Christmas Pics

Love My Bump!

Christmas was wonderful. It is perfect to be back in Marblehead and Peabody with everyone and yesterday was a special, fun and packed day. We have grown accustomed to eating two Christmas dinners and making the most of every second of the day and here is our baby who kept us perfect company throughout and decided to make an extra special appearance for the special day. It is so much fun having a real bump at last and we are enjoying watching it grow each day. I got my first maternity clothes (also very exciting) several baby books, baby's first outfit and a stroller (!) for Christmas. The two, no three of us are feeling very spoiled!

'Tis the Season to be Learning

There’s nothing like a good crash course in babies! Kristen and Darryl and their twins arrived for Christmas on Friday and we’ve been trying our best to absorb all their double wisdom ever since. From diapers to diaper rash, burping the babies to putting them on their bellies, we’re learning fast! Kiara even rolled over on her own for the first time yesterday and caused quite the standing ovation! They are very good little babies and it is wonderful to finally be deserving of our aunt and uncle status, helping out their very tired but masterful parents.

There are still feet of snow on the ground and it’s feeling a lot like Christmas. At our annual carol party, all eyes and hands were on my ever bulging bump (well to me and Steve) and a special moment came during Silent Night when Mummy and I locked eyes at “round yon virgin mother and child’. Ah, the circle of life. Christmas is a wonderful time to be sharing this miraculous joy and I can hardly wait for next year when we have a baby of our own in our arms. For now, I am eating tons, feeling wonderful and we are too happy for words. It is so good to be back in Boston, home for the holidays.

All our bags are packed...

We're going home! It is SOOOO exciting. And the snow is on the ground, laid out like a red carpet, for our arrival. I've packed our folic acid, new thyroid pills and all our little baby pictures and we are ready to be with everyone! Happy days, here we come!

Happy Holidays!

School’s out! WOOHOO!! But, first WOOHOO’s first… Our appointment on Wednesday was AMAZING. As you probably detected, I was a little nervous. I guess because baby D wasn’t moving for our last ultrasound, I started worrying. Also, Colombians have this terrible habit of telling you how wonderful it is you are having a baby and then proceeding with some horror story of a poor little baby who died in some devastating way. Plus, that Sala de Maternidad show probably isn’t helping much in convincing me my odds are good as every baby there is challenged so much. Just yesterday there was a baby born with his stomach and intestines outside his body. Unbelievable, but he lived! Anyway, we were looking for two things: the nuchal translucency, a collection of fluid under the skin at the back of a baby's neck, and a nose. In 80% of children with Downs syndrome, at 12-14 weeks, they have too much of this fluid and no nose yet developped. As I explained before, my feelings about the scan were a little mixed as the outcome wasn’t going to change (or even confirm) anything, but as a chance to see and hear our baby, off we went. It was amazing! Our baby has legs, arms, was dancing all over for us, and by George, a strong Dosch nose! We were so excited to see our baby developed and looking like a real, beautiful and perfect little one. It was such a magical moment. We got to hear the heartbeat again and the doctor said that everything looks perfect. What any mother wouldn’t pay to hear those words! According to the measurements of everything, I may be more like 13 weeks and a bit, rather than 12, which is exciting too! Anything that brings us closer to Junior’s birthday is good! I asked the doctor whether the head was on my right or left and he said… watch! With his finger, he gently prodded my right side and jiggle, jiggle went Junior’s head on my right. He did the same on the left and swim, swim when the legs on the left. Too funny! Steve sleeps on my right so I figure baby likes the sound of his snoring! And there’s more exciting news: I have a bump! Okay, so if you didn’t know it or me, you’ll just think I’d forgotten to do my crunches since, oh, about my wedding day, but I know it’s there and Steve and I are very happy with it! I’m hoping it’ll grow even more before our trip home on Wednesday!

So, yes, it is indeed a very happy holiday and it’s only just beginning. We have to go back to the doctor again today to find out more about my thyroid and to get my permission to travel, but it will be good to see Fernie Green again. For now, we are besides ourselves with excitement about having 1 month off school and being home in Boston with everyone SO soon. Life is so good.

Thank you for all of your good thoughts and support. We feel so blessed!

