All Things Baby

So, besides giving the apartment a once-over in terms of cleaning and organizing, we are done preparing for the baby!!! So we have officially told him that he can come any time he feels like it. Truthfully, giving birth scares the shit out of me. But I am so ready to have my body back and to see my LO and hold him in my arms.

The "nursery" is done. And by nursery I mean the corner in our room that's devoted to the baby. Here's a pic:
I did the decor for less than $30. Not too bad. $20 for the canvases, $5 for the scrapbooking paper, and $3 for the bar to hang the quilt. I guess you should also include the $15 for the basket covers. But that's still under $50.

We got our stroller attachment and I love our carseat with our stoller. Even though they are two different brands they don't look half bad together.
I've also got a really good start on our freezer meals. So far I have:
-3 meals of chicken and biscuits
-3 bags of Indian lentil soup (3 cups each)
-2 meals of beef stew
-1 meal of chicken enchiladas
-2 meals of taco meat
-3 cups of Spanish rice
-2 meals of meatloaf
-2 meals of mac'n cheese
-a dozen molasses cookies

This week I plan on cooking:
-Chicken cachatore
-Meat for beef dip sadwiches
-Summer veggies soup
-Banana bread
-Bran muffins

When I'm done with those I think we should definitely have enough. I also have stocked the freezer with veggies to make quick Indian meals. And I'm printing out easy recepies that should take me less than 30 minutes to make. Also the hospital bags are packed and I've stocked up on the essentials like toilet paper and toiletries.

Needless to say I think we're prepared. Well... as prepared as you can get :-)

37 Weeks

Full term!!! Yay! I'll write more later. Write now I feel like crap today and I've got a lot to do.

Going Home Outfit?

34 Weeks!

I can't believe how fast August went! It's crazy to think that in just a matter of weeks (3 - 6) I'm going to be a mom. I still haven't gotten used to the idea. I think I'm just starting to get used to the idea of being pregnant!

Things are going ok. I'm starting to get really uncomfortable. I'm tired all the time. My hips feel like a Thanksgiving turkey wishbone. And my reflux has hit an all time level of nasty. My blood pressure is still high, so I'm on weekly doctors visits now (so sick of going to the doctor...). My allergies are also horrible at the moment, and I'm resisting taking anything for them.

There are also plenty of good things to go along with that long list of maladies. Our little one is stronger and more active than ever. The result being that I feel him constantly. My stomach moves with each kick, punch, and roll. Apoorva can feel him every night. It's amazing to think that there is a little baby in there doing all that. My nesting instincts have kicked in full force and the apartment is nice and clean :-) I'm lovin that.

And I think it's really starting to hit me that I have a long list of "to-do's" and not much time to them in. I still have to make a big order from diapers.com to some essential stuff like some cloth diapers, our stroller-car seat adapter, and a freaking diaper bag. We also still need to install the car seat and have it inspected. And those are just the essential things that need to get done. There's a huge long list of things that would be nice to get done before the baby is born. I better get moving!!!

New Milestone...

STRETCHIES!!!!!!

Yup. The stretch marks have appeared. I will NOT be one of those lucky ones that does not get any.

NFT

I want this...

Here's the description from the company:
"The Beaba Babycook is a super versatile compact countertop appliance. It acts as a steamer, warmer, blender and defroster all in one! With the Babycook, you won't have to go through the hassle of using multiple appliances. Simply place your vegetables, fruits, meat or fish in the Babycook, steam and puree. It's that easy! In less than 15 minutes you can prepare fresh and healthy food for your little one that still contains all its nutrients and is free of preservatives, unlike store-bought baby food. You can even use it to reheat or defrost precooked foods."

AND, it's BPA free.

I know I don't need it right away, but I'm definitely going to buy it later down the road before our LO starts to eat solid foods. I know I'm going to make our own baby food using organic fruits and veggies. This will make it easier! It's sad that I'm so excited I found this product :-)

31 Week Bump

Yea, I've been gone for awhile...

July was a busy busy month. But the good thing is that we've almost got everything for the baby bought and ready. Just some small last minute things left and the stuff that needs to get done closer to his due date (install the car seat, wash the bedding and clothes). I've also got a few craft projects I want to finish.

Speaking of crafty projects, I started to decorate all of our white onsies to make them a little more interesting. Here's a picture of a few of them. I think they turned out cute. I'm going to do extra so I can give them away as gifts.
We had a 3D ultrasound done a few weeks ago. We had a great time watching our little boy move around, play with his toes, smile, stick out his thumb. We think he looks like DH, especially his nose.I'll write more later. I've got to go get ready for my Dr. appointment. I can't believe I'm 31 weeks today!!!! Hoping he stays in there for at least another 6 weeks!!!!

Life just got a little easier...

