Love Letter

When we were in college, our parents came to visit us one weekend and brought with them two wrapped presents.  It wasn’t our birthday or any other holiday where gifts might be exchanged, so it was a fun surprise to be getting a gift.  What was inside was truly one of the best and most beautiful gifts I’ve ever gotten. 

It was a journal that my mom had started when we were newborns and continued up until the day that she wrapped it up and put a bow on it.   She wrote one for each of us as well as my younger brother and sister, and they are basically her love letters to us.  About 20 years’ worth of love letters.  When in life do you ever get an entire notebook full of love letters all at once?  To be honest, the love that was poured into this journal was so overwhelming to me that I couldn’t even read it.  Especially without crying.  It took me several years before I was able to read the whole thing all the way through.   And my teardrops can now be found on the pages throughout.

In my journal, she told me what I was like as a baby – my disposition, favorite foods, how well I slept at night, and so on.  These kinds of updates continued on throughout the years as she wrote.  But the bulk of the journal is filled with her observations of watching me grow and learn and become the person that I am today.  She wrote of her wishes for me, her love for me, the frustrations that she felt during some difficult times, her pride in the person that I was becoming, etc… 

What an absolute gift to be able to know what my mom was thinking and feeling and learning as she raised me and watched me grow.  Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.  It is one of my most treasured possessions. 

Now, as I am pregnant with my own child, I find this journal to be even more meaningful.  I think that being able to see how my own mom felt and dealt with things during different stages in my life will help me to be a better mother.  For example, how did she feel watching me go off to my first day of school?  Help me get through heartbreak during my first breakup?  Get through packing up and sending off two of her kids to college at the same time?  I haven’t even met my baby yet, and I’m already dreading the thought of that!

One thing I know for sure is that I will absolutely be continuing this tradition with my children.  And I plan to start soon with at least one letter written to my baby before I get to meet him or her.  I already have so many things that I’d like to say.  Like what a joy it is to be able to feel this baby that I have yet to meet, and how I wonder who it is that’s growing inside of me and what s/he will be like.  I just need to find the perfect book to use – one that will be very durable and can withstand a few tears.

--Bridget

22 weeks, 1 day, and 10 hours

posted by Maureen


That's how pregnant I am right now. 

I always find this whole counting-each-week-as-it-passes thing to be sort of funny/strange. I mean, when else in life does a person literally count life week by week for 40 whole weeks? Did you know that the 4th of July is 12 weeks away? Or that Thanksgiving is 30 weeks from now? If you're pregnant and expecting a baby around then, you probably do. If you're like the rest of the population and don't speak Pregnant, you use a more normal convention called months. 

Months are nice and easy. They don't require you to do the math to figure out that, say, 34 weeks is actually 8 and a half months of time (which I have to admit just took me way too long to figure out in my head...) And honestly, I think tracking life week by week actually makes time fly by faster.

Now, of course, I get why each week matters. So much is changing with both me and the baby so frequently, that just tracking the months isn't enough. So, yes, I speak Pregnant now. It's a bit of a different language, where I catch myself saying things that I used to find funny like "we're pregnant" (umm...not exactly possible) and find myself talking about things I've never thought much about before like doulas, breast pumping, Braxton Hicks contractions, and Rh compatibility. I'm telling you, it's a whole new world.

So,  yes, I have now found myself being that person that excitedly tells Dan's 25 year old male co-workers that "I'll be 23 weeks in 6 days!" when they ask how far along I am. I definitely forget that everyone else isn't speaking the same language as me these days. So, for those of you that still use months and don't feel like doing the math, I'll give you a break and tell you that I'm 5 and half months along now.

And I'll also stop the rambling and give you a belated Halftime Report!

I reached the official halfway point in my pregnancy two weeks ago. And right around that time I felt the baby kick for the first time. Definitely one of the coolest pregnancy moments to date. Our little tiny one is quite the kicker now, and I feel it all the time. I tell my dad, who is a big-time hockey fan and has his fingers crossed for a future hockey playing grandchild, that the baby is practicing it's slap shots all day long.

We had our 20 week ultrasound at the end of March and got the great news that the baby looks great and everything is going smoothly so far. We also got this amazing ultrasound photo of our tiny one. 

