Flot Update #6, sent 9/6:

Hi all,

A few of you have been bugging me for an update and rightfully so. Fourty weeks of pregnancy and this is my 6th update--that's kind of lame...

I guess a lot has been going on. Most important for the purposes of my pregnancy is the fact that my belly has grown and feels huge to me, even though I've been told I'm carrying Flot compactly, whatever that means.

Today it's a week to Flot's due date. Pretty crazy idea, that in a week, more or less, David and I could be finally holding a little baby Flot. I'm excited. Somehow it feels like just yesterday that we found out that I was pregnant, although I so want my body back at this point too!

I'm not the only person who is really excited—which is no surprise, we have such a wonderful community of friends who have been gearing up in all kinds of way to welcome Flot. A few friends have even reported dreaming about Flot (I have too, although it was kind of disturbing, as I dreamt that I birthed my cat Dreyfus and no one but me seemed to be bothered about it). My friend Varda's dream won the prize for entertainment value, so with her permission I'm passing it on for you to enjoy (for context—this dream took place just as the UK authorities were uncovering the latest supposed terrorist plot against the US).

Varda's dream: My friend Isabelle, Ana, other friends (I don't remember who) were
having dinner in Park Slope, and rushed because there was a curfew in Prospect Heights and Bob and I had to come home before dark. We left them, went home and ran into Marsha in the stairs. She announced she has just delivered the baby and was going to the supermarket!!! We asked if we could come up and visit - we were so excited - and she said yes, David was upstairs, to show up later.... We did and my boss, Chris, was assigning rooms to visitors. We got one, fell asleep and then Bob woke me up and we stood on line with a boarding pass and finally saw....your daugther. She was wearing a yellow outfit, and was making fists. Her eyes were shut and she had dark brown hair already.

All the excitement aside, it's been a topsy turvy summer. David and I worked hard to get the apartment tidied up so we could move stuff out of the study (much of it down to the basement; thank goodness for our neighbor Bob who helped David carry about a dozen boxes of books down three flights!) and start work on fixing up that room for Flot.

Our friends Erin, Carolina and Jen all helped David get the room painted and then it was up to me to unpack and sort through the piles of baby stuff that we collected from our two (!) baby showers and from friends who had a ton of stuff to pass on.

The room is now pretty much ready to go—although we can't find the right screws for our hand-me down crib from David's sister Lissa and we have some decorations to hang up. Given that we plan to have Flot sleep with us for the first few months, I think I'll task my parents, who are visiting in October, to put the finishing touches on this new cheerful room. In the meantime our cats have happily claimed the room as theirs and we're not about to take away their last moments of child-free bliss.

Getting all the "stuff" together was fun and we're both so thrilled with all the support everyone has given us. We have enough clothes for three newborns, stuffed toys and books galore, 5 baby bjorns to choose from, enough diapers for the first six months and so much more.

David's family, Esther, Teresa and Mary went all-out to help David and I get ready and my parents and sister Jaya in France have helped in a huge way too. They've been as much part of the "getting ready" process as everyone else, despite the distance. At this point I only have a few items that I'm not sure how to quite use, so I figure we're good to go. I imagine that Flot and I will figure it all out in no time.

The baby showers were a total blast. Flot put on weight at both showers I'm sure because the food was so scrumptious and I was able to exercise my belly muscles at the Brooklyn shower because of the games that my friend Mary had us all play and that had me in stitches (and once in tears—imagine playing bingo and every time one of your numbers is called you have to make a baby sound you were asked to choose a few moments before the game started without knowing what for).

In between all the preparations David and I went on some of our usual beach trips to Fire Island and we even managed to squeeze out for a long weekend in upstate New York where we biked on trails we'd normally have hiked on if it wasn't for my big belly. The highlight of that trip was sitting on top of Castle Rock overlooking Lake Minnewaska State Park eating a mozzarella and tomato (homegrown and one of the best tasting tomatoes I've ever had) sandwich.

And now I'm off work, at home, on maternity leave! Unfortunately domestic bliss and relaxation was postponed a tad because our cat One got sick and has since been diagnosed with a chronic kidney malfunction. We've both been struggling to find out more about what this all means and also get used to managing her care. Fingers crossed for her and us that she is one of those lucky cats that lives for a few years after diagnosis. After her initial crash last week she is now almost back to her same old cheerful purry self, so that's reassuring for the moment and all we could ask for really.

So now the wait is on for Flot. I nap when I can, I'm catching up with friends I haven't seen in a while, getting some email out before I am on a 3 hour breastfeeding schedule (although my friend Megan proved that you can eventually write emails while breastfeeding!), receiving yummy home cooked meals from many of you that are being stored in our freezer for post-birth relief, and reading a bunch.

I finally trekked into the library to get Russel Banks' huge novel, "Cloudsplitter," on John Brown (for those not in the US, a little history: he was an abolitionst who in 1859 led a successful attack on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry in West Virginia, hoping that slaves would join his rebellion so that he could form an emancipation army, but a few days later the armory was taken back and he was eventually captured, tried and convicted of insurrection, treason and murder and executed.) David has reportedly been collecting a bunch of books for me to read too.

Well, you may all get another email from me soon...with real NEWS! I've started up a blog for Flot--nothing exiciting or high-tech mind you, but it will allow me to upload pics and you all can chime in and have real debates among yourselves about who Flot looks like the most. Real test will be to see how often I manage to upload pics. So in the hopes I don't utterly fail at being in touch, stay posted!

In the meantime, all that remains for me is to say again and again how much we appreciate all your attention, support, kindness and love for our expanding family.

Love, Marsha