Do I love being pregnant?

Someone recently asked me if I loved being pregnant.  Do I love it?  No.  Do I think it's a really cool experience?  Absolutely! 

Some people get that pregnancy glow, love when people stop them and ask when they're due, love when people offer them their seats on the bus, love to indulge in an extra ice cream sundae or 2 (although a DQ Blizzard does sound really good about now), and love to set up the nursery for their future little nugget.

I like these things - it's nice!  I have definitely eaten more cheeze-its and bagels than I would normally allow myself (maybe just 10% more). I do daydream about the nursery but refuse to buy anything in advance because I'm a little superstitious.  I am so excited to hold the little baby and bring them into our little family.

But being pregnant is not easy.

A note to people who think pregnancy is magical - do you not get major heartburn?  Does your back not hurt all the time, even when you sleep?  Do you not get restless legs?  Were you not nauseous for a few months?  Do you not get concerned about these lovely new markings you'll sport forever - stretchmarks - even though you use the best oils and creams to prevent them?  I know this is all part of being pregnant.

So do I love it?  No.  Do I think it's such a cool experience that I'm lucky to be able to have?  Without a doubt!  I think it is so fascinating that the human body - my body - can create a human!  Sometimes when Brad looks at me like I'm being lazy (okay, often times it's because I am being lazy (ahem, pregnant)), I tell him to lay off me, I'm growing a human.  I think feeling the baby squirm is so amazing - something that you can feel from the outside but it doesn't compare to be able to feel each squirm, each hiccup, each flip, and each time the baby uses my bladder as a trampoline.  We are nearing the "shoes in the dryer" stage where the feelings aren't flutters, they're not kicks, they are THUNKS.  I feel the baby thunking around, when I wake up in the morning, on and off all day long, and often times right as I'm settling into my pillow fort to sleep.  It is so cool, and I am trying to take it all in and commit to memory what it feels like.  I'm trying to remember each feeling - no matter how exciting, cool, confusing, bizarre, or uncomfortable.  This is an experience that not everyone gets to go through and I consider myself very lucky to be going through it.  And yes, I have even parked in the special parking spots for "New and Expecting Moms" a couple of times - my back is thankful for the saved steps to the front of the grocery store, as is my cold belly which does not fit in my winter coat.

So now, we are T-6 weeks!  If this little baby is on the Leo Schedule, she will make her appearance in 3 weeks.  If she's on the Asher Schedule, she'll be here in 1 week!  Brad, we should think about packing our hospital bags and digging out the bassinet.  Hold on, baby girl, we want you to wait until January 2nd or after.  Our due date is January 9th, so anytime between January 2nd and 9th is what we're rooting for.  I'm doing all I can to make sure that happens - which, as it turns out, is not possible.  Maybe I should cut down on eating spicy food?  Nah.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!  As a reward, here are a few pictures from this past week, showing how big the bump is getting.  I'm measuring right on schedule but I feel really big:

Weekend of Family

Hi all, Brad here!

A couple weekends ago not only did Poppa and Grandma Carol visit, but Grandmommy also came for a visit with Mr. Jerry! It was quite the family filled weekend with tons of fun, baking, and snuggles galore!

On very late Thursday night/ very early Friday morning my parents came for the weekend. I was able to work from home on Friday morning while Leo and Grandma Carol were busy making delicious challahs in the kitchen:

Then for Shabbat we all went over to Bibi and Zee's for dinner and had a great time with everyone!
On Saturday morning Stacey and I went to services while Leo took a wonderful nap on Grandma Carols chest, and I don't know who was more excited about that happening between the two of them. Afterward we all met down at Federal Galley for a delicious lunch before coming back here to hang out. Once Leo went to bed, we had 2 of the best babysitters hanging out while Stacey and I went out for both dinner AND a movie! Yes we were out until after midnight and neither of us fell asleep during the movie, we were very impressed with ourselves.

On Sunday we went down to the strip to go to Pamelas for breakfast and a stroll around to get biscotti at Enricos and obviously found some amazing ELMO! books. Thanks Poppa and Grandma Carol, he loves them!

We then went over to the Science Museum, where we saw and played with everything, but the clear favorite was the CMU designed free throw shooting robot that both Leo and Poppa were entranced by:

We also had fun with the astronaut cutout, some of us more than others:

It was then time for Grandma Carol and Poppa to go back to Boston, but we can't wait for them to visit again, probably when Leo is a big brother... eek!

