36 weeks - What is a crenshaw melon?

BHR is gaining about an ounce a day and weighs almost 6 lbs. This is like a crenshaw melon, although I don't know what a crenshaw melon is, I'm sure it's a nice melon. BHR is more than 18 1/2 inches long.

Bon Jovi in a chair

We finally got our new rocker finished! It's not exactly new, but it's an old rocker with a makeover, sorta' like Bon Jovi! Greg painted the chair and we had new cushions made for it. It's perfect and fits me perfectly. It even makes the little "creeky" rocker noise that rockers are supposed to make. Greg wants to fix that noise I'm sure, but now that he's a "new Jew" he's going to have to fix less stuff!

Life Savers, Tic Tacs and Strawberry Rhubarb Shmoo

Greg is off to become a Jew this morning. This process has taken him almost 2 years, but I'm sure it has felt much longer for him. He already has had his symbolic circumcision or his "hatafat dam brit", this morning he went before a panel of three rabbis, also known as "Bet Din", and then at 1:00 today he will be dunked, also called the "mikveh." I'm truly impressed with his dedication to the process, not just what has been required of him, but also his own desire to learn and explore something that I think I have probably taken for granted.

I was born Jewish, and while I attended Sunday school and Hebrew school and everything else, being Jewish has been different for me. Sunday school was never pleasant for me, I didn't have a ton of friends in my classes and never really felt like I fit in. In fact, I remember having one friend in Sunday school who was one year ahead of me. She wore a Raiders parka and had really high bangs.

In regular school I remember being one of three other Jewish students in the class and we would have to go up in front of the class twice a year and talk about Chanukah and Passover and explain to the non-Jewish kids what the holidays were about. I felt different, but I'm not sure I felt special.

After my Bat Mitzvah I remember feeling proud and accomplished, like I had made it. It felt good to be Jewish, but still different. Temple was never a place I wanted to go and I remember resenting Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur because they often fell around the same time as my birthday. It wasn't necessarily Judaism that I didn't like, but temple wasn't a comfortable place for me.

When my dad passed away in 1995 and had the falling out with the Rabbi, that was when I questioned Judiasm. I questioned the Rabbi and felt like he let me down. I don't regret saying what I said at my dad's kaddish and I would probably say it again ...I knew something was right, and I said it. I'm sure many people think that my timing was off, that I shouldn't have said what I said when I said it, but I wouldn't change a thing.

After that, being Jewish was not about going to temple, it was about something I did with my family, something that connected me with different people around me ... family traditions and lots of food. I really owe my mom for making sure Judaism never left my life. Getting me to temple was probably never easy, but she made sure we were there and she surrounded us with loving people and created a new family for us, she made sure we knew that being Jewish was important.

I remember going to temple and sitting in the way back. Sleeping through half of the service and waking up for some of the songs. (In fact, I still sing a lot of the songs on a weekly basis, mostly in the shower. I'm sure Greg has enjoyed them. I think it was my singing that made him want to convert, I have such a lovely singing voice and they are quite catchy tunes.) My mom would give us lifesavers and tic -tacs and we would bug her about when we would get to leave. We were allowed to leave the service and play in the hallway, but only during the sermon. For the longest time I didn't even know what a sermon was, I basically thought it was "break time."

When I went away to college Judaism came with me. I didn't attend temple until the firebombings in 1999, but I always felt connected. Maybe I didn't appreciate what it meant to be Jewish until then, or maybe I just was waiting for the Rabbi to retire before going back, or maybe I was just being lazy...it was probably a combination.

Being Jewish has never been about a belief in God for me ... I question God a lot and his/her existence, and I think that's a part of it. I think questioning is a big part of being Jewish for me. More importantly, Judaism is about culture and tradition and family.

Greg's curiosity and interest in Judaism has helped bring me back and given me a new perception about what it means to be Jewish. Our wedding was one of the happiest days of my life and having a Jewish ceremony was something that helped make it so memorable.

I always knew that I would raise my child Jewish. I never cared if my partner was Jewish or not, but he had to be willing to raise our kids the same way I was raised. Not everything we do or have done in my family has been the most "traditional" ... but Judaism is something that is with me.

I love incorporating our family traditions with knew ones. I can't wait to share latkes with BHR for Chanukah and Matza pancakes with him on Christmas. I love Passover ... eating Gaby's strawberry rhubarb shmooey stuff and reading my mom and Greg's new haggadah. I love that it's a living document. My mom wrote it and Greg and Lucas have both contributed over the years. It's nice to feel that being Jewish is special, that it's an honor ... I thank my mom and Greg for reminding me.

