Hosey's Musical Tastes

I keep meaning to post a blog about this, and then forgetting. Justin and I are very proud to announce that Hosey has very definite, and very good taste in music. The other night, I was sitting in the living room and sewing, and Justin had his iTunes playing. I don't remember what it was playing, just some random bands. It had played through two or three albums worth of music, when a band called Sigur Ros came on. Sigur Ros is an Icelandic band that plays beautiful mellow orchestral type music, although they are very popular with people in our age group. They have a made up language that they sing in, and the songs are all untitled. Pretentious, but lovely music. As soon as the first song got halfway through, Hosey started kicking up a storm. I hadn't moved or done anything exciting, I was just still sitting there sewing, but you would think I had just done jumping jacks and then laid down (I just read that babies move the most when you go from periods of lots of motion to rest, and they want to keep the motion going). Hosey kept pretty regular movement through the whole Sigur Ros album, which is about an hour long. I could actually see the kicks coming through my belly. After Sigur Ros, something else came on, and Hosey quieted down.

The next day at work, I was listening to John Coltrane's "Sun Ship," which is definitely some of the best jazz ever. Hosey started kicking again. I think next I listened to an old Black Sabbath CD, and Hosey was not interested at all.

So I'm not claiming that Hosey only kicks when certain music is playing, but there are definite patterns, and it definitely seems like something is happening down there! It's exciting, and makes us realize that Hosey is really a little person in there. Hopefully one with good taste.

I also had a dream the other night that Hosey was born, and was a girl. She had bright green eyes, and they were really big and pretty. She was very giggly and happy. She was also about six months old, but a dream is a dream. I do think that dreams are bad predictors of gender, since I seem to have a dream about Hosey being a boy or a girl on a regular basis. Not much continuity there. But maybe Hosey's eyes will be green! That would be great.

Oh, and I just wanted you all to see what Katie thinks about all of this.

Crafts

I've been working on little onesies the last few days, inspired by the expensive ones that I saw at a boutique/art gallery here in Atlanta. Mine are a little different, since I don't have a sewing machine, and I'm using embroidery thread with a blanket stitch to get the shapes I want. I also have been using fabric from 70's sheets I found at the thrift store, while most of the boutique ones use felt. Apparently the felt pills when you wash it, and I figured the sheets have probably already been washed around 800 times and are still holding strong.

I gave the elephant one to a co-worker whose daughter is pregnant and due around the same time as me. She had a recent vacation in India, and somehow the elephant seemed appropriate. She promised to knit a sweater for Hosey in return.

I think next I'll try a caterpillar or a swallow. They don't take too long, and I'm happy with how they turn out!

The Visit to Andrea

So yesterday on our lunch breaks, Justin and I went to visit Andrea, the in-home day care provider who my friend uses. The visit went very well. Andrea is very sweet, and you can tell that the babies like her a lot. Hosey will get his/her own little drawer in the dresser where she keeps all of their extra clothes, etc., and Hosey will get his/her own crib. She has five cribs, and several bouncy seats, a few exersaucers (how does one spell that word?), the play things where the babies lay on their back and look up at the hanging toys, and a nice little foam block playing area where the babies play in the afternoons.

She only keeps babies until they are 12 months old, so everything is catered to infants. It's definitely a fairly small space, but I think with infants, you don't need too much space (let's hope this holds true for our apartment...). The way she has it set up, she can sit with the babies who are awake in the bouncy seats or the exersaucers, and then in the next room, the sleeping babies are right at her fingertips if they wake up. Then in the afternoon, they all play together in the crib room with the foam block area. It's neat watching the babies interact with each other. When we went at 12:30, she had three babies there, two awake and one asleep. The two awake were sitting in bouncy seats and just giggling and staring at each other. But the moment one of them squawked, she scooped him out and held him. He immediately snuggled into her shoulder and you could tell that he liked her. She's hard not to like. Very bubbly and little. She speaks very quickly, and her accent is heavy enough that Justin had a little trouble catching everything she said, but I'm sort of used to it, so I got almost all of it.

In any case, we are going to send her a deposit check next week, and we'll have a spot saved for Hosey in February! I am still hoping that I will be able to work from home some, but it's nice to know that we have an option lined up that makes us comfortable.

