6 weeks old

"Kingdom of Me"

How right she is!

Getting in the Christmas spirit

Sporting some Christmas convict stripes.

1st Christmas

one month old

more cuteness

let the insanity begin!

For those of you who don't already know, Morgan Jade was born on November 17th at 8:21 pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz and measured 19 1/2 inches. I will soon post up a description of her birth for those interested parties. In the meantime I'll direct you to the new photo gallery page on Morgan's site so you can admire what a gorgeous baby she actually is. I think she looks just like her daddy.

Things have been a little hectic around here of late, as I'm sure you can imagine, but I will try to keep up to date with pictures and descriptions of her amazing achievements. For example, today she made her first happy baby sounds. She cooed while in the bath and gurgledwith pleasure after a lite afternoon snack. Until today her main means of communication have been limited to whimpering, yelling and screaching. I konw Jim and I are both welcoming the change. :)

Tomorrow afernoon she has her three week postpartum checkup and we will see how well she is growing.

Today Jim and I received a new toy from Mom and Bruce for Christmas so we will soon be publishing short videos of Morgan in action to the site. Stay tuned. :)

after her first bath

Her first week of life

Nap attack!

Out Thanksgiving Turkey.

Morgan Jade, 2 days old.

First picture

Mere minutes after birth.

Halloween Party

So last night we had a Halloween party at Laura's house. This has been months in the making, buying and preparing the decorations and planning the layout of the Haunted House. While distracted with the set up of the event I was not too focused on my costume until the last minute. Then, at the comment of another pregnant friend (thanks Karma!) I was hit by an idea of pure genius. What better way to be appropriately inappropriate and offend as many people as possible while getting a good laugh than to dress up as a nun when I'm 9 months pregnant! Jim, as always a good sport, went along for the ride and was dressed to match as a priest. :) So here, for your viewing pleasure are a few of the Halloween costume shots.





There are, of course, other photos, but these are my two favorites from our camera. When Dad downloads the ones he took I will try to post up an addendum. :)

Seussification phase I

Ok, so it took a little longer than I had anticipated to get the first phase of project Seussify the baby's room underway. At long last here are the images of the first few characters. More will appear in time, but the process is long and arduous.

We've been using foam backed poster board and tempera paints covered with a sheet of sticky acetate to help preserve them. Jim has been responsible for drawing and cutting out all of the figures. I do the painting. Each figure is attached to the wall with adhesive velcro so that we can move them around and change them out. The plan (perhaps a bit ambitious) is to be able to have a good number of figures so that when we get sick of looking at the same ones we can do some Seuss remodeling. Jim is keen on drawing up some Seuss architecture and I want a Grinch in time for Christmas. Other Seuss suggestions are happily being taken. :)

The Gender Question part II

Well, I asked the Gender Question once before (see the April 11, 2006 post) and here we go again....slightly different slant. Anyone care to place bets? I figure in a week or two I might get a "delivery date" pool going. ;)

Will Little Bear be a girl or a boy?
	Definitely a girl! Here comes Morgan Jade.
	Owen Shae it is!
	Who the hell cares? We'll find out in less than 2 months anyway.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Let the decorating begin

So, as you may have noticed there is a new page in the Little Bear site... The Nursery. Jim and I started putting together furniture for the baby's room this afternoon. Tomorrow's big project is to work on some of the Seuss decorations that will line the walls. Of course, there is still some miscellaneous stuff lying around the room that needs to be cleared out... But one thing at a time. :)

Surprise, surprise, surprise...

So yesterday Jim and I went in for our bi-monthly midwife appointment. Standard routine: checked all of my stats, blood pressure, heart rates (mine and hers), measured the belly (growing on schedule), etc. Then Hilary, my oldest friend who just so happens is also the midwife student looking after us, asked if we wanted to have another ultra sound. We were going to say no because, well, we didn't figure it is too healthy to keep assaulting the poor baby with all of that heat and energy and we knew that she was healthy, but Jim decided that he really wanted to see her again since it has been nearly 3 months since our last viewing. Ok, so, yes please Hilary.

We go into the examination room with the u/s machine and the head midwife of the center, Shari, comes in. She starts out by showing us that the baby is now in a head down position (yay!). Then she asked us what gender the doctor up in Toronto had told us the baby is. So, of course, proud as can be I said, "she's a girl". Well, apparently that is not the consensus. Shari said that she saw some protruding parts that as she put it, "I know I don't have". Hilary also says that she thought she saw some items that looked suspiciously male. Jim said he definitely saw something between the legs where he knew he had definitely not seen something 11 weeks ago. Personally, I could just make out the head and saw a little foot, but couldn't really identify parts beyond that... the resolution wasn't the best. Of course that dangling bit may have been a thumb or an umbillical cord, so we're now in a wait and see pattern.

