Christmas 2009

Christmas has come and gone but we'll always remember this one. We had a great holiday and consider it a success. We started off the holiday by celebrating Christmas Eve at Uncle David and Auntie Linda's house. They cooked a fantastic dinner straight out of Julia Childs cookbook. Anderson liked spending some quality time with everyone. He can't wait for his next cousin to be born in January! Jen & Steve are having a baby boy.

On Christmas morning we woke up and spent time as our small family. We loved every second of it! Anderson opened his stocking first and then some gifts from Santa, Mom & Dad, Nan and G-Pa & Grammy. What a lucky little boy - he made Santa's nice list for sure. Lots of awesome toys and clothes. Poa Poa and Tai Poa Poa came over for breakfast and brought along some presents as well. Anderson had a lot of fun opening all of them and especially liked chewing on paper and boxes. He say "Thank you" to everyone who thought of him. It was very generous and thoughtful.

After hanging out with Poa Poa and Tai Poa Poa for a bit he headed off for a nap and then it was off to celebrate Christmas day with his cousins! Hannah and Jesse, with their parents help, hosted all of us for Christmas dinner. Again we were spoiled with such a wonderful meal. Nate and Julie cooked up a Christmas ham and lots of fixings. Anderson enjoyed himself and then got a bit cranky since he skipped his afternoon nap and some soon-to-be teeth decided to give him a problem. All in all he was a champ and loved playing with his cousins, Hannah, Jesse and Griffin. So many toys! So much to chew on! Despite his mood in the picture to the right, it was a complete success! :-)

8 months old

We're 6 days away from "Baby's 1st Christmas". I'm kinda excited. Christmas had lost its sheen as we became jaded adults. Now that we have a child, a few nieces and a nephew it is hard not to get into the spirit. I've been in Toys R Us more in the past two weeks than I could have imagined. Bri and I took Anderson to meet Santa Claus about two weeks ago. It went really well, we didn't expect him to cry or freak out but I did expect him to reach out for the impressive long grey beard Santa has grown for the occasion/job. Anderson is a big fan of his uncle Jamie's beard and G-Pa's mustache but not so much of Santa's. We purchased a great shot of Anderson looking up at him probably thinking, "Who is this guy that my mom dropped me off with?" or "hmmm do I yank the beard or the glasses first."

As you can guess by the posts title, Anderson is 8 month old today. He's no longer content sitting on the chair posing for a cute picture with Julius. No. Not at all. He is my kid. The apple didn't fall far from the tree when it came to independence. He wouldn't allow a good picture until he was on the floor sitting by himself, and not in a sitting pose I put him in. He had to crawl around and sit himself down before he wanted to even be near Julius for his monthly picture. *sigh* I love him. Who wouldn't though! I caught up with a blog post earlier this week about all the happenings that have been taking place.

I can't wait to take advantage of two back-to-back 3 day work weeks. I'm going to try and sleep in as much as possible (pipe dream, A wants breakfast usually no later than 7am) but other than that I plan to lounge around and catch up on enjoying all the little moments with Bri, A and Evita. Happy Holidays!

TV Debut

I forgot to blog about this! Anderson made his TV debut back in October on a local news magazine, Eye on the Bay. We were recruited to participate in a baby wearing segment. Anderson was a little less than three months old at the time, so when it aired my heart melted! He was so itty bitty. You can view it here: Anderson's TV DEBUT! Let it load and scroll to the 4:45, 5:26 or 6:00 minute marks to see him. As a thank you from CBS we were sent an Ergo Baby Carrier in their new Grey/Star pattern in July- it didn't hit store shelves until October. It's actually a great carrier for him right now. It does a front, back and side carry. I still really enjoy the carrier I bought before he was born.

The bag of tricks explodes

So this is a few days earlier than the usual monthly update but I needed to record this so I didn't forget. The last 2 weeks have been jam packed with new tricks from Anderson. Besides his repertoire of physical skills he also has two teeth! So cute, they are the center two teeth on the bottom. They are hard to get a peak at but if you stick your (clean) finger in his mouth, you'll yelp - those suckers are sharp. kind of like puppy teeth.

As for for everything else - whoa. This kid has been army crawling for a while now and getting up on all fours and rocking for some weeks. Well he finally put it all together and he's just hustling about going wherever he wants. No longer is he content to stay on the carpet. Nope, I left him in his bedroom and he followed me to the living room. What else you say? Well he can now sit all by himself. He crawls, finds a toy and then sits. When he's done he moves on and crawls away. We found out about his sitting when I heard him crying in his crib when he was supposed to be napping - I open the door and he's sitting upright in the middle of his crib. Good times. Bri has it on his to-do list to lower the crib, as we've been watching him get on his knees and try to pull up on a variety of items. While this is so exciting and new, it's also bittersweet. He'll be 8 months this week - totally more little boy than baby at this point.

He's also putting on some more weight. As of Saturday he weighed in a an ounce shy of 15 1/2 lbs. yeah! Favorite foods include Yogurt (organic, plain of course!) and any variety of winter squash. I've been making almost all of his food from scratch. It's not hard at all I use these little steam bags and pop the food in my mini prep. In about 20 minutes I have enough food for the whole week. We're becoming more adventurous in our offerings and starting to add spices to the mix. So far there is not much he won't eat.

