All we need is the baby...

Here are some pictures of the baby's stuff...now all we need is the baby!

Here is the baby's corner, oops, I mean nursery:



Here is the makeshift changing station:



And here is the baby clothes drawer (yes, that is my belly in the bottom of the picture):

Cohen Kiddo's playmates

I have lots of ideas for posts, but I am pretty bad about actually updating my blog! I realized this morning that I might not have a lot of time to "eventually get to" these ideas! So hopefully over the next couple of days I will update a lot!

A lot of my friends have had babies over the last couple of months, so I wanted to introduce everyone to our baby's future playmates! In age order:

First came Elizabeth, our friends Nikki and BJ's daughter, who was born on October 22. Kevin used to work with Nikki in Denver, but now she lives in the DC area. Here is one of her first pictures:



Next came little Philip, my co-worker Susannah's boy. He was born on Monday, October 27. I went up to Rye and visited the two of them last week (one of my first "vacation tasks"). He is totally angelic. He was about six weeks old, so he was figuring out what was around him and smiling a lot. Here's a picture of him when he was born:



Next up is Sydney from Colorado, who was born the next day on October 28. I used to work with her mom (in New York, not Colorado). We obviously can't see Sydney all the time, but we travel to Colorado a lot and Sydney's family travels to the East Coast often too. Hopefully we will make it out there over the summer. Here is Sydney (trying to figure out to post the picture itself instead of the link):

Snapfish:Photo:Shared

Finally is my co-worker Sarah's little girl Mika, who was born on November 18. I was lucky enough to catch up with them last week too. Mika is precious. She was only three weeks old, so she was still super tiny! Here is her picture:



We can't wait to introduce the next baby, which will most likely be ours!

Sisters are the best...

My sister Mel came in from Chicago last Saturday. She's in school now, so she has a month off! Isn't that just perfect! She has been a huge help to me. We have just been organizing the apartment and getting things ready. Sometimes you need someone there to tell you to throw out the junk you have been hanging onto for years!

We have also been doing some of the things we loved to do growing up -- mainly watching bad tv movies and eating junk food. Cool Ranch Doritos, grilled cheese and tomato soup, Tombstone pizzas, Nerds, Sweetarts, ramen. I have told Mel that I am nostalgic for old times sake, but little does she know these are the foods I have eaten throughout my pregnancy!

Anyway, I am so grateful to Mel for sacrificing her vacation for us!

Updates

I am so sorry I have been so bad at keeping this blog updated! This "vacation" is not as relaxing as a vacation should be! Here are some updates:

So the due date has now come and gone! (Only 5% of babies are actually born on their due date.) Kevin is getting VERY anxious. I am still content to keep it in there a little bit longer, but at this point, I am ready whenever the baby is ready! Thanks to everyone for all the calls and emails. We are so flattered that you have been thinking about us this week. Sorry I have been slow at responding -- we will definitely keep you all posted when there is news to share!

I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. I am a little over two cm dilated. Don't get too excited -- I have been two cm dilated for over two weeks! My doctor said it doesn't mean much, just that I have a little head start. That's okay, I will take a head start! (Of course, when I was first two cm dilated during an appointment before I had stopped working, I told my officemate that it meant I was probably going to have the baby in the next six hours. Just to freak him out a bit. It worked.)

When she was feeling my belly on Tuesday, the doctor said, "Hmmm, I think you are having a contraction right now." I didn't feel a thing! This childbirth process is going to be a breeze! But Dr. Pastore put an end to that fantasy quickly. "Oh, you'll be feeling it soon!" she assured me.

I made another appointment for Monday the 22nd, if the baby hasn't come yet. If I make it that far, I will be induced on Monday or Tuesday. So we will definitely have a baby by Christmas, which is exciting!

Also, I realized I never made an update about the size of the baby. At my last sonogram (at 38 weeks), the growth had tapered off to about the 80th percentile. That sounds much more manageable than 96th! So if I was to have the baby on my due date, it would be just under nine pounds. And it looks like I won't need a c-section, which is great news!

As for how I am feeling, I really still feel great! At the doctor's office, we encountered a woman whose due date is a week after mine. "This baby needs to get the hell out of here!" she complained. I was just like, "Hmmm, I don't feel that way at all!"

Baby Pool Reminder

Tomorrow's the due date, but still no baby! Just wanted to put the baby pool link up again so you can remember what you guessed! And, so you can send me spicy food the night before the date you chose! Here's the link...

www.expectnet.com

In the top left hand corner, in the Invited Guests box, enter "BabyCohenPool". Happy guessing!

The candyman

We have another vote for a boy. The man in the candy store is also thinking blue. But not because I'm carrying like a basketball, not because my lips are full -- an entirely different old wives' tale that I hadn't heard before.

"In my country, if woman is smiling, laughing, boy is coming," he explained. (I didn't ask what country.) "If woman is --" he paused, searching for the English word. Instead he made a scrunched up a face. "Then it's girl."

I thought that was funny. I didn't think little girls made you irritable until about 13 years after you gave birth!

But I was in a good mood at the time -- I was in a candy store, for goodness sake! Until I got back to my desk and discovered that the sour Jelly Bellys I had bought had some non-sour jelly beans mixed in. I thought about going back and yelling about the mixed up candy -- not because I was terribly upset, but because I wanted to see if the candyman changed his mind about the sex of my baby!

Get the margarita mix ready...

Kevin thinks I am using this blog as an opportunity to make fun of him. He may be right, but it's his fault he gives me so much good material!

My last day of work is this week, and Kevin asked me if I was excited to be finishing up. "Because you know, in our working lifetimes, you're probably never going to get so much time off at once ever again."

My mouth dropped. "Kevin. This is not going to be a vacation, you know."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "You feed the baby, you put it down for a nap, you change its diaper...and you can be playing video games the entire time! Sounds like a vacation to me!"

We'll see how he feels in a couple of weeks...

Learning to be parents

I want to take a parenting class that the hospital offers. Kevin does not agree -- he thinks we will learn it all "as we go."

"But there are just so many things we don't know," I argue. "How do you tell if the baby is crying because it's hungry or if it's crying because it has an earache? Can you bathe a baby before the belly button falls off?"

There is a pause, and Kevin furrows his brow.

"What do you mean 'the belly button falls off'?"

Thanks, Kevin. You just proved my point. I will sign us up for the parenting class right now.