Sex Today?

I have to correct myself from an earlier post...Jewels is NOT the only friend I have in LA with a kid. How could I have forgotten Lovely Lellie. Her adorable Devin (Devin is HEAVEN) was born on the greatest day of the year - August 11. (My b-day...hehehe.) Les, can I blame this faux pas on baby brain please? xo

I don't want to jinx myself by saying that I will find out the sex of the baby today (oops, I just did), but there's a big chance I will. I am soooo anxious about finding out I wish I could pop a Xanax. (I'm kidding, Mom.) Finding out will open new doors of preparation and excitement. After I get my tests done, I will be going to my cousin Chieun's house in Connecticut (one of James' favorite states...I am still a bit uncomfortable with this) for the weekend to relax and do nada. I'm not sure if she has a computer out there so I may not be able to post the sex if I find out, and my phone is out of commission right now, but I'll let you know as soon as possible.

Last night, we went over to Chieun's apartment in Brooklyn Heights to babysit Luca, her 8 month old son, and to watch over Luna, the beast of a dog. It was good parenting practice, with the added bonus of hanging out with an amazing, affectionate dog. It's really neat (neat!?!) to see James holding a baby. I rarely see that and am not surprised at how well he handles them. It was effortless to make Luca laugh and he fell asleep pretty easily. I only hope our baby will be this cooperative.

Ultrasounds

I wanted to post my ultrasounds. The first one is taken on April 16th. I was about 8 weeks along. You can barely see the little bean. It's between the 2 "crosses." The second & third ones are taken on May 21st, about 13 weeks into it. It actually looks like a baby! Crazy!!! I go for an anatomy scan on July 9th where they'll measure everything and I'll have a more detailed ultrasound. I'll post those up as well. But tomorrow could be the big day when I find out if I'm having a boy or a girl. I don't have a preference, really. I just want it to be healthyhealthyhealthy.

Disappointment & Frustration

I feel utterly defeated. I wasn't able to do anything I set out to do today - find out the sex and get some tests done. Our day was delayed this morning when the train broke down and we were 1/2 hour late for our doctor's appt. (Ok, we stopped at Starbucks, too.) Because we were late, we missed our slot and had to move our appt. til 2pm. We came back and had to wait some more, of course. As we were meeting w/ the doctor, she was going through my paperwork and realized she didn't have my blood type info on file, which was needed to do the tests. No doctor seemed to have this info on file...I find that very strange. It was already 3:30 and still, no doctor was able to find my blood type. They said they had to reschedule me for my tests because it was already too late. I asked for a sympathy ultrasound, since I was hoping to find out the sex of the baby today, but to no avail. No sympathy nada. Ugh. So disappointed & frustrated. And hot...cuz it's like 95 degrees out. Disappointed & hot = grumpy and tired.

So I rescheduled for Friday morning. Fingers crossed. I wish I could have a beer right now.

Today May Be The Day

I wake up every morning FUCKING STARVING. Even if I eat a big plate of pasta the night before. I've been trying to be good by eating fruit and a tall glass of milk every morning, which I'm actually really into. I never ever ever drank milk and used to find it repulsive but I dig it now. In the beginning, I was really into a whole wheat everything bagel, toasted, with cream cheese. YUM! (I figured the whole wheat part was balancing out the cream cheese part.) But I felt like I've been eating too many carbs, (since I was also eating a ton of pasta) and I also felt like I gained a lot of weight in the beginning, so I'm trying to balance out my carbs throughout the day. (Ahhh, reminiscing of when I never had to consider these things...)

Last night, James and I went to Supper in the East Village (great sauteed calamari) to meet up with a very dear friend of mine from LA who's in town for business - Jewels. (James actually brought A crutch!!!) She's the only one out of the LA bunch who has a kid, a beautiful princess named London (above), who happens to be my goddaughter, whom I unfortunately never see. We met her friend and business partner, Brit, who's just as fab as Jewels, and Tess also joined us. It was a late night for sober Jenny - I was out til 12:30am - a record. We hit Socialite in the West Village and had the strange pleasure of seeing Mickey "Barfly" Rourke across the bar, with this hot Cuban safari goddess, equipped with white hat and all. Now across the bar, he looks pretty damn cool with that greasy mullet and Hawaiian shirt (and it helps that he's tall). But up close, he looks like a burn victim. Oh, but we forgive him, right?, because he's still mickeyfuckingrourke. God bless him.

So....today may be the big day - I may be able to find out what sex the baby is!!! I hear the key for the baby cooperating is by drinking apple juice because of all that sugar. Everyone has been telling me they think it's a boy, and I kinda have to agree. What makes me think that is during the last ultrasound, the baby was moving like crazy...the head was going back and forth and it was doing flips. (I'll post the ultrasound pics, but I have to scan one of them in first.) So, hopefully, we'll find out soon. Stay tuned...

James' Accident

I have to show you what James did to his ankle a little over a week ago. He was playing soccer and he badly sprained it. The doctors thought, for sure it was broken, just by looking at it, but nope. See for yourselves. (And don't mind the toenails. I'll have a word with him about that.)

