Rounding Third!

I had my last monthly OB appointment today (from here on out, it is every 1-2 weeks!), and everything went great! I am measuring right where I should be (which means Duckie’s growth is right on track) and his heartbeat was strong and regular. The doctor said everything looks perfect, which was great to hear.

Of course, the most important thing is that I did NOT post another 9 pound weight gain this month! I was quite relieved to see that I had only jumped up another two pounds, although I am unfortunately anticipating another big huge jump at my post-Christmas appointment!

Vik has promised that he will make sure I go on long walks with him every day to help burn off the pounds of fudge, cookies, and chex mix I am likely to consume at my parent’s house, but I am pretty sure I would have to run daily marathons to counter-balance all of that yummy goodness!

Natural Parenting

Vik recently found this cartoon, which seemed particularly apropos in light of my last post:

Natural Parenting

Two Down, One to Go!

How do we tell the difference between a hungry cry, a sick cry, a sleepy cry, and an “I am just crying for the sake of crying” cry?

Today is the beginning of my third (and final) trimester!  In just three short months, Vik and I will leave for the hospital as a couple and come home as a family.

As excited as I am to welcome our little bundle of joy into the world and into our lives, I must confess that I am also starting to freak out a little (okay, a lot) about the whole thing.

Every day, I think of at least 10 more things that we have to do or buy before he arrives, and then I look at our calendar and realize that we have about 5 free days in the next three months to get it all done!

It also seems like there are no less than 100 decisions we have to make before we bring home baby, and with all of the conflicting and alarmist research out there, we do not even know where to begin. Should he sleep in our room or in his nursery, and if he sleeps in our room, is a bassinet safe or do we need to make room for a crib? Should we use cloth diapers or disposables? What pediatrician will we use? Should we bank his cord blood or let it flow back into his body? When should we introduce bottles?

Of course, aside from all of these practical considerations is the fact that Vik and I have absolutely no idea how to care for a newborn baby! How do we tell the difference between a hungry cry, a sick cry, a sleepy cry, and an “I am just crying for the sake of crying” cry? What if we feed him too much, or not enough?  How will we cope with the lack of sleep? What do we do if he won’t eat, or sleep?

When we first found out we were expecting, it seemed like we had forever to figure all of this out and get everything done . . . Oh how naive we were!

Belly Shots!

Vik and I had another photo shoot last night (our first was at 18 weeks).  Our original plan was to take photos every four weeks but, well, our babymoon and then swine flu (more on that later) got in the way.  We promise, however, to try to do better in the third trimester — which is less than two weeks away!

I have to admit that I am sort of loving the baby bump right now.  It is not so huge that it is uncomfortable, but it is big enough that people can tell I am pregnant (as opposed to paunchy).  I love how womanly it is, and how the skin is soft and tight. But most of all, I just love laying in bed with my hands on my belly, feeling our precious little baby flip, kick, and punch to his heart’s content.

Anyway, enough with the bump love-fest.  Without further ado, here are some photos of my belly at 25 (+1/2) weeks, plus one at 18 weeks for comparison’s sake.

Rockin' the Bare Midriff!

Lovin' 25.5 Weeks

Belly in the Buff!

Belly at 18 Weeks!

Best Show Ever!

Vik and I have a new favorite program that we watch every night before bed and every morning when we wake up.  And no, it is not on cable or network television. This show is available only in our house.  We call it the “Watch and Feel Duckie Kick and Flip Show” and, although this reviewer is admittedly biased, she has to say that it is AWESOME!

A little over a month ago, I started feeling little kicks and punches that I was confident could only be attributed to the baby.  Then, several weeks ago, Vik was able to feel the baby kick for the first time.  Unfortunately, those initial kicks and punches (although exciting) were few and far between, leading to lots of anxiety when nothing was felt for one to two days at a stretch.

Well, over the past two weeks, Duckie has apparently gone through quite the growth spurt since we are now able to reliably feel (and see) him move whenever I lie down for more than two minutes at a stretch. In the last couple days, I have even started feeling our little gymnast move around when I am standing or walking!

