36 week home visit!

Here are a few pics from our home visit from our midwife, Alina today. Yeah! I can't believe it's already 36 weeks... time flies when you're growin' a baby!

Finding Home Sweet Home

Well, finally we have found a roof over our heads! Our little real estate deal did not go through (the short sale house) but I think every day that passes we are actually thankful it didn't happen. It is just that we are in such a transitory phase in our lives right now and I think buying a house would be too confining. We need to be free to move about in the next year or so as we settle into life in the US. That sounds funny for me to say that, as I am from here! But for Yann this moving to the States permanently has been a big change. First, he has basically quit his job that he had in France for the last six years, then he's about to become a daddy, and he is coming to this country where he has vacationed, but never lived. All I can say, is that thank God he already speaks English! That would just be too much to bear if he had to learn the language too!


But, we found a great house rental about a 3 minute drive from my parents neighborhood. It's got a huge fenced in yard, which was our first requirement. It's an older home that has been renovated from top to bottom and we are the first to rent it since the renovation. It has a big, big kitchen with gleaming new stainless steel appliances. A real cooks kitchen with lots of counter space. We feel like we're living pretty large in this house. We don't own enough furniture to fill the place up! But I'm sure we'll manage. And the one thing that sealed the deal is that I have my very own craft room with nice natural light and wood floors! I can't wait to set up a little sewing and painting nook in there. I think we will be very happy in this house for one year and even though I'm not a huge fan of carpets (I think they get filthy very quickly and are harder to clean) the house has all brand new carpet. I think this will be good for the baby once she begins to crawl and walk. So, we are moving in on Thursday and then Yann and my dad have to drive up to NC and move all my stuff out of my parents basement up there and bring it to Florida.


I had a midwife appointment last week and I have one on Sept. 30th also. The one on the 30th is the home visit, where the midwife comes to check your house out for the home birth. She checks to be sure you have gathered all the items for the birth kit. Now my appointments are weekly because I am at 35.5 weeks. I can't believe I'm almost at 37 weeks! It's crazy to think that any time after 37 weeks it's ok if I go into labor. ( The midwives won't deal with your birth if you go into labor anytime before 37 wks. ) We are slowly knocking out all our natural birthing classes and they are so informative and fun. I almost will be sad when they end! Her heartbeat sounds healthy and she is in her head down position and that's about all the new info from the appointments. Pretty much she is just packing on fat now in the womb; you go girl! I am feeling pretty great to be this far in the pregnancy. I am having some intense heartburn at night! That is a symptom that I never thought I'd be prone to in pregnancy, but apparently very bizarre things happen to your body during this time. I thought maybe I'd only experience this if I ate a massively greasy hamburger right before bed. However, I can eat a salad for dinner and have the same problem. I felt funny buying Tums for the first time in my life! They taste awful, like those horribly chalky candies from the 1970's: Nekko's. Yuck! But if that is my biggest complaint at 35 weeks then I guess it's really not so bad!!! Also, my appetite is outa control. I feel like Godzilla of eating. I just can't get enough and I am constantly on the prowl for food. Sometimes I wake up at 4am and raid the fridge for anything, because I can't sleep I'm so hungry. PB&J's at 5am are amazing.


When we move in Yann will paint the nursery. That is always a big rite of passage for the dad, isn't it? Going together to Home Depot and picking out the nursery paint for your first baby. And then I get out of the hard work of actually painting, because you know paint fumes are not good for baby!! :) I also have a free pass to get out of lifting a finger during our move! Oh, how lazy and indulgent I feel! I've moved myself so many times to various rental houses, always sweaty, exhausted, and sore at the end of the move. So, it will be great to just play the role of "Move Director". Oh, Yann won't like the sound of that-(sorry honey, bad joke!)

Anyways, here is a pic of our new car: Toyota Highlander! A family car, our petite SUV, our carbon footprint...



Here are some pics of when Abby, Steph, and I did the Mommy Glam photo shoot. They are my two dear best friends of so many years. These two are so essential to my life. You can't imagine...And Abby called me a few days ago and said the maternity photos are coming soon in the mail so I will definitely share them when I get them.





