Mock C-Section

Lee, the anesthesiologist, watches over the patient who will soon get her amniotic sac (blue) cut. Her partner in the black vest watches calmly while the OBs in the orange vest and blue tunic operate.

Day 3 of Great Starts Prenatal Class

Men Giving Birth

Here are 3 men in our Great Starts Prenatal Class simulating the birth process.

Lee is the rastafarian uterus. His job was to push the gigantic head of the plastic baby out of the knit uterus. He had to try several times.

The other 2 men held the plastic hip and something else I can't recall. The woman in red is our instructor who played the doctor assisting the birth.

The men did well and it only took about 5 minutes.

Baby Showers and Baby Gifts

As you already know, we are being treated to 2 baby showers - one on March 6 in Seattle and another on March 21 in Olympia. How lucky can we be!?

As a part of that process, friends and family have asked if we have a gift registry. Well, now we do!

But before we get to that, we want to say that we have already been blessed with lots of second-hand baby clothes and other necessities. We love stuff with a history especially when it comes from family and friends!

So...the registry includes things we'll need and some extras like toys. We are of course clueless about most things so if you have some suggestions such as your favorite childhood book or an absolute lifesaver for parenting, please enlighten us! Also, if you know of good Chinese storybooks, we want to make sure Baby Tiger speaks Mandarin and reads Chinese. Good luck to us!

And...you can search for Lee or Jayde Roberts at http://www.amazon.com/babyregistry or http://www.birthandbeyond.com/registry1.html.

We look forward to seeing you in March!

The Bump that is Baby Tiger

Well...the little man must be growing faster because his presence is much more obvious to the outside world. At week 28 and 5 days, this is how he is expressing himself. I'm guessing (with the help of numerous books) that he'll just grow faster and faster. We'll see how that goes!

On the inside, he seems to be practicing for his gymnastic trials or kick boxing. It is reassuring to know that he is so healthy but my right ribs are a little achy. But, rather lots of kicking and turning than stillness. Maybe we'll have a feisty little tiger...

Lions & Tigers & Baby Showers Oh My!

Hello Family and Friends,

Some of you have offered to organize a baby shower for us - the rabbit, rooster, and gestating tiger - and we feel so lucky!

The best part is, some of you have offered to make a quilt for Baby Tiger. The idea is, anyone who is interested can contribute a 6"x6" fabric square and our incredibly talented friends will transform those pieces of fabric into a quilt. Along with the fabric square, you can write out a wish card. Doesn't that sound cool!?

So, we are all very excited about the prospect of this Baby Tiger quilt and want to give everyone a heads up. More information will be coming via snail mail or email this month.

Tiger credits are due

The tiger graphic we used for this blog comes from a fun and exquisite calendar made by Midori, a paper company in Japan. We were lucky enough to get one from our friends Liz (who is doing her PhD in Kobe and is a great resource for all things crafty and all things Japanese), and Katie (who is here in Seattle and just happened to be going to Japan at the perfect time).

The calendar seems to have been discontinued already, but Midori has a lot of great stuff. Its a good chance to practice your Japanese, too: http://www.midori-japan.co.jp/

Hello From In Here

We're just getting things kicked off here - but in case you just wandered in here by accident, this is the blog for a not-yet-ready-for-prime-time young man who shall remain nameless until his parents finally make a decision.

Until then, you may call him whatever seems best!

Here's his best portrait to date:

And these are the parents, Lee and Jayde:

When they dress up in funny costumes, they look like this: