The joys of nesting (if you want to call it that)

I can't quite tell you what came over me this weekend, but I was absolutely overtaken by the most intense desire to clean and organize that I've ever felt in my adult life. It was completely ridiculous, but I guess it was desperately needed. Here is a quick review of what brought me to this point:

In our bedroom we have two closets, one very large walk-in and another regular-size clothes closet. Previously, I was using the large closet as my closet and the regular-size closet was sitting there filled with all those things that you can't throw away but that you want no one to see because they cause so much clutter. You know what I'm talking about. Anyway, we also have a second bedroom in our house, which H is now using as an office, but which we plan on converting into the nursery. This, of course, involves major work, since the office will be moved into the large closet and my closet will be moved into the regular-size one. Believe me when I tell you that we had MORE THAN OUR SHARE of junk that needed to be boxed up and stored away for good--in our fully working, but completely not-utilized, attic--and Friday was the day that I could no longer stand it. Just to give you an idea of how completely crazy I went once I actually started this massive organizing project, let me offer you a few pictures.

Here is our bedroom after I yanked everything out of the small closet and the large closet combined in order to switch them and empty the closet for H's office stuff to be moved in:

And here's the interior of the large closet, approximately mid-way through the organizing process:
Oh, you haven't had enough yet? Well, check out this photo of the soon-to-be nursery, just about right in the middle of all of this organizing bliss:And here's the other side of the room, with H working so diligently to get it all in order:But I guess it's true what they say: all's well that ends well. After all of our hard, butt-busting, and muscle-pulling labor (seriously, I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder), we finally arrived at the clutter-free heaven I was hoping for. Here's the bedroom, post-insanity:And the office/soon-to-be-nursery, mainly just the delightfully organized closet space:I know, I know, it still seems cluttered, right. Well, it is a closet after all, and the truth is that it's a gazillion times better than it was before. And my favorite part: the tiny little H outfits hanging in the closet to the right. How adorable is it that both of my Henrys will be sharing closets!?! Geez, I love them. Overall, I feel TONS better, and I've freed up a lot of space so that I can REALLY start nesting. Ooooh, I can't wait! Oh, and just to add a little humor to it all, check out this picture H took of me during all of the chaos. You can really see my ever-growing belly, which H so lovingly referred to as a "tumor growing off of your body":And once again, I can't thank you all enough for your thoughts and prayers. Please keep them coming...we're pretty much halfway through, with only one half to go! Boy, are we blessed!! :)

The first baby suit!!

Today I finally broke down and bought my first ever baby outfit for Little Henry. It's TOTALLY adorable: it's like a nighty with little feet on the bottom, and the feet have these precious little puppy heads on them, sort of like those slippers that some adults (and many kids) wear. I absolutely love it and I made H take a picture with it, so you all can see it. I did too, of course! Here's H with it (look how teeny it is!!!)...how handsome is he all decked out in his doctor uniform?!?:

And here's me with it, still as teeny as ever (the outfit, not me, clearly!):

I just can't wait to see his teeny little body all snuggled up in it, he's going to be SOO precious! H loved the outfit too, and he said he thought it was really cute. Oh, and on a side note, here's my weekly picture, where you can CLEARLY see that my stomach is growing bigger and bigger each day. My belly button is even starting to stretch out so that I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to have an outie before it's all over with (eek!). We miss all of you guys and wish you could be here to share all these special moments with us, but I guess at least we have this blog, which I hope you all read and enjoy. At least then, we can share these moments in spirit. We love you a lot and thank you, again, for your thoughts and prayers. Keep it up!! 

Abbreviated family photo

H and I (well, mostly just me) are totally obsessed with taking family pictures, and the photo folder on my computer is absolutely packed to the brim with them. Still, I can't stop loving them. Since I've been pregnant, we haven't really had any family pictures, so I convinced him last night to take a quick one. Now please understand, these aren't anything professional, but we love them nonetheless, and this one is especially special since it includes my pregnant belly, which also holds little Henry. So I guess, in a way, this is his first debut in a family photo. :)

Hope you enjoy.

