Food, glorious food!

The weekend is coming to an end and that makes me sad. While I love my students and being a teacher is a wonderful joy, my school drives me crazy and the journey there, over 2 hours on the bus, is tough, especially with a tender tummy. When we were little we’d pile onto Mummy and Daddy’s bed for birthdays, games and all sorts and I remember Mummy sometimes wincing, without wanting anyone to see, when any of us accidentally touched her tummy or deliberately tickled it. Granted she’d had seven babies and I know the general feeling she holds is that, ecstatic as she is, I’m hardly even on my way here, but I think I now know a fraction of how she felt. Being pregnant, I’m finally living up to my Puppy-hood. My five senses are more sensitive than ever. A touch, even a tickle can feel like a stab. A small whiff of perfume, or anything cooking that’s not just potatoes (ah, the Irish blood in baby Dosch is so apparent) can set me reeling. A few days back, poor Steve was only making toast and I nearly freaked! Noises are magnified and everyone in this bustling city now seems to be shouting. My taste buds are definitely confused but boy did they like the pumpkin pie we were treated to yesterday at a very special Thanksgiving dinner with about 30 friends. The thing that I am most put off by currently is drinks. Having obviously knocked off all caffeine and alcohol, my repertoire consists of Gatorade, water, and lots of juices, still sometimes nothing tastes right. I have no real cravings, but a definite preference of breads, red meats, apples, oranges, and anything with practically no flavor! Sometimes during my day naps I dream of baby carrots, cranberry juice or Ceasar salads and despite wanting nothing for dinner, and definitely not being able to get any of those things here, I imagine Steve and myself at Legal Seafood, Giacomo’s or Santarpio’s in January. I want to teach our baby to appreciate all of our favorites! For now, the days go by and we are thankful for this ultimate and joyful distraction from missing Boston, the highly ridiculous, almost deadly boring string of victories for all our sports teams and slaving away at work. Just three more weeks of school and then home! We are so excited!

Thankful...

I’m feeling good, actually the best I’ve felt for at least six weeks. To wake up in the morning and not have the taste of sick wallowing in my throat and to not feel like I’m about to fall every time I get up is truly wonderful! Maybe it’s the fact that junior is officially a fetus now, and not an embryo and measures over an inch long. Wow! I never liked going to the doctor much but both Steve and I long for our next appointment every day, a chance to see and hear our little one. We have one more week to wait. This past week was the usual crazy one at school. I’m trying my hardest to stay ‘tranquila’ and everyday I am touched (though not literally yet, as still no bump) by some stranger who wishes us well. Some of the girls in my classes are mesmerized, talking about our baby every single day and I find them staring at my tummy instead of my face when I talk, but I don’t really mind. They’re hopeful my ‘favorite student’ will be revealed when we pick a name. So many teachers I have known have said that choosing a name can be so hard when you’ve had a dozen naughty ones under each letter go through your classroom. I’m just wondering how the dozens of Maria Camila’s and Juan José’s will ever understand when we don’t even take one of their six names.

Thanksgiving was a happy day, as happy as could be considering we were working and missing our families like crazy. As Steve’s parents recited all of the delicious dishes on their table over Skype, I had to tell them to stop as I was sure my favorite grown man was going to cry. We might have attempted something of a turkey dinner (without turkey, pumpkin, stuffing, but still a turkey dinner) but the gas inspector showed up around 5pm and shut us down. Apparently we had a leak in our oven and so he couldn’t let us keep it running. Probably good to know, well definitely, but not so fun now for the veinte días until he returns to reinstate us. Anyway, all of that meant it was time to rekindle Thursday night date night and to the Radisson, in hope of anything gringo, we went. We did find apple pie and ended up having a lovely dinner. I know that it’s not really baby’s first Thanksgiving, but it really does feel like it. Remarkably last night was the first night I felt like I was eating for two. We said our traditional round the table thank you’s, as this year, there is even more to be grateful for, and went to bed stuffed and excited that for the next holiday, we will be home…

I haven’t put on any weight yet but every time I eat, my tummy swells up and it makes me happy! It’s nice to think junior is storing up on whatever I can stomach. Since being pregnant, I’ve not eaten chicken or ice-cream, two things that admittedly were somewhat of a staple in my diet before, and so far I’ve had no real cravings though the treats Mummy brought us from home, above all that hunk of cheddar cheese, has made all three of us very happy. Sleeping is strangely difficult, despite having no sign of an obstacle. Boca abajo is already impossible and all night long, there’s something of a tinkle ringing in my brain, along side the endless car alarms. With Steve’s night time back phantom, we have a lot of cheery conversations at 1am, 2am, 4am and then we’re up…

Everyone has a story to tell a pregnant lady, I’ve found, and I’m making lots of new friends at school. Once home, missing TLC’s Baby Story, we found ourselves watching ‘Sala de Maternidad’ on Wednesday night which was a lot less sugar-coated and hunky-dory than Steve, at least, would have liked. In this macho society, no one can believe we don’t absolutely need a son, but how much we pray for a healthy baby… Any prayers you can spare for us too would be so wonderful. I wonder every minute what our junior will be like, will he/she have hair, will he/she think their Daddy is as hilarious as me. We’re almost a quarter through our pregnancy – isn’t that unbelievable? But how much we long to meet our baby…

Losing weight, but feeling great!

