An Ounce of Prevention

So, MP has a lot of studying to do over the next couple of weeks. Classes end this week, and finals begin next week. I knew this when I signed us up for this class. When I told him we'd be sacrificing an entire Saturday - he was less than thrilled, wondering what on earth he could learn about childbirth, "you're the one doing the hard part" he pointed out. Regardless, I put my pregnant foot down and said we had to go.

We arrived at the hosptial right at 8am, and with our two bed pillows in tow headed into a maze of hallways and elevators. The directions just to get to the classroom were almost more than we could handle. We arrived and along with three other couples embarked on our day long journey. The class covered labor, birth, possible interventions, newborn care and more. After our first break, I was delighted to hear MP admit so far, it was indeed helpful. Seeing laboring women in the video helped both of us in terms of visualizing what to expect. I've seen an episode or two of "A Baby Story" in my day, not to mention being lucky enough to attend several births...so this wasn't all brand new to me. But let me tell you - when you're less than three months away from experiencing it yourself, you see it all with a new pair of eyes!

I had also been concerned that a large portion of the class would feel like it wasn't applicable for us, since we're planning on a home birth, but once class was underway, I was glad to be more knowledgeable about what can happen, and feel more prepared should we end up needing to go to the hospital. Also, when we went on the tour of the labor/delivery and postpartum rooms, we both decided that our own bedroom was where we'd feel a lot more comfortable in the labor and delivery process.

All in all, I have to say that I found the day worthwhile and informative. I didn't leave feeling any more or less frightened about labor. How I am going to care for an infant...all the time...and still take care of myself? Now that I am more than a little nervous about. Lucky for me, I am lining up as many helpers as are willing to come out and visit us. I am still reading as many books as I can get my hands on. I'll be attending yet another six week birthing class series taught by my midwife's practice. And, here's to hoping these ounces of prevention will be worth a pound of cure when I am on my nine millionth contraction, or when BBP is inconsolable, or when I don't know how I can manage another three hour feeding/sleeping cycle.

Getting some spring in my step

Man, was this one long winter or what? Looking back, it feels like the sun didn't come out from December through March. Luckily, my memory is short, and the past several weeks of warm and breezy conditions have all but erased from my mind those dreary days. MP and I have been enjoying dinner most evenings right here...


The past few weeks have been spent hanging ferns, spreading mulch, and filling planters in an effort to make our porch and yard a nice place to spend time. I will, for the remainder of my life, aspire to ferns that grow as beautiful and full as those on Gary & Keith's front porch - so please wish me luck in my fourth year of trying! We've also been working on training the dogs to stay on the porch with us as we sit at the table...apparently, our neighbors with small children don't take too kindly to a Tipper and Riley style greeting.

I have also been taking advantage of the nicer weather by going on several hour-long dog walks each week. I had been running regularly up until shortly after becoming pregnant, but somewhere between moodiness, the weather getting cold, my breath getting short, and my belly growing large I lost the willpower to keep it up. I did manage to maintain a yoga practice through the winter, but ever since the sun's been out, I have just wanted to be outside. I hope to keep up the walks as long as I can, even if I have to divvy them up into two shorter ones each day as the weather heats up and BBP takes up even more room in my ever-growing belly. Speaking of the ever growing belly - see evidence below (...and celebrate with me that we're officially in the third trimester!!! Only 12 more weeks to go.)

MP and I welcomed his parents last weekend for a visit, and Grandma came bearing many gifts. She brought clothes new & old for BBP. I can't wait to dress him in some of the same things his daddy wore as a baby. Especially this hat:

(Special thanks to Peter Rabbit for modeling.)

You may be wondering from the picture, but yep(!) that is a feather in his cap. BBP is going to be one authentic retro hipster. Who needs some vintage online clothing site or store, when we are lucky enough to have parents who saved the originals for us?!?! (Note, Nana did the same, only she just had little girl things of mine to pass along. Perhaps one day BP2 will be the lucky recipient of these fashion relics.)

We had a great time showing Grandma & Grandpa Pulle all around CoMo. They were able to see where MP spends most of his time, check out downtown, visit a couple of our favorite places to eat, experience walking around Rocheport, and finally.... the A-Frame at Les Bourgeois. A fantastic time was had by all...

Not only do we find ourselves in the homeward stretch of pregnancy, but MP is wrapping up his 1L year. We expect the coming weeks to fly by, and have much to do yet in preparation for BBP. But first, MP will finish up classes, finals, and a seven week clerkship in Nashville, while I am going to try to get our freezer stocked, BBP's nursery ready to go, and also plenty of rest in anticipation of that which will be foregone in the months to come.

What I got for Easter...

(...that is in addition to the Cadbury's Creme Eggs that the Easter Bunny has not failed to bring me since my childhood)

A great spring break trip to Nashville with the MP. We arrived for a week's stay and were welcomed by warm and sunny weather. It was a fantastic trip, both of us got to have lots of visits with our friends, we both worked, MP did some studying, we got my house cleaned up and ready to re-rent (and rented...YAY), and the most fun of all...we attended our baby shower.

It was such a great time. I really think I have the best friends a girl could ever want. Here are a few pictures...

So sweet of Margaret to host at her home!

Co-hostesses - best a mother-to-be could want

After opening gifts...

A party isn't a party without a good picture of Gary and me!!

My parents, MP, and I.

It's always sad to leave Nashville, but I think we'll be able to fit in one more visit before BBP arrives. (MP sure will since he'll be working there the first seven weeks of summer, but we're hoping I'll be able to join him for the first couple of them.) We arrived home last night to a bunch more boxes, since MP's extended family decided to shower us as well in honor of our Nashville shower. This baby is going to be set for his first few years at least!

I am still feeling great. I feel so fortunate that I really have no complaints so far in terms of the physical aspects of this pregnancy. (Don't worry, I am sure I will be complaining before it's all said and done. Not to mention, you may notice I said "physical aspects"? I am pretty much an emotional basket case, but that is another story!)

The one thing I will say....I can't lie that watching that number on the scale creep up more and more when I still have 14 weeks left to go is just a little bit scary. In some ways, 14 weeks to go feels like a lifetime, but in others it seems like BBP will make his debut before we know it!

It Takes a Village

So, I am pretty sure that at some point, every friend of mine that has had a pregnancy turned baby blog has this exact same posting, but wow, I mean our friends' and families' generosity is just overwhelming. I am so appreciative of all the support we've gotten, even being so far away from home.


Here's a peek at what used to be a functioning guest room, which became baby goodie deposit zone (knowing it would be the future nursery). We have gotten so so many clothes and cloth diapers from friends, which are piled here on the bed.





I decided the only way I could deal with these was in bins...so I sorted them by size, keeping out only the smallest ones for now. Let me say, my friends have great taste. Baby Boy Pulle is going to be one styling little guy straight out of the womb! All these little clothes got me SO excited. Funny how that can happen.


This was such a large job, my parents came to town to help us out. Okay, not really, but we did need their help. I have heard horror stories from friends how putting together a crib could become an all day endeavor, and lead frighteningly close to divorce. Since neither MP nor I is particularly mechanically inclined (and, fine...I admit it, I am sorely lacking in the patience department) and we would like BBP to have a happy home life with his parents' marriage intact....so, it was time to call on my parents for help.



We'd gotten the crib from a dear friend, and had all the pieces, but no instructions. She'd assured me we'd be able to figure it out, and I'm not going to lie. I doubted her at the time. But, really with all of us there to hold pieces in place as others attached the hardware, and my mom's heretofore underutilized (and unknown by me) knowledge of hospital bed workings, we had that puppy together in no time. Add the bumper and crib skirt, and voila!


Only problems, I guess we're not supposed to use a bumper anymore and instead BBP is to sleep in a cage. Worse than that though, it's probably hard to tell in the picture here, but the sweet baby bedding has little green elephants all over it, to which my dad pointed out that he was glad to see I had gotten Republican bedding! I am sure my friend who handed this down to me didn't think of that when she bought it!! Anyone who knows me well (and why I have to explain this, since anyone reading this blog does know me well, is beyond me), knows that I need to now swap this out for sweet little donkey baby bedding. Somehow, the donkey doesn't have the same effect though...sigh. As long as BBP doesn't get confused - perhaps we can offset this with an Obama bumper sticker or onesie or something.

Mom and Dad had another important job to do... A few weeks ago, I asked them to drop everything one day after work and rush over to see a dresser I'd seen posted on CraigsList in Nashville. I'd been keeping an eye out for the past couple months for something I liked, looking on CL, going to antique stores, etc and hadn't had any luck. Then, I found this one, which a lot of other people also seemed to like, so the woman selling it was ready to get it done. Thankfully, Mom and Dad agreed to rush over, and it was just what I'd been wanting, so they snatched it up...and this past weekend, delivered it to my door (well, further even...to the nursery)! Seriously, isn't that so nice?

So, here it is...just needs one of those changing table pads, and we'll be in business!

So, with the crib and changing table in place, clothes sorted and put away, and a few toys set to the side, the once-a-guest-room was looking more and more like a nursery. The only thing was, I was worried that when the bumper goes, it's going to be pretty bare...so, I got this cute picture at Target to liven up at least a 21" square of wall. I don't have much else to say about it, except I guess the artists at Target didn't want to cheat "Y" out of half a square and figured "Z" isn't that important anyways. I hope BBP learns that there is a 26th letter in the alphabet, rarely used though it may be.

As a thank you for coming and helping, Mom and Dad then took MP and I out to our very favorite CoMo restaurant for dinner on Saturday night. I know, seems kind of backwards? That is just how fantastic parents are. I guess we'll have a chance to pay it forward in about 30 years?

Here's Mom, BBP bump, and I.

...and all three of us (BBP bump is much less obvious from front view).

In all seriousness, we're both so thankful for what all of our friends and family have done to help during this crazy, fun and special time. All the baby and maternity clothes, toys, furniture, diapers, and especially time and love given. We appreciate it more than we could express - all three of us!

Here goes nothin'....

Okay, so that's what I was thinking back on Halloween when I set down my very tasty Boulevard Single Wide IPA to await the results. When the "Not Pregnant" part of the line doesn't even show up...that's when it's time to give your husband the beer bottle, get another pregnancy test out, and say to yourself "Well, here goes nothin'"



For the next few weeks, things seemed pretty normal. I consider myself among the lucky ones - or lucky pregnancy, or whatever - but my first trimester progressed relatively symptom free. (I think MP may say that the "hormonal" symptoms were most certainly present! But, I suffered not a bout of morning sickness.) Here I am at 6 weeks - and apparently post yoga class.

MP and I enjoyed the holdiay season with family and friends, followed by a delightful honeymoon in Playa del Carmen, Mexico in early January (where we managed to take about 3 photos, none of which is blog-worthy). I will say that Mexico sans-margarita is a totally different place ;)

The start of the second trimester brought with it the beginning of anticipation of our 20 week ultrasound. We had chosen to forego some of the early blood testsing for abnormality in favor of just waiting to see what the little booger looked like. Our midwife assured us that this would be a fine approach. We really wanted to avoid the fear of false positive results, and the subsequent further testing required in that event.

As the weeks ticked by, I began to have anxiety filled dreams where I was laying on the ultrasound table, and the technician is saying, "I'm sorry, Christine, but we're just not able to tell the gender." At which point I am completely flipping out, "You don't seem to understand, though...I HAVE to know what I am having!!!!" I guess my subconcious was never concerned about the health - clearly my priorities are all sorts of messed up!

Finally, February 19th arrived. MP and I head over for our 9am appointment, the technician brings us back to the room, dims the lights, and starts to have a look at what's been cooking in there. We get to see a picture of the face - watching our sweet little baby's mouth open and close, she shows us BabyP's spine, feet, heart, arms (see below!), head...all the while, I am saying, "...and what about the other parts?!?!" But, my worst fears are confirmed as the tech says, "See here, between BabyP's legs? That's the umbilical cord blocking our view." She invited me to get up and move around, use the restroom, etc. assuring me that she had plenty more scanning to do afterwards. I returned to my spot on the table, she took several more measurements, and then the lilt of cheerful conversation died down. I was sure she was going to give up at any moment, when she said, "Are you ready to find out?" Of course I was, I was ready weeks ago, certainly when I walked into the clinic that morning! She announced to MP and I that we'd been cooking up a little baby BOY! A BOY! I was so excited. I had gone into the day with an unidentified, genderless baby, and came out with a little baby boy. Talk about the best. feeling. ever.

That growing boy in there was also resulting in something else growing, as evidenced by the 20 week belly photo shown below. Lucky for me, you all can't see the rest of my bottom half growing along with it!

Six days after this photo was taken, I donned my first pair of maternity pants, and immediately wondered where they've been all my life! I am fortunate enough to work at home, where I have been able to dress very comfortably (i.e. yoga pants, daily)...but getting out of the house was becoming more of an issue when none of my pants were fitting very well. Thanks to some very generous friends, I am feeling pretty much set on the clothing front.

So, here we are...21 weeks and 3 days into this 40 week adventure (ha! as if the adventure stops at 40 weeks, right?). Hopefully, I will be able to keep a somewhat regular account of how we're doing on this pregnancy and then parenting thing, and my friends out there across the world can have another diversion from actual work to chuckle at our missteps and celebrate our victories :)