Gettin Closer

We took the first picture (to the left two/above) weeks ago and the picture (to the right/below) this morning. It might be hard to tell unless you look at Em's belly every day but the baby has moved way down. Hang in there a bit longer little guy!

Baby's room is all set up

He likes animals, although he may not realize it just yet.  And you can't tell from this pic, but he also has a nice view of an orange tree in the backyard.  

Lit 101

Thanks mostly to Grandma Colchin we have quite a book collection going for Little Cannon. He even got Valentine's Day Books this year. Check out the pic of his books below!

Week 33 Check-Up

We had a checkup and tour of St. Luke’s Hospital today. The appointment went well. We learned that the big bump on the right side of my belly near my rib is the baby’s butt! I have been having contractions and the midwife said that maybe I’m the type that is going to have contractions until I actually deliver. In any case we’re going to look into getting more rest and taking things easy.

The tour was great. The labor rooms are huge and they look really comfy! They have huge windows too for lots of sunlight. The post-partum rooms are also really comfy and have beds that can pull out for partners. Some even have double beds and the midwife said she often sees moms and dads sleeping in them together. We met a few nurses. We also met the lady that will help us with the baby’s birth certificate and social security card. I’m really happy we chose to birth there.

Bump Pics - 31/32 Weeks

There's an upside to all this rib kicking

Last night in our birthing class we learned about optimal fetal positioning. It's the best position for your baby to be in when you go into labor:  head down, with his back towards the front of mom's abdomen.  If he's in this position, labor is nearly always much shorter and easier.  There are ways to tell if your baby is in this position, one of which is being judo kicked in the ribs.  Although uncomfortable, it's nice to know that baby cannon is currently in the optimal fetal position.  And if he ends up rolling over (baby's only turn clockwise), we learned some really good tricks to get him back over.  

Homework

We have homework this weekend. We start our Childbirth Preperation Class at Natural Resources this week. It's a 6 week class every Tuesday night. Our doula is actually one of the instructors. We got an email this week reminding us to pick up our materials and letting us know that we had to have the readings done before our first class! It's been a while since we had a homework assignment! They also said to wear comfortable clothes, like we were going to yoga. This should be interesting!!!

In other baby news we've moved to have some room for the little guy. We moved to El Cerrito, a very family friendly neighborhood. We're still close to BART but now we have a room for the baby and a yard for the dog! We've been working hard on getting the nursery set up so we'll have pictures of that soon. He's a lucky little guy... his room is really, really cute.

Finally, in baby news/updates we had a prenatal appointment last week and things continue to look good!

The Beginnings of a Nursery

Several sweet girls from Em's work pitched in on a PB Kids gift card for the baby so over the holidays we went by Pottery Barn Kids and picked out baby bedding. We hit PB Kids on the best day! Everything was way on sale so we got sheets, a quilt, a rug, and a bed skirt! The nursery is starting to take form! Here are a few pics of the pattern we chose from the PB Kids website:

Babymoon in Mendocino

The Stanford Inn

Deer on our hike, startled by a black pug

We were surrounded by a garden where they grew all the food that

was prepared at the restaurant

Chris and the Navarro River

Where the river empties into the ocean

The angry Pacific

Week 25 Check In

We had another check-up this week. Everything went really well. The baby is getting big! In fact, there are women in our prenatal group who are due two weeks earlier than us, and our baby is bigger (despite Em putting on less weight than them). Our midwife attributes this to Em’s healthy eating.

He is still very active. In fact, when the midwife was listening for his heart rate he kicked really big and moved her wand. Luckily, he’s only active during the day so sleep isn’t a problem.

Can’t wait to meet this little guy!

Chris's closet just got a whole lot cuter

This week Grandma Colchin sent a huge box packed with baby clothes! Em opened the box at work to the oooohs and ahhhhs of all of her co-workers. Some of the highlights include a UT track suit (age 6 mo, for game days of course), the matching set below with it's matching puppy toy, and a little onesie with a guitar on it that says "rock." We don't have anywhere to store his clothes yet so for the time being they're hung up in Chris's closet. It's pretty cute seeing them in there all the time.

