Today I Celebrate a Milestone: 20 Weeks!

Today I celebrate 20 weeks of pregnancy. This is a great milestone for me because it's exactly half way through! It's funny because pregnancy is commonly referred to as 9 months but it's really 40 weeks if you make it full term.

Also I would like to say that two of my friends just had their babies in the past few days - Evelyn & Becky. I am really happy for them! It just seems like everyone is having babies!

Lots of people have been badgering me for a picture of what I look like pregnant! So this weekend I had a picture taken of me in my special new maternity bikini while I was in Palm Springs. (So you people stop bugging me! You know who you are!) We had a girls weekend for Lindsay's bachelorette - which was very fun by the way. So here I am two days short of half way:





















Some of the girls asked me what was different about a maternity bikini compared to a regular bikini. As far as I can tell, there is just MORE of it. I tried on one of my old bikinis from last summer and it was pretty funny. It looked very small on me, not in a flattering way. Even DH thought so. But at least he was diplomatic and instead of saying how bad the old bikini looked, he just focused on how great the new bikini is. Smart, smart man. So the brand of this suit is Maternal America and I just love it.

The half way point is a great time to look back on how the pregnancy has been so far. Well, it started out pretty rough. I had nausea every single day - "morning sickness" people call it. I don't get the whole "morning" part of that because all day, every day, I felt like I had just gotten off of boat that was rocking hard on a wild sea. It was awful. I never threw up or anything but I just didn't feel good. I struggled with smells and didn't eat as healthfully as I'd have liked. But I just ate whatever I could. It's funny because many of the things I ate a lot of during that time are not appealing to me now. Sadly, bean and cheese burritos are one of those things. Maybe in a while I will feel like bean and cheese again but for now I have other things I'm more focused on. Luckily they are also much more healthful things!

The nausea stopped around 14 weeks or so and I slowly started feeling better. I also started to eat a lot better, more fresh fruits and veggies and more small meals throughout the day. I think my body temperature is higher than it was before I was pregnant. I toss off the covers a lot at night and I never used to do that. My legs swell up a lot more too - my socks make indentations on my ankles that take a long time to go away.

But on the whole, I feel pretty good. Today I weighed myself and I've gained 13 pounds which is only 10 pounds over what the Mayo Clinic book says I should have gained by now. So that's good news. I feel like the weight gain is much more under control now that I'm eating right and progressing at a more measured pace.

I am looking forward to the next half of this journey. I've signed up for some classes that I'm excited about and I still have other things to do like find a pediatrician and finish up our estate planning. But I'm making progress on all that and DH is helping too. I was so happy to see him yesterday after my Palm Springs weekend. He had been gone all last week and we only had Friday afternoon/evening to spend together. So Sunday afternoon was wonderful.

Well - that's about it today. Just a lot to be thankful for!

What to do about Diapering?!

My mind has been going in circles about diaper facts and I've been reading everything I can about the decision between cloth or plastic. For those of you who could really care less about diapers, I will save the suspense and just say: I am going to choose plastic (disposable) diapers.

If you are a preggo or just a person who is interested in my decision, I will elaborate on how I made my choice.

At first, I was pretty convinced that I wanted to use cloth diapers for Baby Cummings. My mom used cloth diapers and a diaper service for me. Although she did mention it was only for 6 months, or was that weeks? maybe she got sick of it. DH's mom used cloth diapers for him and his siblings. When I used to babysit, the family that I babysat for most often used cloth and I really didn't think it was that big of a deal or too much of a hassle.

So I started researching all the different options for cloth diapers. I thought a very useful article was this one from Mothering. It really got me started. I also got a lot of good information from the Real Diaper Association. I also got a lot of great info and product choices from DiaperCo. I was feeling very Kumbaya about the whole thing and was getting myself pretty convinced. I talked to a coworker who used a diaper service and really liked it, and even found a diaper service near us: Dy-Dee Diaper Service.

Of course, whenver I mentioned cloth diapers there were the naysayers - one coworker said he would never use a diaper that had once had another kids' poop on it. That is one point but that wasn't really a consideration to me.

