23 Weeks

Happy Memorial Day! (I know this is late... I've had a BUSY week.) Tim and I took a little day trip up to Cold Spring, NY on Monday and we took a few belly pictures. My tummy is really starting to expand... It's crazy. I wonder if I'll have a belly button pop-out situation? I've never been able to see so much of my innie before now!

After spending the morning antique shopping, we went over to Woodbury Commons Outlet Center to do some baby shopping! (Jellybean, if you ever doubted your father's love for you, this one act alone should confirm any suspicions. Your daddy HATES outlet stores... especially on holiday weekends.) Well, we got lots of really cute baby boy clothes; mostly onesies and overalls. We also bought an adorable little cowboy hat! I can't wait to play dress-up with my little boy.

As far as what is going on with me, I'm starting to get the swollen feet thing going on after a long day at work. No fun. Also, I'm getting the back aches. But I've been expecting this stuff, so not too big of a deal. This is what "Pregnancy Weekly" says about what's going on with Jellybean:

Your baby now weighs about one pound and is approximately 11.5 inches head to heel. He or she is continuing to develop facial features and you are probably feeling a lot of movement as your baby continues to explore its body and world in the comfort of his or her own personal "living womb." Your baby now has eyes that open and close, ears that can hear, and a thumb well worth sucking. If you feel your baby making regular, jerky movements, don't panic - your baby has the hiccups!

Expensive Taste

It's a fact. I have expensive taste. I can't help it. Tim will ask me what my favorite vehicles are and I'll point to the Lexus and Infinity's. (And I know nothing about cars... but now I know that those are the EXPENSIVE ones.)

So it is no wonder that I'll see a cool stroller and say that is the kind I want. I was hooked on the Bugaboo strollers for a while, until I found out that they cost around $600 for a bottom-of-the-line stroller. Those are some dang cool strollers. They first made their marketing debut in the show Sex and the City. Basically, it's the stroller that all the celebrities and NYC folk use. If you take a jaunt around Central Park, you'll probably see that at least 1 out of every 3 strollers are this brand. Tim told me that I can't have one. Whatever.

I've been looking for another option and I got really excited when I saw a cool mom shopping at Babies R Us using this stroller... The brand is Orbit Baby. She was just zipping around the store in this great lightweight, smooth as anything (and cool-looking) stroller. I'm not gonna lie - I was jealous. I went up to her and asked her about her sweet wheels. She told me all about the safety features and even gave me a demo! I was hooked. She told me the great ratings it's gotten on the DMV site and on Consumer Reports. And if that weren't enough to totally sell me, she showed me how it swivels! I WANT this stroller now! So when Tim and I got home, we did some research. Imagine my dismay to find out that this awesome stroller has an awesomely steep price tag to go along with it too! This bad boy costs around $900. Daggumit. I can't win here.

Maybe Tim will reconsider getting me a Bugaboo? I'd like mine in red, please. I'd take orange, too. Thanks!

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Impact of our Parents

As I was lying in bed this morning, scratching Tim's head, I was thinking about what an impact our moms have on us, and especially, in what we take comfort in. I know that Tim LOVES it when I scratch the top of his head lightly with my fingernails. He takes great comfort in it. And I know that, even though he probably doesn't realize it, this is a learned habit he's gotten from his momma. (She has REALLY long fingernails!) This is something I've watched her do before to him and he's asked me a couple times to do it, too. It's interesting.

So I was trying to think of the things that comfort me that I've picked up from my parents. I know that I can fall asleep in no time when Tim puts his big, thick, worker-man hands on top of my head. His hands are really warm and it just knocks me out in a matter of minutes. I know that this is related to my own dad. I married a man with hands just like my dads! Is that a coincidence? I doubt it.

I wonder what my little man is gonna find comfort in? Will I scratch the top of his head, too? Will he eventually want his future wifey to do that for him, just like his momma did? Or will I be more like my own momma and scratch our baby boy's back? I know that my little brother LOVES his back to be scratched. I've seen my momma do that for him on many occasions. It is just something interesting to think about, isn't it? Our parents really make such a lasting impact on the things we find comfort in!

First "Mother's Day"

Wow! I'm technically a mom. Freaky. This was my first (and easiest) Mother's Day this past weekend - I'm still catching up! Anyway, I had a very nice one. My parents came up for the weekend to see me in all my pregnancy glory, big bellied. My little brother also stopped in. And they all came baring gifts!

Diva, Poppa, and I spent the first half of the weekend baby shopping, which was heavenly for me. They bought a really nice white crib and dresser for our little Jellybean! So now we have almost a complete nursery. This is one lucky baby to have such a wonderful family that is already crazy about him. My momma (Diva, as she wants to be called by her grands) had so much fun picking out little cowboy outfits and sleepers and things. She was too cute. And Poppa (my daddy) picked out a few things too! He bought Jellybean his first little "bomber" jacket. They spent the whole weekend patting my belly and talking to Jellybean, in utero. I think they are pretty excited, don't you think?

