Maternity Pictures – A Sneak Peak

About 2 week ago when I was feeling especially whale-ish, we had the pleasure of having some maternity pictures taken by our absolute favorite photographer, Maria Vicencio.  If you are in need of a maternity, family, wedding or just “I feel sassy” photographer and you live in the MD, DC, VA area… CONTACT HER.  You won’t regret it!

Also – if you recall (from years ago) – this is the same photographer that did our Trash the Dress pictures. 

Maria and Drew are the NICEST people you’ll ever meet and are amongst the most talented photographers I know.  Sometimes I wish I could have just a small fraction of their talent (and I always hope to get it through osmosis or something).

So – we did a maternity shoot on January 16th.  Some photos were taken in our house, we braved the cold for a few others and the rest were taken at the Baltimore Museum of Industry (who were nice enough to let us in free of admission to do so).

Maria sent me a sneak peak yesterday and I am dying over these.  Since I’ve been feeling pretty run-down in this final stretch of the pregnancy, it definitely gave me the ego boost I so desperately needed.  And dare I say it?  I actually think I look beautiful.  Without further ado…

Sorry for all the pics but I really couldn’t pick just a couple out of the sneak peaks.

The Waiting Game

Have I mentioned that I hate this waiting game?  Oh, I have?  Like a hundred times already? 

I’m in this constant state of panic… and I hate that.  I’m a planner.  I keep a calendar of events and activities (mostly because I’m forgetful but I also just love listing things).  I used to keep a daily calendar and carry it with me but that became a pain (although I still adore little calendars) so now I use Google Calendar and just check my phone.  All the time.

Anywho – because I’m so close to the end of this pregnancy, I feel like I can’t make or commit to any plans going forward.  When will baby girl get here?  A lot of things have come up lately and I have had to RSVP as “maybe” and it makes me feel bad.  I always hate that “maybe” person.  I just assumed they were waiting for better options.  Me?  I really have an excuse!

Last night during the terrible sleet/snow/rain storm, our power went out.  And I freaked!  I worried that I would go into labor and we wouldn’t be able to find shit in our house and our poor dogs would freeze to death while we were gone.  We’d be stuck in the obscene traffic (seriously – people were ABANDONING THEIR CARS on the highways last night because it was out of control) and I’d give birth in the backseat of Jeremy’s car.  I even had a nightmare about it last night.

And now they’re calling for more snow and I’m just so worried about going into labor.  For anyone that lives in the city – it is difficult to maneuver around the side streets when it snows because they are hardly plowed, people play “parking wars” so you never want to lose your spot and quite frankly, Maryland drivers are amongst some of the worst drivers ON THE PLANET.

I think with everyone at work commenting that they “can’t believe” I’m still coming to the office, I am convinced that I’m way overdue (despite having a due date of February 7th).

So please humor me, blogosphere.  To entertain me and get my mind off of things, I created a baby pool page.  Enter your guesses!  Maybe I’ll offer up some sort of price to the person that comes closest but I’m trying to think of what I’d offer… I’ll figure something out. 

 http://www.expectnet.com/games/CharmCityBaby

Fashion Bump Watch

Despite my growing fatigue and exhaustion… I am keeping up these pictures! 

Don’t mind the poor quality of the pictures.  They’re getting worse and worse mostly because I keep dropping my piece of shit point & shoot camera on the ground.  I’m pretty sure it is on it’s last leg.  I’ve had to go into Photoshop and lighten every single photo so they look really grainy.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Top:  Old Navy Maternity (also owned in tan and purple)

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity

Shoes:  Target Merona

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Top:  Gap Maternity (also owned in gray)

Sweater:  DKNY (not maternity)

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity

Shoes:  Target Merona

Friday, January 21, 2011

T-shirt:  Target – Liz Lange Maternity

Sweater:  Banana Republic (not maternity and purchased ON SALE after Christmas.  I refuse to buy new maternity stuff so if I buy something now, it has to be something that will work with my pregnant body but that I can also wear post-pregnancy)