I've seen these 4D ultrasound photos of other people's babies, and have often thought that they are definitely super cool, but that the babies can look somewhat alien at times (since they're still becoming babies and all). Of course, I find this particular photo entirely adorable and can't get enough of it. I guess it's different when it's your own :)


And since I love a good before and after, here's a shot of me at about 2 and a half months along: 

Yes, I might just be sucking my tummy in a bit here. Gotta look good while I still can!

And now here I am at 5 months, aka 20 weeks:

Gotta love that model pose. Dan says I smile the same way in all my photos, and I should change it up a bit. So this was my attempt at "sort of smiling" instead of just "full on smiling". Stay tuned as I continue to practice more interesting faces to make in photos. 


Also, stay tuned for a real up-to-date photo of me at 22 weeks. My belly has actually popped big-time in the past two weeks, but I can't show the latest and greatest photo just yet because  I've got another surprise in store. Are you all curious now? Better stay tuned ;)

Vacation Recap

I’m back after a longer-than-expected hiatus from blogging.  Sorry about that!  I was sure I’d get back into the swing of things last week once we were home from vacation, but I was sidelined by a huge pile of work that had built up while I was away.  Plus, I came down with the mother of all headaches.  Or at least that’s what it felt like to me.  I’m pretty sure it was the first migraine that I’ve ever had and it was miserable and it lasted for 2 whole days and I couldn’t sleep or sit up or focus my eyes on anything.  Since we didn’t even get home from vacation til Monday, that meant that my week was mostly shot.  So here I am today, finally getting back into the swing of things and feeling back to normal…unless you count my much larger-than-normal belly and the fabulous baby kicks that I now feel on a regular basis!

Since I’ve mentioned our vacation a few times, I thought it would be fun to recap it a bit for you all.  So here’s the scoop on our 2-in-1 vacation. 

One of our very favorite places to go is Park City, Utah.  We love to ski, hike, snowshoe, camp, and explore and this area is an excellent playground for all of those things. 

See?  So much fun!

So we knew we wanted to get back there one last time before the baby is born.  But we’re kind of greedy when it comes to travel and we also knew that we wanted to go somewhere new and different as a last little adventure while it’s still just the two of us.  But how were we going to afford to do both? 

It wasn’t looking good until we found a cheap flight to Utah...cheap because it was 11 days long and included travel on weekdays rather than weekends.  It was way longer than we were planning to be gone, but the flight was also $300 cheaper PER PERSON than anything else we’d found.  So we decided to go for it.  Like I said, we’re kind of greedy about traveling and it’s what we prefer to spend our money on (as opposed to shopping and eating out a lot), so it didn’t take too much to convince us to go for it.  We were able to swing it because the majority of the trip overlapped with Spring Break which is a really slow week for me, work-wise, and Scott was able to work “from home” (aka Utah) for a few days in order to save some of his PTO for when the baby arrives.

But going on such a long trip would pretty much rule out our idea of taking a second trip to somewhere we’d never been before.   And we weren’t about to give up on that (again, greedy about travel), so we came up with the perfect plan.   We’d combine both ideas into one trip.  We’d always wanted to go to southern Utah to see some of the amazing scenery that’s down there – crazy rock formations like hoodoos, slot canyons, red rocks, waterfalls – plus it would be a great way to squeeze in some hiking since we won’t be getting to do that this summer because of my August 6^th due date.  

Hiking is one of our favorite things to do together.
These shots are from last summer and show how gorgeous the summers in Utah are!

It’s a straight shot, 5 hour drive due south to get to Zion National Park, so we decided to slip away from Park City for a few days of adventure in a new place that we’ve never been…aka Our BabyMoon!

Hiking in Zion on our Babymoon...more pics and stories to come!

Our time in Park City was fabulous and relaxing.  The weather was unseasonably warm there, and also sunny and dry.  So no new snow and any snow that was already on the ground was quickly melting away.  This did not mean good things for skiing.  Fine by me because I’m on a year-long hiatus from skiing while I bake this bun.  My hubby though was rather disappointed as he’s a bit obsessed with skiing and quite good at it too.  He did get to go twice, though, so don’t feel too bad for him. 

So with no snow to ski or snowshoe in, we had a lot of downtime to just chill.    I got a massage (twice!), did a little maternity clothes shopping, went to yoga a few times, went on a lot of walks, read the Hunger Games, and slept in.  It’s such a gorgeous place, and I feel so at home and at peace in the mountains, so it was just good for my soul to be there. 

Our babymoon was so fun and we took so many pictures that I think it deserves a post all its own, so I’ll save that for my next post. 

Instead I’ll end by sharing my experiences flying while pregnant. 

Observation #1:   I hate having to check my carry-on at the gate because the overhead space is already too full.  The stupid airlines charge so damn much for checked baggage, so everyone tries to carry on as much as possible – myself included.  And for some reason, we’re always in the final boarding group for every flight that we take which means that the overhead space is almost always full by then.  So nearly every time we fly, we have to gate-check our carry-ons.  And I hate having to wait for my bag on the jet bridge after a long flight, especially because I’ve usually got to use the loo by this point.  This is a first world problem, I know, but it’s still a pet peeve. 

But this time! I was clever and found a way around the situation.  All you pregnant women out there take note on what I’m about to share.  When airlines begin boarding, they always call for families traveling with small children and those who require more time to board the plane to get in line first.  And guess what?!?  Pregnancy counts as a reason to board early!  So we were literally the first people to board our flight!  Fabulous as far as I’m concerned as it really did make the whole process easier and there was plenty of room for our bags overhead.  And when our flight landed, I was able to head straight up the jet bridge and directly into the bathroom.  Much needed after a long flight at 5 months pregnant.

Observation #2:  At 5 months pregnant, it is nearly impossible to access anything that you have stored under the seat in front of you.  This may seem obvious to some of you, but it honestly did not occur to me until I was seated on the plane and tried to bend over to get my magazines out of my backpack.    First off, the legroom and seat size is just abysmal, even for me and I’m only 5’4”.  

From a flight last year where we randomly got upgraded to first class.
I can't even reach the seat in front of me!

From last year's return flight home in coach.
I can't even straighten my arms out here!

Secondly, there’s just nowhere for your belly to go when you try to bend forward in a small space, so it’s a good thing that I had an aisle seat because I had to pull my bag out with my foot and then lean out into the aisle in order to pick it up.  If I’d been sitting in the middle, I’d have been totally helpless.

Observation #3:  When the flight attendants announce, as the plane is already pulling away from the gate, that the toilets onboard the plane are broken and they won’t flush, you’re in for a very long, uncomfortable flight.  The flight from Salt Lake City to Chicago is 3.5 hours long and, at 5 months pregnant, I have to pee approximately every 30-60 minutes, so a long flight without functioning bathrooms and without any advance notice is truly a form of torture.  But I made it.  And at least I didn’t have to wait for my carry-on on the jet bridge at the end of the flight.

That’s all for today folks, but I’ll be back soon with Part II of our vacation adventures.  Have a great day!

--Bridget

Thirteen Years

posted by Maureen

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the day Dan and I first met way back in 1998. Well, as of last Thursday, March 29th, we have now officially been together for 13 whole years! 

Aug. 1999 - a very young Dan and Maureen!

We've only been married for just under two years though, so you could certainly say our "courtship" was a bit on the long side. The funny thing is, we both sensed fairly early on that this relationship was for keeps. We just had some growing up to do I guess, having met at 18 and all. That said, I have to admit that it may not have been mutual love at first sight. The blame is all mine though. It's true...I may have turned down a large number of date requests from my wonderful husband, and he may have become known to my family and friends as the-guy-Maureen-won't-go-out-with- but-who-just-won't-give-up. He was pretty good at it though, I have to say. He wore me down through such tricks as bringing breakfast-in-bed to me in my dorm room on weekday mornings and making me homemade pasta from scratch on the one date I begrudgingly agreed to. One weekend night I found him throwing snowballs at my window and serenading me with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" from Top Gun on his way home from a night out. Quite the charmer ;)

(Alert! Serious sappiness coming your way. Consider yourself warned ; )

Eventually, in late March of 1999, I finally fell for him, and you can consider me fallen ever since. Fast forward thirteen years, and I'm quite honestly still head over heels for this man. Cheesy as it may be to say, my heart sometimes feels like it could literally burst with happiness that we are having this baby together and about to begin another of life's amazing adventures as a team.

