Girl Stand Still

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Blog Catch-Up

2012-01-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Since I have so many new readers, I thought I would acquaint everyone with the things I might refer to on the blog or the people and things and review some of the more noteworthy past events I've blogged about. So, first, the cast of characters.

Well, there's me, Mary.

I'm 33-years-old and am in my one millionth year of graduate school, pursuing a PhD in Biology. The good news is that I am submitting paperwork today (yay!) to graduate in May. The bad news is that I am attempting to write a dissertation while caring full-time for my three-month-old baby. But, I am 100% determined to do it.

Here I am doing my best scientist impersonation.

This is Jason, my husband.

He's also 33 and was an avid cyclist until he met me, got a full-time job, and had a baby.

Now he bikes when he can. So, if you wonder why there are so many bike references on the blog, such as in Elsa's nursery, it's because of him. He's in sales and he's really good at it. In fact, he was the top salesperson at his company last year and his success landed him a big promotion, which is awesome. I am so proud of him. He proposed to me in 2005 by surprising me on the beach at sunset while I was on vacation in Florida with my family.

I had no idea he had flown down and planned the event, aided by my family. We got married in June of 2007, while my dad was dying of lung cancer. Our wedding was as much a celebration of us as it was of my dad.

[Photo Credit: Robert George Photography]

This is Lola, my most high-maintenance charge.

She was gifted to me at Christmas 1999 by a former boyfriend. All you need to know about her is that I complain about her a lot, she screeches all the time for my attention, she enjoys laying eggs in her spare time, and she's completely insane.

Monty is my green-cheek conure and he is named after Mr. Burns.

I acquired him in 2001 as a baby bird. He could live THIRTY years. And he's a she, but we don't talk about it in front of him in order to avoid gender confusion. Monty is basically a giant hambone who wants nothing more than lots and lots and lots and lots of attention. He used to be a feather picker, but when we adopted our pit bull, Levi, he miraculously stopped. Monty talks a little bit, saying "hi, baby "who's my baby?" "Monty" "I love you" and I'm pretty sure I've heard him say "you're sweet." He's also an alcoholic.

Levi is my amazing pit bull, my heart, my love, whom we adopted in 2008.

While we sometimes joke that he was raised in a million dollar house because he acts superior to everyone and everything, he was actually rescued as a stray from north St. Louis, probably the most dangerous area in all of St. Louis. He was around two-years-old when we adopted him and he is NEVER GOING TO DIE. Did you know that? He's a magical vampire like that. The rescue group Stray Rescue of St. Louis found him on the streets. Jason and I volunteered with them from April of 2008 until four days before my water broke with Elsa. We walked shelter dogs every Thursday night and met more wonderful dogs than I can mention here. Cletus was one special one.

Volunteering introduced us to pit bulls and how wonderful they are. We are huge supporters of Stray Rescue and I was on hand when they took over the job of the city pound and became St. Louis city's no kill shelter. While we are not as active as we'd like to be due to life being crazy in general, I'd like to someday foster or start volunteering again.

Anyway, we have had numerous adventures with Levi. He has been through all the levels of obedience training with the Greater St. Louis Training Club, he has taken out both me and Jason (fracturing Jason's knee) when we dared not get out of the way of his zoomies, he has been on a million walks-in the snow, in the sun, in the city, in the county, he has endured holiday parties with celebrities, he has been in parades, and he has healed broken hearts. He has done it all! And he's amazing.

In 2010, Jason and I purchased our dream house [my favorite room, decorated for Christmas].

We had been living in a condo and had been dying to move for a long time. Even though we had the closing from hell, we got our house and love it more every day. Since it has already been rehabbed, we haven't done a lot of stuff to it, but we did revamp the yard last summer and, of course, created a nursery for Elsa.

Less than a week after closing on our house, we officially adopted Neptune.

My friend was fostering him and was holding onto him until we moved so that we could adopt him. Like Levi, Neptune was rescued as a stray, but from East St. Louis. He was in bad shape when they rescued him-severely underweight, covered in scars, and he had an abscess in his neck. But now he is happy as can be and is my little shadow. Even though he may not be as handsome as Levi, he is absolutely the sweetest dog on the planet. He wants nothing more than love. Truly. While I sometimes think Levi has ulterior motives for his actions, Neptune's motive is simple: please just love me; let's cuddle. Nonetheless, he still goes on adventures like Levi does and he is a pretty great, if reluctant, artist too.

And in case you were wondering, both dogs get along with the birds.

So, what else do you need to know? Let's see. I enjoy running, but have had my ups and downs with it and one painful body part or another (currently my ankles). I have run four half-marathons, always the one in the spring in downtown St. Louis. My best time is 1:49 and I don't think I'll ever be that fast (or skinny) again, but that's okay.

Jason and I have participated in two mini team triathlons, with me doing the swim and run and him doing the bike. One day we'll get Elsa in the water and she can do the swim.

Jason and I love to travel, but that mostly got benched when we bought our house. One of our most memorable trips was to Belize where we went diving with whale sharks.

We also like to hang around our house and do nothing, which is perfect since we love our house so much.

What else? I feel like I'm forgetting something...OH YEAH! I had a freaking BABY in October! Elsa Katherine, born 10/19.

We had always been on the fence about having kids, but decided to take the plunge in July of 2010. I finally got pregnant in January of 2011 and the rest is history.

I had an incredibly easy and wonderful pregnancy, but had a pretty traumatic labor and delivery, ending in the birth of a girl who I totally expected to be a boy. But, the important thing is that I have a healthy baby and she is so much more perfect and wonderful than I even could have imagined.

I pinch myself everyday because you can tell from reading this post, I have so many blessings. And I haven't even talked about extended family or friends. I also love cookies, booze, cheese goldfish, naps, and celebrity gossip.

I'm not sure what the future holds for me after I graduate, but these next few months, I'm going to enjoy my baby as much as I can while I write, write, write and finally earn that doctorate.

If you're still reading, is there anything else you'd like to know?

Hot or Not? Russell Brand

2012-01-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

Holy cow, it looks like I have a few new readers. Thanks to Lauren for the referral on her blog and welcome new readers! All the pressure to be entertaining now! Okay, we have't done a Hot or Not in almost two years! I think I feel somewhat guilty about judging people's looks, even though I do it all the time (and you know you do too!). But there's something about writing it down and putting it out there that makes me feel like a jerk. Because lord knows, I'm certainly not perfect in the looks department. But then I remembered the point of Hot or Not: trying to understand why some people find men attractive while those same men repulse other people. We pretty much all agreed Adam Levine is damn hot though.

So today I bring you Russell Brand! Clearly some people find him attractive. I mean, Katy Perry might have a terrible singing voice and her music makes me want to poke my eardrums with ice picks, but her body is unreal. She's hot, right? Even if they broke up, she saw something attractive in him.

And before Katy came along, he was apparently some sex addict and has slept with loads and loads of women. Even if some of them only liked him for his celebrity, surely some of them were actually attracted to him, right?

So, tell me what you think? Hot bad boy with just the right amount of scruff and grease? It's his sense of humor that turns you on, as with Andy Samberg? Maybe it's that accent? That unique sense of style?

Nah, I think he's pretty gross. Agree? Disagree? Discuss in the comments.

Verdict: NOT HOT!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

Babies Make Good Pillows

2012-01-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

I am a big advocate of setting your dog up for success. While I am not 100% perfect at this and haven't been in the past, I try not to put my dogs in situations where they might be uncomfortable. For instance, Levi can be nervous around strangers (though oddly, does great in large crowds), especially men, and very especially men that are doing funny things like using leaf blowers. I don't always have the ability to use every instance of a strange man using a leaf blower as a training opportunity, so instead of letting Levi get worked up, we cross the street, for example. Anyway, my point is that I try not to force uncomfortable situations on the dogs.

Now more than ever, I subscribe to this belief because of Elsa. While I don't ever think either dog would ever harm her, I would never take the chance. I never ever leave them alone with her for even a second. If I have to use the bathroom, she goes into a room where I can shut the door to separate her from the dogs. All interactions are 100% supervised. After all, Neptune can get mouthy when excited so he might unintentionally nip her. Or they might accidentally step on her while she's on the floor, so I want to be right there just in case. I don't believe in laying a baby on a dog for a cute photo op. I believe all interactions between dog and baby should be initiated by the dog and the dog should have the freedom to leave the interaction when/if it becomes too uncomfortable. I want all interactions between the dogs and Elsa to be positive ones.

So on this cold snowy morning, Elsa woke up for the day just before 7:00. Since it was so cold, I brought her into bed for snuggles and so that she could talk to the fan and the lights. And for the Mommy Police, we were not going to sleep. I realize there are a million suffocation hazards in the bed-we were just playing. Jason lets the dogs out and feeds them before he goes to work, then they come get back in bed. I decided to let them in bed this morning even though Elsa was in there. As usual, they like to cuddle right up with me.

Well, Levi decided that he wasn't close enough to the action, so he leaned back to use Elsa as a pillow. And then my heart melted into a giant puddle of AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWs. I took a few pictures with my iPod, but fortunately, the camera was on the dresser, so I managed to capture this moment with better photos.

Elsa has somewhat noticed the dogs, but I think this is one of the first times she has REALLY noticed one of them. It's hard not to when Levi's big ol' head is resting on her. She was so excited and smiling and looking at him. She was petting him. Oh my god, I about died. That's why I had to immediately write this blog post when I should be writing my dissertation. Oops.

This just reminds me of how much I love my Big Dog. Sure, he can be a total asshole on walks, but he really is a gentle soul. He just knows. He gets it. I don't know how else to describe it. The thought of Elsa growing up with him and Neptune just makes me think how lucky we are to have them in our lives and in her life. I love that she will grow up having a loving relationship with a pit bull. I love that she will grow up with "throwaway" dogs as her best friends. I can't wait to continue to see her notice them, pet them, say their names, drop her food for them, throw a toy for Neptune, ask them to sit, read books to them, do her homework next to them. Okay, now I'm a blubbering mess. I think this is just the start of many memories yet to be made.

Christmas Recap by Levi

2012-01-06T08:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since mom has let me take over blogging duties for her. The tiny human is sucking up all her time these days. You would think that when it sleeps mom would give me the attention I deserve, but all she does is type at her computer. Well, I managed to pry the computer away from her long enough to tell you about Christmas this year. I wasn't expecting much because of the tiny human's presence, but it ended up being pretty great! In the weeks before Christmas, I knew mom was up to something because she would come home with packages that smelled delicious. She wouldn't let me investigate and would immediately put them up in the treat cabinet. Why she just didn't let me have a taste of anything was beyond me.

One day a package came all the way from Maine addressed to Mr. Levi and Mr. Neptune. I asked mom if I could open it, but she said I have to wait until Christmas. Seriously, this "Christmas" thing is a real tease. Finally one day we all piled up in the car with tons of presents and foodables and made our way over to mom's mom's house (Nanny's house). I love to go over there because I lived there for six months and Nanny always sneaks me food at the table (a no-no at home) and the whole house smells like kitties even though I can never find the one that lives there.

It was unbearable waiting to open my present. I had to watch all the humans stuff their faces. Dad even made Neptune and me wait outside. The indignity! I would like you to know that in my Million Dollar House, Christmas revolved around ME. I sat in a gold throne while my manservant handfed me the finest cuisine: Kobe beef, lobster, pate, bully sticks, bacon-everything a dog like me deserves. After dinner I was given a full-body massage on my Frette 10,000 thread count linens (not the ones for sleeping, the ones for my massages) until I retired in front of the flat-screen plasma TV for a private screening of Hotel for Dogs. But I digress.

Dad FINALLY opened the package addressed to Mr. Levi and Mr. Neptune and showed us the homemade treats Aunt P sent us. Homemade treats are exactly what I deserve-no commercial stuff for this dog. Some of them were in the shapes of stars and some in the shapes of birds, which I appreciated. I closed my eyes and pretended they were those two birds at home that constantly irritate me. Anyway, here I am enjoying my homemade treats. Oh yeah, I had to share with Neptune.

See how polite I am while Neptune is standing there like a dummy? It's because of my refined background living in my Million Dollar House. I have manners, you know.

Here I am delicately taking the treat. I am both gentle and genteel.

Here Dad is making us work for our treats. I play along because it makes him happy.

The next morning was actually Christmas morning. The good smelling items from the cabinet magically made their way to a stocking. I have to share a stocking with Neptune. Can you believe that? I'd like you to know that in my Million Dollar House, I had 24 stockings, one for each hour of the day on Christmas. At the top of the hour, my manservant would rouse me from my slumber and present to me a stocking embroidered with my name from thread spun from pure gold. The stockings themselves were woven with hair from the finest cashmere goats by only the most skilled Tibetan monks. And here I am now in my dumpy house with my idiot brother and I have to share a stocking with him. But I digress.

Here I am once again demonstrating my good manners while Neptune pushes me aside for first dibs on the toy.

And what's this? A new antler? Even though I chewed on antlers from only extinct Artiodactyls in my Million Dollar House, I admit the antler from a common deer made me happy.

What else is in that stocking? Neptune keeps taking everything.

A Zuke's bone? Don't mind if I do!

Oh good, there appears to be two of them so I don't have to share.

Okay, okay. So the idiot brother is capable of SOME manners, but only because he learned them from me.

And since I am such a gentleman, I allowed Neptune to have first crack at the new antler. We received some other goodies in our stocking, but mom didn't photograph every last thing.

I guess it was a pretty good Christmas after all. I was included in all the festivities on both days and I received lots of goodies. Sure, it doesn't compare to Christmas at my Million Dollar House, but I admit having a mom and dad who dote on me is marginally better than a manservant.

Wordless Wednesday: Getting the hang of the new lens

2012-01-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Elsa: Two Months

2012-01-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Blog note: I didn't mean to offend anyone in my last post. I was just trying to be honest about my pospartum journey with my body and exercise. I have been candid about my past struggles with weight and running has been a large factor in the lifestyle changes I made to be healthier. I have been running for many years now and worked hard to get to the pace I was accustomed to. I realize I may not necessarily be slow, but it is not easy to regress. Does that make sense? I didn't intend for my post to come across rude or condescending. I apologize if it did.

So, I am once again so behind because Elsa turned two months old on Dec. 19. She had her two-month pedi appointment on her actual two month birthday. Here are her stats: 12lb7oz (85th percentile), 24" long (93rd percentile), and her head was 15.04" (37th percentile). She's certainly growing fast! I had been absolutely dreading her two-month shots and MY tears started when the nurse brought them into the room. Two in each leg. I just squatted down next to her, held her little hand, looked into those big eyes, and tried to comfort her. It was so sad:( I nursed her immediately after and she calmed down right away. She ended up sleeping most of the day and I felt fortunate that she did not get super-fussy, the reaction that some babies have.

Elsa is such a good little baby. We are so blessed. She is so patient (not sure where she got that because neither Jason nor I are patient) and easy-going. She never fusses or cries when we fumble with her clothes or her diapers. She continues to be easy to comfort when she is upset. She sometimes gets worked up in her car seat if we are not moving or if the car is stopped at a red light. She also gets fussy when we give her a bottle, but she is getting better. Jason gives her a bottle most nights and some nights are better than others. I probably should have started her on the bottle sooner, but that first month just flies by and you are figuring out how to breastfeed and are so tired. Plus, I have to pump when she gets a bottle and pumping is such a pain compared to just whipping out your boob. But, I am building a small freezer stash and she obviously needs to take a bottle so that I can go out and do things.

She has started to give really big gummy smiles and "talks" to you. Nothing is cuter, let me tell you, than when your baby starts to interact with you. Even in the middle of the night when you're ass tired, she gives you that big ol' smile and your heart explodes. Once again, I have a mix of nice photos from the camera with ones from the iPod. Speaking of cameras, we got a new lens, a 50mm/1.8G, in order to get better portrait photos.

In spite of my best efforts to keep them trimmed, Elsa's nails grow superfast and she managed to majorly scratch herself. Most of the photos from month two of her life will prominently feature her giant scratch.

Practicing tummy time:

Elsa is really starting to notice her surroundings and bats at the toys hanging from her activity mat. She entertains herself on her mat if I need to pump or do chores or whatnot.

We celebrated the first Thanksgiving of Elsa's life at my mom's house with her cousins.

She took her first ride in the Chariot at Forest Park with the dogs.

And when we go places with her and the dogs, she has her guardian pit bull watching over her.

