Mommy and me during Passover

Here we are after two straight days of cooking more than enough food for the 17 people arriving shortly for the first seder. Here are some other pics.

Babymoon - Lake Minewaska!

Danny and I went on a little babymoon this week in Beacon, New York (about 1.25 hours north). The week started off with a series of misadventures.

Day 1: The car stalled out over the weekend so I had to bring it in/buy $600 in parts first thing Monday morning, the contractors were late to arrive, once we finally got on the road it was raining, so I found that Avatar 3D was playing on the way to our destination, only when we got to the theater it wasn't playing, we tried walking around the mall, only it wasn't really a mall, so we headed up to Beacon, only the owner was still in the house/cleaning up, we came in anyway, I took a nap, and then we salvaged the evening by making a yummy dinner and watching 2 hours of tv.

Day 2: We slept in, had a nice breakfast, and decided that despite the rain we would be adventurous and go on a little hike. We drove down to the "trail head" but there was no parking and lots of signs that said, "no trespassing," so we looked for another entry and found it, parked, signed into the little book, and walked about 3 feet into the sanctuary when we saw a sign that said "closed until March 31...bald eagle nesting area." So we headed home and watched movies/cuddled the rest of the day while it rained and rained.

Day 3: We woke up and the sun was shining! We relaxed in the morning and then headed out to New Patz/Lake Minewaska, where Danny had been before and thought there would be really pretty hiking. We found a possible trail on line - a little over 2 miles, easy, pretty views, and were on our way! The drive was beautiful, the hike was perfect, and we had the best burritos of our lives from MexiCali Blues: http://www.mexicali-blue.com. Really, they were so good :) It was a perfect day!

Day 4: We got a bit of a late start on the day, but the weather was looking like it was going to hold up, so we headed to a nearby state park for another "perfect hike" - only, there were some road closures, and we couldn't find the trail head, then we found it but didn't know it, then we looped around a bunch, realized we had found it, but it was getting late and the weather wasn't looking good. We headed home, relaxed, and took a late afternoon stroll across the Newburgh Bridge over the Hudson River as the sunset. And Danny made me laugh until I literally peed in my pants...Later, after I sliced my finger cutting an eggplant, he made me dinner :)

Central Park at 31 weeks

Today, at 31 weeks on the dot, I scheduled a nice relaxing "play" day. I went to see a rehearsal performance of Pinchas Zuckerman at Lincoln Center in the morning, had lunch at Whole Foods, went to a midwifery appointment, did a quick work call and then met Rebecca in Central Park for a little walk/photo shoot.

Eco-Shabbaton and Birthing Center Class

This weekend we participated in a little shabbaton at our local shul. My counselor from when I lived in Israel ('96-'97) was the guest speaker - it was great seeing him - and we met a lot of really nice people. I felt VERY pregnant... Basically, it's super obvious that I'm pregnant these days, so rather than introduce themselves first people would come up to me as say, "When are you due?" or "Would you like to sit down?" or "Can I get you a glass of water?" It's kind of nice as my feet are beginning to hurt (quite a bit actually) if I stand for too long and I could always use a glass of water, but I do feel a bit large and helpless - and I think it's much too early to start feeling that way. We'll see. I did manage to do quite a bit of walking last week (the weather was beautiful) and I'll attempt some yoga today. Must stay active...

Oh, before I forget - Danny came home with three boxes of Girl Scout Cookies last week...oh my! 1.5 boxes already down...not sure where to hide them from myself?

Yesterday we went to a little "intro class to the Birthing Center." It's a mandatory 4.5 hour class if you want to birth in the Birthing Center. It was fine, though it was a good reminder that I don't LOVE being in a room of pregnant women/first time parents talking about what could go wrong/how to avoid a C-section - too much angst/worry to get sucked into. I decided to space out a bit and write encouraging and positive thoughts in my journal. I even mapped out my "ideal" birth. I'm sure I'll look back on that a laugh a lot some day. Meanwhile, I'm content to visualize breathing XY out :)

10 weeks to go!

False Positive

Great news this week. XY and I don't have gestational diabetes - thank God! Back to eating a pint of coconut (vegan) ice cream every two days...well, maybe not such a good idea.

2.5 weeks ago I went in for my "Glucose Challenge Test" (I really liked the name)- or glucose screening test - where I fasted for 2 hours (no water), drank a glucose drink, and then had my blood drawn an hour later. No problem. Only, there was a giant snow storm the next day so my blood sample was never picked up by the lab and I had to go back in and do the whole thing over again. No problem. I went in, did it again, only - I failed! Well, maybe I didn't "fail" the challenge, but my results indicted the need for another test - the "Glucose Tolerance Test" - not as good of a name.

This test required me to fast for 8-12 hours, have my blood drawn, drink a glucose drink, and then have my blood drawn every hour for the next three hours. Besides the boredom and the nausea (they don't let you leave the lab in case you puke or faint - makes sense), it wasn't that bad. I made friends with the phlebotomist (again, good name) and people watched and tried to make the best of things (mostly by fantasizing about the tofu lasagna in my fridge at home).

Lucky for us - we got the results back yesterday and all is well - it was merely a false positive.

Growing and Growing....

Well, we're a few days late, but here is the latest bump pic. I tell you - the camera does not do this little guy justice - I am HUGE. And I have almost 3 months to go. Alas, we're just about to enter week 29 and I'm doing well. The cankles are starting to form, but I can still do all of the "first trimester" yoga poses. I still wake up hungry, but I'm not eating as much mid-morning chocolate. Complete strangers can tell that I'm pregnant, but no one gets up for me in the subway. I'm excited to meet XY - but I'm also happy he's doing well/cooking inside. All's well :)