Hiding

I’ve been getting a lot of comments lately about how people didn’t even notice I was pregnant before the girls told them, and I was past my 4-month mark. That is exactly what I want to hear because I was TRYING TO HIDE it!

For my first I was anxious to be in maternity clothes (stupid), and my second I can’t remember how I felt or how I dressed.  This time, I was hiding it from everyone because of my Christmas surprise, but now, hiding it is still not a bad thing.

As I started popping a bit, I realized, that I wear many form-fitting clothes.  This makes sense because of my profession and because I accentuate my thinnest, most flattering part, which happens to be my waist. Unfortunately with pregnancy, the waist becomes obsolete!

My plan of action was to internet shop for tops that were not form fitting, and guess what? there are a lot out there!  I found most success on Urban Outfitters.  They dress these skinny models in baggy, empire-waisted, tunic tops! Bingo!  I bought 4 items in my normal size, and they hid my belly perfectly.  I also bought a baggy blouse from H and M and wore a dress of mine where the natural waist was not quite empire, but up just enough to still button closed!

I also find that some of my true-waisted skirts that used to be a little big and then became more of a relaxed waist skirt on non-pregnant me, are now fitting as true-waisted, sitting right there on my now-a-bit-thicker waist.  That photo of me in the skirt is at 19 weeks! Pretty good!  It only works because it is a full skirt.  I had a fitting for a pencil skirt at 18 weeks and the bump was definitely a bump!

My point is not to brag, because I am a regular old pregnant girl…my point is that we should FIGHT the blah maternity clothes as long as possible!

I tried this sweatshirt with the pockets on and compared it to a maternity shirt of a similar style, and the maternity shirt ACCENTUATED the belly, and this shirt did not…the pockets conceal a ton (I thought the opposite might be true).

My main problem now, going into the next part of my pregnancy is less the belly and more the love handles.  I can wear a few pairs of normal pants still, but the muffin top is out of control.  I now prefer sweaters and longer tops with tights/leggings and boots to conceal the yucky back.  But I like the challenge of fitting into non-maternity clothes–then I will have more options when I am transitioning (hopefully) back to normal me.

I have some warm-climate trips coming up and I will be my biggest in a warm climate, so I have bought a few maternity pieces… I am curious to see how I will like them!  I feel so out of the loop with wear to get the best maternity stuff!

Next challenge: nursing without “nursing” tops.

3 for 3

When I met Jason’s mom Tina, over a decade ago, whenever I visited I sensed some sadness from her about losing her baby girl 20 years earlier.  I don’t think the baby even made it into their home, but she was born all the same, the last of 3 children, the only girl.  When Tina was near death, she began speaking of her daughter to Jason and the thought of their reunion after her death brought us much comfort.

Jason and his brother are the only Glass grandchildren of 4 Glass sons the generation before them.  His Dad has 3 brothers and Jason has 1 brother.  I know that Tina is hard at work lining up baby girls to send to us to see that we are not without a female influence.  She’s done it again:

Third Person Thursday

She went to bed on Sunday with dread in her soul. She just knew Monday was going to be a bad day.

When the alarm went off she verbally groaned and was absolutely ticked off to be awake.  She got the kids ready, one left early, she took the other to school and then stayed for the pta meeting and violin lesson. She realized then that there was a 100 percent chance of rain for the rest of the day so she schlepped all the way home to get the umbrellas.  She then attended the flute lesson and ran a few errands.  Throughout all activities that required sitting, she struggled to stay awake.

At pick up, one daughter wanted to go with a friend to get some pinkberry and the other threw a fit about it, and this drove her nearly to tears (because she is pregnant and underrested.), so she said absolutely not and made them stick to the original plan: do homework and hang out until Mother/Daughter hip hop.  She laid her head on the lunchroom table and finally took her nap.

Hip hop was fun, but by the time the kids had eaten, practiced and got in their pajamas, she was ready to go to bed too. She fell in and out of sleep during reading time, and they all had lights out at 8:30.

Tuesday was a much better day. She had 10 hours of sleep, ran a few miles, walked with a spring in her step.  There was no rain.  She had lunch with a few friends, one who had been gone to France for some time and was back to visit.  After school they went to pinkberry and then rushed home.  She was hosting book club that night so as she was just about to get the hot chocolate bar ready, when both girls almost simultaneously complained of an itchy scalp.

She knew they both suffered from itchy scalps in the winter, but ever since lice, she takes all complaints of an itchy scalp seriously.  She checked Lolly-clear. She checked Phoebe-nit! She cursed. Phoebe heard.  She kept checking- nit!  She went back and checked Lolly more closely-nit! nit! nit!

She thanked the heavens that this did not happen on Monday night, because she knew she would have melted into a puddle of grief.  She was still not exactly happy, especially 4 hours later when she had missed the book club happening in the next room and extracted a lot of nits and lice from BOTH of her daughters hair.  The next morning was picture day. (maniacal laughter).

Crochet: Afghan

My goal is to finish all my unfinished yarn projects before June. On the list: bullseye afghan (check), poncho, baby hats, baby sweater, baby afghan (not all for my baby btw), cowl of many colors (2 I hope), turkey hat (maybe), ipod covers, a few scarves, and knitted chevron baby blanket. I have a lot to do.

But! I finished my first one:

This is the second bullseye afghan I have made, this time for my sister!  I like how it turned out. This is really fun and fast to make.

