12 Weeks

Hi Readers! Ma-ma bear here with my first official post!

I am excited to enter Week 12 – the LAST WEEK of my first trimester. Hurray! Just last Friday, I shared the happy news with my office – and today we leaked the below post on Facebook – so Baby News is OUT! And maternity leggings are IN!

To share some TMI details, symptoms so far have been:

• Nausea – since around 5 weeks, peaking at 8 weeks, getting manageable now…but still present.
• Sinusitis – for the last 6 weeks…but testing a nose spray that’s pregnancy safe – hoping for some improvement!
• Exhaustion – definitely require more sleep, usually passed out by 8:30PM!

But with that said…not sure if it’s finally sharing the news with everyone or the sunshine making its way back out – but I’ve been feeling “glowy” recently! Have a little extra bounce in my step…

Now for the good stuff! Here is this week’s bump pic and social media post of me fulfilling my pregnancy craving of the day – Quesadilla at Norwalk’s Best Mexican Lunch Spot – Sierra Grille!! Delicious guac people – definitely hit the spot!

Week 38 For Reals

From Amanda:

So this is it. Our final blog post! I know what you are thinking… “What will I do with my Tuesday nights without Amanda’s bump pics and Zack’s witty recaps??” But don’t worry! Because the ending of our blog posts marks the beginning of our lives with Baby W! And what could top that!?

So with that said, here’s the latest! We’ve officially set the date for Baby W’s arrival via C-Section for April 2, 2014.  After reviewing the latest ultrasound pics with our Doctor earlier this week – and seeing that the placenta was still a bit in the way of baby’s exit route- we all decided a C-Section was the safest way to go. And as luck & fate would have it, our favorite Doctor ended up being the one on call the morning we were to have the surgery. So we are all ready for baby girl’s arrival!!   Can’t believe she will be here NEXT WEEK!

Special for our last post, we put together the final cut of our baby bump video! Enjoy! 🙂 The bump pic is all the way at the bottom!

And we couldn’t end the blog without a final word from everyone’s favorite father-to-be / baby bump blogger now could we???

 

From Zack:

Thanks for joining us on this journey these last 9 months. At first glance, it has felt like 9 seconds but really it has felt exactly like 9 months. Counting week-to-week will do that to you.

Thanks for all of your comments. They made Amanda and I smile every time. A special shout out goes to Aunt Niks, who has more comments than we do blog posts, which really says something about her excitement for Baby Dubbs. By default, this also speaks volumes about Auntie E (just kidding!).

Don’t worry about me, guys. This may be the end of our blog, but I have been hired to ghost write baby bump blogs for many others. When you come across long, rambling posts, you’ll know.

To that end, I will leave you with some musings.

1. In the last 3 weeks, I have never had so many people open doors for me. The fact that I am walking along side my 9-months pregnant wife may be a factor… But seriously, I will miss this.
2. Before you get pregnant, you’d never imagine how often you end up discussing your wife’s cervix with co-workers.
3. Amanda and I were playing Monopoly last night and one of the cards had a strange drawing on it. At the same time we both said “That looks like a uterus.” Yeah, it’s time to have the baby.
4. I will miss “beginning of the pregnancy” texts and “end of the pregnancy” texts like these:

Beginning of Pregnancy Texts:

 

 

 

End of Pregnancy “House Arrest” Texts:

 

 

This week Baby Dubbs is almost 7 pounds and over 19.5 inches long. She has a firm grasp and her organs have matured [Ed. note: Good!]. She has no idea what’s in store for Wednesday but we know she can’t wait to meet you all.

 

Week 38 But Not Really

House Arrest Girl wants to watch a movie, so there will be no post tonight.

Our LAST blog post will be tomorrow!

 

Week 37

Even though Amanda has been on house arrest for a little while now, she has turned into quite the social butterfly. In the past week or so she has welcomed visits from:

• Tommy & Nikki & Charlotte
• Scott & Alicia & Lena
• Nikki & Charlotte again!
• Gretchen & Abigail
• Alicia & Lena again!
• Erika & Leila
• Grandma Tracy (three times!) & Grandpa Tom (two times! And he made great pancakes)
• Kelly Ross
• Cousin Kelly and Mike
• Grandma Cathy & Grandpa Jim (didn’t make pancakes, but did help me with my taxes)

Amanda also received these really nice flowers from work this past week:

 

I have been busy at work and get really excited every time Amanda calls or texts during the day. But I have learned to temper my excitement. In a meeting last week, my phone rang and I saw it was Amanda. It was rare for her call at 1 in the afternoon, I thought. Maybe this is it! I quickly silenced my phone and texted her to see if everything was okay. Everything was not okay. Amanda needed our iTunes password because she wanted to watch a movie. Sigh.

As far as nesting, the house is in good order. We tackled some spring cleaning these last few weekends by rearranging our kitchen cabinets and cleaning out our bedroom closet. A somber moment did occur when Amanda found a former belt of hers.

She also recently posted a picture of her old skinny jeans on Instagram, so I think she is ready to have the baby and wear that belt once again.

Speaking of the baby, this week she is 6.3 pounds and over 19 inches long. She was joined for tonight’s bump pic by some very special guests: Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Jim! They stopped by for a nice visit and dinner (and to provide some taxes help). They were very excited to see the behind-the-scenes process of the bump pic and Cathy herself even drew tonight’s sign.

 

Grandma Cathy also served as hair and make up support:

 

How many more blog posts are left?!

