Twenty weeks, several pairs of pants, three bra sizes, two haircuts, six bottles of TUMS, two rounds of Prilosec, one hair color, and 26 pounds (6 of them See's chocolates). ...
October 14, 2004
As I write this, the baby is hiccuping madly in my lower abdomen. These strong, regular thumps last for 10-20 minutes, three to four times a day. They're cute when I'm walking around, but when I'm trying to sleep, sit quietly, read, write, or otherwise concentrate, they're kinda annoying. The belly is now officially huge (as are my thighs and butt, to my horror), and I am now officially sick. Al was home sick for one full day and...
October 7, 2004
I went for another office visit with the obstetricians today. My impression of the front desk staff did not improve with our first afternoon visit, partly because the waiting room was mobbed and there was complete chaos up front, and partly because one of the desk chairs was being filled by a temp. He seriously got a deer-in-the-headlights look when I told him I needed to leave a urine sample. At first he said, "pardon?" as if he hadn't...
September 23, 2004
I'm thinking I'll make this a regular monthly feature for the remainder of my pregnancy (which means there will be at most three more entries—and possibly only two—depending on when I actually deliver). I've given up on support hose. Even though I said I was giving up on hose about a week ago, I tried one more suggestion (again from Sally) to try Lane Bryant. They didn't have anything in a support hose, unfortunately (everything was "day sheer" or...
September 22, 2004
I'm starting to feel sluggish and slug-like these days, kinda like I did during the first trimester—I want to exercise so I don't feel like such a blob, but my energy level is pretty low. Yesterday I resolved to go out for a long walk first thing in the morning, before my energy dropped off to the point where I could barely get up the stairs or lace up my shoes. Since I haven't been on a photography trek...
September 21, 2004
Yesterday I went for a checkup at the asthma & allergy practice, and the doctor (the one who pontificates on every subject under the sun, I assume to make himself feel like an authority) said to me while actually starting to write it in my chart, "no asthma symptoms, right?" I said, "well, sometimes..." He crossed out "No asthma symptoms" and amended it to "Occasional wheezing that responds to Maxair." I started to say that most of my asthma...
September 19, 2004
I've had a run of good luck on the self-esteem-while-pregnant front lately. It started with a random visit to the H&M store at Cherry Hill Mall last week (I don't know why I went in, really—I guess just to see what was trendy at the moment), where I came upon a small maternity section. I ended up finding three pairs of adjustable-waist pants that look great on me, as well as two cool tops. The best thing about the...
September 15, 2004
Remember how I said I was buying hose at Motherhood Maternity when I had the bra breakdown? NEVER AGAIN. I bought a size L based on my height (5'9") and my current weight, at the advice of the "sales consultant," despite the fact that the packaging clearly stated "For best fit, select your size according to your pre-pregnancy weight." Seeing as how everyone's weight gain during pregnancy is different, selecting a hose size based on pre-pregnancy weight seemed dumb,...
September 13, 2004
I actually broke down and cried OVER A BRA today. The tears started streaming down my face as I was paying for some maternity hose in a Motherhood Maternity store, and I only barely managed to hold it together until I crossed over the threshold into the mall. At that point, I started sobbing. I stood there, next to a trash can, fishing in my backpack for a tissue with which to stem the tide (and hopefully prevent my...
September 10, 2004
When Al and I moved to Philadelphia, one of the draws was that it was close to our families—meaning we'd have a built-in support system if we decided to take the plunge and have children (or, I should say, a child). I, for one, couldn't imagine having kids without having help, and the fact that my sister is in Baltimore and Al's brother is in New York means that any kid we had would have cousins nearby (key if...
September 7, 2004
First, let me say I am eating a NEW! Amy's Brown Rice Black-Eyed Peas & Veggies Bowl, and it is SO YUMMY. Hooray! I actually think it's helping my nausea, which returned this morning (it's been showing up now and again over the past couple weeks, usually if I overdo it the day before—and the definition of "overdoing it" is getting narrower and narrower, such that several trips up and down the three flights of stairs in our house...
September 1, 2004
I'm going to turn away from politics for the moment and return to pregnancy. It turns out I have more semi-regular readers of this site than I realized, and many of you have been super helpful in recommending maternity wear options from bras to evening wear. I need your help again, especially if you are tall. As you probably know, varicose veins are one of the sorry side effects of pregnancy, and I've got a couple painful blue bulges...
