27 weeks...

This was taken on our way to the gym on July 28, at 27 weeks!

Throughout this first pregnancy, my first of several, we hope, there are a few things that I have been feeling...

I'm experiencing a tiny bit of HEARTBURN, though these past couple of days, it has really gotten to be worse and continuous! I am loving my Tums, and by love, I mean, I'm carrying them around with me in each purse that I use, just in case I need them!

I finally got some NEW BRAS that fit...and to my surprise...they are actually comfortable enough to wear for more than an hour at a time, which under the circumstances, I think that is pretty good! They are maternity/nursing brads, which I was a little unsure about getting and wearing this early on, but they are so much more comfortable. If you are curious, one is made by Bravado, and the other one is from A Pea in the Pod and its a razorback.

My belly is really getting big, which I know is normal, but its really getting inconvenient to do every day activities; shaving, drying off after I shower, or bending down to get something. It gets really hard sometimes, mostly after I eat, and my rib cage is definitely expanding, hence the new bras!

Those are some of the annoying symptoms of what I am experiencing being 27 weeks pregnant, though I am very excited about the fact that my face is really behaving! I am noticing that my face is not breaking out as much, except the occasional break out, which of course is normal!

I am sleeping really well, though waking up every two hours to pee, I am out cold when I am asleep. I am using the Snoogle pillow which was recommended to me by several people, and I love it!

Sorry for the semi uneventful post this week, but enjoy!

the history behind the name...Tshabalalah

So, I know that in my previous post, I referred to Baby Boy Z as Tshabalalah. The history behind this name is as follows:

Last summer, before I was pregnant with Baby Boy Z, we were watching the World Cup, which is soccer, for those of you who don't know. Since Brad is from South Africa, and played soccer his whole life, he was closely watching all of the teams, especially South Africa. The World Cup lasted for quite a while, several weeks. As the days went by, we got to know the players and teams. Brad became very fond of one of the players on the South African team, as he is from there, he formed a real liking to one particular player with the name Tshabalalah!

Since then, we have joked with each other that when we have a baby, we will name our first born Tshabalalah Zagnoev. Now, over the last few months, Tshabalalah is what we have been calling Baby Boy Z. It is more fun, and to be honest, it has sort of stuck. We have been coming up with a list of other names, thinking about people in our family that we could name him after, and there are a very select few names that we actually love enough and can imagine calling our child for the rest of his life! It is a really big deal to think of a name, so permanent, and it's just tough all around!

So, that's it, the history of the name Tshabalalah! You will have to wait until October to find out what his real name will be...but for now...

Tshabalalah it is!

Our little Tshabalalah...

 

These pictures were taken at our appointment on May 31st, 2011 where I was 18 weeks and 5 days pregnant. We knew that we were going to be finding out the sex of the baby, and I think this was probably one of the most exciting things ever...besides of course finding out that I was pregnant or actually welcoming Tshabalalah into this world. Brad and I knew that we wanted to know the sex of the baby, though we understand that there are people who do not want to know until he/she enters the world, we are just not those people!

The anticipation at this appointment was so intense. We got to the doctor's office at Cedar Sinai and waited only a couple of minutes before being called back to the ultrasound room. We thought that such a short wait in the waiting room meant that we would be seeing the doctor soon...but we were WRONG!

We ended up waiting for almost an hour, and when the technician finally came in, we could hardly wait! She was very nice and we got started immediately! We were watching the monitor and could see each part of Baby Z. The head, spine, stomach, kidneys, nose, ears, mouth and chin. We moved down to the hands and fingers. We then moved down to try to find out the sex. As you can see in the bottom left picture in the collage up above, we could clearly see that we were expecting a BOY!

The shock and excitement in the room, could not be contained. There were a few tears, of course, with a pregnant woman there would be some tears. We could not even believe it! The picture above shows Tshabalalah from the point of view as if you are changing his diaper.

We immediately began to try and use our cell phones (not allowed in the ultrasound rooms) to call our parents and siblings. Everyone was so excited!

To go back one step...

We had no thoughts about whether or not it was a boy or girl, though we have had so many people ask us silly questions about how I am feeling, how I am carrying, what I am craving...and though I am not sure that we believe much of the old wives tales, some of them seemed to be somewhat more accurate than we thought!

The only "real" indication that we could have based a guess on would be an experiment that we did just a few weeks earlier. Our housekeeper wrapped up a fork and knife separately and placed each one on a chair. She then told me to pick a chair and sit down. I did as she said, and what do you know...I ended up sitting on the fork, which I was then informed that the fork meant that we will be having a BOY!


We have gotten even more excited about the idea of having a little boy as the weeks go by! We are seeing the cutest little boy clothes, and I just cannot help myself but to think about how cute our little man will be wearing all of the tiny little boy clothes!