BIG Changes

Hello Dear Friends.

The past month has been a busy one. I've had my 30th birthday and it wasn't so bad. We had a small party where I got lots of cards making fun of my age, some pretty flowers and an Aero Garden. I guess it's not too incredibly exciting to party with a pregnant lady, but everybody seemed to enjoy eating and hanging out for a while. It was probably best that I was in bed by 12, anyway. That's pretty late for me!

The Bug is growing, and so am I. In fact, my belly has changed to the point where I felt the need to remove my piercing. It was sticking out like a turkey timer and driving me crazy. The bead was in so tight, Doug had to get two pairs of pliers and pull the ring apart to get it out. I trust him, but I think that was scarier than having my belly button pierced in the first place. So, it looks weird, but I am much more comfortable.

I have moved up to visiting the doctor every two weeks instead of every four. I've gained the appropriate amount of weight and I still don't feel like I am any heavier, though my feet have disappeared from my view and are getting ever harder to reach. Thank you, slip-on shoes! At the last visit, The Bug was dubbed "very active" by the doctor who could hardly listen to the heartbeat for all of the moving around she was doing. For those who have never experienced hearing a baby's heartbeat with a doppler, the baby moving is actually louder than the heartbeat. I think she may be sideways, because she sure likes to kick me in the left ovary if I squish her. And poke my bladder when it gets too full. It's got to be tough to be a claustrophobic fetus. 4 more months, Girlfriend.

Here are my five month belly pictures. First with big brother Dozer who is pretty good at posing for the camera.


Then a more sidelong view with big sister Kaleb who apparently couldn't stand the 20 second wait and collapsed from exhaustion. The room is only about 2/3 painted, so I promise the "squares" won't remain gray/beige.

Then we had some fun with the dogs.

"Can I lick it?"

"Oh, it's a camera. Cheeeeese!"

"What's going on?"


This weekend, Uncle Harry and I are off to VA to visit the Ress family (see their blog, linked here on mine). This will be my first time meeting Finn and I'm sure there will be some fun pictures to post when I get back.

Until then,
Love and Bug Hugs.

Fine Dining, Famous People, and Baby Jail

On February 19th Doug and I had our much talked about Valentine's/Anniversary/Birthday dinner and a show date. We ate at a restaurant we had never been to in Durham called Blu Seafood and Bar which I picked almost solely because they had pistachio crusted trout with roasted grapes. I have had a variation of only one other time at Doug and Keri Petersen's rehearsal dinner, though I think it was pecan crusted with grape salsa. Doug got the shrimp and grits and we were both very happy with our choices. This was taken before dinner and after the mediocre crab enchilada.


So, dinner was good, on to the show. Doug was super sweet and bought me VIP ticket to see No Reservations: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain at the Durham Performing Arts Center which is extremely nice. Tony was in a good mood and the talk was very entertaining, he even got a few laughs from Doug. It was only about an hour long and then 15 minutes for questions and on the the private book signing. This was where things got a little disappointing.

It was pretty much of an assembly line: write your name on this card so he can personalize, have the book open to the title page, he'll look up if you want a picture, etc. So, I finally get up there and the one time he does look up for Doug, some lady is all in the way. Then the people behind me had him writing this whole long inscription and I'm feeling more and more like a dork just standing there, so Doug just takes the picture and this is the impressive shot we got:


Seriously, we're like best friends. Notice the box of Pepto on the table, apparently a constant companion. As it also turns out, the instructions should have been, "write down what you want him to write." I wrote my name as instructed and this is what I got:


I still enjoyed the evening very much, but my attitude of not getting all excited about meeting famous people was reinforced. Specifically: don't expect too much.

