Time Keeps on Slippin

Time is doing this really weird thing.  It’s going really fast and really slow all at the same time. I just wrote the other day about how time was flying and we only had 7 weeks left.  Somehow we are down to 5.  Notice how we stopped counting up and started counting down.  It was just a few weeks ago that we were telling people she was 20 or 25 weeks.  Now when people ask, we say she has 5 weeks left.  5 weeks.  That’s crazy!!  And that is a real big “ish”.  Sure her due date is 5 weeks away, but have you seen her lately?  Of course not.  I have been slacking on pictures like I have been slacking on blogging.  But who has time?  And where exactly is this time going? - I knew things would get crazy busy once we were into the holidays, but holy smokes this is nuts.- So we are taking some pictures tonight to put up on facebook (and who knows, maybe even on here).  The last ones were taken 5 weeks ago right around the time of the 3D ultrasound.  That only seems like a few days ago.  5 weeks seems so short!  Yet, going forward (when you are waiting to meet your bundle of joy) it seems like forever. So, yeah new pics are going up so we can hear even more people say, “No way is she going to go for another 5 weeks.”  We are just hoping she holds out until January 13^th.  A large portion of my family is going on vacation until the 12^th.  Many of them, especially her Momo, would like to be around for her birth.  It’s hard to imagine she is going to be here so soon.  When I think about seeing that double line (it was so faint!!!) for the first time, it really doesn’t seem that long ago.  And yet here we are, within 5 weeks of her arrival.  Ish.

Time is flyin

Let’s play catch-up.  I swear I am not ditching out on this blog, things have just been really busy lately.  It’s really no excuse. I need to make time to write.  I think she will appreciate it.  As much as I want to do this to keep our friends and family up to date (LOL, sorry), I wanted her to have something to look back on to see what we were up to.  I will try to fit as much in this post as possible of the last month. 

November 12^th was our first baby shower.  Lauren’s sister, mom and aunts threw us a BEAUTIFUL shower at the Joliet Country Club.  Her sister made us a gorgeous/delicious cake and we received many beautiful gifts. 

The following weekend was a very derby weekend.  The derby girls went to Maneuvers on Friday night to visit Stella’s Auntie Phoenix at the monthly drag show.  Saturday I got to skate on a banked track with Bonnie D. Stroir.  No big deal.  That night was the Gotham/Windy City and Rocky Mountain/LADD banked track tournament.  For those non-derby nerds, this was a really big, awesome deal.  The 88s chatted with some of the best derby players in the world that weekend.  I have to include it because they signed a poster for Stella’s room.  We will be telling her about this weekend for her entire life.  Varla Vendetta rubbed the belly!  She got lots of good derby juju that weekend.  Sunday night I bench coached the Glams as they took on HCC for the 88s third home game.  The Glamazons won that one.  I realized my derby life won’t end when I retire from skating.  I have a future in bench coaching.  I absolutely love it and was told I’m not too shabby at it.  Maybe someday I will coach Stella’s junior derby league.  (If she decides on her own that derby is her thing, not because we plan on pushing her into it.) 

Tuesday, November 22, we went for a 3d ultrasound.  We finally got to see what our little gremlin looks like.  She looks just like her momma!!  Technology is amazing. 

We showed the family the pics on Thanksgiving and got to celebrate more great news.  2 of my cousins (who happen to be sisters…. And one is Stella’s fairy god mother) got engaged to their respective boyfriends within a few days of each other.  Thanksgiving was the first day we were all together in a long time, so we had a lot of celebrating to do.  Last weekend was our baby shower with my side of the family and a lot of our friends.  My mom, cousin and aunts went all out and decked Sam’s dance studio out in black and hot pink.  I baked about 7 dozen cupcakes in 4 flavors (red velvet with cream cheese frosting, dark chocolate with raspberry frosting, dark chocolate with vanilla frosting and lemon with lemon frosting and strawberry goo) Lucky Miss Stella got loads of awesome stuff.  This child is so loved.  I celebrated my 32^nd birthday a few days later by ordering Chinese food and watching a movie.  Yep, I am officially old.  It was fantastic.  Between derby practice and general running around (especially right before the shower), we hardly had time to sit down.  A night on the couch with good food and a good movie (and an amazing wife) was the perfect way to spend my b-day.  It was a big change from my usual bday week that would require at least 2 crazy visits to the bar.  I just can’t hang like that anymore. 

Now we are focusing on finishing her room, putting all of her awesome stuff away and getting ready for the holidays.  This weekend is our derby shower and I can’t even imagine the amount of awesome this will bring.  It’s amazing to hear these women talk about her.  Our little derby baby is going to have 50 of the coolest aunts (and a handful of uncles) a kid could ask for. 

