My god, that was five months ago. 3-15-12

We had a Sam! :) He is the most wonderful, beautiful, precious little screaming, crying, attention-needing bundle of baby ever! 

Our First Moments

Everything has been wonderful, and terrifying and beautiful and godawful. There are moments when I can't stop staring at him while he sleeps, and others when all I can do is think "what the hell does this baby need to stop yowling!" It is all amazing.

But we are truly blessed. He came into our lives after 30 hours of labor, the last three simply the most terrifying and intense experience of my entire life. But I got through it with the help of my husband and (believe it or not) my mother. We made it through, he came out, and our lives were changed forever.

 We still watch movies we've stolen from the internet, we still talk about how everything we like is awesome and everything we don't like sucks (of course we know everything!) But there is this little person here, little face that watches us and giggles and smiles and follows us with his eyes and god, we are the most important thing in the world to him.

killer smiles...

 It is an amazing feeling when he you know he saves that extra special smile for you, or has a happy fit when he's given to you after being in another's arms. He has these little feet, and chubby little legs, and just beautiful blue eyes. He snores a teeny bit when he sleeps and when his arms are up over his head and he's sleeping, we call him "peace baby".

early on, when he slept a lot (first month, for sure)

In the five months since Sam has been born, we have gone through such a range of emotions. We have gone insane at times, we have gotten down deep in a well, and we have been on a mountain top too. We seem to have finally adjusted to the idea that we're attached to this person, root and branch until the last breath each of us takes.

5 months, Water Baby class

We love our boy. I couldn't imagine my life without him and I know that Barry couldn't either. Barry plays with him, cuddles him, kisses him and makes Sam giggle for hours. These two were meant for each other. I can already tell they have a special bond that will be theirs alone.

snoozing...Sam just a few months old

He is a wonderful father and a wonderful husband. We have had some adjusting to do in our relationship, but it seems that we have both taken each others shortcomings and understood them, adapted to them and made something even more strong. We are very lucky and will continue to work at this. At around 4 months, Sam left our room and the basinette and slept in his crib for the very first time. It was great to see him in there, all stretched out (by then, he was squishing himself into the basinette, seemingly comfortable though), but also great for us to have our room back to us. If for no other reason than we didn't have to whisper everything from when Sam went to bed until he woke up for the day around 6 a.m. 

I'm mostly babbling and just going from one part of the subject to another, but I guess stream of consciousness is the best way to get these kind of things out for now. We have some time to ourselves. I am currently sitting on the couch at 10:23 p.m on March 15th 2012 waiting for Sam to make his first sleeping bottle request, so I can try to go to bed with the knowledge of a baby with a full belly sleeping in the other room. I should at least get a solid two or three hours before he needs me again. I shift off and Barry goes on at 3. He has been wonderful about taking him from three till supposedly seven, but I often wake up later. He has really been an amazing man through this and I am so lucky to have him on this journey with me. 

I've been looking for this hat in adult sizes for months now. 

Well, I figured I'd write while the moment took me, and have done so. Sam is five months old now, five months and three weeks I believe. He is about to start turning over (almost there!) and he has begun to teethe (drooly baby!). He plays with some simple toys and likes to bat things around. We can't wait for every single coming milestone, coming step. Hopefully I'll write again in the near future, lord knows I'll have plenty of pictures to add.

The Best

37 Weeks and Counting

So, I was laying in bed this morning around 6:30, half trying to doze back off. All kind of a sudden like, I felt something trickling down my neither regions. With a bit of a jump I went to the bathroom and stuff was coming out! We just got the call from Dr. Jacob and we're headed to the hospital so they can see if my water broke. Check back in a little bit!

It's my birthday!

Ok, so it's not necessarily baby-related, but it kind of is. I mean it's called a BIRTHday! It's hard to imagine my mom going through the same things I am, the same feelings, fear and wonder and complete "what the hell is this going to be like", only to have a teeny me show up 30 years ago today. I wonder every day what that's going to be like, getting handed this little person who I've spent the last nine (eight really-didn't know I was pregnant for the first few weeks) months thinking about, talking to, imagining. How did my parents handle those first few days, those first few weeks? They can tell me, but really it's so far away they could never really relate what things were really like. I was the first baby in the family, for my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents. So it's not like they had a few new parent contemporaries in the family at the time. I plan on keeping this blog going now and again, after Dolly or Sam is born, just to keep the records straight and not rose-colored. Barry's birthday is next (September 12th) and then, BABYTIME! Oh boy, what's this baby going to be writing about 30 years from that day?

