24 Weeks! V-day!

Yayy! Time really is starting to fly! I can't believe it is already "V-day" (AKA Viability Day- the age when the baby could live on his own if he were born early). I am really starting to look pretty big, and bigger and bigger every day. Last night we were watching a horror movie and Mason was kicking and flipping around SO much, it felt SO strange but in a good way of course. :)
I am still on my Caribbean time which means early to be bed, very early to rise. I had to wait for 3 hours for the deli to open this morning to get some cereal, since we have zero groceries.. Now I am too tired to unpack our bags and do laundry so I am hanging on the couch, watching HGTV (my favorite) all day and talking on the phone with my parents.
The baby corner is starting to fill up, some gifts off our registry arrived (from my parents- no one else knows about the registry yet) and our neighbors dropped off some things for us - a baby bath, some books, breast pads, and a Baby Bjorn. We tried the Baby Bjorn out on our dogs right away of course, and our little Yorkie fell right asleep, he loooved it! He is such a baby.
Ooooh and the BIG excitement of the day: I got my bedding! Yes, the Dwell Charlotte is still the only thing I have seen that I love, and today it came back up on ebay with a good Buy It Now price, so I called my mom and she got it for us! Yaayy!! I am so excited! I can't WAIT for it to get here! I will just post it again (for the 3rd time) ...


Now we just have to get the crib and mattress from Ikea, an antique dresser and a changing top for it, a nice glider.. put up a little shelf for baby books and toys.. Pretty much everything..

Back from Babymoon!

Wow, we got back from our trip Thursday night and I haven't had a moment to rest ever since - I am so exhausted already!
Our trip was so amazing and relaxing though, it was so nice to see my family and have everyone so excited about the baby. My mom bought us a bunch of baby outfits, but she is keeping them and bringing them to the shower so we wouldn't have to pack them. We had an amazing dinner with my sister and her boyfriend - he caught lobsters and we had a feast! My dad took DH out surfing (I obviously had to sit this one out) and we went out a few times in his new boat. Getting in and out of the boat proved a little bit difficult with my belly which I didn't think about before I jumped off the bow!
Our 3 days alone (no dogs!) were amazing. The Westin on St.John was really beautiful and peaceful. We got an amazing room upgrade overlooking the pool and beach and everyone was super friendly and laid back. We ordered pizza, watched pay-per-view, lay by the pool, read, swam, floated, and I maxed myself out on virgin coladas just like I had planned. :)

The 23 week belly ...

Dad taking DH surfing...

**These aren't the best photos, I just feel more comfortable posting blurry pics since this blog is anonymous :) **

Babymoon Starts Tomorrow!

We leave for our Babymoon in the Virgin Islands tomorrow - YAYY!!! I am so excited. :)

Baby Mason is kicking harder and harder every day, it is so amazing to watch and experience. I am really really excited to see my sister, grandmother and parents tomorrow. My mom already bought us a few things off of our registry, and she offered to buy our crib and mattress as well - so nice.

My mom and sister are hosting my shower here in NYC at my house in August, and my sister has come up with the cutest theme - "Organically Grown". We are going to have fresh local flowers everywhere, bird and nest cupcakes and all local fresh food from the farmer's market like heirloom tomatoes, watermelon, green salad, lemonade, fresh bread and cheese.. She is designing the invite, it is so cute! It is going to be a co-ed shower, so I think we will get buckets of local beer as well and make it super fun!

Looking at my planner, the summer is filling up so quickly! When we get back, our farm share starts (officially summer!), my best friend is coming for a week, our birth class starts.. We are going to have a baby in a little over 3 months!! Ahhhh!

Expensive things I Love....

Cashmere stroller blanket.



