the big week

Week 42 of the 366 project was a big one; it ended with us bringing a baby home from the hospital! It started less eventfully, however. It was week 38 of pregnancy, and I had just about completed my pre-baby to-do list. That Sunday's task was to bake some banana bread for the freezer. Since that kept me busy, the picture of the day turned out to be rather similar to the one I took when I made pumpkin chocolate chip loaves the week before.

I used my family's old banana bread recipe this time, just because I remembered it being really easy. It was indeed easy, but I've decided that I prefer the recipe from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. The texture is a bit better—less spongy and less greasy. And I could just leave out the crystallized ginger (I have before) and chocolate if I want plain banana bread. In any case, it's been nice to have these loaves in the freezer to pull out for snacks or breakfasts. I only just finished the last one yesterday.

288/366 banana bread

Steve's parents flew to SF on Monday. Steve worked from home that morning so that we could pick them up from the airport, and then he headed to the office for a meeting when we got back. The rest of us—Bruce, Bonnie, Carmen, Elsa, and I—got lunch from Papalote and ate it downstairs. I took a few pictures of Bruce and Bonnie playing with Elsa, but Elsa's a bit more active now than when they were here last time in March. None of the shots of them turned out that well, so I opted for a more stationary subject: Elsa's rabbit with the little table and chairs that Carmen found at the Alameda Flea Market.

289/366 lonely rabbit

On Tuesday afternoon, the nursery was the place to be. Carmen and Elsa came upstairs for a while, joining Bruce, Bonnie, and me. Carmen got out Elsa's old Bumbo seat and encouraged her to try sitting in it again, partly to see if she'd get stuck when she tried to stand up. Elsa actually managed to get herself out of it a few times; it took Carmen "helping" her up to get it to stick.

290/366 bumbo butt

Then there was Wednesday. It began like any other day, and then I went into labor. In the early afternoon, I had my weekly OB appointment. I was now 2cm dilated, rather than the 1cm I had been for the previous two weeks, but my doctor told me there was still a good possibility that I would be making it to my 39-week appointment the next Wednesday.

Later, I met Carmen and the in-laws for a photo shoot with Elsa in the park after her nap. (Carmen gave me the bird when I told her I was at 2cm.) Elsa had gotten a Detroit Tigers shirt and hat when it looked like the Tigers had a good chance of getting into the World Series, so we had to take some pictures of her in it. Plus, it was really nice out that day—in the upper 70s or low 80s. I got some cute shots of Elsa alone and some with the grandparents, and then we ended at the swings, where we stayed quite a while. That's probably where I was when contractions started, but since they didn't really feel much different from the Braxton Hicks contractions I had been experiencing for the last couple months, I didn't take note of when they began. I didn't even think to start timing them until I was back in the house, around 7:30pm. 

291/366 swinging with grandpa

So this is where the whole birth story comes in. (Read it all here if you missed it.) The short version is that we checked into the hospital around 11pm Wednesday night, I got the epidural at about 4am, and Evan was born at 1:09pm. I was actually glad that he waited until the next day to come, since the light in the labor/delivery room was drastically better during the day than it had been at night. I set up my camera when it was almost time to start pushing, and I let Steve take over from there. Not every shot turned out very well, but I really liked the one below.

292/366 the arrival of evan

The rest of the afternoon on Thursday was spent making phone calls to family, moving to our postpartum room on the other side of the floor, and getting the hang of breastfeeding. Luckily, Evan was pretty good at latching right away, so that was one less thing to worry about. In the evening, the whole gang came to visit: Bruce, Bonnie, Dan, Carmen, and Elsa. The adults took turns holding the baby and corralling Elsa, who "brought" Evan a stuffed squirrel as a gift.

That night, we decided to let Evan go to the nursery, rather than having him room in with us. After the long night and day we had just had, we needed a little sleep. The nurse still brought him in every couple of hours so I could feed him, but at least I didn't need to worry about him at all in between. (We kept him in our room the next night and got to hear all his squeaks and stirrings.)


Friday was a little less eventful for us. There was lots of eating on Evan's part, as well as some standard newborn tests and his circumcision, but we didn't have any visitors besides my doctor and one of the pediatricians. Steve and I decided that our room was small and crowded enough as it was, and we would be seeing the family again when we came home the next day anyway. We also had our "fancy" celebratory dinner that evening, since it was our last night in the hospital. I say "fancy," but it was definitely still hospital food, steak or not. It's nice that they try to make it special, though.

I actually didn't take too many pictures that day, because I was recovering. But I did make it out of bed long enough to take some photos of Evan on Steve's cot by the window.

293/366 one day old

Finally, we came home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon. It was a little stressful trying to get Evan dressed and into his car seat for the first time, but we managed. The one thing that didn't get put on him was his hat; it was too late once he was strapped in. Luckily, it was in the low 60s that day, so he didn't really need it for the short trips to and from the car.

The grandparents, Dan, Carmen, and Elsa met us at the house when we pulled up. Elsa got to see Evan in her old car seat, and after a quick photo op, we took Evan upstairs. Carmen and Bonnie had decorated a little with flowers, balloons, and a Tigers bib in the nursery. And on the kitchen table, there were more flowers, some fruit, and a card addressed to "Stevily." Apparently, our "Stemily" nickname had been updated.

294/366 welcoming party

We all hung out for a while in the nursery, and then we went downstairs for Evan's first pizza night. He pretty much slept through the whole thing.

birth story

Five weeks later and just in time for Thanksgiving, here is Evan's birth story:

Contractions started on Wednesday, October 17, sometime around 6 or 7pm, but I thought that they were more of the same Braxton Hicks contractions that I had been experiencing for the last few months. Having just been to the doctor earlier that afternoon for my 38 (and a half) week appointment, I assumed that the increased frequency of the contractions was due to the exam. So I didn't think much of it when they started. It was a nice warm evening, and I was busy in the park with Bonnie, Bruce, and Elsa. We had done a little photo shoot with Elsa in her Detroit Tigers outfit, which was followed by some swinging and then chatting with a father and his three little girls. Carmen had gone inside to work on dinner, and Steve and Dan joined us for a while when they got home from work.

I had always pictured walking around the neighborhood while in early labor, trying to get contractions going, like my mother did when she was in labor with me. I guess I did end up spending some of that time outside, standing around by the swings; I just didn't know it was the beginning of labor. I was 2cm dilated at my appointment that day, and I had been 1cm for at least two weeks before that, so I probably didn't have as far to go in that stage anyway.

When we went inside that evening, Steve started dinner—zucchini carbonara—and I started going through the pictures I had taken. About halfway through, I noticed that the contractions were getting just a little more uncomfortable. They also seemed to be pretty frequent, so I decided to try out the contraction timer app that I had gotten for my phone. If nothing else, it seemed like a good time to figure out how to use it before the real thing. That was at 7:34pm, and the contractions ended up being about 5 minutes apart, although they weren't necessarily each a minute long.

I timed contractions through dinner, but I took a break for an hour while Steve and I loaded the dishwasher. Afterward, we watched a little more of Life After Top Chef, and I sat on the yoga ball for a while. Meanwhile, contractions continued. I started timing them again at about 9:20pm, and they were coming about every 3 minutes or so. They were also lasting closer to a minute each now.

Around 10pm, I decided that maybe I should finish up my hospital packing, just in case we needed to head to CPMC that night. I had packed what I could already, but I had a list of things that couldn't be packed until the last minute. I was glad I had the list too, because it was hard to concentrate on what I might be forgetting when I was also timing contractions and trying to decide if I was actually in labor or not. Everything I had read about real contractions vs. Braxton Hicks seemed to say, "If you're really in labor, you'll know." Well, I didn't. The contractions were getting a little more uncomfortable, but I could still walk, talk, and pack through them.

Steve heard me rustling around in the bedroom and bathroom and came to see what I was up to. I told him I was packing... just in case...? and filled him in. He got a little nervous when I told him that the contractions were about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes apart and 45-60 seconds long. After all, the general rule for heading to the hospital is 5 minutes apart, 1 minute long, for 1 hour.

Once we were all packed, I called the 24-hour line and gave the nurse my details. She said to come on into the hospital, so Steve brought the car up to the house. It was a little before 11pm at this point, and Dan was out walking Enzo. So Dan and Carmen found out we were going to the hospital, and I spent part of the drive there texting Carmen while continuing to time contractions. She asked what they felt like, and I told her they felt like bad cramps. I still wasn't convinced that we weren't going to be sent home right away, but maybe I was just in denial.

We arrived at the hospital after 11pm, and lucked into one of the parking spots across the street from the entrance—one of the few streets not requiring a neighborhood permit for more than 2 hours of parking. After checking in at the OB Triage desk, we were shown to a small exam room, where I changed out of my clothes so they could look at my progress. I was now 3cm dilated and 100% effaced, so they admitted me around 11:30pm. Steve called his parents, I texted Carmen, and I also made a quick post to Facebook to indicate that I might have a baby soon. Our first labor/delivery nurse, Leah, came down to get us not long after, and we took the elevator up to our room on the second floor. That's where the rest of the action happened.

I was hooked up to the monitors on and off for a while, and Steve and I settled in a bit. The contractions slowly got more intense over the next few hours. At first, I was able to get through them just fine. When I was allowed out of bed, I took a few pictures. I also brushed my teeth, took off my mascara from earlier in the day, and removed my contacts. All this with only a minute or two at a time of being pain-free.

1am

At 2:30am, I was about 4cm dilated, and the contractions were getting worse. I had been texting Carmen—she was still awake—and bouncing on the yoga ball a little, but by then I was needing more help from Steve. What seemed to work the best was leaning over the bed or being on all fours while Steve did a combination of two of the lower back/hip massages that we learned in the childbirth prep class. I didn't really use the breathing we learned, though. I just stuck with breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth, rather more forcefully as the pain got worse. I could have walked around the hospital floor to move things along faster, but the thought of straying from my room when I would just have to stop for contractions every minute or two was pretty unappealing.

I decided to try the shower sometime between 3-4am. I was ready for something different, and the warm water helped for a little while. The nurse gave me about 15-20 minutes in there, which was about right. By the end, even the warm water wasn't helping, and I decided that it was about time for the epidural. It meant that I would have to stay in bed for the rest of the time, but I was tired enough by 4am that I was ready to lie down without being in pain.

Of course, the anesthesiologist had to finish up with someone else first, so there was a span of 15-30 minutes before I actually got the epidural. (Just in case I needed more contractions to confirm that I wanted it.) The worst part was the length of time it took once the anesthesiologist started, when I had to be sitting still, hunched over through my contractions, rather than in a position that allowed Steve to continue the massaging. It felt really odd when the anesthesiologist administered the drugs—like nails on a chalkboard—but I was feeling much better soon. My legs went mostly numb, my toes felt like they had been in winter boots in the cold for too long, and more importantly, I couldn't feel the contractions anymore.

We were actually able to sleep for a couple hours after that, not that I actually fell asleep. Between the music playing on our iPod dock and everything going on in my head, I don't think I really slept at all. The bit of rest helped, though, and Steve got to sleep a little.

The nurse was back around 6am to check on my meds and such. That's also when they started me on pitocin. The epidural and being in bed had slowed down the labor, so they wanted to get things moving again. Then, when that hadn't produced a significant enough change, the doctor broke my water at 7:20am. I was at about 5cm dilated then, but by about 10am, I was fully dilated with the baby at +1 or +2 station. The nurse told us that we would be ready to start pushing in about an hour!

Steve, killing time

At 11am, the baby was +2 or +3 station, and we were about ready to push. Since my doctor was off that day, we waited a little longer to see if she would be coming anyway to deliver the baby or if it would be the on-call doctor. It ended up being the on-call doctor, but she seemed nice too. (My doctor came by to see me the next morning and returned to do the baby's circumcision later.)

Pushing lasted about an hour and a half, from 11:30am to 1pm, and we had two nurses during that time. Leah had gone home after the night shift ended and had been replaced by Mary Kate, who I liked even better. Mary Kate was 34 weeks pregnant herself and reminded me a little of Ingrid Michaelson. When she took a break for lunch, the charge nurse took over for a bit. She noticed Steve's "Praise the Lard" t-shirt, and chatted with us about food between pushes.

The actual pushing was pretty interesting. With the epidural, I couldn't feel a whole lot, so I had to rely on the nurse to tell me when I was having a contraction at first. But by the end, I was feeling the tension and the urge to push on each one. I would have to push for a count of ten, take a quick breath, push for another ten, breathe, and push again. Mostly, I just focused on tensing up my abs and thinking in the upward direction like they told me to. The nurses seemed happy with my pushing skills, so I guess I didn't take as long as some people.

They asked me toward the end if I wanted reach down and feel the baby's head. I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it, but I said yes anyway. I was glad that I did; it was pretty strange, but it was also kind of cool to feel the soft hair on his head before I could actually see it.

The doctor came in for the last few pushes, and before I knew it, Evan's (slightly cone-shaped) head was out. That was quickly followed by the rest of him, and he started to cry. It was kind of a squeaky cry that sounded like a baby pterodactyl. They laid him on my chest, and he was slightly grayish from all the white vernix that was covering his skin. I couldn't believe how much of it there was and how sticky it turned out to be, but he was also soft and warm. Meanwhile, he had stopped crying, but he was still whimpering a little. For how alien he looked and sounded, he was pretty cute.

Mary Kate took Evan to the other side of the room after a few minutes so she could clean him off and do all the necessary newborn procedures while the doctor stitched me back up. Evan also got a sponge bath then. His temperature had been a little high—probably because it was a warm day—and the sponge bath cooled him off a bit. Steve watched the whole process, taking pictures and videos with my camera.

Once Evan was done and ready, he was swaddled up and handed back to Steve. Mary Kate took a picture of the three of us, which turned out to be slightly out of focus, but oh well.

And just like that, we had a baby.

Evan Christopher
born at 1:09pm on October 18, 2012
7lbs 15oz
21 inches long

the third trimester

I had high hopes—too high, apparently—of writing this third trimester blog post while I was still actually in my third trimester of pregnancy. I kept putting it off, but I told myself that I would write it over the weekend that marked the beginning of week 39 so that the details would all be current. As it turned out, I was a little busy coming home from the hospital with a newborn that weekend. And so, here is the wrap-up with slightly less fresh details.

For a little visual reference, we're talking about week 28...

to week 38.

Clearly, I grew a lot. In fact, week 29 was when I started to feel like my belly was getting in the way of things a little. I was still thinking like a skinny girl, trying to squeeze by things, and then I'd end up bumping something with my belly. Somehow, I just never felt as huge as I thought I would. It took more effort to get to my feet from a sitting position as time went on, but I could still see my feet and even reach them to cut my toenails. Walking wasn't even very difficult at the end, although I felt a bit more winded than usual on the walk back to my car from the OB's office that last day.

Likewise, I never felt the need to get one of those huge pregnancy pillows for sleeping. I started wedging a small neck pillow under the side of my belly around week 26 instead. (It was never great as a neck pillow, but I was glad that I had kept it around.) I had some stiffness in my back in the mornings, but it was never enough to warrant big pillows crowding the bed. How do people turn over with those anyway? At the most, I just kept an extra pillow next to the bed to put between my knees occasionally. I didn't usually need it until maybe the last hour or two of sleep in the mornings.

In terms of baby movement, there was no slowing down during the third trimester. He had lots of hiccups, which became more and more obvious on the right side of my belly—where his back was. And there was a lot of foot movement on the left side. Occasionally, a foot would poke straight out towards my side in a way that felt rather unnerving, like I wasn't supposed to be stretched in that direction. Putting my hand there usually helped, since it seemed to provide a bit of support and confine the movement a little. Still, I was glad that most of the jabs were directed outward rather than inward at my organs or my ribs.

Braxton Hicks contractions: I started feeling them in the second trimester, but they continued to be common during the third. They got more and more frequent, and occasionally, they were a little more uncomfortable. Often it just felt like my blood pressure was rising suddenly, and then I'd realize that it was a contraction that was tightening things up. When labor started, I actually thought the contractions were Braxton Hicks for the first few hours. I was so used to those that I really didn't think it was true labor... But that's for a separate blog entry.

