On turning 35 years old

I turned 35 this weekend. When we got pregnant, I remember thinking that for my birthday I was going to be a miserable, humongous pregnant lady. Sometimes being cynical has it's up-side, because I was a pretty good feeling humongous pregnant lady.

On Saturday morning, Matt had me open my present from him -- after clamoring for me to open it early. He normally buys me my present at the last minute and I have to joke about it. This time he went the day before my birthday, and I said, "Wow, a whole 24 hours early. What's up?" Then all he wanted was for me to open it, which I refused because I wanted to open it on my birthday. I said, "You always want me to open it 25 seconds after you buy it." And his response was, "That's why I wait until the last minute to buy it!" I laughed, "Oh right, that's the reason!!" He's such a phony baloney.

So anyway, he got me a Sony Handycam so we can record me in labor, and the baby, and all those 1st moments. I like the video on the iPhone & my camera, but it's nice to have a dedicated digital recorder (that doesn't eat up all your camera memory) and it's so small!

So for my birthday breakfast, we went to the old neighborhood where all my family is from and where I was born and had brunch at this new joint called Nana's. We brought along my mom and Tony, as well as my 2 cousins (they were such great hostesses for the shower, we wanted to treat them to brunch). I had lemon ricotta pancakes which were so good. Matt had chilequiles... to die for.

After that, my mom became a our guide to show us her 'hood -- we said she should charge for her tours. She wasn't happy that some of the houses and buildings haven't been kept up as nice.

Rosalie's Tours Inc.

My grandparents old house

My dad's bedroom when he came from Italy.

One of the buildings my parents owned. We lived in the apartment circled.

From the alley next to our building you could see the
Sears Tower - how's that for prime real estate !!

The church (not anymore) where my parents married,
and I was baptized.

That evening, my mom had us all over for Italian sausage and birthday cake. I was so grateful that she hosted, I couldn't imagine at this point. And after everyone left, we all went up to Lake Geneva and had a nice Sunday sitting at the lake.

Showered with Love

We had the best shower, Matt and I were so emotional afterward (feeling the love!) Most of our friends were able to make it, along with some of my mom's friends, and our dear family. There were about 21 people, so it was intimate and fun.

When I got there, my family had already set the restaurant up with Sunflowers centerpieces (my favorite flower) and surprised me with a white rose corsage. The had a lovely cake with a beautiful saying, and the restaurant had the lunch menu typed up at everyone's place setting. It was really lovely!
As everyone arrived, little hors d'oeuvres were passed around (stuffed mushrooms and goat cheese puffs). We all mingled and sipped cocktails (well, I had ice tea but a mimosa would have been better). It was great catching up with friends and showing off the belly and the cankles. Everyone said I looked good, but the photos show a different story (I'm B-I-G). In fact, when I took a picture with my aunt, she brushed my butt and said, "What's this?" Then she gave it a nice squeeze! More to love, I say.


My cousins were the "hostesses with the mostesses" and gave a nice speech and put the games together. They had "Guess how many gumballs in the bottle" during the appetizers. And during lunch, they had a quiz "How well do you know the Mama?" No surprise that my best friend from high school won (Matt wasn't eligible but I made him play and he got 1 wrong - automatic FAIL - ha ha!).
Lunch started off with salad with strawberries, oranges, and almonds in a champagne vinaigrette, followed by pan-seared chicken breast with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and asparagus.
Before dessert, everyone got string and had to guess how large my belly was. That meant I had to go around and have everyone tie the string around my waist. I thought that was the most fun, especially trying my aunt's string which was so long I called it the "Jon & K.ate + 8" belly string. Only 1 of my friends made it too small (thank you Stephanie).

Finally dessert -- the cake and Italian pastries, and rum cake from my mom's friend -- and present opening. Everyone was so generous and we received some much needed items to welcome our little one. Our last present was the car seat from my grandma & grandpa and everyone said, "Now you can take the baby home!"
It was just such a lovely afternoon, we can't thank everyone enough who made this so memorable. Matt was so overcome with emotions, he said it was the best day ever.