So there we are.  All caught up.  I am hoping to do a post on the Christmas traditions we have and those we hope to start with her.  Also, look for a post on the freak out we are experiencing with less than 7 weeks to go. 

Mover and Shaker

When Lauren could first feel Stella move I was so jealous and just could not wait until I got to feel her too.  Smallish kicks soon turned into jabs n pokes.  I was starting to feel them a little more, but still couldn’t really see them.  A couple weeks ago I felt my first big kick.  I was laying down to go to bed and Lauren was standing next to me saying good-bye as she left for work (working nights is awesome….ppppphhhhtttt!!).  I put my hand on her belly and said, “Stella should kick me real hard.” AND SHE DID!! Scared the crap out of me.  I yanked my hand back and maybe… possibly… pretty sure I screamed….. ok, yeah, I did.  I mean, I get that there is a baby in there, but holy crap, she kicked me!  It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  I have felt her a whole lot more since then, but it seems whenever I am not around she is putting on an acrobatic show for everyone else.  Lauren just stares at her belly as it dances in front of her.  The minute I am around, she stops.  (Lauren swears that my voice soothes her and she stops to listen to me.  LOL, right.) She tried once, in vain, to send me a video.  The lighting wasn’t great so I couldn’t see much. And it was faint, so it was hard to see anyway. (at that time, I think we thought that was a lot.  I’m not sure we realized a little ripple across the belly would turn into elbows poking out.)  Tonight was our first pre-natal class.  (Everything …. Well, ok, a few things you’ve wanted to know about breast feeding!! :-D). About half way through, Lauren jabbed me and nodded at her belly.  Holy crap!!  It looked like that dancing guy from Spaceballs (I know, I know.  That part was a parody of Aliens, but the Spaceballs guys was so much better!) was about to bust out of her.  I stopped paying attention and just stared at her belly.  I was finally getting to see what all the hype was about.  I only have a few more days on this crazy 12 night shift schedule and will soon return to a normal M-F day time, 40 hour a week job.  Then I get to hang out and stare at her belly for hours (to be replaced in a few months by laying around staring at our baby.) I’m also excited to get into the preparation mode with Lauren – who is already in full swing.  Before I started the fall outages, we were still mostly in planning mode.  Now her room is coming along nicely and most of her stuff is organized.  Just in time for our showers…. 

Lucky Ducky

We’re still here!  Baby is still cookin.  We had an ultrasound last Wednesday.  We got some great profile shots and a super cute one of her sucking her thumb.  She is looking good and still very active.  Lauren is already pretty uncomfortable because this little one just seems to be growing so fast.  I remind her constantly that we have a long way to go and she is just going to get bigger.  It’s not a very popular response.  Hitting 25 weeks seems huge to me.  I know we still have 15 weeks, but that’s not that long.  We are going into what I like to call the “Holiday Snowball.”  Once Halloween hits, this snowball of birthdays and holidays hits and the next thing I know is that it’s the New Year.  And then we will be within a month.  It’s going to be here so fast. 

If you are actually reading this during the 25^th week, the ticker at the top says, “My ears are much more sensitive this week.  So would you mind keeping it down out there.”  I am pretty sure this is a direct response to her Auntie Frankie.  Frankie is our derby sister and one of the loudest girls I know.  I’m a loud girl, too, so I absolutely love it.  She was extra loud when we saw her on Sunday at the bout (Divas 133 – HCC 100.  Go Divas!).  She loves to stand there and yell, “STELLLLLLA,” at Lauren’s belly.  She is also terrified of Lauren’s belly and Lauren chases her with it to freak her out. 

This is one lucky little girl.  Everyone around us is so excited to meet her.  Our family and friends are being so great and supportive.  We are having so much fun planning for her arrival.  People keep giving us gifts for her, which is so sweet and lots of fun.  She already has a pretty stellar shoe collection.  (I still need to get her some baby Adidas and Nikes.  I think we may get matching Nikes) We are just so grateful.  It’s already been an amazing journey and it’s barely just begun.  Motherhood is gonna rule. 

Wiggle Worm

The little wiggle worm is a super active little girl.  She likes to play when mommy lies down to go to sleep and again right before it’s time for her to get up.  Looks like are going to have a night owl on our hands.  The butterfly kisses have given way to jabs, pokes, kicks and bizarre alien movement.  Not only can I feel her, but we are just starting to see her move if we stare at her belly long enough.  Her nursery is coming along nicely.  She has painted walls, a crib, a comforter, curtains, a changing table and a bookshelf.  Lauren made the comforter and the curtains herself.  She is currently working on her mobile.  She also painted a picture for the wall.  I married myself a crafty little one, didn’t I?  I have been working a whole lot, so I haven’t had much of a chance to pitch in.  Once these outages are done, I plan on helping with the rest of the decorating and organizing.  Hopefully, we will have her dresser and the rug soon.  Once those are in, we can finish organizing and we will be ready to take some pictures!

