Happy Halloween!

57 days, and a few sonogram pics

The first one is his skull, which looks less than round to me.  Karen, of course, is sure that I'm a complete wacko and googled the shape of human skulls to show me pictures.  She is one patient woman. 

He is facing the upper left corner of the picture, for those of you like me who are struggling to see things now.  It was a little easier when his whole body fit into the frame at once.

The second picture is his foot touching the top of his head, which just makes him look all bendy.  The acrobatic moves I've been feeling are apparently for a reason. 

This one looks like a hookah to me, but I'm pretty sure that's unlikely.  This is probably rated NC-17, but I can't see anything for the life of me. 

:)  57 days left!

That's still a big kitten!

Yesterday's appointment went just fine, save the fact that we waited for over two hours to be seen. The doctor placed the ultrasound wand onto my stomach and almost immediately pulled it off and asked, 'Do you know the sex?' Apparently, our boy is very proud of his anatomy, and surprised even the doctor with his immodesty. The kitten is doing well, he's head down and all looks good. He currently weighs 4lbs, 9oz, and that puts him in the 86th percentile -- he's still bigger than 86% of babies his age. Sonograms to come... I didn't grab a picture of them last night. On a few of the pictures, his foot is up by his head. I could just eat him up already, and I haven't even met him yet.

We sat in the main waiting room with a family waiting for their own baby to be born: Grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles all excited and anxious. After half an hour or so, the dad came downstairs to announce the birth of their baby boy, and everyone shouted and jumped for joy... I might have cried a bit, (read: cried quite a bit) even though I don't know them at all. I just imagined Karen walking into the same scene, with news of our baby boy. Welcome to my world.

Another week until my next OB appointment... we're crawling to the finish line, but these little glimpses make it easier to wait. Strangers ask what I'm having, and say things like 'You must be due any day now, huh?' Nope, just under two months left now. 'Oh, you'll never go that long... He'll be early.'

Whatever you say! We wouldn't mind meeting him anytime after 37 weeks. :)

sixty days left and a weekend recap

I was reading another blog earlier and saw that they were only 58 days away from their due date...  'Hmm...  we must be a week or so away from that countdown,' I thought.  I was a little surprised to learn that we're a mere sixty days away from ours.  Yikes.  Time flies when you're pretending labor won't happen!

We had a fun-filled weekend to say the least...  Friday we had family game night at our place, and stayed up until past 1am, which is later than I have stayed up in months.  Brunch Saturday with Jami and Laura, who trekked a whole hour to our side of town just to eat with us (and pick up their Farmer's Market bounty).  I give them credit...  I have trouble putting on clothes and walking across the street on Saturdays.  They are a motivated bunch!  Saturday night we went to the East side for dinner with fam, and had a Neighbor Cookfest yesterday. 

I made braised short ribs for the first time, and I highly recommend this recipe.  I didn't let them sit overnight, but I swear they were amazing without the extra step.  I managed to spend an extra thirty minutes in the store, searching for a few of the more obscure ingredients (crème fraîche?) only to find that the recipe didn't even really need them (and that sour cream is a respectable alternative)...  The meat and the gravy it produced was A-Mazing and it has quickly become my new favorite meal.  (Hint: the prep was the bulk of the work, since that took me a good solid ninety minutes, the remaining cooking time of 3 hours was a breeze, aside from the first-time-braisers-maintenance as the juices overflowed onto the oven floor.)  Thanks, Stephanie, for keeping us company and helping with dessert -- we made little apple pie tarts in a cupcake tin that were SO easy and SO good, that if I hadn't made up the idea, I'd think I'd stolen it.  Before we knew it, it was 9pm and we were all in a food coma on the couch, lounging while the Amazing Racers did the opposite of lounging. 

We have our 3rd Tri Ultrasound tomorrow, and I couldn't be happier to see the kitten again.  It's been since early August since we've caught a glimpse of him, and he should be considerably bigger now...  Average size is about 4½ pounds, and about 16" long.  If he's still following their early predictions, he should weigh about thirty pounds.  We'll see tomorrow!

more crazy, please!

