Birthing Class

Al and I went to our first (of 12) birthing class last night. It is held in the house of the teacher, just down Columbia Pike from us. I decided I wanted to do the Bradley Method, and after much polling of friends and family who've had children I'm doing so with some caution. My sister-in-law had wonderful success with it. That along with the idea that it is "husband coached birthing" made me take the plunge. I know I'm going to need someone I trust to be the strong one for me during the most pain I'll hopefully ever experience in my life. Who better than Al?
I was thankfully for-warned that the medical field still isn't really on board with the Bradley Method and often if you show up to the hospital touting that you will not have meds they either snicker and then take bets on how long before you ask for the epidural or they sigh realizing it could be a long and difficult delivery, especially if complications come up and the mother just can't let go of her ideal birth dream.
But I was put a little at ease last night during our first class. Our instructor basically said she just wants us to be informed (which is really what I want) so that in the midst of it all we can make good decisions. The other two positive notes were that the Bradley Method course has two main focuses: Exercise and Nutrition. Two things I really believe are always important, whether I practice them with good measure or not. But it seems this will be a great group of couples that can encourage each other as we prepare to deliver. Most of them are right around the same date as us, although I think I'm probably in the running for biggest belly there. Ugh!
So last night we had introductions, a little nutrious snack, some exercises that we practiced and then my favorite part was relaxation. It was so wonderful to have Al there to participate with me. Hopefully it will be the same come delivery time!

Catching up on Snowmagedon

I'm so far behind posting that I never showed you pictures of the couple big snows we had. Unfortunately now I can't remember which pictures were with which storms, but you'll get the idea!

more of these to come later off the other camera, maybe even a video!

Latest Embarrassing Belly Shot

Here is what the belly is looking like now (our February pic I suppose):

The Flood

Last week on Wednesday Feb. 24th I woke up and thought to myself, "The house seems super cold, I wonder if Al has decided we need to save more on the heating bill and turned the heat down." I didn't think much more of it, and got myself off to work in a hurry. Al called me at work later that morning and said we had 3-4 inches of standing water in the basement! Our sump pump had somehow shut off. He had already gone down there and was able to restart the sump pump which slowly drained the water, but it had gotten high enough to flood the furnace electronics board. We spent the next few nights in our hats, coats, scarfs, and gloves until we were able to get approval from the insurance company to cover a new furnace. The heating guys were awesome we must say! We didn't call them with the approval until about 4:00 on Friday afternoon, but because we told them it was a brisk 48 degrees in the house and would remain so all weekend if they didn't come help, they did the overtime and brought 3 or four vans of tools and workers to retrofit our new furnace to our old pipes. The next day is was a steamy 75 degrees in our house all day until we finally realized our new thermostat was somehow also on the fritz. So they came out again on Sunday afternoon to give us a temporary thermostat, which we are still using at this point. And happy to say our house now stays at a decent 69 degrees.
Thankfully we don't keep much in the basement, we mostly use it for storage. Also most of it is on shelves or in plastic bags or totes, since there can be small water streams after lots and lots of rain. But we did still have some rugs, luggage, a TV, some paintings and odds and ends that are now ruined or mildewy. Thankfully the insurance company said they can have the washable stuff sent to a company that specializes in removing mold and mildew from clothes, etc. I think the one thing I'm most bummed about being ruined was a limited print lithograph of historic Rockville that my mom passed down to me:
Its probably actually a blessing that the furnace went out, otherwise we might not have found the water until it reached the second floor, or it could have sat there and stewed for a week, until we decided to go do some laundry. Plus it was an old furnace (maybe 10-15yrs old).

Hanging with my Best Friend

Yesterday when I made a call to Al to see what time he would be at the gym, he admitted to being home and taking a nap with Lulu, our little Westie.
I told him "Great, then you can meet me in an hour, because that's when I'll be there."
Of course being his non-punctual self he didn't show up to the gym for another hour and a half or hour and 45mins. And when he showed up and found me pathetically sweating away on the eliptical he hopped on the one next to me and told me he was tired or depressed he wasn't sure which. So I asked what was wrong and he said the supposed it was a Food Depression. Having never heard of such a thing in my life I had to ask what the symptoms were of such and aliment. He explained its when you really want something to eat, but you can't decide what that "thing to eat" is.
After my workout I gently approached him and inquired what we should do for dinner answering my own question immediately by telling him he didn't know because of his food depression. So I suggested Korean Buffet. I mean really..... what could be more healing to my Korean food loving husband than Korean food?
"Really?" he said, do you think it will work? I told him I couldn't be certain but I thought it ALWAYS worked.
So out we went to the Korean restaurant. They had some great veggie dishes and some good soup. They had some not good for you americanized stuff, just enough to please me of course. As we were finishing we realized we should go across the parking lot to the Korean market because we needed some Rooster sauce. And while we were there we began to look at all their great cookware. Al wants to buy a skillet that you cook Bulgogi, or Kalbi on. Just like in the restaurant, just not permanently attached in the middle of the table. As we were searching he found a steamer basket.
"I need that!" I exclaimed. I was just searching for mine last week, and I think it must have been given to Goodwill because of rust or some temporary lapse of good judgment on my part.
"Oh Great, How much is it? Is it going to cost me a fortune?" Al says in his typical tricky way of making sure I don't get my hopes up and then when he lets me buy it he thinks I should feel like I got away with something.....
"$27.99!" He shouted.
"What?" I was perplexed, they used to be really cheap. Then as I look at him holding it I realize the price sticker from the skillet had stuck to his finger and he was using that finger to hold the steam basket. "No hunny, that's the price of your finger." I said
And then it happened..... Simultaneously my Best Friend and I started laughing uncontrollably, in a ridiculously loud fashion. So hard in fact my eyes were streaming with tears and he was holding his stomach, and I had to beg that we stop because being almost to my 3rd trimester now there is a seriously increased risk of peeing the pants!
It felt so good to laugh so hard, about something so silly, with the man I chose and who chose me, for the rest of our lives. It was wonderful to see him out of his Food Depression and back to himself in a matter of hours.

The Perfect Storm of Motivation

It was such good timing, my sister-in-law, Christina sent us three huge boxes of baby stuff we get to borrow. Al was out of town skiing, and there was a snow shower that dumped just enough to keep me inside.


It was the perfect storm of motivation, to get me to tackle the messy rooms. I told myself I couldn't open any of the boxes until I had finished sorting the majority of "the mess."
So here is evidence of the progress I made:

Okay so there are still some boxes of filing we'll need to take care of, but really this is about as good as our bedroom ever gets! And the spare room....


So once Al came back we tore into the boxes of baby goodies. We are so blessed to have such generous family! Christina, Rick and Nicholas sent a ton of clothes, bibs, towels and blankets.

They even sent an awesome play gym and SWING!!! I was SOOO excited about the swing. Its all in near new condition.

A picture of The Spread:



Some of the things I most excited about:

the swing
a snap n go stroller that takes up less space than the whole travel system
a yoga video I hope to use maybe this weekend!

the bumbo

on a seperate note we got more snow on Tuesday of this week, not enough to keep me from work , and it mostly melted by afternoon, but I was able to get some pictures of the trees holding beautiful snow at the parking lot near work. Here are some of them:



And now we are bracing for the snow storm of decades here in DC. Maybe I'll have some more impressive pictures of snow accumulation after the weekend. Maybe I'll even find motivation to finish filing or sew the curtains or toss pillows (or maybe I shouldn't hope for too much ;) )

Belly Shot P.S.

Here is a "candid" shot Al took while I was getting ready for the picture that might actually show off my belly size better: