So I know I've been neglecting my blog lately...again so here are a few quick little updates.
Last night we had our 32 week (ok 31w, 6d) check up and we asked the midwife to check our little girl's position. She is already head down! I know we still had another month before they would even start talking about trying to get her to flip if she was still head up, but it's really nice not to have to worry about that at all. And now every time I touch my belly I know where her little bum is, haha.
So today is officially 32 weeks - only 5 more weeks until she is term. Crazy!! We have so much still left to do (although we seem to be way ahead of most people we meet in our classes). Let's aim more for like 8 weeks, ok baby?
My nesting instinct has set in big time. Not only do I want all the baby stuff in order, I want the entire house re-organized, de-cluttered, cleaned, and all outstanding house projects completed, haha. We'll see how that goes...but last weekend was a very nice start (and I love an excuse to go to the container store)
Only 7 weeks left until maternity leave - but who's counting? Part of me wants to get put on some sort of bedrest so I can start my leave early, but not really because I want to stay super healthy too. My group keeps losing people (9 out of 25ish have quit/transferred/been reassigned), plus people are getting married/going on vacation/going on maternity leave, so there's lots of work and nobody left to do it. Not exactly a low stress environment, and there is so much baby stuff/nesting left to do!
Our baby shower is on Saturday! Yay! And it's the final baby event we have for the super packed, baby prep month of June. 3 doctor/midwife visits, 5 birth prep classes, 1 pediatrician meet & greet, infant CPR, a newborn care class, and the baby shower made for a very busy month. Next week is only a 2 day work week and we have no baby appointments/classes scheduled! Maybe I can catch up on all my blogging then :)
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
1 Year Celebrations
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| Back at the Wentworth |
Our actual anniversary fell on a Monday this year, so we kept that day low key. Dinner at home together, followed by our 1 year old wedding cake.
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| 1 year old wedding cake |
I also made cupcakes just in case the cake was gross. So the next day Arthur's co-workers got to celebrate our anniversary too! 24 cupcakes for 2 people are wayyy too many, even when preggers.
We also pulled out our gorgeous wedding album and watched our wedding video. Now the wedding video was a fairly last minute addition. Both Arthur and I wanted amazing photos, so we allocated a significant portion of our budget to get the photographers we wanted, and had decided to forgo the video. My day-of-coordinator asked me if I had one and offered to recommend a few because she said not having a video is the #1 regret she hears from brides. I was pretty against adding one so we could stick to our budget, but then my Mom went and surprised us with it! It's so nicely done and I can't wait to watch it with our little miss!
For our actual anniversary celebration, we decide to go back to the location of our magical wedding weekend, Wentworth by the Sea Hotel. We cashed in some of our Marriott points and lived it up in the Admiral's Suite - an amazing 2 story suite in the center turret of the hotel. 360 degree views of New Castle, the harbor, and Portsmouth. Gorgeous!
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| Arthur in the Admiral's Suite |
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| Private entrance for the turret rooms |
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| View from the room |
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| View from the room |
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| View from the room |
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| Wentworth Marina |
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| Wentworth Marina |
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| Little Harbor |
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| Little Harbor |
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| Hello 29 weeks! |
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| 29 weeks, take 2 |
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| Arthur with our Turret |
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| Dinner @ the Wellington Room |
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| Anniversary Mouse - yum! |
After dinner we headed back to the Wentworth for real dessert - new wedding cake! Our cake was so yummy we went back to Jacques Pastries and they re-created our cake top for us. It was even tastier than I had remembered.
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| Cake with the toasting flutes from our wedding |
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| Hanging out in the turret sitting room |
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| Post cake cutting (with our cake cutting song playing, of course!) |
The next morning we finished our celebrations with late checkout and the Wentworth's decadent Bubbles & Jazz Brunch, held in the Grand Ballroom - the same place our reception was held.
