Hello avid readers! So I’m getting ready to leave for my last day at work and decided to sit down and write a little entry. Boy are we getting close now!! I’m considered full-term tomorrow and I’m really starting to feel like it could happen any day! The last month seems to have flown buy. With all of the preparations in our house, classes at the hospital, and general excitement, I can’t seem to figure out where the time has gone. I feel like the first 8 months took forever but the last month only took seconds to pass. On Monday we went for a tour of the maternity floor at the hospital and that was really fun. It really made the whole thing real for me. I was going to be in one of these rooms in a few weeks helping with the debut of a new human to the world. Wow, that is so crazy!! But it is also so beautifully awesome.

Here’s what I’m feeling lately:
I hope the delivery goes well.
I hope and pray that the baby is safe.
I hope I will be a good mother.
I hope I can teach her to love her fellow man.
I hope I can give her an appreciation for culture, nature, art, music, dance, literature, science, history, etc.
I hope she desires to know God.
I hope I can teach her to be kind, compassionate, loving, patient, gracious, and joyful.
I hope I can teach her the benefits of service without the expectation of something in return.
I hope I can teach her to appreciate today and not to live for what is going to happen tomorrow.
I hope she truly knows what unconditional love is and feels it coming from Jason and I every day.
I hope I can teach her not to quit at something even though it is hard. That the harder something is, the greater the value it possesses.
I hope she finds a love like the love that I share with Jason. Similar to the love I see in the loving relationships in both of our families.
I hope she has an opportunity to see the world.
I hope she grows to see the beauty of her own children and grandchildren.
I hope she gets to experience what it is like to live in a world of peace.

I guess only the future will tell whether my hopes and dreams will come true, but I’m going to do my part to make them happen.

To my little baby girl:

I am so excited to greet you into the world, to see the inquisitive child you will become, and the amazing woman you will turn out to be. All of life’s greatest treasures await you and I can’t wait to see you discover them all and share in the joy, love, passion, pain, excitement, sorrow, ecstasy, and pleasure they produce. You are my love and even now my greatest accomplishment.

Oh baby!! We are almost there!! I am shocked that I am 35 weeks tomorrow. It has just blown my mind! Things have been going very well. She’s a very active girl and I am really having fun feeling her move around inside me. Her movements now are completely different. Before it was like I would get these little (or sometimes big) kicks in one specific place. Well now, I will feel her kick me on the top left side of my tummy and then feel it on the right and then towards the bottom. Sometimes I think that she is gently caressing the inside of the womb because it won’t be a kick but more like a tickle from the inside. Another exciting development is that she has had the hiccups a few times. That feels really strange. Her head is down now and so I feel this rhythmic beating low in my belly. Very strange. It usually doesn’t last very long but when it is going on I’m always amazed.

Let’s see… I have a breastfeeding class tonight at the Mother-Baby assessment center. I’m not sure exactly what is going to happen but it is good that they help to prepare you for feeding the baby. St. Joseph’s is really big on breastfeeding and the lactation specialist will come and visit me while I am in the hospital to help work out any kinks. I’m hoping that it will work for me. I think that breastfeeding is one of the most beautiful bonding things that a mother can do with her child and I really hope that I can take part in that activity. I mean, bottle feeding will be ok too but I don’t feel like it will be the same.

Jason and I (mostly Jason) have been doing a ton of work around the house in preparation for the baby. Jason and I took an inventory of all of the baby stuff that we have received as gifts as well as bought ourselves to see what we really need. So this past weekend he and I went on a whirlwind shopping spree to pick up all the stuff that we were still in the need of. It is funny, babies sure do need a lot of stuff. I mean, even if you are being pretty frugal with your purchases, there is a whole bunch of things that are a must for every new baby. After we got home we assessed all of it and Jason said that all of a sudden it felt very “real” to him. He said that before, my expanding belly was cool, but all the stuff filling up our house made it hit him that in a few weeks there is going to be a new addition to our family.

We also have been working on rearranging our house so that we could have a new addition. Mom is going to come out for a few weeks to be there for the delivery, help with the baby, and just be a general support grandmumzy. Well, we have a two bedroom apartment and it is very full of grown-up life so we needed to put stuff away and make it more comfortable for both her and the rest of us. We decided to take down all of our bookshelves and put the books into storage. Boy was that a big job. If you can believe it, and if you’ve been in our house you can, we filled up over 25 book boxes with books and poor Jason had to carry them all out into our storage closet. I swear I thought that he was going to collapse with exhaustion! I know that I did, and all I did was fill up the boxes and take apart bookshelves. We (he) then moved our guest bed and brought in all of the boxes of baby essentials. It was a crazy Labor Day weekend.

Another thing that we did was put together the labor bag. It was really funny thinking about grabbing the bag because “we’ve got to go to the hospital.” It isn’t quite finished being packed but it is getting really close. Picking out what outfit the baby should come home in was really special. I mean, what would you chose? We finally settled on a pretty gown/nighty thing that has elastic at the bottom. Babies can’t wear onesies until the umbilical cord falls off so they were out and I didn’t really think it was appropriate for the baby to come home in a dress or something. So we settled on PJ’s. I mean, she’s probably going to be living in pajamas for a while anyway. I do have to admit that we have in our bag right now about 3 different nighties. Because, I mean come on, what if she doesn’t like the first one… a girl has got to have choices!! Hehe If you have any ideas or want to tell me what your little girl/boy came home in, I’m all ears.

We are going to the OB every other week now. Last time (on Thursday of last week) the nurse practioner we saw estimated that the baby was a little over 5 pounds. She’s getting to be a big little love. Tomorrow I’ll be two weeks away from full-term and so she’s really filling out a bunch right now. Getting that baby fat that we all love so much!! It is so funny how you can be in love with someone that you’ve never seen. It is like we are communicating through some sort of tummy e-mail. She kicks or nudges, I rub or talk to her. Oh my, I’m being classically conditioned… or maybe she is. We are having a short distance romance!! I’m so excited to meet her and see what kind of baby she is going to be. Is she going to be active or mellow? Expressive or more serious? Happy or moody? I don’t know but I am so excited to find out.

