Pregnant Girl at a Wedding

Among my long list of 'firsts' while pregnant, today I attended my first pregnant (sober) wedding. My friend Blanche tied the knot today in Providence, Rhode Island, and I was among the fortunate few to attend the ceremony. It was beautiful, the food was delicious, the company was even better and to top it off: Blanche had a GIGANTIC smile the entire day.  She also thought it would be funny to get a comparative belly shot and so the least I could do for her on her special day was to indulge. Below is Exhibit A: said belly shot. 

In my defense, I had just eaten my 2nd piece of cake which I justified because I hadn't had any champagne to toast. If pregnancy gets me 'seconds' of all wedding cakes, I could be talked into having multiple children.

Third Trimester: 29-30 weeks along

So far the third trimester has been uneventful and pretty much the same as the second trimester -- but with more night time movements and a little slowing down on my part.  Sometimes I glance down at my belly at work and notice that it's completely shifted to one side or the other. Also, lounging in the La-Z-Boy chair at home seems to awaken baby girl (BG) Pfalzer and I see clear punches or at least some body part poking out. I'll be honest -- this still kinda grosses me out... I'm supposed to be bonding right now, right??

I've been incredibly fortunate to have sister-in-laws and a mother-in-law and friends giving me their hand-me-down maternity wear. I have seriously only purchased 1 pair of maternity pants and the rest has been from family and friends.  Hah! I just realized in the shot above, I'm sporting Naglaa's white skirt. I'll say I've been really impressed with the kindness and generosity of people and I'll make sure to pay this forward when I get the chance.

Last week I spent a few days out in San Francisco with my in-laws. The weather was beautiful and I got wined and dined -- well, dined at least.  Here's Tom Pfalzer (TP)'s first appearance on the blog:

Me and TP in Tiburon, CA

TP did an excellent job touring me around San Francisco and the surrounding areas.  If anyone reading this blog is ever in the area, I really recommend you hiring the chauffeur services of this guy... You will see lots of beautiful places, homes and taste lots of good food, and of  course, if you're able to, you'll drink delicious California wine.

Sean and I had our first childbirthing class last night and there were some points where I wanted to cover my eyes. All the stuff to remember is a little overwhelming, but I did make a special note about the part of the 'support person' and their role to do 'whatever helps the laboring partner'. So, MANY backrubs and footrubs will be in my future, in fact, I am considering feigning labor every night around 9pm to see just how many backrubs I can score. :)

26 weeks: easter and the Boston marathon

 Happy Easter! Izzy can hardly contain her excitement.

It was a nice long weekend in Boston over Easter weekend thanks to the Boston Marathon being the same weekend. Massachusetts' has turned the Boston Marathon day into an actual holiday so most people have 'Patriots Day' off of work.

Thankfully, this weekend (and hopefully everyday here on out) the weather has been suitable for dresses and this didn't come a moment too soon. The past 10+ days, I've been rotating through about 3 different pairs of pants that I can still comfortably wear. 

Our Easter was spent with our friends Justin and Crystal and they fed us like kings AND sent us home with enough leftovers to feed us the entire week. My attire was picked based upon my anticipation of all the delicious food I was sure Crystal would make -- so thank you spandex-y dress.

week 26 

I leave for San Diego this Friday and get to experience a 6 hour plane ride, pregnant. I can't imagine this will be fun -- considering how frequent my trips to the bathroom has been lately.

24 weeks

Tomorrow, April 3rd, marks 24 weeks on the dot and according to 'the Bump' pregnancy app here are the things I should be doing/thinking about:
1) Watch a movie on pregnancy and babies
2) Share your nursery photos
3) Make sure life insurance is in order
4) write or update your will

Considering numbers 3 and 4 are about death, I chose to really read into 1 and 2.
1) I attempted over the weekend and got nauseous at all the sites and sounds ---
2) Nursery is on it's way, but not complete and it will be oh-so much more satisfying to post some before and after pictures.

Since I last wrote, I've become almost completely dependent on my bellaband or my elastic waist-band maternity pants. I tried for a couple days to just wear normal pants unzipped and unbuttoned, but I spent the vast majority of my day walking around shuffling my pants back up around my belly to avoid sporting any of my behind.

Artsy belly shot

I've also started getting used to feeling her bobbling around inside my belly although it took a solid week for me to stop being grossed out when I felt little kicks or judo-chops. I've been describing the feeling as swallowing a live fish and feeling it flop around in your guts. It doesn't hurt (yet), it's just *weird*.

Notice my artistic belly shot below, courtesy of Sean and his morning creativity.

Normal belly shot - 24 week bump

Just last night we committed to a home daycare just up the street from our place: Xiomara's Family Daycare. Sean and I both agree she seems like a sweet, grandmotherly person who will take great care of our little lady-seahorse (obviously, we're undecided on names still).
The weather has improved a teeeeeensy bit so I've started riding my bike to work a few days a week.  It's nice to get some fresh air and move outside of the lab, although I have noticed that my legs are getting a little swollen -- or maybe my socks have shrunk ?? -- either way -- things are growing and expanding and often times quite itchy. My coworkers must think I have fleas at the rate which I scratch my bump.

21 weeks and BUMPALICIOUS

Since the last post, I've been busy spreading the news and starting to move things around to make our 3rd bedroom into a nursery of sorts. Well. Sean moved things around. The 3rd bedroom has really been an extra room where we pile miscellaneous papers, things, art, etc so it's really a matter of just getting organized and throwing out some junk.
I've also finally finished my first baby quilt -- inspired by Annie, who seems to turn out about 1 quilt a week.  This one was about a year in the making and was stored away for many months until I realized I might actually need it. It's covered in elephants and polka-dots if you couldn't tell from the picture.

At this point, my pregnancy is still 'hidden' from the vast majority of peps in Boston - including my boss. Even with something that I think is DEFINITELY a bump (see below) people continue to offer me beers, etc. Maybe they are just trying to get me to confess?? I'm still wearing my normal pants but they remain unbuttoned at this point with the help of either a safety pin or the Bellaband which Annie got me.

18 weeks and it's a GIRL!

Today was our 18 week ultrasound or 'anatomy' ultrasound, where the sonographer spent more than 30 minutes taking pictures of every body part imaginable: heart, brain, head, eyes, arms, legs, stomach, spine, and of course, the 'private parts' -- in our case 'lady parts.'  So, it turns out our little peanut is a pean-ette. Based upon her measurements, our due date is still the same, July 25th. 

The profile shot clearly shows my greatest fear, that she might have inherited the Pfalzer schnoz. This shot was taken after the sonographer jiggled my belly for a couple minutes to persuade her to move. She showed us her fingers and toes which look kinda creepy because you just see the bones.

This is probably my favorite picture from the visit. The doctor felt the need to not only tell us the sex of the baby but to also label her crouch. You're looking at her butt and legs with the arrow pointing to her you-know-what.  Classy. I'll keep this to show her someday.

Since everything looks normal, I think this is our last ultrasound - so no more pictures until you see pictures of her outside the womb.

Until our next belly update...

17 week Burrito belly

According to the 'What to Expect when You're Expecting' book, we have a 'mango-sized' human living in my belly. I'm still trying to decide whether I'm intentionally pushing my belly out or it really is growing bigger. I think I'd rename the first few weeks of the second trimester the 'Are you Fat or Pregnant' stage of pregnancy. Luckily, it's winter right now and I think everyone is expected to get a little soft around the waistline -- in a few weeks though -- I think I might need to switch from my normal pants to something a little more forgiving around the midline.  

Next week will be our 18 week anatomy ultrasound where we find out the gender.... Until then.