Being able to see and feel the baby move around is beyond amazing, and Vik and I now are both completely obsessed with soaking up as much of this experience as possible. I think the main reason for this obsession is that when we see and feel our son moving around in my belly, it is as though he is interacting with us. And, in some ways, I believe he is.

You see, Vik does this (adorable) schtick where he puts his mouth near my belly and talks to the baby, then presses his lips down and makes loud “kissie” noises. Initially, this would just put a stop to all movement for a few minutes, but in the past two days, Duckie has changed his strategy in dealing with the “Kissie Man.” Now, every time Vik’s lips press down on the belly — POW — a kick lands right on his kisser!

Although I am sure that in a year or two we will be trying to discourage such behavior, for right now, feeling the little guy pop his Daddy in the mouth amuses us to no end!

Showing, Showing, Gone . . .

… My body, that is.

Up until this morning, I had been feeling really good about myself, patting myself on the back for gaining weight throughout this pregnancy at such a slow and steady rate — from my first appointment through my 20-week appointment, I gained only 3 pounds.

I was feeling quite proud that although my belly gets more and more inflated every day, my butt was not expanding at all (as evidenced by the fact that I can still pull on my pre-pregnancy jeans — of course, I cannot button them, but that is the baby’s fault, not mine). I reveled in the fact that although I am obviously pregnant from the side and front, my rear view has heretofore remained unchanged.

All of this self-satisfaction was knocked out of me at this morning’s OB appointment.  Although I ate basically the same breakfast I always do, wore the same light-weight clothes and the same ballet flats, when I stepped on the scale, the number was oh-so-much higher than anticipated. Shocked, I did what any reasonable woman would do and convinced myself that it was an error, that the scale was wrong.

You see, normally the nurse checks my weight on a digital scale, but this morning, she checked it on one of those government-issue manual scales (you know, the kind you find in school nurses’ offices all over the country). So, I politely asked the nurse if she would mind going with me to the other side of the office and checking my weight on the other, kinder, scale.

BIG mistake, since I weighed half-a-pound more on that bastard digital scale than I did on that antiquity from the other side of the office! At that point I was forced to face the cold-hard truth: I had somehow managed to gain 9 pounds in four weeks! And, I know that is not all baby, since he only gained a pound during the same time span.

The doctor tried to tell me that I was still on track for a healthy total weight gain, that every woman has one appointment where she shows a big jump in weight and this was apparently mine. But, I know the truth — that with Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, this is the beginning of the end.

Soon, I will look pregnant from any angle.

Our “Babymoon”

Apologies for not posting in a while.  Things are fine great with us and the Little One; we have just been away on our Babymoon!

Since I have been feeling pretty good lately — with my energy back, along with my ability to brush my teeth without gagging — Vik and I decided this would be the perfect time to head out of the country for one last baby-free vacation.

Our trip started with three days in Belgium (Brussels and Bruges), with Vik sampling his way through a few (dozen) Belgian beers, me sampling my way through a few (dozen) Belgian chocolates, and both of us strolling along the cobblestone streets and taking in all of the gorgeous old buildings.  After Belgium, we headed to Paris for three magical days. We saw all the main monuments (Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, to name a few), took in a show at the Moulin Rouge (Vik’s favorite part!), and spent a day at Versailles.

The trip was so much fun, and we were both pleasantly surprised at just how much energy I had. In fact, I had more sightseeing stamina than Vik! We were also pleasantly surprised at how much this pregnancy has curbed my addiction to shopping. Pre-pregnancy, 90% of my time in Paris would have been spent raiding the shops on the Champs Elysees. Admittedly, however, the steep decline in time spent perusing the boutiques on this vacation had less to do with a sudden budget consciousness and more to do with the fact that Chanel, Dior, and Lagerfeld do not have particularly robust maternity lines!

Anyway, I promise to post more about Master Duck and his antics in the coming days, but for now, here a couple snapshots from our Babymoon:

Romantic Moment at the Arc de Triomphe

Showing off the Bump in front of the Eiffel Tower!

 

At Notre Dame Cathedral

 

 

That’s My Boy . . .

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Vik and I never had any doubt that we wanted to find out the gender of this baby as soon as possible. We are not by nature very patient people, and neither one of us is a huge fan of surprises. Needless to say, we were very happy that our baby boy decided to cooperate at our BIG ultrasound and let us in on his secret.

I have since been giving some thought to whether we made the right choice in finding out the gender, and I have to say, for us, we totally did. And, I say that not because we are now relieved of the burden of using “s/he” to refer to our Little One and are no longer confined to the yellow/green section of the Macy’s baby clothing department.  Rather, for me the most wonderful (and least anticipated) benefit of finding out the gender has been that it has really brought home the reality not only of this pregnancy, but also of all that will come after.

I no longer think of our Little One as some abstract baby, but rather he is our son. I can now imagine what he might look like (hopefully, my hottie husband!), and the things we might do together. I can more easily picture the challenges we might face once he is no longer an infant but rather a little boy or teenager (I cannot yet bring myself to think about him heading off to college or getting married!). In short, I am now able to build an image in my mind of what our future as a family might look like (mindful, of course, of the fact that it is very likely that absolutely nothing will turn out as I expect).

This wave of reality did not roll in gradually over the course of the weeks following our BIG ultrasound. No, it came crashing down on me the moment the words “Congratulations, you are having a boy!” landed on my ears. In fact, when I, a person about as unsentimental as they come, heard that I was having a son, I felt such a sudden and overwhelming connection to, and love for, the little being inside of me that I started sobbing right there on the ultrasound exam table. If that was my reaction to finding out his gender, I can only imagine now how intense my reaction will be when I (finally!) hold him in my arms for the first time . . .

Traditions

To state the obvious, Vik and I come from very different cultural backgrounds. Fortunately, this has never been a source of tension in our relationship.  Quite to the contrary, we both enjoy learning about (and taking part in) the other’s traditions.

Now that we are expecting a little one, we have been giving a lot of thought to how we will share our varied experiences and traditions with our son, and the unique family traditions we will create from the best of both of our worlds. Although we are far from figuring out the ins-and-outs of raising a multicultural child, we both agree that at the very least our son will be doubly blessed to enjoy two-times the gift-receiving holidays as the majority of his peers!

Of course, introducing our son to the various American and Indian holidays and all of their attendant traditions will necessarily involve introducing Mommy and Daddy to the same.  In an effort to get a head start on this endeavor, this past weekend I decided to give Vik a primer on one of the most important aspects of one of America’s most revered holidays — I taught Vik how to carve a jack o’ lantern.

Okay, so maybe Halloween is not really one of the most important holidays on the American calendar, but it was always a big deal in my family (probably because it also happens to be my Mom’s birthday).  We always went all out with homemade costumes (no pre-made vinyl contraptions for us), Halloween-themed baked goods, and, of course, pumpkin carving.  Vik has already mastered the art of consuming baked goods (regardless of the occasion), and was introduced to costumes two years ago (when he was the Scarecrow to my Dorothy).  But, until yesterday, he had never carved a pumpkin.  Well, I decided this needed to be remedied before our little one arrives, because if there is one thing a father should be able to teach his son, it is how to gut and carve a giant squash.

Of course, as Vik does with most things, he excelled at pumpkin carving, putting this veteran squash artist to shame.  As you can see from the picture below, any concern I had that our son might one day find his father’s carving abilities to be lacking were completely unfounded.

Vik's Scary Skeleton Pumpkin!

My Happy Pumpkin!

Here he is . . .

As promised, here are some of our favorite images from Master Duck’s big reveal yesterday.  We have decided not to post any of the more revealing shots — although the Little One is not shy about showing off his privates, we are!

Isn't he lovely?

Kicking and Punching!

Spinal Cord

I cannot wait to hold these in my hands!