Hello again

Well, it has been a while since I posted. Now that I have the housework somewhat under control, I hope I can post more often. I haven't been up to too much. This morning the baby and I went down to the big Old Navy on 34th and bought some Christmas dresses for her. I bought two because they were both so cute that I couldn't choose. I will have to take my time and return one later. They sell out too quickly to wait. I also bought Wahoo a fancy coat since I am trying to get our little family to take a more formal picture. We can't have him feeling underdressed, now can we?


Here is Lizzie looking very ferocious:





Her first measurement on the growth chart:



In the park:



Playing with her favorite toy, Wahoo:

Call me desperate...

cuz I'm a housewife! But, seriously, if anyone ever calls me that, I will have to hurt them. So, my point is that I am starting a new chapter in my life in that I am now staying home with the baby. Actually, my last day of work was three weeks ago, but we went to Boston on my first week off and this last week went by like the blink of an eye. Anyway, so much has happened that I haven't had a chance to blog about that I don't know where to begin. Of course, I am sure most of you want pictures of the little one, so I will start with that.

Our first attempt to take Lizzie to church:



Lizzie's actual first day at church:







My last day at work:



Various pics of Amy and Andy's visit:
















Us at church:


Lizzie wearing my new sunglasses:


Matt feeding the baby at Yale:


Hanging out with Justin Brown:



Various Boston pics:



















Wahoo was so tired, we had to put him in the stroller!



Lizzie modeling some various outfits:

To those of you we missed...

I am sitting here at work, doing somewhat mindless stuff for SOX, and thinking of those of you we weren’t able to see in California. So, to Mark, Shelly, Misty, Jeff, Erin, and all those of you we saw for only five minutes (Kallie, Ashley, to name a couple), we are sad that we missed you. Please come visit us! The baby won’t wake you, we promise! Well, but Wahoo might try to come snuggle you. Alright, I had better get back to it.

I don’t know whether work or home is crazier right now. I should be back to blogging regularly very soon.

Home again, home again...

to buy a fat pig? Or maybe just to order non-meat items from fresh direct. Well, we are back in NYC now...it is kind of wierd. It kind of felt like leaving CA all over again (except this time we have AC, our apartment is already painted, and we don't have to sleep on an air mattress). We had a great time in CA...the visit was both too long and too short; it was too long in that it is just a long time to be away from the comforts of home, and too short in that we didn't get much time with most people and some we didn't even get to see at all. Thanks to everyone who provided, arranged, or paid for our housing. Well, I need to clean out the fridge and get us some food! I will post some pics later.

California, here we come!

We are leaving for CA tonight! We hope to see you all while we are there. Sorry for all of the unreturned emails...I will try to get caught up soon. We love you all and will try to post new pics soon.

Ta da! Look what we made!

I know you all want to see her, so here she is!

20 days left (or less)!

So, we are now in the waiting game. The nursery is as ready as it is going to be (we have to wait until the end of May for our rocker, and early June for one of the sets of window hardware) and the rest of the place is pretty clean. It is good, but it is a little wierd. Everyone at work says that I look like I am about to burst, and that is pretty much how I feel. My heartburn is out of control and my feet are so huge. She has really run out of room, so I can feel her body parts jutting out almost all of the time. I mostly feel her side and her little rump and her heels (as they dig into my side), but every once in a while I can feel her shoulder and her hands, too. One time I put my hand on my stomach at work and she brushed her hand (or arm, I am not sure...I just know it wasn't a foot because of the proximity) back and forth on the spot I was touching for a long time. It was pretty cool. I am going to start working from home next week, so that should help me feel more comfortable and will definitely help with the swelling. I am worried that I am going to get a little stir crazy, though. It is hard to be patient! As nervous as I am about labor, I am ready to get this party started. The doctor said I have already started progressing, so that is a good start. It doesn't really mean too much, but it could be sooner than later. I think we will know more when I go again on Tuesday. Anywhoski, here are some pics. Who knows, they could be the last!

