Week 30!

Roasty is the size of a cabbage, about 3 pounds.

I'm posing in the "baby room" in front of our crib (thanks Bob and Joanne!)

My mother's favorite pregnant drink was Postum. It was created as a coffee substitute and enjoyed a rise in popularity during WWII when coffee was rationed. Why is it so appealing to pregnant women? Well, it's caffeine free and non-acidic. Since we live in a cold, drafty house, we tend to require a lot of hot drinks. Tea, my usual standard, has been wholly uninteresting, in part due to the acidic aftermath. I want Postum. The sad news is that it was discontinued a few years ago. I am now stuck trying alternatives--Inka, Pero--but neither have the rich molasses flavor of my dear Postum. I even found a jar of Postum on sale on Ebay for only $70!! Honestly, I'm tempted.

Back to my mother. As a child I envied my mother's fingernails. They were so long and feminine, mine were always short (plus I bit them). I used to come home and put on my Lee Press-on Nails, which fulfilled my long-nailed fantasies as long as I didn't touch anything or move much. Lame. My mother could touch her fingernails together without the pads of her fingers touching. That was my goal in life. Which brings me to my favorite pregnancy side affect--long and strong fingernails! My dream come true.

We got to visit my cousin Nate's new baby, Zoe Isabelle. She's adorable and I got to get in my baby time. I can't wait to have my own!

Karl and Leighton have been working on our bomb shelter *ahem* bike shed. It's HUGE! They have designed and carried out all of the building on their own (how cute) except for the cement pad which required buying and hauling 85 bags of cement that weigh 80 pounds each. Cousin John helped Leighton make the 5 trips to Home Depot, load the bags into the cart, unload them into the van, unload them at Hillegass, then carry them to the backyard. The 10 by 12 foot pad is impressive, and impecable minus Momo's footprints walking across one corner.

Leighton won't let me drink. I don't want to drink much, just a Red Stripe for lunch in Jamaica, a pint with my colleagues on Friday, a glass of wine at a birthday party, but he is a stickler. I found a NYTimes article that explained that, 1. We have no idea what moderate drinking does to a fetus, 2. in Europe pregnant women are told to keep their drinking down to 14 servings a week (as in two drinks per day!!) This was verified when I watched the Swedish film, "The Girl who Played with Fire". The reporter, Bloomkvist, convinces his pregnant lawyer sister to represent Lisbeth and clear her name. The sister meets up with Lisbeth at a bar and in the entire scene she is drinking red wine, totally casual, no funny looks from other patrons. Unheard of in American films. Apparently, the way a pregnant woman gets crooked looks in Europe is by eating raw vegetables--the bacteria, the horror!