Thankful

Our appointment yesterday was great. Fernie said everything looks perfect, so I can just disregard all those comments about how small I am. We had one of our mini-ultrasounds and got to see Baby’s spine, ribs and neck. They all look so perfect, so straight and strong. Plus, as we thought before, I think Junior is going to be tall and slim, like his Daddy. It is soooo wonderful to see. I am still anxiously awaiting those first kicks, but seeing all those bones makes me more happy than I can explain. The only not perfect news that came from the scan is that my placenta is still low. The hope is that as the womb grows, the placenta will be engulfed and rise up. At the moment it blocks the cervix, meaning that a normal delivery would be impossible and they would have to do a Cesarean. No! As with all but a few mothers out there, I really, really don’t want this. I long to have the experience of a normal labor and delivery, but obviously this is out of my hands. The good thing is I haven’t had any bleeding, as this is often a side effect of the low-lying placenta. There’s still plenty of time for my placenta to get moving, so I would really appreciate your prayers! Fernie told us yesterday his wife is expecting a baby the very same week as us, which is exciting. He has two boys already and this will be their third! Hopefully they won’t be born on the same day! The visit yesterday was also good because we got to see one of the hospital rooms which are very, very nice. Anyway, we left the office with a great bounce in our steps and so much gratefulness. We even celebrated by booking ourselves a weekend away in February, for which we’re very excited. We’ll be back at the hospital in 2 weeks for a big scan, more blood tests, a thyroid test and a tetanus shot. Lots of prodding, yikes, but I’m looking forward to it. Thank you so much for all of your support.

Ch…ch…ch…changes

In the last week, I’ve really started feeling look a pregnant lady. After actually getting a little tearful last Thursday when I felt like I just couldn’t handle one more person telling me I looked too small or hardly pregnant at all, everything has changed. It is funny how everyone judges a pregnant lady. I don’t mean that I haven’t been treated with such incredible kindness and enthusiasm here at my school, but certainly everyone puts in their two cents about where you’re at. “When I was 18 weeks, I was three times your size.” “I can’t believe you’re able to wear your regular clothes still.” “You shouldn’t go near that lady with dyed hair, you know.” And then there are the other 2 pregnant ladies who, on their second babies, are receiving the other size of the critics. “My, even her arms look pregnant,” I’ve heard. A note to myself, as I encounter pregnant ladies for the rest of my life, never tell her she looks too thin, not pregnant or somehow abnormal. Anyway, for weeks I’d been longing to look as pregnant as I feel blessed in my heart, and finally it’s beginning… On Sunday, after two days of intense pain in my chest, I noticed the first crusty white remains of milk formed. Needless to say, it is the most remarkable thing. I told Steve, while it’s still so bizarre to me that a part of your body that had been closed for decades suddenly ruptures open (into multiple sprinklers, by the way, which I actually didn’t already know) it is truly amazing. Because the climate here varies at least 40 degrees in a day, from 30 when we wake up, to 70 or 75 around midday, the pains and dry skin around my developing ducts have been a little more severe, but it’s a wonderful thing. And then there’s my tummy… As I write this, just after lunch, my trousers are unzipped (and these are my big trousers) and you wouldn’t believe how hard my belly is to the touch. For weeks, and still around the sides, a lot of the growth is water and blood and rather flabby really, and while it’s still not totally consistent, it’s starting to seem more like there are actually bones in there. All of this means that sleeping is getting very disturbed. The dull pains I get make me want to sleep on my tummy, but that is about as comfortable as sleeping on a bowling ball, plus you feel awful about crushing your baby's nose or something. I can only tolerate so long on my back as the pressure becomes too much and apparently you're supposed to try and sleep only on your left side. Well, that too gets old pretty fast. So between this, the endless car alarms and Steve’s bad back, we have a long of twilight hours to chat. Only now, I feel the need for those extra hours so much and while it’s probably good practice for all that lies ahead, we’re going to have to figure something out! Steve has been listening to Junior’s beating heart in my tummy, the heart of the ocean, he calls it. Apparently we might have to buy one of those wave makers so that baby feels at home once out in the big world. It seems fair that there is something Steve gets to experience that I don’t, as sometimes, while I kidnap our baby each morning to spend the day with me out in the boonies of Gimnasio Fontana, I feel a little selfish. I do make him give me the thump by thump, splash by splash account of what he’s hearing, however.

I’m very excited, if a little nervous as always, for our appointment on Saturday morning with Fernie Green, and hoping I don’t have to give more blood. I’ll write again then and let you know the latest…Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement.

Saturday Night Dates

Here's the latest photo of me from our Saturday night date. We went to a delicious Italian restaurant and I enjoyed not cooking as well as some different ingredients from our regular Bogotá diet. 17 weeks and 4 days here. I love my bump!

Oh, to not be a working mother!

No, no… Please don’t make me go! Back to school tomorrow, I mean. We’re being dragged off to some conference center 3 hours from the city so I have to be on the bus by 5am. Nothing like a harsh awakening! At least the days will be jam-packed and hopefully pass quickly to get us to June asap!