Today's the day!

Newsflash! Our ultrasound has been pushed forward and we are having it today at 5:20! We get to see our baby in just a few hours! It's an important scan so if you happen to read this, please think of us... More photos and news soon!

Grumble, grumble

Hunger has struck! Everyday around 8:30 or 9, even after a good breakfast, if managed, I start to get really, really hungry. The usual food aversions have stuck, but anything with bread, meat or potatoes is usually good. I never thought, not least for these past three months, that I’d be craving a beef empanada for breakfast, but clearly this baby isn’t a vegetarian… sorry Andrew!

During the long hours and sometimes very uncomfortable waking moments of the day and night, my mind starts to wonder. Not just if this is a boy or a girl, or what his or her laugh will sound like to us, but sometimes you start thinking of silly things. Should I have more pain, should I have less? Should the gas and burping bother me more? Should I have a bump by now? Should I eat a grapefruit, because I can’t even find one? Next Monday we have our big scan to detect the nose and nuclear development. Sometimes I wonder what exactly the point of such a scan is. I mean, how many mothers would terminate their pregnancy with a hint of possible bad news. The results are only 60% accurate anyway. And what good will it do anyone to worry like mad for 6 more months about this small chance of imperfection, when while of course we all dream of it, we know it’s quite impossible. I long for the scan, as usual, to see and hear our baby and see how big he/she has got, and while I know to be told, once more, that everything is perfect would be…perfect, well, a mother is a worrier. We fly home in just 9 days! I realize Marina and the other troops might be disappointed to find me with no bump yet, but I have a feeling Baby D is awaiting his happy arrival home to appear to the world. To us, junior is definitely there, to stroke, talk to and credit with my big win against Steve in tennis on Saturday! Colombian doubles, I call it. Luca says that if we keep playing until I’m big, Steve’s advantage will become desperately unfair, although I’m quite sure my husband, with his selfless spirit, will let me win a shot or two, just so that his offspring doesn’t get a totally incorrect first impression of their Daddy.

And so, the weeks go by. We have less than 200 days to go now! It seems like a lot, but with the applying for jobs, the dream of buying a home and tons of tons of excitement, the days pass. June will be here before we know it!

My Not-So-Snow Day

I admit, there are days when I get on my school bus, just after 6:00am, with an hour and a bit’s dirt road journey ahead of me and I dream of maternity leave. While I love my students, my school drives me crazy and the days, usually a full 12 hours, are long, exhausting and hard. The journey home can take 2 hours and then there’s still the 20 minute walk, often in the rain. Sometimes the mere thought of Monday morning is enough to bring on an extra bout of morning sickness. I occasionally get out my calendar and try to estimate when I’ll finally not have to endure this nightmarish schedule, but then I have a great teaching moment, and I forget where my count was up to anyway. My students are wonderful, full of surprises and intensity, making each day very, very different. They are rowdy, for sure, and my school takes great pride in its liberal, hands-off approach, with which I usually disagree, but I have learned to love them and boy, do I try my hardest, when the door is closed and it is just us, to teach them. We have made small steps, but every now and then I feel the satisfaction of conveying not just a individual lesson but a lifelong passion, just as I did so often when I was at Tower.

Today, however, I am home. It’s our Christmas Concert and my duties begin at midday, and go until late tonight. I thought the lazy morning would be great, resting, doing laundry, catching up on some emails, but being home alone in this little city apartment is lonely and time passes slowly. The morning sickness struck again last night and still lingers on and I miss Steve and wish we were together. Maybe weeks or months of this wouldn’t be so good after all. Steve and I arrived here with two suitcases each and maybe all the books, stationary, photos and bubble baths (ahhh…) I used to be able to soak up given 20 minutes of lazy time are now being missed. Or maybe it’s not that. Times like these, I realize why living 10 miles away from our two families was such a blessing. I miss Boston, especially as they are getting their first snow! If this was a snow day, my nose would be pressed to the window. Colombia has been an adventure and a challenge we hoped for but I can’t wait for 16 days! We are going home!

