Kick Me!

Speck has made her presence known. They tell you to expect a flutter, or some other really light delicate sensation. Night before last, I'm laying down poking around my belly hoping to feel something, and I guess she got tired of being nudged around and she SHOVED up against my hands. Scared the hell out of me. Once we established that she was indeed still safely in utero, we came to the conclusion that our offspring may turn out to be a bit, um, active. Pray for us and anything that is breakable in our home...

For the record, she's poking me right now, and has been all day.

This morning I had another OB check--heartbeat (hers, 156 bpm), blood pressure (mine, 112/60), weight (mine, no comment but still within reasonable parameters). Right now, she's about the size of an average banana. She's measuring right where she should, and we're feeling very smug about our ability to make such a perfect child. Remind us of this feeling someday, perhaps after we catch her borrowing a car without permission, or some other such shenanigan that may or may not have had a precedent set by one or both of her parents.

This weekend we'll be in San Diego, and we're really really REALLY looking forward to getting out of town. Between the weather (hot, sticky), work (crazy), school (Rob, and he's seeing the light at the end of that tunnel) and preparing for our Blessed Event, we're a bit frazzled.

That's about it. I'm back at the peri next week, so there should be pictures and much gushing from us :).

Half Baked!

Today, we are 20 weeks! According to babyfit.com...

Weighing in at about 9 ounces (.25 kg) and measuring over 6 inches (15 cm) long, your baby is aware of all kinds of sounds, from the beating of your heart and growling of your tummy, to songs on the radio and the buzzing of your alarm clock. If you feel a "bounce" in your tummy when you hear a loud noise, it's because your baby hears it, too! This is the start of your baby's active phase. You'll feel every twist, turn, and wiggle. You may also hear your baby's heartbeat through a stethoscope, and it's probably faster than you expect — 120 to 160 beats per minute.

That's pretty exciting. I can feel that there is *something* going on in there, but it's still pretty fleeting. I'll feel it but then it's gone. She's sneaky.

Last night, Rob looked at me and said "WHOA, you're showing!" I have been looking like I'm just swelling up all over, so this was good to hear. I look pregnant, and not just fluffy. I'll take a picture this week and I'll post it.

We're getting a lot of suggestions for names. Our niece in Virginia sent a rather extensive list of ideas. Alyssa, if you read this, you gave some good ideas. Bonus points for the excellent handwriting :). We're going to stand firm on the "No, we're not telling anyone what we're naming her" rule. You'll find out in January what the winner is.

In other news, we're making progress on the room.


Really, this is, indeed, progress. That desk is empty and by the end of this weekend it will be cleaned off on top. The bed is now up at the cabin in Utah. Note the stroller which is still in the box. Yeah, we'll get to it. I think I have an idea about what it will look like in there when it is no longer a spare bedroom and is instead a nursery. More on that when we get some paint happening.

Last weekend I went shopping. I waited until the whole boy/girl thing was determined, and I took some girlfriends and went to the mall and lost my freaking mind. Holy cow, shopping for baby girl clothes is so much fun! It's better than shopping for shoes! Everything is embroidered with little flowers and ruffles on the tush. This kid may grow up to be a tomboy, but for the first year or two, her wardrobe is going to be as girlie as I can make it. SUCH cute stuff.

That's about it. I see my OB in two weeks--probably just another measurement and heartbeat check, and then back to the perinatalogist in early September for more pictures.

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

Biggest news yet! Well, biggest news since actually finding out that a baby is going to happen...

In case you haven't noticed by the new decor, we have determined with 99% certainty (per the doctor) that Speck is a girl. Rob is already considering what convent she'll be moving into when she hits puberty, and I believe he's also eyeing the door on the soon-to-be nursery to see how hard it would be to take it off the hinges.

As the tech so eloquently labeled it, there is an absolute, unequivocal absence of certain key elements. So there we go. We're having a daughter.

We do have other pictures as well. The actual ultrasound lasted probably 45 minutes. She took a ton of measurements. Speck (we'll still call her this...) has 2 functioning kidneys, the right sort of stuff going on with her heart (aortas and veins and such) and good bloodflow through the umbilical cord. She's measuring right where she should for 18 weeks 2 days and she weighs 9 ounces.

This is her profile. She was moving around quite a bit, so we didn't really get a good clear shot of too much that translates well into still pictures. Plus, she had the hiccups. OMG so cute.


That's her foot. Awwww...

OK we're taking a leap of faith with this one, and we'll believe what the tech said about this being a really good picture of her face. I can't tell. Somebody give me a Mother of the Year award for not being able to identify my child's face.

So that's what happened today. Naturally, we would have been thrilled either way because right now all signs are pointing toward a healthy baby. I maintain that all of my friends who didn't find out what they were having are nuts because finding out today was no less of a surprise than it would have been in January.

So everyone who voted for "girl" in our poll, rock on for being right! And for the record, I knew she was a girl too. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. It's another good day :)

No news, but progress is being made.

Last week's appointment was a check up--more for me than for Speck, actually. We checked the heartbeat, which was solid and steady. Most of the time was spent on how I'm doing. For the last 4 months we've been focusing on Speck's health and it was weird to be thinking about my own again. Blood pressure is important right now--if it's too high it can be an indicator of something being wrong, and it can also be a risk factor in itself for all sorts of bad things. Mine is good. She also measured my belly, which can be affected if Speck is growing too large. While we want a good-sized healthy baby (not too big, mind you...), if the baby is growing too quickly it can be a sign of gestational diabetes. We want to avoid that :). But all is well. We didn't find out the sex, as she just used a Doppler to find the heartbeat. I'll have a series of ultrasounds at the perinatalogist this week and we *should* know after that. They make no promises and therefore we don't either.

In other news, we did make our first Big Purchase, as far as equipment goes. We bought a stroller and car seat.

Very exciting, right? Judging by the shape of the box, we're predicting that Some Assembly is Required. Let the fun begin!