Friday, April 4, 2014

Start of Something: A Little Man

Little Mr. Fadner #3 exclaimed, "Please stop calling me a she!"  Oh yeah, did he ever let us know.  This little guy is NOT a girl, despite me being completely positive that he was!  Take a look at the clear message he sent us at 14 1/2 weeks old:


How he already knows how to spell "BOY" is beyond me, but now we know.  We are having a boy.  Another boy!  I am super excited, but I'm still getting over the shock - you know when you think you are so sure of something... I had this very vivid dream of actually giving birth.  Everyone was out of the room, and I delivered this little baby girl all by myself and it was so easy!  And I already knew what I was going to name her: "Miriella" which is a combination of my two grandmothers Miriam and Helen.  Omg, I love that name so much!  How about Miriello.  Interesting...
Jonathan sort of wished and also had a feeling that it was a boy, but I was like "sorry honey, you're wrong."  Oops!!! We have a saying: "Jonathan is always right."  It is used regularly, I have to admit.  As long as "Yes, Honey" is used just as much from him, I'm fine with admitting he's right.  ;)
Other than those preconceived girly notions I had and accepting that sometimes your wrong and your husband is right, I am totally excited to have a household of boys.  It's gonna be awesome.  I know lots of families that have two boys, including Jonathan and my best friend Theresa.

The last few weeks have been so up and down!  Let's focus on the highlights first... Ahh, Florida!!!



Spring Break in Florida was the highlight of this month.  Since I was off location for my weekly photo, I took my WEEK 13 shot at the beautiful Lake Manatee.  I wish a manatee would've stuck his head out in the background - darn.  It was so liberating and blissful having all my skin in the sun!  Of course there was no one there until I took off my top, so I  positioned myself behind a tree and Jonathan snapped the shots quickly.  I also had to go from the opposite profile than normal because the wind was blowing so much, my face would've been engulfed in hair.  LOL.

                                                          HIGHLIGHTS
We left the Monday after my first post, March 17th, to sunny, gorgeous Florida.  I was anticipating this trip so much after not having spent a winter in a wintery state like NY or WI in like over 10 years.  I was definitely longing for the warmth and water.  My parents go there every year for art shows and vacation, so I decided we were meeting them this year.  This mama needed to shed some layers and feel sexy again, instead of feeling like a hibernating bear/whale.  Sunshine + Water = Happiness in my book and swimming with Jackrabbit is the funNEST thing ever...

~ Warning: diversion into Family Vacation Photos.  Please skip down to return to main story: Pregnancy and it's Ups and Downs ~

Swimming!!!








Making art at Naples Art Festival 
Ready for another swim.
This trip was very healing for me.  My parents are great to travel with because that are inexhaustable and obsessed with activites.  We stayed on Anna Maria Island by day and Lake Manatee State Park (camping in an RV with the dogs!) by night.  The last few days were in Naples for an Art Show.  

I highly recommend swimming and being outside while pregnant.  I also highly recommend eating fresh food like fish caught that very day (only if it's not on the high mercury list, of course).  And maybe most important, spend time with people who love you and support you and can get you out and about!  Without this, it's so easy to fall into a funk.  I'll get into funk-land below, but there's more good news.


I went through a bajillion tests for every birth defect under to sun.  At my 14 week dr. visit, when "Miriello" first made himself known, the doctor started to go through the exhaustingly long test results.  This test - Beautiful.  This test - Perfect.  That test - Beautiful.  This other test - Perfect.  I was waited for something scary as the list went on, but thank the lord above it was ALL GOOD!  You can't help but worry, right!?  All those "what ifs".
I complained about the inconvenience about taking 2 hours to get to the testing clinic when she said there will be one more set of tests coming up.  So the doc, Dr. Maria Culotta, offered that I can give blood at the Forest Hills clinic and save myself the trip to Long Island.  Yippeeeee!
The hospital, North Shore Jewish Medical Center, is actually out there, too. I've been imagining having the baby in the car or even a taxi stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital.  Wouldn't that be awesome!  Eek.  But I was reassured by a mom in our Mommy and Me class at the Y who just had her second son last week out there and she said the drive was fine.  She took precautions to leave before things got too intense, which is smart.  

