The Baldwin Experience: My Journey Through Life

To preface this story I think it’s important for you to get a feel for my regular movie taste. Here are some favorites, to name a few: Shawshank Redemption, Crash, Garden State, Fargo, Being John Malkovich, Donnie Darko, Rules of Attraction, City of God, Vanilla Sky, A Few Good Men… Not exactly walks in the park. I like drama, action, a twisting plot, etc. Quinn is in Ann Arbor this weekend “tailgating” with the boys and I thought I would schedule a particularly adventurous Friday and rent some movies. Looking over my selection: Sex and the City, Made of Honor, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and What Happens in Vegas…… WHAT?!?!?!? These four movies epitomize chick flicks. I have either lost my marbles or I’m highly hormonal, and I am pretty sure it’s the latter! The funny thing is, I didn't even think about it until I was checking out and the cashier said, “Wow, it looks like an exciting weekend for you”. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I laughed… and laughed and laughed....

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the fall is in Michigan. Crisp leaves with a million colors, football, hot apple cider and hot chocolate, taking walks, wearing jeans and hooded sweatshirts... Michigan gets a bad wrap because of the abnormally long winters. Also, most people that aren't from Michigan seem to have only visited the Detroit area. I apologize if you are from Detroit as I have no intentions of offending, but there is SO much more to MI than that! We have the Great Lakes, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Grand Traverse Bay (Traverse City is the cherry capital), the upper peninsula with Pictured Rocks, Drummond Island, Petosky, Mackinac Island, Saugatuck, Grand Haven, South Haven... It is a BEAUTIFUL state! The key to a long, cold winter is this: find activities you enjoy, inside and out. I like downhill and cross country skiing, making snowmen (or is it PC to say "snow people" now?), snow angels, ice skating, knitting, watching movies and snuggling. OH, and in my...

Well, it's official... I have a baby in my belly!!!!!!!!! Not quite my belly ;-), but you get the picture! I had a great ultrasound... They found the baby right away, and the heart is beating 165 times/minute. They measured its size and I am exactly where I thought I was: 8 weeks! The due date is May 23, 2009. As all parents who have had an ultrasound know, it is quite an amazing experience to see the "bean", and the heart fluttering like butterfly wings! It makes everything "real". It's also amazing to know that something so small can make me pee so much! The doc came in and reviewed all the pictures. He said that everything looked great, my blood test results were right where they should be, and that I am as "healthy as a horse". FANTASTIC!!

My first ultrasound is Friday!!! Only two more days... We had our initial consultation last week; Quinn and I talked with the nurse for about 1.5 hours, and I think I still had questions when we left. They took seven vials of blood to check "my levels" and I should know how everything looks by Friday. I am a big fan of http://www.babycenter.com/ . It is a great resource for the "inquisitive" like me. I am now 7.5 weeks along. My "little bean" has doubled in size since last week and is about the size of a blueberry... It doesn't seem like much, I know. The picture above shows about what the bean looks like right now -- a little more like a sea creature than a person at this point, but she'll lose her tail! ;-) The biggest symptom I am experiencing: EXTREME fatigue! I feel like I could fall asleep mid-sentence! My thoughts are jumbled and I'm all over the place! But hey , my body has been busy this week building a pancreas and an appendix -- n...