this and that

Nothing too ground-breaking going on. Went to the midwives yesterday and was finally able to hear the heartbeat with a doppler. So very glorious. This is starting to feel much more real to me. Also, starting to feel every so slightly better. Nothing close to normal energy levels, but functioning until 8 pm without a 3 hour nap is an excellent start.

I love this phase of pregnancy. It's the phase where I basically float around on a cloud. Can't get on the subway because it's too crowded? Long line at the grocery store? Rude salespeople? Totally irrelevant ... because I'm really starting to believe that I have a bebe in my tummy, and none of them even know about it.

Speaking of that, yet again I find the situation highly humorous. I have a very distinct bump and stopped covering it up at all on Monday when I reached the magic 13 weeks. But given that my, um, upper body seems to be growing again no one notices. I had no idea that the breasts would continue to grow at this point given that they never deflated from the fusspot (more on the nursing situation another day). Since I started about Pamela Anderson size (34G, although I do try to dress slightly more modestly ...), I'd guess that I am about at 1.5 Pamela Anderson size now (something like 2 sizes about my standard J nursing cup bra). So yeah. Nobody even notices the belly, they just stare at the breasts. Oh well, at least they are still getting some use.

In other delightful news my dear friend in Ind.i.a is at last pregnant and due 3 days after me. It all just seems so surreal. One day when we were trying to squeeze 3 hot and sweaty babies into 3 carseats in a large cab, she jokingly said "Well, next summer we'll need 5 carseats/boosters when we travel." And yeah, we just might. She is also sending me a full box of India.n maternity clothes, and I have been assigned to find her some items stateside.

JD and I were also asked to be guardians for a baby. It is a great honor and means that at least someone thinks we're decent parents.

Speaking of decent parenting, this week was the final straw in our sleep schedule. The fusspot and I were traveling for 10 days and JD was supposed to join us for a family vacation the last 3 days. Needless to say, he was summoned to work and missed the whole thing. Which left me staying with the fusspot at a beach house full of family while she broke all 4 incisors and thus screamed non-stop. And since beach houses have notoriously bad sound proofing and our room was directly next to the other baby's, I had to grab the fusspot and race out of the house to muffle her cries between 5 and 5:15 every morning. Which got me thinking about how I have now slept through the night only 5 times in over 2 years, and that's probably not so good for me. So we are looking for something slightly more draconian for the fusspot, primarily to deal with her waking up between 2 and 5 am and requiring one of us to sleep on the floor of her room for the final part of the night (she also wakes up between 12 and 1 am every night, but we're still up then so it's not a big deal). Suggestions? Advice?

And in entirely expected and banal news, I have no self-control. None. Really, that's my only explanation of these:

Yes, both the carpet and um, other items are new. Now in my defense, I would happily put a baby of either gender in a fire truck onesie, and we were a tad short last go-round. And of course since I bought these new (on clearance) I am keeping the tag on in case I use them as a gift for someone else. But still.

And craigslist. The bane of my budget. I saw the most gorgeous Haba playmat on craigslist in a neighborhood I had to visit anyway ($160 new, $20 on CL) and when I e-mailed the woman I figured I'd ask if she had anything else since she obviously was not trying to price gouge, and for about 40 cents a piece, I picked up this stack of newborn clothes (including all the usual high-end stuff like Zutano and Daily Tea and Gap):
While I am deeply superstitious about my due date and would never reveal it in person except to my mother, I am totally happy to fill the bottom drawer of our new bureau with washed and newly folded newborn clothing. No logic at all, but oodles of fun. And thus ends week 13.