What is that in that little blue box?

Now that my time here in Boston is winding down, my coworkers have worked very hard to send me off in style. Last week, I was surprised with a baby shower where Baby J, Chris, and I received a Baby Bjorn, Make Way for the Ducklings book, too cute onesies, and a stuffed elephant. It was so extremely nice of them to think of us and to do that. I was definitely touched by their generosity!

Last night was my going away dinner with my department. I got to share the evening with my friend Michele whose last day at BWPO is also next Friday. Wow, talk about major changes for a department happening at the same time. We had dinner at Coda in the South End.

I knew that they usually gave going away gifts, but I certainly did not expect anything as the baby shower was extremely generous. I was shocked when they pushed a little blue bag my way. What?!?! They did not have to do that! I slowly opened the neatly packaged blue box and pulled out my first piece of jewelry from Tiffany & Co. Yes, my first! It is such a perfect necklace. I love it! I plan to wear it ALL the time!

Such a beautiful sight!

And it got better with what was inside!

I am really going to miss my coworkers here at BWPO! It has been a great experience and I have definitely learned a lot from them! I wish them all the best in the future and hopefully our paths will cross again some day (I'm not saying it will be in the Boston area though, lol!).

30 Weeks!

As of today, I am 30 weeks pregnant. That means there is only approximately 10 weeks or 70 days left until we will welcome Baby J into the world. We have so much to do between now and then. SO much! We have to move, get settled, and set up the most perfect nursery for Baby J. I know that we will get it all accomplished, but it will continue to be on my mind until we are actually in Georgia and can start getting more prepared.

At 30 weeks, Baby J is approximately 15.7 inches long and weighs about 3 pounds, like a head of cabbage. He is still long and skinny, but I have to say that the force in which he pounds my insides, he seems a lot bigger. Yesterday, as we were riding in the car, it felt like he did a somersault in my stomach. No kidding! And, it hurt! This may be the first time that I actually wanted to get onto him, lol! My mom said that he wasn't allowed to get into trouble. Typical grandmother, right?!?!?! HAHA! I love it when he moves but this one really took my breath away. I guess he is just getting me prepared, because I am sure there will be more and more of these extreme movements as the pregnancy moves along.

A pint and a half of amniotic fluid currently surrounds Baby J, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in my uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after he's born, he'll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision. This means that he can only make out objects a few inches from his face. I guess we will just have to hold him close!

Babycenter.com says that I will probably have a hard time sleeping at this point in the pregnancy and will probably find myself a little more clumsy than usual due to the change in my center of gravity. I am happy to report that I am not having a problem with either of these things at this point in time. My hip does kill me during the night but it isn't keeping me up, so that's good. Babycenter.com also mentions that the mood swings from the first of the pregnancy will start to creep back up, but I am hoping that they don't. Chris seems to think that overall I have been very pleasant throughout the pregnancy, aside from a few breakdowns, so let's hope I can keep it that way.

Tonight, we took our final class in preparation for Baby J, Infant CPR. I have to admit that it is a little unnerving to think that there may be a time within the next year that we will have to use the skills that we learned tonight, but we are definitely more prepared for it. During the class, we learned infant CPR along with the proper way to handle a choking infant. These are things that neither of us had any clue about, so we came out of the class feeling a little more comfortable with the techniques if the situation should arise. We will keep our fingers crossed that it is never needed though.

Below is my 30 weeks belly pic as well as a slideshow from 7 weeks to 30 weeks. My, how I have grown?!?!

My, how I've grown!!!!

Family in Boston

I know this post is a little late.....sorry!

As I mentioned before, the week of graduation we had family in town. While everyone was here to help celebrate with Chris, they were also here to tour Boston. Patti, our sister-in-law, Jared and Karlie, our nephew and niece, were in Boston for the first time, so that meant that we needed to show them all the highlights of Boston and I think we did a pretty good job. Maybe I shouldn't say "we", but I will elaborate on that later.

On Wednesday evening after HBS's Class Day, we went to Cheers for dinner. We went to the original Bull & Finch Pub that the television show Cheers was based on. It was a fun time with everyone. The eating out continued on Thursday evening after graduation when we went to our favorite restaurant in the North End, Dolce Vita, for some Italian food. We were pleasantly surprised at how much everyone enjoyed it. No trip to Boston is really ever complete without a trip to the North End. We even made a stop into Mike's Pastry for dessert but everyone was so full that we had to get it to go. Gotta love those chocolate covered canolis!

Everyone eating at Cheers!