The socks are so tiny that they fit into the palm of Chris's hand. It's hard to believe he's going to be that tiny!

Not much else in the way of an update. The baby is kicking all the time and his kicks are stronger every day. Em's belly is getting a lot bigger. We took these pics before leaving for our morning walk (ignore the sleepy face):

We found the perfect doula

We get a lot of questions about what a doula is or why we’d hire one.  This is from the Doula of North America website: The word "doula" comes from the ancient Greek meaning "a woman who serves" and is now used to refer to a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; or who provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period. Studies have shown that when doulas attend birth, labors are shorter with fewer complications, babies are healthier and they breastfeeding more easily.

We'll meet with our doula, Amy, 2 times before the birth for 2 hour sessions. We are actually taking a pregnancy class at Natural Resources too and she is the instructor, so we’ll have even more face to face time with her. She’ll know both of us well so that she can help Em in labor and help Chris help Em too. She’ll know a lot about our birth plan and give us practical advice to stick by that. At the hospital the midwifes and doctors are stretched thin helping out all of the laboring women. Amy, however, will be in our room with us the whole time.

She's been a doula at over 100 births, so it's a huge relief to know that Amy will there with us. 

Halloween

Em was Juno for Halloween. Not many people can say that they've been working on their costume for 5 months!

Boy or Girl?

We can finally stop referring to the baby as 'the baby.' Today, we had our 2nd trimester ultrasound and learned some new things: He's a he, he's healthy with a good looking brain and a strong heart, and he's quite active – although Emily is well aware of this by now.  It was pretty unreal to see him kicking his feet and rubbing his face. At one point, we even saw him open his mouth. I bet he was just saying, "shut it, fools, I'm trying to sleep."

Here's his face peeking out.  

He's waving his arm in front of his face. 

And here are the bottoms of his feet. 

Baby Bump Update

Here are some new baby bump pics. Em is showing much more now and it seemed to happen pretty suddenly. We saw Kelly and Jonathon on the 12th and then again on the 18th and they noticed a dramatic difference just in those 6 days.

The baby is still pretty active. On Saturday the baby was really active and Chris was even able to feel it from the outside! It's all pretty amazing.

Here is another pic of the bump and an excuse to upload a cute Gidget pic.

Stay posted! We have an ultrasound on Thursday. Hopefully we'll learn if this is a girl or boy then!!

Flipping Baby

I'm starting to feel the baby a little bit more these days.

It's hard to explain what it feels like but I have been trying hard to visualize what the baby is doing in there. I have decided the baby is doing flips. I thought about it... the baby has a little bit more room now, room to play around... it won't get swimmers ear or water in it's nose like you do in a pool... there's not much else to do in there... if I were in the baby's position I'd do flips too.

Our baby pics - according to VW

Emily and I uploaded our pics to this application we found online – the Babymaker3000. This is the result the first time. Cute baby, huh?

Here is a link to the result of the second time we did this: http://www.vw.com/vwhype/babymaker/en/us/?mId=28237778

Notice the huge forehead! Before today we never realized that we both have big foreheads!

Week 15

This week the baby is about 4 inches, from crown to rump, and weighs around 2 1/2 ounces - roughly the size of an apple. Baby's legs are growing longer than its arms now, and it can move all of its joints and limbs. It's also busy in there practicing breathing and developing taste buds. Pretty exciting. We also have an ultrasound scheduled for Oct. 30, so we'll know whether the baby will being dressing up as a boy or a girl for Halloween.

Family Planning

This weekend we went to Babies R Us and Target to see what's what in the world of babies. There are so many options and so many things we'll need to pick up it's pretty overwhelming.

Here is a pic of Chris testing out a stroller for its wheelie capabilities:

Afterwards we stopped by a maternity store to look for clothes. They had these creepy bumps you could use to try on your clothes and plan for when you get bigger. Here is a pic of Em modeling the bump (in non-maternity clothes):

Too much cute baby stuff

Baby Bump Pics

This is the first round of our baby pics. We are at the begining of our 4th month.

We hope you enjoy!

And some pics of the family!

Obama Mama

Peach

According to What To Expect When You're Expecting our baby is the size of a peach now!

