29 weeks

And summer has finally arrived! It is actually HOT today! Apparently it has rained 24 of the last 27 days of June here in NYC! Although some of the days have been beautiful until the late afternoon, then hit by a freak thunderstorm like yesterday and the day before. I am just happy we haven't had to use the AC too much yet because I know I will really need it in July and August. This week was pretty crazy. FIL was in town for work, then stayed a few extra days with us to see DH's show on Thursday night. It was great hanging out with him, but it is difficult having a guest at all in our tiny apartment.
Yesterday was my 2nd mommy-to-be neighborhood meet up which was really fun. I am excited about the new friends I will (hopefully) be making in the fall and having play dates and classes to go to. After talking with the other moms, I see that I really need to read up on the vaccination controversy. People are pretty intense about it around here and I just don't know enough about it at all. One of the girls actually refused her Rhogam shot (which I had this week) because of a risk of autism. Creeps! That scared me! There is another shot they give the baby at the hospital unless you tell them you don't want it.. I guess we need to figure this all out asap.
My OB appointment Wednesday was good, I had the shot in my butt and we met another Doctor, Dr.White. She was a bit more abrasive, but we liked her as well. I just want to be sure DH likes all the doctors, he will have to deal with her at the birth (possibly even more than I will since I will be writhing in pain and/or out of it on drugs) and I really want him to like and trust whoever we end up with at delivery.
At the show the other night, one of my friends asked if the baby is lying sideways and I think he must be. I always feel the big kicks way over on my side. Maybe that is why I am looking so massive? I wish the baby would make himself into a cute little round bump, instead of a giant lopsided pulsating mound.
Good news about the shower, my mom was able to confirm a reservation for an apartment sublet 1 block from us for the week of the shower. She, my sister, my MIL and my SIL will stay there and we can have the shower there. It is a beautiful historic townhouse with a huge back yard with tons of chairs. I am SO relived that we don't have to have it here. I love my mommy.
Today DH is having band practice here - ugh. Our upstairs neighbors are out of town and I am plant-sitting for them, so maybe I will escape and lay out on their roof deck while the band is here. That sounds nice. :)

28 weeks 1 day.. Manic Sunday

Yesterday was another new low, I totally went crazy. I have never felt so crazy in my life, it was like PMS x 1000. Ugh. It was brought on by a busy day of cleaning and getting ready for FIL to come into town for Father's Day dinner, then the shock of checking our pathetic bank account (how are we even going to buy groceries?), DH sleeping until 1PM which makes me crazy, feeling like a beached whale, and just being totally overwhelmed by hormones. I spent 15 minutes trying to pick out steaks, which then upset DH and it all went downhill from there.. Luckily we were able to recover just in time to make it over to our friends' son's 1st birthday party, then zip back to meet FIL. He and DH went out for wine and a few last minute things (like steak, since that never happened) and I was able to straighten up and put together a yummy dinner. Seared steak, yummy mashed potatoes, farm fresh sauteed spinach and a fresh mesclun salad with goat cheese. And for dessert.. the most amazing rhubarb and strawberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. Dinner was really nice and FIL brought us the most adorable fleece cowboy outfit! It is SO cute!



I am feeling good now, even getting through the most confusing IRS paperwork ever, that I just found out I need to have so that I can get paid what I am owed from some foreign clients without 30% being taken for taxes. Fun!

We have an OB appointment on Wednesday and a super busy week ahead.. but not too busy to blog I am sure!

I am a sloth today..

So far my biggest pregnancy craving has absolutely been baked potatoes with sour cream. Well, today I took this to a whole new level and had potato chips dipped in sour cream for BREAKFAST. Then we went and did some errands and DH left for a show in Philly. As soon as he was out the door, I sat myself on the sofa with the bag of potato chips and a bowl of sour cream, THEN ate an ice cream sandwich! What am I doing?? It is 6PM and all I have eaten today is chips, sour cream and ice cream?! This is so unlike me. I think this is the only time I have ever even bought potato chips, but they were calling to me at the store last night! At least they were supposedly "natural" chips, and the sour cream was organic. Anyway, now I feel pretty ill. The laundry and dishes are also overflowing and I have zero motivation to do anything about it. I am so disgusting.

DH is is gone overnight so I will watch Netflix on the laptop in bed, then tomorrow I have to figure out how to pick up the CSA without the car. It's not THAT far, but I am a sloth and a weakling. I am seriously thinking about bringing the stroller, is that creepy? A stroller full of fruit and veggies and no baby? Hmm..

Crazies!

Today everything feels crazy. First of all, it is the end of June and it is cold and pouring rain....AGAIN. The neighbors upstairs have been doing construction for the last 2 months and this morning they were drilling and it was SO loud, drilling into my brain and making everyone feel insane. The dog babies get stressed out from the noise (yes, they are very sensitive) and Lloyd has been throwing up from the stress. Then I heard a blood curdling scream and looked out the window and a girl was freaking out in the street. She looked SO upset and was screaming and stomping her foot. The deli owner ran over and got out his cell phone, but I couldn't tell what on earth was going on.. it was very strange.