I feel like the words of a Steve Wonder song:

“I was made to love her, worship and adore her… hey hey hey… all through thick and thin, our love just won’t end… because I love my baby, love my baby HHHEEYYY!!!!”
– I Was Made to Love Her

So this past weekend my girlfriends (Dara, Kris, Nathalie, and Heather) threw me (the baby) a lovely shower. It was at Kris and Nathalie’s house in Long Beach and was attended by a whole bunch of great women. It was in their back yard and was so pretty. There were lovely flowers on each table and the best food ever. Nathalie is a FABULOUS chef and really outdid herself. There was amazing salads, delicious quiche, and yummy drinks (oohh.. the lemonade was to die for!!). Dara got a wonderful cake (white cake with chocolate frosting inside and white frosting on top) from this great bakery near her house. In addition, Heather (who is also an amazing chef) made these delicious pies. They were magnificent!! It was a little hot but wasn’t like it has been in the past few months in California. Dara’s baby was in attendance. Spencer was born in December and is about the cutest baby boy that I’ve ever seen. I would love it if our new little lady and Spence were to fall in love…. Ok, a bit of a pipe dream but hey, a girl can dream!! I also have two girlfriends who are expecting and it was fun to see both of them. Roberta is due one month after me and she and her husband have decided not to find out the sex of the baby. I don’t think that I would have been able to do that, but they are going to wait. My other friend Jen (who is the wife of Jason’s closest childhood friend David) is due one week before me and is having a girl too. Once again, my fantasy world comes into play… I would love it if their daughter and our daughter were to become best friends like Jason and David were. That would be so cool!!! But who knows where we will all end up. I’ll just hope that we all end up near each other so there’s a chance!!! It was so cool to see lots of women together talking about babies, being a parent, becoming a parent, etc. It was especially interesting/funny to see the reactions of my girlfriends without kids about the strange things about pregnancy and delivery. I think that there is a big secret that moms keep from those who don’t have any children yet in order to insure women continue to get pregnant. Then after you are pregnant, and have no escape, all the crazy stories and interesting tidbits come out of the closet. My friend Heather had her face in her hands a few times when hearing about pregnancy!! Too funny. It kind of reminded me of the little party that I had the night before I got married. At that event there were almost 10 women in attendance that had been in marriages over 20 years and it was fabulous to be able to pick their brains about marriage. The same could be said about the shower. Lots of mothers of all ages giving their experiences in being a mother.

Well, I was so blessed for several reasons on Sunday. First, my mom and sister Ellie flew out especially for the shower and it was so wonderful having them share the experience with me. Second, my friends were so generous in giving gifts to the baby. While I knew this, I didn’t totally comprehend it, babies require a ton of stuff and it was so wonderful for my friends to help fill those needs. My friends are all so great and I appreciate them more than words can say. While I could list all the gifts, I think it best left said that the love for the baby was really flowing and I could feel it in every gift I opened.

After the shower we headed back to our house and hung out and relaxed. Ellie and Mom went home on Monday but I hope to see them soon for the big event!!

Oh yes, check out our baby birthday pool and place a guess as to the baby’s birth date, weight, length, etc…. you could win some serious cash!!

http://www.expectnet.com/games/ColemanBabyGame

Love to you all…

Sarah

Hello loyal readers!

So we had an exciting weekend. Today we went up to Glendale to have a 4-D ultrasound done of the baby. IT WAS AWESOME (make sure you check out the photos!!)!! It was so cool to see how she “really” looks today. While I’m totally biased of course, she’s such a cute little girl!! I think her lips look like Jason’s and she has my chubby cheeks. The ultrasound lasted about 25 minutes and started with the determination of the gender. Yep, she’s still a girl. We were a little worried about finding out the sex of the baby. We have gotten set on having a girl and we were talking on the drive up what we would do if they then told us that it was a boy. That would have been out of control crazy… but thankfully we didn’t have to cross that bridge. Then we looked at her heart and we got to hear her heart while the ultrasound was taking place. Every time I hear her heart beat my heart beats a little stronger. So the ultrasound tech then went up to the baby’s head and zoomed in. The ultrasound started out as a standard ultrasound and then when she would find “something of interest” she would switch it to the 3-D one. Unfortunately she was a bit shy and so she slept most of the time but we really got to see all of her. She also had the umbilical cord in front of her mouth for some of it which distorted the view for a bit. That said it was so cool being able to see her move her mouth, move her lungs like she was breathing, smile, and pucker her lips. In addition, her feet and toes were so precious. Just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen (well, next to her lovely face). So after 25 minutes of oohing and aahing we were finished. The place ended up taking about 40 images of the babe, we got a video of the whole ultrasound procedure set to music, and a photo album of all the photos taken. It was a really special time.

I told Jason that I’m probably going to watch the video about 100 times before the baby comes. He replied, “Well duh…”

Then yesterday we had the second of our prepared childbirth classes. We talked all about labor and delivery, different problems which could occur, drugs, and other things that each of the moms and dads in the class had been thinking about .It was really great. The instructor was an ex-hippie labor and delivery nurse who used to live in Boulder. She had lots of funny anecdotes and interesting information. It was so cool being around other expectant families while listening to others concerns and hopes. I got information from other moms that I hadn’t thought of myself. We were the least far along out of any of the couples in the class but it was the date that the Mother Baby Assessment center signed us up for. Some of the things that we went over were the stages of labor, how long they last, what they feel like, how to get through them, and what the support person should be doing during each stage. We also went over the medical “stuff” associated with pregnancy including the fetal monitors and other devices, pre- and post- delivery care, what exactly actually happens during labor, etc. We also got to learn about what happens in a C-section. Finally we reviewed from last week the breathing exercises to help with pain management. These exercises seem really helpful and I can totally see Jason helping me with them. He and I are such a great team that when I’m in pain I know he will be able to get me to focus my energy away from the pain and onto the breathing. They also suggest bringing in a focal point as well as music to help distract you from the pain. It’s going to be an interesting time…. We’ve got to practice our breathing!! Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho-Heeeee…. Ha-He-Ha-He…. And finally the deep abdomen breath through the nose and then slowly out through the mouth….

I find it fascinating to think about how important the support person(s) are. Mostly it is fathers but at the class there were also moms and one mom and father. I think that having people there who love you, understand the goal, and want to support you is so important in helping a pregnant woman to get through one of the most challenging activities in their lives. I mean, if stage 1 of labor takes at least 12 hours, stage 2 at least 4, stage 3 between 1-3 hours, and stage 4 around 1 hour we’re talking about 20 hours at least of labor. That’s a ton of time and I know having those I love around me will help me get through it. Well, I guess that’s it for now. I’m off to bed.

Love to you all.

Sarah

P.S. One last thing about the ultrasound, she did a bunch of measurements and determined that the baby weighs around 3 lbs 11 ounces right now . She’s right on track. So cool!!!!!!!

Sorry for my delay in writing... sometimes there is a lot and other times not much is going on.

So we went to another parenting/pregnancy prep class on Wednesday night. It was very interesting. A Pediatrician and an Anesthesiologist came and gave little lectures on parenting and delivery. The lecture given by the Pediatrician was very good. She talked all about what to expect, what you should know and remember, and basically gave a pep talk for all us new parents. I felt excited about what she was saying and Jason wrote down lots of notes of important things to remember.... Then the Anesthesiologist got up to speak. It was like he came in with the attitude, "Let's see if I can scare the hell out of all these women and their partners." He gave explicit details about the bad stuff that could happen with an epidural. Now I know it is important for women to be educated as to the risks, but I don't think that it was necessary for him to give all the bad stuff right off the bat. To top it all off, he was very insistent that the pain of childbirth was so great that even the women in the room, who were planning on natural childbirth, will be calling on him during their delivery to give them the epidural. I was like, "Huh? Women have been having babies for millions of years without drugs and who is he to tell these women that plan to do it naturally that he knows the pain will be so strong that they will seek him (or one of his colleagues) out for the drugs?" So I don't know... here's my feelings right now about epidurals:

I have a bunch of friends who have recently had babies and some had epidurals while others ended up having a c-section. I don't have any friends who went natural (while many of them had hoped to before hand). I mean, is it really necessary for someone to endure pain when they don't have to? I'm not so sure. But I do know that there are risks. When I had the lumbar puncture and experienced the spinal headache it was the most pain that I had ever experienced. Well... I learned from the friendly neighborhood anesthesiologist that there is a chance that they put the needle in too far, hit the spinal column and again give me a spinal headache. So here's the real question... I KNOW that labor is going to be painful and difficult. I KNOW that the spinal headache is the worst thing on the planet. But is the risk of getting the spinal headache worth the alleviation of the pains of childbirth OR do the rewards outweigh the potential risks of the side effect? I'm not sure right now. I don't know what I would do with a newborn if I had a headache like the one I had. I mean Jason stayed home from work, Ellie was over a ton, and my mom flew out from St. Louis to help take care of me when it happened before. I'm not sure how I would handle a newborn with that kind of pain. Would love your thoughts on this topic… to drug or not to drug… that is the question.

Let’s see…. I’m 28 weeks and just about to start my third trimester. I can’t believe how quickly the time has rushed by. At the beginning, it seemed as though October was a million miles away and now we are 12 weeks away from the arrival of our bundle of love. It is so awesome. I know Jason put in his diary entry last week that the baby has been very active. Well… that is an understatement. She is moving and shaking all the time now. It is so cool. She has also started a new thing where I feel her pushing out of my belly. It is like she is resting her back along my back and pushing out with all 4 limbs. It is strange because all of a sudden I will have this ache right in the middle of my stomach and it feels like pressure from the inside. I’ve also started to be able to tell when her head is up near my belly button. It feels like a round thing pushing out. Her kicking, which was little flutters and bumps have now turned into pretty significant kicks. I was lying in bed the other night and had a book on my belly. She started to kick and I could see the book rocking on my tummy. She was actually kicking me so hard that the book was really moving. I had Jason put his hand on my tummy and he just couldn’t believe how much the baby was kicking. He remarked that, “These aren’t anything like the way she was kicking before.”

I went to a friends baby shower yesterday. It was really fun. They did a few fun games and it was great to see her and all the women just loving her. She is due the early/middle of August and is having a boy. One of the cool things that they did was the hosts had purchased a whole bunch of blank onesees, bibs, and shirts as well as some of that t-shirt paint in lots of colors. People were able to make their own clothes for the baby. Some people made bibs that said things like “I love daddy, I love mommy, I love food, I love aunt Emily the best” others made artwork with lions, flowers, boats (that’s what I did), etc. The kids that came to the party really got into it. It was too fun. They then strung them out on clothes lines in the back yard so everyone could admire the work.

The woman who was having a baby is a friend of mine from grad school so in attendance were a bunch of other friends from school including Dara, Laura, Suzy and her daughter Jennifer. Well… Jason and I decided to do a bath theme for our gift and bought her the bath tub on her registry, a hoodie towel, some bath toys, and a bath thermometer shaped like a rubber ducky. So I get to the party and shortly Dara arrives and I see her bringing in the same bath tub. That was ok since she could always return it for something else she needed, but the really funny thing is that Dara and I got Janel the EXACT same present. We both got her the tub, hoodie towel, bath toys and bath thermometer. How crazy is that?? I told her that great minds think alike!

Baby stats….

Our baby weighs a little over 2 pounds and measures about 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can open her eyes — which now sport lashes — and she'll turn her head toward a continuous, bright light from the outside. Her fat layers are beginning to form, too, as she gets ready for life outside the womb.

I will try to write more frequently. Love to you all.

Having a baby moving around inside me is one of the most amazing feelings I have ever experienced. It is addictive. I crave it. It is as though the little one is just nudging me as if to say, "hey mom, I'm here." But thankfully she is so active that I usually don't have to wait long to get my fix. They started out as little flutterings (as you can see from my previous entry) but now they are more substantial. As a matter of fact, yesterday morning I was reclining in the living room and the baby started moving like crazy. So I looked down at my pajamas and I could see the kicking through my clothes. OH MY GOD it was amazing!! Actually, it was one of the greatest things that I have experienced thus far in this pregnancy. Hearing the heart beat was awesome, but actually seeing the baby moving inside me was something on a whole other level. She is actually manipulating the world.

So many of you (my 1 reader) might know that in the month of October the 300,000,000 American will be born. The www.census.gov web page that keeps track and reports that every 11 seconds there is a net population gain in the US of one person. So by those calculations the 300 mil American will be born 122 days from today. Well... I'm due 115 days from today. So, in order for our baby to be the 300 mil American I'm going to have to deliver one week late. Or the net population gain rate will need to increase to one every 10 seconds. The reason why I'm saying this is that it would be totally cool for our little one to be that girl... so maybe if we work together, I'll try to go late, and you all (the 1 of you) need to start urging people who are thinking about becoming American citizens to change their mind. We could also resort to driving a bit more erratically and failing to help people in need. I figure if we (you, me, and Jason) work together we could totally increase the population gain rate. All in jest of course!

However, if you want to keep track of the numbers as we get closer and closer to delivery, check out that web page. It is pretty cool. As I write this entry, the current US population is 299,038,612 and the world population is 6,523,806,312. That's a lot of people!! Many more than McDonalds can serve!!

I guess that's all for now. Love to you all and have a wonderful Thursday.

Sarah

Oh... I forgot the baby stats...

- Our little girl is now more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. Wohoo!!!
- Her skin is red and wrinkled.
- Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare her for breathing.
- She's long and lean and starting to fill out now. Getting chubbier as we speak!

I think she know's I'm writing about her because she's moving like mad in my tummy!!

Love to you all.

I hope, now that I know what I am looking for, I will feel them more frequently. I know that eventually they will be indistinguishable, but for now we are going to have to hope for more flutterings.

Love to you all.

Oh boy!!! Or should I say girl!!! We had an exciting Thursday. This morning at 7:30am we had the appointment for our 20 week ultrasound. We were so excited. I could hardly sleep. I kept waking up and looking at the clock. I had the same feelings that I used to have as a kid before we left on vacation or the first day of school. The anticipation was so great that you could feel it in the air. Well… we left the house at 6:30am to head to the imaging center. It is only about 15 minutes away but with rush hour traffic we didn’t know what to expect. We got to the office and were one of the first patients to arrive.

Jason had brought with him our new video camera so he could record the ultrasound and was excited to use it. Unfortunately, the office didn’t allow video taping so we had to settle for watching it ourselves and the pictures they gave us to take home. We were really excited about this ultrasound because we were hopefully going to find out the baby’s gender. So the ultrasound started and the technician is looking around at the baby’s heart, brain, stomach, spine, legs, etc. to determine growth. It was so amazing. At our ultrasound at 11 weeks the baby was clear but the parts of the body weren’t very well defined. This time it was awesome!! We could see the bones of the spine, the ribs, the hands, arms, etc. It really looked like a baby!!

So each time the technician would attempt to find out the baby’s sex the baby seemed to know that the ultrasound probe was coming and would cross its legs in front of him/her. So we were getting really discouraged. I mean, we had been there for 25 minutes and no pepe view!! So I got up, went to the lieu, walked around and then we tried again. Still, the little babe didn’t want to show its privates. So the technician had me lay on my side (as if to get the baby to roll over) and then we tried again. Voila! There it is!! …. Or in this case isn’t! The technician said rather emphatically, “Looks like you are having a girl.”

WELL…. At this point Jason and I looked at each other in a bit of shock. We both had really felt like we were having a boy and to hear her say that we were having a girl instead, just stunned both of us. Wowza!! So we got some images of the baby, including a few of her girl parts and went home. In the car we called all of the family and most of them were surprised too. The only exceptions were the two grandfathers. John and John (hehe) just knew that it was going to be a girl so when we called to tell them they both remarked, “oh, I knew it all along..”

So there you have it…

Ok, so it has been almost a month since my last entry... but once you get in the middle of your pregnancy, I guess not much happens for a while. That is until this week. I am officially 20 weeks tomorrow and we have our 20 week ultrasound scheduled for Thursday morning at 7:30am. We are psyched! Twenty weeks is the typical ultrasound where you can get a better guess as to the sex of the baby, and we are ready to go!! Last week I had a regular doctors appointment and while the appointment was going on Jason asked our doctor... "can't you do an ultrasound now so we don't have to wait until next week to see if it is a boy or a girl??" Our doctor replied... if only I had more time. Jason left feeling very frustrated!! Besides that our appoinment went well. I had an AFP done a few weeks back and the doctor said that all tests for fetal abnormalities came back negative. We felt very relieved. We also got to hear for the first time the baby's heart beat. At our previous appointment the doctor had trouble hearing the heart beat but this time... it was as clear as a bell.. "wschwowa wowa wowa wowa..."

Give you more news on Thursday. Love you all.

Sarah

Well, last week definitely had its ups and downs. So we had a doctor’s appointment on Monday and were very pleased to find out that everything is progressing as it should. You are supposed to gain one pound a week for the first few months of your pregnancy and since my last doctor’s appointment (4 weeks ago) I have gained 4 pounds. We also got to have a quick ultrasound (without photos for us unfortunately ) and saw that the baby is a lot bigger than it was 5 weeks ago. It was so cool. Finally we got the results back from my glucose test and thankfully I passed on all 4 of the blood draws…. WHEW!!!! I was so relieved. When I was working at UCLA on a pregnancy study right after graduating from college, I learned all about gestational diabetes and how it can affect the baby and the mother. I was shocked to learn that a proportion of mothers who have gestational diabetes remain diabetic after they deliver. I really didn’t want to add that risk onto everything else. I just have to be careful now so that I don’t develop it in the rest of the pregnancy.

I also wanted to say, since I haven’t posted since before Easter, that I LOVED SEEING ELLIE AND ERIC when they made their surprise visit to California. Every time I see them I am reminded how much I miss them. I know that we visited Texas only a few weeks ago, but I still felt the pains of their departure.

Ok, so the bad… Being a girl and boy living in student housing, we have not been afforded the luxury (although some might call it a necessity) of a washer and dryer in our home. We have had to do with using the University facilities for our laundry services. Well, the washers and dryers at UCI suck. I mean really suck. Sometimes they don’t wash, other times you will put all of your money into the dryer and it will run but without any heat. So I decided, heck with them, I’m going to take my clothes to the laundry mat. So every Tuesday (or Thursday) I would load up the car with the laundry and head on over to Costa Mesa (the closest laundry mat to us) and do my laundry in those big machines with the huge industrial dryers. It was fabulous.

Well… on Thursday I had an exceptionally large load of laundry because I was washing a bunch of maternity clothes that my wonderful mother has purchased for me around the country. Maternity clothes are a strange thing. They are a bit pricy and you don’t wear them for long so my mom was gracious and looked at a few thrift stores around her area and while traveling with my dad and found a bunch of beautiful things. She found pants, jeans, capris, really cute tops, and even some shorts. I got quite the haul from her. So to get them ready for wearing, I took them all over to get washed.

I washed everything as usual and then put all my clothes into three dryers separating out all of the jeans and slacks so they could be dried on hot. I then went and sat in my car, right in front of the laundry mat, to wait the hour for the clothes to be dry. Well… apparently while I was sitting in my car, someone went into the mat and stole my entire load of jeans. I walked in and was completely dumfounded. How could someone steal my clothes right out from under me? To make matters worse, a whole bunch of the clothes that were stolen were the great maternity clothes that my mother got me. I was devastated. Hormones go crazy during pregnancy and so there I was, standing in the laundry mat and crying like mad. One of the ladies who was there folding her clothes said that two men (one with a limp) came in and started taking clothes out of dryers and putting them in bags. They only stopped when they got to one of her dryers and she called them on it. So it ended up that all of Jason’s jeans, my favorite pre-pregnancy jeans, and a whole bunch of maternity clothes were taken. I am still in shock.

I have to stay happy and not bitter about mankind but I was really disheartened by those evil thieves. I mean, the people that use laundry mats are not the wealthiest members of society. Those individuals have washers and dryers in their homes. So basically the people who stole my clothes were stealing from their own people. In this case, me. So now I need to do laundry again and am unsure where to go. I don’t want to return to the scene of the crime but the laundry is piling up. A friend of mine said that there is a really nice laundry mat down the street from the one I went to, but what if the men are casing that laundry mat too??

Jason always takes a positive look at everything. He said, “You know honey, it could have been worse. At least all they got were some clothes.” I guess that is true.

But, if you see a man with a limp, walking around in maternity jeans, call the police… because he’s our man.

Love to you all.

Sarah

Just a quick post to keep you up to date on the baby stats:

At around 4 inches long, crown to rump, the baby now weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. (still so far from the 8 lbs we need to get to, but things are about to get moving... fast!)

The baby's legs are growing longer than it's arms now and it can move all of its joints and limbs now. That means the baby's hands are more functional, too.

The baby is busy inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which will help develop the air sacs in its lungs.

Although the eyelids are still fused shut, the baby can sense light. If we were to shine a flashlight at the tummy, the baby is likely to move away from the beam. Sweat glands are also appearing. Also, while there isn't much for the baby to taste at this point, but its taste buds are beginning to form.

The sex characteristics are well formed and so in our next ultrasound we should be able to find out the sex (that is unless he/she is hiding it from us).

