Young Baby Young

This was my first YouTube experience.  My video didn’t come out very well, but given that I waited over an hour for the darn thing to upload, I’m going to post it anyway!  I’ll try to refine my skills before doing this again.

I should prolly explain the bandaids on my stomach.  I forgot just how big my stomach has gotten.  I was making cookies the other day and standing approximately 3 feet from the oven, stretching my arms waaaaay out so that I could reach the cookie tray I’d just taken out.  Apparently 3 feet isn’t far enough because my belly still managed to get scorched on the side of the cookie tray.  Hence bandaids.

On the video, there’s a nice surge of activity between 17 and 20 seconds; the rest of it is kind of hard to tell if the camera is moving, or if I’m breathing, or if the baby is moving.  Attempt #2 will be better, I promise, especially if I can stop breathing for a while.

Sometimes I find it very difficult to find the right words for things.  I don’t mean those momentary lapses when you forget a word or a name; I mean more like when you try to tell the doctor where it hurts and you just don’t have the vocabularly to express yourself.  For example: I’ve been experiencing times where the baby would move in a certain way and make me uncomfortable.  It passed quickly, so I wasn’t worried about it, but I couldn’t even describe what she was doing.  It was like she was moving all of the amniotic fluids away and getting really close to the surface.  So close, in fact, that if I felt my stomach at that time, it would be rock hard, like she was right there.  Without possessing the right vocabularly to explain this (even though I tried numerous times), I would just tell Chris that “baby was being hard.”  We knew what I meant.  He could feel it from the outside.

The other day, I was flipping through one of my many on-loan pregnancy books and I found someone who was better able to articulate this activity than I ever could.  The question asked was, “Every once in a while my uterus seems to bunch up and harden.  What’s going on?”  The answer was that these are Braxton Hicks contractions, basically the uterus’s rehearsal for the real thing later.  The uterus is flexing its muscles, beginning at the top and gradually spreading downward, generally lasting about 20 seconds.  Yes, by George, that’s what I’m feeling!  I asked the doctor about it on our last visit on Monday and he described it as a battering ram.  “Umm, ’squeeze me?  Could you elaborate, please?”  He explained that baby has to break through the pelvic floor, which is currently solid, so once baby is in the official birthing position, these contractions are the body’s way of slowly weakening the floor, using baby’s head as a battering ram.  The mental image made me chuckle.  “Heave ho, baby, heave ho!”

Doctor is quite pleased with how everything is progressing.  We’re into the 3rd trimester and all is well in the world.  He praised my modest 14-pound weight gain.  I try to keep that in mind when I look at the scale and seeing it going up, up, up.  He said that Baby is only 1/3 of her final size, so I should expect to grow noticeably during the next 8 weeks or so. 

She’s very active.  I’ll be sitting at work and feel a sharp kick occasionally.  Who am I kidding?  I feel them all of the time now.  They’re really funny!  I actually caught a few on videotape, but I can’t seem to upload it to YouTube.  As soon as I do, though, I’ll link it to my blog.  It’s like an Aliens sequel.  (As Chris would say, “Were there really so many unanswered questions in the first Aliens movie that they needed to create a sequel?”)  You can see my stomach twitch and lumps protude. 

I’ve noticed that when I sit a lot (like at work), I don’t have to go to the bathroom too, too much; but when we were on vacation last week, and I was being active, I had to go every 20 minutes.  Instead of being on vacation, I feel like I took a tour of all public restrooms in northern Washington.  (My official report can be found at www.toiletswelove.wa.gov.  I will be doing a secondary report on my findings on hygenic practices of users of these facilities at a later date.)

At the moment, Chris is cooking lobster.  He has a customer who kindly brings us some fresh lobsters occasionally because he loves Chris, and Chris loves lobster, and somehow that means that the customer likes to shower Chris with seaweed and claws and tentacles.  I’m not a huge lobster fan on the best of days (although it does make an excellent conduit for eating butter); the smell right now is horrible.  I walked into the kitchen and gagged.  I’ve got a candle burning right beside me, but it’s not doing enough.  I’m unhappy.  I’m thinking about lighting some hair on fire just to override the noxious seawood odor, but knowing me, the entire house would be up in flames in no time.  Sigh.

Before we left for our vacation to Washington (more on that in a later blog, once I get some pictures off of Charlene’s camera), Sue and Sean Walsh stopped by to deliver their crib for our usage.  Not only did they deliver the crib, they also set it up for us!  Outstanding.  The room is really starting to feel like a baby’s room now!  (Note: this is not the crib’s final location — we just haven’t had a chance to move the other furniture in the room out.)

We also were the recipients of a truckload of newborn clothes from Charlene’s friend Maggie.  She gave us a zillion adorable outfits that are each perfect for a baby girl.  I keep looking at them in awe, finding it hard to believe that a little human will fit in there!

I think I can safely say that we have enough clothing for the 0-3 month category now….

I got scolded by Chris the other day: “too many pictures, not enough words on the blog.”  “It’s not easy to be funny all of the time.”  “Hello, don’t you think I know that?!”

Alright, so a little more talky-talky is in order.  Things are going very well.  We went to a meeting today with all of the officers of the bank — many people whom I haven’t seen in months — and of course many were politely asking how I was feeling.  I can’t lie: I feel great.  I’m starting to feel a little awkward in my body, and I have to pee every 38 minutes, but if that’s ALL I have to complain about, life is good.  We’ve almost completed the 6th month.

Normal events include many baby kicks during the day.  It’s strong enough for other people to feel and I can see my clothes twitch at times.  Some of the lighter ones may be fetal hiccups instead of kicks; I can’t tell.  Lately, I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night to a lot of activity.  Luckily, I can roll over and go to sleep again — always with a smile on my face.  I find her activity quite amusing.  I tried to capture it on film one night (I thought that would make a hilarious blog entry), but the movements are still pretty subtle.  Hopefully I can accomplish that in a few weeks.  For those of you who have never witnessed a baby moving inside of a stomach, as I never had, you will probably be as amazed as I was by it.  It’s just like in the B-grade alien movies!  I keep half expecting my stomach to spontaneously burst open and for a crazy extraterrestrial to pop out. 

The baby books say that she weighs about 2 pounds now.  We’ve still got a lot of growing to do in the next three months!

Let’s see, what else?  I’ve had a few leg cramps, which apparently are common at this stage, and just as “they” predicted, I have them in the middle of the night.  Eh, ain’t no thing. 

We’re off to Seattle on Saturday to visit Dad and Charlene.  This will be Chris’s first trip to the Northwest and I’m betting that he’ll love it.  We’ll be staying about an hour north of Seattle, on Camano Island, so we should have plenty of opportunities to do fun things.  We don’t currently have anything concrete on our agenda, other than visiting with the family.  I’m a little distraught about the discomforts of flying after sitting in that meeting all day today, but I doubt it’ll be much worse than a usual day of air travel and the discomforts associated with it.  I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that once again, I meet their standards for people who should be frisked after clearing airport security.  I don’t even have to pay them to do it!  Sweet.

Better 1?

Better 2?

Better 1?

Better 2?

Ahh, okay.  Better 2.

We had the opportunity to spend the weekend on Islesboro at the most beautiful summer “cottage”.  Our friend Charlie’s mother passed away and none of the kids will be able to keep the home, so he and Tim figured they’d have a last weekend gathering and invite a bunch of friends.  What a fabulous place to spend a night!  There was great company, delicious food, and entertaining conversation.

Yup, it was another weekend of slumming for us, but we once again tried to be gracious and accepting…

The lighthouse on Islesboro:

Our wonderful hosts:

Practically every room in the house had its own fireplace (okay, maybe I exaggerate a little) and while I’m sure they don’t really add much heat, they do add a lot of character.  Especially when you have models like us in front of it! 

Chris finds it difficult to be 6′3″ and fit into a twin bed.  Me?  I thought it was hilarious!  This may be one of my new favorite pictures.  Sleep well, dear?

