Hot Town, Summer In The City

On Sunday, we were at Bob&Katie's to celebrate their son's 9th birthday. He was the first baby born in our circle of friends, and we often marvel at how hard it must have been to be the first parents out of all of us. I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have the wisdom and support of our close friends who have done this before.

Ava wore a fancy dress and had a lovely time :)


She spent the afternoon watching the kids run around. She watched the grandmothers sit and chat. She watches everything. She's always craning her neck, looking around, taking it all in. Daycare Lady told me that sometimes, she's so tired and just barely awake, but she keeps one eye open so she can see what the other babies are doing.

We're going to skip town this weekend and head back up to the cabin to get out of the heat. August in Las Vegas is not for the faint of heart!

No baby yet.

In case you're checking. But things are happening. At the perinatalogist on Thursday for the weekly fetal assessment, we determined that I'm having contractions. Not the Big Important "BOIL SOME WATER! GET SOME TOWELS! " contractions, but the kind that mean that things are moving in the right direction. My OB said on Wednesday that we'll most likely not have any excitement for at least a couple of weeks or so (I feel like I've been in "couple of weeks" mode for a month now...), but the contractions are a good sign.

It snowed this week! Twice, in fact. And not the usual insignificant Vegas flurry that makes everybody freak out for an hour and then it's back to normal. No, this was an event that began around 11AM and continued through the night. I left work around 4, and it took me over an hour to make the 10 mile drive to Dad & Florence's where I ended up staying the night. Here's what our backyard looked like that night.


WEIRD. This was the most significant snowfall that has been seen here since January of 1974, and I have pictures of that one as well, as it was my first birthday. Truly, I've come full circle as far as snow is concerned. Naturally, the snow from this latest blizzard is almost entirely melted. But it was cool to watch.

I have three days left of work and then the university closes for Christmas and New Years (or "the holiday", as we PC State Employees are required to call it) and I'll officially be on maternity leave until March. HOORAY! This last week was tough--I found myself wishing I'd taken these two weeks off because it's just such an effort to get there. My fabulous assistant (see pic of bride below...) is trained and ready to cover for me. This next short week will consist mainly of me cleaning out my desk, clearing my internet history (me? surf? what? never!), and just tying up the loose ends. It's so strange to do all of this; it's like I'm moving out of the house all over again.

That's the latest, then. We're starting to focus on the process of Getting To The Hospital when it's time. We have a code that I'll text to Rob if he's at work when it happens so he can hit the door ASAP. Our bags are packed (this was also handy on Wednesday because I had jammies and get-ready stuff with me when I crashed at Dad's...). The hospital is kind of a schlep across town, so we're hoping that when Miss Speck decides to show up, it's not during rush hour (unless Woman In Labor with Imminent Baby Coming qualifies me for the carpool lane). We're not taking the laptop with us, but we'll have our phones and will keep people updated as best we can.

Kick Me!

Speck has made her presence known. They tell you to expect a flutter, or some other really light delicate sensation. Night before last, I'm laying down poking around my belly hoping to feel something, and I guess she got tired of being nudged around and she SHOVED up against my hands. Scared the hell out of me. Once we established that she was indeed still safely in utero, we came to the conclusion that our offspring may turn out to be a bit, um, active. Pray for us and anything that is breakable in our home...

For the record, she's poking me right now, and has been all day.

This morning I had another OB check--heartbeat (hers, 156 bpm), blood pressure (mine, 112/60), weight (mine, no comment but still within reasonable parameters). Right now, she's about the size of an average banana. She's measuring right where she should, and we're feeling very smug about our ability to make such a perfect child. Remind us of this feeling someday, perhaps after we catch her borrowing a car without permission, or some other such shenanigan that may or may not have had a precedent set by one or both of her parents.

This weekend we'll be in San Diego, and we're really really REALLY looking forward to getting out of town. Between the weather (hot, sticky), work (crazy), school (Rob, and he's seeing the light at the end of that tunnel) and preparing for our Blessed Event, we're a bit frazzled.

That's about it. I'm back at the peri next week, so there should be pictures and much gushing from us :).

The Long Hot Summer Begins

It's supposed to be 106 today. That's the official airport temperature, which means that it will be well over 110 in most other neighborhoods. Let me just say that I am so thankful that I'm not 8-1/2 months along and puffy and miserable because of the heat. When I'm 8-1/2 months along, I want to be puffy and miserable because of too much holiday food. I'm looking forward to holiday food, because none of it is on my "Do Not Eat" list like most of my summer favorites are. I was just having a conversation about this yesterday. Things like sushi, deli meats, tuna salad and other nice cool foods are all off limits. Don't even get me started on beverages... I've been known to get home from work when it's 115 outside, stop at the fridge, grab a beer, and head straight for a nice cold shower. Cold showers lose their appeal when there's no beer involved, let me tell you.

In other news, my peri appointment was rescheduled for 6/25. They wrote it down wrong (for today, which, had we known about it a week ago, would have been perfect) . They had to scramble a bit but they made it work. So we're twice rescheduled with them and we're fairly confident that there will be no more screwing with our appointments. Here's hoping. If you're curious, the website for the facility is www.cmfm.net. I'll be seeing Dr. Wold, and I have it on good authority that he'll take good care of us.