so adorable!

My best friend in the whole wide world just finished her 18-20 week ultrasound... and she is having a little BOY! In a family full of girls! I had a gut feeling she was having a boy and now I can't wait for our babies to meet and play together and grow up flying to visit each other... and one day they'll get married, of course. :)

Now I can buy all those cute boy clothes I'd fallen in love with!

retourner

We are back and we are tan. Mission accomplished. The return to northern Virginia was so depressing that we went straight to our HOA office after unpacking and picked up our pool passes (about two months later than we were supposed to). We spent a few hours each day at the pool on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (until we were rained out) but it wasn’t quite the same without the palm trees and fruity drinks in coconuts. The Russian lifeguards smoking Parliaments also gave it away. Still, it was nice to have a few days off after we came back even if it made getting up for work this morning even more difficult. The weekend just flew by… We celebrated Morgan’s birthday on Saturday night and picked up the baby’s dresser yesterday. It’s actually starting to feel like a room now that there is a piece of furniture in there… and it looks so good! I’m cutting this update short because I’m a little backed up at work… but here’s to this week going by quickly! Baby shower on Saturday - can't wait to see all of my friends and family in one place. :)

m.i.a.

If you need me, I'll be here all week. :)

seven months!

I was thinking about how crazy it is that I'm seven months along, when I realized I missed a baby update! Now that they’re monthly I have started to lose track… there’s only two more fruits/veggies left after this! “This week the baby is getting a workout! How 'bout those jabs in the ribs? … She’s the size of a squash! Baby’s energy is surging, thanks to the formation of white fat deposits beneath the skin. (Have those kicks and jabs to the ribs tipped you off yet?) Baby is also settling into sleep and waking cycles, though -- as you’ve also probably noticed -- they don’t necessarily coincide with your own. Also this month, all five senses are finally functional, and the brain and nervous system are going through major developments.” As I’m writing this, she is literally balled up and rolling around on my right side and has been for the entire day. She is EXTREMELY active when she’s awake – perhaps a sign of things to come! I don’t even think you could call these kicks anymore… they’re MUCH bigger than kicks. I also feel what one can only describe as "baby quakes" because the whole side of my belly shakes like she's dancing inside... from what I've read, it's completely normal, but we may have a huge ball of energy on our hands once she's born.

Steve is beginning to get frustrated because he thinks it's taking too long. I know he just wants to meet her but lets get real here - who is the one dealing with the heartburn, back pain and crazy weight gain? That's me. Right here. Want to switch places? I'm kidding - he has been absolutely wonderful and is catering to my every whim and I appreciate it all... and I'm anxious to meet her, too. I could just do without the whole labor and delivery aspect, though.

We’re leaving in a couple of days to go to Florida for an entire week. I hope I can last until then. Steve can already taste the all-you-can-eat crab legs so I hope he can make it until then, too. Oh yeah, check out the finished walls of the most adorable nursery ever! I had to make sure Lukey was in the photo, of course. We're ordering the furniture on Friday so hopefully the next time we take a photo of the nursery it'll be filled. :)

3rd dimension

Last night was pretty much all about the baby! Steve, myself, my mom, his mom, my grandma and my sister went to my 3d ultrasound (and they all got to sit on a huge leather couch and watch on a big screen - this place has a great setup!) to watch baby Ryan in action. She was adorable (of course) and kept opening her mouth and covering her face... she even sucked on her umbilical cord (practicing, I suppose) for a little bit. I finally discovered why I feel so lopsided and why she kicks me like crazy on my right side more than my left... her head is stuck up under my right ribcage with her butt down to the bottom left of my abdomen -- but her feet are back up above her head! She is breech and jacknifed in there... pretty squished! Hopefully she'll figure out a new position sometime soon and make a lot more room for herself (and less discomfort for me). The craziest part was that in some of the photos you can absolutely see Steve's mouth and chin. There is no denying that! Her feet are in a lot of the photos, too. You can see the rest of the photos in my Picasa album - the link is to the right. Pretty amazing stuff.

Afterwards, we went with Steve's mom to Cradle and Crayon in Reston to order the glider/recliner for the nursery. We picked out the most comfortable chair you could ever imagine and ordered it in the absolute most comfortable fabric ever... unfortunately it won't be here for another ten weeks (literally just in the nick of time) but I can't wait for it to be delivered. It reclines completely flat and is long enough for Steve to fall asleep in during those nights he's on baby duty and mommy is catching up on her sleep. :) We're going to finish painting the nursery tomorrow (finally!) so then it just becomes a matter of filling it up with furniture and cute baby stuff!

We spent today celebrating my wonderful little sister's 15th birthday! We went downtown to see the Newseum at their new location at 6th and Penn. (even cooler than when it was in Arlington) and had lunch in Georgetown... then did cake and presents at their house with the rest of the family. Little Ethan came and he's getting so big now - it's fun to watch him wander around on his own and interact with people... it feels like yesterday that he was helpless in my arms as a newborn so I'm sure time will fly once Ryan is born, too.

In non-baby news (doesn't involve all that much anymore - most everything in our lives is baby-related at this point... sorry!), work is crazy. I spoke with HR and they couldn't give me a clear answer regarding my maternity leave. At first they said that my leave would end as soon as our contract ends, which would cut my leave about in half. If I don't take another job within the company, I'll receive a severance package which would at least make up for my missed leave. Then, they weren't sure if they were right. Then they had to get back to me. Then rumors started flying that we were protesting the results of the bid. So... we know nothing. We hear a hundred different stories a day, but we have no idea which ones are right so I am trying to stay calm until I hear actual news from HR or management.

We're leaving for Florida on Saturday and I'm ready for a week away from the office... I'll be relaxing by the pool with an umbrella drink even if it doesn't have any liquor in it.

negative nancy

There was way too much going on here at work yesterday (mostly non-work-related conversations about severance packages and where Lockheed’s offices are located) to write a decent post about our 4th of July beach trip… so here it is, albeit a day or two late.

We had a great time down in Holden Beach (again! – second time in a month). I didn't get scorched like I did on our last trip down there… in fact, Peter and Steve were more burnt than me! Since we didn’t have any sunscreen mishaps the first day, we were able to have two full days on the beach and we also made it up to Wilmington again for a little bit of shopping… and to the movies to see Hancock. Sunday’s drive home took forever because of the holiday traffic and a thunderstorm, but it was nice to get away. We missed the dogs a ton... although Luke is going through grandma-withdrawal right now because he has such a fun time playing outside all weekend long at Steve’s parent’s house. He’s usually so exhausted that he sleeps for a day or two and putts around the house being grumpy. This morning he was dragging Lila around the living room by her tail so I think it's safe to say he’s back to normal.

Work is soooo weird now. We definitely have jobs through the end of October… but possibly longer. I’ve heard rumblings that we could be here through the end of the year… or not. It’s all very up-in-the-air… and frustrating. We’ve been told they’ll help all of us (300+ employees? Really?) find new jobs either internally or with the new contract or elsewhere, but I’m in a unique situation as I won’t even be here during that transitional period. My main concern is getting my full maternity leave. When I was job-hunting last fall I decided to stick it out here because I’d been here awhile and, if we did get pregnant (surprise! It can happen quicker than you think!), I would have a good amount of maternity leave. Here we are now, uncertain about our future within this company and the tentative end of our contract is smack in the middle of my leave… just weeks after the baby is born. Perfect. Secondary on my mind is the fact that I might not have this flexible working mother-friendly atmosphere to come back to… and with that, the possibility of working part-time may go right out the window. I guess at this point my plan of action is to just wait until our HR person comes back from vacation this week so I can hear her opinion on the maternity leave situation… and keep my eyes and ears peeled for possible opportunities elsewhere. Try and stay positive, right? Positive positive positive...

Oh, we watched Knocked Up on the way back from the beach. The movie is still hilarious but it is entirely different to watch it now - Steve is officially freaked out by labor and delivery.

happy monday

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080707/lockheed_martin_contract.html

First thing I hear as I get off the elevator this morning - we lost the rebid for our contract. Today is going to be really weird...

six hour drive

This is my first week in my “new job” at work and it has been wonderful. My new team isn’t micromanaged and miserable like my old team so it has been a welcome change. I’m unfortunately still sitting at my old desk until program management can figure out where our new team will be, but at least I get to do my work and be left alone! It’s great. I’m leaving work around 3 or 4 today so I can get home and make sure we have everything packed… because we’re leaving for the beach tonight! It’s a long six hour drive but it’s worth doing it tonight so we can wake up and head straight out for some breakfast and the beach tomorrow morning. I will not get burned like I did last time. I did some research (after I got sunburned, of course) and discovered that, among everything else that changes during pregnancy, your skin is more susceptible to sunburn when you’re pregnant. Especially your tummy. Good to know. My stomach usually tans more than the rest of me so I was pretty surprised when it turned bright red last time. Suffice it to say, my sunscreen is already packed.

Ryan is a little ball of [constant] energy. Last night Steve and I were trying to imagine what she’ll look like and there really is no good way to know until her birthday… but I’m so excited to see her. I bet she’ll be as cute as a button (babies always are) with dark, dark hair. Our 3d/4d ultrasound is next Friday – hopefully she’ll cooperate and let us see those cute chubby cheeks!

I had two gigantic bowls of Cap'n Crunch (crunch berries) last night for dinner... and the roof of my mouth is sore. I shoveled them into my mouth pretty quickly but did I really have a cereal-induced injury? They're pretty crunchy until they soak up some milk and I'm not sure I really allowed them the time to soak since I was pretty hungry. Rather than inhale giant spoonfuls of basically dry cereal and scratch up my mouth, I might want to slow down... it just tasted so good.

...Be back on Sunday night! :)