Posted by Lily on May 30, 2008 in
Bogey We’re a long way off on the names, but for those of you who are sort of concerned we might just keep Bogey, I promise you we will not. In all likelihood his first name will be John, but his middle name will be different than John’s and that middle name is what we will call him by. Being from a long line of John’s and having a due date on John’s dad’s (also John) birthday, I really couldn’t break that tradition. I have a feeling this could be a long, drawn out decision so don’t anyone get too excited yet. Here are some pics of the baby boy to be! I’m not posting all of them because honestly a couple of them were kind of scary. 
In one he looked like Skeletor. They did a couple of 3-d ones which are cool in theory, but he wasn’t quite big enough so he kind of looked like a partially molded piece of clay. Kind of cute, but kind of weird too. The best part was that I was sent home with a 20 minute DVD of the ultrasound so I can sit and watch all of his moving and kicking and rolling and twisting. Because he was an active little guy. Fun to watch and I honestly could sit down and watch it on repeat pretty much endlessly. It is still just so cool to see him and think he is inside of me! The picture above I hope is pretty self explanatory. You are looking at a view of his left side. That is his head and torso and his little hand close to his mouth. He did a lot of yawning and scrunching his hands up towards his face. The next picture is actually him putting said hand into his mouth.
One of those things that I am sure is really only cute to me, but it is really the cutest thing ever. I could watch him sit there and put his hand in his mouth all day. And I can do that with the DVD. As many times as I want. All organs were intact and in working order as far as we can tell now. You can’t see many things working other than the heart, but his heart is awesome and was super fun to watch. The next picture is of the actual Bogey Bits. Now, let me just say I did not label the picture. The ultrasound tech did. And I personally love the way she labeled it because it looks like I have the most well-endowed son ever to walk the earth.
However, the label is actually over is leg. If you look under that somewhere you should be able to see his goods. I personally am still having trouble. I have been able to find it on the DVD, but this picture is beyond me. Kudos to those who can find it. The ultrasound tech seemed to think it was ultra clear. She said she was going to let us guess the sex, I figure because it was that obvious. My mom (who came to TN for the visit) thought boy but said nothing, John thought he had no idea and said girl, and I had no idea, said nothing, and still was completely enthralled with the wiggling thing on the screen being my child. She said boy and of course I nearly leapt through the ceiling. I am needless to say, incredibly excited about my baby boy. After an initial disappointment of it not being a girl and the years he’ll miss of watching the two of us duke it out, John is also thrilled. He just had to re frame his thinking from watching me be annoyed by our stubborn daughter who MUST WEAR THAT SAME PINK DRESS FOR THE EIGHTH DAY IN A ROW to watching me be annoyed by our stubborn son who MUST SAY FART AND GIGGLE FOR THE EIGHTIETH TIME IN A ROW. I think he’s adjusted.
So all in all, I’m pretty content. I’m enjoying this pregnancy thing now that I don’t require 27 hrs of sleep a day and my enormous boobs don’t actually feel like they’ve been run over by a truck and I can feel this little boy kicking and squirming and moving around inside of me. I just wish he could now be born and I could hold and squeeze him and watch him pee on John.
Posted by Lily on May 29, 2008 in
Bogey A boy! A healthy, all put together boy. Everything is how it should be, the right size, right on target for the due date. I will post some of the pictures soon, most likely not until tomorrow, but I just wanted to share for all of you who are curious. He was active and crazy moving around the entire time and being very cooperative, showing all his goods. Although I couldn’t really tell to be honest. More to come.
Posted by Lily on May 28, 2008 in
tidbits I am now going to shamelessly use this blog for selfish purposes. As the demise of the cell phone (see previous post) seems to have been a total and complete loss, I have now lost all phone numbers. If you could please email your phone numbers so I could put them on my new phone, I would greatly appreciate it. And if you think of someone who I know but they don’t look at this blog, if you could send me theirs too, I would appreciate it. Send the numbers to my gmail account don’t put them in the comments, I don’t want everyones’ personal information out there in cyberspace. Although I’m pretty sure most people want David’s number. Maybe I’ll post his in a future entry…
I was going to hold out and threaten to only reveal Bogey’s gender to those who gave me their numbers, but there is no way I can keep track of all that right now. So check back tomorrow to see if Bogey revealed his or herself…..
Posted by Lily on May 26, 2008 in
pregnancy My day started out at 3:20 when I awoke and could not go back to sleep. While some people may not believe it, I swear I can actually feel Bogey growing. Not everyday, but some days, like today there are what I refer to as her growth spurts. I can feel her squirming around in my belly, which isn’t bad, but sometimes it is just a little uncomfortable as I am not quite used to something moving around a lot inside of me. This usually corresponds to an increase in my already voracious appetite. These things all hit this morning and kept me up. Eventually I ate and got back to sleep about 6:00. When I woke back up I swear my belly was bigger. Noticeably bigger. I asked John what he thought and he looked and said, yeah, it did kind of look bigger. Translation: Crazy wife, I do not dare cross thee by disagreeing in any way. If you say your skin looks purple today, my only question is which shade.
Once I get showered and dressed he looks at me again and comments that my belly has almost gotten to the point where it sticks out further than my boobs. Side note here is that I realize the last picture posted does reflect that, but the shirt was kind of pressing the boobs in. The belly does not quite yet extend further than the boobs. Why? Because my boobs are enormous. So enormous in fact that John has decided they almost look fake. He told me to tell the doctor he quite liked the size they were and maybe he went up one size too many. Translation: Crazy wife, your boobs are awesome. I don’t want to let on too much for fear of seeming shallow, but only in dreams would your boobs have gotten to half the size they currently are. The problem with this? I HAVE NOT EVEN GOTTEN TO THE BIG BOOB PHASE OF PREGNANCY. I am convinced that by the end of the pregnancy I will have to have a rope tied around me like trees whose trunks aren’t strong enough and pull a counterweight behind me just to stay upright.
Towards the end of the day, as we are doing laundry, I hear a groan from John. Not a good groan. But a something bad groan. John walks upstairs and hands me my cell phone. My soaked, washed cell phone. My one month old cell phone as my other one died in April. I had my cell phone in the pocket of my pants I had been wearing all day. I spilled lunch on them, took them off and threw them in the wash. I ALWAYS CHECK THE POCKETS. However as I have lost at least half my brain function during pregnancy I didn’t even notice the phone was missing. For those who don’t know, I am not very good with cell phones and this would be the third one we’ve replaced this year. The first one was washed as well, but it was John’s. And he did it. We have insurance, of course, and have saved about $900 because of this insurance so it is not a big deal. But incredibly frustrating.
John called the company for me as I pretty much crumpled into a puddle when it happened. Everyone he talked to was so nice and understanding. The phone company rep said oh yes. mommy brain. She’d had it too and it was going to be o.k. The claims guy wished us congratulations on our first child and said he gets calls like this all day. Everyone took it great except for the one who lost her brain and washed her phone. When he got off the phone John came over, said all was taken care of, the new phone would be here Thursday, he was so glad it was me that had done it and not him and kissed me on the top of my head. Translation: Crazy wife, all is taken care of, the new phone will be here Thursday, I am so glad it was you that did it and not me, and I love you. And your crazy brain.
It occurred to me this evening as I was thinking about my huge boobs and complete airheadedness that I for the first time in my life, feel like all of those blondes in the hundreds of blonde jokes I’ve heard over the years. And the stories people come up with to make those jokes must surely have happened with pregnant women who happened to be blonde. Because I’m pretty sure, if there was white out near me right now, I would totally be putting in on the computer to cover up my misspellings.
Posted by Lily on May 22, 2008 in
pregnancy 
It may not be a lot, but I’m not even 20 weeks yet, so don’t anyone get too excited. I found a buy one get one free sale on maternity t-shirts so I’ve stocked myself for the summer. Don’t expect a lot of fancy frills.
Posted by Lily on May 21, 2008 in
pregnancy No, I do not know the sex of Bogey yet. One week from tomorrow. Hopefully. But we all know I have been convinced I’m having a girl. Thanks to all those who offer positive words that it might be a boy. I know, it might be. There is a 50/50 chance. And I’d really like that boy. However.
This past weekend I have to admit I purchased Bogey an item. An item that really works best if she is a girl. For those of you who have worked with me or seen me in my work shoes, know that I only wear clogs. Not just any clogs though. I wear colorful patent leather clogs. And they rock. And I love them. This weekend I bought Bogey her first pair of clogs. Nice clogs. Clogs with glitter, patent leather, and faux fur on them. In bright wonderful colors. I am jealous I couldn’t find any in my size.
What was remarkable to me is that not only did I like the clogs and think they’d be awesome on Bogey, I was kind of excited about them being awesome on a girl. I didn’t go crazy and start buying dresses, let’s not get carried away. But I started framing my mind a little more around the thought of a daughter, versus the son whose future is planned in my brain.
Last night we went to a KT Tunstall concert (which was incredible by the way) and I started thinking that since I’ve been pregnant I’ve seen Regina Spektor, Ani DiFranco, and KT. Although probably KT is the only one Bogey actually heard. But I thought that’s a pretty good early music concert education and she could actually be a cool girl. A girl who likes good music and not Miley Cyrus (I will now be struck down by lightening for writing those words in TN). A girl who will wear the matching skull and cross bone clogs I am planning on buying us. So while there will be mighty struggles I’m sure, there are parts that could be kind of fun. Maybe a daughter wouldn’t be so bad after all.