James missed a sailing trip that he's had his heart set on for about a year. He made a valiant effort and even went to Philly via a Chinatown bus to try to board, but was turned away at the end of the day. The doctor couldn't believe he even travelled all the way to Philly WITHOUT CRUTCHES and wanted him to stay overnight on the ship to rest his ankle but he left for home anyway. Ok. He has since been out of the house WITHOUT CRUTCHES and doesn't see the big deal in this. He simply "can't be bothered." If you had an ankle that looked like that (and yes, the swelling has gone down but still), do you think you would heal if you just kept walking on it? I think it's a pretty simple concept: use crutches = heal. But for someone as intelligent as James, he just doesn't get it, or rather "can't be bothered." (Insert help from mother-in-law, Janine.)

An Early Riser

I've been getting up really early lately. Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:30 to pee and I couldn't go back to sleep. Yesterday morning it was 5:30 to pee AGAIN. This morning was a bit better - 6am. I think the fact that pregnant women have to pee throughout the night (I sometimes go 6 times, no joke) is a subliminal way to get prepared for nursing & not getting much sleep after the baby is born. Long gone are the dreamy nights of Ambien and Xanax. I've already passed that test.

I went to a "non-baby-baby shower" yesterday for Jill, whom I've known since kindergarten. She is Jewish and since it's superstitious to have baby showers, a bunch of us girls who all grew up together had brunch in her honor on the upper east side, where she lives. I hadn't seen her since James and I had our little wedding party at Happy Ending (and I honestly cannot remember much of that week when we got married). When I saw her, I couldn't believe how BIG she is. It looks like she should've given birth a week ago. She's due in 3 1/2 weeks. Jeannine is also pregnant, due in Sept. We had a great time catching up on all the hometown gossip and just having a ton of laughs. I feel really lucky to still be friends with and hang out with girls I've known for 27 years.

Starting...Now.

The reason why I've decided to start this blog is to keep family and friends overseas, and in the US, informed of what's going on with my pregnancy. I have to apologize now if I offend anyone with the content of this blog or my loose use of swear words, but I'm just trying to speak as honestly as possible. It feels a bit self-righteous to assume people will even want to read about me and my pregnancy developments. But fuckit. Let the games begin.

I'm going to post pictures of my growing belly. I love seeing it grow. The dates of the pictures are as follows:

1. March 21, 2007 - I absolutely could not believe that I saw a "plus" in the window. James had just left for L.A. on Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, and I found out on Wednesday. He was gone for 6 weeks!
2. April 10
3. April 16
4. April 23
5. April 30
(I accidentally deleted all of May's pictures...oops!)
6. June 3
7. June 10
8. June 18
9. June 24

Wow. I just looked at it sequentially for the first time and I cannot believe how much it's grown, especially the last 2 weeks. I've already gained a whopping 12 lbs. I have to see a high risk obgyn every 2 weeks because of my (once poor) circulation. Her name is Dr. Lois Brustman at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital and I friggin' love her. She's super cool, easy to talk to and honest. She put me on 60 mg of Lovenox, which is a blood thinner, and the only way to take this medicine is by injection. That's why you see some bruises on the sides of my stomach. As you can imagine, they're not pleasant to do, especially since I cannot stand needles. I've decided to avoid the abdomen area and just do the injections on the tops of my thighs because I really hate looking at those bruises. Last week I saw Dr. Giangola, my vascular doctor. I was a bit concerned because I felt as though my legs were getting more and more tired and it was getting a bit more difficult to walk long distances and go up stairs. (Pretty much how my legs felt before my bypass surgery 2 years ago.) I was thinking the worst - that they would have to re-operate on me and flush out my grafts to increase the circulation...and what would that mean for my baby??? (One graft is directly behind my uterus.) I was scared. He performed a doppler radar on my legs to measure the circulation flow and, sure enough, it was FINE! The reason my legs were getting tired was because I'm pregnant and I've put on a bit of weight. (of course...) He said, worst case scenario, if for some reason my legs are not getting the circulation it needs, HE WILL FIND A WAY TO PUT BLOOD IN MY LEGS. I know this sounds a bit strange to all of you, but to me, that's the best news I could've EVER heard. This little incident fully supports James' rightful and accurate nickname for me - "Doomsday Jenny." I cannot help but always think the worst will happen to me.

Yesterday, I went to the wedding of a good friend of mine, Vincas. I had a great time, despite the fact that I was sober, and I honestly don't know one person who really stays sober during weddings. The last time I had a drink was Monday, March 19th. (I feel like I'm in an AA meeting or something...) Maybe I'm being too honest, but it's quite a change for me not to have a drink (or 5) here and there. (Or really everywhere.) It took me a while to get used to, especially in social settings. When I was out, I really didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't feel as comfortable to talk to people. It was honestly quite sad. But I'm totally in my sober mode and I'm now very comfortable in my new shoes. I actually enjoy it. (Now I really feel like I'm in an AA meeting.) Anyway, life is good sober...especially knowing I've got a little baby growing inside me.