The weekend was full of fun, diverse people.  While we were waiting for the ferry to take us back to the mainland on Sunday, we posed for a quick picture to remember the weekend by.

We’ve gotten lots of wonderful gifts that have made me squeal with girlish delight: pink high heels, dresses, lunch boxes, headbands, tea sets, and much more.  Today, however, Chris was the one squealing.  (I’m not exaggerating — he really did squeal.)

We got back from our weekend trip to Islesboro (more on that to come) and Chris found a package waiting for him.  He opened it while I was in the next room and all I heard was mutterings of, “Oh my god.  Oh my god.”  I had no idea what was going on, so I rushed into the room, worried something was wrong.  That was hardly the case.  In front of Chris, displayed like candy in a candy store, were packages upon packages of baby baseball attire.  I daresay Chris was a little misty-eyed by it all.

Check out all of Sarah and Ray’s outstanding finds (and in multiple sizes — Baby E is set for the first 12 months of her life!):

(The Atlanta Braves is one of Chris’s favorite teams.)

(You can’t possibly be a baseball fan in Northern New England without cheering for the Red Sox.)

(Uncle Ray is from Minnesota — it’s important that Baby E show her support of the Twins, too.)

And Chris’s absolute favorite:

I can hear it now: Baby’s first words won’t be Mama or Dada; she’ll be singing the Braves’s Tomahawk Chop theme song and swinging her right arm up and down to the beat.

I do believe this is a home run.  (And not a home run from a Little League field, either — I’m talkin’ ’bout a legit home run, baby!)

Well, Carrie, I’ve got some great news for you: they DO make those infant sleeping bag thingies in adult sizes!  I’ll be happy to buy one for you and Dave for Christmas.  (I’m still undecided on if that means I’ll buy ONE for you and Dave or one for you and one for Dave.  I think one total would be much more amusing.  And hey, they’re perfect for those cold winter days!)

We got to visit Kate and Hugh while they’re temporarily slumming it in Stowe, Vermont at her parents’ house.  We’re used to staying in nicer places, but we tried to be gracious and understanding about the sub-par digs they were having us visit them in…. 

They made up for it by allowing us to have our fill of pinching and squeezing Jack, who’s now five months old:

Kate and Hugh are doing really well in their new role as parents and they did an excellent job of kindly answering all of our naive questions about babies.  We had our first experience with bath time and learned all about the importance of tummy-time:

With their current knowledge of good items to have, they bestowed upon us a gift that Jack has found highly entertaining:

And, of course, one can’t have enough adorable clothes:

The town of Stowe and its surrounds were beautiful.  We got to spend some time walking around town, poking our heads into shops, and driving over the mountain.  (This pregnant lady isn’t doing anything more strenuous than viewing the mountain from a car window!) 

(I tried to get a good tummy shot in that one, but it didn’t quite work.  Stay tuned — attempt two is below.)

We had lots of good eats, including a wonderful dinner with Kate’s parents, spareribs on the BBQ, and s’mores (mmm).  On our way out o’ town, we happened to pass the Cabot Creamery.  One of the things that I have eaten massive amounts of since becoming pregnant is Cabot Cottage Cheese.  I LOVE IT.  I mean it.  If I could, I’d marry it.  (Don’t worry, Chris totally understands.  He knows he can’t compete at this level.)  It’s so darn delicious….  I had jokingly said to Chris that while in VT, I wanted to go thank the Cabot cows personally for all of protein they’ve given me.  We laughed at the preposterous notion that just because we were in Vermont, we’d happen to find the Cabot Creamery.  So imagine my surprise when we past a sign that said “Cabot Creamery, 6 miles”!  I couldn’t believe my luck!  The gift shop had samples galore and this cheese lover was in heaven:

And interestingly enough, it’s not only my belly growing, but apparently *all* of me is growing enough to supply both regular parking options and additional visitor parking options…. 

Thanks, guys, for a great weekend!