Cruise Preston Baker

Perfect little Cruise entered the world November 13th, 2008, at 7:42 am. He weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and measured 18.5 inches long. In my last post I said that I hoped he came early enough that I wouldn't be able to get a 'one week until due' picture. Well, I wasn't even able to get a 'two weeks until due picture'--he came two and a half weeks early. Cruise is so beautiful and sweet; Eric and I feel so lucky to have him in our family.

Labor and delivery actually wasn't bad at all. Of course, I'm sure that was all thanks to the epidural. You were right, ladies. =) Eric was a stud the whole time, getting me whatever I needed and keeping me calm. When Cruise was delivered he made the cutest little whimpering noise. He never cried, he just whimpered. It was adorable.

So, in our simple understanding of genetics, Eric and I figured we had a pretty good chance of getting a redhead, although Eric was hoping that wouldn't happen for some reason. One of the first things the doctor said to me after the delivery was, "Well, he's got red hair like his dad!" I was so happy to hear that. His hair definitely has a gorgeous red in it, as well as quite a bit of blond. We'll see how it turns out. I for one hope the red stays.

You all can tell me who you think Cruise looks like. He seems to be a pretty even mix to me. My Aunt said it pretty well: the top half of his face looks like Eric's; the bottom half looks like mine... except he's much cuter.

In the last couple weeks my mom and Eric's mom have both stayed with us for a number of days and have helped me a ton. I really appreciated their help--all the grocery shopping and cooking and cleaning, etc. Thanks, Moms!

Eric and I are having so much fun with Cruise. It really is the best thing in the world.

Counting down....

I cannot believe that I'm due this month. I haven't taken enough pictures of myself pregnant (for a reason) so I thought I would at least take one a week until I pop.

Here I am with 4 and a half weeks to go:

Here I am with 3 weeks to go:

My doctor thinks the baby might come early because I have constant Braxton-Hicks contractions, and because the baby is bigger than average, so I'm hoping I will get a picture of myself with 2 weeks to go, but not one! It probably won't happen so early, but I'm optimistic. Eric and I are trying to get everything ready just in case. We just put together a baby bouncer and a swing. So fun. I have a feeling, though, that no matter when it happens I'm going to feel unprepared.

Aaa! I am so scared of labor and delivery.

Ultrasound pics

So... only five weeks left until this baby is born. I'm getting to the point where I'm hoping he comes early! Everything is pretty darn uncomfortable, and I really miss exercising and sleeping soundly. I'm not sure if I'm going to get more sleep when the baby's born, but at least when I do sleep I will be comfortable. As for right now, that is definitely not the case. Also related to sleeping, I don't know if I am just noticing it now because I wake up so much more or if it has always been this way, but Eric is or is becoming an absolute crazy person when he sleeps. Quick example: the other night (in his sleep) he started asking me what I was pointing at. Mind you, he didn't even have his eyes open. I was like, "What?!" I told him I wasn't pointing at anything, at which point he continued to ask me, in a quite urgent tone, what I was pointing at. Then he sat up and looked straight at me and repeated his question in a crazy person voice. I asked him, "Does it look like I'm pointing at anything?!" He stopped, and then said, "Well, you were," rolled over, and went back to sleep. Stubborn. Weird, but I'd rather deal with that than his elbows or the back of his head--which he likes to place on top of my face from time to time. I have to mention how sweet he is, though, even in his sleep. Ever since I started sleeping with several pillows at night, I always wake up in the middle of the night to find Eric's pillow placed next to me and Eric sleeping with no pillow. He has no recollection of doing this, but it happens pretty much every other night. Isn't that sweet?

Okay, here are a couple of the 3D ultrasound pics from a week and a half ago. Now, we can't for sure know that this is what he looks like, because his face was actually smushed up against something, and then they removed the image of what he was up against from the pic, so even though you can see his face clearly, if you look closely you can tell that it's smushed in a couple places. It will be fun to compare when he's born to see how much this picture actually looks like him.

Look at his big fist. The lady doing the ultrasound said they were mitts. Hmm, looks like the fist of someone I know.

Kind of random, but I thought this one was cute. If you can't tell, it's his little leg. =) Not too little, though, right? There's already a little bit of chub on it.

*Mema*

A few weeks ago my grandmother passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. She was just a couple weeks shy of her 80th birthday, and seemed to be in very good health. Nobody in the family was expecting anything like this for another 10 years. Needless to say, it is hard losing her. She played a bigger part in her grandkids' lives than most grandmas do. My oldest brother started calling her "Mema" before he could say grandma, and the nickname stuck. She was such a light to all of us. Nobody could make you feel more important. She was such a beautiful example of grace, elegance, how to love life, and how to love others. I'm so grateful that I know I'll be able to see her again.

1st Quarter Break

Eric just finished his first quarter finals, which means we went about 2 weeks without seeing each other, but now we are enjoying his first week-long break. It's fabulous to actually have some time to hang out and do some fun things together. We've been able to relax, catch a movie, see some more of San Francisco. We also decided to take a quick trip down to the the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and then hit Monterey Bay the next day. The Santa Cruz Boardwalk was pretty awesome. We played miniature golf (and I have to mention that Eric got the hole-in-one at the end for the free game, I swear he does that every time) and some arcade games. Then we ate ice cream while we laid out on the beach. It was nice to be on a hot beach again; cold beaches just aren't the same.

We stayed at a cute little Inn in Monterey that night and strolled along Cannery Row. We ate at a great seafood place called Louie Linguini's and then (as full as we were) went to Ghirardelli's for a fudge brownie sundae. So good.

We’d recovered enough the next day to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The weather was just perfect. It’s a great place to visit. Seeing all the sharks and stingrays reminded me why I like to hang out on the sand and get tan rather than scuba dive….