Journal
Last updated: June 11, 2008
For Christmas, I gave Tanya a journal to document her thoughts and feelings throughout her pregnancy.
From time to time, we will pull an exerpt from her journal and put it onto this page so that you can read her thoughts to: remind you of the time that you were expecting your first child, prepare you for thoughts during your first pregnancy, or to just understand how my wife is feeling.
June 11, 2008
Well, it is only a month left until my due date. It’s hard to believe, I know. My doctor is actually questioning the rightness of my term. Yesterday we had an ultrasound done to get the measurements. We saw our little one getting big and looking ready to come out. Brian says he has my nose and chubby cheeks. Just amazing! But we’ll see what the doctor has to say next Monday about the results.
We are anxiously waiting for my mama to arrive to US July 1st. I can’t imagine her being here, actually having her in our house. But we are half way through decorating her room. Brian even built a headboard for her bed. I know it’s crazy to have two rooms to put together but what can we do – I’m just ecstatic about everything.
It’s going to be such a help to have my mama here.
May 4, 2008
Here we are – I’m 30 and a half weeks pregnant. Time is just flying by. We are already in May so basically I have just two months left if everything goes as planed. And then our lives are going to be turned 180 degrees.
By the way my mama’s Birthday is today. She is turning the big 5-0. We are working on her visa and the thing is that the relationship between Belarus and USA got worse. The US Embassy isn’t issuing visas to America. They say “temporary” but it doesn’t work for us. So we are trying to get visa through Russia, which brings us more complications. It’s our luck, I guess. But we are hoping…
We finally sold our house in Necedah, WI. It took a lot of time, phone calls and a huge amount of patience working with an FHA loan. But on the other hand it gave me a chance to go back to WI for one last visit. Since the closing date on the house was set for April 18th, our plan was for Brian to fly to WI, sign the papers and drive a U-HAUL back with our left over stuff. But at the last minute (as it always happens with us) the closing became uncertain, so since the weather was promising and with a permission from Brian’s boss to come back to work on Wed, we canceled the flight and drove all the way back to WI. I’m actually getting used to this rout…
We got to Necedah on Fri and stayed there until Mon. The weather was beautiful. We spent our time visiting friends and relatives, took a ride to the lake. And in general we were just enjoying the weather and, I guess, the last vacation we’ll have in a while.
All that time Tasha was staying with our neighbors Elaine and John. They came to love our dog so much that we didn’t feel bad leaving her. They are very nice people and I feel lucky meeting them.
My appointment with the doctor on Apr 28th went smooth: everything is good, and the baby’s heart sounds healthy. They said I would have one more visit in a month and then we will start seeing each other more often (every two weeks). So it means I’m getting there. I got so used to having a beer belly on me that I couldn’t imagine being otherwise. I’m used to the baby kicking and pushing me around that sometimes I don’t even acknowledging it.
We didn’t organize our nursery yet. Still have just bags with baby gifts as a main decoration in it. But there is some time left…I think.
March 30, 2008
This is an amazingly quiet weekend after the craziness and fullness of events of the last one. We went to WI for my Baby Shower and to have an open house at the same time. It doesn’t seem as a lot to do but the weather made it’s own changes and brought it’s own “excitement” to already busy weekend.
My friend Nastya was coming from NYC but her flight was delayed 2-3 times then completely canceled but we were stubborn enough to get her to Buffalo by midnight. A few of our flights from Buffalo to WI were canceled as well but we somehow got ourselves on the early morning one, which worked out not bad considering that Nastya didn’t get to us at the right time anyway. So three of us had only 2 hours of sleep before hitting the road. Did I say that Nastya’s bag was lost on the way from NYC to Buffalo? So she traveled to WI only with her purse. When we got to Chicago to change planes - surprise! - our flight from Chicago to Milwaukee is canceled. The only thing left to do is to rent a car. In this case we are barely making it to the Baby Shower. We had to stop in Milwaukee to do some paperwork for the car we rented on the first place. But we made it. Half an hour late but got there!
I was sooo tired, that on the next morning everything about the day before seemed like a dream.
I’d like to thank everybody who came and waited for Nastya and me and for the wonderful gifts that will be a big help to us. I REALLY appreciate this. I didn’t think that there were going to be so many people but I was happy to see everyone. This was the reason for me to go back to WI – to see our family and share the happiness I feel right now being pregnant and waiting for a little one to join us. I got very emotional at the party starting with a surprise call from my mama, which took me completely off guard. It’s tough to not have my own family close by and have to talk to her only once a week during such an important part of our life. But what can you do? It is what it is…
I’m VERY THANKFUL to our cousin Tammy and aunt Connie who organized everything. They did an amazing job. Everything was planed and taken care of. I don’t have much experience with Baby Showers but can definitely say it was better then I envisioned. Thank you again for giving me such a wonderful time.
We got back to NY only by the evening of next day, received Nastya’s bag back and I had some more presents to open.
All this time I didn’t sleep well, was too fired up, too tired and baby didn’t help ether, was kicking hard, practicing his karate-football-baseball moves, and I guess feeling what his mama was going through. But no complains here. Brian finally got a chance to feel his son kick, which, if you ask me, made up for everything.
March 9, 2008
We did it, we did it, we did it! We finally know who is going to join our family. It’s a BOY! I told you so! I just had a feeling and couldn’t do anything with it. Plus my dad’s side of family is pretty good on having boys so I thought that their nature would take over. So here we are. Brian is getting a little fishing, golfing and hunting BUDDY. I hope that the next one is a girl so that I could live vicariously though her for having a big brother. But he is going to be one smart, handsome, kind, respectful and everything else boy. These are the things he will be in my mind anyway.
I can’t explain my feelings getting to look at this little person who is living his own life right in my tummy and doesn’t have any idea he is getting spied on. He was moving his arms and legs, even amused us by sucking his thumb. Brian is so proud, especially since doctor said “There is NO question it’s a BOY!” You should’ve seen his face. It could’ve lit up the whole world!
It’s amazing what technology can do for you – turn you life up side down and make the little one, who we tried to imagine and guess so hard, as real as it could possibly be.
We are very happy and there is no day goes by that we wouldn’t look at the pictures of our boy. Yes, they are on refrigerator and I guess it’s a first step by the little one on taking over the house… I won’t complain…
March 4, 2008
I thought I would be able to do an ultrasound right after we move. But my wish didn’t have anything to do with reality. Different place, different way to work and … they are busy here. My first visit with a doctor was on Feb 20th. To be more correct, I just saw a nurse who asked me the same ?’s I was asked before and had a paperwork to prove it. The good thing is I got familiar with a hospital and the way the do things there. My actual visit with one of my doctors was on Feb 26th (apparently I will meet 4-5 of them just so I’ll know the doctor-on-duty on my delivery day). The doctor said I’m all good, the heartbeat of the baby sounds strong and healthy, and in the end we finally got our ultrasound scheduled. It’s tomorrow Feb 5th! We can’t wait to know who is actually growing inside of my tummy. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that the baby will be kind to us enough to show if it’s a boy or a girl. I don’t care who it’s going to be, happy with both ways. My only hope is that the baby is healthy. About a month ago I had a dream that Brian, I and our Boy were visiting Belarus. And couple days ago Brian was playing with a little Girl in his dream (maybe that's the Kyleigh influence). I guess we just have to wait and see whose dream will come true (just another small competition between the two of us).
By the way, if somebody hasn’t noticed yet, we have an entrance from the Other Tanya and Brian in our guest book. They were trying to create a website with the same name and came upon ours. Tanya is from Gomel (the city I went to school in), they have a little 13 months old girl. Amazing or what? We keep in contact by mail.
February 10, 2008
It’s been awhile since I wrote anything. Even though there is a lot of news I didn’t get to it.
One very important thing we did is we listened to the heartbeat of our baby. It happened on Jan 14th. Doctor needed a little bit of time to find the baby. She was always coming up on a loud beat of my heart (well, I should say, mom-to-be was pretty exited that day). But, finally, we heard this fast, joyful noise like somebody was trying to prove his or her existence. It was strong and full of life. You should’ve seen Brian’s face! He looked like one proud PAPA.
And I can’t wait when we actually could do the ultrasound and see the baby. That’s going to be one day!!!
Here is another big thing that happened to us - we moved to Youngstown, NY, as most of you know already. We made it here in two days (about 14-15 hours) and were in our new place on Sat Feb 2nd. Brian drove U-HAUL with a car behind it and I was responsible for Hummer and a trailer. We didn’t have any big problems on the way except me trying to make a sharp turn with a trailer and getting too close to the light pole. So close that I put couple scratches on the wheel. Though I don’t believe you can really see them. But besides us being very tired, Tasha (our dog) being really frustrated and disappointed, and that small accident everything went better than I expected. We safely got to NY, Brian started his new job on Monday and I keep myself busy with unpacking the boxes and putting our new home together.
January 11, 2008
What can I say, last few days I (we) noticed that my tummy was coming out from nowhere. It’s still small but I’m actually starting to look somewhat pregnant, which is incredible. Brian says I look very cute. He is so sweet.
We started planning Baby Shower and so far our plans are to come back to WI somewhere in March for it. We even registered for baby gifts and started our list. This is fun and hard at the same time – just hard to know what we actually will need with our first baby. I guess, we are going to live by the saying “Live and learn”.
I’m very exited about all this “mother-to-be” shower thing and a big reason is that we just don’t have this kind of treat in Belarus, at least not as organized. Cousin Tammy said that women here are just spoiled. I completely agree and love every minute of it.
January 5, 2008
As of today my pregnancy is going well, I would say going really well for my first time. Knock on wood. It’s all new to me but still I wouldn’t say there are a lot of changes in my everyday life. I happened to be one of those women who don’t have nausea. Lucky me…and lucky my husband. Feeling of hunger got more noticeable. My mama told me to eat, eat and eat. Well, she’d be proud of me. Though I don’t have crazy cravings I do lo-o-o-ve pasta now and, which is bad, don’t appreciate chicken as much as I used to.
My tummy is already a little bit noticeable and looks, at least to me, like I had very good holidays and did exactly what I should’ve – tried everything and more then once. By the book the baby is the size of an apple by now, which is amazing. And Brian has his own ritual with it – every night he kisses my belly and says “Spokoinoi nochi, Malysh” which is “Good night, baby” in Russian.
This little bump on my tummy brought my Brian and me to the realization that someone is really growing there!