The first big haul... 5/29/11

We brought our first big haul of baby stuff home today. Bargain savvy as ever, we found a garage sale at this rick-folks house in Stormville. They had twins that were seven or maybe eight years old and they had finally decided to get rid of all of their baby stuff. The woman running the sale (the mom) was this super nice lady named Judy that got so excited when we told her we were having our first child (she asked!). She went from "Can I help you?"  to "Don't get this, it stinks. This we used all the time. You can have these for free." in a matter of seconds. She was showing us what was for a baby, versus a toddler. What we needed and didn't need for bath, mealtime, the crib etc. and she even gave us a bunch of books, toys and onsies just because she liked us! We got quite a haul! We got a high chair, a stroller, a bath chair, a vibrating rocker-thing, a whole bunch of books and toys,  one of those baby-backpack things, a booster seat and other miscellaneous items. What was also great was that she was able to tell us how everything worked/folded down and what stuff we wouldn't need for at least a year. Right on!

In other news, jeez do I have a big belly. I am most definitely showing, and how! I have to push myself out of a chair with my arms, and getting out of the Allante just plain sucks. I'm mostly waddling and the last few bits of pre-pregnancy clothes don't even fake fit anymore. I'm relegated to maternity clothes, stretchy skirts or leggings and Barry's tee shirts. I'm also cranky, full of mood swings and my goodness is my complexion terrible! I can't cross my legs anymore and I have an achy everything. On the up-side however, people are so very happy to help me reach/pick-up things as well as hold doors open and put things in my car for me. I get seats wherever I go, and pretty much every restaurant I go into just to use the bathroom let's me do just that without the slightest hesitation. This pregnancy thing is tough. I have to work around myself in everything I do, and by god I can't drink or smoke! I am still very happy and very excited about the whole thing and I can't wait for the baby to be here!

belly!

One final note; we aren't going to find out the sex of the baby before delivery. We want it to be a surprise. However, we've had several people tell us that they think we're having a girl. We decided to take a bunch of gender quizzes (old wives tales in internet quiz form) and all four of the ones we took said girl also. So, we'll see what happens, but we may just be having a girl. Either way, our mantra is "ten fingers, ten toes, happy and healthy". Other than that, we'll be happy with whatever we're blessed with!

Of maternity pants and tests, tests, tests! 4/24/11

I bought my first pairs of maternity pants last week! I was resistant to the idea at first, because I've seen some frumpy, dumpy maternity clothes on mom's-to-be and didn't want to sacrifice my fabulous style ;) But finally, I couldn't even zip up my biggest courderoy pants anymore, let alone button them up. The buttons had been sacrificed to the belly gods weeks ago. So with Barry dutifully tagging along, we went on our first baby-related shopping trip. We went to four or five different stores and they didn't even have a damn section. We even went to a fat lady store and spent all of forty seconds there-as much time as it took to walk to the back and then out the front door again. Eeww. Finally, Liz, the ever wonderful fountain of baby related information texted me some hot, new information! Kohls has maternity gear! We went, and woo hoo! Jackpot! I got three pairs of maternity pants; jeans, khakis and black cargo pants. Comfy, not dumpy! It feels so good to have pants on again, especially ones that aren't attacking me as I sit down.

Another bit of excitement that we've been simultaneously looking forward to and fearing terribly were getting the results back from the genetic tests as well as the Ultra Screen visit to mom's office. We went for the genetic tests about four weeks ago, and they took about a gallon of blood from each of us. They tested us for genetic matches for a whole host of genetic disorders (Tay Sachs and a bunch of others I can't remember). We got the results a few days ago and we're completely mismatched for everything! That means anything wonky in my genes doesn't match anything wonky in Barry's genes, therefore we have nothing to worry about on that front. Another woo hoo!

Finally, we went for the Ultra Screen on April 14th. That's where they take even more blood from my poor, blood-let body and they do a sonogram of the baby, checking something called the nucal (sp?) fold. They looked at the thickness of the skin on the back of the neck and checked out some stuff in my blood. When they put all that information together, they can come up with a likelihood for Down Syndrome, along with several other abnormalities. We came back with a 1 in 10,00 chance of a problem! That's the highest number the doctors will give. Woo hoo number three!

