January, 2011 Archive

Make Room For Bumpy

by Alison Friedman in Mommy's Musings, Pregnancy

Well, it finally happened.

Yesterday I woke up to get ready and dressed for school. Thankfully, as a teacher, I don’t have to dress up in very business-y clothes. Jeans and appropriate tops are usually acceptable, so I have a few “Teacher Costumes” on rotation throughout the weeks. Normally, as I snooze through the 6:30 to 7:00 half hour, I visualize my closet and plan my wardrobe before finally getting out of bed and starting my day. So when I virtually dressed myself in one of my go-to pairs of jeans and a tank-with-cardigan combo, I thought I’d even have time to eat breakfast at home (as opposed to in the car).

Not so. I put on my jeans. Well, attempted to put on my jeans. I ended up doing a ballet of hops and skips and wiggles that made me look like the black swan who drank too much swamp water. I toyed with other options, but I never planned for backup! And that’s when it hit me: time to go shopping for maternity clothes.

So after school, I stopped at Old Navy for my first trip into the world of pants with panels and shirts with shirred sides. It was overwhelming and fun all at the same time. And thank goodness I had nowhere to be because I took my sweet time.

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I tried on a few pairs of jeans, but realized that Old Navy does not carry maternity jeans in ankle length sizes like they do with their unpregnant jeans. While I appreciated the extra fabric on my belly, I had way too much fabric on the floor. Geez, Old Navy, some pregnant women are short, too! The dressing room lady told me they carry “specialty sizes” for vertically challenged people online. Well, fine, but what about instant gratification? And more importantly, what about shipping fees?? I’m coming back as a supermodel in my next life. This is not fair.

I did, however, find a cute pair of capri jeans (which are barely capri on my legs!) as well as a few shirts. My new little bump that seemed to grow overnight fit nicely in the jeans and I think I like this new look. I’m sure I’ll stop enjoying it when it’s pumpkin-like and prevents me from sleeping comfortably, but at least I don’t look like I just ate a big dinner and the reason for the belly is a little more obvious.

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After I decided on some tops, I decided it was time to leave and remove myself from the premises before I overspent. But, not without a field trip through the baby clothes. Old Navy has the cah-u-test outfits for little tots and I can’t wait to start purchasing and filling up Baby Friedman’s closet! I probably would have spent a pretty penny but had no idea what to buy. After all, we don’t know the sex of the baby.

Should I shop on this side?

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Or this side?

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Only time will tell! The only thing I do know is that our due date is August 5th and as long as that baby isn’t too early or too late, we’ll have a little Leo on our hands. Old Navy has cute onesies with babyfied graphical astrology signs… but no Leo! C’mon, Old Navy! Help a sista out. Make some in-store short ankle length jeans and put out a Leo onesie. Cause really, my hormones can’t handle anything else.

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And as far as shopping on the pink or blue side, well, that’s already decided anyway, and will be revealed soon after my ankle-length jeans online order arrives at my doorstep.

  1. Brynn
    2/2/2011 7:08 PM

    Your bump is adorable! xo

  2. Wendy
    1/28/2011 8:04 AM

    Omg, you just look too cute with your little bump!!! And why do you look so damned skinny, too?!! Grrrrr! If I didn’t like you so much, I’d have to hold you down and force some burgers and fries down your throat.

  3. Cathy
    1/27/2011 11:41 PM

    Does the cute onsie come in Ophiuchus???

  4. jenelle
    1/27/2011 9:32 PM

    Can not wait to hear what little bean is going to be! Kohls has a small selection of maternity and there is also a store in the mall. Try the band as well and you can still wear your old pants. It is like a wrap that goes over the top of your pants and you can leave them unbuttoned. I used it alot with my first but with my second I could not cause my hips for some reason grew a little quicker. ha ha

Fruit of the Womb

by Bryan Friedman in Daddy's Corner

So you’ve probably noticed by now that it’s all the rage to compare the size of your unborn child to items you’d find at your local farmer’s market. As you can see on the right sidebar, we’re following the trend and letting everyone know, based on how far along we are, just what kind of fruit our baby is this week.* This phenomenon gives a whole new meaning to the expression “the fruit of my loins.” It does seem to make sense though — one alternate definition of “fruit” is “the result of labor,” so I guess it’s apropos.

Oh sure, early on the comparisons were more about seeds than fruit. We were very excited when our baby went from a poppy seed to an apple seed. That was a big deal. But now we’ve graduated to the handheld fruits and before long we’ll find ourselves with the only-eaten-after-being-peeled-and-sliced variety of fruits. I know Alison is also slightly frightened by the concept of the final product being a watermelon or a pumpkin (depending on which baby website you prefer).

Now I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly certain my mom never compared me to an apple or an orange during my nine-month stay with her, which makes me wonder, how did this baby-fruit analogy get started? I have a theory that it all started when some doctor said, “At this stage, your baby is a little bit over five centimeters long” to a mathematically-challenged mother-to-be. (I don’t know anyone like this of course). This poor pregnant woman set the entire fetus-to-fruit comparing world in motion with her follow-up question: “So…how big is that?” What else could the doctor do but answer, “Well…it’s about the size of a plum,” at which point the lady of course replied, “Ooooh! My baby is a plum.” And now here we are.