Next comes fatigue. Probably because I wasn't working, I didn't really feel a lot of the typical third trimester fatigue. There was a little—I'd sometimes hit a wall around 2 or 3pm and not feel like I wanted to do much. It was nowhere near the fatigue of the first trimester, however. And I actually never took any naps over the course of the pregnancy; I was just a little slower to get out of bed some mornings.

Appetite wasn't a huge issue either. The stereotype is that you'll want to eat everything in sight during the third trimester, but I didn't feel exceptionally starved. That might have had a lot to do with the gestational diabetes diet and its requirements that I eat or snack every 2-3 hours. I was already feeling like I was being told to eat constantly, so I probably didn't have the opportunity to get that hungry.

Finally, we come to my list of things that I do not miss about pregnancy:

1) Gestational Diabetes. The diet actually didn't turn out to be a huge deal; in fact, it probably kept my overall weight gain down and allowed me to lose it much faster afterward. The recommended 30-minute walks were good for keeping me out and about too. What I don't miss is not being able to eat sweet stuff or pasta without feeling like I was cheating. I also don't miss having to set a timer at the start of each meal and then stopping everything an hour later to test my blood sugar. The daily testing and having to keep food logs got a little old.

2) Constant Peeing. I don't miss feeling like I needed to pee literally every time I stood up. (That includes when I stood up from peeing too...) Since the baby was head-down from at least 31 weeks, there was probably increasing pressure on my bladder for quite a while. I would say that I don't miss getting up to go to the bathroom once or twice every night, but I still do that when I get up to feed the baby. At least I know that's just from all the water I've been drinking.

3) Heartburn. It was a problem throughout the pregnancy, but it definitely got worse as the weeks went by. I took Pepcid daily before dinner and Tums a lot the rest of the day, and I still frequently ended up having to take out my retainer and chew another Tums in the middle of the night. In fact, I was still taking Tums while I was in labor. Luckily, I had some in my bag and was allowed to take them. It was amazing when I realized a day or two later—after having the baby—that the heartburn was just... gone. Suddenly, I was drinking all this water (and burping, as one does) and there was no hint of acid reflux.

So it was fun being pregnant for a while, and I will miss feeling the baby's movements. And the uninterrupted sleep... However, I'm enjoying having Evan out where I can see him and of course, being done with the various pregnancy nuisances.

mid-september mania

Lots of baby-related stuff in week 38's pictures. It was right after our shower, so there were gifts in addition to the various decorations for the walls, which had arrived and were waiting to be hung. Steve and I got the set of mirrors up on Saturday after the shower, but we saved the other things for Sunday. There were the four animal prints for above the shelves, the mobile in the corner next to the crib, and the bunting above the crib. I went with a shot of the crib with the decals and bunting for my picture of the day, since they made a more complete picture together than the other, still slightly unfinished areas of the nursery.

260/366 crib-side

I wrote some more thank-you notes for shower gifts on Monday, but I took a break to snap a picture of our diaper bag (from Hunter and Colleen) and our Sophie Giraffe (from Danielle and Brian). The Sophie was kind of a must-include for our registry, since we've given them to various other friends who have had babies. It's not exactly woodland-themed, but every baby needs a Sophie.

261/366 diaper bag

Our stroller arrived from Amazon that evening, so it became my subject for Tuesday's picture. Dan had reminded us the previous Friday that Amazon was going to start charging sales tax in CA as of the next day, so we ended up ordering the stroller that night to save the extra money. For the picture, I decided that I'd use our door as my background. That meant that I also got to practice carrying the stroller down the stairs. I did it in two pieces: frame and then seat. They're both pretty lightweight, so the hardest part was just finding the space at the bottom of the stairs to open the door. I figured out that I'll probably need to bring down the frame first, put it on the landing in front of the open door, and then bring down the seat (or car seat). Of course, the other option—Carmen's idea—is to store the stroller in the car and just put the baby in a carrier for the short walk to our parking spot. We'll see which solution ends up being most convenient in the long run.

262/366 ready to cruz

Alyson came over for dinner after work on Tuesday night, bringing with her Rhett's half of their baby gift: a onesie featuring a picture that Rhett took of some orangutans. Rhett has made various items of schwag before for his website, Mongabay, but apparently this was the first Mongabay onesie. I figured that warranted use in Wednesday's picture of the day. (And also, I had no other ideas.)

263/366 orangutan love

More new stuff for Thursday's picture, although not baby-related for once. I ordered these ballet flats online, and they came the day before. Unfortunately, they're a little small, so I'm hoping that they'll stretch a lot, like the website said.  

264/366 white ribbon pink shoes

I took a walk down Valencia with Carmen and Elsa to Four Barrel Coffee on Friday. It happened to be Park(ing) Day, so there were a few impromptu parklets set up in parking spots along the way. The one pictured below appeared to be done by an architecture firm, and they had balloons everywhere. Elsa wasn't quite sure what to think of the balloon sword that one of the guys wanted to give her, but she accepted a more colorful balloon flower not long after that. I guess it was less threatening.

265/366 balloons

On Saturday morning, I woke up and Steve informed me that he had ripped a hole in his good jeans. That left him with about 1-2 pairs of wearable jeans, and those weren't in great shape either. It seemed a shopping trip would be necessary. So we went to Hayes Valley that afternoon, found Steve two new pairs of good jeans at Azalea, got Dan a birthday card at Lavish, had ice cream and coffee at Smitten and Blue Bottle, bought meat for dinner at Fatted Calf, and stopped at Fiddlesticks to look at the cute baby stuff. I didn't take many pictures on our outing—just of some stuffed foxes in the window of Fiddlesticks. The foxes are by Hazel Village, which I think is a pretty small operation based in Brooklyn. I had come across them online while doing nursery research, but I had never seen any of their stuffed animals in person before. They're cute, but probably a little expensive for stuffed animals.