Cloth diapering

Those of you who know me are probably not surprised that I want to cloth diaper my future one's little tush. I've been wanting to cloth diaper since before I even thought about having kids ... Plus, I recycle just about every damn thing in my house, so it seems unnatural for me to want to throw away a dirty diaper in the trash. There's also a question of cost, and while I'm not doing it as a cost savings I think there will be some.

I was not a cloth-diapered baby, but my husband was and he was born only 2 years before me.

On our last trip to visit Matt's parents, my father-in-law asked if I was going to cloth diaper. When I said, "Yes, that's my intention," he gave me a high five. Who knew that could bond 2 people together? Then I got to enlighten my in-laws on the new cloth diapers that don't involve a safety pin and come in cute names like Bummis, Happy Heineys, Thirsties, and FuzziBuns.

I think, though, that my mother-in-law had a diaper service.

I looked into diaper services -- Matt wants us to go this route because really, who wants to launder those things -- but there is only 1 that services the entire Chicagoland area. Isn't that crazy? Only 1 company?! They charge $18/week ($72/month which is on par with how much disposables would cost). My only concern is that when Prof Poopypants has to go into daycare at 5 months, they will probably require that I provide disposable diapers. So we'd only have the diaper service for a little while. (I plan on doing disposable --if I have to-- when in daycare, but cloth for evenings/nights/weekends.)

But what else is there? It seems more and more people are cloth diapering, but I don't know anyone personally to ask. A friend of mine recommended FuzziBuns (her friend used them), and on my pregnancy forum a lot of people have their own recommendations for different types and brands. But it seems that you won't know what fits and what you like until the baby comes.

Many people recommended buying different kinds so you have them ready for baby. So that's what I've done.

Mothering magazine had an excellent article on all the different kinds of cloth diaper systems. That helped me navigate, plus I found a store near work that sells them and the saleslady gave me some good information.

So far I've bought three different types of diapers.

1. Pre-folds with covers: This is the cheapest option. I bought 6 chinese prefolds @ $1.75 each and a Bummis cover for $13. You have to wash the pre-fold several times to get them soft and absorbant. The only downside is that they come in different sizes so as your baby grows, you need to get new pre-folds and covers. The recommendation is 24 pre-folds and 6-12 covers ($200 per size). This will make laundering every other day.

2. One size pre-folds with covers: Flips is from the maker of BumGenius and this is their answer to #1. The outer shell is softer than the Bummis cover and is a 1-size fits all with all sorts of snaps so you can make it fit your growing baby (many people on my pregnancy forum love these - they are new to the market). It comes with 1 stay-dry pre-fold that you can fold into 3 sizes. It fits into the diaper just like the cheap option. I'm not sure how much extra Flip pre-folds are, but I was told you can use chinese pre-folds inside the Flips cover. Cost per Flip/insert is $17. 12 of these would be $200+ and I can use chinese pre-folds to make up for the extra inserts I'll need.

The intention for both of these options is that unless the baby has a "blow-out", you only need to wash the pre-fold and the cover is reusable. If there's a blowout, the whole thing gets washed.

3. Inserts: This is the 3rd type of diaper I bought. I bought the BumGenius brand (although there are a lot of these types). For $18 you get a soft one-size shell (which folds up with snaps, but closes with Velcro) and a one-size insert (that you can snap close into 3 sizes). The insert is "inserted" into the shell which means that any time the baby soils the diaper, the whole thing goes in the wash. You'll need at least 24 of these so that cost is $400+. The velcro version of these is being discontinued, replaced with a snap version.

So I may be purchasing a couple more of each of these and when the baby arrives, see which ones I like better (with my stash of disposable samples for back up if I don't have enough). I also plan on buying some other brands just to see which I like more. It will be interesting to see how this goes, but encouraging that more people are turning to cloth so there's a lot of on-line help.

34 week appointment

I went to the doctor today expecting to get my Strep B test, but that will be next time. So it was pretty uneventful except that everything looks fine. My doctor said, "I'm so happy to tell you everything looks perfect so far." I'll take that news any day!

The ultrasound from the 9th had the baby weighing in at 4lb 7oz, which puts it into the 46% percentile. The doctor said that means if I deliver on schedule the baby should weigh in at 7-1/2 lbs. My belly is measuring 33-1/2 centimeters.

I told her that I've been having more pelvic and rectal pressure (2 weekends ago it was so bad, I was on all fours for the majority of the day). And she said that was good news, meaning the baby is making its descent downward. So a pain in the butt is in fact ... good. As the baby descends down, she said, it will be harder for it to turn into a breech position. This may also explain why my breathing has gotten easier, the baby isn't sitting as high as it was a few weeks ago (you can see it too that it lowered).

The heartrate came in at 142, which if you look at my sidebar is pretty consistent. Most of the time it comes in at 147. So in this regard, I said the baby is just like daddy... very even keel.

I go back July 2nd for the Strep B test, my first Non-Stress Test, and it starts my weekly exams. Ohmigod, I can't believe it's almost time for the weekly exams... time is flying!

Baby Showers!

This weekend is our baby shower! It's "showering" right now (it's been non-stop rain the last couple weekends here), but tomorrow is supposed to be rain free. Which I do hope is the case because the place where the baby shower is (Matt and I's favorite restaurant down the street from us) has a lovely courtyard al fresco dining area.

I got a new dress for the occasion by Olian that I got at our cute baby store in town. (Although I don't look as svelte as these models do!)My first actual maternity purchase that didn't come from Target or Kohl's.

And my co-workers are throwing me a baby shower at work in 2 weeks, they are so nice! We haven't had any parties at work since we consolidated divisions - I wasn't even sure if we were still able to. I had to share this picutre -- it was in the email invite which I thought was hilarious! (And I wish I looked that cute!)

Nursery Update

We're almost done!

We worked like gangbusters the last 2 weekends to get the nursery in good shape in time for the baby shower.

Here's the tour!

When you walk in. We have a picture from Matt's cousin Emma, our purple dresser we painted before we even got engaged, an antique night light lamp, and a cool modern green lamp I found at TJMaxx.

The new closet my dad built is perfect, and we got cute knobs in the shape of a boy and girl.

We've had this shelf since we lived in the condo. Matt painted it cream with colored shelves, and it's a perfect place for all those stuffed animals my mom bought the baby when she was in Orlando.

In the other corner, we have the rocking chair that Matt's mom gave us in which she rocked baby Matt to sleep. Now we can rock the next generation to sleep there too.

And finally the crib. It looks a little bare ... now all we need is some bedding.. and a baby to make it complete.

Caterpillar wall art

A while back I posted about some cute wall decals for the baby's room. Well, we couldn't decide on choosing between the wall art or the alphabet ... so we did both!

We chose the caterpillar and we put it under the window, so when the baby's playing on the floor they can look at it and then we can use it to learn the colors.

Adios Facebook, again

Seems I'm not the only one who is quitting Facebook.  There was an article in the Tribune today about people -- some in their 20's who grew up with Facebook -- who have called it quits, and why.

In reading this, I realized that I never really deleted my Facebook account back in March; I only deactivated my account (assuming that meant delete but apparently it doesn't.)  So if you ever want to really leave Facebook permanently, just do a search for "Quit Facebook" and it will tell you how (everything has to be so complicated).

Whew.  Now I am free at last ... well, in 14 days I will be.

32 week ultrasound picture

Is it just me, or does the baby look like it has a large pointy nose and an overbite?

Other than that, everything looked good according to our Tech and I'm measuring on time!

The alphabet

In the end, we loved the letter idea for the nursery so we decided to "copy" it, but in our own way... (I.e crazy colors!)

And the best part was that Matt did it all himself (my dad is on vacation).

My handyman

Matt is a self-professed "NON-Handyman" ...





Just the beginning of a long line of things he'll do for our baby.

June 6th

June 6th ... last year on that day we suffered our 2nd miscarriage. Later on it became the due date for our 3rd pregnancy (also ending in miscarriage).