 

I know I haven’t been updating this a ton, but I never know what will make a good blog these days.  At the beginning, every little thing was written down and recorded.  We blasted through milestone after milestone and you can go back and re-read each one.  Not much is going on now besides the belly getting bigger and bigger.  (I should say bellies.  Dang, it’s like I am eating for two, too.)  These days we spend a lot of time talking, planning and hoping for her future.  I don’t want her (or anyone else) reading into this and feel like we are putting undue pressure on her, so I haven’t really blogged about it.  It’s not so much “She will be a doctor.” or “She better get straight A’s.” It’s more general like, “She won’t be a bully and she will learn to share.” and “I just want her to try her best.”  I know I can’t literally dictate what kind of person she will be, but I hope through the things we teach her, the way we act and the way we treat her will help her become a good person.  I don’t care if she is rich, famous or “successful,” I just want her to be a decent human being.  There are so many people these days that still care more about money and power than doing what is right and helping others.  I’m not saying she has to be a missionary (but if she wants to be, that’s fine) but I would like her to volunteer, or donate to a good cause occasionally, or just be NICE to people.  There aren’t enough nice people these days.  I know I’m not always nice.  I don’t want her to be a pushover, either.  I think she needs to stand up for herself and for what she believes in. I just don’t want her to be one of those girls who is a bitch for the sake of being a bitch.  I used to know a lot of those girls.  I know what a lot of them are doing now.  If that ain’t karma, I don’t know what is.  My dad is pretty religious and I (surprise!) am not.  He did tell me one thing that has stuck with me though.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  Yep, the Golden Rule.  Not that hard.  And no, I am not perfect, but I at least try to consider other people’s feelings before I act.  There are times that my brain justifies turning that off (lying, cheating or blatant disregard for others), but I will let her figure that out on her own, if she so chooses.  But if I can get her to just take that away from everything else, like I did with my dad, I think she will be alright.

Half way there

Tomorrow is 20 weeks.  How on earth is it the middle of September??  I guess going back to work has a lot to do with it.  Time just seems to slip by.  I started my full time job Aug 22^nd and then went to Byron last Monday.  I was home this weekend, leaving again today, will be back this weekend and then gone for a couple weeks for the outage.  Rinse and repeat for October, but I will be home since it’s at Dresdan.  For those who can’t keep up, just nod and smile.  Half the time I feel like I can’t keep up either.  After this outage, I should be home for a while.  I will work some crazy hours, but at least I will be home.  Being gone has been particularly rough on the wife this time around.  Usually at the end of spending our summer off together, she is ready to get rid of me for a while.  I think the pregnancy hormones are getting to her.  She just hates me being gone.  I can’t lie, it’s been rougher this time for me too.  I am so afraid I am going to miss something.  I guess I better get used to that feeling.  She isn’t even here yet.   If only we were independently wealthy so we could both stay at home and stare at her.  On second thought, that just sounds creepy.   

I will be home Wednesday morning for her 20 week ultrasound.  20 weeks.  Yikes.  That is officially half way.  (40 week is how they calculate due dates.)  It’s been about 5 weeks since our last ultrasound.  I can’t wait to see how much she has grown. 

We got the nursery painted last weekend.  It’s a really pretty yellow.  It makes the room look so bright, I LOVE it.  The crib has been ordered and we are on the hunt for a dresser we love.  It’s not easy pleasing us when it comes to furniture.  We like unique, but not things that look unique for the sake of being unique.  That probably only makes sense to us.  We did decide to use the bird patterns we got at JoAnne a long time ago.  All the colors we are using for the decorations are based off that.  I posted pictures of it in one of my first posts. 

In non-baby news, I skated in my first public bout last night.  We won 81-79.  It was such an insanely good game.  Both teams played their asses off.  I think we proved more than anything that we, as a league, are going to be a force to be reckoned with.  Lauren, obviously, couldn’t skate, but she makes one hell of a bench coach.  I can’t wait until she can lace up with us again.  Stella can sit with her Momo and cheer us on!