Baby Makin' Progress

On Monday we had another check-up. We got to hear our baby’s heart beat. It was beating so fast! Apparently the heart beats really fast and will eventually slow down and match the mom’s. It was really special to hear that. Our midwife said everything else is on target and we’re looking great! In 6-8 weeks we’ll have another ultrasound where we can find out if we’re makin' a little boy or a little girl.

Em’s symptoms have cooled down which is nice. Just in time for starting CFA classes she has a little bit more energy. And, it’s Thursday which means it’s been 4 days since she last threw up!

Also, we’re starting to really see a baby bump. We’ll post baby bump pictures soon!

Our First Nursery Purchase

Books we're reading

• What to Expect When You're Expecting

• The Expectant Father

• On Becoming Baby Wise

• 40,001 Baby Names

• Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way

Everyone's Jealous of my Shirley Temple

The beginings of the baby bump.

Nothing Tastes Good

Food aversions are getting the best of me these days. Things I used to love are totally gross to me. Even saying the names of foods makes me feel nauseous! In fact, the only thing that sounds good is ice cream. If Chris would let me get away with eating Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream for every meal I would.

Class of '31 (or quite possibly '32)

Extrapolating from the due date, our baby will start kindergarten in 2014, be old enough to drive a car in 2025, finish high school in 2027, and graduate from UT in 2031.*

*Totally kidding about the UT thing. Baby Cannon can go to whichever non-USC school he or she wants.

March 24

After another check up today our approximate due date has been adjusted a bit. The new due date is March 24. Coincidentally, this is also Gidget and our friend Jon Lancaric's birthdate. Gidget said she is "aight" with sharing her birthday.

First baby pic

Here's the first of many sonograms. We got to see the baby's heartbeat - it was incredible. It looked like a tiny little light flickering. And check out that huge head.

Look at those fingers!

To give you an idea of how fast the baby is growing, here's what the baby's hands might look like today (top) compared to how they might look at the end of the week (bottom).

Week 7

We're at 7 weeks now, which means the baby is approximately the size of a blueberry. It seems tiny, but to put it into perspective, the baby is 10,000 times bigger than it was a month ago. Kind of nuts, huh? Also at this point the baby's head is developing and brain cells are being generated at the rate of 100 cells per minute. Which reminds Chris that he should quit this blogging business and get back to passive-aggressively micro-managing Em's diet*.

*Ever since we read that ample amounts of protein (70 grams/day) were essential for rapid brain cell development, Chris has been the protein nazi. But a recent analysis of Em's diet shows that she was already getting more than enough protein without Chris needing to hide chunks of tofu in Em's bowl of corn flakes. So dad is backing off.

Week 6

Is it too early to get the baby a pair of Jordans? They're unisex.

The first of what I'm sure will be several posts about pregnancy symptoms

Yesterday I was trying on a bridesmaid's dress for Kelly's wedding and I couldn't get it off. I totally got stuck. After what seemed like an hour of trying to Houdini my way out, I considered just buying it so I could get the hell out of there and go home. But realizing that they probably wouldn't let me return a dress that's been cut in half with the jaws of life, I ended up asking the salesperson to come in and help me escape. She was really nice about it, and assured me that no, the sizes aren't running smaller at Anthropologie these days. I guess that means I'm starting to show.

Don't read this until August 31st

Today, Em is 5 weeks pregnant. We got a positive test on Sunday, July 13th. Actually, we think we got a positive test on Saturday. But Gidget, our pug, chewed it up. So it was difficult to tell if the faint line on the test was indeed a faint line or just a bite mark. After a lengthy rationalization session, we came to the conclusion that Gidget could sense that Em was pregnant, and merely tried to let us know by bringing us the positive result. Then again, maybe she just tried to eat it because she likes to eat things (socks, toilet paper, bottle caps, etc.). Fortunately, on Sunday it was confirmed. A definite line. So it's official. We're having a baby. According to science, and math, the baby will be due on March 19, 2009. We're so excited that we want to tell everyone, even strangers on the street. But we can't yet. So this will have to do for now: We're pregnant!

Here is a picture of Gidget on a more peaceful day: