Sorry Baby M. Addy lives here!

The cats have taken up residence on the changing table. Not a big deal since we covered it with numerous blankets, cushions, etc. If they live there when Baby M arrives, that should be ok, too, I figure. I have a feeling we'll change the baby quite often on the bed or wherever. (And I imagine the cats will scramble if I approach them with a crying baby when they're on the changing table.)

That being said, the cats are going to have to learn that this new piece of furniture is strictly off-limits. (That means that we will have to learn how to keep them out of it. In extreme circumstances, a squirt from a water bottle is pretty effective, even if it pains me to do it.)

In the meantime, the new bassinet is also filled with quite a bit of covering, as you can see. Oh, what we tolerate for those cats!

P.S. The little miYim organic chick rattle is just in there for effect. The baby will be quite a bit bigger, needless to say, and we know not to put anything in the bassinet but a swaddled baby.

Patrick, the great storyteller!

Kelly is right. Patrick's version of the hockey story was considerably altered and quite a bit happier than the original (above).

If the version above is too quiet, click here.

My husband's heaven

Hockey galore.

Mom update for Week 28

Here's some TMI from www.pregnancyguideonline.com...

Welcome to the third trimester ~ the period of leg cramps, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, itchy skin, aches and pains, swelling, heartburn, indigestion and . . . your baby's arrival!

Your uterus is around 3 inches above your navel; average weight gain is between 17 and 24 pounds at this point. If you haven't had a glucose tolerance test yet to test for gestational diabetes, your care provider may order one this week.

As for my own wee pregnancy problems, I have experienced the leg cramps that wake me up in the middle of the night, the itchy belly from my growing, stretched out tummy (no stretch marks yet. Yay! Or do those show up later?), a few aches and pains which feel like growing pains in my abdomen, and a little indigestion (you can't imagine how squished up your stomach gets inside your body). Back rubs and massages help with 90 percent of it. For the heartburn, which I've never really wrestled with before, I have come to lovelovelove warm milk with a little honey.

I feel extremely lucky that pregnancy has been easy-going so far. Cross all your fingers.

As for Baby M: heart beat is 145 beats per minute and head is down (good sign).

Week 28

From www.pregnancyguideonline.com (adapted for Baby M)

Baby M is growing and developing at an astonishing rate! Eyebrows and eyelashes are now present, and the hair on the head is growing. The eyelids open, and the eyes are completely formed. The body is getting plumper and rounder (weighs about 2 pounds) and is composed of around 2 to 3 percent body fat. Muscle tone is gradually improving. The lungs are capable of breathing air but if the baby is born now, it would struggle to properly breathe. Be sure to talk to your baby a lot because s/he can recognize your voice now.

Since we know that Baby M is listening to us, Patrick told the baby its first from-memory bedtime story yesterday. It went something like this...

Once upon a time, a little upstate New York hockey player named Philippe really wanted a Montreal Canadiens jersey that he once saw in the Eatons catalog. Poor little guy asked and asked and asked until his mom finally broke down and got him one for Christmas. He was so excited opening the box, only to find out that it was a lame-o Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

Poor Philippe donned his jersey anyway and went out to skate with his buddies, knowing that they'd make awful fun of him. And of course, they did... that is, until Philippe started skating. His swooshes, slides and crisp turns on the ice were so incredible that all the little New Yorkers stopped to stare. After that day, no one made fun of Philippe and his Toronto Maple Leafs jersey ever again. In fact, everyone wanted a Maple Leafs jersey for their own closets.

The end.

Well, it went something like that and was pretty cute. Quite different from the stories I read to Baby M but pretty darn cute nonetheless.

:)

My anti-immigration stance!

Listening to the Republican debate got me to thinkin'. I, too, am opposed to immigration...that is, the immigration of lead toys into this country!

Down with immigration of lead toys! We should build a really big fence around the whole country with really small air holes that NO lead-covered toy trains, toy tea cups or toy Halloween teeth could even try slipping through.

What could be better?!

Seeing great community theater is always a treat. It's even more of a treat if someone you know has a starring role.

If that starring role is that of the Big Black Man in the Full Monty? Well... that's another story. Let's just say that the Dearborn Players' Guild's rendition of this very funny production was totally enjoyable. So was seeing one of our colleagues strut his stuff on stage! What guts!

Scenes from the D's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade

Downtown D

Baby M is a future soccer star!

I could say there is nothing cooler than being able to feel -- or watch -- your growing baby kick from inside your belly, but I'd be wrong. The coolest thing is being able to show your husband how it looks when the baby kicks your belly. That happened today for the first time, and it was amazing!

