Good Ole' Fashion Texas BBQ

This past weekend, I had a chance to enjoy some quality time outside of work with some of my co-residents.  It was great to spend a day sharing good food and company, hearing about everyone's lives outside of the hospital.  My friend, Danielle, hosted this special event in honor of her gorgeous daughter turning one-year-old.  It was a true Texas-style party, complete with cowboy-themed decorations, BBQ, lawn games, cold drinks, and perfect weather.

Many young kids attended the festivities.  They all seemed to have a blast, breaking out their cowboy hats and finding plenty of ways to entertain themselves.

The big hit of the day clearly was the plastic ball pit.  I will have to keep that idea in mind for my own future family parties!

It was clear that everyone enjoyed the spread of food and drinks.  There was not a single piece of left-over brisket or cake by the end of the day!

The people weren't the only ones joining in on the fun.  Even Boss Lady, the family dog, was part of the action.  She loved the extra head rubs...

... and cleaning up the bits of BBQ that made their way under the picnic tables.

And, no party could be complete without a themed photo booth.  Families had a chance to "get their mug taken," with the bonus of plenty of entertaining props.

For me, one of the most striking parts of the day was watching the love shared between parents and children.  Seeing all of the families together offered a preview of how drastically my life will change in the coming months.

It makes me even more excited to finally meet my son in the next couple of months

Thank you so much, Danielle, for asking me to capture and be a part of your special party.

27 Weeks

January has been a difficult time for my family and I.  My granddad passed away earlier this month, following a long battle with congestive heart failure.  Being pregnant during this period made it even more difficult to stomach.  It makes me tear up knowing that Granddad will never have a chance to hold his great-grandson.  He would have loved to have taken him to the park, ridden with him on the carousels, and shared ice cream cones.  However, I am thankful that he and I had the opportunity to make these memories.  Those are the moments I want my son to someday know… through the love that I share with him and the stories I will tell.  As I head into the final weeks of my pregnancy, I see all the more that to every beginning there comes an end.  But, it is the moments that fall in between that really make life worth living. 

Here are some of the highlights from the last 7 weeks:    

Early Morning Wake-Up Call

Around 25 weeks, I was greeted by a new gift courtesy of pregnancy… The Calf Cramp.  I remember initially reading about this common condition on Babycenter during my first trimester.  At the time, it seemed ridiculous to me that an entire page needed to be devoted to such a miniscule muscle ache.  That was until I experienced one for myself.  In the middle of a deep slumber, the most tear-jerking, pulsating, searing calf pain awaked me.  I tried to massage, pinch, tap, and flex my calf… nothing seemed to help.  Finally, after just the right amount of wiggling my toes, it let up a little bit.  I proceeded to limp around at work for the next several days, enduring the after effects of this “minor” ache… just in time to have my right leg greeted by the same ailment.  I have had several more bouts of the leg cramps since then, but now have gotten down the art to just the right mixture of massaging and toe-wiggling to keep them at bay.

The Bump!

The belly bump continues to grow… and my lower back is really starting to feel it!  I finally have my bellyband ordered and am hopeful that it will help to keep some of the pain at bay.

Ultrasound

In December, Tony and I had another go at finishing up our 2^nd trimester screening.  Baby Bean ended up cooperating a bit better, and the tech was able to get all of the anatomy shots that she needed.  But, he continued his streak of being camera shy… this time he had his little hands all over his face, and we weren’t able to get any really good pictures for the scrapbook.  I am pretty sure I saw his little middle finger go up in the process, as the tech tried her best to leave us with a good memento.  For now, this one picture will have to suffice until the 3^rd trimester ultrasound... which, with Bean's track record, likely will go similarly.

Belly Button

It’s official… the belly button has popped!  Not in the complete-outy sense… it seems more appropriate to say that I now have a mini-outy.    

