Happy New Year!

What in incredible year. Not only did my baby turn 1, I had another baby. James and I celebrated 8 years of marriage, and it's hard to imagine life being any better. I'm so grateful for all of my friends and family and the joy they bring into our lives. I hope 2010 is just as full of blessings and wonderful memories (though no babies for me!).

(click image to enlarge)

Love of Labor: The Sequel

About a lifetime ago (okay, just under two years, but who's counting?), I wrote about my love of labor. While "love" may be a strong word, it certainly wasn't the worst experience in the world, and I have to say "ditto" this time around. Havin' Gavin was even easier than when I had Claire! Here's the timeline of Friday, December 25, 2009 (yes, Christmas morning):

• 4:00am: Contractions started and woke me from a light sleep. Let's face it; sleeping deeply and comfortably the last few weeks is a treat when it actually happens. This time I was pretty sure I knew they were contractions based on the irregular contractions I had the day before while James and I were at the movies ("The Blind Side" ... excellent movie even with contractions during the whole thing!). They were about 9-10 minutes apart, no too painful.
• 5:30am: 1-Minute long contractions were 5 minutes apart, so I start monitoring. An hour of these suckers, and I call the doctor.
• 6:10am: The contractions are getting stronger to where I don't really want to talk while my insides are squeezing. I'm ready to call the doctor ... just 20 more minutes. I go to take a shower, stopping to breathe through the pain.
• 6:25am: James wakes up at his normal time and sees me straining and bending over while holding on to the counter. I tell him I'm waiting until 6:30 to call the doctor. He tells me I'm silly.
• 6:30am: I'm hitting Send on my cell phone having already dialed and stared at the minute hand until it hit the 6. I talk to the answering service who says they're going to call the doctor (mine, actually, since she was on call) who will then call me back.
• 6:38am: Dr. Jaffee calls me, obviously having been roused from bed. I apologize for calling her 1) so early; 2) on Chrismas morning of all mornings; and 3) the morning after an ice storm. She tells me not to worry and to head to the hospital.
• 6:45am: James and I head to the hospital driving on roads iced over from the Texas-style blizzard the night before. I've reclined the seat and am eating graham crackers and drinking a glass of milk just in case it's awhile before I get to eat again. We pass some abandoned cars along the way -- James stopped to roll down the windows so that he could ask other drivers what was wrong (ie an iced-over bridge?) while I thought he was going to offer assistance. No one is in the cars, and the roads seem driveable. We did manage to slide past the entrance into the hospital parking lot but made the next entrance without any problems.
• 7:00am: I'm in my nice comfy labor and delivery room. This time around, James gets to see what contractions look like; it's not pretty.

This is what a Way-Way contraction looks like.
I may look like I'm smiling, but I'm not happy!

To my surprise, I discovered that Plano Presby has gone all "Earth Mother" in terms of their labor, delivery, and post-partum process. It's been less than two years since I was last admitted, and already things had changed, at least for "regular" births.

1. They room-in all babies now starting at birth. No longer do they whisk away the baby (and daddy) to the nursery to do the cleaning, measuring, and shots; everything is done bedside for the mommy to watch. Same goes for at night; you have to explicitly request them to take your baby away -- and probably have a good reason -- or else baby's in the room with you. The only time they usually take the baby is to get checked out by the pediatricians in the morning and for the circumcisions (if applicable, of course).
2. Rules about nothing touching your lips except ice chips after you are admitted are gone. You can drink pretty much anything except for orange juice while in labor, and they also provide jello and popsicles. I remember with Claire I was gulping down water at the entrance just outside the L&D wing because I knew it was my last chance, and who knew when I'd be able to drink again?!
3. No more Soothies. Yup, no free paci provided by the hospital because they are hoping to encourage more breastfeeding.
4. Everyone's a lactationist. You thought there were boob nazis before? Now everyone on staff is trained in lactation consulting! I mean, I'll be breastfeeding so it's nice that anyone can help me, but it must be intimidating for people who don't have the option to feed from their boobs.
5. There is a mandatory "nap time" during the day for mommies and babies. Well, they can't force you to sleep, but during the hours of 1pm-4pm, it's quiet time on the floor where they discourage any visitors so that mommies and babies (and daddies!) can actually get some rest.

I know there's other stuff, but that's just a sampling of what I found to be different. Back to the timeline:

• 7:30am: IV is in to pump me full of fluids, I've been admitted to the hospital, and James has already paid for what is to come with his credit card. Oh, and I'm eagerly waiting the epidural that should be ready any minute now. James uses the free wifi to search for "relaxing music" on Pandora, Enya fills the room, and I say, "are you kidding me?!" and request The Killers instead. "Mr. Brightside" is an awesome labor song, btw. :) 3-4cm dilated; 90% effaced.
• 8:00am: Anesthesiologist is there to do the epidural. She inserts the needle ... bone. Inserts ... bone ... jabs ... bone ... adjusts ... bone ... gives me more local anesthetic ... sticks some more ... bone. Repeat for another 20-25 minutes and then calls for back-up. In the meantime, I have asked the nurse how much worse she think the pain will get from the contractions I'm already having. She tells me they won't hurt much worse that what I'm enduring now, and I start considering just foregoing the epidural altogether.
• 8:30am: Backup anesthesiologist shows up just as the first says "a-ha!" and finds the right spot for that needle. I'm glad her spirits weren't ruined by an unsuccessful epidural on Christmas! She cheerfully finishes the procedure while telling me all the while that I almost missed the window and would have progressed too far if much more time had passed! James tells me later at one point when she pulled out the needle after another unsuccessful try, the needle looked like it was actually bent. Gross.
• 8:35am: Bliss. Tingly feet, warm legs, no pain bliss. We sit back to wait for the next few hours. My nurse laughs as she adjusts me again; for some reason, I kept wanting to slide to the left side of the bed, and she was scared I'd just slither to the floor at some point. With the good meds, though, I doubt I would have cared.
• 8:45am: Dr. Jaffee comes in with a smile on her face. She checks and says I'm about 7-8cm dilated, 95% effaced, and will probably deliver by noon. She prescribes some petocin to speed things up along a little more, breaks my water, and leaves to do rounds. My nurse jokes that she could probably just wave the pitocin under my nose seeing as how quickly I'm progressing and depresses the tiny amount into my IV via a syringe (rather than having to hook up an actual bag).
• 9:00am: I sit back and start texting people and surfing on my iPhone. Might as well relax during my last few hours. Talk to Corrie on the phone to say hello and tell her that I'll probably deliver by noon.
• 9:20am: Dr. Jaffee comes back and says "yup, you're ready to push". HUH?!?!?! Um, okay. She suits up while all the funny stuff happens (ie, they take off the end of the bed and turn on the "you're going to shine THOSE lights WHERE?!" fixtures).
• 9:29am: Contraction starts. Push, breathe, push, breath, push, breathe. Contraction ends, and I relax.
• 9:30am: Next contraction starts. Push, breathe, DON'T push on direction of doctor (let gravity do the work!), breathe ... GAVIN IS BORN!
  

Gavin De-Xiang Pee
Born 12/25/09 @ 9:30am
7lb 10oz; 19.3 inches

Seriously, that was it. Jen, my nurse, said it went even better than textbook, and Dr. Jaffee concurred adding that she's also amazed since I'm so not a complainer. I smiled a little guitily thinking about all those pity parties I've been throwing myself recently. :)

By 10:30, we were all scrubbed, cleaned, and settled into our post-partum room. I like to think that all the stuff I whined about the last month of pregnancy (the hips that were no longer aligned, the weird phantom aches, the jelly joints) all allowed for a blissfully easy delivery. Yay!

Gavin is an incredible baby so far. He's got my nose -- my mom kept commenting about the big nose, James' eyes, and lots of hair. He seems to be a good sleeper (crossing fingers!) and a pretty good eater. The family came up to visit on Christmas evening, and Claire immediately took to her little brother. She's going to be a great big sis.

