It's a healthy BOY!!!

Yesterday was a day I had been looking forward to since the moment I found out I was pregnant: our ultrasound. The nerves and tension of desperately hoping everything was developing normally were starting to get to me and I just wanted reassurance that baby was doing well.

This time around, I had a pretty certain feeling that it was a boy, but I couldn't wait until I could be absolutely sure. As I laid down and got that warm jelly spread across my mushy abdomen, the tech asked us if we wanted to know the sex. "YES!" was our immediate response. The moment she touched her instrument to my belly, a clear picture of two spread legs and a little something-something in the middle came into view. There was no question about it! I, of course, got emotional and the tech immediately grabbed a box of tissues like a pro.

Wiggling and moving, baby boy was sucking on his fingers and toes the whole time. I had forgotten how incredible it was to watch him open and close his mouth and re-adjust his position while all I felt were flutters. I felt so blessed to have been given another opportunity to witness this miracle.

After we made our rounds of phone calls and text messages, we started to talk about how incredible it's going to be for Colin to have a little brother. A best friend, a playmate, a wrestling opponent, a protector and partner in crime. I can already imagine the overwhelming love I'll feel watching them interact. I'm well aware there are going to be fights, bruises, whining and a whole lot of chaos. But I wouldn't want it any other way.

Here's to our newest beautiful baby boy and the magic he'll bring to our family. I love you so much already!

What to Expect: Rough Patch Ahead!

If you've ever been pregnant, you may have signed up for these weekly emails from the Parents or What to Expect websites. They're full of good information and I look forward to getting the Fetal Development email that tells me what size fruit my baby compares to this week.

They also include a drawing of what your baby might look like right now and in the beginning stages, all I can see in the pictures they send of the baby is that they look like the creatures Ursela turns the mer-people into in The Little Mermaid. Or a less-creepy version of the "real" mermaid at Ripley's Believe it or Not!.

Random side note - Now I'm thinking about those 4D ultrasounds some hospitals do these days. I got a few pictures when I was pregnant with Colin and they are pretty crazy looking. Here is what I mean:

Regular Ultrasound Picture:



4D Ultrasound Picture:



Shane at one time compared the 4D picture to the cover of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, so I know it's not just me.

Anyway, back to my original thought: I've been getting these emails and while I've gone through it all before, it's interesting and helpful to have these weekly reminders of what my body is doing. Not to mention I sit and plead with my email before I open it that somehow I've time-traveled to week 36 and I'm almost done. I'm beginning to feel like this pregnancy has slowed down to slug speed and I'm not even halfway yet. If I haven't even gotten to the point where I can barely get a seat belt around me, should I really feel like this? I guess I need to write to What to Expect to get them to send a "I know you're sick of being pregnant, here's how to fix it" email.

Next week is our scheduled ultrasound where we'll get to see if baby is healthy, hopefully find out the sex and get some pictures that Shane will deem scary enough to land a horror movie poster. I'm sticking by my prediction and crossing my fingers that this will give me the boost I need to waddle through the last couple of months.

Until next week!

How Open is TOO Open?

Before you read any further, I should just warn you that if you don't think you can be open about my "openness", then don't bother reading this. I don't want to have to censor myself and as you read on (if you chose to) you'll see that's just how I am.

I've always had a harder time connecting with people who can't fully open up. I think it's because I have no problem giving the full story if people ask for it and sometimes I want the same in return. Take childbirth for example. Any part of mine you want to know about, I'll tell you. I'm talking about all the things that other people leave out because they either are embarrassed or want to pretend it didn't happen to them. Now, if any of your minds went to the tales of pooping during delivery, that didn't happen to me, BUT I'd have no problem telling you if it did.

