baby chic

On one of my favorite design blogs, Oh Joy, I just saw a collection of lovely diaper bags by Petunia. The particular collection Joy shows called Cake, might just be a little too ornate for my taste (and Tim wouldn’t be caught dead with something so feminine), but the website has tons of other cute diaper bags and baby slings, which I’ve been fascinated with as you know. Since I’ve never heard of Petunia I naturally assumed there wouldn’t be any stores in St. Louis, but a store search revealed that there are 9 stores in the area! Some of the stores are ones I’ve never heard of – where have I been! This has just opened up a whole new world of baby boutiques for me which may prove to be quite dangerous. Hello baby registries!

16 week update

What a cute little avocado we have now! He or she is about 4 1/2″ long from head to bottom and weighs about 3 1/2 oz.

I had my 3rd prenatal doctor appointment yesterday and have only good things to report. The doctor found the heartbeat almost immediately which was strong and healthy. She said that I’m measuring perfectly and that my weight gain is right on track in the normal range. Also, she told me she doesn’t expect that I’ll feel the baby move until around weeks 20-22 since it is my first child. I was a little disappointed because I had read that you could start to feel movement as early as 16 weeks, however she reminded me that I should enjoy the peace and quiet now because it won’t be for long.

More good news is that I got a doctor’s note so that I’m cleared to go on our cruise in a couple weeks. Most cruise lines prohibit women past 24 weeks from cruising, so I had to have a note stating that I’m under 24 weeks and healthy to travel. I also found out from the doctor that its perfectly fine for me to swim, snorkel and kayak on our trip, so I won’t be hanging out on the ship all week by myself.

free pregnancy organizer

I was listening to Pregtastic, one of my favorite baby podcasts, this morning and just learned that the pregnancy organizer I’ve had my eye on for quite sometime is now being offered for FREE. I already have a very useful organizer that was a gift from my mom and I’ve been very happy with it. However, the reason I’ve been eying The Essential Pregnancy Organizer 40 Weeks+, is that it is beautifully designed (which is a big thing for me) and also contains a monthly checklist that helps keep all your planning and appointments on track. I think it will be the perfect supplement to the one I’m already using and will help keep me organized despite my baby brain forgetfulness.

So, if you’re pregnant or planning to be, or you know someone who is pregnant, I highly suggest hopping over to this website and ordering one for yourself.

I’ll let you know how much I love mine when it arrives in 5-10 days.

***UPDATE*** I did receive my free pregnancy organizer in the mail and I do in fact love it. It has plenty of checklists, which are my favorite, and it is oh so cute despite the occasional ad, which were also tastefully done. Now I just have to catch up with all the things on the checklist that are overdue!

baby bump

As promised, I’ve finally uploaded all 3 belly photos we’ve taken so far. The one above is from last Thursday taken at 15 weeks. Because we didn’t start until the end of the 1st trimester, I don’t have a “before” shot, however I like to believe that I was a bit smaller and firmer than on week 13. Anyway, as the weeks go by we’ll continue to post all the photos to a set on flickr so everyone can have fun watching me and the baby grow.

congrats little man!

This is just a little brag about my baby brother. Last weekend he graduated from The University of Notre Dame with honors and is headed to med school at Loyola University in July. The graduation festivities at Notre Dame were quite impressive and really highlighted what amazing and accomplished students my brother and his classmates are. He has always been the brilliant one in the family and it was an honor to share in the celebration of his graduation! Best of luck in Chicago little man and be prepared for many visits from your oldest sister (and family!) in the coming years.

smelly cat, oh smelly cat

He looks so sweet and innocent doesn’t he? Well he’s not. Our handsome little black and white tomcat has a mean streak in him that comes out when we’re least expecting it. We’re convinced he’s out to make our lives miserable by systematically destroying all furniture we bring into the house. We already have to keep him on lock down in the basement when we aren’t home so that he can’t access our furniture upstairs. But we’re not the terrible owners you may think, our basement is not merely a dingy cement cellar. It is finished with painted walls, tile floors and is furnished. We’ve even dedicated an armchair specifically for his highness. Plus he has free reign of the entire house when we’re at home and we even let him sleep on the beds.

What does he do to thank us? After nearly a year incident free, he lulled us into a false sense of security, only so that we could wake up this morning to find he had peed on the love seat in the basement. The bright side is that we had just removed the elaborate traps that were meant to, albeit unsuccessfully, keep him off the love seat and replaced them with a water-and pee-proof plastic tarp. So the offending liquid merely rolled off the tarp and onto the coffee table and tile floor. Both of which are much easier to clean than upholstery.

So, why this change in his behavior? Well this, nor any prior incident, was related to a health issue. Our vet merely says its behavioral. All we can guess is he either was showing his dissatisfaction that we had further prevented him from a soft snuggly hiding place on the love seat, or he was retaliating against us for the extra canine visitor we had staying with us over the weekend.

