22 weeks: Now Hear This

Little one,

You have now completed your 22nd week of growing into a fully formed baby Weinstein!

And your Mom continues to grow more and more beautiful.

 So, here we are: you are the size of a papaya. Pretty crazy to think that just 22 weeks ago you were smaller than a poppy seed.

Even crazier to think that about 2 and half years ago, your Mom was 22 weeks pregnant with your brother.

Week 22 with Aidan, October 2009

I'm not rushing things at all, but wait til you see how awesome things are here on the outside world. Your brother was pissed at us for just a few moments for taking him out of your Mom's belly, and you will be too...but so much can change in 2 years. Life happens, and it's beautiful. You're going to love it. But, you've still got 4.5 months or so to go, so, for now, keep on rocking life in the belly and keep on hitting those developmental milestones.

And now that you're 22 weeks old, your beautiful face is fully formed and you're able to hear noises from outside the womb. The blurb says you'll find your Mother's voice most soothing, but you also have been getting quite an earful from me and your brother lately. As you saw, he's talking up a storm, and I'm rarely quiet. So, you should be sonically adjusted to all three of us pretty soon.

I held my phone up to your Mom's belly the other day and played you a song, the Paul Simon one about how there'd "never be a father loved his daughter more than I love you." I sang along with the chorus.

Tonight I'll play you another song:

And Aidan will probably shower you with kisses and say "baby!" and your name too! And "Beatles" (he just learned to say that the other day...I'm very proud). Or maybe you'll be treated to a lovely two-year-old fit (they DO happen). Or maybe you'll hear all the hammers and nails banging around outside as we expand our home to make extra room for our growing family.

No matter what you hear, little one, don't be alarmed. You're doing wonderfully. You're sleeping about 12-14 hours a day; you're growing all the time; and you can hear us whispering about how crazy excited we are to meet you.

You are the Eggman!

I've been doing a lot of talking lately, so today, I'm gonna let some pictures do the talking! It just so happens that Saturday was the beginning of your 22nd Week in your Mom's belly AND it was Halloween, so we had to do some sort of costume to incorporate the belly! Your Mom is just too creative not to.

So we thought and thought about what costumes we could use to incorporate the preggo bell-o and, after much painting, papier mache-ing, face painting, sewing, embroidering, thrift store shopping and hot gluing, here's what we came up with:


Are you left scratching your head?



See, you are the Eggman...

I am the Walrus!

Goo goo ga joob?

Nah? It's probably before your time. I'll explain it to you, but suffice it to say you'll think it's hilarious and awesome! You're gonna love Halloween!

Your Mom can make almost anything! Look, she even managed to turn me into a be-flippered, fat monster! (though that's not too hard...I do have flippers).

But don't worry, if you want a store bought costume, we can get you one of those too!

And, of course, a week can't go by without us showing how much your mom has grown! Check out this comparison between week and Halloween day (Week 22)! Talk about a fast-growing eggman! It looks like you're almost ready to hatch-- but we're not even in the 3rd trimester yet, buddy-- no need to scramble! Look on the sunny side, in about 120 days you can come out of your shell...and don't worry, I'm not a walrus anymore!

The Cursory Nursery Kerfuffle: Curtains on Fight Night

You've heard of "The Rumble in the Jungle," "The Thrilla in Manilla" or "Kramer V. Kramer" right? (Me neither, but I looked them up).

Well, add another fight to the record books: The Cursory Nursery Kerfuffle I forgot the cardinal rule of pregnancy: don't pick a fight with a pregnant woman and don't take anything she says or does personally.

Actually that's two cardinal rules.

Here's how it all went down: Last night after dinner and a little TV, we decided to put up the curtains in your nursery. Before we did so, I wanted to jump on the computer (not literally, that would break it) for a quick second to check my email and do a few other things.

Meanwhile, though, your Mom was getting impatient with me. I told her I'd be off in a second, and she didn't believe me...which was a good call, because I was definitely on it for more than a literal OR figurative second.

But after a really quick email, and then an even quicker check on something on Facebook and then what was meant to be a really quick check of a PDF that was emailed to me (totally all NOT work related, by the way-- I don't do office work at home, you'll be pleased to know!), she was already beyond impatient.

Your Mom had already moved into the realm of irrational anger and said that I always make her wait! To which I replied, "I'm sorry, I'm here now. Let's put up the curtains."

(please note that all conversations are mere facsimiles of what actually ocurred... I can't remember a whole conversation verbatim!)

(also please note that through no fault of my own [it's mere human nature] the accounts of last night have been retold in a fashion that makes me look 100 % innocent and wonderful and funny to boot!)

"I don't believe your apology!"

"Okay, but seriously I was only on the computer for like five minutes"

"But that's only because I had to kick you off! Who knows how long you would have been on the computer?"

"Well, it doesn't matter- I'm here now! Let's do this curtain thang!"

"You would have piddled for hours and hours on the computer if I hadn't kicked you off!"

Here's where I made my fatal mistake.

Me: "You're being kinda mean and treating me like a child"

"Now you've made me angry! I'm gonna go sit on the couch now and once I sit down I'm not getting up. No curtains for you!"

"Come on, Dude! Let's put these curtains up while we have the opportunity."

"You do it."

"Why are you mad at me?"