Enjoy a video of Anderson performing his new tricks and Evita getting a little freaked out he's on the move.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you had a good one - as you can see in the picture above Anderson enjoyed himself. What does a 7 month old do to celebrate the Pilgrims and Indians? Eat of course, just like everyone else. Anderson had a tasty meal that consisted of Oatmeal, Sweet Potatoes, green Beans and Apples with Cinnamon. Cinnamon is the new food/spice du jour.

Anderson crossed the 7 month mark last week. We had our weight check and he's now a whopping 14 lbs 12 oz - up slightly over a pound in the last month. That still puts him in the 1st percentile in weight, but at least he gained more in one month than he did between Aug & Oct.

Weight aside, he's just kicking ass and taking names. Have I gushed how rad this kid is? Cause he is, and I know I might be biased and all, but really you need to trust me. He is dragging himself all around - no more leaving him alone or he'll wind up in the dog bowl, in the fireplace (don't worry it's just empty brick) or somewhere that hasn't been mopped. Work has been kicking my ass this month, so I haven't seen him as much as I would have liked. Throw in an overnight (our first!) wedding in L.A. and I really feel like I missed a lot of November. Let me tell you, that overnight was a long time coming - Bri and I had a blast celebrating Andy and Tracy's wedding. Maybe too much - oh champagne, how I have missed you in such large quantities. :-) That said, we got hosed and weren't able to catch any additional sleep. I think Tai Poa and Poa Poa got more sleep than us. A goes to bed at 7pm and doesn't wake until 6:30 - 7:30 am. Bri and I stayed up way to late and I being the good mom got up at 6:15 to pump and then off to the airport we went. One day I will sleep in and have Bri feed the kid. one day.

I'm so excited Thanksgiving has come and gone - cause that means only one thing. December!! Christmas music, the smell of pine trees and non-stop viewings of A Christmas Story and Love Actually. Two movies that just get me in the spirit. I also can't wait to ship our Christmas Card this year - Jen and Aaron of Tidbit Designs (and wonderful cousins on Bri's side), helped us create what I think is the best.christmas.card.ever and that's not an exaggeration.

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Anderson

Today Anderson is 6 months old - I can't believe it. Some quick stats from his well baby checkup:

Length: 25.3"

Weight: 13 lbs 10 oz

He's a bit on the small side, actually so much so we have to go into the dr.'s office next month for a weight check. I'm not too worried right now since he is a breastfed baby still (yay me!) and our pediatrician said that this sometimes happens with kids not on formula and he might catch up. If he does no worries, if he doesn't we will cross that bridge if/when we need to. Bri and I aren't the largest of people so I wouldn't expect him to be huge.

He started to eat cereal Labor Day weekend and has just progressed to twice a day. Last week we added sweet potatoes to the mix. At first it looked like he liked them but by the end of the week he'd seal his mouth shut and wasn't having any of them. So we've moved on to peas and it seems to be a much better success. You can see from the video in the previous post that Anderson can sit unassisted. He leans forward for balance but I think he's on the verge of perfecting this skill. Since he's getting the hang of sitting he decided to add army dragging the his repertoire - note i did not say crawling. If he wants a toy he's figured out how to drag himself to get it.

I don't like talking about this too often - actually I kind of loath it unless with my good friends, but I think it's time to celebrate a bit. I've made it to 6 months of breastfeeding (the word nurse creeps me out for some reason)! I don't think I can express it in words how much of an accomplishment this is and how proud I am of myself. It has been the MOST challenging thing I have ever done in my life and that is in no way an exaggeration. Anderson and I have had an uphill battle to say the least. The c-section, the tongue tie which led to him being on a bottle for over 10 days, to his preference for the fast and easy bottle (me pumping every 2 hrs 24 hrs a day for basically 5 weeks to get enough for him to eat), then there was this easy time for a few months, and the work came along - I feel like I pump all.the.time to produce enough for him to take to daycare. I get up at 5:45 to pump, feed him anywhere between 6:30/7am, pump 3x at work, come home, pump, feed Anderson and pump twice before I go to bed. OY! I'm tired writing it. But through it all, probably out of spite, I've kept up with it and somehow have met his demands. He's had all of 10 oz of formula when we were trying to figure out the tongue tie situation. That's part of the reason I have taken it so personally when I was told by Bri this am that he will have to have an extra weight check next month.

I don't have anything against formula and those that use it. In fact, I'm going to try and transition out the 5:45am pumping session which means I will have to send formula to daycare to make up the difference eventually. Whose says being stubborn isn't a good thing. If I wasn't I don't think I could have lasted this long. I think I'm going to splurge on a massage to celebrate!

What Anderson has been up to lately...

What Anderson has been up to lately...
Originally uploaded by dawn_79

Some video of what the little guy has been up. Sitting, eating, giggling - all the fun stuff!

Video

Just testing out video capabilities on the blog.

5 months old

Anderson is 5 months old today! What a whirlwind. I keep meaning to blog but then something always gets in the way. I've been back at work since Sept 8th, so maybe I can sneak in a blog update here and there at work. It's getting a bit harder to take his monthly picture because he's so squirmy. In the picture to the left he had just caught dad across the room.

As I mentioned I'm back at work now, so my time with Anderson seems very limited. We get an hour in the morning and depending on the day an hour to two hours at night. Not much time to hang out, but I really treasure every second he's awake (as well as the seconds/minutes/hours he's asleep at night). So what has he been up to? Well, he smiles all.the.time and we figured out that he is ticklish and because we are mean parents we tickle him to hear the giggle on-demand. He rolls over with easy mainly from his back to his front, but can do tummy to back if need be. We are all getting sleep. I'm proud to say Anderson has been sleeping 12 hours (yes, I know!!) for the past month and it has been a dream come true. The biggest development is he now eats oatmeal at dinner time. He looks adorable sitting in his highchair reaching out for the spoon. My gut says he's going to want to self-feed early.

Since our time as a family is limited we've begun a baby music class through the San Mateo Parks & Rec dept. He's the youngest in the class but only by two months. We sing songs and the older children tap sticks, drums and shake maracas. The songs have a lot of movement and after watching Anderson go up and down and swing side to side, I really believe he enjoys it. Even if he is too young to participate in some of the activities its 45 minutes that Brian, Anderson and I get to spend together doing something silly and fun.

Next weekend Anderson gets to be the guest of honor at his Red Egg & Ginger party hosted by his Toy Family relatives. It will be a great opportunity to meet many of his extended family members. I'm just hoping he makes it through without a meltdown. :-) I'm sure he'll be fine as long as we get a good nap/feeding in before and after the party.

Where has the time gone?

It's hard to believe that Anderson is 4 months old already! Sorry for the lack of an update in over 2 months. We've been busy. But let me see if I can catch you up on some of the exciting things we have been up to. Some stats...

Length: 24"

Weight: 12 lbs 12 oz

He's following right along in his percentile curve. Developmentally I think things have been exploding in the past few weeks. He's really turned into a fun little guy and you can see his personality shinning through. He loves to smile and just today started reaching out to try and "pet" Evita. I'm pleased to say Evita tolerated it and *almost* seemed to enjoy it. Bri and I had a great time watching it go down.

In the past two months our little guy has met more relatives (lucky guy!!) - some here on the

west coast but thanks to not one, but two trips to New Jersey, he has met almost my whole family. It really meant a lot to me that we have been fortunate enough to travel back east while he is still young so my family got to experience the excitement of meeting a newborn Anderson. He did very well on the flights to and from SFO - EWR and in fact has traveled in first class two out of the four flight segments. Luck kid.

Bri and I have been fortunate enough to have some very willing helping hands. We've been out to see a movie or two, had a nice fancy dinner with friends form out of town and gambled in Atlantic City all sans Anderson. We have yet to have an overnight without him but that will come soon I'm sure.

I'm nearing the end of my maternity leave - only two more weeks as of today! It's a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. On one hand I CAN NOT wait to get out of the house and do something for me, go to lunch without worrying if a baby can come and just have some adult conversation during the day. On the other hand, I'm leaving Anderson for 8 hours a day with an in-home daycare provider who is no doubt qualified, but come on, it's not me! I don't want to miss the big milestones. To make up for this, Bri and I have signed up for a baby and parent music class on Saturday mornings. This way we can spend time as a family in a fun and educational setting. We're also looking into swim lessons on the weekend. I love the water and Bri wasn't always comfortable in it, so we thought it would be best to start Anderson early. Plus, it's another way for us to spend time together.

A final thought - while it's hard to fathom Anderson is four months old the harder concept to grasp is that it was about 1 year ago that I found out I was pregnant. He would have been the size of a seed or something crazy like that.

Happy Father's Day

Wow, it's been a long time since we've blogged. Having a kid makes it kind of hard :-). Anderson is 9 weeks today and turned two months old on Friday, the 19th. He had a doctor's appointment on Friday to get a few vaccinations and have his stats taken. At 2 months he weighed 10lbs exactly and measured 22.5 inches long. He's our little peanut - his weight is in about the 15% percentile and his height is about the 35% percentile.

We've been doing well as a family of 3 (4 including Evita!).  Sleepless nights are tough, but Anderson is becoming a better and longer sleeper at night every day.  However, I have one bone to pick with my previously pregnant friends - not sure why it was kept a big secret but it would have been nice of someone to let us know the first 2-3 weeks absolutely suck. For reals, suck! Don't get me wrong, I love my kid but it was brutal. So for those who haven't had a kid yet and plan to, just know it isn't great at first but does in fact get better -WAY BETTER.

Anderson smiles, coo's and holds his head up really well.  All in all he's pretty rad and we wouldn't trade him in for anything.  For father's day we went to the Giant's game where Barry Zito had a no hitter until the 7th inning.  Anderson's record is 2-0 when attending a Giants game.  Maybe we should take him more often?

Anderson's first two weeks

So Anderson will be 2 weeks old in a few hours, he's sleeping so I thought it would be a good time to catch up on the blog. Not sure how often we'll have the opportunity to update this thing, but will do so when time presents itself. (photo to the left is from his one week b-day, chilling w/his julius doll)

These last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and learning. We didn't get discharged from the hospital until the Wednesday after he was born and it's been go go go ever since. We've had several doctor's appointments and have made a point to get out of the house as much as we can - for walks and whatnot, we're steering clear of crowds due to the flu outbreak. We are not going to risk him becoming exposed. We've also been blessed with man visitors and some great food! Thanks to EVERYONE who has come over and brought dinner. It's been really nice to not have to worry about that aspect.

