Alkaline Trio

On Sunday we went to see Alkaline Trio play at the Skate park on 82nd. It was so much fun! The park there is amazing. There is so much grass to run around on, and the skatepark even has a real pool that they have built into it. It's amazing! This was the baby's first concert! I don't think it can hear quite yet, but Myles thinks it could feel the vibrations. It's nice to be able to hang out at a show outside with our friends. Mike and Led being cool

Myles and I with A3 in the back ground!!
Led and Jones with their rad jackets and cute butts.

Organics to You

Every other Monday we have Organic Produce delivered to our door by a company called "organics to you". Most of the produce is grown locally, and all is organic. Here is what we got this week. We pay $30 for this, which seems like a lot, and I'm thinking of canceling now that the farmers markets are back. I think we can get more than this for $30 on our own, although it's fun because we get to try new things that we would never try normally.

Gig Harbor to see Callie

Oh what a fun weekend! On Friday Francis came to town and we got to hang out at Costco. At least I got to see her for a few hours! On Saturday I got up and drove to see Callie and the girls in Washington. It took me 2 and a half hours, but the drive was gorgeous! I love the Northwest. It was green and and amazing all the way up the I5. Callie lives right on the Puget Sound so there is also lots of rivers and water to see on the way, as well as trains, and I even saw a deer!

The girls have really grown since I saw them last. They are the best girls ever. So polite and so much fun to be around. We ate, shopped a little, and spent a lot of time in their amazing yard. I hope I get to see them a lot more often now that I know the drive is so quick!

15 weeks and 5 days

Help me - Baby Slings

I have been looking at the baby slings and am so overwhelmed! I think I like the moby wrap the best because it goes over both shoulders. I'm just not sure if I might like one of the Maya type ones better, or have even looked at patterns to make one. Can you ladies that have used these things let me know what you think? All of the baby stuff is so overwhelming for me!

Another Rainy Weekend

It's Memorial Day weekend and raining as usual. I was really wishing it would be nice so we could go camping or on a bike ride, but no luck there. On Saturday Myles made Pollo Assado on the barbecue with Mexican corn on the cob. It was so delicious!! I did a few projects on my sewing machine, and it felt good to sew again. On Sunday I stayed in bed until 4:30!! I am so lazy!! I just felt so tired, and it was raining outside, so I just slept and let the baby grow. Today is Myles and my 5 years anniversary of being together. I didn't even remember, but he reminded me. I can't believe I forgot a date like that! I can't believe 5 years has flown by so fast. It seems like only a year ago that I was living in Prague, or even San Diego. I can't believe I've been gone from SD for so long. I miss that beautiful sunshine!

14 Week Midwife visit

Myles met me for our third midwife visit. This time we met with Nora who is the other midwife that we may end up birthing with. She was very nice, but more serious than Catherine. The baby's heart was beating at 160 bpm which she said was good, and my blood pressure is really good as usual. The scale wasn't working correctly, so now I am depending on the scale at work which doesn't seem so reliable either! So far I think I have gained between 3 and 5 lbs, depending on where my bowels are! Gross!!

On the way home I went the wrong way and almost got lost, and Myles followed me in his car so it was kind of funny because he knew where he was going, but followed me the wrong way anyway. Now he keeps joking about my driving =) We have picked out the car seat and stroller that we like best. It's the top rated for safety on consumer reports, and we both agree it seems less "cheap" than the others. We don't want to buy it yet though in case things change in the next few months. We also found out that with our insurance we will pay $960 for the birth and pre-natal care with the midwifes, plus we have to buy a birthing kit and rent the birthing pool if we are going to use that for a water birth... Good thing we have been budgeting and will be able to handle these costs!! If I wanted to have the baby at Kaiser I wouldn't have to pay anything, but I feel this is an experience I will remember for my whole life, so feel it's worth the cost.