Now that Greg is a Super Jew he can make sure that BHR knows all of the history, I can sing him the songs, my mom can give him lifesavers and tic tacs and we can all eat latkes and matza brie and be thankful that we're Jewish and get to eat such tasty food.

Honeydews and Law School

BHR is now 35 weeks. He is 18 inches long and around 5 1/4 lbs which is about as much as a honeydew. Most of basic physical development is complete, so now he's just gaining weight, just like his mommy!

So, BHR could be born anytime, but I have to say this ... the impossible has happened. I am finally in a law school class that I don't want to miss! The professor doesn't take roll and he doesn't really care that much if you are there and I actually want to be there! Who would have thought that it would ever happen? After two years ... two LONG years, I have finally found a class that is enjoyable. The class is Family Law. No, it's not just divorces and custody battles and it's not just depressing stuff. I've only had one class, so I can't say that I really know exactly what it's all about, but I know I like it so far and that's a huge step.

What does this mean for BHR and I? Well, it means that I'm hoping BHR can hold on at least one more week, because next week we are discussing same-sex marriage and frankly that's one of the reasons I came to law school, so I'm hoping I dont' have to miss it ... if BHR did decide to come a bit early, I think I'd be okay with that too:)

It's almost Fall, let's watch TV!

Finally, after a week of 185 degrees I am finally comfortable. Maybe it's because school starts today or maybe its because Mother Nature is gearing up for the Fall TV lineup, either way I'm not complaining because Fall is coming!

Fall typically reminds me of school supplies, television shows and crunchy leaves. Since I'm trying to pretend that school isn't actually happening, I think I'll make a list of all of my favorite television shows. These are in no particular order ...

1. The Cosby Show - (I used to love watching this show with my mom and Lucas. Every Thursday we would watch the Cosby Show, Family Ties and CHeers together. We would pile into mom's bed or room and all watch and eat dinner together with our tv trays. Lucas had a Duke's of Hazzard tray and mine was Strawberry Shortcake. Mom still has them.)
2. Family Ties
3. The Facts of Life - (this was not the best show ever, but I loved it! I wanted to be just like Joe, although I never really wanted a motorcycle.)
4. The A-Team
5. Cheers
6. 21 Jump Street - (But only the Johnny Depp episodes because Booker was just lame!)
7. Seinfeld
8. Friends - (I got to see the show taped live once ... I'm pretty sure I cried when they introduced the cast members.)
9. Buffy The Vampire Slayer - (when Greg and I first moved in together, I asked him to record to the show for me because I had class or something. All he had to do was press record, but instead he decided that he would leave the tv on and since he didn't want to listen to the show, he put it on mute. This was before TiVo. So, he recorded the entire show on mute and when I went to watch it there was no sound ... we almost broke up that night. I like to think that I was the better person for forgiving him, but really he was the better person for not leaving me after learning of my crazy obsession with a fake tv show about vampires)
10. Felicity - (Greg hates this show! He hates that they all whisper and I have to say that is pretty weird)
11. Arrested Development - (Seriously one of the funniest shows ever on television. I wish it were still on.)
12. Scrubs - the musical episode is genius!
    
13. Sex and the City - (minus the last season because the Russian dancer was gross and the show got depressing)
14. The Office - (I watch the US version, not because I don't think the UK version is good or probably even better than the US version, but mostly because I can't understand a word that Ricky Gervais says and then I get embarrassed and Greg makes fun of me.)
15. 30 Rock - (Doesn't everyone relate to Liz Lemon ... the episode where she goes to some new NYC club opening and she feels uncomfortable so she tries to chat with some people and she says "So... do you guys watch Heroes? I like the Japanese guy" and they all look at her like she's crazy.)
16. Alias - (I still haven't seen the final season, but the show is still quite entertaining! I love Sydney Bristow. She secretly made me want to become some sort of spy or FBI person ... I think it could work as long as they don't expect me to travel or shoot anyone or use weapons. Otherwise I think I'd be awesome!)
17. Veronica Mars - (Another show that was cancelled well before it's time. Who doesn't love a sassy, teenage super sleuth who quotes The Big Lebowski and has a dog named "back-up"? Even Greg watched this show with me)
18. Gilmore Girls - (Another show that Greg wishes I never discovered. He says it's because they have this weird "lalalala" song that they play between scenes, but really I think he likes it.)

Hair Washing and Finger Joints

I haven't had too much to say these days ... mostly just trying to get by. School officially starts today and I'm just not there yet. I'm not ready. I'm not sure I'll ever be ready because to be honest, if you couldn't tell, I don't really enjoy law school.