Sleep has been pretty good at night and so-so during the day. Her first stretch of the night is the longest and might even be seven hours. She is a sleepy little lady in the evening and usually goes to bed between 7-8. Then she gets up once or twice/night and wakes up between 6-7. Naps are another story. No matter how soundly she appears to be sleeping in my arms, she wakes up when I put her down for a nap. So, she spends a lot of time sleeping in the Moby and she also sleeps in her swing. Since I eased back into work at 6w postpartum, I need her to sleep so that I can work and if she only sleeps in the Moby, that's where I will put her. I really love to snuggle with her, so I'm not complaining if I wear her in the Moby.

My brother and sister-in-law sent her an adorable onesie all the way from Maine, perfect for Elsa's hipster urban lifestyle.

And we took her to pick out her first Christmas tree, also the first one we've gotten as a couple.

We've snuggled in bed for naps.

Where I stared at her while she slept and wondered how I got so lucky.

Elsa went to her first soiree, an engagement party for Jason's coworker.

She made funny faces that we couldn't resist capturing every one of.

And I made her pose in front of the Christmas tree.

Happy two months to my sweet angel. I love you and those chubby cheeks more each day.

Postpartum Running Observations

2011-12-31T06:06:00.000-08:00

I received the go-ahead from my OB at seven weeks postpartum that I could start running again. Here are some observations and notes thus far:

I feel like I'm starting completely over. It's painful.
I'm slow and I can't go very far. My farthest distance so far is 3.5 miles and I average around a 9:30-9:45/mile pace:(
My back hurts. My ankles and feet hurt, and the night after my first run, my back and hip pain kept me up. It was like being nine months pregnant again.
I have missed the alone time running gives me. I had forgotten how I like to get some good thinking done during those times.
I almost kissed the pediatrician when he told me I could start running with Elsa when she turned two months. [I showed him the literature for the stroller and infant sling we have for it] No excuses now to not get back into shape.
Speaking of the Chariot, it's totally amazing and unbelievably smooth and easy to push. Until you go uphill, that is, and while your baby is only 12lb.
Here are the bad thoughts going through my head:

-I hate being slow

-I hate being out of shape

-I hate the way my thighs rub together

-Why is my body so achy?

-I hate having to take walking breaks

-I hate that my clothes don't fit.

-I can deal with a tummy, but I hate my new thighs and butt.

Here's what I have to remind myself of:

-I JUST had a baby that I grew inside of my body.

-That is more amazing than any amount of running.

-Not only that, I had major abdominal surgery only 10 weeks ago

-I haven't had a full night of sleep in months

-I only got the okay to exercise three short weeks ago

-I stopped running at 31 weeks pregnant, so it's been awhile

-Cut yourself some slack, woman!

-Things WILL get easier, you just have to start somewhere

I need a few new really supportive sports bras. The ones I have now do not cut it.
I'm going to register for the half-marathon here in April. I have completed it four times. I don't plan on breaking my personal record of 1:49, but I want to complete it.
But one day, I will beat my PR.
Last week I only ran once. This week, I ran three times for 10 miles. Progress is slow, but sure.
I want to be a good role model for this little girl, and being active is just one value I hope to instill in her.

Other running moms, how did it feel for you to ease back in postpartum? It gets easier, right?

Wordless Wednesday: Elsa's Pit Bull Appreciation

2011-12-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Joline for the green onesie and to Two Pitties in the City for the white BadRap onesie!

C-section recovery and my 6w postpartum body

2011-12-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this turned out to be very long. I'm trying to cram these posts in before too much time passes and I forget everything!

I'm a little behind (shocker!), but six weeks has passed since I had my C-section to deliver Elsa. One reason I didn't want a C-section was because I was scared of the recovery, which has turned out to be both easier and harder than I expected. But let's go back to the beginning.

Immediately after surgery, I experienced the shakes like many people do after being given so many drugs. My body shook pretty violently and uncontrollably, making it difficult to even hold Elsa. When I was brought back to my room, the nurses covered me with warm blankets which felt heavenly. I was so unbelievably tired from essentially being awake for 48 hours and everything my body had endured, I could barely keep my eyes open when our families came to visit. My eyelids felt like weights were tugging them down and no matter how much I wanted to talk to everyone and enjoy this time as a new mom, I kept falling asleep. This is how Elsa and I felt after 30+ hours of labor and delivery.

But in a few short days, we felt like this!

One thing I did manage to do shortly after delivery was attempt to breastfeed. I had wanted to do skin-to-skin contact immediately after delivery, but that wasn't possible with the C-section. So, the nurses helped me back in my labor room. Since I has no modesty left at this point (I mean, these nurses clean all the fluids of labor from every nook and cranny of your body), I allowed them to teach me how to breastfeed. There aren't words to describe how remarkable it is that your baby basically just knows what to do. I mean, as mammals, I know that it's normal for that to happen, but it's still amazing nonetheless. She just knew to latch on and we have been fortunate that she has been latching on like a champ ever since. Having my Boppy body pillow at the hospital really helped me be comfortable while breastfeeding.

Some people say that C-section moms have trouble breastfeeding but that has not been my experience at all. I know that we are VERY lucky and the ease with which I've been able to breastfeed might be the exception rather than the rule. I am grateful every day that it has gone so well for us so far. We did have a problem in the hospital with Elsa losing weight. Weight loss is normal in newborns, but she was over the 10% acceptable level of loss and had her high bilirubin levels. Babies have to poop that bilirubin out and the only way to poop is to eat. Before my milk came in, she just wasn't getting enough. So, I did supplement with formula for one day, giving it to her while she was nursing with a skinny little tube tucked in the corner of her mouth and administered with a syringe. It was such a pain to prepare all that and clean it all myself since I was sleeping alone at that point, but it was worth it. The next day, I pumped after feedings to get even that extra .5mL of colostrum to give to her at the next feeding. After that, she was gaining again and her bilirubin levels were rising, so I could nurse on demand! Hooray!

I haven't even really had horribly sore nipples. I mean, it's uncomfortable in the beginning while your nipples are getting used to it all. I had a nurse at the hospital who probably saved my boobs by coming in with lanolin and nipple shells. I was diligent about using those and I really think that made the difference early on. I would highly recommend these to new mothers to help ease their breasts through the early nursing days. I had a few episodes of plugged ducts in the first few weeks, but with heat, massage, and pumping, I managed to avoid a full-blown case of mastitis.

So, back to the C-section recovery. Apparently the key to a quick recovery is getting up as soon as possible. That first night, with the help of my mom (Jason slept at home with the boys the whole time I was in the hospital to preserve some sense of normalcy for them) and one of the spectacular nurses, I got out of bed just to stand for a minute. I'm not going to lie, it was really painful. For someone who is used to being active, it was a strange feeling to be so incapacitated, to move so slowly and be in so much pain and to need help moving. They gave me a small, firm pillow to press into my incision for when I did things like stand or move or cough. I definitely made good use of that little pillow, which they let you take home. Simply standing was enough for the first night.

Besides pain, I was battling hunger. The night I went into labor, I ate a sweet potato for dinner and then had a granola bar on the way to the hospital. I wasn't allowed to eat until the day after I delivered. So, I didn't eat Tuesday or Wednesday. I was HONGRAY by the time Thursday rolled around. I was also really thirsty and everything felt dry-my nose and eyes in particular. That's why my nose looked so red after I delivered-I was constantly rubbing it and my cold sore was still healing. I could only have ice chips at first and I ate so many of those things. I am a water guzzler by nature and it was really awful to not be able to just down a big glass. Jason brought me a big bagel from Bread Company when I could finally eat again and it hit the spot more than every one I had ever eaten to ease a wicked hangover.

On Thursday, great things happened! I got to eat, drink, and my catheter came out. I was scared it would hurt to remove it since I had the epidural when they put it in, but it didn't hurt at all. I was finally free of tubes and tape and monitors and it felt awesome. Which meant that I got to take a shower! Best. Shower. Ever. The pain in my incision felt better each time I moved, so that was the motivation I needed to just push through the pain and get out of bed. You can see that my goal for the day included eating an unrestricted diet and moving more.

Sadly, my goal for myself was to remember my baby's name since I turned to Jason countless times during those first few days and asked him what our baby's name was. My mom finally wrote it on the board for me, only in half-jest, I think. For some reason, I could not remember her name for the life of me. I don't know if it's because we didn't put Elsa on the name list until about a week before delivery or because of the drugs or because I was expecting a boy or what. I also kept calling her Eve, my niece's name. Oh well, close enough.

I also thought everything was hysterically funny, which doesn't really go well with a C-section incision. My sister brought me dinner one night (complete with real plates and napkins!) and I thought I was going to bust a stitch.

Jason told me I never laughed so much at what he said. I wonder if it was the drugs or the hormones or a combination of both, but I guess it beats being sad. Speaking of which, I didn't really get the blues those first few weeks. When we got home from the hospital, I took a nap and when I got into bed, I just cried thinking about how little and sweet she was in her going-home outfit and how she would get big. I just wanted her to be little forever. But that was my only major breakdown.

So, I was in the hospital until Sunday and was very ready to go home. I spent most of my day standing and walking around my room in those days at the hospital. I had this vision of going home on Sunday and walking the dogs and Elsa, but the discharge doctor squashed that hope. She told me no activity for TWO WEEKS! No walks around the block even. My OB had already told me I couldn't personally walk the dogs until my six-week appointment because they could rip my incision if they pulled, but I thought I'd be able to at least take walks with them. No such luck. I felt really good, but she reminded me that I just had major abdominal surgery and I needed to take it easy.

So, I did nothing those first two weeks. I mean, I did stairs a lot and some light housework like laundry and cooking, but I wasn't allowed to carry anything other than Elsa and I couldn't drive. I was totally housebound. It was kind of demoralizing to be cooped up inside during the prettiest time of the year, but Jason took me on a long car ride one Sunday to look at the fall foliage. I also had a nice stream of visitors to keep my occupied. Between my sister and my mom, we were very well-fed. A well-fed Jason = a happy Jason = a happy Mary. At my two week postpartum appt, I was cleared for driving and light activity, meaning I could take 15min walks. I admit I have gone over that time limit, but I have not done any other activity besides that.

So, let's talk about the postpartum body. When I got home from the hospital, I weighed myself right away. I was expecting a pretty dramatic weight loss, but I had only lost about 9lb. I'm not sure of my total weight gain since I weighed myself on Tuesdays and I went into labor early Tuesday morning, but I think my final gain was right at 30lb or a little less. I was still retaining a lot of water when I got home from the hospital. My thighs were huge and my ladyparts were also swollen from being in bed so long. I thought maybe my thighs had just gotten that fat during pregnancy and I didn't notice because my belly was so big, but thank goodness my thighs went back to normal those first few days home. The other big change was in my boobs. My milk came in Saturday night and holy cow, did my boobs ever grow! It was like I woke up in the middle of the night and had breast implants. The size has somewhat normalized in the last six weeks as my supply regulates, but I guess they won't go back to normal until I stop breastfeeding.

The weight just started to melt off of me, thanks to breastfeeding, I imagine. In spite of pretty much eating nonstop and whatever I wanted (Halloween candy, yes please), I was down to 5lb above my pre-pregnancy weight by 3w postpartum. Now, my shape is certainly not the same. I can button some of my pre-preg jeans, but they are snug and I have a major muffin top. I was also 5lb above my goal weight when I got pregnant and a lot of my jeans were already snug in the thighs and butt because I hadn't been running. Between moving late last November and then a knee injury, my fitness was just not what it usually is. So, a lot of my clothes are snug before I even try to button them. I have a lot of work to do. I am very soft and my ab muscles are nonexistent. However, I am pretty thrilled with my weight loss, especially since I haven't been able to exercise, and am not going to complain. I miraculously managed to escape this pregnancy without varicose veins or stretch marks. My labor and delivery might have been traumatic, but I must say I am pretty lucky overall. And the most important thing is that I have a healthy baby and I have recovered fairly quickly.

At 5w postpartum, I did notice my incision was suddenly very swollen again and painful. I went in to see the NP at my OB's office to make sure nothing was infected. I was feeling kind of depressed about this turn of events because I was so close to my 7w appt in which I was hoping to be cleared for exercise and being normal again. I was afraid she would limit my activity to nothing like in those first two weeks. Luckily, she didn't think it was anything too serious and didn't limit my activities more than they already are. Two days later, my incision was looking great. It's so small, I still can't believe a baby came out of there. It's really low too, so if I do get my body back, I'll be able to wear a bikini again.

So, the big day is Wednesday! I hope to get cleared for all activities like running and bathing and yoga! I can't wait to be able to walk the dogs again and give poor Jason some relief. He needs it. My advice for anyone recovering from a C-section would be:

Get up as soon as they let you and continue to move around as much as allowed
Take your pain meds at the hospital as often as you can. Remind your nurses and tell each nurse as she comes on shift that you want them as often as possible.
Use a firm pillow to cushion your incision when you cough, sneeze, move, or stand.
Eat fiber after you deliver because you are going to want to get that first poop out ASAP. I'm sure it's not as painful as it would be if you delivered vaginally, but it's definitely not fun. And nothing is sadder than when pooping isn't fun anymore.
Take your stool softener and your gas pills as often as you can. Besides simply recovering from being cut open and having a baby ripped out of you, gas can really make your incision painful. So, avoid foods that make you gassy and take the pills, people.
Be patient with your recovery. It has killed me to take it easy for nearly seven weeks, but it's not worth overdoing it and ripping open your incision or getting a hernia. I can exercise when they clear me, I just need to be patient. I repeat this to myself daily.
Any other tips from C-section moms? Leave them in the comments!

Okay, let's go through these body pictures, shall we? Once again, here I am at 5w pregnant.

I don't have a 40w picture since I was in the hospital right at 40w, but here is my 39w picture.

And one from the Botanical Garden from the Sunday before I delivered. Now THAT is a belly!

Two weeks postpartum:

Three weeks postpartum:

Six weeks postpartum:

THIS makes all the changes and sacrifices worthwhile!

Neptune's Toxic Bottom

2011-11-28T17:13:00.000-08:00

Jason told me that I need to curb the cursing with the baby around, hence the title of this post. However, she cannot read yet, so fuck that! I love my Neptune, but he is kind of a gross dog. He is the most gaseous creature I've ever encountered. He is constantly belching and farting and sometimes his burps sound like a bullfrog who just did a record-breaking keg stand. I have learned to deal with his gas. What is harder to live with is his ass juice. His anal glands. And the fact that his breath constantly stinks of ass because he's a dog and dogs lick their buttholes. This is not to be confused with Levi's breath which smells like the inside of a dumpster. Yes, I need to brush their teeth, don't I? Anyway, I do not accept face kisses from Neptune, which is kind of sad, because he loves nothing more than giving kisses and he is just about the sweetest dog on the planet. Jason took him to the vet last weekend for his annual visit and the vet didn't really have much advice for us. I guess he just needs to work it out, so to speak. Unfortunately, he works it out on the carpet in the nursery or on the couch slipcover. Thank goodness for slipcovers!

But nothing compares to what happened the other day. Now that I am pretty much home all day with Elsa, the dogs have turned into total slugs. Jason lets them out in the morning, but Levi doesn't even leave the porch. Following breakfast, they run back upstairs and into bed. In bed they stay all morning, snoozing away. I walked into the bedroom the other morning and was hit in the face with that familiar smell of Neptune's ass juice. Great. I inspected under his butt and found a freaking puddle of the stuff on our bed. GROSS!!! I immediately stripped the duvet cover off the duvet and threw it in the wash. This incident combined with Lola's nonstop screaming was just the push I needed to leave the house.

When I told Jason about the incident that evening, we went up to inspect. Not only had the juices soaked through the sheet we keep on top of the bed to protect our nice (ha) bedding, it had soaked through the duvet cover, the duvet, the blanket, the top sheet, the fitted sheet, the mattress pad, the cover we put on the mattress to keep the dust mites out (or in?), and into the mattress. That is some potent shit. Jason febreezed the hell out of the mattress. The worst part was that I has just done about eight million loads of laundry just days before when we swapped out the summer bedding for the winter bedding. And tell me what is more tedious than stuffing a duvet into its cover? And for the record, it took THREE washes to get the smell out of the duvet. I can only hope that Neptune's anal glads are drained for the time being and that the next time they let loose, he is not on our bed. Or on any of our furniture. I just love snuggling with the little guy so much, I don't have the heart to kick him out. How can anyone possibly resist these faces?

Elsa: One Month

2011-11-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

It’s so hard to believe it has already been a month since Elsa came into our lives. On the one hand, it seems like just yesterday that we met our sweet baby. On the other hand, it feels like ages have passed. She has grown a lot in this last month. She weighed 8lb at birth, dropped to 7lb3oz while in the hospital, but was back to her birth weight at 1 week. I stepped on the scale with her earlier this week and though not as exact as a doctor's scale, mine showed her weighing a whopping 11lb!!! She looks gigantic now to me. How can a baby simultaneously have no chin and 10 chins? I guess that means breastfeeding is going well.