Either way, his unsavory way of dealing with change does not bode well for us come November. I have a feeling that a crying baby will be much more difficult for him to handle than a couple of happy dogs or a plastic tarp.

2nd trimester update

You may have noticed I haven’t posted in a while. The last two weeks have flown by with nonstop activity, including a bunch of freelance work, a wedding, mother’s day and an out of town trip for my little brother’s college graduation. So, I suppose its very timely that I’ve headed into my second trimester and I finally have some energy back.

I’m officially at week 15 and now the baby is the size of an apple, a navel orange or a softball depending on which website or baby book you read. This also explains why its nearly impossible to fit into most of my pants anymore. I’m not really showing, at least not to people who don’t know I’m pregnant, but my middle is definitely rounder than usual. Its still a few weeks too early to be feeling any of the baby’s movements, but between 18 and 20 weeks I should start to notice little flutters.

Tim and I finally started keeping track of my expanding belly in photos. We got kind of a late start, no pictures before week 12, but we’ve kept up weekly photos since then and I’ll post them on flickr in the next few days.

The last little bit of news is that as of today, I have the feeling I may be having a girl. Its only a hunch, but my grandmother had a dream about the first AND middle name we were considering for a girl, however nobody had ever mentioned the name to her previously. Out of curiosity I looked it up on the Chinese gender chart which also predicted a girl. Of course, my feelings on this could change tomorrow, but I thought I’d mention it for posterity.

hatch show print

Jim Sherraden has one of my dream jobs. He is a letterpress printmaker…but not just any old printmaker. Jim runs the one of the most recognizable, oldest working letterpress print shop in the nation – Hatch Show Print.

If you haven’t heard of Hatch Show Print, you should definitely go check out their website. They are owned and operated by the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and originally made their name advertising Grand Ole Opry performers and country music Hall of Famers such as Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd and Shania Twain. There is also a wonderful comprehensive book about the famed print shop titled, Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop.

Tim and I visited Hatch last September during a weekend trip to Nashville. We loved the history of the place, the process of carving blocks and setting type, the amazing use of typography, and the wide variety of performers and events, from Elvis Presley to Pearl Jam.  So, when we heard that Jim Sherraden was giving a presentation at the AIGA St. Louis annual meeting, we made sure not to miss it.

Jim’s presentation took us through the early days and history of the shop of course, and displayed many of the posters that made the shop famous. However he focused more on how the shop is currently functioning. They have retained a large collection of their original woodcuts and reprint those block on numerous occasions, and Jim has been working on a collection of monoprints that combine layers upon layers of the old blocks. Other members of the shop work on posters for current performers and events as well as wedding invitations. One interesting thing Jim noted was that they do not accept wood type from any other print shop in order not to dilute the integrity of their own lead type collection. However, that does not prevent the current printers from designing and cutting their own type for their current projects.

It was a pleasure listening to Jim last night and learning more about one of my favorite American print shops. I highly recommend that the next time you are in Nashville that you stop in and say hello.

podcastic

Since I have baby on the brain more often than not and I obviously can’t read my pile of pregnancy books while I’m at work, I’ve found the perfect solution to my endless craving for baby knowledge – podcasts! I’ve found that while doing some of the more tedious tasks of my job like masking out product photography and imaging models to unrealistic perfection, I can plug in my headphones and quietly immerse myself in babyland.

One of the first pregnancy podcasts I discovered and love is Pea in the Podcast which gives you concise weekly updates throughout your pregnancy. Another great one, which I’ve heard a few pregnant friends mention is Pregtastic. This podcast covers a wide variety of topics and is comprised of a panel of women in all stages of their pregnancies. Today I also found podcasts from Baby Time and Discovery Home & Health Talking Tummies and can’t wait to dive in.

Now I just need to load them all up on my iPod so I can listen in the car, walking the dog, making dinner…the possibilities are endless.

babywearing

Lately I’ve been reading quite a bit about babywearing, which is the practice of carrying your baby close to your body in a pouch, sling or other type of carrier. According to baby expert, Dr. Sears, sling babies cry less, learn more, are more organized, get humanized sooner and are smarter.

I’m sure many people are familiar with the BabyBjörn, which is a common registry item I’ve seen, but I’ve always felt it was a bit too sporty for my taste and looked like you were strapped into a parachute harness. On the other hand, many of the ring sling carriers I’ve come across look rather bulky and unattractive. Then I discovered the wide variety of beautiful and sophisticated carriers available on Etsy. One shop in particular stands out above the rest, browen handcrafted. These pouches and slings are made from gorgeous fabrics from designers like Missoni and Marimekko and are something I wouldn’t mind wearing every day. The seller also provides plenty of information about the proper safety for her products and other carriers and also babywearing in general. Some other favorites of mine are worthygoods, babeagogo and baby bisou.