August 27, 2004
Aside from random references over the past few posts, I haven't really given out much information about my pregnancy since the Due Date Debate puzzle. I thought I'd say a few words now, for anyone who might be interested (i.e., my far-flung friends and relatives). For those of you who don't care, feel free to move along. I caved and colored my hair. I've been bleaching (and sometimes coloring) my hair since 1991, and I'd been putting drugstore-variety peroxide...
August 26, 2004
I think Annie is trying to warm us up for parenthood. Actually, she's been doing this to me ever since I moved in with Al three years ago. It was a giant step for me to become a pet owner, to know that I was responsible for feeding and watering and caring for another creature. As I bonded with Annie and got up to feed her in the morning and took her to the vet for checkups and shots,...
I have a bunch of things I wanted to write about (and probably will at some point over the next couple days), but the thing that's jumped to the top of the list with a bullet (or a boxcutter, as the case may be), is the 9/11 Commission Report. I finished a rather innocuous Jane Austen mystery the night before last, so I picked up the next book in my pile, which happened to be the 9/11 report. I...
August 22, 2004
August 15, 2004
Ever since I got pregnant—and especially since I started showing—I've been smiling at every other pregnant woman I pass as if to say, "Hi! I'm in the club, too! Isn't it neat?" To date, I've never gotten a smile back. Well, except from the mirror alongside the escalator at Macy's yesterday, but that doesn't count. I've felt a bit saddened by this; I expected to experience some solidarity with my fellow pregnant sisters. Is it that they recognize me...
August 9, 2004
We're back from our Last Hurrah cruise and still adjusting to walking on dry land. It's harder than you might think—the sidewalks keep tilting. Although I didn't bring my laptop with me, and I didn't pay the exorbiant Internet access fees on the ship, I did keep a hand-written journal of our exploits, and I'll be posting to our lori-and-al site with the details in the next day or two. (Or as soon as I re-construct that blog and...
July 31, 2004
I'm going to be away from the computer for a couple days and therefore will be unable to monitor and delete comments from purveyors of Viagra, teen sex, and online gambling, so I'm going to temporarily close comments on the posts. If you have a guess for the Due Date Debate puzzle, you can either e-mail me (if you know my e-mail address) or jot it down and wait to share 'til I get back and re-open comments. I'll...
July 29, 2004
So unfortunately we were not able to tape the ultrasound yesterday, either by recording it through the ultrasound machine or by videotaping the procedure with a camera. Something about medical privacy (perhaps the same medical privacy law that went into effect last year, and that required patients everywhere to fill out consent forms at doctors' offices that they've been visiting for years?). Anyway, the whole procedure lasted about an hour, and there was so much to see that I...
July 28, 2004
Today we go for our count-the-body-parts ultrasound. (For those of you attempting to determine my due date from this information, it may be (un)helpful to know that we're not getting the ultrasound at the traditional milestone.) I am nervous, for some reason—perhaps because the last time I was in that ultrasound room was for an amnio, which was fairly stressful. Intellectually I know that this procedure's going to be painless, but I can't get over the jitters. Maybe it's...
July 23, 2004
July 21, 2004
I am nearing the end of my contract with my former company, and I find I am a bit torn about it. On the one hand, I've had a total ball fixing bugs and learning more C++ and noodling around in a funky and familiar codebase again—and those are just the technical highs. It's also been great working with people I really like again. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to our Last Hurrah cruise, and to getting...
July 20, 2004
So Sally's suggestion that I try Lane Bryant as an alternative to maternity shops was totally brilliant. It's probably not a strategy that would work for everyone, but given that I'm 5'9" and already a size 12 at my normal, non-pregnant weight, moving up to a size 14/16 while pregnant was not a giant leap for me. The clothes aren't cheap, but they're far more stylish and come in better fabrics than anything I've found in maternity shops so...
July 19, 2004
Gah, why are maternity clothes so goddamned DORKY? I'm at the stage Gap Maternity calls "barely showing", but I had to abandon all but my yoga pants last month. I've still been wearing my pre-pregnancy shirts, but those are starting to look just plain weird on me. They're not short enough to show bare belly; they're only short enough to make me look fat. Ditto all of my dresses, which, because I have a thing for stretchy fabric, still...
July 12, 2004
OK, so I've been REALLY quiet for the past 3 months or so, posting only very rarely. I'm breaking the silence now with a few photos that show what I've been up to: Tooth Decay, Hunter, NY ~ In April I went to visit my grandmother in the Catskills. One of the benefits of not working (and of living on the east coast again) is that I finally have time to visit relatives who usually see me only rarely....