this weekend

this weekend is going to be awesome. tonight y and i are going out with our friends to bottega louie. i know i can't drink but it's nice to be with people who are melting the crappy week away with a glass of red. i can totally empathize and it calms me down too. bl has my favorite non-alcoholic beverage: san pellegrino aranciata. it will be three couples including y and i which is a nice group. we haven't all gotten together for dinner in a while. i hope the service is good tonight, we've been raving about it for a week to our friends.

on saturday my girlfriends at the gym are throwing me a shower. my FIRST EVER BABY SHOWER. the next rite of passage after getting married. i'm so excited to just hang out with everyone. i am so touched that they have all gone to the trouble to celebrate my pregnancy. the plan is to take tons of photos so i can post something interesting on monday.

i'm becoming friends with a new girl at the gym, kim. she is taking the scary bootcamp class i took last year. i asked her what she is doing this weekend and she told me her friends are throwing her a bridal shower and bachellorette party!! both of us are having these amazing celebrations honoring huge changes in our lives.

saturday night i'm going to kelly's for a sleepover. not like a huge slumber party where i'd bring my star wars sleeping bag. just kelly, her roomie and i. we haven't spent much time together so this will be a nice catch up. on sunday we're going to monrovia to visit our friend laura. whew!

it's so nice to not have to paint or clean or take junk to st. vincent's. btw, i'll post pics of baby cove soon. i've been procrastinating because i want to do a whole "before and after" thing and that's a lot of picture posting for after work when i'm busy being lazy on the sofa.

26 weeks, 3 days

every time yen takes my picture i think, "jeez, i look huge!" but then i look back on that same photo several weeks later and i realize i'm pretty small.  will this giant belly look relatively tame to me in three more weeks?  i can't imagine.  still no stretch marks.  fingers crossed!!!

welcome to the world little Mia

my pregnancy buddy, erin had her little girl mia on wednesday morning at 10am or so.  mia is absolutely gorgeous, this iphone photo doesn't do her any justice.  she has adorable little pink lips and a lovely head of hair.  she was quite a lot to push out at 7lbs, 14oz but erin is a tough cookie and she kept at it for around an hour and a half.  

erin had planned to be induced on tuesday night at 8pm.  she went to the hospital and was already having some contractions before the doctor even touched her.  a little while later her water broke.  so, lucky for her no inducing.  i'm still learning about labor and delivery but i've heard being induced is not fun.  my mom said you go from nothing to hard labor really quickly.  it doesn't sound good.

i was able to try one of the calming methods my friends mike and tanya told me about.  they said that babies like to be kind of moved around rhythmically in conjunction with the sound, "shh shhh shhh shhh."  it's not that you're rudely shushing the baby,  it's more like you're trying to replicate some of the womb sounds the baby has been hearing.  when erin handed me her daughter, she started fussing right away.  the moving and shh shh shh worked like a charm.  

a few months ago my mom told me that holding a newborn for a sustained amount of time is hard work on your arms.  i have to admit i was skeptical of this.  i used to work out and i'm used to being strong in the arm region.  ok no.  after holding mia for around 15 minutes my biceps felt wrecked.  i called yen right away from the hospital parking lot and told him that we need to start doing bicep curls at night.  i'm going to get up a little early tomorrow morning so i can add arms to my workout.  

erin's longshoreman husband steve won't have any trouble carrying this little bundle around but i predict erin will have some pretty sore arms for the next few weeks until she builds popeye-like muscles.  congratulations erin and steve!!  you made one beautiful little girl.

my awesome husband

last night, or this morning rather, at 2am i heard yen shuffling around in the kitchen putting something in the toaster oven. he does this sometimes, wakes up and realizes he's starving. i didn't think anything of it and tried to go back to sleep.

this afternoon he told me he woke up at 2am worried about my pushing a baby out. he was thinking, "man, she's going to need some pain medication for that." i'm so touched by his empathy. he's exactly what i need him to be right now. it helps when someone shares the worry with you, it takes some of it away.

this guy has two copies of a book entitled The Expectant Father. i've looked through it to see what it's telling new dads-to-be. it's a sort of month to month explanation of mood swings and body changes. it also addresses some of the common concerns that weigh heavy on new dads. y hasn't cracked the book once. and that's ok! i don't need him to be obsessed with all the ongoing changes to my body. i keep him abreast of that already (hey oh.) i need him to tell me i look pretty, take pictures of my growing bump, and share in the scariness that is to be my labor.

due date coincidence

today i noticed that my cream cheese has the same exact expiration date as my pregnancy due date.  i guess that means this baby is coming soon.  cream cheese doesn't last forever.  i wouldn't be posting this if i found the exact due date on a can of soup or something.  soup lasts for years.  i think.  anyhow, this find made me so happy this morning.  

besides the refrigerator treasure, i had an appointment with dr. dwight this morning.  i really like him and i'm so glad he's my dr.  first of all, he remembered our baby's name--EVEN the middle name.   he also made me feel like the best looking pregnant lady out there.  i was concerned about my weight gain and he said, "you're such a girl."  he said the other moms will hate me at our childbirth classes because i have a nice round baby belly and the rest of me looks normal.  ahhhhh.  so sweet!  

i asked the dr. about sleeping on my back and if that really was forbidden right now.  he said sleeping on my back is just fine.  tonight is going to be awesome.  i'm going to sleep so well with out worrying that i'm cutting off little one's blood supply.  

i love my little baby already.  i try to picture his pose in my belly.  every time he moves i feel magic.

suddenly i'm the princess and the pea

it's official, i've turned that corner where i'm now the pregnant woman who can't get comfortable at night.  i thought i was there a few weeks ago, but no.  my sides are really sore from laying on them all the time.  i would love to lay on my back but apparently that is verboten.  

a couple of nights ago i was so sore and frustrated i ended up going to the much softer couch.  our bed is a good bed but i just needed a little extra fluff.  still, i ended up doing a crossword puzzle on my iphone before drifting off at 4am even with the comfy sofa.

it would be so sad if i were to leave the marital bed until the baby is born so last night i layered my side of the bed with lots of big fluffy comforters.  ahhhh....relief!   for a little while.  at first the downy pillow puff of my side of the bed was like a giant cloud.  then after a half-hour i started feeling the old pain in my side.   

part of the problem has to be my keyed-up brain.  i miss wine.  i'm going to stop complaining about this and start taking a bath or something before attempting to go to bed.  there's no way my pillow puff bed could be that uncomfortable.  i'll say it.  i'm a little crazy right now.