The Swartz Family Circus-in 3D

Well it's the last week of my 2nd trimester and we went for our monthly check up.  All seems to be going well and baby's heart rate is still pumping at a beautiful 150-some beats!  We'll go back for another midwife appointment in 3 weeks and then after that it's every 2 weeks until our little girls debut.

At the beginning of this pregnancy we opted to be a part of a research study that follows healthy women throughout their pregnancy to try to track how mood, diet and health issues impact any potential complications in pregnancy.  In signing up for the study we've been given $50, a car seat, free parking (huzza!) and 2 extra peeks at the lil' lady via ultrasound.  Today was our second free ultrasound which came in fancy 3D! 

At first it was difficult for the technician to get a good look at her because this is what she looked like (not in 3D):

The round thing on the right is her head, her chest is in the middle, butt up in the air and yes, those are her legs extended all the way over her head.  Apparently we both were learning new things in prenatal yoga! :)  Luckily, lying on my back for so long made me dizzy and in turning myself over it made her get those legs out of the way so we could see this cute little face!

So. Much. Fun!  All 3D pics look a little elephant man-like so don't worry if she looks a little strange.  That's just the image :)  We're being told that she weighs 2 pounds 10 ounces which is above the 95th percentile, proving that I just may have that 11 pound baby I had joked about.

Since little girl can hear better and better these days, we've been reading to her at night.  We started off with Goodnight Moon and Shel Silverstein, but these days she longs to hear Steve read her Walt Whitman.  "No nursery rhymes for me mom, please send my Captain O Captain!" 

She'll be her usual active self until Steve breaks out Leaves of Grass and then she becomes still throughout the entire poem (in case it's been a while, his poems are several pages in length) and then starts moving again once he's finished reading.  I talk at length with my regular clients all day, but she clearly reacts to hearing her dad and it's super sweet.

I wonder if "YAWP" will be one of her first words :D

A Trip to Jason's Playground

This weekend Steve and I went to Jason's playground workshop to take a look at some tree slabs he's willing to turn into a dining room table for us.  First off, seeing Jason in his element is actually quite fun to watch.  Seeing him run around the shop showing us this and that ("Did you see my new saw?"  "Have you seen my forklift?") was almost as much fun as picking out our table :)

As you may have seen in pictures from earlier posts, our current dining room table is a white Ikea table I bought off of Craigslist in 2005.  We also recently purchased some very nice and somewhat expensive dining room chairs that look ridiculous next to such a piece of crap, so it's about time for an upgrade.

Here are Steve and Jason rummaging through slabs of trees.  When a tree needs to be cut down for whatever reason, Jason goes out and pulls it up and cuts it into slabs that will later be used for furniture or artwork.  This originated out of the work done by the late John Metzler who founded the Urban Tree Forge.  Click here for more info on Jason and John's work together.

We liked this one the best.  If a couple of yarhoo's who expressed interest in it don't buy it we're going to swoop in and grab it.  It's also one of the first slabs Jason and John pulled together, which makes it extra special (read: so we should have it).













And this is what Jason's tables look like after they're finished.  It's okay to take a moment here and let your jealousy take hold.  I'm even jealous of future us.  Because that's a fucking beautiful table!

On an unrelated note: in the warehouse next to the one Jason keeps his slabs is a huge room full of kids rides waiting to be deployed to entertain the worlds children.  This photo only captures a small fraction of the number of kids rides in waiting there were in there.  It was kind of surreal to see.

I love those robots!

Easter Weekend

Happy day after Easter!  Steve and I celebrated this last childless Easter by partaking in stuff we probably won't be able to do this time next year :)  So we indulged in a weekend full of lounging, eating and going to the art museum! 

Professional Loungers

Visiting the Hall of Architecture is much more interesting when you go with someone who can offer more than "Huh, that's a pretty big wall there, eh?"

Because everyone celebrates having gone to the art museum, right?

Yum.

Happy Easter!

 

 

As an early birthday gift for Steve, we go for a fancy 3D ultrasound next Wednesday morning!  Until then!







6 months!



24 weeks

 Because I was a bit of an odd child, I remember being 5 or 6 and suddenly realizing that I'd have to swallow all day every day...for the rest of my life.  The idea seemed so overwhelming and burdensome that I lamented this affliction to my mother who basically gave me the side eye and confirmed that yes, we all have to swallow.  I believe it was about 10 minutes later that I forgot all about it.

25 years later I'm feeling this way about going to the bathroom.  Little girl has set up shop on my bladder which leads me to the bathroom about once or twice an hour.  I'm getting to know every public bathroom in the city of Pittsburgh and I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before the right kick will cause me to pee my pants.  How is it possible to be so bored with peeing?

In news outside my bladder, Steve and I met with a friend of mine who is a doula this week.  She was incredibly helpful by talking to us about preparing for birth, pain management and how to best support each other through the process.  When she asked us how we imagined labor and delivery, I described wanting things to be as chill as possible (as few staff as possible, no yelling "PUSH," wearing my own clothes, etc). 

Steve described a scene from Full Metal Jacket.

So we have some work to do to get us on the same page :) Unfortunately my friend is unavailable for our birth, as she's back in school going for her RN to become a midwife herself.  So yay for her but boo for us.  She offered to refer us to a colleague/friend of hers and asked us what type of person we'd prefer.  Luckily she's at least known me for about 8 years now and was very understanding of our need for someone who's into "crunchy" stuff like breathing, meditation and guided imagery but will also get that we'll most likely be making horrible, inappropriate jokes at the same time. 

We've had some nice weather in Pittsburgh lately, which has Steve out in the yard getting things ready to plant for the summer.  We're hoping to can as much as possible before July comes!