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| Bubbles & Jazz Brunch |
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| Bubbles & Jazz Brunch |
Monday, June 4, 2012
1 Year Ago
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| June 4, 2011 |
1 year ago today I married my love. It was a glorious day with blue skies, a gorgeous
venue, delicious food, beautiful flowers, lots of friends & family and a
very happy and in love bride & groom.
A year’s worth of planning came together almost perfectly (so in terms
of weddings – perfectly). Even more important
than our wonderful wedding was the amazing year that followed. To recap:
After our wedding we jetted off to French Polynesia for an
incredible honeymoon. We spent a few
nights in an overwater bungalow, took a 7 day cruise exploring various islands,
saw the most beautiful underwater life during our six dives including sharks!,
ate scrumptious cuisine, and both got some serious travel’s tummy. Travel’s tummy while confined to a cruise ship is
quite a contrast to the beautiful bride & groom from the wedding. For better or worse!
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| Our cruise ship in French Polynesia |
We came home from honeymoon feeling off and I was convinced
we had made a honeymoon baby. Arthur
bought a pregnancy test that I take in a Mexican restaurant during our 12 hr
layover in LA. Turns out no honeymoon
baby, just food baby, but both of us are very surprised that we weren't more
relieved to see the “not pregnant”. The seed
is planted that perhaps we both are way more ready for a baby than we had
thought.
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| Not Pregnant |
After the honeymoon we worked…a lot. I can’t remember having a weekday dinner
together once from July – September! We did go to Martha’s Vineyard for the 4th
of July, went to a couple more weddings, celebrated Mercedes’ 1st
birthday, went to the annual Lobsterboat Races in Bristol ME, started looking at
houses in Maine, and planned a few trips for when work settled down.
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| Mercedes turns 1! |
September brought a weekend in Philadelphia. We caught up with friends and did some sightseeing. We redecorated the master bedroom.
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| Philadelphia |
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| Puerto Rico |
In November we went to Puerto Rico for a long
weekend that neither of us really took the time to plan and decided we much prefer
planned trips. We talked about having a
baby & decided to stop trying to prevent one. In December we went to Argentina &
Brazil, made a baby, and bought a house in Boothbay Harbor, ME. On Christmas Eve we told our parents they
were going to be grandparents in August!
We rang in 2012 in Iceland.
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| Argentina |
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| Boothbay Harbor House |
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| New Year's Eve in Iceland |
Arthur spent the winter working lots both at work and on the Boothbay house.
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| Arthur the expert painter |
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| Not happy about my mask |
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| It's a girl! |
I did much 1st trimester napping and tons of baby reading & research. At the end of March we found out we were having a girl! In April we spent a week relaxing in Jamaica on our babymoon.
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| Jamaica |
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| Happy 30th! |
In
May I threw Arthur a very successful surprise 30th birthday
party. We ended our first year with 3
weekends in a row in Maine and another wedding.
All in all, an amazing, action packed year. In some ways it still feels like we are in
the honeymoon stage (especially when traveling), and in others it feels like we’ve
been married for years. Except for some
seriously long work hours, it’s been a really wonderful year. I’m pretty sure the whole “first year is the
hardest” did not apply (why do they say that?).
Somehow I think adjusting to life with a newborn is going to be a little
bit more challenging than this past year, but I’m really looking
forward to the next family focused (and maybe quieter?) years with my love.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Dear Baby - Week 25
May 10-16
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| Mommy @ week 25 |
Dear Poppy,
This week Mommy celebrated her first Mother’s Day. It was a lovely weekend. First Daddy took Mommy out for a yummy dinner
at one of their favorite places, Atlantic Fish. Daddy gave Mommy 2 presents – a pass for 5
massages to keep Mommy nice and comfy until your arrival, and a book from
you! The book is called “My Mom – Her Story”.
