In case you haven't heard the big news here, Bethany's stopped drinking back in December (and no she didn't join a "special" club.) She's on the nest, she's in the family way. Yep, she's Prego and we're not talking spaghetti sauce. Another
deduction on the old 1040 (which will almost make up for the marriage penalty that remains very much in effect).
That's right, the Curtis's are in the act of committing First Degree Domesticide (with marriage, home ownership/getting pets being mere second & third class offenses). It's what many of our family and friends have hoped for and our adversaries have prayed against: the propagation of the Randy and Bethany gene pool. We've received joyful congratulations from our families and offers of sitting services almost to the point of competition. Randy is convinced that we'll (ab)use these offers to the point that we won't have to settle any "Baby hog" squabbles amongst the families.
As for the "Are you excited?" question (whose real meaning of "Was this a surprise?" Bethany had to translate for Randy), the answer is no- we weren't surprised, though we thought it might take a bit longer. The happy day is supposed to be August 30th, so as of this writing we're at the beginning of the 2nd trimester, which looks to be a much better one than the first (e.g. Bethany isn't quite so hyper-sensitive to smells and nauseous ALL the time; she's almost back to her standard level of food selectiveness).
Bethany confirmed the joyful news Christmas morning using the plastic stick method, happily sparing the rabbits sacrificed in our parents' generation. Lacking a decent scriptwriter for all such momentous occasions in life, Randy's reaction was an ineloquent, muddled statement of surprise and happiness (Bethany kept him in the dark about getting the test kit). It wasn't ten minutes before it dawned on him, that his long dreamed of and anticipated ALCAN highway road trip to Alaska the following summer
probably wouldn't happen, having once again jinxed it by mentioning the prospect in the annual Year End Letter. He cheered himself up with the thought that he would hold the forthcoming offspring responsible for taking/accompanying him there sometime in the future. And our families thought it was just the Christmas
Sprit that was making us joyful the rest of the day.
Most of the month of January, Bethany spent nauseated with a hypersensitivity to all smells, particularly food. Fortunately, there wasn't much morning sickness but the nausea was enough to stop her eating and she ended up losing 24 pounds over about 6 weeks. A weekend trip offers a good example.
Earlier in the week, Randy had driven to Chicago to perform some research in and around Lake Forest concerning a landfill north of Fort Sheridan. Bethany decided it might be fun to fly up on Friday night, and ride back with me on Monday, which we both took off to make a long weekend of it. The weekend got off to a bad start with her short hour-long Southwest Airlines flight, which seemed like a mini eternity. As you know, SWA doesn't assign seats, so it's first come, first served based on your boarding pass group. Although she was in the desirable first 30 group, she was randomly selected for the added gate security screening. The screening included a search of both of her carefully packed carry-ons, a wand down and shoe removal. This wouldn't have so been bad except by the time it was over she was at the end of the boarding. The only available seat left was next to a large, smelly (B.O. lathered with aftershave) man with a prized cheesecake on his lap. While this would never be a particularly joyful traveling companion, this was occurring during the peak of her pregnancy induced hyper odor sensitivity and general food nausea. She was holding back vomiting the whole way and was feeling completely miserable by the time she landed (headache, nausea, tired, hungry) and as it turned out a mild case of the flu. Randy's joyful smile at the end of the concourse did little to help.
Bethany awoke on Saturday, feeling better did some sight seeing but crashed back at the hotel early afternoon. That evening Bethany still felt pretty poorly after spending the afternoon sleeping. She was hungry but the thought of all food made here feel nauseous. We settled on trying a milkshake, which Randy retrieved along with some onion rings for himself. She accepted the shake but threw him out in the hallway to eat the smelly rings, which were inspiring new waves of nausea. Upon coming back in, she had him shower and decloth, not out of friskiness but nausea from the fired food smell permeating his being. It didn't help that Randy's sense of smell is exceptionally poor and could never tell when something smelled bad.
So far, everything seems to be on track health wise. The doctor heard the heartbeat in mid February and by the next visit two weeks later Bethany could hear it too - a very exciting moment!!!
Bethany is having dreams that the baby is a boy and for some inexplicable reason always referring to it as "him". Randy on the other hand feels he is predestined ("cursed" as he puts it...) to be surrounded by women his whole life and so he's preparing himself for a girl. Not that it matters much to us as long the baby and Bethany are healthy upon arrival. We'll all just have to wait until August to know the outcome...