Baby M was pretty active tonight, kicking away at the inside of my tummy. So I pulled up my shirt to just stare at my stomach for awhile. Sure enough, I could see the little twitches every time a little kick occurred. So I called Patrick over. At first Baby M was being a bit shy, but a few pokes at my stomach jostled its little body enough to get the baby kicking again.

Patrick was able to see two to three good kicks. "I think I saw it," he said after the first one, but he wasn't sure so he found a better angle on the other side of the couch. I jostled the baby with a few pokes again and pow-pow.

"I saw it. There it was," he said pointing at the spot. And then he just sat for a moment, grinning like crazy. "Wow," he said. And then he kissed my belly, and we both sat there for a few minutes with wide, silly, proud smiles on our faces.

Wow is right.

Fall

Patrick was going to rake the millions of leaves that fell in front of the house, but my mom apparently did it before we got home from work. It must've taken quite some time to assemble the giant pile that was formed near the curb. By the time she was finished, it seemed like the tree discarded another year's worth of leaves.

Later today, my mom told me that she was looking out the window and saw the kids next door having a jolly good time throwing her leaves up in the air and scooping piles of them to dump on their own lawn. (They don't have a tree.)

So my mom goes outside to talk to them. I'm thinking, "Yeah. You gave them the bizness for messin' up your hard work, right?"

But instead she tells me she raked up a small pile on their lawn so they could play with them. And when the kids said, 'Your pile is bigger than our pile,' she gave them some more leaves. When she went inside, the kids spent half the afternoon shoveling leaves from my mom's pile onto their lawn and then throwing them up in the air. As she told the story, she laughed.

I said, "You weren't mad they messed up your big pile?"

And she said, "No. Remember what fun you guys used to have jumping in the leaves? You had the best time."

I thought about the excitement of when we used to pile the leaves under our big tree in the backyard on Radcliffe. We would perch on the sturdiest branch above the pile and take big dives into the soft, tall mounds below.

And then I thought about my mom's brilliant strategy. She made the kids next door happy and created a fun memory for them while keeping our lawn pretty clean. Not bad, Mom. Not bad.

A great invention

"Egg nog" with zero grams of saturated fat!

Gasp!

We are the busiest bees over the next month.

I just scheduled a consultation appointment with a pediatrician, an infant care class, a baby CPR class and a "how to do cloth diapering" class. (Yes, we're actually considering cloth diapering. Don't even try to talk me out of it because I'll see your lips moving, but it'll all be background noise to me.)

That's in addition to going to the opening of the new Detroit Institute of Arts this month, seeing one of my best pals get married in December, attending a community play at the Dearborn Players Guild that stars one of our colleagues mid-month and planning a weekend visit to Ann Arbor just for the fun of it.

And we still have to fit Christmas shopping in the mix. Where did the year go?

Just like kids again...

PMurph and I took the day off Monday since we had our whirlwind two days of prenatal classes this weekend. To celebrate, we headed out for a rare late night Sunday outing. We started out at the funky Cafe Habana, a Cuban restaurant in Royal Oak. I loved the fried plantain appetizer, Cuban bread with chimichurri sauce (parsley, cilantro, garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar, according to the Metro Times review) and the traditional Cuban sandwich I ordered. (I've decided I have to continue to explore some eclectic tastes because they say your baby eats what you eat, and I want Baby M to have an adventurous palette.)

After that, we headed to the Magic Bag in Ferndale, a music club/theater to see the above band -- The Section Quartet, which bills itself as the Loudest String Quartet on the Planet. Loud, they were, but oh so talented. It was cool to hear Led Zeppelin, Radiohead and other bands' song remixed into a rock string quartet set.

The evening reminded us of when we first started dating and used to go to see small live shows in Central New York, where we met. It was a nice stroll down memory lane infused with a lot of talk about the BIG changes ahead and punctuated by some really crazy music. All in all, a great evening!

The most important prenatal lesson...

Patrick and I had a marathon session of prenatal classes this weekend, and the most important thing I learned is that all babies -- no matter who they are -- get little mohawks when their photos are taken.

See? That's me on the left and my brother on the right. A quarter century later, the technological advances are amazing, and the preparation that hospitals offer expectant parents is incredible. Birthing is nothing like in my mom's day...except for the mohawks.

Ha ha.

Actually, we learned tons and tons of extremely useful information, culminating in a tour of the birthing room, the NICU and all that. We're tired, but it was really worthwhile. Glad we have tomorrow off to digest everything, as well as wonder how Baby M will look in a wee mohawk.

Teach your children well!

My dad sent this.

It's something he wanted us to think about as we're about to have a baby...who even now can hear things outside the womb. While Baby M may not understand what we are saying, we want to set the right example early on because he or she will eventually copy our words and actions.

