Bean, Doing a Headstand

Hi folks! Here's the 5 month sonogram as promised. Not the cutest yet, and I'm pretty sure that I am going to eventually give birth to Skeletor, rather than an actual human that looks like either Tony or myself. Hmmm...maybe Skeletor is a distant cousin of one of ours that I just didn't know about. That would be weird...



I apologize for the wackadoo position for the picture, but my computer refuses to let me rotate the picture. Apparently, Mac seems to know more about picture posting and saving than I do. Whatever.

To talk you through this a bit, Bean is on his/her head, with both hands tucked up next to the left side of his/her face. The two big dark spots are the eyes, and the smaller spot is the nose. Cute, right???

Month five belly pictures are still pending...stay tuned!

Yogurt and the Traveling Freckle

Once upon a time, there was a pregnant lady named Laura who woke up one day and couldn't keep her brain straight anymore. After some time of getting used to this pregnancy, however, Laura thought that maybe she had the whole pregnancy thing wired...she had told all of her students that she was pregnant, and was even getting used to her growing belly. Enjoying it, even. Then, out of nowhere, a young girl stopped Laura when she was in the office of her high school one morning. Laura carried her lunch bag in one hand, some letters to be mailed in the other, and her burgeoning belly poked out a bit from beneath her top (but not in a tacky, white trashy sort of way...she was at school, after all). "What are you having?", the girl asked, pointing to Laura. Due to her unstraightened brain, Laura had a hard time processing the difficulty of the question. She thought about it for a bit, thinking it was strange that the girl would ask her about her lunch bag (because what else could the girl POSSIBLY be asking her about???). Without another thought, however, Laura confidently replied, "I'm having yogurt". The girl looked at Laura like she was a crazy woman with an unstraightened brain, for obvious reasons.

Ok, enough with story time. On a completely different note, I have a deep and meaningful observation that I wanted to share. I have a freckle. Not just any freckle, mind you. This freckle, for as long as I can remember, has lived in the deepest, darkest depths of my belly button. This freckle was the keeper of my belly button, I suppose, as there is very little else in this world that has had such an up-close and personal relationship with this particular part of my anatomy. Low and behold, however, sometime last week I noticed that Mr. Freckle (I don't know how I know that the freckle is male, but it is) was no longer residing in the depths of my belly button. Over the course of the last couple weeks, Mr. Freckle has been taking a little road trip, and now lives just outside and to the right of his former home...belly button adjacent, if you will. Isn't that weird? Pregnancy is strange. It even makes belly button freckles jump ship and find new homes. Interesting...

The Much Anticipated Belly, as Promised...

Alright...my camera and laptop finally made up and I am now able to post the pics of my ever-expanding belly. Woo hoo! Be warned...I look a little skaggy in some (well, most) of these pictures. They were always just before bedtime. Well, without further ado...



month one...I want to qualify that I had only just started back to the gym at this point!



month two...although I think I looked more pregnant last month!



month three...bean is maybe starting to make a cameo???



month four...there's no denying it! there's a bean in there!

P.S. From the looks of these pictures, I need to buy a new tank top! It looks like I've worn the same clothes for 3 months. Always the fashionista...

Updates!

Just a quick note for those of you who might have been curious. Tony and I went to our (almost) 5 month sonogram appointment on Friday, and everything looks great! It took FOREVER, and the doctor was very thorough making sure that all of the Bean's bits were present and accounted for. After over and hour's worth of scanning, we've got 2 hands (with 10 fingers), 2 feet (with 10 toes), 2 ears, 2 eyes, 1 brain (with all of the relevant parts), and 1 heart (with 4 chambers). Yay! Bean was nestled into my pelvis, and lying on his/her left side, so it took awhile to see everything. Bean also had his/her hands up by his/her head, and the legs were politely crossed for the entire appointment. If Bean turns out to be a girl, I think daddy will be pleased at his daughter's modesty! And if Bean is a boy, then mommy is thrilled to see he is already such a little gentleman! In any case, there was no money shot, which is nice, because then I couldn't be tempted to sneak a peak at the screen.

I will post the latest picture once I scan it. Stay tuned!

Lots of Big News!

Ugh! Where does the time go? It was August like 2 days ago and I was letting everyone know about the Bean, and now its already October, I am half way through my pregnancy (holy crap!), and my first term of fall semester. Gheesh! Talk about sleeping on the job!



Hmmm....where to start? Let's start with the raddest news first. Two weeks ago, Mike (Tony's boss), pulled Tony aside and let him know that he was going to be promoted! Tony is now officially the manager of the shipping and receiving department! Yippee! Mike was also promoted, so Tony is taking over some of Mike's old responsibilities (I think...). He'll be trained on the other side of the warehouse business (he was the supervisor for shipping, so now he'll be taking a crash course in receiving). Tony's also training two new hires, both of which will be working Saturdays. Translation? In about a month, month and a half, Tony won't be working on Saturday anymore! Its like Christmas in October! Needless to say, we are SOOO excited about the news. I love that all the hard work Tony puts into his job is so appreciated and that the powers that be take notice of all of it. On another note, his raise is going to make me staying home with the Bean next spring a little easier to manage.

Which brings us to the Bean. Like I said, I am (almost) half way through my pregnancy already. About two weeks ago, I started feeling tiny flutters. Kinda like gas bubbles, kinda like someone is tickling me from inside. For all the mommas out there, you know how weird/amazing the feeling is. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, trust me, its awesome. My belly is quickly expanding, although the scales tell me I've only gained 4 pounds. I was getting away with a hair tie holding my pants together (SUCH a fashion statement), but I'm quickly losing the battle. My best friend, Jana (we'll get to her in a minute!), turned me on to the most amazing invention of all time--the belly band. I can leave all my pants unbuttoned (and unzipped), pull the band on top of the open waistband, and voila! It does my ego a world of good that I can keep wearing my regular pants for a little longer before I have to give in to maternity jeans. Probably about the same time as the flutters did any of my students start noticing that Mrs. J might have been keeping something from them. I walked past one of my freshmen the other day, and Cynthia takes a long, hard look at me (well, my belly) and asks, "Ms. K...are there maybe some congratulations in order??". Not that I was trying to hide it from them, I just felt like it was weird to announce it to them on the first day of school. Aside from my ever expanding belly (which I LOVE, by the way!), I feel great. Lots of energy, sleeping much better than I was during my first trimester, and I am trying to get myself to the gym 2-3 days a week. I have an insatiable sweet tooth lately (I could eat a planet size portion of ice cream!), but I am trying to satisfy my urges by eating lots of fruit instead. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't... Ce la vie.



And my last bit of news, which in my opinion is the BEST news to date (aside from the promotion...nope, its even better than the promotion), is that my best friend, Jana, gave birth to the most BEAUTIFUL baby boy on Tuesday night. She was (almost) two weeks overdue, and after her checkup on Monday, her doctors decided that she should be induced on Wednesday morning. Low and behold, I get the call from her Tuesday morning to tell me that her water broke at 2:30, and that she and Mike were admitted to the hospital at 3:30. Poor thing had a pretty rough labor all Tuesday; spent about 15 hours with a baby in her pelvis and only half way through her progression. She made it to 6 cms by maybe 6 ish that night (it took an hour to get there), where she got stuck again for another couple hours. At 8-8:30, her doctors decided that either her pelvis was too narrow (information that would have been useful hours ago, I expect), Seamonkey's head was too swollen from the contractions, or that he had grown too big during his extra week and a half of baking time, or a combo of all of them. In any case, Jana had a C-section at 9:30, and at just after 10, Ryden Phoenix Onori appeared! He was 8 pounds, 8 ounces, and I think 21 inches long. Dark(ish) hair, almost lavender eyes because they are so blue/grey. He also has the most adorable dimple in his chin. He's perfect (which his pictures can attest to), and Jana and Mike are doing great. I can't BELIEVE that my best friend that I have known since 2nd grade has a baby! Talk about time flying!



I'm sure there is more that I am forgetting, but now that I started talking about Ryden, I am having a hard time focusing. I'll keep everyone posted. I have a sonogram tomorrow, I'll let everyone know the updates soon!