And here is my favorite pic from my baby shower:



And here is a belly shot from Sept 19th, 2009:




And finally here i am today in the yard with my mom after swimming at about 36 weeks!! Holy belly shot! I am brave in posting this one...

no go on the chi-town trip

Well, Yann & I didn't end up blowin' into the Windy City after all this weekend for my cousin, Kat's wedding. I did wish so bad we could have been there to see her and the family, but I just felt, after talking with my midwife, that it would be best not to do any plane travel at this stage in the pregnancy game. Also, there is that whole Swine Flu thing floating around still and I really didn't want to get that in the airport. It sounded like the wedding and the weather in Chicago was beautiful.

So, here are just some pictures from the last week. Us out on the boat and also Rascal and Mopsy getting to know each other a little better. (Hence, the butt sniffing in the pic).















I'm feeling pretty good, especially after going to see a chiropracter for my lower back ache. I had gotten a expensive massage and it felt good but did not help the situation. Then, at Rosemary birthing center I was advised to go see a Chiro. for some relief. I had always been skeptical about them in general, but I was in pain and open to any suggestions. So, I went and this lady kind of specializes in pregnant women. She cracked me like a nut! My neck, my back in 2 spots, and my spine. Wow, it felt so good and it really helped out in the ache department. So, I have another appointment for Friday. It's been about 2 weeks since Yann arrived and we are happily reunited. It's so nice to have him by my side at the midwife appointments and to feel the baby kick. He has been so great about taking good care of me and doing all my 'heavy-lifting' tasks. Thank God for him; that he is here safe and sound.

So, this is why I love my husband. I made brownies and he doesn't like the crust, so he kept cutting little pieces from the inner part of the pan. I went for a bite yesterday and found this scene:

swimmingly well

Now I'm a happier camper because my husband arrived safe and sound, although very tired last week. I thought the moment he walked through the door would never come! I felt the worst for our French cat, Mopsy, who had been confined in her little cat carrier for about 36 hours with no food, water, or a chance to pee! Poor thing! When Yann finally flew into Miami, he expected to just get his bags, breeze through customs and then hop in the rental car and head to Sarasota. But they kept him sitting and waiting in customs for 3 1/2 hours! And they knew he had an animal with him that really needed to get out of that bag, but they didn't give him much sympathy. So, when he came to my house I had the litter pan all set up for her and I've never seen a cat pee for that long. Poor baby.

Anyways, we have been having lots of fun since he came. Baby classes (actually, natural childbirth education class), feeling baby moving like crazy in my stomach, baby shower (he just showed up at the end for a few minutes), boating, swimming, eating out a lot, and shopping for baby and for a good pair of flip flops for Yann.

We are quite comfortable at his parents vacant condo. We've moved my dog over here and are working with him and the cat to help them get along. It's going well, but he gets upset every time she walks in front of his food dish. He thinks she trying to steal his food. How do we deal with this issue, anyone?? We put his food in the closet and left the door open a crack. God forbid she ever wanders into that closet.

Baby shower was awesome. I love seeing all my old friends! (But let me get back to the shower later.) It was actually a good idea to have it the same weekend as my 10 year high school reunion. This way, I already had a lot of friends coming into town for that. The cocktail hour for the reunion was on Friday night, so Yann and I had dinner with some friends first and then we walked down to the bar where it was. Let me tell you, the guy from our class that planned this event, did not do a good job. It was so disorganized: no one really knew what time it began or even what bar it was at. There was supposed to be a dinner the next night, but some people hadn't heard about a dinner and no one knew where it was either. So, as Yann and I go into this two floor bar it's insanely loud, filled with very loud bass and club music. Baby started going crazy, moving a lot. Then, we went upstairs to where this reunion was to be held. First thing I couldn't help but notice was the extremely thick and grey haze of cigarette smoke filing the entire room. Also, as I looked around at the general population of the bar I realized that only about 40% of the people there graduated high school with me. The rest of the crowd was a random mix of cigarette puffing, beer guzzling old dudes playing pool. So, we literally stayed for 10 minutes and high tailed it outa there.

