It's been too long!

It's been just a bit over one month since I posted an update and for that I'm sorry! Things have been quite busy for us here in the Watson Haus.

Since we last checked in with "first baby scare" not too many things have been going on. The baby is doing very well...I think :) and Stephen and I don't have too much to complain about.

Just this past Friday (Oct. 9), I gave my last performance of "Almost, Maine". This play was a lot of fun to do, but I found myself very uninterested in continuing to do the production after 2 weekends (and Friday was the 3rd weekend). It just zapped the energy and excitement from me. I loved seeing the other cast/crew members so often (as many of them are now very good friends) but I just don't have the stamina to work & rehearse all week and perform on the weekends.

The good news is last Friday was actually for competition. Not the whole show went, only select scenes and my scene was one of the ones selected. The awards show is tonight, but I don't plan on attending - so hopefully I'll get some good news regarding awards, if not about myself at least about my show. For photos, click here.

I am now 19 weeks pregnant and am feeling the baby move! I began recognizing it at week 17, but now that I know what it feels like, I know that I was also feeling the baby move as early as week 14. We have a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday and this is the appointment that we could possibly find out the gender of the baby.

YES! We do want to know!! It's driving me batty not knowing. And I'm so honestly confused by the thoughts and intuition that even I can't tell if it's a boy or a girl. Some days, I see the face of an adorable little girl and on these days I crave fruits and sweets. Some days, I hear a little boy "whisper" in my ear and on these days, my attitude is fierce and my skin is dry.

What's a girl to do?! I suppose, I just wait and pray that God gives us a healthy miniature of ourselves. I will certainly post an update if we have any news after Tuesday. And of course, 20 week baby bump photos will be taken on Friday, Oct. 16 (ish). For other baby bump photos, click here.

Monday is a federal holiday!! So let me be the first to wish you "Happy Columbus Day"! Seriously? Who celebrates Columbus Day? How does one celebrate Columbus Day? Is there a special meal? Perhaps a gift? Well, I completely forgot that it was a holiday and scheduled a doctor’s appointment for my stomach as early as possible (no concerns, just routine follow-up). Which, for any other doc appointment, wouldn't be an issue. The problem here, is that the doc is an hour away, the appointment is at 8am and just because I'm having a holiday, that doesn't mean all the Germans trying to commute will.

So despite my having a holiday, I’m still going to have to leave the house at 6:15 a.m. to get to my appointment on time and hope that traffic jams and construction don't hold me longer than 45 minutes. UHG! Usually I'm an early riser...but I like to rise early so that I can go sit and relax or do something fun...not shower and get ready to fight traffic.

The good news about the whole situation is that the appointment is in Mannheim, Germany and this is a FANTASTIC shopping area. So far, I've got Stephen coming with me and maybe we can do some shopping. I'm hoping it'll turn into a delightful day in the city - weather permitting.

I know I mentioned before my vivid dreams. Well, I had a doozie today. This is 99.9% of the reason I woke up at 5 a.m. today. Sadly, this wasn't one of those wonderful, happy, colorful dreams. This one was quite horrific...

I dreamed that I had gotten pregnant while SCUBA diving (yes, that is medically impossible, but it's a dream, just go with me on this). Stephen and I were so happy, because this is what we wanted and found this to be a lucky coincidence.

There was no birthing scene, just suddenly, I had a baby. I use the "baby" term lightly. It looked more like a miniature house elf from the Harry Potter movie. It was clearly evil and as soon as we had it in our hands, it began trying to kill, mame and destroy.

I dropped it and it scurried behind a dresser (the very dresser we plan on using for the baby). In an effort to trap it, Stephen pushed the dresser up against the wall as tight as possible. I then told him to drop the dresser leg on top of the thing to kill it. He did, but it wasn't quite dead. So I got on the dresser and we both continued to drop the furniture onto the thing until pieces of its body began to break off. The pieces still writhed as independent entities.

"Hurry, gather all the pieces and burn it" I said. And as Stephen was wrapping the pieces in white paper, a hand got away, fell off the table he was working on and dropped to the floor. The skin peeled back to reveal a mechanical robotic hand.

The fingers stretched and clawed in an effort to get away, and as this happened, the hand sprouted a new arm, new shoulders, new body, new neck and head. It regenerated into a complete being again.

Before it could regain conciseness, I grabbed it by the neck, turned it face down on the floor, grabbed a HUGE letter opener and began stabbing and cutting the thing. I made extra sure to hit all vital organs beginning with the lungs and heart and concentrating on the brain stem.

As I was slashing and cutting, I found myself very concerned that I was cutting the orange carpeting.

When I felt like I had done a good enough job with the cutting, I took the head into my left hand, twisted it awkwardly (to break the neck) and then ripped the head off. I then continued to dismember the thing and stopped when all the pieces were dead.

I was covered in deep red and blue blood so we decided to go swimming so that I could get cleaned up. Swimming in the exact same place that I became pregnant.

I think that it's quite clear why I couldn't go back to sleep after this.

The most surprising thing is that while I lay in bed, I kept telling myself "remember every detail! Write it down. Don't forget anything." Even though this may have been the most horrific dream I've ever had. The dream was so full of color, commitment, anger, pain, fear and I could actually feel the way the letter opener passed thru the body and organs. It was disgusting and I'm quite surprised by myself and my brain's interpretation of such an act.

Hopefully soon, these images will be replaced by baby duckies and kittens. I don't think I can handle much more of this grotesque abomination.

First Baby Scare

So, Stephen and I had a bit of a scare Sunday night. I was having some slight spotting.

So I of course turned to the very trusty internet to research it and all signs were pointing to "probably nothing to worry about, but contact your doctor". I next called up the insurance company's nurse line. The woman was incompetent, and simply gave me an over the phone computer survey and said "contact your doctor w/in 72 hours". No advice, no explanations, no comforting. So, I called the hospital, told them my symptoms, and they told me to come in so they could take a look.

After about 90 min. in the waiting room, we were seen by a doc (at 9pm). She did an exam and an ultrasound. The baby is fine! Peanut was very active on the monitor but the doc did find that my placenta was covering my cervix (this is a condition called complete placenta previa). She couldn't be certain, but she suspected that this was the reason for the spotting.

I have since, had no additional spotting.

Good news is, this placenta previa happens to a lot of women in the early stages of pregnancy and they "outgrow" it by the time the baby is ready for delivery. I got an appointment this afternoon w/ my usual doc, and she said it wasn't anything to be concerned about at this time, and that as my uterus grows, the placenta will probably migrate away from the cervix. If it doesn't then we'll have to deliver by C-section. Either way, the baby is healthy, strong, active and 4 days ahead of schedule.

We had an extra long ultrasound (u/s) today and get to see a BUNCH of great things (baby's spine, shoulder blade, ribs, legs, brain). But peanut was shy and didn't wave or smile for us and stayed in a head-tucked-down position.

We got 4 new u/s pictures, but let me say, even as the mom of this child, i can't tell a THING from these! They're not very clear and its hard to make out any distinct parts. I'll post them on my flikr but you're probably not going to get much out of them :). This was my first real trans-abdominal (like you see in the movies) u/s. and the baby is now 15 cm, 100g (6 in / 3.5oz) Previous u/s have been trans-vaginal which give a much clearer pic when the baby is so small.

it's still too early to tell the gender, but the doc tried w/ no luck. But we have moved into a new category of measurements. in the first trimester, they measure crown-rump length (from top of head, to the bottom of the hiney) and the head circumference. Today, we had head circumference, crown/rump and now femur length. So, good news is, our baby has legs!! Which we didn't see on the last u/s (doesn't mean they weren't there, we just didn't see them)

Bottom line, baby's healthy, i'm healthy and now we're hoping that in the next 6 mos. i'll "grow out" of my placenta previa.

12 is the Magic Number

I've been counting my blessings since the whole pregnancy journey began. The counting, of course, started with finding out that we were pregnant but I think I really started racking up the blessings when I escaped the dreaded first trimester "morning" sickness. I even enjoyed no more than the usual pre-pregnancy crabass-age (or mood swings if you prefer).

The whole process has been such a breeze that I wouldn't even believe that I was pregnant unless it were for the ultrasound!

Well, as it turns out, 12 is my magic number. On Friday, I entered my 12th week of pregnancy. On Saturday I couldn't find enough food in the house to keep me satisfied. I ate, and ate, and ate and still my stomach rumbled!

Fast forward to today, Tuesday. I woke up this morning at 5am from a vivid dream - ok, so that's one more symptom that I'm suffering from, vivid and memorable dreams. The dream goes a little like this: Stephen and I were in what looked like movie theater seating. My parents were there, my Aunt Amy & Uncle Jim, Cousin DeeDee and Great Aunt Betty. Everybody was hugging and smiling and congratulating us about the baby. But then, Aunt Betty wrapped her arms around me and I just lost it completely. I began SOBBING uncontrollably. No reason, it was a VERY happy dream. But I just couldn't hold it in any more. My dream crying woke me up where I proceeded to be racked with sobbing, for real.

