Okay, Jamie, you are clear for labor...

For weeks now, I have been anticipating the excitement of taking part in a wedding. Two years ago, many of you may remember Monica as the pregnant one at my wedding, who sang with her sister. When she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids in November, it was a mere twist of irony that I would be hugely pregnant at her wedding as well. Her mom made all the dresses, so I had one that fit me perfectly and was beautiful, and as the big day came sooner, I would rub my belly and remind Jamie that he just had to wait until the wedding was over, and then he could come as soon as he wanted. And so, yesterday, it happened. No labor. Just a beautiful wedding. After the event, everyone approached me to ask when my due date was and asked how I was feeling. Rumors flew that I was due that day, although what I really said was that I was ready that day.

For a few moments during the ceremony, I felt some pressure and movement. I sucked in my breath, looked down at my belly, and willed Jamie not to do anything. I can definitely say, for one, that he follows orders. :) And as the ceremony ended and the reception began, the real fun started.

As soon as it was clear that the dancing had begun, I was on my feet, ready to celebrate with no abandon. I got Glenn up, and we did a little swing dancing. Then I bounced around to some rock music, and of course, the YMCA. (As I pointed out to one of the other bridesmaids, actual jumping is REALLY uncomfortable, so bouncing would have to work.) According to Kelley, one of the other women in our dance group, the cherry on top of the sundae was when I got out to do the Macerena. If you would stop and think back a decade or so to the last time you did the Macerena, you will remember there is a part where you circle your hips and then do a quarter turn. Now imagine a woman with an enormous belly, circling her hips. It is not the cutest looking image. :) But there I was, having a good time, and really, beyond all else, a good time was the true goal. And I was happy to celebrate with Monica.

After the reception at the church, there was an "after-party" at Chris' parents' house. (Chris being the groom) All guests were invited, and there would be more food and drinks to enjoy. Like the typical Asian mother, Chris' mom cooked more than enough and was more than happy to do it. Barbeque, shrimp, potato salad, nacho dip, broccoli, and even a chocolate fountain. And all this after having hosted the rehearsal dinner at her house the night before. As she told me when I asked her if she had made all the delicious Asian food at the rehearsal dinner herself, she told me, "As soon as my mother got into town, she started cooking, so she helped me a lot."

Their house was crowded and there were various conversations and groups of people around. From the crowd of bridal party watching pictures from the wedding on the giant TV in the living room, to the accordian polka music being played live in the front sitting room. When the time came for a large contingent of the Alt Washingtonia dance group/ family to leave, an impromptu performance was announced in the cul-de-sac outside. Doing a dance called the Gamsprung has become somewhat of a tradition at group parties and gatherings. And so we got together about 8 or 9 of our men and Mark the tuba player, and the men did their thing. The problem was, the majority of the guests inside only found out about the performance after it was almost done. Most of the guys who had been dancing had to leave and we were left with a large crowd calling out for more. So Fritz, Glenn, and Philip got together and decided they would do a dancer called the Gauplattler, which necessitated that each of them get a partner to spin around with them.

Fritz grabbed Monica's hand and told the other two to get a partner. I saw my chance to once again, get Jamie moving, and grabbed Glenn's hand. He looked at me and said, "Are you sure?" And I was. After all, all I would have to do was spin around and then waltz with him. Someone told me later, "You really will do anything you can to get him out." Another person said, "I am predicting here and now that your baby is going to be a dancer."

The next question, I am sure, would be "Did you feel anything after all that moving and shaking?" and the answer is "Yeah, a bit." The day before, he had been bouncing and shifting, and having a good old time. By the end of the evening, I was cramping up a lot. It felt like mild menstrual cramps, but I had a feeling that as soon as I got to bed, Jamie would simply be relieved I had stopped moving around and would settle back in to his comfort zone.

And, naturally, I was right. I woke up today with Jamie basically sending me the signal of, "Okay, Mom, you had your fun, but you won't work me out that easily." If you remember back a number of months to my ultrasound, when they couldn't get him to move enough to take all the pictures, I told you that this baby was stubborn. Well, once again, he has proven this point.

Dinner Done Right....

One of the chores on the "Before Jamie Comes" list has been, for a while, get some meals ready and frozen so we don't have to cook later. Although we froze a large amount of pasta the other day that Glenn made, today we went to a place that would help us to prepare roughly 16 meals (8 for each of the two of us).

