My Celebrity Look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

I ran across this cool "celebrity look-alike" page when I was checking out blogs on Greg and Erin's blog to see who I knew. Turns out one of the blogs who I did know had celebrity look-alikes from this page. I didn't have a picture of me handy, but had one of Dawnell.

Apparently she missed her calling and should have been a star of crappy teen movies. I must say, the Julia Stiles pic looks pretty close. I must also admit that I have no idea who two of these four are, and I watch Best Week Ever every week.

Cha Ching!

My work threw a surprise shower today for me and another girl who is due April 9. I didn't think we were going to have a party because it's March 28 and everyone is stressed out with the deadline looming. It didn't last long, but people were really nice for the few minutes they could stay. Once we cut the cake they had to grab it and run back to their desks, but my desk was also piled so I completely understood. They gave me an Amex gift card that they'd collected from people around the office and I was so touched with everyone's generosity. Chris even came by after work to help me carry it home.

4 Days Left

I'm sitting here at work and cannot help but notice that I only have 4 days of work left before going on maternity leave. They are going to be four full days, but still, there's only 4 left. I can't wait. My boss did tell me the inspiring stories (again) of the women who'd gone into labor at the office (they'd even let me take a car to the hospital, how nice). I wasn't taking the bait. He tried one last time to let me know if I was bored in the next couple of weeks and the baby hadn't come that I could come in and he had no problem paying me. Again, thanks, but no thanks. I'm looking forward to sleeping in and getting our house a little more organized.

Week 37

Hope everyone is enjoying our blog-o-mania. Eventually this blog will be more than just baby talk. Oh, who am I kidding, it'll probably always be baby-centric. Right now we're watching the NCAA Tournament. Dawnell puts up with watching games whenever she has a vested economic interest in the outcome, and we might have a chance in our bracket if North Carolina beats UCLA in the final game. Of course, first North Carolina needs to win against Georgetown. As I write this UNC is up by 3 with a minute left. Go Tar Heels!

Here are the obligatory bump pictures:




Sometimes Dawnell looks like this with her bump, happy and content.















But sometimes she looks like this, because womb-baby makes her ever so tired.

She also might look like this because Georgetown just hit a three pointer to tie the game at 81.

If UNC wins she'll look like the above picture. If they end up choking away the game she'll look like the one below.

Not a very happy overtime for us. Oh well, should be a pretty good final four. I guess I'll revert to cheering for Ohio State because one of my friends here in NYC is from Ohio and has a nice big TV to watch the games. I like that Conley kid too. He can run the point.

New York Shower

Dawnell had her New York baby shower on March 3rd. After all of the great presents we got in Utah she had to get the word out that we were set for the 0-3 month baby clothes size. Well, the New York metro area friends came through and we got more than enough 3-6 month clothes. We figure after 6 months he should be talking and can just tell us what he wants to wear.

Here is Dawnell with our friend Addy. Addy put together the whole shower. She did a great job.












These girls were also shower helpers. From L to R, we have Jill, Sheena, and BreAnna. Sorry if I misspelled anyone's name there. Dawnell helped me out a while ago with them, but then the computer died, and I had to redo this. Anyway...











Here are some adorable onesie cookies. Jill made the cookies. They are sweet in more ways than one.

Shower Power!

Here are some pictures from the Utah shower, held on February 10, 2007

Beckett is going to play basketball. This pleases me and disappoints Dawnell.

This is a cute book.

Here is a cute present, along with one of our many adorable nieces. Her name is Abby, but we call her Azu Bazhu. That sounds a lot cuter than it looks written out on the page.

Also, check out the super grande pile of presents. We're very grateful for everyone's generosity!

Beckett will also be cool, as the baby doll there is dressed up in a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt. He's already got some Air Jordan booties as well, so he's well on his way. I don't think I got my first pair of Air Jordans until high school. (Edit: I've since figured out that I did not own a pair of Air Jordan's until about 4 years ago, as I always bought other Nikes while in school).

EDIT: APRIL 1st: Dawnell got in trouble with her Utah friends for not posting pics of them while posting pics of her New York friends, so here they are. From L to R: Michelle, Sara, and Sheryl.

March 22, 2007 Doctor's Appointment

Last night on the 22nd I hauled myself to the doctor's office once more. I had to meet with the scary lady I don't like as much as the other midwives, but I was very proud that my blood pressure stayed normal as opposed to the white coat syndrome that this lady gives me.

