AUTUMN IS HERE

Jack is noticeably more relaxed and a little lighter of mood, now that we are through October. Never have two people been more excited to get through a summer, I think. For those keeping track at home, I'm starting my 31st week and am in my third trimester.

My energy continues to be low, thanks to anemia, but I sure do feel my liberty as I sit behind the wheel. In fact, I could drive for hours: it's great to get out off the couch, out of the house, and have the wind in my newly shagged hair. Of course I treat Nessa to my most heart-felt renditions of whatever is on the radio as I drive.

The past week or two I took my camera with me as I did my errands. Here are some local shots of the Central Coast. See photos of the Tolosa winery, Morro Rock, salt marshes, and Jack and Milo looking for tarantulas along old Route 101 - the Irish Hills are the backdrop.

MISSING THE GRANDMOTHERS

We certainly enjoyed our visits from Patty, Ernie, and Krista! It was a lot of socializing and physical activity for this couch potato, all very good for me. Vanessa loved it too.

We showed them all the eBay baby clothes I had acquired while on bed rest. Krista suggested the collection was woefully scant in Baby Gap pieces and has indicated she knows how to remedy that. Sure! In fact, let it be known to all that we accept any and all hand-me-downs. (Jack surprised me the other day when he gently inquired, "No more eBay clothes?" I had no idea how he looked forward to those tiny packages in the mail!)

Patty, Ernie and Krista, all RNs, were a bit concerned about my pitting ankle edema. Who stole my ankle bones??? Lately I have to try to forcibly hide my pink sausage hands from Jack while we sit together in church. He just wants to play with them, but I'm too self conscious. The good news is I can now stand for the duration of a shower, and I did pass my 3 hour glucose tolerance test, so no gestational diabetes.

Granny Ernie brought us a photo of herself from boarding school days. We think she is about 11 years old. We also have a photo of Grandma Patty, around about age 7. We'd do well to have a daughter like either one of them! We are intensely curious about this daughter inside. We can't wait to meet her - see what she looks like and get to know her personality. My mother gave us some vintage photos of me as a youngster. I do recall my father having to hide these at a certain point, for fear I would burn them. Now that I'm all growed up, I can handle the truth. Let's just say I'm relieved that my husband doesn't freak out over the fact that my nickname was Michelin Mary for the first 3 years of my life. My extended family insists I was packed with personality.

We begin our birthing classes November 1st. We finally ordered a crib online (a white one after all) and now need to get a mattress. I'm on the verge of picking up a Maclaren stroller - the brand preferred by tall parents. Jack will not have much luck getting time off in January, but has much of December off. Our OB intimated that the intense stretching of the end of pregnancy could cause so much pain to my weakened abdominal wall that we'd want to entice Vanessa out early. So we're hoping she'll arrive in December!

GRANDMOTHERS VISIT

My mother arrived on the day I was released from bed rest. For the first day and a half I barely saw her, in fact I called Jack at work to tell him I was lonely, because my mother had already disappeared cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. I just wanted her to sit!

It's been great having her visit, and the first thing I asked her to help me do was go down to the baby boutique to look at cribs. Back in March, when it became real I was to finally try to get pregnant, I felt I was qualified to enter a crib store. I fell in love with a red crib there and have been fantasizing about it ever since. My mother went straight for the same crib and fell in love with it too. I didn't have the strength to stand and admire it, so I parked it on an upholstered glider. As a consequence, I've added the glider to my fantasy, too. Maybe we'll get them while she's here. I've already gotten the bedding (see swatch).

Other action items on my agenda this first week off bed rest were making it to Marshalls, T.J. Maxx, the dump, and a plant nursery. I'm still weak as a kitten, so these were rather ambitious goals. I have had to sit down on the floor more than once while "shopping." Very frustrating. I take my mother's arm as we cross the street and I just know people get the wrong impression. Surely they think, "How nice she's helping her grandmother!" when really I'm the one getting the help. My mother is 6 inches shorter than I am, with a tight white perm and her pink scalp showing through. When we were at the dump, sporting our cropped pants and sandals, she was the one hauling most of the junk out of the car. We got some quizzical looks. At the plant nursery, she was the one insisting she lift the plants into the cart and load them into the car. I felt people were giving me dirty looks, and half expected them to whip out their cell phones to call the elder abuse hotline. I am humbled by my mother's physical prowess. Maybe that's why Jack suggested we use her Irish maiden name as Vanessa's middle name.

Yesterday she helped me get the house ready for more visitors. Jack has been doing an exceptional job keeping the place up while working and cooking all the meals. However, the house needed a woman's cleaning touch. As we went room by room, my mother cleaned circles around me. I nearly had a nervous breakdown. Instead of feeling the satisfaction of accomplishment after completing a small task, I found myself feeling each tiny task was woefully futile against the backdrop of what needed to be done. My mother, ever the optimistic helpful one, poo-pooed my inadequacies, paid me lavish compliments for my puny efforts, and got 95% of the work done herself. I turned my back for a minute and she was sweeping the stairs out front, then the driveway, then both front porches. None of these things were on our To-Do list. "I didn't sweep under the car..." was her comment.

