Old Wives' Tale - We're Having a Girl

So it's fun to tease and make predictions on whether we are having a boy or a girl. It's mostly fun to play because I absolutely don't care what it is (I'm not being smug as the song would imply, I just don't care). We want to have at least one of each, so for baby #1, my wishful thinking is that we just have a......baby.

Adam also seems a bit terrified of having a daughter. This makes it even more fun to tell him that I think we're having a girl. I want him to have a daughter eventually, because I think he'd be a great daddy and will just not fully appreciate the father-daughter bond until he can experience it for himself.

I'm using the old wives' tale that heart rate can help to determine the baby's sex. "As the old wives' tale has it, if your unborn baby's heart rate is higher, above 140 beats per minute, that means you're carrying a girl. A lower heart rate below 140 bpm means you're having a boy."
http://www.in-gender.com/cs/blogs/gender_selection_news/archive/2006/01/07/5031.aspx

Appointment #1 - 183 beats per minute
Appointment #2 - 160 beats per minute
Appointment #3 (today's appointment) - 152 beats per minute

Realistically, I know this theory doesn't work at all...but it's still fun! Another 7 weeks or so until we figure out the sex of the baby for real!!!

Glee Weekend!!!

Shhhhh....Adam doesn't know yet, but.....

I think this weekend will be a Glee weekend!! As you may know, I was a Glee virgin up until a few weeks ago until I decided to sit down and make the time and fall in love.

How could I not have seen this show before!? How will I ever catch up on Season 1?

The answer: Talk about how much you love Glee to a coworker and beg him to ask his wife to borrow Season 1, Volume 1 on DVD. Oh yes, 13 episodes of Finn, singing, my growing love for Puck and Sue Sylvester.

Do I smell marathon??? It smells lovely....

Date with Andrew

I had a date tonight with a man other than my husband - his name is Andrew.

Cynthia also accompanied Andrew and myself for a lovely meal at the Olive Garden. It was magical and delicious.

Andrew is 6 months old (Cynthia's son) and the happiest little baby in the world! Although he hadn't had his afternoon nap, he was just happy and chatty all dinner long. When he's happy, he doesn't smile so much as he just opens his mouth in complete glee!

Cynthia is an old coworker and friend who is a first-time mom. So far, I've been asking her lots of advice and checked out Andrew's nursery to see what they had. I also scoped out the other toys/seats/car seats/strollers that they really liked and the ones that are gathering dust that they didn't especially like.

It was a good girl's night + one handsome, dark haired man!

Growing Baby....

Start of week 14 today. Baby continues to grow and develop.

How big will the baby be this week? Just look at Daddy's facebook status to find out.

The Day Has Arrived....

I have a confession....

I no longer button my work pants. They still fit fine in the butt and legs and waist (for my high waist pants), however, it's getting a little tight in the belly region and I'm somewhat sick of having a button digging into my belly whenever I'm sitting down, which is 99% of my day.

About a week and a half ago was the first day I wore a pair of work pants and bravely didn't button them and hoped my long, tight cami would hold them closed and up during the day. I figured, as classy as that was, I needed another solution. I found it at Target. The BeBand - a band for your belly to help hold up unbuttoned/unzipped pants in your earlier pregnancy, hold up too big maternity pants or to help you post-pregnancy in your maternity/regular unzipped pants.

Let me tell you - magical.

The biggest question is....is this baby growing or is it fatty-bo-batty belly and love handles growing? For someone that's practically been on a diet for the last 10 years, eating a little less like I'm losing weight and a little more like everything tastes really good - that's fatty-bo-batty fo sho. At least now that I'm feeling better, I am back to eating fruits and veggies and I'm heading to the gym for the first time in months after work today.