Last night, Karen made pizza and generally waited on me for the evening, which I loved. I figured I'd take advantage, and mentioned that I had a taste for frosting, jokingly asking if she'd whip some up for me. She immediately got that lit-up kid look, and headed to the kitchen, insisting that I close my eyes. (Cue the slapstick music.) Ever the skeptic, I followed her orders, covered my eyes with one hand and began to giggle somewhat uncontrollably while I waited for her to return with her surprise. She continued to insist (loudly) that I not peek! NO PEEKING! I MEAN IT! So the covered eyes continued, as did our laughter. She approached me and I began to worry what might be in her hands, realizing it could be ANYTHING!!! I wracked my brain to think of the contents of our fridge and freezer -- it could be fruit, milk, veggies… or it could be a mean surprise like cold chicken soup. I was convinced that I might have something to be afraid of, so I covered my mouth. We both were laughing hysterically, and in between the laughter I could barely catch my breath. I had to give in, as you’d expect, and allow her to finish her surprise, so I opened my mouth and waited for what felt like MINUTES, only to hear the familiar sound of compressed air. She had sprayed whipped cream into my mouth, and the second I realized it wasn’t soup I was as hysterical as she was. I laughed harder, she laughed harder. I stood up, and laughed even harder… aaaaaaaaand then tried to take a deep breath. Yep, not the smartest move with a mouthful of whipped topping. I began to choke only for a second and then recovered, but not before the laughter turned to terror and I began to experience some rabid hybrid of laugh-crying. I couldn’t even contain it, and this noise escaped from my mouth that sounded like a wounded sea lion, tears streaming down my cheeks, while miraculously still laughing.  (Imagine a very extended duck honk.)  The look on her face was a cross between delight and true concern, since no one normally cries, laughs and wails at the same time.  She kept saying she was sorry she tried to kill me with whipped cream, which was even funnier.  After a few minutes I calmed down, and we kept laughing and recapping how in the hell that happened.  "You're totally going to have to post a story about this tomorrow...  I wonder if it will translate," she said.  I don't know if it did, but just writing it made me laugh again.

I don’t think she’ll try to surprise me with food again, but I’m thinking that it may be my turn to surprise her, just to show her what she missed.

week 30

Ever since we found out we were pregnant, I've been looking forward to our hospital's labor & delivery tour, and I'm not exactly sure why... Maybe because it helps me visualize what it'll be like the day we meet our boy, or maybe it's because that meant that we'd be so far along. I figured it would be a sunny fall day with lots of orange leaves and fall temperatures, which I was not mistaken about. I started my day with a spring in my step, heading to the only somewhat-local Old Navy that has a maternity department, for some new tops. I learned a lot about how online returns don't work, but was able to buy some layering pieces so that my ever-growing belly doesn't peek out from below all my shirts.  (Quick lesson learned this week: just because you start out your pregnancy with shirts that you're sure will be WAY TOO BIG all through your pregnancy, maybe you should listen to all the people who tell you in that 'been there' tone that...  huh...  yeah...  that's never going to happen, and you'll outgrow everything you buy.)  We then headed to the hospital a little early so we could pick up lunch along the way, and arrived in plenty of time to make it to the tour.  What we hadn't considered is that I didn't show the hospital map to Karen, and we were navigating using my map skills.  (♫ Dun dun DUN! ♪)  We eventually made it to where we were supposed to be after a few detours and only managed to miss the first five minutes of the lecture portion.  Way to go, Suze. 

We learned that there are cameras allowed up until the birth and then immediately after, which is fine with me.  I would like to point out here that I reserve veto rights regarding all video and pictures of myself from that day, and am glad that I won't have to worry about any actual-birth-photos.  We learned about pre-registering and saw the rooms that we'll deliver in.  We also saw the post-partum rooms, which I was a little surprised to learn, were not as lavish or as large as I had vividly imagined.  But all in all, it was pretty much how I'd thought it would be.  (The one surprise: there's a 'room service' menu, that you can order from whenever you'd like.  Nicer than the typical hospital rounds of jello and chicken broth I had imagined.) 

After our tour, we made homemade pot pies with our neighbor, Stephanie, and basically lounged the night away.  Sadly, Monday morning came much sooner than I thought it would, as is often the case after a busy weekend.  Oh well, we're in the thirtieth week now, which means that the babe is about the size of a squash. 

I can say he's at least that big, since he is residing on my bladder.

not good

So today, I feel unwell.  Nothing that won't disappear in a few days I'm sure, but I'm grouchy and foggy and I feel like I've been hit by a bus.  For the first hour of work, I pondered going home, but that seems like a lot of work.  I'm certainly not dying...  So I'm toughing it out and getting everyone else remotely sick too getting some work done.

So please ignore me as I sit here quietly and every so often scoop a spoonful of Date Bars* into my mouth. 

