Playing with Daniel

This is for all the mothers.

Playing with Daniel is kind of tough when he's locked away in your wife's abdomen.  I've tried the poking game...you see, I poke at Katie's belly and hope that Danny pokes back.  This seems to hurt Kate however.  I've tried the singing game.  I'll sing loudly into Kate's belly button (I believe that's where you get the best sound), but the beautiful singing either temporarily paralyzes him or dulls him, because he refuses to sing back.  I was going to try and throw him up in the air, but I assumed Katie would be a fun-killer and not let me...oh well.





Things are still going smoothly.  The pains of third trimester are starting to weigh down on Katie.  Her back is in exceptional pain and sleeping is very uncomfortable.  Lately, Katie has been Gleeping instead.  That's when you watch Glee in place of sleep.  Kate had her visit with the doctor yesterday and she still thinks we'll go early, but maybe not as early.  Either way, we're (as of yesterday) at 37 weeks and Danny is considered full-term.  I guess this is really happening!  Well, just like every week, it's time for a visit to your local HyVee vegetable aisle (don't worry, it comes with a VERY helpful smile).  Apparently Danny is like a stalk of Swiss chard.  I swear I've learned as much about fruits and vegetables as I have about the birthing process.  Thankfully, another site says he is like a watermelon.  That's a fruit I can really sink my mental teeth into (don't really like them for my real teeth).

This is apparently the recipe for chocolate-covered carrots.

As I said, Katie has been sore from carrying our fat baby.  She believes most of the soreness comes from the fact that she is now back teaching her music classes.  As a K-2 music teacher, she's called to be quite active, leaving her feeling like she's just run a marathon.  We were discussing the other day that she has not had any weird cravings (such as pickles dipped in ketchup or chocolate-covered carrots).  I, on the other hand, have been having sympathy cravings for food in general. 

The last couple weeks have been quite tough for a few reasons.  I've been having my two-a-days for band camp (second week of two) and Kate has been back to work.  This schedule allows little to NO interaction throughout the day.  Although I love my job and it was a great camp, thankfully, I'm out of those two weeks and will be spending more time at home with my shnooki-mooki.  Life is good, we're very blessed to have each other.

ANNNNNNNNNDDDD....so on...

A stalk of Swiss chard is the main ingredient of this fabulous meal.

Fat Babies, Sore Backs, and School Oh My!

Well...I have some disheartening news..  Apparently our baby has a fat problem.  According to Baby Center, our Danny is putting on weight at the rate of 1 ounce a day.  I, of course, don't want him to feel self-conscious about his weight-gain, so I'm planning to begin putting on some daily weight..you know..for the kid.  He's supposedly 5 1/4 lbs (the weight of a honeydew melon) and 18 inches long (the length of about a foot and a half).  He's certainly getting big and BOY..does he move a lot!  I get a chance to see him moving around when we lay down to sleep and I swear he's figured out how to do the pommel horse in there.  I've already put some horizontal bars on order in case he becomes a gymnast.

This 18" ruler would be perfect for measuring Danny.

Honeydew Melon compared to a measly quarter.

 
Katie is still quite healthy.  Because of the added weight, her back has become quite sore.  We're hoping this alleviates itself some, especially since she goes back to school next week.  Teaching primary music means LOTS of getting up and down, moving around, etc.  Not conducive for 9-month pregnant women.  Maybe we can get an iPod app or something that'll teach her class for her..hmmm...I'll get on that.

Two of these.  Bring it on.

Being the band teacher of the family, I began my school camps this week with percussion camp from 9am - 3pm daily.  The next two weeks are our full ensemble camps from 9am - 1pm and 6pm - 9pm.  Needless to say...school has all but started.  We're excited to return to our routines.  We both really enjoy teaching and although the time off is nice, there's a reason we got into teaching (beyond the time off I mean).  Plus, it just brings us closer to baby time. I have a feeling we'll go a bit before our due date (not too early of course).  I'm taking bets.  Not money...how about pretzels or something like that.  Two pretzels that she'll go a day before! 

