23 weeks

23 weeks, originally uploaded by theanykey.

I sometimes still wonder if it's real.

According to the baby books, a week ago the baby would have weighed at approximately 1 pound, and in 3 weeks (4 weeks span) the baby will DOUBLE his weight.

Wow.

Glad the rest of us can't do that. (I think.)

Plus, that explains why I have spent my days off SLEEPING and EATING. And laying around with absolutely no energy...

Instead of taking some of the 300 things off of my list of things to do. (Literally. But it's a VERY detailed list. IE: - Clean Baby's dresser (2nd hand from unknown people) - Move Baby's dresser to spot in room - fold and put away Baby Clothes. There's plenty more. Only about 1/4 of it is baby-related, unless you count cleaning the table/kitchen/addition/extra room that's full of boxes/ living room baby-related.)

Nesting?

 I've read that the 'nesting' instinct is primarily coined for the sudden impulse that some pregnant women will get in the week or so before she goes into labour, to clean, to paint, to organize and re-organize.

Maybe what I'm doing is that, maybe it's just a desire to organize the house, but either way, I'm calling it nesting.

I have a STRONG urge to get the baby's room ready NOW. I still have 4 months to go, but in the back of my head is a little pregnant version of me, saying "It will go by SOOO quick, and you might not feel like doing some stuff later. DO IT NOW."

I also have an urge to clean up and organize the rest of the house. Just generally sick of boxes and STUFF being everywhere. Today, we had a big step taken care of. We had some stuff we weren't going to bother to sell, but was still useable by anyone else, and tried to offer it to people via Freecycle. After living with this stuff in our house for a few more weeks with zero interest, finally called the local Neighbour Link. (Group of Churches that work together to pick up donated furniture/appliances/random other stuff and they distribute it to people in need. We've given them stuff before, and they are very nice people, and usually my first thought when we have stuff we no longer want. Depending on what it is, I try Freecycle first. Gotten a lot of stuff via Freecycle people, and like to offer them what we have, in case they can use it.)

All random tangents aside, I'm starting to lose the battle with the little version of me in my head...

She's starting to drive me crazy. I guess it's not so bad, I can block her out fairly well, but for the most part... I still find myself wishing I had another 24 hours each day. (Some days, for sleeeeeeep.)

Going to resist the urge to fold the little tiny baby blankets/ towels in the dryer, and go back to bed.

Another cool encounter (?)

At our most recent ultrasound, I got to see the coolest thing I've ever seen: my baby do a full kick. It was amazing, and it's an experience I will never forget.

I had a dream the other night about the baby.

In my dream, I went 'inside myself' and saw the baby's face. I spent a few moments just being with the baby, and stroked his/her face with my index finger.

It didn't feel like a dream, it was very vivid, felt very real, and I woke up feeling much more connected to the baby.

Just thinking about it now makes me quite emotional, and I'm getting all teary-eyed.

I don't know what to think about it, though. Part of me wants to believe it's real, and part of me feels it was just a vivid dream.

Any input?

Update: Forcing the annoying scientific 'everything-must-be-proven-or-make-sense-in-some-way" part of me to go away, I believe that I met the baby, that I stroked his/her face with a spiritual representation of my finger or something like that.

Either way, the thought of it leaves me feeling a lot happier than if I believed it was just a dream. :)

Not much going on

Have the next ultrasound scheduled for the 24th. Am eager and impatient! :)

Can't wait to get anther view of the baby, and am very excited to find out the gender. The excitement went away after the first one revealed nothing, and didn't come back until the next appointment was booked. Now I'm going crazy about it again!


Went to the doctor today, and found out I am still big - in the baby area - for how far along I am. (Was told that last time, too.) Doc said it's a good thing, though, so I am happy!  

Everything else was good, too, except I have carpal tunnel in my right hand - doc says pregnancy related. I get to buy a splint to wear at night, and need to cut back on computer use at work! Not sure what I will do with the 7 hours of nothing to do, but will try to find something... I also have to watch my other wrist, it might occur there if I overcompensate.

I don't think it is that bad, yet, just enough to be noticeable, so I should be able to keep it from getting worse, and the doctor said it should go away after the baby is born.
: )

20w4d

20 weeks and 4 days.

:) Not the most flattering picture of me, but I had to balance the camera on two mandarin orange boxes on top of a chair to get the picture... (Chris takes blurry pics)

And the little bump at the top of my belly is what I am calling the baby's first blanket. A little extra insulation from the cold...

: )

Oh yeah

 
 
And the baby kicked when Chris put his head on my belly to listen - he heard a thud, it was cool! (I wish I could listen!!! I guess I get to feel it way more, but still!! Need to try it with a stethoscope next time I am at the doctor's!)
 
: ) Now we're just waiting for Chris to be able to FEEL the kicks, too. There have been a lot of strong ones, the baby is trying!!!
 
Soon enough!

 
 
 

Ultrasound #3

YAY! We get to go for another ultrasound!

I called the doctor's office and the hospital and then the doctor's office again, and basically the long and the short of it is we're getting the second ultrasound! Just waiting for the call from the hospital to make the appointment! YAY!!!

HOPING that they call today, but it doesn't look like it, it's already past 4:15 p.m.

And I should go to bed... only got three hours of sleep so far...

:) Will definitely post when I know when the ultrasound is.