"You're a piddler. And you're denying being a piddler to make me look bad on your awesome blog tomorrow."

"You know, I have redeeming qualities too."

"Don't remind me of those right now!" She said while throwing a throw pillow at me (seriously, if they didn't want them to be thrown, they wouldn't have named them that)

(p.s., those last two lines of dialogue and the pillow throw ARE verbatim!)

So, I decided to go upstairs to do homework to abide by that old saying:

"Never hang drapery while angry"

About 20 minutes later I started hearing the tinkering of tools and the soft pitter patter of heavy-footed angry pregnant walking.

I crept downstairs to see what was going on and I see your mother standing on a kitchen chair in your nursery trying to hang the curtains by herself.

Oh, and she was definitely still mad at me. But, she listened to reason at least and got off the chair and allowed me to hang the curtains while she and her stalwart guardians (Toby and Preston) sat and watched me.

2 1/2 hours, 3 unfilled gaping holes in the drywall and the hanging of 2 curtains 3 times later (hey, I'm not a handyman yet!), and the curtains were finished.

And it was curtains on the argument.

Oh yeah, except that I pouted for the rest of the night (which was, by that time, only 20 minutes long).

This morning, though, it's definitely curtains on that little kerfuffle. If only I'd remembered the cardinal rules of dealing with a pregnant woman, the whole thing would have been avoided. But, then again, the curtains probably wouldn't have been hung! So, there's a plus side to everything.

And, as a coda, when debriefing on the events of last night, I recevied word from your Mother that the woman in the house last night actually WASN'T her at all.

I let her know that even if it wasn't her, I was still being a total dope of a moron and should have known better than to pick a fight with a pregnant woman...especially when I was on curtain call! I admitted to being a loutish brute, a no-good ragamuffin and a cantakerous old coot sympathetic to skullduggery. She agreed with me on this assessment.

As a note, man to man, hormones do whacky things to pregnant women. During the whole pillow and stern word-throwing portion of the fight your Mom couldn't stop laughing either, so I didn't know if she was joking or not! Honestly, though, that's not too bad at all to go 22 weeks of pregnancy without one of these hormone-crazed absolutley ridiculous non-sensical scuffles.

All I have to remember is that when a woman is pregnant, her husband is always wrong! Easy enough; future fights mediated.

Note: no curtains were harmed in the making of this blog post. One nursery wall, however, now has three or four extra "speed holes" in it.

Belly Button Watch: Day 1 - Papaya and Jambalaya

Apparently you no longer grow from fruit-size to fruit-size every week from here on out. From weeks 21 to 24 you are the size of a papaya!

But, your Mother and I definitely aware that you're still growing day to day; you just won't be a new produce item each week!

In your first week as a papaya, your mother has become even more hungry than she was before. In fact, last night, she asked for a second bowl of Jambalaya. She never asks for a second bowl of Jambalaya!

And then after that was ice cream!

So, I totally don't believe that you've plateaued in growth. Mabye the Bump just ran out of fruit to compare babies to!

As another side effect of your growth, your mother's belly button has stretched out, become super shallow and now, your mother swears, that any day it's going to pop out from an inny to an outie.

So, I hereby begin Belly Button Watch 2009.

BBW 2009 - Day 1. Still an inny.

Your Mom has been really amazed by the progression of her belly button. The first day that she could see the bottom of it was a highlight of her day a few weeks ago. But maybe sooner than later, everyone will be able to see the bottom of it...because it will have poked out from one of these:

(

To one of these!

)

We'll keep you posted- maybe a few more helpings of Jambalaya will help this Papaya turn your Mother's Belly button inside out!

Spotlight On You

Yesterday Holly's boss generously gave us some tickets to see a Shakespeare play at the new theater downtown. Taking full advantage of not needing a babysitter and doing things on the whim, as we've been doing lately, we decided to go check it out and take you to your first work by the bard: A Mid Summer Night's Dream. You've really gotten a lot of culture recently!

And considering that, now at Week 22, you pretty much hear everything we hear, you've gotten quite an earful of iambic pentamter, opera and music as of late.

While the spotlight wasn't shining on us, you were kicking and squirming. The play was a lot of fun and well-done, but yours and your Mother's favorite part, by far, was probably during the intermission when she got to tear into that King Size Snickers that was burning a hole in her purse. I had to beg to even get a tiny bite! But, it's probably better that way, I had way too much candy over the weekend with Halloween and all (don't worry, I'll show you our awesome costumes later this week).

Later that night we had to put the spotlight on you to test something we'd read in one of the baby books. Apparently at week 22, although your eyes are fused shut and it's incredibly dark in the womb, you can still see some light-- and will react to it as well!

So, I warmed up the end of the Maglight, clicked it on and placed it on your Mom's belly.

Once we found you with the light, it almost felt like you were trying to punch it out! After a few kicks, though, you WHOOSHED to the other side of the belly. Your Mom giggled when you moved to the other side...it must have tickled.

I turned the flashlight off and was about to put it away, but then Holly took it from me. She wanted to feel you kick and move some more! So, the light went back on and you kicked and punched a few more times.

Eventually, though, we think you either found a good hiding spot or just decided to fall asleep in the light beam.

How many people get to say they shared the spotlight with Shakespeare?