellybutton in or out?: it’s still in most of the time, but very s t r e t c h e d out. every once in a while, when i move a certain way, it pops out! this has caused it to become a bit irritated and sore.
what i miss: i miss bending over without getting stabbing pains in my ribs. i also miss wearing shoes with laces and french fries (stupid gallbladder).
what i am looking forward to: i can’t wait to get her nursery done! other than that, travis and i are expecting visits from both sets of sylvie’s grandparents in the coming month. i am also look forward to our childbirth classes. we are doing a condensed one-day class at our local hospital as well the hypnobabies home study course. call me crazy, but i’m still very much looking forward to labor and delivery! we can’t wait to meet our girl!
weekly wisdom: S L O W D O W N. i am a very get-up-and-go sort of person. this has not been easy for me to learn. no matter how much i wanted to get done today, i had to take it easy. i worked, on my feet all day, the last 4 days in a row. i’m still learning how to take the time to relax and do nothing.
milestones: we are 3/4 of the way there! we are also planning to get her crib put together later this week.
now that that’s out of the way, i can tell you about all of the wonderful books we picked out for sylvie today! i think we managed to get a good mix of classics and some new favorites.
SYLVIE’S READING LIST:
–love you forever by robert munsch
–the mixed-up chameleon by eric carle
–brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? by bill martin jr. and eric carle
–good dog, carl by alexandra day
–goodnight moon and the runaway bunny by margaret wise brown
–harold and the purple crayon by crockett johnson
–the story of ferdinand by munro leaf
–chicka chicka boom boom by bill martin jr. and john archambault
–in the night kitchen by maurice sendak
–the poky little puppy by janette sebring lowrey
–how do dinosaurs love their dogs? by jane yolen and mark teague
–my first winnie-the-pooh library, collection of five classic pooh baby board books inspired by a.a. milne
we also purchased all of the books i mentioned in yesterday’s post as well as a small classic piglet stuffed animal. i would say our shopping trip was a success! i can’t wait to read to our sylvie.
thank you so much for all of your votes! make sure to check back tomorrow for a 30 week bump picture. this belly of mine’s getting bigger!
first of all i would like to wish my parents a very big HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!
now onto the post! tomorrow travis and i are planning a small shopping spree to buy some books for sylvie! if you’ve been reading us for a while, you probably remember that i work in a bookstore. if you’re stopping by for the first time, then HELLO! my name is sara, and i work in a bookstore. it’s nice to meet you.
anyway, the one of the upsides of my job is spending my shifts looking at books. today i worked in the children’s department all day, and i set some books aside for our girl. i thought i would share today’s picks with you!
first up is i’m the biggest thing in the ocean by kevin sherry.
this book made me laugh out loud the first time i read it. it’s about a giant squid who spends the bulk of the story comparing his size to other marine life. “i’m bigger than these turtles!” and so on. this goes on until a blue whale sneaks up and eats him whole. he looks around at all of the other creatures in the whale’s gullet and proudly exclaims, “I’M THE BIGGEST THING IN THIS WHALE!” the end. hilarious.
the second book is star wars spaceships.
this book is amazing! it is a baby board book about all of the spaceships featured in the original star wars trilogy. enough said. there is also a star wars heroes book at our store, but i refuse to buy it for two reasons. 1. it features anakin and qui gon jinn from the crappy prequels. 2. the yoda featured in the book is, in fact, the cgi yoda from the prequels and not the original puppet yoda. call me a nerd, but these things matter!
the third and fourth books are charley harper’s ABCs and 123s.
charley harper is one of my all-time favorite illustrators. these books are beautiful and educational classics. they should be a part of every young child’s library as far as i’m concerned. if you have a young child or are expecting, i highly recommend seeking these out!
the fifth and final book i put on hold is touch the art: make van gogh’s bed by julie appel and amy guglielmo.
this book is a no-brainer for us given our backgrounds as fine artists. it exposes children to classic works of art and encourages them to explore the works through different touch and feel textures. there are a few other books in this series including catch picasso’s rooster and feed matisse’s fish, but make van gogh’s bed is by far my favorite. the textures are the most interesting as are the art works featured. this book is also a larger format board book so it’s fantastic for little hands.
i’m sure travis and i will find many more titles of interest tomorrow. if you couldn’t tell, cultivating a love of the written word is one of our top priorities as parents. we both feel it is so important for so many reasons. travis started reading to sylvie in utero as soon as her ears began developing. we plan to read to her every night before bed and throughout every day. no excuses. no exceptions.
if you were wondering, these are the books i’m reading at the moment:
and
travis is currently reading this book, which i bought him for father’s day:
p.s. a big THANK YOU for getting us back on the front page! if you continue to enjoy the content here, please keep voting. it means a great deal to us. THANKS!!!
i felt the baby move, really move, for the first time last night. i have felt little flutters or pops here and there before, but last night it was unmistakable. it felt like a big ball rolling in my abdomen. it rolled twice and was done. not long after this, i felt a few little pops, and i tapped my stomach in response. the baby gave me one good tap back. i’m going to consider this our first conversation.
i think travis may be feeling a little jealous that he can’t feel the baby yet. these movements feel crazy strong to me, but they are not yet large enough to feel or see on the outside. i told him it’s probably only a matter of a few weeks now, and that seemed to make him feel better.
we’ve started reading to the baby at night. yesterday travis read where the wild things are and cuddled with my belly for a while. it was a nice end to a wonderful day together. tonight he’s reading:
both of the aforementioned books are my copies from when i was younger. now they officially belong to my child. it’s incredible.
i work in the children’s department of a large corporate bookstore. all day i’m surrounded by thousands of different books that i want to buy for our baby. so far i’ve ordered one:
e.e. cummings has long been one of my favorite poets. when i found out he wrote a book of fairy tales for children, i just couldn’t resist it!
i got this for travis to read to our blueberry:
his dad used to sing this song to him when he was a kid. it’s his early valentine’s day present.
in other news, today was a great day. I was barely nauseous at all, and i got a bit of my appetite back. i told my manager about the pregnancy, and she was more supportive than i could have hoped. she assured me i could take all the time off i needed and could come back as part-time without a problem. to top everything off, as i was walking to clock-out, i found $20 on the ground! booyah.
t-minus 4 days until our ultrasound.
everything will turn out alright. 