I researched all the types of diaper covers and found some I really liked, BumGenius & Mommy's Touch:

BumGenius Diaper:














How it works:











Mommy's Touch:













I even found this cool idea - a diaper shower. It attaches right to your existing toilet hose connector thingy and you use it to spray off the dirty diaper before putting it in the diaper pail. It makes things less stinky and also less staining:





















And then you get these special diaper bags that you put in the pail. You can wash them and they even have smaller ones for little trips (and bigger ones for a few days worth.)














I read a lot of articles that compared the pros and cons of plastic vs. cloth and while washing your own cloth diapers at home is DEFINITELY cheaper, the cost of diaper service vs. the cost of buying disposables is pretty much equal. Yes, there is environmental impact to landfills with the disposable diapers. But one thing you are supposed to do is shake the poo out into the toilet before throwing away. I guess it's bad to have all that human waste just rotting in the landfill and seeping into the groundwater. But I guess cat and dog poop is okay. Ha ha, but really, that's something I thought about.

I did read a well-informed article where an environmental scientist said there are much bigger choices you make for the environment on a daily basis such as the car you drive and your lifestyle in general. DH and I are really bad in the carbon footprint category because he flies somewhere every week and often he flies somewhere far like Europe. So we're basically environmental destroyers no matter how green we try to be in other areas. You can't really fight the carbon wasting that we are doing. Plus, we fly to our vacations - more waste. And then at work I use paper plates a lot and paper towels, etc. We try to recycle when we can but I didn't want this diaper thing to be my big environmental stand.

One thing that really convinced me I wanted disposable was the daycare situation. If we did cloth, I'd have to bring the day's dirty diapers home in the above-mentioned wet bag and then use the toilet shower and hose them off then put them in the diaper bin. And basically there is no option of us washing them ourselves in the washing machine. I have to be honest, we do zero loads of laundry. We are fortunate that we have a housekeeper who does all our laundry every week. Who am I kidding to think I would sign up to wash poopy diapers every other day? Ha ha ha ha ha. Wait, let me just laugh about that a little more: ha ha ha, ha ha ha HA!!!!

I am not saying that plastic disposable diapers are the right choice for everyone. Babies with disposable do tend to have more diaper rash and some parents suggest that disposable diaper babies take longer to potty train. Also, cloth diapers are supposed to be more comfortable.

But you know, I just couldn't go there. I guess I better click back to our registry and put that Diaper Genie back on...

Quick Editor's Note

Hello blog readers! I do have a new post in the works and I'll be posting it soon. For now I have a quick note. I have removed some of the personal identifying information from the blog, like my name and my husband's name. He will from now on be referred to as "DH" - which is blog lingo for "Dear Husband". I left our last name on there - Cummings - because heck, that's the whole name of the blog. But just wanted to be more careful since DH is always going to business meetings and conferences and didn't want this blog to turn into one of his Google hits.

Everything else is the same!

Halloween - Just Around the Corner...uh..yeah.

So we don't know the sex of Baby Cummings yet but we know what the little one will be for Halloween this year...um...and next year. DH and I had a serious attack of the 75% off + sale this weekend.

So Babystyle, a baby & maternity chain, is going out of business. We happen to have one in walking distance to us on Montana. We stopped in on Sunday and the Halloween costumes were marked down from $36 to $10 and then 40% off that. So we got these premium costumes for $6 each.

Behold, Baby Cummings' costume for Halloween 2009:













And Halloween 2010 - the aptly named "Pandorable"




















We have convinced ourselves that both of these are gender neutral. Maybe the panda could be girl leaning but hey, anyone who has seen the movie "Fierce Creatures" knows that pandas can be fierce!!! (Great, great movie BTW.)

We wanted to buy some clothes at the mega deals but there were hardly any gender neutral things - WTF Corporate America - we're going to have to wait until April 8. The thing is, you get tons of clothes at baby showers but I think we'll focus on purchasing some older kid clothes. Goodness knows we have the biggest dresser in the world to store it in.

Oh yeah - also at Babystyle we had a celebrity mom sighting! Marcia Cross from Desperate Housewives. I have to admit I have NO celebrity radar and my friend Heather saw her. (We had lunch with our friends Heather & John at R&D Kitchen before popping in to Babystyle).













On another note, I think I have read enough breastfeeding information. Last night I finished up my latest read: Breastfeeding Made Simple:













This was a recommendation from my friend Lindley. I really liked this book - it was not only about how to do breastfeeding itself, but how lots of advice is based on averages and most breastfeeding "couples" (what the mom and baby are called) are not average. Obviously, when you think about the way averages work - most people are not average! So this book had lots of practical advice and also lots of science behind the recommendations. I liked this.

One thing I have been finding as I read lots of books is that a lot of the research and advice converge. There are many things that lots of different studies and authors find to be true. Things like - babies benefit from being held a lot, when a baby cries they are not trying to manipulate you - they just need something, you can't "spoil" a little baby, breastfeeding is harder than bottle feeding in the beginning but then becomes easier...and so on.

I have even been reading the biggest book ever....













OMG this book is HUMONGOUS!!! Like a big dictionary! When it was delivered I thought it must be two books. But no, it's one huge crazy book. This book was recommended by my friend Monique and it covers birth through two years; it's a great reference. I have to say, at first I thought William & Martha Sears were kind of extreme with their Attachment Parenting theories. But the more I learn, the more that research supports it and the more it makes sense for babies. I doubt that we will practice all of the techniques presented in the book - but that's okay, because every family is unique.

I am having trouble reconciling all the information I've been reading with the RIE Method, which at first I was really excited about.










I do think the book makes some good points thought but I don't think I'll be practicing the RIE method at first. Magda Gerber is really big on not holding your baby too much and letting the baby lie on her back and experience the world on her own. Magda says the prime times to show love and caring to your baby are during care times like diaper changing and bathing. She is also big on showing the baby how to cry themselves to sleep.

I do think at some point learning to self soothe will be helpful for a child but I think at first I want to do more baby wearing and having Baby Cummings held close to me or DH. We're both going to get our own baby wearing sling thingies. Ha ha - this is going to be us:















Baby-wearing couple at the beach!

Well, what started as a small Halloween costume post grew to another post of me yammering on about more books and methods. I feel like everyone is going to make fun of me when Baby Cummings gets here and I'm all frazzled. I feel like people will be thinking smugly: "where is all your research NOW?? " Ha ha. But, I know that all this reading is just background preparation. It just gives me things to think about and helps DH and me to discuss parenting styles. LUCKILY we agree on everything so far, well, theoretically.

Until next time!

Hooray for Hospital Tour!

DH and I had a very exciting day yesterday, we had our hospital tour at The BirthPlace at Santa Monica-UCLA. ("TBP") We were planning on also doing a tour at St. John's but after seeing TBP, we're going to cancel on that. TBP was wonderful! It was everything we wanted. I just have to double check with my insurance to make sure it will cover everything there, but it is an included hospital on my plan so I really hope it will be okay.

The tour started with our wonderful guide Penny explaining what will happen if you have a birth at TBP, either vaginally or through a c-section. She was very sweet and knowledgeable and also had given birth to 9 kids! Wow!

Penny explained the procedures at TBP and I agreed with everything that they are doing. The first thing I like is how they do labor and delivery. When you show up, you get to go to a private LDR room - which stands for Labor, Delivery & Recovery. This room is set up to be as home-like as possible, low lighting, TV, stereo with CD player. You can use your cell phone, you can have your support staff in there with you, and there is also a bathroom with handicap shower for you to use while you are laboring - which is pretty cool and I hear also helpful. You can bring in stuff to make it feel more homey like pictures, a stuffed animal, etc. Penny even suggested those electric candles - you can't have the open flame of an actual candle for obvious reasons.

Also in the LDR room is a little baby medical center - this is where they vacuum any mucus out of the baby right after birth so the little one can breathe. I was really happy to hear that right after birth, they place baby right on the mother's chest for skin to skin contact, and early breastfeeding. This is exactly what I was looking for! Also, they are very supportive of breastfeeding and absolutely will not feed your baby anything without your permission. One less thing to worry about. They really strive to keep the baby with the mother after birth and this is just great!

I asked how they feel about doulas and they are very supportive of them and Penny even recommended a place for me to look into - The Chapman Family Center. I will definitely look into that. I'm also going to the meet the doulas event at Yo Mama Yoga - the place where I take prenatal yoga classes. Penny mentioned that she had 8 of her 9 births without medication - the only time she was medicated was her first. She said that if she had the support of a doula at the time, she probably would have gotten through that birth without medication either. So that made me feel even better about finding the right doula. I would really like to be able to do this birth on my own without drugs and I'm going to start working on getting myself ready for that place. I have a friend who read this blog and said that she had her birth without medication so I'm looking forward to speaking with her about that. It's a work-in-progress but something I do want to try.