She checked the position of the baby and the good news is he's head down. I was convinced he was transverse (laying side to side for those of you who don't regularly follow obstetric terms). I kept feeling things in both my right and left ribs at the same time. I figured he was punching one side and kicking the other. Plus my stomach looks like a strange inverted triangle, being much wider at the top. I guess he must be spread eagle in there and get both those giant feet going at once because he's pointing the way he should and getting ready to make his grand entrance. The midwife even told me that as of midnight I'd be 37 weeks and that's considered full term. That means any day now... But nothing magical happened at midnight and I don't feel much different so I think I'll probably go to right around my due date. Even though my weird shaky right leg would like things to end much sooner.

Even though I only have three weeks left I have about 5 more docotor's appointments already lined up. Looking at my appointment list is so depressing. It makes me feel like I have months left. At least my care is thorough!

At this point in time there's not much to tell. The baby still moves a lot. His heartbeat is strong and regular. I'm measuring right on for my weeks of pregnancy and I feel like crap.

I'm counting down the days left of work. Only 5 left. I refuse to come in this Saturday. Soon I'll be sitting at home twiddling my thumbs trying to decide if packing my hospital bag will jinx me. Speaking of which, if any of you have suggestions for must haves that you took to the hospital with you let me know.

And for those of you who want to know about the Birchers they have already come and gone. I was very sad to see them go as Jil and Del sold their daughters into slavery and made them rub my feet at night. Chris and I really have to get ourselves a little white slave girl. They are so handy to have around.

March 9, 2007 Update

Yet another doctor's appointment last night. Chris was a fancy travelin' lawyer yesterday going to client meetings but he actually managed to make it and hear the baby's heartbeat (always comforting), and help me calm down because I gained more than my allotted 1 pound per week these past two weeks. It seems there was an explanation for my weight gain, no, nothing bad like preeclampsia. My fundus was a week behind at the last appointment, but at this one I was a week ahead. (Well a day ahead since as of today I started the 35th week and I measured 35 yesterday.) So baby had a growth spurt. No wonder I'd been starving for three weeks straight! We don't have any estimates on how big he is, but since I don't have gestational diabetes or anything we're not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

This week I also got upgraded? downgraded? to weekly appointments. I'm far enough along they want to see me all the time. This is fine, except for the fact that my job is currently insane making daytime appointments virtually impossible. Heck, in a week evening appointments are going to be impossible. They only have evening hours on Mondays and Thursdays, but next Thursday we get to go to the awesome Mana concert. It seemed like a waste to go back in 4 days this coming Monday so they approved that I don't have to come in for 2 weeks. That made me happy because they obviously feel that the baby and I are healthy and doing well.

Speaking of work craziness I asked them to write me a note saying that I didn't have to work more than 8-10 hours a day. The midwife was appalled that I even had to ask her to write this note. "You're in your third trimester! Would they really try and make you work that much?!" Obviously she's never worked at an accounting firm during tax season. After I assured her that it was indeed a concern and in the past I often worked 12-16 hour days she got to writing. It doesn't give specific hourly guidelines (boo!) but it did say to cut me some slack and let me walk around and go to the bathroom and recognize that I get tired. I think Chris is hoping they don't honor these requests so he can sue my company for me. It's right up his alley.

At our Lamaze class on Tuesday we had a hospital tour and it reminded me of questions I had. So at the end of the appointment we just went over some more of my birth plan requests and they're very supportive of everything I want. Even though Beth Israel is kind of an old hospital (as clearly evidenced on the tour. I could pay $300 a night for a private room that still doesn't have a private bathroom. How is that possible?) I really love the midwives I work with and that will really make all the difference for me. I trust them and I love that they don't look at me crazy when I ask for things.

I had a baby shower in New York this past Saturday. My friend Addy did an incredible job. And I was so touched because about 27 people showed up. It is really comforting to feel like I have a support system here in New York since family is far away. My friend took a lot of picture with her camera and hasn't given me a cd yet so I don't have many to show you, but here's one from my friend's blog. Her name is Elise and her son is Dallin. He's huge, but only 4 months old. She kind of started the baby boom in the ward. She promised to go the baby matinees with me so I'm excited for that.

So as you can see things are still going great. I'm starting to get antsy, but I'm not so uncomfortable that every day is a torture. The baby is active all the time. Now he's waking up with our alarms and dancing to the music. Chris is getting wake-up kicks when we snuggle in the morning and are trying to ignore the alarm for just one more snooze. Sadly the naughty baby waits until I get up to leave me alone and go back to sleep. He's my own internal alarm, but it still doesn't prevent me from being late to work all the time. However, I am down to only 10 minutes late instead of 20. It is tax season, after all.

Love you all!

Dawnell & Womb-Baby (old habits are hard to break)