Level 2 Ultrasound Pics!

It's a boy!

20 Week Belly

The biggest change to my belly of late is the "linea nigra," a line of pigment that runs from the pelvic bone on up. Some pregnant women get it, some don't. Mine has gotten longer and darker lately, and I'm very proud of it, even if it is crooked!

Tomorrow is the big level 2 ultrasound! I know I said I wasn't going to get it, but after talking to the hospital about financial options I decided to go for it. I'm praying that all the measurements will come back normal and that our little one will cooperate and give us a clear view of his or her tiny parts!

Knowing the sex is going to be such a huge milestone. Suddenly it will be Remy or Alice, and not just "baby." And the nursery! I can't wait to start planning a room in our house for our daughter or son! Mom and Steph are going to come over soon and we'll get to the fun business of clearing out the office and registering for baby things.

I'm probably going to have a hard time sleeping tonight!

Merry Christmas!

Owen

Happy eve of Christmas Eve everybody! Ross and I spent the afternoon at the Stangers and then we all headed over to church for a beautiful Christmas service.

Here are some pictures of Owen eating french fries and posing for the camera.

19 Week Baby Belly!

Cookies

I attempted yesterday to bake cookies, unsupervised. Nothing fancy, just good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies. But before I'd even pulled out a cookie sheet, I ruined the first batch. I was trying to follow the directions, but for some reason (ahem, pregnancy) I'm finding that there is often a discrepancy between the black and white words on the page and what my brain decides they are saying. So after taking a minute to calculate a smaller batch (because I had already wasted a butt load of flower and sugar) I started over, and this time I got it right. At least, I think so. They are edible, anyway.

I managed to make 3 dozen + 8 with my modified batch. This is the final 8 puffing up in the oven.

Please ignore the cat hair.

Please ignore the spray bottle of bleach solution. I swear that no bleach was used in the making of these cookies.

A Hot Cocoa Kind of Day

Pregnancy Update

I'll be 19 weeks tomorrow! Woo-hoo! Baby is making herself/himself very conspicuous lately and I love it. Sometimes it's just a shifting or rolling feeling in the womb, but on a few occasions it has been a good, hard kick. Bring it on! I look forward to not having to use my fetal doppler every couple of days to assure myself that baby is still there.

According to my very scientific toilet paper measurements, my baby belly is slowly but surely expanding to make room for the little one. A month ago I was exactly 9 squares, now I am almost ten. The belly definitely gets in the way sometimes so I've switched from lace-ups to a lovely pair of fleece lined leather slip-ons! They are not completely open backed, so they keep most of the snow out, but they are low enough in the back that I have decided I need some cute socks. I don't like flashing everyone the gray heel of my athletic socks everywhere I go.

Now that I'm well into the second trimester I've really noticed that my energy is rebounding. It was subtle at first - not having to lean on the shopping cart as much at the store, taking showers and not just baths, walking up the stairs just to say hi to Ross - and then this week I realized that I have cooked a real dinner almost every night for the last week! AND I'm doing laundry again, AND I cleaned out my closet, which I've been meaning to do for months. It's nice feeling sorta normal again.

As I mentioned in my last post, we won't know the sex before Christmas after all. I try to guess what it might be, but I go back and forth. Originally I thought girl, because this pregnancy felt soooo much like the first one, and that one was a girl. Then I thought boy because every baby dream I've had has been about a boy. Now I'm leaning back toward girl because I've noticed my eyebrows and leg hair has stopped growing and I've heard that boys make your hair grow faster... So, yeah, I have no freaking clue.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, here is an artist's rendition of what is going on in there at 18 weeks!

Grrrrr

My mantra today is "This will be a good day - I will have plenty to eat and I will not frighten my husband with a hormonal freak-out."

Woke up on the wrong side of the bed after a night of fitful sleep and weird dreams about Oprah Winfrey. Got worse when I went to schedule my Level 2 Ultrasound and found out the place my doctor referred me to was gonna cost me a butt load of money. So I called my OB's office and asked them, "hey, what are y'all trying to do to us?" They acted as confused as I felt about. And now I'm waiting for the doctor to call me back.

She wrote "hyperthyroid" on the order so I'm thinking that is why she sent me to a specialist, but then she only requested the basic level 2 that checks anatomy, so I really don't see why they couldn't do that at her office. Anyway, the good news is that at the time of my last blood test I was no longer hyperthyroid. Whew! So when I tell my doc that hopefully she will relent and let me do the ultrasound with her.

The other critical thing weighing on my mind is the grocery trip. Not having food in the house is scary, but coming home with the wrong stuff is devastating. So I'm making a list and checking it twice, and then three times, and then four!

And, last but not least, Medicare. My doctor doesn't accept it but we're going to need it for the hospital before the big day. I have had my application all filled out and ready to go for months, but I had to get my name updated (AGAIN) and then when we took it into the local office they were so incredibly incompetent that we decided we would rather just mail it directly in.

So by the end of the day I plan to have the Medicare application off my dining room table, an appointment for my level 2 set up with my own doctor, and a fridge full of food. And it will be a good day, and I won't freak out.

Entertainment Links

Just some things I've come across lately that I thought were share-worthy. :)


In order to prevent any spoilers for the final season of Lost, the producers have not released any new footage to be used in promos. This is one Spanish stations attempt at a spoiler free promo, and it's pretty cool!


A cute Doctor Who Christmas spot for BBC1.



And...
Entertainment Weekly dishing on some interesting David Tennant news.

Da Belly

No, it's not twins. My body is just morphing! Doctor says I have weak stomach muscles. Yup, sounds like me.

In my defense, this was right after Thanksgiving dinner.

17 Weeks!

I can't believe I'm already 17 weeks along! I just realized that I will be hitting the half way point on Christmas Eve, what a perfect gift! Thanks to my hormones, my history, and a couple of snags we've hit along the way, worry has become a little too normal for me, but every milestone baby and I reach boosts my confidence that we are gonna make it all the way.

And 20 weeks will be great for another reason - it's the week we find out the baby's sex! We'll get to start thinking about all the things we've been holding off on, like how we want to decorate the nursery, what to register for, and (dun, dun, DUN) names! Ross likes exotic names, especially ones that have appeared in comic books. I like family names, no matter how common. We'll see how that goes!

Being pregnant is weird. It's a full time job, but a sedentary, mostly uneventful, and often very boring one! And there really hasn't been a lot happening in Ross and my life to distract us from the waiting. But now that the morning sickness has gone I feel like the world is opening up again for me. I am loving the holidays and the sense of hope and continuity they bring. I've also started cooking again, which makes me happy. And there is so much happening in the lives of my family and friends - weddings, babies, moves, work, health - lots of things to celebrate, and lots of things to pray for!

As I wait for that next milestone I am praying that I will be able to set the worries to the back of my mind and focus on living in the moment, enjoying Christmas, and loving my friends and family!

o tannenbaum