So back to TBP - after a few hours recovering in the labor room, you then move to a post-partum room for 2 days. You also have the option of upgrading to a premium post-partum room for about $330 per day (not covered by insurance). DH and I looked at both rooms and we think the $330 per day is worth it. The premium room had a sofa, some arm chairs, and just a lot more room to move around in. All the post-partum rooms are private with private bathrooms, which is a great plus. Hopefully the premium rooms will be available when it's our time! Of course, the regular rooms are fine too.

So that was our hospital tour! It was a great place and I think I'll look into the childbirth classes they offer at TBP too because I think Penny teaches quite a few of them and she's great. Plus, it's in walking distance from our place - we walked yesterday. Of course, I may not feel like walking when I'm in labor but it's nice to know that DH and family can quickly zip home to our place if anyone needs anything. Also, it's right across the street from Izzy's Deli - one of our regular places - and I can't wait to have a lox bagel after birth! That is definitely what I want for my first meal!

I have been thinking of lots of additional things to blog about so keep checking in!

Let the Judgments Fly

So this is interesting. I had already been planning on doing a blog post about the article in The Atlantic that's been stirring up so much controversy about choosing not to breastfeed. There was a response in The New York Times that I read and I'm sure it's basically all over the blogging world.

Then my sister (from here on out known as "Super Auntie") sends me a link to a blog that she reads, Mother Jones, that also addresses it. My sister thought it would be an interesting topic for this blog! Great minds...

The original article is called The Case Against Breastfeeding and it's written by a mother of three who dutifully breastfed her first two children and then chose not to continue with her third. Her choice was based on time limitations, personal space, and her investigations into the science behind breastfeeding. In the article, she states that science doesn't really prove that "breast is best". As you can imagine, people are getting pretty worked up about this.

One of the more interesting points that she makes in the article from my view is the way she was treated by other mothers in her neighborhood when they heard she was formula feeding instead of breastfeeding. Twice she was shut out of social groups when it was found out that she was a formula mom.

It's amazing to me how much judgment goes on with pregnancy and raising a child. My goodness! I have already had people tell me:

• Go to the dentist MORE while pregnant
• Don't go to the dentist AT ALL while pregnant
• Drink a glass of wine or two (why is it always wine?)
  
• Don't eat fish
• Don't eat tuna fish specifically
  
• Don't consume aspartame
• Exercise more
• Exercise less
• Don't worry about how much food I consume
  
• Don't eat goat cheese
• Eat lots of fat
  

The list goes on and on. Free advice flows to you from everyone and everywhere. I have to say, in general I appreciate the advice from my other pregnant friends and those who've had babies - but I really get a bee in my bonnet when I get advice from men (who are not doctors) and women who have never been pregnant. Hey, I love my male & non-breeding female friends but until you go through this you REALLY have no idea. Not even if your wife went through it, not even if your sister went through it, your best friend, whatever. I consider DH to be extremely involved in the pregnancy and there are tons of little details that he's not aware of. In fact, even among pregnant women, we all have very different symptoms and also we make very different choices about what is right for us. The only person who knows for sure what is best for each preggo is her doctor.

My usual response when I receive this ill-researched and completely unsolicited advice is to quote the Mayo Clinic book. Who in their right mind would go against the collected wisdom of the Mayo Clinic?

It gets a little more tricky when I receive advice from other pregnant friends or mothers that I disagree with. One thing I hear most often is that it's okay to drink alcohol. Well, it may very well be fine and I am okay with that being a choice that other mothers make. But I understand that no amount of alcohol has been proven safe in pregnancy and it's really not that big of a deal for me to cut it out for a year or so. Same with caffeine. Have there been tons of healthy babies born (including me) whose mothers drank alcohol and caffeine? Sure. But it's just easier for me to abstain. Plus, all these bodily changes are hard enough as it is - I'd much rather keep the ups and downs to a minimum.

Now I have taken Tylenol and Benadryl when I've been sick and could another mother totally judge me for doing that? Of course! And I'm going to get my highlights done after 20 weeks - could that be something other people could just put off like how I put off drinking? Certainly.

I think one thing that being pregnant has taught me is to not be so harsh on other people. I admit that I used to be shocked when I heard about people who were planning to not breastfeed or chose not to do so. I am learning to be better about that. I realize how many choices I make on a daily basis just trying to do the best I can for me and for our baby - and hey, everyone else is making their own set of choices. No one I know wants to be a bad mother - the whole thing is a complicated balancing act between your own wants and needs and what is best for your child.

I guess this is starting to sound a little preachy but I think we should all ease up on each other a bit. Hey, if I can learn, we all can.

The Name Game

So the top two questions I am asked as a preggo (almost on a daily basis) are:

1. Are you having a boy or girl? and
2. What names have you picked out?

Well, luckily we know our date for finding out the sex of Baby Cummings - which is April 8. It is a very easy question to answer. I can't imagine if we were opting for the surprise route where we don't find out the sex - I'm sure that would lead to a whole conversation with people - "how are you going to decorate the nursery? How are you going to choose clothes?" The interesting thing is, the sex of the baby really isn't a factor in a lot of our purchase and decoration decisions. We got an orange stroller because it was on crazy sale (yeah!) and we bought a blue diaper bag because yes, it was 80% off. $20 down from $100 - if anyone can tell me why this little backpack is worth $100, I would like to know:













Does it actually change the diaper for you? I looked at it and it just looks like an ordinary backpack so I haven't found it's secret super power yet. But I'm sure whatever it does that is so great will definitely warrant 100 bones.

And yes, we bought a navy parasol for the same 80% off reason:












Okay it's true, the diaper bag is more blue and the parasol is more navy but whatever, I've never been obsessed with matchy-matchy anyway. More important is storing diapers and saving Baby Cummings from the So. Cal. sun. So yeah, what if Baby Cummings is a girl? Are we doing irreparable damage to her sense of womanhood by purchasing blue stroller accessories? I think not. So whatever. DH and I both get really excited at the 75% off or more level and we'll pretty much get any color of whatever it is to get that deal.

Anyone remember the green VW bug? Yes it was a fun color but the reason I got it is because it was a GOOD DEAL. So yeah, half of those funny colors I'm wearing? It's because they cost less than the item in black. But hey, variety is the spice of life. And I've actually become attached to all my funky colors.

Anyhoo....I digress.

Back to the name thing. So yes, well-meaning friends, family and coworkers often ask me about the names we've selected for the baby. I just say that we're not working on names until we know the sex because it's double the work. And actually - it is!

But I will share with you, my loyal blog readers, the real truth. The real truth is I have picked lots of names! Come on now - I already have my nursery furniture put together, do you think I haven't already taken my 100,0000 baby names book and highlighted it, tagged it, flipped down pages and dove maniacally into the naming task???













OF COURSE I HAVE!!! Sheesh, people. I mean, I already bought a book with 100,000 suggestions. 100,000!!! It is overwhelming but I know it is comprehensive.

But you know what else? I am not telling people any of my names. Well, I've leaked a few ideas to my other preggo friends but that's it. Do you know why I am not telling anyone? Because people are so awfully judgemental when it comes to names. I think people have no idea of the garbage that just flies out of their mouths when you present a name to them.

And really, when us preggos present a name we've been thinking about - don't you think that we've considered it a million times? I have a preggo friend who told a coworker about her thoughts for first and middle name of her baby and the coworker said - "sounds like colonoscopy". REALLY? You are going to say that? COLONOSCOPY? What?????

I think that the thing with names is everyone is an expert. Everyone has a name, obviously, and everyone has feelings about their name and the names of others. Everyone knows how to rhyme so that just opens up a whole 'nother can of worms.

It always reminds me of that Saturday Night Live episode where two parents are trying to hard to think of a name for their baby and each name has negative connotations or rhymes with someting bad - like "Luke" and "Puke". The next scene has a pizza delivery guy showing up at house (the baby grown up) and he has a name tag that says "Asswipe". The people at the door say - "Your name is Asswipe?" then the guy says "It's pronounced as-wee-pay." Ha ha ha.

Well anyway, sometimes you just can't win.
Until next time~

Daycare Decisions

Ah! There are so many things to consider when I think about going back to work after Baby Cummings joins our family.

I guess first there is the consideration of going back to work at all. Many of the books I have been reading strongly encourage a parent to stay home with the child for at least a year or two. DH and I have talked this over and although we agree it's great for a child to be home with a parent, this is not the right option for us. We are a dual income family and we need both of our incomes to meet our savings and life goals. So I will be going back to work. Plus, I have a pretty neat job that is only a few blocks away from home, so that definitely tips the scale towards going back to work. We also believe that there are some great benefits from the socialization a child receives from being in an environment with their peers.

So I started looking at daycare options back in January of this year. I was surprised to find out that there are so few options here in Santa Monica for child care before preschool. I am pleased though, that the options I have explored so far have all been pretty great. But there are so many things to think about!

The first place we visited was Les Enfants. DH and I both really loved this place. On our tour, they had a sign up that read "A Messy Child is a Happy Child", which we loved. They allow the children to play outside in the sand and on the day we were there, some children were even playing with a big vat of chocolate pudding. It looked like so much fun! At the time that we toured, we could have secured a guaranteed spot if we had paid a deposit as well as the entire first month's tuition - which was non-refundable. Let me just say that tuition for infants is $1575 per month so we would have had to be sure about Les Enfants to sign up. The only hesitation we had was the location. Although it is technically in Santa Monica, it is so far East and South of us that driving Baby Cummings to and from school would easily add 45 minutes to my day on both ends. The director of Les Enfants strongly encouraged the visiting parents to choose a school that is convenient for them and I just didn't feel that the location worked for us. Also, since it's the opposite direction from Calabasas and the airport, it would be out of DH's way as well if he ever had to do the drop-off or pick-up. So we reluctantly decided not to enroll.

The second place I checked out was Montana Preschool. This place has the advantage of being very close to our home, just one block over and seven blocks up. Also, since it is an in-home center, it is a little less expensive than the other centers (about $1260 per month). Yes, I said a LITTLE less expensive. But also, Montana Preschool provides meals - which would start to be useful a little later. The director is a warm and caring woman who became interested in daycare when she had her own son. I do like the home environment for younger babies and of course I love the location. I could definitely walk there before and after work but I think in the interest of saving time, I'd drive because it's in the opposite direction of my work. I am on the waiting list here and think we have a pretty good chance to get a spot when the time comes.

I really liked the third place I visited, The Growing Place. This is where I learned about the RIE Method (pronounced "rye" like the bread). They have a great philosophy towards the children and the center was well run. This is also pricey - $1600 per month - but as you may be starting to notice, these are pretty much the going rates in Santa Monica. Since I both live and work in Santa Monica, I will be stuck with these rates. The Growing Place is not as close as Montana Preschool but not as far as Les Enfants; right now I really like both Montana Preschool and The Growing Place. The waiting list at Growing Place however, it not so easy. I am on it, and happily Santa Monica residents get priority, but ahead of me in the priority line are Santa Monica civic employees. They trump everyone else, no matter when they sign up. So even if it looks like I have a spot, if a Santa Monica employee would like a spot before I get in, they will get my spot. So that definitely adds some difficulty. Also, The Growing Place has a selection process where they try to balance their classes economically, racially and also according to the parents - like if there is one single parent they try to have another - or if they have one set of gay parents they try to have another set. They do this so each child has a peer they can relate to. Neat idea but I don't think it will be of much help to us. We'll see.

I have a tour coming up with the Santa Monica YMCA Child Development Center. I really hope this goes well because it's in between my work and home. This is definitely a walker - it would actually be more difficult to drive because of the lack of parking in this area. Their waiting list is closed until January 2010 but that could really work for us. So, we'll see.

I also received some information from The Child and Family Development Center at St. John's Hospital. They didn't offer tours which kind of put me off. Also, St. John's employees receive priority. The parking is kind of messy around there too so I am just not motivated to follow up. I guess if things don't go well with my other options, I'll follow up further.

Of course, there is always the nanny option. DH and I have discussed it and right now we don't want to go down that road. There are some definite benefits to having Baby Cummings in his/her own comfortable environment but also there are so many "what-ifs" that we are worried about; I don't really want to get into those right now. We realize that having a nanny is a great option for many people and we may look into it more later but for now, I am trying to make one of these daycare centers work out.

