Thursday, May 29, 2008

Rough tick season

Poor Bailey - we can't take her anywhere any more. she is a tick magnet! We spent Saturday afternoon at Karen's down in Stoughton and when she was finished playing fetch, she came over to us with at least 10 ticks crawling on her. Then on Sunday, when she was playing at Auntie Betty's, we found more ticks on her. I am so paranoid that she is going to bring them into the house, so we are constantly checking her. I even found a tick on our couch today. Not good at all. We have been using Frontline on her, but this is the first time she has been this much of a tick magnet. I hope it gets better this summer.

In other news, Steve has decided to invest in a bicycle to commute to work. We are only about 6 miles from his office, so it won't be too bad of a ride. I am so proud that he has decided to do this. I love that we can live with only 1 car to begin with, but now to not be a slave to it all the time is even better. This whole oil thing is out of control, but it does force us to be a bit more environmentally friendly. Luckily we haven't really settled anywhere and can make these changes in our life... not buy outside the city, take alternate transportation to work etc.

News from friends... our friend Ed had a bad accident at softball over a week ago. Basically got hit in the eye with a ball. Luckily he wears glasses, and while they broke caused a lot of damage to his eye socket, it probably saved the eye itself. So he had surgery on Tuesday to repair his eye socket and now has a titanium plate in his face. We have to visit his this weekend... hopefully he will get some good news for his long-term recovery...

Aedin went back to the UK :( While she was gone, her lovely husband Bill allowed their 19 year old au pair to have her friend, another 19 year old au pair, move into the house. Aedin was NOT happy about returning home to two 19 year old austrian women living in her house!

Lots of people have shared some great news today!! But i will leave that for another post :)

Monday, May 26, 2008

Third trimester...

And I can no longer bend over! The belly is officially getting in the way of putting on socks and picking things up. It really became noticeable to me yesterday, as we spent the day at Auntie Betty's and I was throwing toys in the pool for bailey to retrieve. I had to keep bending forward to get her frisbee out of the pool and i had to stop after a while. It was not easy!

It is really funny though, bc on Saturday, when I saw all of my cousins, I spent 10 min talking to Elisa, and she didn't even notice my belly. It wasn't until she talked to Steve and asked if we were planning to start a family soon, that Steve had to tell her we are expecting in August! I definitely don't think i am that big considering i am in my last trimester and only have 12 weeks to go, maybe less! I have belly pics to post, once i download them off the camera and onto my computer. Hopefully that'll get done tonight.

In other baby news, we got our crib skirt made! My friend Bridgett hooked me up with her friend Beth who made it for me. I don't have it yet, so haven't seen it in person, but it looks great in the pics!! I can't wait to see it with our crib and the matching sheets!!





Off to our last Memorial Day weekend cookout! Enjoy this great weather!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Unofficial start to summer!!

I am SOO excited that it is Memorial Day weekend and the summer season is upon us! i can't wait to go to BBQs and pools this summer (and hopefully host our own BBQ!). So much fun!

So much has gone on since my last post...

Had my 27 week check up -- had to do the glucose test, but passed (yay that i can still have my ice cream sundaes!!). My iron is a bit low, so i need to start taking supplements. The baby is 2 lb 1 oz and moving a lot! It seems to be growing a good rate, so that's good. I have gained 11 lbs since the start of the pregnancy, so i think i am doing better than i expected there. I am feeling good, and honestly don't think i look like i am 7 months pregnant. My back is getting a little stiff, which is most likely due to a combo of no yoga and no chiropractor. I am making it my goal to change both of these this week!

We had our last hypnobirthing class today, so we now have our sat afternoons free! But i really did enjoy the class and i think that it has helped me a lot. I am still working on the relaxing part, but it is slowly getting easier. Overall I think I have just learned the type of birth that I envision, and that it will be possible to achieve, even in the hospital setting. It has also helped me understand the history of birth and why things are done the way they are done in the hospital. And that it's not that the Drs are wrong or forcing anything bad on me, it's just how they were trained. Childbirth is a natural process, but things can go wrong and medical attention may be necessary. But i feel that we have armed ourselves with a lot of knowledge and know when to ask for more time and when we need to let the Drs intervene.