I am going on early maternity leave this week. My last day of work will be on Thursday. I'm excited! I've been working for EdVoice for almost 3 years, it's going to be strange not driving here next week, but I'm seriously not complaining because I'm really tired!

BHR is taking a lot out of me lately... This morning was hair washing day, probably one of my least favorite things to do during the week. I got so tired blow-drying my hair this morning, I had to take a break! Hopefully the early break from work will help the energy level, but I'm not counting on it.

Recently I discovered a new pain ... last week I woke up in the middle of the night and my fingers were super sore! I have come to learn that my joints are getting looser and my fingers are a little more swollen and my knuckles hurt. Apparently this is normal and it will hopefully go away once BHR arrives or shortly thereafter, but honestly I definitely wasn't expecting pregnancy to hurt my finger joints!

Gross picture of gross looking food!

I was reading my usual gossip columns and I came across this picture of a new "hot spot" restaurant that serves eggs or something ... I decided this was one of the grossest looking meals I have ever seen and think that this restaurant should probably do a much better job at advertising how tasty their food is ... that looks like a bunch of stuff that my cat just threw up! Blech!

The brocoli stuff might be tasty, but it's sitting next to a pile of weird colored, already chewed eggs ... not good in my book.

34 Weeks ... and we're back to round fruits!

BHR is 34 weeks today. He weighs 4 3/4 lbs, which is about as much as a cantaloupe, and is almost 18 inches long. If BHR were born today he'd generally do fine. He might have to stay in the hospital a bit longer, but in the long run he'd be okay. Phew ... we're almost there!

Meet my new tasty sangwich ... the picture doesn't do it justice.

We've been watching the olympics all weekend, so today I decided I wanted some chinese food. However, I didn't actually want to make the effort to go and get some and I didn't actually know what I wanted, so I gave up on the chinese food idea and went into the kitchen to search for some inspiration...

I came up with the tastiest sangwich EVER! I'm not usually a huge "egg" person necessarily, but this was some tasty stuff! Whole wheat roll, kona honey mustard, lettuce, pepper jack cheese, turkey bacon, and one egg with salt and pepper. MMMmmmmmmm ... meet my new sangwich.
Oh tasty sangwhich, how I enjoyed eating you with my giant glass of apple juice. How you made me so happy and filled my tum tum with tasty goodness. Thank you tasty egg sangwich. Thank you for making my insides melt with yumminess.

Hopefully this doesn't offend anyone ... it's about spanking.

I preface this post by saying, if you believe in spanking, don't read this. It's not meant to offend anyone, it's my own personal views on spanking children.

Last night in my Juvenile Law class we had a very interesting discussion. It was about corporal punishment and whether or not there should be a law that a bans corporal punishment, or spanking your child. Hopefully this post does not offend anyone, but here's my take of the discussion that occurred ...

I was overwhelmed by the number of people who were against a law that banned spanking. Not everyone in the class spoke out, but the majority of students were pro-spanking, or they were not for spanking themselves, but they did not want to tell other people that they couldn't spank their child.

As someone who is about to become a mother I found this discussion incredibly interesting ... I was not raised with spankings as a child, so I have never thought about spanking my own children. I felt naive as I sat and listened to my classmates rationals about why spanking is okay ...I assumed that being in a law class most students would agree with me, I was very wrong.

One student felt that creating a law would not change behavior, to which I thought in my mind, why are you in law school? Another student felt like if his child ran across the street he should be able to teach him that it's not okay without the risk of being turned over to CPS. Others said that it's a cultural thing and that you can't tell a culture that it's not okay to do something ... they are entitled to their opinions and I kept my mouth shut (mostly because I had to pee and I wanted class to end early and also because I was so shocked and amazed at what some people were saying).

The whole time this discussion is going on books were being passed around the classroom. The books contained very graphic photos of children who were sexually assaulted or who were beaten by their parents. The pictures were so disturbing that some people wouldn't look at them and just continued to pass them along. Please don't take my statements to mean that people who spank their children are on the same level as people who sexually assault or who beat their children, but the discourse among my classmates was still shocking to me. Where do we draw the line?

The thing that I have a hard time with is this ... nowhere else in our lives is it okay to hit someone, so just because we call this "spanking" how is it different? I'm not a parent yet, so I can't say that I fully understand any of this, but it was thought provoking ... my mom told me the story of the one time she spanked me. I guess I turned to her and I said "Don't hit me! If I can't you, you can't hit me." And she said she never was able to do it again. Doesn't that make sense though? I wonder as a parent, how am I going to teach my child right from wrong? What will my methods be?