Haven't posted in awhile

 
Again. Oh well, it's my blog and I'll update as I see fit (or remember!)
 
I have to say that the experience of going for an ultrasound was one of the most amazing I've done in a long time.
 
I had to have some upper abdominal pictures taken as well as the baby scan, so I was told not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before.
 
(I cheated - kept drinking until 2 and had a yogurt at about 2:30 - but I figured that liquid-y stuff would be mostly cleared in 6 hours, so whatever)
 
Either way, the first thing the tech asked me was if I had a full bladder, to which I replied the instructions I'd been given. She said I needed a full bladder for the baby scan so I had to chug a bunch of water - almost a full bottle - that I had brought with me. : )
 
The upper abdominal scan was interesting, she was much more thorough than I remember the techs in Cold Lake being (have had to do this several times - checking on the 'hemangiomas' on my liver...) and involved a LOT of holding deep breaths and pushing out on my stomach and holding that.
 
I imagine between the sudden water intake, the plenty of deep breathing and the weird stomach muscle exercise, the baby must have reacted to SOMETHING we had done, because when the tech went to do the baby scan, the baby was VERY active.
 
The tech mentioned at one point that ours was one of the most active that she'd ever seen! I don't know if the baby is always that active, or if it was a result of the above, but either way, it made it difficult for her to get clear pictures of the baby, and she said we'd be needing another scan, to get good pictures of the heart and the head/face. That was excellent news for me, since she was unable to get a clear gender determination, and said she didn't know if it was a boy or girl.
 
(The tech definitely seemed quite skilled, and it didn't take very long for her to get all of the abdominal pictures she needed, so I don't think it's due to inexperience or anything like that. She apologized and said that our baby was just too active during this scan!)
 
I am still so excited to find out if it is a boy or a girl, and my original instinct was thrown off last week by a dream I'd had.
 
During my shifts at work, I have plenty of time to look up all kinds of things online, and most has been about baby stuff. I try to avoid stuff like ebay (addictive) and information related to the delivery/complications (for now - a little too scary, and I end up worrying needlessly, whatever will happen, will happen regardless...).
 
During a shift last week, I stumbled across this article/quiz thing, and did it for the fun of it:
 
http://pregnancy.about.com/od/boyorgirl/a/quizboygirl.htm
 
Some of my answers were pure guessing, for example: I don't know yet if I am carrying high or low, and either way the results were surprising.
 
I've felt right from the beginning that it was a girl, and there have been several things making me question my original instinct.
 
First, almost every piece of clothing we've gotten that is obviously gender specific (pink and purple vs blue and firetrucks) is for girls. (Murphy's law makes me think there's no way we'll have a girl if we ALREADY have lots of girl stuff)
 
Second, certain people who I believe to be very instinctual/ psychic even, say it will be a boy. (I know that they could be wrong, too, but STILL.)
 
Third, my Mom has already bought girly clothing...
 
Fourth, the Chinese calendar thing says the baby will be a boy, whether you use the basic one:
 
http://pregnancyandbaby.com/pregnancy/baby/Chinese-conception-gender-chart-9.htm
 
or the one you need to figure out your Chinese age and the Chinese lunar month at time of conception.
 
http://www.babyhopes.com/pages.php?pageid=11
 
Fifth, the quiz I mentioned above said it will be a boy.
 
Sixth, there's my dream. After my shift during which I took the quiz, I had a dream that we went for the ultrasound and discovered the baby was a boy. (We were also adopting a 3 year old boy in the dream at this same point in the pregnancy for reasons unknown, but that part of the dream was less 'intense' than the ultrasound part.)
 
I realize the dream could have been a direct result of having taken that quiz, or just my minds way of screwing with me...

Then there's just this feeling I have that I may not be having a girl. I don't know if all of this is coming up in my head because the ultrasound was coming up quickly, or just maybe I felt I needed to be more prepared in the event that they baby turns out to be a boy, when Chris and I both felt strongly that it is a girl.
 
Either way, I'll just be happy if our baby is healthy, (I know, standard answer, but it's true) and can't wait to meet the little person growing inside of me.
 
Our most recent ultrasound picture has made me realize all over again that I. Am. Going. To. Be. A. Parent. and I've begun thinking about a lot of things a little different. Nothing specific comes to mind now that I am writing about it, but my point of view has definitely shifted, and I am doing a lot more thinking about everything. I keep looking at the picture, and thinking to myself that that is my baby, my child. I am going to be a Mom. (If I'm not already, not sure exactly how that's classified. I already feel like a Mom, especially since the point of view change, but am assuming I will continue to feel more and more like a Mom as the months go by. I imagine that I will one day look at my 5 year old and go "Holy Crap, I am a parent!")
 
Regardless of all of that, the moment during the ultrasound that is permanently imprinted in my head was the first picture that showed up when the technician put the scanner on my belly. Unfortunately, Chris wasn't in the room during most of the appointment, they bring in the Father/Family members at the very last moment to show them the baby. It was an amazing moment, and I really wish Chris had been able to see it too.
 
A perfect and very detailed side view of the baby's full leg, bent for just a moment, and then a quick "KICK". It was amazing to see the baby kick, and feel it at the same time! It surprised the technician, I don't think she was expecting it.
 
I think about that moment several times a day, keep picturing the tiny leg, little muscles and bones, kicking away...
 
: )