From Triple to Double

Well....we've done it. We've crossed over the hundreds of days til Grayson comes, down to double digits. Today my widget tells me 93 more days to go. Whoa! How did we get here? Tomorrow I will be 3 months from due date. This is the home stretch. We CAN do this.

It is all starting to get a bit overwhelming. Not that I'm complaining....I'm so thankful for still being in this game. But there is so much to do, so much to plan for, so many changes ahead of us.

Grayson's nursery is near completion. His crib and changing table are up. The walls are painted. The closet is cleared and prepped. Rocking chair is in place. Curtains are up. So wierd!!

The gifts from registry lists have begun to arrive. On Friday we received our car seat and stroller combo. Boy does that make things so real. On the agenda today - seeing if there is any way in he!! that the car seat will fit in our 2 door convertible. I'm doubtful and have already made a trip to the dealership to talk trade ins...and head back there tomorrow to discuss that more. But we'll see. I hate to say goodbye to my pride and joy over the past almost year. We bought that car on a whim after our 3rd miscarriage last April. It was a silly, expensive, impulse purchase, but the point of it was to put a smile on my face every time I got in it. And you know what..it still does to this day. I hate to get rid of it, but know that soon I'll have a little bundle to put a smile on my face every day instead.

Other things I have been saying goodbye to as of late:

My wedding rings. They were just way to tight and I had to let them go and upgrade (or downgrade depending on how you look at it) to a "fat band" as I refer to it. It's just a simple silver band...and of course it came in a blue box as all things silver should....but I still miss my other rings that have so much meaning.

My bikini line. Yep. I can't see it at all anymore. I know it still exists, but it's sure not in my view. This makes for an interesting go of it for keeping things well trimmed down there. I feel like a blind person just aimlessly playing with a razor. Funny the things you miss that you just never imagined you would.

Sleep. Oh sweet sleep, where did you go? Now I must admit, I've never been the best sleeper in the world anyway, but it's reached whole other levels these days. I'm lucky to get in 4 hours of it. I just can't get comfortable for longer than a little bit. I have the preggo pillow, I do the side thing, I even am still somehow managing to sleep on my stomach some too, but it's all in vain. Sleep evades me constantly. One thing I do know is that I am SO ready for the middle of the night feedings - I'm up anyway!

I leave you with a belly pic. This is actually the 1st belly pic that was taken of me my whole pregnancy. I resisted it until 22 1/2 weeks. I just was so afraid to chronicle things in this way...afraid to jinx things. This is now 4 weeks out of date, and yes, I am definitely bigger since then as the scale creeps so close to 30 lbs gained already. UGH! But...I thought I'd share the first pic of Debby and Grayson together.

Home Sweet Home

I am home. Over the past 2 months I have been a traveling queen. Florida a few times, Arizona, NYC, Texas. Phew. I am exhausted from all the travel and am so happy to be home with no trips on the horizon. I am settling in to nest and do all of the things I need to do to get things ready for Grayson.

I'm almost 25 weeks along and only have a little over 3 months to go til due date. It's getting so real. Grayson is kicking up a storm and we've advanced from just me feeling him, to others being able to feel him, to others now being able to see his little kicks through my ever growing belly. His dresser/changing table is here and his crib will arrive this week. I really am still half in shock that this is all really happening. It's quite surreal.

Quite a boring post here...but just needed to get one out there to say I'm back and more is to come. Promise to post again soon....

You're Welcome

So today I had a normal check-up with the OB. I got weighed (20 pounds and counting - ohmigosh I'm a ginormous whale), got blood pressure taken, peed in a cup, listened to heartbeat on doppler (no biggie since I do so every night at home)...all the normal stuff.

My doc asked if we found out what we were having and I told him it's a boy. To which he replied the normal "oh that's great" yada, yada, yada and then followed that with "Will you be circumcising him?".

Wow...wasn't expecting that one yet. Nor had I really thought about it much I guess. I told him "yes", he wrote it down on my chart, and we moved on. Now, this question disturbs me, not so much because I was unprepared for it, but because I hate that it has to be asked at all. I've been reading that only 50% of boys these days are circumcised...and this just grosses me out. Now I know that there's all kinds of research out there that it's not necessary any more and that people think it's cruel, and that it should be the boy's choice when he's older - blah, blah, blah.

In those seconds between the doc asking me the question and my response, all I could think of were the girls in the future who would be checking out my son's member. (Yes....it would be lovely if it was just one girl...not plural, but seriously, who are we kidding here?) And I just can't bring myself to put those poor girls through that something extra that they don't need to see.

Let's be honest, the male anatomy is not so attractive in the first place. Why keep something extra on there that'll just serve to make something not so hot even MORE unattractive? Yes, future girlfriends of Grayson, you can thank me now, you can thank me later. My son will have a nice, trimmed and easily cleaned willy down there. And you are very welcome.

Updates Galore

Somehow 2 weeks have flown by without me posting. Not quite sure how that happened...so to recap my last few weeks....

Travel....
As I type this I am in Phoenix, Arizona with my husband on a work conference. I must say the 60 degree weather here is a refreshing change from the cold at home. And, in the next few weeks I will travel to Dallas and to Florida 2 different times. I guess I'm just trying to squeeze in as much as I can before my travel cut-off.

Seeing Red...
Yes....dreaded blood was back this past Saturday. I was out to dinner with husband and co-workers, went to pee, wiped and there it was. BRIGHT red. I freaked out in the stall...and then of course had to do some investigating with some toilet paper and my finger to see if anything else was up there. (Yes...I know, this is way too much information). There was not a lick of anything else, but alas, the worrying began. The dinner couldn't end soon enough so I could get back to the hotel and listen to Grayson on the doppler. He sounded perfect as always, and know more red since then thankfully, but I had a 24 hour period of quite the worrying and googling.

Treadmills and nephews do not mix....
In an effort to slow down my rapid weight gain (Oh yes girls, I have now gained 20 pounds - I am a huge moose) I like to walk. It's too cold at home, so I like to use the treadmill at my parents house. One evening last week I started on my walk, and my nephew vinny decided to come in the room and watch me. He's 20 months old and my mom was watching him for the evening. Vinny decided it would be fun to get on the treadmill with me and before I could stop him, or the machine, there he was sliding through my feet and into the wall behind. And, there I was falling on top of him, unable to get up as the machine skidded on. After what seemed an eternity, but was probably only 15 seconds, mom came to rescue and turned it off and helped us both up. Vinny was totally fine...just scared to death. Me, I was freaked. We've all see the Grey's Anatomy episode where the pregnant girl falls in the shower and loses her baby. That's all I could think of. I had a bummer of a bruise forming on my lower back, and quite the burn on my knee. I called the on-call doc and they asked me all kinds of questions like if i was having cramping or bleeding (no) and if I was still feeling him moving (yes). So they told me to relax, get rest and come in the next morning. So I was treated to a quick u/s on Wednesday morning to make sure everything was all good with the little man. And thankfully, it was. Husband says I should avoid all treadmills and excercise and just become big. Not likely. I think I"ll just avoid them when little rugrats are around.

That's the updates for now...more to come I'm sure!

Bittersweet

Just back from Florida where I have been since Tuesday evening. After getting our fun news on Tuesday morning, the husband and I flew down to Florida to mourn the loss of my grandpa. He has had a 5 year battle with cancer and lost to it last Sunday morning. We've all been prepared for this for some time as he had many close calls. But then he always seemed to miraculously pull through and have some more time with us all. He has always been one cool old dude and I will miss him. He missed hearing that we're having a boy by just a few short days. But, I love knowing that even though he doens't get to meet little Grayson anytime soon, he gets to hold my other 3 babies long before I do. Before his passing I told him to check in on them. I don't really know if that's how heaven works, but I like to think it does. He always gave the best shoulder rides when I was a little girl and I picture him up there right now giving those three the same experience I used to have. So for now little angels, have fun with grandpa. Our loss is certainly your great gain.

Gray's Anatomy

What a morning!!! I woke up at 5 a.m. bright eyed and ready to start the day to find out if Lefty is a he or a she. After an eternity of looking at all of Lefty's other parts, the technician finally got to the good stuff. First we saw the little legs, crossed at the ankle all cute, and I thought "maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is a girl since it's sittle all proper and pretty"













But then, the tech moved down a bit, and it was quite obvious that...




Lefty is a boy! This is the bum shot from underneath, and as you can see the little guy has definite male anatomy parts.

So I now introduce to you Grayson David W - expected to join us on June 10, 2008. His nickname will most likely be "Gray", thus the blog title. (Thanks Matt for the help on that one.

I'm so happy to have this appointment behind us and to start calling our baby a real name. Now Grayson, we have much to do before you get here so keep on cooking and we'll see you in June!

Moving and Grooving

Over the past week I have begun to feel our little Lefty wiggling, moving and grooving inside me. At first I wasn't totally sure what it was....could've been gas or anything I guess. But..it's persisted and now I'm sure that it's the little one letting me know it's alive and kicking. It feels kind of like I have this rolly polly in there that does these little turn overs right against my insides. An odd sensation for sure...and not the kicking I was expecting to get first. I guess that comes later. This is all becoming so real now and with the gender ultrasound in only 6 days, that just seals it.

Another thing that continues to move is my weight. And might I say that the number on the scale is moving on up. Rapidly. Much faster than I'd prefer. I hadn't weighed in a few weeks, so today I decided it best to get on scale before an appt. with my OB. I have now passed a scary number for me on the scale (150) and have gained just shy of 15 pounds. AHHHHH! How did this happen? Except for the occassional fast food splurge, I'm really not eating so bad or so much. I was braced for the doc to tell me today to slow it up, but she just told me I looked great and everything sounded great and sent me on my way. Phew! I was hoping to gain no more than 30 lbs. with the pregnancy, but that's looking like less and less of a reality since I'm halfway to that number already and not yet halfway through the pregnancy. Oh well. I guess I need to just do I what I know is best for my body and let it do it's thing without sweating it too much.