I've always been the girl who would sit in the bathroom while her roommate was showering (or vis versa) and have long talks about whatever was going on in our lives. The girl who is completely honest about only washing her hair 3 times a week. The girl who received a banner from her dance team coaches in high school that said, "Miss Teen Oregon - would you still win if they knew you could burp and fart like a logger". - correction...I can't burp but the other rings true.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because while I was at my friend Missy's bachelorette party a few months ago, I had the most interesting conversation with one of her high school friends while dangling my feet in the hot tub. She had just gotten married and as she began to tell me about her relationship with her husband, I was totally in awe at how different our marriages were. She explained how if they were sitting on the couch watching tv and one of them needed to toot, they would, without letting the other person know, go into another room and try to muffle it. Going to the bathroom was also completely private with shut doors and sometimes waiting until the other person wasn't home before you dropped the kids off.

This eternal honeymoon stage just baffled me! She was completely comfortable living in what I saw as the most uncomfortable way to live. Maybe I'm the strange one, but I've always been most comfortable when I can act completely uninhibited around my partner. If you marry someone, why would you want to put on an act for the rest of your life and never feel like yourself in your own home? To maintain that spark? To keep up a vision of perfection that your partner first saw in you? Those sound like good reasons, but in my mind, if you can't still find your partner attractive after you've found out that they sometimes poop, fart or burp, then I think you might have a hard time finding anyone to settle down with.

I get that some people know it happens, but just don't want to know WHEN it happens. That's fine, to each their own. For me, I'm just saying that I need to feel like the person I am with will love me even if I follow them into the bathroom because I feel like what I have to say is much too important to wait.

This isn't to say that poor Shane has to deal with a wife that doesn't put any effort into being like that girl he first met; I do. I want him to always be able to feel a spark similar to the ones you experience when you first begin dating. I enjoy taking the time to make myself up so he can feel proud to have me on his arm when we go out. But, I also like to come home, put on a pair of sweats and laugh uncontrollably when he lets out one of his Polly Pocket-sized farts.

I guess that's just us!


Thanks for reading and feel free to let me know if I'm crazy! :)

Prediction

I just have to make a really quick comment...I'm about 99.9% sure we're having a boy.

That's all.

Endings and New Beginnings

It's been a busy few weeks at the Foster house. After our friend's wedding, we assumed things would start to slow down, but things just seem to keep popping up!

I started teaching my hip-hop class at All That! dance studio a few weeks ago. It's been going great and there are still quite a few kids in it from when I taught it 2 years ago. The studio will be adding an adult hip-hop class for me to teach after my teen class so I'm hoping they get a good turnout so it can become a regular class in their schedule. We've got a show coming up in December so we will be busy getting the kids ready for their performance.

This Saturday is the Stanford vs. UO Football game and the UO Dance Team is putting on their first ever Alumni Performance! I'm so excited to see some of my old teammates and kick back in the Moshofsky Center like we used to do back in the day! I'm a little nervous to dance with my pot belly/baby bump, especially during a certain "shake your booty" section. I'll cross my fingers I'm in the back for that part. I'll post video after the game!

Lastly, my mom has been here because our house finally sold. The papers are signed today and the new owners get the keys tomorrow afternoon. It's been a long process to sell this house so I've made my peace with it, but it's definitely sad to know that the place I grew up will no longer be available for my trips down memory lane.

That's all for now, here's a picture of my sweet angel to hold you over until I get around to uploading the hundreds of pictures on our camera. :)

Weekend Update with Sarah Foster

Let me just start off by saying that every weekend should be a 3 day weekend....sigh.

I had the most incredible weekend filled with friends, family, food and festivities. It was one I wont soon forget and a large part of that is because I got to attend the beautiful wedding of our dear friends Joe & Missy.

I left work early on Friday so I could continue to bake cupcakes for their rehearsal dinner that evening. I had made one batch ahead of time, but completely underestimated how much time I'd need to make 4 more complete with frosting and decorations while entertaining a small and slightly psychotic little boy.