First family picture

I was supposed to check-out on Sunday morning (the 27th) but after talking to Dr. Jaffee and Dr. Frank on Saturday morning, they said that Gavin and I were both doing great and were welcome to check-out early and go home if we wanted. After a quick discussion, James and I decided to take the plunge. If we're going to be rooming in anyways and everyone is healthy, why not just go home? So after we used up all our free meal vouchers and watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- which I do NOT recommend watching just hours after you've had a baby -- we headed home to face the real world which I'm sure you'll be reading about soon.

I'm going to do my best to try and keep up with the blogs (mine, Claire's, and Gavin's) but be patient with me as I have a feeling there will be an adjustment period coming up for all of us.

I'll also be posting lots of pictures in the December photo album as I go through them, so come back and visit often!

Baby Pee - 39-Week Appointment

Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, baby boy. I had hoped not to make it all the way to the 39-week appointment. Over the last few days, I've continued to get larger and more uncomfortable, but no baby yet.

On Sunday night about 11pm, I realized that Gavin hadn't really been moving much, so I was extra-vigilent yesterday to track his movements. His activity was definitely less than it has been, both in frequency and intensity, so last night was not a restful one for me (went to sleep at 11:45pm, woke up at 1:45am, and stayed up until 5:30am before taking a nap until 6:30am). I figure that he's really just out of room but let the nurse know when I got to my appointment today, and she immediately hooked me up to the machine that I had used at my 28-week appointment. I have to say, when I first heart the heartbeat echo through the room, a wave of relief washed over me.

There still wasn't much movement, so I got to drink a can of Coke and sit some more. After reviewing the charts, Dr. Jaffee said that there's enough movement (there were about 10 jabs/kicks/rolls within about 40 minutes) that she's not concerned but to continue being sensitive to his movements. At a minimum, I should feel 5 "somethings" within the hour after eating a meal; with all of the OJ and Sprite that I've been having, no real problems there!

In other news, I'm 3cm dilated, thinned out, and Gavin is nice and low. Dr. Jaffee also noted that at least one of my "movements" that I marked during the monitoring today was actually a contraction and not Gavin just rolling over like I thought. Huh, who knew!? Given the progress since my last appointment, it's likely that I'll deliver sometime this week; and now that I know what I'm feeling is actually contractions, I can start keeping track. Here's to hoping!

Baby Pee - 38-Week Appointment

Had my 38-Week Appointment. Best way to summarize how it went is when Dr. Jaffee said, "hmmm ... doesn't look like he's ready to come out; it could be that he's coming after Christmas", my response was "Seriously?! Are you sure?! Do you want to check again?!" Sigh, still pregnant.

Besides just being big and uncomfortable, I'm also hoping Gavin will make his appearance in the next few days because Dr. Jaffee is on-call all of next week through Christmas but then she's going on vacation the next week after. I promised her that I was going to try and do a lot of walking over the weekend. Wish me luck!

Baby Pee - 37-Week Appointment

Another week, and I'm STILL pregnant. I am so over being preggers. I LOVE feeling the baby move and knowing that he's right there with me all the time, but I'm tired of feeling so ungainly, the aching hips, and the fear that if I sit down I'll never get back up. Plus, I'm just ready to meet him!

Not too much to add about the appointment. I lost the pound I gained at last week's appointment, my blood pressure is back to normal from last week as well, and his heartbeat sounds great. Dr. Jaffee had problems actually checking my cervix this week -- it STILL cracks me up that I have a "narrow pelvis" ... do I LOOK like I have a narrow pelvis?! Seriously?! Sheesh. -- but she said that it's softening for sure and that his head is definitely engaged.

I asked if she could take a guess at about how big he is today, and by measuring his length and "cheating" a bit by using Claire's stats, her guess is that he's probably about 5 1/2 pounds and that he'll probably be about the same size as Claire when he comes out. Guess I'll just keep on baking then!

Baby Pee - 36-Week Appointment

Starting this week (and every week following), Dr. Jaffee is checking to see how I'm coming along. Just so folks know, it's NOT a comfortable exam ... think back to that first sonogram but more uncomfortable. :P

So where am I? Not dilated at all (I believe exact words were "still completely closed"), but he is definitely head down. Given that there just isn't room left for him to really move around, it's unlikely he'll be changing that position before he comes.

I asked whether he's dropped at all, and she said not really. Apparently second (and subsequent) babies tend to drop late and moms tend to efface late but dilate early. *shrug* She would know. :) I'm a little surprised that he hasn't engaged yet given that everytime he moves his head right now, I feel like I'm going to pee on myself, but I guess it's going to get worse before it gets better.

People at the office are starting to get nervous, I think. Besides the fact that I'm lumbering around and am as big as a house, I'm having problems in my right hip, so I'll suddenly stop while walking around to massage my hip (okay, my butt) and shake it out. Multiple times this week I had to ensure people that I was NOT in labor and was NOT having contractions ... but then how do you explain that I was just having aches, joint locking, nerve pinching pain in my right hip? Nobody wants to know that. I DO have the fear of my water breaking at work, though, which is why I'm going to try and work from home as much as I can until the baby is here. Ugh, can you just imagine?!

We're officially on baby watch! I've also got girlfriends at work and James at home on "Belly Watch" which means they have to make sure my outfit is covering my entire belly. You know you're at the end of the pregnancy where even your maternity shirts are too short, and no way do I want to be THAT person. :D

Havin' a Gavin

Well, it's officially been two whole weeks and we haven't changed our minds yet, so it looks like JJ is going to be "Gavin". It's probably the only name that managed to get on both of our "top" lists for any amount of time, and we haven't been able to come up with any inappropriate "Pee" jokes to defile it.

I don't know why it was so incredibly hard for us to choose a boy name. Back in 2007 when we were trying to come up with a girl name, we had a boy name all picked out ("Xander") and thought finding a girl name was impossible. This time around, I guess because we actually had the responsibility of choosing the boy name, nothing seemed to stick! Of course, there's always the possibility that no matter what we name him on his birth certificate, I may just end up calling him "JJ" anyways. :)

Apparently I like names that belong to kids growing up in the Upper East side of Manhattan: Cooper, Carter, Eamon ... I just can't help myself. And then James seems to prefer names that belong in the NBA or NFL; hard to find much compromise here.

Some of our funnier name stories:

• Name story #1: I originally thought the name "Ian" would be perfect because I thought it was the Celtic version of James. Ian Pee! Well, I do some quick Googling and find that Ian is the Celtic version of John and that the Celtic version of James is ... wait for it ... Seamus. SEAMUS PEE?! No way. Even after I found out it was pronounced SHAY-mus, it still doesn't fly for me even though James thought it was hilarious. You can thank me later, my son. :)
  
• Name story #2: Another idea was to try to find names of famous James' (or Jimmies). I liked Carter but then the thought of having a Claire and a Carter, both perfectly fine retail stores but odd to name your children after them, was a little too much. Somehow we stumbled on Hendrix of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix / Hendricks! After giving it more thought, it didn't stick. Would we be naming Hendrick after the motorsports company -- go Jimmie Johnson! -- or after the gin? It was just too much.
  
• Name story #3: We even thought about going "out there" with names, and James got hooked on Orion. I was okay with Orson and would even consider Apollo (if Ono can do it, maybe we could, too), but I just couldn't buy into Orion which was a perfect reason for James to get stuck on it and torment me which gave me even more reason to stick to Quinn (which I still love) but James would not OK because it reminds him of Dr. Quinn, medicine woman, too much.

The actual name "Gavin" is a Welsh name that means "white hawk of battle". Well, those Hunan people were quite the warriors, so I guess that works. Plus, it's a variant of Gawain, one of King Arthur's knights of the Round Table, which definitely works for me. Claire's middle name (De-Ling) means "a wing to fly"; odd considering how I'm not exactly a bird person, huh?

No promises that we'll actually leave the hospital with a "Gavin" and not an Ian, Quinn, or Orion, so no personalization, embroidery, or announcements yet, but at least this should appease you people who have been dying to know!

Baby Pee - 34-Week Appointment

Back at my 30-Week appointment, I made a note about how it seems like appointments seem to run late more in the afternoon than in the mornings, so of course there was an emergency this morning to where both OBs from my office were stuck in surgery well past their 7:30am scheduled C-section times. Come 9:30, they still weren't back at the offices which left them a whole lot of impatient patients in their exam and waiting rooms. I was fine though; nothing to get my heart rate up over. :)

The appointment was fine. After assuring the doctor that waiting is not that big a deal for me -- it's nice to know that she gives you the proper amount of attention; I feel good knowing that she would do the same for me in the same situation! -- she let me know that the baby's heart rate is good and that I gained three pounds in the last two weeks. Whoops. And that was with my haircut and everything!

I think the only question I had for her is whether I should be doing anything to try and get JJ to move down (he's sitting somewhere around my lungs/neck right now; a perfect shelf for that bowl of ice cream!). She said no, it's still too early, then added "but there's not really anything you need to do anyways; he'll move down when he's ready to move down". Well, I'M ready for him to move down, so I hope he gets on board soon. Although, I have appreciated that the trade-off that I've been able to hold onto my bladder throughout the pregnancy even if I haven't been able to breathe.

Next appointment is in two weeks, at which time Dr. Jaffee will start checking my cervix (softening? widening? whatever) and I'll start going to see her every week. It's absolutely incredible how quickly this pregnancy has gone!

Tamales & Baby Sprinkle

Made tamales for the first time today at Michelle's with Kim and Heather. It was quite fun! A lot like making egg rolls, you first make the inside ingredients and then sit down to roll everything up. I managed to make a bunch of "finger tamales" (think the size of your pinky) because it seemed like such a shame to just toss those corn husk sections when they were still perfectly usable even if they were teeny, tiny. I'll call them "Claire-sized" tamales. :) The only downside of creating tamales is it's not really a "one to make, one to eat" type of activity like making cookies where you end up with about 1/2 the cookies since the other 1/2 of the batter gets eaten throughout!

Me and Kim

Heather and Michelle

Hard at work

My playgroup hosted a baby sprinkle -- that is, a light shower -- for Baby Pee today. It was hosted by Flo, Cathy G, and Cathy B, and I am so grateful and honored that they would do something like that for me, especially with everything else going on in their lives right now. I started the whole "sprinkle" thing within the playgroup when the first moms got pregnant (I think it was Maya first, then Cathy) never thinking that I would be in the same position just a few months later!

Troublemakers

Here's Baby Sprinkle pics that Cathy took (thank goodness someone did!). I only managed to get a couple; you can see more in our November album.

Locks of Beautiful Lengths

Cut my hair, finally. Back in March (yes, March), I had planned to do my normal trim, but my hair appointment was canceled because of a work thing. Same thing happened in May, and by the time July rolled around and I had to cancel my appointment for the THIRD time, I decided that it was a sign that I should take advantage of "pregnancy hair" and grow it out to donate.

Before

After

I ended up cutting off a 12" braid and plan to donate it either to Locks of Love or Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I knew that if I didn't make time to do this now, I would probably end up not doing it for awhile. I was actually quite impressed by how much was cut off as well as how healthy my hair was. Seriously, ladies, pregnancy hair is awesome.

Funny thing is, my hair now is probably closer to the "old" me -- pre-pregnancies? -- before I started skipping hair appointments to hang out with my baby girl. James seems to like it; probably reminds him of the days when we were young and carefree. :)

Now I'm trying to decide whether to donate the thing to Locks of Love or to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. Both are very honorable organizations that help deserving recipients. Either way, I need to get this thing out of my house soon or else I fear it'll be laying around forever!

UPDATE 11/24 - Decided to go with Locks of Love. My reasoning is because Locks of Love requires a minimum of 10", and with my 12" braid, I have more than enough. Pantene Beautiful Lengths only requires 8", so I figure I can easily donate to them in the future. And, I mailed it off, so that thing is out of my hair (pun intended!)

My Friend Charley

What could be more unpleasant than waking up to a pager (I'm on call this week) at 5:48am? Perhaps already being up when the pager went off because you're still coming off the rolling aches in your legs from getting a crazy charley horse in the middle of the night! And, I swear, this sucker was in a part of my leg that there is no muscle ... up and down the outside of the lower leg between the calf and shin?

I don't know if every woman gets them when they're pregnant, but I remember getting them with Claire. Back then, I would leap out of bed, flail around like crazy, stomp my legs, crack up laughing at the absurdity of it all, and walk it off. Couldn't exactly do the same thing this morning when I found myself struck while sleeping in Claire's bed (I fell asleep there at 9:30 last night while putting her to sleep; 3rd trimester narcolepsy) ... while trapped on the side closest to the wall ... with Claire somehow wormed to the end of the bed blocking the exit. Trapped in my own pretty, pretty pink pillow hell! I did manage, however, to leap up in bed -- surprisingly agile for a pregnant lady -- and stand up hugging the wall, shouting in silence.

After the 4th one subsided (because they come in waves), I managed to wiggle my way off the bed, reposition Claire in the bed, and headed off to my own bed where I stared at the windows (pregnancy forces side sleeping so no staring at the ceiling) for the next 45 minutes until the BRRRRRNNNNNNNGGGGG, BRRRRRNNNNNGGG of the pager jerked me awake just as I was drifting off.

As I was working the ticket, Claire woke up asking for Mommy. I figure this was a good trial run of what it will be like when we have 2. Drift off to sleep and the other wakes up; working one issue when another rises. Should be interesting.

Good news is, I was able to fix the ticket! I did call in moral support to talk me off the ledge, but I did figure out the solution myself. Yay! Off to ... well, I probably won't be going back to bed, but off to my next adventure.

Baby Pee - 32-Week Appointment

Low-key appointment today. I managed to gain another 2 pounds in 2 weeks, but who's counting (oh, that's right, *I* am). The doctor and nurse both said it's fine; a pound a week here at the end is no problem even if I'm not happy about it. I measured at 33 weeks (just a tad bigger than the 32 weeks that I'm at gestationally) but it was well within the expected measurements plus part of that can be due to what direction JJ is turned right now.

JJ moved around during the appointment trying to evade the mic, but we finally held him still long enough to listen to his heart which sounds great. Judging from where she was able to get his heartbeat, the guess is that he's head down still, but we'll know for sure in a few weeks when she starts checking my cervix during my appointments. I noticed yesterday that whenever JJ gets really active kicking, his kicks seem to directly impact another one of my organs now. Stretches up, I need to pee immediately; kicks to the left, my stomach rumbles and I get nauseated; punches to the right, and my back hurts. I wonder if actual bruising occurs in my insides?

I also got my H1N1 shot today. Our office offered it, but I wanted to make sure I got the good stuff. While I was at the office, I heard quite a few calls come in with folks asking for the vaccine availability, and they turned away a lot of people with the explanation that they're saving their handful of mercury-free shots for the pregnant ladies in their third trimester.

That's about it, really. Claire's big girl room is all done, and she loves her bed (the epitome of what "pink" looks like if it exploded) ... and has been sleeping in the bed all by herself! I'm there for when she goes down, but then she sleeps by herself at night. Yay! I'll post pictures of it soon. The nursery, on the other hand, is NOT done. And we have no name yet. Sigh.