So last week sucked! I wasn't feeling well at all. I had a cold that came with a sore throat and a nasty cough (which I'm still trying to get rid of). And while by the end of the week I was feeling better, I got a pleasant surprise when I woke up on Friday. Somehow, I managed to contract pink eye. Yes, that infection that is passed around at daycare, the disease I had not had in at least 15 years. And it was a bad infection. I mean, puss coming out of my eyes bad (sorry if that was too graphic).

I went to an eye doctor here. And I didn't even mess with an optician. I went straight to the big eye doctors (we apparently have a center here that is one of the best in the country... who knew!). The doctor was nice, took one look at my eye and said yep, that's a really nasty infection. Gave me a prescription for antibacterial eye drops (I will not go into the panic I had about taking those while pregnant...). Then he told me I had to basically sterilize my house to I didn't get reinfected (it was that bad apparently). This involved washing all the sheets and towels in hot water, wiping down surfaces (including remote controls and computers) with antibacterial wipes, and getting rid of ALL MY MAKEUP!

What!?! Seriously? Do you know how expensive makeup is? And some of it I didn't think I could replace here, since it's all natural stuff I purchased at a whole foods back in MA. And then some Clinique stuff, which I wouldn't buy at the moment since we're trying to stay practical and save for the baby. So anyway, I did what the doctor said and threw out everything, including all my expensive brushes. And then I headed to Walmart, ready to be dissapointed.

To my surprise, Almay now has a line of natural makeup. Yay!!!
No parabens or nasty stuff like that. I have no idea how good it is, since I wont use it until I know the infection is completely gone. But I'm excited I don't have to go all over the state trying to find natural beauty products. I spent way too much at Walmart yesterday replacing all my stuff. But at least it was a lot less $$$ than if I had actually replaced it with the stuff I bought at Whole Foods or Clinique. I'm not a big fan of Walmart, but sometimes they just make life easier. And at least they are starting to carry this all natural beauty stuff (they actually have a great section in the one here in my town) as well as organic foods.

I'm feeling a lot better, and my eyes are no longer leaking or bright red. I will gladly throw away my makeup and spend $75 if I avoid getting pink eye again. Not fun!

Baby on the move!!!

Boy this baby likes to beat me up! And I love it! He's crazy... especially at night when for about an hour I can feel him constantly kicking and flipping. He's gotten so strong that you can actually see my whole belly move when he kicks. DH has been able to feel it a few times, but I've been able to feel it on the outside every day for a few weeks now. It's amazing!

I've been really bad about taking belly pictures. I'll try and get DH to take a picture tonight and I'll post it tomorrow. I'm getting huge! It's probably weird but I'm happy that I'm getting big because at least at my shower next weekend I'll look pregnant rather than just fat. I'll be almost 28 weeks.

And speaking of our LO on the move, we got our stroller in the mail yesterday! It's from my grandparents and my aunts and uncles. And I love it. I'm so glad I spent the time and energy in doing the research. It's so light and it literally took me 3 minutes to put together. All I had to do was snap in the wheels and the shade. And it's pretty :-)It's a Baby Jogger City Mini. It's 15lbs and has a one pull fold. You literally pull up on one handle and it folds in half. It takes up hardly any space when folded. I'm also going to buy an attachment that makes it so we can just snap in our car seat. Again, it's sad that I'm so in love with all this baby stuff! :-)

Updates

So my baby has a place to sleep!!!!For the life of me I cannot figure out why I get so excited about something I myself will never use, or wear in the case of clothes. We decided on a Graco Pack N' Play for the first few months. It'll be in the bedroom. Not shown in the picture is the mobile and the changing table that comes with it. I put it together a few nights ago to make sure everything was working correctly, but it's now safely back in the box and in the closet :-( I can't wait until it's out permanently.

DH's aunt and uncle bought it for us this past weekend when we came to visit. Very nice of them. We also had a great time visiting with them and his cousin and his wife.

In other news my grandma (who I'm really close to) has told me she will be coming to visit for a few weeks right after the baby is born. YAY!!!! That means my MIL will come later, probably about a month after the baby is born. This works out so much better for me!

Score!

So, before getting married and moving to India and then Indiana I spent 4 years in central MA. It was while I was in graduate school. The town was a small town, but there were 5 colleges in the area, one a major state university, so there were a lot of nice amenities, activities, and cultural events in the area. It was also very diverse. And since most people living in the area were a part of academia, the population tended to lean towards being environmentally friendly, dare I say "nutty/crunchy". There were food co-ops, organic restaurants, farmers markets, and of course, a Whole Foods.

I can honestly say that on a daily basis that is what I miss most about living there. I quickly learned from my new friends and neighbors the benefits of living an organic and all-natural life style. I started shopping at Whole Foods and organic farmers markets for everything. And while I was doing this for health and environmental reasons, lo and behold I LOVED the food available there. And I started to LOVE cooking with fresh ingredients.