It’s a book where I can write memories
and stories for you. It is going to be
fun to fill out and share with you. You
have a very thoughtful Daddy!! On Saturday
we celebrated Mother’s Day with your Gigi (Grammy McGowan) and then on Sunday
we celebrated with your Grammy & Great-Grammy Andersen. We are so fortunate to have lots of loving
family nearby. It is going to be
wonderful for you to grow up knowing your grandparents.
This week we also started interview doulas for your
birth. Mommy is really committed to
having a relaxed and natural birth for you and we think having a doula present
will really help us achieve that. Plus studies
show that a doula’s presence at birth tends to result in shorter labors with
fewer complications. We are all for
that!
In other news, Daddy noticed this week that Mommy’s belly
button is starting to change. It’s
slowing moving from an innie to an outie.
Still technically an innie this week, but it seems to be about half and
half this week. How funny!
Current Size: Cauliflower
(13.5 or so inches long and 1 ¾ lbs)
Love,
Mommy & Daddy
Dear Baby - Week 24
May
3-9
Dear Poppy,
Week 24 is a big milestone – you are officially viable and
could potentially survive on the outside with lots of medical assistance. But we’d prefer you stay in for another 4
months. Mommy must be looking pregnant
to strangers because she got her first offer for a seat on the T this
week. It was from a very sweet
grandmother, and of course Mommy couldn’t say yes, but it was really nice to
have the offer.
After we got home from Jamaica we saw our midwife for our
monthly check up – everything still looks great with you. We also had a visit from the Cannons. Daddy turns 30 this month and Mommy wanted to
surprise him with a big party. The
Cannons came to celebrate and to help pull off the surprise. Lots of friends came and Daddy was completely
shocked. Next year we will throw you a
big party for your 1st birthday!
This week you went to a Red Sox game with Daddy and the Cannons
too! Daddy was very alert the entire
game to make sure we didn’t get hit by any stray balls.
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| Mommy & Daddy @ the Red Sox |
Current Size: Ear of Corn (over 1 foot long! You are also gaining lots of weight now – you
probably weight at least 1.5 lbs now)
Love,
Mommy & Daddy
Pregnancy Recap (Weeks 1-27)
So lots of blogs seem to do some sort of “pregnancy
confessions” and whatnot that are really cute.
Pregnant women go through so many of the same things, yet everyone
experiences it differently I thought it would be fun to jot down a few things
I’ve noted during the first 2 trimesters.
The first trimester is
sleepy.
I was lucky and didn’t have much morning sickness (only lost
my cookies once!) but, I was really really tired. As in seriously considered quitting my job (2
back to back 70 hr work weeks really got me!)
Pregnancy isn’t as
all-consuming as I had thought.
Confession – sometimes, especially before my belly was as
pronounced, I would forget I was pregnant for a few hours. I think about the baby a lot, but not 100% of
the time. I really like having a
“project” all the time, and being pregnant is currently my project. My other routines, going to work, going out
with friends, jumping in the car to go to Maine last minute, haven’t changed
yet. Slightly altered, yes. I’m quite happy to head home at 11pm rather
than stay out until 1-2am. But I can
decide an hour in advance to go out, rather than need a week notice to book a
babysitter.
Sappy baby things
don’t make me cry.
My crying levels have not increased that much since becoming
pregnant. Weird? I do seem to be susceptible
to things that carry a lot of energy though.
For example New Years’ Eve fireworks = lots of tears. Everyone was so excited and there was so much
energy in the streets that I literally felt overwhelmed with emotion. Same with the beginning of the Superbowl. Pampers commercials, Grey’s Anatomy, etc does
nothing.
It takes much longer
to pack for trips.