We certainly have other things in our lives to be happy and excited about. Grandma and Grandpa Robert came to visit this weekend. We were at DSW shopping Saturday afternoon for shoes for my apparently already enlarging feet when I got a call that our crib was in at Babies 'R Us (BRU to those in the know). It was a whole 2 days earlier than the shortest lead time we were given! Not quite the baby furniture horror stories I read about online. We hijacked or neighbor with a truck and went out to Capitol. It was amazing how many people were in this crappy little shopping center. Chuck E. Cheese and BRU were packed. I can't say I've ever seen a line to get into a Chuck E. Cheese, but we sure saw it yesterday.

I must say I am extra happy with the timing because I didn't have to help put the crib together at all! Here are the boys in the early stages of assembly.


A little further along...


It's a crib! Or baby jail as I've heard it called. I know I'm wearing the same shirt as Thursday. It's on of the few long enough to contain both my boobs and my belly and still cover the belly panel of my new maternity jeans (thanks, Mom!) I came downstairs and Doug said the jeans made me look thinner. I laughed because I'm 4.5 months pregnant! I guess it's just that now I have an excuse to have a belly.


I then had to turn sideways because I didn't "look pregnant enough" in the straight on shot. I'm wondering what sort of growth I'm going to be experiencing here shortly. It doesn't seem like I could have a half-cooked baby in there. The matenity jeans are too big, but regular jeans don't work either. I think I had better enjoy this "small" time. I have the feeling it won't be too much longer.

And finally, big brother Dozer was supervising the whole process. He even helped by taking a trash bag up during the unpacking stages. (He's not really that helpful. I tied it around his neck and had Doug call him upstairs.) Here he is practicing threatening intruders with his laser eyes to protect The Bug from danger. Good job, Bubba! Though I'm not sure The Bug will appreciate her bodyguard gnawing on bones while she is trying to sleep. We'll have to find him a quieter hobby.


In Bug news, I am definitely starting to feel her moving around from the inside. The traction table at the chiropractor seems to inspire her to engage in baby aerobics. I guess soon we'll be able to feel it from the outside so Doug can join in the fun.

Until next time,
Love and Bug Hugs

The Bug House at 4 Months

I don't like having pictures taken of me, but we have to document my growth as well as The Bug's. Here I am in the attic after Doug thoroughly beat me at pool. And Yahtzee. Dangit.

It's a girl!

Well folks, sorry it took some time to get this post up (Daddy was being slow on the scanner) but I finally hassled him enough. The technician seemed very sure and The Bugette (thanks Parker!) was not being shy. So to make sure we have plenty of things to embarrass her with later in life and because it occurs to me that this is the only time you can post a picture of your child's little bits on the internet without getting arrested, here is the telltale shot! The arrow is conveniently pointed at the area of interest.


Here is one from the side with a little profile action going. You can also see the spine and heart in this one and the top half of a leg with femur.


I'm going to post this last one even though it's a little creepy. It's her face, but we're seeing the bone structure so it's like a little skeleton baby. I turned it on it's side so you get the full effect. I think you see little hands on the right side and the bladder at the bottom. I'm sure that dot is just an artifact of the film, but it sure looks like an eye! (New info as of 2/17: I was looking online at other people's ultrasounds and I came across one almost exactly like the one below complete with the circle. So maybe is is her eye!)


All in all the exam went very well. She is on schedule for growth ( I don't know about me, I'm working on getting a belly picture up soon). All of the important parts were located: kidneys, bladder, brain, heart complete with four chambers and umbilical cord.

Send us your ideas for girl names! Until next time,
Love,
Christie, Doug, and The Bug

At the top of the "don't worry about it" list

Thanks to Wake county's wonderful library request system, I was able to pick up a whole stack of books about babies, baby gear and many other pertinent topics.

The most useful so far has been The Girlfriend's Guide to Baby Gear: What to Buy, What to Borrow and What to Blow Off. This book is written by a group of Moms who have tried all of these products and are now sharing their wealth of knowledge with the rest of us. My shopping list is definitely shorter than it would have been if I listened to some of the other books.