We're enjoying life.  Our baby room is looking fantastic (I assembled the chair last week, so we're nearing completion).  We'll hopefully get some more pics (that's short for pictures) up soon for all our fans to see.  You'll see the paintings, animals, chair, crib, etc, etc...and so on...

We're having a singleton!

Helpful Aunt Valerie in every aisle.

33 weeks along Danny's track today and we've got some big news!  Danny's the size of a honeydew!  Off to the grocery store...  I hope Hy-Vee doesn't mind me handling their fruit so often.  They should understand it's about the children.  I know our Aunt Valerie has connections, maybe I could get one *snuck out.  (I do know she doesn't work there anymore, but these connections are strong).

We're going to get these for Kate's emergency food attacks.

Katie has been feeling "fine".  Her body gets quite hungry, to the point where she feels like she is going to "die".  I've been monitoring her vital signs and she seems to be stable...at the moment.  We just have to keep bananas around for those early morning attacks.  Her belly is becoming more and more beautiful as Danny becomes more and more massive.  Overall though, we've been quite blessed with Kate's well-being and we pray it continues this way.







Child birth class this week was all about breast-feeding.  It is truly remarkable the benefits of it.  It was a nice quick class too.  So..not much to report.  They always have great Snackwells snacks!  Partook in those for sure.

Apparently Danny is losing his wrinkles.  Unfortunate because this dog's so darn cute.

Danny seems to be doing great.  So far he's not talking back, I assume this will be the case his whole life.  He seems to enjoy Kate's left side when it comes to relaxing.  We could actually feel/see him breathing the other night.  We thought at first it could be hiccups, but it just looked like breathing.  Very, very cool.  He moves around a lot though.  Kate likes to test foods on him to see what he does and doesn't like.  We assume that he'll move when he likes something, but I'm starting to think it's the opposite.  I think of how I respond to food as an adult.  I guess I kind of get grooving when I eat something I like, but more often than not, it's food I DON'T like that actually makes me dance around.  I'll have to do some experimenting.  Check back for updates...

Kate and I had quite the adventure yesterday.  We have a "summer bucketlist" of things we wanted to do this summer.  One of them was to take stay in an offbeat motel/inn out of town.  We decided to take a road trip around Nebraska doing what Katie dubbed, a "coin flip trip".  You choose directions and flip a coin for which way to take. You do this whenever you hit major crossroads.  Well...we ended up heading towards Columbus on 275.  We snaked around and hit Norfolk.  Made our way up to South Sioux City, headed south to Fremont, and stayed in Papillion, NE last night..."oh where?" you say?
Our humble abode.  That's right, we drove 6-7 hours around northeast Nebraska only to end up home.  Our main goal was just to find a small town with both a MOTEL and a RESTAURANT...we could not make this happen.  So, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and called it a day/night.  We hope for better luck next year, but the following towns disappointed us (although they seemed great from most other facets...just needed a motel AND restaurant:  Randolph, Dixon, Homer (that's right Wimmers), Laurel, Dakota City, Oakland.  There were others, but this'll give you an idea of our journey.

Swedish Capitol of Nebraska

 

 










Looks like we're getting closer and closer to this drop date of the baby.  That's what things are really about right now.  I do want to thank everyone for the wonderful, wonderful gifts received at Kate's Family Baby Shower.  We're blessed to have such great family and although they were not necessary to feel loved, they are greatly appreciated.  The baby room's looking better and better and we're getting closer to getting some of those pictures up, posted on the blog/Facebook...and so on...



 *Apparently Blogger/Google doesn't think "snuck" is a word.  Dictionary.com begs to differ.  Zac - 1, Google 493.

Three Posts are Better Than Two

Today officially marks 32 weeks of progress made by in utero Daniel Christopher.  This means that exactly 8 weeks from today, my beautiful wife will have completed the first childbirth with zero discomfort and pain (I can't speak for wildlife.  Their contractions might not be so bad).  According to thebump.com, Danny is about the size of a squash.  Now, this would interesting if he hadn't been the size of a squash for the past 4 weeks.  My theory is thebump.com is being sponsored by S.F.A. (Squash Farmers of America).

This is a jicama.

