Soap On A Rope

Only 90 days left!!! I can't believe it!!! Today I officially begin the third trimester and time is really starting to fly by. All the web sites say the baby should be about 2.5 lbs and 15 inches long and by the looks of my belly button, he is taking up every spare inch in there.

My belly button has taken on a life of its own lately and has begun to poke out like a turtle coming out of its shell. This is not attractive. I had heard of women getting "outies" during pregnancy but had never seen it first hand. Lord, I hope it goes back in once the baby comes out! Instead of a button it looks more like the beginings of another appendage... maybe I'm growing a third pinky toe.

As the baby grows, and with him my belly, I'm begining to really miss some of the things I've always taken for granted, like:

1) Having a waist
2) Seeing my feet
3) Putting on pants while standing up (being front heavy makes this a daily challenge and nearly caused a disaster in the maternity dressing room that had a curtain instead of a door- I nearly fell out of the room with my pants around my ankles)
4) Picking up something off the ground (my favorite is dropping the soap and starring at it wondering if I've washed enough of my body to call it good)
5) Reaching a glass in the back of the kitchen cabinet (the belly has probably taken a good six inches off my reach when I'm smashed against the counter)
6) Kissing Ross without rubbing bellies and having to stick my rear out
7) Wearing a belt (how does Santa do it)
8) Wearing anything without an elastic waist band
9) Tying my shoes (so that's why they invented velcro)
10) Sleeping on my stomach
11) Sleeping with one pillow and not inside a six-pillow nest
12) Shaving my legs
13) Sqeezing out of a bathroom stall (especially the tiny airplane bathroom)

But then again, being pregant does have its perks too, such as:

1) Getting to take as many potty breaks as I want during boring staff meetings
2) Getting to sit shotgun
3) Not having to help Ross chop or stack firewood
4) Not having to lift ANYTHING
5) And of course, getting to feel every little kick and squirm (although this many not be a perk for long as he gets bigger and stronger)

Regardless, we are getting so excited to meet the little guy and will take the good with the bad. I just may need to invest in some soap on a rope in the meantime.

Pregnancy Stats
There are 90 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 190 days pregnant.
I am 6.2 months pregnant.

Mother's Day

Well I hit a couple of milestones today. The first is today is Mother's Day and it holds an even more special meaning for me this year and we await the arrival of Baby Tucci. The second is there are just 99 days left until his due date. That's right... we are down to double digits!!

I got back from Phoenix around 2 a.m. this morning after the UW softball team wrapped up the Pac-10 season. I hit the sack alone as Ross was on shift and was rudely awakened with a charlie horse in my calf around 9 a.m. Shortly thereafter I heard Rossi sneak in and he surprised me with a Mother's Day present- a beautiful lily plant in a pink ceramic pot and boy did that turn my morning around. I was thrilled and told him I wasn't sure if he was going to recognize Mother's Day since technically it's still just the two of us and he said "Of course we are celebrating. You are the mother of my child." Needless to say he got a lot of brownie points for that.

I had to head to work today as the softball team learned its postseason fate and found out that it's getting shipped out to Nebraska on Wednesday. It will be the team's third trip there in the last five years and a part of me is really excited since I know they have air conditioning in the press box!! Normally this is one of many factors I consider when judging another facility but this year it has become even more of a bonus, especially as it was pushing 105 degrees in Arizona over the weekend. I'm convinced the kiddo went through a growth spurt because my oven was cranked to high.

Ross picked me up this afternoon and we met up with his mom, sister, niece and nephews to play in the park. We had a great time and I can't wait until next year when our little one will be trying to keep up with his cousins. I promise ours won't be the kid in the monkey harness like the little boy we saw today!!


Here are a couple shots of the parents to be. A special thanks to my mom-in-law for the cute non-maternity shirt in these pics.

Pregnancy Stats
There are 99 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 181 days pregnant.
I am 5.9 months pregnant.

A Soccer Ball?!!

I checked in with some of my mom-be-be web sites and read that at 25 weeks my uterus is as big as a soccer ball. Are you kidding me?! That seems really big, especially with three months to go. I keep wondering, how much bigger is this thing going to get? The size of a basketball ... a yoga ball?!!

I guess I should be thankful that I have so much room available for junior to stretch his legs (and knees, elbows and fists). He's been so active the last couple of weeks- it seems like he's just flailing around in there. Sometimes I swear he's doing jumping jacks or something.