So that's the stats...

Love to you all.

Sarah

All I have to say is this glucose test is killing me. I never really realized how hard it is to eat over 300 carbohydrates in a day. I mean it is easy to do if you are eating cookies, hohos, snickers bars, etc. But since my chief concern is to make sure that I am getting the right nutrition for the babe, it is damn hard to make it to 300. I feel like I am eating so much more (and stranger) than usual. For instance:

Yesterday's lunch:

two carrots
half a cucumber with onions (in vinegar)
baked potato with sour cream
hot chocolate with extra sugar added
two slices of toast with cinnamon and sugar
two small oranges
a glass of orange juice
cottage cheese

It is crazy. I'll be so happy when the silly test is done tomorrow morning. I just pray that I don't have gestational diabetes because that is going to make this pregnancy so much more difficult. Oh boy!!

Our next Dr. Appt is next week so that is cool. I'm 14 weeks today I think that my next scheduled ultrasound is probably between 18-20 weeks and then we will really be able to see the sex of the baby! I'm going to insist that the appointment be at the hospital so we can have the ultrasound machine that also has audio. The one at the Doctor's office only has visual and I really want to HEAR that heart beat, not just see it beating away on the monitor. I think Jason and I need to invest in a video camera now. I think we could video the ultrasound and then put it up on the web... I have friends who have taken video of the ultrasound machine while the processes was going on and then posted it to their web page. Any suggestions on a good, small, camera??

Love to you all.

Sarah

It’s funny… being pregnant you really start to pay attention to your own body. It is as though you are searching for any signs that something is going on inside you…

“ooh, that was a strange feeling… could it be the little one moving… probably not, too soon…”

But wait, “here’s something else I’ve never experienced before, or have I but I never noticed it… could that be the baby trying to signal me from within?”

“Oh boy do I go pee a lot now that I’m pregnant… but wait, I am trying to drink a lot more water to stay hydrated so that could be the reason…”

I have experienced very few pregnancy symptoms thus far and so it is still really hard to believe that something is going on in there… I mean I’ve seen the ultrasound images and have taken all the tests but I still feel like people are trying to pull one over on me. I’m not showing, not sick, just tired (but that could be because of school). I’m a scientist… I need some tangible proof!

I was watching Gray’s Anatomy last night. It was a rerun but it was still really funny. There was this man on the show that was pregnant. Well… his wife was pregnant and he looked just like her (about 8 months). At first the guy was admitted to the psych ward because they thought he was crazy. They thought he was having pseudocyesis or a phantom pregnancy. Pseudocyesis is "a condition in which a woman (or in this case a man) firmly believes herself to be pregnant and develops objective pregnancy signs in the absence of pregnancy." (Sidebar.. hmm… maybe that’s what is going on with me.. I’m experiencing a psuedocyesis… nope.. no objective pregnancy signs at this time… must be the real thing) Strangly, Mary Queen of Scotts experienced phantom pregnancy and for a long time was convinced that she was pregnant. When she finally realized that she wasn't, she went on a killing rampage throughout Scottland and England expressing her anger. Well, on the show, It turns out that he had this special type of tumor which led his body to come up positive on a pregnancy test, produced similar symptoms, and even grow some of the characteristics of a human (e.g. teeth, hair, bones, etc.).

It got me thinking about men and pregnancy. I understand that pregnancy is hard for men. They aren’t involved in the “cooking process”, they don’t understand what is going on, and they can’t help because so much is out of anyone’s control. So some expectant fathers start to experience their own pregnancy symptoms. At first I thought this was kind of cute, but the more I think about it the more confused I am about the whole thing. Are they actually feeling something or is it sympathy pains? I mean, sometimes if someone I know is sick or injured I can totally start to feel the same way. Ooh, I’ve been feelings kind of icky, oh, I’ve had a bit of trembling, my throat has been hurting, so I must be catching that cold that is going around. Jason will occasionally be talking to someone about his symptoms and all I can think is… how is that possible? I understand that he and I are connected hormonally but is he really feeling something when he says that he has an aversion to chicken? Is it the same as my aversion? I can’t even think about chicken without getting sick to my stomach. It is probably sympathy pains. He's not attention seeking but just sympathizing (to an extreme) about how I am feeling. I wish so much that he could be more involved in this thing. I mean, going to the doctor with me, reading baby books, and doing research on pregnancy issues is fabulous and very important, but he doesn't really get the "experience" of pregnancy.

Maybe I’m just feeling selfish. I wish that he could experinece some of the good and bad stuff. I wish that pregnancy was something that a couple could pass back and forth. So if he and I were to go to Disneyland and wanted to go on California Screamin’ he could go on it first, then he can be pregnant and I can go on it. I wish that while I have been sick he could have be pregnant so I could take some Nyquil and get better sooner… I also wish that he could experience the fascinating changes in my body or the intense emotions that I am feeling about becoming a mother. But it isn’t that way.

I guess that’s all I’ve got for now. I’m in the middle of a three day glucose test and must now go and find myself a very strange lunch. I have to eat at least 300 grams of carbohydrates each day. You might think that is easy. Sure it is… all I need to do is eat 15 Snickers bars and I’m there. But I guess that isn’t the kind of carbs they want you to consume. I’ve got to eat starch, high sugar veggies, few low sugar veggies, breads, fruit, milk, granulated sugar, etc. So strange.

Love to you all and TTFN!

Oh, the trials and tribulations of pregnancy... So this week I've developed the worst head cold. Typically head colds hit me pretty hard but this cold has really run me through the ringer. Apparently when you are pregnant your immune system is suppressed so that it does not attack the foreign invader (aka baby) growing inside you. Well... It sure does make it hard to get feeling better after a cold. And then there are virtually no cold medicines that you can take to help relieve the cold symptoms. So I just sit here, writing in misery, while my head feels like it weighs more than a bowling ball and every sound seems like it is coming from the next room... hoping that the cloud will lift and once again I can rejoin society as a functional human being.

On another topic, we went to the Yeah Baby Expo today. It was like a Bridal Expo but for baby stuff. It was pretty cool. I can't believe all of the baby stuff that is out there. Some of the stuff seems to be a bit extreme but other stuff seems pretty useful. One thing that I thought seemed really useful was those shopping cart inserts for the child seats. They are these neat pillowy things that fit inside where the child sits and makes it a nice safe place for the baby to sit. So cool. There were also lots of interesting educational toys, Baby's-r-Us had a huge display (of course), and lots of other cool stuff. There were a couple of booths on saving cord blood, which were really interesting. Such a good idea.

Let's see... baby stats...

The baby is now 3 inches long
About the size of a jumbo shrimp and weighs just about an ounce
CIT is now fully formed and much more proportional than it was a few weeks ago
Tiny, unique fingerprints are already in place
The kidneys and urinary tract are functional, and CIT has starting to urinate out the amniotic fluid she/he has been swallowing

Well, that's about it for now. If anyone has any ideas about how to fight this cold... let me know.