The message reminds me of how it was growing up in my own household. I remember, as a kid of about nine, watching documentaries about the civil rights movement with my parents. In fact, I vividly recall the anger I felt watching African-American protesters sprayed violently by fire hoses and attacked by police dogs during the marches of the 1960s.

"Those bastards," I said, disgusted at the men brandishing the hoses and the dogs.

It was the first time I swore in front of my parents, and I recall my dad whipping his neck around to face me as soon as the phrase slipped from my lips. I don't remember much after that -- other than the fact that I didn't get in trouble. I just learned that "bastard" was a bad word, and that even if it was an apt term for some folks, I was not yet allowed to say it.

Nearly twenty-five years later, I'm starting to feel the immense weight of what it means to "raise a child." Everything we say and do will mean something to this impressionable little thing in our care. We've got a lot to think about.

I have to thank my parents for giving me a good foundation, but soon, the rest will be up to us. The message in this video is a good start.

The best baby registry of all!

So I've registered at babiesrus.com (which has all the essentials) and even Amazon.com (which has lots of fun, quirky stuff like language CDs for babies, as well as great organics), but the best registry we started was this gift registry. I signed up for the cord blood gift registry just for the fun of it, but signing up for the actual Cord Blood Registry and cord blood banking service was something we took very seriously.

Saving Baby M's cord blood costs about the same amount as Patrick's new MacBook Pro. It's not cheap, but it was a no-brainer, even though we are trying to save for a new house while buying armloads of baby items, like a stroller, car seat, crib, changing table, bouncer, swing, etc. etc.

Here are some facts from the Cord Blood Registry site:

The blood that remains in your baby's umbilical cord after it has been cut is called cord blood which is rich in stem cells. These valuable cells which are genetically unique to your baby and family, can only be collected in the minutes after your baby's birth.

Preserving your newborn's stem cells is called cord blood banking and allows you to have your baby's cord blood saved for potential medical uses to treat life-threatening diseases. If you do not choose to bank your baby’s cord blood, it will be discarded after birth.

Although not all diseases treated with stem cells have been treated specifically with cord blood stem cells, doctors have been using cord blood in lifesaving treatments against things like Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and Sickle Cell Disease, as well as malignancies like brain tumors and ovarian cancer.

Cord blood banking will be one more big expense we'll have to budget for, and we hope we'll never even have to use it, but we figured there was no way we could say no to this opportunity, given its potential life-saving effects.

After all, it's only the cost of a MacBook Pro, and it could save our baby's life.

My mom is the best.

Pita with salad. Two raspberry newtons. A peeled minneola and a banana. A baby kitkat. These are just some of the things she sends with me to work each day.

Too much of a good thing?

So I love marathon runners as much as the next wannabe. And let's face it -- those silver wraps that you wear at the end of the marathon are super cute. My best friend from college was all bundled up in one after she ran the Flying Pig, and I thought she was plain ol' adorable.

But, as they say, I digress.

I feel privileged to know a few marathon runners, and though I think they really possess some secret super powers that allow them to endure those grueling 26.2 miles, I still admire them.

But what constitutes overdoing it? The New York Times Health section, which I'm now addicted to, has a story on a British runner who ran straight through her pregnancy, ran the day before her baby was born and ran again 12 days later. She apparently worked with her doctor and ran on a restricted schedule. Yes, she's the world record holder in the women's marathon, and as an athlete of that calibre, she needs to train. And some might argue that she shouldn't be hampered by "biology," and that her doctor would know best. Maybe giving up a strict running regime is too much for a professional runner. After all, it's her career. Why should women have to give up everything?

But is it really healthy and worth the risk? We give up a lot for our pregnancies. (Heck, I gave up French cheeses like brie, people. And wine. I'm dying here without an occasional glass of pinot noir. Oops. Digressing again.)

Just take a look at the photo of her and her super sweet-looking baby. It makes you wonder... when is too much too much?

photo: Marilynn K. Yee/New York Times

Belly update

You asked for it, so here's the belly update for week 25.

Webmd.com and kidshealth.org says:

Your developing baby now measures about 8.8 inches from crown to rump and weighs 1.5 pounds. Skin now becomes opaque instead of transparent. Its body is still covered with folds like a puppy dog that need to grow into its skin. Heartbeat can be heard through a stethoscope or, depending on the position of the baby, by others putting an ear against your belly. You may notice that your baby has resting and alert periods. You'll notice fetal activity more readily when you are more sedentary. Your baby's hearing has continued to develop, too — he or she may now be able to hear your voice!


I've read that the baby can start to hear, as you know, so I've been playing lots of good music, including Mozart, Nina Simone, Dixie Chicks, Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan and Angelique Kidjo. My big belly headphones connected to my iPod are getting a workout.

