He's here!

Tyler Jesse was born on Thursday, 8 Oct. at 6:25am. He's 7lbs and 20 inches long. Labor was less than 3 hours long. Our midwife, Melissa, was here for 8 minutes before Tyler was born into his Papa's hands. We're all doing great.

I'll post the full birth story plus cute photos of my little harvest baby soon.

39 weeks

Less than a week left until our due date. Still feeling good, and baby has not dropped. J took some bellypics yesterday with our neighbor's very nice camera. These are my favorites.

Show, part 1

The bellydance show last night went really well. Our performances were great, and went off without a hitch (or the breaking of water on stage). After all the practicing leading up to the show I will be glad for a little break from dancing. Lots of photos and video were taken, though very little by us. I'll post more as I get them, but this will have to do for now.

Can you spot the belly?

How about now?

37 weeks

Some awful belly self-portraits taken in the mirror this morning. 37 weeks, 2 days. Officially to term, and our midwife can attend our homebirth from here on out.

Still feeling mostly good most of the time. Sitting is becoming uncomfortable because little one takes it as a cue to stretch out in my ribs. Other than that, all is well. We have our midwife home visit tomorrow and will get all of the birth supplies from her then(!). This pregnancy has really flown by. It's crazy.

The Belly

I seem to have officially crossed some pregnancy threshold: I'm huge. I say this not because I have passed a certain measurement or hit a wall of awkwardness. It's what others are saying. Comments have recently switched from the "aww, you're pregnant. How cute!" variety to the "Holy... wow. You're REALLY pregnant. Due soon?" variety.

Quick Public Service Announcement: As pregnant ladies we aware that we are pregnant. This is not news to us. Comments of the "oh, you look great" variety are always welcome. Comments tending toward "wow, you're huge" or "oh, poor thing... you must be miserable" are never welcome, at least not by me. If I want to bitch about pregnancy-related stuff, I will. But if I barely know you, chances are I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a spoon than receive your unwanted sympathy for how big I am and how uncomfortable I must be. Because really? I'm not that uncomfortable. Honest. Yes, there are actions that are difficult for me, namely putting on shoes or shaving my legs. So if you're offering to give me a pedicure or tie my shoe, your help would be welcome. But for the most part I feel really good, and don't want your damn sympathy thankyouverymuch.

(P.S. I am 34 weeks pregnant. That means I have somewhere between 3 and 8 weeks until this little one is born, probably somewhere around 6 weeks from now. So I'm not sure how making me feel ENORMOUS now will help the next six weeks pass easily and comfortably. Y'know?)

Alright, alright. Enough ranting. Tell me what you think. Here are a couple of photos Doodle and I took on a stroll up at Tony Grove Lake yesterday. Is this belly shock-worthy?

Self-portrait of the cuteness.

View from the front. Photo by Doodle.

Well?

What do you think?

30 weeks

We took Doodle and her friend S climbing yesterday. Photos of the awesomeness will be posted soon. But in sorting through all the photos I realized there were a few of me and my belly. Hence the 30 week bellypic update. Here ya go:

Me belaying. Photo by Doodle.

Me belaying and getting a back scratch from J. Photo by Doodle (which is why we are lucky enough to have a picture with both J and I in it - together! - for once).

Belly of Doom shot. Photo by Doodle.

Doodle running around in the bouldering area. Photo by J.

Belly - 27 weeks

I'm in the final trimester! I cannot believe how time has flown. Here are some bellypics taken yesterday, on the 27 week mark.



Josh playing with camera angle - from above...

...and the "belly of dooooooom" view from below.

Half way there!

Today I am officially 20 weeks pregnant - half way! I finally broke down and pulled out my maternity shirts yesterday, as my regular shirts were getting too short and showing about an inch of my stomach above my pants. Maternity pants are still too big and loose, so I'm making do with drawstring pants and some regular pants that would normally be two sizes too big.

Doodle got to feel the baby kick today. I was feeling strong, consistent kicks so I had her put her hand on my tummy, and rested mine on top of hers. Right away, kick! I told her it was the baby saying hi. She put her head close to my tummy and said, "hi, baby." Then told me, "I say hi to baby brudder." Apparently today she thinks the baby is a boy.

Here are photos at the halfway point.

Belly is still not too obvious when I stand up straight. Slouching, however, it's pretty obvious.

Blurry, but you can see my belly.

Little baby bump.

Bellypics, 18 weeks

When I was pregnant with Doodle, J and I were really good about taking photos to chronicle my belly growth during pregnancy. This time around, shockingly enough, we've been kind of busy and hadn't gotten around to it. Finally the stars aligned, and we took the first bellypics on Friday, just shy of 18 weeks pregnant. Below are the results. The jeans I'm wearing: two sizes larger than my pre-preg jeans. Weight gain so far: 10 lbs.


I'll try to be more consistent with the bellypics from here on out.