And so it begins: A new phase of late night feedings

Lilah Ahava was born Friday evening at 8:25pm. She weighed 7 lb. 9.4 oz. and was 21 in. long. She is perfect and I am feeling great. Lots more details to follow (and pictures too!), but they'll have to wait until I have more time. Just wanted to share my good news- I felt like it was a long time coming!

As for guessing D-day, I suppose Swistle was the closest since 3-27-09 is all divisible by 3. So that's neat. I never thought of a prize- but I bet I could find something on the 75% off shelf at Target!

The Latest Self-Portraits

Yep, that's me. A watched pot. Will I boil? I've been simmering (having strong, painful, but irregular contractions that make me wince in pain while being a slave to the clock so that I can time them every night) since last Wednesday and that is getting mighty old.

What's also getting old are the looks, comments, phone calls, im's, etc. from well-meaning people. Yes, I'm still pregnant. No, I do not know when I will have the baby. I feel like crap. Don't call me, I'll call you. Yes, really, I will call you. Sigh.

Looking Ahead and Looking Back

As every passing second means I'm closer to having the baby I find myself preoccupied with thoughts of what this really means. I cannot wait to meet this baby. I am giddy with anticipation of rocking him/her; snuggling with that soft, warm body; and kissing that fuzzy little head over and over. I can't wait to watch him/her go through the various stages of development right before my eyes. And this time enjoy it even more because I won't have so much of that first time mom paranoia that I did with Sophie. (OMG she isn't rolling over yet! How can I be positive that she can see/hear/function normally? Why has she been sleeping for so long- is she okay???) I can't wait for him/her to be old enough to play with Sophie so I can watch them become good friends and entertain each other.

But having this baby also means that a lot will change, and I am desperately trying to hold on to the remaining moments of life as I know it. I will miss our little family as it is now. Yesterday afternoon when Sophie and I woke up from our nap together (she always wakes up first and starts chatting away) we just stayed in her bed for a while snuggling. I probably could have found a hundred other things to do with that time, but I looked at her and I thought to myself "there is no where in the world I'd rather be right now." I love that child. I'm sorry that I will be ending the era of just the two of us, even if it means giving her a sibling, which is a wonderful gift.

I will miss being pregnant. It sounds odd considering everything a pregnant woman puts her body through. I recently heard a comedian say that a woman who says she wants to be pregnant again is like a person who slams his hand in a car door and then five minutes later says, "That was fun. I want to do it again!" But, it's true. I will miss feeling a little body move around inside my own- you just can never be that close to your baby again. After delivery it's traumatizing to me to have the baby taken to the nursery for that first exam. It's the first time we have ever been in a separate room and I hate it. (Shimmy stays with the baby at all times that he/she is away from me.) I will miss my pregnant body. I've mentioned in a previous post (I am not fancy enough to tag, link, or label most of the time, sorry) how beautiful I think pregnant bodies are. I just love staring at myself in the mirror lately. Sure, I hate that I've also gained weight in my butt and thighs, and that my skin is horrendous, but that belly. Just amazing. I will definitely miss seeing it.

On the other hand, I will not miss sleeping with it, eating with it, trying to stand at a sink with it, trying to hug my husband with it (I have to hug him sideways). I am dreading the in-between stage of no longer pregnant, but not yet back to my regular body. However, I am so looking forward to getting back to my regular body. I have two friends who I have really missed: Weight Watchers and Treadmill. I can't wait to get reacquainted. They are such good friends and helped me look sooooo good before I got pregnant this time. (Narcissism or just positive body image? Whatever, you pick.)

I'm a little down about not having delivered yet, but I am determined to make the most of these last precious moments. Who knows? Today could be the last day. I went into labor with Sophie this exact day (38 weeks, 3 days). Until I do get to meet my new little baby I am going to soak up the time I still have with my first one.

Just an Update (with pictures!)

Sophie and I took advantage of the beautiful weather today by heading outside with my new camera and a tripod. I decided to try to take some last maternity pictures, and here they are:



(Sophie literally jumped in the shot and started posing like me.)




Those of you who haven't guessed when I'll deliver yet have the advantage of hearing about my doctor's appointment this morning. She confirmed two things that I already knew: First, that it will be any day now (her last words were, "see you next week... well, maybe" and second, that I am already dilated (3cm in fact- almost a third of the way to the finish line- woohoo!). I knew all of these contractions were getting me somewhere!

I have somehow developed the pregnancy equivalent of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which SUCKS. Like I needed another reason to not be able to sleep at night. I guess 3 hours was too much and my body needed a reason to cut back to two?! At least my CTS will go away after I deliver. I feel really bad for those who live with it day in day out forever. It is excruciating. After flat ironing my hair on Monday I literally could not bend my fingers or wrist for almost half an hour. Excruciating. One more reason to have this baby! And one more reason to stop blogging for now (the other reason is Sophie jumping on me yelling "I want to type, Mommy! Type type type!").

Keep the guesses coming! Don't be shy!

On a totally different note...

We recently switched from DirecTV to FiOS. This was huge for me, considering how much I fear change. I've given it a good two and a half months to really form some opinions, and this is what I think:

- I like the fact that we are actually getting more bang for our buck. Everything is all bundled together now (home phone, cell, dsl, and tv) and we are getting a good deal. Plus, we get extra channels and it is still coming out cheaper. Most importantly, we now get HBO and Showtime, so I can watch three of my favorite shows (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Conchords, and The Tudors).

-I do not like the way the guide works. It's not as user friendly or as easy on the eyes as DirecTV's guide.

-I do not like just about everything about the DVR. It is slow, works on a delay when you hit record, the multi-room DVR is so slow that I want to throw things at it, you cannot fast forward all the way to the end of the show to remove it quicker, it will only hold a pause for a few minutes before reverting back to live tv, and sometimes it mutes part of the show for no apparent reason. Infuriating. Of course, complaining about all of this makes me think of this.

Anyhoo, that's my FiOS review. Hey, Sarah, doesn't tv count as one of the "baby things I want?" Any new mom, especially one who is nursing, will agree that tv is so necessary for survival.

Any Day Now

Today would be a good day to have a baby. Weather wise it's pretty pleasant outside, which makes it a good day to do anything, really. I've finished doing all of the important things on my list. The cleaning lady is coming today. Sophie does not have school (so no need to figure out how to pick her up). Shimmy is home. So will it be today? If not today, when? Guesses are most welcome. Even from lurkers. If you guess correctly there may be a prize involved. Not sure what it would be, though. Suggestions for that are welcome as well.

Now I know you might be looking at my ticker and thinking, "hey, don't you technically have 2 more weeks until your due date?" Yes, but that is so irrelevant that I'm wondering why I even put that ticker up there. Once upon a time (5 weeks and 4 days ago) I was told that I would need to have the baby at 37 weeks (one week ago) because of certain issues. I don't really care to share the details because they were scary, upsetting, and stressful, but suffice it to say that the issues ended up resolving themselves and I did not need to have the baby last week. I am still very likely to have the baby "early," though. 38 weeks is not all that early, by the way. Anything after 37 weeks is considered full term. Sophie was born a mere 4 days further along than I am now. While I feel like a watched pot lately, I am starting to simmer. Every night for the past week when I go to sleep I wonder if I'll wake up at some point in labor. I've been having contractions every day- the kind that are kind of painful and I'm sure are slowly progressing me, but they never get regular enough to make me think "this is it." I can physically feel the baby trying to get out. I have felt it wiggling its head into launch position (most uncomfortable). I am complaining about a whole slew of things that Shimmy insists happened at the end last time.

So, place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. What day will it be? Due date is TECHNICALLY March 31. I'll accept guesses up until a week past the due date, but warn you that your odds (and my feelings toward you) will drastically suck by that point. Let the guessing begin!

V'Nahafochahu (Hamaivin Yavin) or, for those who don't... Purim 2009

So this year Purim was not all it has previously been cracked up to be. For the previous 5 years we co-hosted a seudah for about 40 people. It was always a lot of work, but so much fun that it was worth it. This year we did not. Our co hosts recently had their second child and I am due pretty much any second. So we decided to put our big bash on hold this year. Disappointed does not begin to describe how I felt. Call me crazy (Shimmy does), but I STILL think I could have pulled it off. Even though it was our turn to have it at our house this year. Seriously, I think I could have done it. By the time I had convinced myself that I could still pull it off, especially if I scaled it way down, it was too late. The people I tried to invite had assumed (with good reason) that it just wasn't happening this year and had made other plans. So I was forced to give up.

I did still manage to come up with a good theme this year, which is one of my fav parts of Purim. I thought of it back in July when I found out I was pregnant. It all centered around my bun in the oven. Shimmy and I were bakers and Sophie was a cupcake (I knew she wouldn't wear an actual costume even for 1 second, so I just dressed her in cupcake patterned clothes). Our shalach manot consisted of baked goods (and hot cocoa!) in a bakery box.

I spent Purim night assembling all of our shalach manot, contracting all the way, with Shimmy telling me how crazy I was to be doing ANYTHING, much less still being sad that I was not hosting a dinner party for 40 in our house the next day. Afterwards, Shimmy read Megillah for me.

The next morning I went to a doctor's appointment. Just one of those quickies- pee in a cup, get on the scale (13 lbs under where I was at this point last pregnancy- woot!), take my blood pressure, measure my belly with the tape measure, listen to that galloping pony (aka baby's heart beat), go home.

