Something for Blake:

$19.95. Also available in scrubs, hats, and coffee mug.

Full name: Benjamin Oliver Buck

Acceptable nicknames:

• Ben
• Ollie
• BOB
• Obi Wan
• Ben Kenobi
• Buckito

Me & Krystal (30ish and 39ish weeks respectively)

On Saturday I had lunch with a friend from college who was also not only pregnant and due tomorrow {if she hasn’t already birthed her baby boy} but whose contractions had started that morning. I hope I look as radiant/gorgeous/amazing as she did when I’m almost 40 weeks and laboring!

Prayers, love, and best wishes to Krystal, Andy, and baby Pearce!

Chip on changing table

I bought our changing table from IKEA over the weekend and Blake assembled it. To avoid the cats jumping on it and getting it all messed up, we covered it with a sheet. At some point one of us left something soft and cushiony on top, which resulted in this:

Chip can now attest to the table’s sturdiness and comfort. 🙂

What changes when you have a baby? A better question may be: What doesn’t change? Here, writer and mom Rebecca Woolf lists her most notable post-baby observations. Then scroll down to read our favorite comments from readers about how their babies changed their lives.

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.

2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid. [See a reader’s perspective in #22, below.]

3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.

4. You respect your body … finally.

5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.

6. You find that your baby’s pain feels much worse than your own.

7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.

8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.

9. Your heart breaks much more easily.

10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.

11. Every day is a surprise.

12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)

13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.

14. You become a morning person.

15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.

Continue reading →

I plan on having as “natural” a childbirth experience as possible while in the hospital. One of the recommendations I’ve read is to have an mp3 player full of happy, relaxing music. So I’m starting a list now… please chip in with any suggestions.

1. “Feeling Good” -Michael Buble
2. “Haven’t Met You Yet” -Michael Buble
3. “Pinch Me” -Barenaked Ladies
4. “Wherever You Will Go” -The Calling
5. “Keep On Singing My Soul” -Christina Aguilera
6. “We’re a Miracle” -Christina Aguilera
7. “With Arms Wide Open” -Creed
8. “Drift Away” -Doobie Brothers
9. “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” -Fall Out Boy (I don’t know why…)
10. “Iris” -Goo Goo Dolls
11. “Slide” -Goo Goo Dolls
12. “The Reason” -Hoobastank
13. “Sitting, Wishing, Waiting” -Jack Johnson
14. “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” -Jet (Again, don’t know why…)
15. “Tu Guardian” -Juanes
16. “Volverte a ver” -Juanes
17. “Nada valgo sin Tu Amor” -Juanes
18. “A Moment Like This” -Kelly Clarkson
19. “I Need You” -Leann Rimes
20. “Hanging By a Moment” -Lifehouse
21. “Breathing” -Lifehouse
22. “Everything” -Lifehouse
23. “Refuge” -Matisyahu
24. “One Day” -Matisyahu
25. “What I’m Fighting For” -Matisyahu
26. “Something Like You” -NSync
27. “This I Promise You” -NSync
28. “Crash &  Burn” -Savage Garden
29. “Truly Madly Deeply” -Savage Garden
30. “Kissed By a Rose” -Seal

Wednesday was a long day at work. I came home, had dinner, and then had to go out for another hour or so for a work function, which happened to be at a restaurant. I declined to get dessert at the restaurant because I knew I had a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream awaiting me in the freezer.

As I’m driving home, I start salivating over my chocolatey goodness at home.

Get home, park, walk upstairs, unlock the door and freeze… on Blake’s TV tray: an empty pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream.

Now, before getting hysterical, I went to the freezer to make sure that my pint of ice cream was still there, thinking maybe Blake had seen mine in the freezer and went to the store to get some for himself (yeah, I don’t know why). Open the freezer and there’s an empty space where my ice cream had been.

Hormones raging, my eyes brimmed with tears. Who eats a pregnant woman’s ice cream?!?!

Needless to say, there was a junk food run that evening.

Today Blake decided to put together the baby bed from IKEA. See the photos below of the adventure. Now we need to get a mattress.

I keep receiving these ads for cord blood storage. Without ever having requested information from the company. I’m convinced that Motherhood Maternity is selling my information. Which makes me mad. They have my information from the first time I bought something there. They ask for your address and phone number. I gave them my address because they said they mail coupons.

I was looking at their website to buy something because I had a gift card because I bought something at a store and returned it the next day, finding out you can’t get your money back. Was all set to buy a cute dress and then they asked for my phone number all mandatorily.

It’s clear in their privacy policy that they share your info, but I wasn’t told that in the store when I signed up.

At times we may also share your personal information with other companies or organizations that have a product or service we believe may be of interest to you or that would like to contact you to ask your opinion of various topics that may be of interest to you and/or may help them serve you better. However, you always have the right to direct us not to share your information with third parties (see “Choice” below).

To get off those mailing lists, you have to email them, per their website:

We believe that choice is one of the most important privacy principles. You have the choice not to submit any personally identifiable information to us (although under such circumstances you would be unable to purchase items from the Retail Web Sites or participate in our contests and sweepstakes). You also may choose to submit only those mandatory fields of data absolutely required for purchases and contest participation. Finally, you may choose to limit the use of or access to your personally identifiable information by requesting that we refrain from sharing all such information with any third parties. You may “opt out” in this way at any time simply by contacting us at ci@motherhood.com, or at the address and phone number listed at the end of this privacy policy.

This book sounds funny – I love Kevin Nealon:

Kevin Nealon back in pre-pregnancy jeans

Saturday Night Live alum and Weeds actor Kevin Nealon spoke with The Cradle about his own “pregnancy symptoms” when his wife Susan Yeagley was pregnant with their son Gable. Nealon documented his experience in the book, Yes, You’re Pregnant, But What About Me?

Nealon jokes that he did gain sympathy weight and is “barely able to fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans.” He says, “During the pregnancy I had those jeans with the elastic stretch band along the waist and also along the cuffs, since I was getting ‘cankles.’”

What was his biggest fear? “The biggest fear, of course, is whose baby is it really? No, only kidding. It was nobody’s “love child” except for mine. My biggest fear was for the health and well-being of my wife and child. I dealt with those fears as most people would: I stuffed my face with as much food as possible… mostly sweets and carbs. The other fear was whether or not I would be able to withstand the actual delivery of the baby. I’m not good with blood or placenta.”

Is you man experiencing any pregnancy symptoms, such as weight gain or nausea? Click here to read about the “Pregnant” dads or sympathetic pregnancy.