Packing for Jamaica at 23 weeks took forever! Usually I’m a pretty fast packer, especially
because we usually go to warm weather places so I kind of have my vacation
wardrobe done. Not anymore. I’m
definitely pregnant, but can still fit into some things, so packing involved
trying on everything! Some items I
thought I had no shot with still fit and other items I thought would be fine
looked ridiculous. For example, I bought
1 maternity swimsuit, just because, but I knew I’d want a couple swim suits for
a beach vacation. While packing I
figured some of my normal bikinis would fit, probably the ones for a little
more coverage. Nope – higher rise
bottoms = major love handles. Itsy bitsy
bikini = no problem, they sit way below the baby bump.
Baby kicks are
awesome.
Starting around week 15 I was anxiously awaiting my first
kicks, but honestly I thought they were going to be more annoying than
cute. I figured, yeah it’s going to be
really cool the first couple of times, but then there is going to be a person
kicking your insides. Not super fun. Well, turns out it is super fun. I love feeling her throughout the day!
I’m both super excited
and terrified to be a stay at home mom.
I’m 100% on board with being a stay at home mom, at least
until the kiddies go to school. It is
what makes the most sense for our family and deep down it’s what I really
want. I know I am really fortunate to
even have the choice whether to work or stay home, but it certainly isn’t an
easy decision to make. I so want to be
home and raise my babies, but at the same time it feels wrong to me to want
that in this day and age. Most people
ask “so have you looked into childcare?” with the assumption that I haven’t
even considered staying home. I swore
growing up I would never be a stay at home mom.
The isolation part of being a SAHM does worry me a little bit & what
am I going to do if and when I want to go back to work? It’s the first time in my life I haven’t had
a set 5 year plan and that is a little disconcerting. But I am so excited for this next stage of my
life.
I think pregnancy is
making me greener.
Bring on the cloth diapers, the glass bottles, organic
anything, and the baby bullet so I can attempt to make my own baby food. We already recycle 2-3 times more trash than
we throw away (thank you Brookline for making it so easy!), and I really can’t
stand the thought of throwing away 2500 diapers. Having a baby is a really good incentive to
do your part to help the planet!
Giving birth
naturally doesn’t scare me at all…at least not yet.
Not sure why – isn’t giving birth supposed to terrify
everyone? Maybe it will when it gets
closer? Right now it’s just a rite of
passage. I keep thinking of is my high
school cross country coach who would always tell us – mind over matter. Your brain controls your body. If you tell yourself you can run 1 more mile,
you can do it. Millions of other women
have done and so will I!
Post-Partum
Depression really scares me
I know most people go through some level of the “baby blues”
and having a newborn isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. But how do you know when you are just not
yourself because you are sleep deprived & adjusting & should just cut
yourself some slack or when you are really not yourself.
I’m really excited
for family activities
I already love “family” (me, Arthur & Mercedes) walks
and I can’t wait to add a stroller to our walks. Trips to the zoo, meeting Arthur for lunch,
taking baby swimming – I love day dreaming about doing all these things! I’ve already started planning our first
family vacation.
Heartburn is
annoying.
It seriously came out of nowhere and isn’t going away. Tums & Zantac are lifesavers.
Speaking of
lifesavers… I have a new found appreciation for prunes.
Enough said. They are
really quite tasty and make life sooo much better.
Don’t expect special
treatment in Boston if you are pregnant.
I’m fully on board
that pregnancy is not a disability, but I am surprised by the ambivalence
Bostonians seem to have towards pregnant ladies, especially on the T. Pre-pregnancy, if I sat in the
reserved/handicapped seating I would usually keep an eye out for elderly people
that might need the seat. The T is every
man for himself, whereas in South America the reserved seats specifically
stated “for disabled/elderly/pregnant/women with small children”.
Pre-natal massages
aren’t as good as regular massages.
Don’t get me wrong, they feel great, but getting a massage
on your side is not as good as face down.
Maternity pants are ridiculously
comfortable.
I haven’t found a really cute pair of maternity jeans, but
my work pants pretty much look the same as regular pants, but it feels like
wearing yoga pants. How awesome! I can see why Christina Applegate is still
wearing maternity pants a year after giving birth.
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