Weekend Update

This weekend was very busy for us. It was lovely, but busy. We went to dinner and a movie with my friend Sarah on Friday night. We ate at the Flying Biscuit near Piedmont Park, and it was wonderful. I also found out that I need to be more vocal when I crave red meat, as Justin has been thinking this whole time that I only crave fruit and that we're going to have a girl as a result. So I promised that I would tell him every time I want a steak or hamburger, although I never actually order it.

The movie we saw was called "The Ten," and although very very weird, it was very very funny. It's the same crew behind some of our favorite TV shows, like The State (off the air for long time now) and Stella (also off the air) and Reno 911.

Saturday we spent apartment hunting, although we also spent lots of time with our friends Jesse and Jacquelyn and their baby Evie. We went out for ice cream, and it was very nice. Then Justin and I went to look at a loft for rent, which we spent the rest of the weekend trying to decide if we could afford. Then we went back to Jesse and Jacquelyn's house for Indian food and the Goonies. Justin didn't like it. I don't understand how anyone can not like the Goonies. Leave it to Justin...

Sunday, we spent more time waffling over the loft, then went to lunch in Little Five Points with Ariel and Luke. We got caught in the rain after lunch, and I went to Michael's with my other friend Sarah wearing a soaking wet dress. But I got some fantastic embroidery thread for my onesies project. When I got home, Justin had been cleaning the apartment, and so we spent most of Sunday evening organizing and trying to figure out where we could fit a crib and also try and keep a dresser for Hosey's clothes. We had the tape measure out, and tried a billion different furniture combinations.

We finally decided that the stress of living in a small space with upstairs neighbors who may or may not be loud is much better than the stress of living in a space where you aren't sure how exactly the finances will work out. For now, we are planning on staying in our apartment. But if something a little bigger and not too much more expensive opens up between now and the end of October when our lease is up, we'll follow up on it. I think maybe making a decision is better than anything else. The stress of not knowing where we will end up is frustrating, but I hate being in a position where I'm not convinced that our finances will cover all of our needs. We don't really know how much a baby costs yet. We have estimates, but I'm sure they could all be wrong. It's nice to have an apartment where our rent expense just isn't much of a concern. And our utilities are almost nothing. We just need about 20 more square feet. :)

Bummer

So the apartment we were hoping to move into got leased today. And not to us.

We're back to the drawing board. But the plus is that we have a better idea of our budget and what we are looking for!

Yoga and Owl Hats, somehow related?

So my yoga class was wonderful last night. I'm sore today, but I take that as a good sign. We did some work with weights, which was great, because now I know moves to do with mine at home. We did lots of stretches that are amazing for the pregnant lady back, too. It was extremely relaxing, too, as we just laid on our sides and practiced deep breathing at the end of class. There was soft music playing, and they have this amazing soft carpet that you lay on with a little silk pillow under your head... I think everyone should do yoga! It's so relaxing! At the very end, our teacher gave us all hot herbal tea and we talked about hospitals, pregnancy issues, etc. for a while. The other moms are definitely older than me, and most of them are definitely wealthy stay-at-home moms, but they are nice. I don't think I'll be finding any lasting friendships, but it's more relaxing to me to go and just sort of keep to myself. Being social after having to talk to people all day at work is not what I want... Isn't that awful?

I also finally broke down and bought the famous Gymboree owl hat off of Ebay. It came today to my work, and I wish I could show you all how cute it is. It's just perfect. It's so tiny, and probably the softest thing I've ever touched. It's also new with the tags, so it's clean and everything, and significantly cheaper than if I had bought it at Gymboree (whew that stuff is expensive). Anyways, I can't wait to see it on the baby. I have two onesies from that same line, and it's just so cute. Owls and squirrels, and it's totally gender neutral.

In other news, Justin and I are going to look at a two bedroom apartment tomorrow. It would be a sublease situation, and we would move in in October, and our lease ends in October... So it would be perfect in some ways, but difficult in others. I hope it works out though. It's literally around the corner from our apartment now, and it's in the same building as our friends with the newborn. It is also a second floor apartment, with a dishwasher, and central heat and AC. Cross your fingers for us!

Good news!

