Holy Pregnant Christmas Ornament Batman!

Last night was Superhero Night at the ballpark, and oh what a night! I love, love, LOVE dress up nights, and was in costume as Batman's trusty sidekick Robin. It was a moderately hilarious evening, read on for the play-by-play and some snaps of the occasion...

So we got our costumes and my Robin outfit looked like it should fit a four-year-old. And no, I'm not just saying that because I've put on a few LB's recently, it really was, like, the "adult store" version of a Robin costume. I compensated by wearing black leggings and black long-sleeved Under Armour underneath, as I was not particularly interested in showing off the goodies to the thousands of families, children and inebriated individuals at John Thurman Field. The material of the costume was basically stretchy, colored foil, was ridiculously tight, and my hair was almost longer than the tiny little cape. Who can fly with a cape that small? I know, I know, Batman and Robin don't fly...but still. Then, I went to put on the mask for the costume, and, in staying with the "should fit a four-year-old" theme, it basically cut off the circulation to my face and was so tight my eyes wouldn't open...in short, hilarious looking, and I have a small head! So after a last-ditch effort to try and inconspicuously tape the mask to my face, I scrapped it. Let them know my identity. I made a pretty kick-ass superhero anyway.

I sang the National Anthem before the game and Tommy introduced me on the P.A. as "The very lovely and very pregnant, Robin." The baby kicked like craaaazy while I sang the Anthem, which was cool, and he went nutso with the ninja moves again later during the post-game fireworks. Overall the night was very fun, lots of strangers rubbed my belly and when I would get weird looks from people or if someone would ask, "are you pregnant?" I'd rub the buddah and say "noooo, I just eat the villains." Duh. One of our season ticket holders told me I looked like a pretty little Christmas ornament...uhhh...thank you? I think people were pretty surprised I dressed up in costume with my belly all akimbo - you can't say I'm not a good sport! I thought it was hilarious.

Check out some pics from the evening, and don't even think about judging me next to the PYT's on our promo staff with their tight little tummies :)

Robin, Supergirl and Batgirl...don't you love how the costume just kind of slopes to my belly, haha, it looks like a beer gut!



I think the belt really did a lot to cover the baby bump. Not.



Robin and Mrs. Incredible...Did you know the Incredibles real last name is Parr? Tommy wanted me to be Mrs. Incredible, but I refused unless he dressed up as my Mr., which he, in turn, refused. Sooo.... :)



Our crew minus Mrs. Incredible and Wonder Woman...they were apparently off fighting crime.

Only God and the Nurse Practitioner Know

We had a doctor's appointment last week on Friday, and to our surprise we got to see the baby! First sonogram in the books, and for the record our child is very squirmy. The nurse practitioner (who is very quirky and odd...so of course we love her) got very frustrated because little bebe Parr was moving around so much. This kid is gonna be a handful.

So to give the official report, all's well in-utero. The baby is growing normally, and all of his internal organs are in the right place. Heartbeat was normal (FAST!) and bones and skull were looking good. We saw brains too! And the face! It looked like Pele has received my unfortunate nose gene, instead of Tommy's cute little petite one, but ya can't win em all I guess...I haven't done too bad in spite of my olfactory inheritance, so I'm sure the bambino will still be pretty :) What else...the fetal femur measurement was 3.6 centimeters and the baby weighs almost a pound!

Speaking of weight, I've gained 13 pounds in the first half of my pregnancy, bringing the LB total to 144 - officially the most I've ever weighed in at. It's worth it, and honestly I don't feel like I've gained that much. So here's hoping my 5'7 frame can stand up to the 15-20 pounds yet to come, and still bounce back on the other side!

Apparently this sonogram was just a "dress rehearsal" for the "real" one we have to make a special appointment for in the radiology department. I guess the "real" one is more in-depth and takes a whole slew of measurements of different areas and stuff. And if we want to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl the NP said we would be able to because she could tell on the "unofficial" sonogram. So yes, ladies and gents, there is one person in the world (besides God) who knows the gender of our baby! And it's not meeee!

So I leave you with a few pictures of my belly growth over the past few weeks. It's like the baby bump just jumped out one day and decided to make itself known. Two season ticket holders at the ballpark told me I had finally "blossomed." Ew. Save your blossoming proclamations, ladies, it sounds gross. The good news is: I still have some semblance of a waist!

Yes that's a pug shirt :) I even had it before I became Stockton's mom!


And the side view...


This shirt was a good pick-up!


I still have a bit of a waist...


But not so much from this angle...21 weeks to the day here.

