Stella Takes A Break

By now, you may know that Stella goes to doggie daycare during the day when we are at work.

When people hear this for the first time, we get one of two reactions: eyerolling and snickering about what a waste of money it is (mostly from non-dog owners) or wide-eyes, nodding of the head and interest (from, you guessed it, dog owners).

Whichever camp you fall into, it has been great for Stella. We love her daycare, MuttleyCrew, and the owner Christine who has provided valuable advice and care for Stella over the past several months and would highly recommend them.

Stella is picked up from home around 8:30am and is dropped off around 4:30pm. She gets to socialize with other pups and gets dog lessons from her peers that can't always be taught by their alpha owners. She has a structured day of play, lunch, nap, poop, play and comes home tired. With all the running around and playtime, sometimes a girl just needs to take a rest, hence the video.

Celebrating life's next steps

02-04-09 UPDATE: Click here for pictures.

OK, admittedly, Baby Showers can be so nauseating. I didn't get it. I wasn't even planning to have one. I'm too old, they can be so cutesy (which no one has ever described me as being), and overtly present grubbing parties. But I was convinced by my good friend (and hostess) Christabel that it would be fun -- and she was right. Hmmm, maybe we should have reconsidered her idea of having that "puppy shower" for Stella after all when we brought her home.






My Shower was held this past Sunday and San Francisco was having unseasonably lovely weather. A small group of friends and family from near and far attended. One of my oldest friends, Maggie, flew out from New York to join and brought her own baby-on-board with her (congrats, 2 months down and 8 more to go!) Here's a picture of us from this weekend.



As I get closer to my due date, the reality of how our lives will shift --and how we connect with friends and family -- becomes more palpable. Everyone's busy these days and has commitments to juggle, but I know that the things we find simple now like catching a movie with hubby, or brunching with friends, or flying home to see family will now be inordinately more difficult (if not impossible in the beginning) in just a few short weeks. Or perhaps just different, now that baby Blossom will often need to be in tow. It's this realization that made my Baby Shower more celebratory for me. Not exactly a last hurrah but a day of celebration, to spend time and be surrounded by good friends who share in the excitement of my life's next steps.

NOW I get it.

Happy Birthday Baby Blossom!

We finally have the scheduled date for the c-section, Thursday February 19, 2009 @ 10am PT -- less than one month away.

Have a morbid curiosity about what is involved with a Caesarean birth? Click here for a great video from the Mayo Clinic that captures the procedure from inserting the spinal block (a stronger epidural) to the actual birth.

Stella Says Obey

Are you familiar with Shepard Fairey's iconic Andre The Giant Has a Posse phenom or his more recent Obama Hope and Progress series? Here's our version of Obey. Upload your own picture and customize with your own tagline at http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/

The Home Stretch

We're in the home stretch. Mindy will be 32 weeks this Saturday - 8 months. Click on the video below to see the incredible progression from Week 1 to 40.

Baby Blossom is technically due on February 27, 2009, but will be delivered via Caesarean so the actual birth date will likely be 1-2 weeks sooner. Place your bets now as to whether he will be an Aquarian or a Pisces.

Starting next week, we will be stepping up the doctors appointments with twice-a-week fetal monitoring (also known as a "non-stress" test) and OB appointments every other week. These sessions will help determine the actual due date - we'll keep you posted!

Prep Course

We just finished a marathon session of prenatal classes including:
− Breastfeeding
− Surviving the First Few Months With A New Baby: Basic Baby Care
− Infant Child CPR
− Childbirth Preparation: Integrated Methods

We also took a Birth Center Tour/Orientation of UCSF where Mindy will be delivering via C-section. You can do the same thing by taking a "virtual tour” here to check out the hospital, the OR, the hospital rooms, etc. Click here to start the virtual tour.

Going to these classes was like going back to school – 3 hours of class a night, after work when you’re starving and tired and had battled rush hour to get there, and then dinner at 10pm. Rinse and repeat.

In the end, the classes were informative and worth the time. We still don’t know what we don’t know. But we do know what a baby looks like now, how to hold one at least 3 different ways, and confirmed that cloth diapers are a pain the ass to deal with (sorry Environment).

Unfortunately, Stella got so much nap time while we were gone at night that she started waking up at 4:30am needing to go for a walk. Must be some divine cosmic plan to prep us for what’s coming.

Chrissy Field w/ Stella

We spent the morning today at Chrissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge. Chrissy Field is a flat paved and dirt path that winds its way along the Bay for a few miles. There are always lots of joggers, bicyclists, windsurfers, and dogs to meet along the way.

It was a chilly day and the rain will be coming soon. A wet dog is no fun, so Stella also got a new coat this weekend.

Click here to see more pictures of the day.