What's a Spoon?

Little Nattie Bumbus is no longer so little... last weekend she graduated from her infant car seat to the next level and is now sitting facing out in her stroller...

This weekend she decided she was ready for some real food and we attempted to feed her some rice cereal. I'm not sure she actually ate any, but it was fun to watch her try...

Happy Halloween!

And the winner was... a little bunny!

She's been wearing bunny slippers that one of her grandmothers gave her lately... it was the natural choice.

5 Months

Our little one is five months old. We can hardly believe it.

We continued a tradition this year and have now made it a family tradition... a visit to the local pumpkin patch. Little Bumbus scouted out a pumpkin almost as tall as she and declared it her own by pointing at it, sort of.

The house is decorated and our pumpkins are carved for the one trick-or-treater that comes every year... the little boy who used to live in our house.

What will little Bumbus be? Time will tell... she has three costumes she's currently debating. We will see what strikes her fancy tomorrow evening.

4 Months!

Little Bumbus isn't so little anymore.

She's four months and has started "camp" (aka daycare). She seems to like it, and has become more social, even after only a week. She likes to "chat" and is constantly observing everything around her.

My favorite moment as of late was when some friends invited us over for dinner. One of our hosts, Brian, was talking to Bumbus and every time he looked at her, she looked the other way. He asked if it was just him. I had no idea and then noticed that she does it to me too.

She likes to stand (parent supported) and takes steps here and there as well. She seems to have no interest in rolling or crawling... just walking. She's a risk taker... just like her dad.

15 Weeks

My favorite moment from the week...

Little bumbus threw up all over me, and then started laughing...

Her first laugh, and I will never forget it.

Life is Exhausting

Ah, to be an infant...

Too tired to stay awake after playing with your toys...

7 Weeks

Our little Nattie Bumbus is seven weeks old today.

Nattie Bumbus you say? Yes, Nattie Bumbus.

It's one of her many nicknames that has developed over the past few weeks. Next week it will surely be something else, but this week it's Nattie Bumbus.

We can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. We are coming out of the six week fog and are enjoying her little developing personality. We think she is on the verge of smiling -- we can't wait.

Early Arrival

Our little one decided to surprise us with her arrival three weeks ahead of schedule.

RR was born at 11:21 am on May 29th. She weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 19 inches long.

We adore her, and are so excited to finally see her face. It was worth the wait.

35 Week Ultrasound

We saw our little one again yesterday, and once again, she would not show her face.

Actually, she sort of showed her face, but as she's running out of room, it was squished up against my pelvic bone and quite frankly the 3D ultrasound made her look like Dobby from Harry Potter.

All an all, a 35 week ultrasound is not nearly as exciting as our 10 and 20 week ultrasounds, where you could actually see something. But, the doctor said she looks great. As of yesterday she weighed 5 pounds and 7 ounces.

One month from today she's due... we can't wait.

A Sign? Or a Prank?

I've decided someone at Judy's Family Farm in Sonoma County was really bored one day and decided to mess with a consumer or we are having twins and the second little one has remained hidden during two previous ultrasounds. I'm positive it's the former, however, after the events of the past week, I'm a little suspicious.

It started last Monday. I typically start my day with two eggs and a piece of toast.

I cracked open the last egg from a previous carton and it was a perfectly lovely egg, with a single yolk. I then cracked open an egg from a new carton and it had a double yolk. An interesting surprise, as I've never personally seen an egg with a double yolk. I started writing an email to my handsome husband with a photo of the egg and a subject line that said "Twins?", but then decided I might scare him, so I changed the subject line as not to freak him out.

Tuesday morning was a bit more of a shock... two eggs... BOTH with double yolks. Now I was starting to think that it was a sign, but a sign of what?

Wednesday I was too scared to make eggs, so no egg developments on Wednesday.

Thursday morning... one normal and one with a double yolk. Are you kidding me? 4 of 5 eggs have had double yolks? Was someone messing with me?

Friday morning... two double yolks, again! 6 of 7 eggs?!?! And then, at work, I received an email from my husband, who had made eggs for lunch. The email contained a photo of one normal and and one double yolked egg with a note that said 7 of 9. It was starting to freak the husband out and he didn't want to eat them.

