2
[ add comment ]very appreciative fetus
October 31, 2004, 10:11 am
There have been three times when the baby has been unbelievably active. The first was during a Dar Williams concert down near Battery Park. She is one of our very favorite singers and he clearly loved her, too, because he was doing some impressive dance routines in there. The second was during a sermon by one of our very favorite preachers, Ernie Campbell. He is our regular preacher's mentor and occasional understudy, and whatever he was talking about really got the baby's attention. He shouted "Amen!" with lots of flips and cartwheels and karate moves. And the most recent was during our two nights of watching "Angels in America." Now this play turned into a movie ain't short (I think it's about six hours total) and the majority of that time the baby was going nuts. Kicking, jumping, rolling around, clapping. Clearly he has great taste in music, preaching and acting.[ 2 comments ] ( 42 views )daily news
October 28, 2004, 6:33 pm
It finally happened! Today on the streets of New York I got my first comment from a stranger on the huge growth sticking out of my middle. I was walking down 34th Street and a tired looking man was holding up one of those tabloidy newspapers with the headline "Prince Charming Killer" and in a monotone he was trying to get people to buy it for a quarter. He interrupted his routine and exclaimed, "Congratulations!" to little old me! This made me giggle all the way home. But no one has offered their subway seat to me yet no matter how much I try to look pathetic and worn out. You can bet on the day when that finally happens you will read about it here.[ 2 comments ] ( 37 views )icecream and rubbing alcohol
October 26, 2004, 6:33 pm
Three times now during my pregnancy I have very stereotypically said to Troy during a quiet evening at home, "I really need some Ben and Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I don't think I can live without it." Every time Troy would sort of sigh deeply before double checking that I really couldn't live without it, and then he would put on his sad little shoes and head over to Frank's Market. I felt guilty about it. I don't know why I did it. The whole time he was gone I regretted it. But it's like there's an evil side of me thinking he has to have a little inconvenience thrown his way now and then since I am the one being pregnant and everything.The point of this is to say that today I went and bought my own little carton of ice cream on my way home from work because I knew that during "Gilmore Girls" tonight I would get my desperate craving. And that was really nice of me, because just his morning Troy poured rubbing alcohol into my bad ear that just barely survived two major surgeries, and this has caused me great discomfort all day long. (I had gotten water in my ear, which is why he did it.) In the words of my loving doctor: "It's a big mistake to do that to an ear with a hole in its eardrum." Someone referred to Troy as "the poor guy" over this, but I think it's slightly more appropriate to call me "the poor gal."
Now Troy is sweetly making me dinner and has apologized many times for trying to kill me this morning, so everything's back on track. [ 2 comments ] ( 44 views )
our life is a play
October 21, 2004, 9:09 am
Troy and I are doing a scene from a Horton Foote play this weekend up in the Catskills Mountains as part of a tenth anniversary celebration for a theatre, and in the scene we play a very sweet married couple in 1917. My character just happens to be five months pregnant, which is exactly what I am. Troy's character just happens to be really stressed out about things, which is exactly what he is. Both of our characters live in a rented room and are desperately wanting a bigger place. Plus the baby kicks twice in the play, causing my character to get excited and Troy's character to run over and feel my belly in hopes of making some contact. (So far the real life baby has not quite learned his cues.) In this play we are basically reenacting every evening in our apartment. "The baby's kicking!" "Let me feel it!" "We need a bigger apartment!" "I'm stressed out!" There's very little acting going on in this play.[ 2 comments ] ( 47 views )
a halloween picture
October 16, 2004, 10:41 am
Here's that belly shot you've all been wanting ...;)
Thank God this is not a picture of MY belly or of MY baby's scary foot.
[ 4 comments ] ( 60 views )
half way there
October 12, 2004, 6:56 pm
Today is our halfway mark! 20 weeks down and about 20 to go. Apparently the baby is now the size of a large sweet potato and is getting slippery stuff on his body to help ease his way down the birth canal. I'm not real crazy about that sentence. He moves all through the day and evening (and I sometimes wake up to him moving at night) and Troy has felt and seen him move several times. That's right, he's SEEN him. The other night we were watching a movie and I noticed a scary bump sticking out of me. Then it moved. It was him. That's going to take some getting used to.Max now barks at me for no good reason (like right now, for instance). He stares at me and then begins barking. I'm not sure what's going on in his dog brain, but I suspect it has something to do with the thing inside me.
And lastly, I have lost all my abdominal muscles. I foolishly thought I could climb a fence the other day while walking Max and I got as far as putting my hands on the top rail. I couldn't even begin to lift myself! It was like I was paralyzed. I now have to do tricky maneuvers to get up from a lying down position. Troy very sweetly calls to tell me when he's on his way home from work and I had to finally request that he stop doing that, as it's just too much work to get up and answer the phone.
[ 1 comment ] ( 41 views )
contact! by pappy t
October 7, 2004, 9:14 pm
i felt our baby today! this evening! just now! OCT 7! i felt my baby! the boy gave us a kick and i felt it!i was reading to him with a hand on jj's belly - she said he was moving around but who knew he'd cooperate? he just reached out and gave her belly a bop from the inside and i felt it - a hiccup, a bubble, a tiny blip under my hand, under her skin - a quickening that i was there to feel.
the word i read when he kicked was 'hooks' - now what do you figure that means?[ 11 comments ] ( 102 views )
six inches
October 5, 2004, 10:13 pm
I just read in one of my 278 books that the baby is now about six inches long and the size of a small zucchini. There was an illustration to give you an idea of the size of the baby in relationship to the size of the mama, and both Troy and I were a little shocked. I think I've been picturing a more petite little creature, but he's getting big! He could weigh like seven ounces now. Frankly, I'm surprised I'm not bigger. How does he fit in there?Okay, it's time to pay attention to the debates. I'm working very hard to distract myself because this stuff is stressing me out.
I mean, just look at this picture of Noah holding a zucchini:
;)
Granted the zucchini he's holding is bigger than six inches, but still!
Good grief. [ 5 comments ] ( 68 views )