My 3rd Tri

3rd Trimester that is! Thank you all for the supportive comments. It's nice to know I haven't been forgotten :) Wow, time has really flown by lately. It seems like the first trimester crawled by, I'm sure because I was waiting to tell my mom and post it on my blog. And I hear that something similar happens in the 3rd tri, that the growing discomfort coupled with excitement to meet the new little human makes time slow down. I guess we'll be finding out.

We've been slowly readying the house. When we bought this condo 5+ years ago we took down the stair rail with a plan to get a new one. That never happened so we painted and reinstalled the old one and it doesn't look bad actually. In the nursery we installed new blinds (with blackout lining!) and have purchased new closet doors that need to be painted and installed.

Miguel is painting the room as we speak. We went round and round on colors, starting with blue ideas, but finally settled on two shades of green, a light green on the upper walls and a darker green on the lower. I love the colors! I can't wait until we can get the furniture in and all the cute bedding and stuffed animals and just everything! I purchased a pre-loved Dutailier Glider & Ottoman on Craigslist. I washed the cushion covers so those are air drying now. I think it's going to look so cute in the room. I splurged on an Organic Crib Mattress and that's supposed to arrive early next week. Man, times are getting exciting around here.

My boss is off for the next two weeks so the office will probably be really quiet. We don't have any big work projects coming up and a lot of my colleagues are off. That, coupled with all the holidays, will make the end of the year fly by I'm sure.

I started taking little walks during the work day. I'm not kidding when I say I haven't been getting any exercise. Each day on Thursday and Friday I went for a 15 minute walk. I'm going to make that a daily routine and want to add in some after work walks on the gym treadmill too.

On the birthing front we picked a class. We're taking a hypnobirthing class in January. I am really looking forward to both the education and the confidence-building that I'm sure will come from it. Hypnobirthing does not involve being hypnotized in the Las Vegas sense. It's basically a deep state of self-induced relaxation. At the birth Miguel will be there to help reduce distractions and to communicate our preferences to the medical folks.

As far as what type of medical folks will be there, well, that depends on where we give birth. As of now I'm with an OB group here in Marin and, if we stay with them, I'd give birth at Marin General, our local hospital. But we're considering moving care to a Midwifery group in San Francisco and giving birth at their birth center. That would be a compromise on the home birthing option and would have the added nicety of our little guy being born in San Francisco like I was.

We went on a hospital tour this past week and I have to say I was impressed with the nurses description of what they (the medical staff) are like there. She basically said they are very supportive of moms having whatever type of birth we want, with the ultimate goal to have a healthy baby of course. She said they don't push pain meds or interventions, etc. Of course she encouraged us to talk to our doctors since they are a big influence in all this. The maternity wing was nice and comfortable looking, though the "delivery rooms" were a little intimidating. The bed with the big stirrups and lights just doesn't seem so inviting.

We're going to an orientation in early January of the birthing center in SF. I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say about a lot of this stuff and seeing how it all fits with what we hope to have. I'm not fixed on any certain birth, I know the ultimate goal is to have a healthy baby and I know there might be cause for interventions if things happen. But I do know I want to avoid the epidural, which is another reason I need to keep moving and maintain my fitness level up to some minimal standard at least.

A Slightly Overdue Update

I guess that's a bit of an understatement.  I've just been in my own little world lately, feeling somewhat disconnected from the rest of mankind.  My therapist tells me it's a natural phenomenon in pregnancy, that we turn inward and sort of tune out.

Anyway, on to some updates!  I am 27 weeks pregnant today, and by some accounts this is the first day of the 3rd trimester.  Can you believe time has flown by that fast?  Seems like just a few weeks ago I was posting about being pregnant.  My belly and baby have grown, along with my thighs.  More on that in a bit, but first, some pictures!

Here's the little guy at 25 weeks, who is still nameless, by the way.

That's a 3d image of him.  We have so much fun speculating about whose body parts he's inherited when we look at this picture.  I'll wait until he's born to make any final determinations :)

Everything is developing normally and we couldn't be more thankful for that.