My professor, who is an expert on child abuse, made some interesting statements. While a law that banned spanking might be hard to enforce immediately, laws can change people's perspectives over time. He used the example of segregation and how people once believed that there would never be integration and look at where we are now. He talked about how at one time many people believed that it was okay for husbands to beat their wives ... maybe 10 or 15 years from now we will look back and be shocked that people thought it was okay to "spank" their children.

From a scientific perspective, the professor also mentioned that the American Academy of Pediatrics has also come out against corporal punishment saying that is ineffective. Since I am not writing a scientific article nor am I looking to get this published anywhere, I will leave it at that.

I believe that teaching people new approaches to correcting misbehavior would be a very challenging task! It would be hard to implement and telling people that one behavior is not okay without educating them as to why and providing them with resources would be irresponsible! I openly admit that I am not an expert that I don't have the answers, I would just prefer to live in a place where hitting of any kind was never involved. I'm hopeful and incredibly naive ...

Chompers Himovitz-Ries

So I had a dream last night that I delivered some giant blond baby AND he had a full set of teeth. It could have been because I had just watched So You Think You Can Dance right before I went to bed and Nigel "Chompers" Lythgoe gives me the heebie jeebies, but regardless of why I dreamt it, it was traumatizing!

The dream went like this ... Here I was, all exhausted from giving birth and then they hand me some large, like 40lbs-large, baby and he has blond hair! That was strange enough, but then when he went to breast feed or something all I saw were these big chompers comin' at me. I tried to explain to the nurses that a full set of teeth on a newborn was not normal and that this couldn't possibly be my child and they insisted that it was the new "thing" and all babies have teeth now ... saves on orthodontic work later or something. Anyway, now I'm scared of labor, delivery, anesthesia and "chomper babies"!

When I thought about the dream I decided this ... the teeth thing was definitely because of Nigel Lythgoe and the blond hair thing was because I read in my pregnancy book last night that parents with dark hair are sometimes surprised to see that their newborns have blond hair and then I pictured what Greg and I would look like with blond hair.

The giant baby thing, well I think that's just because everyone keeps telling me how BIG I look and saying things that they think are funny, but in reality it's not that funny to say to a 5'1", 8 1/2 month pregnant woman "Are you sure there aren't two babies in there?" or they ask when I'm due and I tell them September and their jaws drop to the floor and then they say "Really?! That's going to be a BIG baby!"

Just so they know, that's not helpful! I know my tum-tum is big and that there is a living baby inside it, I don't need the reminder of how large I am or how big he is going to be ... the hole down there will either accommodate him or it won't, so basically I just have to trust the doctor's when they tell me "everything is measuring normal." If he doesn't fit through the hole that is provided, then the doctor's will look for other options ... I vote for the option with the least amount of pain, but that's just me.

Viva la Unicorn

If you are wondering what has been entertaining today click here.

My brother sent this to me this morning, and I've been giggling about it all day.

Meet my new running buddy!

Evelyn Ruth McNearney. Born 8-1-08 @ 6:13 am, 7 lbs. 2 oz. & 20 inches long.

Nail Watch 2008

It finally happened ... the nail from the "incident" has finally fallen off! It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I think the real nail from underneath finally grew enough to push the gross one off. I'm still keeping it covered, because while I said it's not that bad, it's still not that pretty.

Since we are talking about things changing, my belly button is starting to push out. But only half of it ... so, I'm missing half of a finger nail and now half of my belly button is starting to pop out. I'm very attractive right now!

Time to go and get some tacos...

These people clearly don't want to go home ... I'm sitting here and waiting for class to end. Not because the class is uninteresting, but because BHR and I want Tacos!

I'm having this problem, where I just dislike people for no reason ... I know we're all here to learn, but seriously, I can only listen to cases of child abuse and statistics for so long. Especially when I have tacos on the brain!

This class is actually quite interesting. We are talking about the when the courts and government should intervene in cases of child abuse. So that's interesting stuff right? The problem is this ... everyone has to share or question, because it's a huge subject and everyone has something to say. We're law students for cryin' out loud. But seriously, I did this already! I have a masters in social work ... so I've heard it. I'm not trying to be cold or insensitive. This stuff is serious, and really important, but you know how it's usually easier to pretent like the bad stuff doesn't exist? Well, that's how I feel right now ...

When I was reading the material, there was a series of newspaper articles that chronicled different cases of child abuse ... it made me think about the responsibility of raising a child and what that means to me; raising my own child...it's scary, but exciting.