Ciao'

So on Monday Jason and I went to the OB and had our first ultrasound. It was amazing. We were in this little room with the lights off and the nurse put the probe on my belly and there the baby was... It is strange, before Monday I knew I was pregnant, I had symptoms of pregnancy, but it didn't really hit me that there was a little body growing inside me. It was so cool to see the legs, arms, tummy, and head. And then she moved the probe and all of a sudden there was this pulsing thing on the center of the display... the baby's heart beat. Wow. It was so amazing. Jason and I both got teary eyed. A little guy just coasting along inside me. The baby's heart beat was so fast. It was 184 beats per minute. I looked at the heart rate monitor and was shocked to see it going so fast. That baby was really working hard! S/he is 3.64 cm long and is growing right on schedule. Wow, being pregnant sure is awesome. It is so amazing to think that you are the carrier of a new life. It is completely dependent on you and your purpose is to foster the creation of this new human. What an amazing responsibility. Seeing the baby on the ultrasound machine really brought that home for me. Right now, I am the most important thing to my child and I want to do everything I can to create an environment ripe for baby growth. Wowza...

Here are the current stats:

Tiny fingernails, toenails, and peach-fuzz hair — have started to appear The fingers are now completely separated
The arms bend at the elbow and curve slightly
The hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over her heart
The legs are lengthening
The feet may be long enough to meet in front of her body
The baby is busy swallowing amniotic fluid and kicking her legs.
The baby is no longer considered an embryo - it is now a fetus
It is the size of a kumquat — just an inch or so long, crown to bottom —
The baby weighs less than a quarter of an ounce
The baby's vital organs — the liver, kidney, intestines, brain, and lungs — are now in place and have started to function
The liver continues to make blood cells, and the yolk sac, which previously supplied these cells, is no longer needed and begins to disappear.

The uterus is now the size of a grapefruit (it started out the size of a pear)

So cool...

Well, we are off to visit Auntie Ellie and Uncle Eric tomorrow. It should be great fun to explore Austin with them. Little CIT will have his/her first plane ride. Since the womb doesn't have a view, I'll have to tell the baby later about how beautiful it was to fly over the beautiful United States.

Hugs and Kisses

You know, I was a pretty emotional young child. I would cry really easily, go through major mood swings as a teenager, and pretty much express my emotions for everything as I was feeling them. But as I have grown, I rarely let my emotions get the best of me… that was until I became pregnant. It is funny, when you are pregnant there is another force controlling your body. I AM NOT IN CONTROL!! The other day, I was watching some home improvement show (maybe trading spaces) and the people were fixing homes that were destroyed in the Katrina hurricane. I totally started to cry when Home Depot donated a new fridge to each of the families. It was so touching. I also started to cry when the people came in and saw their new living rooms, and found out that the show had decided to repaint their entire house. All of their friends came over and helped… it was so touching. Oh no… here I go again… hell. Anyway… now that I have composed myself, I find it very strange. In the past I might have thought the story was touching and maybe got teared up during the reveal but I had full-on tears running down my face. I feel so sorry for Jason. He looks over at me with this strange look on his face and was like, “are you crying?”
Sniff, sniff… “yes.”
“Why? Are you ok?”
And then I couldn’t even figure out why. I felt embarrassed that I was so emotional and just wanted to be left alone while I figured out what the hell was wrong with me. But poor Jason worried that something was wrong and felt compelled to give aid.

I know it is normal… but it is strange when you feel out of control and even thinking rationally doesn’t help. I feel so bad when I get mad at Jason for something stupid but can’t seem to get away from those feelings.

Little Cit’s current situation:

He/she is nearly an inch long — barely the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce
However, now that all of the basic physical features are in place, rapid weight gain should ensue
He/she is also starting to look more and more human. The embryonic "tail" is now completely gone and the body parts — including organs, muscles, and nerves — are kicking into gear.

Other interesting facts:
The eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks.
Cit has earlobes, and by week's end, the inner workings of the ears will be complete.
The upper lip is fully formed, too, and the mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The tips of the fingers are slightly enlarged where the touch pads are developing.
All major joints —shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles — are working, enabling the baby to move its limbs.
As for the heart, it has divided into four chambers now, and the valves have started to develop.
External sex organs are there, but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks.
Having a baby is quite an adventure… And we are just at the beginning. Then I guess having kids is a lifelong adventure… and we too are just at the beginning. Who will they become? What great things will they achieve? Will they find true love? Will they have their own children… but oh boy… I’m getting ahead of myself. But I guess I am a planner.

Hello All!! I wanted to share that we just found out that Jason's dearest friend David and his wife Jennifer are expecting their second baby on October 7th!! It is so wonderful! Jason had an e-mail from him about the news and was excited to find out that she and I are due at the same time! Now I can have a fantasy that the next generation of Colemans and Rios' will be as great friends as Jason and David have been.

Let's see what else... well, I'm 7 weeks now so here is a list of the baby's features:

1/2 inch long (the size of a raspberry)
heart beating a way
has an appendix
Pancreas
Liver
the nose is emerging
the eyelids are partially covering the eyes
distinct elbow joints
distinct webbed fingers and toes
teeth are forming
both hemispheres of the brain are developing
still has the "tail" but that will soon be gone when the baby grows into its spine.

Still a long way to go but still so different than it was a few weeks ago!! I'm still feeling pretty good. Major fatigue, but overall good. I've decided that for a while I don't want to eat chicken. It is just too icky and so i think it would better if I avoided it all together. Jason and I are going to Austin in a few weeks to visit Ellie and Eric so we are really excited about that! We get to spend three and a half days there. It should be fabulous. I'm sad that we can't go to the martini's and manicures place (since I wouldn't be able to enjoy the martini's) but I know that Austin is full of lots of great stuff. I can't wait for Ellie and Eric to show Jason around. Three days should be a blast.

Well, that's it for me. Maybe Mr. Coleman has something to say... we will see.

Ciao'

P.S. Auntie Ellie - good words about the Anderson Butt. Maybe since I don't have it and Jason has a lovely bottom our baby will have a nicely shaped bum.

I am typically a girl who likes to do "home stuff". I like to cook, decorate, organize, clean, do crafts, etc. But OH BOY... being pregnant has totally created the need to nest. I keep thinking about new activities around the house that would fill me with pleasure. Like this weekend. I decided it would be fun to rewrite all of my recipes that are on little scraps of paper in my cookbooks. This is no small chore. I love to cook and so I am always picking up cool recipes from friends, family, restaurants, etc. I must have hand written about 50 recipes. BOY DID I HAVE HAND CRAMPS... Now I bet you ask, "Sarah, why didn't you just type it up yourself?" Well, I think it is really cool to have recipes in people's own hand. It somehow makes it more personal than a typed up copy. I have this friend, Pam, who has this AMAZING cookbook that her mother made her. It probably has about 200 recipes in it and includes recipes from her mother, her grandmothers, her mother's friends, etc. It also includes everything from appetizers to deserts. I was in awe. I also thought it was cool that her mother wrote down whose recipe each was. Like, until I asked Mom the other day, I had no idea that the Martha Washington Jets recipe was from dad's grandmother Nanny. I knew that it came from his side of the family but I didn't know from who. I also found out where the Lemon Squares recipe came from. I thought that it was one of dads since when we were little he was often the one that made it, but I was incorrect. It came from a woman that came to mom's bridal shower all those wonderful years ago.