We also have met some great people who will be living in this area, so I am looking forward to playgroups and having moms to share stories and experiences with! Maybe even a nanny share??? The more we are in Brookline, the more i just love this area. We meet some of the nicest and most genuine people, and really hope we can afford to buy a place here and raise our kids in such an open community.

Today we are off to Karen's for a last minute cookout... the CA cousins are in town for a wedding, so she decided to invite people over to say hi. So we will take a trip to her house for a bit this afternoon. Then tomorrow we go to Betty's for some swimming (for Bailey of course) and good company. Then Monday, Ronnie is having a BBQ. Crazy weekend, but i LOVE it! Especially now that my grant is not due this week... a story for another day.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Monday, May 12, 2008

26 weeks down, 14 weeks to go

Yikes, I just read that title and realized that the baby will be here much sooner than I think I realize!! And we have so much to accomplish between now and then (2 grants, moving and vacation) that time will definitely fly by!

This weekend Steve and I spend some time at my mom's. We had a really nice dinner on Saturday night and played some cards. And Sunday, everyone came over to celebrate Mother's day. We also had to celebrate Babci's birthday that got over looked during the busy month of April. Spent a lot of the day talking about baby names. While I knew it wouldn't be easy to find the perfect name for our child, I never thought it would be this difficult. Every name I like, either Steve doesn't like it, we know someone with a child of that name or it's in the top 10 for baby names.

My favorite girl name is, and has been, Madison. I loved it from when I saw Splash... actually i liked it bc in the movie, Tom Hanks is listing names for Darryl Hannah, and as they walk by Madison Avenue, he says Madison. She chooses Madison and he tells her no bc it's not really a first name, it's really a last name, etc. And I thought it was such a cool name bc it was different, and unusual, but simple and sounded like a "real name". Then growing up, we had a neighbor with a young daughter named Madison (the only one i have ever met) and still thought it was really cool. Now, of course, it has been in the top 10 for girls names since 1997 and top 5 since 2000. And since 2000, it is the 2nd most common name of the decade! It's really difficult bc i want to give my child a different name that is distinguished and unique (but not weird) and Madison will certainly not meet that criteria!

I also love Abigail (#6 this decade) and Samantha (#8), but again, same issues as Madison. I also love the idea of an Italian name, but Gianna, which is my #1 name, is becoming way too popular as well... even among people not of italian ancestry. So I feel that I would be giving my child an "americanized" name, and not one based on our heritage. I kind of like Katherine and Alexandra, but my heart is still stuck on Madison. I really just don't want to let it go :( I guess I really need to decide on what I want more, a non-popular name, or the name I really like.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Slowly losing my mind

I had a conversation with a co-worker yesterday. He found out about my pregnancy at AHA in Colorado and has been a great person to talk to about all things baby, especially having a baby in the city. So he had sent me an email to ask how things were going and I told him about how the baby's movement are getting stronger and more frequent. I had mentioned how at work, the baby can distract me when it moves.

So he share the story with his wife and she laughed and said that it is the beginning of the end... that as I go along in this pregnancy, i will slowly have shorter attention span. Great. If this is just the beginning then what has been happening to my mind over the past 6 months?!?!

In the beginning, when I first found out, i had the worst pregnancy brain, and it was so hard because obviously I wasn't telling people. I was teaching a class and would forget to bring things with me. I was just in this heavy fog, and didn't get out of it until the 2nd trimester.

But now I definitely notice i have no attention span (i am supposed to be working at the moment...) and it is frustrating. I'll come to work and need to get things done by a deadline and still can not force myself to sit here and do work. It's really frustrating bc this has never happened to me before. If I had something to do, I'd just do it. That's it. Now, I don't even care... even with deadlines looming over my head, i can not motivate myself to write my grants or prepare presentations.

I am afraid of what it is going to happen next...

Monday, May 5, 2008

Steve felt the baby move!

Last night as I was relaxing the baby decided to go absolutely crazy! I was watching this large bump move all the way across my belly for the first time. Before i just small "pops", but yesterday was very different. Of course Steve was in the other room, so I yelled for him to come watch. And of course the baby stopped making any large movements. So Steve leaves the room and it starts up again, and again stops when he comes in! But luckily he was able to feel some smaller movements by the end of it all.

Last night it was so active, it was amazing! Although at 11:30 I had to talk to the baby to tell it to settle down bc it was bedtime. It was really cool when it listened and relaxed a bit!

At the birthing class on Saturday, we had this discussion about bonding with the baby. I haven't really felt the urge to bond by talking, singing or reading to the baby quite yet. Some of the other parents gave us great suggestions, like reading parenting books out loud. But as I feel the baby moving so much right now, and as the movements grow stronger, it has really hit me that I have a human growing inside of me. How strange but wonderful at the same time. And it has made this whole experience so much more real.

We have a lot of homework to do this week for class, although I don't mind that some of it includes getting massages from Steve :) Learning the light touch massage technique alone was worth the class! But we also have a lot of things to do that I think will really strengthen our family bond. This week we have to write down all of our fears and discuss them with our partners. I think it will really give us an opportunity to discuss what we are apprehensive about, and hopefully it will help me release some of the fears I harbor internally. And that will hopefully help allow me to release more during the labor.

I know my biggest fear is still giving birth at a hospital. Not that there is anything wrong with hospitals, and I do feel like I have found an OB who understands and supports me. But I am also afraid that bc the Drs at the BI deal with so many high risk pregnancies, that they will opt to go for inductions or a c-section much more quickly than if I had a mid-wife or a doula there. I still really wish we could go to the Birthing center in Cambridge, especially since all of the potential health issues I had seem to be resolving nicely. Steve did say he would be more open to a doula, so I may really have to start my search again. They are a lot more than what I would like to spend, but I am also going to look for a doula in training. That will save some money and provide someone with the experience they need to finish their training. I know it sounds silly that we need to hire a "coach" to get us through labor, but it's an awful lot to ask of both of us to "fight the system" we are in at the BI, and have to be so vocal of what we want. It is so much easier when you have people around you who are on the same page and can help create the atmosphere we will need to have a calm labor.

Friday, May 2, 2008

And I wonder why I am so tired??

Another crazy weekend is upon us. Although I love having lots of places to go and people to visit, i think we have a bit too much on our plate :)

Tonight we are off to the Sox game. We actually tickets for last night, but our friend offered us a pair of seats for tonight. It'll be fun to go with Ida and her man Chris!! And since we also have a game on Sunday and are really busy on Sat, we sold our tickets last minute at the game last night so we could do our errands!

Tomorrow is just going to be nuts. We are having our Second annual Cinqo de Mayo Fiesta tomorrow night. So I still need to clean up a bit in the morning. Then we have our birthing class at noon-2:30 then up to N. Reading for Julia's communion party. Then back home to cook for the party. Then the party. I am tired thinking of it all!

In baby news, I had my 24 week check-up on Tuesday and every thing seems to be going well so far. I have gained 8 pounds total (although I am pretty sure I lost a few in the beginning). The baby is about 1.5 pounds, in the 63rd percentile for growth and is very active. We had a hard time getting a good pic on the u/s!

Week 24:

Also everything with my cervix is looking good. The surgery didn't shorten the length so that shouldn't affect the chances of a natural delivery -- yay! But I still have to go in every month for checkups to make sure things don't change as the pregnancy progresses.

My next appointment is in 3 weeks, where I have my glucose test for diabetes and blood work to make sure i am not anemic. But things so far are moving along well. I can't believe in a few months I am going to have this baby!!!