Progress! It's McBaby

It's been a while but life has been hectic. We have new pics to post and suddenly my belly has popped big time...well, it feels big to ME anyway!

We had our ultrasound and got to see the baby from the waist up (so we didn't see the family jewels to ruin the surprise).  Everything is perfectly on track and healthy! Hurray.

So, the newest development is that we have decided to call the baby, "McBaby" until he/she is born. We are sick of saying "he or she" or "Knox or Landon" so we've decided to go with the generic McBaby until we know one way or another. For uncle J-Ho, "Huckleberry McBaby" is the extended version. It's super fun and convenient actually. 

More to come!

How much bigger can they get?

I mean really??? Are breasts that were once a sensible A-cup meant to be a D-cup? I really don't believe so. Furthermore, it's not sensible to have to continue to purchase bras. Additionally, it's rather uncomfortable physically and embarrassing because that's the first thing people who have not seen me in a while tend to notice...my huge boobs.

Please don't let them deflate after breastfeeding, please don't let them deflate after breastfeeding, please don't let them deflate after breastfeeding...

Not 100% sure...

...but I do believe I felt the baby move today, on Halloween! I just got done walking this ENORMOUS hill we have by our house, up and back down again, and my breathing was finally starting to slow down and I felt a tickle, a flutter if you will, in my uterus, just above my pubic bone (a visual for all the ladies).  It wasn't a huge kick or jump, just a little tiny flutter. I know it seems early, but I feel like I know my body pretty well and it wasn't just another stretchy pain in my uterus. So, call me crazy if you will...maybe it was the spirits Halloween, but I think it was little Knox or Landon trying to trick or treat.

We have our midwife!

On Monday Knox and I visited South Coast Midwifery and met Lorri and Angela, the two midwifes that do home births. They're both tremendously qualified (nurse practitioners AND certified nurse midwifes) and very spiritual. Three or four people I knew gave ringing endorsements for the staff at SCM and as soon as we arrived, we felt well taken care of. The package that we purchased includes a LOT...pre-natal visits for my entire 3rd trimester (although I'll continue with my visits at Kaiser in case there are any complications), 3 pre-delivery classes (baby basics, non-hospital birth info and breastfeeding), anything and everything you could imagine for the birth itself (water birth, home visits prior to labor, all of the necessary equipment, you name it) and 6 weeks of postnatal care for me after the baby's born. Once they're at the birth with us, should anything happen, they're both qualified to administer IV's and medications, and do any sort of medical procedure needed short of a C-section.

While we were waiting, they showed us a portion of "The Business of Being Born," a documentary all about the horrible state of hospital births in the US...the cycle of inducing labor, epidurals and C-sections. One in three women have C-sections in hospitals. Less than 1% of SCM's mom's ever need to be transferred to the hospital, leaving a pretty clear indication that the majority of C-sections that take place are not needed. Another fun fact: the majority of C-sections in the U.S. take place at 4pm and 10pm, when doctors want to get home for dinner or don't want to invest in the all-nighter. They tell the moms that they're not progressing as they should and for the "good of the baby," they'd better do a C-section. PLEASE go watch this poignant documentary.

At SCM they believe that "the way you live your life is the way you birth your babies." That makes so much sense to me and really gave me a fresh perspective on this whole process... I CAN do a natural, at home, spiritual birth because that's how I live my life. Please don't fear that I'm diluting myself into believing that it's going to be easy, but I do know that I can handle it. My mother in-law, who had 4 vaginal births, did 2 of them all natural and just KNEW that it was the right. After her first two births, she determined that the drugs altered her experience and did the last 2 natural. After giving birth 4 times, I'd say she has some experience and we should all listen!

So if you're interested, check out their website: http://www.southcoastmidwifery.com/

13 week pics on the way! My uterus is undeniably getting bigger!!!

Blog changes

Hi everyone if you tried leaving comments and had no success it's my fault. However I have made the proper changes, so comment away!

Dinner last night

Peaches and Potato Chips. Terrific!!!

