20 Weeks and Counting

We had our 20 week appointment today which was attended by my Mom and Tom made it, too. This would have been the BIG appointment where we could have found out if Peanut is a Girl Nut or a Boy Nut. Of course Mom thinks we're just plain nuts for not finding out. There are so few surprises in life! There are already boy and girl grandchildren on both sides of the family, we aren't decorating a nursery, and actually it works out pretty well because everything we buy right now is gender neutral, so it doesn't matter what this Peanut is or what the next Peanut is, it will all work! It's really fun to keep guessing, too. Tom has felt pretty sure since early on that we're having a girl. I wasn't sure at first, and my first couple baby dreams were of a girl, but now I just feel more and more strongly that Peanut is a boy. With all the trouble we're having picking out names, Tom suggested that he make a list of 10 girl names and I make a list of 10 boy names and we pick off each others lists. As cute an idea as that is, I don't think Tom will research it enough and I don't feel I can give up that control.

Peanut is doing very well, by the way. Tom missed the beginning of the ultrasound and managed to show up just in time to see all the detailed images of the little heart we made and see that everything looks perfect. We got to hear the heartbeat (149bpm) and watch Peanut squirm around a bit. Turns out Peanut seems to take after Aunt Lisa - NO PICTURES, PLEASE! - as seen in the top picture were we hid our face with our hand. We saw the spine and feet and many of Peanuts little organs. It was such a joy to watch and see the baby again!

In other news, the baby is definitely becoming more active. There are days when I don't feel much, and then days when I feel it all the time. I seem to get kicked more and more the mornings I'm working (I think Peanut likes to sleep in) and then lately there has been a few protests when I lay down in bed at night. The other night I climbed in bed curled up against Tom's back and for the next several minutes there were quite a few persistent kicks right into his back. We'll see if those kicks ever get strong enough to wake Tom. For that matter, we'll see if they ever get strong enough to wake me. (The baby is sleeping in our room because we both sleep VERY soundly!)

A Peanut by any other name...

It doesn't matter if Peanut is a Boy or a Girl. I don't think Tom and I will be able to decide on a name either way. Tom has his idea of what makes a good name and I have mine and there isn't a lot of meeting in the middle. Tom likes more traditional names, preferably with family ties. I want "different" names. Names with a little funk to them. I always hated how popular Jennifer was for a name. There were usually three or four of us in each class (and that was in North Adams.) Tom had a similar experience, but it didn't affect him the way it did me.

A friend of ours had a baby Dec. 30th and had a nice, unusual name for their new son. I loved it. I did an Internet search for it to see how popular it was and what it's origins were. I found a website called thinkbabynames.com. It was well put together and had charts on popularity and whether it was increasing or decreasing in popularity. You can also search by country. I thought Tom and I were picking some more unusual names, but was dismayed to find many of them were in the top 100. Back to the drawing boards I guess. Peanut works fine for now, but I don't know that Peanut Person would be a long term solution.

I started reading What to Expect When You're Expecting recently and skipped over the first three months to Month 4. Once I got to that chapter though, I found that the book actually puts me in month 5 (weeks 18-22, I'll be 20 weeks tomorrow.) I find the whole month/week transition very confusing. I find it much easier to say "I'm X weeks" rather then "I'm X months." I don't know if it's because I know when we conceived or what makes it so confusing, but I just can't make the week/month conversion work.

Knock, Knock... Who's there? PEANUT!

I think I felt my first kicks on December 15th and Tom says he has felt some as well. Generally they seem to happen behind my ever tightening zipper. I have been wearing Bella Bands (like a tube top that you wear around your waist to hold your pants up when you leave them unbuttoned and increasingly unzipped) for about a month. They were working great at first when I could leave my pants half zipped, but now that I need to leave them more and more undone, I feel like my pants are going to fall off every time I bend over or squat.

