Week 34 - ATL Heat

Week 34 has arrived and so has the Atlanta heat. As if it is not hard enough to get around with an extra 25+ lbs, now I have to deal with ATL heat and humidity. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

The nesting phase of pregnancy has set in. Ira and I did our "to-do" list around the house over the Memorial Day weekend. So happened that the master bath shower started to leak as well and that is being replaced as I type this posting.

"Squirt" continues to be active. Ira and I cannot believe some of the movements we both are able to feel. We find ourselves saying, "wonder what the little guy looks like, will he look more like Mel or Ira?". Only time will tell.

32 weeks - Final 2 Months

Can't believe that the final couple months of pregnancy are here. Had my 32-week doctor's appointment earlier this week. Mom and Squirt are doing fine. Was able to review some questions with the doctor that Ira and I put together after taking a tour of the hospital and attending some child prep classes. Next week Ira and I will be going to a full-day Child Birthing Prep class. Sounds exciting I know!!

Furniture for the nursery should be arriving in the next couple weeks. Not like I cannot look down at my belly and know this baby is for real, but seeing all the furniture and nursery items in the baby's room will really make it feel amazingly real!

We also made another adult purchase today. A camcorder was added to the photo/video collection for Ira to play with. Not only will there be stunning pictures of the family there will be long and boring home videos to torture you all with. More on this after the baby is born, but we will be posting videos here as well as pictures. Stay tuned for Atlanta's funniest home videos.

That darn stroller

After a bit of a taxing hiatus (all pun intended) it is time to catch up on the happenings of the past few weeks around the house.

Let's start with revisiting the stroller adventure. You will recall the little adventure that we call "Babies R Us" a few months ago. Well, now a few dear friends have purchased the first big gift...the stroller. After all that embarrassment in the store not knowing how to make the thing collapse, we were back to the same feeling but this time it was in the comfort of our own home. Thankfully the stroller came about 90% assembled in the box. All we had to do was attach the wheels and canopy and we would be on our way. A long story short I was practically hitting the poor stroller trying to figure out how to attach the canopy that goes on top to shield the elements and finally got the wheels attached. It works in the living room but has yet to be tested in the great outdoors. More stroller follies to come I am sure.

Our son is positive that he is Jewish as well. Just around the time we were reading the 4 questions at our Seder on Saturday night, Little Squirt decided to make his presence known. He was jumping around and kicking momma enough that all of us on the outside could see Mel's stomach jumping up and down. A few people at the table could see it too. I guess he knew that he was the youngest one at the table. Hopefully he will be that excited to go to Sunday school in the future but we're not betting on that just yet.

We have taken an infant CPR class and met with the pediatrician we will likely use. I can't think of anything funny to say about that. I suppose there shouldn't be.

Squirt's room will get a fresh coat of paint this weekend and the furniture should be arriving soon. Things are gearing up for "Operation Baby Arrival" around the house. The countdown is just about to start now that we are just about into the single digits with weeks remaining. We are very excited and can't wait for everyone to start visiting over the next few months. Hopefully we will figure out Squirt's real name in time! See you soon!

Girl's Weekend...

My "Girl's Weekend" with three of my closest friends has now come to an end. Jennifer, Laura, Mary, and I had a great time here in ATL. Even with the rainy weather, we still managed to do some shopping, stop by the Dogwood Festival, and see the fish at the GA Aquarium. Still hard to believe that the next time I see those girls I will be a mom. It is all just very exciting.



Week 27 has arrived and I just keep expanding in the belly. Squirt is moving around and letting us know about his presence. I am very happy, as is Ira, that Tax Season 2008 is coming to an end. Just about a week to go until I can nicely present the "honey-do" list to Ira.

Ira here....one more busy week and then my humor (like it or not) will return. Blog you soon.

Lots of movement...

Have to say over the past week or so Squirt has been very actively moving around. Ira and I find ourselves just staring at my belly to see where he will kick, jab, or squirm to next.

I feel as though each morning I wake up and my belly has grown even more from the day before. Am still able to attend my prego water aerobics class and have been walking as much as possible to stay active.

Am looking forward to my final "Girl's Only" weekend as a not yet mom. Jennifer, Laura, and Mary arrive into ATL on Thursday for a fun-filled weekend of shopping, site-seeing, and more shopping.

Deep thoughts...

I have never considered myself to be overly macho. Nobody reading this would ever disagree with this observation, I have no doubt. I have had some occasions of late that have made me very concerned. Maybe I am getting ready to be a dad and parts of it are just downright scary which I am OK with.

I have made an observation of myself lately that I would like to discuss for a moment. Lately, I have noticed that I have become more comfortable with the term "cute". This is not a word that I would use very often in my pre-prefatherhood life. In recent weeks, I have found it more and more acceptable for my lips to utter this word to describe a myriad of items, situations, etc.

Just the other night Melissa came home with a gift from a family friend that was a UF tracksuit for a 6-9 month old baby. It is fantastic...blue and orange with "GATORS" written across the back of the jacket. Every avid sports fan's dream for their unborn child. For those of you that know me well this is something that would make me very excited, especially since we are expecting a little boy to enter our lives in a few short months. My first reaction however was to call the matching pants and jacket, "cute". Over the first 6 months of this pregnancy I have become more sensitive, there is no denying that. But instead, my initial reaction was..."oh, Squirt will look so cute when we are watching football games in the fall...".

I guess this is just one of those growing pains on the road towards parenthood, but should "cute" and "football" be used in the same sentence?

Registries....

Welcome to week 22! This has been an exciting week or two. We started with the trip to the furniture store. Who would have thought that there were so many kinds of cribs? After our trip to Babies-R-Us and Ira was denied every attempt to get something sports related anywhere close to the registry the furniture was not going to be much of a battle. Simple, classic, but Ira was not going to leave that store without the glider and matching ottoman!!!! You melt into this chair and no amount of screaming baby will get you out of it. I presume that the screaming baby will be in the chair with us most of the time that we are in the chair, but who knows.

Next it was time for the registering. Under the presumption that the baby registry is no where near as fun as the wedding registry, Ira went to work and and I was off to the store with some experienced help. I must thank my dear friend Rachelle for putting up with me during this ordeal. She and I spent a few hours at Babies-r-us and Target registering for all the baby essentials. Have to say the advice from my friends and family who are already moms and the research I did before heading to the stores really helped.

Squirt is starting to get more active, so the flutters are more frequent. We are still waiting for that first big kick. Squirt is trying as hard as a little guy in his position can to talk to us though. Mommy asks for a little activity down south and all of a sudden the little guy is moving around. We'll have to wait and see if he takes to commands this well when he is on the outside too.

I started taking a pregnancy water aerobics class. Such a great workout and I get to hang out the other moms-to-be! (I have so many comments that I could put here but all have been censored. Squirt's momma has reinforced the old adage, "if you have nothing nice to say then don't type anything at all".