In Centreville, there is a business that is called "Dinner Done." At Dinner Done, you go online and reserve a spot and choose 8 meals that you would love to have to freeze. You go on the day that you reserve and they have all the ingredients set up for you and you just put it all together and put it in little metal pans to put into the oven later. You take these home, freeze them, and when you are ready to eat them, all you have to do is thaw them and cook them.

Not only was this an amazing idea, it was so much fun too! Imagine being Rachel Ray for a moment, where you have a team of people who come in before you and chop everything for you, get the meat separated out, melt butter, and even put the right measuring spoons in each bowl. That is what this place does. So you go to a little station, and follow the prepwork part of the recipe. Usually this involves nothing more than add this and that, and stir.

One would think with such a simple set-up, the meals couldn't be that fantastic. Au contraire! The meals that Glenn and I chose were Mozzarella-Basil Stuffed Meatballs, Asian Pork Tenderloin, Flounder with a Lemon-Caper Sauce, BBQ Chicken with Cornbread Bites, Tatsiki Chicken Skewers, Nori Wrapped Salmon (which involves wrapping the salmon in a seaweed like wrap to cook it in), Greek Chicken Pasta, and Tuscan Beef, in which we stuffed some beef loins with sundried tomatoes and feta cheese, and laid it on a bed of spinach.

This place is a godsend for anyone who is either too lazy to cook themselves, too uncreative to look for recipes, or most of all, people who, for whatever reason are unable to cook. They even have something called a Stork Session. With this, if you have had a baby in the last month, you can order the meals online and the company will not only put them together for you, but (if you live within 10 miles) they will deliver it to you. Unfortunately, we live 12 miles away. Luckily, a friend of ours (Mellinger) lives only 10.5 miles from them, so we are thinking about getting them to deliver there, and Glenn will drive the 5 minutes over to Mellinger's apartment and pick the stuff up. Of course, Mellinger doesn't know this yet.

At this point, we are thinking we may be INCREDIBLY tired about a month after Jamie is born, and in an effort to avoid grocery shopping, we may take advantage of the Stork Session. In the grand scheme of things, it is pretty much the same amount of money as going to the store.

But the taste, you wonder? How good can a meal that has been frozen be? Well, that I don't know yet, but I can tell you that we tried out half of the meatballs with the marinara sauce we made, and they were delicious. The plan from now is to try to remember what we put into the meatballs. I remember the ingredients, but now I have to think back to the amounts. Thank goodness for my photographic memory!

If you are curious, check out their website... www.dinnerdone.com.

Baby Pool....

My dad tells me that there is some sort of baby pool going on in my family, but I am not sure that there is. In any case, I am curious to have a baby pool. If anyone would care to make a prediction, please go for it.

Personally, I am going to say June 30, but maybe that is wishful thinking. I am in a wedding on Saturday, June 28, and afterwards, Glenn and I are going to do some dancing and eat some Indian food. We have decided to do whatever we can to encourage him to make his grand entrance! SOO, I am saying, maybe June 30, we can coax him to come out.

Anyone else have a guess???

Typical Little Boy....

I have to share a story from my last childbirth class, last week. The nurse was discussing how the doctors decide when to do a C-section. One day, a woman came into the Labor and Delivery, and the heart rate of her baby would be fine for a minute and then drop suddenly. Then a minute later, it would be perfect again, only to drop once more. It kept doing this, defying all the knowledge of the doctors around. This didn't follow any patterns they had seen before and they were stumped as to what to do. In the end, they decided on the C-Section.

They got in there and got the baby out and found something very interesting. The baby was absolutely fine... but he was a bit of a troublemaker. There he was, with his hand around his umbilical cord and every few minutes, he would squeeze it, cutting off all the things he needed, causing his heart rate to drop. Sooner or later, he would let go and the heart rate would go back to normal. The nurse's comment was, "I wish I could see that kid now, as a 17 year old!"
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So we went to our last class, which was mainly about C-sections, and care of the baby after he is home. Diapering, sponge bathes, feeding... And honestly, I think it was the most helpful of all the classes. I feel ready, but the one thing that makes me nervous is when they showed taking care of the little boy after a circumcision. Now, I have done a lot of babysitting, but most of the babies I took care of-- strangely enough-- were girls. And even if it was a boy, I didn't have to worry about caring for that. I'm sure it will be fine, but it will be something I have to get used to!

I went to the doctor last week, but it was just a routine check. Heart rate is great, his head is down, his butt is up (something I could have told the doctor, from the daily excercises Jamie seems to be doing in my abdomen). This week, when we go back on Wednesday, they will start measuring things again and I am really hoping that they will start predicting his weight.

Initially the doctor told me he doesn't think that Jamie is going to be a big baby. But the more I grow, and the more I look at myself in the mirror, the more I question that assertion. What led him to make that assumption? I mean, he felt around where the baby is and said it? But how can I be getting so big and he isn't? He seems to be everywhere in my belly. We shall see, I suppose.

One month to go!!!

As of last Friday, I have one month left until my due date of July 11. However, many people have told me that they don't think I am going to make it... What do you think?

At this point, I am going to the doctor's every week. Last week was the first of those weekly visits. I can report a few developments after that. 1) The baby is not breach. 2) I am 25% effaced. I know that 25% is nothing, but it only affirmed to me that he is indeed on his way out. The end process has begun. Once again, everything was normal. Blood pressure was great, and the doctor found the heartbeat right away. He actually seemed almost surprised at how loud and strong it was.

The last two weeks have been filled with oodles of parties, only one of which was for me. With the end of school, as well as the month of June, comes graduation parties, weddings, wedding showers, and an occasional birthday. The frequency of these parties is making it difficult for me to truly cut back on the cake the way I should. But I'm working on it.

Last weekend we went to a wedding, and I was reminded of the fact that Lindsay (my sister-in-law) was as big as I am now when we were at Bryan and Nina's wedding. I remembered how she sat for most of the reception and when she did dance, she felt some heavy pitter patter inside her belly. Four days later, my nephew Jack was born. With that in mind, I had thought maybe I shouldn't dance. But when swing music plays, it is pretty much impossible to keep me off the dance floor. Thus, Glenn and I did a very slow controlled swing dance, and a waltz or two. Of course, after three dances, I was out of breath, and that was that.

So now, I thought about a plan for after the next wedding I am going to-- Monica Brown's on June 28th. For those of you who didn't know, I am actually a bridesmaid in that wedding. Monica is a member of my dance group who I have grown very close with. Her mom is making all of our dresses and I get a special dress with an empire waist. I am telling myself that I really would like to hold out until then, but as soon as that wedding is over, all bets are off.

At the reception, I will do some more dancing, and perhaps the next day, I will go eat some Mexican food, which I have been told also brings on babies. Every day Glenn and I will do a little something and try to make Jamie more than happy to come out and say hello. We shall see....

Drop the cookie and step away from the cake....

In this entry, I will quickly relate the report from my most recent doctor's visit, as well as the hospital tour we took tonight.

Last Tuesday, we had our last monthly check-up. We will now be having biweekly check ups with the doctor as the big day approaches. As usual, my health is great. My blood pressure is perfect, and the baby is kicking hard and letting his heart beat he heard.

The first thing we do when we get into the doctor's office is get weighed. The nurse took my weight and after I went to the bathroom and "gave my sample", she told me that she wanted to reweight me on the way out because she thought she had misweighed me.

When the doctor came in, and after he did his whole spiel, he repeated this wish of the nurse's. "If she was right," he said, "I am going to have to yell at you." I bit my lip and asked how much she had said, as I didn't think she had made a mistake. When he called out the number she had gotten, I lowered my head and admitted that I was pretty sure that was the right number. At which he told me that I had once again gained 10 pounds in one month. His thought is that the amount of excerscise I am getting doesn't even out with the calories I am eating. Glenn tells me that is really just all the desserts I keep eating. So needless to say, I am trying to be better about what I eat. Fewer cookies, cakes, and cupcakes. I know that at this point, I really do need to slow down. Gaining 50 pounds, which is where I am, is enough. So I am trying to be a good girl.

Beyond that, he predicted that it isn't going to be a overly big baby... more like 7-8 pounds in the end. We shall see how right he is.
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Tonight we went on a tour of the maternity area of Fair Oaks Hospital, where Jamie will come into the world. I knew that they had good maternity care, but actually seeing the rooms where I will be makes me feel better.

My biggest concern with having him is that I didn't want him taken from me right away and not given back for a while. Seeing the labor and delivery rooms in the hospital made me feel better about this. Each LDR (Labor and Delivery) room has an incubator and warmer for the baby. As soon as the baby is born, they put it under the warmer for a few minutes, wipe him off with hot towels, and then return him to his mother for the first 1-2 hours of his life. This was music to my ears. Not only would I get to see him for the first few hours (as long as well went well for us both), but even when they took him away, he wouldn't be leaving my room. After about three hours, they take him to the nursery and give him his first real bath. When that happens, they will move me from Labor and Delivery to Family Care.