And for those of you biting your tongues, I am well aware that buying things for girls and starting to get excited by the prospect guarantees a boy. But really that makes it a win/win situation. So there.
Posted by Lily on May 16, 2008 in
Animals Many of you know our zoo population. Some do not. I have received lots of questions from people asking me how I think the animals are going to react when Bogey arrives. In short, we have no idea. But we like to hypothesize about it so I have decided to give you an introduction to all the animals who reside with us. There will be a brief synopsis at the end of the introduction of how we think each one will react to this new intruder. The disclaimer being no matter what we think we might have to ship them all in unmarked packages to different relatives throughout the country. Some days that’s true even without the future arrival of a baby.
In order not to completely turn everyone off from reading this blog I won’t introduce them all at once . I am going to introduce them individually over time. Starting with Serena.
Five years ago, right before we got married, we adopted Serena from the Humane Society. The story they sold us: Serena is a lovely, 8wk old puppy, healthy and happy and ready to go home. She is mostly spaniel so will not get to be more than about 20-25lbs. The real story: Serena turned out to be 5-6 weeks old, weaned too soon from her mom (who was at the shelter so there was no reason for her to be weaned) FULL of worms, and had some kind of raging skin infection. She grew up to be 55lbs with pretty much no spaniel in her at all, mostly lab, some sort of herding dog with lots of energy, and something with a high pain tolerance and low brain power.
We love her dearly, but she is a big dog that thinks she is a cat/human/anything but a dog. She won’t go near a toy in the yard if it is near dog poop. In fact she will do a little tip toe dance and come running back to us as if to say, “omigosh. There is POOP. IN. THE. YARD. GROSSSSSS.” She will hold in her pee for hours when faced with a rainy day and actually will not touch the grass when peeing on said rainy days when we finally force her outside. I know. We’re abusive.
Bogey Bottom Line: Serena is the one most likely to be confused as to whether Bogey is a toy, a small cat, a squirrel, or maybe a rawhide? As long as she is still allowed on our bed, gets fed her normal amount of food, and gets to chew rawhides at least a few times a week I think she’ll be o.k. She may even synchronize her whining with Bogey’s.
Posted by Lily on May 14, 2008 in
pregnancy We had a fire drill at work today and as everyone around me was grabbing their purses and NECESSARY belongings, I grabbed my lunch box. As everyone paused and looked at me and started making fun of me I collected myself and realized it actually was not a matter of life or death to take my lunch with me (I had already eaten 90% of it) and if the building burned down I could replace the lunch box and the food. So I left it. But I took my pudding and ate it while we waited outside.
Posted by Lily on May 13, 2008 in
pregnancy Not the most revealing picture, but there is a little belly there.
Posted by Lily on May 13, 2008 in
pregnancy Don’t worry. Nothing gross here. Promise. That’s for later on.
One of my magical changes during pregnancy, a common one I understand, is my incredible sense of smell. Supersonic olfactory ability. I should really be a super hero. I didn’t really notice it at first until I realized John actually wasn’t being obstinate and he really didn’t smell whatever awful thing I was picking up on at the time.
I do think John takes it to the extreme sometimes, such as a couple of weeks ago when he offered to call Alaska and check up on their skunk that died. This was in response to me making him close up all the windows and doors in our house due to the overwhelming odor of skunk pouring into our house. Something he swears he did not smell. So it must have been from Alaska. We still have differing opinions on the location of that skunk.
It does make me think though, why is it pregnant women have such an acute sense of smell? I have not actually looked it up because I’m not THAT curious. But I do think about it. When John and I have talked about it we’ve looked at it from an evolutionary standpoint (hard to do in TN, I know). It is a way to stay away from potentially bad food, water, or danger. Like a mean nasty skunk. A protective ability to keep the mom and baby out of harm’s way.
It wasn’t until California that another, more positive, thought occurred to me. We were up in Pacific Grove, south of San Fransisco, but still considered Northern California. Everything smells wonderful there. There are groves of huge eucalyptus trees, and practically everybody has bushes of lavender in their front yard. There is a quality to the air that is crisp and clean and fresh and very difficult to find nowadays. I smelled it last year, but this year it was magnified a thousand times. It made the whole experience that much more incredible. And it made me think that maybe the smell thing is not just protective against scary things. But an enhancement. Allowing me to enjoy the good smelling things that I go past everyday. Especially now that it is spring and flowers are blooming everywhere. We have lavender, rosemary, and roses in our yard. Going outside and smelling all of those things makes my whole day better.
So allergies and skunks aside, perhaps not every weird pregnancy thing is all that bad.