Then DH and I had an appointment with our accountant uptown. A crazy man passed by muttering something angry at us and DH said "It's funny how things that would normally just be slightly annoying, now take a whole different meaning when I am with my pregnant wife. I immediately think what would be the fastest way to kill that guy if I needed to". How crazy! I guess men go through biological changes with a baby coming and go into super animal protection mode.

DH went straight to work and I had another crazy on my train car back to Brooklyn, but just some singing and strange noises. It was pouring rain and so windy and as I was walking the 8 blocks or so from the train to our apartment, a man struck up a conversation with me.. very odd. He said he was on my train car and started asking me about my pregnancy and things.. I veered off asap and went a different way home. Finally I was ALMOST home, a few steps from my door, and a skinny middle aged women looks at my belly and yells "TWINS!! TWINS!!??" !! WHat?? Is it crazy day? Twins? I am only 28 weeks and I am not that big, am I?

Needless to say, I am not leaving the house again today.

More adorable things..

27 weeks 1 day

We just got back from a wonderful weekend in the Hampton's with my BFF at her parent's house. It was soo nice.

We actually had a tiny bit of a scare last week. On Thursday I had painful cramps all evening, like horrible period cramps. I looked in the baby books and the description definitely fit Braxton Hicks contractions, except for the painful part. Since they were pretty much continuous and not in a pattern/close together, I decided to wait until the morning to call the doctor. She had me come in to check for early labor signs just in case and everything was fine. Of course, I wasn't feeling them when she had me on the monitor and I think she sort of thinks I was just having gas pains or something, but I know they weren't. My mom says that I am just more sensitive to pain, and I always have been. Great. This does not bode well for my natural birth plan, but I am going to do my best.

Saturday AM we went and picked up our first farm share, which was great. We got arugula, red lettuce, pea shoots, radishes, asperagus, leeks, rhubarb, and a TON of strawberries. Our flower share was two potted plants which hadn't flowered yet. I have horrible luck with plants so I was worried, but I put them out on the balcony and miracle-of-miracles, one of them has flowered while we were gone! The strawberries are so amazing - red all the way through and so sweet. Nothing like the Driscoll berries I got at the grocery store last week which I am sure were artificially ripened and covered in pesticide. Gross.

After that we headed out to the Hamptons and the weather was beautiful. We had a big BBQ dinner which was amazing. Sunday we went over to the Outlets because I wanted to check Pottery Barn for cribs. No cribs in sight, but they had amazing baby clothes! Cashmere body suits marked down from $80 to $5!! We got just a few things (still on a serious budget) and my BFF got Mason an outfit and a pack of bibs. I plan on going back as SOON as my next quarter checks start coming in, I could have spent QUITE a bit more time there. :) We spent the rest of the day reading by the pool, then ordered pizza and had a sing a long. I am really looking forward to being able to drink again, but a sing along is always fun no matter what. Today the weather was even more amazing and we came back to the city around 12. Back to work.




More good news, we have wonderful neighbors! Our downstairs neighbors offered us a baby swing which I am more than happy to take off my registry! AND our upstairs neighbors left us a box of amazing homemade pastries she made in pastry school! Yum!!

Tonight I think I will make asperagus pasta with pea shoots and a big salad. Pastries and strawberries for dinner. :)

Birth Class Disaster

Monday night was supposed to be our first Birth Class at Real Birth, one of the best known places in NYC. They offer classes all over the city and I know they fill up fast, so I signed us up MONTHS ago for the downtown location. DH got off work, we went early, paid for parking, got a snack, showed up and no one was there. The receptionist had it on her schedule so we waited.. Finally we called Real Birth and it turns out the class location had been changed to their Mid Town store and we were somehow not notified. So, back to the car and into rush hour traffic to "mid town" -since when is 50th and 9th ave mid town anyway, isn't that Hell's Kitchen? SO far away and I hate that neighborhood. We had to come into class an hour late. I was really looking forward to meeting couples in our area, that was half the point, so this is just not going to work for us. I was able to cancel, but now we are back to the drawing board and running out of time to complete a class. :(

Anyway, on a happier note here is the Uppa Baby and my 36 week belly!

99 days until EDD!

Wow, I am almost in the 3rd trimester. We will have an itsy baby in a few months! The kicking has now become more of a rolling and flipping and my whole stomach moves and ripples when the baby moves. It is very strange, I kind of feel like there is a giant fish in my belly.
I got my results from the OB and I passed the glucose test, but I am a little anemic so I need to up the iron a bit. This is not really surprising since I have been eating mostly pasta and cheese the last few weeks. Oops. The farm share starts next weekend so hopefully there will be some dark leafy greens, I don't want to take supplements. Mom says spinach and almonds will do the trick, yum.
DH had a show the other night and I got so many comments on how great I look, 2 different women I didn't know came up to me and told me they hope they look just like me when they get pregnant! That made me feel good, I was feeling a bit weird in the midst of the hipster crowd. I will feel totally normal and cute, then I catch a glimpse of my reflection somewhere and I just can't believe that is me.
I saw that MIL had purchased our stroller off our registry last week, so I have been waiting patiently for it every day. As we rushed out the door to the show, there was a huge box downstairs. The stroller came and they didn't even ring the buzzer to tell me! Ugh! I hate our delivery people! At least it didn't go straight to the Post Office of Death where I would have to wait and hour in line to get it. Anyway, DH dragged it upstairs and we put it together when we got home at about 2AM. I was so tired but couldn't wait to play with it! we rolled the dogs around for awhile, they were fascinated.
Today is my mommy-to-be neighborhood meet up, I really hope to meet some people I like.

