Some January Pictures

Haven't posted in a while. I've been very absorbed by my writing lately, and I've preferred to spend my few spare moments hanging out with the wife and fetus (as opposed to blogging about the wife and fetus).

But here are some pictures of the goings on these last couple weeks. Here are Carin and I two weeks ago (She is 30 weeks pregnant in this picture).

It is citrus season, and we are loving our oranges and tangerines these days.

Coming right on the heels of our previous series of cat and pregnant wife photos, here are a couple shots of a 31-week pregnant Carin doing yoga with her pal Scottie.

More Information Than You Require

Warning: You may end up finding out more than you want to know if you continue reading.

So, there is a special kind of pain reserved for when you get a hemorrhoid cut off of your bum, and then the local wears off. Especially when the strongest thing you feel comfortable taking for said pain is Extra-Strength Tylenol.

(Yeah, that happened today.)

I'm not going to go any further into the details, but in the interest of self-mockery and humor, I wanted to share two things that the very distinguished surgeon -- who has been practicing many many years -- said during the very short time I was in his office today:

1. [Upon first examination of said 'roid:] "Well that is bigger and badder than most I've seen."
2. [While removing it:] "I've taken out appendices smaller than this!"

People, let this be a lesson for all of us. More prunes. Stat.

Pillows: Real and Imagined

I've been having some positional challenges while I sleep. For reasons I won't go into, my doctor advised me that whenever I am lying down, I should lie on my left side. When I do this, I need my back supported so that I don't roll onto my back in the middle of the night. This has led to a king-size-pillow barrier between me and Bill. Love you honey! I'll wave to you from way over here.

I also having been using a regular-size pillow to sort of do a combination support-the-belly plus between-the-knees thing. Not surprisingly, when I wake up, the pillows are nowhere near where I put them when I fell asleep. And it's hard, when you wake up in the middle of the night, to readjust all those pillows. In the dark. Half-asleep.

So I finally got a Snoogle yesterday. It's a pillow that's sewn into a pre-formed shape somewhere between a "C" and a "J" and you can hypothetically shape it many different ways. Behold (click to see the details):

Very promising when I went to sleep last night, because having that c-shape between your knees basically should prevents the long back support from shifting away from you. Theoretically.

Some time during the early morning, I woke up in a bit of discomfort from the neck portion. Did I also mention I have a pre-existing neck issue (herniated cervical disc - maybe C5 or C6? I forget which) that can be aggravated by side sleeping? Awesome. (In terms of pain management, I just wrapped up a month of PT, so at the moment I can once again turn my head. So I'm sticking with the side sleeping for now.) The snoogle is... not so great for my neck. The nice firm support for the back ends up being a bit firm for my head, and was sort of craning my head up a little too much. So I pushed the neck portion aside and pulled up the normal soft pillow I had tossed on the floor before falling asleep the night before.

But then the back portion was pushed away too. And somewhere in there, it came out from in between my knees? Anyway, I was having issues.

So in between snoozes on my alarm clock this morning, I have a dream. I dream that I have given birth to the baby, and isn't she (in the dream it's a she) adorable and just the sweetest thing, especially all bundled up and swaddled. She's soooo cozy and snuggle-able. So I'm snuggling with her, and maybe I start to snooze a little (in the dream), and I wake up a little bit later, quite well rested, and I can't find her. I'm searching through the sheets and comforter since it's all very fluffy, and a small bundle could be easily covered up and we wouldn't see her, but for all the fluff of the comforter (much the way our cat totally hides under the comforter and we don't even realize). So I finally find her... and I have used her as my pillow. And yes she has died because I have accidentally smooshed her to death from SLEEPING ON HER, but she sure was a comfortable pillow.

Horrifying.

Week 28 - An Ultrasoundin' We Will Go!

As Carin described in her previous post, while in New Jersey, we visited Carin's sister, the famed ultrasound tech, and spent a long time looking at our little guy.

We came home with a whole batch of cool ultrasound pictures. Here are a few, starting with the now infamous shot of our little guy (let's call him OLG for short) giving us the finger:


That whippersnapper! So irreverent! And now, he gives us the feet ...