The in-home day care provider that my co-worker uses got back to me today and said that she could reserve a space for Hosey in February. Justin and I are relieved, and we hope that it ends up working out. We are going to arrange a visit sometime soon to check things out, get some information about her background, and make sure that the price is right. From what my co-worker pays, it's not nearly as bad as some of the more pricey day cares, and with less exposure to a million other babies.

And today is 22 weeks! Full fledged kicking for me now, although it's still faint for Justin. And it continues to be the most active when I lay down to go to sleep. Hosey has a sense of humor.

OK, seriously, this is it

I just posted my week 20 and 21 pregnancy photos on Flickr, and golly gee it's painful. I feel like I'm gaining weight in my arms and face more than anywhere else. Everyone says it's fine to gain weight, and most of it will come off after the baby is born, but as most people who know me know, it's a life long struggle for me. I'm going to keep trying to keep it under control, but not obsess about it too much, since I'd rather gain a little too much than not enough... And I'm still in the normal weight gain for pregnant women, I just had hoped to keep it under the normal amount. Maybe my yoga with free weights class (first one on Thursday) will help me with my arms. I also got some free-weights to use here, and a yoga ball to try and figure out. Yikes.

And literally, as I type, Justin has reported that he is almost ready for a (and this is a sincere quote) "mammoth oreo explosion with ice cream; I mean frozen yogurt." Genetics are so unfair. I have adopted angel food cake as my favorite dessert, and apples and/or yogurt for my snacks in the day. Justin works really hard at working out every day, but still. Unfair. :)

Here's me tonight. Tomorrow I'll be 22 weeks.

Toy Mania

With all of the news yelling and screaming about Chinese toy recalls, I found this article on the Atlanta Journal Website really interesting. It just goes to show that even "organic" toys are not always "organic" either. Although they certainly charge for them like they are... :)

This type of thing makes you want to just knit your own stuffed animals and buy everything else from IKEA. Although, you never know, maybe IKEA makes all their toys in China, too...

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2007/08/20/toys_0821.html?cxntlid=ajc-health-rtr

Oh right, one more thing

Justin and I were realizing the other day that we are going to need someone to stay in our apartment while we are in the hospital with baby for those couple of days. Not that anyone needs to be there 24/7, but we need someone to let Katie out and feed her.

Any volunteers?

Can you tell I'm starting in with the nesting instinct already? I am turning into a Mother Hen planner... How odd...

Just a short one...

I spoke with one of the main adminstrative people here this morning. Although I was scared of her, she was very nice, and she said that for now, working from home is not really an option. However, the firm is willing to see if any projects might come up that I could work on from home, which would be a short term prospect, and not a permanent "from home" position, but she said that they are willing to work with me, and I should keep checking in and trying to find ways that I could work from home.

So better than it could have been! Not ideal, but I'm going to work really hard to figure out ways of convincing them. I think that's my best bet. For now, we are going to continue to look for day care, although I'm starting to lean towards an in-home day care. We'll keep you posted!

Catch Up

So, to fill you all in, Justin and I went to the hospital tour, and it was really nice. It was slightly embarassing, as all the other moms-to-be were very pregnant, and basically preparing to have their babies within the month. I just wanted to go and make sure that the rooms didn't look like prison cells, etc. so that if I wanted to change hospitals, I could do it before it was too late...

The rooms are definitely not as fancy as some of the other hospitals, especially Northside, but the staff seems very friendly, and the labor and delivery rooms are very relaxing and have some nice amenities (showers and yoga balls). You do have to get moved into a post-partem room about an hour after the baby is born, and those rooms are apparently much smaller than the labor and delivery room, but that's fine. We won't be there too long. The important thing to me is how much I like my doctor, and Justin really likes her, too. The other doctor I saw in the practice is also really great, although there are two more I have yet to meet. Hopefully it will be either my main doctor (Dr. Johnston) or the other doctor I've seen (Dr. Kleiss).

In other news, Justin and I had a nice weekend, although we didn't do very much of anything. Justin was feeling a little under the weather on Saturday, but we stayed in and made collages and I worked on a sewing project. I am taking vintage fabrics that I bought at the thrift store and sewing them onto a onesie using a blanket stitch. I don't have a sewing machine, so it takes a while, but the outfit I'm working on looks cute. It's a cat, and the cat is done in white and orange and yellow stripes, with a blue, green, gold and white floral pattern as his jacket. I used a drawing from a Golden Book story about a hen to make the outline of the cat.