Again, I didn't really have any reason to be so moved! Yes, this process is scary. Yes, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I also have full confidence that I can do it and I have an amazing partner by my side to lean on when ever needed.

So after a few minutes of steeping in my own tear soaked pillow I decided that I needed a change of scenery. Maybe if I got away from "the scene of the crime" I could focus on something else and stop the blasted crying.

So I got up and made myself some Malt-O-Meal for breakfast. I poured the water in the pot, added all the ingredients and as I stirred tears rolled down my cheeks. My lips twisted in grimace. When it was finished, I sat down at the kitchen table and nursed my breakfast while I read a magazine thru bleary eyes and tear stained glasses.

Finally finished with my breakfast and fed up with my behavior, I slipped into some workout clothes and got my heart pumping. Finally, relief! Something else to focus my energy into...for a half hour.

After my work out, it was time to get ready for the day. So I went back into the bedroom where Stephen was groggily wishing the sun wasn't up yet. I sat down and was telling him about my morning (I had been up for about an hour and a half by then). And the damn tears started again.

I thought I was going to be in trouble ALL day long!

Thankfully, I wasn't. As soon as I got to work, my brain locked in on the task at hand and the day went by without so much as a whimper.

But I didn't stay that lucky.

I picked up a few movies from the Library today, so after dinner I popped in "Juno". For those of you who don't know, it's a charming story about a 16 year old girl who gets pregnant. It has just enough humor and happy endings to make it light and easy to swallow. How was I supposed to know that I was going to unintentionally torture myself for the duration?

Well, this may be the most powerful movie I've ever seen (even thought I thought it was too annoying to even get thru the first half hour the first time I tried to watch it a year ago). Or at least that's what you'd think if you had watched me watching this movie. Thankfully, Stephen was at Aikido class and only witnessed the last twenty minutes of me and the movie.

Again! Uncontrollable sobbing, however, this time, the tears were mixed with deep belly laughs. I was completely amazed at myself! I don't crumble like this! I'm a woman in control. But this movie triggered in me some torrent flood of unstoppable erratic emotions and I could do nothing but strap in for the horrific ride.

*sigh*

Now it's 9pm, bedtime. I think I should be able to make it up the stairs and into bed with out slipping in a puddle of my own salty brine.

So, apparently, 12 is MY magic pregnancy number where the symptoms really started to hit hard.

Peanut Watson

Yes, it's true! With God's blessing, Stephen & I will be welcoming the newest generation of the Watson clan in March 2010. We're pregnant!

"Peanut", as we are calling it, is now 10.5 weeks along and we've just come from the doctor's office where we had our 3rd visit and ultrasound.

Everything is going splendidly, and I've had no trouble at all these last several weeks. This includes no morning sickness (knocking on wood)! In fact, things are going so well, Peanut is already 6 days ahead of schedule - that's my little overachiever!

I'm so excited that the ultrasound picture turned out so well. For those of you who need decyphering, in the photo above you can see the baby's head & brain (inside the large black spot, on the left side), the baby's body (almost the same size as the head) and just above the baby's nose, is a little hand with 5 fingers waving hello!

We still don't know the gender (won't know for a good 10 more weeks or so) but we did see the beautiful little heart beating, the umbilical cord pulsing and lots of other interesting things like the brain and an eyeball.

So that's the latest news for us, stay tuned for updates as we branch out on another crazy adventure.

Don't forget to check out the latest photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiwatson/sets

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers! And stay in touch.

Totally new car buying experience

Stephen and I committed to our next new vehicle - 2010 Volvo XC60. It was a totally new car buying experience. Our "car salesman" was more like a waiter than a salesman. He took our order! We selected the features and functions that we wanted, he wrote them down and now they're off to the factory for the order to get "cooked up".

We're expecting to be able to take delivery on the new car sometime in November. Oh, and that too will be an experience! Volvo offers several options to pick up your vehicle: 1) from the dealer or 2) from the factory.

We decided that we wanted to take the Volvo Experience and pick up our new car at the factory in Sweden. This option had 2 methods: 1) fly up, drive home or 2) train/ferry up, drive/ferry home.

We decided we wanted to take the ferry option. Apparently this is an overnight party cruise ferry. It leaves from Kiel Germany (WAY up nort') sails thru the night and ports in Gotenberg Sweden.

After we arrive, we'll be able to tour the factory, see the crash test facility and do other Volvo inspired activities before we pick up our new machine. After we pick the car up, we drive back to the ferry, cruise back thru the night and drive home.