This marked the temporary end of B's volleyball career as per doctor's orders. Fortunately her sister Rosemary stepped in to fill her shoes for the remainder of the Devil Dog season, although the added talent wasn't quite enough to take us to the championships.
The blood tests all look good so far but we're still waiting on the COMPLETE blood work results from Qui-Gon to find out the levels of midi-chlorians but we're sure they'll be really high. (That one's for all the nerds out there).
On the 26th, we (actually Bethany with me along for the wise cracks) had our the first ultrasound done here at 17 weeks. Everything looked great and we're certain there isn't more than one of them in there
(Yeah!). Bethany didn't want to know the sex but Randy thought it would be kind of cool to know now.
However, the FEMALE technician sided with the mother (big surprise there) and that was that.
She did all kinds of measuring of different features and like all annoying parents we were quite pleased and excited to hear that our baby has the femur length of a 19 week old, even though it's only 17 weeks (watch out Katie Sage, this one is going to be tall too!).
We were surprised to see how much it moved during the 25 minute examination. The technician's phrase of swimming was very apropos. The images were also more detailed than we were expecting (though that was based in a large part to seeing one at the end of the credits of Drew Carey). We call the strip of two shots here: the Les Misearbles look and the peek-a-boo eye (can you see it? - kinda creepy, eh?).
At the halfway point, Bethany looks great but the expansion and movement of the uterus has brought about the anticipated but dreaded arrival of maternity clothing, as her regular pants no longer fit comfortably. When first wearing the first overt example of such, she was met by waves of "How are you feeling?" inquires from her co-workers, who have known for a month and a half but ostensibly became more aware with the change in frocks.
Little "H" is moving and kicking with a regular frequency that Bethany is readily aware of. Randy could
finally feel it too by the end of the week (before that it only seemed like the pulse or indigestion).
On Saturday, Justin and Jenny let us know that "H" should expect another cousin (in addition to Katie) about 2 and a half months after their birth! We're excited that they'll have cousins the same age though Randy hopes it won't be just someone else to compete against besides just their siblings noting the strong Sage sibling love/rivalry bond).
As any of the pregnancy guide books will tell you, the second trimester is the best time for a getaway vacation (e.g. expectant mother feeling better, last vacation possible for awhile as airlines won't let pregnant women fly after 6 months, etc.). As such we spent the week at a resort on St. Pete's Beach. A brief side trip along I-4 to Orlando has convinced us that perhaps others in our family would like the
opportunity to accompany their grandchild/niece/nephew to the amusement park mecca of the US as part of a bonding
experience and that's perfectly OK with us. There could be $ in it for them too , if we have any.
Bethany's belly is now almost the size of Randy's beer/per diem belly, which was a source of mixed feelings for both of us.
Over Memorial Day weekend, we went camping with the Sunday Dinner Group and Sage sister Rosemary at
Maramec (that isn't misspelled) Springs campground outside of St. James. It was suppose to rain a good hunk of the time but luckily it was beautiful weather. Bethany wasn't up for any serious hiking but than again the rest of us we're fairly content to lounge around the campfire all day too (except for the satellite and space station viewings on Saturday night).
On 29 May, Bethany had a second ultrasound. To our untrained eyes, the imagery didn't look all any more meaningful than before but perhaps our expectations have increased with the GE commercials bragging about their new 4-D system for invetro-imaging. With the song "The First Time Ever I saw Your Face" playing in the background it was a real tear jerker of a commercial (at least for these expectant parents).
Everything still looks good and our baby's femur length is still 2 weeks ahead of schedule. The EFW (estimated fetal weight) was 1064 grams or 2 pounds 6 ounces for you non-Europeans.
During Bethany's most recent checkup, she got a Rhogam shot in the butt as a precaution in case the baby's blood type is positive and somehow the blood crosses (Randy's O+ and Bethany's A-). It also turns out that Bethany's is now anemic, which means she gets to take 2 MORE pills to pump up the iron levels (and they're HUGE). She feels a bit like an old lady with all the pills. The baby looks great and is in the 63rd percentile for overall growth.
After touring the two hospitals that Bethany's OBGYN has admitting privileges, we decided on MO Bap based on their new and very nice private rooms. The other choice, St. Mary's, might be more convenient drive wise for our families and us but they might need to double up and the rooms weren't quite as nice. That MO Bap's nursery renovation is due to be completed in a few weeks. Hopefully the extra 5-10 minutes drive time won't be an issue for us (to be honest we weren't too worried about the visitors).