What a handsome boy we're going to have!! ;)

Stats, etc.

I was so excited (and frustrated) about putting up the ultrasound video a few days ago that I didn't even have time to go over all of the stats on little H, or even to show some pictures (which are much more representative, given the stretched-out nature of the video) from the ultrasound. So, about little H: right now, he's SUPER long, his femur bone alone measures 1.7 inches, and he's about 6 - 6.5 inches from crown (head) to rump (booty). That means that if you could lay him on a table and stretch his legs out, he might measure up to 8 inches or more!! Wow, he's really squished up in there, poor baby! As far as his weight is concerned, he weighs around 10 ounces (not even as much as a can of soda!!), which is also a bit more than normal, according to my pregnancy books. Most of the books say that babies weigh around 7 ounces by this time. Either way, he's a BIG boy and we're so proud of that...maybe he'll even come sooner than expected (but not too soon!). I, however, have gained 10 pounds total, which is considered healthy, since the "normal expected" weight gain by this time of the pregnancy is between 8 to 14 pounds, so I'm even on the low end of the scale. I try not to spend too much time pondering how it can be that I've gained 10 pounds when little H only weighs 10 ounces (not even a pound!!). Either way, I'm so happy that he's doing well, and I'm COMPLETELY in love with his adorable nose. Here are some pictures, to help you fall in love too ;) . Here's a close-up of his adorable profile (nose included):

And here's a farther-out profile (a bit turned towards the "camera"):

Here's the shot where he's showing off who he is (which we didn't even need the ultrasound tech to point out!!):

And another:

Can you possibly love him as much as we do?!?! 

The "aye!"s have it (AKA Christmas in September)

I guess the title should really say "the tie has it", because it was technically a tie (which I've now taken down, in case you didn't have the chance to see it). Still, we had agreed that if it was a tie, I would win, and in reality, we would have known either way since the "boy parts" were more than obvious during the ultrasound, and we both noticed it before the ultrasound tech even pointed it out. She thought that was funny, especially since I had already filled most of the ultrasound with "what is that?" questions. But, believe me, it was MORE than obvious. In fact, as you'll clearly see in the video below, little Henry was not shy and seemed to enjoy touching his little boy parts quite a bit. We like to think he was just trying to shield them from viewing. I'm posting the video (which unfortunately does not include the ENTIRE ultrasound), in which you can see his adorable little profile (and perfect nose) and those special parts that make him a boy. You can also see all of his bone structure--there's a great shot of the spine--and organs, as well as the brain. I cannot even tell you what an amazing moment this was, it was really like Christmas in September...even the ultrasound tech said that she noticed that there must have been tons of adrenaline rushing through my system just by looking at the ultrasound. I was SOO excited this morning I could hardly contain myself, and after it was all over, I probably could have fallen right asleep. Oh, and speaking of asleep, little Henry was sleeping when the ultrasound first started, but after the ultrasound tech shook him around a a bit (which you can see in the video, and which, honestly, I wasn't too fond of), he woke up and started kicking ferociously. Another thing, his legs are SOO long. He's so incredibly adorable, I just can't wait to see his little face in person. Here's the video from the ultrasound....I hope you enjoy it! (P.S. please forgive the weird stretchyness of the video, as I could only find one FREE program that would allow me to encode the DVD file so you could see it here) Oh, and make sure to look for cute little hands and lots of yawning!

The dry run

Or maybe I should call it the wet run...since the truth is it was VERY wet! Last week during our stay in Savannah, Nacho and Rocky acquired a bad case of the fleas from God-knows-where, most likely from the waist-high grass in Grandma's yard. We've never had a flea problem with them, and so today Nacho had his first experience with a dipping, something that H is surprisingly good at. It's a long and complicated process that involves a proverbial sponge bath in which the doggie gets soaked head to toe with a flea-killing solution. Yeah, that's right, it's got nothing to do with actual dipping (surprise!). 

