Ultrasound pictures are posted

You can check them out by clicking the link off to the left in the Photo Album section. Enjoy!

Right on target

The ultrasound tech informed us that baby weighs 3 lb, 5 oz as of today! It's right on track with the growth chart (52nd percentile to be exact). They were pleased with the baby's growth and the ultrasound was unbelievable. The baby looks like Markus. Good thing I think he's pretty cute. :-) I'll post pictures later today after Markus scans them in - we have a mix of 3D pics and regular ultrasound ones. We saw him/her take a few breaths and for much of our ultrasound, the one foot was up at the nose...silly baby. We got a good shot of the hands, too; he/she has long, slender fingers just like Daddy. I'm not sure what this child is getting from me, aside from nutrition and a nice belly to use as a kicking and punching bag; heaven help us if it's some of my personality traits (anal retentiveness, worrywart, perfectionist...)!

It's in a breech position right now; I was born breech so of course this is probably payback for being 9 lb, 2 oz AND breech at birth. Nah, still lots of time for the head to move down, I just thought it was funny. I figured it out and if the baby gains the estimated 0.5 lb per week until week 37, followed by the estimated 1 lb per week until until week 40, I'd be delivering a 10 lb porker! Here's hoping that he/she doesn't gain QUITE that much weight.

This week I'm feeling boy vibes...maybe because I see Markus in the baby's face and I can only visualize that face on a little Markus boy. Anyway, the baby is healthy and that's all that counts. It's just funny that all along I was feeling more girl vibes until just this last week or two. Who knows, right? As my aunt said, she's betting 50% that it's a boy (which leaves her with 50% odds that it's a girl - how's that for decisiveness?).

Oh, so the whole point of the ultrasound was to look for cataracts - no indication of cataracts at this point, which is great news! The doctor was careful to say that false negative readings do happen, so it's still a possibility. At this point, though, the eyes look clear and healthy! Yay! Maybe the baby is getting my eagle eye vision. :-)

In one of the 3D shots, Markus and I both agreed that the baby looked like an old man. It just depended on how the tech manipulated the machine. He could also change the resolution (or something) and we'd go from seeing our cute little baby's face to seeing the skeletal bone structure (which made it look like a monster baby). Luckily we know that the cute face is the one that will greet us on delivery day! Check back later tonight or tomorrow for pictures.

Our cats are geniuses!

After only 7.5 months, I think they're starting to realize that something's up. They're brilliant! Seriously, what can you expect when their brains are the size of a pea. They're sniffing all of the toys, and were very curious about the stroller. Camper tried to hop in the bassinet when we took it off the stroller frame. They're doing lots of investigating these days.

We had a baby shower last weekend, as most of you probably know, and were the very lucky recipients of many gifts. We've spent the last week trying to organize the nursery a little bit. Our stroller arrived this week, too, so Markus immediately put that together as soon as he walked in the door from his Tampa trip. He's a boy, he likes to put things together. What can I say? I just captured it on camera -photos are off to the right.

Markus had refinished the floors in the nursery so we couldn't put anything in there. My parents dropped off the crib headboard (it didn't fit in the car) as well as the rest of the shower gifts so now we can put the crib together. Once we know where we're putting the crib, we can place the bookshelf and rocker and start decorating. We still need to buy a dresser, which I think we're going to try to do in the next two weeks.

We also have to order our diaper bag. We had ordered the one to match our stroller, but neither of us really cared for the style (lots of pesky clasps instead of one easy zipper) so we sent it back. There's a super cool place in Philly called Viv Pickle where you can design your own purse (pick your purse style from one of their templates, then select a fabric, the handle type and material you want, etc). As luck would have it, they make diaper bags! A friend has one and likes it, and the bag won the Best of Philly diaper bag award last year so we're sold. We can also get a matching changing pad. And they're super cool looking - and unique! So, we just have to head to their store to look at the fabrics and make our selection. We're going to go together so that I don't end up picking some girly fabric that Markus would be embarrassed to carry. :-)

I finally spent the time to load some of our vacation pictures from the cruise in February. It seems like it was so long ago already - how depressing! In any case, if you're interested, take a look. I'm not always looking my finest, but, well, you've all probably seen me looking less than fine at least once or twice. :-)

If it's not obvious by now, it's another night that Mr. Markus is working late. He had a phone cutover in their State College office today. Fortunately, he's on the road and should be home around 11. He got sick this weekend, I think because he's been so busy and not getting enough sleep. He slept much of the weekend, poor guy. He's got another cutover on Wednesday, so there's no rest for the weary. We've just been making sure he stays hydrated and keeps taking his decongestants (it's more of a congestion/runny nose/fatigue thing than the flu). I think he may try to work from home tomorrow to take it easy before the Wednesday cutover.