So what's been going on with Anderson? He's been keeping us busy doing what he does best - crying, eating, needing to be changed, changed again and napping. He was born with a tight fenulum which in turn provided some difficulties eating and gaining weight. After a few consultations we had it clipped on Tuesday and he has been gaining weight as he should. He's just a few ounces shy of his birth weight.

Yesterday we took some family portraits with a photographer in the City, a really wonderful gift from Brian's team at work. We were able to preview some of the photos and they look fantastic! It will be such a joy to look back and see Anderson as tiny as he is. We will share some photos when we get the disk. In the meantime, below are some photos of our little guy take throughout the past two weeks.

Introducing...

Anderson Leland Birkett! Born April 19th, 2009 at 12:47 am. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 7 oz and is 19.5 inches long.

We're totally head over heals in love and obviously think we have he best looking guy in the hospital - even though he has a rather large conehead, which we're assured will go down.

So how did we get his name? Anderson in a little shout out to my family, if you didn't know, my mother's maiden name is Anderson and it helps we really liked it as a first name. Unique, but not weird. Leland is in honor of Brian's late uncle. So there you have it, Anderson Leland Birkett.

Can a pregnant lady get a break?

The bad luck continues this week...I'm starting to think we're cursed for moving. Ever since, things have just been slightly off. Luckily it all has nothing to do with our boy and we are very thankful for that. Now that we don't live in the city we will be driving for the most part to the Giants games - no big deal, right? Well that was until our car was broken into. Yup, always a fun time. While having my backpack stolen, which contained my work laptop, is a pain...what really was the kicker was that my disability paperwork and house key were in this bag. The paperwork contained everything from our home address to my maiden name. Oh yeah like I said fun times...police report filed, work is taking care of getting me a new laptop (the other was encrypted so little did the thieves know they basically stole a large paperweight), car window replaced and house locks changed - locks changed because all I could think of was someone taking our address off my paperwork and just using my house key to come on in and help themselves.

HOWEVER, there is some good news. A couple found my bag (along with several others) about 5 blocks away and took them home with them. They found my contact information and we will be meeting up with them tomorrow to get my bag. She confirmed my house key and paperwork were in there - so it seems they were not out to do some ID theft, whew!!! How's that for a fun week? Special and HUGE thank yous are in order to Brian (for putting up with my worrywart-ness over a house break-in) and Rick for helping with what literally felt like EVERYTHING on Thursday - thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!

On to the brighter side! I'm still pregnant and enjoying it. I'm still working (one week left!) and have a good amount of energy, for the most part. We're blessed to have great friends and family and don't take that for granted. Ashley and Trevor are throwing us a co-ed baby shower/bbq tomorrow here at our house - and we can't wait to see everyone one last time sans kid! We completed the baby's room - not going to call it a nursery, cause it's not my style - we didn't "baby" it up too much. Pictures posted below.I do feel quite large and in charge these days. Went to the dr, now a weekly occurrence, and everything checks out well. I don't think he's going to make an early appearance - but hoping he's more like his mom and likes to be on time - not too late like dad. We'll see, we should start taking bets. The baby center email says that now at 38 weeks, he should be over 6lbs now and about the length of a leak.

38 weeks - length of a leek

37 week shot of me (excuse the face)

It's the final countdown...

But first a shout out to my wonderful husband - Happy 31st Birthday! My how times have changed, it was just a year ago he was celebrating in Cancun with tequila shots. This year it will be some dinner and figuring out how to play MLB 2K9 for the Wii.

As of today I have two weeks of work left and three weeks until our due date (so I'd say realistically about 4 weeks until he's for sure going to be here). I can't wait for work to be over, just in the last two days I've hit a wall in the afternoon and could sure use a nap! I think we're pretty chill about what's coming up and trying to enjoy our moments together as a family of two. Bri's been a trooper - I haven't been in the best of moods since the move but hopefully as the house comes together that's changing.

We're still unpacking but we really hope to make some huge jumps this weekend and have most of it organized and put away. On Monday we're going to get our closet redone and have an organizer installed - which should make a huge difference. Special thanks to Rick for having the house painted before we moved in - it totally makes it feel like our home even though we're still living out of boxes!

I haven't blogged in two weeks just because there hasn't been much going on other than the move, work and trying to unpack a little each night. Our friend Gina gave me the best compliment last week, she said I was a very unpregnant pregnant person (something to that effect). It made me so happy, I want to still be Dawn!

I'll take a little bit of time to address some of the more recent frequently asked questions:

• Are you two getting excited?

Yes, of course!

• Are you going to insist on drugs? What's your birth plan etc...

These are very personal questions and I would like to keep them to myself for the time being. In the future I may decide to share, but until then I appreciate the questions and can certainly understand the curiosity.

• Are you guys ready?

Ha! I'm not sure if we'll be 100% ready or even know. We're crossing our fingers we are!

