Happy Halloween

JW was a jack-o-lantern for Halloween.

31 Weeks

A Lesson in Forgiveness

My sister called me the other day in a panic. There was a helicopter that had been circling around her house for an extended period of time. Her mind automatically goes into worse-case-scenario mode and immediately assumes there is a boogieman on the loose in the neighborhood and the chopper is hunting him down, and he's probably hiding in her backyard. She's a bit paranoid {it runs in the family}.

Later she tells me there had actually been a serious accident on the road just behind her home. A woman under the influence of drugs and alcohol was driving around 80 mph down the residential street, lost control and ran over a grandma pushing her 3-yr old granddaughter in a stroller on their way to the park. The chopper on the hunt for the boogieman was actually the life flight looking for a place to land to rescue the victims.

My sister forwarded an email to me that was sent by the mother of the 3-yr old. Her mother and daughter had miraculously survived the accident, though grandma, who shielded the child from being seriously injured, was is critical condition and the 3-yr old kept recalling how scared she was of the traumatic event she had just endured. The mother was asking for prayers for her loved ones for peace and healing, but the real clincher was when she also asked her neighbors and friends to also pray for the woman who caused the accident, and her family, as they were probably also suffering with a loved one held captive by addiction and the pain this person had caused others.

The email made me cry. I think my natural response would have been anger and revenge, but this woman sought forgiveness after an event that had just turned her innocent mother and daughter's world upside down in an instant. What a testimony of humility and compassion.

Friend or Faux?

I was flipping through the JCrew catalogue, which I love {never mind that I think the models are too skinny and that I actually emailed JCrew once and told them so}. I came across this fun fall outfit. Isn't this jacket yummy? I love the color. Or maybe it's the green cashmere hoodie she's layered underneath. Alas, Big Mamas House (me, 27 weeks prego) can not fit into such cuteness at the moment. You know what I really love, though? THE BAG!! I could buy that today, prego mama and all, and I wouldn't have to worry about the fit. That bag fits, no matter what. Wowza, did you notice that price tag?! I don't think I've ever spent that much on an entire outfit, let alone a single accessory. I went to Target this weekend, looking for nothing in particular when lo and behold I found a similar bag for about $275 less than the especially cute one above. So what if I settled for cheap faux leather, I feel darn fun and it fits too!

Good Fortune

I was feeling a little disgruntled when I got home from work today. G knows if I'm in such a mood that he's on his own for dinner, so he opted to take me on a mid-week date night. We went to Pei Wei and waited FOREVER to get our order, but in the end it was worth it to read this fortune from my cookie:
Three months from "this date" will be December 30th. Hmm...that's awfully close to JW's expected arrival. Could it be so? If so, I'll be thanking my lucky stars.

24 Weeks Will Do This to You

A girl who is 24 weeks pregnant... gets home from work to put her feet up. They are puffy from a long day...

of walking around in these:

UPDATE from previous post: I called Dr. L's office after a very long 24 hours of hysteria (which resulted in puffy eyes and a cold sore) and asked a series of questions related to my abnormal ultrasound results. It didn't help that Nurse Sid, right off the bat, says to me, "It's just a velementous cord insertion" as if there was nothing dangerous or delicate about the situation since this happens every day (all 1% of pregnancies, thank you). She assured me I have NOTHING to worry about. Dr. L (who is a well respected, high-risk pregnancy OB/GYN) has dealt with VCI many, many times. I am in good hands. My baby is healthy and I don't have any of the other potential coexisting conditions that can make the VCI that much more critical and dangerous to JW. I asked her if I could elect to have a C-section. The answer, "Not unless it's necessary." Lame. While Nurse Sid put my mind at ease, I am going to take my list of questions to my next appointment and get the same answers from Dr. L. For now, I will need to stop worrying about it and deal with this nasty cold sore.

Thank you all of you who sent your thoughts and prayers our way, either directly or in your heart. This news was tremendously difficult for me and it was comforting to feel supported. G and I are ok and JW is ok and can't wait to meet the little bugger.

I had my regular monthly appointment for the wee one today. Everything seemed normal until you hear the doctor say something like, "Your ultra sound presented an abnormality." Then everything turns to Charlie Brown talk, you know, whooa whaooa whaooa whaooaa whaooa. He told me I have what is known as velamentous insertion, which is where the umbilical cord is attached to the membranes of the placenta as opposed to the directly implanted. Dr. L was kind enough to draw me a little picture explaining the condition and told me it occurs in about 1 - 2% of preganancies. Awesome. How could I be so lucky? Other than this, all things look great. The position of the placenta is great, the baby is getting oxygen and nutrients and is growing normally, but that he needs to be careful during delivery to ensure the cord is not ruptured.

