Introducing...
Trent Aston

Born on July 4th, 2007 at 11.33am
weighing 7lbs 13oz, and measuring 20 inches tall.

We are so happy to meet our beautiful little boy, and can't wait to introduce him to all of his amazing honorary aunts and uncles here in Texas and around the world!

A big thank you to all the well-wishers who have e-mailed, called, and sent flowers... we truly appreciate all of your support! And most of all, a big thank you to Aunt Barbie - we just can't tell you how much your help means to us. You've been our rock :-)

More details surrounding the birth to come as I find time to update - Life is very crazy right now, and many phone calls are going unreturned, so please be patient and rest assured that we will be in contact just as soon as we return to a state of sanity. Thanks, everyone, for your patience.

update on The Kid

...or lack of update, I should say.
Yesterday's appointment went well. The doc did a membrane sweep, which should help get things started. However, all that's happened so far is some cramping. I'm feeling very discouraged and every day that goes by now is causing me to get a bad attitude. It's almost like a deflated/defeated feeling. I think it's because I so desperately want to be in control of this situation and I can't be. It's not too much to ask to be in control of your own body, is it???
Tomorrow is July 4th. His actual due date. In preparation, and so I can feel like I have at least a small amount of influence over the situation (if not control), I'm going to pick up a bottle of Castor Oil.
Message to The Kid: I'm your mother. You had better get used to doing what I tell you to do, starting now. So be a good boy and make your exit! I don't like children, and I was hoping that you could help change my mind about that. But you're off to a rocky start. Now MOVE IT!

Final weekend as DINKs?

This weekend I tried to do things that I won't have much opportunity to do over the next several months. On Friday we had Barbie, Scott, Michelle & Brian over for dinner. We just ordered out so that I wouldn't have to do a whole bunch of cooking. Michelle and I spent some time relaxing on the trampoline. I saw a satellite pass over head.

Saturday during the day was spent doing house work (and yard work for Brian), followed by a fun evening downtown with Nick, Kitty, Mike & Tara. We got scammed at the parking lot on 7th street. We parked and the attendant was nowhere to be found, then this homeless looking guy came out from between some cars and charged us $7 to park, which we handed over, but then when he didn't give us a receipt I questioned him. He made a grand show of going over to the adjacent parking lot to get us a ticket, but came back without one. At this point I was sick of waiting and just said "whatever". When we got back to our car, thankfully it had not been towed, but the REAL parking attendant asked us to pay! we told him we paid the homeless guy, and he then informed us we got scammed. So lesson learned. ALL of the parking lot attendants at the pay parking lots downtown wear shirts with the parking lot logo on them, and they ALWAYS give you a ticket for your dash.

Sunday was spent doing more things around the house, and mostly relaxing for me. I did clean out the refrigerator in the garage, which had started to grow black spores from being left unplugged with the doors closed. We had to replace a breaker so that we could run the fridge but now we have a beer fridge and overflow freezer, which is a good thing since Costco is keeping our regular freezer stuffed to the gills!

Sunday night I left Brian to watch the DVR loaded with bass fishing and racing shows and I headed downtown to see Brian Lee in his new cover band "Suede" at Cedar Street. Barbie, Michelle, Andi & Mike were there, too. It was an awesome show and we couldn't believe how many people showed up on a Sunday night. I got home a little after 1am.

In all, it was a great weekend, only momentarily punctuated by my frustrations about being pregnant and ready to get this thing over with!

In case you were wondering...

In case anyone was wondering what a belly ring looks like on a gigantic 40 weeks pregnant belly, here are some pictures:


and



I think it looks quite stylish!

Geek parents

ok, it's totally geeky, but we set The Kid up with his own e-mail address. The intent is that all his family and honorary aunts and uncles can e-mail him with their thoughts on meeting him, hopes for him, advice, or just introduce themselves and explain their roles in his life, etc., and when he's old enough to read/understand, he'll get to read them.

I won't disclose the e-mail address here, but if you want the address, you know how to find me :-)

Zero station!