I decided on flavors earlier in the week so I assumed I had all the necessary ingredients...oh I couldn't have been more wrong! After baking all three flavors, I started on the first frosting: Vanilla Buttercream. This particular recipe calls for heavy whipping cream and I would have bet my favorite shoes on there being an unopened carton in my fridge. Not only was I completely out, but I luckily noticed that I also seemed to be missing a package of confectioners sugar. Colin probably hid it under the bathroom sink (not kidding....you don't know where he'll hide things once he gets his hands on them) but I was just thankful that I noticed it before I went to the store.

Throwing open the door after returning from Fred Meyer, my face was red and sweaty and my arm was starting to throb from holding a wiggly child. I finished my first set of cupcakes and packed them up in one of my cupcake carriers. After completing the other two flavors, I was finally able to pack up the desserts, my kid and myself to go and celebrate with my friends.

The rehearsal dinner was at a gorgeous location and we enjoyed tasty BBQ and good company. I didn't last long though and it was shortly after sunset that my fam packed up our belongings and headed home.

Here are pictures of the cupcakes I made:








On Saturday, Jason and Megan came down from Portland and I drove Colin to Albany so he could stay the night with Grandma & Grandpa Foster. We had an amazing time at the wedding and couldn't have felt more lucky to be in the presence of two people who are so in love and starting their "legal" lives together. :)

On Sunday, we got to see Kristen and while it may not have been the most eventful evening ever, ("What do YOU want to eat? I don't know...what do YOU want to eat?) it doesn't matter what we do because I'll always have fun with that girl!

Monday brought a nice visit with Blake who traveled with his girlfriend from Michigan for the weekend. We also got to spend some time with the newlyweds and The Meisen-Vehrs/Vasey clan while we watched Boise State squeak by Virgina Tech.

It was the best way to spend a three day weekend: with all of the people we love and care about! Here's the the Holiday season and many more long weekends coming our way!

Pregnancy Update

I don't remember much about the beginning of my pregnancy with Colin. It's a bunch of pieces to a puzzle that give me clues as to how I felt. I remember falling asleep on the copy room floor at my job because I couldn't function any longer. I remember eating countless amounts of wheat thins because I felt a light wave of nausea throughout the morning, but not enough to make me unable to function. I remember sleeping away the daylight while Shane hung out with our friends, Jason and Megan.

I'm now 11 weeks pregnant. It's been 6 weeks since I discovered the magical blue plus sign and I can't say it's been easy.

I don't know why I didn't feel any symptoms until after I knew I was pregnant. It's like my body was holding out on me so I had an explanation as to why I was going to bed at 8:30 and unable to button my jeans.

I know I'm a different person these days. It takes a heck of a lot to pull me out from the auto-pilot version of myself that I've become. Get up, get ready, go to work, come home, attempt to give Colin the playfulness I know he wants/needs, feel guilty for failing, bed. That's been my routine. The only reason I've ever been able to slip out of this first trimester coma is because of one person: Shane.

I can't tell you all that I feel when I think about what he's doing for me. I can try, but I already feel my eyes stinging from tears starting to form and once that gets going there is virtually nothing I can do to stop it.

It's not just that he put away my laundry that had been sitting on the floor in our bedroom for a month.

It's not just that he gives me spontaneous massages to help me fall asleep faster.

It's not just that he listens, really listens, to my rants, my whining and my irritable complaints about how I feel.

It's not just that he wrote me a poem in hopes of brightening my afternoon.

.....

It's the way that every day, without hesitation, he makes every effort to make my life easier and more comfortable. How, without spending a penny, he comes up with amazing ways to make me feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I couldn't imagine going through this journey and not having his love and unwavering support.

More now than ever, I love this man.

I know this will get easier. I know I'll start feeling more like myself and that my energy will be replenished. But it would be hard to look to the light at the end of the tunnel if I didn't have Shane's hands to help hold my head up.

So here's to the first trimester almost being over, to the 5 lbs I've quickly gained and to Shane. Oh, and to getting through this post without crying....almost.