24.8 Weeks

HEY-YOOOOOOO!!! Somebody has a big fat baby bump!! If you look REALLY closely you can even see my belly button. It's hanging on for dear life.

I think if you can be pregnant during Thanksgiving you are truly lucky. We all get license to eat to excess this week- but not only do I have license but I also have reason. And while I don't get to enjoy those fabulous holiday cocktails, I'll be drunk on pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. The food hangover is much easier to manage.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pregnant and Brazen

El train phenomena is the subject of endless conversation. You get all kinds of crazies on the El train: First timers who don't think they need to hold on and are quickly jostled into reality, people who never learned to use their "inside" voices to have extremely intimate and/or graphic conversations on their cell phones-I feel like I could testify at a child custody hearing with the amount of garbage I've overheard. And then there are the people who push through the crowd to get to the doors when the train is still many minutes from their stop. These are classic El train amateurs- it's like they really think they'll be stuck on the train if they aren't right at the door when the train pulls into the station.

But my favorite quirk about the El is the Sardine Effect. Everyone likes to congregate towards the doors, especially at rush hour, and the result are sparsely populated middle and end sections of the train. So when the doors open, all of the people smooshed together look like a can of sardines between the doorway. That's all well and good unless you're me, and you're trying to get on the train when it's 30 degrees and windy and the Sardine Effect is already in full swing. So last night, for the first times in a long time, I pulled out the loud mouthy city persona and instructed the sardines to disperse so me and my fellow train stop friends could get on board. Not only was their room for all of us, but there was plenty of it.

In defense of a $900 stroller

Blogging is tough. I tell you what, since starting this blog I also started one for the gallery and sitting around trying to think of clever things to keep people interested in reading is no easy feat. I've struggled lately with this blog because everything I want to talk about is too polarizing: breastfeeding in public, dogs off leash in the city, and, of course, the rising costs associated with having a baby.

Can you believe that they can charge $900 for a stroller and get away with it? Furthermore, can you believe that people buy them? What's more, would you believe that Denver and I are considering being THOSE people? (stop nodding your heads up and down)

Here is the thing: we live in the city and what that means is a stroller (much like a large designer handbag), serves more as a full-time vehicle rather than just a basic functioning device. Consider this: schlepping up two flights of stairs with a 30lb bag of potatoes or a 20lb bag of potatoes at least twice a day, everyday, for 2 years. I'll go with the 20-pounder everytime, even if that means a huge ($900) premium. And did I mention the weight of that little bundle of joy that comes with those potatoes? My arms are going to be ripped out Madonna style. Do potatoes even come in bags that big, I wonder?

The stroller I speak of is the Bugaboo. Made famous on Sex and the City, it is now a staple for city dwellers. No stroller comes close in terms of weight, ease of use, or terrain maneuverability. We aren't hauling this thing from a garage to a Target to a suburban shopping mall, all via automobile. We're going from side walk to curb to tiny city grocery store to tiny city boutique to the lake front to the alley and back up the stairs to our apartment again.

So of course, I feel the need to justify this expense. I used to point and laugh at the people who bought these things. Now I point and ask, "How much you want for the stroller?"

Savannah

Denver and I spent the weekend in Savannah with Jack Wahl and family. As you can see from the photos, he is one cute baby. It was quite a learning experience for both Denver and myself. I learned that a baby really will put anything into his or her mouth, Denver learned the value of garish looking toys, but most of all we learned to appreciate the all to often taken for granted art of a good night's sleep. I think Denver and I will be the ones sleeping like babies tonight, actually I can guarantee that.

Couvade, really?

There is a real medical term called Couvade which is just a fancy French word referring to symptomatic prenatal sympathy. Yes, you guessed it, sometimes the mates of Pregnant Patty's will suffer along with their significant others. It seems a little unbelievable, but apparently it's real. We had our own run in with some Couvade symptoms just last week.

First off, it's no secret that when you're pregnant you loose your marbles. I can't tell you how many times I've started a sentence and just totally lost it- no train of thought, no clue as to what was coming next. And some of the things that come out of my mouth are, in a word, dumb.

You should also know, that Barack Obama is a member at our gym. I've never seen him working out there, but he's a busy guy, I get it. My other theory is that he's smoking cigarrettes up on the pool deck talking about Hegelian theories and the like with the hourly workers.

So the day after the election when I got to the gym there was a HUGE banner hung up which stated, "Congratulations to our new president, member since 1984." No surprise there, but a nice gesture.

