A Baby's View

We received a free mobile with something else, and since it doesn't match our planned decor, we decided to give it away.  Kristin snapped a couple of pictures to send to one of her coworkers who is also expecting and then said "I know, let's see if it works.  You lie down, and I'll hold it over you."  I don't really understand why one of us had to be lying down with the thing flying over in order to test its working ability, but it seemed like an appropriate request at the time.  I was in the middle of something and didn't want to go lie in bed, so instead I just sort of sat on the floor and looked up.

Sitting there, I realized that mobiles are made all wrong.  They are really made for adults looking straight at them vs. a baby lying underneath.  I mean, who wants to stare at feet and butts all night?

Anyway, at some point I thought "we have gone crazy"...and I wondered if "normal" parents-to-be spend their evenings looking at mobiles from a baby's perspective.  I'm guessing probably not.  

PS - The mobile worked just fine.

Drumroll, Please...

Today we had another ultrasound, but this one was a biggy - they measured everything on Blue, and we got to find out the gender.  

The technician started with measurements on the head.  And while she was working away, measuring the brain and skull and heart and spine and stomach and kidneys I thought "really?  Do they do this on purpose?  Save the gender for very last?"  Yep.  Pretty much.

Anyway, so at some point the tech finally said "okay, here it is, Baby is showing you the gender."  Kristin and I just stared at the image on the screen.  I could definitely see the two legs but had no idea what to make of what was between them.  Ha!  Finally the tech said "it's a girl!" 

If I hadn't been lying down I probably would have fallen over.  I had pretty much convinced myself Blue was a boy.  So much so that I have been referring to her as him for weeks now.  Hope I didn't completely mess her up :)  We do have a picture of her parts, but I don't want to embarrass the poor kid already!.  

Anyway, needless to say, we are thrilled!  Time to start shopping...and no need to repaint the office/spare room turned nursery.  Blue will have a girly, purple room :)

Kristin asked whether we needed to rename Blueberry to something more...girlish.  I said heck no.  Blue is Blue.  She has been since the beginning :)

One more picture from today:  When I first saw this one on the screen I thought "she's practicing her high kick!"  Kristin thought "she's practicing karate!"...which I guess means whether she decides to be a Rockette or a black belt she'll be all set to go. 

Insomnia

Middle of the night insomnia:  I fall asleep only to wake up a few hours later.  I then spend several hours sitting around, basically waiting to fall asleep again.  It gives me lots of time to:

Watch shows I have never seen.  I am almost done with all 6 seasons of Numbers (Season 6, episode 1 is currently playing in the background) - almost every episode has been been watched between 2 and 6 a.m.  What did insomniatic pregnant women do before Hulu?

Google things I shouldn't Google which leads to learning things I don't really need to know like "The top 10 most embarrassing things about childbirth."

Make list after list of all the things that need to be done that I don't seem to have the energy to do like clearing out the office/spare room/nursery or going through every box and bin in the basement and purging all unneeded items.

Freak out about things that either (a) don't need to be freaked out about or (b) I have little or no control over.  Like my ever-increasing weight - weight that seems to keep piling on at an excessive rate no matter what I eat or do. 

Think about Blue.

Be hormonal...really hormonal.

Baby Brain

Baby Brain is the idea that pregnant women and new mothers suffer from some type of cognitive impairment - specifically regarding memory.  I have yet to experience this.  I have, however, found that I am experiencing another issue - doing things that make absolutely no sense.

I wrote about one example a few days ago.  I was at the store, I got tired, and instead of just going to find a place to sit and rest for a minute I went through the checkout line, took the groceries I had purchased to the car, sat down for a rest, then finished the rest of my shopping.  Duh.  

Today?  Another example.  I have been craving banana bread lately and have taken to making it myself rather than buying it.  This morning as I was puttering around getting ready for the day (around 7:30) I went into the kitchen and saw we had a ton of bananas ready to be made into delightful loaves of bread.  Instead of continuing on with my morning and making a plan to make banana bread this evening or later this weekend, I immediately pulled out the Kitchen Aid and started mixing.  

Last time, I made a double batch which gave me a large loaf and 4 mini loaves.  Because I had 9 bananas and didn't want to waste any of them, I decided I needed to make a quadruple batch, completely oblivious to the fact that I could stick the extra bananas in the freezer and use them next time...or that throwing away a few bananas, worth less than $1 wouldn't be the end of the world.

I mixed up the dough, filled up the bread pans, and stuck them in the oven.  It wasn't until halfway through the baking process, when I opened the oven to check on my loaves, that I realized I had made A LOT of banana bread.  7 huge loaves to be exact.  What the heck?!?  I better go make room in the freezer.  And I better stop buying so many bananas.

Tears

Nothing on TV tonight except a movie I haven't seen in years...  

Queue the tears.  Yes, tears.  Over 13 Going On 30. 

Can anyone say pregnancy hormones?

You got the glow!

I went to see a client this past week .  She is someone I usually see often, but it had been a couple of months since our last in-person visit.  When she opened the door she said "Hi, how are you?  You look different."  I said I was doing well, and we went inside.  Later she said "your face looks different, I can't figure it out...but anyway..."  A little while later she asked "have you ever been pregnant?"  I said "actually, I'm pregnant now."  She said "I knew it!"  "What, my growing belly?"  "No, girl, you got the glow!"  I sat there thinking "glow?  What glow?...I'm too tired and fat and miserable to have a glow."  

Case in point:  I went grocery shopping today.  I woke up early in order to beat the Sunday rush, but the store was still crazy busy.  Halfway through the trip I realized I was so tired that I needed a break (and then an idea occurred to me - grocery stores should put benches in the middle of aisles...brilliant, right?  Okay, so maybe it wasn't a brilliant idea, but it seemed like it at the time).  I realize now that I could have taken my cart to the front and sat on a bench there without checking out, but it didn't occur to me in the moment (blame it on baby brain).  So, I took my half-full cart to the front and checked out.  I took the first half of groceries out to my car then turned around and went back into the store.  After sitting for awhile, I got up and did the second half of my shopping.  The whole time I was sitting there I was thinking "I gotta figure this out...because in 4 months this is going to be so much worse."  I don't know what I need to figure out, exactly...maybe how to get more sleep...or how to take shorter trips to the grocery store.  What I do know is that by the time I left I was ready for a nap and the only hint of a "glow" was the sweat on my brow.