Anna is 41 wks and Mel is 37 wks, new blog.

[Witsec7]

Well, and how un-Maxwell and defrauding is that whole "I can show off my baby bump, but I can't wear pants or call attention to any of my other curves at any other time other than when I'm pregnant"? That just seems so weird to me. Shouldn't those ladies be hiding their shape in big tent-dresses like they always do?

Ding ding ding! Seriously I've never quite understood that whole attitude.

[Feberin]

At least they're not taking any super weird pregnancy photos (http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2012/05/ ... -around-2/). I'm not a big fan of the heart thing either.

[Witsec7]

At least they're not taking any super weird pregnancy photos (http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2012/05/ ... -around-2/). I'm not a big fan of the heart thing either.

So it really is a clown car :lol:

[holothuroidea]

Well, and how un-Maxwell and defrauding is that whole "I can show off my baby bump, but I can't wear pants or call attention to any of my other curves at any other time other than when I'm pregnant"? That just seems so weird to me. Shouldn't those ladies be hiding their shape in big tent-dresses like they always do?

Well nothing says, "my body doesn't belong to me!" like a baby bump, so that's why it's probably okay. (Also, :( sadface for the fact that people generally view pregnant women that way).

In any event, those "bumps" are fairly huge. You'd really need to literally wear a tent for someone to not know you were pregnant. And then people would just be like, "Why the fuck is she wearing a tent?"

[TVR]

EVERY maternity shoot I have ever done the mom-to-be has requested the heart on the bump thing. It is definitely not only a fundie thing. If not done right it can resemble the ASL sign for vagina :)

[WonderingInWA]

EVERY maternity shoot I have ever done the mom-to-be has requested the heart on the bump thing. It is definitely not only a fundie thing. If not done right it can resemble the ASL sign for vagina :)

Seriously? I don't know ASL, but that's hilarious.

[ilovetchotchkes]

Well nothing says, "my body doesn't belong to me!" like a baby bump, so that's why it's probably okay. (Also, :( sadface for the fact that people generally view pregnant women that way).

In any event, those "bumps" are fairly huge. You'd really need to literally wear a tent for someone to not know you were pregnant. And then people would just be like, "Why the fuck is she wearing a tent?"

EEEEH you CAN hide it. It all seriously depends on the clothes. The clothes i'm wearing today? scream "OBVIOUSLY INCUBATING A FETUS". I"ve got some other outfits that merely make me look fat, and i'm a 2nd time mom at 30 weeks.

What makes me giggle is when these fundy women show off a "bump" at like 5 weeks. And there's NOTHING THERE.

[emmiedahl]

Okay, I need to share a completely off-topic story related to accidental sign language. My sister used to be a social worker with adults with developmental disabilities. She spoke fluent sign language because a lot of her clients did. So my grandmother saw a card with a child making a gesture similar to this one:

Inside it said "This is sign language for Happy Birthday!" She did not get the joke, and bought it. When J opened it, we all laughed. Grandma was like, "Why are you laughing???" Then we realized she had not ever seen that gesture and laughed harder.

This is what growing up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood gets you: at age 70, you do not recognize common obscene gestures and phrases. Makes for some great family jokes, though! We make a point of saying Happy Birthday! to each other in 'sign language' now.

[SeaSaltCaramel]

That makes me think of a pregnant friend of mine who's having prego pics done every 4 weeks by a photographer friend. For weeks 8, 12, and 16 she still barely looks pregnant.

[ilovetchotchkes]

That makes me think of a pregnant friend of mine who's having prego pics done every 4 weeks by a photographer friend. For weeks 8, 12, and 16 she still barely looks pregnant.

I did bump pictures every week for my OWN reference because I only have a handful of pics from when I was pregnant with Thing #1. They're on FB, but its not like, they're my profile picture or anything they're actually in an album where my friends who have experienced losses do NOT have access to because I don't want to make it worse. FB actually helps me organize shit. Nor did i have them professionally done. That's..... a bit much. For the first... I wanna say 10 or so the caption reads "yeah, still don't look pregnant! HA! "

Edited to add: one of them was my cover photo for a while, but it was in front of my mom's lilac bush and I was in purple and everything was just so damn matchy matchy pretty i coudln't help it...

[Guest Anonymous]

I have to admit that I get a little envious when I see big preggo belly's like the Maxwell ladies. I carried my daughter kind of small and all over my belly rather than like having a huge ball under my shirt. Honestly, I felt I never really looked that pregnant, especially when I went to get a bridesmaids dress that I was wearing to a wedding altered at 8 months along and the seamstress didn't even realize I was pregnant until I told her :? I always wished I had the big ol' belly!

[Guest Anonymous]

Who????????

[WonderingInWA]

I took photos of my belly every month when I was pregnant (through clothes, although the last one with my first son I did bare the skin, but it was about 3 hours before he was born and I just wanted to document the ungodly hour of having been up all night). I kept pregnancy journals with each child so they both know what my experience was like with them. But I have never put that stuff online. They are 12 and 9 and are both totally creeped out by seeing photos of me being pregnant with them, but someday maybe they will have partners that will want to see those photos. Fun memories. I loved being pregnant.

I know - totally OT!

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Okay, I need to share a completely off-topic story related to accidental sign language. My sister used to be a social worker with adults with developmental disabilities. She spoke fluent sign language because a lot of her clients did. So my grandmother saw a card with a child making a gesture similar to this one:

Inside it said "This is sign language for Happy Birthday!" She did not get the joke, and bought it. When J opened it, we all laughed. Grandma was like, "Why are you laughing???" Then we realized she had not ever seen that gesture and laughed harder.

This is what growing up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood gets you: at age 70, you do not recognize common obscene gestures and phrases. Makes for some great family jokes, though! We make a point of saying Happy Birthday! to each other in 'sign language' now.

Okay, it's only tangentially related but reminds me of a story too.

My high school (in the 1980's) had a program for some students to take a foreign exchange trip to the US to practice English. They went to Seattle and the suburbs around there. I did not get to go, because it was expensive and I spoke English already and had lived in the US previously so, no point. Fine.

Well, the kids from the English trip went, and came back, and as it happens there was an occasion for the English Club (of which I was a member, because we got to watch American TV on VHS tapes, w000t) to take some group pictures. And, a bunch of kids "flipped the bird." Which they did not know what it was. "What are you doing" "When we went to Seattle we saw people doing it and we thought it meant 'hello' or like this (the usual "peace sign" that EVERY person does in photos)"

Ummmm...... yeah. No.

In 2012 every person knows what that sign really means, surely, but back then, not so much. I could not stop laughing. But it's a good lesson, even if you want to be pure in your own expression you should maybe learn what offensive things people might say to YOU :D

[WonderingInWA]

Okay, it's only tangentially related but reminds me of a story too.

My high school (in the 1980's) had a program for some students to take a foreign exchange trip to the US to practice English. They went to Seattle and the suburbs around there. I did not get to go, because it was expensive and I spoke English already and had lived in the US previously so, no point. Fine.

Well, the kids from the English trip went, and came back, and as it happens there was an occasion for the English Club (of which I was a member, because we got to watch American TV on VHS tapes, w000t) to take some group pictures. And, a bunch of kids "flipped the bird." Which they did not know what it was. "What are you doing" "When we went to Seattle we saw people doing it and we thought it meant 'hello' or like this (the usual "peace sign" that EVERY person does in photos)"

Ummmm...... yeah. No.

In 2012 every person knows what that sign really means, surely, but back then, not so much. I could not stop laughing. But it's a good lesson, even if you want to be pure in your own expression you should maybe learn what offensive things people might say to YOU :D

OMG, that's classic! You and I are about the same age and I grew up in Idaho (which was pretty back-woods in the 80's still), but even I knew what the middle finger meant! LOL!

[desertvixen]

What makes me giggle is when these fundy women show off a "bump" at like 5 weeks. And there's NOTHING THERE.

I know, right? I had professional shots done, but I was like 30 weeks along then. We took some shots of the bump, but more it was just pictures of us doing normal stuff.

The whole 37 weeks thing - technically my daughter was born at 37 weeks, but she was seven and a half pounds - I had an ultrasound that dated her two weeks later than my original due date, but I think they messed it up some.

I do hope all goes well for both the Maxwell ladies.

[Kitty]

What makes me giggle is when these fundy women show off a "bump" at like 5 weeks. And there's NOTHING THERE.

It's not just fundies. I've seen FB friends do the same freaking thing, though around 8 or 9 weeks. There's not even a bump, but they are arching their backs to make it look like they do.

I think it's just people just obsessing over pregnancy and actually making an idol of it. Wait. :o The Maxwells are making an idol out of pregnancy!!!

[terranova]

Melanie's skirt is pretty. Looks peasant. I'd wear that skirt, pregnant or not!

Anna looks radiant and excited :)

[clibbyjo]

I am on the 37 weeks is full term bandwagon. My 2nd was born the day I turned 37 weeks so they considered her full term. I has preterm labor with my 3rd at 31 weeks and I was told bedrest until I hit 37 weeks.

[Katiebug]

That makes me think of a pregnant friend of mine who's having prego pics done every 4 weeks by a photographer friend. For weeks 8, 12, and 16 she still barely looks pregnant.

I started taking pictures of myself (fully clothed with the belly covered) on the day of my prenatal appointments starting at 20 weeks. So it was every 4 weeks until I was 32 weeks and then every 2 until 36 when I went to weekly. In retrospect, the only way you'd notice I was pregnant at 20 weeks was if I was wearing a maternity top, even though I'd been in maternity pants for the comfort factor since the end of my first trimester. I was still wearing a mix of normal and maternity tops. I have a long torso and wasn't super-skinny to begin with, so it just looked like I'd gained a couple of pounds. By 24 weeks I'd popped out and was obviously pregnant in just about any outfit.

I think first trimester belly shots are a little absurd, especially with a first baby. It cracks me up on Babycenter or on blogs when a first time mom INSISTS that she has a bump at 5 or 6 weeks. No, honey - you're arching your back and sticking your gut out. The uterus is still behind the pubic bone until the 2nd trimester, the baby is the size of a blueberry, and there's literally no baby bump to be seen! With 2nd or later babies you tend to show earlier - but that's a small bump at ~12 weeks, not a week after you find out you're pregnant.