We'll play catch up on the produce from last week. At 36 weeks he was the weight of a crenshaw melon (6 lbs) and this week at 37 weeks is the length of a stalk of swiss chard (heel to head 19 inches or so). Like the past few weeks his main job at this point is to put on weight - let's hope not too much more!

36 weeks - weight of a crenshaw melon

37 weeks - length of a stalk of swiss chard

We've moved!

We're now officially living in the suburbs. It was a rough move to say the least, so we'll leave it at that and one day I just might be able to look back and laugh as it really has been a comedy of errors, just without the comedy. I did not do any of the work - except cleaning up here and there and have started to unpack. Brian has been fantastic and has really worked his tail off. I do owe him big time as I was not the best wife in the world this weekend, hey I'm admitting it. Now I know why being 8 months pregnant and moving is NOT a good idea. To make matters worse someone also told me I had cankles!!!! Hmmm well if you were carrying around a baby in your belly, moving, stressing out and in general on your feet for a long period of time you too would possibly have a cankle. Geez at least they are not permanent. Ahh I'm putting the memories/nightmare of this weekend behind me and just moving forward.

On a fun note, Brian put the crib together and it looks great. Once we get done organizing all of our stuff we'll be able to focus on the kids rooms. Evita is enjoying the new digs - especially the HUGE backyard.

I had a doctor's appointment on Friday. That was interesting. For some reason she has the same due date (April 24th) but her and the nurse kept referring to me being in my 36th week. Odd, considering everywhere else says I am now in my 35th week. I don't want to rush things, nor do I want to get to my due date and they feel the need for induction or something. I figure I'll ask about the discrepancy at my next appointment, as we've always been on the same page.

This week Baby Birkett's weight is comparable to a honeydew melon. Just over 5 lbs. I'm hoping he doesn't gain too much more weight for purely selfish reasons - I need to use these thoughts to help stay clear off all the Easter candy going around.

34 weeks 1 day

He's yawning cause he had an awesome but jam packed weekend. I'll write about it in a little bit, but for now enjoy the cuteness that is Baby Birkett in the womb.

cute pic

I think this was taken last week. Ashley is 20 weeks pregnant and we try to walk home whenever possible. As we walked by our local pub, Danny Coyles, we bumped into someone who wanted to take a pic of the two preggies - we obligied.

T.G.I.F!!!

Whew, I didn't know if I'd make it through this week. It was a comedy of errors for sure, peaking on Wednesday and getting better ever since. Luckily, nothing had to do with the pregnancy, just those weird occurrences. You know, one thing happens such as hitting off instead of snooze, you think to yourself ok not the best way to start the day, but hey at least I got some extra sleep! But finding out you overslept when a fire alarm awoke you - not a good jolt to the system - and Wednesday went on and on and on from there...

Pregnancy-wise I'm still doing great. Starting to feel a bit tired, but I attribute that to my week and the stress of moving/packing. I'll let you know in about two weeks if that wears off. Although I've gotten some great compliments this week from people I know. I guess I have a lot more energy that most people do at my stage in the game, am "carrying well" (not sure what this meant), and don't waddle. :-)

This weekend is a bit hectic, but should be really fun. Some of Brian's aunties are throwing a shower for the little guy tomorrow (thank you!) and because of it it my mom and Abby flew into town for the weekend, and Jamie and Erin will also be in town. With Cindy came some Taylor Ham and Tastykakes...mmmmmm. We're also going for a 3D/4D ultrasound tomorrow - yeah places now exist for you to go and pay out of pocket for an optional ultrasound. I'm excited because they last time we had one like this was at around 18 weeks.

The weekly emails are getting downright scary now. It say he now weighs about 4 3/4 lbs - like your average cantaloupe! YIKES. At least they didn't say he was the size of a cantaloupe, but I can't get the vision out of my head.

Another Mai Thai please!

I've been thinking about the deliciousness of a Mai Thai ever since I saw our weekly email this morning. Apparently our boy is as heavy as a pineapple. The only thing I like pineapple in is a Mai Thai, and boy do I wish I had one now. Soon enough! Bri and I, ok just Bri, are busy packing up for our move. At my doctor's appointment today the nurse asked me if I had any plans for the weekend, when I said packing she mentioned that it seems like all pregnant women move. Well I'm glad to know it's just not me. If you'd like to volunteer your muscles to help us move...just give us a call. (all you can eat pizza and beer!!) We're hee'ing and haw'ing about having to pay for movers.

I'm excited for the upcoming week as Cindy and my sis Abby will be flying out here on Thursday evening for the weekend. Abby will be bringing our niece Emma with her and we can't wait to see her in person again. We get to see some pictures, but she's got to be much bigger and more active than when we saw her at 2 months old in October. I wish we could have made it out to Jersey one more time, but alas it won't be happening for me at least. I'm itching to go somewhere.

Oh and to answer a question I've been getting since my "We have a Name..." post - we're going to try and keep his name to ourselves until we introduce him to the world after he arrives. More just so there's one thing to look forward to and obviously there's a bit of apprehension of getting an odd look after saying his name.

If you need a quick laugh

So Bri and I met with a potential pediatrician this morning and I think it went well. I really liked him, but we want to interview at least one more before we make a decision. So at one point he is asking us some questions, ie., do you smoke, where do/will you live and then do you own any guns? I immediately say no to the gun question, but Bri looks at him and deadpans - "unless you count these guns", and proceeds to flex his arm muscles - he may have even kissed one. Yep, he went there. Cheesiest joke ever. It was hysterical and the doc seemed to appreciate the humor.