The least useful by far has been the Somethingorother Guide to Natural Baby Care. I'm mad at it, so I don't even care what the actual title is. I was hoping for maybe info about cloth diapering or how to produce less waste with a baby in the house. You know, normal human-type stuff. Instead, within the first few pages, I realize that this is more like The Psycho Alarmist's Guide to Raising Your Baby to be a Weirdo.

These people would have you tearing out the carpet in your nursery and installing hardwoods to avoid the VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are emitted by the carpet. This also means no plastic in the nursery and a huge list of extremely common things to avoid. Now, I agree that you should avoid secondhand smoke and creepy chemicals like formaldehyde and tolulene. But there has to be a limit.

I spent about 30 minutes Googling VOCs and all I could find were similar pages of people freaking out about VOCs. I found no real information about anything. No amounts of VOCs emitted by the plastics and no limits of safe or unsafe exposure. We are surrounded by plastics and other apparently evil materials and have been for years. You can't just run around spouting the horrors of something you don't define. It just creates panic and fear of the unknown. I mean, trees emit VOCs. How is that wood floor now? And by the way, what kind of finish is on that?

Bottom line: not going to worry about it.

This lead me to another topic that bothers me: BPA. There are plenty of BPA-free products available now, so by all means use them, but I was curious as to how much BPA you are actually exposed to from a water bottle. Happily, I could actually find numbers for this one.

Just some quick background:

• BPA = bisphenol A
• it is bad because it has estrogen-like effects while in the body
• BPA does not accumulate in the body, it is processed and excreted in urine
• We are exposed to tons of hormone and hormone-like substances every day, BPA was just one that made it into the spotlight

The facts:

• The EPA has set the TDI (Tolerable Daily Intake) of BPA at 0.05 mg per kg of body weight per day.
• The TDI is 100 times less than the "no observable adverse effect level" (NOAEL) established in testing of lab rats
• The EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) published data that all tested cases were less than 30% of the TDI.
• The CDC (Center for Disease Control) tested 2000 people from age 6 to 85 and the average BPA amount was 0.0000027 mg per mL of urine. This is equivalent to 0.00005 mg BPA per kg body weight, 1000 times less than the TDI.
• In testing of baby bottles, the maximum amount of BPA leached from any bottle was 0.000008 mg per mL of liquid in the bottle. If a 5 kg baby drinks a liter of liquid from this bottle in a day, they will ingest 0.0016 mg of BPA per kg body weight, about 3% of the TDI.

Bottom line: buy BPA-free bottles because they are now widely available, don't put boiling water in plastic that isn't BPA-free (it increases the rate of leaching), and don't microwave food in plastic containers. But overall, don't worry about it.

Remember folks, we had lead paint, asbestos, and toys with strings and small parts. We played with the mercury from broken thermometers and rode our bikes without helmets for years. EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY!

Our First Visit to the Doctor

Sorry, but this one isn't quite as entertaining as some of the other posts, but it is what really happened.

Way back before Christmas I got a call from our family doctor's office saying that they had sent my info to the Atrium OB/Gyn and I should hear from them soon to schedule my appointment. So I figure I'll give them about a week, I didn't want to be that patient. Then it was the holidays and I figured they were just going to wait until after the new year or something. Then I finally got mad when I realized that I was 12 weeks pregnant and apparently no one cared. So I called on January 2, and they had never heard of me. Turns out the fax had never made it.

I have to say they took care of things very quickly. I went in that day for the medical history and we got scheduled on the 5th to meet the doctor and have an ultrasound. By this point the whole thing is very surreal and I'm becoming convinced that I'm going to go in to the appointment and they would say, "you moron, it's just gas. Stop wasting our time." Then we get there and they're all concerned because my blood pressure is high and I keep telling them to wait until after the ultrasound.

My stress wasn't helped by the fact that it seemed like they were doubting me. As it turns out, I think they were trying to make me be less pregnant than I really was because they usually do this appointment at 8-10 weeks and I was at 13 weeks. So she asks if I'm sure about the date of my last period and if I've been having any symptoms of pregnancy and I'm like, "crap, I knew it. They don't believe me either."