Cardiologist

I figured I'd put at the beginning the most important thing: the heart looks great. Overall, the cardiologist appointment this afternoon went really well. Dr. Kurichety is very personable, and he immediately put both James and I at ease. I got an EKG and a sonogram (of the heart, not the baby), and the results were perfect. The sonographer did give us a little peek of JJ at the end of my screening, and it was kind of funny because she kept finding the heart while she was looking for him. I guess that IS her job. :)

There was no reason to put me on a monitor since they only monitor for 24 hours, and since my episodes have happened so sporadically, there really isn't any need. The biggest concern would have been if they found something that would cause concern during labor and delivery or if I would need extra monitoring for the big day, but it doesn't look like there's anything to worry about at this time. I'm going to follow-up in about a month to see if there's still any concerns, but I'm so close at this point to having JJ (9 weeks to due date!), I think I'll just stick it out. The only thing would be if it gets worse before it gets better (a common theme with pregnancy, really), and then I call him.

In other news, I was able to take a full breath today which lead me to believe that JJ's starting to move down a little bit. Suddenly the mound that sat high in my chest is around my middle which is great. I can breath and nothing is beating up my bladder ... yet. He's moving a ton, which is really fun, and I can't wait to meet him!

I also bid my feet farewell this morning. It was raining so I figured I should wear my boots. I struggled with the socks and the boots and finally had to sit down to finish the task. Goodbye, feet, goodbye.

Baby Pee - 30-Week Appointment

Hard to believe that I'm already going to the OB every 2 weeks! This pregnancy really has just flown by, and - in true Way-Way / Mommy / uber-planner fashion - I have had a couple of mini freak outs. Cases in point:

• On Monday (the 19th, mind you), I got it in my head that I need to finish the nursery NOW. In fact, I need to finish in YESTERDAY but my turn-back-time machine seems to be in the shop. The need was so great, I decided I needed to go shopping THIS WEEKEND instead of waiting just one more week until Partners Card week (that would be the 30th ... 11 days from the freak out) to get the mattresses and furniture. Talking to Kim and Michelle got me off the ledge, though, and I decided to focus my energies elsewhere ... for now.
• Speaking of redirecting my energies, this week I've really been focusing on baby names. I feel like I'm constantly throwing out names to James, sometimes the same one 4 or 5 times just to see if he'll change his mind. Finally he finally said "why do you feel like you need the name today?" and I said something to the effect of "I feel like SOMETHING needs to happen to get ready for this baby! Do you realize I can count on my HANDS how many weeks we have left of this pregnancy, and we have NOTHING DONE!??!?!!?!?"
• The best had something to do with "I'm 30 weeks pregnant! Claire was born 8 weeks from now!!!!!!!" which seems to make no sense unless you know that Claire was born at 38 weeks. Listen to what I mean, not what I say.

Luckily for everyone around me, I have been able to contain the freakouts for the most part and hidden them from the public. My credit card, however, has not fared nearly as well. Retail therapy, right?

The appointment itself was fine. JJ's heartbeat sounds great, and he's moving around a ton. This morning, he did some crazy somersault that I'm pretty sure involved a trapeze and maybe a diving board; as long as he didn't manage to flip himself into a breach position (he's been head down every sonogram I've had) then it's fine. I'm measuring right at 30 weeks, and I managed to gain 2.5 pounds in 2.3 weeks; glad that wasn't the rate that I gained this entire pregnancy! I look as though I have strapped a very large bowling ball to the front of my body, and walking after I've been at rest for awhile is definitely a challenge.

The last thing is I mentioned how I've had a couple of instances where my heart rate seems to go up, and I have a hard time bringing it back down. I mentioned it at my last appointment, and Dr. Jaffee said I should cut out caffeine (not an issue; already done even before the pregnancy, really) and chocolate (harder but do-able for the baby). It happened a couple of other times in the two weeks since my appointment, so she went ahead and referred me to a cardiologist just to check it out. The last was last weekend where my heart rate hung out at about 120 for just under an hour -- I know watching Claire in swim lessons is a little scary, but this was extreme even for me. My doc said she thinks it's nothing and quite common during pregnancy (hormones, increased blood flow, etc) and I've had no blackouts or chest pain, but no reason not to get it checked out. Yay, insurance!

Interesting pregnancy facts from the Internet (because the first thing you do when the doctor says anything medical, like "tachyarrythmia" is look it up ... which, btw, I do not recommend looking up in Wikipedia unless I want to scare myself with things that I know have nothing to do with me right now):

Heart and Blood Flow: During pregnancy, the woman's heart must work harder because as the fetus grows, the heart must pump more blood to the uterus. By the end of pregnancy, the uterus is receiving one fifth of the woman's prepregnancy blood supply. During pregnancy, the amount of blood pumped by the heart (cardiac output) increases by 30 to 50%. As cardiac output increases, the heart rate at rest speeds up from a normal prepregnancy rate of about 70 beats per minute to 80 or 90 beats per minute. During exercise, cardiac output and heart rate increase more when a woman is pregnant than when she is not. During labor, cardiac output increases by an additional 10%. After delivery, cardiac output decreases rapidly at first, then more slowly. It returns to the prepregnancy level about 6 weeks after delivery.

Certain heart murmurs and irregularities in heart rhythm may appear because the heart is working harder. Sometimes a pregnant woman may feel these irregularities. Such changes are normal during pregnancy. However, other abnormal heart sounds and rhythms (for example, diastolic murmurs and tachyarrythmias), which occur more often in pregnant women, may require treatment.

I have my appointment on Monday, so you can come back here and check out the result, but like Dr. Jaffee says, I'm not worried at all and am pretty sure it's nothing. It's not like I was exactly an Olympic athlete before this pregnancy, after all, so it's no wonder my body is complaining a bit at everything I'm putting it through. I should probably just be grateful that I'm still able to get down to the floor to play with Claire AND get back up again, albeit slowly and completely ungracefully!

Something I've noticed for future reference (though not for me since I don't think we'll be having any more) is that the OB's office seems to run behind in the afternoons unlike in the mornings (something about babies being born or something). Plus, it's a lot harder to drop whatever I'm doing at work that day to sneak off to a doctors office; much easier to just not start anything yet at all. Note to self, shoot for morning appointments!

Seriously?!

So, after getting lots of "are you okay?" queries from folks, I realized I never updated from my last appointment on how JJ is doing. On Wednesday, he was still sort of quiet but started picking back up. On Thursday, he was back to his old self, and since then, he's been giving Pele a run for his "Athlete of the Century" title. Not that I want you to, but I'm at the point where you can physically see my stomach moving when he kicks .. though I refuse to think about whether that's just my fat jiggling from the force. :) Thanks for all the well-wishes and inquiries!

My "Seriously?!" title from something I stumbled on today. This is something I already knew, but it blows my mind every time:

United States is one of only five countries out of 173 that does not guarantee some form of paid maternity leave. (The other countries are Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea).

Us and Swaziland ... how proud we must be. In fact, "fathers are granted paid paternity leave or paid parental leave in sixty-five countries; thirty one of these countries offer at least fourteen weeks of paid leave". Needless to say, the U.S. does not guarantee this to fathers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-life_balance

C'mon, US, get with the program!

Baby Pee - 28-Week Appt

Had my Week 28 appointment with Dr. Jaffee today. It was supposed to be on Thursday, but I called the office this morning to get it moved up today because I was a little nervous -- okay, a LOT nervous -- that JJ was not moving around like his usual self.

Typically in the morning, right when I wake up and roll over, he gives me some strong good morning kicks and punches to say hello. Then, throughout the day, I get poked, prodded, and stretched by various arms, legs, elbows, and fingers as a reminder to who I'm carrying. Yesterday, when I woke up there was none of the usual, and then throughout the day, there were very few rumblings. I even took the time to stop at my desk to gaze and assess ... nothing. By the end of the day, I was getting a little trepiditious, so I got a 7-Up to try and wake him up with some sugar. Nothing except for some very light fluttering. Later in the evening, James went and bought me a variety of drinks to try and stimulate some movement; I went through orange juice and apple juice but nothing more than a bloated belly and a couple of tickles. Needless to say, sleeping was not restful or easy last night.