32 weeks

Here's a belly shot taken today (32 weeks, 1 day) after yoga.

The babycenter.com email for this week says that he is about the weight of a large jicama (3 3/4lbs). The amount of blood running through my body has increased 40-50%, and I know it! I am hot, ALL.THE.TIME. Luckily my work has been great (ok, it is the perk of working in the Real Estate & Facilities team), I have a personal air conditioner/heater for my desk and a foot stool that props my legs up like I have an ottoman under my desk.

The email also says its time to discuss who will be in the labor & delivery room with you. Hmmm, in case you really don't know me at all it will just be Brian and I! I'm not all about the family "bonding". Depending on how long we're in the hospital we'll see guests. Obviously grandparents will be allowed to visit after we've had a few hours to rest and bonding as a new family of 3. I've never had a stitch, let alone a hospital stay - so it's not something I am looking forward to or even remotely comfortable with - in fact just walking into the hospital might be the getting through the worst for me. Phobia. So don't bank on getting the okay to see me (who am I kidding, the kid is who everyone wants to see!!) until we arrive at home. I'm hoping we're blessed with an insurance company that rushes you out within 24 hours...hee hee.

We may have agreed on a name!

Yes, you've read that correctly. I'm not going to post it, its been maybe an hour since we've "decided", so I need to sleep on it and come back to it tomorrow. I'll give a slight hint, his full name would be 7 syllables long. Although, I think this is it, I love it more every time I think about it and Brian feels he may have had the "ah ha" moment he's been expecting to have. *sigh*

So the 31 week post is a few days late, but we've been busy! We started the week by attending partner prenatal yoga. Bri was nice enough to appease me and come since he knows how much I've enjoyed taking yoga. Well, turns out he thought it was great and is now attending a 4 session Intro to Yoga class! The first half of last week was crappy, pun intended! Evita caught something, that we found out from other people seems to be afflicting other dogs in the city. It was not fun, and the poor poor girl just looked so sad. All I will say is we're ready for a kid - at least after 2 years they can tell you what's wrong and before that they wear diapers. The good news is that she was getting a little chunky and dropped some weight over the week.

I'm now going to the doctor every two weeks, and that went well. I think he still remains breech for now, but we have a few weeks before it becomes a slight issue. Saturday was a very long day! We had childbirth prep class from 9am - to a little after 4pm. Lots of info to digest but luckily the books we've read have addressed most of it. Then we showed our condo to prospective tenants - I'm happy to say we found a tenant and are extremely excited. It's a huge relief, and I feel like 100 lbs lifted off of my shoulders in a matter of moments. So we're officially going to be landlords. We're not making money but at least for now we'll still have our little slice of the city. We've also made some progress in terms of childcare. Our soon-to-be behind the house neighbor runs a daycare, and has a spot if we're interested. I still feel like we need to check out some more options to check pricing, but you almost cant beat tossing the kid over the fence and then going to work. I'm just kidding about tossing him over the fence, I was thinking we could cut a doggie door in the fence and have him crawl through. AND we've started to set up appointments with potential pediatricians. whew.

At 31 weeks he's approximately the weight of four navel oranges. Yeah, the comparisons are just odd now, huh? They don't really say much other than he's plumping out. I have read that we're still a few weeks away from his lungs being 100% mature, but everything else is just functioning fine.

This weeks post brought to you by...

...Dana! Thanks for the reminder to do a blog post. I forgot to post last Friday; most likely due to the fact I wound up at the doctors office and then later in the day at the other office for a non-stress test. Whoops! Baby Boy Birkett is doing well. Personally, I was never concerned and actually thought it was a bit of a waste going to the NST especially after we heard the heartbeat, but hey better safe than sorry. Turns out we just have a chill little peanut who doesn't really think it's necessary to move about too often, even if I drink a years worth of sugar to get him to move. The ultrasound revealed that he's doing everything he's supposed to, including practicing to breathe and the technician did agree that he is pretty chill (for now) and probably just likes to sleep. I'll admit it was super cute watching his little rib cage move up and down while he was practicing.

I'd like to blog about something very near and dear to my heart this week - Evita. The picture to the left has been purchased as a poster, matted and framed. When you come visit be on the lookout for it - I love it!

Blame the hormones or the people who keep telling me that she'll basically be as good as nothing once the kid comes, but I can't get enough of her lately. Most everything she does is just adorable to me and it's never been like that before. In the morning when she does downward dog just before she goes outside, the fact that she snuggles next to my belly, or hops on Bri's lap when he gets home - it's just too much. She's just so darn amazing. Now I've been lucky to have a slew of animals as pets during my lifetime - a cow (for real), multiple cats, dogs, hermit crabs and fish (my favorite were Ren & Stimpy) so I have enough experience to know she's just special and not in a handicapped way. She has more personality than I've ever seen in a canine and man is she loyal to Bri and I. I have no doubt she'll be great around the kid too. I am being realistic in the fact that we need to start "re-training" her a bit. She needs to start sleeping in her bed, not ours, and I shouldn't get in the house and drop everything for her right away. I think this will help minimize any hurt feelings if they abruptly have to all end at once. So, if you come visit us to see the kid, be sure to pay a little attention to Evita also!