Slacker

I have been slacking on my blog.  I know.  Work, derby and actually taking care of Ms. Mama have been taking up all of my time.  We found out 2 weeks ago we are having a girl and it has sort of sunk in.  We call her "her" all the time now.  I love that. 
We got a metric crap-ton of stuff from our friends who are moving to Tennessee.  Steph, Mandi and Sandi- You guys are amazing.  We got a huge box from our friend Nina a while ago, too.  We have loads of NB and 0-3 month clothes now.  I think we are going to concentrate on shopping for bigger clothes.  We also got a badass pink studded belt from our friend Natalie. Ooooh and a little black and white striped convict onesie from our derby sister, Felony Frankie. Seriously, the spoiling of her is already out of control and I LOVE it.  I will try to curb it someday, but for now I am just excited and ridiculously thankful.  I've always been the one getting excited for my friends' kids.  Now they are all getting excited for mine and that is SO FREAKING COOL.  It's all very strange, too.
Lauren started feeling flutters a couple weeks ago.  Those have turned into stronger kicks and movement.  I could sort of feel it tonight for the first time.  I can't wait until she is punching and moving all the time and I can see her doing it. 
We started taking belly pics a couple weeks ago.  We took one at 13 weeks and one at 16.  The difference is remarkable.  Pictures are necessary every week now.  I don't want to miss anything.  I make her wear the same shirt in each picture.  I want to really be able to compare the pictures.  Plus at the end, I can put them all together in a slide show and watch her belly grow! 
Shower planning has already begun.  (Thank you, Meg and Mom!)  I think we are going to do a Rockabilly theme.  More specifically, I like the idea of Crybaby.  Lauren can be Pepper and I can be.... I dunno, Traci Lords.  I've had the song Crybaby stuck in my head ever since we talked about it.  We'll see. 
As bad as I want her belly to get big, to feel all the moving and kicking and to finally meet her, I kind of want time to slow down a little.  Time seemed to creep by during the first trimester.  We just wanted to make it through that and know that everything was ok.  Since then, time has flown!  I can't believe she is 17 weeks already.  How did that happen??? 

On Cloud Pink....I mean 9

I’m still working on the vacation post.  I haven’t touched it in days.  I was almost done and my laptop died (I didn’t realize it wasn’t plugged in) and I hadn’t saved it.  Autosave was about 3 paragraphs behind me, so I have to retype quite a bit.  I have to leave it alone for a while or it will be super short and I will leave a lot out, just because I am annoyed. 

We have been having fun looking for girly stuff.  I LOVE knowing what we are having.  I honestly was ok with either a boy or a girl; it’s just so nice to know.  We bought a bunch of clothes on Friday.   Momo and Popo (my mom and dad) bought us a jogging….well, skating stroller.  That way when we go skating out on the trails next summer, we can take her along.  Popo also got her a little train toy (he works on trains.) 

So, it seems that our friends and family are just as excited to spoil our little monster as we are.  Not that the gifts are necessary, but it’s so incredible knowing how excited everyone is!   About 10 minutes after I told one friend she sent a text saying to expect a present in the mail this week.    It’s so crazy knowing some people are almost as excited as we are.   

We started our registry this week.  It was fun, but exhausting!  Babies need loads of stuff!  The registry is basically for the practical stuff.  After all, you can’t find “Future Derby Girl” or Blondie onesies at Babies R Us.  I started a wish list online for all the non-mainstream things I want.  I can just slowly buy things off of it as we go.  I just have to try not to keep adding too much. 

We had another Doc appt. today.  Her heartbeat was 152 BPM.  The doctor said the baby sounded happy.  We didn’t tell him we knew it was a girl.  We have an ultrasound in 4 weeks (@20 weeks!!!) where they check the measurements and do a gender check.  We can just let them tell us again!  I started to say confirm, but that sounds like we are doubtful.  We are not.  

Team Pink

We were joined by my mom, Lauren's dad, Lauren's step-mom, our friend Sam and our niece Syd at the ultrasound this morning.  Everyone was very excited to see a very active little GIRL on the screen!  We have some really great pictures and the tech said she is 90% sure it is a girl.  I looked up a bunch of pictures and I would say it's closer to 95-99%.  She was very cooperative.  She was also waving, sucking her thumb, kicking and crossing her legs.  So we are officially having our little Stella Lucille.  Let the shopping begin!!

Birdies or Monsters

I am working on a really long vacation post to make sure this trip is burned in our memories forever.  And so Little One can read all about it.  However, in the mean time, I know it has been a while since our last post, so I will give a brief update.  As of Tuesday, we are 15 weeks.  It's hard to believe we are here already.  Next week is 4 months!  Well, those 3d ultrasound places offer gender identification at 15 weeks and we made our appointment for tomorrow morning.  There is no guarantee we will find out tomorrow, but we are hoping.  If we do find out, we may hold off on telling the whole world until our close friends and family are told.  However, it's not a secret we can hold on to for long. 

Second Trimester Awesomeness

Looks like Lauren is one of those lucky pregnant women who ditches the crappiness in the first trimester.  Just like clockwork the puking stopped, she has tons of energy and is getting her appetite back.  She is not only holding food down, but the nausea disappeared, literally, overnight.  I think it may have been the day she turned 13 weeks.  The following two days she cleaned the whole house.  Twice.  She couldn’t sit down.   And now she is starting to want more food and different types.  I  figure it’s her body making up for all the puking.  Even if she wasn’t barfing, she could only eat a few bites before she started feeling like crap.  Oh, how quickly things change.  Seriously, these were not gradual changes.  I am SOOO happy for her that she can finally start enjoying the pregnancy.  On top of all this gloriousness, she is pretty sure she can feel the baby moving.  Yeah, it’s really early, but she said it feels like she is getting butterfly kisses on the inside.  I can’t wait till this gremlin is big enough for me to start feeling the movement.  Also, I can’t wait to find out if we are having a boy or girl.  I need a pronoun for this lil bugger. 

Kickstart My Heart

Kickstart my heart
Give it a start
Ooh, yeah, baby

We saw the baby kicking today.  A lot. And I fell in love a little more with each kick. Our future skater, kick boxer or soccer player was fiercely practicing this morning.  Lauren still can’t feel it, but I’m guessing that’s a good thing.  If this baby is this active when it’s bigger, her insides are going to be pretty banged up. 

We went in for a check-up, but he couldn’t find the heartbeat with a Doppler.  He said that’s pretty normal for 12 weeks, but I was totally bummed.  He opened the door and said, “Oh, the ultrasound room is open, let’s take a quick look.”  YAY!!  We weren’t supposed to have an ultrasound today.  He found the heartbeat (151 bpm) and took a quick look at the baby.  Baby K was kicking and moving around like crazy.  The ultrasound pics are starting to look like a baby.  At least to the trained eye of someone who knows what they are looking at in those things.  Thankfully, we had the Doc point everything out to us, so we can point it out to everyone else.  

Crib Wars

We have actually come to an agreement on the cribs.  I can choose the crib as long as she can choose the color.  I am just curious what others think.  So far, everyone loves the one I like less.  I still like it, don't get me wrong.  I should, I picked them both out.  One has just grown on me more though.  And everyone we ask, likes the one she likes better.  Like I said, I might get this one anyway.  It was her idea to give me the style I want if she gets the color she wants.  Compromise rules.

So what do you think? 

Crib A:

Or

Crib B:

I started typing out the differences in the specs, but it sounded like I was trying to stack it towards the one I want.  I was just typing out the facts, so I think I just confirmed my choice.  It's not only better looking, in my opinion, but I think it's more practical and safer.  Still curious though, so vote away!!!



Girl Vs. Boy

I am keeping a gender spreadsheet.  I have been tracking all the urban legends and old wives tales that we have done so far.  Right now, that sheet is seriously stacked towards a little girl.  However, I have a theory on the universe keeping things even.  I have been keeping track of all recent babies I know of to see how we would balance it out.  Right now I know of 3 girl newborns (or soon to be newborns) and 2 little boys.  So, as of now, based on that, we would be having a boy.  There is a friend who is due in a couple weeks that doesn’t know what she is having.  If she has a boy, they are even and we are right back where we started.  I am going to start adding our friends’ guesses to the spreadsheet.  Feel free to leave your guess as a comment.  I will add it to our list.  Here is the list of old wives tales/urban legends.

Boy:

Her age is even and the year is odd

Girl:

Chinese Gender Chart

She sleeps on her right side

Her magic 8 ball said so (to be fair, it did predict this working on the first try)

Bad morning sickness

Her hands are real soft

She has been craving sweets

She’s been having crazy mood swings

When I asked for her hand, she gave it to me palm up

We are both dreaming about boys

I will edit this as we come across more.

Dirty Dozen

The wife is feeling better, FINALLY!!  Yay!!  The morning sickness seems to be subsiding.  It was relatively mild for a few weeks, then seemed to get better and then came back with a vengeance.  The past few days have been much better.  She actually has had some energy, too.  However, it doesn’t help that it is 8 million degrees out.  She is cooking a baby; she doesn’t need help from Mother Nature.  I feel for our friends who are getting ready to pop (or just did.)  I know the heat is awful on my lady carrying around our little plum.  I can’t imagine if she were carrying around a watermelon. 

We have been looking into the 3D (elective) ultrasounds.  At first, I thought it was creepy, and totally unnecessary.   However, I like seeing the baby.  I miss seeing the baby.  I would do it every day if we could.  And it’s not as expensive as I thought.  We could go in now and get a teddy bear with a recording of the baby’s heartbeat.  And then at 15 weeks………. We can go in and TRY to find out the sex!!  We are dying to find out, so we will most likely make an attempt at this.  Even if they can’t tell right away, we can go back for free until we can and it will help pass the time until the OB will tell us.  Speaking of, we go see the OB again this Friday.  Not sure what we are going to do, but hoping to at least hear the heartbeat again. 