That night, after our workouts, Denver and I met for dinner at the restaurant in club. The restaurant is called, Maxwells- it's a new name, before it had just been the Restaurant or something ultra generic. As we're sitting there we started kibitzing about the new name- how random it seemed and how uneccesary all at the same time. Then Denver said (outloud), "Maybe they named it after the new president." I just kinda looked at him, puzzled and responded, "The club has a new president?" and then he looked at me like I was the crazy one and says, "yeah, didn't you see the gigantic sign?"

Um, yeah. Saw the sign and put it together pretty quickly actually. The look on Denver's face when HE put it all together was delightful. It was a 100% eureka moment.

22 Weeks

Here I am at just about 22 weeks. The whole tracking of your weeks during pregnancy is so confusing. So right now, I'm 22 weeks along but I'm IN my 23rd week, so does that make me 23 weeks?? And the 9 months thing is a total myth. You're pregnant for 40 weeks (at least, in some cases), which is more like 9 months and a third or something.

Regardless, I am certainly getting there! I can hardly button my coat. The great part about that one is, I have had more guys offer me their seats on the El then I ever have before. I don't know if it's the belly or if chivalry is in the air but I like it!

I could watch this all day long.

It's not secret that I love Shelties. L-O-V-E them. And the proof is in the fact that I've watched this video a dozen times already, and it still makes me chuckle every time. Click below and enjoy the simplicity of watching a dog eat a cookie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zl-6Vlqpac

Week 22 Ultrasound

Denver and I had the 22 week ultrasound today and I wanted to share the best shot of the babe. I almost had to smack the tech because she kept complaining in her broken English that "baby not cooperating." Child after my own heart.

Baby did great and looked fantastic. He/She was curled into a little ball most of the time so this shot was truly a flash in the pan. We were clearly disturbing a mid-afternoon nap. I, too, sleep in a tight little ball and I, too, don't like being disturbed while sleeping. This baby and I have lots in common already!

Please, sit down.

Every morning I ride the train (the "El", if you like) to work. It's about 5 stops to my destination which can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. Now, early on in my pregnancy I didn't think twice about the commute and how comfortable I would be if standing for those 20 minutes. But over the past few weeks I've started to wonder what the heck I'm going to do when I'm really big. Because even today, at 22 weeks, my back is aching and I am just uncomfortable when standing for a long while.

Most mornings, I can get a seat. This was a God-wink during the first trimester, but now it's a necessity. However, if I had a dollar for every time a YOUNG man slipped in front of me to grab the last seat, I'd be a millionaire. Or at least a hundred-aire.

Anyway, this morning was classic. I hop on the train, I eye three vacancies and before I can shimmy my way, three YOUNG men have stolen my prize. I could have spit. So I stood there for the next ten minutes just thinking about all of the venom I would spew on the blog this morning and all of the sudden a fellow stander takes out his ipod earphones, taps me on the shoulder and offers a recently opened seat that was out of my field of vision. I was so taken off guard, and feeling quite stubborn, that I kindly declined his offer. I was one stop away at that point and if any of those YOUNG yahoos had heard him, my point was made already.

Thanks super-nice-seat-offering-train-guy!

And for the record, this isn't about me being pregnant (the super-nice-seat-offering-train-guy was behind me, couldn't see my well concealed bump through my trench coat), it's about gentlemen acting like gentlemen. Men arm wrestle, spit, and drink scotch (often times, in that precise order) and as such, women get priority seating and we get to go on the lifeboat first. Hey, I didn't make the rules, I'm just trying to play by them.

Million Chicagoan March

It's a big day and whichever way it goes, this election will go down in history as being one of the most pivotal of our generation.

Here in Chicago, the festivities are already underway (what is that saying about counting your chickens before they hatch?) Grant Park has been transformed into a maze of tents and peddlers are selling trinkets by the fistful. Apparently people have driven from all parts of the country to celebrate Obama's potential achievement en masse. Could you imagine driving thousands of miles (or even a couple) to congregate with 1 million of your closest friends?

As I rhetorically asked Denver last night- when was the last time you had a great time with 1 million people? He suggested the Simon & Garfunkel concert in Central Park. Then I reminded him that it was a rhetorical question but if there were an answer it would be never. Getting together with that many people stinks- literally, figuratively, you name it. I ask anyone who is attempting to go to that rally tonight to take caution and screw their head on a little tighter.

To the locals I say run: get on the train or the bus and get out of the city now! Settle in for a long night of watching the "media elite" run their mouths about how they looked into their crystal ball months ago and could've told us then that tonight is playing out exactly as they had suspected. Either that OR they will be completely flabbergasted by a McCain victory. Paramedics will need to be on guard, in either case.

Election Day!

Happy Election Day!

Don't forget to vote because every vote counts.
Remember that whole AlGore-Florida-HangingChad scenario??? We don't want that again.

Choose wisely!!!