So now I seem to be covered until the belly starts to pop and I'll be looking for maternity clothes. Thanks to mom and Mel, I've already got a start on some adorable tops! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

So I couldn't be home to see my mommy on Mother's Day, but she was definitely the first person I talked to today (mostly because Adam was too asleep to even open his eyes) to let her know that I was thinking about her. She's the person I call if I have some exciting news to tell or something funny happened or just to call for 'whatever.' I think I started appreciating both of my parents more and more when I went away to college and started having to 'be an adult' myself. I could see the people around me and the different ways their parents raised them, only to think "my parents did it better." I can't wait to be able to take my kids over to Grandma Von Wahlde's for holidays and birthdays like I have always loved with my family. I can't wait to call her in the middle of the night (oh yes...middle of the night) because my baby won't stop crying or had a little runny nose and I have absolutely no idea what to do. I've learned a lot from my mother over the past 27 years and I know I haven't even begun to learn as much as has to teach....I think I will be able to learn so much more once baby O'Neill arrives.

I love you, mommy. Happy Mother's Day!

So, I also consider this my last non-Mother's Day. My last day celebrating Mother's Day before I have an actual child to say that I'm officially a mother. I subscribe to Oprah's "Thought of the Day" (I know, I'm a dork who's obsessed with Oprah). A few months ago, a few days after I found out I was pregnant, I received the following quote. It helped to explain in words one of the reasons I want to be a mother myself:

"I had always wanted children. Partly, I wanted someone else to be more important than me; mySelf was a burdensome thing to keep carrying around. But I'd been missing that Self since my daughter's birth. I hadn't know it would be so eclipsed by the constant worry - had she burped, slept, peed? ("Sleep when she sleeps," the doctor said. I couldn't. I was too stunned. There were moments in those early days that when she cried, I cried too.) But that day I saw her from the window of the bus, I almost yelped aloud - not just with worry, with love. Minutes later I sat on the front stoop, and when the babysitter pushed the carriage around the corner, I felt a huge billowing of love that sat like a gigantic, soft helium balloon on my shoulders. I didn't know a person could feel that love, it was so large. But then, a few weeks later, I watch my little daughter wake from her nap, kick her little feet. And-whoosh!-that feeling of love grew exponentially. This kept happening as the weeks went by, and each time I was amazed. How could love be this big? That enormous, soft helium balloon got bigger and higher, until my love filled the skies. Boundless, as they say."
- Elizabeth Strout, author

Excited Daddy

Middle of the work day....took a quick second to check update Facebook statuses on my phone.

Adam's FB status:

I text him, because I'm slightly confused. What the heck does "apple" mean?

His response: "Our baby size"

This is the start of week 13 and the baby is about the size of a small apple ~3 inches.

I think he's a little excited :)

PS....I kinda like him.....

Craving....satisfied

So I haven't had any unusual pregnancy cravings so far. I've just been craving foods that I liked before but wouldn't eat them very often. This could also be because I've been trying to follow Weight Watchers or some sort of healthy diet for half a lifetime and fatty-bo-batty is just using pregnancy as an excuse.

Cravings so far:

-Chinese food (specifically beef and green peppers/onions from Jade Garden down the street from our house) I think I had only had this once before but I feel like I could eat it for every meal!

- Garlic - garlic bread, spaghetti, italian food. I've sometimes eaten dinner and then have had a craving for frozen texas toast so I pop a piece in the oven.....yummy cheese and super garlicy!

- Food I can't have - Skyline, Penn Station. I'll have a 3-way, juicy and a chilito with sour cream, no onion. Also, I'll have a medium chicken parm with no onion or mushroom, extra tomato sauce.....Yummy!!! I need to make a long weekend in Cincy just to satisfy these. Umm....I mean to visit my family....

Foods I used to love, but don't wanna touch now:

- Bananas - I used to have one every single morning as part of my breakfast. I don't know if it's the texture or smell....but breakfast no more. I had one in my 5th week and could barely work it up to swallow it.

- Plain chocolate - I can have brownies or chocolate cake, but if you hand me a chocolate bar, I'll have to pass. Everytime I've attempted to eat plain chocolate without anything else, I've regretted it with a horrible stomach ache. No idea why!

Today's craving....pie a la mode. What?? When was the last time I had a piece of pie? I would never go out of my way for a piece. Today....I wanted a warm piece of fruit pie with vanilla ice cream melting over the top. I settled for an individual, frozen cherry pie that I can just pop in the microwave.....can you say yummy??

Am I Smug?

