35 weeks - Nico and his Mom are doing great!

We had a sonogram today and Nico now weighs 6 pounds and has a "slightly larger than normal head!" He is positioned just as a baby should be for that delivery day, and he remains high in the uterus and has not started at all his happy descent to the cervix and life with his Mom and Dad. We could barely make out any of his features in the sonogram, since he is bigger now, though we did confirm that he is definitely our little boy.

Over the 14th weekend, I visited my dear friend Blythe in her hometown Lewes, Delaware. Blythe is also pregnant and so our babies got to hang out together via our bellies!

Jose returned from a Guatemala work trip that weekend too, and brought back some cute little Guatemalan shoes and a T-shirt for little Nico. Now the next big event for Jose is Nico's arrival!!

I continue to do lots of walking, yoga, and other strength training exercises suitable for pregnant women. I love this training for the big event of labor, and am more excited each day about the labor itself and our first moments with Nico.

Almost 34 weeks!!

 Over the past two weeks, Nico seems to be growing and moving into new areas of his current home! While walking one night with Jose, I had a few sharp pains at the bottom of my abdomen. The doctor said that if these were not continuing over time and growing more intense, then it's probably just the baby's head pushing on my cervix! While walking this week during the day, I had a few feelings of new pressure, that were not painful, but a feeling of something pushing on my organs - I guess this is because "something" is indeed pushing on my organs! I'm happy though to share any space he needs with him until he is here!



I went to two classes at the Breastfeeding Center of DC over the past few weeks too. While some friends who'd taken longer maternity leaves never pumped at all, this is definitely the pumping town! Just about all women in DC return to work a few months after birth. I'm very glad that I'll have four months full time with Nico at home, and then a few months part time before Nico starts day care in March.

In these breastfeeding classes, my prenatal yoga class, and the local group of pregnant women who I meet with every few weeks, I love connecting with all of these future Moms, especially those who will have little boys for Nico to play with!

Despite any discomforts, this period of pregnancy and connection to other pregnant women and people is really a special time. We feel very lucky with Jose to have this little guy!

Happy Shower for little Nico

We are 32 and a half weeks now, and will be meting our son sometime next month!!!

This past weekend was our baby shower, and it was great to see work friends Cynthia, Meredith and Jamila, new DC friends Karen, Lorre and Marjorie (and her little guy Nate!), old friends Keri, Gabe, Vikram, Andrea and Rich, old and new neighbors Hannah and Michael and Sara and Pat, and Al along with his daughters Cindy and Ali and their families.

There were MANY very cute little outfits and useful babies items given to lucky little Nico, and Piper, Ali's daughter and Al's grandaughter, was a great helper in opening the gifts - each time telling us, "It's for Nico!" Some of the sweetest gifts were from Al, who gave Nico a little life preserver for those days on the boat, and his first little toy boat. Al also found a gift that is from my Mom - a small painting of sailboats that she had bought in the Bahamas - waiting for the right moment/person to give it to as a gift. Al is sure that with the meaning of Nico's name (patron saint of ships, sailors and the sea), my Mom would have given him the little painting of sailboats.


Cindy, Al's daughter, made a beautiful and delicious lemon cake with key lime frosting - one that she had made for my Mom before. This cake though had a little bear in a red boat, a life preserver, and a big blue banner that said "Welcome aboard Nico!" Cindy's daughter Haley also made a little merman who was to be little Nico on the cake! It was great to have all of Cindy and Ali's help, and Al's special touches too like flowers from the Bald Eagle house that he and my Mom had moved into about 2 years ago and that they had made a beautiful home with flowers, my Mom's vegetable and herb garden, and Al's fruit trees.


We look forward more each day to meeting Nico - to introducing him to his home and the many people who will love him, taking him to Bald Eagle and eventually on his first boat ride, and to meeting other family in Delaware, California and Uruguay!