37 weeks




36 weeks

Matt's early lesson in suturing

So, we had to rush to the ER on Friday night. Don't worry--it had nothing to do with the baby. I stabbed my hand with a kitchen knife while pitting an avocado. I was just really tired and my hand just slipped. I was so mad because I had to leave the yummy dinner I had just prepared behind. I had pushed through my near exhaustion to have the meal, and Matt had to practically drag me out the front door. It was really bloody. Matt knew it was really deep and insisted we go. It turned out that the doctor that sewed me up is the preceptor for a couple of Matt's good friends (that means that they do a clerkship with him, which is kind of like an internship). As soon as he found out that Matt was in med school, he was very descriptive and basically started giving him a lesson. Apparently he teaches suturing at the Cornell campus (Cornell and Columbia fall under the same hospital umbrella), so it was his cup of tea. He did cosmetic sutures on my hand instead of the regular kind just to show Matt how it was done (which, I know from experience, take a lot longer). Matt takes his suturing class on Wednesday; if he had already had it he was going to have Matt do it by himself! He gave Matt the removal kit so that he can take them out for me when the time comes, so I will be Matt's first patient. :) Kind of fun...although I am going to be a little nervous since I know that removing stitches can be painful. My hand was really sore all day yesterday and I couldn't really use it. It is much better now. Matt and the doctor both said I was lucky to have hit a spot where there weren't any tendons and there are few nerves. The doctor thought it was really funny when I told him that, as far as I am concerned, I prefer to think that I don't have anything under my skin (since anything else just really grosses me out).

Well, it is getting late here so I had better go. Happy Easter everyone! 32 days left!

Week 36

Today was a good day--I was feeling pretty good and then I felt even better because my office threw me a surprise baby shower. They got tons of stuff for the baby, including lots of little things I (well, she) really needed. Anyway, it was just fun that they thought of me and did that for me/her.

So, there are only 36 days left. I am starting to feel a little nervous...but I am still more than ready for that day to arrive. Well, I take that back. I was supposed to pack my overnight bag tonight, but I ran out of time. Plus, I can't find my "master baby list" right now, which basically means I have no idea what needs to be done. Once I write something down, I forget about it (which is the beauty of a list), but that means that things are going undone left and right while I track that little sucker down. I should really stop making my lists on my teen-weeny memo pad at work...but that is just how it works. What is really driving me crazy is that there are things I could cross off if I could find it...oh, well--enough about the list! Can you tell I am tired?

Matt and I rented a car on Saturday and ran a bunch of errands in New Jersey on Saturday. We got a bunch done, but the best part is that we got to eat at Baja Fresh. I am telling you, it was worth the rental fee just for that. Yum.

The baby is huge and her little foot was really hurting me tonight. The doctor said she is pretty sure she is already in the head down position, but she is going to do an ultrasound at the next visit to be sure. She said she will check the baby's weight, too.

Matt got to meet and introduce Elliot Spitzer yesterday. Pretty cool. Spitzer is running for governor and is pushing for state funding for stem cell research; while Columbia can't endorse any political candidates, the medical student organization (of which Matt is co-president) can do whatever, so he was the link between the two. It was pretty cool and he got to meet quite a few big-wigs.

Well, I had better go to bed. The days just go so quickly...well, the evenings do, anyway.

48 days

So, the countdown continues. It is really getting close now. We are going to the hospital tour in the morning to get familiar with the way things will work when I do finally go into labor. I am in the process of filling the pre-registration stuff out, and part of that was filling out the request for her birth certificate. So official!
The nursery is coming along quite well and I am really happy when I go in there. I have a few more things to do in there this weekend, then I will post more detailed pictures.
Well, I had better go to bed, but here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.

My boys.



Week 34.

8 weeks left

Well, I don't have much to talk about, but it has been way too long since I posted a belly pic. Things were really crazy at work for a while there, but now it should be more reasonable. I still have a lot to get done before I take my leave, though. I am glad to keep busy, otherwise I think I would go nuts! Matt is almost done with his really tough test block, so he can finally put the baby's furniture together. Yay! Then we can finally start making a home for little Lizzie. I am starting to think more about actually giving birth...sometimes I am just shocked at what I am going to have to do, but I do think it is really cool how the baby knows what to do and all of that. I really don't let myself think about what will happen if something goes wrong. I think I will be okay once I get past the shot. I really don't like needles...I guess I have gotten over that a little bit since I have had to have a billion blood tests throughout the pregnancy. I hate it, but I am learning to deal. I will probably feel better after we tour the hospital next week and get familiar with their process. It should also help once Matt and I start the labor prep. We still need to take infant CPR, too! So much to do.