Saturday morning... again, TWO DOUBLE YOLKS. We couldn't believe it. 9 of 11 of the eggs had yielded double yolks.

Sunday morning... one egg remaining. I had to make an egg, just to know the status of that last egg. Alas, it only had a single yolk. 9 of 12.

Three quarters of the dozen eggs had double yolks. Someone at Judy's Family Farm just HAD to be messing with us. However, when my doctor ordered an additional ultrasound today to check on the position of the baby, I must admit that I found I was looking forward to confirming that there is only one little one awaiting us...

Easter Craving

I must admit I was SHOCKED when I passed my gestational diabetes test. I have a sweet tooth like no other.

My pregnancy sugar intake has been typical of my pre-pregnancy diet (my husband might contest this statement, but let me point out I ate a lot of sweets BEFORE I got pregnant as well), however, I must admit I've been CRAVING a Cadbury Creme Egg since Easter candy started showing up in stores.

Apparently, though, I was not to have any, as I never saw any Cadbury Creme Eggs -- until today. Finally, on Easter, I found one. My Easter treat.

It was exactly what the little one wanted.

Yes, it wasn't me who wanted it, rather it was the little rascal who keeps her mother up at all hours of the night. I blame her. (I only have mere weeks left to blame everything on her, so I'm running with it while I can.)

Happy Easter to all!

31 Weeks

This week marks the start of our 31st week and the little one is apparently over 16 inches long and weights a whopping 3.3 pounds. We had no idea that babies were so long and lean before they started to plump up. We are apparently heading into a growth spurt where she will start to plump up, leaving her looking like a normal looking baby when she arrives.

She's definitely active, as she likes to host dance parties at 3 am. You can now see her movements on the outside of my belly, which is nice, as her father can see them too. I think he felt a little left out when I would tell him that the baby was kicking.

Last weekend we spent our entire Saturday in a childbirth class, which was somewhat helpful for me and very boring for the little one's father. We did learn, however, that it takes us 12 minutes to get to the hospital and when exactly we need to head there when the time comes. Good information to know, as we don't have that much longer. Our due date is two months from tomorrow!

We've finished the nursery, as we ordered our "glider" chair last weekend, which is due to arrive a few weeks before the baby is due. My favorite baby item so far is a shark robe that reminds me of my brother and his favorite stuffed animal when we were little, Sharkey (who was actually an Orca).

Other than wearing out rather quickly, I still feel extraordinarily lucky in our pregnancy so far. I feel relatively good, other than the fact that I have a huge belly and it makes me lose my balance.

We very much look forward to meeting our little one at the end of this pregnancy journey!

Mother's Club

I was recently telling a dear friend a story about my first experience with the local mother's club, and she insisted that I share it.

My sister had great success with meeting wonderful people through her local mother's club when she had her children, so I sought out the local group and signed up. I was placed in a group with 11 other women giving birth in April, May and June of this year.

I was one of the last to sign up for the group, so they had already had two meetings before I met everyone for the first time.

A few weeks ago the group had it's last monthly meeting (my first meeting) before a short break for everyone to give birth to their little ones.

The group was filled with wonderful, successful women, one of whom lives three blocks away from us. I'm looking forward to future events, as I suspect that a few of us will become good friends.

My favorite moment from the gathering, however, was when one woman asked the others what breathing method they were going to use for the birth of their child (or children in one case). Everyone started chiming in with comments like "the Bradley method," "I'm using a doula," etc. They then continued on with how many books on the subject each had read, which books they thought were best, and the like. Then someone asked me what my birth plan was. My response, "an epidural." Silence. "What breathing method?" "Whatever feels natural." Again, silence. It was pretty funny.

We are now at 29 weeks. We cannot wait to meet our little one, as last time we saw her she hid her face.

Joy... Part II

We had a simply perfect wedding. The day was exactly what we wanted -- simple, yet elegant.

Better yet, we walked away from our wedding with the perfect wedding present -- a little one on the way.

This week we start the third trimester. We are apprehensive and excited, all at the same time. In less than three months we will finally meet the little one who has decided she's a future Ironman, as she likes to engage in sprint distance events while her mother is trying to sleep.

As our families are not near, we want to use our blog to share updates and our adventures as we prepare for our biggest ultra-distance event to date -- parenthood.