No More Sleeping Like a Monkey

I loved sleeping on my back (notice - past tense). Jason said I look like a monkey sleeping since my arms are overhead, but I don't care - its comfortable!

Once I passed the 4 month point, I was told that I could not sleep on my back anymore. Apparently, if I do so, this can cause problems with backaches, breathing, digestive system, hemorrhoids (!), low blood pressure and decrease in circulation to the heart and the baby. This has to do with the abdomen putting more pressure on the intestines and major blood vessels (the aorta and vena cava). Instead, I have been advised to sleep on my side - preferably, the left side as it "will increase the amount of blood and nutrients that reach the placenta and the baby. Keep your legs and knees bent and a pillow between your legs." Sheesh - this is a lot to remember for someone who is dead tired when they go to bed.

Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and I am on my back (oops!). Being the good mama I want to be, I roll over onto my left side, but it is SO uncomfortable for me - I repeat - SO uncomfortable. My hips do not like it at all. So, it has been recommended that I get a body pillow such as the one below:




I ask you - is this really supposed to be comfortable? For someone who does not like to sleep on their side, this looks like a torture device. Plus, it is so big, where is Jason supposed to sleep? He would be able to have, oh, the last 3 inches on his side of our queen bed. If you have used a body pillow before, or just have thoughts on the matter, please do let me know. I'm sure this would help me from rolling onto my back, but I dunno...

Baby's First Concert

Note: Okay, this really isn't a baby post... more of a concert review. Feel free to skip over if not interested.

One of our favorite bands was in town last night - The Cure! Of course, since we live a stone's throw away from the HP Pavilion AND since we've been Cure fans for 20+ years we just HAD to go to the show. Jason and I have seen them before - in 1989 Disintegration Tour (we both attended the concert, but didn't know each other then) and 1992 Wish Tour. I was a little wary that after 15+ years, they wouldn't sound the best. But, boy was I wrong! Robert Smith and the boys never sounded better. For those of you Cure fans out there, they played the following songs - going all the way back over the decades to their 1979 releases.

Plainsong, Prayers For Rain, Fascination Street, The Perfect Boy, The Blood, The End of the World, Lovesong, To Wish Impossible Things, Pictures Of You, Lullaby, Catch, Hot Hot Hot, The Only One, A Strange Day, Sleep When I'm Dead, Push, Doing The Unstuck, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, A Letter To Elise, From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Shake Dog Shake, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, Disintegration

1st encore: At Night, M, Play For Today, A Forest
2nd encore: Freakshow, Close To Me, Why Can't I Be You?
3rd encore: Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab.

It was a really great show and baby enjoyed some of the songs, as well. In particular, Fascination Street. Well, I think he either loved it or hated it since he was bouncing around alot during that song... One of the best things after the show is the fact that we live so close to the venue, we were snug in bed as other people were still heading home. : )

Halfway There!!

Today I'm 20 weeks. Who hoo - halfway point! Only 20 more weeks to go...

Say "OM", Hold Your Kegel, and Hiking

Today I attended my first pre-natal yoga class in Campbell. It was great! I really like practicing yoga, but haven't for about a year or so. Now that I have the time, it is great to get back into it. I feel yoga is important in creating an inner peace while also making one physically stronger. Question of the day: how long can I bend over and balance on one leg with my arms outstretched until I fall over -- with about 10 added lbs in my belly? LOL. This is called the Virabhadrasana III or Warrior III Pose.



Although, I have to say, it was pretty funny when the instructor asked us to do kegel exercises along with our yoga poses. She looked at me and said that I must do at least 50 kegel exercises a day for my "homework". Maybe I wasn't doing them right? (psst - if you don't know what kegel exercises are you can find out here) . All in all, it was a great class and I will, hopefully, continue it throughout the rest of the pregnancy.

I also try to get in at least 30 -60 minutes of walking every day. Usually, when Jason gets home from work, we'll walk around the neighborhood. Its nice that it gets dark later (i love it!) and the weather isn't too hot then.

This past weekend, we went to a good friend's wedding in Point Reyes and I was able to get a lot of walking in. Point Reyes is about an hour north of San Francisco on the coast. It was beautiful weather for a beautiful wedding. (Congratulations, Marite!)

Here is a picture of Jason holding on for dear life on the San Andreas Faultline (the park has blue posts that run through a small portion of the faultline):



And me hiking in Point Reyes National Park on the Woodpecker Trail:

It's a Boy!

We just returned from our genetic counseling/ultrasound II/potential amniocentisis appointment. The amnio is a procedure in which a needle in inserted into the amniotic sac in order to remove fluid for genetic testing purposes in order to detect any problems. Its recommended for women who will be 35+ at the time they give birth (which is me...sigh.), but it does have a 1 in ~600 chance of miscarriage. We decided that we would move forward with the amnio only if anything fishy came up on the blood test results and ultrasound. The blood test results were good and so was the ultrasound, so we decided not to have the amnio. YAY!!

AND...we found out we are having a BOY!!


Don't ask me how they can determine that little blob is a boy-part...but, I put my trust in the technician. : )

The little guy was being a bit stubborn and not wanting to give a profile, but here is the best shot we could get. He's getting bigger!!




If you have any good suggestions for boy names, please let us know!! We have some good ideas for girl names, but we could use your help for this little guy (not Franz, Mom, and not Maynard, Jason...).

How Sweet the Sound

Well, its been a while since I posted. I got into a fender bender on Hwy 280 last week. Before you read anymore, just know that baby and I are a-okay. The guy driving behind me wasn't paying attention during rush-hour traffic and rear-ended me into the 2 cars in front of me. My little VW will need a new back and front bumper, but other than that no one was hurt. I was just rattled by the experience and went to the ER that night to be sure bebe was okay - and everything is fine.

Which leads me to my new favorite product of the week! The baby heart doppler. Now, I can listed to baby's heartbeat whenever I want! Instant gratification - whohoo!! Although, Jason is afraid the baby will grow 3 heads if I listen everyday, so I try to restrain myself. But, it does give me piece of mind. We rented the doppler from the website for a few months. It comes with a DVD and detailed instructions, which is great.

Item of the Week: BellaBand

I love, love, love my BellaBand. Since my belly is kinda in the in-between stage at this point, its been super helpful. I can still wear my pre-pregnancy clothes, just keeping the top button unbuttoned and wearing the BellaBand over it. It looks like I am wearing a tank top or t-shirt layer and is super comfy. We'll see how long I can use it! Here is an example of what it looks like from the website:

BUT, I did buy a few maternity pants a few weeks ago and, I have to admit, they are pretty comfy. They should make similar pants for non-pregnant people just for Thanksgiving!

Boy or Girl?

Marie sent me this nifty website to predict if we will be having a boy or a girl. In its wise wisdom, it has predicted a boy for us -- similar to our ultrasound tech's assumption. Apparently it is over 90% accurate - and Marie says it has been accurate for most of her friends. We'll keep you all posted...(thanks, Marie!)

Baby's First Picture

Here is your first glimpse of our little guy/girl! The bebe is 14 weeks here. Initial thoughts are that it is a boy (time to save up for a 3rd Sharks season ticket)! The ultrasound tech said he could see "boy parts", but couldn't be certain since it was still too early. I'm 17 weeks now and our next updated shot should happen in 2 1/2 weeks. We can't wait to see how the little tiger has grown! Stay tuned for updated pics to come...