Lizzie is still really active, and now I can actually feel limbs moving. I can't really tell whether what I feel is a hand or a foot, but I feel something small pressing here or there, and once I think I even felt a limb with my hand on the outside. I guess she is just getting big! Matt showed me a picture of a preemie that was only 30 weeks when it was born, which is two weeks younger than Lizzie. It is crazy to actually see how big she must be. She must be so scrunched. She is supposed to be about 16 inches tall and about 3 pounds right now.

Alright, well, here is the most recent pic, which is already a week old. This is me at 31 weeks. Of course, Wahoo wanted to be in the picture, too. :)

90 days to go!

Well, it is actually only 87 now. Last week was a crazy one. Matt and I went to this fabulous place for dinner on Valentine's Day. It should have been super expensive, but for some reason they only make you pay your age after 8:00 p.m. It was awesome. We are pretty sure that we saw Al Franken there, too. So, I guess there are some cool things about NYC. The next day I went to a Knicks game with work since one of our printers invited us to share their skybox. It was the Knicks, so the game wasn't that great, but it was a fun experience. We also got most of the baby furiture that day. Sadly, going out twice in a row thoroughly exhausted me, so I don't remember much of Thursday. Matt came down to meet me for lunch on Friday, so that was really nice. He doesn't do that often because it is pretty far for just lunch. He went to MOMA after that and I think he had a pretty good time.
Anywhoski...we have spent most of the weekend catching up on Olympics and cleaning up our place. We are still getting organized--we never really did that when we first moved here. I have a pretty bad cold so I have been trying to rest and sleep it off (I can't take any medicine). Matt started to put the baby's furniture together, but some of the pieces were damaged. He had to take all the pieces out to make sure we saw all the damage, so the nursery is full of random pieces of wood. I ordered the replacement parts today, but it sucks that he had to stop before he really got started.
Also, Matt tried to upgrade the desktop processor and may have sent his old friend to a not-so-early grave. That would be sad. :( Oh, and Wahoo chewed my laptop cord again, so I had to steal the fancy Mac to write this post.
The baby is still a little kicker. If I push on my stomach when she is awake, she will kick my hand. If I rub a certain spot, she moves to be under my hand. I hope that means she is a cuddler! I can't wait to hold her in my arms, but I think Matt is ready to steal her from me the second the cord is cut. I have had her this long, so I guess I can share her.

Alright, here is the latest picture. I know, I know...I am huge, but most women who I talk to can't believe that I am 6 months--they think my tum is too small. I sure hope I don't get too much bigger because I feel like I am going to explode. I am standing in the nursery in this picture so you can see the color of the walls. :)

Snow Storm

Matt and I are sitting in our living room with our dog, watching our tivoed shows as well as the snow outside. It is just covered out there. It is beautiful and it is kind of fun to be closed in together. I will post pics soon, but I am using the Mac right now which isn't as compatible with our camera.
We went shopping yesterday to make one last effort at finding baby furniture in a local store before we order online. We were only successful at finding a good rocker. I still like the PBK one better, but it is pretty expensive. As for the crib, etc, it is just ridiculously more expensive than online...so, we will probably just have to order sight-unseen. We did get the paint while we were out, so I will probably tape today so Matt can paint next weekend. So wierd that we are getting so close!
We will probably rearrange our living room today. This is the exciting Manhattan life, I tell ya.
Talk to you all soon!
Bren

I'm back

After a crazy month of travel and overtime, I am back to blogging. Here is a pic of me at 25 weeks, although I am in my 27th week now. I will try to post another one soon. I feel huge and I swear there is no way that my body can hold her when she is 5 times the size she is now, but whatever. There was one moment where there was actually a big bump right in the middle of my upper belly that must have been her head. Pretty cool.



So, now that I am in the third trimester basically all I think about is getting the baby's room ready. We are going to go buy paint this weekend and probably most of the nursery furniture. So fun.

Alright, I am trying to think about something other than the baby...hmm...THE OLYMPICS! I cannot wait for them to start this weekend, especially now that we have tivo. So awesome. I love the olympics and I LOVE MICHELLE KWAN! I am hoping it is finally her turn to shine, but the pessimist in me (which is most of me, I'll admit) thinks that there is just too much pressure and she is going to fall on the first jump. Scary. I also LOVE the luge and the bobsled, so those will be fun. I just did the math and realized that I was a senior in college for the last winter olympics. It seriously took me three times to verify my calculation because I can't believe it has been that long since college. Crazy. I am old!

Here is a pic of my doggie:


Pic's from Amy's wedding (she is Matt's sister):