Uncle Andy is pretty thrilled too. He bought Jellybean (for Mother's Day, of course) a little Mets outfit - both a "home" outfit and an "away" one too. He also bought Jellybean a stuffed Mr. Met and a tiny little ball cap and socks! Oh man. Uncle Andy can't wait to take Jellybean to his first ballgame. Hopefully this kid will like the Mets as much as his uncle does! (I'm not sure what Uncle Andy is doing here... but I think Jellybean is having batting practice already!)

Tim was really wonderful to me on Mother's Day, too. He bought me and my momma some really pretty daisies and took us out to the Cloisters and to Wave Hill for an afternoon of flowers and architecture. It was a gorgeous day. Tim also got me a few baby gifts! He got me a "pregnancy wedge" (a pillow to wedge under my ever expanding belly) and a fetal heart monitor. I can't use the heart monitor yet though; I have to wait till my 3rd trimester to be able to hear anything.

Anyway, it was a great first Mother's Day. And I can't wait to get crayoned pictures and tacky magnets and other such Mother's Day memorabilia in the future from little Jellybean!

Week 21 Update

"Your baby weighs approximately 12 ounces and is about 10.5 inches head to heel and is now busy putting fat onto those tiny bones. Most likely, you have felt his or her in-utero gymnastics by now, since lots of amniotic fluid provides plenty of room to move. Fetuses have sleep and wake cycles, and you may find that these get more predictable as the months progress. But they may not coincide with yours: babies in the womb are typically active in the late evening, just when Mom is trying to get to sleep. "

So?

I guess you want to know more about our baby?!? Has the suspense been killer? I try to be dramatic. You know what would be even more dramatic? If I wrote a really long post and never said one way or the other if Jellybean is a boy or girl. Heehee... That would just be mean, wouldn't it? So, what color is my little Jellybean? Sit back and let me tell you a story of how my 20 week ultrasound went.

It all started off on the wrong foot anyway. My OB's office is right next to the hospital I'll be delivering at, so my OB scheduled the ultrasound there. Her office was supposed to send the prescription over. Well, it turns out that there are two places at the hospital to do ultrasounds. I was never told which one I was to go to. So I went to the closest one and it turns out that no one ever received my prescription! So I walked back over to my OB (luckily just across the street), got it, and came back. (All the while, I have a full bladder because you're supposed to be able to see the baby better. Basically, now I'm in pain and grouchy as anything.) After about 45 minutes, we get to where we should be and the ultrasound technician sees us. Her name is "Taz."

Let me take a brief moment to tell you about "Taz." Apparently Taz had a really bad last ultrasound where the future parents were very disappointed about their baby's gender. The baby was healthy but they were hoping for someone else. I can't really imagine being told you have a healthy child and then being upset that the child wasn't the "right" sex. How could anyone be like that? Anyway, this really upset Taz and she began her ultrasound very guarded. She also was a low-talker and had an accent that was extremely hard to understand.

Taz began the ultrasound without even showing me the screen. At this point, after getting her crazy negative vibes and having to pee so bad and having all kinds of issues just getting to the right place, I was seriously pissed. This went on for the first HALF of the ultrasound. Poor Tim. He was trying so hard to smooth my feathers, to watch the screen without making me more jealous of his vantage point, and most importantly, to talk to our obnoxious ultrasound lady and reassure her that we just want to see and get to know our kid! I guess she finally figured out, after about 25 minutes, that I was seriously angry and that if I wasn't going to cooperate, then neither would the baby. (Jellybean and I are already a tag-team.) Taz finally angled the screen a little better so that if I craned my neck, I could see a bit. Not a perfect solution, but we decided to cooperate.

Things went better after that. It was still a REALLY long ultrasound and I still had to pee and I now had a new issue, a crick in my neck, but at least it was cool to see our baby swallowing and moving and blood-pumping and all. Taz still didn't clue us in to what our baby's gender was, regardless of our reassuring her that we were thrilled either way. We just wanted to know what color onesies to buy. About an hour into the exam, she finally said, "Well I don't see a penis, so I guess it's a girl." Huh?!? "I guess" is not an answer. We asked her if she was pretty sure and she said she was. So, a girl! Although that was pretty anticlimactic, we were happy because now I'll have someone to play Barbies with and I already have tons of girl clothes from a library patron-friend of mine. Also my good friend Ann has all kinds of great girl stuff she wants to give me (she has twin girls). And little Emma will have a girl cousin about the same age difference away from her as I am with my big sister (Emma's momma)! All these things are going through our head.

As we are thinking about all the cool things about having a girl, Taz says to us "Oh. Wait a minute. What's this?" Huh?!? I am starting to become an emotional basket case on the exam table. Taz wasn't sure if she was seeing the umbilical cord or what. Tim and I are really getting mad that we have such an awful ultrasound technician. And finally Tim says why don't you go and get the radiologist. Thanks hunny... About an hour too late, but thanks.

