Yes, as crazy as it seems, Baby Buddha is scheduled to make his debut in seven weeks. My girlfriends Kiley and Jennifer threw an awesome baby shower (click for pictures) last weekend, complete with brunch and mimosas. After three baby showers, we have enough onesies, blankets, and burp cloths to last us for quite a while…or at least I hope we do. I’m starting to get the impression that when it comes to baby gear, you can never have too many of anything.
Greg and I have been taking Bradley classes for the past few weeks. Bradley advocates natural, husband coached childbirth. They stress that birth is a natural biological process that should rarely warrant medical intervention. My philosohphy is really closesly matched with Bradley- I figured that women have been having babies for thousands of years without pain medication, episiotomies, or even doctors so hopefully I’ll be able to do it too. Greg and I are both learning an unbelieveable amount about the birth process (in some cases more maybe than we wanted to know) but its incredibly empowering to understand what will be happening during Buddha’s birth and to connect with other couples that will be having babies at the same time that we are.
Buddha continues to get bigger every day; he’s started kicking me in the ribs which I really appreciate. Check out all of the latest belly picks to see how big our little boy is getting.
Greg has seriously slacked on the blogging front, so I thought I’d jump in and give an update. Tomorrow starts week 31 of the pregnancy; not long to go now! We are nearly finished with the nursery. The rocker and crib came in last week and the only piece missing is the rug that Greg’s parents are driving out after junior makes his appearance.
We are no closer to having a proper name for Buddha. Greg has a favorite and I have a favorite and so far neither of us have been able to persuade the other to change their mind. Our current strategy is to spend a week calling the baby one name or the other in hopes that it will grow on us, but we’re still at a stalemate. I have visions of my poor baby going to kindergarten as Buddha Toon.
Unfortunately there aren’t any new pics available at the moment; we have some updated belly pics and pics from Christmas, so hopefully I can talk the webmaster into posting those soon. Hope everyone is doing well.
Claire
Today my Mom and sister threw a beautiful baby shower for Buddha and me. They made tons of delicious food and the entire house was decorated for Christmas so it was very festive. So many people were very generous and brought beautiful gifts for Baby Buddha- toys, books, clothes to last till he’s ready for kindergarten, and a “What Would Buddha Do?” bumper sticker. The best part of the day was just seeing everyone that came, especially my friends from college Liz and Megs. We all had fun showing off our buddha bellys (even if they had to cheat and add pillows to theirs). I want to say thank you to everyone who helped prepare and everyone who came to celebrate with us from the bottom of my belly.
-Claire
Our first major pieces of baby equipment came last week. I started to put them together, scratched my head, cursed a little bit at the directions, and then continued. No wonder they tell you to figure out the car seat before you go to the hospital. We got the stroller and car seat working with each other. I should say INFANT car seat because I am finding out everything you buy for a baby needs to be replaced 6 months to a year later. I thought the wedding business was a money maker. It doesn’t come close to the baby business. I am very impressed with the Zippy and how well it fits with the Graco car seat. For those of you who have not looked at baby stuff before, just ignore the last sentence. Claire practiced strapping Lamby (childhood stuffed animal) into the car seat and I practiced doing 360’s with Lamby in the stroller. Good thing Lamby has a strong stomach.
According to the baby calendar my Mom got us, Buddha is due in 98 days. Gee, that seems soon. Claire is in the 25th week of her pregnancy this week. Click here to see all the belly pictures.
A couple of days ago, I had my first real interation with Buddha. Just about every night since Claire first felt the baby move, I put my hand on her belly and wait for him to kick. Usually, Claire tells me when he is kicking and I place my hand there. Sometimes I feel him kick and other times I don’t. A few days ago I decided I was going to take matters in my own hands. I didn’t want to wait for Claire to feel him kick. So, I got real close to her belly and spoke through my hand like a megaphone… “Daddy to Buddha.. Come in please.” Sure enough he kicked my hand. “Say again Buddha. Over.” Another kick. This went on for a couple of minutes with him kicking back after I said something. It was one of the coolest things to happen so far. Of course, this is nothing new for Claire. She feels Buddha moving around and kicking her all day and all night. But for me, it was an unreal experience.
Claire is in the 24th week of her pregnancy this week. Click here to see all the belly pictures.
This past weekend we got our Christmas tree. I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. Since we are going to be away forThanksgiving and two weeks for Christmas this year, we wanted to be able to enjoy our tree. Tonight we got the lights and ornament up and the house smells great.
This weeks belly picture was taken in front of our tree. It is the week 21 picture. Click here to see all the belly pictures.
Some of you already know that we already have a name for the baby while it’s growing inside Claire. We refer to the baby as Buddha (for obvious reasons). Yesterday, we breathed a sigh of relief when we found out at our 20 week ultrasound that Buddha was a boy. We didn’t consider that if Buddha was a girl, she probably would not be pleased that we referred to her as Buddha while she was growing. My experience with the opposite sex is that they don’t like being called fat or anything that might imply that they are fat.
Everything went well at the ultrasound. It started out on a positive note. While waiting to be called to go into the ultrasound room, I was able to feel the baby move for the first time. I was expecting a thump against my hand but it was more of a clicking feeling. I guess Buddha would have to be David Beckham’s kid to cause a thump at the size he is now. Very cool none the less. During the ultrasound, they identified all the major organs and determined that Buddha was healthy and where he should be developmentaly at this stage. Click here to see all the 20 week ultrasound pictures.
Look for an updated look for the Toon-Time.com site in the next week. I am in the process of a redesign.
This was a big week on the belly front. Claire felt the baby move for the first time this weekend. We have two theories on why this is…. 1) After dressing up like a pregnant nun this weekend and having to pad the belly to make it look bigger, the baby was afraid it was in danger of being replaced if it didn’t start moving more. 2) Claire felt the baby move all night after having Coke with pizza for dinner. She has not been drinking much caffeine during the pregnancy and the baby could have been all hopped up on caffeine. Here is this week’s belly picture… Week 19. This week we go in for the 20 week ultrasound. We can’t wait.
Click here to see all the belly pictures to date.
Claire and I got all dressed up for a Halloween party hosted by Nina (one of Claire’s dental school friends). She was a pregnant nun and I was a priest (father). We had to make Claire a little artificial belly because we wanted to make it very obvious that she was pregnant. We had a good time at the party and more fun getting dressed up. By the end of the night, Claire’s feet and back were sore. That was with an artificial big belly. She can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when the baby is that big for real.
It’s official. Claire has taken the lead in the belly contest. Her belly is officially bigger than my beer/pasta baby that I’ve been growing the past couple of years. Even when I stick my belly out as far as it can go, I don’t stand a chance. In case you couldn’t figure it out, Claire’s week 18 belly picture is on the left..
Click here to see all the belly pictures to date.
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