words from the baby mama

An excerpt from Andrea's blog Baby Steps To Mom. I promise I'll post pictures this weekend! Check out her blog if you want to read all her thoughts!

"I'm happy to report that the pregnancy is coming along quite nicely- no major bumps or even hiccups, if you will (because I will). The doctor said we most likely won't be having another ultrasound unless we either want to pay for it or have insurance that will cover it, which really bummed me out but hey, it means we have a healthy little girl growing up a storm in my belly and that's what really matters. I will say that the belly is starting to feel quite heavy, but I don't look huge (yet). Most people find it hard to believe that I'm nearly seven months along, but when I look in a mirror it's really not all that shocking. I asked the doctor if I look normal and she said that since I'm tall the baby has more room to grow- and isn't forced to grow out instead of up and down. Whew. I have to say that even if no one else thinks I have gained that much weight, I can certainly feel the extra weight not only in my belly, but in other places as well. I've been trying so hard to use my regular wardrobe for as long as possible, but it's safe to say I'm at a point where I can't do it much longer, if at all. I own a grand total of three maternity shirts, one sweater, and two pairs of pants and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to rotate those items out before I start looking like a hobo."

pre-appointment update

Next week Andrea will travel to the doctor's office for another installment of tests and check-ups. Sadly I will not be with her this time because the doctor's office scheduled her a week earlier in the month than normal and my schedule, which I had to set in August, placed one of my workshops on that day. Bummer.

However, in the meantime, Andrea and Elska are doing fine. Andrea's belly will occasionally morph into different shapes depending on Elska's position or activity. Based on what we see from the outside, I figure she's starting a pilates routine early. We'll keep you up-to-date on what happens at the doctor's office next week.

Cheers!

P.S. I want to give a point of clarification. Calling the baby Elska is not mandatory. It's just a specific name to give her for now so you don't have to say "your little, baby girl" or something as 'wordy' as that. However, if Elska is hard to remember...no need to worry about it!

the vote's in

Thank you so much for taking the time to vote on a nickname. Well, when the polls closed we had a tie! Elska and Roo each earned 9 votes. We got tired of online forms so we thought about how to resolve this. We considered combining the names into Elska-Roo but in the end decided that we just needed ONE nickname. I thought about rolling some dice to choose between the two but it turns out we don't have any dice. So we resorted to a little competition to bring an end to this. We have a game called mancala and we faced off, each taking a side for a nickname. It was rough but we finally reached a decision.

For now, we shall call our daughter....ELSKA!

Keep in mind that this is temporary but this will give you all a name to call her in the meantime. We'll be in touch soon with updates!