We're Done Here

Ada has arrived, and so has a new blog. From now on, catch up on life with the Myricks at

http://texasmyricks.blogspot.com/

Waiting

We're both real sorry that we haven't updated more this last month. Things have been pretty nuts for us both. Kim was tying up loose ends at work before starting her maternity leave. I was finishing up work at Mosaic's new building. We both have been tired for very different reasons. And at some point in the midst of all this, our house was robbed. That threw in a whole new set of issues and problems.

But mainly, we just don't have much to say right now. We're just waiting. Kim is in the middle of her 39th week, and is right where she should be. We'll have much more to write about and even pictures and video to post once Ada shows up. We'll keep you posted.

"are you about to pop?"

So I moved seemingly overnight from, "wow, you don't look that pregnant," to "wow! are you about to pop? you poor thing..." Yeah... My back is starting to hurt more and sitting at a desk all day certainly doesn't help. I actually feel my pelvic bones spreading, which is crazy. We have 5 more weeks until her due date and it seems both so quick and so far away. When I think about feeling this way for 5 more weeks, it seems like forever. But when I think that I'm going to be a mom in 5 more weeks, it seems right around the corner. I'm more and more ready for her to come every day.

Two More Months

Today is the 12th of June and little Ada is due to arrive on August 12th. So if she comes when she's supposed to, Sam and I will be parents in two more months! Speaking of when she comes...I told Sam that if she comes early or right on time, that she will be like him in his timeliness. He told me that if she shows up late and with wet hair, she'll be like me. So true...


The photo below is with a diaper cake that my friend from work, Kari, made for me. It has a stuffed frog on top, blankets, spoons, onsies, bibs, and lots of diapers. Isn't it cute?

Waiting

We're just waiting for Ada to come now, so there's not much new to report. Sorry the posts have become few and far between. I'm sure in a few months we'll have pictures and video up every day or two along with humorous stories of all she is up to.

And I am sure we will write more before she comes too. There's just not much to say except Kim keeps getting bigger and her heartburn gets worse. We're real excited about all that is going on. But mainly for now, we wait...

to recliner or not to recliner

So the fun begins with the 3rd trimester. I woke up last night with the worst heartburn I've ever had. Before I was pregnant, I never really got heartburn, so this is all new. I took a couple of swigs of Mylanta and propped myself up with pillows. I have a couple of friends that told me they had to sleep on a recliner during the last bit of pregnancy. I really don't want to have to do that, but...we'll see. A girl needs her sleep. (As does the boy that has to deal with my tossing and turning all night).

Site Changes

I realized we had not changed anything on the blog since we found out we were having a girl. And although I don't want an entire pink nursery or only pink clothes for Ada, I think I can live with a pink blog (at least for now).

I also added a section on the right with our registries. So far, we're only registered at one place - Babies R' Us. But I think Kim likes bedding and a few other things more at Target, so we'll be adding it soon. You'll notice that there are some disposable diapers on there, but that doesn't mean we are going to use them exhaustively. Several people have told us they are good to have around no matter what our main diaper philosophy is. Hopefully, we'll pick our diaper type this weekend after extensive prayer and fasting.

This is Fun

I've had a number of women tell me how much they loved being pregnant. When I was sick for the first 3 months, I thought they were all crazy. How is feeling this way fun? But now that I'm in the fun middle part of the pregnancy, I get it! People are noticing my growing belly and smiling, giggling, asking me how i'm feeling. I can tell them that I feel great. I have energy. I don't feel sick. And I'm not yet to the point where my feet swell or my back hurts. So now I can say, along with these other friends of mine, "i love being pregnant."

But at the same time, I can't wait to see and hold this little girl who is part me and part Sam.

Ada Love Myrick

We announced today to friends and family that we're naming our daughter Ada Love Myrick, and we'll be calling her Ada.

This is Ada the First, one of Sam's grandmothers:


We're all now looking forward to meeting Ada the Second.

More to follow... Reverend Sam

I'm Still Here

It's been a while since I have posted. Kim figured out that I haven't written since we found out we were having a girl. I assured her it's just coincidence, and that I am not disappointed. I just can't think of anything I would have jumped on here to write (even if we'd found out it was a boy).

The truth is that I am not real sure what to say right now. The baby is basically just growing, and we're waiting. Plus we've been real busy with moving, work, preparing for my ordination council, and treating my Poison Ivy (which is miserable).

We've started to talk to her some, since that is supposed to be good for development. But I'm not always sure what to say. I think I'm going to start reading to her each night from my favorite book - East of Eden. Last night I told her that if she were a boy, I'd feel it necessary to teach her about sports and other boy things. But that I'm happy to have a girl too so that I can teach her to be passionate about history, theology, and justice.