By this morning, the second morning that there were no morning calenthenics, I decided to call the doctor. Right when they opened at 9, I started dialing on my phone. I told the receptionist that I had an appointment on Thursday but wanted to see if they could fit me in today because I hadn't felt the baby move much the last 24 hours. She said she could get me an appointment later that day but put me on hold to talk to the nurse. She came back on the phone and asked how far along I was, and I told her "it's my 28th week", she relayed the message, and came back to tell me to come in immediately. Scary.

When they brought me in, we headed to the sonogram room after I gave my "sample" and found out that I gained 4 pounds in the last 3 weeks and confirmed that my blood pressure is a little high. Whoops. I blame the blood pressure on my nervousness but I admit the weight gain is all me. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor (you know, the one that squishes your stomach fat really tightly like doughboy rolls ... oh, you don't know? harrumph) so that it could document his heartbeat, and then I was given a trigger to push everytime I felt JJ move in the slightest. After about 15-17 LOOOOONG minutes of holding the trigger and monitor, waiting for bumps, and being entertained by James, Dr. Jaffee came back in to check the results and said 10 movements (even the slight ones) was pretty good for that time period but wanted to go ahead and have the sonographer come in.

The sonographer showed us that everything looked good -- at 27w2d, JJ's head is measuring at 26w6d, his femur bone at 28w2d, and he weighs about 2lb5oz -- which was definitely reassuring. I'll post the pictures from my various sonograms soon. My sugar test also came back with favorable results; the only thing is I need to take iron supplements which also happened with Claire (which James reminded me of since I had already blocked it out of my memory).

Whew! I'm hoping that's the last of the worries as I have enough to deal with as we go into this last trimester (ie "What should we name the baby?!" or "What do we do with Claire if I go into labor in the middle of the night?!").

The Allergist

We had our follow-up visit with the allergist today. A few weeks ago, I decided to take Claire in for testing after she had her contact reaction to hummus (everywhere after I wiped it off her face -- and there was a lot of it since we gave her the container to lick -- left red marks!) and then some random reactions to who-knows-what.

I chose Dr. Schmitt because he's board certified for pediatric allergies, which I thought was a nice distinction. After meeting him, I think he's a good choice as he seems to spend ample time with his patients and answers all of my questions and then some. Our first consult gave me a lot of information to consider, and I decided to have her blood drawn rather than trying to figure out how to restrain a toddler for 20 minutes while they pricked her skin.

I'm not sure who was more traumatized by the blood being drawn, Claire or me. Many of you have probably had blood drawn as an adult ... well, it's the exact same thing for a toddler. Same needle in the arm; same vials to be filled. Again, I have to brag about what an amazing person Claire is. Even though she had tears running down her face and kept repeating "boo-boo, boo-boo", she sat in my lap and didn't move her arm. Afterwards, after we left the lab, there were definitely post-trauma tears (and a little shaking by Mommy), but overall we survived.

A couple of days later, I got a message from the dr's office to say that the results are back and until we had time to do our consult, we should stay away from peanuts, eggs, and all melons. You think it sounds easy, but I almost immediately gave her watermelon (which she had no reaction and loves) and James gave her ranch dressing which has mayonnaise (which is made of egg whites) to which she did have a reaction.

Today we did our consult to hear the exact results. Essentially, Claire has been set up by her two parents to be a perfect candidate for asthma, eczema, and allergies. Sorry, babe. Her strongest reactions are to peanut, eggs, and canteloupe, but there was a host of other things that she had some level of reaction to in the labs (I'm serious, the list was astonishing).

We can continue to give her eggs if they're baked/fried because the high-temp cooking seems to change the composition of the egg proteins (which is what you're allergic to), but we're definitely going to be more careful. We'll be staying away from all nuts, which is fine, but can use our discretion on things that "may contain trace nuts" or are "processed on machinery that also processes nuts" because the allergist said that there is no real governance on those labels. To be safe, we'll stay away from canteloupe and honeydew (which, not sure if you've noticed, but "fresh fruit" anywhere you go is usually canteloupe, honeydew, watermelon, and pineapple), but I don't think we'll be giving up watermelon which the allergist said is fine as long as she hasn't had a reaction and loves it.

Some good news, the test for shrimp was negative as were the tests for environmental factors (mold, pollen, dust, animals, etc). The allergist also gave us some recommendations on the medications that her pediatrician has prescribed -- and concurred with his assessments, which I really liked on the part of both doctors! -- and will work with us moving forward on a treatment plan long-term.

Whew! It's a lot to consider, but I'm definitely in the camp that is glad to know. So remember, dear reader, no peanuts (or nuts), straight eggs, or canteloupes/honeydew for our little one. I do NOT intend to use that Epi-Pen anytime soon ... or EVER!

John Bunn is Back

With cold and flu season running from October through April and all the craziness with this whole H1N1 swine flu, I knew it was just a matter of time before John Bunn (our "beloved" nebulizer) made his reappearance. Then, after Claire got her third fever in the month of September (every other weekend) along with the rattling in the chest, I knew that time was now.

The first time we took out the nebulizer this week, Claire freaked out ... screaming, crying, and scrambling to get away. It was awful, much like the first time all over again. The second time was better, and by the third, she was a champ. I'm so impressed by my little girl and how brave she is. She can effectively tell us, "Claire. Nose. Scared.", yet she will sit there and take deep breaths to inhale the smoke until we're "All Done! Yay!".

The last two September fever incidents, Claire got sick on Friday night or Saturday morning and was easily recovered by Monday. This time, it hit Monday morning, so James and I have been taking turns staying home from work to stay with her. The doctor found on Monday that she has strep, so she's on antibiotics, but no flu. However, the fever lingers, and I even had to pick her up from school today because she was fine all day until about 4:30pm when she got another fever after recesse.

Guess I'll be home again tomorrow! I think it would be more enjoyable if I weren't worried about her and trying to keep her semi-quarentined, but I love being home with Claire and believe she likes it, too, even if she does probably get bored of me by the end of the day. :)

Katie Kirkpatrick

Got this email from Jenny today, and it affected me enough that I feel I need to share.

Her name is Katie Kirkpatrick, 21 yrs old. Next to her is her fiancé, Nick, 23. This picture was taken prior to their wedding January 11th, 2005. Katie has terminal cancer and spends hours in chemotherapy. Here Nick awaits while she finishes one of the sessions...

Even in pain and dealing with her organs shutting down, with the help of morphine, Katie took care of every single part of the wedding planning. Her dress had to be adjusted several times due to Katie's constant weight loss.

An expected guest was her oxygen tank. Katie had to use it during the ceremony and reception. The other couple in this picture is Nick's parents, very emotional with the wedding and of course to see their son marrying the girl he fell in love when he was an adolescent.

Katie, in a wheel chair listening to her husband and friends singing to her.

In the middle of the party, Katie had to rest for a bit and catch her breath. The pain does not allow her to stand for long period of time.

Katie died 5 days after her wedding. To see a fragile woman dress as bride with a beautiful smile makes you think... happiness is always there within reach, no matter how long it lasts.....let's enjoy life and don't live a complicated life. Life is too short.

I also found some more information on Katie and her story on Snopes if you'd like to read more.

For other emotional still photos, you can check out the Best of Photojournalism website's Previous Winners, and -- as Jenny's forward ended --

Work as if it was your first day.
Forgive as soon as possible.
Love without boundaries.
Laugh without control
and never stop smiling.

First Family 5K -- Oktoberfest 2009

In years past, James and I have participated in the Addison Oktoberfest 5K that benefits Wipe Out Kids' Cancer. Not only does it serve a good cause, you run 5K to be greeted by free beer at the end! http://www.oktoberfest5k.com/ It's always been a lot of fun and something I have looked forward to each year. This year, James and I had each set a goal back in the spring to get in enough shape to run the race again. Note: this was pre-pregnancy! But we thought it would still be fun, and Claire would be happy sitting in her stroller for a mere 3.1 miles, right? Ummm ...

