Wednesday, June 30, 2010

29...or 32 week photos


I'm just going to say it. I'm bloating up. My waist is thick.

Not that it necessarily took taking these pics for me to notice, I mean, I'm about to buy some maternity pants because my regular ones are fitting pretty snug these days. Granted, I don't like tight jeans...I also don't want to punish them (or people who have to look at me) any longer. But I digress.



This might be the last week that I post bare belly pics, too. We'll see. I'm just getting to the point where it's getting to be a bit obscene. It's getting all National Geographic up in heeya.

Sorry 'bout that.

Also, as with last week, let's not focus on the face/head in the photos. I'm only using these because it's so late in the week and I couldn't NOT post some. I'm tired today. Not only was it supa-hot in the house today (think ponytail, too-short-on-a-pregnant-lady-shorts and a tank) I had my first accupunture appointment with a collegue of Jordan's today. It was great and I had more energy afterward than I have in a little while now. But now I'm coming down, and I look it. I'm pretty sure I didn't look so rough earlier today.

Now it's time for some How I met your Mother catch-up. God, I love Netflix ;-)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Because I can't sleep

I didn't take pics this weekend. I think it's because I missed the photo from 2 weeks ago. I couldn't find the right time to get this week's photos taken over the weekend. I will, however, force Jordan to take them when he comes home for lunch tomorrow. I hope ;-) Since I have a due-month rather than a due-date, it really shouldn't matter now, should it? I mean, who really knows when I should be taking these photos?
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Tonight was our twelfth and final Bradley class. Holy crap. My overall thoughts: The premise behind Bradley is wonderful. It's husband-coached, relaxation-heavy, no silly Lamaze breathing techniques. It's got a lot of technical stuff too, which is great. Jordan and I had already sat through OB/GYN in school, learned all the terms, the stages of labor and pretty much more about the vagina than we'd ever thought we'd know (it was a rather extensive class, much like everything else at Parker). That, plus all the pediatric chiro seminars I've been to, I felt a little bored during a lot of the Bradley classes. But like I said, for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to have already learned those things, it was really great. Learning different labor positions, relaxation techniques, etc was super helpful. The knowledge gained from the course is invaluable. Plus, now we know 8 other couples that will have babies within a month and half of us. This could really come in handy with advice, support, etc. So...overall, I'd recommend the classes.
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It's possible that this will have a timestamp on it. If so, you'll see that it's after midnight here on the best coast. And I'm still awake. During the first two trimesters, I was lucky if I saw 10:30 most nights. During the 2nd trimester especially, I was an energetic, crazy person. Up by 7 every morning, cleaning like a mad-woman, cooking and baking all the time, constantly walking the dogs, planting shit in the garden....just tons of energy. Now, I feel accomplished if I make the bed by noon and finish a load of laundry by the end of the day. Insomnia has crept in and I can't get out of bed until at least 8:30, if I'm really lucky. Ugh. I started doing some P90X again today, hoping to force myself to have more energy (it worked before!). We'll see if I can keep it up.

Even if it doesn't help with the energy, it's definitely already jump-started my motivation to get back into a good workout routine after the baby is here. I loved doing P90X. Tony Horton is pretty hot. The results were pretty great, too ;-)
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This whole not-being-able-to-sleep-at-night-thing is letting me refamiliarize myself with late-late-night television. I really like Craig Ferguson. Apparently, he's the only late-night talkshow host without a script. None for the monologue, which is surprising. He's just funny. I remember being surprised by how natural he was in this role way back when he scored the job, considering he was just an actor with little US television experience. Does this sound like I'm doing a promo commercial for him? Clearly, I need to go to bed.

Also, my Mahjong skills are pretty fierce now that I'm not sleeping at night. Jealous? I know. So are all the 90 year old Asian women from Joy Luck Club. God, that's random.

Goodnight.


Sunday, June 20, 2010

Week 28...or week 31.

So, I screwed up. I forgot to take photos last week (week 27/30). I'm a little sad that now we won't have a full week-by-week progression to look back on. I'll do my best to not forget again :-) Here's the photos from this week (week 28/31). Notice the size of the belly. Take it all in. It's gloriously large (and in charge). Bending over, getting in/out of bed and and the couch is a bit challenging now. I'm like a beached whale trying to roll my fat ass out of bed in the morning. You don't realize the lack of abs until you try to use them and fail miserably, I guess ;-)
And please don't judge the new haircut based on what you see below. I did nothing with it today after having it in a ponytail for half of the day. It really does look a lot better when I've given it 5 minutes of my attention.





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The kid has been increasingly active and has a new trick that includes jabbing both sides of my belly at the same time. I imagine that the little him/her is either stretching or perfecting some kick-ass dance moves. Either way, it's a strange feeling. I had no idea how far back on my sides I'd be feeling these kicks/punches. The accommodations are apparently pretty expansive these days.
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I'm currently making this lovely olive focaccia (I'm using a mixture of kalamata and pimento-stuffed green olives) to go with some roasted garlic hummus that I made earlier today. I'm pretty stoked. I am, however, not happy about the waiting period for this bread. That's always the hardest part. I've got a recipe for a super-yummy ciabata that I've been sitting on because I just don't know if I can dedicate several hours of my day to kneading/folding/waiting on rising. Maybe I can come up with a strain of hyper-speed yeast that can cut down on rise-time. Until then, we wait.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Just a few things

We've decided that I'm likely due right around the end of the first week of September. Our latest appointment with our midwife revealed that I'm measuring about 27 weeks. 3 weeks ago, I measured 26...which is all in line with either date, really. Either EDD, 8/20 or 9/15 is still possible of course. We're just thinking it'll be somewhere between the two, rather than closer to either since I'm measuring a little over one date and a little under the other ;-) Really though, who knows? This kid is going to come when it's damn well ready. It is, afterall, our kid.