We rounded off our weekend with a last-minute stop to say bye bye to Grammy and read about some cool trucks!

Halloween 2018

Halloween 2018! 

Here's the little man in his outfit for school.  They had PJ day!  So he was an astronaut.  In this first picture, he's saying "cheese!".  No, he's not saying it to smile for the picture, he's actually requesting cheese - a very common practice in our house.

And here he is, thrilled to have juice with breakfast.  You get special things like juice when you have a cold and the sniffles.  Can he look any happier?  Cheese AND juice???  Lucky man!

After school it was time to get ready and dressed for trick or treaters.  Since Leo looooves Moana, we figured who better to dress up as but Maui!  For weeks before, I hand-drew tattoos all over his costume, I cut out leaves and sewed them all over his shorts, added a twine belt, made his necklace with "teeth" on it and I even made him a hook.  

Leo wasn't thrilled about putting on the Maui costume but we finally got it all on and he looked adorable! For a while he helped us hand out candy since most kids come between 6-7, even though it runs until 8. 

We finally got out to go see a few of our friends so we were able to get a picture of Maui, Moana and Heihei (yes, the chicken)!  Leo got the hang of picking candy out of bowls when it was offered to him, and our neighbor across the street even let him ring her doorbell!  That was a highlight. 

For reference, this is what the Moana crew really looks like:

We all had a ton of fun and Leo was preferential to the peanut butter cups. Yup, he's ours.

(this blog entry has been co-authored by Brad and Stacey)

School Pictures

Ah, school picture day.  Leo took his official school picture and when I picked him up from school and asked how it went, his teachers said "ummm, yeah, they weren't really able to get a picture of him.  I have no clue what that means, but luckily the next day was picture make-up day so they were able to get a picture of Leo.

When we got the proofs back, we saw what they meant.  The "official" picture of Leo is chaos - his hair is insane - both sticking up in the back and swooping to a point in the front (it's time for a  haircut), he had a smirk but his eyes looked like he was stoned - so strange!  So needless to say, we did not purchase that picture.

Instead, here is the picture we did get (and the other cute one)!  What do you think?  And here are all of his little friends in his class that he has been naming for us:

Sleepy Leo & Bumpdate

This morning when I went into Leo's room and he was still sleeping (which is rare), so I sat on his bed and rubbed his back.  He streeeeetched a full body stretch then blobbed over until his lead was on my lap.  Then he barely cracked his eyes, saw my phone, and said - oh so sleepily - "Mana, Pishies (fishies).  Emmo (elmo).  Pishies".  I was like come on, man, at least open your eyes before you start making requests like these.

Sleeping beauty: 

Reading his Elmo book in the kitchen this morning which he looooves:

He quickly moved onto his next activity, eating cheese and challah:

I finally got him to wear his hat!  Now if only he'd wear the winter coat:

Gratuitous tushy pic - he was showing off what he learns in his swimming lessons at school - mostly blowing bubbles, swallowing water, splashing, and making the tub a wave pool:

Brad and Leo reading stories together:

Bumpdate: I am officially 31 weeks pregnant!  This means that in theory, we have 9 more weeks before baby girl comes.  If she is anything like Leo, it means we have 6 more weeks.  If she is anything like Asher, it means we have 4 more weeks.  Oh gosh, this is making me nervous now.  Okay, let's just plan on 9 more weeks like the traditional baby is.  

What do you think, do I look like a pumpkin smuggler?  Tis the season, I guess.

This little baby has been moving around so much!  I've even felt a few full-body flips.  Mostly it's tap dancing and aerial ballet, I imagine.  Lots and lots of movement, which is great to feel.  With both pregnancies, I have never felt fully comfortable until I've felt the baby move on my own - it's nice to hear the heartbeat when I'm at the doctor's office but until I can feel it myself, I don't know that the baby is in there and moving around.  There's no doubting it now, there's a baby in there.  I have my next check-up next week, but so far the baby has been measuring right on the mark where she should be.  

How am I feeling?  Pretty good!  I've been really sleepy lately - I don't remember being this way when I was pregnant with Leo.  It's probably because now we have Leo.  My back is just starting to hurt so I'm wearing a crazy contraption of a maternity belt.  Heartburn, but that's to be expected.  A little trouble sleeping so I'm using my "pillow fort" pillow, so that's helping a bit.  Besides that, I feel really good!  

And Brad and I have been thinking about names for Baby Stamm.  We have some that we like, so at least that's a start!