Side thought - I'm thinking of trying my best to not do the epidural this time, because I felt like it slowed things down last time.  But I also had a weird situation because my water lad been leaking over a whole weekend rather than a single water break, so maybe it was just meant to be slow with Jack, if you consider 32 hours slow.  The actual pushing was only like a 1/2 hour.

Let's do photos before I get into the poor poor sufferings of the pregnant lady!  I have 3 photos to share since last posting.  There's definitely a gradual expanding going on.

Welcome to the 2nd Trimester!

LOWLIGHTS
Prior to leaving for Florida, I was feeling the need to not only warm up, but to be around people who I love, like my family.  Being pregnant brings this out like crazy.  I remember feeling like this in California while pregnant with Jack, but here in NY it's even stronger because I really have very limited family and friends out here and the winter is brutal!  It's been tough building any community for myself and Jack while Jonathan is at grad school.  I'm sure lots of new moms can relate to this, especially if you are a new mom who just moved to a new place.  Life is just not like it used to be.  I can't really explore on my own and it's just not convenient to get around here on public transportation with a stroller and a squirmy toddler.  I'm going to bring my car out from Wisconsin next Fall so the three of us (Jack, Baby Boy, and me) aren't stuck in our little box (also known as apartment) all the time. 
Spring has just started to peek out, along with April showers, this week, but I already feel a huge difference in my state of mind.  And people on the street, or in the laundry room, check out line, subway, elevator, don't have quite as much of that chilly disposition that makes me miss California either.  A feeling of isolation has probably been my worst enemy over the last couple months.  With spring here, hopefully the feeling will subside.  And don't get me wrong, I treasure every moment I spend with my little spunky angel Jackrabbit.  I want both of us to be surrounded by good people and good feelings.  And we are a lot of the time and we will be more, so I keep telling myself just get through and don't lose sight of all the amazing things we have going for us!

On a more physical, less phsychological, level, I've experienced really awful Round Ligament Pain this pregnancy.  Only twice, but when it happened, it totally floored me.  Both times it was in bed in the middle of the night.  First time was really early on, and this last time was between 14 & 15 weeks.  Sometimes I get a shooting cramp in my left side when I pick Jack up or get up from lying down.  It's always on my left.  But this seriously painful Round Ligament pain is different.  It lasts for hours!  I can't even move.  It's a little funny, because sometimes Jonathan gets up at night to get Jack to go back to sleep and he falls alseep in his bed and never returns to our room.  So that was happening the night I was in excruciating pain and I was weakly calling out for Jonathan both because I felt weak and also cuz I didn't want to wake up Jack but I did want to wake up Jonathan.  I can't remember what happened exactly, but I ended up keeping Jonathan up all night and he had to take care of Jack in the morning too cuz I still couldn't move.  I called the doctor on call (it's a 100% guarantee that I always have urgent matters happen on Sunday when clinics are closed) who said it was probably what I thought - Round Ligament Pain.  The usual - if you start to bleed or the pain worsend go to the emergency room.  To my great relief, the pain faded away and I was back to normal uncomfortable pregnant lady.  

I also got a nasty cold, which apparently 90% of NYC has.  It's still hanging on, but at the tail end now.  Headaches, stuffy runny nose, sore throat, you know the Nyquil ad... I went in to sing at NYU last Thursday, fighting this cold and gagging through a horrible bout of nausea, but proud that I battled through and sang my heart out - thankfully not my guts.

So lastly, I was tricked into believing that my nausea had swam away with my winter blues in Florida.  I felt great and didn't get sick at all that week.  Then, literally the night we got home to NY, I was back in the bathroom, throwing up.  Yuck yuck yuck.  The nausea returned.  Boo.  I got so sick again just the other night, I had to make sure not to watch what was coming out so I could get out of there alive!  It's SOOO rough!!!  I'm not gonna tell you what I had for dinner that night, but since then I resolved to eat more simple, fresh food.  I have a thing for veggie sushi now.  It's perfect because in out Kosher neighborhood, sushi is like the thing.  I'm also consuming lots of Japanese rice crackers.  Yum, sodium!  And frozen yogurt.  Pregnant taste buds change constantly, so we'll see what's next on the menu...
Stay tuned!

Thank you for letting me share these moments and please feel free to share yours with me.  So much happens, and it's so much better to be able to share and laugh about it, or cry about it, but at least the sharing part!
Lotsa love ~