Convergent Paths

Father Daughter Dance

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:26:40 -0800

Amazing. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Lovely. Happy. And they are both all mine. (swoon) I do hope someone puts on a mother-son dance.

Preggo brain for Husbands?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:03:45 -0800

So everyone knows about pregnancy weight gain for women and sympathy weight gain for men. What about that forgetful, spacey preggo brain for husbands? Does it transfer from the wife to the husband?

Mine has proven to have a very good case of it. (Honey, I love you and honor you and respect you, but these are just too funny not to capture for posterity.)

All in the same 3 day period:

Locked himself out of the house.Made a cup of coffee with the Keurig, and in the span of that 30 seconds, completely forgot about it until later in the day.Started a pot of water boiling, and forgot about it until all the water had boiled out.Made a loaf of bread, and forgot to add the yeast (Jazmynn, our English Mastiff, enjoyed that bit of forgetfulness very much.)Forgot to turn off the car headlights and drained the battery.Forgot to turn the car off and left it running.Got frustrated that the Apple TV wouldn’t connect, and then realized the internet was not

Five months down- Hello month 6!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:24:31 -0800

It’s hard to believe that today I officially entered my 6 month of pregnancy. Wow, this is going by fast. (Note, that I still have 4 months left- I’m entering my 6th month, not finishing.) Just some random thoughts and milestones:

Mehregan started kicking in earnest the first week of January (18w), but only so that I could feel it on the inside.

Jim was able to see her clearly kick my belly at 19w6d. (And feel her.)

The absolute COOLEST thing about pregnancy is not the movements, not the new life, not the ultrasounds. Nope. The absolute best thing about pregnancy is having a “finish no later than” date! I love it. Love it, love it, love it! That’s the one area where hands down, pregnancy is better than adoption (in my opinion).

My weight hit a plateau for a couple weeks, but finally jumped up to the normal range. Not a biggie, but I was starting to get

It's a GIRL!!!

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:59:16 -0800

The results were so close, it was almost a tie! 59 guesses, 27 boy and 32 girl.

And the majority WINS!!

We’re having another baby girl!!!!

Here is a sneak peek at a very "healthy, cozy, and stubborn"

Mehregan Louise Matasovsky

We pronounce Mehregan like the first two syllables of Meredith and the last syllable of Megan. MARE-ah-gin.

Mehregan is a Persian name (Iranian) that means 'Thanksgiving' in the traditional sense of fall harvests and giving thanks for the bounty. In fact, Mehregan is the fairly well known and celebrated Persian Festival of Autumn.

Mehregan is also based on the month Mehr which means 'sun.' Interestingly Gavriel's birth name, Samson, also means

Boy or Girl? Guesses/Intuition?

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:35:00 -0800

TUESDAY!!! Eeeee!!!! Surprisingly to me, I’ve had very few people making unsolicited guesses or claiming intuition on the gender of our babe. I’m now soliciting openly. :-) And yes, if the baby shows us the goods on Tuesday, we will be sharing.

There are four pictures below to help. The last two show me wearing a bikini. I’m appropriately covered, but a bikini nonetheless, so consider yourself forewarned on the lack of modesty (or scroll past the last 2 photos to get to the comment section at the bottom).

What’s your guess? Boy or Girl?

All 19 week bump shotsStandard view

Front on

For the scientific guessers (that would be an oxymoron, wouldn’t it?), the next two were taken first thing in the morning with my

Anatomy Scan = Referral?

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:20:35 -0800

I’ve been getting more and more excited about our upcoming anatomy scan on Tuesday. As I was making my way down the dark stairs this morning to fill my empty belly, I realized that it’s so much like receiving a referral. The three main differences are:

1. I know when I’m getting it.2. I know who the birth parents are.3. There’s no rejecting it (not that we've done that, but the option was always there).

The similarities:

1. Before scan/referral, we know we’re in process, but we don’t know for whom.2. We finally see a picture of who our child is.3. We find out the gender, and can really start to nest.4. We get a medical and determine if there are any special needs/birth defects. a. If there are, we start gathering more medical information and find medical specialists to work with.5. We can pick out names.6. We can hang pictures on the

Totally Weird

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:38:24 -0800

Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve felt very non pregnant (though I definitely am- I can hear the HB). The bloat has gone away significantly and my stomach is not quite flat, but only gently rounded. I look like I went from 5 months pregnant to 8 weeks. Which is also weird because my uterus is really poking out a bit now. Hmm… Ya, I don’t get it either. And my weight has been holding steady, so that’s kind of nice. I eat plenty, but just not junk food or fast food and I pretty much stick to fruit and nuts for snacks. And a lot of water. Oh my gosh, the water intake is amazing. I swear I drink more water than a whale! And I was no slacker before! Prior to pg, I would drink 80-120 oz of water per day. Now I lose track of how many giant super size glasses I chug a day. And it tastes sooooo good. I’ve become a water-aholic. I liked and enjoyed it before, but it’s

Poverty and birth moms during pregnancy

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:43:25 -0800

The person I have been thinking about the most through this entire pregnancy so far has not been who I would have thought five months ago. Gavriel’s birth mom has been on my mind a lot. I haven’t made much of a secret about how brutal the first trimester was for me, though I tried hard not to whine too much about it publicly. Compared to her though, I had it super cushy.