266/366 foxy

And with that, there were only 100 days left in the year. Of course, I'm about 20 days behind in blogging still... I need to get cracking if I'm going to catch up (briefly) before the baby comes. His due date is on day 301, but I think there's a good chance that he'll arrive earlier.

the second trimester

Now that I'm over two months into my third trimester, I suppose it's about time to write up a summary of the second trimester like I kind of did for the first. I have a Moleskine notebook—the same one I used for the Europe trip, actually—in which I've been writing the various developments each week. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be able to remember a lot of the details.

The most obvious thing that characterized the second trimester was growth. I went from this, at 14 weeks:

to this, at 28 weeks:

I'd say it was a pretty productive trimester in the baby-growing department; although now, that 28-week belly looks rather small to me. Those three months included some round ligament pain now and then, as things stretched; and it was the beginning of the end for my innie belly button, as it got shallower by week 21. Then, just the top bit started to stick out whenever I was standing up, and more and more joined it by the end of the trimester. I don't think it was fully popped until about week 32, though.


Altogether, the second trimester was definitely a more pleasant one than the first, as you can probably imagine. By week 15, any lingering icky feelings were pretty much gone, and my energy level was completely back to normal—or better! That was good, because we had a lot of work to do to clear out the office and transform it into a nursery. I hadn't gotten anything done on that front during the first trimester, what with my total lack of energy and also not wanting to tip anyone off too obviously that I was pregnant. The second trimester ended up being great for productivity, even though I had to borrow a pair of Steve's old jeans and a t-shirt for the dirty work. My old painting jeans had zero chance of fitting by that point, and I didn't have maternity pants to spare.


Other aspects of the second trimester...

Heartburn continued, getting more frequent than it had been. I still managed it with Tums and Pepcid, but the Pepcid turned into an everyday thing before dinner, since that seemed to work the best to keep the heartburn in check through the night.

Frequent peeing also became more standard. Especially when we were in Seattle, I felt like I was stopping in the bathroom whenever possible. Surprisingly, I went five out of my six nights in Seattle without having to get up to pee, but I was probably just extra tired and slightly more dehydrated from all the walking we were doing. As the weeks have passed, a night without a trip to the bathroom has definitely become the rare occurrence. 

And speaking of pregnancy cliches, I got vivid dreams for a while too. There were only a few noticeable mood swings, though, and not too much in the way of food cravings. It's been difficult to tell the difference between a craving and something just sounding good to me.

Perhaps I craved baked goods, since I made zucchini bread a couple times and particularly enjoyed Steve's buttermilk biscuit experiments. Those things got retired after the whole glucose test thing, however. No more unnecessary sugars around the house. My snack of choice in the second trimester actually seemed to be cottage cheese, which felt healthy with its protein and calcium. (After eating lots of plain yogurt in the first trimester, I needed a change.) Meanwhile, my breakfast each day went from whole wheat toast to waffles with butter and honey—a childhood favorite, although my toaster waffles were not flax seed or whole grain back then.


Baby movement was one of the more exciting developments during the second trimester. I first thought I felt something on Mother's Day, around 16 weeks, but I wasn't sure until the Tuesday after that. At first, it was just little nudges here and there, usually in the afternoons. They became more and more frequent (and stronger) over the next month or so. Steve was able to feel the baby move at the beginning of week 19, which was also the week of our second ultrasound. That was when we found out we were having a boy—and a very wiggly one at that. I had to go back a week later for another ultrasound to get the shots of his heart that they hadn't been able to get because he was moving too much.

Around week 21, while we were seeing American Idiot (the Green Day musical), I felt the first hits to my bladder. Those weren't so pleasant, so I was glad that they didn't happen too often. Week 22 was when I began seeing movements from the outside—little spots sticking out for a moment and such. During week 23, I started to feel things from two sides at once, often diagonally, poking out towards opposite sides. Clearly, he was getting longer.

And while we were in Seattle during week 25, I would notice an occasional feeling of pressure from the inside. When I would feel the spot from the outside, there would be something slightly harder there, like a baby foot or something. That trend continues now, often with more force. It's usually either a baby back (or butt) pushing out on my right side or one of his feet pushing out on my left side.

Baby hiccups started around that time too, becoming more easily identifiable around week 27. Now they happen a lot. It feels pretty similar to me having hiccups myself, but obviously lower. And of course, there's nothing I can do to get rid of these when they start.


Finally, there was the start of Braxton Hicks contractions. During week 23, I started getting them while walking if I was moving too fast. It was like a stitch in my side, but it would be on the underside of my belly, and it would go away when I stopped walking for a bit. Then in week 27, right at the end of the second trimester, I started getting them while just sitting in the evenings. No big deal, just a slightly uncomfortable tightness for a minute as the muscles practiced contracting. They happen a lot now, so I've gotten pretty used to it.


Well, that pretty much sums up the second trimester! Now it's back to catching up on 365 blog posts for a little while. Maybe I'll manage to fit in a third trimester wrap-up too before I go into labor... That would be nice.

we're having a...

Steve and I found out the gender of our baby nearly a month ago, making at least the first half of week 23 an eventful one. But while we eagerly awaited Monday's ultrasound, we got some work done around the house on Sunday.