Speaking of things developing, I started my new job.  It's so much new and different to learn and that alone makes it pretty exciting.  I work with a great group of professionals who are all interested in the work, which only adds to the feeling that I'm in a good place.  It's a little odd to be in a new job with the knowledge that I'll be gone for a while before too long but I'm just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to think too much about that.

Ok, back to baby stuff.  My family threw a baby shower for me last weekend in Southern California.  It was a beautiful day and I received some of the most adorable gifts!  I also received some needed basics, which was nice too.  I can't wait to dress him up!

The tables were set with beautiful flowers and little babies and pacifiers.  So cute!  And the food was too good, I ate way too much!

 

Here's a glance at the little man's gifts.  That's a diaper cake on the table and a bassinet in the background.  I can't wait to set the nursery up.  Miguel's taking classes this weekend so we won't be able to paint and get the furniture up until next weekend at the soonest. 

Here's a good shot of my growing belly!  That's my cousin who is preggers with her third little one!  She's given birth naturally both times and was very inspiring to me.  Most women get a scary look on their faces when I tell them I want to have a natural childbirth so her reassurance was much needed.  I'm on the hunt for childbirth classes.  We're either going to take a Bradley Method series or a hypno-birthing series. 

And finally here I am opening presents.  I have a Boppy on my lap.  It's a pillow that you use when breastfeeding to help support the baby in case you don't have a bionic arm :) 

The whole day was just wonderful.  I still can't really believe we're having a baby.  Talk about a mind blower.  The little guy moving around is a constant reality check though.  He shocks me sometimes with his kicks!

Let's see...oh, weight.  Ugh.  It's going okay.  Could be better, could be worse.  I've gained 20 pounds so far.  And I was reading in my pregnancy book the other day, "Now we're entering into the period of serious weight gain."  Great.  I'm 184 and really hoping to stay under 200 just to keep morale up.  I won't lie, my eating's been marginal and my exercise nearly non-existent.  All I can say is I can't wait to get back to Weight Watchers.  But I took my gestational diabetes screening the other day and thank goodness that was negative.  My blood level was only 102 and you have to go over 140 to screen positive.  Phew!!

Nothing much else going on I'm sorry to say.  I've just been sitting around gestating :)  Thank you to all of you who have hung around and asked about me, I'm sorry I've turned into one of those bloggers who leaves everyone in the lurch wondering what the heck's going on.  I hope to not wait so long to give an update.  But before you know it I'll be posting tons of pictures and going on and on and on about how beautiful and amazing and perfect my baby is.  At least that's what seems to happen to people who have babies!

I Am Proud to be an American

I normally avoid politics on my blog but I am overwhelmed with pride in this country.  We can hold our head up high.  No matter your political persuasion, we have been a part of history tonight, we rose up and looked past race, past difference, past one of the most painful parts of our history.  This doesn't fix everything but it sure is a massive surge of Hope.

What do the Grand Canyon and a Baby Have in Common?

You'll see pictures of both in this post!! It's getting harder and harder to fit things in. And the baby is still months away! It's true I have been up to a lot lately. One of which is feeling the baby kick! It was very surreal at first, and I was sort of in denial that that's what I was feeling but now it's pretty clear. Still, the idea that this is going to result in a human being still blows my mind.

The trip to Arizona was great! This entry is going to be very picture intensive! And I'm sparing you the vast majority of the hundreds we took! So we arrived and stayed at The Boulders, just outside of Scottsdale, for the first few days. Our time here was all about relaxing. Unfortunately I didn't make it into the fitness center once. Well, that's not true, I did peek in just to see what it looked like, but no workouts. The grounds, our room, the spa...it was all heaven.

This is an early morning picture from our balcony.

And here I am enjoying the spa pool. Best thing about the spa. No kids. I know, soon I will be one of those parents doting around a loud little one, but for now, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet.

Lots of cacti in Arizona and they are so cool! Here's Miguel next to an old bugger.

And here he is looking out the window by the front door to our "casita".

I just love that picture for some reason. Next, we have a picture of the grounds at night. I got all fancy with our tripod for this one!

We fell into a little routine. Each morning Miguel would get up at the crack of dawn to go do this...