My little peanut in her going home from the hospital outfit.

To the chunker she is now!

I have asked everyone if a breastfed baby can be too fat, and they assure me, that no, she cannot.

Elsa's activities are pretty limited right now since she is so young. There are the obvious things like eat, sleep, and poop. During her awake times, I put her on her activity mat and she looks at the toys dangling above her. Or, she sits in her bouncy chair and stares out the window. I spend a lot of time talking to her, which she seems to like. I swear I have gotten a smile out of her a few times. The changing pad is her "smiley" place. She also enjoys looking around her nursery, especially finding the light coming in through the window. Both Jason and I have worn her in theMoby Wrap, which she likes for the most part. Sometimes she doesn't like her head covered because she just wants to look around (Some of these photos aren't great quality because I took them with my iPod. I email Jason a picture of Elsa every day when he's at work).

Since she's too young to be on a schedule, we're just letting her dictate how the day goes in terms of eating and sleeping. I am breastfeeding her, which has been going smoothly so far other than a few episodes of clogged ducts. I love our time together during our breastfeeding sessions and cherish those quiet moments snuggling. I know she is getting enough to eat because of her incredible weight gain and her chipmunk cheeks. I have pumped a few times to start a small freezer stash so I can do things like get my hair colored or go out to dinner with Jason. She is sort of iffy on the bottle right now, so we will just have to keep at it.

Sleep is going...fine. It's just as I would expect with a newborn. Once we left the hospital, we kept her in our room where she slept in the newborn napper attachment of the Pack N Play. We swaddled her up tight (Jason is the master of swaddling) and that first week, she would only get up once or twice/night. Now some nights are better than others. She will typically get up after 2.5 hours max, but she has had two five-hour stretches when we first put her to sleep in the early evening. I wish she would do one of those in the middle of the night! Sometimes she goes back down easily and sometimes it's an hour or more of soothing. She is also the noisiest little sleeper ever and grunts loudly, which keeps us up. It can be rough.

I got so exhausted and run down one day that I was too weak to carry her around and take care of her, so sadly, my own mom had to come over and take care of me so I could take care of Elsa. There is nothing like real food and a two-hour nap to make you feel like a new woman. You just nap so much better when you don't have a baby or a dog or a baby monitor in the room and know someone else is taking care of the baby!

In the last week or so, we've been putting her in her crib to sleep. I know some people think that's a terrible thing to do to a baby so small, but honestly, she sleeps better in there. All of her long stretches have been in her crib. She doesn't have to listen to us making noise during the night and most importantly, doesn't have to listen to Neptune snoring away! Since the dogs are still sleeping in our bed, it's been very easy to resist the temptation to bring her into bed with us!

During the day, she sleeps pretty much anywhere-in our arms, in her Rock N Play, in the Moby, in her crib, etc. She is very easy to soothe, so I have really not felt overwhelmed at any point. If she cries, it's usually caused by an easy-to-identify factor: she wants to be picked up, she is hungry, she is overtired, or she wants you to walk around because she likes the movement. There has never been a time (knock on wood) in which we haven't been able to soothe her pretty easily. That being said, she will fight sleep, so while she's not crying or fussing, she won't go to sleep and we can't put her down while she is awake.

After her cord fell off, we were able to give her her first real bath, which she LOVED. Now we bathe her every other night in the evening and give her a little massage with lotion before we put on her jammies and get her ready for bed. While I don't believe in scheduling for a newborn, I do think it's not too early to start routines with her. I also think she sleeps better on nights when she has her bath, but I'm afraid if I give her one every night, her skin will dry out.

We started cloth diapering almost immediately after getting home from the hospital and I can't say enough good things about it! We are using Green Mountain Diaper prefolds with eitherThirsties or Bummis covers. I think she's getting close to being big enough for the one-size diapers. We are also using baby washcloths as wipes and just using water with a few drops of Dr. Bronner soap in the bottle for wiping her down. I love doing cloth and find it very easy. I just do the laundry every other day (we use Nellie's detergent), no big deal. With the sheer number of diapers we go through, I can't imagine using disposable and creating the waste that goes along with that. I know cloth diapering isn't the perfect ecological solution since you use so much water to wash them, but it's a nice alternative. And since my sister gave us a box of newborn sized disposables that we used at night for the first few weeks, we have not had to spend one penny on disposable diapers.

Elsa has been so spoiled by all of our loved ones. She has been given so many lovely gifts, including books, clothes, toys, and a friend from school even made her a beautiful blanket. It's so touching to see how many people already love our little girl! My sister has also passed on an eye-popping amount of clothing. Elsa is one stylish baby. I admit I love choosing her outfit every morning and am sad to say that some of her newborn clothes are already too small. Sob. I blame it on the extra-cushioning from the cloth diapers. It's not because my tiny little peanut is getting big, right?

This outfit just shrunk in the dryer, I'm sure.

Some of her other stylish outfits, including her Halloween attire.

I confess I am loathe to leave the house with her and probably spend way too much time cooped up inside. I was not permitted to even take a walk until two week postpartum and then the weather got cold, and I got lazy, and sometimes it's just easier to stay at home. I am making more of an effort these days to leave the house with her. We have seen her cousins multiple times and it is wonderful to see how much they love Elsa already. My oldest nephew has a magic head-rubbing technique that makes Elsa purr like a cat. It's hilarious. Elsa is gaining on my niece who is a mere 4.5 months her senior. Their size difference was laughably enormous in the beginning, but it won't be long before they are playing together and making mischief. Elsa also visits with both her grandmas every week and my mom even stayed with her on her one-month birthday so Jason and I could go out to celebrate his 33rd birthday. And Elsa survived without me for two whole hours!

Elsa and Eve shortly after Elsa's birth.

Elsa with her other cousins.

Practicing the magical head stroke;

I guess that about sums up life with little Elsa in the first month! I want to do two more posts about my physical recovery and how the dogs (and birds) are coping with all of the competition for our attention. We love our little girl so much. I can't stop staring at her and am in total disbelief that I am now responsible for this little person. It's scary and exhilarating at the same time. I can't wait to watch her grow and get to know her little personality. Hopefully I don't fuck her up too badly. She's such a clean slate in a way, I just hope I can raise a relatively well-adjusted person that doesn't need therapy in 15 years because of my parenting skills or lack thereof. Luckily, I have already found that I have stores of patience I never knew I had and my heart has grown larger than I ever thought it could. I am so thankful for every member of my family, even, er, Lola, and I am eager to see what life brings us in month two!

Elsa's Birth Story

2011-11-13T12:40:00.000-08:00

It only took me four weeks to write it up! It's the longest story ever, lol. I know I haven't been blogging much, but we're all doing really great! Elsa is the sweetest and most wonderful little girl everJ

Warning: this post contains words like cervix and talks about bodily fluids and labor and delivery. If you are offended by such words or if you are a family member who doesn't wish to imagine my cervix opening, feel free to close this post and wait for another one with cute baby pictures.

The day before Elsa's due date was Monday, October 17th. I had an appointment with my OB that day in which an internal was performed to check my progress. Just like my last few internals indicated, no progress had been made-zero dilation and zero effacement. I was prepared to keep cooking this baby until at least 41 weeks, so I wasn't too disappointed. Nonetheless, we discussed our plan of action for the next week: schedule an ultrasound for Friday and another appointment for the following Monday to check for progress. If I was dilated, we would induce that day, but if I still wasn't dilated, we would try to wait a few more days in order to attempt induction when my cervix would be more favorable.

I felt pretty crummy that whole Monday. Jason had been sick with a cold the previous week and it was clear that I was now coming down with it. I spent most of the day resting and in bed and noticed that Levi was absolutely on top of me all day. In fact, here is proof. This picture was taken just hours before my water broke. Here we are, hanging out on the couch with my giant belly! At this point, I thought this baby was days, if not at least a week away. It's impossible to say for sure whether he sensed some sort of hormonal change in me, but all I can say is that I do believe dogs can have a sixth sense about such things.

I went to bed at the usual time, between 10-11 and did my usual pee shortly thereafter routine. I woke up really sweaty. At 1:30, I woke up again to pee and noticed that the thin pad I was wearing was soaked. Not wanting to get my hopes up, I thought it could just be from being so sweaty all night. So, I just kind of hung out in the bathroom to see what would happen next. I kept having little episodes of wetness and eventually couldn't deny the fact that my water was leaking, though not exactly gushing.

I woke Jason up and told him it was time! Since I was positive for Group B Strep, I had been instructed to go to the hospital immediately if my water breaks so that I can start the first course of antibiotics. While it would have been nice to labor at home, it wasn't possible in this case. So, I took a quick shower and packed my hospital bag. Jason was very business-like about everything. Neither of us was jumping for joy, just sort of going through the motions, likely in disbelief that we would soon be meeting our baby. I couldn't be 100% sure that my water had broken since it wasn't gushing and I was nervous that we would get there and they would tell us to go back home.

Our plan was that if I went into labor in the middle of the night, we would just put the dogs in their room and call my mom first thing in the morning to go over and feed them/let them out. They were really confused why we were getting them up in the middle of the night. I kissed and loved on them one last time before we were off to the hospital.

When we arrived at L&D around 2:30am, we checked in before being taken to an intake room. I was instructed to get naked from the waist down and I waited in bed...where my water REALLY broke. It gushed and it felt really weird and kind of gross. The nurse came in and confirmed that yes, my water had broken and I would not be leaving the hospital without a baby. Okay, this was the real deal. She also observed that there was meconium in my water, another strike against me in the labor process. My IV was put into place and pitocin and the antibiotics to treat the GBS were started at 3:00. At this point, we went to the room I would labor in and Jason and I tried to process that this was really happening!

I was hooked up to two monitors that essentially went around my belly: an external monitor that measured the baby's heart rate and another monitor that indicated when a contraction was occurring, but not the strength. The fetal HR monitor was so annoying because it would not stay in the same place and we constantly had to readjust it to ensure it was doing its job.

My OB was actually at the hospital delivering a baby when we checked in. She came by to see me and I was disappointed that Tuesday was her off day and that neither she nor the other doctors in the practice would be on-call that day. Instead, their associate whom I had never met would be delivering the baby. She assured me that the doctor is very nice and I was good hands. Little did I know I would STILL be pregnant in that room over 30 hours later and my OB would deliver my baby after all! She ordered few internals due to be GBS+ and indeed I did not have one when I checked in.

The night was rather uneventful. We tried to sleep, but how do you go to sleep in that situation? As soon as it was acceptable, I made phone calls and texts to a few friends to let everyone know that our baby was on its way. Then I finally had my first internal at 11:30 am, 10 hours after my water broke. Guess what? No progress! At all. Great. Not to mention the fact that the internal was incredibly painful. The ones I had at the doctor's office weren't bad at all, but it felt like the nurse had two fists up my vadge and was rummaging around in there searching for my apparently shy and posterior cervix.

I braced myself for another equally painful internal at 3:00pm. Still no progress, but the baby had at least dropped. I was really frustrated. I had been working through all my contractions with Jason's help. I sat on the ball, got on all fours, walked around my room, etc. I was so proud of myself for dealing so well with the "pain," but considering I hadn't dilated at all, there was really no reason for bragging. After the 3:00 internal, my OB's partner came in to discuss options. I stressed my desire for a vaginal delivery, but I knew that we were on a schedule of sorts because my water had broken. Often times, doctors will only give you 24 hours to deliver after your water breaks because of the risk of infection. At this point, I was doing great and so was the baby, as measured by its heartbeat.

The doctor suggested I get an epidural, but I was hesitant because I know they can slow down labor. When I expressed this fear, she told me that I wasn't in labor (womp womp) because I wasn't dilated and that we had to try something different because all of this pitocin wasn't working. She said that getting the epidural might allow my cervix to relax and also allow me to rest and help move things along. Well, I would try anything at this point, so we called for the epidural at 4:00.

I was extremely nervous about getting the epidural. I wasn't in that much pain, so it's not like I welcomed the relief it would give me. The anesthesiologist came in at 5:00 to set it up. I was very scared, but my nurse was very reassuring and held my hands and talked me through everything. First they give you a shot to numb the area and then they thread the epidural in. You can feel everything sort of tingling as it goes in. I was very happy when she finished, but wasn't thrilled about being confined to the bed so early and not being able to get into different positions.

After the epidural, I was able to sleep a little bit. I would watch the monitor to see when I had a contraction. And lo and behold, at 6:30 I had another internal that showed I was dilated to 1cm! Three hours later, at 9:30pm, I was finally at 3-4 cm! I was hopeful at this point that I would be able to achieve the vaginal delivery I wanted. They put an internal monitor in as well so that they could measure the strength of my contractions.

At 11:00 pm, I had yet another internal. Progress again! They estimated me to be 5-6cm dilated. However, the baby's heart rate was a little erratic with contractions, so they turned down the pitocin and gave me oxygen. Here I am nearly 24 hours after my water broke.

I went back to sleep for a bit and woke up to suddenly being in excruciating pain. I mean, the worst pain I've ever had. Since I have never been in labor and had nothing to compare my experience to, I didn't know if it was normal to experience this kind of pain even with an epidural. I called my nurse and told her about the pain and how I was really able to feel the right side of my body. The way the epidural works is it runs through your body with gravity, so if you feel pain on the right, you roll onto your right side to get the pain meds over to that side. But nothing was working. Not only was I have horrible pain with the contractions that were practically on top of each other, but I was having pain in one spot in between contractions, therefore getting no relief. I dreaded the start of each new contraction, knowing the agony it would bring. I was crying now from the pain and clutching the hand rails of the hospital bed. Pitocin makes your contractions stronger than ones you would have with natural labor. I admire the women that make it through labor without drugs because there is no way I could have managed the pain I was feeling.

The nurse called for the anesthesiologist to come and I think about an hour passed where I was feeling every awful contraction. She came at 2:05 and found that my epidural had come out. So, I got to have an epidural placed all over again in a different spot. Lucky me! She said that since I don't have a ton of fat around my spine, there just wasn't as much padding to hold the epidural in place. I was definitely not as nervous to get the epi this time around because my pain was so intense. I felt incredibly relieved as the tingling and numbness began running down my legs.

Jason was taking all these detailed so that I could write up my birth story, but they become a little less detailed at this point. Sometime between 2:30 and 7:00, I started feeling the same intense pain again, but only on my right side. I just couldn't believe the epidural was failing me again. I was so exhausted and in so much pain. The anesthesiologist came back again and found that the second epidural had made a turn in my spine, so it was only hitting one side of my body (the left). She thinks the second anesthesiologist pushed the catheter in farther in order to prevent it from coming out, but the catheter then went sideways. I didn't have to have it completely redone, but she pulled it partially out and then reinserted it. Relief again came.

At some point in the night, another internal showed I was 7cm. I knew my doctor was coming back on-call within a few hours. I was hitting the shit out of the button in order to manage my pain. When another internal showed I was at 9cm, I was so excited! I would be ready to push soon and put this very long ordeal behind me. The nurses told me to let them know when I felt pressure during contractions. Eventually I did and then they told me to let them know when I felt pressure in between contractions. Well, that never happened.

My doctor came to see me at 9:00 and checked me again: I had been at 9cm for four hours, and my contractions weren't getting stronger or closer together. Although I was doing well in terms of my HR and not running a fever and the baby's HR was good, she recommended a C-section. It just wasn't worth it to keep going and risk distress to the baby or myself and end up in an emergency C-section situation in which I'm knocked out completely. I cried. A lot. I had really wanted a vaginal birth and I had worked so hard and been through so much since my water broke 32 hours before. I didn't want to have a C-section and deal with the recovery. My doctor listened to all of my concerns and she was incredibly empathetic and in this moment, I was so happy that she was my OB and that she was there to do the surgery. She rules. I agreed it was the right thing to do.

I think Jason was relieved that I finally "gave in" to the C-section. He had been really supportive, but I think he just couldn't stand to see me go through this anymore. I could not have asked for more in a partner or labor coach. He said all the right things at all the right times and I could not have gotten through all those hours without him. Once we decided to go with the C-section, he suited up for the operating room.

To say I was terrified of having the C-section is an understatement. Since they push the pain meds through your epidural and I had so many issues with the epidural throughout the night, I was not confident that the epidural wouldn't come out again. My worst fear was that the epidural would stop working and I would feel the surgery. The anesthesiologist that came on that morning was fantastic. He assured me everything would be okay and he stayed by my head the entire time during surgery and reassured me. They wheeled me into the very bright OR to do the surgery. He gave me the medicine and my OB kept checking with me to see what I could feel. It's so weird-since the drugs block your pain receptors only, you can feel your skin being touched, but you feel no pain.