We finally get in to do the ultrasound and I think when she saw my belly she finally believed that I was at 13 weeks. The Little Bug popped right up on the screen and I had the hugest feeling of relief, I almost burst into tears right there on the exam table. I have the picture hanging beside my desk at work so I can look at it every day and remind myself that it is real.

In newer news, I got to hear the heartbeat again yesterday, which is very reassuring. I know you can buy one of those Doppler things, but I think I would abuse it and just walk around listening to the heartbeat all the time. Maybe you can use headphones...

Anyway, the next ultrasound is scheduled for February 12th when we will count limbs and hopefully be able to tell if it is a boy bug or a girl bug. I'll keep you posted!

Hormones, cravings and moisturizers

Let's see if I can knock out a few short topics in one post.

Fun with Hormones!

• Let's see, I think the first noticeable effect was that the "global endowments" got more, well, global. Like a full cup size.
• I definitely tear up more easily. Now, as a Pisces I am fairly weepy anyway. Brian (older brother for those outside of the fam) used to make me cry just by pointing at me. It sounds silly, but it really was quite menacing. I seem to be more prone to weeping in the morning: a song, a Christmas card, Coach K calling in to 101.5 on Sheri's (formerly of Bill & Sheri) last day. TV commercials get me in the evenings sometimes, but later in the day I'm usually more prone to...
• getting mad about something dumb or something that I just completely misunderstand.
• I can't seem to express myself clearly and spend a lot of time trying to clarify what I mean.
• I definitely am a lot more spacey than I used to be. I have, as Parker calls it, "baby brain" or "the baby stole my brain" as another pregnant lady put it. The most interesting manifestation of this is that I keep putting my clothes on backwards. I bought some maternity pants (a bit early, but they were on sale) and when I tried them on I just went by the tag that they fold over the waistband. You know, the one on jeans that is always on the back left? So, they feel kinda weird and the satiny stuff goes down way too far in the back. I finally look down and see that there are pockets on the pants and I say, "these look like back pockets! What is wrong with these pants?!?" Then I realize they are back pockets! I am happy to say that the pants fit perfectly when they are pointed in the right direction. So there's at least one aspect of my body that I can feel good about.
• Finally, see Cravings.

Cravings

• Oddly, I don't seem to want sweet things as much as I used to. Quite often they don't even taste good to me. I hardly had any of Mom's famous and amazing Christmas cookies this year. Ice cream seems to have made the cut and I am enjoying it very much.
• I tend to want salty and savory things. I hear the salt craving is an indication of a boy.
• Nachos
• Potato chips with Dean's French onion dip (sound familiar, Mom?)
  
• Fortunately this kid want fruits and vegetables pretty often.
• Pickles. What is it with pregnant women and pickles? Is there scientific reasoning behind this?
• I've eaten quite a few grilled cheese sandwiches (with bread and butter pickles, of course).
• Right before Christmas I absolutely had to have pink grapefruit juice.
• I have to have orange juice everyday.
• I don't like water as much, I want beverages with flavor. Which also means calories since I'm trying to avoid artificial sweeteners.
• Finally, ethnic food. I've had Vietnamese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Chinese and Japanese that I can think of. I'm having Dim Sum on Saturday. I still haven't managed to get my Indian food. And I think I had a dream about the pork carnitas tacos from Alejandro's in Roanoke, which are totally amazing.
  

Moisturizers
I'm sure most of us experience the lovely skin drying effects of cold weather and running the heat in the house. I've actually been remembering to use lotion in the mornings so as to not have the creepy-crawlies later in the day. I found a great lotion at Ulta that is Lemon Sugar flavor. It came in a great big bottle with a pump which is a definite plus. I also put cocoa butter on my belly which has it's own distinct scent. These two combine to make an interesting aroma. So if I smell funny, it's because I'm mixing scented moisturizers and I don't care!

I guess this didn't end up being very short. Oh, well. Until next time... :)