In India there was no such thing as organic. But at least it was easy to cook with fresh all natural foods (even if the produce wasn't that great... probably because they didn't use a lot of chemicals which was fine with me). But at least I knew it was for only 7 months. I was looking forward to coming back to the States. I really missed Whole Foods.

Well, we get to this middle-of-nowhere town in northern Indiana and of course there is no Whole Foods!!! The only two choices available in terms of food was Kroger and Walmart. Granted we've been doing ok, since the Kroger has a decent organic section, but I was still desperately missing my Whole Foods.

Well this weekend we got a tip from some new friends on a grocery store in a nearby city called Fresh Market. The minute I walked into the store I was in love. It's not a Whole Foods, but it's very similar, selling a lot of organic and whole food products. I cannot tell you how excited I was about this. I'm only sad that it took four months to find this wonderful place. But really it's no wonder since it's in this tiny plaza on the edge of the city. But now that I've found it I'm supper excited about grocery shopping today.

Quilt Finished!!!

So today I spent the afternoon finishing the quilt for our little one. It's small, since we'll be using a co-sleeper for the first couple of months. I decided to make it myself, since there really isn't any cute bedding out there for co-sleepers (at least that I've found).

Now before you see it, please remember that this is one of my first sewing projects EVER. And I've never made a quilt before.
I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

My projects

Since I'm stuck at home (and I'm procrastinating like crazy on deciding if I'm finishing my Ph.D. or not) I decided I needed a new way to be productive during the day. There is only so much laundry and cleaning that needs to be done. What better way than to make stuff for our little man that will be arriving in a few months. So a few weeks ago I went out and purchased a sewing machine and searched online for some easy do-it-yourself baby projects.

I started off with a very easy project, making burp cloths. Basically you only need two things, Gerber cloth diapers and a few colorful swatches of fabric. You do some cutting down to size, some folding in the edges, sew then together and wala! Pretty, inexpensive, & unique burp cloths. Here is a sample of what I've made so far. I've actually made quite a few, since you can never have enough clean cloths lying around when you have a newborn.

Minus the initial investment of the sewing machine, they cost around $1.50 each to make. They are also multi-functional. They can be used as burp cloths, changing pads, or just cleaning cloths.

After I accumulated enough burp cloths, and was a little more confident in my sewing ability, I moved on to something slightly more complicated and made a swaddling blanket. It was still pretty simple though. Just get two yards of coordinating fabric (I used flannel), cut them down to equal size, and sew them together. Here's the first one I made.

I thought the monkeys are super cute. And it will be nice and warm, since our little guy will be arriving in the fall. It can also be used as a blanket to lay on the floor for "tummy time". With the fabric that I used the cost of this was only $6. I plan on making a few more with different fabric. And perhaps matching burp cloths if I am so inspired and I have enough left over fabric (I still have a few cloth diapers that I have to do something with).

So then after this project I got a little bit more adventurous. For the first few months we're going to have the baby in a bassinet in our room for a number of reasons (1) we'll be moving soon after and so it's impractical to set up a whole nursery, and we'll need to second bedroom for guests anyway (2) I'll be breastfeeding (3) since we'll have guests I do not want certain people who shall remain nameless to take over, so having the baby in our room will hopefully prevent that.

Anyway, finding cute bedding is hard, since I hate all the hokey ones with animals and trucks. It's even harder finding smaller bedding for cradles and bassinets. So I decided to make a quilt. Now mind you I have never made one in my life, so I had to go online to even figure out how to make one. Chances are it's not going to be the best quilt in the world, but I'm sure the baby wont even notice.

So that's what I started today, and I got pretty far. I cut out all the squares and basically got the top panel finished. I think it looks pretty good for my first attempt.

The picture sucks because I took it with my iPhone. So in-real-life the colors are much more vibrant (like that yellow is actually orange and the blues and much darker than they look in the picture). But oh well. You get the idea. I'm happy with it and my other half liked it, so I guess that's all that matters. Next week hopefully I will finish it, and it will be good enough to actually use.

Other projects I've been thinking about include changing pads, bibs, wall-art, and a mobile. I've got plenty of fabric left over from the quilt to make a matching mobile, but I really have no idea how to make one. I'm sure there's something on the Internet that will tell me how :-) And not to worry, I am not totally baby obsessed. I have also been making things for the apartment, like the living room curtains and trow pillows for all the rooms. Aren't I just becoming little Suzie homemaker!

Shopping Spree

Up until last week I had not purchased anything for our little man. I wasn't waiting until we found out the gender or anything, since I like gender neutral clothing. But my dear husband is so against buying stuff until the 3rd trimester. Well after the ultrasound I convinced him to let me buy a few outfits at the Carters outlet. And today I found some cute things at Kohls. And then this afternoon I found this site that had cute stuff for Indian-American babies, so I ordered two onesies.