*really the best thing ever invented, and likely to cure all known ailments

reason #497

Every week or so, I obsess about the items on our to-do list that have yet to be crossed off; some days it's our need for a crib, others, a glider.  One day, I scanned eBay for an hour looking for a bargain on breast pumps.  You never really know what you'll get.  (Quick aside, Karen's sign language classes have had a mixed result: She occasionally makes up signs on the go.  For example, I don't believe she's learned the sign for breast pump in her class, but that didn't stop her from unwittingly acting it out at dinner with my parents.  Good times.)  So, lately I've been focusing on the fact that we haven't chosen a crib yet, and since we're still eighty days from our due date, this hasn't really been a pressing issue.  By Saturday afternoon, though, I had it in my head that we needed to go shopping to at least compare models and probably maybe to buy one.  So we looked up the nearest Babies R Us, and found it near the airport, but we decided against the trip and went about our day.  We were supposed to attend a college play that night, to fulfill a requirement for one of Karen's classes.  The play was about an hour and fifteen minutes away, which means I was on the lookout for alternative ideas...  Maybe we could find a play that's closer another night?  Maybe there's another event altogether that we could attend?  Basically, I hemmed and hawed until she changed her mind.  Of course, I immediately felt a little selfish for not being more easygoing about the whole idea, and I proceeded to try to talk her back into seeing the play.  I start to feel better when I think I've successfully talked her into it.

Quick aside, I'm HORRIBLE with geography; I once thought Detroit was east of us. And by once, I mean about two years ago.  Karen is well aware my geographical disinclination.  She finds it endearing. 
(Or so I tell myself.)

Cast your mind... We're now in the car, heading west when I think we should be heading east.

Me: "I looked at the map, and the campus was south-east of us."
Her: "Are you sure you looked at it right?"
Me: "I think so...  It was east of the main campus"
Her: "You must've looked at it wrong"
Me: "Hmm, really? 
...pause
       "Okay"

About fifteen minutes later, we're passing the airport we discussed earlier, but I convince myself that she mentioned that it was en route to the theater.  Hint: this is when normal people would've caught onto her scheme.  A few minutes later, we're exiting at the mall that I now remember is near the Babies R Us, and I realize what she's done.  Turns out, she felt guilty that we were going to a play I didn't care about when I'd been wanting to look at cribs.  ☺

Reason #497 that we're perfect for each other.

another weekend gone...

Is it really Monday again?  I think we just need a few weeks of vacation in a row, to read a lot and better ourselves, and -- oh, fine...  I wanted to sit around and do nothing a little longer. 

We had a usual weekend, with a trip to Babies 'R' Us thrown in.  I felt a little like a celebrity, getting to use the 'expectant moms only' parking, but I soon chilled out.  We found a gorgeous crib that we both love, so we have another item crossed off our lists.  It wasn't in stock, despite the 'IN STOCK TODAY' sign, so we'll be picking it up in a week or so.  Karen almost killed the counterperson was moderately patient with less than stellar service and after waffling for a bit, we decided to get a changing table elsewhere.  Recent internet review checks have taught us that the changing table in question may not have been the best buy anyway, so it all worked out.  I can't wait to bring this guy home and set him up!  Sick, I know...

We did not get the cute monkey / hedgehog bedding set shown above, for a myriad of reasons, mainly because spending $250 on a bumper and blanket that won't be used at all cause it's dangerous seemed crazy we registered for more frugal choices at Tarjay.  I must admit, though, a huge part of me almost bought the bumper/blanket combo just to use it before Danny can roll over.  Is this how these companies make all their money?  On sappy, crazy mothers who just want the nursery to be adorable regardless of the functionality?  Shocking!

In other news, I had a crazy cooking day yesterday, that included fresh tortilla chips, a homemade pumpkin pie, a meatloaf dinner with potatoes and gravy, and date bars.  Clearly, I am suffering from some sort of psychotic break, and everyone we know will be fed for weeks.  :)

CPR Anytime

One of my facebook friends mentioned this website, and it couldn't have been more timely...  I was looking into CPR class for Karen and myself just this morning, and this website let me order a kit that is less expensive than the classes offered at our hospital...  And I figure we can pass it along to the grandparents so they can all take it.  There's also adult versions if you're so inclined...

http://cpranytime.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3045660

And, look! Even the dog can learn.

☼ here comes the sun...

The sun's out for the first day in what feels like weeks...  Such a nice change!

I signed us up for our childbirth classes today and I'm getting really excited.  Last night, Karen felt Danny kick 'harder than ever before' and he's started to really roll around in there.  Hard to believe he'll more than double his current weight before we meet him. 

Tonight is also (trumpet noise) my last Bio class!!!  It's gone by pretty quickly, but it's been an amazing amount of work.  We each have a ten minute presentation tonight that I'm dreading more than I would've thought...  I used to be such a brave public speaker, but now I get very nervous.  So, I've decided to read from my script and make sure I look up often.  Even practicing last night for Karen had my stomach all in knots.  I'll be a happy girl by 8pm tonight when it's over.  I feel like I should have a tequila and hot dog party.  Probably not smart, though...  huh?

Question of the day: why is it that we feel so much better when the sun's out?  ☼