Baby FAQs

As Paul and I spread the news about my pregnancy, we were quick to receive the congratulations of family and friends. And then came the questions.

I'm happy to answer them. I like talking about the baby, since that's pretty much all I'm thinking about right now anyway. In any case, here's a few of the questions we've received, and feel free to ask your own in the comments if I've forgotten anything!

When's the baby due?
November 22 -- Thanksgiving Day

Is it a boy or girl?
Too early to tell. 

Do you want to know if it's a boy or girl?
Paul and I are agreed: We both want to know.

Do you want a boy or a girl?
I slightly want a girl, and Paul slightly wants a boy. But really, both of us will be thrilled with a happy, healthy baby of either gender.

Were you trying?
I've been surprised by how often this question has come up. Maybe it's because we've been married for almost nine years and some people figure we would've had a kid by now if we wanted one. But in fact, we had been trying for several months. Just because we didn't tell you (and by "you" I mean everyone -- we didn't tell a single soul) doesn't mean it wasn't on our minds or in our plans!

Was there any specific moment in which you knew you wanted a child?
I can honestly say no. Right now I see it as a decision Paul and I made after many years of discussion and serious consideration. In a few years maybe I'll look back on myself as the stereotypical 30-year-old who heard the tick-tock of her biological clock. But Paul and I began seriously discussing the possibility of a child (and not just theoretically) a year or more ago.

Any strange cravings?
A few so far. At first about the only thing I could stand was hard-boiled eggs. Then a daily craving for cantaloupe. I still eat both of those, but my true loves right now are watermelon, which I'd always been indifferent to, and baked potatoes. The worst thing, however, have been my food aversions. After 15+ years of an almost daily peanut butter sandwich and banana, I only recently started eating peanut butter (on toast only) after a hiatus of a month or so, and I haven't been able to eat bananas since about the beginning of April.

How are you?
Excited, nervous and nauseous, not always in that order.

How's Paul?
The same, minus the nausea. He's also gotten very adept at catering to my every whim. That includes making midnight watermelon runs and 7 a.m. vanilla milkshakes.

A New Addition

I'll keep the news short and sweet: I'm pregnant, and the baby's due in November!

So there you are. Now you know my unscheduled blogging breaks weren't just because I was sick, but because I had some pretty awful morning sickness -- and I still haven't fully recovered. And nowadays I'd much rather sleep than type when I get home from work each night, and the weekends aren't much better.

I'm not expecting this to morph into a baby blog, although I am going to indulge in three posts this week on the topic. After that, you'll certainly see the occasional -- dare I say, regular -- post about this pregnancy, if only because almost everything is revolving around it at this point.

And while this is my first pregnancy and I have nothing to compare it to, I suspect that a New York City pregnancy is different than an Ohio one, in both good ways and bad. I plan to explore the pros and cons, and I've already found plenty of both.

So: On Wednesday, answers to frequently asked questions. Friday: more about my morning sickness. And on Monday: Back to regularly scheduled programming.

Evita on Broadway

When I heard last autumn that Evita was returning to Broadway, I knew without a doubt that I'd be seeing it this spring. My dad and I have a longstanding affection for the mid-'90s movie starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas, and there's rarely a year that goes by that we don't manage to watch the movie on one of my trips home to Defiance.

So needless to say, we didn't hesitate to get tickets to the show, which opened just a few weeks before my mom and dad's visit. Ricky Martin was the headliner, but I was most interested in Elena Roger, the Argentinian lead. After years of listening to Madonna begging Argentina not to cry for her, it was a nice twist to hear it with a real Spanish accent.

And as a giant fan of the TV show "Fringe," I loved seeing Juan Peron being played by Michael Cerveris, the first Observer introduced on the show. Every time he uttered the word "observer," I giggled. He did it on purpose, right?

Anyway, we all loved the show -- it's in my top two or three of the 10 or so Broadway shows I've seen. I had the songs in my head the entire week before the show and ever since.