Happy Halloween!

It's the end of October today, and the baby is dressed like a jack-o-lantern. Isn't the baby so cute?!?! Okay, so I know it's not the best costume ever, but Dan came dressed as Casual Friday (jeans and a t-shirt), so it could be worse. ;) I actually think that's a brilliant costume, and only my brilliant husband would come up with something like that.

I've been super tired lately - more so than normal. I've been in bed by 8:00 at least the last two night and I sleep all the way until the alarm gets me up at 6:30. And I could keep sleeping! I think the dance party in my stomach is zapping all of my energy, but at least it's going toward a good cause. Too bad I still have a full day of work to put in. I could really use a nap. Zzzzzzzz...

Centering Pregnancy - Session 2

Last night we had our second pregnancy class. The baby's heart rate is still around 145-150, and the top of my uterus is at my belly button. The other night I thought I felt a foot pushing my belly button, and it turns out it really could have been that!

In class, we talked about common discomforts of pregnancy and ways to cope. Unfortunately, a lot of the common discomforts can't really be helped (like peeing every 10 minutes and bad dreams). It is nice to talk to other women going through the exact same thing though. It makes everything we've been experiencing seem normal.

I also got a flu shot last night. It's recommended for pregnant women, so I sucked it up. And it's not as bad as I remember them being, so I feel even better about doing it!

Oh, and I've only gained 6 pounds in the last 10 weeks, so even though I'm getting bigger, I'm not getting too heavy. I actually asked the midwife if I should be worried about not gaining enough, but she seemed happy with how it's been going. It's nice to be trying to *gain* weight for a change!

Dancing Baby

From my weekly reading, I know that Baby's ears are finishing their development right about now, but I had no way of knowing if it had happened with us yet.

Yesterday I was in the car and started signing along with the radio. Baby started punching and kicking like crazy! I don't know if it was grooving to the music or begging me to stop, but now I wish I could sing all day long! Choir starts Saturday, so I'm interested to see how Baby likes classical music.

Almost at 18

Tomorrow is 18 weeks. Here's the babycenter.com scoop on how our little one is doing:

Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

Our crib was delivered yesterday, and Dan has started building it. I'm really excited to start decorating the nursery, so this is fun (especially since I don't have to do any of the heavy lifting!). My back has been bothering me the last few days though. I'm not sure if I'm sleeping weird or if it's just the beginning of the pain associated with a growing front side. Either way, I hope it feels better soon.

I also feel the baby all the time now. I feel it roll over, change positions, and kick and punch. I felt another kick from the outside when I was waking up yesterday. We definitely have an active baby coming. Hopefully it'll sleep as hard as it plays!

It Seemed So Real

One of the odd side effects of being pregnant is extra vivid dreaming. From what I've read, it seems that pregnant women actually spend less time in REM sleep (due to multiple bathroom breaks, cramping limbs, etc), but it's the regular sleep interruptions that help us remember how wacky our little fantasies are.

Two nights ago, I dreamed it was time for our ultrasound. Dan and I went to the doctor, and she asked where Sprinkles was. Sprinkles is our 8 year old tortoise-shell cat. You see, Sprinkles was the one carrying our baby, so we should have brought her with us. The doctor sent us home with a hand-held ultrasound-ish thing, and we were supposed to take pictures to send to the doctor to analyze, including the all-important "toilet shot" to determine gender (more on that in a minute). Well, that stupid cat wouldn't stay still long enough for us to get a good shot, so we couldn't know if we were expecting a boy or a girl!

The craziest part of this dream was that at no point did it seem crazy. It was totally normal for Sprinkles to be carrying the baby, and of course she was too squirmy to see the gender. Nutso!

Now, back to the toilet shot...


Here is a girl toilet shot. It's like she's sitting on the toilet and you're looking up at her parts. The little white lines (and lack of a penis) show you her gender.








Here is a boy toilet shot. There is very clearly a little man there, and the 3 white lines that indicate a girl aren't there.





Yes. This *is* what I spend my time obsessing over. I hope that we get a good toilet shot to share with you in 3 weeks. And here's to another 5 months of truly bizarre dreams!

Sleeping Like A Baby

We bought a crib yesterday! We went to Babies R Us and were kind of disappointed. The cribs we really liked had stationary sides, and we were advised that having a side that lowers or folds is a good thing when the baby gets heavier. So we settled on one, but it wasn't in stock. Then when we got home and googled that one, it was part of a recall this past summer. Needless to say, it's a good thing we didn't buy it!

Then we found the perfect crib! It's a crib, dresser and changing table all in one.

The first thing we bought for the baby was a crib bedding set, and as soon as the crib comes we can put it all together in the baby's room. It's a fun sea life theme, and has colors that can go either way. Blue and green are supposed to be calming, and we think it's really cute. We saw it on our first trip to Babies R Us, and then went back the next day to buy it because we couldn't wait!

The baby is currently kicking its approval, and that's all the endorsement we need!

Imagine, If You Will

Lucky number 17 today. 17 weeks of pregnancy. That means only 23-ish weeks to go. Every week, we progress through the produce section. This week, Baby is the size of a turnip. Go ahead, picture a turnip. I know when I read that we're to the turnip stage, I immediately knew how big Baby is now. Yeah right! Who knows what a turnip looks like?!?

Luckily, other sites likened Baby's size to a large baked potato, or the size of a hand with the fingers extended. Baby has doubled in weight in the past two weeks and is now around 3.5 ounces. Even though Baby is still mostly water, the bones are hardening and fat is developing under the skin. Baby is exhaling amniotic fluid and is moving quite a bit.

People are starting to notice that I'm pregnant and not just hitting the fries too hard. My stomach is rounding out a little bit more, and my belly button is getting shallower. It's a very interesting change to want people to notice my stomach instead of trying to hide it. We'll see how I feel when random people try to touch...

I *Knew* It Wasn't Gas

As I've posted before, I've been feeling Baby move for a few weeks now. The movement has been more frequent lately, and there have been definite kicking fits. Everything I read says that first-time moms can't differentiate between kicking and gas until 20-24 weeks. Well I'll let you all in on a little secret - I know what gas feels like! And this isn't it.

Last night Dan and I were sitting on the couch, flipping between the Dodgers' game and the presidential debate, and I felt a kick. I put my hand on my stomach where I had felt it, and it kicked again, hard enough to push my hand!!!! I got Dan's hand on my stomach as soon as he could get close enough, and of course Baby didn't cooperate. I need to figure out a way to get Baby to kick on command.

Oh, and I thought feeling it from the inside was creepy...it's much weirder to have it push your stomach out!

Ode to Heartburn

O, Heartburn
How thou dost torment me!
No food is tame enough
to extinguish thy fury.

Ah, heartburn. One of the many joys of pregnancy.
Courtesy of babycenter.com: During pregnancy, the placenta produces the hormone progesterone, which relaxes the smooth muscles of the uterus. This hormone also relaxes the valve that separates the esophagus from the stomach, allowing gastric acids to seep back up, which causes that unpleasant burning sensation.

Progesterone also slows down the wavelike contractions of your esophagus and intestines, making digestion sluggish. Later in pregnancy, your growing baby crowds your abdominal cavity, pushing the stomach acids back up into the esophagus.

Fun, huh? At least I'm not sick too. I'll take heartburn over that any day! But I do miss spicy foods. Babycenter goes on to recommend avoiding caffeine and alcohol since they can trigger it...um, really? Just for heartburn? I'm friggin' pregnant here!

Day 100!

The 40 weeks of pregnancy start with the first day of your last period. That means by the time the baby is actually conceived, you're considered 2 weeks pregnant. In "gestational age," the baby is 100 days old today. That's a lot of days!

I'm feeling the baby more frequently now. I went to watch a soccer game yesterday and ate some candy while I was there. Our baby got a sugar rush and kicked me the whole way home. Cool! It was pretty active on the bus into work this morning too. It's still very cool to feel, and still very weird!

Another Milestone

This time, the milestone is for me! Yesterday, Dan and I went grocery shopping. We were trying to come up with lunch and dinner ideas for the weekend before I get so hungry that I settle on chips, ice cream and whatever else we have lying around the house. We bought food, and we actually cooked it and ate it last night. I've been at the mercy of my cravings and instant gratification foods for the past couple of months. If something sounds good, I have to have it then or the feeling passes. By the time it would take to make whatever I wanted, the craving would pass and that food would make me sick. It's really crappy to not know what you can eat ever, and it makes grocery shopping useless. But we were successful last night, and we'll try again today.

Long Weekend

Dan and I are taking today off of work. He's taking the time off to study, and I'm taking the time off to do a whole lot of nothing. I am happy to confirm that I'm over the morning sickness. It lasted from 7 and a half weeks until exactly 15. That's a long time! I'm so so so happy that it's over. But I think it's a load of you-know-what that you get a sudden burst of energy once the sickness is over. I feel more worn out than I have the whole time. We left work at 3:30 yesterday and I napped from 4:30 - 8:30. I watched some tv until 10:30 and then went to bed, but I just woke up at 8:00 (and it's feeling like nap time already)!

Our baby apple graduates to an avocado tomorrow at the 16 week mark - "4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop. (babycenter.com)" The baby also yawns and makes faces, and is apparently peeing in me. Ew!

In the next week or two, the baby will apparently start hearing noises from the outside world. We'll have to pick out some baby books to start reading to it, so that it gets to know our voices. I'm sure that I talk enough for the baby to get familiar with my voice, but it'll be great for it to know Dan's voice too.

My Pooch

It seems that Dan and I are the only ones that really think I'm starting to look pregnant. I'm obsessed with my growing tummy. I admit that to people that don't know, I probably look like I had a dozen too many donuts recently, but I also know that in a few more weeks or months it will be obvious what's really going on, even to perfect strangers.

Last night I was sticking out my stomach and telling Dan that it's so weird that my stomach's getting bigger. He was like, "Um, you *have* seen pregnant women before, right?" Yes, Dan, but I've never *been* a pregnant woman!

I ordered a Halloween shirt with a jack-o-lantern face on the stomach (http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/halloween-jack-o-lantern-maternity-dark-tshirt/172025296). I hope I'm big enough in 3 weeks to fill it out a little bit better.

There are so many things to look forward to and I can't wait!

Clouds Parting?

I'm worried about even posting this because I'll likely jinx it, but since I don't know what else to blabber about today, here goes:

I think I'm over morning sickness! I had a terrible night on Saturday, and threw up for the first time in almost two weeks. It was an all-around rough day (sickwise) Saturday, so it didn't really surprise me that my gagging had substance. But I haven't felt sick at all since then. Food sounds better, and I'm able to eat more. I'm not going to push it and jump straight to spaghetti sauce or mac and cheese, but even the thought of those doesn't send me to the bathroom! Yay!

I've been more tired in the last few days though. I went to bed at 7-something the past two nights, and I would have no trouble sleeping past my 6:15 alarm. I've also had heartburn after eating. But I'll take tired with heartburn over feeling like puking any day!

TIRED

I am TIRED today! We had a fun-filled busy weekend, and now it's Monday again. Going to bed by 8:00 makes it a tiny bit easier to get up in the dark, but not completely.

I had a crazy dream last night that I gave birth to a full-grown man, and he got really offended when I told him I had read about people dreaming of giving birth to adults. He didn't like that I was implying that he was just a weird dream, but guess what? He was. I've always been a dreamer, but I've never had such frequent vivid dreams as I have in the past few months. I don't know if it's the extra blood or hormones, but it is definitely interesting.

Thanks to Dad, Cindy, Mark, Elham, Roshann, Neeku and Yasmine for a great weekend!

15 Weeks Tomorrow

Wow, we're all the way to 15 weeks tomorrow. We found out we were pregnant two days before the 4-week mark, so we've come 11 weeks since then already!! I'm still not good at this waiting game, but if the next 11 weeks go by as fast as these have (at least, looking back on them), and then the next 11, I'll be in labor before we know it!

Based on our online calendars and countdowns, we had been flipping our week counts on Thursday. But our midwife said to accurately count the weeks, find what day your due date falls and count backwards. Duh, right? Well we hadn't done that. March 28 is a Saturday, so now we're changing weeks on Saturdays.

However, since a Saturday birth would be pretty convenient, I'm almost 100% sure now that I won't be giving birth on my due date. Whatever...the baby's coming out at some point, and it's probably better if we don't know exactly when. Maybe.

I'm feeling the baby move a lot more frequently now. It's about the size of an apple now - a little over 4 inches and about 2 1/2 ounces. Most of the movement feels like twitching, but there was one afternoon where it was longer than that -- almost like the baby was stretching its leg out and holding it. Super weird! Twice in the last few days I've felt like it has rolled over too. It was kind of like losing your stomach on a roller coaster, but not quite as strong or long as that. It seemed to be moving a lot when I was going to bed last night, which is a very comforting way to end the day.

Cheers to another weekend!

Ultrasound Scheduled

I called to schedule our 20-week ultrasound today. Since I won't be 20 weeks until November 8, we scheduled for November 10 at 9:00 AM. I can tell you now that it's going to *kill* me to wait that long!!

We have put our name in the Siemens database, for their ultrasound training facility in Issaquah. They develop software and train technicians, so they do all kinds of ultrasounds on the general public for free! They have 3D/4D ultrasounds which are super expensive if you go to a specialist, so we're excited to maybe have the chance to see our baby in 3D for free. Unfortunately, we can't exactly schedule with them - they'll call us when they need a volunteer. But the lady I talked to seemed to think we'd get a chance to come in multiple times over the next 25 weeks, so that is very exciting.

I belong to two online pregnancy groups, and it seems like there are very few of us who only get the one ultrasound. Many women get them with every doctor's appointment, but that isn't covered by our insurance. I'm happy that I'm not having complications that require more routine testing, but I would also like to see the little jumping bean in my stomach.

39 days...

Centering Pregnancy - Session 1

Dan and I went to our first Centering Pregnancy class last night. It is a group of 6 pregnant women and our husbands, and it's meant to be a resource for the whole pregnancy. Later on in the class, we'll get into more of the how-to-give-birth classes, but for now it's more to check in on our nutrition, exercise, stress management, etc. We each get one-on-one time with the midwife, and then there is discussion for the rest of the class. We got really lucky with our class, and everyone seems really nice and funny. There was a lot of laughing, but also really good ideas for dealing with morning sickness and getting enough exercise.

The midwife faxed in an ultrasound form for our 20 week check-up. I haven't called to make the appointment yet, but we still have 5 weeks until they'll schedule us anyway. Dan and I are still undecided about finding out the gender, and we may make our decision in the heat of the moment.

Not much else to report right now. I'm still getting thicker and by bedtime I definitely look pregnant. It's like my stomach muscles give up as the day goes on and I stick out farther and farther. It doesn't seem possible that I'm going to actually get as big as I'm going to get, but I'm sure in 10-20 weeks I'll be wishing for these "fat" days back again.