Soccer Mom haircut drama and Baby Updates. (Male readers, you may be excused from the first part of this post to go do something manly if you prefer)

So, this spring and summer, I had a pretty fun haircut that I really liked:

So maybe it DOES resemble the 90s Rachel Cut.  I liked it, ok?!!

It looks pretty effortless, I know, but keep in mind that I have wispy, infant-fine hair.   So this look actually required a somewhat complicated styling situation that involved multiple brushes, sprays, and drying/curling devices.  But, of course, after getting pregnant, I was suddenly in HATE with my blow-dryer, the evil hot-air spewing cousin of the hot shower, and refused to style my hair properly.  Plus, it's pretty difficult to get motivated to do your hair for 1.5 people to see (husband and doggie).  Result? The daily blah-but-easy-and-out-of-my-face ponytail.

I felt like I was starting to let myself go too much, though, and that next I would be wearing my sweats and Crocs out to the grocery store.  Yes, I have Crocs; yes, I know they are hideous, but they are really comfortable.  I only wear them around the house, so you can't judge me.  Anyway, I decided that if I got a simpler haircut, I would be more likely to style it.  So the other day I went to the salon with these pictures:

My hairdresser said something like, "Wow, that's a big change, this isn't a pregnancy hormone decision, is it?" And I was like, "Oh, ha ha, no, of course not."  Yeah.

8 inches later.....I don't know what to think.  Every time I look in the mirror, I'm like, Oh god that is really short, what have I done??!!  Now it's so short that I can't even put it in a ponytail.  I can tell you that my hair has little to no resemblance to the sleek, sophisticated bobs in the above pictures.  Probably because those women have on-call stylists, or are at least skilled enough themselves to use a round brush and a blow-dryer at the same time.  Part of me is afraid that I may have started down the slippery slope of Soccer Mom hair.  Which I am NOT ready for.  Another part of me is having haunting flashbacks to a haircut I had as a child.  In. the. EIGHTIES:

All I want for Christmas is hair wings!

I'm not sure I'm ready to post a picture of my new 80s Soccer Mom hair yet.  Maybe if I give it a few days it will grow out a little bit...

I'm at least going to wait for Jeromy to get home to take a picture.  My attempts at mirror pictures in the past have been.....*special* to say the least.  So, moving on....

 A few baby updates:

• I am about 97% sure that I am feeling Doctor move around!  For a while I have had some subtle but pretty strange sensations.  I described it to Jeromy as feeling like when you are in a swimming pool and someone moves around in the water near to you and you can feel the motion, even if they don't touch you.  Only in your stomach.  He looked confused, but smiled and nodded to his crazy pregnant lady.  Over the last 4 days, it's been stronger and more frequent; more like repetitive twitches and even a "bump" or two.  Last night I was feeling it a lot, and couldn't decide if A) Doctor was giddy and hyper from my serving of Mint Cookies 'n Cream ice cream or B) Doctor inherited Jeromy's disgust for my favorite ice cream flavor, and was kicking me in protest.  In light of the genetic battle so far, I'm guessing B.

Put DOWN the Ben & Jerry's, Mom.  For the next 5 months you will eat nothing but vanilla, and you will LIKE it.

• Actually being able to FEEL the baby has brought the whole pregnancy thing to a whole new level of reality.  I keep having WHOAAA Deep Thoughts moments where I'm like, whoaaaaa...there are TWO hearts in my body right now.  AND two brains! (Yet I am still incapable of remembering to put the chicken in marinade a few hours before we need to cook it....go figure).

• On Saturday, Jeromy and I attended "Meet the Doulas Night" at the office of a doula collective.  It probably deserves its own post, so I won't go into details yet, but for those of you who don't know, a doula is a person with secret earth-mother birthing wisdom that you can hire to be with you during labor.  And a doula WILL be mine.   

Why, YES, I WOULD like someone to rub my back and listen to me scream for 15 hours.

• The whole no-sleeping-on-your-back-because-the-baby-could-crush-a-major-artery deal has officially bitten me in the ass.  Or rather, the arm,  guess.  Every night, Awake Rebecca tries desperately to get comfy on her side, clutching her body pillow.  Asleep Rebecca then promptly flops on her back and flings the body pillow across the room.  Well, last night I woke up in the middle of the night, laying flat on my back, and my right arm was COMPLETELY numb and bloodless.  As soon as I turned over on my side, it immediately felt better.  How freaky is that???

• Our BIG ULTRASOUND is in less than two weeks!!!!!  (Yes, it must be put in all caps at all times)  I keep trying to "statistically calculate" what we are having using Super Scientific Reasoning.  I say things like "well, a lot of our friends and acquaintances have had girls recently, so that probably means we are having a boy" or "hmm...BUT....ALL of my cousins who have had or are having babies so far have boys; it seems statistically unlikely that we will have boy #6, so maybe we are having a girl."  All of this drives Jeromy--the person in our family who actually understands math and probability and all that nonsense--CRAZY.  He's like, "No.  It doesn't work that way.  We have a 50/50 shot either way. PERIOD."  Well at least I didn't try to do the silly hang-your-wedding-ring-above-your-belly test, right???  RIGHT?!