I'm hoping she'll grow up to be a minister like her daddy.

never alone

So this is probably a non-PC thing to talk about openly, but hey, that doesn't normally stop me.

I think I'm starting to understand part of why some women go through post-partum depression. I've never read on the subject, so I could be way off, but here are my thoughts. I've always thought, "hey, you actually have the baby now and you can see it and hold it whenever, so why is it sad that it's not in your tummy anymore?"

Lately, I've realized something. As Baby Girl moves around in me and I feel her, I'm keenly aware of her presence at all times. I've realized that I'm never alone. I took the first part of my massage licensing test (and passed) and she was moving the whole time. I wasn't as nervous cause she was with me...weird, I know. I mean, the only thing the 3 of us taking the tests were allowed to take in was a pencil, but I had my daughter with me. As I gave a massage to the owner of the massage place where I want to work (after which, she hired me), I was not alone. Good days or bad days at work, she's here.

From waking up in the morning to going to bed at night and all that I do in between during the day, I know that I'm never alone. And it's not in this vague sense, like God is always with me. I can really feel her. I love having her around.

I know I'm only halfway through this thing, but her moving hasn't gotten old yet. I'm starting to pick up her patterns. She's really active in the afternoons after lunch and before I go home for the day. She moves when I first get into the bathtub. She moves when I'm sitting on the couch, but stops inevitably as Daddy reaches over to feel her. She's a tease.

I, of course, hope not to experience post-partum depression and I know that sometimes it gets really bad. But on a very basic level, when she arrives, I think I'll miss having her with me at all times.

To Zion

I recently discovered this song, though it is years old. It was written by Lauryn Hill to her first son, Zion. Though our circumstances are completely different, the way that she describes carrying him and loving him is beautiful and powerful...and has made me cry...a lot.

I am blessed to be carrying Baby Girl Myrick.

"Unsure of what the balance held
I touched my belly overwhelmed
By what I had been chosen to perform
But then an angel came one day
Told me to kneel down and pray
For unto me a man child would be born
Woe this crazy circumstance
I knew his life deserved a chance
But everybody told me to be smart
Look at your career they said,"Lauryn, baby use your head"
But instead I chose to use my heart

Now the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion

How beautiful if nothing more
Than to wait at Zion's door
I've never been in love like this before
Now let me pray to keep you from
The perils that will surely come
See life for you my prince has just begun
And I thank you for choosing me
To come through unto life to be
A beautiful reflection of his grace
See I know that a gift so great
Is only one God could create
And I'm reminded every time I see your face

That the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion
Marching, marching, marching to Zion
Beautiful, beautiful Zion"

can't stop

I can't stop watching the sonogram. I tell Sam that I miss her. He says, "how can you miss her? She's inside of you and you've never met her?" I can't explain it, but I love watching that video! I love her little arms and hands and legs and feet. She only weighs 8 oz and yet she is a whole person...part me, part Sam...crazy.

Sonogram

Hopefully, you can make out the baby at times. We'll edit the post soon to tell exactly what you are seeing at what times. But a lot of it should make sense.

The Fortune Cookie Was Wrong

We're having a girl. So now we can start saying "she" and "her" instead of "it."

Fortune Cookie

This past Sunday, we went out to eat with people from Mosaic after church. They wanted to eat at Pei Wei, an Asian restaurant in town. It was the first time that I'd eaten any Asian food since I became pregnant and I became "scared" of a lot of food...mostly meat, for some reason. But it was tasty. When I had finished, I walked over to get a fortune cookie. My friend Emily (the other pastor's wife), asked me if i'd get her a cookie. I handed her the one I was about to open and I grabbed another one. These cookies have a "fortune" on one side and a word or phrase on the other side, that they've translated into Chinese, for you to learn the language. I broke open my cookie to see only the word translated. All it said was, "boy."

Firsts

I felt the baby move for the first time last week. I was sitting at my desk at work, chatting with my mom, and the little thing just tapped on the inside of my stomach. It was exciting. I called Sam and couldn't get him, so I sent him a text message that just said to call me. He called back, sounding worried, but I just told him that I'd felt the baby. He hasn't felt it yet, and it'll probably be another few weeks before that's possible. But I love these steps along the way that keep the process exciting...the first sonogram, the first kick, when we find out the gender...I'm sure there are more, but i'm just focused on the next one for now.

Diaper Dilemma

Hold on, this one gets messy (and pretty long too).

So, the newest thing that Kim and I are trying to work through is our diaper philosophy. I imagine (as with most things in our lives) this would have been a much easier decision for us 2 or 3 years ago.

Back then we would have started stockpiling Huggies disposable diapers during our trips to Wal-Mart, and planning diaper showers where you all gave us even more. We’d register for or buy a Diaper Genie to dispose of the smelly little fecal bombs with just the twist of a knob. Then once a week the bags would be picked up with all our other garbage and go here.

