less than 4 months and counting

I'm almost 26 weeks along and approaching the end of my second trimester!  Baby t is the length of a an English hothouse cucumber or a burp cloth (really? neither of these seem like good analogies to me), which means he is around 14 inches long.  Another source says he's the size of a head of lettuce, which is much easier to imagine, so we'll stick with that.  Apparently he now has eyelashes and is taking his first breaths of amniotic fluid.  I can also feel his kicks much more strongly and frequently than before, and while that is so fun, it has made it harder to sleep because he's extremely active when I'm in bed.   Speaking of kicks, as you can see from his latest ultrasound pic, his foot looks HUGE, so that explains a lot...

Since we recently had a weekend at home together, which is a rarity these days, we decided to paint the nursery (ok, mostly it was Ben painting and me watching, but I did help some).  Of course we also had help from bubby and nibby, and as you can see by the picture below, bubby really did try to help by sitting against a wet wall so he could spread paint around the room.  The best part is that we now have at least one of his hairs permenantely painted to the wall.  I like to think he wanted to leave his permenant mark in his new brother's room.



I took it as my responsibility to keep bubby occupied while Ben finished painting



Speaking of bubby, he is officially a year older!  We celebrated his 6th birthday on September 12th.  I was unfortunately out of town for the big day, but Ben made sure he got some extra attention.

We also had some other birthdays to celebrate.  Cam and Leni had their little girl, Annabelle, 6 weeks early on September 10th.  She's beautiful and doing really well.  I got to meet and hold her when she was just two days old and can't wait for her to meet baby t. 

Two sets of our friends, Kyle and Julia and Kent and Annie, had their little girls this month too, but we haven't had a chance to meet them yet.  Baby t really will have his pick of beautiful ladies to date in a few years...

After meeting little Annabelle, I spent the weekend with some of my best girlfriends from college for our alpha chi beach reunion.  This is our second year in a row at Ocean Isle, and we plan to make it a tradition.  I will say that it was quite different than last year  since I wasn't drinking, but I figure I'll just make up for it next year when I leave our 8 month old home with Ben.  Fortunately, there were three of us who weren't drinking, so I wasn't alone with my mocktails (thanks MG for the intro to ginger beer!).  Also, my sweet friends gave us a mini shower that included a delicious cookie cake (Ben says thanks for the leftovers) and a piece of artwork made just for baby t by Mary Grace.



Thanks Casey for providing my first AX t-shirt since 2005!






week 23

I am trying to get better about posting updates more often, so yay for those of you who check! 

I'm almost 24 weeks, which means baby t will be here in just 4 months (or sooner, hopefully, so we can be home with him for Christmas).  I asked my doctor at my appointment this week if they'd induce me on/around my due date, and understandably, she said not until he was a week late.  I really hope he comes in 2012, but I know he'll come when he is good and ready.  Interestingly, I was measuring 27 weeks, so perhaps we have a giant baby in there and he will want to come out early!

We haven't made any more progress on his nursery, but the paint did arrive last week, so we're thinking about painting this weekend.  Ben already primed the room and taped it, so the hard stuff is out of the way.  This is one of our only semi-free weekends over the next few months, so I figure we'd better get started.  And, knowing me, I'd really like the nursery to be done yesterday because I am so impatient.

In other news, we had a great Labor Day weekend thanks to Drew and Sayeh visiting from Philly.  Drew, who Ben met in law school, is one of our closest friends, and we hadn't seen him in a long time.  Another good friend, Ryan, also stopped by for a night last week because he was in town for the NC State game at the Georgia Dome (I won't say any more about the kickoff of football season since both our teams unfortunately lost). 

To show Drew and Sayeh a good time, we let George and Nibby love on them, fed them (and tried Persian food for the first time, thanks Sayeh!) and showed them a few highlights the city has to offer, including Piedmont Park, World of Coke, and the Braves (our luck of course that the Braves v. Phillies game we went to was the only game the Phillies lost).



We had the pleasure of holding the torch from the London Olympics (why it is at World of Coke, I have no idea)



impressive, huh?

And obviously this posting wouldn't be complete without an update on George and Nibby.  They had the pleasure of seeing their vet this week, and I am happy to say Bubby's down 6lbs thanks to our recently exercise regime.  Unfortunately, the Nibby's only down 1oz and is still 'slightly overweight' (read: borderline obese), so we're cutting back on his food, which means he wakes me up even more often in the middle of the night because he is hungry.  I figure this is good practice for when the baby comes, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

 

over half way!