My Friday Doctor's appointment revealed that I am now 1.5 cm, and the baby is at zero station. That means that he has dropped and that his head is now down in the pelvis and in position. We are 90% sure he will be here within the next 10 days. It's probably going to be a long 10 days for me because I am SO uncomfortable and I have to pee every five minutes.
Everyone around me is excited. The inquiries as to how I'm feeling are getting more frequent. It's hard for me to describe how I'm feeling, but here goes:
Physically I feel fine. In the mornings I feel best because the weight of the baby hasn't been pushing down on me for hours. I don't even really feel pregnant until I attempt to get up from the couch, or if I bend over. As the day progresses, though, it gets harder to feel comfortable sitting or standing. My feet and hands swell, and the pressure in my lower abdomen increases. By bed time I am in pain. It's not unbearable, but it's a constant ache that extends from the lower abdomen to my ribs and all around my back.
Mentally I'm feeling a little frustrated and mixed up because I want this to be over, but I also want him to stay put a little longer because, selfishly, I am not ready for the responsibility, but, unselfishly, I think having a birthday on July 4th would be cool. Everyone will be in a celebratory mood during his birthday and he'll have many choices in parties to attend.
One of the great advantages our kid will have is that he automatically has dual nationality. He'll automatically be an American because he will be born here, but he will also be British because I am still a British citizen. Brian and I hope that he takes advantage of this and studies and works in Europe some day. With his British passport, he can live and work anywhere in Europe and not have to deal with all the red tape. He's a very lucky boy!

No progress

Well, my Friday doctor's appointment revealed that The Kid has already picked up some personality traits of his father. He's a procrastinator. This could be good, and bad I suppose. Good because a lazy baby means he'll be far too lazy to be demanding, bad because he's procrastinating on making his grand entrance into the world outside of my body. I'm feeling rather impatient and would like to to quit sharing the real estate in there with him and all my other organs. It's like having a squatter.

So there I was, all ready for some "good" news that maybe that one centimeter from the previous week had progressed a little futher, but no. I guess the The Kid caught a glimpse of the outside world, saw my giant ankles, probably thought they were some kind of weird animal waiting to eat him, freaked out and decided to set up camp. Ok, that might have invoked a visual you weren't prepared for. Sorry!

This part of pregnancy is weird. I don't know if other women feel this way, but I'm having mixed emotions because I am not ready for my life to change so drastically, yet I am interested to meet the little monster that's been poking and kicking at my ribs for the last several months.

Brian is excited. Of course, he doesn't have to go through the indignity and pain of giving birth. I'd do anything to trade places with him right now.

Today I'm going to work out extra hard at the gym and see if I can induce labour a little early :-)

New floor!

Timing couldn't have been worse, but our floor guy, Matt, made what could have been a stressful situation a very easy and stress free one. We picked out a wood that was similar in colour and texture to the wood in the rest of the house and Matt came and removed the cat pee carpet and leveled the floor on Wednesday. Then on Thursday he came over and laid the floor. Today he came over and did the final part, the trim. He saved us a bunch of money on the trim by staining it to match the floors himself.

From discovering the problem to fixing it was less than one week! I highly recommend our floor guy. He also did 3 of our other friends' floors and his workmanship is awesome. So if anyone is in the market for new floors, be sure to let me know and I'll give you Matt's number.

The dining room looks beautiful. It finishes off the downstairs nicely. I never thought it was weird that our dining room was the only room with carpet downstairs, but now that the wood is in there, it just ties it all together. Kind of classes up the place. Now I can't wait to actually buy a dining room set, of course, that's low on our list of priorities at the moment.

Misc. weekend activities and sushi ramblings

The weekend started off very well. It started with sushi for lunch with Miki, which is always so much fun. Miki's one of those low-maintenance friends who I don't see very often, but when I do, it's like a breath of fresh air. She and I have many similarities as far as our outlook on life, and many similarities in our childhoods.
That evening, two friends who we only see every now and then suggested we go for sushi downtown at Uchi. I could eat sushi for every meal, so of course we went.
My thoughts on Uchi:
Uchi is ok if you like foofy and creative (and expensive) sushi. I'm a bit of a sushi purist, though. Although I can't eat the raw stuff right now, which limits me to pretty much Eel and rolls, my preference is for a place with simple and fresh Nigiri sushi, and a couple of rolls, such as a spicy tuna roll, or Sushi Sake's amazing Spicy Susan. Uchi is wasted on someone like me. I found myself looking at the menu and thinking "you're charging HOW MUCH for that tiny morsel of food?". While I won't deny that the food is well presented and tastes good, I would much rather get better value at a more traditional sushi bar where you can get full without breaking the bank. The one roll I got at Uchi was the Shag roll. It's basically a veggie roll that's dipped in tempura batter and deep fried. It's served with a splash of squid ink. Sure it's interesting, but was it better than the sushi at my usual place. Not even close. So after 2 experiences at Uchi, I think I'm crossing it off my list of places to eat from now on.
Don't get me wrong, we had a great time on Friday night. But not because of the food or venue, but because of the company. I find that to be true most times we go out.

On Saturday we discovered a cat problem that had been apparently happening over some time and has caused us to need to replace the carpet in our dining room. It's a behavioral problem, we think, because there's nothing wrong with the cat. She's just deathly afraid of the new Littermaid catbox and won't go near it. We made the mistake of thinking that if we put a regular and the automatic cat boxes in the cat's bathroom, the scaredy cat would simply use the manual one. But no. She chose to use the carpet in the dining room, instead. What's strange is she was fine with our old Littermaid box. Lesson learned. Manual catbox only from now on.

We shopped around for wood floors to match the floors in the rest of our downstairs and found several good options. One based on some recommendations by several friends. We were planning to get wood in the dining room anyway, just not right away, and of course the timing is awful given that the baby could arrive at any moment. But it has to be dealt with.

Saturday evening was spent with friends at Nutty Brown Cafe in Oak Hill where the very talented Brian Lee was opening for Monte Montgomery. We had a great table outside with a good view of the stage and close to Michelle who was working the merchandise booth. We had dinner and spent some quality time with friends. Again, venue and menu had nothing to do with the fun level. We have such great friends.

Saturday night, though, was awful for me. I spent the entire night sick to my stomach. The kind of nausea that won't let you actually throw up but is bad enough that it turns you fetal and groaning. This was followed by a visit from the poop fairy around 5am. Consequently, most of Sunday was spent on the couch groaning some more, trying to hydrate, and going stir crazy because I was a prisoner in the house. I did do some productive things, though, like laundry and changed the bed.
Sunday evening we had dinner with Tiffeni, whom we hadn't seen in many weeks! One of the few remaining unmarried friends in our circle these days, soon to be converted to old married lady in August!

The countdown begins...

Today's doctor visit revealed that I am 1cm dilated!

Don't get excited, though. It really means nothing if it's not accompanied by painful contractions. Which it isn't. So while it's progress, the little bugger is hanging in there. If I have been experiencing contractions, then I'm just oblivous to them. I haven't really even noticed much Braxton-Hicks activity, either. Unless Braxton-Hicks feels like The Kid is striking poses in there with all his appendages spread out and shoved into various organs. He does seem to be very, very active lately, and he seems to get the hiccups on an hourly basis. Perhaps I should lay off the Tequila?

Maybe I am having contractions, but I'm such a badass and my pain threshold is so high that it feels like no big deal! Wishful thinking on my part. I'm a huge baby and the slightest bit of pain turns me fetal and crying for my mummy. Can I get my epidural now?

Has the baby dropped??

Yesterday (for the record that's June 2nd) I experienced what I can only describe as a frequent urge to pee. I went 3 times in 20 minutes. Every time I stood up, I felt an immense pressure on my bladder, and a lot of lower abdominal discomfort. In addition, I can now more easily take a full breath. Could this be the "lightening" that they talk about? or am I just imagining it because I so desperately want this to be over?

Brian thinks my shape has changed. Everywhere I go people comment on how "high" I'm carrying. And it honestly does look like he's all up in my ribs (and feels like it, too). But yesterday, the bump looked a little less prominent at the top. If he has descended then that means it's not long until The Kid makes his grand entrance into the world (and thankfully, his exit from me). Lightening usually happens between 3 weeks and 2 days before labour starts, according to my sources. So if that's true, maybe he'll be early.

I have mixed feelings about that because I really would like to have him on 4th of July. But on the other hand, I really want the infestation to be done!

Another really freaky thing is that you can now see a foot or an arm moving around and can pretty much distinguish what it is just by observing my stomach when it happens. It's the weirdest looking thing, and I can't even describe how it feels other than "creepy".

In other news, Brian and I tried out Kona Grill last night. I went there for lunch a few days ago and tried their sushi (cooked, of course). I don't recommend their sushi. In fact it was about grocery store quality. I do like the ambiance in the place, though. And the service has been awesome both times I've been there. Brian had the Pad Thai last night and it was really good. I had the Pork Tenderloins. It came with white cheddar mashed potatoes and a shitake mushroom sauce. Delicious. So I can certainly recommend either of those two dishes. When I went for lunch, Dana had the Macadamia crusted chicken and it was extremely tasty. So that's 3 dishes I'd definitely go back for.

Hobbit feet

In case anyone thinks I'm joking when I say my ankles have disappeared, check these babies out! It's only 2pm and my feet are massive!



See the complete lack of definition in the ankles? See the puffy toes that look like vienna sausages?

Lest anyone should accuse me of not taking it easy, I've been sitting ALL DAY. I tried elevating my feet while I work, however, it causes lower back pain. I guess I'm just doomed to have Shrek feet for another month!

BAH!

A memorable memorial day weekend

This weekend was a lot of fun. Our friends, Andy and Hilary, came to town - they stayed with Jay and Erin. We spent our entire weekend surrounded by friends, we spent some time at the outlets, and some much needed time on the lake.

On Friday evening Brian and I headed over to Jay and Erin's to hang out with Andy for a while before they headed off to pick up Hilary from the airport. The gang went down town, but Brian and I went home and watched a movie instead because my feet were already swollen.

Saturday we bought a new couch! we picked it up for a steal at a furniture place on Burnet Road. I talked the guy down by $200 ;-) Mike and Brian picked it up (which saved us another $100 in delivery fees). It's an L-shaped sectional, leather on the bottom/back, with micro-suede cushions and various shades of brown throw pillows. It's super comfy and is perfectly sized for the room. We had been to almost every furniture store in the city and in most cases the secitonals were all too big. We're very happy with it.

Saturday night was spent over at Jay and Erin's with Mike and Tara and Andy and Hilary, and a few others. We grilled, hung out, and had a hilarious evening of cheesy Kareoke, complete with video, which I'm hoping will be posted on youtube.com in the near future. You haven't experienced Kareoke until you've heard Andy and Jay's rendition of Sonny and Cher's "I got you babe". Brian and I made it home around 3am.

On Sunday, Brian camped out on our new couch in front of the Indy 500 while I took a trip down to the outlets in San Marcos with the girls. we spent a good 5 hours there and I bought one thing for the kid - a race car night light from Pottery Barn, some awesome linen trousers for me, some red mugs to match our other dishes from Crate & Barrel, and of course, smelly lotions from Bath and Body Works. While we were gone, Brian took a 6 hour power knap. Apparently our new couch is *really* comfy. So much so that Brian didn't answer anybody's calls and was only woken up by Mike opening our garage and moving more stuff into it. Then Brian went back to sleep until dinner time.

We had dinner at Chuy's on North Lamar. What's interesting about this Chuy's is that there was no wait and it was relatively dead. Yet when we called over to the Chuy's at 183/Duval there was a wait of 1.5 hours! After dinner we went to Main event for some bowling and basketball.

Monday we woke up to awful weather and it was looking like our lake plans would be cancelled. We headed over to Mike and Tara's for some pancakes and lattes while we waited for the weather to improve. By noon it was brightening up so we packed up the truck and went to pick up the boat, then headed out to Volente to launch. The rest of the gang met us at the boat launch and we headed off to Devil's Cove for some sun and people watching.

Due to the weather, boat population in Devil's cove was relatively light at first, but as the day progressed the number of boats increased, as did the number of girls in tiny bikinis making complete arses of themselves and humping each other's legs, and the number of young guys shotgunning beers. We met up with Bob and his crew in the cove and tied up at a respectable distance from all the debauchery that we could observe unobstructed. It was very entertaining.
We did get pulled over by the police on our way into the cove and they did a check to make sure all of us had life jackets, etc. But I think we were the least of their concerns.

The day turned out to be perfect. The clouds burned off and the air temp was in the low 90's while the water temp was in the mid 70's. Perfect for cooling off. The kid seemed to go a little nutso when I went in the water. I suspect that it was due to the temperature differences between being baked in the sun vs doused in 75 degree water. By the end of the day we all had a healthy glow from the sun and were exhausted. After putting the boat away, Mike, Tara, Brian and I headed to Rudy's for some BBQ before heading to our respective homes for a much needed shower and some relaxation in front of the TV.

I'm SO over American Idol

I had recorded Tuesday's American Idol and watched it yesterday before the finale. Based purely on those performances, Jordin deserved to win. Blake is going to do very well in his genre, but he really isn't that good of a singer.

I went over to Barbie's to watch the finale and Michelle joined us, too. Impromptu girl's nights in are always so much fun. Barbie made dinner for us, and a special treat for me, Razzleberry pie with vanilla ice cream! YUMMY!
We watched the show commercial free, and right before they announced who the winner was... what happened? the damn DVR stopped recording it. The show must have ran over time, but the DVR isn't smart enough to know that. So we missed the announcement of the winner!

OK, so we know Jordin won because it's all over the AI web site. But I have to say, Jordin did not deserve to win over Melinda. No way. I can't wait to buy Melinda's album, though.

A few observations from the finale:

• Kelly Clarkson rocks. Love her. She's gotten a lot cuter since her arrival on the scene, too. I love that she's starting to explore more rock type songs, like the two she has in the charts right now. Rock-on Kelly!
  
• Carrie underwood - I don't like country music, but I do like that one song "before he cheats". I think she has a beautiful voice, but honestly, her remake of "I'll stand by you" doesn't compare to the original. Especially since she didn't change it up at all and make it her own. I thought it was very kareoke-like. Nobody can sing like Chrissy Heins, so don't even try.
  
• Ruben Stoddard- Dude, you're rich. Get a personal trainer. Being called the velvet teddybear is not flattering.
  
• Taylor Hicks - Taylor who? I haven't heard a damn thing he's done since winning idol. Very disappointed here. Chris Daughtry should have won that season. You hear his voice on EVERY radio station.
  
• Who the heck were those two people Melinda got stuck singing with??
  
• And finally, how did they choose the winning song that Jordin will now release? Who's responsible for that crap? That's the cheesiest song ever. It sounds exactly like all the other cheesy songs that the winners have to record. Poor Jordin is gonna have to work hard to erase that one from the minds of America. I wonder if those guys who wrote it did it as a joke? I hope they're laughing all the way to the bank with royalty checks from that. That'd be the jape of the century!

And for all my whining and complaining about the unfairness of the competition, and my incredulousness about the tone deaf population voting, I am looking forward to the next season.

Barbie's Birthday

We had so much fun for Barbie's Birthday. We met at Donn's, then headed to Hut's for dinner, then back to Donn's for a little Murphy's Inlaws. Generally what happens at girls night stays at girls night, however, these pictures are too funny to not share. So here you go:

A little T, but no A.


Workin for tips so my baby daddy can get a new grille!


Andi's your private dancer.


She works hard for the money.

Two for the price of one!


Girls just wanna have fun!

1 year of married bliss!

Today is our one year anniversary!
It's been the most awesome year, and fortunately, the bad things that happened in the Dominican Republic were no indication of the year ahead. It seems we got all of our bad luck out of the way before the wedding :-)

In our first year of marriage, we've travelled South East Asia, bought a beautiful new home, and became future parents. There isn't one minute of the last year with Brian that I'd do differently. Even down to the black ankle and jelly fish sting on my wedding day. While those things were inconvenient, they have become part of our memories and a funny story. During the past week I've spent a lot of time daydreaming and remembering the most fun wedding I've ever been to - 9 whole days of fun in the sun, spent with all the people we love most in the world. The only bad thing about our wedding - we may never have another vacation as fun as that!

As I think back on those times, it makes me long to be on a beautiful white sandy beach with a turquoise ocean to play in, and surrounded by friends. I am hopeful that one of my friends will have a destination wedding soon, and we can do it all over again. (Hint, HINT! - you know who you are.)

I'm looking forward to another amazing year with my perfect man (ok, so he's not perfect, but he is perfect FOR ME), and despite my objections and foot dragging on becoming a mother, I can't wait to see Brian as a dad.

Here's to another fun year!

American Idol Shocker!

I'm completely stunned that my girl, Melinda, didn't make it to the finals. I thought for sure she was gonna win. She was by far the better singer of the three. I'm so disappointed. No matter, though. She's going to make it big, and I will certainly buy her CDs.

Between Blake and Jordin... I think Jordin gets my vote. Blake's beat boxing is starting to get old, and when he sings he's just a little bit nasal. Blake seems like a nice chap, though. I bet he'll be a huge success.

Childbirth class 2

This week's class was much less gory than last week. We talked a lot about drug options and asked a ton of questions. The video this week was of a woman giving birth who had an epidural. It was much more pleasant, and the videographer spent less time on the full frontal crowning shot, which I appreciated. I was actually able to watch the whole thing without closing my eyes. The woman in the video looked a lot more relaxed. She was a race cyclist and was in very good shape when she got pregnant, so her endurance was probably pretty high, and throughout her pregnancy, she continued to work out as normal.
I saw a lot of similarities between this woman's pregnancy and my own and that instilled me with a bit more confidence that I can do this. It reinforced that my working out is going to help me during labour and recovery. I need that kind of positive reinforcement right now because working out is hard when you don't have much energy and you hurt all the time. It's all I can do to drag my tired arse to the gym anymore.
We got many of our questions about epidurals answered, including how many people have been paralyzed from the epidural at this hospital. The answer is zero. Which is comforting. There is a slight risk, but I do think the benefits outweigh those risks.
Next week we're going to see a cesarian section delivery. I made the mistake of watching one on the web a month or so ago and I just can't imagine having that done.
As we get closer and closer to delivery, I am getting more and more freaked out about all this. I know I'm being a huge pussy, and I know I can do this, and it's not like I have much choice anyway, but nothing anyone says is going to make me feel better until it's over and I can look back on it.
And on top of my fears of delivery, another issue has surfaced: despite me wanting to get this prgnancy over with, and my body back, I'm not ready to be a mum yet!

I'm trying to remain positive. Truly I am.

Running Mojo and Pregnoid Pics

Yesterday Barbie and I went down to beautiful Town Lake for a bit of exercise. We only did the 3 mile loop, but it was so great to be outside excercising again. We did about 50% walking and 50% running. The running was uncomfortable, but bearable. The extra weight made my muscles feel sluggish, and of course it didn`t make the cardio easy either, but it felt good to actually run and it did wonders for me mentally. It is just nice to know that I can still do it, even at 7.5 months pregnant. Of course, I am still going to the gym 3 - 4 times a week, but it just is not the same as getting outside and enjoying the beautiful trail around Town Lake. I can not wait until I can go running with my girls again on the weekends.

For those of you who have been bugging me for more pictures, I have posted a couple of new ones in the gallery for you to ogle my ever growing belly. Here's one for you instant gratification types:



And also, I did my first bit of decorating of The Kid's room. You can see pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/TheKid
Check out the awesome crib that Grandma and Grandpa B got for him :-)

Childbirth class 1

Last night Brian and I attended our first in a set of 3 childbirth classes. Imust admit that I didn't want to be there and I certainly didn't want to see a video of child birth. The instructor was wonderful, though, and the class was very informal, which I liked. Here are a few things I learned in class:

• Despite well meaning people who comment on how big my stomach is getting, I am actually average/smaller than average - though this doesn't make me feel any less of a whale.
  
• We really need to choose a pediatrician ASAP
• We really need to get our car seat ASAP because I could deliver at ANY MOMENT! ACK!
• Being in the room with someone you care about while they give birth is a much different experience than watching a stranger on a TV screen.
  
• Deep breathing while something the size of a watermelon is pushing its way out of me is NOT GOING TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!
  
• I'm completely freaking out.
  

During the video, I had to look away. I can see all other manner of gory things, even open heart surgery doesn't bother me, or face lifts... but for some reason childbirth is the most disgusting thing in the world. I think women who choose to do this naturally with no drugs are completely insane.

OMG! OMG! OMG! What have I done???