December 1 (26w1d): Pretty much had a hormonal meltdown this morning when I got some recent pictures back. They were just awful - dark, not sharp, ugly. Not what I want to remember my pregnancy by. Poor Michael - has to deal with me and all my raging hormones. So after a good cry, I think we're going to get our digital camcorder and perhaps even a small digital camera as well sooner than planned. I can't have this happen with the baby pictures - they are only that small once and the moments can't be recaptured.

Michael's parents are in town and today we are going on a "surprise" for Michael's birthday. Since we aren't exchanging birthday gifts this year (that is why he got me a beautiful pair of earrings!) I wanted to take him somewhere fun and indulge and since his parents were in town it was perfect. We went to the "Chocolate Brunch" at the LeMeridien Hotel - it was so yummy especially the chocolate crepes. So after that major chocolate indulgence we walked to Faneuil Hall and did some shopping - the place was mobbed. 'Tis the Season I guess.

December 2 (26w2d): Spent a relaxing day around the house with Michael and his parents. Judy made some soup and then a pork roast for dinner - very yummy. It was a little stressful for me at times because I hadn't had any strong baby movements since Saturday morning. Which was odd considering the chocolate sugar high the baby should have been on Saturday night. So I kept drinking lots of apple juice and finally the baby started kicking me a little - but nothing too hard so I was still a little worried. It's hard because my placenta is anterior it shields lots of the kicks and I get frustrated not being able to feel the baby more. I also read that people with anterior placentas have a greater chance of the baby presenting posterior - which means head down but with its face towards my back rather than towards my front. This translates into "back labor" which I have heard is incredibly painful. Lets hope this is not the case for us.

Later Sunday night Michael looked at my belly and said "I think you grew just over the weekend." Good grief.

December 6 (26w6d): My tailbone pain is increasing to the point of almost being unbearable. It's hard to sit, it's hard to lay down, it's hard to get up. At work I sit kind of tilted so the pressure is off of my tailbone and more on my right hip. This can't be good for the back. At home I just lie on my side, but driving to and from work is getting tough - can't sit anyway but straight and all that pressure right on the tailbone. I'm sure the extra 25 pounds I am carrying around are the cause of this major discomfort! Hopefully it won't get worse. Found this on the internet and it makes sense

"In pregnancy, the increase in size of the uterus will stretch and pull on the ligaments that go from the cervix to the tailbone. (These are called uterosacral ligaments.) Then, the hinge-like weakness of the coccyx comes into play and can cause intermittent tenderness."

Except my "tenderness" is not "intermittent."

I am a baby shopping addict. Last night I bought the Fisher Price Safe Embrace convertible carseat on Ebay. It was the top rated car seat for this year by Consumer Reports but Fisher Price deiced to get out of the carseat business and discontinued all their models. You could get them only at Wal-Mart, but since we don't have any Wal-Marts close by I was out of luck. I thought I'd just go with the Britax Roundabout - equally well rated but much more expensive until last night I got an email saying they were just recalled. So I opted for a slightly overpriced Safe Embrace on Ebay. Then today I went to www.Gymboree.com and noticed the newborn clothing line I loved was on sale - a huge sale. Plus I had a 20% off coupon, plus there was free shipping. How could I resist? I bought all 3-6 months clothing. Hopefully the baby will not be abnormally large and can wear this stuff at least through the Spring. I need to stop shopping for the baby and finish my Christmas shopping! Actually almost done with that, just one person Michael and I can not figure out what in the world to buy her! Ugh!

December 7 (27w0d): I am starting to freak. The baby could be here anytime in the next 10-13 weeks! Where will it sleep? What will we do with it? Good grief. Our house is a wreck - we finally got those evil wall air conditioners removed which is good but now we have to repaint the one living room wall and scrape wallpaper and paint in the kitchen, not to mention finish up the bathroom wall and get all the new doors painted and hung. And this doens't even include the work we need to do on the baby's room - which is pretty superficial just moving computer and book stuff around, but I can't do any heavy lifting and Michael is pretty swamped with his business school applications, his class homework and the other various house projects. And I'm doing private tutoring for ESL now, which while great, does take up a good chunk of my free time. And its the holidays. So I'm feeling slightly overextended and overwhelmed right now. Hopefully we'll get all this done in time....

On a positive note the baby had quite the kick fest last night and this morning - strong enough that Michael could feel them and I could see them last night as well. I think this feeling is what I will miss most about being pregnant.

