Wow! I'm pregnant! While Peter and I have actually known this since early May, I am only now making it widely known to people outside of my family and the folks I see every day. First, the preliminaries: I'm due on Peter's bday (that's fun!), which is January 20th; in 2 days, I'll be 17 weeks along. We are not finding out the gender and we are not sharing names before the birth with anyone.. . .sorry! But, we're very excited! It's kind of crazy to go from years and years of trying NOT to get pregnant to, all of the sudden, here we go! Whee!
I'm getting off lucky--no puking for me, just really profound exhaustion (which I keep thinking is over, then it's not) and extreme moodiness, which I think is worse for Peter than it is for me. We've started getting some baby clothes at yard sales and stuff and are trying to clear the back room out, but otherwise haven't done too much preparation. I just got my first maternity wear items this past weekend and by the end of August expect to not be able to wear any of my current clothing.
In other news, we are trying our best to enjoy as much of our remaining lives as a young, childless couple as much as we can. Since May, we have been to see Coldplay and Beyonce and have traveled to Pittsburgh and New England. Pictures from those trips are attached. As for Pittsburgh, it was REALLY wonderful to see family and cousins who I hadn't seen in way too long and we want to give a shout out to Uncle Turk for being one of our best blog readers! Thanks, Turk! As for New England, we just got back last week. The original impetus for the trip was Peter's mom Betsy's wish to have her ashes scattered off of Martha's Vineyard. However, with 18 family members in attendance and the beautiful setting, it turned into much more of a vacation than I had anticipated. On the way home, we stopped and saw my good friend Indu, who really pampered us!
Another big change for us is that Matt and Woody moved into our downstairs apartment at the beginning of June and are officially Atlantans. As I write, they are preparing to move out to a more permanent, private space, and I will miss them (though they'll only be 3 miles away!) It has been so nice seeing so much of them this summer and I'm thrilled that they both have found jobs in this evil economy.
Work-wise, Peter and I keep trucking along. Not too much new on that front.
So, I will try to blog about life and pregnancy as it seems appropriate, without oversharing or being too ebullient. You may see an ultrasound picture here. I promise that I will not put any pictures of the umbilical cord or placenta up after the birth (I actually heard of someone recently who did this--eew!).
Anyway, hope all of your summers are wrapping up well! Call anytime and give us an update--if we haven't talked in the last month or so, chances are we miss you!
xoxox, r&p
Pictures, roughly from top to bottom: fireworks over East Point; Peter with Gram in Slippery Rock, PA; Peter near the Gay Head cliffs in Martha's Vineyard; Good times with the girl cousins in Monaca, PA; Deborah H. serves up lobsters from the grill (yum!); Brunch with Indu in Boston; Happy Birthday, Woody!; Hiking on the Chatahoochee with Sarah and Andrew; Me, a little belly and the Pittsburgh skyline; Peter on the ferry. 