Been awhile...

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Here's what's going on in my life now...

WORK
I hate it. I'm part of this major project which has a due date of July 1st. We have to meet this date for tons of reasons. My due date is July 20 which means no relax time or 'take it easy' time. Besides this project I am still getting some random work which I am also expected to do in a timely fashion. Its just too stressfull sometimes.

VIDHI
My in-laws side have a vidhi known as 'khoro bhare'. It is a major thing for them. And although they are not here we are still going to do this vidhi. We are doing it one week before the baby shower with just close family members and it has to be at our house. It's like preparing for 2 parties.

BABY SHOWER
Major things have been done for this. Most of the shopping for it has been done, few little things are left to do. I have some minor worries which will only go away when its all done.

BABY
Baby is getting bigger day by day and the movements and kicks are very powerful now. I try to walk anytime I can to get exercise. Weather has been cooperating so that's good. Many of my work friends say that I have 'popped'. Which means I am really showing now. We had another ultrasound. As usual it was amazing. We saw the baby blink. Baby weighs 2.5 lbs so far. From the photos we got Premal is convinced baby looks like me. We'll see...

BIRTH CLASSES
We had our first class yesterday. I found it very useful. We have 6 total classes. They are every Tuesday 7-9 at the hospital. Our teacher is very sweet and tells us everything frankly which is good. It is very informative. Besides learning it is also a fun class. Some of the husband's concerns are very funny. Everyone is laughing half the time.

My babes...

After reading Disha's entry about her friends I have to talk about a recent event that involved my friends. The image you see at top is what I saw the other day after I returned from work. These four large boxes were outside our garage. At first I thought there must be a mistake. Then I read the labels and sure enough it had my name on it. After seeing the packing slips which said..."from the Umass girls" did I realize who they were from. My girlfriends from college had sent all this. These are the first gifts I've gotten for the baby. A high chair, diaper bag, hooded towels, car window sun gaurd, and a baby bath kit were all the contents. It is great stuff. It is such a kind thing for my friends to do. They are a great bunch of girls and I'm lucky to have them as friends. I wish we were able to see each other more often. Thank you to Amita, Charu, Madhu, Nehal, Sital, Tanvi and Tushima!

Vacation destination...

Every year Premal and I go on a vacation where its just the two of us. This year we were thinking if taking a mini vacation before the baby comes since we won't get a chance after. We would go in the month of May. We want to go for only a weekend. In the past we have gone to NYC and Vermont. But where to go this year? I'd like to go someplace peaceful and relaxing. Anyone know any nice places near MA? It has to be in driving distance as I won't be able to fly.

Happy Birthday Roshani!

Look who's 21!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROSH!!

Love that smile...keep it coming :)

Hope you have the best day ever! Love you!

6 Month Photo

Bouncing Belly

It was really amazing when I started feeling the baby kick. Now it kicks all the time like in the morning, while lying down, while sitting, while driving, while in meetings. It really feels weird when I am in a meeting with bunch of people talking about important things and my little one starts playing soccer in there. I completely loose my focus. Its like the baby is telling me he/she is bored and wants me to go do something else. I smile to myself and hope that no one notices.

Now, the new thing is the watch the kicks! After dinner I lay on the sofa and look at my belly and I can actually see where the baby is kicking. A little part of the belly bounces and shakes a bit. Some kicks are hard and very obvious. Premal loves those...he gets a kick out of the kicks :)

I hear in few months I will actually be able to see the foot impression on the belly when it kicks. I can't wait.

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Yesterday, Premal and I had a very silly discussion about the baby. We were discussing how after the baby comes we might start arguing more because a baby is a big change. I mentioned how buying a house was a big change and we did fine. Premal suggested it was because the house is divided between us and we each take care of different parts of the house.

So...naturally I suggested we divide the baby's parts :) I took the 'bugal', the hands and neck. He wanted the belly and butt. But when it came to the face, we both wanted it! We couldn't go on and we had to stop and gave up.

I know, its silly.

Situ's baby shower

Situ and I showing off our bellies at her baby shower :)

Do you see a difference?

Some of you have been asking for these...

Daylight Savings Time

DST

If you haven't already heard this weekend is when we change the clocks to one hour ahead. Thanks to our president it is 3 weeks earlier than usual.

Normally this day comes, we change the clocks and it goes...not a big deal. But this year...my God...there is so much chaos at the office. Why, you ask? Well, normally your PC knows when daylight savings is and makes the change to its clock automatically. But this year how is it supposed to know that Bush has changed the date? Enter patches! We have to patch all servers and softwares so that it knows what the new dates are. We even had to patch our Blackberries.

Its just amazing to me how this little change effects so much. I am not for or against this change, I wish we didn't have to deal with the back lash of it. Let me know if anyone else is going through what we are.

Scans...

