Snow Day updates

Week 21 (now it's week 23) after one of my concerts.

Baby is kicking A LOT these days and I'm definitely noticing Baby's sleeping patterns. Up and kicking very strongly about 5:30am every morning (half an hour before my alarm goes off of course) and between 10-11pm when I'm ready to be falling asleep. Also

feeling a lot of kicking during the day. Not sure if Baby hears when my students are playing but he/she is usually kicking a lot during my 7/8 Grade rehearsals. My students are definitely aware that I'm not the only one who cares what they sound like because the other day one of my 6th graders said something about how my baby can hear how bad they're playing! HA!






Well, we got about 22 inches or so of snow on Saturday! So pretty and it looks like it might just be an early Winter Break! (Tim and I were both supposed to have school until Wednesday.)

Tim made a snow square...sort of like a crop circle...I guess...




Look at those icicles!!



Hart stayed with us for two nights and he and Tim shoveled our driveway for the second time and a good part of the cul-de-sac so we could get out and make it to mass on Sunday. So much snow!!! It wasn't till late afternoon on Sunday that a plow finally made it to our neighborhood.

Baking and Baby overload!

I had a ton of filo dough left over making Aunt Andrea's Baked Brie for Thanksgiving (one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving) so I thought I'd try my hand at making Baklava! I was trying to channel my (Greek) Aunt Andrea as much as possible (I may have even done a little dance around the kitchen to get in the mood) since I was using the Rolled Baklava recipe from the Greek cookbook she gave me :) Some of them don't look as pretty as I hoped but but they sure do taste yummy! Not as good as Aunt Andrea's but not so bad for my first try I think. Mmmmmm

We thought we'd stop by Babies 'R Us today to start looking at baby things. Talk about overwhelming! We're definitely going to need suggestions for how to choose things like strollers, playpens, carriers, swings, diapers, etc..... And I guess we're going to have to figure out where to put all that baby stuff in our house too.

I love feeling the baby kick!! Sometimes it feels like Baby is trying out dance steps on my bladder but it's still a pretty amazing feeling!

Halfway to April 20!

Well, here we are at the halfway point - 20 weeks!

New developments: we've felt the baby kick! Thanksgiving morning, Tim felt the baby for the first time. I've felt fluttering, butterfly feelings for a few weeks but it's so exciting to be able to feel it really kick from the outside. Last night was the strongest kicking we've felt and it's so amazing! I'm not sure what I thought it would feel like but it's nothing like I imagined. (Baby's kicking now actually as I'm writing this!)

Equally as exciting was seeing the baby again today (for about an hour) for our detailed anatomy sonogram. The sonogram tech took lots of pictures of the baby from every angle taking measurements and checking organs. Everything is normal and Baby is growing as it should! We saw Baby opening and closing its mouth like it was eating (soooo cute!), moving its arms and legs around a lot and we counted all 10 fingers and toes! Saw it's heart beating (more clearly than the last time), saw the kidneys, all the little tiny bones - so many for such a tiny little baby! It's amazing how much Baby has grown since the first sonogram at 11 weeks. Definitely looks more like a baby than an alien now! We were tempted to find out whether it is a boy or girl since the tech said she could tell but we decided to stick to our original plan to wait to find out in April. (That's the bottom of the right foot!)

So up until a week or so ago I did not understand how (and still don't understand why) my belly button is supposed to eventually pop out. And then I realized that my belly button is becoming more shallow than it was before. Hmmmm.....

Oh, I'm now on my 76th cold (give or take a few) in the last couple months. No fun!! I don't think I've felt nauseous in the morning for a few days (which is so exciting, let me tell you!) but it's hard to tell with a stuffy head and runny nose. Ugh....all the rainy weather doesn't seem to be helping either. I keep hearing we're getting snow soon?!?!?!

Our house is now decorated for Christmas and Tim has hung up lights outside. Planning on getting our first REAL Christmas tree soon rather than taking the fake one out of the box again since we now have the room to put a real tree. Happy Advent!

