Rebellin

It is Monday morning at 9am, and I’m sitting in my pjs liesurely getting ready to pick up Mom from the airport. It’s so nice to not be at work!

My last day at work was wonderful. I worked like a dog from 7am to noon finishing everything up, then our entire staff went on a catamaran ride on Lake Tahoe. It was a wonderful way to start my leave. The day couldn’t have been more perfect, we had a blast, and I even got in a quick dip at the Hyatt Beach.

Saturday, I nested. It was serious. I did 6 loads of laundry, sterilized stuff for the baby, cleaned the windows in our house, and worked myself ragged until I took a long nap. I didn’t go outside until 7pm.

Sunday, I lived it up one last day. To the pool with friends in the morning, back for a nap, to the pool with family, then up to Sand Harbor for JB’s early birthday celebration of a picnic, one final dip in the Lake for me, and a Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival show. It was a lovely evening.

Today, I pick up Mom, we’re going to lunch, and then doing a spa day. Can’t wait!

Surgery is scheduled for noon tomorrow. Will post updated here ASAP, but I’m giving you fair warning… JB isn’t one to update this blog (I tried to get him to last time I gave birth), so it may be a few days!

Updated photo streams on Flicker today!

June 2009
July 2009

Holy smokes, less than 30 days! I spent a wonderful weekend with the in-laws, where I got to relax a bit, but also got some help with baby preparations from my mother-in-law.

Anyway, last Thursday, I bought Little Miss some face paints, as she has been doing face painting at her day care, and LOVES it. We get home, and she was excited to paint her Momma. She started with my arm, moved to my leg, did a bit on my face, and then I could see the gears turrning in her head, as she asked, “Can I paint The Belly?”

You should have seen her light up when I said, “yes”. I lifted my shirt, and she was thrilled with the large canvas that awaited. I had to save the masterpiece to show her Dad when he got home. Anyway, here is a pic. I think she had the most fun poking the brush into my belly button!

I feel big, but looking at this picture made me feel enormous. 6 more weeks of this?! Seriously?!

Belly shot at 33 weeks (8 months, 1 week):

About a month ago, I stumbled upon a listing at Reno Moms Like Me for a photographer in Reno looking to expand her portfolio for maternity and young children.  I met up with Michele from MMB Photography at Rancho San Rafael on a lovely Spring day.  Everything was in bloom, and we had a great time wandering the grounds with her to find good shots.

When she uploaded the shots she took of Little Miss and I, I was floored.  I expected to get a few good shots, but almost every one was beautiful.  She truly has an amazing eye, and her photography skills almost seemed poetic to me.  I’ll be featuring some of the pics she captured on this site for the next month.  In the mean time, if anyone in the Reno area is looking for a good photographer, Michele is your woman!  Go check out her site and look at the Maternity and Babies and Children galleries to see more of our photos featured. 

Thanks, Michele, for capturing a very special time between a mother, a daughter, and an expectant son.

Last night was the Reno Corporate Challenge Swim Meet, an annual event where we gather a team of people to compete against other local companies.  This was my sixth annual swim meet in this competition (I missed one year as I was recovering from giving birth), and we had a pretty good turn out for our team.  Most people thought I was a bit batty to be competing at 6.5 months pregnant. 

And perhaps I am, but I’ve been swimming lately, and feeling really strong.  This is my one chance to swim in a swim meet each year, and I really didn’t want to sit it out (especially after sitting out most of ski season).  I talked to my doctor, who said to go for it, and that I did.  I expected a lot of stares from strangers as I loaded my pregnant belly up onto the blocks, but there was so much commotion that I don’t think anyone gave me a second thought, besides probably thinking “good for the chubby girl to get out there and compete”. 

But my coworkers knew, and they were proud.  After finishing one race, I heard one of them yell, “yeah, baby maker!”

I think I also wanted to prove that a pregnant woman doesn’t have to sit at home in a bubble, but can actually get out there and hold her own.  I’m sick of reading on the pregnancy sites about women who think a stroll around the block is exercise, and that lifting 3 pound weights is strength training.  I personally believe that as long as you don’t have complications, you should get out there and challenge yourself almost every day — belly or not.  Yes, the belly is starting to slow me down, but I know that myself and my baby are stronger for my mentality.

Yes, it was humbling to be out there in my swim suit with all those other girls that looked like they just stepped out of their college team’s practice for the race.  I was thankful that our company provided company logo robes for us to wear in between races.  Because believe me, I didn’t want to be prancing around in my Speedo in front of my coworkers any more than necessary.

I walked away with a third place in the back stroke and second place in the breast stroke.  Not bad for hefting an additional 14 pounds through the water!  The relay competition was heated, and we came in fourth (ouch), after sweeping the relays at last year’s event.

That said, here are the pictures my coworkers captured of me last night. 

Here is my back stroke wall start…  I didn’t even attempt to get myself up onto the blocks with my knees all curled up for a proper start. 

Looking rather round in this one…

Gliding my way to a silver medal in the breast stroke…

And the next pic initially made me cringe.  But right as I was about to delete it, I thought that I should keep it, as it is the only pic that shows what the belly looked like that night.  The whole night I thought I just looked really chunky, but seeing the side profile makes me think — hey, I might actually look pregnant finally!

Pregnancy chair lift riding, originally uploaded by Rebellin.

Oh, how I wish I was riding this chair rather than just posing.

IMG_5332, originally uploaded by Rebellin.

Here is my first Belly shot at 21 weeks (5 months pregnant).  There is a reason you haven’t seen any pictures of the “bump” for the past 4 months…  I’m just not a cute pregnant woman.  I expand in all directions, and don’t really get a bump.  I get a spare tire and a bigger pot belly, and eventually (I think around 7 months), the two will join to form a rather gargantuan bump.  If you can call it a bump.  Perhaps we should just call it the bulge.

Anyway, I had my 5 month appointment today.  The doctor asks me “how are you feeling?”, and all I could say was “huge”.  He actually said my 8 pound weight gain was relatively low, which I guess is a good thing.  In my grand delusions, I’d like to just gain 15 pounds total, but considering I’m entering the rapid growth phase now, I’m afraid that is completely out of the picture.

According to BabyCenter, my baby is the size of a carrot (What’s Up, Doc?!), and is 10.5 inches long.  So yeah, I guess there is reason for my pooch.  I’ve been feeling a lot of movement lately, which is reassuring, yet still freaky at the same time.  It’s just strange to have a completely separate being living inside of you.  I doubt I’ll ever get used to that.

I had the in-laws in town this weekend, and we took Little Miss out to fly a kite and on her first ferris wheel ride.  She had a ball, and has been soaking up all of the attention.  Pics posted on my Flickr site.