Category Archives: Babies ‘n Stuff

24 weeks – and, the hair

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I’m officially 24 weeks pregnant today. And since I’m trying to keep up with tummy photos every six weeks or so, I figured that I would combine them with before-and-after pics of my hair. Two birds, one stone, yadda yadda.

So, this is before the haircut:


There was this whole other drama yesterday afternoon about getting the crib delivered to our house, and how the delivery guy was well over an hour late, and how I almost missed my haircut appointment because of him, and how I almost yelled at him that he shouldn’t come between a crazy pregnant lady and her hairstylist because dammit, this is all I have left when the rest of my body is going to hell!

I didn’t yell at him. He was very nice and apologetic about the delay, and I managed to be pretty darn polite, given how tense the whole thing made me.

Oh, but hey, I have a crib! It’s still in a box by the front door, but at least it’s here. The website I ordered it from had made it sound like it was going to take 4-6 weeks to receive it, and I think it showed up something like ten days after I ordered it. And I was only five minutes late for my haircut. So really, no complaints.

My hairstylist is great – she’s one of those rare finds who genuinely listens to my incredibly vague description of what I want my hair to look like, and she executes it very well. Although she has, on occasion, told me that there was no way on earth that what I described would work on me, and I appreciate her honesty. The bangs, she said, definitely would work, and she thought it’d be really cute. So we decided to go for it.

She also has a three year-old daughter that was born on my due date (February 2nd), so we talked pregnancy and baby stuff the whole time, which was fun. Because, you know, I don’t get to talk about that stuff nearly often enough. Like with anyone who’ll listen to me. And even some people who only pretend to listen (hi Dave!).

As for the final results… Well, I’m still a little in shock.


I haven’t seen myself with bangs in probably a decade, so I keep doing double-takes every time I pass a mirror, because it just doesn’t feel like “me.” I think I might like it, I’m just not used to it yet.

Dave says he likes it. And my mom (who demanded that I email her a picture the minute I got home from the salon) says that I look like the pictures of herself when she was pregnant with my sister. Which I’ll take as a compliment, because she was 23 years old at the time. If having bangs means that I get to shave off the better part of a decade, I think I might keep them forever.

I suppose I should have some sort of “I’m six months pregnant and here’s what I’ve learned so far” update here, but I’m drawing a blank, so I think I’ll leave that for a future entry.

weird body issues and other neuroses

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And now, back to our regularly scheduled pregnancy update:

* Baby girl has been causing me some major hip pain lately – not so much when I sleep (thanks, body pillow!), but sitting at my desk all day is not fun for me. So today I got a massage, and it was delightful. Only afterward I developed a sudden headache. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I guess maybe it has something to do with increased circulation, too much blood in the brain, whatever. It just seemed odd. In all of the massages I’ve ever gotten in my life, this was the first time such a thing has happened to me.

* Another weird medical anomaly: last night in the shower, I found a lump in my right breast, very close to my nipple. Today I noticed that I have the same thing on the left side, but the left one seems a bit smaller. (The lump, not my left boob.) I’m guessing this is a milk duct issue? It freaked me out when I first discovered it, probably because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month and I’ve been seeing pink ribbons everywhere I go. Now that I realize it’s at least somewhat symmetrical, I’m a lot less concerned. (And no, I’m not seeking medical advice on the Internet. I’m seeing my doctor in two weeks, I’ll ask her about it then.)

* I had a dream last night that I went into labor at work, and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance, and I couldn’t get in touch with Dave. This is actually a very real fear that I have, because he often forgets to take his cell phone with him when he leaves the house, and he almost never answers our home phone because the odds are pretty high that it’s going to be either a telemarketer or my mother. Historically, it’s never been a big deal – if I couldn’t reach him, whatever I was calling him about could probably wait a few hours. Things are a bit different now that I’m pregnant. I keep trying to stress how important it is that I’m able to reach him, and he’s getting better about the cell phone (although maybe that’s because I’m being more proactive about physically handing it to him before he leaves the house).

In the dream, though, the reason I couldn’t get in touch with him was because he was playing World of Warcraft with his headphones on, and he didn’t hear the phone ring. Which reminds me, did any of you see the new episode of South Park this week? It’s pretty sad that I have never played that game in my life, but I got almost every joke about WoW because I’ve picked it up by osmosis. I’m afraid that game may someday be the thing that sends us to couples’ therapy.

* The other dream that I keep having, and is also a general feeling I have all the time, is that this baby is going to come early. Not scary-premature-NICU early, just maybe three weeks or so. Early enough that we won’t be entirely 100% prepared beforehand. And that, honestly, scares me to bits. I know that everyone keeps saying that all we really need is a car seat, some diapers and onesies, and everything will be fine. But it doesn’t feel like that.

So with the intent of helping my brain relax a little bit, this week we bought a crib. (I ordered it in the cherry finish – that dark mahogany color that I love, love, love.) I bought crib bedding too. I forgot about the mattress (why oh why do you have to buy the crib and mattress separately?), but those are easy enough to come by. And I think I’ve pretty much finished our baby registry too. (I’m really annoyed with Babies R Us for the fact that over half of the things can’t be bought online, they have to be purchased in the store. Boo to you, BRU. Boo, I say!)

I don’t know what it’ll take to stop having these little “you’re so not ready for a baby” nightmares. I could probably have an entirely decorated and fully-stocked nursery, and the feeling would most likely still be there. I guess it’s just your everyday, run-of-the-mill fear of the unknown.

Bah, whatever. Deep breath in, deep breath out. I’m going to do more yoga and try to chill out until February.

topic change

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I’m finding it very difficult to write, talk, or think about anything other than pregnancy right now. I’ve hit this very strange phase where this baby is taking up a large enough portion of my body that it’s virtually impossible to stop noticing it all the damn time. Even my dreams are all about babies. I think I’m probably somewhat annoying to have a conversation with at this point.

So instead, I am going to focus this post on other people I know, and none of this has anything to do with this little baby girl that I’m gestating. Although some of it might be related to other people’s offspring.

* There’s someone who I’ve been friends with for several years, but lately I’ve decided that I’m tired of living in her little self-absorbed world where she “accidentally” hurts my feelings on a semi-regular basis. She’s the type of person that I would’ve drifted apart from ages ago, except that we have a mutual friend in common, which keeps us in contact with each other. Still, in spite of Mutual Friend, I think it’s time to cut my losses and move on.

I mentioned this over on Shannon’s blog yesterday, but my sister has a friend who uses this analogy: “Your friends are like a flower garden; you have to constantly tend to them to keep the friendship alive and growing; you have to love and nurture them so your friendship can bloom and flourish… And sometimes, some of them just gotta get weeded out.” I think now is the time to weed this person out of my Friend Garden. It sucks, because it’s hurtful to close a chapter of your life that way. Also, it sort of puts Mutual Friend in an awkward position. But in the end, I think it’s for the best.

* Speaking of Mutual Friend, she and I seem to be going through a sort of weird/tense phase. Part of me thinks that it’s the married-versus-single thing, which I hate. This is someone who I thought I would always be able to relate to, but lately it just feels like we’re in two very different places. She can’t seem to understand why I never want to go out dancing anymore, and I don’t understand how she can stand to go to those types of clubs and not feel like the “old person” in a room full of 21 year-olds. Oh, and have I mentioned that none of my cute downtown club clothes fit me right now? Dancing in maternity jeans and sneakers (because let’s face it, heels aren’t going to happen) is not my idea of a perfect Saturday night.

I’m not too worried about that, because this friend and I have been through tense phases before, and they always blow over eventually. Right now I just find myself missing our usual rapport.

* On a much happier topic, I have a dear friend who I have known and adored for over a decade. She’s one of those people that I can lose touch with for months, or even a year, and when we talk again, we just immediately pick up where we left off. We have such an easy, comfortable vibe, and I love that about her. She and her husband started trying to get pregnant around the same time that Dave and I did. So they’re going on a year with no success, and she’s had all of the up-and-down mood swings that go along with that. She’s been charting her cycles for the past few months, and right now she’s having some very strange “uh, WTF?” symptoms that could possibly, maybe, hopefully be signs of very early pregnancy. But it’s too early to take a home pregnancy test, so she basically has to sit on her hands and wait for the next few days, which I know is agonizingly frustrating. I’m crossing every finger and toe, making wishes, saying prayers, and sending as many positive embryo-implantation-vibes that this is finally it for her. She and her husband would be fantastic parents, and I want this for them so much.

(See? That doesn’t count as me “talking about pregnancy,” because I was talking about someone else’s, not my own. So there.)

(Aside to Shannon: this friend lives in the DC area, so I keep thinking that I need to set up a “playdate” for the two of you or something, because I think you’d totally hit it off. But she isn’t a blog reader at all and I don’t know if that would be weird.)

* Have you seen my cousin’s baby yet? Because she’s really, really cute. I can’t wait to meet her in person. (Next March or so, yes?)

* My mom told me yesterday afternoon that she thought she was getting a bladder infection. The way she described her symptoms, and knowing what I do of her medical history, I told her that it sounded like a kidney stone and that maybe she should get that checked out. Like right then. She said, nah, she was sure it was just a plain ol’ boring UTI. She called me back at midnight her time (10:00 here) to let me know that she and my dad were on their way to the ER. And guess what? She has a stone. Ouch. I partly feel a little “I-told-you-so,” but mostly I feel bad because I know she’s in a huge amount of pain. Poor mom.

* My sister is a bridesmaid in a wedding this weekend, and as such, she has to give a toast. The bride has specifically requested my sister for this task, so there’s no worming out of it. I’m having a preemptive anxiety attack on her behalf. (I know my sister doesn’t have nearly the same fear of public speaking that I do, but still. That sounds like hell to me.)

* Dave has now been in a good mood for two days in a row, so we can all say a little *hallelujah!* for that. It wasn’t really his fault, he was just having some weird sleep issues for the past couple of weeks and it made him a major crankypants. Last weekend, I was all jittery and wanting to talk (about nothing in particular), so I sat next to him on the couch babbling about lord-knows-what. Finally, he kind of gave me this icy glare and said, “Do you need something??” Ooookay. I’m just gonna go in the other room and watch TV, then. But he’s back to his normal sweet, funny, lovable self right now, and I’m very grateful for that. I was starting to miss the sound of his laugh.

cushiony goodness

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Yesterday, I bought a body pillow. I really didn’t want to get one, and I held off as long as I could, but I finally caved. I honestly have sort of a problem with the idea of body pillows. It’s fine if it’s on my side of the bed, but if I roll over and drag it with me, then there’s sort of this “line of demarcation” down the center of the bed between me and Dave, and I didn’t like that. Not that we’re very cuddly sleepers, but still. It didn’t seem like a romantic addition to our current stock of bedding accessories.

Another reason why I didn’t want to buy one was because I kept thinking that if I only use the body pillow during pregnancy, where on earth am I going to store the damn thing later? There’s so much stuff that we’re going to have to acquire for the baby, that it’s making me go through this phase where I don’t want to buy anything for myself that falls into the category of “crap I don’t really need.” And I don’t know how familiar y’all are with body pillows, but those things are huge. When I put it in my car, the pillow alone took up the entire length of my backseat. My linen closet is full, I have no idea where this pillow will go when I’m done having babies. I guess it’ll go in a hefty bag in the garage, like so many other things have done in the past.

Also, I guess I figured that since we have at least a dozen or so regular-size pillows in our house, surely I could arrange them all in such a way that I could sleep comfortably at night. That’s logical, right?

The thing is, I could arrange them all, but then I’d have to rearrange them every time I rolled over. And sometimes I’d wake up because one of my hips would start to hurt. (Usually the hip of the side that I was lying on.) Or sometimes I’d wake up because I had rolled into a position where I was half on my stomach, and the baby decided to let me know that she wasn’t too happy about that.

Anyway, last night? With the sleeping? And the body pillow? That might possibly have been the best night’s sleep that I’ve gotten in the last two months. And I had no weird creaky/achy things when I woke up today. I think I’m in love.

Consider this my formal apology to the body pillow manufacturers of the world: you were right, I was wrong. That was the best $9.99 that I’ve spent in a very long time. I shall never speak ill of you again. And if you let me know your address, I’ll send you a box of candy.

marathon shopping

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The biggest news of the weekend: The Alphababy has arrived! My cousin Cat and her husband Tony welcomed their bouncing baby girl early on Sunday morning. Hooray!

I think it’s worth noting that although the baby wasn’t technically born until the 24th, Cat’s due date was the 23rd, and she started having contractions at 2:30 a.m. on the 23rd. That is one seriously punctual baby.

I can’t wait to see photos. (Hint hint, guys. Get on it. You’ve had 24 hours to recover already!)

Since I had the day off on Friday (as I always do – man, I do so love this part-time gig), I headed out to look for baby stuff, hoping to avoid the weekend traffic. The other perk of going on a weekday is that Dave wasn’t expected to go with me. Because honestly? Yes, there are a couple of things, like furniture, that I want his opinion on before I buy them. But as a general rule, shopping is more fun when I don’t have someone tagging along who’s constantly whining about how long all of this is taking because he’d rather be home playing World of Warcraft. So we were both much happier with this little arrangement.

