Tourists in Babyland

Today we went out to a “baby megastore” listed as one of the top 20 in the Baby Bargains book. This is the second store we’ve gone to at the advice of Baby Bargains, since the first store was good- better than BRU. Baby Bargains is somewhat of a bible to us now. We cannot, in good faith, add anything to our registry or even so much as think of purchasing a baby-related item without consulting THE BOOK.

So we went to the store, and everyone else is also carrying THE BOOK under their arms. It makes us all seem like tourists in babyland, albeit well-prepared tourists with a good street map who can kind of speak the language.

We found a dresser we liked, which was 20% off, and ordered it. It is Munire, from the Urban collection, pictured below:

There is no picture that exists on the entire interweb of the 6-drawer dresser we bought. So you’ll just have to imagine it until we’re able to post nursery pictures soon. The store’s delivery estimate was 10-14 weeks. If it takes 14 weeks, we’ll hopefully already be changing the baby on the floor. Luckily, many people have said to expect it much earlier than that.

I leave you with a 28-week belly shot:

Downward-facing Buddha belly

Downward-facing Buddha belly- that’s what it feels like at my prenatal yoga classes. I’ve only gone to two sessions so far and I think I’m the furthest along among the ladies there. The instructor is wonderful- she also teaches childbirth education classes and works as a doula. The class definitely kicks my ass, but I leave feeling balanced and energized. The hardest thing she’s had us do so far is a number of poses where we must keep a yoga brick pressed between our thighs. Seriously, it’s not easy. Since I’ve signed up for the full series, it forces me out of the house on cold, dark winter nights each week.

This is my first foray into a real-life pregnancy community. We don’t have much time to talk to one another, but it’s been fun connecting with other women who are going through a lot of the things that I’ve already been through. I’m amused at being able to offer firsthand advice on such topics as morning sickness, exhaustion, and chest inflation.

Also, during the first class, the instructor went around the room and had each student state her name, what her due date is and one thing she has been doing to prepare. Being the proud extroverted lesbian that I am, my fact was that my wife and I had gone to a lawyer to draw up papers for our wills and second-parent adoption. So far everyone is still talking to me 🙂

Today marks the third trimester. I have been feeling increasingly heavy and some of the exhaustion from the first trimester has returned. My skin is exceedingly dry as well, though winter isn’t helping.

Our Bradley birth class starts next Wednesday. We’re very much looking forward to both the subject matter and meeting other folks (and perhaps having other stories to tell). Our goal this weekend is to buy a dresser as the final piece of furniture in Cupcake’s room. We plan to use a changing pad on top of it while he’s in diapers and then keep it in use as he grows up.

Taggies are the new black

While Cupcake just had his first noticeable case of in-utero hiccups, I decided to do a little online shopping. Up until this point, we had not purchased any clothing. Nada. Just waiting to see what we get at the shower(s). But another blog entry I saw today reminded me of how much I love a particular brand of baby things and after going to the website, baby clothing purchasing hell broke loose.

The brand is called Taggies, and we first found out about it a month ago. We were chatting with friends whose son will be almost exactly a year older than ours. He was playing with a toy, but really, he just wanted to chew on the tag. His moms explained that he always finds the tag and we were amused. The next day, we went into an eclectic toy store and found a soft plush baby toy covered in satin tags. We immediately bought it for them and later found out that the company has all sorts of other things, including clothing.

So I have just purchased 4 outfits (all on sale) and a toy covered in tags. No idea if our son will be as obsessed with them, but they’re all really darn cute.

2nd trimester report card

Since this is the last week of my 2nd trimester, I think we can do this now.  As with normal U.S. grading standards, an A score is the best and an F score is the worst. For reference/comparison, the 1st trimester report card is here.

Exhaustion: C
Nausea/Vomiting: C
Heartburn: C
Backache: B
Constipation: C
Weight Gain: C (21 lbs total so far)
Food Aversions: A
Food Cravings: A (only cinnamon buns, and only once)
Swollen feet/ankles: B (Miami was tough but most of the time she did ok)
Stretch marks: A (only one small purple dot so far)
Emotions: A (unless she’s hungry, then she gets cranky)

Notes:  Nutella continued to do well with the emotional aspects of the 2nd trimester.  She was occasionally tired but managed to complete most of her daily activities in a normal manner.  Additionally, she gets credit for doing more arduous tasks, such as meeting with a lawyer, crib construction and registry creation. There were also noticable improvements in her meal preparation and other household chores.  Physically, Nutella continued to struggle with heartburn and nausea, but with proper medical treatment, these are under control.  Finally, she dealt well with getting repeatedly kicked and poked in the ribs and abdomen from the inside.