December 8 (27w1d): Started my private ESL tutoring today. Went well but it's so hard for me to sit on that hard chair for 3 hours! Ouch. Only two students showed up, which was fine. It turned into more of a conversation lesson which is what they really need to practice anyway. Afterwards I was exhausted and I took a much needed nap - as did Michael who was supposed to be working on his business school essays. But then good husband that he is he got up and made me a wonderful lunch of pan fried gyoza. Yum.

Went to dinner with Carrie and her boyfriend Chris tonight at Cottonwood Cafe downtown. Food and company were great, and Carrie had Christmas presents and cookies for us. The baby got the cutest soft rattle/grab toy. I love it. Baby stuff is just too cute. On the way home we got caught in the first snow of the year - it was wet and cold and stinging in our faces as we ran to the subway. Winter is here. I hope it's a short one though - no ice storms in March for the baby's birth!

December 9 (27w2d): Big errand day. Delayed slightly by poor Michael having to shovel out 6 inches of heavy snow by himself. I feel bad I can't help but luckily our neighbor just bought a snow blower and he offered to help Michael. Then we were off to Finagle a Bagel for breakfast (yum!) and to pick some photos up at Ritz at Burlington Mall and do some Christmas shopping as well. Ended up not getting any presents but getting tow books for me, one on childbirth and the other a baby reference book. We need all the help we can get! We did find some very stylish glasses for Michael though. We've only been out about an hour and a half and I'm already tired, have used more public restrooms than I want to count and my feet are starting to swell. How will I get through the next 12 weeks?

Off to Charette and then on a wild goose chase for the Mill Store in Malden. We finally find it and are pretty impressed initially - it's a huge warehouse type store of unfinished furniture. This is where I had planned on getting the baby's dresser and painting it to match the crib. Unfortunately when we find the model I wanted, it turns out to be a piece of junk. The construction is just terribly shoddy. All the pieces in the style I wanted were poor. It was very very depressing. So we left without buying anything. And of course i am sort of freaking out thinking that the baby is coming SOON and we have no dresser, the crib is not assembled, the room is still filled to bursting with our books and computers - I don't even have any diapers!! UGH. Luckily I have a very calm and good natured husband who deals very well with my fits. We stopped at Michaels craft store on the way home where I finally found black picture corners and Michael got a freaky Christmas hat. Should make our Christmas parties next week interesting which is why I love him - such a goof.

December 10 (27w3d): Still freaked about the dresser situation. If I have to break down and order the one from the crib manufacturer it could take 12 weeks delivery plus it is $600 - a little more than I want to spend right now with so many other things to buy. So I head to Babies-R-US at lunch to see if they have anything more reasonably priced. Theirs are $559 so no bargain there. But then I see they have the exact dresser I want in the floor model/discontinued/as is section. The price is right, the style is right. I call Michael and I get his voice mail. So the executive decision is mine - I ask them to hold it for us because obviously I can not take it now by myself and they say they'll hold t until Wednesday night.

I'm very excited. And then Michael calls me and says we should go tonight so we do and squeeze the dresser into his little car and we are off. So now I have a baby dresser in my front hall way. At least it's progress! I feel so useless though, I tried to help him carry it (well at least direct it) but the belly kept getting in the way. I'm also much more clumsy with the extra weight - a very dangerous combination.

December 11 (27w4d): The baby is so active now, kicking me a lot when I am at work, especially if I rest my arm on the belly or if the belly is hitting my desk. I love those thumps! had dinner with Pam and Trang tonight at a delicious little restaurant in the South End called On the Park. So yummy. Trang says my belly is ambiguous so no guesses on whether it's a boy or girl. Another friend had told me though that the "dent" I have in my stomach - the belly is not perfectly round, sort of has a dent in the middle - means it's a boy. So we'll see!

My ankles and lower legs were very swollen tonight. My socks seem to cut off the circulation down there, even the very very loose ones. How can I not wear socks in Boston in December? I'm worried about flying - I think I will swell up like a balloon. I'm also worried about a blood clot developing. A read somewhere that people with type A blood have a higher likelihood of blood clots. Just what I needed to read.

December 12 (27w5d): Michael and I are working on the elusive Boy's name. We've started what was a short list and is now a long list. Poor baby has no name! We'll see what we come up with....