Recently he has developed two new ways to pass the time. The first is giving me a swift kick to the bum. That's right- it's usually a direct hit and boy does that get my attention! And here I thought the worst kicks would be to my ribs.

The second is a form of peek-a-boo with Ross. Whenever the baby is kicking a lot, I invite Ross to feel. As soon as he puts his hand on my belly- complete stillness. Ross usually waits 5-10 minutes before giving up and then, almost without fail, another hard kick or two. I think the baby enjoys playing this game with daddy.

This also happens when my belly begins jumping around and alert Ross to take a look. He will stare at my belly for a long time without seeing anything, then, as soon as he looks away, a huge movement... I can tell the baby is delighting in this and it looks like the Tucci household is going to have another jokster on its hands.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 102 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 178 days pregnant.
I am 5.8 months pregnant.

He Kicked Me!!!

For weeks we've been waiting for our little guy to kick. All of the books say moms-to-be should be able to feel kicking as early as 18 weeks and here I am 23 weeks and I've got nothing! Ross was growing increasingly impatient and would ask me every morning if I've felt anything yet and every time I'd have to say no. We knew he was moving based on the acrobatics he was doing during our 20-week ultrasound but his movements weren't strong enough for me to feel anything. I had been feeling those "flutters" everyone talks about every now and then but not frequently enough to feel 100% confident that it was the baby. I kept thinking, maybe it's indigestion... maybe it's gas... maybe it's that burrito I ate at the airport (probably not the best decision I've made in terms of travel cuisine).

Last Sunday night I flew home from a softball series in the Bay Area and got home about 9:30 p.m. We climbed into bed and watched the news like always and just as we were about the roll over to go to sleep I felt this strong "THUMP, THUMP THUMP" on my left side. I shot up and said "What was that?! I think he's kicking me!!"

Ross couldn't get his hands on my belly fast enough and sure enough, one hard kick. It was so cool! We sat there for probably 10 minutes waiting for another kick and couldn't feel a thing but were so excited to feel his first kicks. We had almost fallen asleep when it happened again- "THUMP, THUMP, THUMP". That resulted in 10 more minutes of me practically holding my breath trying to hold still enough for Ross to feel him again but the baby had stopped for the night.

We laid there with big grins on our faces and talked about what he must be doing in there and what kind of person he'd grow up to be. I think we narrowed it down to three categories: 1) The next David Beckham- soccer superstar, 2) the next Jean Claude Van Damme- martial artist phenom and action film star, or 3) the next Michael Flatley- Irish dance champion, most know for his starring role in Riverdance- (many of you have seen Ross' dead-on impersonation of Mr. Flatley and have laughed your butts off). I think Ross is pulling for the martial artist.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 118 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 162 days pregnant.
I am 5.3 months pregnant.

The Ever Expanding Belly

Okay, you've all been asking for a photo of my belly so I'm going to be brave and post a photo taken at 19 weeks and then today (22 weeks). Please excuse my spandex outfit- no this is not what I came home from the maternity store with- it is my workout outfit. My sister says that a person my age should NEVER be in lycra but cut me some slack. It's comfortable, my neighbors only see me in it if they get a sneak peek on garbage day and imagine how big my belly might be by now if I wasn't doing these morning workouts.

Ross and I had our monthly OB visit this morning and everything was normal. It had actually been five weeks since my last appointment because my doc had been on vacation and I was dreading getting weighed since I knew this ever expanding belly was not just full of air and was actually going to weight something. The question was how much?!

When I got to the digital scale, it flashed 350 lbs which is either the maximum weight it can register or it's there to make us prego ladies feel better about ourselves. I have to confess it took me a few weigh-ins before I realized this was not the weight of her last patient (I began to think she was running a gastric bypass clinic on the side or something).

So there I was at the scale and I asked Ross to hold my purse because God knows that would be what, a half a pound?! I then took off my coat and shoes and looked at the nurse and asked "What else can I take off?" She said "Honey, you're pregnant. You can get naked if you want." Well considering the scale was in the main hallway I decided to keep the rest of my clothes on and stepped onto the scale.... 164!!

When the doctor came into the room I asked her how much weight I'd gained total and she said eight pounds in 22 weeks. Not bad I thought. Then I asked how much I had gained from my last appointment and she gave me a coy smile and said "most of it." And I said "What does 'most of it' mean?" Turns out "most of it" means six pounds in five weeks. Woo-wee that sounds like a lot. Maybe the baby is already five or six pounds and they have miscalculated my due date by about three months... okay, maybe not.

When the doctor stepped out for a moment I grabbed the paper measuring tape left on the counter and told Ross "Lets measure my belly. As long as it fits in this thing I think I'm doing okay." Well I unraveled the tape measured and began to put it around my belly and it went only 2/3 of the way around. We both burst out laughing. It turns out the measuring tape is there to measure the length of the uterus, not the girth of mommy bellies. After two loops around we determined my belly is 37 inches! Okay, that makes me officially bigger than my husband with four months to go! The human body is certainly an amazing thing...

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 126 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 154 days pregnant.
I am 5 months pregnant.

David Copperfield, Fashion Designer

Okay, I finally did it... I bought some maternity clothes today. I'm days within the five month mark and there is pretty much nothing in my closet that I can button or zip up. I told Ross this morning that I thought it was time to bite the bullet and get some new clothes and he said "Ya, you think?" I had to laugh. What, he didn't think I was puling off wearing my jeans unbuttoned with my white belly peeking out? Okay, I didn't really think I was pulling that look off either but more than anything it was just increasingly uncomfortable.

He took me to the maternity store at the outlet mall in town because I hate spending money on clothes so cheaper is better. Since we've become home owners I get fired up to buy things like base board trim, door knobs, even fertilizer, not clothes.

I tried on about 20 things and ended up walking away with 5 or 6 items including a pair of black slacks for work and jeans for play. I must say, MATERNITY PANTS ARE AMAZING!!! They fit me now and if I pull on the waist band it expands on forever. It was like magic pants or something. Do regular women know about these?!! I mean you can go from a size 8 to 14 in the same pair of pants!! And they were actually cute and looked like normal pants, not like fabric hanging from a large rubber band. It's mind boggling.

The best part of the trip was probably the prop the store had left in each dressing room. At first I wasn't sure what this strange, white, circular, puffy, strappy thing was but then it hit me... IT'S A FAKE BELLY!!! How funny!! Women can actually strap this bump around their waists to see how their maternity clothes are going to look months from now. I tried to get Ross to try it on but he would have nothing to do with it. What a party pooper.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 130 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 150 days pregnant.
I am 4.9 months pregnant.

IT’S A BOY!!!!

We had a routine ultrasound on March 26 and learned the wonderful news that the baby is healthy and that it is a BOY!!!! I guess than means I can throw all of the wives tales out the window (although the Chinese calendar predicted a boy but hey, as Ross keeps reminding me, those things have a 50-50 chance of being right anyway).

Ross was so excited to learn he was having a son. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy. We even took a snap shot of the dad-to-be with the baby’s profile on the monitor… their first picture.:) Ross made sure to count all 20 fingers and toes and says he can’t wait to start reading him the IFSTA handbook- which for those of you not in the fire circle, it’s the equivalent of the firefighter’s bible.



I officially reached the halfway point of the pregnancy earlier this week and suddenly realized that I only have 140 days to go. That doesn’t seem like much time at all before our son arrives. Nine months seemed like a lifetime away but now with 4.5 months to go I’m starting to realize that he’ll be here before we know it- ready or not.

Over the last couple of weeks the baby has gone through some sort of growth spurt because my belly is huge and I can’t fit into any of my pants. I’ve been left wearing all of my work pants unbuttoned with longer shirts to disguise my predicament but I’m dangerously close to breaking down and buying some maternity pants. For some reason I thought I’d be one of those women who could wear regular clothes right up until the end… WRONG!! Wait, do those women even exist? Maybe I’ve been in denial or maybe it was just wishful thinking, I don’t know. What I do know is that it has become increasingly more challenging to tie my shoes and it makes me wonder how am I ever going to do this come August?!! I see a lot of slip-on sandals in my future this summer.

My folks were up for nine days at the end of March and we were able to sneak them into the end of the ultrasound appointment to see the baby. Needless to say, they are thrilled!!

I took my mom to a couple of baby stores at the outlet mall near our home “just to look” and we came home with a couple of bags of baby clothing. The first couple of stores we went in to I was a little disappointed at the lack of cute clothes for boys. Then we walked into the last store and they had an entire section dedicated to firefighter themed clothing. For those of you that know my mom it goes without saying that she pretty much cleaned out the joint and I think she bought one of every outfit possible. She even bought two of her favorites in different sizes so he wouldn’t grow out of them too quickly.

You’re now up-to-date on Baby Tucci. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 136 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 144 days pregnant.
I am 4.7 months pregnant.