Today Granny Ernestine arrives! She is coming with our niece Krista. We are so excited! I'm glad I can get around and we do plan to go out to dinner tonight at Avila Pier. I got my hair cut and put on earrings and mascara for the occasion. Ernie is bringing a photo of herself from boarding school, so we can speculate some more about Vanessa's ultimate looks.

For entertainment, Vanessa kicks my belly so others can feel her. She's thoughtful that way. To get me to belly laugh (Nessa likes that), we play with our fur babies. Milo is in love with Chica and wants to try to lick her to let her know. Chica is in love with the computer keyboard and wants to peck at its little rubber pieces. Alley is in love with Chica's water dish and can think of nothing else when the bird cage is accessible. Max is, well, in love with no one, but he has been sleeping on our bed every night, so maybe he realizes how much we love him.

MANY POSITIVE NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Well, today has been a big day! I am starting Week 28 and we saw both our new perinatologist and our OB today.

Our brand new peri hails recently from, of all places, Seattle. As it turns out he knows all my many doctors on a first-name basis. This is a nearly miraculous coincindence. But we hope to not get to know him too well as patients, because we got very good news about my little ole placenta. My placenta previa has, as expected, corrected itself over time. More importantly, my eight weeks of bleeding has resulted in the complete dissolution of that large subchorionic hematoma (blood clot). So positive are these two developments that my OB has let me off bed rest. YAHOO! There is a separation between placenta membranes that may put me at increased risk for my water breaking, but that doesn't warrant bed rest apparently.

Of course we also got to spy on our descendant. Although crude, we did get a 4-D face shot of our her, after we observed her practicing her chewing or laughing or perhaps shouting. It was so funny I couldn't help but chuckle along, which must have made her self conscious because then she stopped. I had to comment, "Hey, she doen't have skinny lips!" and Jack said, "I think she's got my chin." As soon as we got home, Jack pulled out his baby book to show me that she looks like him as a newborn. I think she's gorgeous, but then I have to remember we are looking at fuzzy images of a fetus. Mothers are so biased.

She weighs 2 lbs. 8 oz. and our OB said tinier, younger babies are living over in the NICU right now. We are very pleased to be growing her so well so far. Much credit goes to Daddio, who has been feeding me day and night and manning the household chores whilst I peruse eBay on the couch.

Since you've read along this far, we'll let you know now that we've named her Vanessa Holland Hoyt. We mostly call her Nessa, Nessers, and Nestle, although we also call her Van, Van Ho Ho, and VH1. Today we thought we should rework the Van Halen logo to read Van Holland. Perhaps we're getting ahead of ourselves.

FINISHING 26 WEEKS TODAY!

This has been a great week for us all in many ways. School started for Jack so he was very busy, worked seven days this week, and worked past 7 pm four days in a row. This has been a big adjustment for moi, since Jack was home by 4 pm all August and September. Other than feeling excessively disenchanted with the couch and newly addicted to eBay infant clothing auctions, I am doing much better. In fact, I was able to venture to Home Depot last week and ride their motorized shopping cart to select citrus trees for our back yard. That was a big day! Also, today we took Milo to Avila beach and I actually hoofed it all the way down the stairs. While there, we saw a huge school of dolphins and seals batting about large fish like a National Geographic special. I get out about once a week.

September 28th was our 15th wedding anniversary. Jack had a team meeting that night, but he came home to make us dinner. Athletes Danielle and Bridgette stopped by bearing gifts commissioned by Jack - a bouquet of fresh flowers from the farmer's market, some special almonds, and fresh tiramsu. We flipped through our wedding album with them, showed them some wedding video, and opened the day's eBay packages. A welcome evening of socializing for this couch dweller.

In general, things are feeling much less dramatic and scary. I've not had an emergency trip to the hospital in weeks. Jack stopped waking up with a start every time I flip over in bed. The bleeding and barfing is tapering off. My energy is much improved: this week I found I am able to stand the entire time I brush my teeth, and I stood for half my shower today. In fact, Jack and I are taking bets on how soon I'll be upgraded from strict bedrest to limited activity - maybe in two weeks. More importantly, our daughter kicks, kicks, kicks - which I just love. Also, I find myself modeling a range of emotions as I belly laugh so hard I launch epic coughing attacks and find myself bawling at random things like a Billy Idol video, a clutch Seahawk touchdown, and of course those DHC baby delivery shows. I've only very occasionally contemplated throwing myself off the couch, but never gone through with it.

As I type this, Jack is bathing the salt and sand off Milo and singing his own happy lyrics to Strangers in the Night. The sunsets have been spectacular, likely due to the ash in the air from the Ventura fires. I am wearing new clearance maternity togs from Old Navy, recently ordered from my perch here on the couch. I feel so human, after months of sporting Jack's tees and pyjama bottoms. Danielle and Bridgette had to see me lying flat on my back on the floor to appreciate how Jiffy-Pop my belly really is. I measure 44"- 44"- 43" so I'm basically a barrel. When I catch sight of myself in the mirror, sitting hunched over on the edge of our bed every night, I can't help glancing at Jack to say, "Grape Ape. Grape Ape." I really do look funny pregnant.