Mole Prone

Yes, I am Italian, and with that comes moles. My whole family is covered in birth marks and moles. I am no exception.

However, since I have become pregnant, I have been sprouting "age and wisdom" spots all over. So, this morning, I went to the derm, and he checked me out. Luckily, nothing is skin cancer worthy, so I'm good there, but I have an assortment of flat, raised, red, brown things all over me. Recently I grew a larger, flaky type one right in the middle of my chest which I originally thought was a smear from a Berger cookie, but turns out it's a temporary birth mark. He decides to take it off. He leaves for a moment, and comes back into the room with a can of liquid nitrogen, and immediately starts spraying it on the mark. No warning. It still burns like hell, but some time today it's supposed to literally flake off. So, my mole may end up somewhere on my office floor. Maybe I should save it, and put it in the baby's scrap book!

I also have a raised mole on my belly that has grown to three times it's size since my pregnancy. He said I could wait on that one until (and these are his words) my bra gets caught on it, rips it off, and it bleeds. He assured me this wouldn't harm me or the baby. I was like, shouldn't we just numb and slice it instead? For some reason he felt better waiting (probably to get me in again). Whatever. I will just continue nicking it with my rings as I lather lotion all over myself. Other than that, he just checked out my legs, and felt my boobs a bit, which is always nice, and I was out in five minutes.

We're headed to Vegas this weekend with Frank and Di, and my godmother Ro, so I'll be spending it in as much shade as possible. You'll find me parked at the craps table losing on the Come bet as usual.

Thursday Reflux

I'm taking a lunch break, and thought I'd update the blog. I've been suffering from reflux since Sunday, and the horrible, almost inedible chinese food I just ate isn't helping. I always feel like my food is sitting at the base of my throat. It's odd, it just started this week though. Who knows. I've learned lately, to expect anything. I've also been experiencing some numbness/tingling in my right leg, when laying on my back in bed. Since this is the only comfrotable way for me to lay, I must discover this source of this odd sensation, and remedy it. I suppose I can actually crack open one of my many reference books, and see what it could be, but I've tried to leave most of my oddities during pregnancy to mystery. Trent's brilliant explanation was that my belly was pressing on a nerve and causing the tingling. Very scientific I know. He's real good at figurin'

Otherwise, I'm still growing. Since I haven't shopped for bottoms for my big bottom yet, I'm trying to creatively continue wearing regular clothes. Yesterday's pants were held together by a ponytail holder, today's skirt has a draw string, tomorrow, I'll be in a moo moo. When you're not super thin to begin with, getting big doesn't suit you well, and not looking huge is a challenge. I'm carrying the bean very low, so my butt and stomach have become one large saucer around me. Literally the spare tire. The donut.

My motivation to exercise is at an all time low as well. I'm most tired in the morning when it would be ideal to exercise, but I stay asleep like the lazy bone I am, then rush to work. I don't get home from work until about 8 usually, and at that hour, I just want a sandwich and some Friday Night Lights or bad reality tv to smooth out the wrinkles of the day. Do you like all my excuses? Leslie lives across the street, and has two boys, does all kinds of stuff, and is as thin as a rail. In fact, she was on the damn treadmill the day she went into labor. I try to use work as my main excuse, but since I don't have to be in until 10:00 a.m., I can hardly say I can't workout before work. Any pointers, motivational speeches, and morning mentors are welcome to comment, call, email me with suggestions.

Today's entry is merely my complaints, as I have nothing truly important to report.

Massive Attack

So, I'm suddenly big. Two weeks ago, you couldn't even tell I was pregnant, and now I feel as big as a house. What happened? Suddenly, nothing fits. I only have three pairs of maternity pants, so I'm going to have to start putting those in heavy rotation. I tried three pairs of "regular" pants on today to no avail. I'm also looking forward to the warm weather so I don't have to take a deep breath before zipping up my coat. My belly has also spread to my waist and butt. I'm not sure what is growing faster, my belly or my butt. I've never seen such a huge butt. I actually got a glimpse of it naked in the mirror this morning, and it was half my height. It goes from my mid back to me mid thigh. That's how big it is.

In an attempt to keep myself in any shape, I have starting taking prenatal yoga classes. Actually, last night was my first class. The teacher was really good, and I will say, it wasn't easy. However, most of the women in my class haven't taken yoga before, so it was tough for them to hold the postures. That was my only advantage. One girl was wearing nude pantyhose under her pants, so when we took our shoes off (barefoot is best in yoga), she was all 80sed out in her pantyhose. As a side note, I also got caught behind the same girl on our way out of the parking lot, and she drove 10 miles an hour the whole way through the GBMC campus. Anyway, I finally felt good about doing some activity, so I'm excited to continue. I did feel immediately sore though. I had a little trouble sleeping last night because my groin was so streched out (get your mind out of the gutter). It feels better now, but my arms and shoulders are definitely feeling it.

I've now been working on what stuff to get this little baby. The pressures of registering have arisen, and therefore I have sought the advice of mommies to help me out. It's not like registering for your wedding! I never cared how safe my coffee maker was! Although, I should have, that thing is a piece of junk. I did all I could at BabyStyle, but I think I have to do a practical version on Babies R Us for the necessities. I bought the crib bedding as well, because I needed something to jump start the nursery process. Something to get the whole thing rolling. I had originally considered this awesome wallpaper from Anthro that was black, white, and teal with huge flowers, but it was so limiting in terms of what could go with it. I wanted something really different, but I think it was a little too out there. I'm now considering it for the third floor bathroom. I bought a set from Dwell that I've liked for a while. They are sold out of it everywhere, so I had to scoop it up while I could. A place near our house (Bratt Decor for the locals) could order it for me, and in 4-6 short weeks, it will arrive. I like it because it has a splash of pink, but otherwise it's dark beige and brown forest on the bumper, and tiny polka dots on the bottom sheet. Now, everything will work around this. That's what I needed.

Next week, we clean the basement out to make more room for living. We're vertical, so you either have to go up or down in our house. Should be an interesting day. We called the junk man to pick up a bunch of stuff from the garage and basement. Hopefully that will help clear the place. Then, we have the obstacle of getting a sofa down there. The back basement door is only 28-29" wide. Very few sofas are less than that height. So, the search is on. We'll probably head to Crate and Barrel in Tysons next Sunday for a look, since they can customize their sofas a bit. We shall see. We already had to return a dryer because it didn't fit! Although Crate and Barrel already said they could send a sample of the sofa with no upholstery to see if it fits, which would cost us $69. May be worth it.

It's a Girl!

So, we found out the sex on 3-28-2007. As we suspected, it's a girl. We have narrowed the name down, but think we'll keep that part a surprise. The kid was all over the place during the ultrasound, and my belly was lopsided as heck. She forced me to lay on my side, which I hate (see submission regarding pregnancy pillow), and I've had a stitch in my side since yesterday afternoon. I'm really starting to feel pregnant now. All of a sudden I have this belly, fluttering inside, and I can't get up out of anything easily. I attempted to run inside my office this morning, and my legs were heavy and my belly jiggled. It was like the Michelin Man dream you have when you want to run fast, but everything is so heavy. I've decided to start taking yoga again, since I have been lazy as can be. Luckily we walked like crazy in London, but I need to keep up some type of routine so I can birth this kid.

European Vacation

So, again, it's been a bit, but we have been busy bees. We just returned from Ireland/England this past Saturday. It was a wonderful trip, but man, are we exhausted. We both got sick, and after a night of complete misery, and me freaking out in the bed because I couldn't breath and head weighing a million pounds I went to the doc, and I have a sinus infection. Thankfully they gave me some miracle drug called Omnicef (a penny from the drug sales goes to impoverished children in Africa). The lady I saw was a nurse midwife, so she told me she would take care of biz, and she didn't even try to convince me to have the kid in our 75 year old bathtub at home.

Back to the trip....

We started in Ireland, which we absolutely loved, I only wish we had more time there. We were in County Clare, about ten minutes from Shannon airport. It was total countryside. The people there was so nice, and the stews were hearty and plentiful. Every entree was served with an assortment of potatoes of every kind: mashed, au gratin, boiled, chips...you name it. There were four plates alone of all types of potatoes. The inset shows the absolutely wonderful hotel we stayed in while there. It was totally cush, uncommon in Europe, since most rooms are teeny tiny (see later conversation on London room).

We are waiting for my parent's to publish their shots from Ireland, since we forgot our camera for the crazy day at the Cliffs of Moher. These are cliffs that stand over 200 meters high, and line the western coast of Ireland against the Atlantic. Luckily, when we visited, they had just completed a several million dollar undertaking that built a visitor's center into the cliff, as well as paths and barriers between you and the inevitable fate of death. Previosuly, you could just walk right off the edge if these things. Just one month prior a woman and her child were "blown" off, but the locals in Doolin said she jumped. Yipes. Anyway, the wind was absolutely crazy, and she could easily be blown off. People were literally leaning back into the wind, which allowed them to stay upright in that position. Nuts. The journey there was also an adventure. Trent was the designated driver (on the left side of the road). He did a great job, but was pretty stressed and generally pissed for the 2-hour round trip drive to and from. I don't blame him, the roads are so narrow, and people drive really fast. He was hugging the left side of the road, and we even ran into the curb a few times on the return trip. We got a bit lost on our way back, and that almost caused a walk out of the driver, but he kept his cool (a lie), and we were back on track after stopping twice at the same place for directin. A side note to this is that directions from anyone in Ireland are very general: such as, "Go up there a bit, where you see the signs go left, then you'll see it after a few crossings, love."

The wedding was great! The Irish start these things at 4-5 in the afternoon, then eat, do speaches, etc. until 11:30, then the band starts playing! We left at 2:00 to make the last bus, but they were still partying. My Dad (Frank) had closed eevry local bar with the 30 year olds for the three days prior, so by the time the wedding rolled around he was donezo with the old whiskey and Bulmer's (cider). Trent ended up singing in the bar with the locals and grilling this guy named Damo, who was our local connection during our stay about the IRA.

I will say Ireland was a blur, it went so fast, and we did so much, and as I said, we were up to all hours in the pubs. They technically close at 11-11:30, but they'll let you stockpile drinks and stay there as long as you like. Even the hotel stayed open at the Night Manager's discretion. However, the first night, the Irish boys were pulling down their pants, and falling, so they shut down, and the next night, a fellow Baltimorean starting dropping the F-bomb all over, so they closed then as well.

The day after the wedding it was off to London. Our rooms were definitely more what we expected. Small. You could barely fit the luggage and yourself in it. Even the lift carried only three people. Speaking of which, I had to pay $180 for the extra weight of our luggage on the flight to London. Ryan air only allows 35 pounds. Bah.

The hotel did provide lovely biscuits every morning, which I surely enjoyed. We also had tea every morning, noon, and night. Heaven. Decaf girls, decaf. London was great too, a lot like NYC. We spent the first few days with my parents and covered all the sights. We also saw Guys and Dolls, with Don Johnson. Go figure. He was pretty good, although he high tailed it off stage every time there was a dance routine. No Vice moves there. After my parents left we spent the rest of the time with Rob (Otremba) and Valentina (Rob's lovely girlfriend, for those who don't know). They showed us all the sites, markets, and great shopping.

However, London is so damn expensive, even Trent and I didn't shop much. The dollar to pound conversation is horrible, so the pound starts out 1.5 times more. Plus, everything is double the price. So add that all together, and every meal costs $100, and every taxi ride $40. We also made the mistake of eating lunch at Harrod's (see inset) where my Dad picked up the tab, but I'm pretty sure the four rubens and soup we had with drinks cost him about $400. My sandwhich alone was 15 pounds (about $33). Add soup (8 pounds/$18) and drink (4 pounds, $10), and mine alone was about $61. I'm pretty sure I ate the same thing at Belvedere Market the day before we left for $8.95, and I thought that was a rip! We kept in mind that we were in one of the great world cities, so we rolled with it, and threw money around as we wished. Ha ha. All in all, we had a blast, but in our long travels, we were ready to get home. It was a beautiful, sunny day on Sunday, which was a welcomed change from the raw cold and rain of London.

I'll post the pictures here when I get them up for anyone interested in our trip.

I may do another post later tonight since Trent and I are on the way to the doctor today to potentially find out the sex of the bean. Stand by folks.

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post. Work has been very busy, and therefore it has left little bean writing time during the day. However, I have decided to take a ten minute lunch today, and update.

All is well. I feel great with the exception of some tiredness. I was in my L.A. office all of last week, so sometimes the time change catches up with me when I return. My co-workers were kind enough to throw me an early shower, and it was the most fun. We played some fun games, and in my office, it's cut throat, so you better be good. We played one game where you had to fish safety pins out of a bowl of rice, and it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between the rice and the pins. Most people only pulled one or two pins! I had three, almost four, but my count got disqualified, after I poured a bit too much rice out in the last five seconds. Like I said, it's cut throat, no breaks for the damn mother! See insert for examples of co-workers attempting this task. I got lots of cool gifts, and I'm my way to havng a fabulously dressed, and carried baby. I also posted some pics from the event itself. All in all, quite a good time.

In other news, I finally took out my belly button ring. What an ordeal. The
nurses at the doctor's office, who I am convinced all hate me, advised me to remove it before the navel popped. Great. I have had it for eight years, and it's never come out. Once I tried, and I ended up with a stripper ring, so I quickly switched it back. Anyway, I had Trent try to pry it open with his hands, but he continued to forget one vital component to the removal, and that was that my skin was attached. He pulled and prodded, all while I was attached to it. I feared the worst, and postponed for an additional two weeks. With the belly getting a lot bigger lately, I knew we had to do something. So, Trent got the Leathermnan, and literally cut the metal. He wanted to put it in the middle of the ring, to try to pry it open, but I knew that would only result in bloodshed, so I opted for the metal cutting. I'm happy to report, it's out now, and I look very weird with a naked belly button. Below please see before pregnancy shot, then shot of stripper type ring that was removed, and finally what kind of pregnant woman I didn't want to be...the one in West Virginia, riding the Spongebob craze, insisting she won't take the ring out because her coal miner husband likes to see it when he finishes a long day underground. So, I'm ring free, and this gives the nurses one more thing to check off their list of bad patient behaviors. Since I was three weeks behind on blood tests, and will be two weeks behind on my sonogram, they're just loving me. They don't like me because a 2:45 p.m. appt. doesn't always fit well into work day, or that I have to travel for work, or that I happen to be going to Ireland for a wedding! Seriously, the appt. lady is so mean, I almost cried at my last visit. I'm always apologizing for working, or not being able to have an appt. at 11:30 then again at 1:45 for a sonogram. It also doesn't help that my doc is only in Wed/Friday afternoons. So, when I book, she usually only has one appointment available. If I don't take it, I'm the trouble patient. If anyone has experienced this, please post your input. That is, if anyone is still even reading this thing.

Ok, that's it for now, I will take some pre-Europe pics and post before I gain excessive weight while away.

Breck

Well, I made it through four days in 9,000 feet of elevation. A little huffing and puffing around town, but overall I felt pretty good. I did some light snowboarding, but nothing too crazy, and I took a day off to hang with Ali. See inserted picture for us on the slopes! Ali made me dress up, she really wanted everyone to notice us. Who would have thought?

I ate lots of awful stuff like hamburgers, fries, and onion rings. We all felt a little gross, so there was a good deal of salad in the mix the last day or so.

We were able to watch the Maryland/Duke game at a bar called Eric's, which was nice too. Thanks to big Will Bowers, we came out victorious. There was a guy in the bar waiting for the game to be over, so we could stop looking so stressed. Of course, he was barking this at us in the last four minutes, and we almost smacked him upside his head since we were more irritated by his distraction then we were stressed about the game. I think he may have had a few too many sips of Tuaca. Trent bought a shirt as a memento of the win.

All in all , it was a fun trip, and the boys didn't wake up too hung over, despite our trip to a local bar where Jay had beer, a bottle of Boone's Farm (served pink in a wine glass), followed by a chaser of Jack Daniel's. Trent and Janson also sipped of the fine fruity beverage. They actually sold the Boone's by the glass, which at first Jay asked about, but the guy was like, the bottle costs about $5.00, so you might as well just go for the bottle. So, we ordered their finest flavor--Snow Creek Berry, or was it Strawberry Hill? No matter how you slice it, the liquid smarties went down smooth for all the boys at the table.