I, of course, was too scared to do it myself because of being pregnant, so H, being the loving husband that he is, offered to do it for me. Nacho and Rocky are both very used to getting baths, but I don't think Nacho enjoyed this dipping experience too much. I had to take video of it because it was giving me premonitions of what it might be like to bathe a baby, although I'm sure a baby would be much less wiggly and wouldn't shake off so much water in our faces. Still, it was a cute experience and I hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed the actual event.

Oh, and in case you're not familiar with our fun-loving, more-than-annoying on more-than-one-occasion doggies, here are a few pictures to acquaint you with them. First, here's Rocky (AKA Rock-dog), since he's been around for longer (10+ years now!!):

And here's Nacho (AKA Nachi, Pupper, Booger, and most recently, Flea Bag), the latest addition to our family. We got him in June from the Humane Society, and he's mostly Chiwow, although I think he also has some Weenie dog in him, which would technically make him a Chiweenie (hehe):

The return of body dysmorphia

I'm so close to the mid-point of the pregnancy, I can't tell you how excited I'm getting, and watching that little animated baby in the sidebar get bigger and bigger every day is so thrilling! Lately, though, I've been dealing with a rather unexpected return of what H so lovingly refers to as my Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Long ago, when my belly was flatter than I wanted to believe it was, he always used to get on my case about freaking out over a big belly. He would always tell me how great my belly looked and how he thought I had serious perception problems when it came to my body. Back then, I would laugh and think "what a good husband, trying to make me feel beautiful." But then yesterday, I saw some old pictures of us, from our honeymoon and our first Valentine's day as a married couple, and dear God, was he right. After watching my stomach balloon as it has in the last few weeks, I can't imagine how I ever thought it was big before. As you can see in the picture to the side, it is REALLY showing now. There's no hiding it, and there's definitely no wearing regular, non-maternity clothing. It's strange to say that I feel surprised by it all, but I do. I'm really surprised to see my own stomach grow like this, even though I've seen it happen to hundreds of women over the course of my life. And I think I'm starting to feel a resurgence of that body dysmorphia he was always talking about, which is another surprising thing, considering how desperately I wanted to be pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I love it and I couldn't be happier than I am right now, knowing that I will get to bring that lovely little life into the world in just a few short months. Still, I think I'm facing this awkward sense of disbelief about it all, like every time I look in the mirror I feel like I'm trying to convince myself that it doesn't really look like that, or that it's totally not noticeable that I'm pregnant. But seriously, it's noticeable...like, really noticeable. It's funny because I can look at my pictures with my belly covered and feel just like I've always felt when looking at picture of myself, but then I move my hand and it's almost like I'm looking at someone else completely. It's a very strange sensation, but one that I'll cherish forever I suppose. It's just amazing how some things are so unexpected, but I guess that's what life's all about. And just a random aside: boy do I have to work on my posture! 

G-ma Built-A-Bunny

Last weekend my mom came in town to "babysit" me while H headed to Savannah for what should have been a nice, relaxing vacation. Before I received the awful news on Sunday, I got to spend a little bit of QT with my mom, and we did fun things like shopped for maternity clothes and watched my videos from Panama. We also made a(nother) trip to Build-A-Bear so that she could buy a little stuffed animal for the baby. Even though we don't know what it is yet--just four more days!!...maybe--she insisted on getting a very feminine stuffed animal, mainly because she's convinced it's going to be a girl. I let her pick out whichever one she wanted, and she picked a bunny, which is admitedly very adorable, and then she went through the whole rigamarole and filled it with love and blessings. You'll have to excuse all the background noise, as the store was (as always) filled with children ooh-ing and ah-ing about all the nifty toys:

She even filled it with a sound that she personally loved, which I believe is the "Rock-A-Bye Baby" tune, although they had it listed as some classical tune. Yeah, sorry to be so lame, but I'm not really hip to classical music:

It was all very fun, and once we finished it, we took some pictures with the bunny. I think it is the first picture where you can see my belly poking out from the front.