And therein lies the new rub. We recycle when we can, and hope to get much better about it in our new home. But some things just have to be thrown away; some things have to go to the landfill. But on average, a baby will go through 6,000 disposable diapers in the first 2 ½ years of its life (the normal time kids become potty trained). That’s a lot of diapers and waste in landfills (somewhere around 2 tons as a matter of fact). Disposable diapers make up the 3^rd largest single consumer item at dumps – following newspapers and beverage containers. They account for nearly 4% of the total amount of solid waste, and 30% of the non-biodegradable waste. It takes 500 years for one disposable diaper to decompose, and I haven’t even talked about the chemicals that are slowly released into the soil by the diapers as they decompose! And the manufacturing process for disposable diapers is also troubling, think of the amount of trees cut down and chemicals used to make brand new diapers that will be in landfills within months.

So, what are our other options? Well, they run the gamut from fairly easy but more expensive to very complicated but less expensive. We know of 3 viable options (one of which has a subcategory):

1 – environmentally friendlier disposable diapers. Several companies (like Seventh Generation) make disposable diapers without the grosser dyes and chemicals that leak into the ground. They are also made of as much post consumer recycled material as possible. These diapers function and are disposed of just like normal disposables, but are a little more expensive.

2 – hybrid diapers composed of reusable and disposable elements. The one we know the most about is G Diapers. These diapers have a plastic or cloth outer layer that can be washed or reused and a disposable inner part that actually gets flushed down the toilet just like grown ups’ waste. These are even more expensive than the green disposable diapers, but you spend about the same money (or less) in the long run because you keep the outer layers.

3 – cloth diapers. These make the most sense in every way except for ease of use. Cloth diapers have come a long way from the kinds most of you are aware of. Some companies make Velcro or snapping outer covers to cover basic cloth diapers, and others make one piece reusable cloth diapers that fit and work just like disposable ones. We’ve learned a lot from Cotton Babies. This is the category with the subset, because there are amazing diaper services that I like to refer to as “The Netflix of Poopy Diapers.” There are 3 different companies in Austin that could bring us fresh diapers once a week and take away our gross ones from a contraption a lot like a Diaper Genie. One of them even has a “2 Year Warranty” that if your baby isn’t potty trained by the time they are 2 years old, the service becomes free from then on.

Cloth diapers would save us money in the long run because children are potty trained earlier. They cause next to no environmental problems (we’d be as efficient as possible with water and laundering them). And we get to reuse materials over and over instead of adding new trash to the world. BUT…they are much more complicated, especially if we tried owning our own cloth diapers and laundering them ourselves. And we’re not real sure what you do when you are traveling or away from home for a while. Maybe using mainly cloth diapers but keeping some disposables handy at all times makes the most sense.

What do you all think? What's the ebst way to go? Are we being silly for even considering this? Some people have told us the hassle isn't worth it. Others are militant about not using disposables. We're kind of indifferent at this point, but want to think about these things while we still have the time.

There haven’t been a ton of comments on this site so far, but this topic is definitely “ripe” for some interaction from you all.

Second Trimester...yay!

As Sam said in the last post, it's great to have hit that "safe" point in our pregancy. I actually officially entered the second trimester last Sunday. I'm starting to feel better, though I still have moments and hours that are tough. I'm not as tired as I have been, so we should soon be able to start pre-shopping and thinking about baby furniture and such.

Today we had a doctor's appointment and were able to ask her a lot of questions about options for classes such as Lamaze or Bradley. Sam and I are thinking that Lamaze fits us the best, so we should start classes around the beginning of the third trimester. We continue to like our doctor and I feel like we are on the same page, which is important. At our next appointment, we'll meet with a different doctor, though. Our doctor is in a group of three women and one of them is on call at the hospital at all times. So any one of the three could be actually delivering our baby and we'd like to meet each one of them beforehand.

Next month, we'll have a sonogram...and we'll find out if our little one is a boy or a girl. I'm so excited. We will be happy with either, but it will be fun to start thinking and planning more specifically. Sam wants to know if he needs to prepare for baseball or dance lessons. But if it's a girl like me, she's gonna go more for the baseball than the dance lessons anyway.

Week 12

Yesterday, Kim passed the 12 week mark. The best news in my opinion is that she doesn't feel so bad anymore. A few days ago, she woke up one morning and told me "I feel normal today." I wasn't sure if it would last, but for the last several days her nausea and lack of appetite are gone. I'm also starting to notice her belly getting a little larger and firmer, which is fun.

It's also really good news that the chance of miscarriage goes down by 60% now that we have made it this far.

I know we have a lot still to go through, and new types of discomfort will be in Kim's life soon. But for now, we're enjoying a stretch of "regular" days.