But the summation of this story is that Morgan Jade may actually be an Owen Shae after all. Shari said that we could have another u/s done on Tuesday when we come back in for the birth class just to have another look and see, but to be honest, I'm not into it. As you may or not recall, back in April I posted up a survey to see how many people thought we should find out the gender of the baby. This was done because Jim wanted to know and I did not. The viewer results were locked in a dead heat, but Jim got his way and we asked the gender on the "big" ultra sound back in June. Well, we tried it his way and now we get it my way. Little Bear is officially back to being Little Bear until further notice, that is when s/he appears in November and the announcements are made.... although my father has decided that Mowen is a good compromise between Morgan and Owen.

So, only one short week after Uncles Dave, Rich and Anthony (Rich, how's that for perpetuating the myth?) secured approval to call the baby M.J. instead of Morgan (it was a VERY limited approval list), M.J. may no longer exist. Good thing I said absolutely no pink, eh?

And the count down begins

Well, we're now approaching the final count down. Both Jim and I are both thrilled but also a little freaked out that Morgan, our LittleBear, will be here in just over 2 months.

We started our Birth classes at the midwife centre last night. Not at all what I expected. I had always had these images of a whole bunch of women lying around on the floor propped up by pillows and partners breathing. Instead we spent about 1 1/2 hours talking about breastfeeding and about 5-10 minutes of breathing. We did about 5 minutes of "exercises" but seriously, I get more exercise at home doing the laundry than I did last night. lol. Guess I shouldn't stop my gym runs or my yoga.

Jim went to a "Daddy Boot Camp" two nights ago and is not sure why he went. He says that the class was designed for a bunch of Cro-Magnon men who have no interest in domesticity or their wives in general. He learned such interesting facts as his wife may be tired from caring for the baby all day and that the should consider helping out in the kitchen. Now if that isn't the biggest joke ever in *this* house. Mind you, Jim already is the one who cooks dinner and does the vacuuming. He said he did learn an important point: most men out there really should not be given license to breed. :) I love my husband!

We returned two days ago from David and Chinatsu's wedding in NYC. We had a great time and Morgan got to do some preliminary bonding with her uncle and new aunt. Unfortunately Jim and I both forgot to bring our camera to the wedding so we have no pictures of our own. As soon as the rest of the family takes pity on us and sends us some I will post up some Morgan in semi-formal wear.

As for the belly shot... well, yes, we are over 2 weeks late, but I will post a 30 week 4 day picture up today. My oh my is that belly growing.

2/3 of the way there

This morning marks the 27th week and 1st day of my pregnancy. That means that I am officially in my 28th week. Today starts the third trimester. (yay!) The time has really been flying by since we got to Miami. There has been so much to do everyday that it is hard to believe that we've already been here almost a month!

Morgan's got about 13 more weeks of baking time before we meet her and in that period we will be traveling to New York for her uncle (and new aunt)'s wedding. Luckily my mom and I were able to find an outfit that not only resembles a Mama Cass muumuu dress not in the slightest, but will also show off Morgan to her full round (and cute) potential! Pictures to follow.

Monday we go in for the gestational diabetes test to make sure that my body is not having problems regulating its sugar levels. I will update on the results of that as they come in. (In other news, on Monday my closet will be installed and I'll actually be able to stop living out of a suitcase again. woohoo!)

House pictures are still in the works, I promise, but our renovation schedule got unforeseeably delayed and we must still get back on track.

back by popular demand

ok, I've had a good number of people requesting that I post up new belly pictures. I've been remiss, I admit, but moving and unpacking is rather time consuming. Anyway, Jim unpacked the necessary cables (teehee!) and my computer last night so the new belly pics (from 24 and 26 weeks) are now up on the belly shots page.

New house pics are still to come as this is still a work in process. I will post up some before, during and after pics. :)

We've arrived

Well, we finally made it down to Miami. We got in last Thursday evening and have been getting our new house ready for move in since then. I'm a little behind on taking belly pictures because of all the craziness.

We had our first Midwife appointment on Monday at the clinic where Hilary works. It went really well. Luckily the vampires didn't need any more blood from me since the docs in Toronto nearly drained my body on multiple occasions. My next appointment is in one month's time to test for gestational diabetes.

In the meantime, we're working away on doing some minor renovations on our new house which I absolutely love! I can't wait to be able to move in and make it our own. We're expecting our stuff to arrive from Canada in about 2 weeks, which should hopefully give us enough time to finish the painting and replacing the light fixtures and baseboards. I will post up some pictures when the renos are done.

On the road

Well, We're now almost all the way down to Miami. Tomorrow is the last leg of the journey. Jim says that means we're closer to meeting Morgan.

I've discovered some interesting facts about traveling while being PG.
1st - there are NEVER enough public bathrooms along the road... and when they do exist, wow, who wants to go in them??? lol
2nd - seatbelts, while absolutely necessary, are VERY uncomfortable.... especially when one has to stop short.
3rd - apparantly whoever designed cars was determined to see if they could cause massive ankle swelling.
4th - there is never enough water in the car, no matter how many cases you prepack, which, of course, leads to realization number 1.

Mourning my inner punk

Well, with all good things, something has to give. Today I had to remove all my possibly interfering piercings. It is a sad day. I'm mourning my inner punk. Thankfully Jim can be very gentle with pliers.

And we have a name

Jim and I have done a lot of thinking about this and have come up with a name suitable for our little girl. The world will meet Morgan Jade Cable this November. Since all of the books say that Morgan can now hear external voices, Jim has taken to reading chapters of Winnie the Pooh to her nightly. We're thinking of adding Dr. Seuss to her repertoire. We've been discussing a Seuss style for her nursery instead of Pooh since Jim thinks that Pooh is just too common. :)

I may eventually change the name of the site to Morgan's Page, but for the moment we're keeping the LittleBear since, well, I've become quite attached to it. However, Jim is determined that Morgan will recognize her name in his voice by the time of her birth, so he's preparing her already.

It's a girl!

So, the official report is in. LittleBear Cable now has a pronoun all of her own. No more of this s/he his/her stuff. Our Little Bear is a little girl!

Jim is through the roof, of course. He's already talking about having Daddy's little girl and being wrapped around her tiny finger.

We went in for our 19 week ultra sound this morning for a 9:30 appointment. At 10 am we were called in by the tech and we were ready to go. This was a Level II u/s in which they view and analyze the baby's internal organs to make sure all is as it should be. This procedure would take about 45 minutes, or so the tech told us. However, it quickly became obvious that that was not to be the case. Our LittleBear is quite the energetic little thing. She was doing cartwheels and bouncing all over the place making it hard for the tech to get good photos and images. Looks like we've got a little athlete or dancer on our hands... not all that surprising when you recall that she first made her presence known to her daddy in mid soccer game! True to her mother's nature LittleBear was being quite uncooperative with the tech and 3 hours later we were still bending me in all directions to get a good look at her heart. I'm convinced that she was just anxious to know the score of the Italy v. Czech Republic match. Forza Azzurri!

Today is a good day. Italy qualified for the round of 16 and we have a little girl!

Jim felt the baby move!

Ok, two posts in one day... far outside my norm, but this one is well worth reporting.

We were sitting on the couch watching the Sweden v. Paraguay World Cup match and I felt the baby kicking pretty hard.

Now, I've been feeling LBC move on and off for the past month, since about week 14, but never like this. It started out feeling like a little muscle twitch and then sort of felt like popcorn popping in my abdomen. That's been a regular occurrence for the past few weeks. Today, however was different. The kicks were much stronger. So I put Jim's hand on my belly while we were watching the game and I felt the strongest kick I've felt yet. He felt it too... his head whipped around from watching the game to staring at my belly! Of course, he says he needs to feel it again for it to be proof that it actually happened, but we both know the truth. :)

I'm officially in maternity clothes

Well today makes it official. I can't fake it anymore. I've been wearing my regular clothes with the top buttons undone for about 2 weeks now but today I had to break down and buy two pairs of maternity shorts. ahhhhh.... So much more comfortable. I'll post pics of the definitely protruding belly bump on Saturday when I officially turn 18 weeks.

The BIG ultrasound is next Thursday (22 July) for all those wondering if it will be a girl or a boy.

For all you music lovers out there...

Well, it's music to my ears at any rate. We rented a fetal doppler for the month that has the ability to record. So, we did just that this morning. LBC's heart beat is now available for sound check on the Milestones page. Sorry if the reception isn't quite the clearest, but we're still playing with the new toy.
Jim ran the .wav file through a program which determined that LBC's heartrate is 139.359, which we can probably safely call 140 bpm.

12 weeks, 0 days

So, reports vary depending on what website I read, but the general consensus seems to be that 12 weeks, 0 days marks the beginning of the second trimester. The logic is that I've gone through 12 weeks of pregnancy by this point, week one starting at 0 weeks, 1 day. Of course, since the average pregnancy is 40 weeks long, the math doesn't seem to work out evenly anyway, but I'll happily take the idea that I'm now out of the first trimester and Little Bear is in a safer place.

Keep your eye out for more LBC pictures as we have a second ultrasound on Monday!

The Gender Question

Ok, so we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but why not? ;)

Should we find out the gender of Little Bear in advance or wait until the Big Day?
	find out as soon as possible!
	wait it out and be surprised.
	have one of us know and the other not.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Name suggestions are now being taken

Although we still don't know LBC's gender (and whether we will find out ahead of schedule is still up for debate) we are currently entertaining name suggestions. Feel free to chime in. A sense of humor is fine, but we're actually looking for real possibilities. Examples of possible LBC names:

girls:
Zoe Elise Cable
Morgan Jade Cable

boys:
Owen Shae Cable
Miles Shae Cable

If LBC is a boy, his middle name is predetermined (as is the last, to be sure) so first name suggestions are all we're looking for...

Donna, Fritzy is not an option. Nor are Mable or Able. :D