Mamma Hare, aka Bunny, visited last weekend and we broke the news to her immediately. Lots of jumping, tears and hugs! We woke Daddy, Bubbles, up that night and his first reaction was, “Wooh, when did that happen?” Very funny. We had a weekend full of talking babies and chatting from 5am until midnight. It was perfect. Saying goodbye until Christmas was so, so hard, but now we can properly get excited for the holidays. Sadly, Thanksgiving isn’t included in those, but I’m trying to figure out what I can muster up for Steve/stomach for junior’s first turkey day! I’ve been feeling a little better this week, but still without too much appetite. I never would have thought pregnancy would knock 10 pounds off of me, but Fernie says all is well and I have ‘reservas’… I hope he doesn’t mean like the whale. On Thursday I fell asleep at 7pm for the night and missed seeing Campbell Brown for the first time in 6 months, on CNN. She’s my favorite anchor of all time, who also happens to be preggers. So… I must keep better track of Campbell… At school yesterday, unbeknown to me, they published news of our pregnancy in the school bulletin. It’s early days, but truly the more happiness, support and prayers we can have, the better. The kids were so adorable though disappointed we haven’t yet picked out any names. I think Steve’s working on that as I lie passed out on the couch. Not to mention the other million things he’s up to while I’m here. He’s most definitely the most amazing esposo ever, I am so lucky. Although, he says he won’t tie my shoes for me until I’m showing… rats! We’ve starting making our round of international calls, from Bahrain to Bramhall and it’s so fun sharing our news. If we haven’t called you yet, it’s probably because you haven’t sent us your number or Skype is not always as cooperative as we would like. If your phone rings, however… it’s probably us!

Countdown!

Hearty News

Today I had the day off school to go back to Clinica de la Mujer and have my full scope of blood and other bodily liquid tests. Having been giving strict orders from Mamma Hare when I once again fainted in the streets of Bogotá, two days after our arrival upon having some cedula blood taken, Steve lovingly accompanied me. Surprise, surprise, by 8:45am, I was passed out again, though this time into my hubby’s lap. After the apparent squeeking/grunting noise I made and the convulsions the nurse reported, I was wheelchaired off to Urgencias where they kept me under “Observación” for the next couple of hours. They brought me soup, tea and rolls and I was able to make Steve eat all of the pieces of stringy beef that I couldn’t stomach. Steve said I should tell the nurse what I really wanted was a long bubble bath, as I’ve been craving one so much, but they were bending over backwards already for me, it seemed a little rude to ask for more. After all the cold sweat and white-outs of the morning, we were granted a wonderful surprise. Taken to a different building, I was allowed my first high-tech, internal ultrasound. Within seconds, we could see our little baby’s heart pumping, and just moments later, hear it echoing throughout the room. It was the most incredible sound and with Steve’s hand in my hand, my eyes welled with tears and the biggest smile came over our faces. “I can’t believe our baby has a heart,” I exclaimed! Steve looked at me with that adoring but “you’re pretty crazy, but I love you” gaze and again, we realized that being parents was going to make our hearts grow bigger and bigger everyday. We came away with some new dimesions. At 7.3 weeks, our ‘junior’ measures 7.3mm Such a clever little baby. He/She knows that my family is really bad with numbers! Mamma Hare, when trying to impress the boys with her sports knowledge, always reports extraordinary info like Dice-K signed a 103 BILLION dollar deal with the Red Sox or Wayne Rooney is younger than SQUIRREL! The “Saco Gestacional” has grown to 40mm from 26mm in just 5 days which is great and all looks wonderful. The heart is strong and sounds way better than Westlife ever did. This is amazing!

Fernie Green

After a week of intense sickness, morning, noon and night, Steve was able to secure me a real appointment, with Dr. Fernando LaVerde, who we have taken to calling Fernie Green. He is a chubby, jolly type, first spotted dancing through the corridors of Clinica de la Mujer. All of this might sound a little too Robin Williams-like in 9 Months, but actually, he seems very, very competent. We had almost an hour with him in which he was very informative, reassuring and friendly. He said he would work with us closely, gave us his cellphone number, and promised the world, that is unless we were some of those ‘locos’ who wanted to have their baby underwater. He said unless I was a whale or a dolphin, that water births were insane. Happily he didn’t classify me as either of those and I was quite happy we were on the same page. While his humor was very appreciated, the highlight of the appointment was having an ultrasound and seeing our little baby’s home. It is soooo amazing to think that at 26mm, you can already see the beginning of all of this. Steve and my hearts melted as we saw the picture pop on the screen in an instant. We left already feeling like the proudest parents ever.