This time around

Wowza. So I'm not sure how it happened ...but we're about 7 or 8 weeks away from bringing another baby into the world!!! The telltale signs are here: my belly is getting gigantic, I deserve to have a nameplate on one of the bathroom stalls at work, and I'm worried that I may be starting to waddle... just a wee bit. Gah! It's funny what strangers will ask and say to you when they see a pregnant belly. Somehow they take it as a sign that we're buds and can ask me anything. "Got a name yet?" says the homeless guy on the street? "Is it a girl?" he asks. I've decided to have a little fun with some of the questions I get and I'm all ears for additional sarcastic responses and replies if you have any ideas. While interviewing a candidate at work the other day, he looked at my belly and said "Well.. you have kids right? How many do you have?" Just for fun, I looked back at him with a straight face and said "Seven." It was great to see his jaw drop. When a woman asked me this morning when i was due.. I looked down at my belly in a confused way and said- "Oh yeah- I guess that IS a baby!!!" (hardy har har). Since my plan is to work up until baby arrives, I am just hoping and praying that my water does not break while I'm in the middle of a meeting or something. I know, I know, it's not like the movies. Niagara Falls will not suddenly appear between my legs. But still.. I could live without that embarrassing experience and subsequent cleanup of bio-hazard waste. mmmm

Even though this is the second time around the block for Scott and I (with regard to all things baby...) sometimes I slow down and think about it for a minute and marvel at how different this time really is. With our first baby being diagnosed with CDH, just the thought of having another baby with the same issues was purty darn frightening. We sorta felt we'd dodged a bullet the first time and figured it'd be impossible to have the same luck again. I was followed fairly closely early on during this pregnancy. They did a few extra ultrasounds and kept an eye out for anything that looked fishy. Each time we went they focused on the lungs and abdomen and diaphragm. We held our breath and they said things looked pretty good. After enough ultrasounds we finally took the doc's word for it and let ourselves exhale. From everything we could see and infer, we had a HEALTHY and very boring baby. It was/is pretty awesome.


It's amazing what you can do with all the extra time and energy when you don't have to go to 3 doctor's appointments per week and when you're not constantly worried about whether you'll be bringing a baby home or not. Let's just say this past month or two (post-barfing, pre-baby) has been grrrrrrreat. With nothing concrete (like CDH) to fill the "black hole of worry" we've come up with a few random things to fill it. We worry about how we'll handle the first few weeks of new baby-hood on our own. No nurses and monitors and help? Whatever will we do? How will we manage with two? What if Ruby wants to return her? What if she has colic or some other unforeseen medical problem? What if I'm tempting fate just by writing this blog post?? What if.. what if...

Luckily, there are a lot of things to look forward to this time around as well. This time, I get to have my very own doctor deliver our baby (no strangers- yay!). This time, I get to deliver at a hospital a few miles from home instead of the other side of the country (yay!). This time, we get to bring our baby home to our happy little house and nestle in with a cuddly, sleepy, little newborn.(yay!)

The experience that I am most looking forward to though... is the one I really missed having with Ruby. Once I sneeze and "pop" the baby out (ha! here's hoping) I absolutely, positively cannot wait to grab that little bundle of cuteness, hug her close to my chest, stroke her fuzzy head, and kiss her chubby cheeks.

Then I know everything will be okay.

Ruby and "the guys"

Playdoh time with Ernie

The problem with having two parents that are psychologists (oh- who am i kidding when i use problem as a singular noun!) is that we are probably more aware than we need to be of various signs and symptoms of poor adjustment and developmental issues and we're trained to be on the lookout for them. I say this jokingly because -of course- our daughter is 100% perfect... (duh!) but one of the things we've joked about is her lack of attachment to stuffed animals or "loveys" and what that may mean. She's never had a "blankie" and she's had little interest in dolls. In fact, when she pushes her little toy stroller around, she always makes a point of tossing the baby-doll out of the stroller onto the floor before she starts pushing it. No freeloaders tolerated around here! Not exactly what you'd call a doting dolly-mama.

What a difference a few months make. Ruby now has not just one but THREE new BFFs! They are known affectionately as Ernie, Elmo, and "Coo-coo." You see, the upside of having an Auntie who works for a huge toy company is that you return home from visits stocked up with the latest Sesame Street characters. The downside is that Ruby gets attached to ALL of them and you spend your days bringing "the guys" everywhere you go and hoping against hope that none of them ever get lost. Ruby often requests that "the guys" accompany her on stroller rides and trips to brunch or the park. They are now constant companions during naps and bedtime.

I have been taking advantage of the spell that these characters have cast over Ruby by using them for peer pressure. When she has a tantrum over not wanting to brush her teeth, for example, I smile sweetly and say "let's brush Ernie's teeth... wow! he's really good at that! good boy Ernie!" We proceed to brush Elmo and Coo-Coo's (Cookie Monster) teeth and by the time we're done, she can't help but oblige in order to keep up with the cool kids. Ahhh... Genius!! right?

Well...this strategy of promoting peer pressure may work fabulously for the next little while... but I'm thinking somewhere before Ruby turns 15 or 16 I'll have to find another strategy or this could end really badly!

"I wanna walk NOW!"

Ruby has been talking a LOT lately and likes to impress us with her full sentences. She is also very polite and often uses the words PLEASE and THANK-YOU spontaneously. The only problem we've encountered is her recent love for the word NOW. She likes to end most of her sentences with that word, in fact. When her sweet "please" is followed by an impatient and insistent "NOW!" it's sort of like two sides of a math equation canceling each other out. :)

Here's a shot of Ruby with some of her Canadian cousins. Love those guys!

Ruby with the bride, Auntie Courty. So pretty!!!

More updates to come soon and I'll try to get a pic of  "the guys" up here too.
Cheers!
Adie