I was basically catatonic the entire surgery-I just wanted it to be over. It was hard to get excited because I was so fearful of the epidural not working. I could feel them tugging the baby out and then finally, my baby that I was so convinced would be a boy, was born a girl. They exclaimed that she was big and that she was really cute and had gigantic eyes. It was FINALLY over and I had a beautiful daughter. She was 8lb, 21 inches, and perfect.

After she was cleaned up, I got to hold my girl for the first time. Well, I didn't get to hold her so much as have her placed on me because I had horrible shakes from all the drugs. She was so beautiful, though. Amazing. Miracle. I am so grateful to have a healthy baby.

On her birth day:

Nine days later at her newborn shoot, courtesy of Lynsey Tedesco Photography (see more pictures here).

I hope to cover my time in the hospital, how we named her, and more in my next post!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

Elsa and Her Zoo

2011-10-28T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm working on some longer updates about my sweet, squishy baby, but here's a quick post to let you know how the animals have adjusted to little Elsa so far. I think these photos say it all!

And just for fun because she's so pretty, yellow eyeballs and all:)

Welcome, Elsa Katherine!

2011-10-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

SHE is here! I sure am shocked to have a baby girl! I will write a longer birth story later, but Elsa arrived yesterday at 10:22 AM via c-section weighing 8lb and measuring 21" long. She tried really hard to come on her due date, Tuesday the 18th, but I was at the hospital for about 33 hours before she made her debut. My water broke at around 1:30 Tuesday morning. I had to essentially be induced at that point since my cervix was still completely closed and posterior.

After 14 hours of pitocin, I still had made no progress-I was not even 1cm dilated. Even though the contractions weren't bad at this point, I opted to have an epidural to see if that would relax things enough to start dilating. Sure, enough I finally got to three, then seven cm. I had a rough time with the epidural-it came out at 7cm, resulting in excruciating pitocin contractions, and only worked on one side at two different points. I managed to get to 9cm by Wednesday morning and was basically stuck there for four hours. At that point, we knew that pushing would not go well and with the pitocin already maxed out, there wasn't much else to try. The nurses even held me up on my hands and knees after the epidural; everyone was trying so hard to get me the vaginal birth I wanted. In the end, it was better for everyone to get the c-section. My water had broken so many hours ago and there was meconium in my waters. Elsa's heartrate was great, but how much longer could she endure so many contractions?

I was terrified to get the c-section because of all my epidural issues. I was so worried that it would fail in the middle of the procedure. But, everything went fine and my "little" baby ended up being a pretty good size at 8lb! She is beautiful and perfect and has big eyes like Jason. I am in loooooooooove! She is making breastfeeding easy because she is a natural at latching. She was nameless for most of the day, but we finally agreed on Elsa, which has no meaning other than we like it and it's not terribly common. Katherine was a main contender for her first name, but we decided to give it to her as a middle name. It's my middle name too. Here are a few pictures for now. She is mad that she looks like a boy in her Cardinals outfit, but she has to represent:)

After many hours of labor and tears from pain and accepting the c-section. I had the tremors very badly and couldn't really hold her.

With her cousin just 4.5 months older. I see trouble in our futures!

With Grandma

First bath

Birth story to come, complete with the realization that Levi is clairvoyant...

Modern Nursery Reveal

2011-10-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

It's finally finished and I'm so excited to show it off! Jason really worked his butt off on this nursery. I already posted about how he installed a chair rail and did the painting. I'm going to go through every little item in painful detail since we ordered a lot of things from Etsy and I want to give each artist his/her due. I had very positive experiences with each person we dealt with. I love Etsy! We did a sort of monster/bicycle theme, but I don't think either is over the top.

Remember this is what it looked like when the former owner lived there.

Okay, let's look in through the doorway, shall we?

Let's start in the corner with the glider.

Glider: Babyletto Kyoto

Blanket: shower gift from my sister, found at Verde Kids

Little frames: Goodwill, $.50 each and spray painted

Big frames: TJ Max, spray painted

Levi and Neptune portraits: shower gift courtesy of my friend and photographer Julie Birkemeier, who does pet portraits through her business Mutton Chops.

5x7 monster prints: Etsy shop Prints by Amanda James

Frame: Goodwill, around $6 and spray painted

Matte: ArtMart framing, $30

Print: Etsy store Miss Moniker

Here's the crib:

Crib: Baby Mod Modena, Walmart

Bicycle cog decals: Dali Decals

Sheet: Carousel Designs.

Mobile: Etsy store The Wonderland Studio

Bookshelf: Homemade! Jason built this baby from scratch and then did a million sand/paint jobs. It turned out great. It's similar to the IKEA one everyone has in their nursery, but since he built it, he could customize the size to fit our space.

Lamp: $1 from Goodwill, we bought the shade at Target

Green bins: Target

Curtains: Target

How cute is this corner! We put the hooks down low so that the kid can reach it in the not too distant future.

Lamb: shower gift from the givers of my first shower. Pottery Barn Kids.

Monster drawer knobs: Etsy store DaRosa Children's Art. Jason found an old board in the basement to mount the knobs to.

Onesie: Courtesy of our friends over at Two Pitties in the City! They were so kind to send it our way after they came to visit.

Bib: shower gift courtesy of my friend who probably wants her name to remain anonymous. But here is her blog! The bib is great because it combines monsters and critters you would see under the microscope, perfect for a scientist like me:)

Shelf: Received as a wedding gift and spray painted white.

Bicycle print: Honey Bunny Studio

Monster figurine: We purchased it at a local art fair, but they have an Etsy store, Monsteropolis. Seriously, this stuff is so cute, it was really hard to decide on which guy to get!

Shelf: Received as wedding gift and spray painted white.

Monster stuffed animal: Leroy from Etsy store Cutesy but Not Cutesy.

Monster figurine: He's on a snowboard and was purchased for Jason a few years ago by my mom. I think he came from Uncommon Goods.

Mobile: shower gift from my sister, Verde Kids.

Wet bag for cloth diapers: Planet Wise.

Changing pad cover: Carousel Designs.

Dresser/changing table: It's definitely a little tall for a changing table, but we'll make do.

Baby Mod Olivia, Walmart.

Here's my newborn cloth diaper stash! Mostly prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers. I have some disposables from my sister to get us started in those first crazy days.

Lots of hand-me-down clothing from my sister and a few new things from my showers.

And one very special blanket and one quilt.

The yellow blanket was made for Jason when he was a baby by his grandmother.

The quilt is made from t-shirts that were my Dad's. My dad had a bunch of t-shirts that he wore casually and after he died, my sisters and I divided them up. I asked his sister to make a baby blanket out of them so that part of him could be in the nursery and what she did far exceeded any expectations. It turned out just beautiful and I could not be more excited about it.

I just love the way everything turned out. Every decision was a joint effort on my and Jason's parts. Truly a team effort! It will be nice to have such a beautiful room since I will be spending many hours in there nursing the baby:) Now all we need is a baby to put in it, don't you think?

Weekly Updates: Weeks 37-39

2011-10-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

We're getting close to the finish line, folks! My due date is only one week away. Deep breaths. These last 10 days or so have dragged by so slowly. That's mostly my fault-I should do a better job of keeping busy. It's just so hard to focus on school right now when my entire life is about to change. I'm still working on school stuff every day, just not full-time. The nursery is almost finished (it's freaking adorable, by the way), the house is clean, the dogs are bathed, all the baby laundry is done and organized, pacifiers are sterilized, extra dog and bird food is purchased, contraction app is downloaded, and I'm working on my freezer meals. I would probably still like to wait until 40w for this baby to arrive so I can finish up more school stuff, but if it decides to come now, that would be fine too; I think we're ready.

That's the weirdest part about this stage of pregnancy: you could go into labor at any minute...or you could be induced well past your due date. It's all so up in the air. I have found myself scrutinizing every little pain or twinge in my uterus. Is this it? Is this the start? I have been having so many Braxton-Hicks contractions and some have gotten to be rather uncomfortable. I thought that maybe I was having real contractions on Saturday night, but it turned out to be nothing.

I have had two OB appointments since my last update. I met the third doctor in the practice at my 36 week appointment and she had to test for Group B Strep, a test performed on all pregnant women in the last weeks of pregnancy. While she was down there, I agreed to an internal exam. This cervix was completely closed for business one day short of 37w. No problem.

My other appointment was this past Friday with my regular OB. When she opened my chart, I saw the gigantic neon green GBS+ sticker on there, which means I tested positive for strep. This is not uncommon and it's not too big of a deal. Basically, it means I need to get to the hospital lickety split if my water breaks. The infection can be very dangerous to a newborn, so they want to get you on IV antibiotics four hours prior to delivery. They also don't break your water as early as they might if you test negative and they won't do as many internal exams because they don't want to push the bacteria up to where the baby is. Fun times. I plan on getting an epidural, but I want to labor without one until 5cm if I can, so it's kind of a bummer that I will be hooked up to an IV the entire time. Hopefully I will still be able to move around and try different positions or walk with it if I can.

I got another internal at my Friday appointment and there is no change from last time-no dilation or effacement whatsoever. Technically, progress doesn't mean anything because you can walk around for a month dilated 3cm, or you can have no progress and go into labor the next day. However, the baby's head is righthereattheexitsign, which would explain the massive amount of pressure I feel on my cervix and bladder. I should start counting the number of times I pee per day. It's nonstop. My doctor also ordered another ultrasound for my appointment on Thursday since I'm still measuring on the small side. She isn't worried, she just wants to check growth and make sure everything is okay in there.

I had another nice little physical surprise this week. Not one cold sore, but TWO and one really gross one under my nose. Seriously, I could not be more hideous. I broke down and asked for a Valtrex prescription because it was quite painful and you just never now how far those suckers are going to spread. My doctor offered me a once-a-day prescription so that I don't get any more before I deliver and I took it. I know some people are totally anti-anything while you are pregnant, but she assured me it's safe to take. I would like to be able to kiss my baby without having to don a SARS mask, so if I can prevent another outbreak in the next few weeks, I will. I am very grateful that I have not had a lot of outbreaks this pregnancy because that was something I was concerned about between the crazy hormones and compromised immune system. Speaking of which, I also got my flu shot so that I can start passing on those antibodies to the baby now since it cannot get a flu shot until it is six months old.

And since I'm keeping it real by telling you about all of my lovely infections, I'll be honest and say that my physical comfort has been in decline since the end of week 37. Sleeping is rough. I get up to pee at least 2-3 times, usually more, per night. And in spite of accumulating every pillow in the house to ease my back and hip pain, I still sleep like shit. I wake up every 60-90 minutes for one reason or another. Rolling over is so hard and it hurts. I have also been experiencing insomnia. I have trouble falling asleep and then going back to sleep. The 4-6am hours are particularly difficult, and I usually get up and go do stuff like organize the closet or work in the nursery. I know I will be completely sleep deprived soon enough, so it would be nice to get in some sleep while I can.

I am still being somewhat active, which helps keep my loose, I think. I wanted to keep going to the gym until the end, but I don't think my cervix can handle any bouncing, even on the elliptical. If I jog a few steps with the dog, it literally feels like the baby will straight up fall out. Besides, the weather has been too nice to be cooped up in the gym. I want to spend these last few weeks bonding with Jason and the dogs as much as I can. We go on our long walk every afternoon, which can either be great if the dogs are cooperating or frustrating if they are being jerks. The fresh air is still nice. I'm also going to my yoga stretch class, which feels really good.

I'm definitely feeling scared about becoming responsible for another human being any day now. You just can't prepare yourself for how much your life is going to change. I am nervous about delivery, about recovery, about breastfeeding, about not getting any sleep, about giving my animals enough love and attention, and about being a good mom. Does that cover it? All I can do is take things one day at a time. No one is perfect and I won't be either. I am lucky to have a wonderful support system in my family and friends. I can ask these people the most personal of questions without feeling stupid. I know Jason will be incredibly supportive and he will be a phenomenal dad.

I'm also feeling a little sad that this pregnancy is coming to a close. You are only pregnant with your first baby once and it has been such a special time. Everything is new and while the unknown is often scary, going on this journey with Jason has been wonderful. I'll never forget telling him I was pregnant or when he felt the baby move for the first time or when we had tears in our eyes the first time we saw our baby on the ultrasound. I'm starting to cry just thinking about these moments. I'm lucky to have such a fantastic life partner.

Alright, enough sappy reflection. Let's take a look at this gigantic 39w belly. Hard to believe it's measuring small, huh?

How far along are you?: 39w

How big is baby?: watermelon. I knew this fruit was coming, but it doesn't make the comparison any easier to swallow. Or have to push out of a bodily orifice.

Weight gain/loss?: Up 26lb

Stretch marks?: I know they may still be coming, but none yet.

Maternity clothes?: Um, have you seen this belly? Yes.

Sleep?: Getting worse by the day.

Best moment this week?: Having the nursery almost completed.

Food cravings?: You guessed it! Sugar and ice cream.

Gender?: It's a surprise, but I have a strong intuition that it is a boy.

Movement?: It is still moving a ton even though I expected movement to slow down at this point. I was worried it had flipped one night because of how strong the movements were.

Belly button?: I think it's an outie by now.

Symptoms?: Braxton-Hicks contractions, pressure on my cervix and bladder, back pain, hip pain, trouble sleeping, constant peeing.

What do I miss?: Wine and beer are starting to look better and better every day now that I know I can have a glass very soon. I also cannot wait to start running once I'm cleared. This is the best running weather and it's killing me to go on my slow walks.

What I'm looking forward to this week? Hitting 40 weeks. My ultrasound on Thursday. Finally doing a nursery post!

Milestones?: Finally being ready to have this baby!

Not Convinced Levi Lived on the Mean Streets

2011-09-29T06:19:00.000-07:00

It's pretty obvious that Levi is one pampered dog. He hogs the couch, sleeps in our bed at night, fusses if he has to lay down on the hard wood floor, and won't go outside if it's too cold/too hot/raining. Here is some photographic evidence of his highfalutin ways.

When we lived in the condo and he wasn't allowed on the daybed yet, he found his way onto a pile of clean towels. The daybed alone must not have been soft enough for him.

Not content to simply lay in the grass like a regular dog, he settles for the somewhat more comfortable floor of the kids' playhouse.

He can't be bothered to wake up for his manicures.

Even when he has the couch to himself, he simply cannot get comfortable.

When it's cold, he wears his sweater indoors.

He uses his brother as a pillow for extra comfort in the car.

When he goes to the pool, he insists on having his own lawn chair to sit on.

The bed itself does not provide sufficient comfort, so he must lay on the pillows to achieve REM sleep.

He has to be elevated above Neptune, aka the court jester, at all times.

And we recently saw that swimming in dirty ponds at the park and playing with dirty dogs is way beneath him.

All of this evidence points to one conclusion: Levi was not truly a street dog. Here's what we think happened. One day, as he was enjoying steak and caviar in his million dollar house in North St. Louis, one of his butlers accidentally left the gate to the estate open. Levi, following the scent of a cat or rabbit, wandered out onto the street and got lost. He didn't have his trusty diamond-encrusted GPS with him that day and couldn't find his way back. He was found by Stray Rescue at an overweight, er, robust 78lb, having sired puppies and peed on every blade of grass in the surrounding area.

So, when he was adopted by us, he was shocked by the simplicity of his new life. Compared to his million dollar house, he was really slumming it. Where were the pillows stuffed with dodo feathers for him to rest his weary head? The attendants to fan him when he became even the slightest bit uncomfortable from the heat? The nightly menu from which he chose which cut of meat, meat, and more meat he felt like eating? This is the only explanation for why he seems so disgruntled all the time. Seriously, how did this dog ever manage on the streets???

So, I don't know why his antisocial behavior surprised us this weekend. We wanted to have my oldest nephew over to spend the night before the baby arrives. We thought it would be fun to make a fire outside and all take our laptops outside for a little Wizard101 play. Naturally, Levi was content when we were inside prior to building the fire.

Then we took the action outside. It was a perfect night for a fire pit.

My nephew even sat in the rede for part of the night.

Neptune, being the sweet angel dog he is, happily joined us for the outdoor festivities.

Levi, not so much. After standing at the door for an eternity, I let him inside so he could do this the remainder of the night.

He is no doubt dreaming of the days at his million dollar house and planning his escape back there so he can leave behind the life full of indignities he suffers at our hands.

Weekly Updates: Weeks 31-36

2011-09-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhh, where have the weeks gone? Time is just flying by. I hit 36 weeks on Tuesday, which means the countdown is down to three weeks and four days. Three weeks, people! Until my due date, that is. I could always go late. I am definitely not one of those people who says she is sick of being pregnant and wouldn't mind the baby coming early. I feel like I still have so much to do; I tell the baby every day that he/she cannot come early. Besides, although 37w is considered full-term, those last few weeks are very important for brain development. I want to keep this baby cooking as long as it remains safe to do so.

So, what's been going on with my pregnancy since my last update so long ago? At that point, we were constructing an overwhelming and seemingly neverending to-do list that we never thought would be completed. Slowly, but surely, we've been ticking items off the list. We've done the hospital tour, the childbirth class, and the breastfeeding class. I really like the hospital where I am delivering and have only heard great things about it. Even though my OB delivers at two hospitals, we just decided on the first one we toured because we liked it and it's closer. Check.

The childbirth class was an all-day Saturday event. I learned A LOT and am happy we went. Somehow we ended up with a mutant newborn baby doll to practice swaddling/burping positions/etc. While everyone else in the class had their precious and smiling compact baby dolls, we ended up with one that was more Khloe Kardashian proportions, if you know what I mean. I'm surprised we could even swaddle the thing. At the breastfeeding class, I told Jason to pick out a baby while I went to the bathroom and I came back to be greeted by a black baby doll. Oh, what a smart ass he is. Anyway, I found the breastfeeding class to be very informative as well. I want to set myself up for success at breastfeeding since I know it can be very difficult and overwhelming at the beginning. We'll see how it goes! Luckily, I have my sister, mom to four, as a resource for all things baby and she is only a phone call away.

Another big check is choosing a pediatrician. I asked my OB for references and we found one that is surprisingly close to our house. I didn't want to travel too far out to the county and we found this Dr. who has been in practice for about 20 years right here in the city. We met with him yesterday, toured the practice, and asked him all our questions. We both really liked him and the practice's stance on vaccinations. I'm so happy to have that out of the way.

There have also been a lot of fun things going on since my last update. On August 23, I celebrated my last birthday before I officially become a mom. I'm not really sure how I got to be 33 since I am still 18 in my mind. Jason took me out to a dinner at Oceano (great food, very slow service) and then we grabbed dessert at Bissinger's. I felt so good, we even went to a nice bar and sat on the patio while he had a drink and I had an O'Doul's. Here are a couple pictures from the night. I even went to the great trouble of painting my nails and curling my hair! These are monumental undertakings for someone who seldom even picks up a hair dryer.

How cute is this dad-to-be?

Last weekend, we upgraded our car situation. I have made no secret on here of how much I hate my car, but I will have to keep driving it for a few more years because Jason's car had over 200,000 miles. We now have a crossover large enough to accommodate our growing family-dogs, baby, and jogging stroller. It's not a gigantic car, but is large enough to suit our needs. It's so nice to have a new car because both of our cars were at least eight years old.

I had my first two baby showers and have one more to go. I have been so touched by both the time the givers of my showers put into planning and all of the people who took time out of their busy lives to celebrate with me. I want to devote an entire post to the showers because they were so special to me.

The nursery is coming along really nicely. We finally ordered a dresser and that is the last piece of furniture we were waiting on. Then it will just be organizing, doing more laundry, and putting up the finishing touches. I have been filling the nursery with all of the shower gifts and if the baby came tomorrow, I think we'd be ready for him/her! I will definitely do a final nursery post once it is all completed.

I went on somewhat of a shopping spree last week to buy items for the hospital and breastfeeding. I went to Kangaroo Kids to get measured for a quality nursing bra, then hit Destination Maternity for some less expensive nursing tanks. I bought a new robe and pair of slippers and some breastfeeding-friendly tops at the Gap. I told Jason that now I'm ready to have the baby!

I'm still feeling pretty good, physically, and am waiting to hit a wall. I have been going to school on an as-needed basis only, which means I get to sleep a little later and work at home the remainder of the time. It's been really nice to do so. Sleep is getting a little more challenging between my longstanding sacrum pain and having to sleep on my sides, which leaves me with really sore hips. But, my energy level during the day is surprisingly high. I was afraid I would transform back into the first-trimester zombie, but that hasn't happened, at least not yet. I have also started getting some heartburn/reflux, but nothing too awful. I haven't had to take one medication this entire pregnancy, but I do chew on Tums now to manage the heartburn.

I'm starting to have Braxton Hicks contractions more and more regularly these days. My uterus will completely tighten up and feel rock hard to the touch. They aren't painful, but they can be a little bit uncomfortable. They tend to occur when I stand up from sitting or bend over. I've woken up two nights with pretty bad menstrual-like cramps, but since they aren't regular, I know it's just my body preparing for labor rather than the real thing. Besides, this baby isn't come before 40 weeks, remember?

I now see my OB every week. As I've mentioned before, she measures my fundal height (the distance between the pubic bone and the top of the uterus) at each appointment. The measurement, in cm, should correspond to the number of weeks along you are. At my last appointment (35w), I was only measuring 31cm. This isn't an exact science, as you can imagine, so it's normal to be a few cm off, but four is a large discrepancy. I wasn't worried at all, but she sent me for an ultrasound to make sure the baby was growing well. Everything was fine at the ultrasound. The tech estimated the baby to weigh 6lb3oz, which she said could be off by .75lb either way. The other measurements were normal and the baby's head is a little on the small size, but well within the normal range. Since I have a long torso, the baby probably just has extra room to stretch out and hence, I am measuring on the small side.

It was cool to see the baby again! He/she is head-down now (phew!) and pretty smushed in there. The ultrasound confirmed that its feet are way over on my right side, which is nice because that means it is not kicking my ribs or my lungs. I do feel that oh-so-pleasant fist through the cervix sensation these days [I realize this is not truly happening, but that is what it feels like]. And don't forget about my bladder, which now serves as the baby's punching bag. The baby kept its little fist in front of its face for most of the ultrasound, but she did get some cool pictures. And she thinks the baby has a cleft in its chin, which is pretty awesome.

Here is looking up the baby's nose:

A face shot which makes the baby disturbingly look like it has a zipper mouth. It was raining on the day of my ultrasound and I got the picture wet, unfortunately.

A baby foot which is about 2in long:

And a profile view with its fist up to its face.

Are you ready to see my big ol' 36 week belly? Sometimes I think to myself, I look pretty great! I'm not that big! And then I go back and look at myself at 5w and realize how huge I am. If I ever look like that again, I will never complain about being fat. I just realized I'm wearing the same PJ pants in both these pictures.

36w

From the front. Linea nigra in full force.

I'm sure no one has read this far! These updates are more for me for the future and to ensure I remember little details that are threatening to fall out of my brain.

How far along are you?: 36w, 3d

How big is baby?: honeydew (only one more fruit to go!)

Weight gain/loss?: Up 24lb at 36 weeks. I am delighted with this number, as my initial goal was to stay under a 35lb total weight gain.

Stretch marks?: I search multiple times a day, but they haven't appeared. YET.

Maternity clothes?: Definitely except for workout clothes

Sleep?: It could be better, it could be worse.

Best moment this week?: Seeing the baby again, my baby showers.

Food cravings?: Still sugar and ice cream. I wouldn't be surprised if this baby comes out covered by a thin layer of sugar, like a powdered doughnut. Then I will probably try to eat the baby.

Gender?: It's a surprise, but I have a strong intuition that it is a boy.

Movement?: Yes, still all kinds of crazy rolling and I can feel hard little elbows and knees.

Belly button?: Half-and-half. Some of it is definitely sticking out at this point and the rest is flat.

Symptoms?: Braxton-Hicks contractions, heartburn, reflux, constantly sounding like I just ran a marathon.

What do I miss?: I'm starting to get sad about missing BEING pregnant and feeling the baby move inside of me.

What I'm looking forward to this week? Hitting the full-term mark at 37w!

Milestones?: 35/35, crossing things off our to-do list!

Weather makes all the difference

2011-09-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

For those of you who only know me through my blog, I have not gone into pre-term labor! My absence is simply due to being busy trying to finish data collection for my dissertation (I am so close, I can taste it), having a lot of family activities, preparing for a baby in HOLY CRAP LESS THAN FIVE WEEKS, and simply wanting to spend time with Jason and the dogs rather than be chained to my computer in the evening. I need to do an update on the baby thing later this week, but I wanted to share some pictures from a few fun outings we've had with the dogs in the last month or so.

After the absolutely oppressive heat we've had this summer, we took advantage of one of the first nice days we'd had in a very long time. We met up with my friend and Neptune's foster mom, Andrea, at Forest Park for some playtime and swimming. She brought Cheryl and Dink, as well as her boyfriend, who rarely has time off from work to join in our doggie escapades. My mom joined us as well. She has become quite the pit bull fan since she began volunteering at Stray Rescue. She goes to the big shelter and walks even the strongest dogs. I couldn't be more impressed by her!

First, here's your chance to be jealous of my style. I rock the fanny pack when I walk the dogs and forgot to take it off when I asked my mom to take a family picture of us that includes my baby bump.

Well, we have this one from the pet parade back in March, but no one knew I was pregnant then:) This just reminds me that I have been pregnant forever.

As expected, Cheryl and Dink wanted to go swimming. They are both so incredibly athletic, they make our dogs look like all they do is lay around and sleep. Oh wait...

Cheryl and Dink did their big jumps into the water while Neptune chased them everywhere but into the water.

You might be wondering why Levi isn't in any of these pictures. Well, he was pouting. He wanted to keep walking and was utterly pissed when we stopped for a swim break. He basically went off to the side and ignored everyone.

We thought he might fare better when we went to a big field for the dogs to play with each other.

Here are Cheryl, Dink and Neptune having a blast chasing the tennis balls.

Could Neptune possibly look any happier?

And here is Mr. Grumpy Pants, once again pouting on the sidelines.

He was acting like such an asshole, I just had to reward him by walking him around the field so he could get all his sniffing and peeing in. I mean, I like to enable his anti-social behavior. But seriously, I felt badly that he was so happy to be in his old park and couldn't explore it as much as he wanted to. I ruined any good will by taking them to get baths immediately after this outing.

Then on Labor Day, we had spectacular weather! We took advantage of the truly cool temps by taking the dogs out to Queeny Park in the county. We have taken Levi there a bunch of times (and I have blogged about it, but am too lazy to find the links). There are multiple trails leading to a field with horse jumps. It's fun to try to get Levi to go over the jumps. While the time in the field was great, the walk there and back sucked big time. Neptune was completely distracted on the way there and Levi was a total stubborn jerk on the way back. Let's just focus on the fun part, shall we? They were so cute in the fields and I love to see them enjoying themselves.

Neptune stops to roll in the grass.

Who's got the biggest head of them all?

In retrospect, having two 70+lb dogs running straight at you when you are eight months pregnant might not be the best idea, but I did catch some funny faces.

But Jason had the hard job of managing them both on their long lines while I tried to snap some pictures.

And look who made it over a jump!

Taking a break to sniff the fresh air

Where's Levi?

He couldn't quite make it over this jump:

Happy boys at the end of our field time.

I hope we get to do a few more outings like these before the baby arrives. I'm already starting to get emotional about how much things are going to change for them, but hopefully we will establish a new sense of normalcy at some point.

Wordless Wednesday: Bipedal Swamp Creature or Neptune?

2011-08-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

Nursery Progress

2011-08-24T08:28:00.001-07:00

We've finally made enough progress in the nursery to warrant a post about it. Jason worked really hard and it looks beautiful so far. I could not be happier with how it turned out. The first step was to clean out all the stuff from the room. It had sort of become the junk room where we put everything that we hadn't unpacked or found a place for yet. I thought I took some 'before' pictures, but I either didn't or I deleted them. Oh well. Just imagine it filled with half-empty boxes, a desk, and some bookshelves. Here's a picture from when Mr. and Mrs. Asshole lived here to give you an idea of the space.

Once we had the clean slate, Jason set up shop to prepare.

For an old house, this room had zero character. We decided that putting up a chair rail would give it a little oomph and make it less boring. Some basic internet research told us to install the chair rail 1/3 up the side of the wall. Jason got to measuring and taping using high-tech laser beams!

We decided to go with a darker and a lighter shade of gray paint for below and above the chair rail. We matched the darker paint to the crib and then went a few shades lighter in the same family for the lighter gray. We used Sherwin-Williams zero VOC paint because we have had good success with it in the past.

Neptune checking out our progress.

Then Jason painted the upper portion of the wall and prepared for the chair rail installation.

Fortunately for us, Jason was able to borrow all the tools he needed from his friend, which really helped keep cost down. The same friend who hooked us up with the great deal on the Chariot stroller. We are indebted to him! Anyway, Jason borrowed some sort of enormous saw and one helluva staple gun. These tools might be familiar to those of you involved in home repair/design, but I for one had never seen such a larger than life compressor. Jason set the behemoth up in the dining room and snaked the air hose up the front stairs and into the nursery to operate the staple gun. Jason picked up the chair rail at Lowe's for around $40. Not too shabby! He painted it using a super high gloss enamel paint from Sherwin-Williams. It was kind of pricey, but he will also use it to paint the furniture he is building.

I was so excited to have it all finished so we could finally put the crib together and see how it looked! While we were going to get an IKEA crib, we found out they pulled all their cribs recently to keep up with recent safety standards. So, we ended up getting a crib at Walmart! I never thought I'd buy a crib at Walmart, but this one was pretty great. The Baby Mod Modena had everything we were looking for: simple design, modern look, all wood construction, JPMA certified, and non-toxic finish. All for $200! Plus, it came in this cool gray color that is similar to the chic, but much more expensive, Oeuf Sparrow. What do you think?

The swing is on loan from my awesome friend who also loaned me a ton of maternity clothes and a playmat for the baby. It will probably go downstairs, but is temporarily being housed in the nursery. The bedding is by Carousel Designs and I love it!

The only other furniture we have right now is the glider, which I also just love. It is new from Babyletto. I was surprised to locate one because it was sold out everywhere, but Amazon found one from BabyEarth. I was a little nervous about ordering it because it was our biggest splurge and with it being a new product, I couldn't find any reviews on it. But, it is perfect! It's a great size and I love the color. It's very sturdy and comfortable. Since the room is so tiny, I opted not to order the ottoman and will use a nursing stool instead. Leroy is keeping the glider warm for now.

And finally, here is what we have so far in terms of clothes and diapers. Nearly all the clothes came from my sister. I haven't started prepping my Green Mountain Diaper prefolds yet, so I need to get on that. We plan on using those until the baby fits into the assorted brands of one-size diapers I have slowly been accumulating. I will rearrange everything once we get the dresser.

So, that's it for now! Slow, but progress is being made. Jason is finishing up a cubby-style bookcase that he is building from scratch. We have to order the dresser and maybe another bookshelf and then the finishing touches. The nursery is very blah in terms of color right now, but we will be adding a lot of bright lime and white accents to color it up a bit. We picked up some cheap frames from Goodwill and will be painting them lime and white. The most difficult part will be choosing one picture of each dog that our baby will see every morning when he/she wakes up:) When we get it all finished, I'll be sure to do one final post, but I wanted to post our progress. Jason is becoming quite the handyman!

Our brush with fame: Meeting Mr. B and Ms. M

2011-08-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

When A from Two Pitties in the City contacted me to let me know she, E, and the two pooches would be in St. Louis over the weekend, I was beyond excited to meet the faces behind one of my most favorite blogs! Even Jason, who isn't even on Facebook and doesn't take an interest in blogs, checks in on the adventures of Mr. B and Ms. M because they are two of the cutest dogs around. I have been reading their blog for awhile, and it has recently exploded in popularity due to the adorable pictures, useful information about dog and pit bull guardianship, honest opinions on dog gear, and great ideas of what to do with your dog. Thanks to the devotion of A and E, Mr. B and Ms. M are exemplary ambassadors for the breed.

So, while we were excited to meet them, we were worried about how our two monsters would compare! I mean, Mr. B and Ms. M are celebrities, people! It's like learning you're going to talk politics with the President, or Vatican II with the Pope, or have to cook for Martha Stewart! We hoped Levi and Neptune wouldn't do anything to embarrass us in front of A and E since they are so on top of dog training. We imagine them practicing Ms. M's tricks every night after a round of obedience training, but just before they diligently brush their dogs' teeth and tuck them into their perfectly matching floor pillows. In the meantime, our evenings consist of me yelling at Lola while Neptune farts away without any ounce of self-consciousness and Levi gives me the stink eye when I take up too much room on his couch.

But in the end, Mr. B and Ms. M turned out to be regular dogs just like the rest of them. I mean, they are just as good looking in person as they are on the internet. Ms. M is also softer than you can imagine! And they are both as sweet as you think they would be! But as my dad would say, they put their pants, er, dog boots, on one leg at a time. It was such a blast to take a walk with them and A was a trooper for sticking it out in the heat despite not feeling well. We took a walk over to Tower Grove Park and then let all the dogs cool down a bit at our house before A and E hit the road. It was great to talk to them and they are every bit as nice in person as they come across on their blog. I only wish we had had more time to hang out!