The cravings are getting more and more odd :)

Being Pregnant's Very Odd!

Mama Jazz here...

I thought I'd post some words myself, since Daddy Jazz has been doing most of the posting thus far.

Being pregnant is amazing. Simply incredible and utterly bizarre. I feel the incredible changes each day and see my waist line slowly but surely disappearing. It's all welcome (well, except for the nausea). I love each new feeling and love that it's all happening so perfectly. Knox is super excited and that makes me feel SO good! I can't imagine doing this without the complete support of my rockin' husband.

I'm almost 14 weeks along, which means that the baby's about 3 inches long and weighs about an ounce. You wouldn't imagine that something so small could wreak such havoc on the body, but it certainly does. Call me naive and very new at this, but explain to me again how my stomach will fit under the top of my ribcage in about 5 months?! I don't get where my intestines are supposed to fit!!

Despite me feeling like I've been hungover for the past 3 months, we've had the mental fortitude to develop a plan. We have bedding and a theme picked out...nuetral sex colors of course, full of nature! We don't want to find out the sex until the baby's born...no need for the gender inequities to start right away.

We've decided on home birth with a midwife. We're starting the midwife interview process but I think we have a clear front runner. Her name's Lorri Walker and we meet with her on Monday. She comes highly recommended to us by a couple of folks that I trust.

Home birth means no drugs and that's just fine with me because the idea of a needle in my spinal column scares me more than the idea of pushing a watermelon through a tennis ball. Bring on the pain!

We're doing some work on our condo in preparation for Baby with the help of my mom and dad at Thanksgiving. We have quite a bit to do actually...but it's all fun stuff!

We have names picked out already...yes, we had them before we even got married!

Boy: Knox Robert (after dad's nickname. middle name is after my dad and our grandfathers)
Girl: Landon Marie (Knox's middle name and my middle name, which also happens to be my maternal grandmother's name)

Due date: April 27, 2009 (7 days after dad's birthday)

The grandparents and extended grandparents are all VERY excited and I love it. I guess we've made them wait plenty long for this!

So that's all for now...fighting off nausea the best way I know how and still teaching yoga!

Thanks for reading!
Tobs

The baby's first political stand

This one makes mom very happy...verrry happy.

Baby's first art work

Heartbeat

We are officially live with the blog!! Yesterday October 15th, 2008 we went in for a check-up, pretty painless, no lab work, no co pay, no pelvic exams, everyone was able to keep their clothes on. Dr. Terry pulled out her handy dandy Doppler instrument to make sure there was a little life, with a little itty bitty heart beating in Tobi's uterus. To our joy we heard our child's heartbeat for the first time, awesome!!

Tobi is in good health, I have her running 15 miles a day, only kidding folks. As you can tell from the pictures she hasn't changed much, she is as beautiful as the day we meet. Doc said she wont really start to show until 5 months. We're hoping the nausea will cease and disses.

In the meantime, we keep the fridge stocked with random juices, pickles, beer (for papa) and any other totally weird foods mom wants. The freezer always has mint chocolate chip ice cream (Breyers). Pantry always has spaghetti-o's and saltines for nausea. We're totally set.

Our Progress

Welcome

We would like to welcome all our friends and family to our baby blog. Some of you have known for a while now that Tobias has a little bun in the oven and some of you are just now hearing the great news!!! We decided sometime in May to give it a go, we heard many horror stories of folks trying for months with no success, but fortunately for Tobias and me we hit the nail on the head and conceived about two weeks ago, we think it was August 4th...TMI...I know, but we love you all and want to share in this experience and let the love of all our friends and family help usher in our beautiful new baby...wow that's crazy!!! I'm having a moment, bare with me.......So as I write this Tobi is currently 4 weeks in, the embryo has started to form and in about a week the babies little heart will begin to beat..wow...another moment!!! Before we know it, we will all be blessed with a new son, daughter, grandchild, niece, nephew, cousin or just a bundle of love to spoil when mom and dad go out for date night. Send your love and inspiration into the universe as we begin this journey filled with love.


Tobias & Knox