I still freak out a little when I realize I am going to be a mom.  I have a feeling I will still get that way when my kiddo is heading off to college.  I just CANNOT wait to meet the little munchkin.  Time seems to be speeding up these days.  Hard to believe we are at week 12.  Mamma is even starting to show a little. 

I hope ours is just like her...

I took our 7-year old niece shopping today.  We had a long discussion about the baby.  It’s interesting (and awesome) to hear her take on everything.  It went a little something like this:

She doesn’t care if it’s a boy or a girl.  They are both fun in their own ways. (Like her and her brother.)

She does want to find out ASAP.  She can’t believe we have to wait another 9 weeks. (Seriously, the wait is killing her!!)

She will love the baby either way.  (Seriously, it doesn't matter to her at all.  Ok, she kind of wants it to be a girl.)

She is super excited to have a baby cousin that she will see all the time and hopefully someday babysit.

She promises to get her CPR certification before she babysits. (Her mom is making her)

She thinks it’s weird that I am going to be a mom.  I’ve always just been her aunt.

While we were having the whole weirdness of me being a mom conversation, she segwayed into the baby having two moms.  That lead to a whole discussion (and her cracking up) of the kid saying, “Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom,” to both of us.  After a pause she said, “Yeah that will be weird.” I saw this coming so I said, “What, the baby having two moms?” She looked at me like I had 4 heads and said, “No, you being a mom.”  I love this kid.  I love that she gets it.  Well, mostly.  She is hoping the baby looks like me (so, like her, too, basically.)  I didn’t explain how this all went down.  I just let her go with her idea of the baby having Lauren’s black hair and my big feet.   

Cat out of the bag

Well, we finally went public with the news.  Or I should say we ALREADY went public with the news.  After all, we are 10 weeks today.  I guess "they" say that is still kinda early, but at the last OB visit, he said that chances of things being AOK are higher than most just because of how well we have been able to check in on baby.  We have another ultrasound on Thursday and I can't wait.  I miss visiting the lil gremlin.  Speaking of, we watched Gremlins 2 tonight.  I started rethinking the whole gremlin nickname, but then realized they are hilarious and mischevious and I am cool with a kid like that. 

On facebook last night, we started talking about the baby between the two of us.  Anyone who is friends with both of us could have seen it.  The only people that said anything were people that already knew, but we were opening the door so they knew we weren't trying to keep it a secret anymore.  I wasn't really planning on bringing it up again tonight.  I had a bad day.  I was thinking it would be a bad night to bring it up because I wasn't in the mood to be excited about anything.  Parenting lesson 1:  Other people being excited about your kid will automatically cheer you up and make the other crap seem a whole lot less important.   Reading my friends's comments about how excited they are for us was another little pinch that reminded me how real and amazing all this is.  We are going to be MOMS!!! It put things in perspective for me.  I now get that my life is about my family.  Everything else is details.  I need to stress less about the details. 

Independence Day

I leaned over to the wife during the fireworks last night and said, "Next year, we will have our baby here for their first fireworks."  I was so happy while saying it, I almost cried.  I can't wait to experience all these firsts with my child.  Mostly it's being able to see these things all over again through my kid's eyes.  I can't wait for them to see their first fireworks, go trick or treating, or solve their first long division problem.  I know it will be hard at times and it's not all fun and games, but I am going to try my hardest to make it mostly fun and games. 

Yes, I plan on reading EVERY baby book

If you are pregnant, have been pregnant, thinking about being pregnant, repulsed by the idea of pregnancy, or are a dude, you HAVE to read this book.  We are total freaks who pay way too much attention to what "they" say you should and shouldn't do while pregnant.  This book has been a nice change of pace.  Besides being a huge reminder to calm the hell down, it's been cracking me up.  Thank you Alice and Eden.

"What happens if I have sex during pregnancy?  Your baby will be born with a full beard"

Walking Papers

We have been officially released from the fertility doc.  Today was our last visit.  Friday is our first OB appointment.  It was bittersweet.  Obviously we want to be at the point where we no longer need the fertility doc, but at the same time, we got really spoiled with the weekly ultrasounds.  Below is the pic from today.  The plus sign on the right is the top of the head and the plus sign on the left is the bottom.  They use those to measure how far along the baby is.  Currently the baby is measuring 7 weeks, 5 days and according to cycle dates she is 7 weeks, 6 days along.  Doc says that is a very good thing.  :-D

Rockabye Baby!

We have a new obsession.  Music we like turned into lullabies.  We already ordered the Green Day, Queen, Baby Goes New Wave and The Cure cd’s.  We still want The Beatles, Elvis, No Doubt, The Ramones and Baby Goes Hair Metal.  There are so many!  We actually want tons of them, but we’d go broke.  They are on iTunes as well, so we may just pick and choose off some of the others.  They are on Bn.com and iTunes.  If you get a chance, go listen.  It sure will beat the hell out of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Follow along with fruit

We love looking at this every week to see where we are and what’s to come.  It’s helpful to tell people how big the baby is.  And now you, too, can follow along at home!

Week 3 & 4 – Poppy seed

Week 5 – Appleseed

Week 6 – Sweet pea

Week 7 – Blueberry

Week 8 – Raspberry

Week 9 – Green Olive

Week 10 – Prune

Week 11 – Lime

Week 12 – Plum

Week 13 - Peach

Week 14 - Lemon

Week 15 - Naval Orange

Week 16 – Avocado

Week 17 - Onion

Week 18 - Sweet Potato

Week 19 - Mango

Week 20 – Cantaloupe

Week 21 – Banana

Weeks 22-24 – Papaya

Weeks 25-28 – Eggplant

Weeks 29-32 – Squash

Weeks 33-36 – Honeydew

Weeks 37-Delivery - Watermelon

"Don't hire a babysitter that actually sits on babies."

-Words of wisdom we received from our oldest nephew after we told him we were having a baby. 

Loads of pregnancy and baby advice has been pouring in.  Care to share?  Leave a comment of your most sage advice for us during pregnancy and after the gremlin is here.

7 weeks and all is well

The last week hasn’t been too eventful.  Mama has been doing a whole lot of sleeping.  And that’s fine with me.  I have always been a huge fan of naps.  We did get to “visit” the baby again yesterday.  Getting this done through a reproductive endocrinologist is awesome.  We had a 6 week ultrasound and a 7 week ultrasound.  Last week, during the 6 week we got to see the heart beat.  Yesterday during the 7 week ultrasound we got to hear the heart beat.  I started crying and just said, “Cool.”  Nerd.  I understand most people don’t get an ultrasound until 8 or 9 weeks and don’t get one weekly.  Once we get turned over to the OB, we won’t get one weekly any more.  I am going to miss visiting our little gremlin.  We have been so lucky in all this so far. 

Bean

We saw the little bean today.  And his/her heartbeat.  It was amazing.  The doc didn't think we'd see it yet, but as soon as he had it up on the screen, I could see a little flutter, beating away.  I'm no doctor and I knew that was our baby's heart beating.  So in love.

Still Waiting

Nervous.  Excited.   Scared.  Hopeful.  Terrified.  Thrilled.  Anxious.    

Our first ultrasound is tomorrow at 4:15.  Hopefully, we get to hear the heartbeat.  It’s been over a week since the last lab test that said, “Yep, still pregnant.”  I didn’t think I’d be able to go this long without making her take a million home pregnancy tests, just to be sure.  Her symptoms have been strong enough to keep me calm, at least for most of the week.  These last 2 days have been rough.  The clock has been moving slower than molasses in January in northern Maine.  I swear skating practice took 5 hours tonight.  Ok, it was only 2 and a half, but it felt closer to 5. 

During our two week wait (insemination until we could test), I kept thinking I would feel better as soon as I saw the positive.  Once we had our home pregnancy test positive, I was still so nervous and thought I would feel better as soon as we got her lab results.  The lab results came back positive, but she had to get them done again, to make sure the little nugget was growing.  So I SWORE I would be less nervous as soon as they came back ok.   And they did.  She has been moody, exhausted, nauseous, has an insane sense of smell and is already craving weird food, but I’m still nervous.  I swear I will feel better once I see that little heart beat.  Well, maybe at 12 weeks, when I know we are (mostly) out of the woods.  Or once the baby is born and I know he or she and mama are healthy.  Then I should be fine.  I swear. 

It's the Wedding Cake all over again

Nursery decorations are already proving to be a pain in the butt.  Do we do a theme?  Do we go more traditional?  Non-traditional?  Bold colors?  Pastels?  Skulls and cherries?  Tropical?  An Elvis theme?  So the answers boil down to "We don't know."  I know it's early, but it's not like we just started looking last week.  We pretty much hate all nursery themes/sheet sets we see in the stores.  We aren't huge fans of pastels.  If we venture out on our own we need to figure out how to make everything or find someone to make the crib set for us.  (If you or someone you know can do this for us (and it's not too expensive), CALL ME!!!)  Also, nothing store bought will match any fabric we plan on using.  Not that being matchy matchy matters too much to us.  Currently, if it's a girl we want to do a general bird theme with these fabrics we got at JoAnns a while ago.    (I just tried finding them on the JoAnn website and they are gone.  So that's great.)

