Magical Mystery Tour

Yesterday, Leslie and I got into the Halloween spirit with a tour of two "mysterious" Bay Area sites: the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose and the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. Both were lots of fun.

The Latest Baby Harvey News

It has been far too long since I've posted, but it has been a busy three weeks or so. My law firm dissolved, I changed jobs, and then I immediately began traveling all over the country! About a week ago, I was in North Carolina to defend a deposition for work, and I also had the chance to go visit the extended Neeland family in Wilson. I had a great time eating BBQ and going to church with Nanny, Lynn, Beth, and Uncle Ray. I then was back to San Francisco for two days, and immediately left again for a weekend trip to Montgomery for Liz's bridal shower. It was a very fun week, but was very exhausting.

On the pregnancy front, all is going well for Baby Harvey. Thomas and I had a checkup yesterday and we have now scheduled our big 18 week ultrasound. Our OB calls this ultrasound "yuppie bonding." Anyway, stay tuned... on election day (November 4), not only will we find out who our next president is, we will also find out whether Baby Harvey is a boy or a girl!

Here is my latest belly photo. Getting a big bump now for sure now that I'm at 16 weeks!

Fleet Week 2008

Fleet week this year was, as usual, awesome. The weather was beautiful, and even though Leslie was out of town (visiting family in North Carolina), I had a good time hanging out with folks up on the roofdeck (upstairs neighbor Suzanne was throwing her usual party) and taking pictures of the Blue Angels. The boats were all out on the bay and I saw sailors walking around town all weekend. Nice to have my new Nikon for this day.

Here are a couple pictures taken from the roofdeck of our apartment. Look carefully at the second photo, and you'll see a group of six jets in tight formation screaming low across the bay and leaving a vapor trail.

Yosemite Pics

It's been a while since the trip, but since we recently uploaded the photos onto Leslie's computer, I thought I would post a few of them here.

The Yosemite high country was spectacular while we were there: great weather (75 during the day), few crowds, and an abundance of beautiful views. Whit and I did the Ten Lakes-to-May Lake trip, which is about a 22 miler. While the vertical climb is signficant, the real work is in climbing up and down the numerous peaks and valleys along the way. We left from the Ten Lakes trail head around 5:30 on Friday night, and after 6 miles of climbing, dropped down into the Ten Lakes valley around 8:30pm, picking our way through the rocks by moonlight. The next day was serious: 17 miles of vertical rises and drops through the peaks around Tuolomne Peak, all the way up to May Lake. We stopped for a late, late lunch around one of our favorite spots, Raisin Lake. Ultimately, we made into the May Lake campsite right at 6:30 as they were ringing the dinner bell for the last night of the season.

Whit and I camped up on the May Lake ridge and were up just in time to see the sunrise Sunday morning. We picked our way down the hill to the May Lake trailhead and caught a ride from some good folks back to our car at the Ten Lakes trailhead.

What a great trip. Can't wait to get back there.

The End of an Era

We've felt so blessed to have ongoing great news about Baby Harvey's progress this week, because it has been a tough week professionally for me. Yesterday, my law firm (Heller Ehrman) voted to dissolve after 119 years in practice. Heller was truly a San Francisco institution. More than 1000 good folks in our multiple offices around the country will be out of a job in just a short time. Here is some news coverage of the closing:

• San Francisco Chronicle


• New York Times


• Above the Law Blog


• Wall Street Journal Law Blog

I feel very lucky that I already have one job offer with a fantastic firm, Covington & Burling, that I'm seriously considering. I work with the intellectual property litigation practice group, and a large number of partners in this group are moving to Covington on October 1. Wish me luck as I make this big decision in the coming days.

Passing the First Big Test

We had our nuchal translucency test yesterday and got the news that Baby Harvey is "all clear" for the major chromosomal abnormalities like Down's Syndrome. Although we weren't too worried about this test due to my age, it was still such a relief to get our first major assurance that Baby Harvey is right on track. It also means we will not need any invasive procedures like amniocentesis.

The best part of having this test done was that we got lots of great ultrasound videos and photos of Baby Harvey, who was quite active during the test. He/she was waving his/her little hands all around and then kicking up quite a storm. We could also see the baby opening his/her mouth and also witnessed a couple of hiccups!

A Heartbeat Away

Thomas and I had our 12 week appointment yesterday, and all is well with Baby Harvey! Our OB used the little Doppler machine to check for the baby's heartbeat and was able to find what she called "a good, strong heartbeat." She initially told us it was a little early to locate the heartbeat successfully in all cases, so we weren't expecting much. But Baby Harvey is definitely going strong!

As of today, we are officially at the 12 week mark and are happy to finally be able to reveal the news to all of our friends. It is just in time too - I'm finally showing a little bump through my clothes.

First Belly Photos: Weeks 8, 9 & 10

After hearing all the stories of my mother's problem-free pregnancies, I always thought I would have a similarly easy time. No such luck. From Week 6 until today, I have been having quite a lot of nausea, often all day long. Strangely, the worst of it has been in the evenings. So much for "morning sickness." There have been days I literally subsisted on Ritz crackers and plain pasta. Being the Type A personality that I am, I was initially worried about the fact that I wasn't getting the proper nutrition that I always thought I would be fastidious about! But my doctor assures me that it is okay to do whatever it takes to just get through the day during these times.

The nausea has been so overwhelming that I often didn't feel like eating very much and up until my tenth week, I had yet to gain any weight. We took photos of these weeks anyway just to document what I look like before my tummy really starts expanding. These are weeks 8, 9 & 10.

I just hit 11 weeks today and I'm happy to report that I'm feeling a lot better. The all-day sickness appears to be subsiding, and my appetite has returned (perhaps a little too much).

9 Weeks	10 Weeks

Yosemite or Bust

This weekend, Whit and I are headed up to Yosemite for some hiking in the High Country. Whit and I pulled this trip off last year around this time, so hopefully it's becoming a tradition.

Last year, we were in Yosemite for the third weekend in September, with the idea that we'd camp at our old stomping ground, May Lake. We did not plan for the fact that a random snowstorm would pass through the park and put a dusting of snow all over the campground. The hiking conditions were obviously nice and cool, but lacking any meaningful camping supplies for those conditions, we bailed from staying the night there. That weekend, Yosemite was also shutting down all of the concessions along Tioga Pass Road, including the Tuolummne Meadows tent cabins, the Ranger Station, and the general store. So we ended up driving outside of the park, hitting the hot springs near Mammonth Lakes, and heading to June Lake, where we stayed in an old motel with more than its fair share of Tibetan prayer flags decorating the front entrance. Definitely fun, but not the backpacking weekend we had planned.

This year, it's backpacking or bust. The current plan is drive up Friday stay at May Lake for the night, then to do the Ten Lakes trail.