Mealbaby.com

Subject: Meal Help

OK, Friends & Family –

This is new to me so I apologize if there are any glitches.

I think it’s supposed to be pretty simple.

I’m sending this to many people so thanks for any help with anything!

Cannot hurt, right? All the books say to ask for help!

If you cannot help, no worries! : )

Feel free to forward to anyone else too.

THANKS!

Meal Registry Invitation Link
http://mealbaby.com/viewregistry/11048975

This link allows your registry to be made public.  Anyone who clicks on this link will be asked to login or create an account and will be able to view your registry.

BTW - if you want to keep in touch QUICKLY, email Jai at bmitd67@gmail.com or text him at this number (773-372-1262) (text only, no calling he said).

Love, Tara, Jai & big sister Julia

We're all followers, aren't we.

Yesterday Beyoncé (Ingrid Jackson) and Jigga had a baby. Big up to them on the birth of their baby girl.

Today Tara says she feels weird, not labor necessarily but weird none-the-less. Is it time? I'm sure if Beyoncé hadn't had her baby Tara would feel fine, right? Riiiight.

The Joys of Julia - there are so many!

Julia is truly a sweet baby. She is content to sleep in someone's arms and she makes the most adorable facial expressions (purses those lips, coos, smiles) and noises (grunts, snorts). I find myself staring at her, seemingly for hours, which I have plenty of time while she nurses. Julia has long fingers which I find myself touching often (sometimes picking off her dry, flaky skin thanks to 9+ months surrounded by amniotic fluid). She also makes many motions with her hands and fingers, especially while she nurses, one which sometimes reminds me of a kitten kneading the mother cat's breast.

Julia is more alert each day, staring with such focus and attention. We're not sure who she recognizes yet. She seems to like to stare at the ceiling fans which is probably because babies see black and white contrast best at this age. She smiles more and more and soon she'll be holding her head up more strongly.

We try to read a book to her every day. The other day I realized Jai was reading something from EW to her and he also reads the newspaper with her. : ) We didn't read to her much while I was pregnant so we figured it is never too early to model reading and begin the practice and habit of daily reading.

Everyone, including us, refers to how beautiful Julia is. A few days after Julia's birth I started to feel uncomfortable about how much her beauty is referenced so we added a tag line about her intelligence, especially true because of her breastfeeding ability. "Beautiful (or cute or pretty) ... and smart" has become our new phrase.

One down and another to go (for me)

Thanks to all of the Edgehillites who showed your love and support this past weekend. The baby shower was great. One of the attendees said we will have a well-read but naked baby. We got a bunch of great books and some clothes. It was funny.

I will miss the one at Tara's work, but we have one at the house next week and that should be pretty crazy.

Tara's side note: It was great! It was lots of fun, got to visit with some friends I don't see often. The clothes we received were "green" (either recycled (barely used) or organic/fair trade) items which was awesome! We actually have a few clothes from that consignment sale I went to in August. I got an email about another consignment sale in mid-November. I'll be taking a power nap to make that event - you know it! : ) I'm looking forward to the shower on Oct. 18 at our house. We worked on the nursery over the weekend, putting gifts away. We still need a crib and bassinet, but there's always Craig's List and Freecycle so we're going to evaluate our needs after the 3 showers.

Ultrasound #1 (14 weeks)

In between trips in June, Jai & I went to see my midwife for visit #2 and it happened to be on our anniversary (Jai was off as we traveled back from Providence that morning). We were excited for the opportunity to hear the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler machine. However, it wasn't to be that day. It was scary because the midwide (not Soheyl) said there were 2 possibilities. One was that there was something blocking access to the baby, like the placenta. Finally she said the other possibility ... NO HEARTBEAT. Oh, my gosh, now this thing got real! Prior to today the pregnancy hadn't seemed quite real. Basically I felt OK, I hadn't grown out of my regular clothes, and miscarriage was a lower risk at this point. However, the possibility of baby no longer living made me/us really sad, especially on our 3rd wedding anniversary and in anticipation of hearing an exciting sound. This baby was a real part of us and our lives now.

Jai would like to add

at that moment my heart sank, my stomach knotted, I wanted to cry, I wanted to be hopeful. I really hadn't thought much about the baby for many of the same reasons Tara explains but I just didn't know what to think.

Fortunately, Tara had a tennis match and we had Johnders with us so Tara went to play, Johnders and I went to the dog park at Centennial (btw, this is the crappiest of the dog parks in Nashville). This gave us a little time apart and a little time to focus on something else so we could come back together and be supportive and optimistic.

The suggestion was we have an ultrasound to confirm the baby's status. Unfortunately we had a late afternoon apppointment and wouldn't be able to check until the next morning and hopefully get an appointment. UGH! Talk about a bummer. To top it off, I had a tennis match in an hour and I was leaving for England in 2 days. Summer league (3.5 level) started in mid-June while I was out of town and I had many matches to reschedule and play. I guess it was a good distraction though I lost the match - the other woman was good! Neither of us said much that evening - we didn't know what to do or feel - be sad or scared or both. I'd read that sometimes you don't always hear the heartbeat with the Doppler machine even at 14 weeks. We didn't want to prepare ourselves for something still unknown.

The next morning Jai went to work and I called for an appointment as soon as possible. Fortunately I got an appointment at 1:00pm and arrived early ready for an answer. Once in the ultrasound room I hopped on the table/bed and the tech got started. Almost immediately there were images on the screen though I'm not sure what I'm seeing. However, the tech pointed out a blinky thing and answered my question of "what's that?" with "your baby's heartbeat." WHEW! I got a little teary eyed because again this was a reminder that this alien as I fondly refer to the fetus was REAL and alive. I have an anterior placenta which can cover the baby from foreign objects wanting to bother she or he.

Jai's lunch hour is 1-2pm so I left him a quick voicemail message and then called him again at 2pm to share the happy news. What a relief! The tech printed a few photos for us - they are fascinating to examine. You see such clear parts of the fetus yet still there are kind of fuzzy parts. It definitely looks more like a baby than not.

I didn't plan on having more than the one ultrasound at 20 weeks, but it felt good to see my alien's heartbeat.