Here are some photos of the ultrasound. Couldn't get hold of a scanner, but they are pictures of the picture. Anyway, for Premal and I it was pretty obvious what we were looking at, but if you find yourself in that episode on Friends where Rachel couldn't see the baby I put a labelled version below. I believe if you click on it, it will enlarge.

We finally also got the results of the ultrasound. Doctor said baby looks healthy and normal. Only small bit of concern was that I have slightly low lying placenta which should move up and will require one more ultrasound in 2 months.

No, we did not find out the gender of the baby. I want to find out the old-fashioned way.

Its been awhile...

I know, its been awhile since I last updated. I was away for a training and then work got really busy and I was too exhausted to make updates. Plus, carrying around a little one takes a toll. Things are getting better now. I've been feeling much better. I've gained 2 pounds and I'm even starting to show(well, a little bit). I found out a friend of mine is also expecting and is due same day as me!! (She is showing much more than me.)

We had our anatomy ultrasound yesterday. It was out of this world! The baby looks so different from last time. It weighs 7 ounces and heartbeat was 157 beats/minute.

Things the tech measured and looked at :
-4 chambers of the heart
-heart size
-skull size
-brain size
-femur bone (thigh bone)
-humerus bone (arm bone)
-hands
-feet
-stomach area
-eyes
-spine
-bladder
-kidney
-placenta
-umbilical cord
-cervix

All of it was really, really amazing. We could actually see the 4 chambers of the heart and of course the beating of the heart itself was awesome. The spine was one of my favorite things to see. It looked really beautiful. The profile was great too. We could even see the baby moving. Tech was getting almost frustrated that it was moving so much. She did finally get all the info that was needed. She printed out few of the shots for us to take home. (I'll post those if I can get my hands on a scanner.) All of the photos and info gets sent to the radiologist who sends it to my doctor who will let me know the results. The waiting it gonna be hard, but it is only for couple of days.

Next step I'm excited about is feeling the baby's movements. I should be feeling them in the next few weeks!

pregnancy humor

Congrats!

&

Happy 1st Anniversary to Tulan and Avani!!

X-rated?

I'm a little surprised by today's BLaugh cartoon. Is that classified as being X-rated? If so, sorry guys I thought it was a clean cartoon. Good thing it only stays for a day (or 2 sometimes). It is a little funny though.

Deesh's Day!!

To the Best Sister Ever!

Happy Birthday!!

Wishing you all the happiest of moments today and always.

I love you.

Anniversary recap

Some photos we took on our Anniversary...






Though we didn't stick to our plans it was still a great anniversary. I expected the roses, but the ring was a nice surprise from Premal. It's even engraved.

Later that day we had cake with the family. It was good cake. (Unfortunately, didn't have the camera then.)

Four Years Ago...

Four years ago today we were doing this.
Happy Anniversay, hun!!

I love you very much.

So, what are we doing to celebrate this wonderful occasion? Well, not too much. We are going to our (currently) favorite restaurant...Byblos. After which we will head over to the Burlington area where family members will be waiting for us. Well, that is about it and that is the plan right now. Lets see if we stick to it.

Pictures...

Found a really cool blog today. They just post pictures of random things. Take a look.

Click Here For 'Damn Cool Pics'

(I'm also adding it to my links.)

X-mas weekend over

Can't believe Christmas is over. Buying the gifts, decorating, family get-togethers...are all over. It was a great year. First time we did xmas at my house. Opening the gifts was fun. Hanging out with Om and Rosh was a blast as always.

Waking up this morning was really tough. Couldn't believe I had to go to work today. Most people I know have today off. The roads were empty! The company parking lot was also empty! Seems like no one is here and getting enthu to do work is almost impossible. I am the only one here from my group. Yes, there are only 4 in our group, but still. Will try to escape little early today. Good thing it is only a 4 day week.

Looking forward to the New Years weekend.

New machines

I'm not sure what happened, but I am magically able to upload images again! Blogging without images can get boring.

So, anyway, as you can see we got new appliances for the kitchen. We got a new range and dishwasher, both stainless steel! We have a flat top stove now. (We had coils before.) It took a little getting used at first, but now I have pretty much mastered the tough stuff like making roti and boiling milk for daahi. The best part is cleaning!! It is so much easier now. The washer is something I am still getting used to. With our old one I knew exactly how to fill it to the max. I haven't quite figured out the 'dish-layout' yet. But the cool thing is..well there are 2 cool things. One, it fits a lot more dishes than our old one. It feels like we don't need to turn it on as much. Two, it actually dries the dishes. (Our old one didn't dry them.) So now I can actually put away the dishes as soon as the load is done. No more opening it up and letting it dry or using a towel to dry everything.

Both look really sleek and go really well with the exhaust fan which we put in some time back. Only thing that doesn't match now is the fridge which is white in color. But, I am not complaining because I really love my fridge. It is big enough for all our food and I like the layout of it inside. We have a 'home' for all the food in the fridge.





So, do I feel like cooking more now that I have these new machines? Well... not really :)