Too freakin cute right? Thought it was appropriate since this baby was conceived in India. I also got one that said "Got Doohd?", which means "got milk?" in Hindi. And these are the other things we have so far.
The last time I was home my Grandma gave me these two body suits.
I think this is enough for now. I need to stop buying things or it's going to get out of control :-) The outfits are just so cute!!!

It's a BOY!!!!

Yup! Our little baby is all boy. He was not modest at all at this mornings ultrasound. He flashed the tech more than a few times. The tech also said it's one of the more active babies she's ever seen. It put on quite a show for us, kicking, punching, bouncing, and flipping a few times. At one point it had the hiccups. So cute.

We are so ecstatic. Everything looks great so far, but the doctors should get back to us sometime next week with the results. But he's measuring right on time at 14oz and his heartbeat is strong, around 150.

I'm so excited that I'll get to meet our little boy in a mere 20 weeks. I wont say I can't wait to meet him, because I WANT to wait those 20 weeks so he can grow nice and big (but not too big, ok little man?).

Living Room Finished

I finally "finished" the living room. By this I mean I made curtains and put them up and also did some homemade artwork to put up on the walls. I still think it has an unfinished look because we can't paint the walls, but at least it looks a little better with some color. I know I'm doing one more art project to hang on the opposite (left) wall. And maybe make some throw pillows and get a colorful blanket. But it's fine for now. (ignore the folding table... DH uses it for his puzzles).

Here's the other side of the living room, which is technically a dinning room. But we decided to forgo getting a table and chairs for two reasons (1) we never sit at a table to eat, we're always on the couch watching TV and (2) once the baby gets here we're going to want some floor space for baby stuff like a playpen and "tummy time". So instead we got a few large pieces to organize all our papers. It also holds our printer and some books. I made another piece of artwork and we got chairs for the bar. We're not doing anything to this space because again, we want it open. In the future this is where the playpen will go. And also perhaps the air mattress if we have more than one person here visiting when the baby gets here.

Our bedroom is almost finished. We got the curtains up and I made the artwork for above the bed. We have to get a few more colorful things up on the wall and some throw pillows. But no more furniture. The current dresser will go in that empty corner, and then the corner I'm standing in will be devoted to the baby (changing table, rocker, etc). We decided to just get a bassinet rather than do up a whole nursery, since we may be moving 3 months after the babe is born. I would like to get a bed (headboard), but it's not high on the priority list right now).


Now we just have to:
(1) Get the guest room ready. Basically buy a bed and a dresser and get something up on the walls. I want to get this done by the end of June.
(2) Buy a changer/dresser, a glider, and a bassinet. We'll probably do this early July.

But God do I wish I could paint the walls. I'm so sick of white! :-)

In other news, I get my big ultrasound on Friday. My doctor typically waits until 28 weeks. However I was a demanding patient and asked him to order one sooner. I'm just anxious to see that it's healthy and everything is growing as it should. So perhaps the next post I will write will reveal the gender (yay!) and have a few cool ultrasound shots.

Bling and Baby Clothes

So on Friday we traveled to MA to moved more of our stuff into a new storage unit. I love going back to MA. We've been gone almost a year, but it still feels like home. I got a cheese sandwich from my favorite deli. I've been craving that sandwich for weeks. Apoorva got me two new beads for my Troll Beads Bracelet that he gave me on our wedding day (the two beads to the right of the elephant). The silver ones all have different meanings, and the one I chose means "unity", which I thought was appropriate with the baby on the way.

After we finished up in MA we drove to VT to meet up with my parents, grandparents, and my brother. It was my brother's graduation weekend, and he was also commissioning into the army as a 2nd lieutenant. I was so sad that he's now in the Army, and most likely will be deployed to Afghanistan soon. But I'm so incredibly proud of him. Here he is taking his oath.


And then since it was mother's day weekend, Apoorva took me to a little baby clothing store in VT and I got to pick out an outfit for our little one. We have not purchased anything yet for the baby, so I was so excited. I decided on a colorful little polka-dot onsie with matching pants and hat. Too freakin cute :-)


Everything was great until we started making our way home. We dropped off the rental car in Burlington and they overcharged us. Our flight to Cleavland was uneventful and on time. However our connection was delayed by two hours so we didn't get home until after midnight last night. The flight was also turbulent. What was funny though was every time there was really bad turbulance (which I hate) my heart would race and then the baby would move around a lot and I felt the first big kick. Apparently (s)he wanted to know what was going on out here that was making me so anxious.

Today I'm exhausted. I only got 4 hours of sleep so i think I'm going to go back to bed for a few hours.