Now as we approach June 6th in 2010, we never would have imagined that we would be 32 weeks pregnant. Who would believe with all this joy, that my eyes still overflow with tears when I go back to last year. Pregnancy #4, but the same baby in my heart, finally deciding it's the right time to come into our lives.

Maybe after this weekend passes, I can finally put my memories to rest.

31 weeks!

I had my 31 week checkup today. I'm now on the 2-week check-up schedule. I can't believe that time has gone by this fast.

I got to see my regular OB and everytime I see her I realize why I love her and go to that practice. She's wonderful and for sure, she won't be on duty when I go into labor...All my tests are coming up negative (for diabetes, anemia, protein, etc) so things are looking really good health-wise -- even the fact that I am now 30 lbs heavier than I was pre-pregnancy. However, because of my advanced maternal age when I give birth -- leave it to Obstetrics to make 35 sound old, don't they know it's the new 20? -- I have to have another ultrasound next week to make sure the baby is growing properly.

I'm okay with that, maybe I'll get some good pictures and some more good news.

Childcare decided

In April I wrote about the high cost of Childcare, as I was making the rounds calling all the places around us.  After that, I went to visit a few places and was impressed with the care and the facilities. 

In the end we chose a Montessori school that's not really close to us (3 towns away), but close to a train station.  I loved the director and the facility.  The kids all looked so happy, which was a big plus.  And we not only knew one of the teachers, but some of the parents who send their kids there and they had nothing bad to say.

Matt couldn't make the tours, but he felt comfortable in my decision and when we went to drop off payment, he got to meet the director and see some of the place and felt good.

I'm relieved we made a hassle-free decision and put our name down for a spot in January (when the little one is 5 months old).  Cost?  $295/week which was on the lower end of the places I called, so we're also comfortable with that.

The only tricky part is the logistics.  Matt and I had to become electrical engineers to figure out the best way to transport the future nightclub bouncer to and fro.  Matt's going to take the morning shift (he wakes up early) and drive there, drop off, then drive to the nearest train station and leave the car there.  I get the PM shift (I can leave work earlier), and I'll get off the train at that stop, pick up the car, pick up baby, and with any luck pick up the husband at another train station.

Sound crazy?

For baby #2 (if we're blessed again!), we may have to get a nanny ...

Al & Tipper

Normally I don't care when this happens, but when I opened up Yahoo News and saw that Al & Tipper were getting a divorce I got really sad.  Maybe I'm too much of a romantic-optimist, believing in love no matter what -- even after 40 years... I want everyone to have a sort of Paul & Linda McCartney tale of love & companionship ...

Weekends = Work

The last three weekends have just been a whirlwind of work.

Painting ...
Matt finally finished painting all the doors, trim, windows etc upstairs and when they got ready to be put in Monday... half of them didn't fit anymore because the humidity expanded everything. So we finally have doors up (after not having one on our bathroom for the last couple of months ... yes, Matt & I are very close), but they may not close all the way. But they look professional --Matt is dedicated to his craft-- and like a brand new house.

Closet ...
We finally finished putting together the closet system Monday morning -- all ready for tiny shirts and socks.

Crib ...
This was the easy part. This was put together in 20 minutes and made everything so very real (in case the constant kicks to my ribs weren't doing it).

Outside ...
Regardless of the belly, I can't ignore the outside otherwise the weeds will take over if we turn our heads away. The last few weekends have involved pulling weeds, cleaning beds, and getting all our summer-ware out of the garage. The porch is functional - table, chairs, rug - and has already hosted several lazy morning breakfasts. I made up some new pots, planted my tomatoes, pruned back shrubs, and even got some new plants for the yard . Matt hooked up the water fountain and corn-mealed the grass so we are ready to go! (See more on my garden blog)

Inside ...
I'm de-cluttering my life. I threw away a ton of magazines, that should say a lot. My mom came over 2 nights in a row to help clean out the office (which apparently hosted a hurricane recently). I'm determined to let go of a lot of "stuff" and have the baby come home to a house free and clear of "baggage."

9 more weeks to go!