Hopefully my above paragraph isn't removed by the government because of its conspiracy theory implications...in any case, according to another website Danny should be weighing in at a whopping 3.75lbs.  That's as much as a large jicama!!!...don't know what that is?  Neither does my spell check.  Despite his fruit/vegetable affiliations, Danny seems to be doing quite well.  He's taken up a new style of dancing similar to the convulsions following an electrocution, which will probably be popular by the time he's 16 or so...so we're quite proud.  He's certainly moving though and the consensus is that his head is down, facing the right direction.  Although there's always the possibility he could change directions, this is a blessing because he's right where he's supposed to be for birthin' time and that seems to lessen the chance for a C-Section or other complications.  I'm chalkin' it up to him being a smart kid.  Of course I was delivered by C-Section...and I'm smart...right?

Kate has been certainly busy around the house.  You see...I'm feeling quite ill today...cough cough...and so she's been taking care of me (in her 8th month of pregnancy) because I am oh so very weak.  Our baby room looks fantastic though.  We got it arranged like we wanted and Katie has already started decorations including a fabulous set of canvases that you'll have to check out below.

...I had no part in the creativity of this process..but I did give the "OK".  

Kate is as tough as these babies.

Kate is quoted to be feeling "alright" and that she's "rolling with the punches"...punches meaning Danny's fisticuffs with her internal organs.  She's also had some trouble with back aches and minor heartburn, but she's tough..tough as nails.

Kate celebrating the 4th with FIRE!

This past weekend we celebrated the birth of our country with some explosions and brats.  It was quite a great time.  I left a rocket on a resident's roof, so we'll have to see when that comes down.  All in all, things are going quite well.  We're moving into somewhat of a busy weekend for me.  Kate excitingly has her first baby shower tomorrow and we're hoping to get those bar stools we always wanted...for the baby ya know.  It will be nice for us to get the room set up as quickly as possible for Danny so that when we go back to work quite soon, we don't have to worry about it then...and so on..

Day 1

As we begin this journey of rearing a child in this vast world, it seemed purposeful to make sure our impending child would have a blog available for his creative outlet.  Today marks thirty weeks, meaning ten weeks until the predicted arrival of Daniel Christopher Konrad.  My beautiful wife, Katie and I, Zac, are excited for so many things:  Teaching Danny to make right decisions, creating a safe environment in which our child can grow, but most importantly, how to adjust the template of a Blogger blog.

Danny continues to grow rapidly.  Although the consensus of friends and random passersby on the street is that Kate does not look very big, our baby continues to explore the limits of his mother's storage unit.  We are right in the thick of attending baby planning classes and just finished our Lamaze course.  Our course instructor is a wonderful grandmotherly woman who brings to class a knitted uterus and stories of labor mishaps.  An example would include, "I do not want to scare you, but when I was giving birth, my daughter got caught on my tailbone and I heard it pop out of place it was so loud."  Luckily, she had a pelvis model so that she could show us almost exactly what happened.  We like to make up our own worst-case scenarios.  "I don't wanna scare you, but my second child was actually born a monkey."  I guess anything's possible.

This week we also attended Kate's checkup and I was able to hear Danny's heartbeat for the first time.  I'm assuming he's doing the in utero version of sprints because it was pittering quite fast, but if I remember from my own experience 27 years ago, that's pretty normal.  He's looking quite healthy though and we are quite thankful for that.  We have really been blessed with a smooth pregnancy this far out.  We continue to pray that he will be healthy and I'm excited to see him greet this world with a "Heya Pops!" or at least a cry.

Kate's been feeling quite well.  She's been feeling the 1st Trimester blues (made famous by Muddy Waters) of being quite tired.  The cost of carrying and growing a child is starting to take its toll on her.  She's been doing a great job of staying active though, walking, sewing, shopping, landscaping, hang-gliding, and so on (titular line).  I've been feeling okay personally!  No sympathy pains yet! 

Again, we're quite blessed for many reasons, including being surrounded by such a supportive, encouraging group of family and friends.  Hopefully these writings will be a brief glimpse into the inner workings of the Konrads...and so on...