The Bump

Here are 6 months of belly pictures!

10 weeks (end of September 2010). Normal belly.

13 weeks (Mid October 2010).

16 weeks (beginning of November 2010).

20 weeks (End of November 2010).

21 weeks (December 2010). Aaah, now that's a real bump!

29 weeks (end of January 2011). That's my favorite bump picture so far.

31 weeks (Beginning of February 2011). Um, that's me barely awake with too much make up on. Yikes!

That Third Trimester Thing

People, I am a tiiiired woman again! Long gone are the glow and energy of the second trimester. Acne is back, and with it -though unrelated- an irrepressible will to sleep all the time. it doesn't help that I get up once or twice every night to visit that one room and that I have a hard time falling back asleep. Fortunately, I haven't yet been afflicted with the other typical 3rd trimester symptoms (back pain, heartburn, swollen ankles). I still have 8 weeks to go, so I'm expecting the situation to be a bit more complicated by the day.

One excellent thing that comes with the 3rd trimester? The baby is grown, which means he doesn't have room to roam that much, which means I feel him all the time. I love it. I love knowing he's alive (well, yes!) and kicking. I think I will actually go through quite a bit of separation sadness when I give birth as I enjoy every minute he's inside my belly. Oh well, meeting him should make this sadness pass fast.

The next few weeks are busy with visitors (Joe's brother Jon last weekend, a good friend of ours we met in Bordeaux in 2001 this weekend, then Joe's best friend Bryan in mid-March) and labor/breastfeeding/newborn care classes the first 3 weeks of March. I feel that I'm in a weird zone where time flies by and seems to go very slowly at the same time. I'm just trying to enjoy it all while it lasts!

Priorities

After several weeks of questioning, talking to a bunch of different people, and soul searching, Joe has decided to take a break from school this quarter and next. The U is very flexible with students, and for $35 he's able to be registered for the quarter even though he's not taking any classes. Better yet, they gave us the tuition money back even though he dropped classes 2 weeks after the official deadline.

That was not an easy decision. Work has been more than stressful for him and of course grad school is really difficult in terms of content and expectations. Right now, he wants to focus on his family, and selfishly I think it's the right decision to make. I hope he will find the strength to go back to school this summer, even if he only takes one class -I am guessing going back to a grueling schedule after 2 quarters off is not easy, above all when at the end of that period you have a new baby boy at home.

We're 10 weeks away from my due date and I am so happy he's here and has time to focus on his health and on us (that would be the baby+me unit). We'll figure things out as they come along -that includes everything from being new parents and going back to school to our careers and where we want to live. For now, we're taking it one day at a time and enjoy spending one-on-one time together.

Joy!

Baby Boy has been moving a ton yesterday and today. I just love it every time I feel him! His moves are super soft -he hasn't kicked my ribs or kept me up at night yet- so I am enjoying every minute he is awake and moving immensely.

Just had to share!

We're staying!

On Saturday, Joe and I visited some apartments close to the center of the city. Of course, we fell in love with the last one we visited (on a whim) and spent the past 4 days trying to decide whether we should move there or not. That place is big, modern, luxurious, and right downtown (as in 2 blocks from my beloved B&N). It is also safe (LEED certified) and, well... pretty perfect. Of course it was a tad expensive. So the main decision came down to budget and sensibility -boring. I always worry that one of us is going to lose our job or that we won't be able to make the rent. Mind you, it doesn't look like we're going to be in this situation anytime soon, but... you never know. I don't want to live my life being scared of being poor but I also want to be smart now that we're going to have a baby. Also, we'll be able to save for a downpayment if we want to move back to OC and buy a town home in a couple of years. I just hope this house is safe for the baby, from the walls to the floors to the stairs.

So we're staying at our place, and let's just say it needs work. A LOT of work. In the next few weeks we're going to clean all the walls (I'd rather paint, but Joe thinks it's a hassle and the landlord won't let us paint anyway), scrub the stairs, install curtains (since the landlord doesn't want to insulate the windows), put rugs on the tiles, move the bookshelves from the nursery to the living room, put some art/pictures on the walls, move our bedroom from upstairs to downstairs, and install everything in the nursery -and in between I'll probably think about the other awesome apartment, sigh, cry a little (what, I'm hormonal) , and move on. In short, we're going to make this our home. We've never felt at home since we moved here because we always think we're going to move someplace else -which we have done quite a lot. Now it's time to settle for a couple of years and feel like we're not going anywhere. I'll post pictures of before and after, HGTV-style.

Gossip Time!

I'm watching the Golden Globes "live from the red carpet" show on E! and just saw Natalie Portman. She looks very pregnant! She said she's due this summer. Um, is she expecting triplets or something? She looks like she's 7 months along!!

Ok, that was my guilty pleasure of the day. I love the awards' season!

Let's Talk

A couple of days ago, someone shot dead 6 people and severely injured a congresswoman in Arizona. I am not going to go into a political tirade. I am only going to promise that I will not use violent words or imagery when talking about people I don't agree with. If each of us agrees to talk and have a reasoned dialogue instead of coming up with nonsense arguments and resorting to violence, we'll be that much better as a country and as humans.