Saturday, February 20, 2010

Project Baby: The Culmination


Espen is here.

He is beautiful.

I can't even find the words to tell you how happy and grateful we are.

Or how tired.

This is exactly how our life was meant to be.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Project Baby: A Report From the Trenches and a Little Giveaway!

Seeing as we are now only five little days away from The Due Date, I thought it would be appropriate to emit a little sign of life, and affirm that, yes, we're still here, and no, we haven't had the baby yet.

We have, however, reached the point in which I answer the phone and people are disappointed to hear my voice. When we see someone we know, there's always that quick little glance to ascertain that I am indeed still pregnant. But I do that too, so honestly, who can blame them?

My days are a getting a little weird.

I've been trying to sleep in as much as I can (because hauling a bowling ball around with your stomach muscles can be a little tiring), but can't really make it much past nine. So I get up, get dressed (AKA, pull on the only nightie that fits under my robe that hardly ties anymore) and meander downstairs. Then I pour myself a bowl of cereal and curl up on the couch. Which is where I typically stay all day long, mostly hooked up to my laptop. I read blogs, I Facebook stalk, I chat. I occasionally get uncontrollably emotional and make weepy phone calls to Nick at work. I talk to my mum a lot. I occasionally watch TV (mostly What Not To Wear, but never A Baby Story). I made dinner yesterday, and considered it a Personal Triumph of Great Dimensions.

In short, if I wasn't 9 months pregnant, I'd be admitting myself to some sort of clinic.

Thank goodness for lovely friends like Karen who are willing to drive down from Provo with heaps of DVDs for me, including the 6-hour BBC Pride and Prejudice and all five seasons of Angel. And thank goodness for lovely friends like Annika, who are not only willing to brave the UTA bus system to come and spend an afternoon with me, but bring pumpkin cookies too.

And thank goodness I only have a another week or so to go! It's been fun, it's been real, but now it is time for this pregnancy to be done.

Which brings me to our Giveaway!

As is tradition here in bloggyland, I (together with my lovely spouse, Nick) am hosting a Guess the Birth Date/Weight/Height Giveaway so y'all can be part of the fun.

The rules:
  1. The competition is open frommmm....... NOW! and until the very moment he is born. We will be checking the time stamp on your guess so there can be no cheatering. I know what you're like.
  2. Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment with your guesses on this post.
  3. As there are three categories of guesses, there will also be three winners. One for date, one for weight and one for height. These three categories will be scored as follows:
    • Date: The most accurate guess wins. if you're the only one with the right day, boo-yah, you win. However, if more than one person picks the right day, we'll go to the hour, then to the minute, etc. If there is a day/hour/minute/second tie, the first poster wins. We will be counting in Mountain Standard Time (GMT -7), so don't try anything funny with time zones.
    • Weight: Again, the most accurate guess wins. We will be accepting guesses in both metric and imperial measurements (pounds and kilos). Whoever guesses the closest wins. In the event of a tie, the first poster wins.
    • Height: Same as for weight, only with inches and centimeters. Again, if there is a tie, the first poster wins.

  4. In the event of one person guessing correctly in more than one category, we will simply deem them extra awesome and the winner of both prizes. If they get all three correct, we will be a little creeped out.
  5. As first time parents, we are under no obligation to get your prize to you in a timely manner. But by Christmas for sure. Or at least by the baby's first birthday.

Which brings us to prizes!

Each of the three winners will receive a personalized prize, tailored to suit their personal preferences (at least, as interpreted by me). However, each prize is likely to contain:
  • One certificate of achievement, deeming you the Grand Poobah of North Family Baby Guesstimation.
  • Photographic documentation of the Man Himself - WHICH YOU MUST TREASURE ALWAYS!
  • Something baby-related. Rest assured that this will indeed be tailored to your specific phase in life.
  • Something hand-made and/or edible. Because that's just how I rollz, yo.

And finally, a little bonus for those of you who are still reading! In the interest of fairness and full disclosure, we will let you in on a few of the things we already know about our baby.

  1. The estimated due date is Tuesday, February 16th.
  2. He's big! At our 39 week ultrasound, the doctor estimated him to weigh about 9 lbs 2 oz or 4.14 kg. Bear in mind that ultrasound estimates have a margin of error of one lb ( 450 gr.) in either direction.
  3. If he hasn't arrived by then already, we have the option of being induced on Monday the 15th. Probably around lunch time. Let me be clear in stating that this "option" has pretty strong appeal to a woman who can't see her own feet.
  4. In case you know what to do with this information, at the ultrasound earlier this week, his femur was measuring 77 mm or just over 3 inches.

And that's it!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Project Baby: The loveliest baby shower

I really don't consider myself to be a particularly boastful person, but when it comes to our friends I will tell you time and time again that man, we lucked out! In spite of being fairly nerdy people who spend most of our evenings eating cookies and watching movies (mostly nerdy ones) and geeking out over things like early Scandinavian language development, we have somehow managed to surround ourselves with friends that are kind, creative, generous, talented, intelligent, funny and endlessly caring and giving.

As evidenced by our baby shower.

A few Saturdays ago, dear Stepper (Mother of Mothers and Neigbour Extraordinaire) threw us the loveliest baby shower I have ever seen. Granted, I might be a little biased on the subject, seeing as not only was it was our baby shower, it also involved chubby birds and a menu specifically geared towards my pregnancy cravings. But let me tell you about it, and we'll see if you don't come around to my way of thinking.

First of all, there was the invitation:



Stepper just happens to be married to Bill, who just happens to be a magically skilled graphic designer, who just happened to be willing to donate his time to the creation of chubby birds and umbrellas. Thanks to Bill, I will now have to learn how to scrapbook just so I can sufficiently preserve this cuteness for posterity.

Then there was the food. Oh, the food! A few days before the shower, Stepper asked me if there were any foods I had been especially wanting or not wanting lately, and I told her that I've been absolutely loving fruit lately. (Which is not only true, but also reminds me that there are some apples in the kitchen. I'll be right back. )


We had oranges and grapefruit and a lovely salad with strawberries and nuts in it (I think I had three helpings!) and cucumber sandwiches and an asian chicken salad and cupcakes (with sprinkles!) and pain chocolat and an adorable cake topped with more chubby birds! And more. It makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Next, we have to talk about the activity. Knowing about our great affinity for wooden toys, Stepper had bought a bunch of little wooden cars for all the guests to decorate for our little boy to play with. Because, as we have learned from Stepper's son Wyatt, you can never have too many cars. Ever.



The cars were all painted with non-toxic, non-smelly paint (in consideration of the half the guests being pregnant) and once they had dried, Stepper treated the cars so they would all be non-toxic and baby safe.



The other thing I loved about this activity were how it gathered people to chat and get to know each other. And hooray, we get about 20 little toy cars for our little boy to play with.

And lest this become a post entirely devoted to my adoration of Stepper and her party throwing skills, let me tell you about some of the other guests:

  • Nick's family drove up from St. George in a snowstorm and absolutely showered us with gifts. Then Nick's dad disappeared into the kitchen during the party games and gift opening so he could devote some serious time and effort into painting cars for his grandson.
  • My mum and dad showed up all the way from Norway via Skype! They were able to meet a lot of our friends, and "give" us some shower gifts of their own. Sometimes living in the future is a grand thing :)
  • Amy not only drove down from Salt Lake, but gave us a set of five hand-stamped onesies that she had made herself.
  • Aubrey saved me from the unknown perils of nursing by putting together a complete kit for me, which was wonderful, because I've been so in the dark about what to get!
  • Annika came early, stayed late, brought food and generally helped out for the whole shower.
  • And absolutely everyone overwhelmed us with their kindness and generosity. I had the same happy and grateful feeling that I felt throughout our wedding day, being reminded of just how many good and selfless people we have in our life.

Of course there was a lot of this going on:


Which resulted in a tremendous haul of loot to bring home. We practically had a second shower when we got home and looked through all of our gifts again. And thanks to the amazingly good taste and forethought of our friends, we ended up not having to exchange anything! And... Stepper sent the cake home with us.

Such a lovely day.

PS: You can also read Stepper's post about hosting the shower here.