First, I hit one of the local baby furniture stores to look at cribs. For those of you who have kids: how on earth did you decide on this stuff? Because I can find a crib that seems perfectly nice at Target for somewhere in the $200 range, but the baby specialty stores have those gorgeous Italian imported cribs that are like $700-800. I can’t quite justify spending that much money on something that’s only going to get used for a few years (assuming that we have more than one baby), and that we’ll probably end up selling on Craig’s List someday, but I also don’t want a piece of crap that’s going to fall apart in six months. Help? I’ve been using my Baby Bargains book as a general reference point, but my god, there are just too many choices out there. I’m lost.

After the baby furniture store made my head spin, I headed over to Babies R Us to start our registry. It’s less of a gift registry and more a list of things that I absolutely have to remember to buy before the baby arrives, because woe betide us if we forget to buy a diaper pail. (There is some gift-y stuff on there too, because I felt bad about only putting the high-priced “need to have” items on the registry. And also because a few people have warned me that I should register for way more burp cloths and receiving blankets than I think I’ll need.)

I really had no intention of buying anything at Babies R Us, I was just there to do the registry. But I made the mistake of wandering through the clothing section, just to look at the little girl stuff (mostly to compare it to Target and see if they had a better selection). And then, I came across this little pink cap that had a cat’s face embroidered on the front, and the cap had kitty-cat ears, people. And matching kitty-cat booties, too. I really didn’t think I’d cave to the cutesy pink stuff, but my god. I’m only human. That was pretty much it for me.

Overall, I did pretty well. Everything I bought (ahem, except for the pink cap/booties) was on sale, because I limited myself to the clearance racks. And I bought a few sizes ahead – everything was in the 6 or 9-month sizes, since people keep telling me that I’ll get more newborn clothes as gifts than I’ll know what to do with. So I stayed pretty reasonable about it, and I think Dave was shocked that I only came home with one bag of stuff (although it was one very big bag).

I ended up spending about three or four hours on my feet at Babies R Us, so I basically collapsed when I got home that evening. The next day was better, but we kept the rest of the weekend pretty low-key to give me time to recover. It was lovely. I plan on taking full advantage of lazy weekends while I can still have them.

Now, if I can just figure out this whole baby furniture dilemma…

it's…

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It's a Girl!

Aaaaaahhhh!!! This was a total shock, all of my instincts were dead wrong.

More updates to come as soon as I can get pictures scanned, uploaded, etc.

UPDATE:
Ok, so the ultrasound tech is kind of a sadist, because she seriously checked every single part of the baby before finally getting around to the gender. “Yes yes, the head measures perfectly, that’s great. And the heartbeat is right in the middle of the range where it should be, fantastic.” By the time she was checking the baby’s kidneys, I was ready to scream, “Will you get on with it already?!?!!!”

But, once she got a good angle with the ultrasound, our little girl full-on mooned us, so we are 99.9% sure that she is, most definitely, female. I’m afraid that she gets her complete lack of modesty from my side of the family.

Other stuff: I’ve only gained 10 pounds so far, so I’m quite pleased with that. The baby appears to be perfectly healthy (and a girl! Aaahhh!!), so that’s fantastic.

What else is there to say? I’m kind of in shock. I think I need to go eat something.

And now, let the shopping spree commence!

is it Thursday yet?

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Ok, just so y’all aren’t wondering where the update is tomorrow, here’s the timeline for how things are going to go. (I suppose management types would call this “setting expectations.”) This will probably be of no interest to anyone except the five or six people who read this site on a regular basis.

9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.: Work. Me likey half-days.

1:00 p.m.: Leave work, drive to doctor’s office, get there way too early, and proceed to have an anxiety attack over the fact that Dave won’t arrive to meet up with me until 1:58 p.m. (I’ve suggested carpooling to work in the morning, which would solve that issue. But given our very different morning routines, I doubt that’ll work out very well.)

2:00 p.m.: Ultrasound appointment. I am totally snagging a can of juice from the office kitchen before I leave work, and downing it five minutes before the ultrasound. Hopefully, the jolt to my blood sugar will ensure that the sprog is moving around, so we can get a good look at his/her naughty bits.

2:30 p.m.: My regular OB checkup. I need to remember to make a list of questions that I want to ask her.

3 – 4 p.m.-ish: Drive home. It probably won’t take that long, but I’m really tired of cooking this week, so I’m going to stop to grab take-out or something for dinner on the way.

Basically, I don’t think that I’ll be home and online (and hence, able to update this here bloggy thing) until around 5:00 p.m. That’s 8:00 for you east coast folks.

Sorry. Believe me, if I could’ve gotten an appointment earlier in the morning, I would’ve been happy to take it. But hopefully, that little bit of advance notice will save you from abusing your browser’s “refresh” button too much.

Or, if you want, you can just go on with your lives and check back on Friday morning. I promise it won’t hurt my feelings (much).