i chatted in a chat room for the first time in about 2 years. It was the Third Trimester Mom's chat at babycenter.com. am I a dork?

*Saturday, October 19th, 2002~
Last night we went to go see some friends who we actually met in New Hampshire and they just moved up to Maine and live about half an hour away, which is sweet.....especially since they have kids! they have an 18 month old boy (who thought Randall was very funny), and also a three year old girl. she latched on to me for the whole night. she's a kick, let me tell you! she's a little Leo with red hair and freckles, running around with no pants on all night. (doin' the no-pants dance!) anyway, I was the only one who she wanted to go help her go to the potty (she's potty training), except every time we'd get into the bathroom, she'd just start talking and wanting to play and not go potty. basically, she figured out how to get me all to herself and away from the rest of the crowd. in the potty, we had important girl talk. she informed me that she has a nice bum and so she gets a special small seat on the potty. (mommy and papa have big bums and they can use the potty too, but her bum is nicer.) she also informed me that she has nice boobs. i have big boobs, but hers are nice, and my boobs are big because there's a baby in my belly and boobs, but she doesn't have a baby and so her boobs are nice. interesting conversation with a 3 year old! later, she had to have me get her juice and put on her jammies and read her a story....mommy couldn't do it, it had to be me. warm fuzzies.

I asked her if she could guess whether my baby was a boy or a girl. She said, "Well, it could be a boy or it could be a girl, but mostly I think it will be a baby." She also got to feel Gabriel kicking. she stood there in awe for about 15 minutes with her hand on my belly saying "Mama! The baby's getting out!" Then she made a stuffed tweety bird feel the baby kicking too. I can't wait to have this baby....kids rule.

*Thursday, October 10th, 2002~
my bellybutton is starting to stick out. yes, it is becoming an outie! there is no more room in the belly for a button!! baby is biiiiig! my half-brother calls it the turkey timer. it pops out when the turkey is done cooking. it looks weird.

*Thursday, October 3rd, 2002~
another disjointed brain day. i think that the pregnancy hormones are changing again, and my phase of "i feel great and happy and have no negative symptoms of pregnancy" is starting to end. i knew it would come, i just hoped it wouldn't. i'm starting to be irritable and easily upset again, which sucks. but at least i know the morning sickness isn't due to show up again! and this time the irritability etc. will be easier to handle since i won't be upset about puking all the time on top of it. things could definetly be worse.

*Saturday, September 28th, 2002~
the baby bumps so hard now that randall can feel even the little ones! my belly jumps and i can see it through my clothes, and through blankets too if i'm in bed. strong little guy!

*Thursday, September 26th, 2002~
we got the baby's crib and put it together yesterday. it's really starting to look like a nursery now....very exciting! we just somehow have to convince the cats that it's NOT a really neato special new kitty bed just for them.!

Randall's so cute....he reads books to the baby now, and the baby especially likes the funny ones when Randall does funny voices....they have the same sense of humor already. It's true-- the baby's even already a smart-ass like his Dad.....he'll kick really hard a couple of times until I tell Randall to come feel my belly, and then he stops. I can almost hear him saying "Ha ha...made you run!"

*Friday, September 20th, 2002~
i'm back from California, and i'm sick as a dog. don't ever get a really bad head cold when you're pregnant and then fly on an airplane across the country. bad idea. California was weird but good. Alot of people felt my belly.

So I flew out on September 11th, which was craziness. In the security line at the airport, they did a full-body pat down on me. This lady who was wearing plastic gloves took off my hat and felt through my hair, felt my boobs, took off my shoes and felt my feet and inspected my shoes, and she even felt my belly! I almost said "It's not a bomb, it's really a baby, I promise!" but I didn't think that saying "bomb" in the airport was a good plan.

I'm huge, and eating out at restaurants all week with my mom didn't help, i'm sure. This Asian girl looked at me funny when I told her how far along I am (25 weeks) and she asked me first how many babies are in there (one, I said), and second, if I eat alot of Asian food. I said that I eat some, but not alot...why? And she told me that Asian babies have a gestation period of about 7 months (which I never knew and I think is weird) and she wondered if I was eating alot of Asian food and was going to have a full sized baby a couple of months early. That would be weird, but no....I think he's sticking it out. He's just a beefcake, and he'll probably be like ten pounds. Fun!

*Monday, September 9th, 2002~
i eat all the time and i am HUGE!!! I have already gained 27 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, mostly belly and boobies. (I used to be a 34B, and the other day i had to buy a 40C, and my milk hasn't even come in yet. holy poop!! ) i've gotta start watching my carbohydrates according to my Midwives, even though my diet is very healthy for the most part. did you know that cranberry juice has alot of carbs? i didnt. I had another checkup with my Midwives this morning. Today it was another blood draw to check for gestational diabetes, and then the usual checkup stuff....measuring the belly, weighing myself, checking my pee for protein, checking blood pressure, and the BEST PART as always is listening to the baby's heartbeat. My little Gabriel is big and strong and VERY BUSY!! He moves all the time now, and I can feel it very clearly as of about a week and a half ago. I love to feel him kicking!! it's the best feeling ever. He's already a little rocker, because he starts kicking and moves right to the front of my belly whenever Randall plays his guitar. He also likes it when I sing and talk to him. And he likes orange juice. And he already wants to be awake when I want to sleep. And he's a show-off, according to everyone who checks me.

i LOVE my Midwives!!! i wish i could handle doing that, because being a midwife would be so awesome. i still do want to be a Doula (professional labor support coach) someday, but it will have to wait until my kids are old enough to stay at home alone when I have to rush off to a birth so I'm not frantically trying to find someone to take them for an unknown number of hours if Randall's at work or something. I'm gonna do the stay-at-home-mom thing if i can swing it. I found these people called the M.O.M. Team (Moms On a Mission) who teach parents how to build a business from home that enables you to not have to ship your kids off to day care all the time while you have to work to pay the day care. that's a lame thing that happens far too much in my opinion. Hopefully this mom team thing will pay off, and I can work from the phone and computer. Ain't no strangers gonna screw up my kid!!!

Little Gabe feet kicking bladder. Must go and pee now. Long entry anyway. Even if it is my bladder, I love to feel his little feetsies! (I'm such a mush! But I love this kid so much already....) But the best and sweetest warm fuzzy thing is when Randall and I lay down and cuddle, and Gabe wakes up (as he does when I lay down to relax) and moves right to the front of my belly so he can be right next to his Daddy. (Everyone: "aww!!")

*Thursday, August 8th, 2002~
IT'S A BOY!! I had my ultrasound on Tuesday....it's definetly a little boy-type person! So his name is definetly Gabriel Layne. Gabe for short. He was *very* busy moving all over the place and the ultrasound lady asked me if I'd had a big bowl of sugar before coming to the hospital. (I hadn't.) He was not shy about showing us his little winky on the TV either. He was trying to suck his thumb too. And he was stepping with both feet right on my bladder, which explained some things. I'm starting to be able to feel him moving ALOT...he's recently learned how to do somersaults. And maybe cartwheels, i'm not sure. ;)

*Thursday, July 25th, 2002~
the bun in my oven is getting BIG!! i'm feeling all kinds of weird ligament stretching sensations, and have felt the baby move 4 times now. and i'm buying maternity clothes! i should be having an ultrasound next week, and i've decided to find out the sex of the baby, if they can tell me.

*Friday, June 28th, 2002~
being pregnant is so strange! i'm starting to get big...like you can tell through my clothes now. i like it. now that the puking has subsided, it's much better. i was having terrible headaches every day all day there for a while, so i bought one of those foam neck support pillows and a hepa air filter, and it's much better now. the baby is getting big so fast! the baby is approximately 3 inches long and weighs one ounce. i'm 13 and a half weeks pregnant, and due on January 1st- a New Years' baby! i have a feeling it's a boy, but who knows, right?! the baby is developing it's sex organs now, so i would think that my dreams would be more than intuitive, and i've dreamed about it being a boy many times. dude, pregnancy dreams are so WEIRD!! i think i've been dreaming for the baby on occasion. anyway, my next Ultrasound is on July 16th, and we've decided to find out the sex of the baby, even though i never thought i would want to. provided the baby isn't shy and crossing it's legs or mooning us or something! ;)

*Wednesday, June 5th, 2002~
scary thing, then a happy thing...
so last night I started bleeding. so we jump in the car right quick and speed to the emergency room. I'm okay, apparently. the Doc said that 1 in 3 women will bleed a little in early pregnancy. it took 4 hours to find this out. scary 4 hours. I thought I was miscarrying. But all is well.

as for the happy thing: the way that they figured out it was "normal" for me to be bleeding was through my first Ultrasound, which was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my entire life!!! There is only one baby, not twins, good to know! Anyway, the baby did a little dance for us and wiggled and moved his hand up by his face like he was waving to say "hey guys, I'm okay!" I'm exactly 10 weeks along today, and am bigger in the tummy than usual. As someone said when they felt my tummy: "Beefcake!" I was amazed at how much it looked like an actual little person. I was expecting a little peanut-looking thing or a little blurry blob like I've seen in other people's early Ultrasound pictures. This has made me feel so much more relaxed and comfortable with the pregnancy. Seeing our baby for the first time was the most powerful experience ever. Randall almost cried, which only added to the beaming I was already doing. So long story short, the reason I'm bleeding is that the placenta is low, and a small bit of it is coming down onto my cervix, and somehow I probably just jiggled it. They said it should not affect my ability to have a vaginal delivery, which is the only danger of having the placenta over the cervix, or Placenta Previa. That condition requires a C-section, which is the worst case scenario. I'm having a follow-up appointment on Friday to double check that all is normal and well. But I don't even mind, because I just keep looking at that little person in the picture and everything is perfect!

And now that we know it's just one baby, we have names for sure:
Boy's name: Gabriel Layne
Girl's name: Kaia Mae