Melissa Week 23

Hey everyone! Just an update pic of Melissa and Nia in week 23.



Everything is going great! Just had another visit with the midwife center this week. We have started playing music to Nia using a nice padded pair of headphones. Mostly classical music and jazz now but we will incorporate new genres in soon.



I can't believe it's only 4 months away 'till our due date! The time is flying by so quickly and we have so much to do in this time. -E

Mom Fights Back....

I always felt bad Melissa didn't have a pair of shoes that matched Nia's like she and I do so Mom now has a killer pair of Puma high tops that match Nia's... I actually have a pair of Puma high tops as well so well all have matching shoes (mine don't have a pink stripe)

The ones on the top are Melissa's and the ones on the bottom are Nia's: -E

Nia's Shower Number One: Pittsburgh

We are somewhat breaking "traditional" rules and having more of a baby party then shower. In other words, this will be co-ed and not a girly "ooh" and "ahh" over a onesie event. It is being hosted by Melissa's pals Jamie and Sarah and will be at Embury, the new bar downstairs from the Firehouse.

Nia Must Like Trance

I really hope not but now that we have a portable dopler and can listen to Nia's heartbeat any time we want her heart rate is cruising at around 140 BPM. If she come's out singing Basshunter tracks I might be heartbroken. Were going to start playing music to her soon since she can now hear(headphones on the belly). Were doing research to see what music is best and if any kind of music helps more or hinders development (like we would play some heavy metal for her anyway). I hear that if you play country music for your baby in the womb they grow up and instinctively migrate to trailer parks and spontaneously line dance. -E

Movin'? Yeah. Groovin'? Yeah

So I've been feeling light intermittent movements for little over a week. Being on my back I feel them a little more, but I really have to pay attention because they've still been few and far between. Today, however, toward the end of the afternoon, Nia seemed to be getting her boogie on. It's weird, but reassuring so I'm always waiting for the next movement. I'm sure I'll eat those words when she gets bigger and starts to Tae Bo on a regular basis. At this point, however, I am not down with people just putting their hands on me. I know I'll have to deal with that eventually (still need to ask first) but we're not there yet. Right now, that's just for Mommy and Daddy to do.

Halfway There

It's 20 weeks now and that means we're halfway there. Or if you're in the mindset of the lady who works at Babies-R-Us that was helping us with the registry, only Melissa is halfway there and I have nothing to do with any of this. How did "Bitter Betty" get past the screening process and the baby registry police?

Kicking It Old School

We found the cutest shirt for Nia. It's a RUN DMC shirt, our girl's gonna learn the classics...

Babies-R-Us

So we spent a good 4 hours in Babies-R-Us looking for basically everything Nia will need. Most of the items have changed styles or models since the last time I looked for Gillian 10 years ago. Of course this registry deal was more overwhelming then trying to program your VCR to stop flashing the "12:00" but eventually we sat down with the registry warden (She cut Melissa off when she tried to say it was OUR registry by saying "If he can spit that baby out then maybe"). They sent us off with a scanner that looked more like a phaser from Star Trek (I kept trying to add Melissa to the registry but that wouldn't scan). We scanned most of what we needed and wanted on there but we had lot's of fun as well...

Trip Back From New York/Connecticut

On our way back from our trip we ran into some nasty weather and it ended up taking us 13 hours instead of 7... Around Fishkill, NY we stopped at an exit looking for the Friendly's diner we saw on the sign, but instead found a tiny out of the way Puerto Rican restaurant called Cabana Latin Cuisine. The Relleno De Papas should be reclassified as a recreational drug.

So It Begins....

Melissa and I came to the realization that it is time to start thinking about registering for Nia and working on her baby "shower". I say that in quotes becasue we don't want a traditional girly party. We want all of our friends and family to get in on it, guys and girls alike. We are definitely going to have to have two of them, one in Pittsburgh and one in New York.

The real fun is figuring out where to register, what to register for, and how much Tylenol it will take to accomplish this. We have been in Babies-R-Us, Target, and Baby Depot, and have walked out with our heads spinning. Now that we know the gender of Buddy it does make things easier. But still, do we go with a stroller/car seat combo? And how big of a car seat do we go for? Some we looked at were great designs but too heavy, others came recommended but looked like someone took a flannel shirt for the design. We have a few things we've pretty much settled on for Nia but it's like were 1 item down 1000 to go. We are a styling couple and were definitely not looking for super traditional accompaniment for Nia.

Anyone have any suggestions for undertaking the registry?

Gillian and Nia

This week we told Gillian (our 11 year old) about Nia.  She was super excited and I could have shown you all the video of us telling her but I frickin' taped over it last night (New Years Eve) by mistake.   Gillian will be a big sister once again since has 3 other siblings from her biological mother (One before Gillian from her first husband, and two after Gillian from her second husband - we were never married).

We all felt Nia moving around for the first time and it was both exciting and reminiscent of Aliens.   It's a new year and the countdown is progressing with 5 months to go until the May 25th due date (or 145 days, 3,480 hours, or 208,800 minutes, yeah we've watched Rent too many times)...

Gillian last week...