As such, we took our Baby 101 class there, choosing the two full Saturdays options, as opposed to a month and a half of Tuesday nights. Happily they didn't push the Lamaze/Natural childbirth thing too much, though by a show of hands, only a third of the mothers-to-be had already decided on the epidural shot (Bethany being among them, as if you had any doubt). Nothing terribly too exciting information wise the first week, as we had both read a lot. They showed us a few videos, including ones on epidurals, C-Section, Parents-As-Teachers, and the ever-popular real births, up close & personal. Oddly (?), the people shown were handling the process in a much more calm and loving way than is typically depicted on TV. We're betting that our experiences will be closer to an episode of "I Love Lucy" or "Friends". They also went over different breathing techniques (HEE-HEE-HEE-HO), but Bethany couldn't do them and look at Randy at the same time without laughing!
Our early spring initial tour of one of those Everything for Babies stores and did a good job of scaring the bee-gee-bees out of us both. Despite the amount of $ involved (which exceeds the average yearly income of many people in the third world), the sheer volume of "required" items is imposing. We had a yard sale in April, selling off a room's worth of stuff but that only made a dent in the making room effort and we have been de-volumizing the house for months.
Once we settled on a plan for the nursery, it was clear we'd have to rearrange 3 rooms to make things work. The nursery would go into our "old" bedroom, our bedroom would go into the office and the office would go into a room to be added in the basement. Free time, particularly weekends, for approximately 10 weeks were usurped by getting rid of more stuff, cleaning, drywall, electrical wiring and serious amount of painting. We're pleased with the results and very much appreciate the help of Rosemary in painting, Micah in moving stuff and Stephen on the circuit box.
There really isn't a nursery motif other than the white furniture (much of it generously donated by Maria and Rick) and the room color "Golden Slumber" (i.e. yellow but how could we pass up such a hopefully prophetic name).
The 10 year old "5-year plan" for adding a 2 car-garage and extra bedrooms is moving forward but won't get past the preliminary architectural drawing stage, much less the infamous Webster Groves architectural review board before the arrival of the bambino/bambina.
Randy left for an 11-day trip for work to Adak Island in the Aleutian Island chain of Alaska. He really couldn't get much further away from home and still be in the US, as Adak is the furthest year round settlement of civilians or non-spy types in the states. If the baby decided to come early, there was no easy way to come home, as the plane only comes in 4 times a week, weather permitting. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
In his absence, the Sage sister and sister-in-laws (Aunts-To-Be Rosemary, Jenny and Lisa) threw a really nice shower for Bethany on 20 July at Grandma-to-be Sage's, or more colloquially, "Gramy's". The party was a lot of fun thanks to our gracious hostesses, and we cannot thank everyone enough for their generosity in supplying us with so many baby accoutrements! Many in-town female family and friends were in attendance (we were really hoping to avoid multiple shower invites as we really didn't want people to get hit up more than once for coming to a shower--it mostly worked out that way). The only photos we have came from our new digital camera (a double birthday gift from Nancy) operated mostly by Bethany, so we don't have real good coverage of all the attendees (sorry). Here are a few...
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Hostesses Rosemary, Lisa & Jenny with Bethany (at post-shower "Sage Pizza" Night)
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The following weekend, the Kennedy's and Aunt-To-Be Rhonda threw a neighborhood/couples shower across the street, populated by the Tuxedo
Boulevard Neighbors and the doubly invited Hammonds and Grandma-to be-Curtis (sorry for the double-hit!). Once again, we were touched by the generosity and good taste of our friends and family. Included in the gifts we
received, was:
Top 10 List of Things We Might Hear Randy Say Once He's Father (and a Few We've Already Heard)
| 10. Thank goodness she doesn't look like me.
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| 9. It's really very simple. It's not that I'm a vegetarian; I just don't eat meat unless I'm willing to kill it myself--which of course I wouldn't do. So I'm not I'm a vegetarian; I just don't eat meat. Unless it's a bratwurst that someone else bought and couldn't finish and it was going to go to waste...
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| 8. This looks like a job....for Bethany.
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| 7. Any kid who glues the dog to the couch, spends a night in the box. Any kid who wants to take golf lessons, spends a night in the box. Any kid...(you get the idea).
