Seven...

...days in the gender countdown!

Happy Halloween!

Hello, boys and ghouls! I hope you're having a spook-tacular Halloween!

Ok, ok. I'll stop with the cheesy holiday lingo infusion...I just thought I would start down that path to frighten you (and I'll also stop using Halloween words like "frighten" even when no pun is intended).

So today is Halloween, and I've already posted a sampling of costumes that I would like to put on el bambino even when it's not Halloween, so now I feel it is appropriate to show you what Jason and I opted to put on ourselves for a recent costume party:

The baker and the oven

Kudos to my Aunt Kathy for finding the oven costume, and kudos to Jason for deciding he should grow a mustache to complement the ensemble for no real reason other than it's sometimes neat to wear a mustache and not be in the law enforcement industry.

I actually prefer to dress as something scary for Halloween, and someday I really want to turn my house into "that scary house on the block," but due to the chance that someone might actually get scared of me and punch my stomach, I decided to wait until next year. That and the fact that Halloween decorations are shockingly expensive - $3 for a bag of cotton cobwebs, really? - and I think in terms of "1 bag of cobwebs = 9.375 diapers" now, it might be awhile before we're that scary house on the block. Bigger and better things prevail!

Francis the Mango

As of today, little Francis Button is a Mango, totaling 6 inches and 1/2 a lb.

Mangoes and Francis have a lot in common. According to wikipedia, the mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. According to me, the Francis is a fleshy love baby belonging to the genus Button, consisting of numerous fruiting limbs in the flourishing family Rutherford.

And now for the belly shot...

Week 8 vs. Week 18

When seen at this angle, it is clear that the host of the Mango looks quite like she swallowed the mango whole. The yellow tank top appears to be begging for mercy...hopefully it lasts the duration of the pregnancy because we still have about 22 weeks to go and I don't believe I've seen a neon yellow maternity tank top in stores anywhere (trust me, I went to ALL of the stores on my pants hunt!).

And for those counting down with us, we have a mere 8 days before Francis' close up (and I mean close up...this better be the last time these parts are photographed!). We can't wait to find out what gender we're dealing with here. I will buy things. Oh, will I buy things.

How little pumpkins come into this world

Just like we do!

Dear baby...

I cannot wait to read strange books to you. I have been practicing all kinds of bizarre animal voices and perfecting my inflection. I think I can even do a convincing monster or alien at this point. I promise to read slowly and let you turn the pages even if it annoys me that you're turning them in the wrong direction.
Until then,
Your mother

Shakespeare Rutherford?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet."

Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention. Juliet also took a potion, played dead, woke up to a poisoned Romeo, and stabbed herself, so her credibility is in question. Personally, I think a lot is in a name, which is why I'm reading Diane Stafford's "Big Book of 60,000 Baby Names" for the fourth time just to make sure I'm not missing anything. Here's what I didn't miss but will definitely bypass...

On the boy list:

• Danger Rutherford: Surprisingly, the name Danger means dangerous. You'd have to be born with tattoos and self-inflicted cigarette burns up and down your arms to live up to that name.
• Perfecto Rutherford: Not so mucho.
• Burr Rutherford: Kind of like my siblings referring to Jason as "Brotherford," only colder. And stupider. 
• Lucious Rutherford: It's a baby, not a Destiny's Child song.
• Bucky Rutherford: I realize it's just one letter off from my shortened name, but I think it could quite possibly be one of the most backwoods gutterific names of them all. Slap some chaw in baby Bucky's lip and you won't have to worry about going through the teething phase.

On the girl list:

• Ruth Rutherford: Nope Noperford. That's like Pete Repeaterson.
• Honeyblossom Rutherford: Just about as sweet as vomit.
• Badger Rutherford: Yeah, I bet nobody would bother her with this name.
• Dusky-Dream Rutherford: More like Foggy-Nightmare name mistake.
• Janoah Rutherford: "You Janoah bad Rutherford name when you see one!"

Isn't that sweet?

Well, our little Francis has graduated from fruit to root vegetable. Last week we took a turn as a turnip, and now we have advanced to SWEET POTATO status! That's 5.5" and 5 oz. of Francis fun.

Just a little premature to coincide with Thanksgiving, but it's probably a bit too early to qualify as a squash or a gourd, so this will do just fine. Some people find sweet potatoes to be not so sweet, but now that Francis can hear me I am reminding Francis that it's okay to defend one's identity...so we repeat...I YAM WHAT I YAM! 

OK, and now for the belly update.

Here is the latest photo, and for comparison I have included a photo from 10 weeks prior. And no, I cannot see my feet anymore. I think we're coming riiiiight along, wouldn't ya say?

7 weeks vs. 17 weeks pregnant

Hi five!

Jason and I celebrated our five year anniversary yesterday. We exchanged cards & letters, I got flowers in the morning and at dinner, and dined at the private booth at the Melting Pot where we got engaged. It was a fantastic night! I am so blessed to have him as my husband. He is my best buddy and I can't wait to see him in action with our baby...I know he will be an amazing father. He already is! He has made me breakfast every morning since we found out I was pregnant - he calls it "feeding Francis." He drew an adorable illustration of our life in a card yesterday that captures it all:

(C) 2011 Jason Rutherford

Dolls or dinosaurs?



Note: this is not my stomach

For anyone who is also counting down at home, it is officially 3 weeks until we find out if we're having a boy or girl Francis! I can't wait. Here's a list of the actions I am taking immediately after finding out (and after I tell people, of course ):

1. Purchase crib and other baby furniture: I have carefully whittled the list down to about 50 furniture sets. I think by knowing the gender, I will be able to narrow it down to 20 and then perhaps Jason should just tell me which ones are too crazy expensive so I can make an acceptable purchase.
2. Buy baby hair accessories: I like bows and hats. But I will not put bows on my son. I will put hats on my girl. Let the head decorating begin.
3. Open the gift of baby shoes from Sarah: Aunt Sarah has already declared she will be providing Francis' first Converse shoes. She is awaiting the big news so she can ensure her shoe purchase is gender appropriate. I cannot wait to open this gift.
4. Begin the process of changing my mind about baby names: It's all fun and games until naming a child becomes a reality. When the possibility starts to exist that one of these names might stick, then names like Starr and Runs With Scissors (a nod to Jason's Native American heritage, naturally) begin to give me anxiety.
5. Buy onesies with weird sayings on them: My little billboard. I cannot wait to get the word out via your tiny little chest.

That's just the short list of immediate action items. The longer list includes many things that I've been putting off, like buying diapers, determining what will be done about the work/daycare situation, buying toys that Jason and I will probably use and Benson will probably eat, etc. Not sure why these things need to wait until the gender is found, but that's just how I roll.

Turn it up!

Well I guess we ran out of fruit sizes, because at 16 weeks of fetus Francis is officially the size of a turnip!

Now, pretend that I'm a snake and I ate a turnip whole and it's now just sitting inside of my stomach. This is what it looks like:

16 weeks

I thought turnips were smaller, but perhaps I had them confused with another root vegetable that I avoid: the radish. Apparently Francis is now 5 inches and 5 ounces.....just a few oz. shy of a pound! You can do it little buddy.

Chinese gender predictor

No, it's not some fancy tool used to predict what gender your baby is. It's much simpler than that. The Chinese gender predictor that Jason and I now believe in...the fortune cookie. A few months ago right after we found out we were expecting, Jason and I were at PF Chang's discussing our baby's gender over honey crispy chicken and fried rice. We open our fortune cookies and on the side that contains a translated word we see three tiny letters: B-O-Y. Jason kept that fortune with him.

And then today Jason and I met for lunch at Pei Wei and as we cracked into our fortune cookies we uncovered the following:

Now I'm not superstitious,  but we don't eat Chinese food too terribly often so our interaction with fortune cookies is minimal. I just think it's awfully suspicious. However, perhaps it's a bizarre Chinese custom not to reference "girl" in a fortune cookie, in which case our Chinese gender predictor is skewed. And I assure you if it is a girl we won't be disappointed. Just sayin' - it's weird.

Baby brain, case #1

As my first documented baby brain moment, I just finished a wash cycle and realized I neglected to put clothes in the washer. Whoops.

Dear baby...

I cannot wait until you are born

so that I may dress you up in ridiculous costumes - possibly outside of Halloween.

Exhibit A:

Sincerely,
Your easily amused mother

The great annual pumpkin hunt

We took a trip to the Rambach's Farm pumpkin patch today - such a great tradition that I look forward to each fall. Jason and I purchased 4 pumpkins - one for Jason, one for me, one for our four-legged buddy Benson, and naturally we got a little one for Francis. It's a bit premature to carve, so we will just set them out on the porch and pray the neighborhood kids don't toss them. We invested in some carving utensils so we can actually branch out beyond the triangle nose and square teeth. And we also purchased a nice assortment of front yard Halloween decorations, including gravestones, cobwebs, an over sized spider, and a random skeleton...Jason had to have the skeleton (he named him Elliott - don't ask). So far I feel that Halloween is off to a good start!

Holy Guacamole!