Photography

I have always loved taking pictures. I remember getting my first camera for Christmas when I was 7 or 8. Granted, it was a pink kiddie Polaroid camera, but my parents soon bought me a "real" camera with film.

While I'm not great (yet) I think that I want to use this time of "forced" unemployment to get better, maybe turning it into a great hobby or even something more down the road. Here are some of my favorite pictures I've taken recently.

This is my kitty Fidget. She actually loves to pose for the camera and she's really photogenic. If she hears my taking pictures in the living room she'll come running from wherever she's hiding and sit down in front of me, waiting to have her picture taken.

Here's one of my other kitty, Widget. She's not as photogenic, nor as excited about getting her picture taken. I usually have to sneak up on her.

This was a photo that I took on one of our trips in India.
And as weird as this is, I have a bunch of photos of My Little Pony on our various trips and I love them. I know... I'm weird.


I have to go to the nearest city tomorrow and find a book on photography. I need to get serious about something, or else I'm just going to waste away on this damn couch....

What I'm Craving...

Yes, I am craving an appletini. Or any kind of alcoholic drink really. I'm a bad pregnant woman... Well, not really, because I'm not giving into my craving. THAT would be bad...

Anywho, I have not posted in awhile because life has been crazy. Really crazy. And not always in a good way. Here are little updates on what has happened in the past few weeks.

1) Heard the baby's heartbeat at the doctors :-) Very cool. Everything is going great. And I'm getting a bump! Probably just bloat, but still cool.


2) We told our parents about the pregnancy. Everyone was really happy and excited. It was great to see my dad smile like that again.

3) Our storage unit in MA burned down and we lost almost everything. We had to fly to MA for a day last week to sort through the carnage. It was incredibly sad and depressing.

Here's a picture of it before we went to India...

And here is what we found last week....
Sad I know. It was not a fun day. There was a big pile of common stuff from about 10 units that we had to sift through. The smell was overpowering and I feel like I still get whiffs of it a week later.

4) This week we have been in tax hell. This years taxes are too complicated and it's stressing me out. And DH's paycheck is still not correct so they are not taking any income taxes out of it and I'll be damned if we are going to pay IRS fees. I HATE the HR at his company. They are so totally incompetent. He didn't get paid for 6 weeks and now they are not getting it right. If their not careful I'll be taking a trip to Jersey to give them a piece of my mind. And they were supposed to give us a tax accountant, but no one has contacted us yet. Which leaves me feeling like this...

Hence the craving for a drink...

Here's Our Baby!

Yea, I know it's hard to really tell, but one of those little things that looks like a bean in what looks like a black hole is our baby :-)

So like I said in the last post we went to the doctors expecting to see an empty sac. But lo and behold we saw our little babe growing right on schedule and it's little heart beating away. It was so beautiful.

The doctor was pretty surprised. She said I must have ovulated a little later, and maybe the baby was slow starting out (not surprising considering my husband who moves at the speed of a turtle). My due date is now October 9th.

We are so happy and thankful. I'm praying that that was our only scare for this pregnancy and it continues on track for the rest of the 9 months :-)

Friday the 13th... Go Figure

So on Friday I decided to call my OB to tell them about the side pains I've been having. Being the anxious person that I am I was worried about an ectopic pregnancy. They had room for me to come in that day to give me an ultrasound and an exam.

For some reason right before they gave me the ultrasound I had a horrible feeling. Something just wasn't right. My instincts were proven right once again when up on the screen popped an empty gestational sac, but no baby. My doctor told us (Apoorva came with me thank god) that she thinks it's a blighted ovum. My body is preparing itself for the pregnancy and the placenta is starting to develop, but the baby never started growing. Unfortunately my body isn't catching on very quickly because the blood tests they took show that my betas (pregnancy hormones) continue to double every 48 hours. Therefore while I know there is no baby my morning sickness and pregnancy symptoms are continuing to get worse. That's just a crule joke for nature to play...

I go back to the doctor today to see if maybe the baby was hiding or too small to see. But while I'm trying to have hope and faith that we'll see a little heartbeat today, deep inside I feel that we wont. Most likely we'll have to make the hard decision on whether to let my body naturally miscarry, which may take weeks, or to have minor surgery to help things along.

Life as I know it isn't so great today. All I can do is count my blessings and hope for the best.

I'm a Cry Baby

Man these pregnancy hormones are hitting me hard. I have been crying at a drop of a hat lately. A few days ago I started crying for literally no reason at all. We were watching America's Funniest Home Videos. I was laughing and then all of a sudden I was crying. I think it was because the clip had quadruplet babies who were laughing and it was just so darn cute.

Then last night I starting crying in the shower. At least this time I had a reason. I was all of a sudden missing my mom (she passed away when I was 15). I was thinking how I would really have liked to share this experience with her (the pregnancy, not the shower), and how she would be so happy. Also I was missing how she would know what to tell me when I was feeling nervous about the future.

Then, and I'm sorry if this is TMI, but right in the middle of some "quality time" with my dear husband I broke out crying for no reason. I was just overcome with emotion. I felt really bad and somewhat embarrassed.

This morning I was making Apoorva eggs for breakfast (I spoil him), and I burned my hand pretty badly on the pan. Normally I would swear up a storm and then move on. But today I just collapsed onto the kitchen floor and bawled. DH was about ready to take me to the hospital because he thought it was much worse than it actually was, because I was crying so hard.

What is so weird is that I'm just not a person that cries a lot. It's not a bad thing, it's just not me. I cry maybe a few times a year. For instance in the past 6 months I can think of three times, twice when my step-mom was diagnosed with cancer and once when Apoorva and I got into a big fight. It's just not me. So it feels so weird to be crying so much. Like I'm losing control.

Oh well, if that's what it take to make a baby I just have to deal with it. Well, more importantly I guess Apoorva has to deal with it :-) And I should count myself lucky I'm not having any bad morning sickness (I'm just a little nausous sometimes, but that's it).

Keeping Busy

So we've been here for a little over two weeks. Up until now I've been pretty satisfied with how things are going. We have everything we need to be comfortable here (furniture, internet, cable, etc). Apoorva has a routine down at his job. I've been exploring our town and the nearby Fort Wayne. We are meeting new people and have been going out once or twice each weekend so we haven't been holed up in our apartment all the time. My cats have made themselves at home along with us, as you can tell by this picture:

The only thing I'm not satisfied with is my job situation. I've decided it probably isn't a good idea to get a full time job with this pregnancy and the fact that I want to finish my Ph.D. So I've come up with two solutions to keeping myself busy, besides working towards finishing my dissertation. I think I should either (a) work towards getting my secondary teaching certifications or (b) start my own tutoring business.

There are pros and cons for both options:

(a) Getting my teaching certification would give me many options in the future. I've known I wanted to teach for awhile, I just thought it was at the college level. But the more I think about it the I think I really would enjoy teaching high school as well. This would also give me employment opportunities if I end up not finishing my Ph.D. The problem is that I have no idea how to go about getting my teaching licence or what I need to do or how much it's going to cost me. I don't want to spend a huge amount of money and I don't want to have to get a whole new degree.

(b) Starting my own tutoring business could be fun. I would get to teach on my own terms. It would get me out of the house and it would give me some spending money. The problem is that I don't know how much business I would get here, especially in this economic climate. It would require a lot of legwork in the begining, but I don't think I would mind.

Both of these options are good because they would give me a flexible schedule. And neither of these options should take up so much time that I wont have any time to work on my thesis. The problem is I don't know which one to choose! :-)

New Phase of Our Life

We're Pregnant!!!!

What a unexpected yet happy surprise! At the end of the year we decided that I would stop taking "the pill". The plan was to start charting (monitoring my temp, etc. in order to figure out when I was ovulating, or if I was ovulating at all). After about 6 months we would start actively trying, Lo and behold I get knocked up the first month off the pill!!! We found out on the 29th, and the baby is due the first week of October. We've been laughing because the baby was conceived in India and will probably be born in Indiana. We're calling it Indy for the time being.

Not much has changed yet of course. I'm not feeling too many symptoms, just a bit of nausea and fatigue. We also have decided not to tell anyone yet. We're going to wait for a few weeks, just in case something happens. I've spend too much time on www.thenest.com boards so I know that there is a possibility that this pregnancy may end in a miscarriage. But we're hoping and praying for a healthy and happy 9 months and a healthy and happy baby. My first dr. appointment is in another 6 weeks. I going to try and keep my anxiety to minimum until then, but I'm sure that's a hopeless task.

In other news, we've safely and successfully moved to Indiana. Everything is going well so far. We've been here about two weeks and we've got most of our furniture delivered, have our cable and Internet hooked up, and our cats have made themselves at home. We've met some friends through Apoorva's work and joined the local YMCA. It's starting to feel like home. I'm still looking for a job and trying to figure out how to finish my Ph.D. But hopefully things will work out in that department soon.

Here's a shot of our living room, which is my favorite room in the apartment. I'm kinda bummed we can't paint. White walls just leave rooms looking unfinished and bare. But I love my new furniture and it's so comfy! I think it'll look better when I get curtains and some artwork up.