And I would rise, ahem, a little later in the morning and order breakfast from room service. They had this really delicious omelet that came from the spa menu (which meant it's supposed to be really healthy). Then it was off to the spa for a treatment (the first day I had a prenatal massage, the second a pedicure) and a day by the pool. Finally on our last morning Miguel enjoyed the room service routine with me. Breakfast for two:

We left The Boulders and started our road trip to The Grand Canyon. On the way I got to see lots of cacti. Here's a shot from our car.

We stayed in Williams, a little town about an hour outside of the park. It really was a cute little town...really little. I can't imagine what it must be like to grow up in a small town like that with little diversity where everyone probably knows everyone and the whole place closes down by 8pm.

Okay, are you ready for a ton of Grand Canyon pictures? What can one say about it? It is appropriately named that's for sure. I just stood there in awe of the size that I know I wasn't really grasping. It's just too big for words, or for pictures, but we try. Here I am trying to take it all in.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect. The morning started out with a chill in the air and it never really got "hot" all day. Lovely blue skies. Can you spot Miguel in this shot?

The moon was out.

I hope you're enjoying these 5,000 pictures :)

Here's the Colorado River.

Are they all starting to look the same yet?

As the day went on the canyon became more and more orange.

And as the sun sets the the sky starts changing colors...purple, pink, blue. Beautiful.

We were not disappointed at the beauty and the grandeur of it all. And Miguel even spotted a California Condor! It was sleeping on the side of a cliff. So cool. Alright, one last shot of the grand canyon at sunset.

After the grand canyon we headed back to the Phoenix area. As far as we could tell things to do in Phoenix include sunbathing, shopping, dining and golf. We did our fair share of all of those things but I wanted to do something different too. So we thought a tour of Chase Field, where the Diamondbacks play, might be cool. Here we are in the dugout.

We're baseball fans and had a good time checking out the locker rooms and such. Our last couple of days there I spent...you guessed it, lying by the pool reading my book while Miguel golfed. As our vacation was wrapping up I was ready to come home. I'm not that into shopping, or golf, and I can only get so tan and eat so much. Come Friday I was happy to be home.

So, what's inside my growing tummy? I had my 20 week ultrasound today. I'm happy to report the little guy is growing right on target. His heart, spine, and all other little parts are totally normal. Normal sounds just perfect.

Can you see his little heart there? My mom and Miguel were there. This is the last time we get to see him until he's born. I'm excited to see him!!

Last but not least...the weight. It's going ok. Well, not good really. I've gained at the rate an underweight woman should be gaining. Soon I'll be off the charts altogether. I could be doing a lot better. I'm still going to my swimming class twice a week and trying to keep my food choices within the sane realm but I need to be doing more. I don't know what's going to change things but for now I'm just doing what I can. I weigh about 175 right now. That's an 11 pound gain since I got pregnant at 164 pounds. I'll be happy to go back to Weight Watchers after the little guy comes. Nursing Points here I come!! I'm halfway there...20 weeks down, 20 to go. I can't believe we're having a baby!!

Marin Triathlon (Relay) 2008

I had my triathlon today. This was the Olympic distance Marin Triathlon. My husband's boss did the swim, a colleague of mine did the bike and I did the run.

And they're off! Even though I haven't done that many triathlons it was still a bit strange watching the swimmers go off without me.

Miguel ran with me as an alternate in case I got a cramp or something and couldn't go on.

One of the neat things about doing a relay was that we got to watch all the other folks, including the Elite racers, come in for transition. The other, as Alex and Tom can attest to, is that when you do your leg you're done. They were both happy to flop down and rest after their respective legs.

I did a run/walk based on my heart rate. I kept it down the whole time. I had wanted to get a "Baby on Board" t-shirt to wear for the race but never got around to it. Even though it was the slowest 10k ever (not to mention my only 10k ever) I still had a great time. Here I am coming in for the finish.

The whole event was serious about being "green" so we got neat canvas goodie bags and finisher's "medals" made from bike gears. But the coolest thing were Kleen Kanteens with the Marin Triathlon logo on it!

How cool is that?!! My legs got really sore later in the day. I know it's shocker but my inactivity these past few months really didn't really prepare me well! Okay, one last shot. I have to show off my ever growing tummy!!