The Belly is Growing

This is week 21, so I have passed the half way mark, which is hard to believe. My belly is growing more each week. In Andy's terms, it has graduated from a "lovely lady bump" to a "Buddha belly". Nine months seems like a long time but in reality it goes by quickly and there is a lot of preparation and things to think about. Here are some things we have been doing/thinking about the last couple of weeks...

Andy and I decided to take the Hypnosis for Childbirth classes, we start those classes on March 1. We have been learning a lot about different Chinese traditions regarding pregnancy and child birth and deciding which ones we want to adopt or modify for our own. My mother-in-law was just over today describing the special diet and customs Chinese women follow the month after birth and asked me if I want to follow the customs and have her cook the special foods for me. And this past weekend we asked our dear friends, Polly Mae and John, to be JoJo's gan ma and gan die, which is like the Chinese version of godparents. We are very excited about them fulfilling this role!

John and Polly Mae, JoJo's gan die and gan ma.

Another big thing that we have been trying to figure out is childcare for after my maternity leave. I am learning there are six month waiting list for infants in day cares in Chicago. Andy and I are fortunate that his mom wants to watch the baby at least three days a week, so we just have to cover two days. Andy is considering changing his schedule to work a couple days from home for the first few months then that will give us a little more time to decide on a nanny, babysitter, or day care. What may complicate the situation is there is a possibility that I could get an administrative job at one of my schools. I am in the middle of completing an application for a principal position that is scheduled to start on July 1. If I get offered the position, I will probably want to go back to work before the end of the summer and I would not have summers off any more. However, I would love working at this school and my daily hours would not change that much.

Well, since preparing the application and preparing for the interviews is consuming a lot of my free time and energy, we will probably put off making a lot of baby related decisions for the next couple of weeks.

closer view of my belly

Aren't these adorable?!
My co-worker, Laurie, wanted to buy JoJo his first gym shoes. She loves shoes, especially unique gym shoes. She has a bigger collection than anyone I know (even the high school students at our alternative school love her shoes). JoJo will be hip in these! Hopefully he doesn't obsess over keeping them bright white like many of the students I know.