I don't know how I'm going to get my but to the gym tonight. I'm so exhausted! Maybe after I pick up Apoorva I'll take a quick nap before we head to the gym. At least I don't have to worry about making dinner tonight. I made it this morning in the slow cooker :-) I love just putting all the ingredients in there and just leaving it to cook all day! It also makes the house smell really good. Tonight it's chicken and dumplings :-)

Looking on the Bright Side

Since I'll be leaving India in about 34 hours I thought I would take some time and reflect on some of the good things about coming here. Most days, while home alone with nothing much to do or when the internet goes down, I tended to think of the bad things. But there have been good things too. I'll list the top 10, not in order of any preference:

1) I have gotten a better understanding of where Apoorva comes from and how the 8 years in the US has changed him. I think it's important in a relationship to know where the other person came from and how they grew up. Also, when we have kids I will now have a better understanding of the culture they will be a part of.

2) These past 6 months have made my marriage stronger. We now know if we can get through India we can get through anything.

3) The move has made us simplify our lives and get rid of a lot of crap we had both accumulated. All our possessions can fit into 4 suitcases and 1 small storage unit.

4) I've met some great people here that I will really miss, but I know we'll keep in touch for years to come.

5) Apoorva's family has given me a lot of credit for picking up and moving here for 6 months (lets hope this doesn't lead to expectations about us coming back...)

6) Apoorva now knows that he doesn't want to come back and live/work here. If we had not done this he may have always though "what if" later down the road.

7) It's been really good for his career. When we get back to the states he's going to be earning double what he was making before, because he now has global business experience. This was necessary for us to even think about having kids.

8) It's given me a new appreciation of the US. Before I was very cynical about my country, it's government, and a lot of its people. But being here made me realize that there is no where else I would rather live. I think I'm actually in love with the US now :-)

9) I've seen some amazing things on our many trips across India. Being from the US you usually don't get to see things that were around in ancient history.

10) I have not had to do any laundry or dishes for the past 6 months. (I probably wont have to do them in the US either... I just make Apoorva do them ;-)

So yea, there has been some good stuff to come out of all of this. I don't want to ask myself if I regret coming here, because that will get me nowhere. Lets just say I'm happy to be going home. Maybe tomorrow I'll write out everything I'm looking forward to, but right now I've got to go do some last minute packing.

Almost home!

I can't believe it but I now have only 3 days left here in India. I am so excited and happy to be going back to the states. I admit that I've seen some amazing things here, but I will also admit that I have been miserable for most of the six months we have been here. I have tried not to dwell on the bad stuff, especially on this blog, but I have not been happy. So while I may not regret coming here, I am certainly not sad to be leaving.

So for the past few days Apoorva and I have been packing and saying our goodbyes. There will be very few people I will miss, but there are a few so we've been spending some time with them, eating dinner, etc. Packing has been going ok. Since we get to fly business class (YAY!!!!) we each get three bags which is really nice. I have four out of 6 packed and ready to go and I still have two days left to pack. Here is our bedroom, looking like a wind storm has passed through it.

I haven't done much since Christmas except getting ready to go. Oh and eating too much leftover Chrstimas goodies. Here's an interesting picture. I had a lot of left over hearshy kisses, so I of course ate the majority of them. While devouring them I found this one:
Instead of a little peak it had a hole. I don't know why I took a picture of it. Like I said, I haven't had much to do except pack and eat leftovers.

One thing that I'm really excited about it a decision Apoorva and I made recently. We've decided to go off all methods of birth control and see what happens over the next year or so. Hopefully we'll be expecting out first child soon. We are both so excited soon. We have not told anyone yet and probably wont until something actually happens. I may tell my grandma when we get home, but other than that no one else. We want it to be a surprise for everyone when we fianlly do get pregnant. So I have been spending a bit of time online reading up on fertility methods in order to try to understand my cycle more. Neither of us want to wait years for our first child.

Ok. Back to packing! US here I come! :-)

New Years

2009 had a good beginning. Apoorva and I spent New Years Eve at an expat friend's house and had pizza and beer with 3 other couples. It was very laid back. We all got a little tipsy and played Taboo. It was the most fun we've had in awhile. Here's a group photo:

Normally I don't make resolutions. If I do they are more like goals for the next year rather than things I want to change about myself. But since I've been so unhappy the past six months I figure it's a good time to rethink some things and make some changes, as well as make some long term goals for myself and DH.

So, without further ado, here are things I want to do in 2009:

1) Find a topic for my Ph.D. dissertation and make a good dent in writing my prospectus (topic proposal for the dissertation). I have to do this in order to finish and defend the prodpectus by the end of the next school year (June 2010) or else they may kick me out of the program. Unlikely, but possible.

2) Find a part-time job that I enjoy. I don't care what it is, it could be dog-walking for all I care. I just need something to give me a schedule and also make my own money. This past six months has been the first time I have not had a job in 8 years and I hate the fact that I'm not contributing to the household finances. But yet I don't want a full time job because then I would not be able to work on my Ph.D.

3) Get Healthy! This requires me to lose 30 - 40lbs and kick my addiction to sugar (which incidentally got really bad over Christmas when I insisted on making Christmas goodies when there really wasn't anyone to eat them, except ME while I was home alone during the days. Not good!).