As the supporting partner, Strawberry exceeded expectations this trimester. She continued to assist with household chores and extracurricular activities, such as lifting heavy objects, painting the nursery and baby product research.  Her ongoing belly worship and conversing with the Cupcake was supplemented by massages of the feet and back as needed, and it is noted that her application of special oils to the belly reduced the occurence of stretch marks.

We look forward to more progress in the final trimester, with emphasis on birth planning and infant readiness!

Nuances of nutella

The crib is now put together and overall we are happy with it. It took us about 2 hours to do, but a half hour of that was taken up by thinking that one of the holes in one of the legs was too small but then realizing the new screw wasn’t going in all the way because one of the screws that came installed wasn’t put in straight and was sticking out into the hole we were screwing into. That sounds dirty. Anyway, we had to do some re-arranging and drill a new hole, but in the end it is all done and looks lovely. It seems sturdy to us, too, and we got the drop-side working, although it rattles a little bit so when we have a creative/impatient toddler on our hands, we may have to buy a lock for it.

Now, just for fun, I’ve decided to steal First Time Second Time’s idea to list the search engine terms that brought people to their blog, and give advice where applicable. Here are the terms that landed people at 1 in Vermillion:

if I had chicken pox then am I cmv +
Nope. And we know this because Nutella has had chicken pox, and we found out that she is cmv negative. If you are cmv negative, you’ll want to consider using only cmv negative donors to reduce risks to the baby, but this isn’t always required.

FF no crosshairs still pregnant?
If Fertility Friend decides to get smart and remove your crosshairs, but you’ve already gotten a positive pregnancy test, I would say yes, you are still pregnant and ain’t nothin FF can do to change it. We used FF as a tool, but did not find it 100% reliable by any means. On the cycle we got our BFP, it didn’t know when Nutella had ovulated.

huge temp dip at 9DPO
A good sign for sure, but not certain. Lots of things can affect BBT. However, looking at nutella’s FF chart for the BFP, she had a huge temp drop at around 8 DPO.

7w 5d pregnant no symptoms
Lucky you!

telling people at work at 6 weeks
Definitely your choice, but I would wait. That’s pretty darn early I would think.

red hair baby donor
That’s what we went with, although it was more like a redheaded sperm donor. We didn’t actually get the baby donated. You might want to search sperm bank websites for this, and if you DO want the baby, place an ad in the newspaper.

can nutella affect your pregnancy
Doubtful, and it tastes great! All things in moderation…

how to make a cupcake onesie
Well, this website may help you with that – http://www.makeyourownonesies.com/ Or you could just buy some plain white onesies and use fabric paint to decorate them with cupcakes. We might do that.

vermilion touch up paint
Good for you for using such a vibrant color! Try your local Home Depot or Lowes for paint chips.

strawberry nutella crepes
An excellent choice- an hour after the IUI that worked, this is what Nutella & I had for breakfast. And whether it helped or not, they were pretty darn tasty!

nutella body parts
Um…well, it IS spreadable….not quite sure what this person was searching for…

blood in nutella
I would DEFINITELY get a refund for that jar.

Special delivery!

The set-up: Strawberry and Nutella bought a crib online on Sunday.  Estimated delivery date was next Thursday 1/22.  However, on Wednesday evening of this week Nutella got an email with a tracking number.  Despite refreshing all day Thursday, the shipping company website didn’t even indicate that it had been picked up from the warehouse.

The scene: Chez Strawberry and Nutella, 8:30am this morning, coldest windiest day of the year. Strawberry is all bundled up and ready to walk out the door for work.

Strawberry: “Before I head out, why don’t you check the tracking site one more time?”

Nutella: “Ok.  Oh no!  It says it’s on the truck for delivery.  You’ll have to stay home so that you are here when they deliver.”

Strawberry: “But…. I… Grrr.  Can’t we just leave a note with a signature telling them they can leave it?  Or is there a number we can call to find out when they expect it to be delivered?”

(cut to: front porch. enter Freezing Cold Delivery Person)

Freezing Cold Delivery Person: “KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK”

(Freezing Cold Delivery Person deposits HUGE box on front step and then dashes back to warm truck and drives away.)

Hazel, the chihuahua: “BARK, BARK, INTRUDER, SOMEONE AT THE DOOR!!”

