It's Christmastime!

Tis the Season! It's Christmastime, which means it's almost time for Baby B's arrival. As you can see I'm almost as round as the tree and getting bigger by the day. It looks like I have no belly button here, but I've just photo-shopped out the incredible amount of stretch marks that now canvass my belly.

Frogs, frogs and more frogs

Auntie Maryclaire came to visit us this weekend and we had a great time :) We took the opportunity to head into Tilton and do some outlet shopping. Once again Baby B was the main beneficiary.

My obsession with baby socks continues.... I can't possibly imagine that feet exist small enough to wear these!


We also got into some frog craziness. There is something really awesome about the fact that babies get to wear outfits with funny hoods that look like animals on a daily basis.


I also found an adorable little fleece bear outfit for Baby B to wear home from the hospital


Here's Joe modeling it for me. He wasn't thrilled.

We've done most of what can be done at this time in Baby B's room. Now we just wait for Bub to come and fix the outside wall and put in a new window. After that we can finally put the crib up, yay!

It made me feel much better to get some things organized in the closet. We grabbed a kit from Home depot and put up some shelving.


On Friday night Joe, MC and I sat down and watched "The Business of Being Born" which is a documentary that Ricki Lake produced looking at the whole process of labor and delivery in hospitals today. I found it incredibly interesting and somewhat frightening thinking about what big business baby having has become.C-sections are on the rise (some hospitals have rates as high as 40%) and some hospitals even let women opt to have one. It seems that many people are forgetting what a natural and normal process giving birth actually is. Don't get me wrong, medical intervention and surgery has saved millions of babies lives but most part births go completely normally. The death rate of women giving birth in the US is worse than in 40 other countries, including nearly all the industrialized countries. The UK ranks 26th while we rank 41st. We have some of the best doctors in the world yet our mothers are dying in higher numbers than almost anywhere else.... I'm not sure what to think of this, except it further cements my goal and plan to have Baby B as naturally as possible.

Although I contemplated a home birth or even going to a birthing center I have ultimately decided to go to Concord Hospital. I feel like where I live if anything were to happen I'm just too far away from the hospital to get there fast enough. Plus, this being my first experience with baby having I just don't know what to expect. That being said I will insist on the least amount of medical intervention possible. I know this is what my body was made to do and I am going to trust it to do just that. I am confident that it will hurt like hell and that at many points I am going to be screaming for pain relief but I'm also confident that I am fully capable of doing it without help. It's so hard to know if you are making the right decision when you've never been in the position before, and you have no idea of what will happen. But it's easy to trust in yourself, trust in your partner and trust in a process that is as natural as breathing.

I'll let you guys know how this ends up working out for me ;)

Warning: Bare Belly Ahead

Not much new to report here except it seems that Baby B and I are growing bigger by the day. Tying my shoes has become an increasingly difficult task and most of the time it is now left up to Joe. My belly button is hanging in there and hasn't popped yet... I don't know what this means but I feel like it will be a slight milestone when it occurs.

We passed our glucose test which means I can resume eating copious amounts of sugar, yay. I am also slightly anemic which is surprising considering my affinity for red meat.. I'm trying to sneak spinach into some of my food which might trick me if I wasn't the one sneaking it in there.

We spent the long weekend camping up at Hermit Island in Maine. We had such a great time and I became an expert at peeing outdoors while preggers. The trick is to find something to lean on so you don't have to hold your belly while squatting. Only one minor mishap occurred.

While in Maine Mom and I went shopping at Reny's where I not only got so excited by Christmas ornaments that I teared up (frequent occurance lately) but we found some pretty adorable items for Baby B. See Exhibit A.
I am confident that Baby B will be so advanced for his/her age that we'll most definitely be building snowmen this winter and these mittens will be an absolute necessity.

Along with gloves Baby B is most certainly going to be needing some adorable little socks to cover ten perfect little toes. Luckily Grandma bought us these :)




We've also hit the third trimester mark which means we're in the homestretch. I feel incredibly unprepared in all areas of Baby B. We still haven't agreed on a name, the nursery is nowhere near done and I am still holding out hope that I won't have to endure labor and Baby B will just magically appear in my arms on D day. Please don't ruin this dream for me.

Sugar, sugar, sugar (and it's inevitable downsides)

Well today baby B and I had our glucose test. Don't know the results yet but it wasn't very pleasant. Basically you have to not eat for 12 hours, (which is pregnant lady time is like 3 days,) drink this orange sugar drink and then wait another hour and have blood taken. So far it seems the after affects are similar to a hangover, except without the fun that usually precedes one.

After that we had our monthly check-up. Everything looks great, and Joe surprised us by coming in when we were hearing Baby B's heartbeat. My belly is measuring at exactly 26 cm, which correlates to the amount of weeks I am along. The appointments are usually boring, which I guess is a good thing but it's always nice to hear Baby's heartbeat.

We got the floor down in the nursery this weekend and it looks great, unfortunately we discovered some molding issues with the outside of the house but that's a whole different story. Basically what it means is that I can't put the crib up or start decorating :(

At first I was exercising a bunch, and I still am trying to get some walks and yoga in but I've come to a few conclusions....

1. I'm too freaking tired most of the time to exercise

2. I will completely tweak out if I see myself in spandex.

3. I am going to get fat anyways.

4. I am so clumsy that I will probably trip and fall on my belly.

And my rationalization of being lazy is done.

Better Late than never

We're 25 weeks along now and I've finally decided to keep everyone updated on the cooking of Baby B. I'll try to update weekly and post pictures of my growing belly.

Well, Baby B has been moving around like crazy lately. Sometimes I'm convinced baby has like 10 arms and at least four legs. If so I guess we'll deal. I'm also getting kicked in some pretty uncomfortable places which I've repeatedly asked the baby to stop but it doesn't seem to be working. Most of the time Baby B kicks if I watch my belly I can see them. Although this is incredibly entertaining for us it still makes me feel like I'm growing an alien.

This morning Joe took a shower and the fire alarm went off (he's so smokin' hot this happens frequently when he showers) and Baby B started tweaking out on my insides. I guess outside noises can definitely be heard (note to self, start swearing less.)

Baby B is now the size of an eggplant, about a lb 1/2 and 12 inches long. It is absolutely remarkable that a couple of months ago baby was the size of a poppy seed.

In other news I'm still dreaming about frosting on a weekly basis- this has been my primary craving throughout pregnancy. I don't want pickles, or ice cream or even cake, just frosting please. Unfortunately for Baby B and I we have to take our glucose tolerance test next week so we've gotta chill out on the sugar intake.

Baby B's nursery is a work in progress- walls are painted and the floor is hopefully going in next weekend. In poor Joe news I almost packed my bags the other night when he wouldn't search for a tape measure to measure the wall space for a tree decal. In retrospect I may have overreacted.