I also have been doing research about day cares. I have a couple of leads, and a co-worker has promised to give me the information for the woman who keeps her baby in an in-home day care situation in Ansley Park (pretty close to us). She is from Uraguay and apparently speaks Spanish to the babies. And she only keeps them until they are 12 months, and apparently only 3 at a time. So I'm going to call her as soon as I actually get her number.

I also took the giant leap of asking some of the higher ups here at work about the possibility of working from home. Very scary, and I'm not terribly hopeful, but it feels good to have gotten it out there.

We are also still trying to figure out our apartment situation. We really want to move to a two-bedroom more and more, but we really just couldn't do a day care and a rent increase. It's too much. It's strange how everything is interconnected, and we can't seem to get anything pinned down, which makes everything else up in the air... but I know that it will all work out.

If only I were a movie star

I was looking at the website for Piedmont Hospital, where we are having the baby, checking to see when the hospital tours are. I was checking some of the links, when I discovered this:
http://www.piedmonthospital.org/body_hospital.cfm?id=1729&oTopID=769

For those of you who do not follow links because you aren't naturally curious and figure it's not worth your time, this is for a super nice facility called the Waters Pavilion. It's basically a five star hotel that is part of Piedmont Hospital. Among the offerings:
* A dedicated private chef and wait staff with expanded room service menu
* Fine linens
* Private bathrooms in the patient room and family room (these are two room suites, all of them)
* Sleeper sofa
* Afternoon tea every day

And lots of other things to make you jealous of really rich people. However, I don't think Justin and I qualify for admission, judging by this:

Patients who require an added level of security, such as public officials or celebrities should consider staying in the Waters Pavilion if medically appropriate.

I just think it's crazy how rich people live... Crazy like I'm a little jealous. While I'm sucking down jello in my recovery room, someone will be enjoying Steak Tar Tar and watching satellite TV in the Waters Pavilion. Such is life.

Anyways, Justin and I are planning to tour the maternity ward tonight, and get some information about everything. Wish us luck!

Lucky Justin!

This is just a quick note to announce that Justin got to feel baby kicks and somersaults last night. It seems like Hosey likes to be up and active between 10 and 12 at night. Probably not a good sign... but at least I know when to expect the kicking. Right when I'm going to bed...

I do feel movements on and off all day, but that one window at night definitely seems the most active. It's still not super strong, but it's definitely there. Very exciting!

Oh, and my belly is getting much bigger... I just hope that most of it is Hosey, and not me. :)

Christmas with Baby...

I was just thinking this morning about how much our Christmas plans are going to change this year. With such a big family, Justin and I usually scoot around to a million homes around Christmas-time, but this year is definitely going to be difficult. Since my due date is the day after Christmas, I'm assuming the baby might come a little before Christmas, but we'll see. My last ultrasound showed the due date as 12/23/2007 based on the measurements, but of course, they don't change a due date unless the measurements show a huge discrepancy.

Maybe we'll have Christmas in the hospital like we did when my niece Ella was born on Christmas Eve. That was very exciting and fun, although the food left a little to be desired...

Anyways, I'm not actually trying to plan Christmas in August, but it's the first time I've really thought about the logistics of the due date.

In other news, I'm 21 weeks today, and feeling pretty good, just still fighting some kind of silly pregnancy cold. There's been a couple of people at work with strep throat, so I'm trying to keep them all away from me. I'm also going to get a flu shot in either September or October, and making Justin do it, too. The risk for pregant women getting the flu is really high, and it has dangerous effects on baby.

Anyways, I'm rambling to avoid working. :) I hope you are all well! Leave us a comment sometime!

Is this baby kicking me?

So for the last few days, I've been feeling these small but definite thumps on the side of my belly. It sort of feels like someone flicking me from the inside, but also a little bit like popping. I think that it's probably the baby kicking. Up until now, I've been feeling more of a fluttering in my belly that I attributed to Hosey doing somersaults, but now I'm definitely starting to feel something more like kicks.