It is hard to believe, but we officially passed the halfway mark a few weeks ago!  Time seemed to go by really slowly during the first trimester, but the last month or two has flown by.  Ben and I have both been really busy with work (and fun), so I think that has something to do with it.  Either way, I am not complaining because we've had a wonderful summer.

Baby t is still doing well, and at my appointment earlier this week (at 22 weeks) everything looked great.  I continue to feel good minus the occasional heartburn at night, leg cramps in the morning and back pain if I sit for too long.  I also started to feel him move between 18 and 19 weeks, and that has made my life so much more exciting.  Apparently he still like his hands and feet up by his head because he most often kicks me right above where his head is.  Also, he's officially at least a full pound, and according to one of the weekly emails I get, he is as long as a spaghetti squash (yum).

To get ready for his arrival in just 4 months (!), we have made some slight progress on the nursery.  The biggest stumbling block so far has been the paint color, but after several trips to Sherwin Williams and a few on-line Serena and Lily orders, we finally made a decision this week.  I'll post before and after pictures once we've gotten everything together.  The furniture won't be here for a few more weeks, and we are tackling another hemnes sometime in September or October, so we have a lot of work ahead of us.

The other exciting thing I accomplished was registering.  I had NO idea how overwhelming it would be since I basically know nothing about what babies need and what they actually like.  Thankfully Michelle and Madison went to buybuybaby with me and gave me advice on what to get.  Ben definitely owes them because that trip with just the two of us would have taken three times a long and probably required an after shopping cocktail for Ben.

Baby t has also taken some more trips recently and is racking up frequent flyer miles.  I hope this means he'll like airplane rides/car trips when he is born so we can continue to take him places.  I had to go to Cambridge earlier this month, so I showed him both Harvard and MIT, where he will obviously not be going unless he turns out to be Asian (sorry baby t).  Thankfully the weather was gorgeous, and we got a chance to go for a run along the water one afternoon before dinner.  We also passed by the sculpture below that everyone was taking pictures of, so I figured we'd stop to look at it too.

In the middle of August, Baby t went back to Chapel Hill for Leni's baby shower.  Her little girl (now officially Annabelle!) is due in mid-October.  Jess, Kristen, Leslie and I did our best to be crafty as you can see by the decorations.  The theme was books and little Annabelle got some great ones!  

(I can't take any credit for these, Jess did all the work!)

Last weekend we took baby t to Rosemary Beach with Michelle, Jordan and Mads.  We decided this will become a yearly trip because we loved it so much.  Our friends Melissa and Josh were also down there with their little boy Henry, so we got to spend time with them as well.  Unfortunately we didn't take very many pictures, but as you can see from the picture below, Mads is going to be trouble with her cuteness.  We know that a few years down the road we'll have to keep our eyes on Mads and baby t...

And of course this post wouldn't be complete without a picture of George or the Nibby.  To our excitment (and the Nibby's dismay), a lot baby t's things are also Nibby-sized, so he is our beta tester for pretty much everything.  You can tell from this picture that he is really excited about the winter coat I found for baby t.  I am really looking forward to getting a stroller (my favorite thing I registered for), so I can put the Nibby in the basinnet and push him around the neighborhood. 

It's a....

Sorry about being so delinquent with the blog, I have been out of town a lot and can't post on my iPad.  Anyway, we finally had our anatomy ultrasound last this week, and they confirmed baby t is a little BOY!  They actually guessed he was a boy at our 12 week appointment, but we wanted to make sure before officially annoucing it.  We know about 12 people having little girls this year, so Ben and I were convinced he would be a little girl.  We are so excited about having a boy though, and the best part is he will have a million girl friends to choose from. 

Now that we are certain he is still a boy, we have started to brainstorm decorating ideas for the nursery.  Apparently the crib and glider we want take 8-10 weeks to come in, so we went ahead and ordered those last week.  As you all know, I am not one to procrastinate, so I fully expect us to have the nursery completed waaay ahead of time.  Another fun thing is that during the ultrasound, they turned on the 3D camera for a minute so we could see baby t, but he apparently hates pictures as wittnessed by his adorable hands being in front of his face.  Maybe next time he will actually show us what he looks like...