Took some more belly pictures today - feels like it is growing every day. Seems a little lower and like it's sticking out more. Definitely lower, sometimes walking is extremely painful and I've been having lots of upper inner thigh pain - I think it's all the same muscle that is connected to my tailbone. My poor softening bones and straining muscles.

December 13 (27w6d): Went to the hairdresser tonight and the consensus was it's a "boy." This seems to be the growing consensus on my belly. What are you little one? We'd better start working on our boy's names!

December 15 (28w1d): 28 weeks! Time is flying. I feel both good and bad right now about being 28 weeks. I'm happy because if anything went wrong, the baby is now viable and has an excellent survival rate right now - though of course it would be a rough road. So that of course makes me worried that something could trigger early labor, and I'm scared this will happen when we are in Colorado. Not my hospital, not my doctor, and thousands of miles from home with a preemie baby. And of course I'm worried about a blood clot forming while we are flying. I'm just a wreck!

Anyway, very busy weekend and no time to work on the nursery! The stress level is growing.... it doesn't help that Home Depot mixed our paint wrong so when Michael painted over the new section of the living room wall it didn't match the rest of the walls. Hopeless. But we had a great time at Erik and Deb's Christmas party tonight, so that helped with the stress level. I can't wait to get the pictures of Michael in his holiday attire back. Quite the outfit!

December 16 (28w2d): Well I got almost all my Christmas cards written this morning but I ran out so that means another trip to Target tonight! This afternoon we went to Michael's friend Michael's for a traditional Danish Christmas. Quite tasty - special Danish fried dough pastries, Grog (a very lethal mulled wine with rum which I will admit to tasting - it was quite strong but yummy) and we even made traditional Danish ornaments. Very complex and not my thing - I am terribly inartistic and unvisual, but it was fun. Only bad thing was that I noticed I couldn't move my wedding and engagement rings - they were stuck on my finger! NO! After we left the party and were out in the cold for a bit I could twist them and they came off, but I took them off for now. I'd rather not wear them than have to risk having them cut off.

December 17 (28w3d): Baby was unbelievably active today while I was at work - kicking or squirming like crazy! It's the weirdest feeling, you want it to stop because it sort of tickles, but then you never want it to stop because it tells you the baby is OK. I love the kicks! I've been trying to talk to the baby more hoping that it is hearing me and recognizes my voice.

December 22 (29w1d): Flying to Durango CO today fro Christmas to see Mike's parents and grandparents. I'm not looking forward to flying for so many reasons, but top of the list right now is a blood clot in my legs forming and going straight to my brain. Unlikely I know, but I'm a hypochondriac not pregnant so pregnancy makes it even worse. It was such an early morning! The news last night showed the lines at Logan being horrendous and when we called last night for a cab reservation for this morning we were told they weren't taking them and they were getting lots of calls so be sure to call early. Great.

So we got up at 5:15 for our 9:30 flight. Called the cab company at 5:30 ( I wanted the cab at 6:15) and of course they say 5 minutes and to wait outside! So luckily they let me make a 6:15 reservation. So we're off to airport, get there nice and early and even then the lines are wrapped all through the terminal and its impossible to tell which lines are for security and which for check-in. Luckily we are flying America West and since they only have 3 flights that morning the lines are not as bad as the other airlines. We get through the check-in and try to fight our way through the American lines to Dunkin Donuts. No surprise there that the line is almost as long as check-in! But finally we get our food and coffee/tea and park ourselves for awhile before going through security. The downfall to flying America West is that their gates are separate from the other airlines and has no BATHROOM. Are they kidding? So of course I can't go in there yet - no point waiting in these security lines more than once.

Finally we go through security. They tell me I can't go through the metal detector because I'm pregnant (I had read it's fine) but whatever. So I am lucky enough to get the pat-down. *sigh* But we board on time and soon are on our way. It's a 5 hour flight and I am not amused to see the movie is Jingle all the Way with Arnold Schwarzenager. But then they announce that the movie has been changed to Shrek so that is great news and at least those two hours pass quickly! Judy had ordered me a fruit plate which was a great treat, though I did have to eat it with my fingers since they had discontinued utensils!

I got up a lot during the flight, largely due to bathroom trips, but I tried to stretch and walk around some. But that was difficult in the narrow aisle with my big belly, especially when other passengers needed to pass going the opposite direction. So I tried flexing and doing some leg exercises at my seat. I seem to have survived without a blood clot but my left ankle was swollen to some scary proportions. I had to have Michael put my rings in his wallet as well because my fingers were swelling. After the 5 hours we are only in Phoenix so after a surprisingly delicious burrito lunch and a short layover we are back in the air for the 1 hour+ flight to Durango. This is a great flight despite being in a prop plain. The view over Arizona/New Mexico/Colorado is spectacular. And then finally we are there, safely on the ground. Exhausted but safe.

After dinner with Judy and Mike's grandparents we go to our hotel to check in and crash. It was a long and exhausting day. But since we're at the Doubletree we got those wonderful chocolate chip cookies which were a perfect bedtime snack!

December 23 - 30 (29w2d-30w2d): The week went by so fast I can't even sum up what we did! Before Christmas we finished up some Christmas shopping, did some baking, ate well and pretty much just hang out and did some visiting. Christmas Eve Michael was very good and agreed to come to mass with me. We decide 4 o'clock mass would be the best time so we went, but got there right at 4 and the people were spilling out of the church onto the front stairs. There was no way I could stand that whole time, cold outside or not. My ankle swelling had gone down, but extended standing brings it right back. Feeling somewhat guilty we went back to his grandparents house. But we went again after dinner to the 9 o'clock mass and I'm glad we did. The music was absolutely beautiful and it made it really feel like Christmas.

Christmas morning we went up to Michael's grandparents and then Michael went to the airport to pick up his dad that day. It was a very nice Christmas with absolutely delicious food and great company! Everyone seemed top really enjoy their presents too :-) The baby got lots of money from both my family and Michael's family so now we can go buy everything the little one needs. I also got some great body creams and a lullaby CD - perfect!

Of course here we are in beautiful Colorado and I can't do anything - like skiing or ice skating! We tried swimming in the hotel pool but it was freezing! The Jacuzzi was wonderful but I only took a very brief dip and mostly could just put my legs in as I didn't want to nuke the baby. A good amount of our time was spent getting Michael;s business school application to Harvard together and that finally went out Thursday. That is a huge relief to him - now only 2 more to go!

Thursday we went to lunch at the senior Center with Mike;s grandparents and then that night had a great dinner at this great Italian restaurant with Mike's family and close friends of theirs. Friday we went to see Lord of the Rings in the afternoon and then that night had dinner at the best Mexican restaurant ever with Judy's cousins. Then Saturday we went to her cousin's honey farm/store and stocked up on some honey goods! They have these amazing whipped honey spreads so we bought a bunch of stuff and had it shipped home. And of course then when we received the package we found they had put even more goodies in the box! Thank you!

And then Sunday we were off, time to go home. I was ready to get back home, there is just so much to do to get ready for the baby, but I really didn't want to fly again. But we survived. I was more worried this time because we had had a big snow storm the night before and visibility looked poor but we got de-iced and took off no problem from Durango. Another lay over in Phoenix and then we are on our way to Boston. Lucked out again in the movies department - was supposed to be Home Alone but the tape was broken so we watched America's Sweethearts. Another two hours down. The flight home seemed much longer though it was actually only a little over 4 hours because we were going with the wind. Got to Boston early but then spent about an hour waiting for our bags - classic Logan! And that's it!

December 31 (30w3d): Was supposed to have a doctors appointment this morning but they had canceled it. I still went in and had the blood drawn for my one hour glucose test for gestational diabetes. I'm pretty nervous about this - I really don't want to have GD. I don't want a huge baby and I can't live without my ice cream! The orange drink they give you wasn't nearly as bad as I had heard it would be. But not great. Hang out at the lab for an hour then had my blood drawn.

After that Michael and I did a few errands, grocery store and the party store to get party hats and stuff for the party tonight. Then we went home and crashed for a bit before getting ready for New year's Eve. We went to Henrietta's table for dinner with Deb and Erik and Carrie and Chris and Allysa. The food was amazing - I was so happy with my pork! Yum - and the chocolate bread pudding for desert was divine. Dinner went really late and we couldn't believe it was already 10 o'clock. So there was no way we could make it to James' party and Chris' so we went straight to Chris since it's become a tradition to ring New Years in there! Was a great party as always though my perspective was very different since this was my first sober New Years! Still fun though. It's going to be quite a 2002! But by 2 am I had had enough and my feet and legs were killing me so we went home. The only good part about not drinking on New Years is I could drive us home so we didn't have to walk miles to the subway or try desperately to find a cab :-)

Happy 2002!