Wow - well if anyone is still reading all the way down here you must be pregnant too! Ha ha! I know I've been asked for pictures of my growing belly. DH took a few profile shots this weekend but I was making a weird face and I didn't want to post them. I do have two (not profile shots) from my friend Lindsay's shower (which was a beautiful event by the way):

































I cropped my friends out of the pictures because who knows if they want to be featured here on the blog. But anyway - that's all I have for now.

Thanks for reading! I really appreciate the positive feedback I have been receiving from people as well as the additional advice, book recommendations and resources. It takes a village!

Lots of Good Vibes Today!

Well, today is off to a really good start. As I was walking to work I noticed I had a voice-mail. It was from my doctor's office and my last blood test came back normal. This is great! The blood test was a panel of four tests checking for the likelihood of different disorders including Down Syndrome. The results are basically a mathematical probability but my probability was low enough that the test is considered normal. If I would have had a higher probability I would have had to have further testing, including an amniocentesis. I am glad that I don't have to do that. The age of the mother is a big factor in the test so being over 30, I was worried that I would come back positive. But I am glad to know that no further testing is needed.

Another good thing is that yesterday I finally got signed up for a tour at the YMCA childcare center that is walking distance from my home and work! Yay! I hope it's a good place and that I can get a spot. Childcare / daycare is a whole other thing and a subject for an entire blog.

Also good is that I am going to dinner with my friend Karen tonight at Santa Monica Fish. I hope that we don't have to wait 30 minutes for a table but we probably do. It's okay, it will be fun to catch up.

ANOTHER good thing is that DH comes home tomorrow afternoon! Finally! He has been gone for almost a week in Germany. At least I've had the cats to keep me company but watching Russell play with the dripping faucet gets old after a few days.

So yes, today is a good day.

La Leche League & Related Thoughts

So I have been reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding lately and it's a pretty interesting book.

It has a lot of technical help on breastfeeding which I'm sure will come in handy later. The La Leche League is actually a pretty neat worldwide organization that provides breastfeeding support to moms.

There are LLL chapters in most towns and I'm lucky that the Santa Monica group has evening meetings once a month right by our place! (Like a block away!) They also have an LA LLL Yahoo! Group that I joined so I'll get daily updates on the questions and answers posted by other group members.

I decided to go to my first LLL meeting in May - I am waiting a little bit. You are actually encouraged to go when you are pregnant so that you begin getting tips before the baby is born, which I think is a good plan. Also you get to see other mothers nursing their babies and different ways to hold the baby and the latching on process and all. I think it's pretty cool that this is a free support group for mothers because the Mommy & Me classes certainly cost an arm and a leg. The one I am on a waiting list for is $600 for a 10 week class (meetings once a week). So a free support group sounds like a great thing.

One interesting point brought up in the LLL book is that being drugged during pregnancy (epidural, etc.) sometimes makes the baby a little zoned out upon birth and harder for the baby to latch on right away after birth. If you can breastfeed immediately after birth it helps the process go more smoothly in the long run. So that is something I am considering. I also spoke with another pregnant girlfriend who knows people who have given birth with epidural and without and the post-birth healing process can be easier for those mothers who have had natural birth - the tearing can be less because you can feel what's going on better. I am going to ask my doctor more about this and hopefully be able to meet mothers in the LLL meetings who have experience with both types of birth. At this point, all the mothers I know had epidurals and speak very highly of them.

I feel that I have a very high tolerance for pain - of course, we'll see how I feel about that at "go time" - but natural birth is something that I'm going to look more into. Of course, I do not look down on epidurals at all and having a baby at all is still "natural" but this is just something I want to get more information and points of view on.

This is what I like about reading different books about birth, breastfeeding and child care. I like reading differing opinions and measuring them against my own thoughts and opinions. It's nice to also bounce these ideas off other pregnant friends and those with kids. I know that you can't learn everything there is to know about pregnancy, birth and child rearing from books but I like to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can.

Tonight I am going to a breastfeeding class with my friend Deepa so I am looking forward to that. Just another set of data points!

Well, thanks for reading!

Project Baby Blanket: Complete

So this weekend was Ev's shower and I'm happy to say that I was able to complete her blanket in time. This was not easy because for some reason my sewing machine went on the fritz and would only sew in reverse. I have to get it fixed but I didn't have time before the shower and I had to sew on the satin ribbon doing the whole blanket in reverse. My stitching was a little more crooked than I'd hoped but I think that it turned out okay....here are the pics:

Blanket all tied up ready for gifting (I figured out mitered corners and even did some hand stitching to finish them off):















Here you can see the stripe side with a bit of the caterpillar side showing:















Here is the reverse:
















A close up of the material and ribbon:
















I also gave Ev the Eric Carle book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" with the blanket - to go with the caterpillar theme. I was very pleased with it!

And for those of you who keep asking for a pic of me, this is the only one from the shower that shows my belly at all - as you can see, there is not much. I know this isn't the best pic but I haven't really taken any myself yet. My friend Lindsay said that I don't really look pregnant, I just look like I had a big sandwich for lunch. So there you have it.







Things are doing pretty well this week except that DH is out of town for 6 days in Europe. He said he would bring me back some chocolates though so that's nice. Also, I was excited to have Priscilla spend the night last night. We ate at Baja Cantina on Washington and then watched the Office and then LA Story. It was nice. Oh and of course Ev's shower was really nice - her friend Wenyee did a really excellent job. Everything was beautiful and the food was delicious. They had the cutest favors too - little pots of Burts Beeswax lip balm - the theme of the shower was bumblebees so it was just too cute.

It was nice to see my other preggo friends Ev and Sara. It's good to "talk shop" with other preggies. They are so far ahead of me though so I always feel like sort of pregnant woman when I'm around them. But I know too soon I will catch up and be more pregnant looking. I have already gained 10 pounds! I am a little ahead of what the Mayo Clinic book recommends. They say that by week 20 I should have gained 10 pounds and I'm only at week 17. So I have to be careful and not pig out too much. Do not worry - I am not dieting or anything, just trying to eat healthfully and be aware of my consumption. I want to gain a healthy amount of weight - what is good for Baby Cummings and for me.

Well, I have been thinking of several other topics to blog about in the next couple of weeks so hopefully I'll have some more posts soon. I am excited that this blog has two followers on Blogger so that's really neat! I am glad that people enjoy reading.

Until next time!

I Love Maternity Pants

Thankfully, in the very beginning of my pregnancy, my friend Tiffiny loaned me a whole bunch of maternity clothes and books. I tried to wear my regular jeans as long as I could, and I was helped by the Cutie Fruitie - my Etsy version of the Bella Band:













(Cutie Fruity Shop)

You wear the thing under your jeans and then you fold it over the top of your jeans and you can wear them unbuttoned. This worked out pretty well for about the first 15 weeks. Actually, it still works, but it is kind of a pain to adjust every time you pull your jeans on and off.

This past weekend, the weather changed for the better, it was beautiful! I was going to see a play (Unbroken Circles) and I decided to wear a skirt. Well, my old pencil skirt was not going to fit AT ALL, not even with the great help of Cutie Fruity. So I rummaged through the maternity clothes Tiff had given me and I found a cute maternity skirt. What I looooved about it most was this big elastic waist band. It was so cool! It stayed on perfectly - no moving up or down.

I felt liberated! The next day at work, I tried a pair of maternity jeans. They were GREAT! They look pretty much like regular jeans but the waist band is really wide and yes, they have ELASTIC! They look kind of like this:




















I also have a pair that looks kind of like this:



















I am wearing them today and they are so great! So comfortable! I ordered a few more pairs used from ebay (hey, it's cheap and it's green) and I am going to try a pair with the stretch panel like this:



















we'll see how it goes. Man, maybe it's just because I'm pooching out but I can't imagine why ALL pants aren't elastic like this. It's great. Nothing to zip or button when you go to the bathroom (which I do a lot) and man, you can just let it all hang out and it feels great! It's a little scary because I have like 24 more weeks to go and I'm already needing these pants but hey - I have so few comforts that if I want to wear elastic waist pants - I can do it!

Well, all I can say is Tiffiny has really been a lifesaver! First the books and now the pants! That is what I call a great friend! And thank goodness we're the same size because everything fits great.

Oh, in other news, I am almost done with a baby blanket for my friend Ev. Her shower is Sunday. I still have some finishing touches that I HOPE I can do, it's a little tricky. But even if I don't get that done, it's pretty cute as is. I'll take pictures (if I remember) and post after Sunday in case Ev checks the blog - wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!