Baby t's future nursery previously contained a twin bed and our treadmill, so to get it ready for him, we moved the treadmill to my office.  Since the move, George and Nibby have taken up exercising, but as you'll see they haven't quite gotten the hang of it.

In addition to planning for baby boy t over the past few weeks, I did get the chance to go to Charlotte for the weekend to see Leni and Leslie, and Leni's little girl (aka No Name since they cannot decide on a name despite gracious input from me and Leslie) will be one of baby t's many potential girlfriends.  She is due about 10 weeks before him, so we think they will get along perfectly. 

We also celebrated Michelle's 30th birthday the last weekend in July.  Her adorable 9 month old, Madison, is going to teach baby t everything he needs to know.  She has already given him some amazing clothes, and I have a feeling he will be in love as soon as he meets her.

The uneventful weeks 14 and 15

I have been thinking about writing this post for quite a few days but was putting it off because the last few weeks have been so uneventful, at least related to baby t.  I did go in for an appointment around 14 weeks, and let me tell you, it was l-a-m-e.   The highlight of the visit (and yes, a big highlight), was hearing baby t's heartbeat for a few minutes.  Otherwise, I talked to my OB for 5-10 minutes and was all finished (minus of course the requisite weight, blood pressure, urine sample).   I was left feeling so cheated after having an u/s at every other appointment.  I asked nicely and several times if I could just squeeze in another u/s before the big anatomy scan but was firmly told no, as there was no reason for one.  Um, hello, how about peace of mind?!

Several people have asked me how I'm feeling, and I'm happy to report that I feel great.  I have more energy now than I did initially, so I've started walking, which is good because George really needs the exercise - we don't want him putting on sympathy weight.  Also, I know I said I'd post a belly pic, but Ben refused to take one last week as "there is nothing to see".  I think there's a little something there, finally, so we'll make sure to do that this week.  I am really excited about looking pregnant and feeling baby t move, all of which I hope happens over the next month or so.  Our next big milestone is the anatomy scan in a couple of weeks where we get a last peek at baby t to make sure (s)he's healthy and also find out if (s)he's a she or a he.  Then the fun starts with picking a name and decorating the nursery...

Despite the lack of baby news, we have stayed pretty busy.  We spent an entire weekend on our first pinterest project, which involved transforming hemnes into a new and improved hemnes.  (FYI hemnes is the white ikea dresser I got after college that Ben painstakingly put together.  A shout out to Kristen too because she put together Stefan, the desk chair, that is also still around and still uncomfortable).   Hemnes currently lives in my closet and serves as Nibby's dining table, so he was really confused and excited about the project.  Here are some before and after pictures, and after such a big success, we think baby t will be getting something similar in the nursery (isn't (s)he lucky?!).


Before



After



Impressive, huh?

 We also just celebrated Ben's 32nd birthday, which included a brisket from the Luling City Market in Houston and a lot of whiskey and bourbon (for Ben of course).  For his birthday cake, I made his grandmother's caramel cake by request, and it turned out rather ugly thanks to a sub-par middle layer (we may have made two attempts at the cake) but tasted great, thanks to the four sticks of butter involved.  

Also, for Ben's birthday, baby t got Ben the onesies below ((s)he's selfish and didn't understand that it was rude to give someone else gifts that are exclusively for your use, oh well).  Also, I want to make it clear that I did not support one of the two purchases.

babymoon #1

Since I only see the doctor every 2-4 weeks, I figured I'd also post about what other fun things we are doing.  If you aren't interested, then just check back in a few days for another update on baby thompson since we are seeing the doctor this week (it's my longest stretch yet with no appointment, scary!).

Technically, this trip was not baby thompson’s first, as (s)he has already been to Orlando, Houston, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami/South Beach (loved the party scene down there), Providence and Chapel Hill, so (s)he is a rather well traveled 14 week old.   However, this was his/her first trip with both mom and dad, so it is officially our first of hopefully a few babymoons. 

Ben and I hadn't been on a vacation together since our trip to Hawaii last November, so I decided to tag along on his work trip to San Francisco last weekend.  I honestly thought I would see San Fran on my first trip to Napa, but since baby thompson was opposed to a winery tour, we spent the whole weekend in the city.  

We stayed at the St. Regis and it was everything I had hoped for (a butler came included apparently, but we never met him/her).  It had an enormous tub in the middle of the room, so I could take a bath and watch TV with Ben at the same time (basically heaven).   Also, we were able to walk almost everywhere, which was really nice despite the 50 degree weather.   

