Week 33

Dear Lovely Readers,

I have failed you. Alas, between scrambling to get all packed for our trip, running last minute errands, cooking and eating dinner, and going to our child birth class yesterday, we managed to let Tuesday-Picture Day slip by without documenting it.

I would say that I'd try to take a picture today, but it's not likely. Lane is picking me up straight from work and from there, we are driving the 5 hours or so to the Outer Banks where we'll have plenty of time to relax and take all the pictures we want.

Baby continues to move around like crazy. We met with a potential doula on Sunday and I had a doctor appointment yesterday. Everything seems to be progressing well, except that we still need to select a pediatrician.

Memorial Day Weekend

This was our first Memorial Day weekend on the east coast that we've been at home in DC instead of out on the town in New York City. Our city was completely taken over by Rolling Thunder - some 350,000 biker dudes here to celebrate Memorial Day. They were everywhere, their motorcycles could be heard all around. We managed to survive, though.

Friday night we went with some friends to see the new Indiana Jones movie. We thought it was entertaining however implausible. For example, call me crazy but I don't believe it is possible to survive an atomic bomb closed up in a refrigerator, yet somehow, Indy pulled it off.

Malia was able to get us in with her on a White House tour on Saturday. We thought it was nice of Georgie to invite Lane over for Lane's b-day. The white house was pretty fancy - go figure. It's too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures (or bring chapstick or electric stun guns). It was a little weird to think that the president and dignitaries and the likes roam through those same rooms.

After the White House, we went to Lane's favorite restaurant - Thai Place in Foggy Bottom, for his beloved green curry dish. We've been to lots of Thai restaurants in the area and sampled all their green curries. This place definitely has the best. After my requisite weekend nap, I left the bedroom and happened upon Lane, standing in a pile of hair with scissors in his hands. This guy cut his own hair. Not only that, he did it all in the mirror. Pretty amazing if you ask me. And his hair looks pretty good! Stay tuned for some pics.

We went out for a sushi dinner later that night, followed by a night of karaoke madness. Lane and Sean entertained us with their fabulous singing abilities, but nothing topped Fareed. Fareed was a 50 year old Indian man who sang several hip hoppish songs that you would never suspect a 50 year old Indian man would even know. It was priceless.

We spent Sunday afternoon meeting with a potential doula we might hire to help us through our birth experience and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Sunday I cooked Lane a birthday dinner. - NY steaks, roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary, his favorite roasted onions, and sauteed squash.

We lazed around today - napped for a while, and got in on some Memorial Day sales at Old Navy & Best Buy. I bought some shirts for the baby for 97 cents each!!!! I love super duper sales. We also got Lane a fancy schmancy widescreen monitor for the computer.

The rest of our evening was spent doing exciting things like cleaning, laundry, and packing for our trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We leave Wednesday after work. Tomorrow will be packed -work, doctor appointment, child birth class, and somehow finishing up getting ready for the rest of the week. Wish us luck!!!

Baby Clothes Galore!

I woke up early to wash all our baby clothes so I could sort and put them away in our new dresser. They weren't all the way dry when I took them out so I set them out to dry a little bit extra. Lane got out of bed and wandered sleepily into the living room. He was quite shocked to see that baby clothes had completely taken over our apartment!

May 24, 2008

Happy THIRTIETH birthday to the sweetest, kindest, most-patient-with-pregnant-ladies, most loving and fun husband, best friend, and soon-to-be amazing daddy I know.

Where, oh Where to Birth

So we checked out the hospital the other week, and were pleased with what we saw. But as we get closer to actually having the baby, we are reading about hospital births and all the interventions they are so eager to push on you (pitocin, epidurals, etc.) and routine procedures that can impair mobility during birth (constant fetal monitoring, IVs, etc). I just started questioning whether I even wanted to give birth in a hospital at all.

Birth Center births are so much more flexible. The midwives and attendants view birth as a totally natural process, not some medical procedure. They are focused on helping you be confident and having a beautiful birth experience, whereas doctors are trained to find things that are wrong, and sometimes do even when there isn't. Birth centers are also usually affiliated with or close to hospitals, in case complications occur and you do need a doctor's care during delivery.

I called a birth center in Alexandria and was so disappointed, yet not really surprised, that they are booked until November. There is only one other birth center in our area and it's in DC. I was convinced I'd switch over to them. I scheduled my first doctor appointment, got the fax number to have my records switched over and everything. Then I took a step back and thought I better at least take a look at the place before ditching my doctor and hospital.

My mom drove with me to the DC Birth Center on Friday. The birth center is not metro accessible and we had to drive through tons of terrible traffic (and the ghetto) just to get there. It wasn't that easy to find either. We got there and the people were very nice. They gave us a tour of the facility. I tried picturing myself giving birth there and, after all my excitement, I just couldn't. It didn't feel right at all. So after all that, I canceled my appointment and decided to stick with the hospital birth, same doctor, and just get a doula to help support us in having the kind of birth that we hope for.

My class is really helping me to find what I want in this birth experience, the right questions to ask, and to be an active participant, instead of just letting this happen to me. Even though I'm still going to the same place, I feel better having researched other options and deciding where I'll be instead of just being told where to go by the doctor.

Wish us luck as we get closer.

Family Weekend

Thursday, Theresa and my mom had the chance to check out Washington DC. They went on a City bus tour, stopped in at some museums, and even got home in time to have dinner ready on the table by the time I returned from work.

This was the night Adrienne and Meliss showed up. Thank goodness I had decided to take Friday off from work! We stayed up until like 2 am, my mom, my sisters, and my sisters in law. It was great to just have girly time talking and laughing and catching up. We balanced the girlyness by folding origami NINJA STARS for Beau's b-day party as we gabbed.

Meliss and Adrienne had some well deserved kid-free time together at the mall on Friday while Theresa cooked up a storm preparing for Saturday's festivities and my mom accompanied me on a trip to a birth center in DC to check it out.

We ate at Cafe Pizzaiolo that night, which was where David and Mary Jane and Grandma Chaney all showed up. Everyone at the restaurant must have thought we were nuts with the way we greeted our dinner companions - with great big hugs and lots of tears.

You can read all about Saturday here. We spent the rest of the evening just lazing around and talking.

Lane took his family out on the town on Sunday to see Washington DC, especially the World War II Memorial which Grandma Chaney specifically wanted to check out. I stayed home and slept and slept. It was a wonderfully fun filled weekend and it tired me out.

We are so lucky to be as loved as we are, that everyone arranged trips to be here with us for our special day. Thank you all oodles and bunches!!!

Week 32

Baby Grover should be about 4 pounds or so by now. She is supposed to gain one third to one half of her total birth weight in the next seven weeks. I continue to gain 1 pound per week (or so), and about half of that should go directly to the baby’s weight. Maybe that’s why I’m so hungry all the time again! Just the other day I woke up before 6 am and starving!! They say by now some babies have a full head of hair, while others only have peach fuzz. I’m guessing our little girl has lots of hair.

I don’t have much energy these days, but I try to keep up by taking afternoon naps here and there. It’s so hard because the littlest things make me tired! I get all short of breath just walking to the metro.
Last night we got home from our childbirth class after 10 pm and I was ready to fall over. Lane insisted that we not let our readers down and stick to our Tuesday Picture Day schedule. I had other thoughts. Standing AND smiling were two thing I didn't want to do last night, but I did it for YOU!!