And if it's a boy, we want rocket ships and robots.  Just not pastel rocket ships.  (We had found a very vintagey looking print online and, again, now I can't find it.)  But we still aren't sure.  And we won't be until we know if it's a boy or a girl. 
On the off chance that it's twins we are doing a Dr. Seuss room with Thing 1 and Thing 2.  That one is easy.
We did this with the wedding cake.  There are too many choices, too many colors, too many combinations that we LOVE.  How can we decide on one?   So here's to another 4 months of cake shopping.
*UPDATE:  Forget rocket ships and robots.  We found this:

I really, really want to do a monster room for a little boy!!

Pickles and Ice Cream is so 1992

Mrs. BabyMomma woke up around 4am and declared she wanted pizza for breakfast.  She fell right back asleep and about an hour later woke up again asking if we had cinnamon rolls.  I kind of laughed and said, "Oh so no more pizza then?"  "Well, I still want pizza, too."  So there you have it.  Crazy combo number one.  I couldn't have called this if I tried.  Excellent.  I can't wait to see what other fun stuff she comes up with.

The crazy has hit the fan

My wife has always been extraordinarily level headed.  She doesn't get over emotional, she doesn't cry much and she barely suffers from PMS.  I, on the other hand, am what the gay boys in my life refer to as a hot mess.  I cry at Coke commercials, I get crabby if I am hungry and we are all pretty sure I have a rare breed of PMS called "Holy Crazy, Batman."  We figured her pregnancy would be no biggie for her and that when the time comes, mine will be a 9 month roller coaster ride.  We have a few years before we find out how I will act, but we were very wrong about her.  We are only 5 weeks in.  Today, actually is 5 weeks exactly.  Tonight, so far, we argued, she cried, I apologized, she cried more.  I tried cheering her up and she was laughing and crying simultaneously.  She's used to my brand of crazy and handles it well.  My wife has never been crazy before.  What am I to do?

Here we go

Generally, stories start at the beginning.  It's hard to pinpoint the exact beginning of this story.  We could start today, last week, 3 weeks ago, 5 months ago or 13 and a half years ago.  In a way, they are each a beginning of the story unfolding.  December 8, 1997, my wife and I started dating.  Five months ago we started seeing a reproductive endocrinologist to start figuring out how two girls manage to have a baby together.  Three weeks ago we had our first IUI (that's intra-uterine insemination for the fertility acronym illiterate.) A week ago we found out that we are pregnant.  Today is the day I start my baby blog.  I have a pregnant wife, in case I forgot to mention.  We are lesbians, in case you missed that.  If you did miss that or have a problem with it, just stop reading and close this window.  Seriously, I don't need any idiots giving me their 2 cents on raising kids.
So here we are.  5 weeks pregnant.  Oh for those who are scratching their heads on that math right now, let me clue you in to crazy pregnancy math.  How far along you are has nothing to do with the actual age of the baby, but since the beginning of your last period.  My mom hates it too, but it's just the way it is.  It's also way too early to be telling everyone.  Everything I have read says it is our choice when to tell people, but suggest we wait until after our first trimester.  Trimester?  That's 3 months. Ok, it's only 7 weeks from now.  After all, we are 5 weeks pregnant.  (yes, I say WE.  In general terms of the pregnancy, WE are pregnant with OUR baby.  When I get to things she is dealing with as a pregnant woman, I will most likely just refer to her since I'm not the one barfing every 2 hours. But I will get to that later.) If you are one of the lucky ones to know me well, you know that I have carried such lovely nicknames as mouth and jabber jaws.  I like to talk and I like to tell everyone everything.  I feel the need to run out and tell my nearest and dearest every little thing that is going on with this pregnancy.  However, it is still very early.  If something were to happen, I don't want to have to go tell all 500 insanely excited people, "whoops, never mind."  I don't know if I could say it out loud that many times.  It makes me cry to think about it.  And while I understand that no one will be quite as excited as my lovely wife and myself....and maybe my mom... this has been in the works for 13.5 years.  There are people who have been hounding us for years to start having kids.  There is a part of me that thinks I should just tell people.  If something were to happen, they would find out then anyway.  Again, if you know me, you know that I don't exactly hide my emotions well.  If you have any contact with me whatsoever, you will know something is horribly wrong.  Ok, but enough about that.  Everything will be great. The wife is currently suffering from morning sickness pretty horribly.  I hear that's a good sign.  We will probably start telling more people in a few weeks.  I want to at least get some of the major milestones out of the way.  And yes, some people know.  A very small group of people.  Seriously, if no one else knew, my head would have exploded by now.  But don't feel bad if you are reading this and realize you are on the "found out later" list.  I'm probably just trying to spare you from my craziness right now.  I am eating, sleeping, dreaming, reading, surfing, researching, blogging, but trying not to talk too much about Baby K.  I figured a blog was a good way to give updates and info, share stories and ideas and serve as a time capsule for us and the little one.  Holy crap, I'm gonna be a mom.  Sorry, that happens to me from time to time.    Stay tuned.