20 week ultrasound

For those of you not used to interpreting grainy ultrasound pictures, what you have here is a front view of the face of our baby (looking a wee bit like an alien i have to say) with the fingers of it's right hand kinda resting on it's belly. It's mid-section is the perfectly round circle that looks like a snowman's middle. It's definitely a boy and everything looked fine. The baby is measuring 20 weeks 3 days. 

19 Weeks

Finishing out the 19th week, i'm now halfway through my pregnancy. Sometimes it seems April will come sooner than we think, but when i think that i've been pregnant since August, it seems like the pregnancy goes on forever. I've got another ultrasound tomorrow where we hope to confirm the baby is a boy, and ensure everything else is on track. I'll keep you posted. 

Conscious of time and space

Especially as we move into the holiday season, i'm highly conscious that this is our last thanksgiving together as just a couple, our last Christmas travel plans that don't involve major machinations, and the last time we're primarily concerned with each other. I'm excited for the change, but it's hard to know and not know what we're in for.

Luckily we have a number of friends with all different types of children. We've seen different strategies for parenting (and just coping at the beginning), and i've read a lot about parenting in general, and its effects on your relationship with your significant other and yourself. JT and i have talked about likely situations and how we'll deal with them, and unlikely situations and how we'll deal with them. Except for all the stuff we're supposed to buy (and the room i'll be putting together eventually) i feel prepared for the arrival of the actual child.

Except it seems you can't really be ready, just ready to be flexible and go with how demanding and new and absorbing everything is at first. And i can say i'm ready for that, but i think it will take just jumping in. So now is a bit of a wait and see as the baby becomes more real (i can feel him moving now) and we continue to intellectually prepare for his arrival.

Dr. Appt

I had another doctor appointment this Monday and everything is still going strong. I gained weight and the baby's heart beat is still a strong 140 bpm. My Doctor gave me information on birth classes and recommendations for pediatricians. I think we're going to take a birth class through the hospital that's offered in February so we don't forget all the important information. I have an ultrasound next week where they'll confirm it's a boy and take measurements to make sure everything is on track. I'll give you any updates.

18 Weeks

A clerk told me congratulations this weekend-- gesturing towards my belly. I'm sure i'll lament the start of public attention when a stranger tries to touch my belly, but for now it was a good feeling as i was identified as pregnant and not just thick around the middle.

Things are going just fine this week. I have a Doctor appointment tomorrow and an ultrasound next week. This week the baby is forming permanent tooth buds, refining its reproductive system, and possibly sprouting hairs. At six inches, it's about the length of a small zucchini!

 

17 Weeks

Here we are at 17 weeks. My appetite is picking up and I believe I've gained a little weight so that the Doctor will be happy when I go back in a few weeks. The baby is the length of a sweet potato which is my current favorite fruit or vegetable comparison.
 

Birth Shows

For those of you without cable or not in the market for birth shows, let me tell you what can quickly become an obsession for a pregnant woman-- birth shows. A friend suggested i watch some to get a sense of how things actually work in labor and birth. And i do think they've been extremely educational. I'd never seen a birth before (live or taped) and once you watch a number of them you start to see in general how things go and what can happen-- good and bad. I'm now prepared (at least in my mind) for 24 hours of labor as not out of the ordinary.

However, i'm starting to firmly believe that there's a real agenda behind the production of these shows. 90% of them are people that have planned c-sections or planned epidurals. I've watched probably 100 episodes of these shows and in all but one, the women that were planning for natural childbirth wound up with the epidural. I know from watching the shows that the pain was extremely intense and that's why women went for the epidural-- but for someone that is planning on natural childbirth, it would be nice to see a few more "success" stories-- i know they happen in America.

So, i don't feel tired from pregnancy, but that doesn't mean i'm not feeling exhausted. In preparation for the baby, and because JT is now gainfully employed, we're doing quite a bit of work on our place.

Phase 1 was the arrival of my new Ikea office furniture on Thursday night. JT was still in DC for work, and i couldn't bear to have 20 cartons of furniture lying unopened in my living room, so i started to work putting everything together. After 6.5 hours the first day and several more since then, i've gotten all my office furniture and two wardrobes assembled and set-up. The corrallary to the new office furniture was moving my office out to the nook off our living room which you can see in the picture.

Phase 2 involved moving the current guest room/JT's office to my old office space to ready the old guest room for the nursery. This was mostly achieved this weekend and has left me tired and my back a little sore. I'm looking forward to sitting at my desk all day this week!

Phase 3 will be the bathroom remodeling that our contractor is set to start this week. Along with remodeling the bathroom (which has required umpteen trips to home depot and other bathroom supply stores), we'll be installing gas logs and doing a few other small improvements around the place to make things even more livable.

I'll have pictures of each phase, but suffice to say all this work has tired me out! 

16 Weeks

Here I am at the end of my 16th week. I'm starting to fit into some of my smaller maternity clothes which is nice. I've been feeling really good, not nauseas and not tired-- in general pretty normal lately which i hope continues! The baby is the size of an onion by now and his ears are starting to stop lying flat against his head. The other major activity this week is hardening the baby's current bone structure from cartiledge to hardened bone. JT is sick with a bad cold which i'm trying my best not to catch. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

16 Week Ultrasound

Compared to the 8 week ultrasound, this 16 week one shows the baby looking more like the baby. The picture is blurry, but the experience was wonderful because you could see the spine and the heart beating, and the lungs working-- all important details. Although the technician said she didn't like to call anything before 20 weeks, that she was pretty confident she saw something else that wasn't the umbilical cord, and that we're having a boy. She did say not to rush out and buy all blue clothing because they could confirm at my 20-week ultrasound. But, we're probably having a boy, and he looks just fine right now.