Boston for Thanksgiving

Since I am married, my husband and I share holidays. This year we did Thanksgiving in Boston and we will do Christmas here.

I am very afraid of flying and usually I take and anxiety drug or have a couple of glasses of wine to calm me down. This time since I am pregnant I could do no such thing. It was hard. Especially since we had a connecting flight. That's 2 take off's and two landings. The one thing that I was able to figure out to help calm me down is that if I use ear plugs it is a lot easier.
So we made it. (Which is not surprise considering flying is much safer than driving, but knowing that still does not help)

We had a great time. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at my mother's house, which I was unable to eat much of due to nausea. We saw family friends who were all in town from all over. We saw our great friends John and Noreen and got to see their Christmas tree all decorated, we were able to pull John away from studying for Law school and drag them to my mom's house for a party and then when I did not get enough to eat and needed ice cream we went and got some. And lastly we saw my best friend Alicia and her 2-year-old daughter. Seeing Alicia was amazing for me, because I truly miss her and because she already went through pregnancy and has all the advice in the world for me. We also were able to raid all her baby stuff and use it for our child. We got pounds of clothing, and baby necessities. Seeing her 2 year old really made me feel great, she is adorable, smart and growing way way too quickly.

I think that this trip to Boston made me notice the differences between St. Louis and Boston. I was also sad because my mom and best friend and our really good friends all live there. Since I am emotional and needing family a lot I found myself trying to find a way to stay. I know intellectually that it makes no sense to move here. We are trying to have a life here in St. Louis and the cost of living is a lot more expensive. But emotionally I wanted to move back home. And unfairly whenever I am now upset about something I threaten my husband and tell him that I will just go and have this baby in Boston.

As for St. Louis I am trying to make it home, trying to make and keep friends and hopping that this time next year I will be Thankful that we stayed and made it work.

First OB Appt

So, being a nervous person in general I started dreading my first OB/GYN visit. This is the appointment where they look at the baby for the first time and you can see if everything is ok, and if there are multiples.

I started stressing out because I didn't think that I was ready to hear if there was a problem. I read way way too many websites and blogs about pregnancy and they really do a good job of being negative and realistic. Mostly I tend to skim over the good parts and read the negative parts in detail.

We arrive at the Dr's office and there is no wait, we go right in and I go right in and get weighed. . . and the number will just continue to rise.
We go to the room and the Dr comes in and brings us right to her office so we can say hi before the ultra sound.
This was my first meeting with the woman who is delivering my baby, so I was looking at her in a way that I never have looked at a woman before. All that I was thinking was what will she be like when I am fat, and freaking out at the hospital? Will she be the type of person to ignore my feelings or play into them? Will she try and calm me, or send someone else into deal with it? Will she be rough? Will she let me have drugs early, and will she give me painkillers after if I need? Can I depend on her to deliver my baby safely?
I have decided that she is the right mixture of professional, and realistic. She is a woman who's given birth three times before, so she knows what she's talking about. And I really trusted her, so much that I wanted to give her a hug. The only negative is that I know she is the type of woman who will give me a hard time about weight gain, considering she said 2 times that second piece of cake is not for the baby.

Below is the picture of the small fetus that is about 7 weeks old, it is one baby and they say that he or she will be out around July 1st.



I am trying to remind myself to stay positive and that really there is nothing that I can do to change fate. The more I read about pregnancy the more I begin to feel that my job is to be a great host. The sex and the genes are already chosen and the only things that I can do to harm the growing fetus is to take drugs, drink and do major body beating harm. So my goal is to relax and treat myself right and try not to stress over something that is not there. I did read that women tend to think the worst sometimes because that's our way of hardening ourselves so that if something bad does happen, we can still function. Who knows, I could just be masochistc and need drama. Other than my drama queen notions, I will try to be happy relax and enjoy!

Pregnant

I am having a baby. I am about 7 weeks along and him or her will be born toward the latter part of June.
It's very exciting and new for me, and when I am not feeling sick I am really tired.

I’m really looking forward to having a child in St. Louis because there are just so many things you can do with your children for free. St. Louis is also a very child friendly place, and a place where most people have kids. Unlike NY where I knew almost nobody with children my age or even a bit older.

More to come like my first sonograham picture this next week!

Me

It's my birthday! And I'm going to eat Mexican food!

Halloween Tricks St. Louis Style

So this was our first year in our first house that we got to do the whole hand out candy to the neighborhood kids.
Coming from Boston originally I was used to cabbage night (the night before Halloween where people go around and TP your home and smash our pumpkins) and tons of kids from 5-18 trick or treating and grabbing as much candy as they can and leaving before they look you in the eye. So I prepared myself, bought a lot of candy and got ready to scoop it out.

In St. Louis the whole Halloween thing is way different and much more composed. First off there is no cabbage night here. Kids also stop trick or treating in middle school here so you only get the cuties chaperoned by their parents. The best most surprising part was that every child that came to the door told a joke took one piece of candy and said thank you as they left.
No joke, I was shocked.
We later went to a friends house and I had to ask everyone there who was raised here if they grew up telling jokes for candy, and they all looked at me as if that was the only way.

I guess St. Louis is a polite trick or treating place!

As a side note, Pig our dog dressed up in a pig costume and was a pig this halloween.

Creating

The more I work in this catering kitchen the more I like it. I don't see it as my long-term career plan but there is something wonderful about getting lost in your head while making 400 gooey butter cookies.

I have started working for this great theatre company in St. Louis, and they happen to do a lot of educational work. They have grown a bunch in the last 3 years and now have their own space to work out of permently. You theatre people out there know how hard that is to come by.

So as I was creating, making and baking all these cookies yesterday I came up with this wonderful idea for a class that I could teach at this company. I have to pitch it to them today and if they like it I will tell you all about it!

Bike Race

I was the first girl in a semi-bike race this past weekend. It was called Tour De Moose. A bartender at a bar in South City called Lemon's has done this for 3 years in honor of his birthday.


I think that they called it a race, but really it was supposed to be about the beer. It was a pub-crawl from bar to bar to bar (about 6 in total). All around the City area, from South City to The Hill to Downtown, Soulard and Back! There were about 60 people in the race this year we were told and about 1/3 of them woman. Everyone was there to have a good time and drink and race. There were rules and maps so nobody would get hurt. And the best rule of all was that everyone had to wear a helmet.


I am competitive when it comes to women and biking. Something weird comes over me, I get energy from places I never knew I had, and I have the urge to out do any woman on a bike.
This started in Brooklyn, NY on the Williamsburg Bridge when I decided to go over faster and faster each time and pass as many people as I could. I found out that I could pass people, and I would get a surge as I did.

Since moving here to St. Louis, I have not been on my bike as much, but when I do get on my energy comes back and I am a speed racer.
I think a lot of it has to do with riding with my husband who is a great rider himself. He is taller, faster and better on a bike than me. Also I never beat people at anything, and since I found something that I can do pretty well I am taking pride in it.

So, I think that we have found a new St. Louis yearly tradition, The Tour De Moose!