Thank you, Two Pitties in the City, for taking the time to meet us! I hope our starstruck nature didn't scare you away:) Levi and Neptune are happy to have two more dogs and two more humans to call friends.

I was having so much fun chatting, that I only took a few pictures. A took a lot of cute ones if you want to check them out on their blog.

Weekly Updates: Weeks 27-30

2011-08-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

[Actually 31 weeks now, but I started this post last week and am just now getting around to finishing it]

[If you didn't see the comments section yesterday, Lola is NOT dead! Just some poor word choice on my part. She is still alive and as annoying as ever!]

Two-thirds of the way there, folks! I can't believe it. October seems far away when it's 100 degrees, but the weather is getting nicer and Halloween decor is appearing in stores and on websites. That must mean that Baby Girlstandstill's arrival is just around the corner, huh? That is scary, but exciting!

Where to start? Well, I had another ultrasound a few weeks ago at 28w3d. It was so fun to see the baby again. I learned that the baby is in a transverse lie, which I kind of suspected based on its movements. Its head is on my left side and its butt is on the right. When I feel the kicks, they are WAY over on my side. I can't believe how far over I feel them. So, I feel most of the big body parts right across my belly button area. I swear, sometimes I think the baby is going to break right through my uterus and pop out through my skin. I can now also identify its little hands moving and feel its butt. Pretty crazy.

The downside of this transverse lie is that there is absolutely no way I can have a vaginal delivery if the baby doesn't move. I do not want a c-section, but fortunately, there's plenty of time for the little one to move around. I will talk to my doctor about doing some special exercises once my due date gets closer if the baby hasn't moved yet. This is purely my own conjecture, but I feel like the way it is positioned might be why I still feel relatively comfortable. Its entire weight is not pressing down on my bladder or cervix and my ribs and lungs feel relatively unmolested from little baby feet.

We managed to stay Team Green during the ultrasound, but I'm starting to really think this baby is a boy. Not that this means anything, but every single one of my cousins on my mom's side and my sister all had boys first. That's six people. Also, almost every single person in my department at school who has had a first baby the last few years has had a boy. These are the 100% unscientific observations that lead me to believe our baby is a boy. Or maybe it's just the idea of having a teenage girl is so terrifying that I am partaking in some wishful thinking.

The tech estimated that the baby weighs 3lbs! No wonder those kicks are getting more forceful. I guess that's a normal weight because neither the tech nor the NP I saw afterward mentioned anything unusual about it or any of the other measurements. I was a little baby (under 7lb) and Jason was big (over 9lb), so how big this baby will be is anyone's guess. Here are a few pictures from the u/s.

This is the side of the head and the back of the head is on the right. The arrow is allegedly pointing to hair.

Here is its little profile with its fist up to its face.

I'm still feeling pretty good physically. I met my goal of running until 30 weeks, which was a huge victory for me. It's all relative, though. A 3.5-mile run on the treadmill at a 10-minute/mile pace would have been embarrassing for pre-pregnancy me, but I'll take it at this point. It's not easy to run with all this extra weight and limited lung capacity! I'm trying to get over the self-consciousness I feel about my body. It's natural for people to stare at pregnant women and analyze their bodies, but I don't like all the attention. It seems like everyone at my gym could double as a fitness model, so I usually feel like a giant whale lumbering in the door. I've also completely lost any sense of what I look like. I mean, I know my belly is huge, but I have no idea whether my ass is also huge, my face is puffy, etc. Do you pregnant ladies/moms know what I mean? Like your body has changed so much, you've lost all perspective?

My showers have all been scheduled and I'm excited to share this time with my friends and family. I'm overwhelmed by the generosity of people who have offered to throw a shower. It's very kind. I have a lot to look forward to in these last few months.

We pulled the trigger and ordered the fancy stroller! Here it is in jogger form, but we ordered the stroller and bike kits as well. Jason assembled it one night before I got home from the gym.

We don't have a lot of stuff yet, but we've been showing the dogs everything that is new, down to clothes and diapers. Here they are inspecting the goods. Levi no doubt thinks that will be his ride when he lays down in the park and refuses to take another step because it's too hot.

On the same note, my friend lent me a swing and I turned it on and played the music for the dogs. Neptune was a little intimidated at first, but investigated it with encouragement. Levi didn't know what the big deal was and stood there while it hit him in the face every time it came forward. Mr. Mellow, that's for sure.

Jason is making great progress in the nursery! We did the painting and he is putting the finishing touches on the chair rail. It's going to look so good. I'll post some pictures when it's more put together.

I guess that's about it for this update! It was a long one.

Here are the belly shots. Getting BIG! All from 30 weeks. Excuse my green shorts c. 1990. They fit, they are comfortable, they are what I wear around the house. I normally wouldn't show them in all their glory, but Levi staring at himself in the mirror is too funny.

From the front. My linea nigra is getting more pronounced. You can also see that my belly has taken on a Yeti-like appearance thanks to the fur that has sprouted everywhere.

And clothed.

How far along are you?: 30w

How big is baby?: squash

Weight gain/loss?: Up 19lb at 30w.

Stretch marks?: This belly cannot stretch much more without them appearing, I'm sure

Maternity clothes?: Definitely except for workout clothes

Sleep?: I'm still sleeping pretty well, but rolling over is a challenge. Can I rent a fork lift to help me?

Best moment this week?: Definitely seeing the baby again.

Food cravings?: Fruit, ice cream.

Gender?: It's a surprise

Movement?: Sometimes I wonder if this thing is going to bust through my belly alien-style!

Belly button?: It's pretty much flat and the top lip is sticking out, so I think it will be an outie soon.

Symptoms?: Starting to slow down a bit, but still feeling pretty good overall.

What do I miss?: Going for a long run and really pushing myself.

What I'm looking forward to this week? Getting the nursery set up!

Milestones?: Third trimester, baby!

Wordless Wednesday: Lola is in heaven

2011-08-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Leaving the Dogs Alone

2011-08-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

I think we've finally found a solution to making both dogs safe and happy while we are gone during the day. Before we moved into our house, we began experimenting with leaving Levi out of his crate. Other than the time he ripped open the moving box with his toys, he did really well out of his crate. When we moved into the house and adopted Neptune, we decided to leave Levi out in the house to see how he did. Little by little, he would get into more things while we were gone. First, the trash. Okay, we put the trash up. Things progressed until he got into my purse one night while we were at the shelter and pulled out even non-food items. We realized we needed a new solution for him. In the meantime, Neptune was kept crated in the mudroom. We decided to try putting Levi in there with Neptune and close them off from the rest of the house.

The mudroom was a great solution until Levi ripped the dryer vent out of the wall and chewed on it. Okay, management in the mudroom obviously would not work for him since we couldn't move our washer and dryer. The next place we moved Levi was to the guest room upstairs. We covered the bed in multiple dog blankets and sheets and opened the shades to the big window for him to look out. He did really great in there! Even though he had an entire queen sized bed to himself, he decided he needed his personal throne and we would come home to find him curled up in the small chair. It is now Levi's chair.

When we went to Mexico in April and our dog sitter extraordinaire stayed with the boys, we decided to move Levi to the big empty bedroom so that she could, you know, actually have a clean bed to sleep in. And that is where Levi has been ever since. He has his throne, his bed, and another blanket that he likes to eat his morning Kong on.

In the meantime, Neptune was still crated in the mudroom. I felt badly that he was all by himself, but we left the radio on and the door open for him. Over time, we began noticing Neptune's paws were turning brown. He had obviously been licking them excessively while we were gone. I turned to Dr. Google to see what might be going on with him. We wondered if it was allergies, because the behavior seemed to arrive with spring and allergy season. Or, was it allergies due to food? Atopic dermatitis? We decided to switch him over to a grain-free food to see if his paws improved. Grain-free food is exorbitantly expensive, but we wanted to get to the bottom of his licking problem.

It seemed like he was doing better, but then one day his paws would be a total mess again. In addition to licking his paws, he had destroyed everything we put into his crate-water bowls, sheets, towels, crate pads, "indestructible" (and very expensive) crate pads made of weapons-grade Nylon. We wondered if he was having some sort of negative reaction to his crate, so we tried leaving him in short intervals out of his crate, but locked in the mudroom. That didn't go so well. This is what he did to the doorknob:

And the window panes on the door:

And the wall by the door:

The saddest part of all of this is that he only did it to the area by the door we left out of, not the door to the rest of the house. It was becoming more and more clear that Neptune's issues were due to anxiety and not allergies. Our next strategy was to move him upstairs with Levi. No more crate in the mudroom (sorry it's so dirty in this picture):

And into the bedroom with Levi it went:

Guess what happened? No more licking! Not only that, Neptune is excited to go into his crate in the morning. He wags his tail and we don't have to coax him in. It would sometimes be difficult to get him into his crate in the mudroom, even with the lure of his Kong. Now he happily goes in by himself and doesn't lick his paws. In fact, he has done so well, you can see in the picture above that he has a new crate pad that he has not chewed up (knock on wood). Levi has his throne, his bed, and his green blanket all to himself, but now has a buddy too.

Neptune's favorite thing is to ball up the green blanket. It's pretty hilarious to watch.

Neptune is showing off his white, clean paws:

So, I feel like pretty much the worst dog guardian in the world because he was so stressed for all this time. I'm happy that we finally solved his anxiety problems and that simply being in the room with Levi is enough to make him feel at ease. It's kind of a "duh"realization, but it didn't seem that obvious when we were going through it. We do intend to make that room into a kid playroom/family room, but I think we'll still be able to make something work where the two of them can be together. We'll just cross that bridge when we get to it. But for now, I feel much more confident leaving them in the morning knowing they have each other and seem to be happy!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-27T11:34:00.001-07:00

Sunday was a nonstop cleaning marathon for me. My feet were killing me by the end of the day, so I decided to relax with my foot salon and Nook in our upstairs sunroom. Levi just had to join me. It's hard to believe there was enough room for him up there with my giant belly in the way, but he somehow always manages to squeeze his way into tight spaces.

[I am double dipping with my blog and Facebook lately. I have been too busy to come up with original material, so sorry to my Facebook friends that are seeing this twice!]

Urban Wanderers Grand Opening Tonight

2011-07-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Looking for something to do tonight in St. Louis? Something that is FREE? Come on down to Saint Louis University's Museum of Art for the kick-off of Urban Wanderers, an annual art exhibit and auction that benefits Stray Rescue of St. Louis.

Last year, Stray Rescue changed the event from a one-night art auction to a real exhibit at an art gallery with a concurrent online auction that goes through August 28th. All pieces are either painted by the dogs themselves or were donated by artists and photographers. And the best part? This year, the theme of the exhibit is bully breeds! All art and photographs will feature the most misunderstood dog breeds that get lumped into that "pit bull" category. The dog featured on the poster is Stracks, who has a very sad story with a happy ending. The founder of Stray Rescue, Randy Grim, was out rescuing one day and came across Stracks. This poor dog had been shot and his throat has been slashed. You can read his rescue story here. With a lot of love, care, and fantastic medical attention, Stracks has recovered and was adopted by Randy himself. Here is a video highlighting his recovery. You might need some tissues, just a warning.

So, this art auction will benefit dogs like Stracks. Unfortunately, it seems like Randy posts on Facebook far too often sad story after sad story. There are just so many neglected, abused animals in our city, and in every city. If you don't live in St. Louis, you can still look at the items for auction, which is not up at Blacktie Missouri. You can continue to visit the exhibit for free and bid online through 8/28. You may remember the painting party we had a few months ago in which Neptune and Caspian created their masterpieces. Remember how Neptune was over it right away, but Caspian seemed to really enjoy painting?

I can't wait to see Neptune's piece exhibited tonight! What a proud dog mom I will be. Please consider coming to the event or checking out the online auction. Since Stray Rescue was denied the $250,000 donated by city residents for the specific purpose of animal rescue in the city, they need the money more than ever. They do such great work and will always take heroic measures to save the lives of dogs like Stracks. As an added incentive? John Garcia from Best Friends and NatGeo's Dog Town is now a full-time employee at Stray Rescue. He will probably be at the event tonight and is as nice in person as he is on TV. Levi agrees.

So, maybe I'll see some of you St. Louis people at the event tonight! Don't even think about outbidding me on Neptune's art!

I am editing this post because Neptune's piece, "God of the Sea," is now up! Here's the description:

Bio: While searching for a dog in need of rescue, Donna caught a pitiful sight out of the corner of her eye in a vacant lot. There is where she found Neptune. It was obvious that he needed medical attention. Neptune was a sad sight; thin and covered with wounds all over his face which caused a softball size abscess on his jowl. With some TLC and antibiotics his abscess disappeared and the wounds all healed. Neptune did not spend a lot of time at the shelter and quickly used his sad face to lure in a foster parent. Now Neptune is treated like the God he should be in his adoptive home. His forever home is filled with love, compassion, canine friends and even feathered friends. Keep your eyes peeled because you might be able to catch this God of the Sea walking in Tower Grove Park or Forest Park! Status: Adopted Painting Technique: When presented with his canvass, Neptune made sure to pick out his colors to his liking, grabbing a bottle of paint and running off with it to the yard. After his colors were chosen, Neptune insisted that his servants bring the canvass to him as they dipped his paws into the paint. A few times the brush was requested and placed in his mouth where Neptune added the appropriate brush strokes. No extra energy was ever wasted during Neptune's creation.

Weekly Updates: Weeks 24-26

2011-07-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

The fruit hasn't changed much since my last update. I've only gone from a papaya to an eggplant. The best news about the last few weeks is that my sacrum pain is feeling much better. I don't know if it's because I've been allowing myself to sleep on my back, but it's nice to have some relief from the pain. I even managed to run FOUR whole miles [on the treadmill] on Saturday, which basically felt like running 10, but I felt awesome when it was over. My belly is getting much bigger, though, and I can really feel the pressure on my hip flexors from running. The baby is growing at an incredible rate right now-a half pound/week. That's nuts. It could be as long as 9 inches and weigh 2lb.

At my last appointment, we scheduled my one-hour gestational diabetes test for my next appointment. I don't know why, but I'm completely paranoid that I have GD. Maybe because I've been such a sugar fiend. I'm terrified of only being able to eat...I don't know what you eat if you have GD and don't eat meat. Here's hoping I don't have to find out. My doctor also scheduled another growth ultrasound for me at my next appointment because of the MTHFR. I guess some babies might be on the small side with MTHFR because the placenta might not be efficient at nutrient transport. So, we'll get to see the baby again in just a few weeks. My doctor also measured my belly, or fundal height, for the first time and I was measuring right on track. She also commented that I finally look pregnant, which I have to say I agree with. I think my bump has at least doubled in size in the last few weeks.

Jason and I have started to clean out the office/junk room that is to be the nursery. I posted previously about some of our nursery plans. Our color scheme is gray, white, and lime green with monster decor. And maybe some bike decor too. We finally ordered the crib and glider last night too, which is a huge relief. Here is what we have decided on so far for the nursery:

I will do a big nursery post at some point, but these items are: Baby Mod Modena crib (long story about the crib, will tell another time); Carousel Geometric crib bedding; IKEA 8-drawer Hemnes dresser; Leroy, courtesy of Etsy vendor dkoss2; Babyletto Kyoto glider in slate with Ecru piping; Sherwin-Williams paint in electric lime

So, the plan is for Jason to build a few bookcases and a chair rail around the room. We will probably do a light gray above the chair rail and a dark gray below, possibly to match the grays in the crib and glider. And then use the green to do accents on the bookcase and shelves and such. I think it's going to look awesome:) My sister also just gave us a huge bag full of gender-neutral baby clothes, which was much appreciated. She has three boys and just had a girl. She has been so inundated with pink that she can pass along all the yellow to us and I'll gladly take it! Some of the clothes are so teeny tiny!

We are getting the bike shop hook-up on the stroller we want, a Chariot Cougar. This stroller is so cool. With the attachments, it goes from bike trailer to regular stroller to jogging stroller. So instead of having to buy a BOB jogging stroller and a Burley trailer, we can get one chassis and use it for both activities. And should we ever like to go cross-country skiing with it, there's an attachment for that too, believe it or not. They think of everything these days.

We are gathering pediatrician recommendations and I left a message to sign up for a birthing class. We also need to do a hospital tour and a breastfeeding class. It seems like a lot, but I feel like we have a decent start on things for now. Okay, onto the bump shots! Here is my very poor quality 25w bare belly shot from last week.

We did our Botanical Garden pictures on Sunday as well. It was the first time in seven weeks, which was bad on our part. It was also miserably hot and humid. I was dripping with sweat, puffy, and swollen. Ugh, my face. Here are a few where my face doesn't look TOO fat.

We've been waiting for my belly to get bigger to pose with this lady statue. Unfortunately, Jason did a terrible job as Mr. Jay and didn't tell me to put my front elbow forward. Oh well.

How far along are you?: 26w

How big is baby?: eggplant

Weight gain/loss?: Up 13lb at 25w.

Stretch marks?: Expecting them any day now

Maternity clothes?: Yes, but I still wear larger regular clothes for the gym. My friend just expanded my limited wardrobe by passing along a few of her pieces which was really great.

Sleep?: I'm sleeping pretty well, actually. It's still hard to roll over without back pain, but definitely not as bad as my last report.

Best moment this week?: It was pretty hilarious when my five-year-old nephew told me he saw 'a big baby in there' upon seeing me in a bikini.

Food cravings?: Fruit, ice cream.

Gender?: It's a surprise

Movement?: Oh yes. Not just kicks and punches anymore, but rolls and pushes of entire body parts. It's amazing.

Belly button?: Still an innie, but getting more shallow.

Symptoms?: Nothing too much other than the heat really taking it out on me more so than usual. It makes me crabby too.

What do I miss?: I'd still like to have a glass of white wine.

What I'm looking forward to this week? I'm looking forward to my u/s at 28 weeks. Also, third trimester is starting soon!

Milestones?: Making it to viability and I'm now under 100 days to go! Until my due date, that is.

Wordless Wednesday: Incisors are overrated

2011-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Gotcha Day, Levi!

2011-06-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

It's been three years since we first laid eyes on the calm dog with a giant head at an adoption event. He changed Monty's life, he changed my life, and he has brought us more joy than we could ever possibly imagine. I can't envision my life without my Big Dog. Coming home to him these last few years has always been the highlight of my day. I love him so much, I think my heart could burst. He may look scary to other people, but to me, he is a sensitive, gentle soul.

I hope he feels just 1/10 the love we receive from him, just a fraction of the happiness, loyalty, and devotion we get to experience every day having him part of our lives. We will be celebrating Levi's Gotcha Day this weekend with some of his favorite people and best pittie pals, so I'm sure I'll have some great photos to share next week:)

Neptune or a Frog?

2011-06-23T16:27:00.001-07:00

You might remember from this post that I bought Neptune a plastic baby pool and he wanted nothing to do with it. You would think that with a name like Neptune and a nickname like Tuna, he would be drawn to water simply out of principle. No such luck with the baby pool. So imagine our surprise when he just plopped right down in the creek at the park over the weekend. And he did his adorable pose where he puts his legs out behind him like a frog. Really, he could not be cuter. He would lay down and then excitedly get up and run around. Jason gets them pretty worked up in the field by the creek, but we have to be careful because in our new park, there is a park ranger that patrols constantly to ticket the guardians of off-leash dogs. The dogs do some good creek-jumping and Neptune has become a pro at coming when called. It's good practice for him and good reinforcement for Levi, who tends to be a giant stubborn asshole on walks.

Sorry for the poorer quality on these photos. I don't carry the fancy camera around, so Jason snapped them with his phone. Doesn't he just look like the happiest boy? I'll tell you, there's not much that gets this dog down. He is the epitome of a creature who appreciates every moment. When I look at the scars criss-crossing his legs, neck, and face, all I can think is that he deserves every moment of joy.

Weekly Updates: Weeks 21-23

2011-06-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm in my 23rd week already! That means that I am almost six months pregnant and have less than four months until my due date. That is scary, people. The second trimester is going by way too fast. Let's start with the bump shots. I seem to have a mysterious case of the appearing and disappearing bump. Here is the bare belly shot from yesterday at 23 weeks.

There is definitely a bump there. If I suck it in, I can make it all pointy at the bottom.

I guess I'm just carrying really low because the bump doesn't seem to be spreading upward as fast as my uterus. I know that my uterus is at least an inch above my belly button at this point. I read in one of my books that it spreads upward first, then outward. Maybe I have a long torso and that is why my bump doesn't look as round as some other people's. Oh well. I will keep telling myself I don't just look fat. Here is a clothed shot from this morning.

I feel like it looked bigger when I went out with Jason for our anniversary during week 21. I'm actually wearing heels for what I think is the first time since getting pregnant!

I don't know. I think a lot of it depends on what I'm wearing. The more baggy stuff might not be as flattering. Enough bump analysis!

The biggest physical change I've had recently is that my sacrum pain has gotten really bad. One night I got up and I couldn't even walk. I asked my doctor if I could see a chiropractor and she said it was okay, but didn't seem very enthusiastic, so I haven't decided what to do yet. She said that it's okay to wear my SI belt, so I do wear that when I walk the dogs. I have pretty much given up on running because it's too painful:( Well, it was fun while it lasted. The elliptical actually feels really great and my sacrum doesn't hurt at all while using it, so I think I'm going to stick with that for now. Jason has been really great about walking the boys in the afternoon so I can make it to the gym, especially since just walking is painful. I'm also still weight training and going to yoga once or twice/week. I'm really sad that I can't keep running because I feel like it is the best exercise for me. But, I can only work within the limitations of my body and right now, it is telling me that my sacrum can't handle the high-impact nature of running. Even if I was only averaging a pathetic 10-minute mile.

I've also been experimenting with sleeping positions because I also have a lot of pain when I first get out of bed. You're supposed to sleep on your side when you're pregnant, but even with my body-size Boppy pillow, my hips ache from doing so. I'm just going to keep sleeping on my back for now until it becomes uncomfortable. They say that you should sleep how you are comfortable so that you do actually get some sleep and that your body will tell you when it's no longer safe to be sleeping on your back.

And now let's recap the anatomy scan! We went in at 20w3d for the scan to the same office where we had the NT scan at 13 weeks. And how the baby has changed! Here it was at the NT scan:

And here is its little face now:

Sigh, the most beautiful thing in the world. I couldn't help but cry when its little profile came up on the screen for the first time, even if it does look a little bit like it has a snout. I could have watched the tech take measurements all day. It was fascinating to see each chamber of the heart and the hemispheres of the brain. The kidneys, the baby's full bladder, all the little parts and organs. She had us look away when she examined the genitalia. I wasn't really tempted to change my mind at that point. Not too much longer to find out! All of the measurements looked normal and the baby was weighing in at 15oz. We only got one more picture. Here it is face-down and you can see its little spine:

Just like at the NT scan, the baby was a little stubborn and I had to lay on my side a few times to try to get it to change positions. One thing that seemed crazy to me was how at that time, I was mostly feeling the baby so low, but the tech was moving the wand all over my abdomen. I guess the baby really is spread out in there. After the scan, we met with my doctor for my monthly appointment, which went fine. I can't believe it's already time to go back again next week! She told me that I might have a growth scan later on because of the MTHFR mutation I have. So, I'm not sure whether or not we will see the baby again before I deliver.

How far along are you?: 23w

How big is baby?: papaya

Weight gain/loss?: +11lb and holding for the last three weeks

Stretch marks?: Expecting them any day now

Maternity clothes?: Yes, but most of my non-maternity tops still fit. They make me look fat though whereas maternity tops make me look pregnant, so I'm sticking with what is flattering.

Sleep?: It's okay. My sacrum pain has made it difficult for me to turn over. And having two 70lb+ dogs in bed doesn't help.

Best moment this week?: The anatomy scan was indescribable.

Food cravings?: Ice cream. Still ice cream.

Gender?: It's a surprise

Movement?: Yes, every day and usually in predictable patterns.

Belly button?: Yes, still an innie. If I push my belly out and arch my back, I can make it flat though.

Symptoms?: Nothing much unless you count the horrible sacrum pain.

What do I miss?: Being able to walk, get in and out of the car, etc. without pain.

What I'm looking forward to this week? Showing my bump off at a family reunion with my dad's family this weekend.

Milestones?: One week away from viability!

Dear Booze,

2011-06-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

I miss you. It's been over four months since we've been together. It was easy in the beginning, but now I want to be with you on these hot summer nights. It doesn't help that jerkface Jason drinks delicious beer in front of me on a near daily basis. I can't wait for the day when you and I can be reunited. I hope this baby appreciates the time we had to be apart.

Love,

Mary

Yard Makeover Reveal

2011-06-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a long one, so settle in...

After many weekends of labor and countless trips to Home Depot, we have finally finished our yard. And when I say "we," I mostly mean Jason because he worked his butt off. I posted here about the state of our yard and the plans we had for it. Here's a reminder of what it looked like in the listing when it was on the market last fall.

And what it looked like this spring with nothing but weeds:

And here is what it looks like now!

Ahhhh, I am so happy with how it looks! The brown spots on the grass are from Neptune peeing like a lady dog on it. Now we know to flush the area with water after he pees. The seams are still growing together too, but the sod looks fabulous. One Friday afternoon, Jeff, my friend Andrea's boyfriend, came over to lay the sod. Jeff is a professional landscaper and he brought over the heavy-duty machinery needed to pull everything in the yard up. Jason and he worked really hard to get all that stuff up-the weeds, the rocks, the construction waste-the yard was a disaster. Then they laid all the sod. They did a fantastic job. And since I am a delicate pregnant lady with major sacrum issues, I ordered pizza and stepped on the sod where it was lumpy. I was helpful:)

But before all of the sod came along, Jason took on the monumental task of not just building a raised vegetable bed, but building a patio around said bed. And let me tell you, what a PITA that was. Here's a breakdown of how he did it. First, he dug up all the weeds in the area where he intended to place the box and the patio. Then he covered it with this black tarp to kill the stuff underneath. The dogs loved to lounge in this hot black area.

Jason did a lot of research regarding the vegetable bed. We knew we wanted something built up a little higher so that the dogs couldn't pee on the plants and so that it would be easier to plant and take care of. We decided on an 8' x 4' design. We purchased untreated cedar planks at Home Depot and the very nice man there cut them down to size for us. Jason took a Friday off to do the work, with the help of Levi, of course.

I instructed Jason to take lots of pictures for my blog. The only pieces Jason had to cut himself were those square posts in the corners. He borrowed some sort of fancy saw for those. Half-built:

Building up the short walls:

And just about finished. He put smaller reinforcement beams vertically in the centers as well.

And of course you remember Levi modeling the finished product. Jason used the dirt that he dug up to make room for the bed and patio to fill the bottom portion of the bed. Jeff brought the good soil and compost to fill the top.

You can see in the above photo that he has yet to build the godforsaken patio. Oy. So, that was a lot of work. He built it by laying down gravel and sand and then the paver stones. Then he filled the gaps with more sand. It was very difficult to get level and he had to cut out a piece of the fence to accommodate one of the stones. We bought just about the cheapest paver stones you can find. Since I have a sedan and Jason had a hatchback wagon, buying the supplies for this project involved about a billion trips to Home Depot. Just when he thought he had enough sand, more had to be purchased. But, I do admit that it looks quite nice. Jason used stones left in the yard as accents around the patio itself.

Neptune is showing you the sand and stones:

Once we got the soil, I could finally plant my seedlings that I had started over the winter. I started everything from seed in the garden except the parsley, squash, geranium, and marigold (the latter two were planted because I read they deter some kind of tomato pest).

You can see I decided to use the square-foot gardening method of planting. Since I am completely new to this gardening stuff, I relied on this handy website that helps you determine how many plants of each kind to put into each square. For instance, I learned I could put 1 tomato, 4 swiss chard, 2 basil, or 16 lettuce in one square foot. So far, the tomato, squash and basil are growing like mad and the lettuce and swiss chard seem to be busts. The other stuff looks so-so. It's a learning experience, so I'll see how I do this year and re-evaluate next year. To finish the look of the planter, we purchased $4 solar caps at Home depot for each corner post. They don't exactly illuminate the yard, but I think they look decent for the money.

Next up, we had to choose a patio set, which turned out to be a really difficult decision. While we were drawn to the beautiful furniture in the Crate and Barrel catalog, we've just had too many expenses to justify spending that much money. We ended up getting this Martha Stewart set on sale over Memorial Day weekend at-you guess it-Home Depot. We might as well just send our pay checks directly to their offices.

So, here is the before picture from the listing. Mr. Asshole filled that hole with cement, but those heavy rocks were still around for us to deal with.

And here is how it looks now.

But that's not all! We had one more corner to contend with. The area between the walkway and the house is very wet and was a complete mess. It was filled with rocks and weeds. Since our gutters were so clogged until we just had them cleaned a few weeks ago, all the water from the roof would spill into this little corner.

We went to the locally owned Bowood Farms nursery in the Central West End to get advice about what to plant there. We also bought the plants there, not Home Depot, in case you were wondering. I was hoping they would say, "hydrangeas and hostas would be perfect for that area!" And what do you know? Hydrangeas and hostas love wet, shady areas!

It looks SO much better and I love how Jason once again framed the area with those little stones. But even this little corner took a ton of work because it requires more soil, more mulch, more trips to Home Depot. But since these are perennials (I forget what the third type of plant is), we won't have to fuss with them too much next year.

And the last thing I want to show you is the one of the rain barrels Jason set up. The Metropolitan Sewer District was having a special on rain barrels sometime last month. Jason went early to make sure he bought two before they sold out of them. Rain barrels can be really expensive, but I think he got them for around $65 apiece. They are really nice barrels too and came with the metal spigots and gutter attachments. We have one in the front and one in the back and I love filling up the watering can with the rain water rather than having to use the hose and pay for that water. Did I mention there were no hose hook-ups in front or back so we had to hire a plumber for that job too? What a huge undertaking this process has been. Anyway, here is the rain barrel:

And that is the yard! It may not look like much of a difference, but it was really a lot of work and so, so much money. Geez. I would love to do more pots and hanging baskets on the fence, but we cannot invest one more penny into this yard right now. We can slowly do more each year, but now I can just lay out in my rede and enjoy what we've done. Jason and I just sit out there and talk about how much we love our house and our yard and the dogs love it too. But we can't rest on our laurels too much-now that we've finished Project: Yard, it's onto Project: Nursery. Sigh. Hold me.

Happy Anniversary to Jason

2011-06-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we have been married for four years already. So many of our dreams came true this past year: we bought our dream house, had our hearts stolen by another angelic dog, and we are going to be parents to a human baby in just a few months. Life just keeps getting better for us and I am grateful that everything has been so easy in our relationship the last few years. You have been everything a girl could ask for, especially since I've been pregnant. No request for a back rub is refused, dishes are done before I even have a chance to go do them myself, and you pretend to be interested in the subtle differences in stroller design. If your devotion to Levi and Neptune (and Monty-Lola, not so much) is any indication, I know you will be a phenomenal dad to our baby. So, on this last anniversary that is "just us," I want to thank you for being my very best friend and putting up with me and being patient even when it is very challenging to do so. I am lucky to have found someone that hates people as much as I do:)

-M

[Photo Credit: Robert George Studio]

12 Years Later, I Finally Hang My Rede

2011-06-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

You may recall from my post about once being fat that I spent four months living in the Amazon region of Brazil for a semester abroad in 1999. Now, I can't speak for all of Brazil, but in the places I visited-extending from Fortaleza and Natal in the east to our home city of Belem to the once opulent rubber city of Manaus to picturesque Santarem and all the way to the Venezuelan border and places in between-the rede was a housing fixture. What's a rede? It's the Portuguese word for hammock and is pronounced hedge-ee. Our little group of nine students traveled extensively over those months and we didn't sleep in beds when we traveled, we slept in redes, usually covered by mosquito nets. They were unbelievably comfortable and when we went on our long trips, it felt weird to sleep in a real bed again at my Brazilian family's home. My rede was nylon and decorated with Tweety Bird. This is a typical set-up for when we traveled.

This photo was taken inside this house? hotel? whatever our accommodations were in this town.

We took an eventful boat trip, but I don't remember at this time where we were going. We all slept in our redes among all the other people on the boat. You can sleep a lot of people on a boat this way, as you can see.

If you were wondering, yes, the redes do sway wildly if you run into turbulent water, which actually happens even if you are just on a river.

Redes are also inexpensive places to sleep. At one point during our studies, we did a one-week rural home stay with very poor families. My family had no electricity or running water. You can see a hammock in the corner of the shot. This family actually lived in three adjacent houses right on the river. All of these children are siblings or cousins and they loved the bubbles I brought as a gift. They were so cute. I should do a separate post about this week because it was obviously very unique and I had some pretty crazy anti-malarial drug-induced experiences.

Here is another family we met in the same area, with their rede in the corner.