The first mile was great. She sat in her stroller watching other people fly by us first in one direction and then the other as folks hit the turnaround (we had started towards the back since we had a stroller and didn't want to get in anyone's way). She looked out for babies and doggies and overall relaxed in her seat.

Second mile was when she wanted to be carried. We alternated between the two of us to carry her in our arms, on our shoulders, or even on my back. We started slowing and more people started passing.

Mile three: Claire wants to walk. By the time we started the 3rd mile, we were officially last of the pack of the entire race. Claire needed to stop to check out flowers, trees, rocks, and the bumps in the road. At least I got in a good cool down!

I can 100% guarantee you that my first 5K during this pregnancy is also my last -- I mean, seriously, what was I thinking?! -- but I'm glad I did it.

Our final time was somewhere over an hour
(not exactly sure how long since we didn't start when the clock was 0)

Post-race snacks and smiles

Baby Pee -- 24-Week Appointment

The whole thing about "2nd pregancy syndrome" is so true. With the first pregnancy, I could tell you how many weeks (and days) I was pregnant and probably how much longer to go; now I have to stop and think "well, my LAST appointment was Week 20-ish ... and I go to the doctor in another week or so, so I must be around ...". But I feel good, so no complaints here.

Had my 24(ish)-Week appointment today. Gained a little under 4 pounds the last 4 weeks for a total of 5.4 pounds for this pregnancy. JJ (our nickname for "James Jr." until we choose an actual name) is really active and even gave a little kick to the mic today while we were listening to his heartbeat. Dr. J says everything looks great, and she seems to agree with me that this pregancy is going so quickly! There's something about Labor Day triggering this snowball effect for the rest of the year where it's just chock-full of holidays, activities, etc. I also need to sneak in the glucose screening test before my next appointment.

My stomach is definitely well into protrusion at this point, so I thought I'd share this graphic that Syndee sent me when I was first pregnant. Some images really stick with you because of the impact they make, and this is definitely one. I mentioned it as recently as last month when I was talking to Daphne; hopefully this doesn't scare her off too much. I think about this image all the time when people rub my tummy and I wonder if they know that they're rubbing my small intestine. Hehe.

Organs During Pregnancy

Long Winter Ahead?

Seeing as how we're only three weeks into the new school year and Claire's already on her second cold (complete with low-grade fever and runny nose), I have a feeling it's going to be a LOOOONG winter ahead. Pair that with this whole H1N1 flu thing, I'm definitely not looking forward to it. I guess the good news is that at this rate, Claire will go through the 200+ variations of the rhinovirus at an early age and hopefully be a pretty healthy adult!

From Wikipedia: "An estimated 22 to 189 million school days are missed annually due to a cold. As a result, parents missed 126 million workdays to stay home to care for their children. When added to the 150 million workdays missed by employees suffering from a cold, the total economic impact of cold-related work loss exceeds $20 billion per year."

Studies are in progress on the H1N1 vaccine right now which I have a feeling I'll be getting this year (to be confirmed by my OB this week). Pregnant women are especially high-risk to this strain evidenced by the fact that 6% of the people who have died from H1N1 so far have been pregnant even though pregnant women only make up for 1% of the population. I guess our hormones are already so out of whack, something like the flu is just the straw to that camel's back. Young children are also at the top of the list, but interestingly, there is a segment of the population (40-70? something like that) that doesn't really need to get it because I guess a similar strain passed through during their childhood years that may have built up enough antibodies. My joke was maybe that's the government's way of taking care of the baby boom and social security shortage problem. :) Great, more for the rest of us!

So I'm off to wash my hands yet again as I wait to hear from the government whether it'll be 1 or 2 doses of 15 to 30 ccs, though what I really need to do is stop wiping Claire's snot with my bare hand. Seriously, the things you do as a parent!

Miss Smartypants

It's so incredible how much Claire is learning right now. I feel like everyday brings on a new word or concept that I didn't realize she knew before. I know I've said this before with just about every stage, but I love this age!

Push-ups. Claire's been doing sit-ups and push-ups with James. Last week, after going out for dinner, we were walking by an outside table and chairs. Claire tried to climb up on the chair and couldn't pull herself up, so she immediately dropped to the ground to do some push-ups (to get stronger?) with no prompting, then tried to pull herself up on the chair again. Cuteness.

Dot. At the same restaurant, there was a mat on the ground with lots of round circles. Claire was going to each dot and hitting it with both her hands and saying "dot!" which I had no idea she knew. The people in the restaurant were quite amused.

Family. Her school is teaching about families right now, and Claire's picked up the concept of the small thing is the baby, the bigger is the mommy, and the third is the daddy. As she reads her books now, she'll point out "baby", "mama", and "dada" animals. She's also starting to relate people to each other. For instance, she knows that Ye-Ye and Nai-Nai go together, as do Po-Po and Gong-Gong ("ngog-ngog" still) and A-Yi (Crystal) and Kirby.

Baby Brother. You can ask her where the baby or her baby brother is, and she immediately turns to pull up my shirt to reveal my tummy. For fun the other day, I had her in my lap and told her that her baby brother kicked her, and she tried to kick him back. Sibling squabbles already? :)

Anniversary Trip / Babymoon - Washington, D.C.

Happy Anniversary, James!

Since getting married in 2001 -- or actually since we started dating in 1998 -- James and I have always tried to go on a trip to celebrate our anniversary each year. This year, after tossing around ideas for weeks, we finally settled on D.C. for our trip / babymoon (the last big trip before Pee-Nut is here). D.C. one of those cities where you can do a lot or a little, transportation is convenient, and there's the added benefit that we have family there that we don't get to see often enough and could visit. There were only 3 "touristy" things I really wanted to do over the weekend: eat crab, go to the Spy Museum, and take a nap. Everything else would be gravy.

My parents were nice enough to come up from Houston to watch Claire while we were gone. James and I have done one-nighters and multi-night trips by ourselves before now, but this is actually the first multi-night trip James and I have taken together since Claire has been born. I have absolutely no doubts that my parents would take great care of Claire. I think they actually enjoyed having Claire all to themselves, and hopefully I didn't overwhelm them with notes (hey, it was really only one page; the other page was just suggestions of places to go and things to do)! You'll have to check out Claire's blog to see what they ended up doing over the weekend, and since my dad was there, you know there were lots of pictures!



Our trip was Thursday morning through Saturday night, thus giving us a full two and a half days on the ground and two nights of uninterrupted sleep. James surprised me at the airport when we were checking in my upgrading us to First Class, so we got to travel in style on the way to Reagan International.

After we checked in and got situated, we decided to get our bearings of the area before taking the Metro into the 'burbs. We found out that our hotel -- the Grand Hyatt Washington -- was right in the middle of all the things I had in mind. Yay! We walked, munched, bought cupcakes, and headed to the metro. I really like public transportation, so just that alone was an event in itself. When it was time, we headed out to our Aunt and Uncle's house for some CRAB (yay!), dinner, and great conversation with them, Daphne, and Drew. Even after all that crab during dinner -- I think I ate 7 or 8 myself -- James and I still managed to polish off another half-dozen in our hotel room after we got back. Needless to say, we tumbled into a blissful slumber that night.

It's difficult to show you how long, deep,
and steep the escalator was down to the Metro.

On Friday, our one full-day, we did the touristy things after I finally decided wake up and get out of bed. A big hotel breakfast (and a few snacks along the way) was enough to tide us over while we visited the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, see GI Joe (not a great movie but at least I got to see one!), and went through the International Spy Museum. If you haven't done those two museums, I would definitely recommend them; they're definitely not your "typical" museum. I would say the only downside was that the Spy Museum was so busy, we weren't able to do all the exhibits ourselves; it just didn't seem right to push the kids out of the way weasel our way through.

