The ultimate support group

One of the things I've enjoyed so much from this pregnancy is meeting other friends who were also pregnant.  I found a Meetup Group called "Active and Happy Pregos" and we'd go walking mostly - until my back started having issues, then I couldn't join them for that, but had formed some great friendships that carried on throughout pregnancy.

The due dates of my prego friends in this group ranged from January 3rd to March 18th.  The first babies were born January 19th (Stephanie's and Danielle's).

(We all got together for a nice lunch and to watch The Happiest Baby on the Block)

Left to Right - Stephanie, Sarah, Brianne, Pooja, Stacy, Rachel

At Stephanie's baby shower (left to right - Stacy, Pooja, Danielle and Rachel)

Stephanie was due first - January 3rd.  So I have always been asking her questions about different things because she was ahead of me by two months.  I really loved getting to know her and anxiously awaiting the arrival of her son Koen.  Apparently Koen didn't really buy into the whole "due date" thing and came a couple weeks later...but oh man, what an incredibly adorable baby!!  That is him below.  Stephanie took this picture of Koen with little socks on his hands because she didn't have mittens.  My question was - why on early would you need mittens - we live in San Diego?  LOL...oh, I have much to learn!  Apparently babies are born with little fingernails already!  Ohhhhhhhhhh!!!  They can scratch themselves!  Poor Cody - mom and dad will be learning as we go...but thank God for my "due earlier" prego friends who are sharing these little experiences with me.

Little Koen (born Jan 19th in his carseat)

Stephanie's husband Ryan holding Koen in "the football hold"...OMG...I'm in love! 

I can't wait to see Jason doing that with Cody!!

Danielle is my prego friend that I got to spend the least amount of time with - she ended up moving up to Orange County, but hopefully I'll make it up there or she'll make it down here so we can see each other again.  She had her baby (Noah) the same day Stephanie had Koen: 

Baby Noah - so sweet!

Pooja had the first little girl of our group and her name is Maahi.  What a sweet, precious little face she has!

Maahi

Look at all that hair!  Pooja with Maahi and grandma...ahhhh!!

Sarah is the one girl in our group who chose to have her baby's gender be a surprise...so we were all super excited to find out, she just brought girl #2 into our group on Jan 29th.  Little Penelope (Penny)...OMG, what a sweet baby girl!!  I love this picture Sarah sent me! 

Sarah and Baby Penny.

Penny - just too dang cute!!

So, next on the roster is Rachel, then me, then Brianne.  I can't tell you how great it is to have had other prego moms to go through pregnancy with...and as we all have those babies...how great it will be to already have a network of new mom friends.  I've heard there are so many new things to learn, challenges, exhaustion, etc...how great to have a network of friends who are going through it, can truly understand and just be there for each other.

Thank you, Meetup.com!

And thank you to my awesome prego and newly non-prego friends for an awesome journey so far.  I look forward to the years in front of us!

Update

Wow...I just got a request from my Uncle Alan to re-send the link to this blog as one of my cousins is pregnant and he thought she'd enjoy it.  Ummmmm...my last post was TWO MONTHS AGO!!!!!!  Oh my!!

Well, the gist of the last two months (non-pregnancy talk) is this: I was working on this massive, gigantic grant for Morrison & Company that required me to herd over 50 PhD's from around the country together to write a proposal to create a modified bug that would help to eliminate a particular citrus disease.  The grant was due last Tuesday.  Without a doubt, the last two weeks are the most challenging work-wise I've faced in a long time!  But alas, the grant was filed with 54 minutes to spare.  My midwife was freaking out that my blood pressure was high and accused me of not eating enough protein - I explained that it was just this work project....anyway, I upped my protein anyway, the project ended.  And now all is happy in blood pressure land.  Of course, throw in all of the holiday travels in there. 

Holidays
Jason and I (and Cody in the oven) drove up to Turlock to spend the holidays with Kathleen and Sean.  We had a really nice time.  I got to see my friend Sarah, who I hadn't seen in a long time - it was great.  We left Christmas day and made the 9 hour trek to Big River to see my dad, Linda, Tina and Lily.  I hadn't seen Lily in a long time and knew I probably wouldn't see her again for a while, so that was extra great.  We had a lot of  fun and just enjoyed each others' company.  We watched Cody's 30 minute 4D ultrasound with the family - it was great!  Then Jason posted something about it on facebook and got us busted with our mid-wife who is definitely anti-ultrasounds.  It was pretty funny.  Facebook!  Busted!

This is a picture of Cody at 27 weeks - it's so weird to think we actually know what he looks like!  And he's so dang cute!  I can't wait to meet him. :)

Geez, there is so much to catch up on.  I think I'll create a couple of posts to break up the subjects - one subject - belly monster changes - another - my prego friends.

Stand by......

Last Plane Ride

As I write this, Cody is in the last leg of his final plane ride while hanging out in mommy's belly.

Overall he seems to enjoy flights...hopefully that means he'll be a good travel baby on the outside too!

Jason and I celebrated our 27 week mark yesterday.  I'd say it's going fast - but it really doesn't feel like it.  Not that I'm in any rush - we're completely unprepared in every way to have Cody yet, but this DOES feel like a long process, despite everyone telling us how fast it will go.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Jason and I drove to Grandpa Rick and Nana Linder's house - then the next day we all went up to Flagstaff to stay with Aunt Tina.

On the ride up, I was sitting in the back seat with Grandpa Rick and Cody FINALLY kicked hard enough for it to be felt on the outside.  That weekend, everyone got to feel our little monkey wiggling around. 

At one point, I was laying on the couch across the room and Jason could see my belly moving around - it was pretty funny.

Cody has become more and more active since then - I can definitely tell when he's awake and when he's asleep.  I'm enjoying this part...and looking forward to meeting him!

The countdown calculator informs us that we're now in the 2+ months timeframe...yahooooooooooooo!!

24 weeks!

Well, today we hit the 24 week mark!  I know that "technically" its not six months, but the language of the public and the language of preggos is different...so when people ask how far along I am, beginning today I'll say "six months".  Yeah!

According to Baby Center, Cody has gained 4 ounces in the past week and is over a pound in weight...and around a foot long.  Isn't that cute?  Our little hot dog!

Actually, I tend to refer to him as my little french fry.  As of now, my little boy-cat Willy and my little boy-bun-in-the-oven Cody have a lot of the same nicknames.  I'm guessing that once he's on the outside, I'll probably come up with new ones...we'll see.  So, I have two little french fries.  My Willy Monkey and my Cody Monkey.  See...both are monkeys.  I think it's because the only association to a little boy that I'm head over heels in love with is my little boy cat.  My other animal children are girls.

Today Jason and I are headed up to Chatsworth somewhat impromptu.  Grandma Kathleen called a couple of days ago saying she was driving down because all of the "Aunties" were congregating at Aunt Dorothy's house.  The Aunties are Grandma Kathleen's aunts...Dorothy, Merle and Helen and Jason's great aunts, so I guess that will make them Cody's Great Great Aunties!

It's also my Aunt Elle's birthday today...Cody's Great Aunt Elle.  I'm hoping we can connect since I'll be up in her neck of the woods. 

Great Aunt Elle

 Lucy (Cody's sister) is napping in the back seat on the trek north.  Oh wait, she just stood up and is sharing her fabulous dog breath with Jason as she looks over his shoulder.

It's kind of cool...in the next few weeks, Cody will get to see all of his grandparents (or at least hear them).  We'll see Grandma Kathleen today.  Next week, I'll be speaking in Dallas, so he'll get to see Grandma Irene and Grandpa Terry.  The following week, he'll get to meet Grandpa Rick and Grandma Linda for the first time - oh, and Aunt Tina!  At Christmas, he'll get to meet his Uncle Sean, counsin Emma and his Aunt Lily.  How cool!

Here are pix of all of Cody's grandparents:

Grandma Linda & Grandpa Rick
New York City, September 2011

Grandma Kathleen & Cousin Emma
Thanksgiving 2010

Grandpa Terry

Grandma Irene

Here are Cody's first level Aunts and Uncles:

Aunt Lily - 2009

Aunt Tina (with Uncle Frankie) - 2011

Uncle Sean & Cousin Emma - 2011

Anyway, Baby Center provided a picture of what he looks like at 24 weeks:

No wonder I can't get comfortable at night!  I feel him kicking (or playing...or whatever he's doing) pretty frequently.  I'm still waiting to be able to see it regularly on the outside.  I did see him do a little jig twice the other night when I was taking a bath.  I was waiting to see if he'd do it again before calling Jason in to watch, but alas, he stopped.

Okay...that was a long update, but it's a long car ride - must take advantage!!  Looking forward to our little Cody's arrival in March.

Woahhhh....Hypno Babies class #2

Monday night Jason and I had our second Hypno Babies class.  Our instructor came over, was greeted by three enthusiastic animal children and proceeded to ask how the homework was, questions, etc.

One of the things I brought up was that in the hypno stuff I'd been doing, it mentioned hypno anestesia passing through your body...and I really didn't understand what that meant.  She said it was because I hadn't yet made the mind body connection...but that was something we were going to be working on that night.

So as the night progressed, she was preparing to do the Hypno Anestesia script and had instructed Jason to apply pressure to my arm when she instructed...although when she showed him, it was like a pinch.

So the time came in the script for Jason to squeeze my arm...and she asked me, while in hypnosis what I felt - was it pressure, pain, or no feeling.  I responded that it was just pressure.  Later she was teaching me how to do "eyes open" hypnosis...and she instructed Jason to do the same thing.  I reported the same - just pressure.

I assumed that he just wasn't doing it very hard.  Later in the night, I was curious and asked Jason to do what he did so I could feel how much pressure he was applying when I wasn't in hypnosis. 

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I immediately yanked my arm back.  Jason said he just barely did it that time...when I was in hypnosis, he did it much harder (as instructed).

Okay...I am SOLD!!

There is a lot of practice and time I have to spend on everything...and now I understand that it is most definitely worth it!

Longer shirts, please

Something that hadn't occured to me was that as my belly grew...my shirts would no longer have sufficient material to cover the belly monster.  I'm not sure why that had never occured to me...but it didn't.  I knew I'd be replacing pants, but not shirts.

Well, yesterday I was pretty embarassed by what was previously a fine (and pretty cute) prego outfit...the shirt was too short.  Although the pants had that longer prego-top to them, I just looked straight up weird. 

I was near a Ross and looking for some nylons for my presentation last night and decided to boogy on over to the maternity section to see if there was anything I would like.  I ended up leaving with 5 new tops that I loved and one pair of leggings...which I don't love the look of, but DANG, they're comfy!  And yesterday, comfy won!!

I was always against buying new clothes for maternity time because of the perceived monetary waste - and also what I remember of maternity clothes was YUCK!

But at Ross, each of my blouses were between $6 - $11 (yahooooooooooooo!!) and SERIOUSLY so cute!!!  Here is a little fashion show...

Seriously - it's just nice to know no belly will be sneaking out the bottom!!

Ross is officially my new best friend!  I have a couple more pieces to acquire...I figure two to three more pairs of pregnancy pants and a few super long tank tops...most of these blouses are a little see through.  But I'm feeling good about the next several months.

OH!  And today we're no longer in the "four month" time frame...we've graduated to 3 months, 29 days per the countdown calendar!!

Yeah!  Can't wait to meet our little dude!

Cody's on the move!

Tonight I landed in Jacksonville, Florida.

I have an opportunity to do a 90 minute presentation at the JAX REIA...then an all day class on Saturday.  Looking forward to it.

Cody is getting lots of practice flying...I'm hoping it will teach him to be a good plane-baby - one one of those screamers that you want to buy a shot for.  We'll see (fingers crossed)!!

Last Monday night, Jason and I had our first HypnoBabies class - in the "old days" the popular class was LaMaz...now it's the Bradley Method.  My client Robin told me about how his wife had both of their kids at home, naturally, and the second time went to HypnoBabies and it made a world of difference.

The instructor is actually doing a private lesson since between mine and Jason's travel schedules, we can not even come close to attending on any regular basis.  It's nice because I'm learning about self hypnosis in the same environment where I'll be giving birth to Cody...so with the pets and noises of downtown...it will be familiar territory.

Anyway, it's pretty cool - not exactly what I was expecting, but I'm basically learning how to do self hypnosis specific to giving birth...the goal: a pain free childbirth.  I don't think anyone claims that you don't feel anything - you feel everything, but I'm training my mind for the next four months how to turn off "pain" signals and to read them as "pressure" instead.  Interesting, huh?  The power of the mind in amazing!

Lately I've been obsessed with watching live hypnobabies births on YouTube.  I'm pretty amazed and appreciative at all the resources at my fingertips.  I've seen a range - from people having a very comfortable birth to those who do great for most of it, then hollar a bit at the end.  The screaming at the end part is what is motivating me to make sure I take FULL advantage of the four months to keep training my brain.

I found a cool widget that is a countdown calendar...it was in HTML code, so I didn't know what to do with it, other than create a secret page on my website to keep track of it.  If you want to see the countdown clock on any day, you can go to www.100krealestate.com/due-date.  Today the countdown clock reads 4 months, 1 day.  Wow!

Last week while in our HypnoBabies class, I felt Cody move (definitively) for the first time.  It was pretty substantial...felt kind of like he was turning around or over inside.  It was a weird and very cool feeling.  Ever since then, I've felt him frequently.  It kind of just feels like a bubble in my stomach, but the other night, he was taking an aerobics class (apparently) and I could actually see my stomach moving.  It was very slight, but I was like...woahhhh!!

Anyway, I'm enjoying that.  He's not big enough to cause discomfort yet, so it's mostly just fun knowing he's playing around in there.  According to Baby Center, he's right around 11 inches long and about a pound in weight.  Awww...

In about six weeks, we'll get to go get another sonagram and we'll get the 3D one where we can actually see what he looks like.  Naturally I'll be posting those pix here. 

I'm looking forward to meeting my little dude.

Soon I have to start looking into what baby stuff I need to get, find a registry, etc.  Lots to do.  I'm glad to have four months...I hear it goes fast.  Luckily I have the Happy and Active Preggos walking group to glean from.  Since I've never been around babies, I really don't have the slightest idea. 

Did you know that there are special bras for nursing.  Say what??!!

Oy vey!  Yeah...I'm going to need to start studying up!