4) Get control over our finances. We are actually in a really good place right now. DH is making good $ and we have no debt but we have used this as an excuse to let our spending get out of control and to not keep track of where out money is going. Not good... especially in this economic climate. And who knows where we'll be in a year when Apoorva may have to give up his current job because we refuse to come back to India (which is the current plan set out by the company). So we need to be more careful and save more.

While I'm calling these my New Years resolutions, my New Years doesn't start until we get to Indiana on the 19th :-) Why not start of the New Year when we get into our new place!?!

Christmas in India

Christmas here in India went surprisingly well, considering it was my first Christmas away from home and with Laurie, my stepmother, being ill. For most of the month of December I was a little depressed. When I left the US after Thanksgiving everything was decorated for the holidays and it was snowing. I had to come back to India to the heat and the humidity and the dirt. So needless to say I felt like the only one who was celebrating Christmas. But I tried to make the most of it.

When I first got back in early December I set out to decorate our apartment. I wanted to make it look like Christmas but on a limited budget, since anything I bought I would most likely not bring back to the states with us. I put up a very tiny, but pretty, 2' tree with red and gold decorations, matching wreath and stockings, and some other small stuff around the house. It didn't look like home but it was nice. Here's a picture of our tree on Christmas morning.


I also spent a few days before Christmas making Christmas treats. It was challenging, since I don't have an oven here in India, but I think I did a good job. I made magic cookie bars, fudge, peanut butter balls, chocolate covered marshmallows, mini sugar cookies (that would cook in my convection oven), and reindeer droppings (chocolate covered marshmallows and pretzels. Here's the tray I put out Christmas day.
Christmas even was nice because Apoorva and I just spent the evening at home with some traditional items we may have at home for Christmas dinner. We had a roasted duck, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and stuffing. All of it came from the Hyatt here in Mumbai and it was delicious. The only thing I was really missing was the breads (like cranberry, pumpkin, bananna, etc). But even without bread it was great to have these foods that reminded me of home.

After dinner we cleaned up for a bit (since his parents were coming over the next day), did some last minute wrapping, and watched a Charlie Brown Christmas. We decided that we are going to make this a Christmas tradition for the two of us and watch a traditional holiday movie every Christmas eve. Maybe next year we'll watch another one of my favorites; Roudolf the Red Nosed Raindeer.

Apoorva's parents ended up inviting themselved over for dinner on Christmas, which I was not happy about. I only had a few days notice and I hate entertaining over here. It's just too much pressure/stress. But I got over myself and sucked it up for Apoorva. It'll probably be the only Christmas we will have here in India.

Christmas morning with just me and Apoorva was nice. We woke up around 8 and slowly got out of bed and made our way to the living room. We took our time opening presents. I got a really nice white gold and gem stone necklace, a few books, two movies (Horton Hears a Who & Ice Age 2), a pair of pink shoes, perfume and the promise of a new iPhone when we get home. I got Apoorva a few books, some game's he's been wanting, a few CDs and the promise that I will finish the blanket I've been making him. I showed what I've done so far for the first time and he loved it (I swear he had tears in his eyes, I don't think anyone has ever made him something before, they don't really do the whole do-it-yourself thing here).

Here's Apoorva opening his stocking.


I gave him gloves and a hat in his stocking so he's prepared for the cold and snowy weather in Indiana. Here's his Home Alone impression. Still not sure why he decided on this pose...


Here he is with the part of the blanket I have done. I'm pretty proud of it considering I've never knit anything before.

After gifts I made breakfast, which consisted of French toast and Hole-y Toast (also called eggs in a basket). We then proceeded to clean the house and order food for the lunch his parents invited themselves to.

Lunch went ok, besides the fact that I had to work way to hard and be way too stressed out on Christmas. At least Apoorva's nephew was cute while he was opening presents. Although the afternoon ended kinda badly when my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law wanted to use my computer. I hate people using my computer, but what was worse was that since they were using the computer my 3 year old nephew of course wanted to as well. When he was told he couldn't he lashed out wacking the computer several times. I was about ready to freak out, seeing as how I just got my computer fixed after losing everything. But my DH grabed him and wouldn't let him get near it again, even though the kid was screaming bloody murder (he's kind of a terror). At least he was cute while he was opening presents.

Finally they left and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon/evening. We watched Horton Hears a Who. Then I made a phone call to my grandparents, then Skyped with my parents and brother and sister. Since my brother will be back in school when I get home he opened the gifts he bought us. He got us two XBox games and me a pink controller. I'm so excited. I'm going to kick my DH's ass in Mortal Kombat :-)

All in all a good Christmas. Not normal by any means, but ok. Something different that we can laugh about a few years from now.