So we're hitting the home stretch and I'm feeling good for all those inquiring minds. I really do have the urge to nest, just check the previous post. It's kinda driving me insane that I don't have a room to paint/decorate just yet and I fear by the time I do I'll just be too darn tired to do anything. Not that it is truly important I just have the urge/ambition to do it now.

We hit 30 weeks today but I'll do a little catch up from 29 weeks. Last week he was approx the weight of a butternut squash (2.5 lbs) and his lungs and brain continued to mature. Since I got to see it first hand last Friday, we know his lungs are maturing right on track. This week (30 weeks) he continues to pack on he weight and is now approx 3 lbs! I should be expecting him to gain about 1/2 lb each week. yikes! everything else is just continuing to develop and mature.

(29 weeks - weight of a butternut squash)

(30 weeks - weight equal to a head of cabbage)

I'm toast

It's the 4th quarter of Super Bowl XLIII and I'm laid up on the couch - only spending the first half out. I think it's official, I've tried to do too much and am now paying for it. Lesson learned. Most of the time I forget I'm pregnant minus the mini beach ball in my gut. Bri is sitting in Tampa, FL enjoying the Super Bowl live and will be spending the rest of the week in FL on business. I am slightly bitter that nothing in Bri's life has to change - he can drink and galavante around the country with his boys all he wants. Oh, and please don't feel sorry for him when he tells you he passed on a work trip to Hawaii (3 weeks before I'm due) - he in all seriousness considered going. Nice, eh?

Anyhoo - I thought, wow perfect time for me to get the house cleaned the way I like it and run some extra errands. So I ran a lot of errands yesterday - groceries, waiting in line to get frames and matting cut, yoga, and an hour walk with Evita since it was so nice out. Since I didn't get started cleaning, I woke up early today and quickly made a chili in the crockpot. Then it was time to clean. I moved all of the living room furniture (I think this was the mistake), swept, dusted, mopped and vacuumed the floors. Then I removed the couch cushions, vacuumed the couch and chair, re-stuffed the couch cushions to make them "like new" and moved all the furniture back in place. Wouldn't you know, I've been in some pain for the rest of the day. The bummer? It's only the living room that I've completed, our place is small but I was really focused to have it cleaned right. I really want to give the same treatment to our bedroom, but don't want to move the dressers by myself. I'm frustrated to feel physically limited AND my house is not the way I want it!!

Other than today's (let's hope I feel much better tomorrow) little bump in the roadd everything is going well. I can't believe it's February - we have such a busy month coming up. On Friday we reached 28 weeks, less than 10 weeks until Baby Birkett is considered "Full Term" at 37 weeks. According to babycenter.com he is the weight of a Chinese Cabbage, approx 2 1/4 lb.

3rd Trimester

Holy cow I'm not sure how we ended up in the 3rd trimester already, but it's here as of today. I feel like he's going to be here before we know it. Still no name, but we're down to three and I think it will stay that way until he makes his appearance.

Last weekend Bri and I went on a short "babymoon" to Oahu. We had a great time and were fortunate to get some nice weather too. At first it seemed like we might get screwed - it was more tropical storm than tr0pical sun. Luckily it only lasted one day. We decided to stay up at he North Shore away from the Japanese tourist that frequent Waikiki. We spent some time down in Waikiki and had a great meal and catch up with Jen and Steve. While Oahu may not be our favorite of the islands we did take full advantage of everything it offered - even finding the set of LOST. Yes, thanks to Steve we were able to find the small portion of the North Shore that they have set up as the beach camp. No filming was taking place, but it was still cool in my book to check out the set. I'll post some of our favorite shots below and on our flickr.

In terms of the kid, he's doing well and growing. I had a doctor's appointment today and his heartbeat was strong and seems to be measuring right on track. I also had what I hope is my final glucose test (cross your fingers I pass and do not need a 3 hour test). The doctor did add a few new items to the to-do list. Who knew you should pre-register for the hospital so early AND research pediatricians. I'll admit those two items were not even remotely on my radar.

Since I didn't post last week, I think I'll play catch up just so you can see what our not so little piece of produce is in relation to. Last week at 26 weeks he was the length of an English cucumber (approx 14 inches) and lucky for him his testicles started to descend and should be complete by now. How funny would it be if he came out with a cry the pitch of Mike Tyson's voice? I guess we would know right away if there was a problem in that department. :-) This week he is almost 2 pounds, like a head of cauliflower, and is sleeping and waking at regular intervals - hmmm, hopefully sleeping at an 8 hour interval from say 11pm -7am, a girl can wish right!! the weekly emails also states that I may experience a leg muscle cramp more frequently. Funny story about those - I've had a few throughout the pregnancy and yes they hurt like HELL especially in the middle of the night. However, I thought I was being maimed the other night while in Hawaii. It happened twice in a row on the same leg. I thought the muscle was being ripped off the bone. Yes, I screamed and possibly cursed. I then proceeded to have a limp for the next day because the leg was so sore in the spot it occur ed. I hope that was the worst of it, I've been chugging water like no other since then.