I have been trying to do some research to back up this theory, because I wasn't sure of timing, but like most things with being pregnant, different resources offer different advice. The general consensus is that you start to feel movement between 16 and 22 weeks, and it takes longer to notice if it's your first pregnancy. Tomorrow marks 21 weeks, so I feel safe in saying that I can definitely feel movement. I also read that somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks after you feel the baby move, others can, too. So that's pretty exciting! Maybe in a month or so Justin can feel the kicks, too.

I can't believe I'm already this far along. It seems like I just found out a few weeks ago. I know that the baby will be here before we know it, and we'll finally know if Hosey is a boy or girl!

I've been doing some online shopping for Hosey, but only a little bit. I bought a couple of preemie sized onesies on Ebay in this line that Gymboree used to carry called Woodland Friends or something like that. I just like it because the outfits have owls on them. I now have 3 or 4 preemie sized outfits, which should fit up to 10 pounds and work for the first couple of weeks of Hosey's life. They are so tiny, it's unbelievable. My sister, Kendree, is the one who told me about the preemie sizes being great for when they are first born, and even the 0-3 months size is huge. If you think about it, the difference between a newborn and a 3 month old is pretty huge. So it makes sense that there should be one more size to start with. We'll see though. Maybe Hosey will be a bruiser and not fit the preemie. It's still cute! I'm hunting down the hat from this set, as it's a little wooly owl hat that fastens under the chin. Justin will probably hate it, but once it's on... He'll be defenseless. :)

Oh yeah, one more thing

If anyone has any ideas about working from home during maternity leave (I won't be paid for anything past six weeks) and/or beyond, let me know. I'm open to suggestions. :)

Just so you know...

Looking back over my blog entries, I realize how whiny I sound. I guess I just wanted to try and redeem myself a little bit, and not sound so pitiful. :)

Not to be too silly and artificial, but I do regularly take stock of how many wonderful things I have to be thankful for. Seriously. No matter how much I complain about my work/daycare situation, the truth of the matter is that it is more than likely that in the worst case scenario, I will keep my job, which is great in some ways. I love the people I work with, and the work is interesting. I get to talk to all sorts of interesting foreign nationals. It's just high pressure and stressful. But at least I'm not a lawyer. That would be worse. :) Anyways, so the worst case scenario, I will keep my job and we'll be able to put Hosey in a nice day care. There are so many people who are much worse off than us. And we have such a large support base of family and friends who are the most supportive and giving people imaginable.

There's my hallmark moment. Do with it what you will. :)

Who says pregnancy hormones only make you mean?

Ultrasound pictures now on Flickr

There are only four, and of course they are hard to see, but they are there!

I put my favorite one on the blog, too.  Enjoy!  

I love looking at these, as they definitely make it seem more concrete that there is a baby in there.  And it's very active.  

20 Weeks and Doctor's Appointment!

Today was two important milestones, so excuse me if the post runs long... I am officially halfway through the pregnancy now, since I'm 20 weeks today. We also went to the doctor for a check up and had our ultrasound.

The ultrasound was first, and it was really great. We didn't get any great photos, although we have a few, since according to the woman who did it, Hosey is not a photogenic baby. Hosey would not stay still, and continually moved away from the ultrasound, although watching the blurry mess that is Hosey on the screen was really fun. We saw the feet (and got a picture) and the spine, and all the other fun parts. Hosey likes to be elbow to knee, as I'm sure they all do, and he/she kept putting those little hands in front of his/her face. It's neat, and the woman said she thinks Hosey will be stubborn.

All of her measurements and things were normal, so Hosey has a heart, brain, stomach, etc. that are all working perfectly, and perfectly formed. And she did tell us that she knows the sex, and that it is definitely one or the other. So Hosey is not a hermaphrodite. Which is good news I guess. :) They don't write the sex down anywhere, since if they did it would probably get leaked to us through one of the nurses or something, so it's now a secret to everyone. Probably best that way.

We listened to the heartbeat with the regular doctor, and this time it was 150 beats per minute (roughly), so according to the doctor, if we go by the old wives' tales, it was a boy last time, when it was 140 beats per minute, and a girl this time, with the faster heartbeat. I think it's fun to know the old wives' tale indicators and see if any of them turn out to be true. So far they haven't been very clear.