So I went and tried on some maternity cloths today at Motherhood Maternity. Now trying on clothes on a good day is never my favorite thing to do. I was actually pleased to be able to fit into the regular length maternity pants they had on hand and find they look pretty good. They were just A LOT more form fitting then my Levis. However none of the tops fit quite right, including the bras. All in all I walked with a new top and a sense of general failure. One of the sales clerks was skinny and 13 weeks pregnant and had the cutes little (actually it was pretty big for 13 weeks) baby bump. All I could think about as I stood there in my skin tight maternity pants with the giant navy blue belly panel and the maternity bras that just weren't quite right, was that I didn't look pregnant, I just looked fat.

According to the scale on Sunday morning I've only gained 8lbs so far. That is post Christmas and 4 months pregnant. I don't think that's to bad.

Patiently Waiting for "Flutters"

So we had our second visit with Dr. Dempsey today and everything looked good. According to their records I've actually lost a little over a pound since my visit on October 29th. However I've been weighing myself pretty regularly at home and I say I've gained about 3lbs so far. We listened to Peanuts heartbeat and that sounded good. It was just a simple visit, no new pictures this time. However we will have some new ones when we go for our next visit on January 5th.

That is supposed to be "the big visit" but since Tom and I have decided to wait until "the BIG day" to find out what we're having, It will just be another ultrasound to see Peanut and make sure everything is developing properly.

Tom and I have decided to wait because it just really doesn't matter to us weather we're having a boy or a girl. I always thought I would want to know, but now that I'm pregnant all I care about is the baby being healthy. I'm more interested in what the bay looks like then what we're having. The baby will be in our bedroom with us for at least the first little while, so there isn't any rush to know for decorating.

My biggest problem (besides my fingers swelling up occasionally when I sleep) is that I'm desperate to feel the baby move (yes I hear all of you telling me to enjoy this quiet while it lasts.) I keep waiting to feel the flutters, but nothing is happening! I keep reading things that say your baby can hear and with startle to loud noises, but I must have a very mellow baby. Here's hoping... for the flutters AND a mellow baby.

Look At Peanut!

Peanut had some prenatal testing done today which involved doing an ultrasound and measuring the bubble of liquid on the back of the baby's neck. I got a finger prick for some blood work. This test was to look for indicators of Down Syndrome and other associated birth defects. We'll get the official results in about a week, but the tech said everything looked good.

Peanut wasn't nearly so active (I think we were being shy because Aunt Lisa was watching) but we did get some good pictures. Peanuts heartbeat was 150 beats/min and the baby was 7cm from head to rump. I also found out that the placenta is on the back wall of my uterus, so hopefully in the next few weeks we should start feeling some movement. That's harder to do if the placenta is frontally placed. We'll see!

Right now I can't wait to see the baby's face more then I want to know if we're having a boy or a girl. I also want to feel Peanut moving around because unless I'm having an ultrasound and can see the baby, my pregnancy doesn't seem real. Besides being tired, the pregnancy has been very mild so far. So except for cutting out some of my favorite foods and watching what I eat, oh and having to visit the bathroom ALL THE TIME, it's sometimes easy to forget I'm pregnant.

My 1st Baby Dream

I had my first Baby Dream last night. It was a great dream. The baby was a girl - and of course she was ADORABLE!

Watch the Growing Bump!

Now that we have hit the 12 week point (and more importantly, now that there is actually something to see) we took or first Belly picture today. So this way we can watch as it gets bigger and bigger and we'll have something to look back to in a few months. I am still fitting in my into my pants. I have resorted to a rubber band a few times, but that is usually when they are fresh out of the dryer. I even wore my skinny scrubs to work on Wednesday. So even though there is a bump, it's not very big. In all fairness, Peanut's only about 2.5 inches long from head to bum, so I wouldn't have a big bump, yet.

That was one thing I asked the doctor at my first appointment. I didn't want to be dumb, but I am a little worried that my birth wieght might be an indicator of what's to come. God bless my Mom! If she had had either my sister or myself TODAY, she would have had C-sections for both of us. Lisa was a 9lb+ bum first breech and I weighed 11lbs 13oz. Now they usually start talking C-section when they think your baby is 10lbs or more or in the a funny position like Lisa. Then you hear the stories of the heads on Tom's side of the family... well, I'm already sweating a little.