Poor sicky wah wah

I was hoping that once I hit the 13 week mark on my pregnancy I would feel wonderful and not be sick anymore. That is not the case =( I spent the entire weekend on the couch. I'm so tired, but the worst part is the nausea. I threw up this morning for the first time in about a week. Yuck!! I know this is all worth it and there is an end in sight... but sometimes I wish I could just stay in bed instead of coming to work and having to deal with other people's problems.

On a lighter note. Our friend Francis is planning on moving up here from San Diego and I'm so excited! She is such a sweetheart and a good friend, so I'm excited to have her around. Also, our friend Trav just got an awesome new boat, so I'm planning on spending lots of days out on the river this summer. It will also be fun when we go camping on the lake... they can haul our stuff in their boat so we don't have to worry about tipping over our stuff in the canoe! I love camping and summer time... I can't wait. It is supposed to finally warm up this week. yay!

Hot Chocolate

I was just joking with my friend Rebecca about making hot chocolate for her out of breast milk once I am able. Is that so funny...or just disgusting?! I think I am going to have to keep humor in these things. I have no idea what it will be like to have milk coming out of my body. Weird!

Anyway, I think I'm starting to feel a little better. Last weekend we rode our bikes around the neighborhood and got more veggies to plant in our tiny garden. I'm so excited for the rain to end and spring to be in full effect! Portland is so beautiful in the Spring time. There are flowers blooming everywhere. Our cherry tree has already done it's blooming for the year. We are afraid there may not be many cherries because as soon as it bloomed, the rain and snow came back so the bees weren't out. Our friend pointed out a little hole in our siding that had bees flying in and out of it. At first we panicked and tried to figure out what to do...but then I said "hey give them a chance". I keep hearing these scary things about bees disapearing and I would love to be one of the people that helps them have a safe home so they can polinate our garden and trees! I love the bumble bees.

Big boobs

Today I went to get a new bra. I have always worn a 34b. I have small boobs. 34b is perfect. Now that I'm pregnant I can see my poor bra stretched to it's limits. I wanted to wait longer to buy anything new...but a new bra couldn't wait. So I go in and try on a 36b and a 34c. You know the girl told me the cup actually gets bigger when the number is bigger, so she thought I would just need a 36b. Well I walked out of there with a 36D!!!! I can't believe it. I think it will fit a while, and hopefully my boobs have done their growing until they get the milk in there....momma friends, can you please tell me what to expect here?

Timberline Lodge

We went up to Timberline on Saturday afternoon and it was beautiful! It has been raining for so long now, but we were very lucky because it decided to clear up for our special day. The drive was actually very quick, about an hour in a half. Myles took me past the McMinnimins Edgefield on the way. I had always thought that it was really far from Portland, but its actually not far at all. I know that they have really good bands play there all of the time, so I hope we get to go sometime.

Timberline was very unique and beautiful. I love that you can drive an hour from Portland and be in the snow year round. The lodge was built in the 30's during the depression. All materials are from the local area and everything was made by hand. The lodge was amazing and beautiful. I wish we had more time to hang around in the lodge. We did get to swim in the heated pool surrounded by snow. That was really fun and different, but SO COLD when we got out! People would ski by and look over the fence and ask us if it was heated.. If it wasn't heated it would have been frozen solid!

We had dinner at the pub there and I had spiced apple cider which was so delicious! Myles had beer from the Mt. Hood brewery. We didn't do much except swim and lay around. We brought lots of snacks too - and had snow right out the window so we could put our food in it to keep it cooled. At about 3 in the morning there was a loud rumble that shook the whole place. It was SO loud and scary. Mind you we are sleeping right at the top of a volcano peak, and this scared the heck out of me. I thought the mountain was ready to blow for sure! Myles woke up as well, but we weren't able to tell if we were buried in the snow or not because our window was already buried from before. The next morning I asked several people about it, and the only person who said they heard anything was a little kid, and he said he heard it all night long... so I don't think it was the same thing. I know that I heard it though!!!