At this point, with hospital bag packed, Glenn and I are excited to meet Jamie. Glenn especially is getting ansy to hold his son and play with him.

On a last note, a funny anecdote from a student of mine. As I came around to check homework, he asked me if I ever got scared about having a baby. I looked at him and shrugged. "Not really," I said. "I mean, he has to come out somehow!"

Sympathy Pregnancy Brain???

Something happened to Glenn and I on Sunday that is too good not to share. It may not have much to do with Jamie, but it is just too funny. Every other Sunday, Glenn and I go out to get groceries at Wegman's. Glenn makes the list, I gather the coupons. We know Wegman's so well, that we follow the same path every time we shop there. We start in the produce department and go from there.

We did our usual thing-- grabbed some broccoli, onions. At one point, I went to get bananas and Glenn went to grab our salad greens. Placing the items in the cart, we continued on. Up and down the aisles, we filled the cart with our goodies. On the cereal aisle, I had a question of what was on one of my coupons. "Let me check my coupon" I said. I looked beneath the eggs and bread we had put in the top part of the cart. But I saw no coupon credenza.

My brow furrowed, I asked Glenn where the coupons were. "I don't know," he told me. Upon investigation, I had two reactions. 1: I was immediately disappointed because I put a lot of effort into cutting coupons and saving them up. The thought of having lost my credenza saddened me. 2: I blurted out to Glenn, "Is this someone else's cart?" He looked at me like I was crazy and said no, saying I had just put the coupons in the wrong cart somewhere along the way. I began to accept this when I noticed that there were grapes underneath the eggs.

"You bought grapes?" I said. Glenn looked at me and began to move the veggie bags around. Yes, there were grapes. But where was the onion we had gotten first thing in the store. Where was the broccoli we had picked up? "We took someone else's cart!" I yelled. We stood for a moment, wondering what to do. We glanced around at the carts around us, looking for my coupon credenza.

I suggested we go back to the produce section-- where we had been about 20 minutes or so beforehand. Glenn thought I was crazy... what, would these people just be standing around, calling for their lost cart?

So we raced back to the produce section, and there by the piles of apples, was a lone cart with only an onion, a head of brocolli, and a gray coupon credenza lying inside. I looked at Glenn and said, "And I'm the one with pregnancy brain?"

"Frau W, when is your baby shower..."

This is a question I was asked yesterday in class by one of my students. When I told him that I would be having shower number 4 in two weeks, his eyes popped open. "Aren't you just supposed to have one?" he asked. I didn't know how to asnwer. "If someone wants to throw me a party, who am I to say no?"

A point that was also made by another student-- Matt-- was that this upcoming shower would, in fact, be number 5. That is to say that the surprise party that my yearbook class threw me last Friday, of which Matt was a part, had already ranked in at Number 4.

For a while, I had been suspecting that some kind of party might be coming my way on behalf of my students. There were just too many times that I saw a paper flip over quickly as I approached to look over shoulders or a paper passed around the room. But I didn't know when or how. I figured that all my students were banding together to throw me a shower afterschool. The problem there was that I wasn't thinking like a teenage high school student.

Why have a party afterschool when it would be just as easy to do it during school and put off work?

So on Friday, I made my way downstairs for 5th period in the yearbook computer lab. Pretty much every day, I am late to this class, as I have to clean up from my AP's, throw my stuff in my bag, ride the elevator downstairs, and walk to my other room. According to our attendance policies, I would have failed long ago for so many unexcused tardies.

As I approached the room, Naema stood outside and ran in before me, closing the door. "Oh, haha," I thought. "They are going to teach me a lesson by locking me out. Very creative." I came up to the door and only made a minor note that the light was off. Naema swept the door open and I walked into the room. As I came in, she flipped on the lights and there were all my "kids" from yearbook waiting. "Surprise", they yelled, and all I could do was grin.

On my desk was a cake. And when I say cake, I mean CAKE. My student Brian, who is both a yearbook and a German student, works at a local bakery and gets a nice discount. So this cake had two layers; it had fondahn (spelling?), which is that fancy thick icing used on wedding cakes. I mean, this was like the kind of wedding cake a small wedding might require. And it was all for me. Atop the cake was my favorite thing so far... a small statuette of a highly pregnant woman in a spandex superhero outfit. Behind her flies a cape and on the pedestal below her, it declares her "Super Mom-to-Be".