So readers, are you sufficiently ready for the final outcome of Jellybean's gender?!? Have I gone on for long enough? (Did you really think I wasn't going to tell you?!?) Here goes: the radiologist comes in and takes a look at my belly with the ultrasound machine. Basically, she goes zip-zip with it and she says, within about 4 minutes, "Nope. That's no umbilical cord. You are having a boy! Look - there's his testicles!" Wha?!? A boy! I'm having a boy!!!

We went through the gambit Wednesday, but I'm thrilled! I was going to be happy about which ever gender Jellybean turned out to be, but honestly, Tim is right! If you read the post below, you'll know what I am talking about... I want to still be the queen of my household. I want to be adored! And now that I'm having a little boy, I am going to be adored by two men! How could it get much better than that?

And as a side note, my friend Christie is really happy about the outcome of today. Because now, her new baby daughter Julianne will have an eligible future prince charming. And our kingdoms will unite. (Or something like that!)

How about you, reader? Did you guess right?

The Big Reveal

So, today is the day when we find out if jellybean is a boy or a girl. It will be nice to have an answer for everyone who asks, "Is it a boy or a girl?" This is always the first question that comes out of someone's mouth when you tell them that you are having a baby. It seems like we have been waiting for this ultrasound for a long time. It's hard to believe that only four months ago we found out that we were pregnant, it seems a lot longer than that. What's really scary is that there are only four months left! Rather than counting up, we can start counting down for how many months and weeks are left until the little one makes an appearance.

I don't really know what I think it is, but Suzy is pretty sure that it is a girl. I think I would like for it to be a boy that way when we have a girl later on, she will have an older brother to take care of her and look after her. Really, I think that Suzy wants jellybean to be a boy, too. She may not admit it, but she has selfish reasons for wanting a boy. If we have a girl first, then she will be daddy's little girl and all of my attention/affection will be poured on her instead of Suzy. This is just crazy thinking. She wants a boy because then she will really be the queen around the house - adored by two guys instead of just one!

No matter what the news is, we're excited about the day. It's not every day that you find out what gender the next member of your family will be, now we just have to wait four months to meet the little one!

Crafty

Oh man. This girl has the cutest blog. I've gotten all kinds of great ideas from her. I can't wait till Wednesday to know if I'm having a "he" or "she" so I can start making fun things like this! Seeing this kind of fun stuff really is so inspiring to me. Tim and I went last week to a craft fair in Brooklyn and I picked up tons of cool ideas there too. It's crazy that people will spend big bucks for something you can easily make. And isn't it just more fun that way, too? When you make it? That way when people complement how great your kid looks and they ask you where ever you found such a thing, you can say "Oh, this old thing? Well, I made it." Then you become UBER- MOM.

19 Week Catch-Up

It's Thursday of my 19th week. Ahh yeah. I'm almost halfway there. This has been an UNBELIEVABLY hard week, though. I can't wait to enter into next week and just be done with this one. Good grief.

Today all of the hardships of the week finally just knocked me down. I have the worst cold ever. Can I tell you how badly it sucks to have a cold while pregnant?!? I can't take anything. (And, as a side note here, people telling me that they also have allergies or sinus problems just serves to make me even more mad - because THEY can take something for it.) My head feels like every opening in it is blocked. I'm surprised I am still able to get oxygen at this point. I've blown my nose so much today that it is red and chaffed. Yuck. This bites. Well, I figured something like this would happen though. My cold is a physical manifestation of the mental trauma from this work week. (Which I will not blog about.)

Anyway, I thought this picture was pretty funny and appropriate to post, considering I am heavily into "nesting" right now. It also shows me pretty growly, which I'm feeling that, too. Tim took it of me last spring at the NY Botanical Gardens.

Also funny is this excerpt from Frankly Pregnant by Stacy Quarty. It's crazy relevant to the way I feel this week.

While we are on the subject of not taking any flack, I should also mention that this too is another common symptom of pregnancy. Maybe it has something to do with hormones, but let me tell you, a pregnant woman is no one to mess with. If you have never been aggressive or confrontational, you may surprise yourself with how much nerve you have these days. Not only does road rage take on a new intensity, but getting into an argument seems to be more of a desirable challenge, especially to win at all costs no matter who the opponent is.

Oh my word, have I ever been testy. I mentioned my "work week" before, and believe me, I said things this week in a particular confrontation that I would have never said. I've surprised myself! But I will not be a victim, that is for sure. Anywho, on to next week!

Week 18 Pic

(Sorry I'm late in posting this... I am home sick today and so I got to play catch-up on all the Texas pictures from last week.)

I Couldn't Resist...

I love this store. Look what I just bought for jellybean!
Can you say adorable?!?