So as I was writing them all out I thought about my child, let's say it is a girl, and her wondering where all of the recipes came from. That would mean that when she has Jets they are from her great great grandmother. WOWZA!! I thought about her wanting to get all of the family recipes and me creating a cool cookbook for her as well. Mom remarked to me how cool it was to get Granny's cookbook in her own hand and how it was like a little connection to her. It is like a cookbook is a kind of family tree. All of the different women (and men) throughout a life of a family bringing their own "genes" to the cookbook.

I have really begun to think differently about "family" since I becoming pregnant. I want to remember all of the funny stories, or interesting antic dotes so when my child asks me about "so-and-so" I can accurately remember every detail. However, since my memory is a bit shady at times, I may have to enlist Autie Ellie to relay some of those stories.

Let's see... what else... Jason and I went over to a UCI faculty members house last night so Jason could work on her wireless network (I often loan him out to those in need) and as a thank you for his work she gave us her old stroller. It is beautiful and came with the stroller, a carseat, and the safety lock thing for in the car. It looks like it hasn't been used much and looks virtually brand new. It is by GRACO, which makes the best strollers, and stroller systems (carseat, stroller, etc.). It was so nice of her. While we really wanted to get one of those cool jogging strollers, this one is so nice that it will be perfect. She also gave us a few toys and other things. So cool.

Here's a link to what it looks like (except that it is in shades of blues instead) http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/product.aspx?productSubBrand=LiteRider®%20530%20Travel%20System&modelNumber=7304GEI2&CategoryID=2

Well... ta ta for now.

So I am sitting in my Developmental Psychology class while my students are writing an essay on temperament and I decided to write in my journal. Temperament is the characteristic disposition or style of approaching and reacting to situations. There are three main types: easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up. Each one is good/bad but they are all said to have a strong hereditary component. So what was my temperament? I have no idea. Was I generally happy in infancy and toddlerhood? Was I generally irritable, or was my temperament mild but I was hesitant in new experiences? What was Jason’s temperament?

Thinking about your unborn child you are constantly wondering what he/she is going to be like. Is she going to have brown hair (duhh), blue or hazel eyes, my mother’s hands, my or Jason’s lips (hopefully not the Anderson lips, sorry mom), long eye lashes, chubby cheeks, attached or detached ear lobes, whose nose? You also think about what her personality is going to be like? Is she going to be like me or Jason? Or completely new… some combination of us or like some family member long ago.

It is like you find out in March that you are getting this fabulous Christmas present. You don’t think you can bare the wait, but you know you have to. So you fantasize about the gift, plan on what you are going to do with it, think about your future with it, etc.

Oohh…. I’m getting such a cool belated present for my birthday!!!

I think being pregnant makes you a bit of a hypochondriac. You read baby books that tell you, “what to expect when you are expecting” and there is all of this material about what “typical” women experience during pregnancy. So you read it and then start to dissect your life to see what feelings/characteristics fit with the list of “symptoms”. I get an upset stomach… ooh it must be morning sickness. I can’t handle the smell of raw chicken… ooh it must be a food aversion brought on by being pregnant. Now granted, it might very well be morning sickness and a food aversion but to be quite frank, I’ve never liked the smell of raw chicken and I already have a sensitive stomach. So how do I stop this “hindsight bias” from happening? Do I decide that I am having NO pregnancy symptoms? Do I decide that everything is a symptom? Should I constantly be thinking back to before I was pregnant to see if I was also experiencing a similar symptom? Or does it really matter?

The problem is that I don’t want to put and undue stress on my body and constantly trying to figure out whether a symptom is pregnancy related or life related does add a bit of stress. When I was working at UCLA, the project that I worked on examined the impact of stress and the chances of preterm labor or having a low birth weight baby. This research, while interesting in the past, now has a lot of relevance in my life (but of course I try not to get stressed out about it.).Interestingly, the greatest predictor of LBW and PTL was relationship stress. And of these relationships, the relationship with the spouse made the greatest impact. But still… any stress was bad.

I’ve been thinking about taking a yoga class to help me keep centered and relaxed. I am (as many of you know) a bit of a neurotic, and I feel that taking a class on relaxation will help me stay focused and not worry about the impact of worrying…

They say that psychologists have some of the greatest amount of worry and stress during pregnancy (obviously compared to people in the same socioeconomic status… I know people living in poverty or war experience greater stress). This is due to the fact that they know all of the literature on the impact of psychological factors and pregnancy outcomes, child rearing, etc. While on face value that would be something that is good, there is something to be said to the idea that “ignorance is bliss”. If you accumulate all of the bad things that can impact a pregnancy it seems that everything can to some degree.

But you can’t control everything. The only way for that to occur is by living in a suspension chamber for all 10 months while listening to classical music and having a servant bring you all your desires. But of course, this could be bad too. No exercise, no contact with others, no joggling around of the baby so it learns to get used to moving . You just can’t win! So I think I’ve decided to just go with the flow… as AA says, “serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

I was sitting at the LAPhil last night when I started thinking about how much I love cultural events. Then I started wondering how parents enlighten their children and make them love things other than TV and their Playstations. What will I need to do to show my child the wonders of classical music or how art can move the soul? As I was sitting there it dawned on me that we have two additional concerts left in our season ticket series and the last is Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos". The Brandenburg Concertos are one of my favorite pieces of classical music and I was so totally excited when we found out that this year our season tickets will contain a concert of such joy. Well, what I figured out last night is that our baby will be exposed to one of the most beautiful pieces of classical music in a live concert while in the womb. Babies begin to hear somewhere between 20-22 weeks and the concert will occur just as the baby is beginning to hear. Research on preferences after birth suggests that newborns prefer music they heard in-utero to music they didn't. Does that mean that because my child heard this powerful classical music while in my tummy it will prefer that music in infancy? Am I helping my child to have a greater appreciation for classical music? Hmmm... If I listen to heavy metal will it come out dressed in black and sporting a Mohawk?