(We will now proceed with our regularly scheduled programming...)

So, all that is to explain how we can't quite bring ourselves to completely re-start the clock with our wedding anniversary and only celebrate the two years that we've been married, instead of the full thirteen we've shared. We think our long history together is pretty darn cool, so we've decided to just continue celebrating both. 

So, how did we celebrate Thirteen Amazing Years of Dan and Maureen? By continuing our recent trend of housework of course, followed by a little date night out. 

First, we rolled out the new rug that we bought for our living room to help keep our lonely coffee table company. 

We really like the pop of color it brings to the room. Plus, yellow is my favorite color, so it couldn't go wrong. My apologies for the close up shot. I'd pan out to show the whole room, but then you'd all see the mess that is our living room at the moment, and I just can't have that.  Better to maintain the illusion that it's all super neat and organized :)

Our next task was to pick up our latest Craigslist find - a new dresser for our bedroom. 

Finding this dresser took many weeks of Craigslist hunting and garage sale scouring. Getting a good deal on a nice dresser, is no easy task, as it turns out. We're pretty happy with it, save the super musty smell that is keeping us from putting our clothes in it as of yet. Hence the below shot of 9 bowls of baking soda that we've put in the drawers to try to absorb the smell. Hopefully with that and lots of trips taking the drawers outside to lay in the sun, we'll one day be able to actually use the darn thing.

Housework for the day complete, we finally, we got ourselves dolled up and hit the town for a  little celebrating at St. Michael's Alley in Palo Alto. 

Our dinner was so yummy and relaxing. I even splurged and had a tiny bit of wine so we could toast our good fortune of having had all these great years together. After dinner, since we were feeling lucky and all, we confidently marched into the local convenience store and picked up what was sure to be the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket. How could it not be when it was filled out with all our lucky numbers on our anniversary, no less?

I'm sad to report that, in a shocking turn of events, we learned on Friday that we were not newly minted multi-millionaires. We didn't even have one single matching number. Shocking, I tell you. Just shocking. 


It was a very happy day though, and I'm glad we took some time out to celebrate us. I know that's going to be a bit harder to do once our little kicker joins us in August. I even got to break in my first maternity dress. The  black conceals my growing belly bump, but trust me. It's there!

And that, my friends, was how we celebrated Anniversary #1 of 2012. Anniversary #2 is coming up on May 29th, and we're hoping to do a little babymoon trip to celebrate that one. 


That's all for now. I'll be back to catch up with you later this week. Happy Monday to you all!

The secret is finally out

Note: Sorry to be so MIA from blogging this week, but I have a good reason...I'm on vacation!  I'll share stories about our trip next week, but I didn't want you all to go a whole week without a word from me, so here's a post that I wrote a few weeks ago when I was feeling thrilled about finally being able to tell the world that we're expecting our very own tiny human!  And because pictures make every post more fun (and because I've been too busy relaxing and reading the Hunger Games to be prepared with pictures of my own), I'm including some fun images that I found on Pinterest.  Enjoy! 

Pretty much everyone knows the news by now, and I’m so glad because it’s been hard keeping this secret.  So hard, in fact, that I’ve been avoiding people just so that I wouldn’t have to lie to them and pretend like the biggest thing in my world isn’t actually going on.  It was especially hard when talking to my pregnant girlfriends who would fill me in on all their latest stories about baby bumps and food aversions and nursery planning.  Those conversations were actually mentally exhausting because it was all I could do not to slip and say “Me too!” or “I can’t stand chicken EITHER” or “My pants are feeling tight”.  The baby and this pregnancy are the topics foremost in my mind, so it was hard not to be able to freely talk about it. 

Finally being able to share the news with our friends and family has been so fun.   Of course, it’s great news, so it’s always met with a great reaction.  But, then, when we drop the other shoe and tell them that Maureen is also pregnant and due at the same time, people really start to freak out.  Typically the next thing they say is “Ohmigod are you both having twins?!?”   I guess that would make this story even crazier but, alas, we’re not.  Just one baby in each of our bellies.  But they will be half siblings, genetically speaking.  Since Maureen and I are identical twins, we have matching DNA, so our kids will have ½ of the same genes.  I like to think of them as twin cousins and hope they’ll grow up being the best of friends.

One thing about sharing this kind of news is that it’s tough to actually bring up in conversation.  At least, it was for me.  You don’t exactly want to call someone up and say “helloguesswhati’mpregnant”.  Especially if it’s someone that you haven’t spoken to in a while, which for me was definitely the case because, as I said earlier, I’d been avoiding people so I wouldn’t have to lie to them!  But you can’t save that kind of news for the end of the conversation either, since it’s so important.  So you just kind of have to drop it in there somewhere between hello and goodbye and preferably closer to hello without it being the first thing that comes out of your mouth.  I’ve felt so sly during these conversations, like “I’ve got a secret and I’m just waiting to for the right time to drop it on you!” 

Some couples choose to share their big news right away when they first find out, and I get why.  Secret keeping is tough!  But hard as it was to wait, we knew it was the way to go for us.  We didn’t want to have to backpedal and tell a whole bunch of people if something went wrong.  Plus, I didn’t want to jinx anything by spreading the word too soon.  I can be kinda superstitious like that.  But we had to tell our families right away, keeping such big news from them was just too hard.  How we did that is another story for another time, but I will say that it was super fun.  

See you next week with more regular posts and some stories about our vacation adventures!

--Bridget

Quick trip to Seattle

Now that I'm pregnant, I find myself noticing all the things I do on a regular basis now that are soon about to become less frequent, much more challenging tasks with an infant along for the ride. Like going to the grocery store. Or working out. Or as I noticed last week, traveling!

I made a quick trip to Seattle to catch up with my good friend Danae before she has her first baby, which could come any day now! It was fun to catch up in this last window of time before life changes big-time for us both. I was also able to get in some family time, since I have three cousins that have moved to Seattle in the past few years too. Apparently Seattle is the place to be these days! One of them just so happens to be Danae's husband, my cousin Matt, a happy coincidence that now makes Danae my cousin too!

So, here's a little trip recap for you:

I took a quick flight from San Francisco late Tuesday afternoon, and got into Seattle in time for dinner. There's a dine around Seattle event going on this month, where a bunch of the nicest restaurants in the city are offering 3 courses for $30 - appetizer, dinner, and dessert. It winds up being a good amount of food - perfect for a couple pregnant ladies! We went to Steelhead Diner, which I highly recommend for anyone visiting Seattle, and met my cousins Nick and Tiffany there. Since I'm still getting my act together as a blogger, I don't have any photos to share from dinner - but wait, the trip is only getting started!

Wednesday, Danae took me on a short sightseeing tour, since this was my first time in Seattle. We saved the Space Needle and a drive through the mountains for a later trip, but she did take me through the different neighborhoods to get a feel for the area and we made a stop by the Ballard Locks. 

As I found out, Seattle sits on both the salt water Puget Sound and freshwater Lakes Union and Washington, and the Locks allow ships to pass through from one to the other. 

We watched the ship above come in from the Sound, which has a much higher water line, and then be lowered down as it passed through the locks so it could continue on it's way towards the lakes. It was a pretty cool sight to see, and it's apparently quite the busy spot when the weather is nicer.

Next up was a quick stop by Kerry Park to see the Seattle skyline. 

On a clear day, you can see Mt. Ranier in the background, which makes for a pretty stunning view. We weren't so lucky, but it's still a gorgeous spot.

We then met up with my cousin Colleen and her sweet baby Eli for a walk around Green Lake. (Who knew Seattle had so many lakes?) It was great to catch up and meet her adorable baby boy with the gorgeous big blue eyes. We talked all things pregnancy and baby related, which was perfect for me as I'm finding there's quite a bit I have to learn about this whole having a baby thing!

Danae, Colleen, Eli, and me along with Cousin Nick who we ran into after our walk.

Last stop for the day was for froyo. Yes, it was maybe 40 degrees and super windy - the perfect weather for ice cream for sure. But hey, we're eating for two and we were hungry, so why not :)   Again, no photos to share here. Bad blogger. Bad.

That night Matt and Danae made me a super yummy dinner of black cod, asparagus, and quinoa. Healthy eating for the babies! We pretty much just chilled on the couch and did nothing for the rest of the night, but we did manage to snap this photo of Danae and me and our baby bumps.

Me at 19 weeks and Danae at 38 weeks. Isn't she looking fabulous and fit?

The next day, my last in Seattle, flew by quickly. I don't have pictures to share, but Danae and I had a fun afternoon running last minute errands so she's ready for whenever that baby decides to join the world. We grabbed lunch at a favorite place of hers and Matt's, Latona Pub (another highly recommended spot in Seattle), and went on a short hike through Carkeek Park. Then it was off to the airport. 


I got one last surprise before flying out though. As we rounded the corner on the expressway, the clouds parted and out came Mt. Ranier. The photo below isn't mine, but I added it here to show what a sight it is to see. 

It was a short trip, but super fun and definitely not the kind of thing I'll be able to do as spur of the moment and easily while toting around a little one of my own. Here's hoping s/he's half as cute as sweet little Eli!


Thanks to Matt and Danae for a great time!


Happy Monday everyone!

Tiny Dancer

An important update was conspicuously missing from my 20 week post earlier this week:  Movement (aka the dance party that is now going on in my belly)!  I purposely excluded it from that post because I felt like such a special moment deserved a post all its own.  

I’d been anxiously awaiting the feeling of those first kicks for several weeks, ever since I’d heard that you can feel the baby kick anywhere between 16-22 weeks – talk about a huge range of time.

For me, the first part of my pregnancy was a bit surreal – I logically knew there was a growing baby in my belly that was causing all of my morning sickness, food aversions, and such.  But it was hard to believe that it was really happening.  Mostly because queasiness, weight gain, and fatigue are all familiar feelings that I’ve felt before in my life (granted not in such high frequency), so I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that a baby was causing all of these things.  It wasn’t until my belly finally popped and I had a tiny baby bump that I really felt pregnant as opposed to just crummy. 

But what I was really waiting for was to actually feel the baby.  I’d heard that, at first, it feels like a flutter or butterfly wings – very subtle, like you hardly know it’s there.  For weeks, I’d sit quietly on the couch or in bed, trying to see if I noticed any feelings like this.  Nothing.  Until early Sunday morning when I woke up for my 3^rd trip to the bathroom that night, yet another sign that I am most definitely pregnant.

Waving hello!  Proof that s/he's moving around in there!

I had just gotten back in bed and happened to have my hand resting on my stomach when all of a sudden, whomp!  What I felt was most definitely not a flutter, it was a full blown kick that I could feel from the inside and outside.  It was not at all uncomfortable, but it was unexpected and quite strong.  And I was thrilled!  My instinct was to immediately roll over and wake Scott to tell him the news, but I’m not sure that would have been well received at 4:30am.  So I waited til he woke up to share the news. 

He was super excited, and immediately put his hands on my belly to try to feel the kicks.  Nothing.  I could tell he was a bit disappointed.  He’s been really eager to feel the baby kick too.  I think it’s because he feels so excited about this pregnancy but also a bit detached since I’m the one who’s going through all the changes and he’s just supportively watching from the sidelines.  So, feeling the baby kick would be something that he could actually be a part of.  Side note:  He has been really sweet about talking to the baby (ever since its ears were developed enough to hear), so that s/he can learn his voice.  This, I love.

The baby was pretty quiet for the rest of Sunday – maybe because I was on my feet all day.  But that night, I was lying in bed reading when all of a sudden, whomp!  There it was again!  And again.  And again.  I think the little one may have had the hiccups because it was a pretty consistent round of kicks.  So much so that I was able to call Scott and tell him “get in here now so you can feel the baby!”  I swear, I have never seen him move so fast.  He was there in an instant.  And the baby cooperated by continuing to move around, so he got to feel it too! 

So we both got to share that awesome experience on the same day.  It was made even more special by the fact that these first kicks came on my Gram’s birthday.  She passed away several years ago, but she’s still a super special, strong presence in my life and it seemed fitting to have such a special experience on such a special day.

How cute was she?!
I couldn't resist posting a shot of my Gram as a baby! Probably taken ~1916. 

Me and Gram (1999)

I think the baby may have gone through a growth spurt, because ever since Sunday, I’ve felt lots of action going on in there.  It definitely startles me when I feel it, but I really love it!  It’s so fun to have proof that s/he is really in there.

Posted by:  Bridget