Second Midwife appointment

Today we had our second appointment with the midwife. We were supposed to meet Nora, the second midwife, however I had to re-schedule so that Myles could make it, so we saw Catherine again. This was Myles first visit with her and I was really hoping that he would like her after the horrible visit we had with the OBGYN at the last visit. The best part was when she put the little heartbeat thing on there and found the heartbeat right away! She says my uterus is kind of tipped forward so it's easy to find. It sounded so cute and she said it was moving around a lot! I just can't imagine that there is really a little baby in there! I have no idea what it will be like, the concept of it seems so foreign to me. Hearing the heartbeat and knowing it's moving around was amazing though and made it all a lot more real. Catherine was also very sure to be sure all of Myles questions were answered. I'm sure it helps him to feel more involved. He must have so many thoughts and questions as well and I don't ever want him to be feeling left out of this whole process. Over all I feel so good about our choices of prenatal care and the whole homebirth thing. I really do trust myself, my body and my strength. I know that I am more comfortable at home than anywhere...and can't wait to see how this all turns out!

Most frusterating

My good friend just got back from Germany and brought me some beautiful yarn. I decided to knit my first pair of booties for our baby. The first one turned out adorable, however I ran out of yarn about 4 rows before finishing the second one!!! Now I have to either attempt to match the yarn from Germany, or make one bootie with a different colored toe and seam. I will get a picture of them up here once I figure out what i'm going to do. Nothing is more frustrating that running out of yarn mid- project!

I'm not so good at keeping up with this

So today is now Tuesday and I'm going to try and catch up with the fun things that have been going on. On Saturday I went to a baby shower for some of my friends from my old job. It was really fun to see so many people that I really miss since leaving there, and it made me realize how many great friends I had there and how much I miss them all. The couple having the baby are so laid back and amazing. I know they are going to have such a cute family. It breaks my heart though because the mother is going to have to give birth in the hospital, even though she is deathly afraid of that and wishes for a home birth. I have been trying to think of ways she could raise money to afford a home birth, but she's already 36 weeks along so the baby really could be here anytime. I know that midwives really don't make that much money and wish there was some other way for her do have the birth that she wants. Her mother had 7 children at home unattended. The only one to help her was her husband. I have a feeling that my friend is considering trying to do it unassisted as well, except for her mother, but we will see. I am so happy and lucky to be able to prepare for the birth that I want. I really hope that my pregnancy continues to be so low risk so that I don't have to worry about being transferred to the hospital. If you haven't seen Ricky Lakes movie "business of birthing", it's a great film about the topic!

Last night when I got home from work out power was out, and stayed out until 9:45 pm! It was actually really fun though, my husband had a fire going and got take out for dinner. We played cards by the light of candles and our Colman lantern. Our cats laid around with us keeping warm by the wood stove. It was amazing how quite it was without the fish tank and fridge running! Tomorrow is my first meeting with Nora, my second midwife. I am so excited. Myles is coming along too. We had such a bad experience with the OBGYN at the HMO, so I am really hoping that this visit goes much better. My tummy is already starting to stick out... I wonder how big I'm going to get! I've been so sick still, but am hoping it goes away in a few weeks. I can hardly stand it any longer!

My first blog

I have been debating for quite sometime about starting a blog. I don't really know the point, as I'm not much of a public person and I already have a Myspace account for my friends to keep in touch, but figure I can do this as well, kind of as a trial. I am now 9.5 weeks pregnant, so I thought this would be a fun way to keep track of my pregnancy and new family for our friends and relatives far away. I have been wanting to keep up with my journal at home, but I'm usually too lazy or sick these days. My old roommate and friend Natalie has a blog and I always find it fun to check in and see what she's up to, so now I'm doing the same! I'm currently working at a call center for a major HMO, and am coming upon my first anniversary with my husband! We are very excited about that and are going to spend a night at Timberline Lodge up at Mt. Hood to celebrate. The weather report says it's going to snow down to the valley floor on Saturday, so we are still waiting for Spring to arrive. I live in Portland Oregon and absolutely love it here - I think it must be the most beautiful city in the U.S. Very European, clean, green and Liberal. Last weekend was perfect - 72 degrees and the sun was out. All of the trees are blooming and I'm ready to be over my first trimester of pregnancy so I can start to feel better!