After lunch that day, Steve and I cleared the construction stuff out of the dining room closet, and then I vacuumed it out while Steve put the previous contents on the shelves in the utility room. I did some measuring once the closet was clean and decided that the existing shelves in there would work just fine for us. We plan to get some elfa shelving from The Container Store for the living room and nursery closets, but this closet had some actual built-in shelves already that happened to be at acceptable heights. That meant that I could start loading up the closet with things like the little keyboard, the tabletop food photography light, and my container of photo props—all things that had been in the office/nursery before.

With all that work in the afternoon, we decided that we would go to Mission Cheese for an easy dinner. That way we'd get a nice walk, have our fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, and I could take a picture or two for the day. I didn't end up taking many pictures, but we stopped for a shot of the fence outside the newly renovated Mission Playground.

155/366 monster park

Monday was finally the day of our ultrasound, but as I figured out at the first one, there's not much picture-taking to be done at an ultrasound—at least not on my part. We got a CD of pretty low resolution pictures, but those wouldn't count as my photo of the day anyway. And I wanted to buy something special and gender-specific for when we announced whether it was a boy or girl. Of course, with the ultrasound taking place at 3:45pm, there wasn't really time afterward to go buy something and photograph it. Instead, I decided to wait until the next day for the announcement picture. Luckily, we had gotten dinner reservations at Incanto that evening to celebrate, so I was able to use a food picture from our meal as my shot of the day. I went with the "Hot Mess," a foie gras dish that we had as a starter.

The title—Hot Mess—wasn't actually representative of my day, although the ultrasound didn't quite go as perfectly as we would have hoped... The baby was moving around too much by the end, so I had to go back a week later for the pictures of the heart that they needed. I guess I was asking for it by scheduling the ultrasound for one of the more active times of the day, but I was trying to go by what would be most convenient for Steve, coming from work.

156/366 hot mess

On Tuesday, I went to Fiddlesticks in Hayes Valley in search of that special something to photograph to say "it's a boy!" I wasn't sure if I wanted something like a stuffed animal or some booties or a newborn outfit, so I just looked around to see what caught my eye at my favorite kids' store. On the way in, I saw this adorable stuffed owl that would go well with my woodland-themed plans for the nursery, and then I found a couple outfits that I liked. The light blue one is pretty tiny, but hopefully, the little guy will fit into it long enough to at least wear it home from the hospital.

Before finding out the sex, I posted a rather informal poll on Facebook, asking my friends what they thought it would be. Several people thought girl, a couple thought boy, and several more hedged—afraid to commit to an answer. I didn't mention my hunch that it would be a boy, for fear of throwing the results. I was kind of hoping for a girl, but my top choice for a boy name was the one that seemed to be sticking better than any of the girl ones. (We're not telling what that name is until he's born...) I had also started to design the nursery with the aforementioned woodland theme. While it will probably be pretty gender-neutral as nurseries go, it does seem like a better fit for a boy.

157/366 it's a boy!

After all that excitement, it was back to the dining room closet for Wednesday's project. I took all my food photo props out of the Rubbermaid container they were previously in, stacked them on the new desk, and then tried to figure out what sizes of plastic containers from The Container Store I would need to fit them all. (And what combination of containers would actually fit together on a single shelf in that closet.) Once I had settled on my choices, I gave Steve a list, and then he picked them up on his way home that evening. I was able to load my stuff into the boxes and pack them in the closet while he was making dinner. So now, all these things—plus a tray and a bamboo cutting board—are in four smaller, clear containers at about waist level, rather than one large opaque tub on the floor. It should be much easier to get things in and out that way. 

158/366 prop collection

Not wanting to take another consecutive day's picture in my house, I did an errand run in Noe Valley on Thursday. I pretty much ended up just taking pictures of flowers on the way this time, so the daily shot was some society garlic that I passed in the neighborhood.

159/366 society garlic

Friday's event was a bang trim downtown, bringing me to the general vicinity of the Teuscher chocolate store. (It's across the street from the salon.) They sell chocolate in these cute animal-shaped boxes, so I occasionally look in their windows for photo ideas. This time, the giraffes were my favorites, although the little chocolate gnomes behind them were pretty awesome too.

160/366 giraffes & chocolate

The best thing I could think of to shoot on Saturday was the bowl of cherry (or grape) tomatoes that Steve had gotten from the farmers market on Thursday. I've been pretty excited for tomato season to start, so cherry tomatoes make me happy. These ended up in caprese salads that I had for lunch the following Monday and Tuesday.

161/366 grape tomatoes

a return to productivity

It seems the more productive I am lately, the less exciting my pictures are. Thankfully, week 21 featured a mix of productivity and decent pictures...

First, a Sunday crumble. Cherries were just starting to appear at the markets in late May, so we finally got around to making the cherry almond crumble that I had bookmarked last year. And to go with it, we decided on an almond ice cream from the Bi-Rite Creamery book. Technically, the recipe is for cherry almond ice cream, but I figured there would be plenty of cherries in the crumble already. In the end, the ice cream was thick and intensely almondy. It clearly needed the cherries in it if it was going to stand alone. It went fine with the crumble, though, adding that creamy-sweet element to break up the tart fruit flavor. My favorite ice cream and crumble combination is still peaches, nectarines, and plums (and maybe a few blackberries) with nectarine bourbon ice cream, but this was a good one to start off stone fruit season.

141/366 cherry almond crumble

I was much less creative on Monday. All I could think of to shoot was the last of the two peaches we had gotten at Bi-Rite on Saturday. I ate one that day for breakfast and the other the next day. Not very exciting as a photo, but I was pretty excited to eat peaches again. (I'll be more excited when there are nectarines...)