Getting Creative

With the exponential rate at which my belly is growing, Butters’ favorite sleeping spot (my lap) is quickly shrinking.  He has taken to finding creative ways to still comfortably keep his spot.  These have become his new favorite resting positions.  The Belly Nook... consisting of him laying his head in the crack between my arm and belly…

…and the Leg Hammock… self-explanatory

The Name!

After much deliberation, Tony and I FINALLY found one name that we agree on… which will likely remain a secret until The Bean arrives.  Given the (unreasonable) amount of time that went into this decision, we hope to limit any opportunities for us to change our minds. 

Realities of Having a Baby:

In 10^th grade, a major focus of health class centered on teaching horny teenagers that having a baby is a terrible idea.  It just so happened that my county had one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the state.  So, there was a great deal of funding invested into preventing this pattern from continuing.  My class was one of the first to pioneer Baby-Think-It-Over… consisting of taking home plastic babies with internal crying voice boxes, which you control with the turn of a plastic key to the back.  Each student had to spend a weekend lugging these creepy plastic dolls around.  I can’t really say that this project changed my mind about having kids as a teen, which already seemed like a bad idea to me.  But, it certainly earned me a lot of strange looks in the store… I’d like to think, however, this was more due to wondering why a 15-year-old would still be lugging around her doll.  The developers were certainly a creative bunch… they wanted to cover multiple “teen pregnancy scenarios.”  There was even a “crack baby” available to one unlucky student.  This doll happened to be a bit smaller than the rest but made up for size with persistence of crying.  I felt especially terrible for the students whom got tricked into taking that one home.

Part of the project included cataloging and adding up the expected baby expenses.  I remember turning in a neatly written list of what I considered the essentials: trendy baby carrier, playpen, a few cute outfits.  I can say that now I am starting to see that my teenage mind clearly underestimated the cost of a new baby.  As I have been putting together my baby shower registry, the expenses have been mind-boggling.  Tony and I have decided to really attempt to break it down into what we will really need.  Blogs written by more experienced parents have helped shed light on this. As much as I would like a diaper genie, I have decided that a heavy-duty garbage can for half the price will probably work well.  And, that baby video monitoring system seems like a nice perk, but my wallet suggests that I hold off on that as well.  All I can say is… I’m happy I am not having twins! 

Cocoa Butter:

As a kid, my mom used to keep a huge bottle of cocoa butter, or the “stinky lotion” as my sisters and I called it, in the bathroom cupboard. Pregnancy was the only time that she used it.  She swears that it is the reason she escaped 3 pregnancies in her 30’s without a single stretch mark.  I HATE the smell of that lotion.  However, over the last few weeks I have broken down and started the cocoa butter routine.  Surprisingly, I have found that you can get used to the slightly off-putting smell (although I am not so sure that Tony agrees).   And, although I am not 100% convinced that it will be the determining factor in whether or not I get stretch marks, I can say that it does leave my skin super soft.

Maternity photos

Last, but not least, Tony and I finally worked out some maternity photos.  We enjoyed a little photo shoot in our backyard.  With the “cold front” (50-degrees) having moved on, we enjoyed the gorgeous 80-degree weather.  Of course I am a bit biased, but I think my husband did a pretty fantastic job with the shots!

  

Couple's Christmas

One of the difficult aspects about working in the medical field: people still get sick on the holidays.  2012 certainly has been a reminder of that.  My family has been experiencing this first hand, as my Granddad has been in and out of the hospital over the last month.  And, Tony and I knew when we graduated medical school in May that holiday time off no longer would be a guarantee.

This year, I was blessed with a glorious 4-day weekend over Christmas.  But, my other half was not so lucky... he drew the short straw and ended up having to work in the Cardiac ICU this December.  It is quite clear that heart attacks take no heed in holiday time off, as Tony ended up having to work both the Christmas Eve and Christmas shifts.

This meant no trip to NY for Christmas... we would not be enjoying "Drama Derry Doo" (aka potent champagne punch) at my family's house... 

...nor tasty home-cooked meals with Tony's family.  

We honestly were feeling a bit bummed heading into the Christmas season.  Given it is the holiday dedicated to celebrating Jesus' birth, friends and family play a pretty central role in the celebrations... after all, it wasn't just Mary and Joseph hanging out at the manger with Jesus.  Nevertheless, Tony and I were determined to make the most of this special holiday.  

In the weeks leading up to the big day, Tony and I enjoyed playing Santa by creating gift boxes to send home to family.  We had fun finding neat presents to send home.  We filled pretty boxes with Texas-style treats and festive decorations for family to enjoy.  

In the days leading up to Christmas, we planned our first (and likely last for a while) Couple's Christmas!  Given my time off, I took the head role in planning our special time together.  Butters happily kept me company during the preparations, prancing around the house in his little Santa hat.

For our Christmas Eve and Day, we enjoyed special meals filled with our favorite holiday foods... 

...prime rib, honey baked ham, homemade mashed potatoes, peppermint bark, and Christmas cookies. 

I tried some new recipes too, preparing homemade apple sauce, baked brie, and lemon vinaigrette salad topped with candied almonds and goat cheese.  

Butters (as usual) looked on longingly at the spread... and was pleased as punch to have a taste of prime rib with his dinner.  

Together, we listened to Christmas music and opened presents.  We teared up with the special reminders from home as we opened special gifts from family... especially those designed with Baby Bean in mind.  Tony and I felt like we were dating again, as we shared surprise gifts with one another.  Tony put one of my gifts in a decoy box... he certainly got me... I found my present tucked inside a Dr. Pepper fridge-pack box.

I finished up Christmas night with a special surprise for Tony.  This year, we joined many others in enjoying the Elf on the Shelf tradition.  We were a little late to the game, finding out about this cute idea just a week before Christmas.  For Tony's final gift, I created a scavenger hunt.  

Tony had to find numbered pieces of paper, 1-25, hidden in different places throughout the house... 

...using hints provided through photos of our elf, Marty.  

I was pretty proud of myself... it took Tony more than a half-an-hour to finish the game!

Overall, it turned out to be a pretty special Christmas.  It was difficult spending our first year away from home and family.  But, throughout our celebrations we were reminded over and over of our greatest blessing... each other.

20 Weeks!!

I can now officially say... I am at the halfway point of my pregnancy!  It feels like I have biked to the top of the hill... and now will coast (or maybe roll) to the steadily approaching endpoint.  From here on out, I can feel like I am counting down more days than up!

However, there is one major flaw in this projected plan... the approaching third trimester.  In the fog of my 2nd trimester blissfulness, I have been enjoying a relatively comfortable state.  My belly is in its "cute stage," clearly announcing my pregnancy without making me tip over.  There are a few aches and pains here or there, but I still have a lot of energy.  However, from what I have heard, it won't last.  For now, I will continue to enjoy every day I have left without the swollen feet, muscle cramps, back pains, GERD, and olympic-force kicks!

In the meantime, here are the highlights from the last 5 weeks:

High Fashion?
At the end of my first trimester, I had made an initial attempt to start looking for maternity clothes.  With my barely-showing baby bump, I started to make the rounds at the local stores to evaluate my options.  At that point, it seemed I had jumped the gun a bit... the belly-band jeans extended up almost to my neck line and the shirts easily could have passed for dresses.  Tony and I voted to hold off on the mommy clothes shopping for a bit.  A couple weeks ago, the time seemed right to make the big leap into maternity fashion... my tank tops had transformed into crop tops and my jeans could no longer zip-up, let alone button.  My friend, Mamie, and I made a day out of the shopping trip.  It was shocking to see the same clothes I had tried on a few weeks earlier now fit like a glove.  Surprisingly, some of the options even are fashionable!  I have been enjoying the comforts and style of the new additions to my wardrobe

(18 weeks)

The Belly:
Of course, the baby belly continues to grow... at a seemingly alarming rate.  I keep having to double check the dates... how am I only halfway and ALREADY this big?  I can't imagine carrying twins.

It's a...
Tony finally was able to break free from work to join me at a baby appointment.  At our 16th week appointment, we were hopeful that he would have a chance to see the baby for the first time.  Our wonderful doctor agreed that Tony should have a quick peek at the baby.  It was unbelievable how much the baby had grown from the last time I had seen him.  Little stick limbs now had fingers and toes.  The heart no longer was just a little flutter... now it had distinctively formed chambers strongly working together.  We had a quick glimpse at the face, an adorable button nose and daddy's chin.  And, of course Tony was the first to point out the real secret... Baby Bean has his own little beans... a baby boy!  Unfortunately, we weren't able to take home any pictures.  But, it was a special moment, holding hands with my husband and making that discovery together.  Call it mother's intuition, but since about Week 10 of pregnancy I had a strong feeling we would be having a little man.  In all fairness, I did have a 50/50 chance of being right.  But, I'll still count it as a small win!

Dancing Baby

Since the beginning of my pregnancy, my mom had anxiously been awaiting the announcement of the "first flutter."  Starting at 8 weeks, she would ask, "are you feeling The Flutter yet???" Of course, Baby Bean really was bean-size at that time, making it unlikely to feel much of anything... even the most forceful of "flutters."  In the time before I felt the first movements, I held over my mommy-fears with this great (and surprisingly cheap) fetal doppler.  Tony also heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time using it, with us listening together through headphones

Around 16 weeks, I felt our little baby move for the first time.  While drifting off to sleep, I felt the little kicks... distinctly different movements from anything I have experienced before.  To me, it felt like the popping of tiny popcorn kernels.  I was so excited that I woke Tony up from sleeping to let him know... in his groggy state, he nicely asked "are you sure it wasn't just gas?"  At 18 weeks, he got the answer, as he too was able to feel the little kicks while we were lying down to sleep.  Since then, the tiny movements have steadily been growing... and occurring at increasingly more inopportune times.  Baby Bean's favorite times to announce his presence include: (1) As my bladder is reaching the bursting point (2) Right in the middle of a meal (3) While trying to finish patient notes and (4) In the dead middle of the night.  I am pretty sure that this child will be the master of bad timing.

No-ey
On the very exciting belly-button news front: I officially have a "no-ey."  It is hard to tell if the button will make the final "pop" to the outey.

But, my birthmark is certainly continuing to migrate further and further from its home beside my once distinct iney.

Another First
Since discovering Baby Bean actually is Baby BOY Bean, we have started to think about what we need for our future son.  Tony and I haven't gotten down to actually buying many things yet... but when we go into stores and see the dinosaur onsies and bright-blue sneakers, we think of our baby.  A couple weeks ago, I bought the first items for Baby Bean... 3 little outfits.  With the pajama set made for a 0-3 month old, two thoughts came to mind... (1) a real, live baby will be living in these in a few months and (2) how in the world am I going to carry something THAT LARGE?!  I used to think baby clothes looked so tiny... that was until I had the personal responsibility of carrying said "little person."

Butters also weighed in with his thoughts on the purchases...

...he seemed to approve.  Hopefully Baby Bean will as well!

Hercules??
Arguably, one of the most difficult parts of the process of becoming parents has been choosing a name.  And, as you progress through pregnancy (particularly after you know the baby's sex), it is one of the first questions that people will ask you.  Before we found out the sex, we had attempted to come up with a list of boy and girl names.  Of course, we had enough girl choices to name a set of octuplets... but no boy names.  Tony, in particular, is extremely picky, especially for the boy names.  Presently, the (extensive) list of criteria includes:
(1) A name long enough to have a good nickname, while not offering opportunities for creative middle-school minds to invent distasteful ones of their own
(2) Must not already be a name of close friend (or his/her children), living relative, or a disliked acquaintance
(3) Cannot be a "hippy name" (to include a state of the weather, some form of fruit, or an inanimate object)
(4) Cannot be a mainstream dog or cat name (nor a movie star's / superhero's name)
(5) Must have a nice ring to it, but not be too common or uncommon
(6) Must have a benign set of initials

I am very appreciative that my husband takes this important task so seriously.  However, at this rate, our child will be born "Baby Bean Sidari."  Despite this daunting list of criteria, we have been hard at work scouring lists of baby names... and have even tried asking the "Baby Name Genie."  In the process, we have come up with one nice list... of name combinations that are definitely OFF the "real" list.  These include:
(1) Hercules Americus Sidari
(2) Zion Maximus Sidari
(3) MacJesus Awesomo Sidari
(4) Manuel Noel Sidari
(5) Cesar Saladus Sidari
(6) Thor Rivers Sidari
(8) Albert Slytherin Sidari
(9) George Foreman Sidari

The name quest will likely be continued throughout the rest of this pregnancy.  Thankfully, we only need to come up with one winning option.

Aliens?
I thought many of the pregnancy-body-transformation-secrets had been revealed to me through medical school.  Coming into the second trimester, I already was pretty well versed on expectations of bloating, round ligament pain, and constipation.  But, somewhere along the way, I missed the news update on this event:

When trying to get up from the couch on Week 19, I noticed a previously unseen protruding mass...

in my pregnancy-hormone-induced heightened anxiety state, I immediately thought of possible (worrisome) explanations... could I have a hernia... or could there be a missed abdominal pregnancy?  Considering this possibility reminded me of the movie Prometheus, a sci-fi chronicle of humans' journey to discover the origin of humanity by traveling to a distant planet.  I stupidly watched this right at the beginning of my pregnancy.  About halfway into the movie (Spoiler Alert), the main character's bun in the oven turns out to not exactly be a human...

...and she uses a surgical robot to cut the growing alien baby out of her belly.

Sure enough, Tony came to the rescue and re-enlightened me on Diastasis Recti... a separation of the left and right abdominal musculature leading to a weakened point between them... very common in pregnancy.  It will take a few extra exercises to strengthen after pregnancy, but is a pretty benign condition.  However, it goes to show how much you really learn from first-hand experience.

Camera Shy
One of the most exciting parts of the last few weeks was the anxiously awaited 2nd trimester ultrasound!!  Tony and I imagined the great pictures we would get from the day to share with family (in addition to confirmation that he was growing well).  Of course, Baby Bean had other plans.  For the entire exam, he had his head thoroughly buried in the space just above my cervix... which explains the nightly tap-dancing act he plays on my bladder.  We were able to get most of the anatomy shots, but were left with photos that did not help with my nightmares of alien babies!

If this is any preview, I think I will have an obstinate little baby that takes after his Aunt Kit!  In the next month, I have a repeat scan so that they can finish looking at his cervical spine and some additional brain landmarks... and maybe a few improved face shots... if he is more cooperative.  Hopefully, I will have some better pictures at that time to hold me over until I see him in real-life!

Christmas Future

Since Tony and I have been together, every year has felt pretty darn great.  We have been so blessed to have one another, and that feeling has filled us with happiness year after year.  At this time last December, life felt pretty complete as we set up our Christmas tree, baked cookies, and wrapped presents together.

Then, this little fur ball arrived in mid-December.

And, suddenly Tony and I could no longer imagine how life had ever felt complete without him.  With his comical expressions, food-begging antics, expert cuddling skills, and laughable (at best) attempts at fetching, he has brought Tony and I so much happiness over the past year.

God willing, next year this photo will contain 2 little rascals.  Our hearts are already growing with the love for our little baby on the way.  I look hopefully towards future Christmases, filled with the distinct new personality to join us in the coming year.  I fully expect lots of dirty diapers, late-night wake-up calls, and scattered toys on the living room floor.  But, I know that this new addition will leave us again wondering... how had life ever felt full before?