We're so very happy with this whole process and can't wait to get our new car. However, in the mean time our BMW is now on the market.

While he's gone

So Stephen has been in the States working for just short of 2 weeks. He'll be home in 4 more days. I've been marveling at how my lifestyle changes the longer he's gone.

At the beginning of his absence I made (from scratch) chicken fried rice - it was fun, relatively easy and delicious! In the middle, I was still cooking/grilling and enjoyed some gourmet spiced turkey sausage. Last night I think I may have hit a low...pan fried spam and instant mashed potatoes. Well, I thought so, until I was at the check-out at the grocery store today.

My cart included: Cat food, wheat thins, fresh fruit, pimento spread, a frozen turkey dinner and a Twinkie. I started to laugh at myself. It was the perfect confluence of crazy cat lady and "table for one".

"Oh, common" you say, "how in the world does your cart say 'crazy cat lady'". Well...I had cat food...60 cans of various flavors. Which roughly equates to half a metric ton of cat food. Cat Food + frozen dinner = lonely woman* w/ cats :D

Stephen better get home soon...I'm not sure where this downward spiral will take me ;P



*Don't worry, I'm not actually lonely. I've got 3 cats!

When in Rome...

...Do as the Romans!


And we sure tried!!


Stephen, Mom, Dad and I took a little weekend trip to Rome, Italy (July 3-6, 2009). We spent 4 days in the bustling cradle of civilization and took in all the sights we could.


We arrived after midnight on Thursday night. I had specifically chosen the hotel for its location. It was just 2 blocks from the train station where our shuttle would be dropping us off. The unfortunate part was I wasn't sure which 2 blocks away it was.


We set out with a hunch and about half an hr later we found the hotel. The neighborhood was quite sketchy. Homeless people, marauding hooligans...but no one bothered us. We asked about 9 people where our hotel was and they just kept saying "Keep going, straight ahead"...or some version of that.


On Friday, we did the Vatican museum and St. Peter's Square. We had our first gelati and dined in a great family restaurant not far from our hotel. It was also our first taxi experience. If you've never been to Rome, then there's no way you'd know that traffic is the most insane in the world...yea, yea, yea... you can say "sure, but you don't drive in (fill in the blank - D.C., Atlanta, Chicago). To that I say bulls***t! This is the most insane traffic in the world!!!


Cars are double and triple parked on two way streets with buses and semi's not making any attempt to slow down. Lines are on the roads, but within city limits, they mean very little. Passing is the fine art of the mentally instable. Scooters passed on the left while trucks blazed thru on the right. Oncoming traffic? No problem, they'll have to slow down or stop to get out of my way! Pedestrians have the right away...unless the car you're in can drive faster than they run into the street.


Thou Shalt Not Drive In Rome - Leave it to the professionals...and buckle up, just in case.


On Saturday, we did the Coliseum and finished the day in the most expensive and luxurious restaurant I've ever been in. The meal was an EXPERIENCE. This four course meal included appetizers, pasta, beef main dish and dessert. The walls were lined with autographed photos of celebrities from the past and present. The Restaurant had been in existence for over 100 years!


On Sunday, we went to the beach. We took the urban train out of the city center all the way to the Mediterranean coast and spent a couple hours resting on the beach and exploring the area known as Ostia. We then finished the day with a bit of comfort food...McDonald's. We just couldn't eat any more pasta. Pasta is eaten at every meal (except breakfast, but I'm sure we could have gotten it). Don't get me wrong, it was the best pasta I'd ever had. But one can only take in so many carbs and rich sauces.


On Monday we each went our separate ways. Mom & Dad did a Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour and hit all the major sites. Stephen and I headed back to St. Paul's to get photos from the inside of the Basilica then enjoyed a stroll from the Spanish steps (with all the amazing high end designer shopping), thru Piazza Republica (beautiful fountain & national museum), past the main train station and then back to the hotel where we waited to meet up with mom & dad to head back to Germany.


The weather was excellent! The only complaint was that it was so darn HOT. It was in the mid 90's every day. Not a cloud in the sky. Thankfully I brought my sun hat and spent as much time as I could under my hat or jumping from shady spot to shady spot. No one got sunburned...oh, well, except for dad on beach day, but it was very mild and he was recovered by the next morning.


The trip was just the right amount of time. Four days is just enough to get sick of the hectic traffic and strange food. I was very happy to return to the rainy, cold climate of south-west Germany but more importantly, my bed.


New photos have been posted. Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiwatson/