Today's the day

oh man, today's the day.  Just putting a little note out there to say that I'll be back later with the big news.... and as it stands in the poll, "girl" has been the long standing front-runner, so we'll see if everyone's right.  Yet one more thing that can be determined by long distance electronic voting... or wait, does it work like that??  :-)

a bit belated, but here we go anyway...

Hi there.

So yes, yes I know, I forgot to post last week.  But do let me explain.  Philadelphia was hit with 2 BLIZZARDS IN 1 WEEK!!!  seriously!  How crazy is that?!  last week schools were only open on Tuesday and that's it!  sheesh!  Anyway, that's my excuse... blizzards kept me from blogging.  

Moving on.  So no baby news to report though as we get closer to the ultrasound date (Feb 23) we get more and more excited.  It seems that knowing whether it's a girl or boy makes the whole crazy process a little more concrete.  We will REALLY have a baby and it will be a (circle: girl/boy) baby.   I'm putting a poll on the blog.  you can guess what it will be and then next week I'll say who's right!  How fun is that?!

So yes, all polls aside, here is a valentines picture of Mike and I.

We're making hearts with our hands.... ya know, for valentines.

OK stay tuned for next time...

18 Weeks

Hi there.

So Friday has come again.  AND a blizzard is also coming today so that's cool.  about an hour ago I rememberd my committment to post weekly, so here is this week's post (albeit slightly on the late side)

I figured I'd post a picture or two to keep the reader interest levels up.  So here they are:

This is my 18-week belly.  and a view of my calendar, a pumpkin from November (still good!...?), and the other things that hang on my kitchen wall.  

This is where you can usually find me.  On the couch, with Patch in my lap.  In this picture I'm not doing anything productive, but usually this is my "at work" pose (with a computer and several packets of paper).  Why is this my "at work" position?  Because I have the best job in the world.  ah yes.  I get to work from home about 55% of the time.  I hang out with kids.  I write newsletters.  I tell people about LOGAN Hope.  I database things.  I write lots of grants.  It's fantastic.  For example, today:  I get up, eat breakfast & watch the news.  My morning consists of me working on a grant from Pepsi (vote-able in March so stay tuned), coordinating some volunteer groups, and taking a few minutes to write this blog.  It's great.  I actually CAN'T go into the office on Fridays til after lunch because (get this) there's no where for me to sit!  hah!  The office gets used for special-help tutoring Friday mornings so I get a free work-from-home pass.  awesome.

Ok, back to the baby:  it's growing!  This week apparently the baby was the size of a bell pepper (or a turnip, says another source).  I had a Doc appointment and everything's going well.   Ultrasound on Feb 23rd and we're getting more and more excited to find out what it is!  (a baby, i guess)  My gut says it's a girl, but I have no legitimate reason for thinking that.  Mike thinks it's a boy because "everyone we know has had girls so it has to even out somewhere..."  So there you have it.  

Stay tuned. and thanks for reading :-)

Grand Plans

Sheesh, my weekly posts get later and later as time goes on here...  I think it's just that there's no new "news" to report.  all is normal.  (relatively)  Although while looking at several pregnancy magazines I'm getting the feeling that things should be quite busier then they are now in the Roth household (at least according to said magazines).  They remind me a lot of bride magazines in that they seem to come with long timelines of everything you "should" be doing for every day of the 10 month pregnancy and for 5 months before you even get pregnant.  So by now Mike and I should have the baby room cleaned out, colors decided upon for either girl/boy, looked into every baby product imaginable to decide exactly what we want, tested out strollers, painted the baby room, read all sorts of books, talked about "birthing options", started to look for a local pediatrician, discussed and decided upon parenting strategies, know what several hip-mom words/phrases like "dula" and "water birth" mean exactly, and numerous other things....  yikes.


Now, Mike and I tend to be very laissez-faire about things in general (or at least Mike does) so I guess I shouldn't really be surprised that other parents-to-be already know everything they need to know, while we do not.  We'll get around to everything eventually... (and hopefully with enough time not to cause a huge amount of stress).  I'll tell you what I DID do though- I bought 2 maternity shirts.  ahh?  how 'bout that for prepared-ness!?  And that's about all I can handle right now.  Sorry, magazine calendars.