I’m starting to believe we’re having a boy. Maybe it’s all the girly girls on the Dosch side, making us the only hope for the survival of the Dosch clan, or maybe it’s all the old wives tales that somehow match up, but of the 4 vivid dreams I’ve had about our baby, 3 have been with a little boy. Here’s some of my supporting evidence: 1) I crave CITRUS like nothing else. This, according to many friends and websites is a sign of a male. Today we went to our favorite fruit and veg market, crossing the city, just to restock on oranges. We bought about 40 to get us through the week! Amusingly, or not so, on the 70mph amusement park ride home/Bogota’s buses, the bags tipped over and our oranges were skyrocketed throughout the vehicle. Luckily a couple of kind souls returned all but a few lost souls and thus we felt obliged to offer them one of these heavenly fruits as a token of our thanks. So, we’re down to about 34, but it’ll do. Truly, they are good as gold. To be honest, it’s not just citrus, but rather all things orange J Carrots, cantaloupe, clementines, cheez-its. Oh wait, now that I’m typing I realize, maybe it’s more the letter ‘C’… I also LOVE cranberry juice, cherries and Cadbury’s, but still HATE chicken. Oh for some of my favorites to be sold in Colombia…

2) I have not broken out. Many friends in Boston commented that the quality of my skin is testimony to a boy. Girls steal your beauty, you see. Though, before the North Shore chill set in, I did have this ugly rash all over my neck and chest, so there’s margin for error there.

3) This one just in, excuse me if it’s t.m.i… If your right breast gets bigger than your left, es un niño! So, that’s where we’re at.

Last night my dream consisted of Baby D. pressing his face against my tummy so well that we could see his exact profile. Very cheeky and very sweet. This morning I awoke to my bump moving ever so slightly. It’s amazing, and a little scary, that sometimes my bump is quite pronounced and other times it’s almost undetectable. It’s a bizarre roller-coaster of seeming pregnant to seeming chubby to seeming just me, but apparently all normal. We’ve done a ton of exercise since returning to our car-less, solitary existence. The weather has also been amazing so I’ve been getting junior his/her belated dose of vitamin D. From picnics to catch to 40 block walks, it feels good to have the time and energy to be out and about. Admittedly, my appetite has dwindled since the days of getting up to look in my parents’ fridge every ten minutes for a clementine, yogurt and glass of milk, but I’m holding my weight that is now about half way back to where I started back in September before baby most wonderfully took over my body. He/she is an amazing 6 inches now which is HUGE and I simply cannot wait to feel the kicks. A friend said playing bells into the belly via an Ipod is a good way to go! No Ipod here, but Steve can sure make some funky noises, especially in his sleep! We’ll let you know…

Where we're at...

The adorable twins, our nieces! You would never know they were 6 weeks premature. They eat tons and I love these photos that accentuate their amazing chubby cheeks. So sweet!

It was 4 degrees in Boston for a few days. Here you can see the steam rising up from the Atlantic Ocean. It looks enticing, doesn't it? We all went swimming at midnight of New Year's Eve '06-'07 but this year (only for Baby D, of course) I opted out and left the steaminess for my lovely siblings.

Back in the Bog

It’s hard to believe we are really back, our wonderful journey was real and it's back to the grind now. I hadn’t wanted to write these past weeks. The wonders of family and friends and being all together absorbed me entirely. The beauty of the ocean as the backdrop to our games and laughter and the freedom from long work weeks that drain you to the bone spoiled us thoroughly. As our last days in Boston sped by, I had to find a way to go from dreading our return to wishing it here so that the real countdown could begin. Not just the fact that we are now buzzing away the days until Baby D, but also, soon after that, we will take our baby home, for good. A ticking clock when with the people you love the most seems so unfair. Steve is back at work and so I’ve been playing housewife all morning: washing, stocking up the fridge, cleaning and trying my very hardest not to have a quiet moment to get sad. I also tried on all of my new gifted maternity clothes and I was shocked how lovely and actually almost fitting many of them are. I do love my bump. I love watching it grow and grow and even shift from side to side. Baby has already had lots of good vibes sent to him from knowing new mothers, and one-day Mummies. Nothing compared to Marina’s purring deep into my belly to try to convince Junior that cats are not evil. Lovely and tickly as it is, our baby will never be that foolish.

Our last week at home, I had two vivid and wonderful baby dreams. The first, we had a baby girl, I was nursing her, and life was amazing. The second, the doctor told us we could have a preview of our little one and brought the baby out, into the open air, to be caressed and adored by us for a minute or two, before reinserting the bundle, like a tray of brownies that are delicious but could use a little more firming up.

As I write, I can’t help but look, and look away, into another apartment window, directly across from ours. We have giant windows, as do they, but unlike them, we don’t stand stark naked in front of ours… for hours! This couple has a brand new little baby and this morning, already, I have seen mother and father bathe, change, feed and play with their little one, all in the nude. Beautiful as their routine seems to be, I wonder if that happens to all new parents?

Speaking of acclimatizing ourselves, I’ve been reading our newest baby books and they all insist that a newborn must remain at 72 or 74 degrees in the home. I’ve been wracking my brain as to how I might achieve anything like this. Our apartment gets so cold and we have no heating. I did, however, indulge in a few baby snugglers at Macy’s and am very pleased to announce that today, while wondering the shops (so as not to get sad, remember) I found lots of lovely baby things a stone’s throw from where we live. I promise I won’t buy anything until it’s on sale though…

I miss everyone so much. It makes me cry sometimes not to have my Mummy, sisters and best friends near me right now, but I do have the best hubby in the world, and I know that what lies ahead is greater and more amazing than I can dare imagine and worth any loneliness, discomfort or flabbiness I have now. I just wish they were here, or I was still there… but visitors are most definitely welcome!

Anyway, happy 2008 to everyone! It’s going to be the best one yet!