Back to the shower: I need to post the pics from the shower, but I don't have my transfer cord thingy for the digital camera handy. So, it was really great to see so many friends I haven't seen for a long time and the food and gifts were so good. We got lots of baby gear, people! Loot! It blows my mind how generous people are. Loads of cute outfits and all kinds of soft blankies and jingly stuffed animals. A car seat!! A "Stationary entertainer", which is basically a big colorful mess of plastic made in China, but darn it if all babies don't love to sit in those things! After everyone left, Yann and I sat in the pile of gifts and began cutting off tags to wash things and it really hit us that we are about to become parents in just a few weeks. It was an exciting feeling, although a little scary! I've been so focused on the pregnancy and learning about the delivery, that I hadn't been thinking enough about after all that! Well, I guess I can start dreaming about that now, because I'm at about 33 weeks and the midwives say any time after 37 weeks I could safely deliver the baby with them.

My other favorite part of the weekend was when my friend Abby, the very lovely and talented photographer of Liga Photography, took maternity photos of Yann and I. I cannot wait to see these pictures. and post some of them here! She showed my a few, just on her camera, after the shoot and I think they will be amazing, as her photos always are.

We are going up to my cousin's wedding this weekend in Chicago and I will be back with news and photos from the Windy City!

3...2....1.....!!!!!

Hey there! Just a quick thought that just came to my mind about my blog and the infrequency I've been posting since coming home from France: It's all about quality, not quantity, right?. Whew, that makes me feel better! Wow, I almost cannot believe that I haven't seen Yann since June 5th. That's the longest we've gone wthout seeing eachother since we've met. We've done the two months apart thing twice but this is just craziness. So, in 3 days, on Sept 1st my French knight in shining armor will come riding into my driveway, in a cheap rental car, to sweep me off my feet. Oh, wait he won't be able to lift my 8 month pregnant butt very far off the ground. Oh well, that's the image I have floating around in my head right now! It's kind of fun, this whole not seeing your husband for a long time thing. I mean, it's like, what will his hair be like, will he have grown a beard? Will he look like a wild seafaring mate from Newcastle, England? (I say that because he has been aboard his ship there in the port for the last 3 weeks working.) Poor guy would call me from work and tell me he hadn't been able to have a shower on his ship for 3 days because they had run out of hot water. Wow, the sailor life is not for me.


So, when he gets here hopefully we can lay around and just do a bunch of nothin'. Such as, movie watching, hand holding, baby name thinking, cooking, and lots of talking!! The last, being something that I miss probably the most right now. We can talk on the phone for about 20 minutes and then we both get distracted and go kind of ADD on eachother. But when you're face to face it's harder for that to happen.

So, is it crazy that I planned my baby shower on the same day as my 10 year high school reunion?! Because I'm beginning to think that was a little much for one day. But i did it that way, because it's on Labor Day weekend and I knew a few very good friends would be in town already for the reunion. So, I'm kind of trying to kill a couple birds with one (busy) stone, you know? Well, I bought a dress for the baby shower and because it was not on sale I tried to think if it will still fit me and look good after the baby is born. I think it will. Then the dress I'm wearing to the reunion is a little black number from my pre-baby belly days and amazingly enough it still fits, just a bit tighter. It's made out of a black stretchy material; that's my saving grace.


The day before my shower my great and talented friend Abby from Liga Photography is giving me such a fun gift. The gift of a Mommy Glam session. Can you guess what that's all about? Basically, it's a photo shoot where you get all dressed up and done up like the hot momma you are and she takes studio pics of you. And she makes the moms-to-be look so cute, like pregnant super models. :) Can't wait to post those pics for you on here!