My Belem family was the main family I lived with when we weren't traveling. They accepted me into their family with open arms and I could not have imagined a more loving, fun group of people. Their lifestyle contrasted sharply with that of my rural homestay family. They were very wealthy and lived in a nice apartment in the city, but had two vacation houses as well. Not all of the students lived with such wealthy families in Belem, mine just happened to be so. We celebrated Carnaval at one of their vacation houses and it was a big party location for all of the friends of the three teenage children. See the rede in the corner?

And just before I returned to the US, I spent a weekend at their other vacation house on the beach at the ocean (as opposed to the river beach). My Brazilian brother Gustavo is enjoying his rede.

So, with all of my time spent sleeping and lounging in redes, I knew I had to bring one home with me, a nice fabric one. Unfortunately, there has never been a good place to hang it. I couldn't hang it in DC when I lived in apartments and there was no outdoor space at my condo that would be suitable. So, I've been moving this rede around with me for the last 12 years. This past weekend, as we put the finishing touches on our yard and patio (big reveal to come, but you've seen some sneak peeks), I asked Jason if he could hang my rede for me. And it is wonderful!

I can already see myself rocking the baby out here if we get any warm fall days. Jason also tried it out and he almost fell asleep. I am a happy girl!

20 Weeks-Halfway Mark!

2011-05-31T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am at the midpoint of my pregnancy. I cannot believe I am halfway there already. I guess technically those first four weeks are a freebie, so I really hope the next 20 don't fly by quite so quickly. I haven't been doing my weekly updates like I planned, so I wanted to record some key moments from the last 11 weeks so that I don't forget them.

After telling my mom at 9 weeks, we didn't tell anyone else until 12 weeks when I told my sister, her husband, and my nephews. Then we told my mother-in-law and her husband the next weekend. We opted to have the optional NT scan at 13 weeks and then we went public. The NT scan was really fun. The baby was a total lazy bones. It just laid there on its back with its hand across its forehead, all dramatic-like. The technician was having a hard time getting the NT measurement, so she would have me cough hard. The baby would just float up and then settle back down, putting its hand across its forehead again. What a stinker! Finally I coughed hard enough for it to slightly turn onto its side and she got the measurements she needed. It was amazing to see how much it had grown since the 6-week ultrasound when it was just a blob with a flashing heart. Now we could see its fingers and toes and its scary skeletal face. It looked like an alien! But a really cute alien. We were happy with the results of the NT scan and blood work and opted to not do the next set of screening for Down Syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities.

We went to Mexico with Jason's co-workers as I transitioned from first to second trimester. He hadn't told anyone at work, so I had to share the news. Neither of us likes bringing attention to ourselves, so it always feels weird to tell people, like you are attention whoring yourself. So, while I understand why he didn't tell people, I didn't exactly relish telling his co-workers. But, they were all really excited for us, which was nice, because some people at school were not very pleased. But I can't really get into all that here.

Once I hit week 14-15, I felt like a completely new person. While I had a relatively easy first trimester, the fatigue was killer. But I did get that energy burst people talk about when I hit my second trimester. I wasn't tired during the day and as long as I didn't stay up too late, I felt great the next day. These days, I feel pretty darn amazing. I was able to work out more often and started running again. I'm going to do a whole post about exercise and pregnancy, but I wanted to mention here that I have really been happy to get out there and pound the pavement again, even if my pace is glacial.

My bump slowly grew over these weeks, but I really feel like I popped after week 17-18. For so long, you feel like you just look fat and not pregnant. In fact, I wanted to wear a t-shirt saying "PREGNANT, NOT FAT." By 20 weeks, your uterus is all the way up to your belly button and the baby is the size of a cantaloupe! I still don't know if strangers can tell if I'm pregnant. I've been going to the zoo to do my sperm research and a girl I know there that I've been talking to the past month came in today to congratulate me, but only because someone else told her. I have been wearing more maternity clothes and I think that helps with the pregnant, not fat thing. Then again, most people wouldn't say anything to a woman unless they practically saw a crowning baby, so that might be part of it.

Week 17 was also very monumental because I started to feel the baby move. Some people say they feel a sensation like bubbles bursting or flutters. Either I didn't feel that or attributed it to gas because I wasn't sure I felt the baby until it actually kicked or punched me. It feels just like how you would imagine-a little foot kicking you from the inside. I can't believe how strong it is already. If I am working at my desk, it is usually active at the same times- a little before noon and before 5:00. Then I usually feel it when I get in bed. Jason felt the baby move for the first time during week 19. He felt one good kick and that's it. He has felt the random kick now and then, but it does take a lot of patience to sit there and wait for the baby to move again. Sometimes I am startled by how hard those movements are. I swear I can feel an actual body part. It is such an indescribable experience.

We go in Friday for our anatomy scan, but are still remaining Team Green. I don't have any intuition about the sex, but admit I would be a little afraid to have a girl! Friday will be a pretty special day because it is my oldest nephew's ninth birthday. In addition, my sister is scheduled to be induced with her fourth baby on Thursday night, which means her baby will probably come on Friday. I can't wait to meet my new little niece or nephew. So, I hope all goes well for all of us on Friday and that Jason and I have a healthy baby in there and that my sister's baby is also healthy. I'm so excited that our baby will have a cousin so close in age.

So, here are my 20 week belly shots. I took the outdoor one yesterday and the bare belly one this morning. My hot pink sports bra had to be retired because it was working way too hard. Onto the gray/neon yellow sports bra, which I really hope will fit for the rest of my pregnancy!

How far along are you?: 20w

How big is baby?: cantaloupe

Weight gain/loss?: +6lb at my 17 week appointment

Stretch marks?: Not yet

Maternity clothes?: Mostly for pants, some shirts

Sleep?: I'm sleeping pretty well and only getting up once/night to go to the bathroom.

Best moment this week?: Jason feeling the baby move

Food cravings?: Ice cream

Gender?: It's a surprise

Movement?: Yup, feeling it most days unless I'm really active all day

Belly button?: Yes, still an innie.

Symptoms?: I think I felt round ligament pain yesterday for the first time, but not much other than that

What do I miss?: My cute summer clothes that I won't even get to pull out of storage

What I'm looking forward to this week? Seeing the baby on Friday at the anatomy scan

Milestones?: Making it halfway through this pregnancy!

Levi Bobs for Treats

2011-05-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Levi is the most water-averse dog. He won't even step in puddles or go out when it is raining. But, one day I was walking Neptune and he actually laid down in a very shallow creek. So, with the temperature rising, I thought I'd get Neptune a little pool to play in this summer. PetSmart sells these plastic pools for about $9. After a hot walk, I filled it up for Neptune, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I tried to lure him with treats, but he was not interested. Just when I thought the pool would only be used to cool my swollen feet all summer, we tried Levi out. Levi apparently loves food more than he hates water because I got him to step into the pool. And when we dropped treats into the water, he would actually stick his nose underwater and blow bubbles. It was totally worth the price of the pool to see that. I took some video of him doing it yesterday. And pardon our dirty patio-we just had our gutters cleaned and then had a series of crazy storms, and we hadn't had the chance to clean yet.

How do your dogs feel about water?

Wordless Wednesday: Botanical Garden Progression

2011-05-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

[5w5d, 2/2/11]

[8w5d, 3/12/11]

[10w,5d, 3/27/11]

[14w,5d, 4/26/11]

[18w5d, 5/22/11]

Choosing Baby Stuff Hurts My Brain: Nursery Edition

2011-05-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Did you know that babies need a lot of stuff? And for all the stuff they need, there are about a zillion different choices? It is enough to make your head spin, really. Luckily, I invested in the Bible of baby stuff, aka Baby Bargains, which is helping this mom-to-be navigate the world of infant seat vs. convertible seat, travel system vs. snap-n-go vs. jogging vs. umbrella, and don't get me started on the multitude of choices for a single brand's model of infant car seat. 22lb? 30lb? 35? I don't freaking know! Baby Bargains is helping me sort it all out though and I'm not sure it's a good thing.

For instance, the crib dilemma. I am drawn to modern cribs that have simple, clean lines and are not traditional-looking. Like this Oeuf Sparrow crib. It's gorgeous.

It's also $730. Okay, so I start looking for other modern cribs that aren't out of our budget. The problem is, modern cribs seem to be more costly than regular cribs, leaving me with few affordable choices. But, I found one I liked. The Eden Madison crib.

Pretty, right? Still expensive at around $450, but not as bad. Okay, time to see what Baby Bargains has to say about Eden cribs. Annnnnnnnd, it's not good. I think they gave it a C or C+. Baby Bargains tells me I should buy a crib that is solid wood and not MDF material, which unfortunately a lot of modern cribs are constructed of. At this point, I'm hating Baby Bargains. So, we went to Babies R Us to see if there were any cribs I liked. And I didn't. They were all too traditional for my taste.

Then I came across this Ikea Gulliver crib. It's not modern per se, but it's not traditional looking either. It's just simple, which I like, and comes in white, which I want for the nursery. Is it the fanciest crib in the world? No. But, the Baby Bargains book gave Ikea cribs an A grade. And did I mention this crib costs a mere $99?

So, I think this is the one we're going with. The problem is that we don't have an Ikea in St. Louis and we'd have to take a day trip to Chicago to look at it since they don't ship this item. The alternative is using a local company that makes frequent Ikea trips and will pick up the item and deliver it for a small fee. I personally think that sounds better than spending 10 hours in a car. Part of me feels like I'm being a cheapskate because I'm buying a $100 crib, but I like it, it's safe, it has great reviews, and the all-important book told me it's an A. Why spend more, right?

I was also a little stressed when choosing bedding. Again, I wanted something modern without any characters or animals on it. And of course, gender neutral. And something that was rated highly by the book. I actually lucked out on this one because the bedding I liked the best, made by Carousel, was given an A by the book. That was easier than I thought it would be. Here's what we chose.

Since you're not supposed to use bumpers or comforters anymore, we can just get a few sets of sheets, maybe the crib skirt and call it a day. Except for the mattress and mattress cover, but I won't bore you with those details. Next we have to choose a dresser and a glider, but that should be about it for the nursery, furniture-wise. Then it's the fun stuff like art and other decor.

Speaking of art, we did pick up our first item for the nursery this weekend. We now have two onesies, three cloth diapers, and and one piece of art. I'd say we're about ready for the baby, right? Anyway, we purchased this adorable print at Artcrank, a "poster party for bike people" over the weekend. The artist is Monica Heitz. Jason and I are arguing over doing monsters or bicycles (guess who wants what) for the nursery, but this print nicely combines both.

So, does anyone reading have the Ikea Gulliver crib or know someone who does? Or just an Ikea crib in general? I'm eager to hear any reviews, good or bad, if you do!

Oprah, how big is my baby today?

2011-05-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not caught up yet, but I'm 18 weeks today and have counting the days until I can show this clip that illustrates just how big the baby is this week. Thank you, The Soup, for the hilarious clip.

Forest Park Starring NEPTUNE

2011-05-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

Two Fridays ago, I played the dutiful wife and dropped Jason off at a beer festival in our old park, Forest Park. And I even stayed up until 10:00 to pick up his drunken ass and that of his friend and drove everyone home. It's the least I could do for all the things he's done for me the past few months when I've been too tired to move. Since we were going to the park anyway, I suggested we take the boys with us on their long lines and then I would leave him at the event and take the boys home. And then I realized how few times Neptune has been to Forest Park!

If you're new to my blog, we used to live within walking distance to Forest Park, which is one of the largest urban parks in the US. We LOVED living so close but unfortunately could not afford a house in the same area. Forest Park was where we walked Levi every day and we have hundreds of photos to prove it. I wanted to take this visit to focus on photographing Neptune in our favorite park. And believe me, walking there just made me so sad that we no longer live so close:(

I love that I took the camera along because we really captured Neptune's carefree personality. There is something about his face that makes him look so sad a lot of the time. I don't know if it's his patch around his already dark and kind of droopy eyes, or just the fact that he's a bulldog. Normally, he looks kind of like this:

Kind of sad, huh? But that is not his personality at all! The slightest pet or gesture or kind word sets off that tail of his. You can see on this walk what a happy boy he is. Incidentally, you can also see how terrible his teeth are and how his lower lip hangs as a result. He only has little nubs in front which happen to be razor-sharp for such minute nubs.

I've been taking Neptune to obedience training and here we are making use of his "tap" command.

A behavior new to us is rolling in the grass. Neptune will often just drop down in the grass and kick those legs up in the air, acting like nothing could be better in the world at that moment.

Another one of those stop and smell the grass moments.

This series of photos really illustrates the difference between Levi and Neptune. Hopefully no one will think I'm knocking Levi here because if you read regularly, you know he means the absolute world to me. But Levi is REALLY stubborn and is not a people-pleasing kind of dog. I wanted to get a picture of Jason sitting with the two of them. Neptune is tail-wagging, complete focus on Jason and Levi is ready to move on from the spot, ears a-blowin' in the wind.

Levi begrudgingly sits and poses for a photo.

So different, they are. Could Levi look more annoyed and Neptune happier?

Maybe Levi is just annoyed because we are photographing him with a giant eye boogie.

Ah, this face! I can't stand it!

I love when Neptune lays like this-frog legs out in back and feet tucked under in front.

Finally, a few of Neptune in front of the beautiful World's Fair Pavilion. He just plopped down right there and made my job easy.

Weekly Updates: Week 9

2011-05-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Week 9 (green olive)

Today the baby is the size of a green olive! We’ve come so far from that poppyseed just a few weeks ago. This past week has been more of the same: fatigue and very sore boobs. I did have a few days where I felt pretty great, almost normal even. Even though I have continued to go to the gym, my stamina just isn’t the same. I get tired much more easily and my heart rate rises faster than it used to. The few times I have tried running with my bum knee, my pace has been closer to a 9:30 or 9:45 minute/mile, about a minute slower than what I’m used to. But when I went to spinning on Saturday, I felt awesome! It was like I wasn’t even pregnant at all. I was able to keep up pretty well and still feel good after the class.

The best part about this week was that we told my mom that I am pregnant. I have been planning this moment in my head since we started trying to conceive. It all worked out perfectly, just as I planned. She even invited us over for dinner on Sunday night and I decided that it was time. I thought about waiting until 2^nd tri to tell my mom, but I knew that if I did have a miscarriage, I would need her support. So, I carried out the plan I’ve had for awhile and it involved a calendar. I decided to make her a 2011 calendar featuring a picture of Levi or Neptune each month. Then for October, I put a picture of the ultrasound with the caption, “Baby M., 6w2d.” I realize it is March, but I just told her I didn’t know if she had a calendar to put up in her kitchen for this year.

So, I gave her the calendar and she is sloooooowly flipping through it, admiring every picture of the dogs. My heart is completely pounding and I start tearing up before she gets to October. She finally flips the page to October and doesn’t really have a reaction. The conversation went something like this:

Mom: Now, what is this? [she is turning the calendar trying to figure it out]

Mary: What does it look like?

Mom: It looks like an ultrasound [still no clue]

Mary: Yeah…

Then the light bulb went off in her head and she grabbed the table and gasped. She was so surprised! She even said, “I’m floored!” Oh, it was such an awesome moment. I totally got her. I caught her up on the pregnancy so far. She told me she never had any morning sickness with her four pregnancies, which definitely eased my nerves about my symptoms. She did have horrible headaches, so I am extremely grateful I haven’t had any of those so far. I swore her up and down to secrecy, so we shall see if she is able to keep the big news to herself. Obviously there was one extremely important person missing during this exchange, which makes everything a little bittersweet. I can only imagine how thrilled my dad would be to learn he was going to have another grandchild.

I feel so relieved to have someone in the family to talk to about everything. Poor Jason is probably getting tired of me saying, “I’m so tired. When can I go to bed?” Sometimes sleeping is all I can think about. It’s pretty pathetic!

How far along are you?: 9w

How big is baby?: green olive (yuck!)

Weight gain/loss?: +2lb

Stretch marks?: No, but I’m sure they’re coming

Maternity clothes?: Not yet. Some bloat, but I’m used to that and have a lot of flowy tops to accommodate.

Sleep?: It’s the greatest thing in my life.

Best moment this week?: Telling my mom I’m pregnant!

Food cravings?: SUGAR!

Gender?: Probably won’t find out until October

Movement?: Not yet.

Belly button?: Yes, still an innie.

Symptoms?: Still big boobs, fatigue.

What do I miss?: Having energy

What I'm looking forward to this week? Nothing in particular

Milestones?: Telling another person the big news

Wordless Wednesday: A Little Love for Monty

2011-05-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday: Post-Event Exhaustion

2011-05-04T17:59:00.000-07:00