Bedding Arrival!

Lloyd think HE has a new bedding set...

Hate=Glucose Drink, Love=Luca Glider

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and I had to do the dreaded glucose test. This involves drinking a bottle of disgusting lemon-lime flavored sugar water, within 5 minutes, 30 minutes before appointment. The timing is critical. So, since it takes about 45 minutes to get to the OB, I had to bring the drink along with me (10 minute walk to subway) and chug it on the train. Well, the 5 minutes thing was not going to happen. I really don't like sugary sweets, and this drink reminded me of the dyed sugar water my grandmother would put in her bird feeders (yes, I tasted it- we didn't have a lot of sugar around the house so I was often desperate). I hate the subway, it was hot, crowded, and no one offered me a seat. One transfer and about 20 minutes and I was able to finish it without throwing up, but just barely. Uggghh...
This was our first visit rotating doctors, so we got to meet someone new. She was a little older and just wonderful. So far I would be happy with anyone in the practice delivering the baby. I had my fundal height measured (right on track)and my weight taken and I am up 18 pounds total - eeek!! She says this is good since I started out so thin and should gain around 35 pounds total. It is just so weird to step on the scale and see a number almost 20 pounds higher than it has ever been. I mean, I look like I am wearing a tent or have a basketball in my shirt so I don't know what I was expecting, but it was still a shock.

After the appointment, DH and I decided to walk around Soho for awhile. I do miss my old neighborhood sometimes. We went by uber trendy modern baby headquarters, Giggle, to look around. Most of the stuff at Giggle is too modern for my taste, but then we set out eyes on the Luca glider...

So comfortable! So cute! Small enough to fit in the bedroom, and totally transitional! DH admitted, "wow the only glider I have seen that isn't troshe". Well said.
Price: $945 plus shipping... Hmm.. Clearly not an option RIGHT now, but our fortunes may change by the end of the summer. Such is life as a freelancer and a musician.

25 weeks, yesterday. :)

So, my laptop died and is down at the mac shop waiting on available funds before I can pick it up. Just what I don't need right now! The logic board died and the apple care warranty had just ended... this always seems to happen, very suspicious. I have my old macbook that works for emailing thankfully, but it is so slow it can't even load a website so I have to use DHs computer when he isn't around. Also no photoshop. Makes work very difficult. :(
In other news, we had a really nice week and weekend. MIL was in town for a few days so we had a delicious dinner with her on Thursday, then Friday she was a speaker at the NY Book Expo, so we got passes and got to go try to get free books! We were only there for a few hours but we were able to get 2 kids books and 3 or 4 new fiction books for me. Next time I am going to look at the schedule and figure out when all the books signings are so I can get really get some good stuff!
On Saturday we met up with our friends who had a baby last summer. We have been super flaky friends and haven't even seen them since the baby was born, but I am hoping we will see them more now. We hung out in the park and got lots of good advice. It was kind of embarrassing, our dogs were actually 10 x more difficult than the baby. Not to mention our Yorkie seems to pretty much hate children so he is really going to be having a rude awakening in a few months.
Sunday was our SCA farm trip out to the Garden of Eden farm on the north fork of Long Island. DH couldn't go, so I volunteered as a carpool driver as a desperate attempt to make friends and not stay home by myself all day. The trip was OK, I drove a very annoying holistic health counselor from Argentina who talked and cracked herself up the entire drive, and a couple who didn't really talk much - to each other or anyone else (Maybe they were in a fight?). When we got to the farm, there were 2 groups. We could go with the husband on a LONG walk around the entire farm, or a short tour with the wife and kids. My lazy self wanted to go on the short tour, but that group was made up of about 15 screaming kids and their parents. After a few minutes I decided I will be in the screaming kids group for the next 10-15 years so I might as well suck it up and get some exercise. The farm was really beautiful. We played with the chickens, saw all the crops, the forrest, learned about how they farm and walked about 2 miles. Then we had lunch that we had packed and people brought things to share. I tried some beet brownies and rhubarb bread pudding- yum! The drive back was exhausting, 2 hours plus traffic. The couple slept and the girl talked about her ex, which at least kept me from falling asleep. Remind me not to volunteer to drive strangers around again when 6 months pregnant. When I got home, I was so tired I could barely talk. I don't think I even had dinner.

Well, on to a new week. Week 26! DR appointment on Wednesday and my BFF comes in to town on Friday!