Pants:  Gap Maternity

Shoes:  Target – Xhiliration (you can’t really see my shoes but they are little ankle boots that were surprisingly UNCOMFORTABLE.  I think I’ve really reached the point where heels are just out of the question for me.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Top:  Old Navy Maternity (also owned in green)

Sweater:  H&M (clearly not maternity)

Belt:  Target

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity

Boots:  Fred Flare (brand: Soda)

Necklace: Macy’s

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Top:  H&M Maternity

Long-sleeved thermal shirt:  Gap (not maternity)

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity

Shoes:  Target Merona

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I’m keeping it real today, guys.  I’m working from home because I just did NOT have the energy to deal with the snow.  It isn’t much but the act of cleaning off my car and then trekking several blocks to my office just weren’t worth it to me.  So – this is what I usually wear to as soon as I get home from work… and to bed… and on weekends.  I love my sweats.

Sweatshirt:  my alma mater

Sweatpants:  Old Navy (they actually had sweatpants in a long!)

Socks:  a christmas gift

Fun / Weird Pregnancy Stuff:  Is it just me or do I look exponentially HUGE in the photos above?  At my last weekly appointment (on Monday) – I was told that I GAINED 4 LBS.  In one week.  I am still in shock over that.  The nurse and doc didn’t seem concerned since I hadn’t really gained any weight over the last month and the previous week I had actually lost a pound.  But still.  4 lbs?!   That hardly seems healthy to gain that much in one week.

I’ve just been antipicating contractions for the past week.  My SIL is studying to be a nurse and actually completed her OB clinicals last semester.  She also has 2 kids (one was just born last week!).  She told me that they taught the nurses to check contractions by touching a woman’s abdomen and then touching parts of their face to determine the severity.  If the belly resembles the tip of your nose, it is a mild contraction.  Your chin?  A medium contraction.  Your forehead?  You’re having a severe/hard contraction.  Want to guess how I’ve been spending my days?  Touching my belly and poking my forehead.

I keep getting comments from co-workers about how they can’t believe I’m still at the office.  This makes me think that I’m about to have the baby ANY SECOND NOW.  It drives me crazy.  I hate this waiting game.

There is a girl I know that is due ONE day ahead of me.  We have the same doc and are delivering at the same hospital.  I checked in with her the other day and she told me that she is 2 cm dilated, the baby measured 5 lbs 10 oz at her 36 week sono and that the doc felt she was measuring a little behind.  Even so – the doc asked her if she wanted to go ahead and schedule an induction!  I was shocked.  Induction has not been mentioned at all during any of my visits.  I don’t want to be induced but I wondered why this girl was getting the offer.

I just want this baby to give me some indication on when she’s making her debut!  I hate this waiting game.

Prepping for Baby

Well… another week (I’m 38 weeks pregnant now) and not much new in the world of baby. I had my appointment today and was told the following:

• I’m about 1 cm dilated. Actually – my doc told me I was NOT dilated but her backup doc that I saw last week estimated me to be between 1-2 cm. Granted – the other doc was a little more “aggressive” in checking but it still makes me wonder how they even come up with these numbers. My doc said that she’d agree that I’m probably around 1 cm but didn’t want to torture me to make sure.
• I’ve gained 4 lbs in ONE week. Tell me how that is possible. My total weight gain to date is now 25 lbs. I lost a pound last week! I blame all the Mexican food and pizza I ate this weekend.
• All the cramping and soreness I’m feeling in my abdomen is normal (since I am stretched to the limit.

I have apparently shocked a lot of my co-workers by showing up to the office today. Nobody thinks I’m going to make it much longer. This belief has me thinking I’m not going to make it much longer either! Technically I have 2 weeks… I could even go up to 3 weeks (putting me at Valentine’s Day – I really don’t want a V-day baby. I feel like I’d just be screwing my poor little girl out of future boyfriend / partner gifts).

We’re pretty much done all that needs to be done around the house. Now we’re just doing maintenance cleaning. My hospital bag is more than half packed (there are just items that I still use that I won’t be packing until it is go time). So my mind is now focused on prepping my body for baby. This includes:

• Drinking Raspberry Leaf tea. Supposedly this stuff helps with delivery or even inducing labor.
• Primrose Oil. This stuff is supposed to ready my cervix for labor. You’re not supposed to take this stuff until you are 37 weeks pregnant… and by take, I mean shoving a capsule into your hoo-ha. You read that correctly.
• Perineal Massage. This is by far the funniest of the bunch that I’m doing because it is so f’n awkward. Go ahead and google it. You’ll see some YouTube instructional videos on it. But to really boil down what this means, you’re massaging your taint (this is what Jeremy likes to say). That’s right.

The idea is that you stretch the muscles of your vagina to prep it for childbirth. Many believe that by doing this sort of stretching, you’re less likely to need an episiotomy (or you’ll reduce how badly you might tear).

I remember a friend of mine that described to me how her OB “massaged her taint” when she was delivering her son and how it freaked her out… but that she didn’t need an episiotomy and she didn’t even tear. Consider me sold.

However, I can’t really bend down much so I have to rely on my dear husband to perform this task and let’s just say, it has brought us a lot closer.

At first – it was ridiculously painful. Like – tears in my eyes, Jeremy was slicing me with his short little fingernails painful. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. And I sure as shit couldn’t relax.

Eventually we figured a way around this… Jeremy uses his knuckles. That’s right – my husband knuckles me. We had to do this for a few days and now I’m okay with him using his fingertips.

Don’t get me wrong – this shit is still uncomfortable but I’ve definitely noticed a difference. Let’s just hope this actually helps!

Btw – Jeremy likes to say he’s knuckling me and it still makes me laugh. I told this to my friend who made me describe it to her husband because she didn’t think he’d believe her if she told him about it.

I don’t think many women talk about the perineal massage and I don’t know why. It is hilarious. I definitely don’t think it is any type of foreplay (it is way too medical for it) but you have to have a good sense of humor about the whole thing. Pregnancy just makes you do crazy shit.

I can only imagine the crazy shit I’ll be doing when the baby is actually here.

The Nursery Reveal

After a couple of months of agonizing over design – we are 99% complete with the nursery!  I say 99% complete because that’s how Jeremy and I always feel after a “project”.  We’re never 100% satisfied.  But the nursery is organized, cleaned, and ready for a human being to occupy it.

Jeremy took like 100 pictures of the nursery at all kinds of wacky angles so bear with me, please.

Emily scoped things out:

A quick description… we went with blue because I like the color blue. We chose this color even after finding out we were having a girl because who says girls can’t have blue bedrooms? Seriously. When we looked at paint swatches, we definitely thought we had selected a nice adult blue… but then it went up on the walls and it totally screamed nursery. And I’m okay with that.

The “theme” of the room really started around a bedding pattern that I loved of owls. But then it just got out of control. It isn’t really owl-centric but there are a few owls here and there (in the art work, some stuffed animals, a ceramic owl bank and the bedding).

I saw that print on the Bower Power blog in their nursery reveal and e-mailed Katie to see if she’d mind sharing the print. She was SO nice and sent me the file so that I could print one for myself. I love it.

So we were doing okay with the owls but then we saw this wall decal and LOVED it:

It started with just the birds on the tree branch but then I felt the rest of the wall looked naked. And I refused to hang any artwork above the crib because I had this fear that it would fall and hit my baby on the head. While we don’t have problems with earthquakes and such… you just never know! So we found the flying birds from another Etsy seller since the shape was similar (although the color isn’t a perfect match).

So the theme went from owls to owls & birds… or as I like to say, “winged animals”.

Most of the room consists of ideas we borrowed from nurseries we’ve seen on tv and online. The color scheme? Totally saw that online. How can you NOT like the blue with the bright green accents?

Jeremy had been wanting to do this book shelf thing ever since seeing it on an episode of Dear Genevieve on HGTV:

We lucked out in that my dear friend and hostess of my baby shower had requested that everyone bring me a book (instead of a card)! We have plenty of other books on the book shelf but I just love how the books look like art on the wall.