The actual set of "America's Most Wanted".
It's taped at the Crime and Punishment museum!

All walked-out, it was time to NAP! Refreshed, James and I headed to the Lebanese Taverna off Connecticut that came highly recommended from a friend. It was sooooo good and the perfect atmosphere to celebrate our 8-year wedding anniversary. We sat outside to enjoy the not-too-hot weather and to people-watch everyone around us. We ordered tapas over the course of a couple of hours and brought the leftovers with us because we were too reluctant to leave the yummies on the table to be thrown away. Besides, we did eat those crabs back at the hotel room; who knows if we'd be hit with a hummus craving in the middle of the night?

Mmmm ... I don't care if it was the Panda Express of Lebanese food.
Not like I would know, and it was GOOD

We actually ended up eating some of the leftovers Saturday morning as I slowly peeled myself out of bed (late, of course) and got ready to visit Daphne and Drew's place in the 'burbs. Their house is awesome, and they welcomed us with a wonderful meal. James and I enjoyed doing something we're good at (that would be sitting around and chatting) and then got off our butts long enough to walk around the block and check out the houses in the area. So cute, but I do have to say that we're quite spoiled here in Texas with what you get for the money.

At the end of the trip, Uncle David took us back to Reagan where we took our flight home and got back in record time (30 minutes before our scheduled arrival!). We skeddaled home just in time to rile Claire up before bedtime. We were so glad to see her!

We actually found our house while we were descending!
It's right ... well ... there ...

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, and I'm so glad James and I made the time to go. It was a little odd to be able to get on the plane with so little gear, to go to sleep and wake up when I felt like it, to walk around holding each other's hand instead of having a little one to chase, and to have whole conversations over long meals instead of trying to split our time. Sound familiar for those of you who have kids? :) I'm already looking forward to next year!

The only regret I have about this trip was that I didn't take hardly any pictures! I guess I'm so used to snapping shots of Claire that I didn't know what to do once she wasn't around to be my subject. Luckily, I did remember to get a few pictures of James and I together, which I have noticed I don't have many of at least recently.

Boy, Oh, Boy! -- 20-Week Appointment

Our Pee-Nut is a boy! We had the sonogram this morning and discovered that our Baby Pee indeed does have a pee-pee. We're super excited at the news, and I was happy to find out that he's growing right on track and looks great. He's measuring 20w 2d (our guess was 20w 5 d which is within the 3-day window they like to see) and his heart rate is 150 (which is right in the middle of the desired 120 to 180). We got to see lots of detail in the sonogram (head, hands, feet, spine, bladder, etc), and he even punched my uterus while we were watching to say hello.

My guess was right after all -- although I did have a 50/50 chance of getting it wrong or right -- but I'm pretty sure I won't have any more opportunities to find out whether every pregnancy really is that different from one another; I'll just have to go with my hypothesis that I felt one way with a girl and another with a boy. :)

As for me, I gained three pounds from my last appointment, but I'm only up 1 pound during this pregnancy. My vitals are good, and I'm feeling good. Dr. Jaffee says she's happy with my weight gain (or lack thereof) so far and there's not really much we can do about my right hip that's already starting to ache (I have to knock it when I stand up so that I can walk) except to try and sleep on my left-side more to take the weight off of it.

There is definitely no disguising the pregnancy at this point, but I'm also not wanting to. James has noticed that I'm wearing more "I'm pregnant" clothes this pregnancy versus my "hide the belly" clothes last one; lucky someone should call dibs on all the Japanese Weekend clothes I got this time around! James spoke up during the appointment to ask about my protein intake -- I don't eat much meat -- and Dr. Jaffee says that I should try and work in some type of protein at every meal but that dairy (including cheese, yogurt, and milk) count as my protein citing that lots of vegetarians have very healthy babies. Yum, cheese!

I'll post sonogram pictures, and I also owe an update on our Anniversary Trip / Babymoon in DC, so check back soon!

My Guess Is ...

On Tuesday, I have my halfway-there appointment where -- among other things -- we get to see if Baby Pee is a little boy or little girl (assuming s/he behaves nicely). Lots of folks have asked me for my guess, so I figure I'll put it down before I actually find out for sure.

My guess right now? A boy. Why? Because this pregnancy seems so different from my first. Of course, as James says, every pregnancy is different, so it's hard to say; but since I've only had one other pregnancy and it's been different than this one, I'll go with the opposite of what I already have. Besides, it's a 50/50 shot, right?

Reasons ... it's not much but it's all I really have to go on ...

1. Morning Sickness
• Pregnancy 1: I was constantly nauseated during my first 12-14 weeks with #1 but was able to do a quick vomit and feel great for the rest of the day. It would start with waking slowly, creeping one eye open, feeling for the crackers next to my bed, and nibbling until the rocking boat settled down. Then nothing after that first trimester.
• Pregnancy 2: I felt pretty good for the most part with some nausea but nothing strong. NO vomiting at all until Week 13 ... and then a WHOLE WEEK'S worth all at once 24/7. Even now, the slightest thing might trigger my gag reflex, though I have been saved from any more vomiting since that terrible Week 13.
2. Skin
• Pregnancy 1: My skin with my first was AWFUL. Every day was another blemish, bump, pimple, breakout, zit to contend with. People would actually feel bad for me and say things like "don't worry; it will clear up after you have the baby, and you can take care of it then".
• Pregnancy 2: While I wouldn't say my skin is great (it never has been), it's at least not as bad as it was the first time. I can't say that it's glowing and smooth, but it's definitely not any worse than any normal point in my life.
3. Body
• Pregnancy 1: I expanded in every which direction last time. It was a serious spreading and swelling of the whole body to where, until the end, it looked like I was getting slowly fatter and smushed, less belly.
• Pregnancy 2: At least so far, it's been more belly than the rest of my body. Of course, it's early yet, but I'm hoping the trend will continue for the remainder of the pregnancy.

Overall, I have to say the second pregnancy is a lot different than the first in that I don't worry as much and can enjoy it more. During my first pregnancy, there are fears and worrying and thinking plus feeling out of control and just sort of ugly (I did!). This time around, I'm so busy with Claire and work and life that I'll sometimes forget that I'm even pregnant for a moment. Unless I have a dr appointment that week, I probably can't tell you what week I'm in, and I definitely don't have the time to spend reading baby books all the time.

So, my guess is a boy. I guess I'll find out in a couple of days if I'm right or not. People have asked which one I want more, and I'm going to be ecstatic no matter what. If it's a girl, having the two babies close together will be hard but rewarding, and I'll be able to re-use everything Claire had. If it's a boy, we'll have the "one of each" balance and it might alleviate some of the sibling rivalry that will come later in life. Either way, I'm just crossing my fingers in hopes that I have a happy, healthy baby and can't wait to greet him or her in a few months!

She Does Look Like Me!

My brother Zong just got back from a whirlwind trip to Asia including an extended visit to family in Taiwan. While he was there, he was thoughtful enough to get some pictures from "back when" including the one below of me circa 1978. This is the first picture (or moment, really), that I was like "omigosh, maybe Claire DOES look like me!". Of course, I'm sleeping, but what the heck. The sprawled position, the foot propped up (Whoops. I guess that crazy foot of hers is from my side after all) ... I actually did a double-take. I tried to find a recent picture of Claire sleeping since it's more obvious now but couldn't find one, however here's one from last year that's sort of similar. And if it's not, don't tell me and burst my bubble! :D

Me, circa 1978. Check out that wire crib!

Claire @ 7-ish months

Girls Trip - Miami, FL

One of my most favorite traditions is my girls trip in which some of my best gal pals and I head to a destination for some R&R. Last weekend, I headed to Miami, FL with Debbie and Syndee. I quickly discovered that Miami is an incredible city. Even stepping off the plane put me in a different world with lots of languages surrounding me, luggage wrapping (which I haven't seen since flying internationally), and lots of beautiful people.

