Oh Happy Day!

I went to see my family and told them about the baby. Daddy said, "Aren't I a little young to be a grandpa?" but he was happy. Mom got so excited that I couldn't quite tell what exactly she said first, but it was definitely very happy about the baby. Grandma said, "Oh! Are you...Great!! That's just great!!!" Then mom and grandma got all excited and jumped around. My brother already knew, because he was up to visit me, but he was happy too. I really wish that my grandpa were still around to tell. He would have been really happy too, and then he would have made jokes about it. My grandpa was always a bit of a card. Overall I have to say that it was a very successful trip and it's a wonderful gift to have a supportive family.

The value of friends

The value of friends is immeasurable, and that goes double for friends who have already gone through something that you're now going through. Without this incredible boon, I would have no choice but to assume that I'm insane, and there is something very very odd about my pregnancy. Fortunately, from talking to my friends I have found out that, well, yes I may be insane and have an odd odd pregnancy, but that's exactly what happens during all pregnancies. Feeling anxious for no reason? Two weeks of food binge and then all food is disgusting? Things smell strange? Back hurts? Just ate an entire flat of pears by yourself? Sleeping more during the day than Dracula? No problem! Apparently that's just called being pregnant. So, a big thanks to Coco and Angie for forging through those confusing experiences ahead of me and giving me the reassurance that only someone saying, "Oh yea, it was orange pop and cheetoes for me." can bring.

The Chunky Monkey

I think I'm showing! No one else besides Gene and I seems to have noticed, but I'm pretty sure that there is now baby pudge where there was no baby pudge before. This has got to be the first time in my life that I have ever been happy to see new pudge! We had a party this weekend and while putting on my little 1920's style party dress I was at first startled that I seem to be pudging out, and then startled that I seem to be having trouble fitting my chest into the dress. That has definitely never been a problem before. It's a truly unique experience to wake up in a body that is fundamentally different than the one you went to sleep in, especially when is seems to keep happening over and over again. They tell me things really start to ramp up in the next trimester. That should be interesting!

Food is gross

Before the pregnancy, I loved to eat. Two weeks ago, ice cream was the greatest thing on earth. Last week, everything was delicious, especially Italian food. Today, everything is gross. I don't know why all food is suddenly gross, but it is. I've heard of moms-to-be feeling grossed out by the smell of cooking food, or by a certain food, but all food?! Today food ranges from kind of edible to completely disgusting. As near as I can tell this is a low-grade, ongoing form of morning sickness. I just feel a little sick for a long time. I'm taking a friend's advice and trying ginger ale, since I don't want to take any medicine at this delicate stage of the pregnancy. Anyone out there have any brilliant ideas?

Yin or Yang

My friend Dustin today announced that he can tell me what gender my baby will be. Dustin is into acupuncture, Eastern medicine, etc. After taking my pulse and considering carefully, Dustin announced that with 95% certainty he knows that I will have a boy. I'll have to get back to him in a few months once we've had the ultrasound, but I thought I'd document his prediction now. In the mean time I'll have to continue to ponder the question, "Do I need pink or blue yarn to start this baby blanket?" Just a note: I think I found the table for Chinese baby gender predictions that Dustin was using. Just for fun, I've included the link here.
http://www.obfocus.com/calculators/birthchart.htm

Stem Cells

A new medical practice seems to be taking hold. Embryonic stem cells, harvested from the umbilical cord, are being used to fight cancer and a host of other medical issues. The problem is that the cord blood banks are private and are very expensive. It turns out that we'd be paying hundreds to thousands just to initially deposit our stem cells, and then monthly fees to keep them in cryo. till/if we needed them. Last week, however, we found out that we can deposit them for free at a community bank through the hospital. The catch? They're not our cells once we deposit them, and they can be used by us, or used up by anyone else who needs them before we need them. Not really much of a catch is it? The thought of some poor dying child getting a new shot at life from my baby's cord blood cells hardly seems like a down side to me, especially since the chances of us ever needing them are so remote. I thought this was worth posting in case anyone else out there is having a baby. Talk to your hospital about donating cord blood cells. It seems like a truly worthwhile cause.

Babies don't have a pause button.

I've spent all this time worrying about whether or not I CAN get pregnant. Now that it's happened, I need to figure out what to do once the baby comes. I know it's another 8 months down the line, but I don't want to be worrying about these things while I'm worrying about everything else. I plan to take a month off, as will my loving and doting husband Gene. The problem is that I work as a part time therapist and I'm going to need to put the baby somewhere for the few hours a week that I work. On top of that I'll need to figure out what to do while I'm at martial arts training, although I might just take the baby with me. I may have an offer to teach parenting skills a couple times a month, so I'd need to figure out childcare for that too. The real problem is that I need to find something affordable, like a trade-off-kids kind of situation, but I'm not willing to leave my baby with a stranger. Years of working with abused children has made me Leery. Gene is an option, but as anyone who has ever worked full time will tell you, coming home after a long day and then babysitting for a couple of hours is a lot to ask on a weekly basis. I suppose that I'll figure something out, but it would be nice if more of my friends and family lived near me.

Caution! Handle with Care!!

Gene and I went to the doctor last week for our first prenatal visit. We won’t be ready for the ultrasound till May 1st or so, but that didn't stop them from drawing more blood than Dracula, running a plethora of tests, and giving me a ream of paperwork to fill out. We found out a couple of interesting things. One of which is that the baby does get to stay with me after the delivery instead of being wheeled away to some distant nursery. I'm very glad about this, as I'd always thought that separating the mother from her newborn seemed tremendously unnatural. The second thing that I found out is that until 10-12 weeks my baby is incredibly fragile. It's developing all its tiny little organs and structures and networking itself together, and ANY contamination to my body can damage this incredibly important and incredibly fragile and incredibly fast process. My baby is nearly doubling in size weekly! This obviously isn't an actual picture of my baby, bit it's a baby at 6 weeks, which is right where I am. I'm 6 weeks 2 days today. The upshot of all this is that I can't have tea, chocolate, coffee, alcohol, or anything else that isn't 100% good and nutritious. I keep finding myself wondering, "Did I get enough veggies today?", "Did that cup of tea 4 weeks ago cause a problem?", "Am I eating enough...Did waiting so long to eat breakfast cause irrevocable damage?!" As you can see, a mommy-to-be can drive herself insane this way pretty quickly. On the whole I'm trying to be relaxed about the whole thing, but it's hard not to worry a little.

Registry Nightmares

I'm putting part of my baby registry here, not because I want everyone to go out and buy something, but because I've always found them useful when my friends had kids. I hate wondering what would be useful. I would ordinarily put everything on amazon.com, but I can't find everything there, so I've got an Amazon registry and a Babies R' Us registry. I put some almost everything on Amazon's baby registry, and the changing pad covers on Babies R' Us, and then I just decided to put the whole list here since I really don't think things have to come from a particular store. We already have a bunch of the biggie items, and some blankets and playmat, mobile, bouncy seat, etc., but these are a few of the endless list of things that seem to be needed for a baby. How can someone so tiny need so much stuff?!

door alarms - we really need these - (registered for on amazon.com)
contoured Changing pad covers (blue)(1-2)
humidifier/vaporizer
Baby care kit:(brush/comb, nail clippers, thermometer, nasal bulb, 1st Aid Supplies)
baby books
Avent Pacifiers (2 or 3)
Teethers (2 - 4)
6 - 8 Avent brand nipples for avent bottles
baby spoons (3 to 4) -plain metal ones w/ plastic coating on the bowl of the spoon
baby wash/shampoo/lotion
breast pads, (probably washable) and shields and cream