Nursery in the making

We haven't done much to the nursery yet but we did move furniture around so we could start planning. And we needed a place to put baby's first gifts other than in a pile on top of the rocking panda. Definitely have a ways to go but it's exciting to have a room that looks like a baby will some day be in it :)

My dad made the cradle when I was born and the dresser was in my room as a baby.

new pictures....oh my....

Thought everyone might like to see how Tim is doing at week 17 :) All dressed up from a Marching Band Banquet.

The pit girls (the girls who play the non-marching instruments in Marching Band for those who are unfamiliar with marching lingo) gave him a little Oberlin sweatshirt for baby...so cute :)

Oh and this is me and baby at week 17 - very tired from a long day of teaching, going to class then sitting on a cafeteria table seat through the (quite long) Band Banquet.



The pile of clothes that no longer fit me is getting bigger every day....sigh....
Some days I'd rather just wear sweatpants and a t-shirt and slippers...that's professional enough for school right??

Well I'm actually posting this close to the beginning of week 18 and I had to have Tim take a new picture today because OH MY GOSH!!! Baby (and I) have definitely done some growing in the last week!


I certainly knew this was going to happen but geez!! Every day I'm amazed...

Quick update

Just a quick update while I wait for my next viola student....

Week 16 and feeling sooooo much better! I hope it stays this way and the horrible feeling-sick part is finally over.

The weekly email I get said that today baby is now the size of an avocado! (I love the fruit and veggie comparisons!) We had another appointment yesterday and got to here the heartbeat again. Midwife said it was right in the normal range (140 bpm I think).

I have officially outgrown all of my regular pants now - still have some tops that fit OK but maternity clothes are just so much more comfortable! And I don't really mind having to get new clothes :)

This picture was taken last week but forgot to post it. (Week 15)


Last week everyone at school started telling me that I've "popped out". (I think that's an odd way to describe it since I did not experience any "popping" last week - just growing little bits everyday.) I guess to everyone else I now look pregnant?!?! Whatever....I sure feel like it!!

That's all for now - guess my student isn't coming to their lesson today. Oh well, more time with my feet up is OK by me!

Week 14.5

2nd Trimester is here!! I can't believe it's been 3 months already! Only 6 more to go!

I'm FINALLY starting to feel a little better - not quite so nauseous (except a little in the morning still). Horrible cold this week took me out of school for a day but it was nice to have a midweek break even if I was blowing my nose the whole day. I was just reading last night in "What to Expect..." that a stuffy nose is a common pregnancy symptom...really?!?! Great....

I still don't have tons of energy but I definitely feel it coming back slowly. Teaching all day really wipes me out though, especially after a full day of elementary strings. They sure are cute (most of them) by 1:00pm I'm ready to be done for the day. My middle school 7th/8th grade orchestra is getting ready for our 1st String Festival concert that involves the orchestras from our feeder high school, both middle schools, and 3 of the feeder elementary schools. (We do a similar festival with my elementary school and its feeder schools - "Stringapalooza") I'm really excited for my students to participate! The elementary schools perform two pieces together (as one big orchestra), then the 2 middle schools combine to perform two pieces together (an even bigger orchestra), then the high school orchestra performs a few pieces THEN everyone performs one finale piece together as one HUGE orchestra. It's a pretty awesome site to see that many strings students performing together!

Oh by the way, did you know that my husband is a rock star?! A few weeks ago he performed with the UMD Symphony Orchestra as a guest soloist with two other UMD percussion alumni. (Thought I'd share now since I was just making the video into a DVD.) They played the Christopher Rouse Percussion Concerto - 3 movements, each one played a movement. He'd been preparing for the concert for several months and it was so awesome to watch Tim solo on stage with an orchestra! All three were great but Tim was amazing and awesome and I'm so proud!! To me, he looked right at home, like that's what he should be doing all the time!

Danny, Lee and Tim after the performance.

I tried to post a little of the video of Tim playing but it doesn't seem to be working. I'll try again another time :)