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| 6. Man, those DFS agents are a pesky bunch.
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| 5. There's a valuable lesson here. Now you know how that animal defends itself.
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| 4. I don't care what else you do, just stay away from that Hammond kid.
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| 3. Daddy needs a beer.
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| 2. You need to learn from your mistakes and from other people's mistakes. Now watch me and learn.
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| 1. She'll do.
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The photo coverage of the attendees was poor, including none of the main hosts (sorry again).
After getting along really well, feeling generally good and looking comfortable (i.e. the "glow") for months, the third trimester woes are finally catching up to Bethany in the last month. Bethany is looking distinctly pregnant at this point with a belly that's sticks out farther than her ample bosom. Swelling feet are becoming a daily issue and after a day of finger swelling, the rings have come off. She ended up having to buy men's sandals to get them wide enough to fit. We're on the look out for specific signs of labor as the time is nigh.
Wednesday was our last planned ultra sound. As the baby progresses, the images are looking less and less recognizable, which according to the technician has something to do with the "soft" source of sounds, as opposed to a "hard" source like x-rays. That didn't completely explain things but she said everything looked fine (estimated body weight of 6 pounds 14 ounces), so we were satisfied with the answer.
Is this really completely possible? Being the studious types we've bought several books and have gotten several others from the library and renewed them a bunch of times. Some of them do a hell of a job scaring you with all the things that can go wrong or close up candid pictures of actual births. The best of the bunch were the popular What to Expect When Your Expecting, very informative and thorough and The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, which while exceptionally funny also had a knack for making you feel comfortable about the
embarrassing
aspects of it all.
Don't expect to see a live simal-web cast of the birth or anything else of that nature coming from us. We've toured a couple hospitals facilities before settling on Missouri Baptist (MoBap).
As mentioned before Bethany decided WE didn't want to know what the sex of the baby was and we're waiting in anticipation. That isn't to say we haven't heard a fair amount of guessing based on old wives tales and the like. Most amusingly is that 3 out of 3 self described "Psychics" we've met in the check out lines while shopping have all proffered without prompting that it will be a boy upon scanning Bethany's body. They meant well but it's a little personally invading even if they aren't "really" psychics. Also tilting the tea leave scales for the male sex is that 7 out of 7 children on the south or even side of the 600-620 Tuxedo Blvd are boys. On the personal-gut-feeling side, Bethany is thinking boy as well, since in her dreams of the baby, it's always a boy. Based on his long-standing feeling that generally speaking most people are wrong most of the time, Randy thinks it will be a girl.
The day after we got the crib up, Bethany placed balloons in the bed to dissuade the cats from playing on it like they had the night before. So far that's worked like a charm (as it did with the Christmas tree last year). They're a little perturbed about losing their window perches in the room but as long as we provide them with one place to sit in the sun, we think it will be OK.
Maddie might be a little harder having been the center of Bethany's attention until Randy happened, and his affection was almost as good, so that was a fair trade off in Maddie's book. The baby may be another story, especially until there's solid food to be spilt on the floor (and subsequently licked up). Given the extended Curtis family's massive collection of Pooh bears and other stuffed critters it was clear that our child would not want for plush play toys. The biggest problem was figuring out how to convince our dog Maddie that they do not belong to her as up to this point, all the stuffed animals do and she's rather possessive of them.
Our official party line about what the names will be are: if it's a boy it will be Harry Potter Curtis or if a girl Hermione Granger Curtis (c'mon, who hasn't been swept up in Harry Potter mania!), unless we're talking to Van and Lisa Sage, in which case we're going to name it Alvan Herle Sage V Curtis. And in honor of the baby's future Uncle Micah, we're considering using
Llewellyn
or Gwendolyn as middle names so nobody else will be able to spell their names either.
Any which way, the code-name is "H". Personally, Randy wanted to sell the naming rights to the child but Bethany nixed that idea in no uncertain terms, along with his satirical idea of selling the naming rights for the nursery.
In one of the more ironic and non-seneschal twists, Randy can take off more paid leave (13 days from family sick leave) than Bethany can (it's a complex calculation but it looks like 6 days), though she can take the rest of a 12 weeks period unpaid. This is one of those times where being a western European would be nice. It also recalls the old joke that if men had
experienced
labor pains, two years of paid maternity leave would be Federally mandated.
RBJC Curtis Family Front Page
Randy and Bethany Have Got A Bun in the Oven