We also talked about my work schedule, and she said that I should not be working any more than 40 hours a week, and that she would write a note if she needed to. She said that the rate of people working in high stress environments (some of you may not know, but my job is a high stress job, since my current case load at work is around 400, and 250 is supposed to be a comfortable one. So basically I get about 15 phone calls a day from worried foreign nationals and/or HR representatives, and if I'm out for a day or two, I come back to anywhere between 75 and 90 e-mails that require a response) run high risks of pre-term labor. She said that doctors and lawyers (which should include us paralegals, since we have similar hours without the paychecks and client schmoozing) have an astronomical rate for pre-term labor because they work too hard too much. So I'm going to have to have a chat with my supervisor and stop leaving work at 7:00 or later every day. Considering I get there at 8:45, I don't feel too bad.

She said that everything else looked great, and that I seem very healthy and look great. We talked about weight gain, and she agrees with my goal of only gaining 20-25 pounds through the whole pregnancy. It will be tough, but when you are carrying extra weight to start with, it's best not to gain the normal 30 to 40 pounds.

I am also signed up for a pregnancy yoga class, which will include free weights. I'm actually excited about it, although I'm sure the yoga studio will be snobby since it's in the Virginia Highlands. It's an 8 week program, which will take me close to the point where I won't want to do it (I think) and I intentionally picked a time that will force me to leave work a little early on Thursdays. I'm really excited about it! It starts the week of August 19th. The studio, the Pierce Yoga Studio, also does a childbirth class for you and your partner that I think I might sign up for eventually with Justin, and they offer pregnancy massage for pretty reasonable rates. So we'll see... :)

More fun things

So Justin told me this morning that when he woke up I was sleeping on my back (which I'm not supposed to do) and I was making an odd snoring sound, similar to the sound Katie makes, something sort of like a pig. Or wheezy horse.

So now we've got to make a pact that if Justin wakes up and I'm sleeping on my back, he's got to wake me up and make me get back on my side. I'm worried for his health and safety... I woke myself up at some point in the night sleeping on my back because I couldn't breathe very well. I was wheezing. I'm not sure if sleeping on your back really makes it difficult to breathe, or if it's just the pregnant lady cold I've been having a lot lately. More like allergies I guess, just stuffed up nose and general congestion.

Tomorrow is our doctor's appointment! It also marks 20 weeks, so our ultrasound could have been very important if we were finding out the sex, but we're not. The baby will look more like a baby this time, though. Which will be really neat. I'm also working on a list of questions to ask the doctor at the appointment, including how dangerous it really is to be working a lot. She told me at an early appointment that I needed to be working at a maximum of 40 hours a week, and I usually clock between 42 and 45 here, which means that I'm actually here around 50 hours a week before you take out lunch breaks. It drives Justin crazy, and I'm a little worried that it could cause problems, so I just want to find out what the real risks are, and get a note from my doctor if I need to. It will be like high school!

This heat is not very nice

I am very glad that I am not too pregnant during this month... The heat is really out of control. Justin and I went to my sister and brother-in-law's house on Saturday, and for most of the ride there, the thermometer in the car read 103. That's just uncomfortable.

I get paranoid about the heat, since all of the baby books warn extensively about the dangers of getting overheated while you are pregnant, and it compared the womb to a hot tub. Basically, you aren't supposed to raise your core body temperature too high. Thinking about this also makes me think about driving on the highway, and how breathing in exhaust fumes is not only my problem these days. Not that I worry about things like that too much, since I know these problems have existed well before my pregnancy, and we all came out alright. But it is a strange new brand of guilt and worry. Although it's also nice. It's nice knowing you can always refer to yourself as we for the next few months.

I'm including two pictures; one is me from Saturday, so you can see what the belly progress is, and the other is Justin with a mustache. He only had it for about ten minutes, but those were a glorious ten minutes.

Strange Realization

Yesterday on my way home from work, I started thinking about Hosey maybe being a boy. I've been secretly hoping for a girl this whole time, but it suddenly popped into my head that I might rather have a boy. I think it's because I was thinking about dressing a girl, and dressing a teenage girl. I pictured us taking trips to the thrift store together and finding fun things that we take home and do DIY alterations to. I thought about uncomplicated mother/daughter time. Then I thought about reality. I thought about resentment, incredible heights of self-absorption, and bitterness.

So then my thoughts turned to a boy, and how at least the make up factor is removed. And some of the hair stuff, too. I pictured playing the park with Katie, and Justin playing touch football in between drum lessons (by the way, we are totally getting one of those mini drumsets if Hosey is a boy or girl. And we will start him or her around age 2. It's good for getting out anxiety.). I got home and talked to Justin about it, and he agreed that a boy would be just as fun as a girl.

I know that most kids seem to do as much as they can to throw a wrench in whatever their parents want for them, but I hope that we can at least raise a child that doesn't hate us too much. That would be nice. Part of that ties into making the decision about how many kids to have, but for now, I don't want more than Hosey. Maybe when Hosey's a toddler and/or potty-trained, I'll have forgotten about being pregnant, and we'll be in a larger living space, and having a second child will seem like fun. In the meantime, I think being the three musketeers (or stooges) will be really fun. Of course, Katie will be there to let Hosey pull her ears and tail, and that's basically what a sibling is good for. No offense Kendree, but for the first few months, it's true.

Here's the condo of someday

Maybe in about 5 years we can buy it. But in case you like these kinds of things, here it is:
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/rfs/383147211.html

The Sloth...Yikes

So this is the giant sloth at Fernbank. He's huge. And he has only one toe per foot.

The scary sloth is now representing my foirays into the world of day care. I just called the All-Saints Church across the street from my building at work. It's apparently a really nice day care program, and lots of people from my work use it, since it's part of the "Bright Horizons" program, which works with businesses like Paul Hastings to put kids in day care.

The woman I talked to was very very nice, and gave me some good information, like the fact that they accept infants at 6 weeks, although I hope to take 12 weeks for maternity leave (don't tell my boss please). Justin will probably get about 2 weeks off under the Family Medical Leave Act. Anyways, I think we might go tour it, but we're going to have to really think about it. It's nice, since it's literally across the street from my work, meaning I could pop over at lunchtime every once in a while if I needed to, or get Hosey home if sickness strikes. Here's the downside. It costs $1115 a month.

$1115 a month.

That's pretty significant. Definitely significant. Maybe impossible. However, it looks like the least expensive day care in our area runs around $850 or $900 a month, and one doesn't take infants until they are 6 months old. Well, I'm sure we'll figure something out...

19 Weeks

Today is the 19 weeks mark, and I'm definitely realizing how my belly is catching up. It's a little sore sometimes (round ligament pains) but it's nothing too terrible, and they don't last long.

I think what is occupying my mind most lately (and making it hard to concentrate at work) are long term planning type things that I can't really take care of any time soon. Justin and I are trying to figure out if we should try and keep our expenses as low as possible and stay in our apartment, or move at the end of October when our lease is up to a more expensive 2 bedroom apartment. It's a really difficult decision, and there are a laundry list of pros and cons to either option.

We also e-mailed someone about a condo in our neighborhood that is for sale. Not because we are in any way interested in buying, or could be interested in buying, but it is just such a wonderful complex, and the condos are perfect. Two bedrooms and one bathroom, and they sit right on the park. And they are under $165,000, which is amazing for this neighborhood where houses sell for between $300,000 and $800,000. In any case, the woman called Justin and asked if he wanted to come see the condo (he had asked for more photos of the inside) and now we are toying with the idea of actually doing it. We probably won't because it could be an awkward situation, but it could also be fun. I think we'd feel like real adults.

The other thing that is weighing on my mind a lot is day care. We've pretty much decided that I'm going to have to go back to work after maternity leave, since it's our only option financially, so now we've got to hurry up and get on a waiting list for a day care in Atlanta. Hopefully a really nice one that is close to our apartment. The perfect one is Inman Park Pre-School Cooperative, but they don't accept kids until they are 2 years old. So that clearly won't work. I'm looking at other options, specifically in our neighborhood and the Virginia Highlands and Druid Hills, since I'd rather spend half my pay check on day care than put Hosey in a place we don't trust. It's a little bit difficult looking into it though, since both of us would rather not put Hosey in day care. I don't feel very motivated to call around, and half of the places require hefty application fees and some require a good faith deposit. Yikes.