Here is a watercolor painting that I did over the last several days. I've never done any paintings like this. But the baby's nursery, that is yet to exist, may need some wall art someday. And since greens seem to be emerging as the color for her room, I went with a green background. I wanted to incorporate some patterns from fabric, since that's the medium I've been the most obsessed with lately. So, I added in some paisley patterning because on her crib bedding there is paisley. I think I will do 2 more smaller ones to compliment this one. What do you think about it- Do I have a future as a watercolorist?



And a detail shot:




Here is a picture of what I call my Friday Night Apron. I had this material for about a year and I kept meaning to make a sexy, retro apron out of it. So, finally! I love that it's reversible so that on one side you have more blues and greens and then on the other you have your girlie pinks. I just got my custom labels mailed to me, so I think I wil make a few of these and put them up in the esty shop, that is sitting empty and unopened right now! Please notice that little adorable pocket (that is fully lined, people!) with the rickrack.






Next item up:

The Swing Bag, finished yesterday and I'm in love! Umm, how darling is this fabric combo? That fabric was just in at my local sewing/quilting shop. I think it makes for a great tote bag and I made it reinforced with a thick layer of canvas in between the lining fabric and the outer fabric; I just like the feel of a sturdier bag. The sash bow you can leave on or untie and even use as a belt or scarf. Today, I cleaned up my sewing room (aka: my mom's dining room) and stored all my supplies because with Yann coming and the baby shower here at the house, I needed to clean up my crafting junk. With all these projects, I think I got out most of my crafting urges for at least a week or two.





Check out the lining material. It's actually reversible too, but I just love the outside fabric so much, I don't think I'll ever reverse it!



And a final parting shot:

My dog sleeping on my bed as I sit here and write a blog post. I love him. I really, really love him.

growing every day...

Well, here I am in all my big bellied glory. I'm definitely getting bigger, because I've been keeping track of my weight gain and the number on the scale is slowly rising. In fact, it's a little shocking to see a number on there I've never seen before! But it's all good! I'm feeling pretty good too. Into the 3rd trimester and I've begun my childbirth education classes, which are quite interesting and I'm learning tons. The more I learn about natural childbirth, the more it makes so much sense to me, if a pregnancy is not complicated. Which, thank God, mine seems not to be complicated. I'm so looking forward to doing this thing drug free and fully aware of the 'sensations' my body is going to go through. It will definitely be a test of my pain tolerance! Things are just ticking along and Yann arrives here in 13 days!! Yes, I will be one happy girl when I see him pull into the driveway to give me a big hug. That is if he recognizes me!




I made my diaper bag finally. The sewing pattern was crazy complicated for me, so I was invited into my local sewing shop, that I LOVE, and they helped me out, like they always do. It's amazing how much they will help you for free; well, after you purchase a big, expensive Baby Lock machine! I am going to take another bag class pretty soon and we are going to make an Amy Butler pattern. So, here is my diaper bag below, and a close up of the fabric. I wanted something not too loud or 'pink'.






Here are some more market bags I've made recently. I found a great web site that sells adorable patterns of oilcloth fabric for reasonable prices. I though these would be more sturdy than the fabric market totes, and if they get wet from a grocery spill, I can just wipe them off. I got these really cool prints in orange and red and then below I have the other print, vintage strawberries!






Also, I'm excited that I have a new little project going on. When I arrived in Marseille, France, I knew no one besides my hubby and his few guy friends. I had to reach out to make new friends and through the magic of the internet I found an awesome ex-pat/English speaking group of people on the web site Meetup.com. I went to my first Meetup within the first week of being in France and the people I connected with in that group remained my very close friends while I was in France. I still keep in touch with them and I consider a couple of them to be lifelong friends.

So, when I moved back here to my hometown, I had friends and family here, but I didn't have any friends that had young babies or children. So, I looked on Meetup.com and joined a group called Hip Mamas. I hadn't even attended any of their playgroups yet, because it may be weird to show up pregnant and childless! But anyway, last week I got an email from the group organizer who said she was moving and this group needed a new organizer to set up Meetups. So, I decided to take over the group, or else it would have shut down. I'm really excited about it and there are 40 moms in the group, with children from infant to 5 years old. I have already set up some meetups for the rest of August, including story time at the public library and a classical lullaby concert, where a narrator reads story, while a quartet of musicians plays along to the story line in the background. How cool does that sound? So, I am really excited about meeting new young moms, like I will be in jut a few months. It feels really good to reach out to this whole new group of people, who are potential great friends. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. ok, then, for now bye!

26 days!

26 days. That is how many more days I have to wait until I see my husband, Yann. When he comes here on September 1st, it will have been 3 long long months since I've seen him. Let me tell you, I am over this long distance husband thing! Especially being 7 months pregnant, it makes it all the more difficult. I won't have seen him for a whole trimester so I am hoping to shock him (in a good way) when he sees me, with my big belly, which is growing slowly. So, I'm hoping for selfish reasons that August goes by quickly so I can be reunited with my baby's daddy!

And I guess I haven't been so motivated to write on the blog because I feel like I am in this general holding pattern of 'waiting'. Waiting for Yann, for the baby, and to figure out where we should live. I have the following little problem in the back of my head: We are seriously thinking about buying a house here in Sarasota, because the prices are pretty good right now with the market. However, many people are saying that real estate has hit the 'bottom' and the house prices are about to begin to rise again. So, now would be a good time, however, the one we want is on a short sale. I thought a short sale was about the same as a foreclosure, but they are 2 different things and the short sale is the bigger headache to deal with. Sometimes you can put an offer in and have to wait up to 6 weeks to hear back an answer from the bank. Then, sometimes they won't answer at all, if the offer is too low. So, we will see what happens on this one. An investor group came in and bid higher than us, so we just have to wait and see. If we did get the house, it would be an amazing deal.

So, if we don't get the house, we really need to find a rental house or apartment. But we want to be able to rent month-to- month, so that if we do make an offer on a house and it gets accepted, we will be able to get out of an apartment lease. It is so hard to find just a month-to-month lease though! And a furnished one at that, which would be the best. All my stuff is still up in NC in storage.

I feel like I can do nothing about all this now, but as soon as Yann comes, and the baby is almost here, things will get crazy for us very quickly if we have no place to call home! Let's just call this, "the calm before the storm!"

But I am a patient person and can wait. In the mean time, today I sewed a baby sling/wrap thingy. I saw on a web site a wrap called the Sleepy Wrap and it cost about $38.00 plus shipping. Well, I googled the measurements of it and saw that others had recreated it. So, I went to the fabric store and bought 20 dollars worth of nice stretch jersey fabric and made 2! So, for $10 dollars I made this thing and it was 'sew' easy. I am going to give one to my good friend Nan, http://www.ecoculinaire.blogspot.com/ who is preggie now with her second.

We are in the hot, sticky summer doledrums of August here. We were up in Cashiers, NC the other week for my dad's 60th birthday and my 28th. It was so nice to actually feel chilled in the evenings. I love wearing a sweater out to dinner in late July. Thank god for places of refuge from the Florida heat! We had such a great time and my aunts and grandma came out from California to celebrate with us. I also had the chance to go into Asheville a couple times and visit some friends who I hadn't seen for a very long time. I also peeked over the fence at my old house that we sold a year ago. Wow, the current owner is seriously lacking in curb appeal! Basically, we had that house in amazing shape when we sold it and now it looks like a redneck paradise! Oh well for them.

I had a good midwife's appointment yesterday too. All looks pretty good with the little bundle. She is measuring just a little bit smaller than the average for 27 weeks, however I think she just may be a small girl and I think it's ok. But I re-doubled my efforts to chug some whole organic milk everyday and eats lots of good foods, as much as I please! It's going to be hard to go back to 1% milk after she is born. I received a check list of supplies I need to begin to gather for the home birth. So, that is exciting and the midwife will come to our home for our 36 week appointment to make sure she knows exactly where we live and to check out the place. (The 'place' being my parents house. How nice are they to let me use it? Their bathroom is huge and has an amazing large tub, which may come in handy during the whole process!)

ok, well, hope to be back sooner rather than later and have something else of interest for ya!