Signs of Life

Yesterday we set out early for our appointment with Fernie. He seemed happy to see us, chat about Quincy Market and the scandals of the Big Dig, and then get down to business. Actually, all of the Boston nostalgia came up because in just 17 days, we will be HOME! Too exciting. I didn’t realize, since I definitely still have no official bump, that I technically need a ‘Permission to Travel.’ Anyway, it’s no probably as luckily he is granting it. Suffice to say, any other decision of his and it would have been Adios Fernie… The appointment was a smooth one. As excited as I am, I still find myself just a little nervous if there is ever a moment of unexpected silence. We had a small ultrasound. I do mean small, because Fernie has a itsy, old-fashioned machine in his office, but it is great because I think we’ll get to see Junior at every appointment. It makes everything so much more fun to see the little one. He found the heart beating wonderfully right away. And the baby’s formation looks perfect on the small screen. He/she is 26mm, and looks like a baby now! Actually, he/she looks AMAZING, may I say? Fernie did make me a little nervous because he starting shaking my tummy, trying to get Junior to do a dance for us. We were happy just to see him/her, and the heart working its wonders, but I think Fernie, like all Colombians, was partial to the rumba. He shook me, there wasn’t any significant striking of a pose, but you could hardly see anything on that screen, the size of my palm. Fernie seemed disappointed, like a child who gets a talking doll for Christmas and then realizes it only says 8 words, two of which are pee-pee, but we are HAPPY! I think the baby will be like it’s mama and dada – we’ll dance when we know only the people who both adore and forgive unconditionally are watching!

My blood tests were reviewed. We’d noticed on the paperwork I had an unusually high level of monos… monkeys? Anyway, all translated and put into words by our clever doc, it turns out I am the proud, genetically-cursed owner of a hypothyroid. So, all tiredness, weight gain, hair loss, panic attacks and nausea can now be attributed to my lazy thyroid and not the baby… I think not! Still, the worst of the news was that it meant more blood tests. I know I probably seem like a coward, but let me explain… I have DEEP veins. I mean profundas, profundas, profundísimas, as the nurses always say. It usually takes 4-5 doctors and nurses, a specialist or two, 6 rubber bands, 8 different positions and a lot of needle searching to find me a vein. I come away totally black and blue with needle piercings every mm. of me, flick marks from all the nurses manicured nails and latex burn from the bands trying to force a purple streak up. Great news is, I didn’t faint. I came very close, but after an hour and a half finding the vein, I couldn’t face 3 hours in ‘Observación’ again. Clearly, it’s a conscious decision I make for attention! All of the doctors and nurses know me now, from my convulsions, passing out and invisible blood stream, but it’s not a bad thing. A medical enigma, perhaps, they said all they were looking for was a ‘sign of life’! Uh-hum, I have someone else’s heart beating inside of me. There’s one, actually two. Anyway, I now get very special treatment and we feel like we have a lot of friends at that place. I’ll get my test results in a few days and we get to go back in two weeks for the big scan to see the formation of the nose and brain. That will be great! Please, please keep Junior in your prayers!

The rest of the day passed happily. We walked all over the city in the sunshine and finally got a refund from the only Colombian thief we’d met. We paid him 3 months ago for a lamp, and we’ve been man hunting him down ever since. Yesterday we surprised him! So, that was good. We also bought a delicious and very plain cake, a traditional Maria Luisa, and I’ve just had a second slice for breakfast. I’m still partial to anything bland…and oranges. Colombian oranges are the best in the world! I can eat 3 or 4 of them in a day. I am sure they, and junior, come to us straight from Heaven! In other food news, dinner is officially off the menu. No matter what we have, it makes me sick, but for lunch I can usually eat something more substantial. Walking home yesterday, I saw the ice-cream shop and I made Steve come in with me, the first time in months. We bought a couple scoops, but needless to say, they are still in the freezer. False alarm… It’s hard finding things I like… Talking about food aversions for a pregnant woman is like talking about the weather for a Brit. Apologies…
Cedritos, our neighborhood, is now officially Candy Land. There are Christmas lights outlining almost every building, window, bush and tree. It is unbelievable, tacky and oh so jolly! It makes us so excited to go home soon! Happy December everyone!

Proof of Beautiful Things to Come

This photo was taken from our living room window. We are blessed with an amazing view...