Snow

This past weekend we had our first official snowfall. (Halloween does NOT count).  Lolly simply cannot resist it.

I can’t resist taking her photo. I eventually hid behind a glass door though-much warmer and dryer there.

Halfway there

You have got to be kidding me that this pregnancy his half way over.  I just cannot believe it.  I feel like it has just begun! Forgive me for documenting the pregnancy, but that’s kind of all that’s going on right now, and also I never had a blog while pregnant before!

For my last two pregnancies, my due dates were 2 weeks off, so even if I could remember the minute details of those, I still think comparing this to that would be a little inaccurate.  Despite gaining all my 1st trimester (and some 2nd tri) weight in a 4 week period (I blame a lot of this on my mother’s treats!), I think I am on track and maybe on the small side because I can still zip a lot of zippers on my regular clothes.  I did have my first maternity modeling casting and got the callback, so I know I am showing!  My main complaint with the body change is the out of control love handles. Yikes, those are handle-icious.

This past weeks major change is I can feel the baby kicking me!  The soft parts became hard, and I feel like there is a little pencil eraser poking around down there. I even felt it from the outside once when I put my hand on my belly.  I am excited for the girls to feel it. Lolly likes to inspect my bare belly and tell me how big it is and kiss it and rub it.

My energy is way better…I am still running a few times a week (slowly).  I did 4 miles on Friday! woot!  I am very dedicated to my ab and kegal work and I still take the stairs when I can and tell myself not to give in to that little voice that says: Just take the escalator, just have a sit, rest!  Because! I still rest a lot, take naps when I can and sleep in WHENEVER possible!

This week is the big ultrasound.  I am looking forward to checking out all the pieces and parts.  I hope for a good health report!  I scheduled it so that the whole family can come and get a good look at our new family member!

 

On teaching 3 Year olds

This week was my 3rd Sunday teaching 3 year olds. I usually have 6 out of 8 kids attend.  Spending time with them is a good reminder of where my new life is heading: Lots of patience, repetition, routine and love.

Each of my kids is so entertaining.  I have one who is obsessed with my heels and tights and today spent a large part of the class examining another girls painted finger nails.  One girl who is willing to take on any boy at any moment, she had a full out tug of war with our walking rope, with the toughest boy in class.  The toughest boy in class seems to be warming up to me a bit, I catch him putting his hand on my leg or sitting a little close, or even CHOOSING to sit next to me, which I think is sweet.

They all continue to test me by getting out of their seats just ONE MORE TIME or turning off the light (today I put masking tape over it! smart!) or standing on their chair and jumping off.  Thankfully they are 3, and move just slow enough that I can anticipate some of their shenanigans.  I would definitely be sorry if I forgot my deodorant on a Sunday.

This app has helped my class a lot. When I need to break up the energy a bit, we karaoke to a primary song.  They love the ipad.  So do I.

Those kids are keeping me young.

Vogue Knitting Live!

New York City is so grand because everything comes to you!  I had been seeing advertisments for Vogue Knitting Live ever since the NYC Yarn Crawl and I knew I needed to be a part of it. As it approached I realized I didn’t have the money or wherewithal to do a class, but the marketplace!?–I’m there.

I was so glad that my new friend Jen emailed me about going. We met at the lion brand studio when we were in line to enter a contest….and she was the PERFECT person to have at Vogue Knitting Live, she is VERY passionate about her fiber arts. She even bought the size 50 knitting needles.  My old friend Angela came too and she bought the most beautiful knit bracelet kit….  The kits REALLY sold all of us because we could see everything done and then get all the materials.  I bought a kit for a koigu cowl and a poncho.  It was such a great way to spend the afternoon in New York City!

Christmas Break: the Rest

I didn’t take gads of photos on this trip, but here are a few more moments that will summarize the trip for me:

A whole lot of family time.  Food.  Laughter and love. Happy 2012~

Shedd Aquarium

I hadn’t been to the Shedd Aquarium in a very long time, decades maybe.  It was really nice to go back. It is a beautiful building and I was way impressed with the up-to-dateness of the programs and exhibits offered.  We spent the perfect amount of time there. Nobody had a meltdown or an issue (oh, except me dry-heaving in the stinky bathroom) and it was the perfect way to spend the last day of 2011.

The Dolphin/Beluga Whale show was just down right funny.  The problem is you are seated in an arena that has a giant pool of water, over-looking Lake Michigan and your life experience immediately recalls Shamu.  Then the Beluga whales don’t leap and the dolphins are not that familiar blue-grey color, and all your expectations just lower and lower and lower.

I had to keep reminding myself I was at an aquarium, NOT Sea World.  What made it worse was the fact that we were still viewing the Holiday Fantasea show, which meant a Santa who arrived by air (in a boat) and had an hysterically frantic “Ho-Ho-Ho”…the singing trio (look, I would have TOTALLY done that job back in my Chicago days) was TRYING to make us Merry, but this was 4 days AFTER Christmas–the audience was COLLECTIVELY over it, and the penguins marched a whole of 20 feet–and that was it…not the most impressive display.

But, that Shedd Aquarium staff–they tried!  They even wore red and green wet suits.  Here’s a tip: The beluga’s are most stunning when viewed from BELOW.  Just skip the show and go downstairs and see them swim underwater, much better.