Still at Home

We're still at home right now. Lisa's labor is progressing slowly, so things are taking a little longer than expected. On the positive side, she's been able to get a few hours of sleep this afternoon and evening.

Lisa's been a little worried that things are not moving faster, but what she's experiencing is perfectly normal. The contractions slowed down, to the point where she was only getting one per hour for a while. The baby is still moving around, probably a little confused as to what is going on! Our friend Kathryn, who's a midwife, came by for a few hours this afternoon. That was a huge help for Lisa, because it really comforted her to know that everything is ok, and it's nothing to worry about. The three of us walked around the neighborhood for over an hour, which is impressive that Lisa felt good enough to do it.

Our feeling is that we won't go to the hospital until sometime tomorrow.

The Waiting Game

The bags are packed, so we're ready to go to the hospital whenever necessary. The only problem is we won't know when that will be until it's time. Lisa could go into labor within the next hour, or it could be three weeks from now. It's a little frustrating for people who are very organized, since this is totally out of our control.

We've received a lot of advice about how to get labor started, and we'll probably start trying those suggestions in another day or two. I just want to try and tie up a couple loose ends at work,
and I'll be ready to leave it all behind me. Lisa really hopes this stuff will work, otherwise it will be a bit of a bummer. Regardless, the baby will probably come when s/he is ready, and not a moment before.

38 week belly

It all started with this positive pregnancy test back in early October...... The most expensive piece of technology I've ever peed on.
And now I'm pretty much ready to pop any minute. After 37 weeks of pregnancy, if the baby were to be born it is not considered premature anymore but a full term baby. Knowing that, I feel like a bomb that could go off at any minute... feeling like what ever I do could 'set me off'. Usually first time moms don't deliver until after their due date, but I'm really rooting for a week before.... just to get it over with. I've started researching the wives tales of what a pregnant mom can do to bring on labor... some of which involves eating certain foods, walking a lot... etc.

It's also been unseasonably hot in Boston and this weekend I enjoyed the sun but was grateful that I won't be pregnant during the entire summer.

Pregency Expectations

After reading a couple of pregnancy books, I had some expectations of what it would be like for Lisa. I was warned that she would grow another head, constantly bark at me, and make my life miserable. However, none of those things happened. The one positive thing that I expected recently happened. The picture below says it all.


Mike's been wanting to use my belly to hold his booze ever since I became pregnant! Guess it works now. Here's another fun picture of the new resident in our baby's portable crib! Animal jumped in as soon as we got it together.... she wants to be the baby.

35 week belly

The last week or so has become increasingly challenging. I'm realizing that my comfort level is getting exponentially worse each day, and I'm starting to get tired again like I did in the first trimester. This last month or so will be long I'm sure, but some of the fun things are feeling the ever stronger movements from the little being inside me! I've seen some movements coming from my belly that make me feel like an alien is going to come jumping out and start singing hello my baby like in that movie Spaceballs!

Each night Mike and I sit at the dinner table and count off one less day that it's just me and him... a little weird to think about, but exciting! Sometimes I go through feelings that we didn't have enough time of just each other; but when I feel the baby move inside I quickly get over it. We get excited trying to figure out what our baby is going to look like too... after it's all cleaned up of course. As Bill Cosby put it, I know the baby will come out looking like a lizard that's not done cooking yet!! But I'm sure I'll believe it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!

Not Your Typical Baby Shower

We had our baby shower the day after I graduated (see previous post for those pictures).... yes, it's been a busy couple of weeks! My friends Naomi, Jill, and Beth-Ann put together a great shower that was held at the local brew pub that Mike likes to go to after work, the Cambridge Brewing Co. Why not be able to throw back a couple of beers while ringing in a new baby into the family. It was a fun time, and the girls even planned games such as name that baby animal! Who the heck ever heard the word for a baby eel!!? Those who knew that MUST have used their blackberry phones.. aahhemm... Nevertheless, prizes were handed out for the one who got the most baby animal names (what the heck is a signet?) and the one who could most correctly guess the number of jelly beans in the baby bottle (I got to keep the bottle of course). Believe it or not it was a three way tie! Three people guessed 269 jelly beans.... and there were 271. That's pretty close! I've never been good at estimating that sort of thing.

We got loads of cute clothes and stuff for the baby, now I'm homebound trying to figure out where to put it all.


And both grandmothers were around to help celebrate!

Nothing like having a beer tower at a baby shower!
Everyone was pretty wiped out after a long day of eating and chatting....

Barefoot and Pregnant in the Kitchen

According to my husband, this is what every Italian man wants....

I can tell you what my husband is getting so far: a tired wife that is starting to waddle around like a duck, and insists that ice cream and cereal is an appropriate dinner.

Nice close up of my disappearing belly button, week 31:

22 weeks pregnant- It's alive!

Last week on Friday, I came home from work and just wanted to take a rest. So I got into the bathtub and just laid there in the warm water, grateful for a working hot water heater. Now, I've been able to feel the baby kicking for about 3-4 weeks now, but it hasn't been something that Mike could share with me. Every time he put his hand on my tummy, when I felt a kick he said he didn't feel anything.

But when I was in the bath and feeling kicks that Friday, I could see my belly move too! It was kind of creepy and sort of weirded me out at first... but it quickly became super cool to be able to watch the movements as well as feel them.

When Mike came home I promptly made us lie down on the bed to watch my belly for any signs of life. We waited and waited, and finally he got to see good one, like something pushing for it's way out!

A week has gone by and we see even more movements when we sit and stare at my belly for any length of time.

It's a boy!.... we're pretty sure at least

Here's a picture of our little one somewhere between 6-7 weeks, it's the little blueberry looking blob in the middle of the black space that's my uterus:


Here he is now at 18 weeks:


This morning was my very much anticipated ultrasound appointment. I've been waiting so impatiently for this day (as I'm sure you can imagine if you know me)! I just can't stand not knowing things, and I've been bouncing off the walls waiting to see if we could tell the gender from today's ultrasound. So Mike and I get there around 9:20, I gulp down some apple juice per advice from others saying that it makes the baby move around more...(and possibly move into a favorable position to check out the baby's goods).

I lie down on the table with an extremely full bladder, because that's what the referral paper said to do. When I told the ultrasound woman I had to pee so bad, she looked at me strangely and marched me to the bathroom! The ultrasound referral paper is apparently wrong about needing to have a full bladder; needless to say I was pretty happy to relieve my bladder before she started pressing down on it with that cold jellied up ball.

So she starts taking pictures, telling us everything looks great, describing what we are seeing, measuring the humorous of an arm (that I didn't recognize)... and the femur of a leg... then she showed us what she was sure is our baby's little wee wee; Mike verified that he thought it looked like that as well.... having seen the baby's legs on either side. But then the second ultrasound reader came in and she was all business, kind of curt and wanting to get done with her job. After she was done, she casually mentioned she didn't see any appendages that would suggest a boy so she says it may be a girl. Then we told her the first tech said she thought it was a boy and she just nonchalantly said "well I couldn't really see".

So.. we're going with the first ultrasound woman... she seemed pretty sure.. and so did Mike.

17 weeks pregnant

Here's a picture of me at 17 weeks.... one day away from being 18 weeks pregnant. I'm getting to the point where my pants are to too tight to zip up, and my shirts feel like they are getting shorter! I took a trip to the Cambridge Mall today and bought myself some maternity clothes. I must say it's not much fun getting fatter.. but I know it's just the beginning and I have a long way to go!