Now to the best pictures of the bunch, the profile shots!


The picture above might be my favorite on account of how adorable OLG is. Also, the more I look at it, the more I say, "Wow! He totally looks like me! No--Wait! He totally looks like Carin!" Look at the lips, the chin, the under-nose! Am I crazy or is there actually something there? I know. I'm probably crazy.

The picture below features OLG sucking his thumb:


Nuclear powered cuteness, don't you think?

Don't believe he's sucking his thumb? I've added my artistic interpretation below:


Now, not every picture is so darn cute. The straight on shots of his face were--to be charitable--not all too flattering. The less charitable way to describe them would be ... um ... slightly demonic. But try photographing a flat cross section of your face and see how spiffy you look! Here's one of the prettier scary ones:


And now, let's end this picture session with the classic "baby kicking himself in the head" shot. Not sure if this is reflective of his mother's occasional clumsiness or his father's penchant for stretching. Perhaps, it's a bit of both.


I've added my illustrations below to help illuminate what I think is going on here. I've declined to add a thought bubble because I think it's best for each viewer to imagine what OLG is thinking for him or herself. I did, however, in the interest of imbuing our unborn son with super powers, add a cape. Enjoy.

Photographic Dispatches from the Grand East-Coast-wide RUB-THE-BELLY Tour

Yes, the belly was rubbed. The East Coast was toured. Chinese food was eaten for Christmas.

And good times were had with family and friends.

We started our vacation in Sarasota, Florida ...


where we hung out with my family, eating food ...


... and taking pictures of each other ...


... on the beach ...


... even though it was a little cold.


Then it was off to New Jersey we flew.

Here we got to hang out with Carin's family ...



... and build snow penguins.


We even met up with Carin's old high school pals.

They threw her a little surprise baby shower ...


... which made her very happy.


Here she is with fellow pregnant girlfriend, Danielle. See the matching baby bumps:


We also went to New York, where we saw friends and had a fun family get-together in my sister's apartment ...


... which provided one very proud great-grandmother-to-be with the opportunity to feel some kicks.


This is my favorite picture of the trip.

Definitely our kid

All my ultrasounds so far have been very clinical. Here's the neck fold, here's the length of the femur, yes the organs are forming correctly, and oh it's a boy. Interesting, but just-the-facts-ma'am only (since my doctor does the scanning himself). Plus, I have to watch the scans through a handheld mirror since the doctor doesn't even turn the screen in my direction. It's like trying to look at the hair on the back of your head. I like my doctor, and I would recommend him to others without reservation, but this sort of ultrasound experience is less than touching.

Fortunately for me, my sister is an ultrasound tech! Unfortunately for me, she lives 3000 miles away. So Bill and I scheduled our final unencumbered trip to the east coast right at the 6-month mark to hang with our families and swing by my sister's place of employment. She spent a good long time (45+ min) scanning for nothing in particular, just poking around, sometimes just hanging out with the wand waiting for the baby to move so we could see it on the monitor. A couple measurements for due diligence told us that he's presently 2 lbs, 13 oz, which is in the 53rd percentile for size.

Here are three ways we know the baby is definitely ours:

1. He gave us the finger.
2. He played with his penis.
3. He kicked himself in the head.

Pictures to follow.

Mellow Yellow Carin at 25 weeks

Here's a picture of Carin from our walk in Balboa Park last weekend. Quite rightly.

In fetal news, I can now not only feel our little guy's kicks by putting my hand on Carin's belly--I can visibly see them too. It's still a very subtle thing, and you have to be watching for it. That said, we've had a couple belly watching sessions this weekend when our guy was particularly active, and I saw a couple kicks. Cool stuff.

I'm very excited to get to share my wife and her Magical Belly of Wonder with family and friends over the holidays.

*Edited (by Carin) to add: By the way, this picture was taken December 11 in Los Angeles. And it was over 80 degrees. Before you get jealous, it is in the 50s and raining today (Saturday) and for the next four days.

What our cat thinks about my wife's pregnancy

Everybody has at least one thing they are good at. Our cat, Scottie, is really good at looking skeptical and generally unimpressed with whatever is going on (see picture above). Whether a crying baby will be enough to generate enthusiasm from her remains to be seen. We predict some initial fear and then lots more skepticism. I personally predict our son will wind up being her frenemy, particularly as he gets to cat chasing, tail grabbing age. We look forward to watching their relationship evolve over the next few years. As for now, as for our son's 26 week fetal state, Scottie is, frankly, unimpressed.

***ADDENDUM***

Since posting earlier today, I managed to take a couple great cat and belly pictures. I think they are a nice counterpoint to the post and photo above.

Here is our cat looking very comfortable next to Carin's belly ...

Slightly less comfortable but generally hilarious ...

EXTREMELY comfortable ...

Everybody say it together now: "Aww!"

Downside/Upside

When I took off my socks last night, I noticed a weird sock-indentation that would imply that the swelling has begun. Kind of like the top of the sock was a mild tourniquet. It's definitely not at the pitting phase, and to the untrained eye, it's hardly noticeable, since I started out with verrrry dainty ankles. They are still dainty, but I think I notice a difference. TBD.

On the upside, maybe my feet will swell so much that I will need larger shoes. I really have been loving those boots that everyone is wearing this season that look like a cross between riding boots and CHP motorcycle cop boots. For example, these:

Preeeeetty. We have been on budget lockdown, and it's somewhat hasty to buy shoes mid-pregnancy when you might outgrow them in a couple of months. But, hey, a girl can't walk around barefoot, right?

Pregnancy milestones I could do without

Recent developments:

• Heartburn that won't quit even after 4 ultra tums (1g each)
• Intermittent back pain
• Constant neck pain
• Sleeplessness (more so due to the neck pain than the pregnancy, but not helped by not being able to sleep on my back)
• Wedding and engagement rings are too tight.

And one I don't mind so much, though I reserve the right to change my mind in later weeks: all the kicking. :)

Week 25 update and pictures

So earlier this week, I ended up getting this red peacoat that I mentioned earlier, because I love red, and every time I wear my Old Navy red trenchcoat in public, I get compliments from strangers. Who doesn't love compliments from strangers?

And then it ended being 80 degrees here this weekend. Listen, I'm not complaining. I'm just saying - it's 80 degrees here this weekend. Hah! It's December 11! Los Angeles is awesome. (Sometimes.)

And here are a few belly pics for interested parties. (Remember: click to embiggen.)

At 21 weeks, 2 days:

At 24 weeks, 4 days:

p.s. Check out our orange tree! They're finally ripe. And delicious. That branch is hanging so heavy and low that it gets in the way of that little walkway I'm standing on (which leads to our office). It's a shame to cut it off when it's bearing so much delicious fruit. So we leave it and then just walk around it (or into it if we're not paying attention.) The tangerines (separate tree) are turning orange and will be ready soon too. Probably in early January.

Thanksgiving with Family

After some delay, I'm happy to post a few pics from our wonderful Thanksgiving week.

Here's a picture of us with Cindy, Paul, Rachel, and Jessie--our house guests for the week.

This is a sibling picture I like:

And now some pictures from the big day. First, the dramatic turkey reveal.

The spread . . .

The grown-ups' table:

The kids' table:

Some final Thanksgiving stats . . .

Total number of turkey eaters: 13

Total number of Canadian citizen turkey eaters: 6

Number of Canadian residents eating turkey: 1

Weight of turkey: 22 lbs.

Weeks pregnant (wife, not turkey): 22.5

Number of televised New England Patriots games watched that week: 2

Number of clogged kitchen sinks in house on Thanksgiving day: 1

Number of garbage disposals purchased on Black Friday: 1

Number of cats: 1

Number of dogs: 1

Number of iPads: at least 3

It was a real treat having our new(ish) home filled with family for the holidays, and we look forward to hosting more family gatherings in the future.

I'll end with this picture because I like it. Here we have Carin and Deanna at Bonnie's Thanksgiving party later in the weekend.