By the way, your playlists are welcome.

Is this a "runner-up" kind of face?

Little Lucas, my cousin's baby, somehow didn't win the cutest baby contest at the mall. I believe he came in second. Hmmm. A sham? Maybe.

Well, he's got my vote as cutest, most photogenic baby. That's good enough.

Formerly Baby M's changing table

Apparently, it now belongs to Clarkie.

My belly may be big, but...

My heels are getting smaller.

See, the security guards at the office were starting to hassle me, albeit very sweetly, about the fact that I'm about 6 months pregnant and still in my 3-inch heels. (One even wagged her finger at Patrick, while giving me quite the lecture about the dangers to my uterus.)

Sooooooo rather than skulk downstairs, slip past the security desk, tiptoe to the back of the building, dash through the executive garage and then take the loooong way around the block to the parking lot just so I can wear my still-comfy heels, I caved. I bought these two adorable pairs of rounded-toe shoes with kitten-ish heels.

Life will be a lot easier simply walking down the stairs and heading out the door. The security guards will love me again, and I got to justify buying two new pairs of shoes.

Meee-ow!

Delicioso!

Patrick and I loved our culinary walking tour of Mexicantown. We tried some things we either never tried before, didn't know we were eating or never would've ordered for fear of what we were ordering.

The morning started with pastries, Mexican hot chocolate and a smoothie made with cactus leaves (nopales). Before Patrick learned that you actually have to clean and de-thorn the leaves before preparation, he got into a prickly fight with one of them at a market we visited.

Some other highlights included appetizers of carnitas, or "little meats," with green salsa at a little store on the tour. Wikipedia describes carnitas as "a type of braised or roasted (often after first being boiled) pork in Mexican cuisine."

We couldn't resist buying some carnitas and green salsa to take home. Later for lunch, we rolled them inside some of the corn tortillas we received from a 60-year-old tortilla factory, a stop on our tour.

We also tried some barbacoa, which wikipedia says, "generally refers to meats or a whole sheep slow cooked over an open fire, or more traditionally, in a hole dug in the ground covered with maguey leaves, although the interpretation is loose, and in the present day and in some cases may refer to meat that was steamed until tender."

While the beef barbacoa we tried likely wasn't prepared in a hole, we learned it's a specialty that only shows up in most of the stores on Saturday and Sunday. I'm so proud that we'll be able to order it now that we're in the know.

Other highlights included a taste of some chorizo sausage fried with scrambled eggs and topped with creme fraiche. We also tried some wonderful just-made guacamole from the Honey Bee Market and received a free T-shirt there. The back reads: Wake up and smell the chorizo.

It was quite a day. I don't know if I'll wake up tomorrow smelling the chorizo, but I took home lots of great recipes to recreate the day whenever I want.

If you need one, here's a recipe for Mexican hot chocolate from recipezaar.com...

1 quart milk
7 ounces mexican chocolate (we used ReyAmargo)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
chili powder (optional)

1. Cut the chocolate into small pieces.
2. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil and then add the chocolate.
3. After the chocolate is incorporated, add the cinnamon, vanilla, chili powder and salt.
4. Simmer for 10 minutes and then whisk briskly to a foam right before serving.
5. Divide evenly into 4 cups and serve.

Headin' to the D...

In honor of the dia de muertos (day of the dead), Detroit's Mexicantown is holding a festival, and we are taking a Mexicantown culinary walking tour.

Stops: La Jalisciense Tortilla Factory, Algo Especial Store and Honey Bee/La Colmena Supermarket.

Yay!

As Colbert said today: "It's the day after Halloween, so that means it's the beginning of Christmas."

Cool. I love Christmas!

But before we move on to Christmas, let's talk about how the scariest thing about Halloween was the the fact that more lead recalls were announced -- this time on fake teeth. (Earlier, I believe, children's Halloween skeleton pails were recalled.) And we all know about the endless toy recalls.

Fake Teeth Recalled for Too Much Lead

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours before trick-or-treaters began going door to door, the government warned consumers Wednesday that fake Halloween teeth sold by the tens of thousands since last year contain excessive amounts of lead.

The $2 packages of "Ugly Teeth" are only the latest in a long line of Chinese-made toys and novelty items recalled because of lead. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall in a late-morning news release.

This also comes after a study found several popular lipsticks contain lead.

Let's see: what else can they recall before this issue really changes some legislation? Bathrobes? Toothbrushes or coffee cups? Golf clubs? Maybe machine guns will do it.

Rant over. Now, back to Christmas... how utterly exciting. I'd say, "I can't wait," but I like to season to last as long as possible. Fa la la la la...

:)