We Are Registered...Done and Done

So we're all registered for Baby Parr, and everyone out there in blogland can visit the registries and buy us stuff. I mean, I'll just put it out there, that's why people register, right? So other people will buy them stuff? Hopefully it goes without saying that any and every gift received will be immensely appreciated, more than you could ever know. Especially being so far away from everyone.

Where are we registered, you ask? Target, and an all-organic online registry called Eden Home. "Organic, eh?" Well, sure. If it were economically feasible we would do the all-organic thing, "go green," if you will, on everything from toys to clothes to diapers to food. But we're realistic and know ourselves too well to believe we would or could keep up with that. But! We feel like we can make a commitment to some organic basics, which is what we registered for on Eden Home. It's actually a very cool site. Sooo much good stuff, not just for babies, but for everyone and everything. Maybe by next time (did I really just say that?) we'll be able to have a green baby. Something to shoot for!

Aside from the organic wildcard the rest of what we registered for is pretty standard. The Target registry covers everything and has a very wide variety of price points. A few of the items are somewhat "wishlist" related (do I need a jogging stroller? No. But I really want one to pick back up with the marathon training that was in the works when we found out about el bebe. So, two strollers :))

I'll tell you what you won't find on the registry, and that's anything involving breast pumping. Who puts that on a registry? Gross. I don't want breast pump refill bags to be a gift option, so no breast pump apparati are present. There also aren't a lot of clothes on there. There are some clothes, for both genders, mostly basics like sleepers, but since we have decided to be delightfully surprised by the girl/boyness of our baby, a few items are pretty much all we're gonna have on hand until the baby is born. Of course there will be "coming home" outfits handy, and plenty of feathery hairbows (there's a lady in Modesto who makes them and sells them on Craigslist - KLONDIKE!) but I wanna pick those out myself, and it'll be easy to save receipts. Except for with hairbow lady products - she probably has a no-return policy. In which case I'll wear them myself if the baby has boy parts.

So feel free to peruse the registries! Email me with questions - christaparr@hotmail.com. I'm not gonna post our address on here in an effort to prevent creeptastic stalker scenarios. You are more than welcome, and invited to send stuff to the baseball field (quite possibly more reliable than sending anything to our house) and here's that address:

Modesto Nuts Professional Baseball Club
ATTN: Christa Parr
601 Neece Drive
Modesto, CA 95351

Thank you, and good night :)

Link to Target Registry:
Tommy and Christa Parr's Baby Registry

Link to Eden Home Registry, search "Christa Parr":
Eden Home Registry, Search for Registry

It's Moving Day, It's Moving Day, Hey Baby, Hey

FYI: If you know what TV show that title quote is from it means you're awesome.

Sooo, it's moving day! FINALLY! We have a house! It's a perfect little one-bedroom bungalow, complete with humongous living room picture window, tons of storage for our mounds and mounds of stuff, a fireplace, TWO closets in the bedroom, a nice sized kitchen for Tommy to cook in and a delightful little nook perfect for the baby's room. We're beyond excited to have gotten the place, after finding it while driving randomly in our favorite part of town one Saturday afternoon. By the time Tommy articulated the words "baby get your phone out and call that number," I was already on the phone. It only got better when we walked inside and were ecstatic to find a refrigerator in the kitchen, and a lot more room than you would expect for a one-bedroom (a bit over 900 square feet.) We were like kids in a candy store and had been inside the place for approximately 45 seconds before we had seen every room and declared it the house we wanted to bring Pele Parr home to. Awwww :)

But wait! There's more! The best part about the place is the location. It's in a quaint older neighborhood on a tree-lined street a block away from a beautiful park. And not just any park. The very park where Tommy and I kind of started out as a couple. We met there for picnics over my lunch break while we were "courting" (for that whole entire month we dated before getting engaged, haha.) The "picnic" would consist of McDonald's from time to time, but I loved it anyway :) Besides all the mushy stuff, though, it's also just a sweet, sweet park. There are lots of festivals there every summer and it'll be great for the dogs since we don't have our own yard.

What a relief! Don't tell Tomas I said this, but the miserable search for a place was worth it if this house is what we got out of it. CP, out.

Alien Ninja Baby Pele Parr

Baby kicks! We've got some baby kicks! Make that LOTS of baby kicks. I actually felt the first one a few weeks ago, just a couple days before Tom hit the road to head to Modesto from Champaign. Of course he was the first person I told, and of course his immediate response was "Honey, are you sure it wasn't gas?" Seems that's a common confusion, as both of my ma's had the very same initial reaction. It was the real thing people, I promise! Since that first little fluttery movement (I was nearing the end of my 17th week, currently in the middle of my 19th) I've felt el bambino moving and shaking in there every single day. Pretty weird, folks, pretty weird.

But speaking of moving and shaking - this baby is all over the place! He kicks me all the time! Michelle's reaction to this news: "I'm not sure how I would deal with a small person constantly kicking me." Not to worry Mich, I poke him back from time to time :) Never too soon to assert the parental dominance. The movements have been so strong that Tommy has actually felt them too. He's only felt it once, but not for lack of trying! He has successfully branded the child with a new nickname that we BOTH enjoy, however - Pele Parr. Born ready. I have also shifted from referring to bebe as an alien to calling her my little ninja baby. Because without fail, the kid kicks/punches/head butts me every night under cover of darkness when I go to bed.

The Baby Bible says I'm in for an active pregnancy...I hope so.

An Update On Baby Parr's Parents is Severely Overdue...

So I suppose I should update this a bit and apprise the universe of exactly what Tommy and I are up to these days. Much has changed in the last couple of weeks!

We are officially back in Modesto, CA. I know, I know, we can't believe it either, but it's true! After a short hiatus I'm back with the Modesto Nuts, and actually started back three weeks ago in my old position as Director of Marketing and Public Relations. Tommy arrived in Motown last weekend after staying behind in the ILL state for a couple weeks to cover the final Illinois basketball games and pack all of our stuff in a big truck, and then drive our car out to Cali with the puppies. I flew out three weeks ago and have been staying with friends of ours and searching for a house for us to live in (which has gone somewhat miserably, but that's a whole blog post in and of itself...I'll just say this - who doesn't put a refrigerator in a rental?? California renters, apparently. What a treat.)

SO! With the little addition I'm carrying my job has changed a bit from what it was last year, but it's all been for the better. I've thoroughly enjoyed the last few weeks back at work and am excited and relieved to have secured gainful employment once again. Tommy has returned this season as the Nuts PA announcer, with some added production duties.

Opening Night for the team was Thursday and it was faaaantastic! Now we're just getting through the rest of this 4-game home stand before we both have a complete day off on Monday...finally a day to sleep in!! But not to worry, I'm taking care of myself and getting as much sleep as I can, and still managing to eat pretty well, in spite of spending 18 hours a day at a ballpark. So that's the update, more to come, as opportunities to add content to this delightful blog are always more plentiful on the weekends.

If you're ever in the Modesto area, give us a call, we <3 drive-bys. :)

We Have a Life Form...

March 4 was the day. It started much like any other, but we had our first doctor's appointment. I was 14 weeks, to the day, but they wouldn't even let me make my appointment until I was 8 weeks and then I had to wait for the first avail...moderately frustrating. But all of that was forgotten when we walked into the exam room...and heard our baby's heartbeat!!

We Officially Have a Life Form!

It may be slightly politically incorrect, but I often refer to BabyParr as my Little Alien Baby, because, let's face it - it's absolutely insane to think there's a baby growing in my belly...INSANE!

The heartbeat was very fast, 163 to be exact, which the Nurse Practitioner said was perfectly normal. She also said it was perfectly normal that I wasn't showing at all yet. Which, at 17 weeks, I'm still not (I want the bump dammit! No one believes I'm prego!) Apparently you're supposed to be able to tell the baby's gender by how fast or slow the fetal heartbeat is, but thus far we have received nothing but conflicting reports as to how the fast/slowness relates to the male/femaleness. We'll take that Old Wives Tale with a grain of salt.

Which does beg the question, are we going to find out what the baby is? As I will reach the 18 week mark in a couple days, by the time we have our next appointment we should have an ultrasound and it just might be possible to see whether there are boy parts or girl parts...

But, alas, Mr. Thomas and I remain at an impasse as we broach this particular topic. He has made the declaration that he does not want to find out, while I, on the other hand, really, really, reallyreallyreally dooo. He wants us to be surprised together, which is incredibly sweet...but I need to prepare! I have compulsions! Dare I say obsessive compulsions as they pertain to details and preparation for life-altering events, that must be accommodated. How am I supposed to know if I'm shopping for sweet sweet baby Air Jordans, or a plethora of over-the-top headbands and hairbows?? (yes, some of the headbands will have feathers)

Buuut, then again, I don't have to find out. We can have a week's worth of gender-specific outfits on hand and fill in the rest as we go along, right? Actually, the stroller I must have is a gender-neutral gray. And as for the crib and nursery furniture I'll go with my long-time fave espresso-colored. We'll be renting, so it's not like I could paint the baby's room, anyway. So really, I could deal with not knowing. Oof. I think I lose the debate. Cause I know Tomasito won't change his mind. But I guess you never know - he could waver during the ultrasound and decide he wants to know!

Or I could just slip the doctor a note saying I'll call him later to find out the gender, and then just keep it a secret...Haha, I know, I didn't believe the part about me keeping a secret either. Oh, babies!