I have taken so many pictures over the past few days, but I don't know how to upload them yet, so when I do I'll post some of our festivities. We got a very fancy new camera from my mom, which I'm still learning how to use. We had a pretty mellow Christmas. If I do say so myself, I cooked a kick-ass meal on Christmas Eve and we had a great time making merry and such, and we all realized that next Christmas Eve will be utter chaos--S. and I will have had our baby, S.'s cousin's new baby will be a year old, her other cousin's baby will be 2 1/2 and then in May she's popping out TWIN girls. Oh my. Where all those kids will go, I don't know, but it sure will be fun! Christmas day was quiet-S.'s uncle went into the hospital and wasn't around, but it was nice to not have to cook or clean or take any sort of responsibility.

We had a little bit of a frustrating experience at the midwife's office today. S. went in to get her glucose test done. This requires drinking a glucose drink, waiting around for an hour, then getting blood drawn. Too bad that the MW's office didn't know that every single person from the lab was out until 2:00 today and we had to draw blood at 1:15. Luckily, a quick-thinking midwife did a finger prick test just in time (phew!), and S. will just get the other blood tests done when we go back for our appointment next month. But really, people, do you not know when your lab, which is right downstairs, is going to be closed? Annoying.

Oh yes, and our big Christmas gift to each other arrived today--a snowblower. How fun. The gutter off the side of our house also fell clear off the roof with all that ice. Oh the joys of being a homeowner!

Telling the Fam

Telling S.'s family about our pregnancy is going to be easy. We know they'll be supportive and excited. My family is a whole other story. I don't really talk to my father, due to the whole gay thing, and while the rest of my family is accepting, we don't really talk about 'us', as in me and S. as a unit, very much. We're just sort of there and that's that.

But of course when you're having a baby, you have to break that silence a little bit. So, yesterday, at my aunt's holiday party, I did. But first I went home to personally, and alone, tell my father about our baby.

It went better than expected.

Here's what I would have expected: screaming, swearing, praying, storming out of the house. Instead, I got: "OK. I don't know how I feel about that. I'll have to think about it." No screaming. No storming out of the house. And he still came to my aunt's party later on that day.

Progress? I'm not really sure. But he did hug me good-bye last night and, not that things were "normal," it just wasn't quite as awkward as I expected it to be. Weird. My grandmother seemed like she couldn't really give a crap, which is fine, as she is 94 and is sort of set in her ways. (I think maybe if I were the one pregnant, it would have been different.) I know she loves me and S. and that she'll love to have a new baby in the family once he or she arrives. The rest of the fam just seemed to "know"---or else I assumed they did, as people kept hugging us and telling us congratulations. So imagine my surprise at the end of the night when a bunch of my cousins still didn't know! (Thanks, cousin K. for keeping a good secret--love ya!) So, we got to tell them and I think they were happy for us and all that stuff so...it's done with. For now.

I was really dreading yesterday all week. It made me irritable and emotional, but when the actual day came, I felt fine. I didn't cry, puke, go to the bathroom, or any of my normal reactions to such a nerve-wracking situation. So, yay for us, yay for me, and yay for only telling people who will be genuinely excited from now on.

And S. is now at 11 weeks. By the time Christmas comes and goes, we'll be at week 12. Oh my!

gettting there...

Ummm...I did two crazy things this weekend. I bought a pair of maternity jeans and we bought six Bumgenius cloth diapers off of craigsl*st. Those are things pregnant women do...I think this is starting to sink in. 10 weeks down, 1/4 of the way. However, I am still feeling inordinately worried most of the time.

Welcome to the world, baby Jo!

And what a handsome one you are!

lucky girl

I will be 10 weeks at the end of this week. I alternate between saying, 'already?' and 'only?' Most of the people I work with know I am pregnant and I get a lot of "How are you feelings"? So, I thought I would address that. I'm at a point where I don't think I'll be jinxing myself.

I am feeling good. I'm one of those - one of the 25%. Not a minute of queasiness, never mind nausea and puking. I'm tired, but honestly, I tend to be a tired person who loves naps anyway. I have indigestion that's a bit worse than normal, but not everyday anymore. My boobs are huge, but they're not sore. No flames ladies! I know, I'm lucky in this respect. Finally...lucky. In the beginning I WANTED the symptoms, I wanted to know something was going on. And some days I still feel that way. My belly is hardening up and my pants are definitely tighter. It's hard to say if I'm growing, because, well, there was plenty there before we started. :)

Getting Clinical

We toured the Big Hospital today, the one our R.E. practice resides in. It was--a very big hospital! It felt more like a hospital than the other one we've looked at. The rooms were not as nice or spacious, it felt brighter and a big scrungier, and just had that overly-busy, rushed feeling. Not ideal for us for giving birth. Of course, the huge advantage is the NICU should S. indeed go into pre-term labor, or something else that we don't like thinking about. Going with Big Hospital means going with Big Midwife Practice, too, since they're in the same building and obviously deliver there.

It's a lot to think about, but I think we'll have our minds made up by tomorrow, when we interview the midwives from the other hospital. I have a good feeling about them--glowing reviews, a sort of local-celebrity midwife who basically started insemming lesbians in this area 20 years ago, and strong recommendations from local bloggers makes them sound very appealing. Hopefully they live up to all the hype so the decision is made for us.

Oh, and the weather outside here is frightful--S. had a snow day on Monday, but I had merely a delay. My commute was awful and slippery anyway, though!

Christmastime is Here...

I often have trouble getting into the holiday spirit, and S. always called me a Grinch, a Scrooge, a Bah Humbug, etc...but today we finally got a tree and decorated it. This is a pic from our vintage tree from last Christmas---we did it all up in colored lights and old-fashioned glass ball ornament (Shiny Brights). We decided to forgo the little tree this year and just do the biggun'. And it does look good if we do say so ourselves! Can't beat the smell of a real tree, even if it 1.) gets sticky 2.) sheds needles like crazy and 3.) is a pain in the ass to water. All for the sake of a good whiff of fresh pine..we decided to extend the joy our lit tree brings us, we're going to put it outside on our patio with the lights still on and enjoy it through the winter.

And speaking of winter..we may get our first snow day tomorrow!!!