Baby room!

I am 28 weeks today! Yey! Some days it seems like I have all the time in the world until our little guy arrives, and some days it seems like time just whizzes buy! Oy.

Last weekend I had an awesome baby shower! Highlights included: a fine collection of awesome women gathered in my living room, a diaper cake made by my Mom, cookies and sandwiches that were out of this world - also thanks to Mom, and some super cute gifts!

We spent this morning and afternoon preparing the baby room. I held off until now because we were expecting overnight guests and couldn't get rid of our guest bed until today. But we got a lot done today - a lot more than I thought we would! It's a bit of a relief, because the sight of all the stuff piled in there was stressing me out. It was also hard to see and know what else we need to buy - and let me just say this, that there's a lot left! Shopping! :-)

Here is the above-mentioned chaos.

And after the chaos... I am still not sure about all of the furniture placement and the wall decorations are still up for debate. But it's a good start.

I definitely love the new glider and the entire little nursing/rocking corner. Ahhh....

Mind the Gap

Today was an exciting day for me. It will not sound exciting to anyone else, but here it is: I received a large package from The Gap.

The package was for me. It wasn’t a gift for someone else, or a mistake, nor did the package contain shoes or a bag or other accessories. No: it contained actual clothes. Maternity clothes. For me.

Now, the reason why this is so exciting is because the last time a piece of clothing – namely a pair of jeans and men’s shirt – from The Gap fit me was in 1996, if I remember correctly. I was a sophomore in college. It was a long, long time ago.

Read the rest at The Nervous Breakdown!

23 weeks

Here is a brief baby inventory...

So far the baby has:

1. A couple of cute outfits

2. A kick-ass pram stroller courtesy of my parents

3. A crib

4. A changing table

5. Bathtub

6. A bib and sippy cup

7. One set of ecstatic Hungarian grandparents

8. One set of slightly freaked out but over the moon happy future parents

9. Way too many nicknames

10. A soccer ball, baseball, and football, courtesy of above-mentioned grandparents.

I can't believe I am doing this, but here is me, at 23 weeks and 2 days. I am still feeling pretty great - some aches and pains, but nothing major to complain about. Not obvious from the picture: the luscious hair, strong, beautiful nails, and smooth skin I've been enjoying. Do I have to stay permanently pregnant to keep these?

And here is the Little Guy himself, snuggling with the placenta, or whatever it is babies like to do in the womb:

Boy, oh boy!

We found out yesterday (on 9/9/09, no less!) that we are having a little boy! I was secretly hoping that it would be a boy - not sure why. I would have been happy either way, but this way I am totally psyched!

The ultrasound tech took her time to measure everything from head to toe. At the end of the exam she said: "I know your baby's sex. You probably can't see it on the monitor, but I can see it and I know what it is." Well, are you going to tell us woman????? Geeez... By the way, we could see it too. Ah, technology! It's amazing!

We could see the baby move like it was going out of style - we could even see his little mouth moving. He'll be a talker - I am sure he gets that from Drew. I've been feeling him move a lot too and it's too bad that Drew can't feel it yet. Soon, soon... That doesn't stop him from keeping his hand on my belly nonstop, which is perfectly fine with me. I'll take all the tummy time I can get! It goes well with the intense clingyness I've been feeling toward Drew. It's SUPER annoying because I have never been clingy, but now I get bent out of shape when he has to work late. Ugh. Not an attractive side-effect or pregnancy!

The other surprise yesterday was that they moved my due date to 1/11/10 instead of 1/16. No biggie, really, but man, that would be another awesome date!

I can finally start shopping for baby stuff - so far the only things the kid has are a bunch of children's books, a bottle, and a sample diaper. Oh, and a HUGE bag of big boy toys from my parents, including a soccer ball, baseball, football, Matchboxes... I guess it's not a bad start, but I have an inkling that this will not be enough. We are hopefully buying a crib and changing table this weekend, along with a rug and curtains. I will also allow myself to go loose at the Carter's outlet in Freeport. Watch out! I am also secretly thrilled that this will be a winter baby. I mean, check this out...It's ridiculous, right?

On a more serious note... I've been taking a prenatal yoga class for the past couple of weeks, which has been a great way to stretch and relax. But what I love the most is the ability to chat with other pregnant ladies. During the first couple of weeks everyone's been sort of reserved, but for the past few weeks we've been more chatty about baby stuff. In turn the instructor - who is also a midwife - has been giving great advice, answering questions, etc. It's been awesome! Last week she talked about how important it was during labor to be able to say what we need - whether is quiet, or a backrub, or whatever. It turned into a long discussion about how husbands handle the situation and whether they rise to the occasion.

In the end, the midwife said that instead of worrying about whether our partners will be good enough supports, we should talk with them about what kind of parents we want to be. Labor is going take up one day - but then the real work will begin. I guess I knew that, but it was good to hear it and now I feel better about having a bit of a laissez faire attituted about the labor thing. Sure, I want a healthy baby and a healthy me, but the discussion about choices around giving birth is giving me a headache. Everyone (online or not) has an opinion and I just want to get there and see how it goes. Maybe that's naive, but how can I possibly make a decision in advance about something that I have never experienced? So I am practicing my yoga breathing and thinking past that (hopefully) one day. It's a relief, let me tell you!

A Thousand Words: Family History

Read my latest post on The Nervous Breakdown:

The stories start right after Sunday lunch.

We are all crammed around our tiny kitchen table – me, my brother, my parents, my fraternal grandmother, and my maternal grandfather. The table only fits four, so my Dad is sitting on the office chair brought out from the living room and I am sitting on a small, red leather stool that’s usually in the hallway. I am wedged between my brother, my grandfather, and the dishwasher.

Our Sunday lunches – golden chicken soup, Wiener schnitzel with potatoes and cucumber salad, brownies – start late and end quickly. Toward the end of the meal the others know what is coming and they start to scramble towards the living room right after the last bite of dessert.
It is probably my position at first – too far from the door with no obvious escape route – that makes me the perfect audience for my grandfather’s stories. Later I feel too polite and too invested to get up and leave with the others.

So I load the dishwasher and sit back on my little red stool and prepare myself for a long afternoon.

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