I had medical care and was able to get anti-nausea meds. She probably suffered day and night with no relief.I have a job where if I was not feeling well, I could take my laptop and crawl into bed and work horizontally. She probably carried loads of wood on her back for miles in no shoes.When I was hungry, I could eat anything I wanted at any time. I even kept food on my night stand. She probably had very little to eat, and certainly nothing extra. Hunger was a constant thing.When I faced the nausea, I had crackers and grapes and cheese to help settle my

I think I should be afraid :-)

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:57:18 -0800

Now before anyone blasts me or chastises me, just remember that what is an unhealthy obsession for one, is a meaningless activity for another; what is invigorating to one, is boring to another; what is stress and pressure to one, is motivation to another. Opinions on what I ‘shouldn’t’ chart need not be expressed. My journal, my fun thoughts to be captured.

That being said, I determined what my healthy weight gain should be throughout the pregnancy. Again, the caveat stated that I don’t really care, it’s just a ‘nice to know,’ and gives me some guidelines to shoot for. I’ve been tracking rather nicely if I do say so myself. The thing I like about tracking my weight is it keeps me in check a little by asking myself, “Are you really hungry, or are you using pregnancy as an excuse to indulge?” Sometimes the answer comes back one, sometimes it comes back the other, and sometimes I

15 weeks today

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:07:55 -0800

Wow, this feels like a good milestone. I’m almost to the halfway point! Or at least for some reason, I feel on the upside to halfway. Maybe it’s because with all the chances of miscarriage, weeks 0-10 don’t count much. 20 weeks is the next big one, and I’m halfway between 10 and 20. Nice!

Things have started paining me this week. Not excessively, and nothing to really complain about yet. My lower back is getting sore, I can feel my hips softening and aching if I lean on them or sit on them and stretch them, and I’ve had a few round ligament pains. Again, nothing really significant other than all three started making their appearance this week.

I’ve gone two days in a row without having to take anti-nausea meds. Woo hoo!! Let’s hope that’s a trend that continues.

In other exciting (to me) news, I ordered a bunch of maternity shirts from Old Navy on Cyber

Funny Story - Twins

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 07:06:04 -0800

Twins run in my family, and I’ve always wondered whether I would carry twins if I ever tried to get pregnant. I haven’t had any ultrasounds, but mother’s intuition from day one has told me that I’m only carrying one.

A few days ago, my sister posted to my FB wall and told me that her son felt I had two babies. My friend Wendy chimed in that I should double check. Here’s the conversation:

I can laugh now, but I can’t tell you how FREAKED out I was when I heard two very separate heartbeats!! And I love twins. Twins are great and all, and if it happened, there is part of me that would be very thrilled. The other part of me would be a tad bit scared though! That would mean 3 carseats and 1 booster seat in a 5 seater car. Um...

Expecting #3

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:34:48 -0800

We’re doing it again! Matasovsky Baby #3. I have been keeping a journal since May which I’ve now moved over to this blog. I assume very few people will be interested enough to read all of it, so here are the highlights:

“Why pregnancy rather than adopt again?”

“Was it planned or a surprise?”

“What are the risks? Your reproductive system isn’t young anymore. Are you concerned?”

“

13/14 week update

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:07:11 -0800

Gah! It's been so long since I've posted. Perhaps it's because I've got so many things to talk about that I don't know where to start. I'm sure part of it is because I'm now public on FB, though there are definitely restrictions there (which is one of the topics). And the other part is that I've been working on getting the real blog up and going. And for some reason, the latter takes away from the personalization of this blog. I'm not sure I understand it myself, but I can see how the apathy I've had towards blogging over the past 7 months is now rolling over into this journal. Boo.

So I guess a straight up update of week 13/14 is the best place to start. I'm afraid to say anything and want to knock on wood, but I think I'm starting to feel better. The nausea is still there a little, but nothing like before. And I'm starting to have energy, and I've even

Popper's Story

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:41:40 -0800

Welcome to our journey to our 3rd child!

Our goal in creating this section was to ensure the journey to EACH of our children is well documented for them.

If there is anything we can give to our children on the day we meet, it is the story of how they were born in our hearts and how we longed for them, prepared for them, and waited for their arrival.

The stories here are for us as a family, but also for our children.

Here are the highlights so far:

“Why pregnancy rather than adopt again?”

“Was it planned or a surprise?”

“What are the risks? Your reproductive system isn’t young anymore. Are you concerned?”

The Bullet and made myself 4 fruit and yogurt smoothies, and drank all 4 of them. Couldn't get enough.