Emotionally, I will never understand how someone abuses a child. I can read study after study and never really get it ...it makes me feel lucky and fortunate to have the family I have and to be able to learn what I'm learning ... but it doesn't make me a bad person for wanting to leave class and go and get tacos.

I've lost my walking partner ... at least for now.

I've lost my walking buddy ... It's only temporary though. Leah had her baby, Evelyn, on Friday, August 1st. I'm so jealous that she got to meet her "little person." It's been so nice to go through this with someone and to be able to share our similar experiences. Part of me feels like I'm being left behind. We've been going through this together for so long, that I wish I were having BHR right now. Although, it's been really nice to know the sorts of things that are going to happen before they actually happen ...



I'm so excited to have BHR and to share in many more experiences with Leah and Evelyn. I know that we will motivate each other to keep running and it'll be nice to have someone who is going through the same things as me while they're actually happening.



I'm 33 weeks today and 7 weeks isn't really that far away, but I'm ready to introduce BHR to the world and catch up to Leah and Evelyn...

Blonde Tube-Top Lady

A lot has been going on the past week or so...I started school, took two baby classes and lost my pregnant walking partner (she had her baby, I didn't really lose her). I'm trying to keep up with everything and finding that I just can't do everything the way I used to, or the way I want to. Somethings have to give I suppose, I'm just not sure what at this point.

Last week we took "Surviving the First Month" at the hospital. My mom and Ed came with us. It was nice to have the support. There was a girl in front of us who was all by herself, and that sort of helped remind me how lucky I am to have my family so close. We learned how to swaddle, change diapers and bathe BHR...Greg got the swaddling down. His baby looked just like the diagram. Mine was a bit more disheveled, but I think it will do the trick. I had a hard time with the "hushing" technique ... this is where you "sssshhhh" the baby in the ear as loudly as they are crying. Apparently that's what it sounds like in my womb, so it's supposed to be soothing. I just found it creepy and a bit irritating.

We also took "Ready, Set, Deliver" on Saturday. I'm finding that I'm just disliking people for no reason these days. Mostly people I don't know, which doesn't make it any better, but honestly that girl should know that her big, blond head was in my way! Don't you think?!

The class was a lot better than I expected ... our teacher was this sort of hippy lady with an odd shaped face. I have been so uncomfortable these days that I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through a class from 9:00am - 5:00pm, but I was able to sit on an exercise ball throughout most of the class and that really helped.

We learned different breathing techniques, none of which I think I will remember when I actually go into labor, so let's hope Greg does and then she proceeded to demonstrate what a contraction might feel like, and then how the breathing techniques might help us ... this is where she lost me. She had Greg pinch me for a minute so that I could breathe through the pain. I didn't like this at all! I didn't like her telling someone to do something to me without my permission! Not that this was news to me, but I really don't like being told what to do ... let's hope BHR takes after Greg, he was perfectly fine with following instructions.

Back to the pinching ... how does that feel like a contraction? I got that I was supposed to breathe through it, but seriously lady? If that's what a contraction why is labor so scary? Why do things rip and tear and stretch and pull?

We also watched some videos of people actually going through child birth. I didn't find them as gross as I thought I would, but what I did find unsettling was the epidural! Now I'm not only afraid of natural child birth, but I am also afraid of having a giant needle go into my spine! Cheese and Rice, why is it so scary?!

Greg said that if I wanted to, I could probably do a natural childbirth, and he's probably right, but up until this point I was very set on receiving an epidural. I'm not trying to prove anything in labor, I'm not trying to beat anyone or challenge anyone or challenge myself even. All I want is a healthy BHR. I'm pretty sure I'm going with the epidural ... it can't be any worse than slamming your finger in a door, barfing all over the place, having shots in the finger that was slammed in the door, and getting 14 stitches to hold the nail on, right?

On a slightly different note ... so we are sitting in the class and this girl in front of me is wearing a black tube top. I start feeling jealous that she's able to wear a strapless bra and still able to wear a tube top, not that I ever was a big tube top wearer, but you get my point. Then I noticed something that made me feel better, when she sat in a chair, her back smush would smush up over the top of the tube top and up over the top of the chair. I feel bad, but that made me feel so much better! Even though I probably have a significant amount of back smush myself, the fact that I'm not prancing around in a tube top probably lessens the display of smush that the people around me have to endure ... so, in conclusion, even though I was jealous of blond, tube-top lady at first, she helped to show me that even if I could wear a strapless bra because my boobs were tiny enough to fit in one, I probably wouldn't want to because my back smush would leak over chairs.

Pineapple

BHR is 33 weeks and weighs as much as a pineapple, apparently that's around 4 lbs, and he's 17 inches long.