At first, I must admit, I found the whole thing kind of ridiculous. I even found a fairly clever dad-to-be website mocking the whole concept. But honestly, I’ve actually come to like the idea. (Hence the ridiculous amount of time I spent to make that stupid fruit-tracker on the sidebar work just right.) It’s really kind of a neat way to think about how our baby is growing each week.

Every Friday morning Alison and I wake up and look at each other wondering “What’s our baby now?” I can’t wait until the end of this week so we can open the iPhone app and find out just what level of fruit we’ve finally reached.

*I’m using TheBump.com as the source of the produce-comparison data because they have nice images. However, there is definitely some general disagreement among sites like BabyCenter.com, WhatToExpect.com, and TheBump.com because they all vary slightly when it comes to what fruit the baby is on any given week.

Good Genes

by Alison Friedman in Mommy's Musings, Pregnancy

Today we had another date with Baby. While at school, I counted down the hours until the afternoon appointment with the perinatologist. We got there early to fill out paperwork, which was the same paperwork the office sent me in the mail that I brought back prior to the visit.

Dear Doctors,
Why do you make me fill out the same questions every time, even when you already have the information? I am pregnant and tired.
Love,
Alison

Now, this appointment was the first of its kind. We met with Dr. Genetics for a routine genetic counseling session (“Yes, yes, yes, Bryan and I are completely normal. Oh, except for my freaky feet that came out with extra toes when I was born. Where does that fit into the baby’s DNA, eh?”) and learned about our odds for having a baby with genetic disorders based alone on my age. Numbers have always scared me, but I actually felt at ease. Apparently, 27 is a low-risk age to make babies. Go us.

Then we went into the exam room for some more screening fun. First was a finger prick to squeeze blood onto test papers that would check further for genetic disorders (Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18). Who knew a few drops of blood on fancy doctor paper could help narrow down the odds? Hey, whatever works!

After my “Dexter”-like blood drops, the big moment of being reunited with the produce of the week, our little Plum, was upon us. We heard a strong heartbeat (155 bpm! That’s more than my Zumba workout!) and watched the baby snooze its way into an undesirable position. The sonographer needed our kid to lay a certain way so she could measure the nuchal translucency (fluid between the neck and skin), but of course Little Friedman wanted more time on camera so we had to wait it out until there was ideal movement. Finally, the tech was happy with the position, got a good measure, checked out the shnozz and happily reported that there is very little risk of a genetic disorder since the fluid levels and nasal cavity resulted in normal, normal, normal. Whew! Big relief! We were never too concerned, but it’s music to a parent’s ears (I can say this now) to know that the baby will very likely be born in good health (who knows about those toes, though?!).

The tech also measured Baby and even though chronologically, we are at 12 weeks, 3 days, the munchkin is measuring at 13 weeks, 1 day. So either we have a little chunker (ouch!) or it may want out sooner than August 5th. Only time will tell and I’ll just continue doin’ my thing like eating only carbs and passing out at 9 p.m.

We were kind of hoping for a guess on the baby’s sex. I’ve read on message boards (yes, I’m one of those) that some parents have gotten a “probably” male or female sway based on the positioning and angle of the private bits. But, I guess Baby Friedman was a little TOO private about his/her private parts, because the tech could not even make a guess. While we weren’t going to rush to paint pink or blue walls anyway, it would have been cool to start wondering what team we’d be joining. I guess we’ll just have to wait about another month to find out! A month in Pregnant Standard Time is so long, though!

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  1. nicole
    1/26/2011 8:40 AM

    this is so cool guys! I can only imagine how hard it is waiting for find out about blue and pink. So awesome!

  2. Jenelle
    1/25/2011 9:56 PM

    U will soon know! Love your blog

  3. Katy
    1/25/2011 9:53 PM

    That’s some plum you got there!

First Trimester Screen – 1/25/2011

by Bryan Friedman in Photos

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“Scream”ing Baby

by Bryan Friedman in Daddy's Corner, Pregnancy

So, we went in for our second appointment yesterday and were happy to discover that we would get to have another ultrasound! Of course this makes the appointments soooo much more fun because you get to see and hear the baby. It responded to the pressure and was dancing all around with arms flailing. Ultrasound technology really fascinates me. Even though the images come out kind of blurry, it’s incredible how clear things are when watching on the monitor and just how much you can see of what is going on inside there.

It’s neat to see how much things have changed from the last ultrasound. We know from our obsessive following on babycenter.com that it’s now developed eye and nose sockets and a little mouth. Still, when I first saw what I thought was the “face” on the screen, I thought I was just seeing things, like the man in the moon or something. Sure enough, though, the doctor confirmed it was indeed the face. It’s definitely in that “alien”-looking stage right now. Alison and I both agree it looks more like Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” than anything else. Right?

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