142/366 what a peach

Tuesday was one of those days when I walked over the hill to Noe Valley to run some errands. This time, it was a cart full of pillows outside an antique store that caught my eye.

143/366 the pillow cart

Next, Wednesday morning was devoted to the delivery of our brand new desk! This is the one we picked out and purchased from Room & Board about 10 days before, on Mother's Day. Now, it sits in the dining room, waiting for Steve's computer to make the move from the office. (The flowers were from the closing performances I played for 13 on Sunday.) While it wasn't cheap, the desk fulfills Steve's requirement of having a keyboard tray at the right height—the front of the drawer flips down—and my requirement of not being ugly. It's not quite the same shade of wood as our kitchen cabinets, but it's close; and the stainless steel matches our kitchen appliances. The only downside is that there's not a lot of storage, aside from the keyboard drawer. We'll have to keep more things in our closets, which at least means that they'll be out of sight and out of reach of little hands. And I was especially glad to find out the following Saturday that the placement didn't interfere too much with my weekly pictures against the wall to the left.

144/366 new desk

On Thursday, I met Steve, Dan, Rob, Traci, and Carmen (with Elsa) at the Ferry Building for lunch. Rob and Traci had been talking up the porchetta sandwiches from the Roli Roti truck for quite a while, so it was clearly time that we all tried them. As promised, the sandwich was quite good. The mix of herby pork, caramelized onions, and arugula was great with the fresh bread. But it was such a big sandwich that I ended up eating only half for lunch, taking the rest home with me. It made a good—but again, filling—afternoon snack.

145/366 roli roti

Since we were at the Ferry Building that Thursday, I stopped inside for a cupcake from Miette to take home too. If I hadn't had half of my sandwich left, it probably would have been my snack that day; however, I saved it for Friday afternoon. That also meant that I had it to use as Friday's photo subject. I usually go for the gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, but the time of year called for a yellow cupcake with strawberry buttercream. I'm not a big fan of their plain buttercream frosting, but I really like their strawberry stuff. It's intensely strawberry-y. Of course, now that that craving is fulfilled for the year, I can go back to getting my favorite gingerbread cupcake next time.

146/366 cupcake time

Back to the land of productivity on Saturday... Dan, Carmen, and Elsa were out of town for Memorial Day weekend, so it was a good time for getting some heavy lifting done without worrying about waking a napping child downstairs. The goal for the weekend was to move the IKEA bookshelves from the office/nursery to their new locations around the house. We actually only got one done on Saturday, though: one of the bigger shelves, which we transferred to the living room. It replaced some more utilitarian-looking IKEA shelves that were there before, holding DVDs. That shelf got moved to the utility room to get loaded with construction-type stuff later, and I reloaded the living room shelf with DVDs, our Blurb books, and some of the prettier cookbooks.

I still haven't decided whether the ice cube lamp is staying on that second shelf... I don't particularly like the cord hanging down, and it's most likely too much trouble to try to punch a hole in the back of the shelf to thread it through. It might have to find a new home somewhere else.

147/366 the saturday project

Stay tuned for even more productivity in week 22! (baby steps...)

the excitement builds

Week 20 was a busy one, requiring me to get my pictures of the day in early, before evening rehearsals and performances. You see, I had agreed to play piano in the pit of a middle school production of 13, and it was tech week. Luckily, I had done the show with the same conductor a couple summers ago, so I just had to brush up and get comfortable with the score again. (It's a challenging one, but it's one of the more enjoyable shows I've played.) That week, I had rehearsals Monday through Thursday and performances on Friday and Saturday nights, plus one additional show on Friday morning.

Sunday, however, was free. It was also Mother's Day. We didn't really do anything special and Mother's Day related, but we made a trip to Room & Board to look at and order a new computer desk. (Progress!) The picture of the day was our lunch, though. Steve made a pizza with potatoes and rosemary. Apparently, it's a combination that sounds strange to people here, but it's pretty common in Italy.

134/366 potato & rosemary pizza

Monday's "get it out of the way" picture was of the stacks of CDs and books in the office. I doubt that I actually did much with them that day; it was just the easiest thing I could think of to photograph. Since then, we've gotten rid of all those CDs, but the book piles have only gotten bigger. At least that means we'll have less stuff overall once they're all gone.

135/366 everything must go

Then I had my 16-week appointment with my OB on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, I always seem to go during street cleaning days, which makes parking near CPMC a bit more challenging. Knowing this from my last two visits, I left early and gave myself plenty of time to drive around the surrounding Presidio Heights neighborhood, looking for a free spot. I found one a ways from the hospital, but it was in a nice neighborhood with pretty houses, so I didn't mind the walk.

136/366 in the heights

On Wednesday afternoon, I went to Arizmendi Bakery for a snack and took a few pictures of the pastry cases. I ended up getting a "chocolate thing," which was essentially a huge brioche roll with pieces of dark chocolate inside. It was pretty good, but I've definitely had better pain au chocolat type pastries before. Still, it's good to know I can get something like that nearby if I have a bread/chocolate craving.

137/366 a trip to the bakery

Thursday's picture was taken at home again: the books I had moved to the bedroom mantel a few days before. I knew I wanted to put a few prettier books there, and since they're food-related but not necessarily cookbooks, these seemed like a good choice. (Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life is my favorite.) Some have recipes, but they're mostly biographical prose. About half are mine and half are Steve's, so we each have some more reading to do of each other's books.

138/366 taking up the mantel

Looking out the window on Friday, I saw Aroara the neighborhood cat hanging around across the street. That prompted a walk around the block and some cat pictures. Not terribly exciting, but Aroara did apparently get a new red collar with rhinestones to replace her pink one with rhinestones. (Riveting stuff here...)

139/366 cat in the shade

Still feeling less inspired on the picture front the next day, I used my weekly self portrait as my photo for Saturday. I didn't feel too bad about it, though; I hadn't done that yet, and this was the week that I started to feel the baby moving. I actually thought I felt something on Sunday—Mother's Day—but I wasn't entirely sure. So when my doctor asked me on Tuesday if I was feeling anything yet, my answer was "maybe...?" She said I'd probably be sure within a week or two, but I didn't end up having to wait more than a few hours. That afternoon, I was sitting on the couch and felt a couple definitive nudges. The so-called "fluttering" feeling that many describe was apparently too subtle for me, but there was no mistaking these. It was more like Bonnie's description: twitches.

The interesting thing about it was that it happened the week I was playing music in a loud pit with drums behind me every night. Perhaps the drums on Monday woke him or her up. :) More likely, it was just that time anyway. The usual for a first baby is 16-20 weeks, and this was at 16 1/2. Plus, I'm on the thin side, so that helps. Anyway, it was an exciting week for the pregnancy.

140/366 17 weeks

Well, that puts me about two weeks behind in blogging. And speaking of exciting weeks in pregnancy, Steve and I will find out the sex of the baby at our ultrasound in about an hour! You can check Flickr sometime tomorrow—probably late afternoon—for the news. I have to take an appropriate picture of the day first. :)

the big news

In case you missed the big announcement on Flickr or Facebook last Monday... Steve and I are happy to announce that we're expecting a baby around October 27! That's right, I'm pregnant—about 15 weeks now.

This is the picture I used to break the news to the internets. It's our first ultrasound picture from around 12 1/2 weeks, along with a sheep that I made recently from a Woolbuddy needle felting kit.

Now that I'm officially out of the first trimester, I'm feeling a bit better. I never really got morning sickness in the typical sense; instead, I just felt kind of icky and almost nauseous if I didn't eat often enough. (No puking, though!) All of that hit right around week 7. You may have noticed that my pictures of the day got kind of lame around March, and that—along with cold, rainy weather—had a lot to do with it. I took a long time to get the blog posts done for those weeks too, because just looking at the pictures from that time made me feel kind of gross again. I still get a little of that almost sick feeling when I need food, but I've figured out the signs now. The trick is eat right away, even if nothing sounds good.

Along with the "ick" came the first trimester fatigue. Up until that point, I would have bouts of feeling extra sleepy, but this was more of a constant tiredness. I really didn't feel like doing much of anything, except maybe sitting and staring, whether at my laptop or the television. And unfortunately, all this was going on while the in-laws were visiting. I tried, but I was probably less social than usual.

Remember all that work I did in January and February, getting pictures on the walls and the ceiling medallion in the dining room finished? Yeah, that started before I was pregnant and finished by the time I found out I was pregnant. It may have sounded like nesting at the time, but I was mostly trying to keep myself busy and knock some things off the to-do list, since I knew we would have plenty to do to make our office into a nursery once I got pregnant. But once I did actually get pregnant, I felt too preoccupied (and cautious about counting metaphorical chickens too early) to start more new projects right away, especially ones that were directly related to getting ready for a baby. Then the fatigue hit and took away any remaining energy I had.

The sick feeling and the fatigue got better sometime around mid-April—about week 11 or 12. But my trade-off for avoiding the nausea seems to be heartburn. I actually started to get it subtly here and there as soon as I got pregnant, before I even knew for sure. It was pretty sporadic for the first trimester, but it's gotten worse in the last couple weeks. I'm managing with the occasional Tums and Pepcid, but I seem to have at least a little heartburn every day now.

The frequent peeing has also started, complete with having to get up once every night since week 7. I really disliked that in the beginning, so I would try to debate whether I really needed to get up and pee. Now, I've just accepted it and learned where the worst of the creaks in the floor are. Anyway, it's certainly less of an inconvenience than having to get up and feed a baby! That will come soon enough.

At week 15, I'm only just starting to show, but I feel like it's perhaps a little more noticeable in the last week. (Maybe it's just because I'm letting myself wear tighter shirts again, now that people know I'm pregnant.) In order to document it all, I've started taking the obligatory "belly pictures." I probably should have taken the first one when I found out I was pregnant, but I was hesitant to start that early for a variety of reasons. First, I knew things wouldn't change very fast in the beginning. Second, I wasn't ready to commit to clothing and background choices just yet, and I wanted to be consistent for all of my pictures. Third, I didn't want to take the chance that I would have a miscarriage and be even more cautious about taking pictures the next time around.

I ended up waiting until 9 weeks—after my 8-week OB appointment—to take my first picture, when I was only just starting to notice a little weight gain. I'd say it's a pretty accurate "before" shot. From there, I started taking them every 2 weeks until the beginning of the second trimester. I've moved to every week now, which might be overkill, but it should be fun to look at the progression anyway. You can see the whole set on Flickr.

I have to say, it's pretty strange to be gaining weight. I think I've been around the same size, give or take 5-8 lbs and a little filling out, since high school. (I know. You're rolling your eyes.) But that's all over now; I just bought my first maternity jeans on Friday. Although they're certainly not my favorite fashion, they're more comfortable and probably more flattering at this point than jeans with zippers and buttons.

So I guess that about covers it for the first trimester! Time to get back to catching up on the weekly Project 365 posts now.