Now, at the time I had no idea what he was talking about and didn't know what questions to ask. The Dr. seemed confident that all was well and I didn't leave terribly worried. Than later today, because I have to know everything, I Googled velamentous insertion. Oh boy. Why did I do that? Now I'm a wreck. Don't Google it mom, I don't need you to be a wreck too. I have to have faith that Dr. L knows what he is doing. He is the best Dr. in town. I may give him a call tomorrow just so I can sleep at night, but, my friends, I am not going to lie - I am freaked out. Please keep JW in your prayers.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

I feel the need to blog, but am lacking in material. Usually G makes for some good blog material, but my pregnancy-onset alzheimers has me forgetting just how goofy he's been lately. I could tell you some new developments in my growing mid section. I'm sure this is such a bore to most of you who have a half-dozen kids already, but to a new mom, it's pretty cool.

New developments:
1. JW has gone Kung Fu Panda on me. He's a karate chopping fool all.day.long. and I love it.
2. I'm starting to pop. Today my neighbor noticed and said I look "cute." I'm sure I've used this on other prego women, but hearing it myself I'm wondering if "cute" is really the right word.
3. Yesterday, for the first time ever, I saw my belly move with a karate chop. I thought I was hallucinating.
4. I'm battling a cold. It's all I can do to not think about swine flu. Seriously, swine flu is life threatening to prego ladies? The thought alone is killing me. {I'm sure some of you, my overprotective readers, are thinking how irresponsible I'm being about not going to the doctor. I'm getting better, so I'm pretty sure it's not swine flu. Plus I never had a fever, or vomitted, or had the runs. Just a good ol' fashion runny nose}
5. Somebody asked me recently if I was going to make JW a quilt for his nursery. I quickly answered, "No. He's getting one already made from Pottery Barn." This didn't make sense since I've made quilts for every new baby that has breathed life for at least the last 10 yrs. Now I feel bad. Ok fine, I'll make JW a quilt...maybe.
6. G has been awesome about tickling my arm without me having to demand it. This is huge. Maybe I should be prego mama all the time.

When Husbands Try to be Smart

This is going to be JW's room. As you can see, it is far from ready for him. It has been used as a spare bedroom/craft storage/fabric warehouse/misc don't-know-where-else-to-put-it room for the past several years and I am now starting to clean it out for baby, as you can hardly tell from the photo. I bought three bins yesterday thinking that would be plenty for ALL of my blankets and fabric. They barely accomodated the fabric/blankets that were being "stored" on the bed. I haven't even touched the fabric and other notions in the closet, which also needs to be packed. I sorely underestimated how much craftiness I have accumulated. Eye, ye ye. G, thinking he was being helpful, asked me in the midst of all of this where we were going to put the crib. When I pointed to the specific wall, he said, "What are you going to do with the bed?" (seen pictured above). "Take it to the basement, or move it to the cabin..." To which he replied, "How about if we put the crib over in the corner?" {as he points to corner at the foot of the bed, implying that the bed stays in the room and one would have to crawl over it everytime you wanted to get the baby in and out of the crib}. I kindly asked him to leave the room and not come back until the baby is born, unless of course I need him to move something out, i.e. the bed.

My Sweet JW

I had my 20 week ultrasound yesterday. G joined me for the appointment. It wasn't 10 seconds after the ultrasound tech turned on the machine when G asked her, "Is it healthy?"

It was so fun to see the little bugger grabbing his feet and kickin' in the womb while we sat in awe of what we were watching. It's funny how I see other people's ultrasound pictures and I think, "Wow, that looks just like skeletor." But I took one look at this picture and knew we had a cute baby, seeing features only a mother can identify from an ultrasound photograph.Oh, and in case you were wondering, it's a BOY!

I was a hair's breathe away from buying a Steinway & Sons grand piano today. I nearly pulled the trigger until I came to grips with the four zeros behind that $5 and actually scheduling a delivery could result in financial ruin for the G family and the possibility of my sudden disappearance. So I just played some beautiful music on one of the beauties and pretended it was about to be mine (in about 50 years after I've saved enough cash to make the purchase). Afterwards I drowned in my no-Steinway-for-me sorrow alone at the Training Table restaurant located next to the piano store. I didn't feel one bit guilty eating every last cheese fry since I had already exercised extraordinary self control just moments earlier.

*Picture taken by Kati: Noelle after Emily's wedding. This is how I felt after leaving the piano store.