Nice to Meet You, Third Trimester!

I've made it to 28 weeks - the official start of the third trimester! My friend Angie calls this the "uncomfortable stage" and warns that it is followed by the "miserable stage"
(actually it's 29 weeks now, but this is the 28-week picture).

Michael and I have started our pre-natal classes, and all this talk about how you know when it's time to get to the hospital and what to do after you arrive home with a newborn has suddenly started to give us a sense of urgency... even if there are still over 2 months to go. On the other hand, preparing for the baby gives us something to do other than looking at each other every night and saying "omg, what have we done?", and a little distraction is welcome at this point.

I've started to get the backaches and general uncomfortableness that comes with this stage of pregnancy, and unfortunately for Michael they tend to be harder to deal with at night after a day of work, so he bears the brunt of the whining and complaining. He asked that I point out to everyone that he is very good at giving me back rubs and bringing me tea after I get comfortably arranged on the couch, and that he has been doing all the cooking too (on the menu this month - lots of omega-3s to help with brain development).

We're now looking forward to two November events - on the 9th we're doing the tour of the maternity ward to see the place where I'll be giving birth, and then on the 20th we have a final ultrasound to make sure that the baby has turned and is in the right position and that everything else is looking OK. It's the home stretch!!!

An Exciting Shopping Trip

Michael and I recently joined the Brussels Childbirth Trust - a non-profit, English-speaking organization here in Brussels that offers all sorts of services for young families in Brussels. We're starting pre-natal courses through this organization this week, and they also organize playgroups and events for babies and toddlers (and their parents) after the birth. This weekend, they held one of their bi-annual "nearly new" sales, so Michael sacrificed his lunch break in order to dig through tables of baby clothes, toys, books and equipment. Since Michael has a limited lunch break, we set out a strategy to get in and out as quickly as possible. Priorities were English books and newborn clothes that are only ever worn for a few weeks.

The sale started at 1:30 and came with a warning to "show up early in order to get the good stuff", so we arrived at about 1:35. The line to get into the place already reached all the way to the main street, and people were streaming into the line quickly. We waited in the line for 10-15 minutes (luckily it wasn't raining), and paid our €1 fee to get in and join the mob! It was packed wall-to-wall with people clustered around the clothing tables, people trying to manoeuvre through the crowd carrying high chairs or rocking horses or bassinets, and Michael's favorite - people stopped in the middle of a travel lane to have a chat. The first table was the books table, and Michael and I both managed to muscle into a spot and start sifting through the options. Michael's best finds were a dinosaur pop-up book and an "I spy" picture book based on fairy tales. I got two books about fairies and a couple of others that looked like they had nice illustrations.


Next up: Clothing! We started making our way toward the newborn table at the other end of the room, but before we could get there Michael got frustrated by the slow walkers and pregnant women not moving quickly enough and headed off to the rack of 3-6 month clothing. I eventually made it to the newborn table and started to pick out little onesies and sleepers, along with all the other pregnant women asking each other how many hats a baby needs and if it's even worth it to buy socks. Michael eventually joined me with his selections of outfits "for the summer" when the baby gets a bit bigger. We have realized two things: the first is that it is hard not to buy all pink things when you're shopping for a little girl, and the second is that we are both suckers for anything with winnie-the-pooh on it.


At the end of the day we ended up with 10 books and 21 outfits for €72 euros - not a bad deal at all, and a good start to both the library and the wardrobe! The next sale is in March, and we're already writing down the next battle plan.


In the meantime, Finnigan can't wait for the new arrival - she definitely knows that something is up now!

OMG Maternity Pants!

I took these pictures about a month ago (at 21 weeks pregnant), and have been meaning ever since to write a special post about how much I love maternity pants. I have read quite a few complaints from women on pregnancy forums about how they can't find pants that fit them, and how they wish they could still fit into their normal pants... I am the total opposite. Saying that you can't find maternity pants that fit is like saying that you can't find sweat pants that fit! These are the best. pants. ever. I'm never going back to normal pants.

For those of you who haven't experienced them yet, these are pants with a huge elastic waist band that comes up to your armpits, which doesn't sound terribly comfortable, but really is. It's like wearing sweat pants all day! And the bottom parts of the pants look perfectly normal, so once you put your shirt on over them it's all style. I must admit though, that the best part about them is that they are so stretchy and flexible that they always fit -- so Michael can pick out my size at the store and bring them home and I never even have to shop! Perfect.

25 Weeks

Finally! Definitely pregnant!

Also, well past the halfway point, and looking forward to the official start of the third trimester in another 3 weeks.

Last week I was telling everyone how great I was feeling - the tiredness really hadn't hit, and although I was having some trouble sleeping at night (due to some of the craziest nightmares I've ever had in my life), I really had nothing to complain about. Well, I obviously spoke too soon, because this week I've been hit with a huge wall of tired. I mostly attribute it to the fact that I think the baby has had a growth spurt this week, but it also must be due to the curse of overconfidence. This curse hits me whenever I'm playing freecell and think I have it all wrapped up, or when the hardest part of some task is done and I'm sure that it will be straightforward from now on. The curse also hits every player in Survivor who claims to be completely in control of the game.

So just as a test, here are some of the things that I'm not experiencing right now: Swollen ankles, insatiable hunger, and the urge to clean the house. $50 says that now that I've mentioned these things they'll be my main complaints for next week.

Pic of the Day: Oh Finnigan

Oh Finnigan

Picture of the Day

20.7 Weeks

I have to start off by saying that I was a bit disappointed by the fact that my 18 week picture looked so similar to my 16 week picture, so this time I decided that maybe wearing yellow would be enough to mix it up a bit. Add that to the fact that I've had a bit of a growth spurt just this week, and we have a recognizable change for the halfway mark at 20 weeks!

I was really looking forward to the 20 week blog post, because this marks the halfway point in the pregnancy, and I was all set to blog about how I'm already halfway there and how it was all going to go quickly from here. Unfortunately, for most of this week I've been feeling more only halfway than already halfway - it all seems to be going so slowly.

However, this week actually has ended up being somewhat of a turning point. I've started to get some comments at work from the cafeteria ladies, asking if I was pregnant and offering their congratulations, and also this week I went out and bought my first maternity clothes. Ok, to be fair since I know that he will comment about it, I admit that the way it actually happened was that Michael went to the store during the day and bought some things in my size from the maternity department, and when I got home at night he told me to try it all on and that he would return anything that I didn't want the next day. What can I say, I hate shopping.

But most importantly, I'm really starting to feel the baby move around and kick this week. I started to feel occasional gurgles of movement about 2-3 weeks ago, but they weren't happening every day and felt so much like gas or digestion that it was always hard to tell if they were actually kicks. This week it's all becoming more regular, and I can tell that the baby is getting stronger because she's getting better at kicking. Michael even felt a couple of the kicks last night when he had his hand on my stomach, which was exciting for both of us!

Finally, I can just about say that I'm 21 weeks in now, and the only thing better than being halfway there is being more than halfway there! Only 19 weeks to go!

More Pictures From Tunisia

We've been back from our vacation for a week, and I'm just now getting around to posting some more of our photos. As you can see, the weather was great and so was the water! Notice how Michael is in the water for almost every photo? And he wonders how he ends up with a rash...