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I caught Brodie in the formerly-lettuce-turned-cucumber-barrel yesterday afternoon. He managed to jump in through and under the circular trellis I have in it, and was comfortably lounging on top of my beautiful cucumber seedlings. Thankfully, they are all still alive and thriving, no thanks to my crazy boy. He really is crazy. I mean, what kind of dog sleeps in a veggie barrel full of dirt?

I do, however, think that he's working some magic on my tomatoes. We've gotten a bunch of ridiculously sweet grape tomatoes and the Early Girl that we had this week was super delicious. I think he talks to them. I'm excited to know what the cucumbers will taste like with a little Brodie-magic ;-)

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I'm becoming so accustomed to the tumbles, kicks, punches in my belly that I actually, for a brief moment today, mistook a small earthquake for the kid acting crazy. Jordan thought it was Brodie thrashing against the couch, so at least it wasn't just me. Apparently, it was only about a 4.4, but we've been getting lots for the past 2 months or so since the big one on Easter. I'm thinking I may have ocean-front property pretty soon at this rate :-/


Sunday, June 6, 2010

26/29 week pics

Here's the photos for this week. Clearly, I'm the size of a small heifer at this point. Thankfully, I'm still in the "doesn't look pregnant from the back" camp. I'm sure I heard an audible gasp from the lady behind me in line at Target today when I turned to the side in slow motion. It rocked her world.

Probably not, but I pictured it happening in slow motion and consequently rocking her world.

But more importantly, let's all focus on my tan. It's glorious. Mostly, I'm just excited to not be Elmer's-glue-pasty-white anymore (exception being my giant belly, of course).




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Completely aside from the weekly photos, I'm also happy to announce that one of Jordan's patients is a farmer. This means that we get to participate in a the time-honored tradition of bartering. Our score from last week included carrots, radishes, beets, golden Swiss chard, kale, bean sprouts, raw peanuts, cucumbers (even golden ones!!), and whole variety of different squashes. It was a big box full of goodies. How cool is that?




Saturday, June 5, 2010

Hotel California...and a little baby news

We had a busy month here at the (Carter) Blaustein house. Dad was here for about 2 weeks - on hiatus from a vacation at Josh's place in (hotter than the surface of the sun) Texas. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit on the cool side during most of his time here - mostly 60's and low 70's during the days and high 40's to 50's at night. I think he thought he'd be transported back to Maine :-) Two days after Dad hopped on a plane back to Texas, we got our second house guest of the month - Lydia. Hailing from sticky-hot SW Florida, she was pretty pleased with the lack of any humidity and near-perfect weather here in our part of the country. It managed to warm up the day before she got here, so her first experience in sunny SoCal was pretty great, I hope.

Now the dogs are exhausted. They just get so damn excited when people come to visit. So much more hands-on-petting-time for them ;-) Lucy even peed a little when she saw Lydia.
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I figured I'm doing pretty good at growing this kid, so in between our travelers, I planted some cucumbers in Brodie's favorite (former) lettuce barrel. I'm SUPER happy to report that exactly 5 days later, I started getting little baby cucumber seedlings. Now there's 20 and counting...and they are growing like weeds! I can't wait. I've been sitting on some pretty yummy sounding pickle recipes for a few years now and I'm just way too excited to get started on them. I expect to have our first cucumbers by the beginning/middle of June! This is an unnatural excitement. Oh, and my tomatoes are doing famously, in spite of the blight that has plagued them. We've been enjoying some really sweet grape tomatoes and we're about to have our very first Early Girl come ripe this weekend. So much for that black-thumb I used to have!

I'm also pleased to report that our new clothesline is up and functioning. Doesn't sound too exciting, I know, but I was close to weighing down our back fence with the weight of the line that I had attached to it. I don't suspect that our landlord would have appreciated that, despite the fact that it's possibly as old as the house, so it's likely time to replace it anyway. Either way, we finally (with the help of Dad) decided to make a typically-in-ground umbrella line...a portable (read: not cemented into the ground), collapsable line. Now I don't have to sacrifice the entire backyard everytime I hang laundry AND we can take it with us when we go. It's win-win. And I like to win. It's the little things, folks.
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And now for the baby-talk! Spork is getting more and more active every day. Lots of kicks and punches, forcibly trying to push his/her way out of my lower/mid abdomen, etc. Yesterday, Jordan played "push on the baby to make it bounce/push back" and got quite a kick out of it. Apparently our kid feels like it's got a bobble-head. Hopefully it'll grow out of that.

I'm also hoping that the random hip pain stops popping up. I'm obviously getting adjusted very regularly, I've showed Jordan how to do Webster's technique, we bought some SOT blocks...it's just unrelenting when it shows up. I don't know what women do without having the ability to get this work done at will...because walking/standing gets near impossible during a bad day - even with constant care. But, as long as it's not everyday, I think I'm pretty lucky. If this is the worst that pregnancy has to offer, it's not so bad ;-)

Oh, and if those old-wives-tales are correct, I'm going to be birthin' a hairy baby in approximately 10.5 weeks. I had never experienced heartburn prior to being pregnant. Now I can conjure a little (or a lot) up after just a simple glass of water. I'm happy to have heartburn if it means I get a kid with a mop-top. I LOVE babies with lots of hair. I'm thinking mohawks or pigtails within the first day. The possibilities are endless...

And for the record, I'm still a fan of being pregnant. Things may change toward the middle of August, but for now, it's still pretty great.