Along with the cake, cookies, hot queso dip, soda, and pizza they ordered before I got there, was a pyramid of packages of diapers. Upon second look, I realized how smart my editors are. Rather than getting about 6 packages of newborn diapers, they had gotten a variety of sizes, from Newborn up to 4. (The top shelf of Jamie's closet is now covered in various sizes of diaper.)

The diapers was a fantastic gesture, but best still is simply the idea that they threw me a surprise party in the first place. I had no idea and there were quite a number of people who took part in it.

And guess what... that wasn't the end of it. Brian was in my 7th period class and let me know that he had been trying to get that group to bring food on the same day to keep the party going. Unfortunately, not many students remembered to bring food-- except for two big bags of soda cans. Needless to day, my day had been shot and 7th period still got to watch a movie after they finished their presentations.

But was that the end of it? Oh no.... this morning, I approached my classroom for 3rd period. Strangely enough, there was a sheet of baby wrapping paper over the window looking in my room from the hallway. I walked in and saw Kelly-- one of my AP students-- taping it up. There was another sheet taped across my desk. "You're early" she said!

Although I volunteered to disappear for a while, Kelly let me come in and stay, as one by one, my 13 AP students brought in food. Cookies, cupcakes, homemade ice cream, brownies, this really good dessert one of my students makes, chips, and something healthy--- bagels. (Thank goodness for Robert) In the end, I was sooo full of sugar that I didn't feel so fantastic, and we went outside to play Apples to Apples, as my AP's are pretty much finished anyway.

As a group, they got me an adorable outfit from Gymboree that features a pattern of camping and bears. Also a homemade blanket, and various bathroom products. As I told another colleague who commented on my students frequently bringing me goodies, "They have known me for 4 years. They have to be nice to me!"

"Mutant Belly"

Up until recently, Glenn had felt the baby kick, he had found the hard spot that is probably a baby butt, he had even felt the hiccups. But the other night, Glenn's appreciation for what is going on inside me every minute of every day came to a new high.

We were laying in bed, watching television and I began to feel Jamie doing his usual flip-turns or plattling, depending on whether he is swimming or dancing. I could feel his little hand running up and down my right side. It was one of those moments that Glenn laughs because I like to reveal my belly and watch it move in waves.

This time, though, it wasn't just a subtle short movement. It was a surge of motion. "Whoa!" Glenn said, suddenly distracted from the TV. But it didn't end there. He kept on "performing"-- Jamie that is. For about ten minutes straight, he just continuously swirled around inside me, poking and prodding here and there. And man, was it visible. Glenn couldn't pull his eyes away. In fact, it seemed the moments when he moved the most were those when Glenn was encouraging him. "Do it again, Jamie," he would tell him. And as though he understood, the baby would move his arm to say hello.

Shower #3: Family in Roanoke

Let me first say, it hasn't been all that long and yet a lot has happened. This is a prewarning that I am about to put in about four new entries. Read at your leisure.

About three weeks ago, we had our third shower in Roanoke. It was a gathering of much of Glenn's family coming from as far as South Carolina and Ohio. Ages ranged from about eight months old to Glenn's grandmother, whose age I don't actually know. A very cool gathering indeed.

Needless to say, Jamie has been further spoiled and Glenn and I find ourselves one more time asking, "What did we do to deserve all of this?" Bags upon bags of goodies. I must admit, I was a bit nervous about getting more and more clothing, although I do love clothing. But at that point, Jamie's dresser was becoming full. But among the cute outfits, I was actually happy to find that we received a lot of the daily grind products that we needed. Diapers, tubes of various creams, wipes, teethers, rattles, and several jars of vasoline. (Might I add that Glenn claims that we already have a lifetime supply of vaseline at our house for some injury or other that he incurred.)

I tried to tell Glenn that we should take my car to Roanoke, but he wanted to take his in order to install his new HD radio. And in the end, Glenn is Glenn and he became determined to get everything into his car. The back window was lost once it was all in there, but he promised to drive home safely, and judging by the fact that i am writing this, he did.

I would like to send out thanks to Dana and Lana, who hosted the shower. Dana opened up her beautiful new home and allowed me to take over a really comfy recliner for a few hours. Not to mention making chocolate fondue and bananas-- my new obsession. An excellent touch.... having each guest fill out an envelope with their address for the thank you note.

Also at the shower, each guest was told to leave me a little bit of advice. Strangely enough, there was a large number of people who agreed that I needed to sleep while I could. And believe, I am doing my best!!!