Jaclyn sent me this video probably about the day that I found out I was pregnant. These girls are hysterical and I couldn't resist showing you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJRzBpFjJS8

There are several cliches in the song that I'm desperately trying to avoid from using.

1. Boy or Girl question: "It doesn't matter, as long as its healthy...."

This one is kind of true - eventually I'd like at least one of each. I keep joking with Adam that it's a girl - just because I would like him to be a father to a little baby girl.

2. What's the name: "We know, but we're not telling....."

No worries here. We have been sharing our the names we like with just about everyone. If it's a boy - William Edward O'Neill IV. If it's a girl, that's where it gets a little trickier. We both like Miren.....I like Riley too.....it might be a toss-up.

3. "Everything seems so trivial now that I'm pregnant...."

Ewww! Not even close. I still need gossip and fun and friends....just minus the alcohol for now....

4. "You think that you're glowing, but you have been ho-ing and now you're pregnant."

Umm......yeah.....I got nothing for this one.....

5. You're just giving birth now...you're not mother earth now..."

I think this one is hilarious! I do joke (especially when Adam complains about something I did or didn't do) that "I'm growing a human....what have you done lately," - but I swear this is only a joke. Except to Adam....for him, it's totally true and I will use it for all 9 months and possibly until the kid's 18th birthday.....

So much to do, So little time

So now that I'm starting to feel a little better, I'm trying to come up with a list of things that need to be done before the baby arrives. I'm not necessarily talking about baby-related items; of course we have to buy car seat and crib and other baby stuff. I'm talking about the non-directly baby related things that might help us out to get it done now. Here's a short list of things I'm thinking so far. Since I don't really have many friends that have new babies, I'm looking for any suggestions and recommendations on what else to add to the list!

1. One of the top things on my list is to catch up on my scrapbooking. I am pathetically, almost two years behind. I guess planning a wedding, getting married, buying a house, buying a dog and getting pregnant have cut into some good scrapping time and I'm not even done with Melanie and Jordan's 2008 graduations yet. I know once the baby gets here I'll want to scrap everything BABY so that means I need to catch-up now. I started by organizing the scrapbook room over the weekend and buying a few goodies at Michael's to help motivate me to get started again.
2. Buy a new living room rug - It's not just "nesting", it's anyone with a teensy big of common sense and having been at my apartments in the past few years. I adore my 4 year old rug, but I realize how many rum and cokes and beers have been spilled, several attempts at house training Tressel and lots and lots of shoes trampling it. All of it adds up to the fact that I barely want to walk barefoot on it, much less put a brand new baby on it. So it's got to go....
3. Paint the kitchen - I've been wanting to paint the kitchen for the past few months. Once I found out I was pregnant and the morning sickness and tiredness started to kick in, I was easily convinced that the current brown color was fine. Now that I'm starting to feel better, I'm back to wanting to paint it. It's so dark in there right now and I want to brighten things up - maybe a super pale yellow?? I don't think Adam wants to participate in this activity at all...but I might try to convince him.
4. Address Christmas cards - I know we've barely started spring and I'm bringing up Christmas. I have never sent out a Christmas card before. Last year we were a little tight on budget and time and we didn't end up doing it then. This year, I know I'll want to send out a family picture with our new addition!! Between the middle of the night feedings and up worried sick at every sneeze and sniffle, I'm sure I'm going to value any free time or time to sleep I have. This means, that addressing envelopes ahead of time with everyone's addresses might help speed up this process. Efficient or just a little cooky?
5. Super-Duper Spring Clean - I know anyone that knows me finds it hard to believe that I maybe be a teensy bit of a pack-rat..... I really don't think I need half of the things I have just cluttering up storage containers and boxes. Even the bathroom closet is starting to annoy me with 10 year old ointments and face washes I'll never use again. I want to de-clutter (Adam will be so happy!) and completely organize things. I sense the need for a label-maker, methinks.....
6. Sanitize the entire house - This is a little more related to the new baby we'll be bringing home, but I want to clean EVERYTHING! I'm still not sure what magical product I'll be able to clean the walls and couch and cabinets with....but dangit, I will find it. I want the place to shine. (again, Adam will be so happy!!)

Any other things you can recommend that I need to do before a baby comes along???