I think that both Anna and Mel look very pretty in those pictures - I'd happily wear either of those skirts, pregnant or not. It must be a relief for Melanie to have made it to full term in light of her past complications...I hope she's giving birth in a hospital rather than attempting a home birth, since she's been high risk.

[ilovetchotchkes]

I started taking pictures of myself (fully clothed with the belly covered) on the day of my prenatal appointments starting at 20 weeks. So it was every 4 weeks until I was 32 weeks and then every 2 until 36 when I went to weekly. In retrospect, the only way you'd notice I was pregnant at 20 weeks was if I was wearing a maternity top, even though I'd been in maternity pants for the comfort factor since the end of my first trimester. I was still wearing a mix of normal and maternity tops. I have a long torso and wasn't super-skinny to begin with, so it just looked like I'd gained a couple of pounds. By 24 weeks I'd popped out and was obviously pregnant in just about any outfit.

I think first trimester belly shots are a little absurd, especially with a first baby. It cracks me up on Babycenter or on blogs when a first time mom INSISTS that she has a bump at 5 or 6 weeks. No, honey - you're arching your back and sticking your gut out. The uterus is still behind the pubic bone until the 2nd trimester, the baby is the size of a blueberry, and there's literally no baby bump to be seen! With 2nd or later babies you tend to show earlier - but that's a small bump at ~12 weeks, not a week after you find out you're pregnant.

I think that both Anna and Mel look very pretty in those pictures - I'd happily wear either of those skirts, pregnant or not. It must be a relief for Melanie to have made it to full term in light of her past complications...I hope she's giving birth in a hospital rather than attempting a home birth, since she's been high risk.

What happens i think is a lot of women get BLOATED and they think its a bump. it happened to me until the morning sickness from hell kicked in. Then, I seriously didn't look certifiably "pregnant' until about 17 weeks or so. The first time around, I just wanted to look pregnant because we had been trying with a lot of struggle for a long time. This time, I was like "dude, gimme those maternity pants, they're effin comfortable. Which did nothing to hide it. :-/

[Katiebug]

What happens i think is a lot of women get BLOATED and they think its a bump. it happened to me until the morning sickness from hell kicked in. Then, I seriously didn't look certifiably "pregnant' until about 17 weeks or so. The first time around, I just wanted to look pregnant because we had been trying with a lot of struggle for a long time. This time, I was like "dude, gimme those maternity pants, they're effin comfortable. Which did nothing to hide it. :-/

Oh, definitely. Bloating plays a pretty big role, but when I bloated it was around my entire midsection, not just in front. And sadly, nearly 2 years after giving birth I look as "pregnant" now as I did when I was 20 weeks along!

I remember being shocked at how early my SIL and all of my cousins-in-law started showing with pregnancies after their first babies. Of course these women tend to be very slender and naturally having those enviably-flat stomachs when not pregnant/very newly postpartum (I pray for our daughter's sake that she has my husband's genetics and not mine). I could tell with all of them when they started wearing flowy tops and bulky sweaters rather than the usual relatively form-fitting tops, and all had visible bumps by 12-13 weeks the 2nd or 3rd time around.

I loooove maternity clothes because they're so comfy. I would have gladly paid Motherhood Maternity to make real clothes with that Secret Fit Belly waistband for everyday use. :oops:

[Snickerdoodle]

37 weeks is indeed considered full term.

I work in L&D and there is now a classification called "early term birth" that refers to babies born at 37 or 38 weeks. Full term is now defined as birth at 39-40 weeks. This came about because of extensive research that showed increased risk of long-term health problems in babies born at 37-38 weeks. If you google "early term birth" you can find lots of info on the topic.

[pixydust]

Inductions/scheduled C-sections aren't recommended before 39 weeks unless there's a reason. But if a baby is born at 37 weeks it counts as full-term.

Everyone that I have ever known to have a scheduled induction or c-section was at 37 or 38 weeks. My 2 youngest kids were scheduled for 37 weeks each (one of them came at 35 weeks).

[SunnyAndrsn]

90 degrees out and two of the sons are wearing that crap on their backs? WTF did they need to all bring?

Seriously, you'd think they'd have figured out how to travel light. I can't imagine either of the little girls would want to ride in that thing for very long when it's that hot.

Stick 'em in a stroller and pack all the crap you need to bring on the bottom of the stroller. Lots easier if you ask me.

I'm remembering the 100 pounds (okay, more like 55 pounds) of stuff I had to bring for my client when I did home care. he was trached and bringing him to the zoo was a huge ordeal, and I was exhausted by the end of the day from pushing him in his w/c along with all of his equipment. He was 85 pounds, plus 55 pounds of equipment, including tube feeding, meds, ambu bag, emergency trach supplies, and an O2 tank.

For him, we HAD to carry all that stuff, but it drove me nuts to see parents of healthy kids lugging who would lug all that crap around with them that's so totally not needed.