Young Rutherford is now about the size of an avocado, between 4-5 inches crown to rump (legs are curled so we don't count that!) and between 3-4 oz. Anyone who knows me and has gone to eat with me is well aware that I love myself some Mexican food (the people at El Maguey used to know me by name, sadly) and whenever I'd gorge too much I would always leave saying that I was now carrying a Mexican food baby. Welp, now it appears that has come true!

ROCK-a-bye baby

Tonight at a little spot called Lemmons on Gravois our band Rutherford Rock Project will play its final show until baby's big debut. It is nice that Francis could join us in utero for a handful of shows, but the little Francis ears are going to start hearing things soon and it's just too dang risky for me to stand in front of a drumset when there are baby ears being fine-tuned in my belly. So, until the Francis release party, we will do some long overdue album recording and write more music. See you next time, stage!

RRP at the Pageant, May 13, 2011

I bumped the bump.

I was trying to take a tight turn around a corner and forgot there was more of me these days. Bang! Heads up Francis. Sorry about that.

Me fitting through things right now

15 week belly shot (a.k.a. "the period during which I look like a fat hole-in-the-wall bar waitress")

Here's the latest stomach profile pic....

15 week bump

That look on my face screams "I just spent the last 22 minutes putting on/taking off clothes that don't fit and I am officially late for work."

And my hair is still damp.

And my powder is too light...didn't get much sun this summer...spent most of the time preggonating (that is my compound word for pregnant-hibernating).

However, good news on the pants front: The dark denim number I'm sporting there is an official new pair of pregnancy jeans. Let me tell you - nothing is sexier than the faux zip fly that segues into a stretchy belly band that rests just below the bra line. I am sure Jason was in heaven seeing me in those puppies.

Pants.

Oh, pants. Pants, pants, pants. You are not good at fitting right now. In fact, you are terrible at fitting. You were purchased to fit right after I lost some lbs on Weight Watchers about 8 months ago. However, now that I'm on Weight Gainers, you are terrible at fitting. I have cleaned you out of my closet so I can make room for things that do fit...which leads to a closet that has two skirts, one pair of super low cut jeans, tumbleweed blowing, one pair of black work pants, dust balls, and a whole host of stretchy exercise pants (that I sleep in). I have rigged my pants with hair ties and belly bands, but that has quickly become insufficient. All that said, I would walk around pantless all day long if it means my little stomach nugget is growing and comfortable, enjoying its stay in the Rutherford RV.

Orange you wondering what the new fruit size is?

That's right, Francis is now a NAVEL ORANGE!



That's sooooooo big!
We had our regularly scheduled checkup today and got to hear the little orange's heartbeat, which was coming in at somewhere between 140-150 bpm, right where we want to be. The next time we go to the doctor is November 7th, and at that appointment we get to have an ultrasound and............drum roll............find out if Francis is a boy or girl! That is stinking exciting. I will immediately go out and buy baby clothes that very day. We have been waiting for this!

Tiny dancer, take 2!

Well unfortunately I had a spell today at the DMV where I was standing in line for a long long time (hard to believe, right?) and finally when it got to be my turn I went up to the desk and the room started to go fuzzy - so they quickly brought me a chair and some water, otherwise I'm confident I would have fainted. I felt better upon sitting and made them finish my title/registration/taxes processing for the new car we just bought - I know, I know...but I was NOT about to come back some other day! So then I drove across the street to the Urgent Care center to have my blood pressure checked, but they wanted to make sure I had further tests and that the baby was OK so I was transferred to the hospital where tests were done. Besides getting poked with 17 different needles and waiting and waiting, the silver lining was they did an ultrasound so I got to see Francis for the first time in 2 months! My mom met me there so she got to be with me while we watched our little dancer bounce around in there and kick and stretch...at one point, Francis even lifted its arm and made a move like it was slicking its lanugo back - you know, Francis just wanted to ensure it was presentable for us! Unfortunately Jason was still on his way back from the golf trip so he won't get to see Francis live until perhaps Monday when we have our next appointment - or even until 20 weeks if they wait. But, I got some souvenir photos, so here's our little tiny dancer looking much bigger and baby-like than before!

Francis Face

Again with the Jazz Hand!

Can you FEEL it?

I'm trying and trying and trying to concentrate on what's in my stomach in hopes that I can feel le babe, but so far I just can't tell if' it's baby movements or just air in my stomach. And I don't want to press too hard because I have this vision of baby's poor little mini-melon getting smooshed up against my insides. And then I'm afraid if I keep smooshing it and smooshing it, it might not enjoy it's stay at Rebecca Inn and start clamoring to get out, which we're just not ready for yet (I have no crib! I have no diapers!).

I'm just looking for one little tap or something so I know Francis is in there - maybe sippin' on something from the mini bar or takin' a soothing bubble bath.