Houston Baby Shower

On February 21 my friend Joanne was gracious enough to throw me a baby shower! We had an yummy brunch spread - breakfast casserole, fruit salad, cheddar dill scones, salmon salad sandwiches - all hand prepared by our lovely hostess. She even baked and decorated a cake to match the crib bedding that we will use in the nursery. I wish I had that much talent with frosting! After thinking about all the things we will need to take care of Poppy for 6.5 months, it was so much fun to receive so many of these things as gifts. What generous friends I have! And yes, the gift opening was accompanied by all the requisite "awwws!" that one would expect when baby items are involved. We laughed a lot, too. Especially when Amy acted out her image of someone "catching" a baby being born with the assistance of a receiving blanket brought from home. Yes, Amy, the name would imply that to be their intended use. Thank you, everyone, for enjoying the day and loving my baby with me! And thank you, Joanne, for putting together such a wonderful party!

The Growing Belly...Part II

As promised, here is round number two of my belly photos. Yes, I am wearing the same outfit as last time, but that is only for comparison's sake. I thought it'd be easier to judge the change in the same clothes. I promise I have more than one maternity outfit!

Some days I feel huge and some days I don't. Thankfully, for the most part I'm still pretty comfortable. If only I could still sleep on my stomach, I'd be in great shape! I've had a few kicks in the ribs that I could live without, but for the most part I still enjoy feeling all of Poppy's movements. It is entertaining to watch my entire belly squirm around on its own. I have literally relinquished control over that part of my body to another person.


Chris is looking forward to being able to use my belly as a place to rest his drink. Thankfully, at 29 weeks and 1 day we aren't quite there yet!

28-Week Ultrasound

On February 10 we all went back to the doctor's office for a follow-up to the anatomy ultrasound. The tech really only needed to verify something about the heart, but she checked for everything all over again just to be sure. This time we had no trouble getting Poppy to move around - partly because the baby is 8 weeks more mature, and partly because I'd just finished drinking that nasty orange liquid they give you as a part of your glucose screening. That sugary stuff will make anyone squirm!

Apparently, when reading ultrasounds is your profession you can actually see things like kidneys, livers, etc. I can only see body parts - arms, legs, face, foot - so I was surprised that I could not only clearly make out the heart, but I could actually see all of the different chambers as they were beating. I've never seen my own heart beat, but I've seen my child's. Very cool.

This time we had to look away when the tech was checking on the anatomy "down there" so that we were sure to keep the gender a secret. She didn't have us do that last time. That could be because a) everything is now more developed, and thus more clear or b) its a girl and she wasn't worried about us figuring that out last time because there's not really much to see on a girl at 19 weeks. Which reminds me: I think my dad might know the gender. We took the DVD of our 19-week ultrasound to show my family at Christmas. Granted they barely used ultrasounds on pregnant women when my dad was in med school, but he does have a high level of familiarity with the human body. After the first viewing, he confidently declared that he did not figure out the gender, although he did try. After the second viewing, there were no confirmations or denials either way. Hmm...

When all was said and done we got another report that everything looks completely normal and healthy! Poppy weighed in at 2.5 pounds, which is right on schedule for our expected due date. We are out of reasons to schedule any more ultrasounds, so the next time we see Poppy it will be in the flesh!

Front-on Face Shot (top of the head facing right)

Bottom of a Foot (see the little toes!)

Two Legs (hard to see, but they're crossed)

Profile Shot (nose facing up)

The Growing Belly...

I always thought that I would be one of those pregnant women that took pictures of her changing body on a weekly - or at least monthly - basis. I continued to believe this in the first few weeks after I found out that I am indeed pregnant. But before I knew it my first trimester was over and my body didn't look any different than the day I took the test. Well, it did to me, but when even your husband can't tell, there's not really much point in taking a picture. And then when I was still wearing my normal clothes at my 19-week ultrasound, I once again decided that pictures at this point would still be pointless.

By the time I moved myself into maternity clothes the week of Christmas, I'd pretty much forgotten about my strives for weekly photos. So from here on out I'm going to do my best to at least get a good picture once per month. I can't promise it will be at exact 4-week intervals, but sometime in each calendar month.

Here are two pictures of me and Poppy on January 9, which is 23 weeks and 2 days gestation for those of you keeping track. I like to think of this as the "cute pregnant" stage - big enough to look pregnant, but not huge and awkward. I was very excited to actually look pregnant on this day. And it appears that I was quite proud to be a Cardinal Health employee that day, as I did not remove my security badge before taking the pictures.

Anatomy Ultrasound

We actually went in for our 20-week ultrasound at 19 weeks because it had been four weeks since my last visit. Apparently most people use this peek inside to learn the gender of their unborn child, but we are not most people. We have decided to wait until Poppy is born for the big surprised to be revealed. And yes, because we don't know the gender, we have adopted the neutral name "Poppy" to refer to our baby. Chris's grandmother was concerned when she realized just how accustomed we have already grown to using that name. "I hope that doesn't stick after that baby is born!" she declared with great concern. Don't worry grandma, we picked this temporary name in part because we know that it will not stick.

The ultrasound took about 45 minutes because Poppy would not move throughout the entire thing. The tech was able to confirm that all the anatomy looked great but she couldn't get one view of the heart that she needed. No need to worry, but we'll get you another ultrasound in 8 weeks to check again. Another look at my unborn baby - sounds good to me!

So here are the pictures from the Anatomy Ultrasound. Poppy weighed in at about .68 pounds and is a grey blob no more. Its incredible to me how quickly a tiny group of cells can transform into a perfectly formed, although small and immature, human body.

"Facing Your Own Foot"

"Arm"

"Face"
If you look closely you can see the lens of the eye looking back at you!

"Arm Extended Over Head"

"Face and Abdomen"

Confirmation Doctor's Appointment

On September 18, 2008 we went in for what is known as the "confirmation appointment." At this point we'd known about the baby for three and a half weeks, but you have to wait until you are at least six weeks along - and then we had to take a vacation to Hilton Head in there too. So our first appointment ended up being six days after Hurricane Ike hit Houston - power and traffic lights were still out throughout most of the city leaving the office with a skeleton staff, and us with a lot of one-on-one attention from the doctor. Not a bad thing for your very first OB appointment.

The most exciting part of that first appointment is the ultrasound (trust me, its not when they take 15 vials of your blood). It is an incredibly surreal moment to hear someone say for the first time, "And there's your baby!" I found a surprising amount of comfort in looking at the kidney bean-shaped grey blob that really looked nothing like a baby at all. But it looked right to the doctor and she had said the words I'd needed to hear to make this all real. But it was what she would say next that were the words Chris really needed to hear. "And there's definitely only one in there" led to his response of, "Oh good! Let's take this one at a time!"

I also had a moment when I felt exactly like Rachel in the episode of Friends when she and Ross go for their first OB appointment. The doctor pointed out the heartbeat and Chris immediately recognized it and agreed. I smiled and nodded. I think she caught that because she pointed it out again. Ok, sure. Later I asked Chris if he really saw the heartbeat. "Yeah it was that flicker inside the baby - almost looked like a skip in the picture." And just like Rachel, I responded, "Oh, well I saw that!"

So I left that day with a picture of my grey blob and the knowledge that this was all really. We are really going to be parents!