Homelessness Averted

I haven't been able to write anything for the last week because I've been so angry. Last Sunday, our landlord informed us over our answering machine that he would not be allowing us to remain after our lease expires in July. Hmmm, and when is the baby due? July!!!!

We had already considered moving months ago and ruled it out as not the best decision with the baby on the way and all of the stress and financial strain that comes with a move--particularly in NYC. But apparently a move is in the cards.

In the past week Murph and I have looked at 16 apartments ranging in size from 1 to 3 "bedrooms" (in NYC real estate any room that is not a kitchen or bathroom can count as a bedroom) sometimes traveling an hour in crappy weather only to have the landlord tell us the tenant was staying afterall. Let's just say it was our most grueling adventure in NYC real estate yet, but we've been very lucky so far. And of course the whole time I was seething about having to do this at all right now.

But it all worked out last night (I hope) when we found a place that we like and that will meet most of our needs just fine. We're just waiting on approval from the landlord and then we'll be all set to move on April 1st.

I can't stress enough how bad idea it is to kick a nesting woman out of her nest. I can't think of anything that has both made me so angry and created so much stress at the same time. Luckily, I have Murph as a partner to balance me out.

It's a GIRL!!!

Today we had a sonogram to see how the baby is doing and to see if it was our son or daughter. Turns out she's a girl. And everything seems to be going very well. She's 13 oz. with a perfect heartbeat and apparently is very flexible (her toes were touching her nose for much of the sonogram).

I don't think I've mentioned this before in the blog, but our first sonogram about 10 weeks ago revealed that I had what is called placenta previa and complete previa at that. The placenta was covering the cervix, aka the exit, and would have made a natural birth impossible. This is very common in early pregnancy and many times corrects itself but in our case because it was complete previa the odds of it fixing itself were lower. But the good news today was that it is fixing itself and will only continue to get better as I get bigger, no more previa.

This has me VERY relieved. I had all kinds of fears of hemorage and bed rest on top of dealing with a C-section, which is not my first choice. Icy mornings have pretty much sent me into panic attacks about falling and creating a hemorage. So today I have gone from uber-paranoid to only moderately worried (dare I say a normal amount of worried?) that everything is going ok. The sonograms have really put me at ease, technology can be pretty great.

Showered in Milwaukee

Finally, as promised some pictures from the Communist Chinese New Year themed shower. I was having to figure out how to use our new camera so I was a little slow and these pictures were me experimenting with the features of the camera. And I took them so I'm not in them.

Here is a picture of the wishing cake, a family tradition but new to baby shower activities--it may be my favorite part of the shower. All these women each chose a candle and wished upon it for our baby. All very beautiful things health, laughter, adventure, the love of a large family...I hope they all come true.

And this is the year of the pig--a lucky year to be born in-- so as you see in the picture there is a piggy bank featured and you can't make it out in the glow of the candles but the cake is also topped with tiny candy pigs.

Here is Murph opening a couple of things. This is a baby blanket that was knitted by his Nannie (grandma Fortune) when he was a baby. It is still beautiful and amazingly crafted. And white, very white.

Here's also a picture of me opening some of the many baby gifts. These are some baby socks that look like little puma sneakers. I have to say this was a very solid start to the baby gear we'll be needing soon. We now have a stroller, a crib (and mattress), a glider rocker, a high chair, a Bjorn (a Park Slope parent must).

There's still not much of a belly at this point. But since then the baby has had some growth spurts and I am finally looking pregnant.

Next me in this picture is great-grandma Murphy (soon to be for the first time). Apparently she has a gift for accuracy when predicting the sex of the baby and she says it is a boy. We'll find out if she is right on Monday.

Other than that everything seems to be going very well. I'm feeling good. The baby is moving a lot. On Thursday I had a check up with the midwife and the heartbeat was really strong--no hunting around for it this time.