Rumble in the bundle

I don't feel the new Thomas every day, but when I do he let's loose like Muhammad Ali...floatin', flyin', stingin' and beein'. Last night was a marathon bout between the boy and my belly. Perhaps the elimination of our favorite model on "America's Next Top Model" ignited his fuse. Whatever reason, he unleashed a fury of fists and feet that would make the original Street Fighter Sonny Chiba back-down. And this parade of punches lasted for over an hour. To top it all off, you can't feel the movement from the outside yet. Poor Jesse is desperate to experience these baby spasms. I am desperate for him to believe me when my whimpering starts. I guess the kiddo's breached position is making outsider proof more difficult. Transversely, it make him closer to all my precious vital organs, aka punching bags. Does this seem like a fair set up to you? Hey Kit, is this karma at work?

Runners, take your stretch marks

Last night I found something that I had been waiting for- over 5 months nary a blemish on the belly, and BAM! My first stretch mark reared its ugly head. Actually, the mark is not hideous. In fact, it's in the shape of a lightning bolt- a purple lightning bolt. I've become a guttural Harry Potter- with a regal-shaded "dark mark." Hope this isn't TMI (too much information), but I need to vent about the pain of a westwardly expanding belly. I feel my skin ripping at the seams; I fear that I might become unravelled with a hard sneeze. And who will clean me up if I split? My dogs? This phase of pregnancy is painful. Forget boob-engorgement, tummy tension is the pits.

We're back!

Thanksgiving was excellent. My brother made a fine bird and 10+ side dishes. He cracks me up- he does make many large meals. Thus, he wasn't sure what the limit for sides should be. We needed up giving thanks for several days, adn this will continue well into his lunches next week. Charleston is a delicious town- chock full of trees, high water marks, Marrakesh-like market shopping, and easy to navigate streets. We stayed on James Island. Clark lived in West Ashley. My folks were in the space ship Holiday Inn. We were all about 10 minutes apart- and a sling shot away from downtown. The pinnacle of the trip for Jesse was having lunch with Alicia and her husband David (Punchy) at Fleet Street Landing. His justification was not seeing his dear childhood friend Alicia and catching up on life. Noooooooooo, it is the calamari at Fleet Street, which is served with two zingy sauces, that has had him gushing since he first had it last spring. Me, I don't dig on squid. However, this stuff apparently avoids the typical "rubber band" texture and taste of most squid o's. Clark took us on a warp spped tour of the French District- mainly in search of the 6ft. house and Oprah's pad. We struck out on both accounts. The pictures I am posting show a till slice of the whole trip. I don't know how to rotate the pictures- if you do, please holla at me.

Road Trip

We are hittin' the road for Charleston, SC early tomorrow morning. Typically, it would take the average driver (with an average-sized bladder) 8 hours to reach C'ston from the 'burg. However, I fear that all that baby pressure will make me meet many new gas stations along the way. Great. While in Nags Head two weekends ago, Jesse and I drove to Duck, NC. We stopped every 1/2 an hour. Furthermore, every place I had to squat required that we were patrons. Using the bathroom is rapidly becoming the most expensive aspect of being pregnant. Adult diapers are not sounding so bad right now. Well, at least they sound cheaper. I won't be posting until we return. Clark, who is now the Charleston hometown boy, says we are in for rain and warm weather- it's 80 degrees there currently. Very exciting! I'll be unseasonably warm in my diaper; maybe they make a deep South edition.

How I spent my Sunday

I spent my Sunday with my camera- and Rajah in tow. Together we covered the changing foliage in New Quarter Park and by Lake Matoaka. My final count of pictures was around 120; all of which I am having developed and mailed to me. The new Thomas has given me, forced me, to slow down. And in slowing down, I see more than I ever did before. With every tree that I studied, I dreamt that I was explaining to Miles why we find changing leaves so beautiful and how bold and power nature can be in her true form. My mind raced with future conversations about art, photography, composition, and lighting. I can wait to pass on my love of the fine arts to my child- as my parents did to me. His presence on my walk was overwhelming. At the particularly beautiful sights, I would quietly and knowingly rub my belly, as if I already knew he would find the same view breath-taking. These are a few more pictures from that afternoon. I am planning on putting the entire collection into a book to share with Miles. I might call it _Our First Autumn Walk_.

Trees, beautiful trees!

Pictures of the tree I meant to capture Thursday before my spill.

An eye-opening evening

Thursday afternoon- I was able to leave work while the sun was still up. I had grand plans to come home and photograph our gorgeous Japanese Maple in the mid-day sunlight. The tree glows with an awesome red blaze- like neon fire. Even now, under an overcast sky, its leaves light up our dreary computer room. Well, my plan never came to fruition. While looking for our camera upstairs, I took a nasty tumble down our stair case- more than 2/3 of the did I opt to travel on my ribs and forearms as opposed to using my perfectly healthy feet. Everything happened so quickly- but I did have enough time to let loose some choice profanity. Once I reached the ground floor, the waterworks erupted. I haven't cried like since the last time I watched _Terms of Endearment_. I was able to call Jesse, my parents, and have my OB paged. Our doc called back very quickly and advised me to take a trip to the ER. Jesse arrived shortly after and took all 3 of us to our future birth site- just 4 months too early.
While in the waiting room, we saw an elderly woman leaving the ER with, I assume, her son. They were both crying. Actually, she was sobbing, and he was quietly crying and supporting his mother. She kept calling out, "He's gone. He's gone." They were quickly met by a group of friends/ family, and entered into broken-hearted embraces. At this point, my eyes well up, and my hand sought out Jesse's hand. He gave my palm a knowing squeeze. It was like watching our future in fast forward...I can't imagine not having him here to comfort and console me. Just then, a nurse from the maternity ward called for us.
We took an elevator to the 3rd floor maternity ward. On our ride in the massive metal box, we were accompanied by a young teen and her mother. This girl was in some heavy labor- but she never made a single sound. I was still whimpering from my fall and felt like a total wuss next to this stone-cold maiden facing some serious contractions. She never said a word on our way to the ward. Later, a nurse told me she delivered within the hour of arriving. I asked the nurse if the girl had remained quite through the whole ordeal. No, emphatically no, was the answer. Apparently, the girl was too far along to receive her planned epidural. At this point, the Stoicism melted way to pure hysterics. Can't blame her.
We spent 2 hours hooked up to a monitor that reads my contraction rate and Miles' heart beat. The great news is that everything thing is fine. My arms look a bit gross- like a lost a fight to a drunk kangaroo, but our little man had no harm done to him. He probably slept through the whole experience. And me, I have no developed a healthy phobia of stairs. I am contacting Water Country USA to find out if the have any retired slides for sale.

Meet Miles!

And yes, he's sucking his thumb! It doesn't get any cuter.

Mazal Tov! It's a boy!

As confirmed by our 3rd ultrasound today, our little Thomas has three legs- though one greatly shorter than the others. The technician referred to that regions as "his maleness." I replied, "Oh, you mean his kick stand." But seriously, Jesse and I had such a strong feeling that the little punk waking up every other hour was of the snails and puppy dog tails persuasion. My dad had a dream that we are with son. He wouldn't tell us about the dream until the sex was confirmed. And confirmed it was because our beautiful boy went "Spring Break" in front of the camera. We can't wait to meet Miles (Something) Thomas!!

Drumroll please

And keep drumming until November 14Th because we were unable to find out the New Thomas' sex today. We got some amazing pictures from the technician, but we did not get the answer to the million dollar question. We go back in two weeks. Hopefully, the baby will be a bit less shy. However, there is a silver lining to the visit. We did get a picture of the New One sucking his/her thumb! Once the scanner has been re-installed, I will post the picture.

Browsers beware

I appologize for the delay in my postings, but our home PC has just gotten over the flu. I think the computer caught a virus from other Blogger websites I visited. Make sure you keep you Norton's, or other anti-virus program, current; especially if you visit sites other than mine or sites you do not know. Just giving you a heads up.