A Girl Named PJ

At March’s OB/GYN appointment, the nurse informed me that my Glucose Challenge Screening would take place on April 24th and handed me a bottle of orange liquid. Ever the naive patient, I asked her if she had any other flavor besides orange. I really hate fake orange flavor.

The nurse asked me if I liked jelly beans. I thought she was going to hand me a bottle of glucose that tasted like jelly beans. (What would a jelly bean flavored drink taste like?) Instead, she handed me instructions:

Eat 16 Jelly Belly or 18 Brach jelly beans. Do not eat the black jelly beans. Eat them all in 2 minutes and note the time you finish.

Yes, ma’am! I love candy and was more than happy to indulge my sweet tooth rather than trying to slurp down that sugary orange liquid, which I’ve heard is pretty awful. Guess the squeaky wheel gets the jelly beans!

Besides passing my glucose test, this past week’s milestones also included starting work on the nursery. (Sometimes I feel strange saying “nursery.” It sounds so formal and old-fashioned. What’s wrong with just “baby’s room?”) The painter came to transform what had been my home office into a room fit for a baby boy, and soon I’ll share with you my inspiration for the space.

And… I think I’ve picked a stroller color! I found a store in Omaha that carries the UppaBaby Vista, and while they only had the special edition in stock, I was able to see fabric swatches for the rest of the collection. So which color am I leaning towards? You tell me! Which color do you think I would choose?

Just for fun, I’m adding a third photograph to the mix this week. I call this one “Can I still see my feet?”

{self-portraits taken at 29 weeks, 4 days}

I’m so excited to finally share this little baby blog with my friends and family. During my first trimester, I realized I wanted a space to document my pregnancy, but it was too early to reveal the news on my personal blog, Somewhere in Middle America. So I created Bunny & Dolly to discuss my excitement and fear about having a baby BOY and to keep track of my favorite things for me and him.

Why Bunny & Dolly? Click here to learn more.

I invite you to browse through my archives to catch up on what my life’s been like these last couple of months and hope you’ll visit often!

{I feel so awkward posing for baby bump photos! Portrait taken by my dad at 29 weeks, 1 day}

Have you met Sophie the Giraffe? She’s the French teething toy that’s become an American sensation. I first read about Sophie on a handful of mommy blogs before learning she’s the best-selling baby product on Amazon. Then I came across an article on Slate explaining her rise to fame and cult-like following.

I was intrigued. If Sophie was such a hit with popular bloggers, “celebri-babies” and thousands of moms around the world, she was worth checking out for myself. And when I saw her at Babies-R-Us, I decided to add her to my registry.

(Yes, I started a registry. It’s a work in progress, as I’m so indecisive. We can talk about that another time.)

My husband questioned the need for a $20 teething toy. Truthfully, I don’t think of Sophie as a teether. Yes, she was created for babies to gnaw on, but when I look at her, I see a friendly animal that could become a companion for my little guy. She reminds me very much of my beloved Superman “doll” from when I was a child. I can’t remember if he was made of rubber or plastic, but he had a distinct smell, and I joke now that he could’ve easily been a chew toy for a dog. (Ironically, a couple of people on Amazon had the same complaints about Sophie.)

Check out Superman in the bottom right corner of the photo below. That chubby arm reaching for him? My sister’s.

So have you met Sophie before?

{image of Sophie the Giraffe via Amazon}

Early in my pregnancy I quickly accumulated a stack of pregnancy books with the assumption that I’d read through them all because if I didn’t, how would I learn the “right way” to be pregnant?

Besides What to Expect When You’re Expecting, the only other book I read cover to cover was The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy, which was a gift from a friend. I can’t say I learned a lot from it; the book read more like a trashy tabloid you toss in your grocery cart while waiting to pay. Take this passage, for instance:

Here are the biggest reasons why we Girlfriends don’t think you need to keep up your gym membership while you are pregnant:

1. You will be too tired.
2. You won’t like yourself in the harsh gym mirrors.
3. You will get fat anyway.
4. Exercise will not help you in labor or delivery in any way.
5. You might endanger the pregnancy
6. Even if you don’t endanger the pregnancy, if something (god forbid) goes wrong, you will forever wonder if your exercising caused it.
7. It’s “nine months up and nine months down” in the weight department, no matter what you do (give or take a few months on the downside).
8. Our compulsion to exercise when we are pregnant is a reflection of our inability to surrender and let nature run its course.

I can find at least 17 things wrong with Vicki Iovine’s list of reasons why pregnant women shouldn’t exercise. I’m sure you can too, even if you aren’t pregnant. I exercised before I got pregnant and have continued to work out these past 29 weeks because it makes me good, physically and emotionally. “You will get fat anyway” is not a valid reason to avoid exercising. Yes, you grow a baby bump, but you don’t have to get fat. “Nine months up and nine months down” doesn’t sit well with me either. Friends have proven that it’s not necessarily true. Every body is different, but I don’t think “nine months up and nine months down” is law.

Once or twice a week, I lift weights under the supervision of a personal trainer for 30 minutes. I try to get back to the gym once or twice to do 30 minutes of cardio, but there have been plenty of weeks when I didn’t step on the elliptical machine at all. I’m not hardcore about working out. Never was. I listen to my body and try to do as much as it and my trainer allow me.

Normally I try to take my weekly self-portrait on the one day a week when I’m dressed in a proper outfit (one of the perks of working from home is that I spend most days in pajamas or lounge clothing), but I decided to take this week’s photo after a workout because, well, this is what I’m usually wearing! Very unglamorous…

{self-portraits taken at 28 weeks, 4 days}