So tomorrow is our big day - the 3D ultrasound! Well, the point is to see if the baby has cataracts. About 1-2 weeks ago, the baby began opening its eyes; I guess that's why we had to wait until now to get this ultrasound. Can't see cataracts if the eyes are closed, right?! Anyway, they can't guarantee if they'll be able to tell anything, which is fine with us. We're just excited to see this little munchkin in 3D, especially since its facial features are pretty well developed at this point. We just have to make sure that we don't watch when the tech first starts - who knows where the head will be, and we might see the lower body (and the gender!) by accident! We're not too worried either way, since cataracts are a very correctable problem and minor compared to the struggles, illnesses, and challenges faced by many other young children. I'm not trying to minimize the difficulty of a potential vision problem for our baby, but we both try to keep it in perspective. Many other parents must face much more severe and potentially life-threatening ailments in their children, and we're lucky that thus far, all signs indicate that our baby is healthy. It sure kicks and punches a lot, and now that it's learning to use its diaphragm as practice for real world breathing, I feel it getting the hiccups occasionally. It makes me smile. :-)

On that happy note, I have to wrap up. Big Momma here needs to get her big belly to the gym! We'll report on the ultrasound when we can.

New links

Check out the new links that have been added.

Cookie Madness is a site run by the Anna Ginsberg, winner of the 2006 Pillsbury Bakeoff. She loves to bake and has a new cookie or baked good recipe almost everyday. I made two of her recipes this weekend - Razz-Ma-Tazz bars and White Trash Candy - and they were both excellent. Check it out for a good read and really good recipes.

Metric Love is a blog written by some guy (...) who loves metric. It hasn't been updated lately, but I've heard he's going to devote more time to his blog soon.

That's it for now. Trying to make sure that this doesn't become solely a baby/pregnancy blog, though as you can imagine, it's a pretty big focus of ours right now. So for today, no baby stuff!

Stroller - Check

Tonight, I ordered our stroller! Our rocking chair arrived this week, as did the breast pump and nursing stool that I'll use with the rocking chair. We figured that since there are only 12 weeks to go, we should order the stroller. We had looked at these a long time ago and were told by the store personnel that they take 6-9 weeks to order. We ordered from an online site, so I'm hoping they have stock on hand instead of having to custom order them.

We decided to go with the Bugaboo Cameleon. It has an interesting and innovative design, and most importantly, it has adjustable handlebars. That was one of our big selling points because Markus and I are so different in height. There's not too much else to say - a stroller is a stroller. Here's a picture - and yes, we ordered the Sand/Orange combo. We'll start out with the baby laying down (the piece in the forefront) and as he/she gets older , he/she can sit in the more upright position.

Oh, we ordered a matching diaper bag, too. We love bright colors!!!

Finally, A Cool Rocker

When I told Markus that we'd need to buy a rocker for the nursery, he asked if it was necessary. We have a LOT of chairs in this house due to family acquisitions and old office moves of his. I explained that we do, for sure, and his only request was that it not be a big, poofy (i.e., hideous) one. Since that's the style of most rocker/gliders these days, I thought we had ourselves a conundrum. I told him to do some research on his own to find some styles he likes.

He calls me into the office the other night to show me this Eames Rocker that is being reproduced by Herman Miller. It looked cool, but I wondered how comfortable it would be. Continuing with my ordering around, I told him to find a place where I could sit in it because I didn't want to buy something just because it looked cool (God, I'm bossy!). I expect to be doing most of the rocking since I'll be nursing so I want to be comfy, especially for those middle of the night feedings. Of course, most of the showrooms are in more fashion-forward cities like NYC, San Francisco, etc.

While walking to an appointment on Walnut Street the other day, I decided to swing into Design Within Reach. It's an awesome store where Markus and I like to window shop for furniture - design pieces that we would love to have throughout our house but will probably take us several years to acquire, since it's not cheap. But we love to go in and imagine...anyway, I walk in and there's the Eames rocker!!! I plopped myself into it, and wouldn't you know, it's not uncomfortable. I was shocked. Then I was delighted because Daddy will get to have one piece of true modern furniture in the house and one baby item that isn't so, well, baby. I called him excitedly after leaving the store and told him I was sold, now we just need to find a little foot stool for my short legs. And the best part is the colors - the chair comes in only four colors, but three of them would complement the nursery (orange) quite well. So, today we're going to buy our rocker in lime green (as shown)!

Now, as you know, Markus and I are not real traditionalists so while we think this chair is cool, you might think it's strange or ugly. Oh well, we're not buying it for you! :-)