Thursday, May 30, 2013

new belly collage!

only a few more weeks to fill in and i'll have the whole (well, the majority) of the pregnancy!

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

week 33 belly and summer updates

Here's the week 33 belly. That baby is livin' large in there! I am feeling good -- a little more tired than usual. That is, I need to sleep a good 9-10 hours a night and sometimes take a nap for an hour or two in the afternoon. I have to sleep a lot to grow such a big baby! But when I'm up I feel energetic, healthy and happy. I've been taking hikes, walks, going to the arboretum and the park, still walking to campus, and nesting like crazy. Patrick and I have been organizing our apartment and trying to get rid of stuff to make room for the baby.

We spent the whole evening yesterday reorganizing the shelves in the bathroom and bedroom. Next week we'll install the car seat. We are SO excited for all the baby stuff we've been getting for our online shower. It's been so fun to get little gifts at the door each day, and we love setting up all the little things we'll need: washing the clothes, diapers, blankets and sheets, getting to know the stroller, car seat, breast pump, and baby monitor, putting up the mobile over the crib, setting up the furniture and filling it with all the little baby stuff...all so fun! Even though we've tried to keep our list to things we think we'll need rather than superfluous cutesy things we might want, it is still surprising how much gear this little human needs.

We've also been making homemade beer and wine! It's been a really fun thing to learn to do this summer. Our first batch of beer is a clone of Bell's Oberon beer from Kalamazoo, MI. It'll be ready in about a week, so we'll see how we did. The wine is just a generic red wine that we made from two cans of frozen Welch's grape juice. Basically, it's a hobo wine...and we called our brand "Chateau d'Hobo." We even decorated the bottle with a hobo in front of some rolling hills of vineyard. Too bad I can't enjoy much of these alcoholic drinks, but it is a very cheap way to make alcohol!


Finally, we've been tending our vegetable garden this summer. It is taking a while to warm up here. The nights are still too cold (high 30's, low 40's) for the warm weather plants like tomatoes. Outside in the plot we have two kinds of lettuce, onions and shallots -- which are all doing fabulously. We bought some tomato starts that are out in the plot, but we've been covering them up each night and they are still living, but not looking so good. Finally, in the house we started from seed: arugula, broccoli, eggplant, spicy salad mix, baby bok choy, lemon cucumbers and rainbow chard. We'll plant these out sometime next week when the nights look like they're going to begin to warm up.

We're trying to make the most of our last weeks as an adult couple without kids. Patrick is golfing nearly every day, he is writing two screenplays (one of which he wants to shoot for a short movie this summer), we're reading a lot of childbirth books and practicing what we'll need to do a natural childbirth each day, and I have been going to coffeeshops a couple of times a week to finish my master's thesis paper before the baby comes. We can't wait for the public pool to open up June 14th so we can go there during the day (there's even a slide). Yay for summer!!  

Sunday, May 19, 2013

32 week belly

32 week belly! Let's hope this mini-growth spurt is coming to a close for a while. Come on baby, I'm barely eating more and you keep growing by leaps and bounds. Time to chill out and let your mama relax a little. 

Friday, May 17, 2013

a big baby!


At my last doctor visit, my belly was measuring 34.5 cm when I was 31.5 weeks along (when it should be measuring 31.5 cm). So, my doctor ordered an ultrasound to just take a look at how big the baby is, how much fluid I have, etc.

We went for the ultrasound today (when I'm basically at 32 weeks) and got some surprising news: the baby currently weighs approximately 5 lbs. 4 oz. already and is measuring at almost 35 weeks gestational age! Obviously, different babies are different sizes and grow at different rates, but it looks like this is going to be a big one. PLEASE NO ONE BUY US NEWBORN CLOTHES! :) Start with the 6 month clothing, cause this baby is not going to fit into itty bitty clothing for long, if ever.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

vacation photos

Here are a couple of shots from our trip.
the famous tower at berkeley
rehearsal kiss
love apple farms where stephan is the farm manager
pat and stephan at love apple farms
stephan at love apple farms
patrick looking beautiful at the wedding
stephan getting down on the dance floor
the bride, erica
pat bertoletti and I chatting
pat in vegas the the stage door saloon
me in front of stage door saloon, vegas
patrick at the venetian
the venetian
the sports book at the venetian -- a smoke free environment!
waking up in vegas
me, nan and jamie in phoenix
patrick, me and baby
patrick's version of this picture

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

31 week belly

31 week belly! Just arrived back from the trip to San Jose, Phoenix, Vegas and Boise. Boy, it's good to be back.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

30 week belly


30 week belly. I even remembered to take a picture while on the road! We're currently in Phoenix, via San Jose, CA and Big Bear Lake, CA. More pictures on picasa: click here.