 

 

 

 

Week 36

 

Today is Week 36! The photo above is about how exciting Week 35 was. And that’s quite alright with us. Amanda has been laying low on house arrest and can be seen here fulfilling a pregnant housewife cliche by ferociously texting with our friend Alicia about last night’s dramatic The Bachelor finale. Juan Pablo is a jerk!

She has been making good use of her time home so far. She packed our bags for the hospital and ordered some spiffy art for the baby’s room. She hasn’t forgotten to kick her feet up – per doc’s orders – as she has been watching an otherwise unhealthy amount of the show “Say Yes To The Dress.”  Don’t believe me?  Here’s our “recently watched” items on Netflix.

This past weekend we put the baby room to good use for the first time. Baby Dubb’s future buddy Lena stopped by and her cousin Charlotte did too. Tommy’s lion hand puppet was a smash hit for Charlotte, but Lena not so much.

 

This week it’s the start of the 9th month…and Baby Dubbs weighs 6 pounds (!) And she looks kinda like this:

And she really looks like this:

Throwback Thursday: Week 4 (?)

Dress Rehearsal aka Week 35

Let’s do this Hangover style. We’ll begin with how the weekend started, cut to the end and then show you how we got there.

Our weekend started like this:  I took Friday off from work, met my brother-in-law at our favorite deli and saw this ridiculous drink, the SODA SHAQ.  I thought it was a sign of an excellent day off and upcoming weekend.

Our weekend ended like this:

How did this weekend go from the pure awesomeness of SODA SHAQ to being utterly exhausted and passed out on the couch with the cat?

Saturday got off to a great start. Amanda and I accomplished many baby-related tasks. We hung the baby name letters above the crib (and blurred them in PhotoShop for this pic):

I installed the car seat base in our car by reading the car manual, reading the car seat manual, scrapping them both and then watching this five minute YouTube video. Thanks, YouTube!

With her name on the wall and her car seat base in the car, perhaps Baby Dubbs thought we were ready for her, because that night we suddenly found ourselves heading off to the hospital due to some pregnancy symptoms… heading off to the hospital with no bags packed. Oh, and my friend was over. So he came with us. It was just like we had envisioned.

We spent nearly three full days at the hospital and were thankful to learn that Dubbs wasn’t quite ready to join us yet and that both she and Amanda are 100% healthy! I also learned the best way to sleep on a hospital room couch (answer: there isn’t one) and that the cafeteria has a great $5 burger special.

During our three day rehearsal, Dubbs’ cousin Leila turned 2 years old, so we made sure to send her a very special birthday text: 

 

And we had many visitors; including both sets of grandparents and cousin Charlotte, who was nice enough to bring along her parents:

 

So after three long, long, long days at the hospital, we headed home on Monday and I passed out on the couch with the cat.

As a precaution, doctors said Amanda is now on house arrest until the baby comes and that means the couch is all hers! Here she was tonight:

While at the hospital we learned that our girl is approximately 5.5 pounds and over 18 inches long. She’s the size of a honeydew melon and is too big to do somersaults! So when she squirms, you can really see it through the belly. Here she is, going strong at 35 weeks:

Ready to roll

Exciting Saturday morning:

I successfully added the car seat adapter to the stroller.

And we then practiced using it. I cannot confirm or deny if Sleep Sheep was harmed in the process.

Up next, hanging the baby name letters in her room. Starting to run out of things to do….

“How’s Amanda Doing?” aka Week 34

I was just on a work trip with some co-workers and was asked more than a handful of times, “How is Amanda doing? What week is she?” I got back to the office today and was asked a few more times by different co-workers. Then, I called my parents after work and the first thing they asked was “How is Amanda feeling?”.  It’s Week 34!

While on the plane, I finished the book, “Dude, You’re Going to Be a Dad.” But now there’s a new book to read (that is approximately four times as long), called “What To Expect The First Year.” Something tells me I won’t get the chance to finish that one…

I can tell we are getting closer to the big show, because, according to “Dude…“, the next items on our to-do list are:

• pack a bag
• make sure our doctor’s and hospital’s phone numbers are in our phones

Dubbs is now the size of a cantaloupe,, weighing in at 4.75 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Amanda is currently eating an entire can of olives while sitting on the couch, so perhaps Dubbs is now closer to 5 pounds.

Okay, time for our most popular segment, the iPhone Camera Roll:

Amanda recently bought a post-pregnancy leather jacket and decided to model it with slippers, sweatpants and her dressy work shirt. It all comes together nicely.

We recently got a very cool frame (courtesy of Grandma Cathy) for the baby room.

Baby Dubbs has been prone to hiccups lately, here’s an action shot.

Check out this cantaloupe:

Week 33

If you’re ever in Fairfield County and want some free cookies, all you have to do is sit through an hour long presentation on “Baby Basics” at a nearby Pediatric Healthcare Associates office. Tonight we attended a class and it was very informative! And delicious!

It’s Week 33 and that means the room is getting more filled out:

Week 33 means our dryer’s lint trap is now a nice shade of pink. I have never seen it that color before…there’s now a lot of baby clothes passing through! (I decided not to take a picture of our lint trap, you can take my word on it.)

Week 33 also means, in addition to tonight’s baby basics class, we meet our pediatrician tomorrow night and have an OB visit on Thursday. And I have to go to CA for a business trip on Saturday. So, it’s been a little busy before Baby Dubbs’ arrival.

But there’s still time to blog.

This week the baby is over 4 pounds and over 17 inches long…and you can see her here: