The International Infertility Film Festival

The amazing Bea has put together an online film festival highlighting (what else?) infertility. The entries are hilarious, heartbreaking, and insightful. Please, go watch!

Okay, SEATTLE!

My earlier post got me motivated to download all the Seattle pictures from my visit with Kathleen. In short, the trip was AWESOME! I don't think we stopped talking all weekend (even Brett commented on how we wouldn't shut up--apparently we kept him awake a few nights because of it!) and we went all over the city. If you ever need a Seattle tour guide, Kathleen is your girl!


No trip to Seattle is complete with a trip to the Troll on Troll Ave! Kathleen and I thought about climbing up on his arm, but, well, we were too chicken. It's a lot steeper than it looks!


Then we saw these two Hummer limos just parked on a random street. It seemed odd, so I took a picture. What can I say, it had us in stitches at the time!


Then Kathleen took me on a tour of the building where she works, and in addition to the very cool elevator room, we got to go up on the roof. What a view! This is me, being very goofy (and windblown!) with the Space Needle.


We met up with our friend Minda a couple of times, which was a blast. She just had a gorgeous baby girl, and I had a hard time believing her when she said that the little one was a handful at home. All she did was sleep and coo when we were around! I can only hope to be so lucky with Button!


And finally, the two of us at the airport just before I left for home. We had our millionth cup of yummy Seattle coffee here, and I was very reluctant to get on the plane.

And, in other news, my latest belly shot (20 weeks 2 days) is below. I'm officially feeling huge!

Putting my feet up

Many apologies for the lack of posts lately. There's been a lot going on (my trip to Seattle and 26th birthday among them) but every time I think about blogging I just can't bring myself to do it. No idea what this sudden aversion to writing is, but it's really doing a number on my blog.

In any case, pictures of the trip are forthcoming, and I hope to be back more often very soon.

Wait, didn't I just have a vacation?

Seriously, I need another week off. This week has been nothing but workworkworkworkwork, and it's only Wednesday. It's not just teaching, either, though trust me that it's been a massive struggle to get the kids to do anything other than stare blankly at the wall and drool this week. I've also had a boatload of work (including a MASSIVE research paper that came just on the heels of an even more massive midterm) for school, and knowing that there's still around a month left of my classes is making me feel overwhelmed and discouraged. I actually got to a point today where I called up a friend and fellow classmate in a dead panic becuase for some reason I'd managed to convince myself that I was doing my in-line citations (for the paper that was due tonight) incorrectly. The fact that I teach the research paper format and thus really do know how to do them didn't factor into the equation.

My last two pre-baby classes this summer cannot be this hard because if they are, I'm not going to make it.

The bottom line is that I'm really, really tired. I think part of it is that I'm sick at the moment, and I just don't do "sick" very well even when I'm not feeling totally overwhelmed by my life, so I have to place at least some of the blame on the fact that I feel like crap. I'm hoping to get an opportunity to really relax this weekend, but given that I have another research paper proposal due on Sunday, it may not happen.

The times they are a changin'

One of the best books I've ever read was Toni Weschler's Taking Charge of Your Fertility. I remember wondering "Why didn't I learn this before now?" as I read about how my body works. It's a sentiment I've heard echoed hundreds of times on internet message boards and among friends, especially since we all had some type of sex ed in high school.

Well, you can imagine how happy I was to hear that there's now a teen version out to help young women understand their cycles. The focus of this book is obviously different from TCOYF in that there's no section on how to get pregnant, and information on how to chart to avoid pregnancy is also omitted (since Weschler decided that teens weren't likely to follow all of the rules safely) but the important parts about how to figure out what your body is doing when, and why it's doing it have been preserved.

I've frequently thought that if we ever have a daughter I want to teach her this information. Sex ed in the schools is unlikely to ever give the exact information I'd like my kids to have, and books like this can help clear up a lot of the misconceptions girls have about their bodies. Better yet, it can help them make smart choices when/if they decide to have sex. Thumbs up from me, all around.

Naturally, some are saying that the book provides girls with too much information. I think it gives them the facts they should have been getting all along. One mother (from Idaho, no less!) told the Washington Post that she's a fan of the book. "By giving them knowledge, you are treating them in a more adult way, and I think that helps them make more adult decisions," she said. I couldn't agree more. Denying that teens are having sex doesn't work. Statistics and my own personal experience (I have a number of students who are pregnant or parents already) prove it. What's wrong with giving up the scare tactics that have proven so ineffective in the past, and giving girls accurate, fact-based information about their cycles?

Drumroll please...

In short, Button is a....BOY!!!!! He is unquestionably a boy, and we've got more than one ultrasound picture to prove it.

For those who want the long version, the ultrasound went very well. Button has a lovely spine, a beautiful heart, and two of the cutest little hands you've ever seen. He was a bit hyperactive, so it took the tech quite awhile to get all the necessary measurements, but when all is said and done everything looks good. I'm measuring right on target (19 weeks 5 days for those keeping score at home) and aside from a little bit more weight gain than we'd all like to see, all is well. We're still without a name (though Juan did buy a baby name book at Barnes and Noble tonight and promises to actually take a look at it one of these days since he's shot down almost all of my boy name suggestions) but I don't expect that will last for long.

I confess that I'm in a little bit of shock after today. Not only was I almost completely convinced that we were having a girl (because really, how often are the Snarkies wrong?) but knowing that we're having a boy makes it all a little bit more real. I know I'm repeating myself here, but I can't believe how fast all of this is going, and I especially can't believe that in just 20 more weeks we're going to become a family of three.

SPRING BREAK, WOOOOOOOO!!!

Today was the last day of school before the start of Spring Break, and I could have kissed the loudspeaker when the final bell rang at the stroke of 3:50. Disgusting, yes, but very, very tempting under the circumstances. It's been a long 9 weeks since the kids came back from Christmas break, and between their spring fever and my recent insomnia-induced bad moods, we're all in desperate need of a VACATION from one another.

Of course, there's still the eensy weensy matter of the 15 page term paper I have to write for one of my grad classes before the week is up, but overall this Spring Break is going to be one of relaxation and indulgence. Tomorrow I'm hanging out with some girlfriends, Juan has another day off (!!!), then we have our big ultrasound with Button on Tuesday, and THEN, I take off to visit the always-fabulous Kathleen on Thursday. If last year is any indication, we will probably spend our time together behaving badly in public, spending too much money on purses, and generally enjoying the hell out of ourselves. I can't wait!

In other news, HOLLY SHIT WE'RE FINDING OUT IF BUTTON IS A BOY OR A GIRL ON TUESDAY!!!

Perfect weekend

This was Juan's and my first weekend off together since Christmas. Rather, it was our first day off together since Christmas, since he was post-call on Saturday and slept all day. Still, one day together is better than none, and it was wonderful to get to actually have conversations somewhere other than the bed or the dinner table. We went out to lunch, looked at baby furniture, and weeded the yard. It was a perfectly ordinary weekend day, but when you take into account the fact that we haven't had one for almost three months, the ordinary can seem extraordinary.

In other news, our big ultrasound is in just 9 days. Nine days!