Feb 23rd we find out girl/boy just FYI....  maybe that'll help us get moving here...  ehh, we'll see.

picture.

This Weeks post is a picture of my belly.  Just about 16 weeks now. 

The end.

pardon my lateness.

oh hi.  So I realized that my post is a bit late this week.  I have no excuses.  But a few things have happened since last post so I now have something to talk about.  Namely, I have a baby belly and I've been to 2 prenatal yogas.  good times! 

Belly first.  So at first I thought it was just the popular lots-of-food-&-no-exercise-combo, but I've since realized that that is incorrect (at least partially).  My stomach is round and feels weird and I can't button some of my pants.  The only unfortunate side is that I need new pants now.  Although I got this "belly band" at target that you just put over the top of your pants, leaving them unbuttoned, and it looks like you have a long tshirt on underneath whatever other shirt you may be wearing.  It's awesome!  I haven't used it yet, but I'm sure I'll have to here pretty soon.  

Pre-natal yoga's been very fun!  I wake up sore for 3 days afterwards, but I'm really glad I'm doing it anyway.  I happen to be just about the least flexible person in the world so thankfully the first class I went to was led by this woman who was super nice and unintimidating.  The second class I went to was a different story.  That was last night.  I got there right on time but walked in and the class had already started!  and the lady didn't even stop to acknowledge me and I had to run and set up and I don't know quite what I'm doing so it was a little intense at first.  This instructor was kind of scarey.   a stern 60 year old yoga hippie woman.  Super-intimidating.  and she moved the class though about 800 positions at lighting speed without one second in between to unroll your body from each pretzel before the next pretzel started.   She also kept using all these yoga words that I don't understand and not explaining them so I'd have to just watch the people next to me and try to imitate them.  and let me tell you that all of these women, even the 9 months pregnant ones, totally put me to shame.  At one point the 9-monther next to me had her foot touching the back of her head while her other leg was straight out in front of her.  WHAT?!  If I hadn't of seen it with my own two eyes I don't think I'd believe it was humanily possible... even for a non-pregnant person.  Needless to say, I have a lot of practicing to do. 

Cardio

So I had a baby checkup this past Monday and the baby passed with flying colors. and a flying heartbeat. It was awesome for Mike and I to hear and, sheesh, babies' hearts beat fast! It was as if the baby just happened to be doing some intense cardio kickboxing while the doc was listening (which is a whole lot more exercise than its mother's currently getting). go baby go.

Actually I was planning on getting a little exercise lately but unfortunately all my great plans were foiled. For Christmas Mike got me some prenatal yoga classes at a studio in a hip and trendy neighborhood downtown (this is what I asked for). They are offered Thursday nights and I tried to go for the first time last Thursday. You may recall that last Thursday night was New Years Eve. I threw some sort of yoga-appropriate outfit together and drove all the way there only to be turned away at the door. Actually, what I did was unknowingly interrupt an entire class of much more serious yoga-ers before a girl came out and told me the night class was canceled for New Years.... but it didn't say that online and no one was answering the phone!!!!??!! So that was failed attempt #1.

Failed attempt #2 took place this evening. After waking up on the sniffly side in the middle of the night and then going to work, I only made it til around 2pm before I started sneezing approximately 438 times per hour. This is not fun. There are few things I can say I truly hate, but one of those things is sneezing. I spent large portions of my child and teenage-hood sneezing all day every day in response to my family's cats that I (unbeknownst to me at the time) happened to be very allergic to. Sneezing, horrible and so tiring. Anyway, earlier this evening I spent a 20 minute period trying to decide if I should get off my couch, go to yoga, and exercise a bit; or stay home instead. I REALLY wanted to go but decided against it on the grounds that my sneezing would just be obnoxious (and possibly contagious) to the rest of the class and this is not the first impression I want to make. As it is I will probably look like a fool who can't "harness her chi" or whatever it is that people do in yoga. So anyway, I have every intention of making it to class at the next opportunity.... and that's my story.