R.I.P. Paul

Last week I missed many days of posting because of the very unexpected and tragic death of a close friend of ours, Paul Stoupenos. Paul and H have been best friends since about middle school, and it was a very difficult week that put all other things in our lives on hold, and in perspective. Even though I missed being home and sharing all of my baby joys with all of you, I am so eternally grateful to have a job that allowed me the entire week to be with H during this time and to take the time we needed to get through it. Before getting into new baby news, I want to share a few pictures and videos I have of Paul that I find particularly charming, and I hope you will too. The picture above, to the left, is a picture of H and Paul at our engagement party...I guess they were acting like gangstas, who knows. The picture to the side is a picture that Paul took of us at our wedding reception. He took it himself, as was his specialty, and I think it came out remarkably well. He took many other similar pictures at our wedding, always with his own face in the picture, but no image can really attest to his personality and charm as well as the following video. H took this video with our camera at the end of the reception, when Paul decided to spontaneously drop some rhymes with my brothers on stage. He loved my brothers and their music, and was constantly trying to get other people interested in them, so I love this video because he's with them on stage. And the best part: he wasn't even drunk, it was just a typical Paul moment. Here's the video:

Paul was like a brother to H, and was therefore a very close friend of mine, and although I know my grief for him can never match H's, nor that of his family, I won't ever forget him and the wonderful light and happiness he brought to everyone around him, and his family will always be in our thoughts and prayers.

Our week was pretty busy with friend and family time, but towards the end we got to have some relatively happy moments with each other, and we got some pictures of my ever-growing belly. Since we were dealing with this situation pretty much all last week, we missed my 17 week picture, so some of these will make up for that, even though they were taken in the middle of the week. Here are some belly-only pictures, most of them taken on Thursday or Friday; the first one is a front-only view of my belly, so you can't really tell much, except that my waist has expanded beyond imagination.

This next one is a side view, where my little baby bump is much more obvious.

And this final one is a sitting picture, not quite as attractive, but it really shows off my tummy, so I had to include it. And, for the record, it didn't look this way because of the pizza....

Here are just a few more pictures of H and I with all of our nieces and nephews at his sister's house...sorry I seem so spread-eagle in the one of all of us, it just was the only comfortable position for me, especially considering that Lydie was on my lap.

It was a hard week for me because I was trying to do my best to maintain energy and composure (hormonal, I mean) so that I could be there for H, but I was also struggling under the weight of a heavier-than-before-but-still-not-as-heavy-as-it-will-be belly and ridiculous exhaustion. It was also strange for me, becuase it was the first time that I had numerous congratulations and that I really felt like people were noticing that I am pregnant. Even with all that said, I was so happy to be able to be there with H, and to be for him whatever I could be, and my heart goes out to all of Paul's family and dear friends. His life was a testament to the joy of living, and I'm sure he'd be more than happy to know that soon one of his best friends, my husband, will be passing on his memory to the new life in my belly. It's hard to find reason in moments like these, but hopefully, with some time and reflection, things will be better. Maybe they'll never be the same, but at least they'll be better....and the hope that comes from this baby in my belly is just proof that they will. 

The 4 month mark

I can't tell you all how happy I am today, knowing that it is officially the end of my fourth month. That's right! I officially starting my fifth month today, and four weeks from now, I'll be halfway through my pregnancy. It's hard to believe, and it's crazy to see how quickly time has flown by since the end of that dreadful first trimester. Here's my picture from this week, which I happen to like quite a bit since it puts my stomach size in much better perspective than the other pictures. Why? Because it's the first picture where you can see the curve in my lower back, so it makes me look smaller, although I can guarantee all of you that I AM NOT. It's just that in the previous pictures my arm was placed in such a way that it covered that curve, so it fooled the eye into thinking I was much bigger than I really way. I'm also very happy to know that we're only two weeks (and a few days) away from possibly finding out what our baby will be. The votes keep going back and forth, and that's adding a lot of humor to our lives, but it's been fun seeing what all of you think about it. I'm really excited, no matter what we decide. Now that I know that the Quad screen was negative, and that the little one has a good, strong heartbeat (which I listen to AT LEAST two times a day), I'm growing a lot less anxious, and really starting to feel excited about it. I can't imagine how happy and excited I'll be in two weeks if (and when) we know whether our little one is a she or a he. Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. I'm really started to feel blessed...mainly because I totally am. :)