And speaking of art…

We went a little overboard with framed stuff. I had a ton of frames from the guest room that I wanted to reuse. In fact, nearly every frame on that wall was a frame we already owned but just spraypainted white. The prints are a mix of items we found on Etsy (the alphabet print and the 2 dachshund paintings), artwork we had in our bedroom from Urban Outfitters (all the bird canvases), or images I found through Google.

I made the cork hearts based on a photo I saw from my cousin’s super awesome Napa Valley wedding that I couldn’t go to because I was pregnant.

It took us FOREVER to hang all of the pieces up (and we’re still leaving room to grow) because we wanted it to look random but were overthinking it. Well – we had a maternity photo session scheduled over the weekend and it gave us the motivation we needed to just throw the pics on the wall (we put them up the night before the shoot).

I also got several ideas from Young House Love‘s nursery such as using a curtain instead of a closet door. The closet door closed off that corner of the room and removing it gave us some extra real estate for another sitting chair (for when I want someone to hang out in the room with me while I try breastfeeding).

It is also a place for some stuffed animals that we keep trying to keep away from our dogs.

We also picked up these 2 galvanized trash cans:

We’re still in the mindset that we’re going to cloth diaper so one of the trashcans would hold dirty cloth diapers and the other would be for actual trash (like dirty baby wipes).

And just because…

Petie also wanted to know why Jeremy was spending so much time taking pictures of the nursery.

Both of our dogs definitely know that something big is about to happen. They’ve started acting a bit nuttier and needier so we’re hoping that the transition to a new addition goes smoothly.

So there you have it. You can view all of the pictures (from every angle imaginable) here.

Oh and I should mention (or at least Jeremy really wants me to mention) that the crown moulding and the chair rail were all done by him and him alone. Pretty impressive considering how crooked our walls are (one of them even bows out some).

And let me do a quick breakdown of where we got most of the items:

Crib: Amazon! Babyletto Modo 3 in 1 Crib

Dresser / Changing Table: Ikea. Hemnes 3-drawer Dresser

Curtains: Ikea (only $10 for 2 panels AND they come with hem tape!) Wilma

Bookshelf: Ikea. This was actually in our basement for awhile (to store Jeremy’s law school books) but we had already run out of room. I was glad we were able to reuse it in this space.

Glider chair: Babies R Us. If you recall – this is the same chair that the delivery guy thought I could carry all by myself. WTF?!

Rug (under dresser): Ikea. Losy Blom After taking the Infant Care class and learning that babies can have explosive poop, we figured we should try to protect our light colored rugs with an area rug.

Hmm… anything else you want to know about? I’m happy to share where I got everything! Or I can share more detailed pictures if you’d like (I just have to snap the photo first).

Fashion Bump Watch

Wow – I really fell behind on this whole fashion bump watch.  Between a snow day, some serious nesting and a holiday – I don’t have much to share. 

Monday, January 10, 2011

Top:  Gap Maternity

Necklace: Banana Republic

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity

Shoes:  Target Merona

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I tried to jazz things up with a different pose.  Instead I look like an asshole.

Top:  H&M Maternity

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity

Shoes:  Target Merona

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I took a snow day and stayed in my sweats all day.  I probably should have snapped a photo to show you my normal weekend wear but didn’t.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Top:  Gap Maternity

Sweater:  Gap (not maternity)

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity.  If you haven’t noticed, most of my maternity pants make it appear as though I’ve pooped my pants.  It is hard for me to find reasonably priced, tailored fit pants that are the appropriate length.  It is as though makers of maternity wear assume that your ass and thighs expands along with your belly.

Shoes:  Target Merona

Friday, January 14, 2011

I wore a purple top to support The Ravens.  Since the Ravens had made it into the playoffs and blah blah boring football talk that I don’t care about… our office let us show our “purple pride” and wear jeans.  Basically I support the Ravens if I get a casual day at the office only.

Top:  Old Navy Maternity

Jeans:  Old Navy Maternity

Boots:  Fred Flare

Monday, January 17, 2011

I forgot to snap a photo!  I actually did look pretty cute so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Sweater:  Urban Outfitters (not maternity).