After finishing work on Friday, we kicked off the weekend by having cocktails (ok, I had the Asian version of cocktail nuts, but Ben had a Manhattan) at the Top of the Mark and toasting to my grandma Mary (my mother's mother), who insisted she saw her lover off here before he went to war (strangely, this 'lover' was not my grandfather, so no one really knows what the story is).  Mary loved martinis, and luckily Ben's Manhattan came in a martini glass. 

After that, we walked by Grace Cathedral (Episcopalian, mom!) and then had dinner at Tadich Grill, which is one of the oldest restaurants in the city.  Ben got to wear a bib and we loved the food, so I highly suggest trying this place!

                              

On Saturday morning, we were up by around 6am thanks to the time change, so we took a long walk to brunch at Brenda's.  We were certainly glad we made the walk because Ben's sweet potato pancakes were the best pancakes I've ever had (imagine a pancake that tastes like a warm cinnamon roll and birthday cake at the same time).  The walk also gave us the opportunity to see a shadier part of the city, so if you want to try Brenda's (also famous for their beignets), then a cab or driving wouldn't be the worst idea.  After carb loading, we rented bikes at Fisherman's Wharf and rode 9 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge and over to Sausalito.  I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but I haven't ridden a bike in about 12 years, so I found the whole experience to be much more challenging than anticipated (when the shop owner said the ride was ‘mostly flat’, he were LYING).  That said, it was totally worth it because it was a clear, sunny day and the views were breathtaking. 

As a bonus, when we rode the ferry back from Sausalito, we got to see Alcatraz and a handful of dolphins.   

After the bike ride, we also bought baby thompson his/her first of many souveniers (and of course tried it on the Nibby for size).

 

Saturday afternoon and evening we caught up with one of Ben's oldest friends, Leigh, and had dinner with her and her partner at Lot 7 in the Mission.  The food here was excellent too, so it's another place to try if you are in the neighborhood. 

On Sunday we once again got up extremely early and decided to head out of town because it happened to be PRIDE weekend and a parade was coming right by our hotel.  We had brunch in San Jose, where we flew in/out of (thanks to delta for the 'convenient' flights, when using our companion ticket) and spent the next 8 hours getting back to warm weather, George and Nibby.

There are so many more things I want to see in San Fran, so I hope we can go back soon.  If not, then I've at least already started planning my 30th birthday trip to Napa, so I figure it will include at least one night in San Fran. 

PS – a big thanks to Jake and his friend Jocelin for suggesting great activities and restaurants!

It's official, I'm pregnant!

 Yes, I am finally pregnant, and we are so excited to announce that baby thompson will be making his/her appearance this Christmas.



To start things off, I thought I would share some (ok, a lot) of pictures of baby thompson.  I started having ultrasounds at 6 weeks and had one every week until 12 weeks (and no, weekly wasn't necessary after 8 weeks, but I am what my doctors might consider 'needy' with regards to information and reassurance).  As you will see, baby thompson basically looked like a grain or rice around 7 weeks (in our excitement over a baby and heart beat at 6 weeks we forgot to take a picture home) and finally started to look like a real person around 10 weeks.  Sadly, I am not scheduled to have another ultrasound until 18 or 20 weeks, but it is quite possible (read very likely) that I will convince one of my doctors otherwise.

  

7 weeks (yes, it's a baby, the label and arrow help).  (S)he's the size of a blueberry.



8 weeks (a gummy bear!). (S)he's the size of a kidney bean.



9 weeks.  (S)he's the size of a grape.



10 weeks (yes, I do look like an alien).  (S)he's the size of a prune.



 10 weeks and loving dancing, especially to Michael Jackson!




11 weeks (I am upside down all the time).  (S)he's the size of a fig.



11 weeks

  

12 weeks (I really like my hand near my face).  (S)he's the size of a lime.



12 weeks





Now that I am 13 weeks, I am officially out of the first trimester and feel great.  In all honesty, I have felt great the entire time.  I know this isn't the case for a lot of people, so I am very grateful.   According to Ben, I don't really look pregnant yet, but according to me and my mom I kind of do.  I'll post a picture soon and document the progress. 

We are really excited about sharing this journey with all of you and would love your feedback and comments! 

Oh and since baby thompson loves being upside down all the time, I figured I'd share a picture of our other babies who both spend at least half their time upside down.