Ready to hit the beach

Miami Beach itself has a totally different vibe than anywhere I've ever been. If you stroll down Ocean Drive at night, you'll pass 20 or 30 tiny hotels that each boast a huge porch and lobbby ... and a tiny check-in desk. The lobbies are actually bars and the porches and sidewalks restaurants -- this is EVERY hotel! So you feel as though you're going from party to party as you go down the street. People watching is incredble as you see families (babies out at 12:30 at night), hoochies, rich people, etc all mingling together. I've also never been to anywhere before where there were so many tall, skinny people showing so much leg. I never really thought of myself as a leg girl, but there were certainly a lot of them to look at in Miami!

Too bad it was so humid when we took this picture

The restaurant scene is something else, as well. We went out to eat both nights around midnight, and you would not have known that it wasn't a normal 8pm seating time. People filled the streets, the tables were full, and getting seated was as normal then as it was 4 hours prior and 4 hours later (lots of places stopped seating -- not serving, though -- between 2am and 4am). In the morning, it was a totally different Miami than the nighttime. This is when the families come out (while all the party-ers slept, I guess) and shop or go to the beach. I think the best way to enjoy the city would be to take up the siesta ... eat, sleep, party, sleep, play, sleep. My kind of place!

Fried seafood recommended by Guy on the Food channel.

Fried lobster, fried oyesters, fried fish, fried roe, and tres leches ... Yum!

We spent the weekend shopping on Lincoln Road and Collins, resting by the ocean and in our room, and eating Italian, fried seafood, sushi (cooked for me, of course), tapas, etc. We were able to hit the beach for a little while and went to the Vizcaya museum, but the main thing was that I was able to spend some time with the girls that keep me sane and gave me time to recharge and remember who I am and what I'm grateful for ... two things I tend to forget when I get caught up in the day-to-day grind. One of the things I'm especially grateful for is that James is okay with these weekend jaunts because I hope to never give them up!

It would have been a more accurate picture if it showed me hugging my girls fiercely never wanting to let go. That's how I felt!

In other travel news, I got back from a business trip in Portland the day before I left for Miami. It was 105 in Portland! I was so glad that we chose to go to Miami for my Girls Trip instead of Seattle - where we were originally headed - because I would have been quite disappointed to pay upwards of $600 to fly to the PNW to find it over a hundred degrees all weekend! It's a never-before-seen hot spell there that I'm glad I didn't stick around for much longer than the 3 days for my work. Pee-Nut should be getting frequent flyer miles for all this traveling!

Baby Pee - 16-Week Appt

Just got back from Dr. Jaffee's for my 16-week appointment, and everything looks good. I haven't gained any weight yet (not sure if it's the lack of appetite or chasing around the toddler, but I'll take it) and my blood pressure is nice and low. Baby's heartbeat is strong and steady (150 bpm), and everything seems on track size-wise (based on the size of my uterus, I think). I was happy to tell her, yes, I've felt the baby flutter (last Friday) and look forward to feeling Baby move even more. Next symptoms I should be expecting between now and my next visit is round ligament pain, which I've already been having if I cough while laying on my side.

I think it's the "second baby syndrome" but the appointments seem to be freakishly short. Not because Dr. Jaffee isn't taking care of me, because she is, but because I don't have questions or concerns. I just go in there, get her caught up on any random things (ie the week of vomiting last month), and then we do the routine things before I'm outta there. 15 minutes tops. With Claire, I remember coming with lists in hand filled with question after question. Definitely a lot less anxiety this time around.

Next appointment is Tuesday, Aug 18th since both Dr. Jaffee and I will be out of town four weeks from today when my appointment shoud have been. The exciting thing is that, at the next appointment, we find out if it's a boy or girl!

People ask which one we want, and honestly it doesn't matter. A girl would be nice so that we can re-use everything we already have ... plus I know how to raise a girl! But then a boy would be nice for the balance, the lack of competition, and so James can have someone do "boy" things while I'm off doing "girl" things. Either way, I'm just wanted a happy, healthy baby!

The Fourth Madness (Floods and Phantom Fever)

What a crazy Fourth of July weekend. There were the good things: all four grandparents in town, lots of yummy food, an extra day off work ... and then the bad: leak in the wall, torn up carpet, and Claire's phantom fever coming back.

The leak is one of those dumb builder stories, really. Apparently when the builders were putting in the picture frame moulding in our formal living room, they nailed one of the sections to a copper pipe in the wall, so we've been slowly leaking water for a year and a half. On Friday, I guess the water finally corroded the nail/pipe enough that it started spewing water, thus soaking the drywall and the floor. The builder agreed to take care of it (after all, it WAS their fault), but we did have the headache of having to turn off our water to the whole house, plus Claire's playroom has been disbanded and scattered throughout the house! Next week, they're going to send someone out to clean the carpet, replace the pad, clean the insides of the wall, replace the drywall, texture, paint, and re-mould.





On the phantom fever, a week before the 4th weekend, Claire woke up with a fever so I stayed home with her. The fever ran through all of Friday, all of Saturday, and into Sunday morning, during which Claire was cranky, clingy, and all-around grumpy. Plus, it caused us to miss StrollerFit (now that I'm feeling well enough to go again!), swimming, AND Evan's birthday party! Not to mention the fact that it never even manifested into anything ... just a fever that hovered between 99 and 101 for 48 hours.

So, this Friday (yes, exactly one week later) it happened again! Claire woke with a fever, but luckily both James and I had the day off from work so that I didn't have to try and work around meetings and such. Of course, we canceled our plans to attend the Castle Hills parade, BBQ, and fireworks and nursed the baby all day. Luckily, that night, the fireworks happened to be set off practically in our front lawn, so we were able to enjoy that after the sun went down.

The fever burned between 99 and 101-ish (underarm, which means it was probably even higher) from Friday morning through Saturday, so finally we decided to take her to the Acute Kids to see if there was anything obvious that should be addressed. I would have hated to have her in pain for something dumb like an ear infection or strep even if she wasn't showing symptoms.

Acute Kids -- which I LOVE, btw -- said that her ears, nose, and throat all looked great. They did think that perhaps the reason the fever didn't go down is because we might not be dosing Claire enough. Since Claire wasn't yet 2 or 24 lbs, it said "ask your doctor", so I'd been doing 0.8 of the Infant Tylenol since that's what the doctor had prescribed before during the well-baby visits. The Acute Kids doctor suggested we try 1 tsp of Tylenol alternating with 1 tsp of Motrin every three hours. Other than that, there was nothing obviously wrong with Claire and to watch her to make sure it didn't escalate. The doc did ask if Claire was a daycare baby because she had seen a few cases of daycare babies coming in with no other symptoms. *shrug* She also said that it probably wasn't teething because teething wouldn't result in a fever higher than a 101 which Claire was when we went into Acute Kids.

We started that regimine on Saturday afternoon and continued it through Sunday night. Not sure how well it was working, though, because the fever at one point overnight was 103 (she was glowing heat from her whole body) and then finally extinguished after one last 4am dose Monday in the wee hours of the morning.

Claire went to school on Monday, and they said she was okay. On Tuesday when I picked her up (having been fever-free for two days now), I noticed her torso was a little mottled. Not a rash, exactly, just kind of speckled, but nothing else was wrong. Of course, tons of things ran through my head (ie "is she getting enough oxygen?! Maybe she's air-starved!"), and James did a very good Google to find Roseola. Of course, we quickly self-diagnosed and called it true. :) All of the symptoms were the certainly the same.

The sites that we read said that Roseola is contagious prior to any symptoms actually appearing (a fever, in our case), so there's no reason not to send her to school. The mottled thing lasted another day or so, during which the school noted that Claire was exceptionally quiet and didn't want to play with other kids (she would actually make it a point to play by herself). Thursday I picked her up, and she was a lot better, and this morning (Friday, 7/10), she seems back to her normal self. Whew!