Shirt:  Gap (not maternity – but it is a very attractive thermal t-shirt.  It was cold today!)

Pants:  Old Navy Maternity

Shoes:  Target Merona

Fun / Weird Pregnancy Stuff:  I had my 37 weeks appointment.  Technically I am “full term” at this point.  Crazy, right?  As of Monday, I was 1-2 cm dilated.  I was excited that it seemed like my body was responding to going into labor but I know that many pregnant women can be dilated for weeks before actually going into labor.

Onto the gross TMI stuff – I lost my mucus plug.  And no, I did not misplace it.  But apparently the dilatation of my cervix caused my mucus plug to fall out.  This can indicate that labor is impending.  Some sites say it can happen in a few days, some say a couple of weeks.  My MIL and SIL apparently have bets on when I’ll have this baby (my MIL is predicting sometime THIS WEEK).  Holy cannoli!

We’ve officially completed just about everything on my “things to do before the baby gets here” list except for pack the hospital bag.  I should probably go do that now…

My Many Unflattering Faces

One of the powers of having your own blog is that you can pick and choose whatever pictures you want to display of yourself.  And since it is YOUR blog, the blog tends to have photos of YOU.

So far – I’ve been posting nothing but the cutesy photos of me in my maternity wear.  Sometimes I’ll take multiple photos before I’m satisfied that I don’t have a double chin in the picture.

However, I will share with you some of my bizarre expressions and unflattering photos.  These were taken at the surprise baby shower that was put together for me by my office teammates.  I was truly touched and flattered that they did something so nice (and a few of my old co-workers that I still keep in touch with drove over from ther other office building). 

These photos are courtesy of a friend (who doesn’t blog so I can’t link to him)… let’s begin the show:

Walking in on my surprise… I thought we were having a team meeting on resource planning (hence the notebook I’m carrying):

Not too terrible.  Let’s keep going…

This is me realizing how much of an ass I feel like having this type of attention.  What you can’t see (and thank god I was wearing black) was that I started sweating… profusely… from embarrassment.

I don’t even know what I’m saying in this picture but I’m sure I’m rambling like a complete idiot.

I think I’m saying, “okay – that’s enough with the pictures!”  While I’m not shy in public – I hate having people watch me open presents.  It just feels so awkward. 

I look like I’m passing gas in this picture.  “Hey – look at this neat toy while I fart…”

Aren’t those little baby booties adorable?!  And isn’t my facial expression horrific? 

Adorable outfits!  Not sure what my face is expressing though.

And this last photo… oy, this last photo.  I’m slouching in the chair (you can’t really tell) so it is making my belly sit at a strange angle.  And this angle?  It makes it look as though I’m carrying twins!  Holy crap. 

What I love about digital photography is that you can always delete the unflattering photos… unless someone else is taking them of you and they upload them for you to view in horror later. 

My Belly Growth

While I’ve been tracking my maternity fashion on this blog, I’ve also been tracking my actual belly growth for a super dorky book I bought at the beginning of this pregnancy:

I’m not the type to “scrapbook” (I still haven’t finished my stupid wedding scrapbook.  Wait – I meant stupid scrapbook of my wedding… my wedding wasn’t stupid…

But I couldn’t resist this book.  While I don’t understand how women know they’re pregnant from weeks 1-8 (they have pages for your belly shots), I do like being able to track my belly.  So anyways, this is a reflection on my belly growth since it has now reached a point where I feel like it gets in the way.  Actually – it has been getting in the way for awhile now…

Week 8:

Week 23 (a little more than halfway):

And this week (week 36):

I still haven’t gotten any stretch marks so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things stay that way.  But it is crazy to see me with a flat stomach.  I almost don’t remember what my body was like prior to this pregnancy!  I think it’ll be nice to be able to bend down though… I kind of miss that.

Parents Really Get Crazy About Parenting Techniques

I came across this article today through a blog post on Baby Center.

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

Obviously the title of the post was intriguing but what really piqued my interest was the outraged comments left by parents on the Baby Center blog post.  I still haven’t brought myself to read the comments left on the original article.

People view the mom as mean and ruining her children.  I read the article like, “oh yeah – I knew a lot of parents like this” and I didn’t even flinch.

My mom wasn’t as strict as the author (or even close to be honest) – but she did expect certain things for me.  I was told I needed to learn the piano and so I did.  She never signed me up for sports despite me begging to play.  I was always told that I was going to college.  I was told I was going to graduate school. 

Shit – I was even told I was fat.  My mom wasn’t as obsessed with good grades as she was with my appearance.  I think a part of her is still this way but I think that has more to do with her mentality that Jeremy should be the one taking care of me.  When I was independent, she stressed the need for me to get far in my education.  Now that I’m married?  Apparently I just need to stop being such a bitch to Jeremy (I’m not, for the record).

With Jeremy in law school, you’d think he was HER child.  She has been repeating this mantra to me & Jeremy for the last few months, “If you quit school – I will never talk to you again.”  (ppssst – mom, if you want to motivate Jeremy to finish school, you should actually threaten him with something terrible like how you’ll bother him EVERYDAY if he quits).

I had written a ton more about my thoughts on the topic but then I was boring MYSELF with my own rambling.

Let’s just say – I think parenting is all a matter of perspective.  Having an asian background and being exposed to lots of asian kids growing up, I didn’t find anything outrageous in the article.  But I do enjoy seeing parents flip out about different parenting techniques and how they all assume that if you’re strict, your kids will grow to hate you.

Again – it is all a matter of perspective and I think it just means I need to start buying some battle gear for when I get judged or yelled at for parenting a specific way.

P.S. Baby girl is TOTALLY playing the piano. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it!

It Has Been Confirmed – My Mother Does Not Have ESP

Ever since our 20 week sonogram where we were told (via a written note with no picture) that we’re having a girl – my mother has planted the seed of doubt into my head.  She was CONVINCED that we were having a boy.

What convinced her?  She dreamed it.  And she felt her dream was incredibly realistic.  She had me questioning the sonogram technician and since I had no “proof” to back up the girly bits assessment, I had spent a good chunk of time being unsure.

Well today we had our 36 week sonogram (to measure growth) and it was confirmed that baby IS DEFINITELY a baby girl.  And she showed me her girly bits (although I really can’t tell what a lot of things are in a sonogram).

I was really stoked about this sonogram because
(1) I’d get confirmation of bambino’s sex… and this would confirm if I could continue washing some of the girly baby clothing I have.
(2) I’d get to see bambino again!  I hadn’t seen her since September.
(3) I’d find out her “estimated” weight.
(4) I’d get to see how bambino was positioned (so that I could stop guessing as to what was where in my belly.
(5) I’d finally get a better picture of bambino’s face. 

Well -  4 out of 5 isn’t bad, right? 

(1) Baby is definitely a girl.
(2) Baby was moving lots.
(3) Baby is estimated at 6 lbs 10 oz.  And if she continues at the estimated growth rate of a 1/2 lb a week – I’ll be birthing a nearly 9 lb baby.  Lord help me.
(4) Baby is in the “ideal” birth position.  She is head down and she’s facing my rear.  Let’s hope she stays that way.
(5) Cue sad trombone.

See – a lot of my friends have shown me their super awesome 3-D 36 week sonograms where you get a pretty clear image of the baby’s face.  One of my friends (she’s due 3 weeks ahead of me!) showed me her pic and the baby looks just like her!

I was really looking forward to getting a peak at bambino’s face but she just wasn’t cooperating.  Her being in the ideal birthing position meant that her face was facing my tush.  So while I’m happy that I don’t have to worry about turning her (unless of course she decided to face the other direction) – I was bummed that this was as close as I was going to get to seeing her face… a sad little Alfred Hitchcock type profile pic (she’s still facing slightly towards my bum and her hands are near her face):

Will she look like me?  Will she look more like Jeremy?  Will she be the perfect amalgamation of us?  Who knows!  We’ll find out in a few weeks…