This baby is one healthy little bean!

After we got all this wonderful news over the course of  a week or so, Barry had some awesome words of wisdom he imparted to me on our way to Portland, Maine for a bit of a road trip vacation. "This baby's comin!" And we couldn't' be happier!

Oh 2 a.m., when did we get to be such good friends? 4/12/11

OK, OK, I'll admit it! I have forsaken caffeinated tea (tea fergodsakes!), coffee (entirely), never had a 5 hour energy slug nor any crack for that matter, but you've got me! I ate some chocolate before bed. Someone, somewhere, sometime may have mentioned that it has a bit of caffeine in it. Or sugar. Or little dancing gnomes whose job it is to keep me awake all night- for a week.

There were a lot of things I expected to experience through my pregnancy.  Nausea (check), belly getting bigger (check), odd food things (check and double check) but no sleep? C'mon, really?  I got a mostly full night of sleep on Friday night, but I've been up for at least a few hours every night for about a week. Before that I had a few days, but it was spotty at best. I can't take anything that will really knock me out, but I've been allowed an itty, bitty Benedryl. Woo hoo, little pink pill the size of my pinky nail. You'll save me! Harrumph I say. Harrumph!

Well, at least it's given me a minute to check in here. Some cool stuff has continued to happen. First, I never thought I'd be happy to say that none of my pants fit. But, woo hoo! I have a belly! It's not that big so far, but it's definitely there. I can't suck my gut in at all anymore, and probably shouldn't squish the beansprout anyway. I've been wearing stretchy-waist skirts to work and sweatpants when I'm not. Who ever thought it would be so awesome to have an excuse to wear sweats all day! The belly is rounding out but I don't quite feel like a beached whale yet.

I still don't have food cravings, but some aversions are certainly there. I don't like jellybeans. What's up with that? Also, those Popcorner chips that were the best before are no longer so. Thankfully most of my staples are still tasty, and I'm just not going to forsake chocolate, so screw that.

Otherwise, we're still happy and incubating along :) I found a "gestation calculator" that makes me sound like a science experiment, but it's a pretty spiffy tool. As of right now, I am 12 weeks and one day along, with 27 weeks, five days and 21 hours to go till baby bean should pop out. Pretty cool. Hopefully I'll be posting some more pictures of something rad soon. For now, let the gestation adventure continue!

There's a heartbeat in my crotch! Happy, happy day!

     We got our first baby pictures and boy are they grainy! I wouldn't trade them for the world though.
     My mom is a labor and delivery nurse at a hospital out on Long Island so I've got the super hook-up for all of this. I was supposed to go for my first scan April 5th, but we got a weensy bit nervous this week. I went from head-in-the-toilet-bowl-and-oh-my-god-kill-me to skipping about without the slightest tummy ick about four days ago and totally didn't panic in any way, at all (sarcasm never comes out right on the computer). Anyway, my mom (actually a high risk labor and delivery nurse, so she knows everything about everything) kept casually asking me about this whole no-nausea thing for a few days and finally had me take a blood test to measure a hormone level. When she got the results back she said it was through the roof, which was most likely a good thing, and she had me come into her office after work yesterday (Friday) for a scan.
     So I went in and there was half her office waiting for me (not only does she know everything about this stuff, she also knows everyone). I went into the little room with the big machine and laid down. A minute or so later and we were all looking at a monitor with a beautiful little heart beating away happily. Woo hoo! The other nurse was scanning me and my mom was pointing out the head and the tush and the little bumps where arms and legs are going to be. I really found it amazing that we could see this little dot kind of blinking on and off. And you could really see it!
     So grandma, which she won't be called (too old sounding she said) is already demanding good baby pictures, and the other nurse took like 15 shots from the monitor. She picked her favorite, and we got the rest. I bet it's already in a frame.
     After that, we went to visit my aunt in Queens who just got out of the hospital and told half my family. Originally we weren't going to. Mom said it was ok, and really, with news like that, you can't just go waltzing into a family members home and get away with acting like nothing was new. At least I can't apparently. 
     I'm eight weeks pregnant (today is 3/20/11)! The due date is October 26th. We're going to have a Halloween baby!