Strawberry and Nutella: “Haha, well, talk about perfect timing.” “Yeah, let’s get this thing inside.”

……end scene….

And so folks, there is a giant box in our living room awaiting opening and assembly.  When it’s all put together, it ought to look like this:

I guess we have our work cut out for us this weekend!

Completely unrelated…

Just a quick note to apologize for any duplicate comments I may have left on your blogs…Wordpress is being a jackass and making my comments vanish into thin cyber-air only to possibly appear later on once or twice, or not at all. I’m working with them on this, but it’s highly annoying. Anyway, now back to your regularly-scheduled program.

Quick update- Akismet is marking them as spam (no idea why suddenly) so now I’m in touch with them. Hopefully this will get resolved.

Please, take my money

Our meeting with the lawyer on Monday was easy. We went through all of our preferences for wills, power of attorney, advanced medical directives, and 2nd parent adoption. We are lucky to have a few very well-known firms in our area that do this stuff all the time. For them it was pretty routine, which is reassuring. Everything should be complete within the next month or so, with the exception of the adoption, which can’t happen until we have a birth certificate for Cupcake. From birth, the lawyers estimate 6-8 weeks for the adoption to go through. Then we all shook hands, we handed over our $3,375 and that was that. As annoying and infuriating as it is to have to pay to get most of the things that a straight couple can get just by getting married, we are very glad that it’s now done. And the 2nd parent adoption stuff is very routine in our state/county. No home study or even letters of recommendation required.

Now, an interesting little annoyance. We are having ONE Cupcake. There are no plans for a 2nd one. Never have been. And yet, invariably when we say that, people shake their heads and smile and say things like “You say that NOW, but we know you’ll change your mind. Children are like potato chips, you can’t have just one!” (Ok, so no one has actually said exactly that, but close enough.) Even the lawyer! I really don’t get it. What’s so bad about having 1 kid? I mean, no offense to all of you out there with more than 1, or hoping to have more than 1. That is your choice. But I certainly wouldn’t want to be pregnant again, and Strawberry has never wanted to. And neither of us feel like having an only child is a bad thing.

And lastly, see that ticker over there? We are in double digits here, people! Holy crap! I’m feeling ok most of the time. Some days I’m super hungry and super tired. I don’t sleep very well at night. Cupcake is still a very active kicker. Ever since last week’s OB visit, I’ve been trying to hold off on taking the Zofran unless I need it, but so far I think I’ve only managed 1 day without it. Right now, it’s all about growing Cupcake nice and plump (just not TOO plump, thanks)!

Just for kicks…

25 week belly shot:

As usual, Cupcake is kicking the heck out of dear Nutella, even waking her up in a painful kind of panic last night whereupon I tried to talk to him to settle him down and let his poor Ima (and Mommy) get some sleep. We got a request to show some of this crazy kicking/movement, so below is a short (40ish second) video of Cupcake doing his “comb trick.”

Recent developments

Forgive me for the bullet points, but these things aren’t relating themselves well to a paragraph format.

• We have signed up to take a Bradley method childbirth education class series starting the first week of February.  We really hope that the “partner coached” philosophy will keep us both very involved in my labor and that we will gain some tools to help me achieve an unmedicated birth in the birth center.  In the end, a healthy baby is what matters, but going into things I’d at least like to feel prepared to handle the above-mentioned scenario.
• Our first appointment with a lawyer is Monday afternoon.  We are fortunate to live in a state that recognizes 2nd parent adoption for same sex parents.  The lawyers we chose are very experienced with exactly our situation.  At the same time, we’ll be completing our long overdue wills, medical power of attorney, and advanced medical directive.  Things that really ought to have been done years ago when we first bought our house, but better now than never.
• On a more sobering topic, I learned today that an entire department in my building was part of the company-wide layoffs that took place in the middle of December.  They will be leaving the company in a few weeks, unless they leave earlier due to finding new jobs.  One of the victims is the woman that leant me all of the cute summer maternity clothes that I wore in Miami.  She is currently on maternity leave and won’t be coming back.  I packed up the clothes with a note and they will be shipped to her.  Thinking of her and this situation is scary for me, as I don’t feel like my job is 100% safe.  If I were to be laid off anytime in the next 6 months, things would be very very bad for us.
• And lastly, the evil highchair has left the premises.  Today I responded to a Freecycle posting looking for a highchair and this evening some other woman has taken on the joys of it.  I wish her luck!  We look forward to owning the one on our registry, which fits onto an existing dining room chair and adjusts for 5 stages of eating, infant thru little kid.