Bratt Decor Chelsea Versatile Dresser in Antique Silver



Champion Heirloom Rocking Horse in Cherry Stain

22 Weeks & What's In a Name

It is Mother's Day and I am 22 weeks exactly and feeling pretty great. The weather is getting nice, and I am so excited about our "Babymoon" - we leave on Wednesday.
I don't think I have even written about the baby's name on here. I guess I have been kind of superstitious and cagey throughout this pregnancy for some reason, just nervous I guess.
We decided quite awhile ago that our first baby would be named Mason, whether boy or girl. Mason is my grandmother's maiden name, my mother's middle name, and our family traces the name back to our first ancestor born in America in the 1700s. My grandmother just turned 101 a few months ago and we really wanted to honor her. Being a boy, his middle name will be Edward, also a family name on both sides. Mason Edward. We both love it.
We still haven't bought a single baby thing, very depressing as I LOVE shopping, but we are in a money squeeze right now. I get paid in commissions, and I bill quarterly so we sometimes have dry spells. DH is still in school so I am the breadwinner. He is getting a PHd though so I am happy to be earner for now - his time will come mwahahaha. The economy is such a wreck that everyone is paying late, so my last quarter was totally pathetic. Clients are paying late, so I get paid late, so no baby shopping yet. It is very sad but hopefully next quarter will make up for it.
We went to an open house around the corner yesterday. It is a new building we have had our eye on as we have watched it go up. It is a lovely 5 story brick (instead of another crappy glass modern thing) new construction with garage parking AND an elevator (gasp). There is also a shared roof with nice furniture and a huge children's play area with mats and a jungle gym! We looked at a few beautiful 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom units and it really would be amazing to have an extra bedroom, not to mention the parking and elevator situation. It isn't doable right now, but if we do stay in NYC it could be a possibility within the next year, if things go well. It is about 100K more than our apartment we have now, although we are not quite sure how much our apartment is worth since nothing is really selling at all.
Last night we went over to a friend's and hung out on their roof. I had a non alcoholic beer, then we went and had pizza on the way home (we had pasta with pesto for dinner which was delicious b/c I heard on MArtha that pesto worked for constipation, but I think I ate too much and ended up throwing everything up.) ANYWAY, today, we are off to a BAR-B-Q - yum!
Even though money is tight right now, we are so happy. We love each other so much, we love our life and we are so excited to meet Mason. I think we say this every year, but we have never been happier.

Oh and the bedding update: I lost the ebay auction which is FINE with me, the set ended up going for $310.00 and I have seen it online for $350 anyway so totally not worth the stress and drama to possibly save $40!

Registered!!!

I had an OB appointment this morning and all was great, she said my US looked perfect and my weight is good - up 8 pounds total so far. THEN we went to Buy Buy Baby and registered - SO fun! We had a wonderful salesman helping us (a big queen who was up all on the newest and best things for NYC haha) Here are the highlights of the big ticket items...






I am registering at Baby Earth as well for more organic stuff and cloth diaper things. I really didn't like any of the clothes or receiving blankets at BBB at all, everything seemed tacky and cheap and overpriced but that's OK. I am sure I will start to pick things up along the way and the baby will not be lacking in clothing!

Adorable Boy Clothes

How adorable is this outfit from Marie Chantal? I will have nooo problem finding ridiculously cute boy outfits that don't include trucks, or sailor suits or anything like that. I also love that they paired it with Sophie, the French non toxic giraffe toy I have my eye on!

Bedding update: I hate ebay, why did I bid when there were still 3 days to go? As my mom reminded me, that just drives up the price. I should have swooped in at the last minute instead. Honestly, I really don't care, I just wanted to feel like I was buying something for the baby since we haven't gotten a single thing yet. I don't really want to buy bedding quite yet anyway, I haven't even looked at any others and we aren't getting the crib for months.

DR appointment tomorrow then we are going to Buy Buy Baby to register! YAY!!!!

Real Food

Over the weekend we went to see Nina Planck, author of Real Food and her new book, Real Food for Mother and Baby speak at Whole Foods. I was very proud of DH for being interested and coming along and taking notes! I do love reading about nutrition and I know I do all the cooking, but I also sometimes hate having the sole responsibility for remembering all this stuff... which fish is ok, which cheese... I know he doesn't have time to read all this stuff so I loved hearing the talk together. Some basic points I went away with:

- Skim milk is creepy
-Protein is VERY important - fish, eggs, nuts
-NO processed food
-Drink a lot of water, dehydration causes most pre-mature births (who knew?)


There was a lot more, but that's what I can remember right now as I type from bed. Yes, bed. I woke up this morning with stomach cramps and diarrea - yuck. This may be TMI especially as part of my food post but oh well. The Baby book is so confusing. It says that is ok but tell your doctor if it goes on for a few days. Then at the end it says to call your doctor right away if it is watery or you go more than three times in a day. Um, isn't that the definition of what it normally is? Watery and going a lot? Ugh. I just made some yummy fresh chicken soup from scratch and I am working from bed all day. I feel better already.

Bedding Update: Was outbid, raised bid a little higher. Item still has 3 days left and I will NOT raise my bid again. Am I just getting caught up in useless bedding mania? Yes.

Let the shopping begin...

I posted this bedding months ago, before I was PG (I believe the post was titled something about inappropriately early baby browsing) but I still love it. Too girly? The Bump boards say yes, mom and sister say no. DH hasn't seen it yet. The thing is that it is $450... BUT I just found it on eBay... and already put a bid... So we will see.

**BTW, try to ignore the hideous wall color and the modern crib, chair and painting. The way I would do it would be a lot more hippy/organic/shabby chic. :)