Friday began the real sightseeing tour with our family. On Friday morning, we all went on the Boston Duck Tour. Our guide's name was Disco Danny...or something like that. Don't you love his outfit? His platform shoes had fish in the heels of them. Not real fish of course, lol! Chris and I highly recommend the Duck Tour, because it really is one of the best ways to get a good overview of Boston. That way, when you walk the Freedom Trail, you can focus on parts that you found interesting while on the tour.

Our Duck Tour Boat, the Copley Squire.

Disco Danny

Chris and Karlie

Kathy and Mike

Jared and Patti

My Mom and I

A pic of the Back Bay of Boston

After the Duck Tour, most of us went our separate ways. My parents headed off to the Union Oyster House to partake in clam chowder and oysters, I headed home, and Chris, Mike, Kathy, Patti, Jared, and Karlie started the Freedom Trail. This is where I should say that Chris was definitely more of the tour guide on this trip instead of me. I normally can hang tough and do all the touristy stuff, but after a couple of extremely busy days I just didn't think my pregnant body could handle it. So, I went home and napped, lol! I think they managed without me though, because Chris is an excellent tour guide! See pictures below of the fam on the Freedom Trail.

The Fam on the Freedom Trail

A cool pic taken by Chris of the entrance to the Granary Burial Ground where a lot of famous Bostonians are buried.

Karlie on the donkey

Mike and the donkey

After a long discussion, they discovered that they had a lot in common, lol!

Tour Guide Chris

A cool pic by Karlie...this one is of the Holocaust Memorial which displays the numbers 1 through 6,000,000 to represent the 6 million people who died in the Holocaust.

Mike, Karlie, Jared, and Kathy with the statue of Paul Revere

Saturday was a little bit more relaxed as everyone was heading out in the early evening to go back to Georgia. Chris, Mike, Patti, Jared, and Karlie went to Fenway for a tour and then we all had lunch at Chris' favorite burger place, Mr. Bartley's.

Karlie, Patti, and Jared at Fenway

Karlie and Jared on the Green Monster

Mike relaxing in some of the original seats at Fenway.

All in all, I think that it was a great trip for everyone. We certainly enjoyed having them here! We hope that we were able to give them a good overview of the place we have called home for the past two years. Maybe they might even come back one day!

To see all of the pictures from our family's trip to Boston, just click on any of the pictures above which will take you Picasaweb then click on Family in Boston on the right.

Baby J Update

On Tuesday, Chris and I went in to see our doctor, Dr. Vincent, for my 30 week checkup. Everything with Baby J seems to be going well. I did gain another 6.2 pounds since my last visit, ugh! I have now gained a total of 20 pounds. That means that if I gain a pound a week for the remainder of the pregnancy, then I will be somewhere around the 30 pound mark. I don’t guess that’s so bad. The nurse who took my blood pressure said that she gained 80 pounds, so she recommended that I not be concerned about my current weight gain. I think I will take her word for it and not worry.

I do have somewhat of a good excuse for the weight gain though. The two times that I have gained this much weight have been following stretches of eating out and eating whatever was available. The most recent cause was Chris’ graduation. We had family in town and were eating out constantly. That’s my excuse and I am sticking to it, lol! Dr. Vincent recommended that I keep a food diary to determine what may be causing the weight gain, such as ice cream, French fries, etc. The thing is, I know that I ate those things, so now I just need to cut back a little!

One minor concern is that I am slightly anemic, so I will need to start taking an iron supplement. I don’t think I have really felt any different, but maybe the supplement will give me a boost of energy that I so need during my last two weeks at work and during the moving process.

Unfortunately, she was not able to determine the position of Baby J at this point in time. I was really hoping to get some confirmation that he is facing head down, but I guess I will have to wait. He does seem to rotate a lot so who knows what position he will be in once I go into labor. I am hoping that he isn’t directionally challenged with his butt or feet down. Chris and I are hoping that Baby J gets our good sense of direction, lol!

Last night, Chris and I attended our Newborn Essentials class. It was extremely informative. We learned different holding/soothing techniques as well as burping, diapering and soothing Baby J. We received tons of information that I could never list on here, but I think we both felt a little more prepared about bringing Baby J home than we did before the class.

Last, but certainly not least, I FINALLY made an appointment with a doctor in Atlanta. He was recommended by a friend’s colleague’s wife. Got that? LOL! I will meet Dr. Graham for the first time on July 14th when I am 34 weeks pregnant. Talk about craziness! We won’t meet the person who will be delivering our baby until 6 weeks before he is due. Let’s just hope Baby J is able to hold out until 40 weeks so that we are able to get more acquainted with our new doctor, hospital and surroundings before his arrival.

Well, I think that’s all the baby news for now. I hope you are all having a great week!