Happy Halloween!

This year I was a...MUMMY!


Next year, I won't have to dress up as one :-)

Band Baby in Training

This past weekend was Cal Poly's Homecoming. As usual, Dave and I headed down to SLO for the weekend to join the band alumni. I usually play my sax and Dave conducts for the alumni. (I did joke with Dave that this might be a good year to twirl at homecoming - I mean that uniform would be sexy stretching over my expanding waistinline - but thought I'd probably end up bonking my baby in the head with a baton).
There is no doubt that our little one on the way will wind up being musical. Both Dave and I have been around music and played instruments since we were little. We both played in college band and are even both alumni of a band service fraternity. So, it's no big surprise that our little lady enjoyed the music this weekend - especially drum cadences or strong bass parts. As for mom, it was a little hard to keep up (that march from the band room to the field never seemed so long!) but I managed to take it easy and had a fun time playing in the stands with the band.

And on the field during the post-game show (that's me in the middle with the belly and the saxophone :-).
The football game kinda sucked since Cal Poly lost it in the last few minutes after being ahead for most of the time, but as my friend Amy and I were saying - when we went to Cal Poly they always lost, so it was really more like a homecoming this way. I also managed to get some good baby info. time in this weekend as we were staying with our friends who are expecting their third girl in just a few weeks.
Overall the weekend was lots of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year when our little band baby can be there to experience all the fun first hand!

Fetus' First Field Trip

Let me start by telling you about how Dave woke up this morning - to my screams! I used to get these bad cramps in my legs in the middle of the night. I would bolt up in bed, screaming, clutching my leg and try to rub the cramp out. I hadn't had one in awhile, but about 5:00 a.m. this morning that changed. As you can imagine this is not the best way for me to wake up, but even worse for Dave when he doesn't really know why I am screaming. The other thing that sucks about these cramps is that for the whole day the leg where I had the cramp aches. That's bad enough on a normal day, but today, my class went on a field trip. We went to the Ohlone Village at Deer Hollow Farm and of course, little Fetus Reuterskiold was along for the ride. So far during this pregnancy I have managed to keep up my previous, pre-pregnancy pace. I did have a period in the first trimester where I felt like I had to take a nap whenever I could, but mostly I've been feeling great. My 5:00 a.m. leg cramp (with accompanying pain in right calf all day) and our little outing today really did me in though! Whew- hiking, standing, pretending to kill mountain lions (see below) really took its toll. Then, as the icing on the cake, when we got back to school we still had two hours of instruction time!! After school I met with my student teacher and by the time I got home at 5:15 or so I was ready to go straight to bed. I held off and managed to stay awake, but it's now 7:30 and I don't know how much longer I can go. I have a few things to do this evening, but I think I'm headed for bed early tonight.

The good news is that when I tried my hand at stick and hoop (an ancient Ohlone game that helped young boys learn how to hunt) I actually managed to hit my target. So, if I ever end up stranded with a tribe of Ohlone, I can catch me a mountain lion! :-)

Making Room for Baby

Dave and I have been slowly working on the baby's room. It started out looking like this:



We've really put some good effort into it and it still looks like this:


UGH!

In happier news - Dave has felt the baby move. She was going crazy one night and I told him to try and see if he could feel her. Usually, after every little move I say, "Did you feel that?". This time before I could even say the words I saw Dave's eyes get really big and I knew he had felt her. He thought it was pretty cool, but also a little alien.

Something in the Way She Moves

This past week has been pretty exciting for a few of reasons:

1) I felt the baby move! I had anxiously been awaiting the "flutter feeling" that so many people had told me about, but soon I was feeling this very strange muscle twitching feeling here and there. At first I wasn't quite sure what I was feeling, but soon it was obvious that little Fetus Reuterskiold was moving away. A few times I've wondered if somehow I have Jane Fonda workout music pumping through my veins because she seems to be going crazy. I've tried to get Dave to feel her a number of times, but it's just not strong enough yet. The sight of Dave just sitting staring at my stomach is pretty good times though.

2) I have discovered The Tummy Sleeve. I found it at Motherhood Maternity. It is essentially a stretchy thing you can put around your waist to hold up your unbuttoned and half-zipped pants that don't fit anymore. It also holds on maternity clothes that may be a bit big yet. This morning I did some tests with it and I'm happy to report that it works! I can now wear all the clothes I already own with my tummy sleeve and a long shirt. Yay!

3) I am a school teacher. One thing I have been dreading is leaving a long-term substitute in charge of my class for the two months or so that I am out. A few weeks ago a primary teacher approached me wanting to know if I wanted to mentor a student teacher. I told her that since I was already going to be out that I didn't think it would be a good idea to have yet a third person in my room this year. Luckily, she informed me, this student teacher is graduating in December and is interested in taking on my class while I am out. It will be so great to be able to spend so much time with her in my class and then, if all goes well, leave her in charge while I'm out.

4) Last, but not least...I'm starting to REALLY look pregnant! See for yourself:


















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