36 Weeks!

April 28, 2008 timewellspent

I’m nine months pregnant now — how weird is that?!

We had an appointment this morning, including an ultrasound to see how Joe is doing in there. He’s upside down (that’s a good thing), with his feet up by my ribs and his head bouncing around on my bladder. We didn’t get a photo of his fingers and toes, but we did get a look at them (not enough to count them all, but enough to see they are CUTE!)

Here’s his profile, labeled for those of you who (like me!) can’t always make heads or tails of these things:

He kind of looks like he’s smiling, doesn’t he?

They estimated his current weight at 6 pounds, 10 ounces. His heart was beating away at 140 BPM. He’s a healthy little monkey!

After the ultrasound, my doctor examined me and said that it doesn’t look like anything will happen soon. That’s actually a relief, since I have lots to finish up at work and home before I’m ready for this little dude. I don’t want him to be weeks late, but weeks early would have stressed me out for sure.

Once we were done there, Patrick and I went to Friendly’s and ate a gigantic lunch. We came home in the pouring rain, and soon Lola was shaking like a leaf. She gets a little nervous during thunderstorms, but for some reason rain alone was completely freaking her out. She couldn’t hold still!

It wasn’t long before we figured out what was scaring her: a tornado about a mile away! We never heard or saw it, but the emergency service sent us e-mails and voice mails to say that there was a tornado warning, and soon all the local TV stations were breathlessly reporting cars flipped over and stacked on top of one another at the local Target shopping center. Sirens were screaming by and every dog in the neighborhood was howling. Crazy!

Patrick’s folks were here for the weekend and got to see me in all my large, slow-moving glory. I did manage one lap around a flea market without passing out, but spent most of the weekend with my feet up. Pregnant women make terrible hostesses — thank goodness Patrick was here to pick up my slack.

Tonight we have an infant CPR class at St. Francis. I wonder if we’ll get creepy mannequins like these to work on?

Baby

34 Weeks …

April 15, 2008 timewellspent

Joe and I had another appointment this morning. His heartbeat was nice and strong, and he’s measuring at about the right size. (Or at least my belly is … they just sort of drag this tape measure across it and nod …)

Our next appointment is April 28 — for another ultrasound! We haven’t laid eyes on him since he was at 20 weeks, the day we found out he was a boy. It’s a bit more crowded in there now, so I’m not sure how much of him we’ll be able to see. But we will find out for sure what position he’s in and get an estimate of his weight. Place your bets!

Not much else to report, except that I think I’ve entered the “OK, this isn’t that much fun anymore” phase of pregnancy. My feet and legs are swollen to grotesque proportions and sleeping has become a challenge. This must be nature’s way of making you really look forward to the baby; just last week I was saying that I would miss being pregnant. Hah!

Joe is very active, wiggling and squirming all over the place. A few weeks ago, I snuggled up against Patrick’s back after his alarm went off — and Joe kicked him! He’s already got a sense of humor, the sweet thing.

Time to get to work. But first, enjoy this headline from today’s Fayetteville Observer:

Girl walks into side of pickup truck on Cliffdale Road

I mean really.

Home, Travel

Patrick's Birthday!

April 6, 2008 timewellspent 1 Comment

Today is Patrick’s birthday! I let him sleep in (meaning I kept Lola occupied for as long as I could), made him some coffee and gave him a Vampire Weekend CD (he really enjoyed them on SNL a couple of weeks back).

Eventually, Lola would not be ignored any longer. She woke him up with kisses and allowed him to rub her belly for a while. Then, bless Patrick’s heart, he went out in yucky weather to get me a Sunday paper. What a guy!

Earlier this week he got a special gift in the mail from my folks — a framed “slick” of the Fayetteville Observer page where his photo appeared last month. We’re trying to figure out where to hang it — in the meantime, here it is:

With some of the birthday money his folks sent, we took a birthday trip yesterday to Virginia Beach. We went to the Virginia Aquarium and saw otters, seals, all manner of strange-looking fish, and enormous, old sea turtles.

Here we are with an otter (not real, but hey):

After the aquarium, we went to Harpoon Larry’s for an early dinner near the beach. It was too rainy and cool to go down to the water — maybe next time.

To complete our aquatic theme, we stopped at Carvel on our way back home and picked up a Fudgie the Whale cake! I had told Patrick a million years ago how the old Carvel ads used to come on at my Grandma’s house on Long Island, and those cakes seemed like the most amazing thing a person could get. Here’s one ad I remember: