Subway baby

Having a baby in NYC has more variables than I could have ever imagined. The other night we found out that the UN is in session and since it's a few blocks from the hospital we're delivering at means that traffic in the area is horrible. Doug decided that if I went into labor we would just schlep our bags onto the subway and avoid the traffic mess. Then my mom could drive the car in in the middle of the night and avoid the traffic. As bad as sitting in traffic in labor in a car sounds, sitting on a smelly subway in labor sounds about 5 times worse. I guess people probably do it all the time, but wow, I hope that's not how it goes down for us.

Baby names

We've majorly procrastinated on coming up with our final list of baby names. I've had a running list for years of our favorite boy, girl and dog names, but it was about 30 deep for each category, so last weekend we finally narrowed it down to our top 3-5 for boys and girls (there are no new dogs in our future). I must say that we had a much easier time with our girl names, we both tended to like them a lot better than any of the boy names we had. We are going to wait and share the final decision until the baby comes because we really feel like we have to see the little thing before giving it a name for life, but here's one thing I can share.

As we were talking about our boy names I thought that maybe we should think of some of our favorite ski runs, hikes, bike trails, etc that we had done and loved as possible middle name options. We went through a bunch of our favorite resorts, to no avail, and ended up studying the trail map of Silverton Mtn. The trail names at Silverton are ridiculous and totally thrown out by a bunch of ski bums with a crude sense of humor. Rope Dee Dope, Fat Guy, Vodka Shots, Hell's Gate, Witch's Tit, Concussion Woods, etc. Obviously, not great names for a child. I was reading all of these off, laughing hysterically the whole time and when I threw out Gnar Couloir Doug stopped me in my tracks and declared that Gnar would be the perfect middle name for a boy. "What a strong name! He's never going to get beat up with that kind of name. And if he's a red head, he needs a strong name." Well, he went on like this all weekend and he was totally serious. After you say it a bunch of times, I guess it sounds like any other name, but it's still hard for me to agree to naming our kid something short for "gnarly." Either way, I played into Doug's excitement and made a couple of onesies for our little bruiser because even if the name doesn't make it onto the birth certificate, it will surely be a nickname.

I suck at crafting and realized that the "E" was upside down and backwards after I ironed it on.

Crafting take 2.

So, either start crossing your fingers and toes that we have a girl and we can avoid this naming issue all together, or don't be surprised when you see the birth announcement and Gnar is part of his name.

Pregnancy Pros & Cons

As I'm nearing the end (hopefully sooner rather than later), I've put together my list of pros & cons of pregnancy, perhaps I'll look back at this list next time we're thinking about taking the plunge.

PRO'S

- Not having to zip and button pants. This isn't a huge inconvenience in everyday life, but it's pretty great (and fast) to not have to do it. I will definitely miss this feature of maternity pants when I can finally fit into my normal jeans.

- Feeling the baby move around is awesome. This is something I will miss. It's such an intimate thing between just you and the baby that no one else is really aware of. It's like carrying a little buddy around all the time.

- People are so much more likely to talk to me now, I guess pregnant women are much more approachable. People come up to me all the time and ask about the baby, what I'm having (and 100% of them tell me I'm having a boy) and how I'm feeling.

- I actually think the bump is really cool and really bizarre...I've totally worked it as my summer accessory.

- I've never been more comfortable strutting around in a bikini on a beach as I am now.

- I don't feel bad about going to bed at 8:30pm.


CON'S

- I must smell or taste different because Ciena dog hovers over me and licks me to death anytime she sees exposed skin. Lately she has taken to humping me too, which is so weird because she's never done that kind of thing. Ewww.

- It kind of sucks when you outgrow your maternity clothes. You thought you felt big before...

- Hormones.

- Obviously not running these last couple of months have been a mood killer. I used to watch other runners and be super jealous, now I look at them and can't believe I ever did that. Running was my stress reliever, my mind clearer, my me time and I've had a hard time finding something to deal with the stress quite like it. Crying has seemed to be the go to, but it's not the same as a good hard sweat session.

- I miss a nice glass of red wine every once in a while (see above...it's a good stress reliever.)

- Filling out a disability form for being pregnant. It was pretty funny that the form asked how and where this "accident" occurred...umm, standing up in the Burger King bathroom? Seriously people...I'm not disabled, I'm pregnant.

- The bathroom is my second home.

- The random aches and pains that I've had and I'm sure are different than anyone else has experienced and the doctor tells me it's just par for the course and not unusual at all. Damn, some of that stuff hurts!

- 9 months (10 actually) is a really long time. It makes me wonder if women just forget how long it is and that's how they have more than one kid.


I'm sure in a few weeks I'll be able to add "labor" to the con's list and cute little smushy faced baby to the pro's list!