Belly Pic

Because I'm such a wiseass to my mom and she puts up with it, I thought I would play nice and post a pic. So here's a pic of me after yoga this morning. The glare coming in from our window was bad, so it's not the best shot. 25 weeeks...

You can compare that to the 18 week shot from Nashville:Mom, if you call me and say your got choked up or whatever I will never do this again. :-) You know I'm serious...

Checking things off the to do list

It's been a fairly productive week, personally and professionally. I think it has something to do with it being the new year and thoughts of a fresh start. I have started to take prenatal yoga. My back has been killing me in just one small section and no amount of stretching on my own seems to be helping out. I tell you, it must be some scene to watch me in this class. For those reading that do not know, let me give you an analogy - Dawn:Flexible :: Fish:Sky - that's right there is no comparison. I pity the fools who have to watch me. I like it though and it seems to help a bit. So that workout once a week plus my 2/3x a week at the gym have been keeping me in shape. I jsut wish you could tell - no no I like the mini belly. It's the 3 chins I could do without!

Another thing we can check off of our list is registering for all the classes that are recommended. We're signed up and confirmed for a full day (oy vey!) of childbirth prep and some other classes. It was nice to get it out of the way and just not have to worry about dates. We've decided to take all of the classes at our hospital, CPMC.

Still on our list? Child care. This is the biggest pain in the @ss ever! We were sent a huge list generated by the County of San Mateo and since I'm not familiar with San Mateo I have no clue where most are located and it just looks intimidating in general. Not to mention I still want to burst out in tears at the mere thought of the cost. It's a racket and will be driving us to the poor house for sure.

I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog, but we're going to be moving out of the city to San Mateo. We expect to be moved in no later than April 1. Suburbs here we come. *sniff sniff* I like the idea of more space and a yard, believe me! We're busting out of our little 1 bedroom as it is; can you imagine if we added a kid to the mix? I just love our place so much and the City for that matter. We're not totally giving up on our place, we're going to capitalize (hopefully!) on the fact that the rental market in SF is strong right now. I'm sure it will be fine. Watch in a few years I won't be able to even imagine living anywhere other than the 'burbs...strip malls, chain restaurants...whooo hooo.

Today we've reached the 25th week. Wow, it's really starting to fly by now and there's so much left to do! According to babycenter.com he's about 1 1/2 lbs right now about the same as a rutabaga. Um, i have no clue what you use a rutabaga for! So my hair is supposed to be full and lustrous at this point - little did they know my hair has always been full and lustrous. Not to brag, but it is a good feature of mine. :-) Baby Boy birkett on the other hand is putting some fat on his little body.

No update next week - as I'll be sitting on the warm beaches of the North Shore in Oahu! Woot. I'm ready to soak up the rays, float in the water and just not do anything! Later suckas.

Happy New Year!

It's 2009! I can't say Bri and I rang in the new year in style - unless of course you count being sound asleep by midnight. It doesn't really pain me too much though - I love sleep; I wish I could put a ring on sleep and marry it. We were so busy from Christmas Eve through the 28th that I was thankful we didn't have to leave our house if we didn't want to. We'd like to thank everyone for their generosity. Baby Boy Birkett is spoiled already! We received so many wonderful gifts. He is one lucky boy, he has enough sports gear to get him through baseball and football season already. It's all so adorable too! Too bad the Niners gear won't be seen on him until the Giants bye-week :-).

My mom has requested to see a picture of me. Weird, I know. It's not like she didn't get to see me enough in the 17 years I lived with her. But I'm a sucker for my mom, so mom, this picture's for you. Hope it's what you were looking for. (I'm in the top right hand corner) hee hee... I'm looking good! However, not as good as Bri and his "serious" face.

This week marks the 24th week of our pregnancy, and according to babycenter.com he's the length of an ear of corn and is really developing his taste buds. Good thing I had a package of Taylor Ham in my freezer, I hope one of his first tastes was the deliciousness that is the New Jersey processed pork meat. Cindy, if you're reading this, I need a FedEx shipment STAT!! I have none left. We ate it as our first meal of the new year. Of course if you live in NJ, your name isn't Cindy and want to send me some, I will not turn my back on it. OK, ok I digress, but Taylor Ham was worth the diversion. Back to Baby Boy Birkett...I've been feeling him move a lot more. I think we're at a point where Bri should be able to feel him, but getting him to move on command isn't really happening. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens at some point this week. That being said, I must look somewhat pregnant because I've been finally offered a coveted seat on the always crowded Muni trains during morning rush hour -not once, but twice. Alas, it's only the old ladies that have offered so I couldn't take their seats, but still a nice thought. It's funny how the younger men and women are all "asleep". Oh and I've dreaded this, but more than one person has reached out and tried to touch my gut. Really!?! I know, I know apparently I deserve this because I went and got pregnant. But if you're reading this, DO NOT attempt. Especially without asking. I'm going to start reaching out and rubbing other people's fat- hey at least I have an excuse. What's theirs? I must come off evil - but it's more that I'm a private person. I am loving being pregnant - just not loving the assumption that because it is getting more and more visible I have to share so many intimate moments I would not normally share with others outside my close circle. I hope that helps clarify, as I'm not trying to be mean.