We didn't even put our costumes on until after lunch. Then we delivered some shalach manot and went back home to greet Sharon, who was the only reason I didn't cry that day. Shimmy read Megillah for us, then we headed back out to deliver the rest of our shalach manot. We seudah-hopped a bit, then came home.

Next year the party is back on. I don't care what else is going on in my life- the party is BACK ON.


My first bun:


Our shalach manot:


Doda Sher saved the day by coming to hang out with us!


Our Family:


My bun in the oven:

News on the Sleep Front

Just in case anyone out there is following our sleep saga, I thought I'd update. Sophie has napped in a bed every day for the past two and a half weeks. She has slept in her bed every night for the past week. We are now at the point where she only cries for a few minutes before falling asleep. THANK G-D. Unfortunately, she's not really staying asleep. I suspect this has more to do with her not feeling well than it does with being in her bed. She is now pretty sick with another cold that she caught just as she was recovering from her ear infection. I'm hoping she'll feel better soon and we'll be on track for good. Just in time for me to be awoken by child #2 all night long.

You may have noticed that it is 2:30 am and are thinking- why the heck are you up blogging? I am wondering that myself. Sophie woke up about an hour ago coughing and crying for daddy, but she ended up going back to sleep. Since I was awake I answered my bladder's call. Then I got to thinking that free super saver shipping on my new camera was not a good idea after all and changed my shipping to 1-day. Camera should be here on Thursday! So should the stroller I think! Then I started thinking about everything I want to do tomorrow (today?) like bake hamantashen, organize the most recent set of photos from Snapfish, and update this silly old blog. So here we are.

I think I'll try to go back to sleep now.

We're Getting Somewhere!!!

This has been a really tough week. With all of the sleeping issues we were having at night we just decided now was as good a time as any to go ahead and make the dreaded switch from crib to bed at night. It did not go very well. One of us had to sleep with Sophie in her bed anywhere from 2 hours to the whole night. Once she fell asleep, if we snuck out she would usually sleep the rest of the night by herself. But she would just freak out if we tried to leave before she fell asleep. On Friday I decided we needed to resort to tough love. I bought a gate to put in her doorway so that she could not leave her room (she had been opening the door and running out, screaming). I was dreading the tough love approach. Nothing breaks my heart more than listening to my child cry for me. I seriously can't handle it. The only way I could let Sophie cry as an infant when I put her in her crib at night was to immediately go take a shower. I couldn't hear her while I was in there and by the time I came out she was sleeping. So last night I left her, hysterical, in her room and sat outside listening. She was hysterical for another 5 minutes. Then she cried for another 10 minutes. Then her crying sounded more muted, so we checked the video monitor in our room and saw that she was now laying in her bed. She whimpered and called me intermittently for another 10 minutes. Then she FELL ASLEEP. And STAYED ASLEEP, IN HER BED ALL NIGHT LONG!!! Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that it will go this smoothly every night, but I think in a short time we'll get there.

(I was still up from 4-6am for no good reason except that this is what happens late in pregnancy, but at least I was awake in my own bed catching up on DVR'ed shows instead of squished into a twin-sized bed with a kicky toddler.)

I ended up taking Sophie to the doctor on Wednesday. She felt feverish and the only time she ever does is when she has an ear infection. Sure enough, ear infection. So we're now doing Amoxicillin twice a day, which is more like an Old Faithful eruption of pink stuff as I try to force it down her throat. She is really good at not taking medicine. She actually used to be really cool about it, but our trip to the ER back in October ruined everything medically related for her. So I have to strip her down, pull her hair back in a pony tail, lay her head back in my lap while sitting on the kitchen floor. Then I force her mouth open and tip her head back and squeeze the dropper of medicine down her throat. Meanwhile, she kicks and screams, clenches her teeth, and uses her mouth to spit (like a motor boat) anything out that makes its way into her mouth. We are not even half way through the 10 days of doing this.

In other news, I have decided on a camera and a stroller. Phew! I will be ordering them tomorrow. The only thing holding me back is the fact that very comparable items are being auctioned at a Chinese Auction tonight. We have entered this auction every year for the past 5 or 6 years and won at least one big ticket item for the past 3 years. So, you never know. Either way, tomorrow these things will be crossed off my list!

I am spending the rest of this week getting everything in order. We are talking major nesting- I am pulling curtains down and washing them kind of nesting. I am hoping that I have a while longer, but I have an appointment on Friday and I don't want to freak out about not having done EVERYTHING if they say "yea, this baby will be coming out in a few days." I am actually really excited about spending all morning cleaning and organizing while Sophie is at school tomorrow. I kind of can't wait, actually. I am almost giddy with anticipation. Wheeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

I'll leave you with a couple of pics of me from almost a week ago at 35 weeks. I think I have been growing noticeably every week. I'll take another pic tomorrow when I will be 36 weeks.