Another pregnancy topic: Diet. I think that in general I am a pretty conscientious eater. I try to get plenty of veggies, don't overindulge, get an adequate amount of protein, don't consume tons of salt... BUT OH BOY!! I've never thought so much about what I ate in all my life! Jason and I are both reading those baby books (See above for titles). Both books discuss how important diet is while you are pregnant. Iron - important for the development of the circulatory system, calcium - important for bone growth, protein - the baby's fuel source, Vitamin C - important for nervous system development, B Vitamins - just important overall, Folic Acid - important for neurological system and to reduce chances of HORRIBLE birth defects, tons of water, no caffeine... BUT you must get much more of each of the vitamins/etc. than you would normally need while still consuming only moderately more calories (no going crazy and eating all the ice cream in sight!) I feel like my throat is a direct pathway to the baby's tummy. Jason created these little spread sheets on our fridge for good sources of protein (and iron, calcium, vitamin C, B vitamins, folic acid are forthcoming) so that I can know the right things to eat. No wonder I am tired all the time. I have to keep close track of everything that that could impact the pregnancy and what goes into my tummy. It's strange, eating something bad when you are and aren't pregnant is way different!! If I ate a big slice of chocolate cake before I became pregnant wasn't a big deal. The only person I had to answer to is myself. However, now that I am pregnant, that chocolate cake impacts me and the little life I have growing inside me. Keeping CIT safe inside me is more important than everything else. If I am hungry, I should eat some cheese or cottage cheese instead of having some chips because the protein would be good for the baby, keeping my blood sugar low is good for the baby, reducing salt intake is good for reducing the chances of developing preeclampsia. I know that a vending machine bag of wheat thins will "tide me over" until I have a chance to eat lunch/dinner, but it won't tide CIT over. I guess it is kind of preparing me for motherhood. I will have to be careful what my child is eating, whether s/he is hungry, whether the food is good for him/her, etc. These are things that I now take for granted but having to do it for another individual is a whole different ball game.

Well, I could keep writing but I guess I'll end there for today... I'm hungry and need to go find something that is the perfect baby in utero food. Maybe some Pizza? Hah, not a chance...

Pregnancy Symptoms:

• Very strange sensitivity to smells
• FATIGUE – can you say “OH, MY! I AM SO TIRED!"
• Breast tenderness

Hmm… Well, I’ll give you a recap of the last few days… Saturday, Jason and I went and did our usual Saturday morning activity; we went to the farmer’s market and did our weekly grocery shopping. After we were done, he and I decided it would be fun to go over and peruse the isles at Babies R Us. You know, to see what is out there. It was fun, yet exhausting, to think about all the things that (C)oleman (I)n (T)ummy (CIT) will need. We tried out the rockers, looked at furniture, examined strollers, examined the bedding, tried out (just kidding) the baby bouncers thingeys, and just saw all there is to see. After getting our fill of baby stuff (and pregnant women) we moseyed down to the Barnes and Noble to check out their pregnancy books. We bought two: What to Expect when You are Expecting, and The Expectant Father. We also bought a memory book to keep track of things throughout the pregnancy. After that we went and had dinner with Jason’s parents. They were too fun. Jason’s dad is REALLY excited about becoming a grandpa and Jason’s mom put on their front door a sign that says “Future Grandma and Grandpa inside” (or something like that). So cute! We had a great evening although I had to come home a bit early because I could hardly stay awake.

Our Sunday was pretty uneventful, just watching the Olympics (I agree with Ellie that the opening ceremonies could have been grander), and doing household chores and being home bodies. It was lovely. Sunday evening Jason and Krissy called to say that they got the e-mail and that they were so excited for us. Yippee!

Monday morning I dragged myself out of bed, maybe I should go to bed at 9am, and headed to campus for my 9am class. It went well and for my 10am class (Developmental Psychology) I decided to show the video, “The Miracle of Life” by NOVA. It was awesome and I got choked up on more than one occasion. After class was over I decided on my way back to Irvine that I would stop in at Motherhood to see what kinds of maternity clothes are out there. I know that it is months away from me needing clothes, but I still thought it would be fun. I went into the store, and inside there was a woman and her WHINEY child (probably less than 2 yrs old). The sound of her whining was so bad that I had to leave the store. I guess I’m not ready for a 2 yr old yet. However, I have been instructed by those who know about these things that when your child is the one whining, the sound doesn’t make your skin crawl. WHEWWW!!!!

Telling the family… Jason and I wanted to tell everyone at 1pm last night, but then thought that it might not be appropriate to wake people up in the middle of the night (3am in St. Louis). So I waited until I got home from class and then composed an e-mail to my mom and two sisters (below is the e-mail wording) and attached a photo of the pregnancy tests. Jason also sent a similar e-mail to his parents but you will have to read his diary to find out how that went.

Hello all,

Well, it's official, I appear to be an Anderson...

Love to you all,

Sarah and Jason

P.S. Call me!

According to some, the Anderson women are a fertile bunch. And by getting pregnant our first time out of the gate, it appeared that I am as fertile as the rest of my family. So off the e-mail went into cyberspace and within minutes (it must have been less that two) the phone rang and it was Ellie on the phone. She was screaming, and crying, and it was just wonderful. I then hung up the phone with her and not 5 minutes had passed and the phone rang again. This time it was Sam, also yelling and screaming. YIPPEE!!! So apparently, Ellie then remembered that my mom doesn’t check her mail for much of the day and so she thought that it would be a good idea to call her to tell her to check her e-mail. Sam thought that it would be a good idea too and did the same. So my mother had calls coming from both Sam and Ellie to, “GO CHECK YOUR E-MAIL!!” Finally she called me just over the moon with excitement. What fun. I’ve got an appointment with my GP on Thursday at 10:15am to get the official word…

All weekend I have had this nagging feeling inside of me to take a pregnancy test… but then my rational mind would chime in and say, “Sarah, you took one a few days ago… could anything REALLY be different?” And tonight as we were having dinner with friends and playing the game Scene It: Harry Potter, the thought again went through my mind. So I told myself that after everyone had left I would take one (pretty much to put my busy mind at ease). So after everyone had left, my lectures were prepared for class tomorrow, and we had finished cleaning up from our dinner party, I got the pregnancy test out from under the sink, went in and took the test. I was sitting there not expecting anything and then all of a sudden I saw two lines… I was in SHOCK!! I kept looking and looking at it. Are there really two lines or is my mind playing a trick on me. So I sat there for another minute or two looking at it and squealing quietly. Finally I came to the realization that I needed a second opinion.

I went into the bedroom, where Jason was already in bed (since it was after 1am), and held it in my hands. Jason looked at me and exclaimed, “No Way!! Really?” and I replied, “I think so…” So I had him examine the test and he also saw two lines… But to be sure he suggested (almost insisted) that I take another test. I told him that I didn’t have any supplies (pee) to take another test. So he went into the kitchen and got me to drink like a liter of water. Aackk… after about 20 minutes I was able to take another test and the results were about the same. Lots of hugging and kissing ensued… Finally, still in shock, I needed to go to bed. But I couldn’t stop looking at the test. So I set it next to my bed on my nightstand so I could look at it if I needed to without getting out of bed. Alas, sleep did not come easily for me that night. I was a ZOMBIE in class the next day. At some point I wanted to cancel class altogether but that just wouldn’t right. Boy, life changing events can occur at the strangest times.