Fumbling Towards Eggstacy

21 Weeks

Belly Shots

Here are my 21-week belly shots, one with sweater and one with skin.

            

Baby Book

A few weeks back, I was on a crazy mission to find the perfect baby memory book.  It had to be perfect because I figure my daughter will have it for a long time.  I looked at more books to count, in every price range -- from the $20 Carter's ones at Babies R Us (which happen to be very nice btw), to $200 fancy hand-made books at specialty baby shops.  For a while I had decided on doing one electronically -- Shutterfly has great online bookmaking features -- but DH was opposed to that idea because he wanted it to be written in my handwriting, not computerized, so it's more personal.  He had a good point.  In the end I found the perfect book, and it only cost $45 at Nordstroms.  I love it because the cover is beautiful, simple, and feminine, and the inside has plenty of room to write, without having too many lines to write on.  Instead there are lots of blank spaces to write whatever you want.  It also has lots of envelopes, lots of places for photos, and see-through paper between each page.  Here are some pictures.

   

Feeling Baby

I'm 21 weeks 1 day and haven't yet feel baby move.  It makes me quite worried.  The only thing calming me is that I have an anterior placenta, and apparently when baby kicks, it's as if she were kicking a pillow.  There are almost two more weeks before my next ultrasound, and I'm hoping and praying, as always, that my little girl is good.

Baby Stuff

I've been buying stuff on Craig's List since hubby is out of work and we don't have an endless budget for baby stuff.  So far I've purchased a Chicco Keyfit stroller & infant carseat ($100 for both), and a Simmons crib and dresser, which "came with" a full Pottery Barn Kids girl's bedding set ($425 for all).  We're still in the process of setting up the room but I'll take a pic for my next post. 

13 weeks 1 day

Just when I think I almost feel like a normal human again, my body reminds me that I'm still in the first trimester and the sleepiness and morning sickness isn't over yet.  I've been MIA in the blogging world because almost every ounce of energy is going into work, and when I'm not working, I'm sleeping or eating or reverse eating, shall we say.  ;) 

I've been thinking not only of baby names but also of fetus names.  The one I decided on is Baby Mic, pronounced like Mick.  Because our last name begins with "Mc" (which hopefully doesn't give away enough info for axe murderers to come hunt me down) and because DH is so sure it's a boy, it seemed appropriate.  Otherwise I was wanting to go with April since the due date is then.  But it would be confusing if I call baby a she and DH calls it a he. 

Monday was the downs screening (nuchal translucency) ultrasound.  That was a lot of fun.  DH went with me and as always made friends with every single health care worker he came in contact with.  Which makes it more fun.  The ultrasound lasted the entire half hour because the tech had trouble getting Baby Mic into just the right position to take the measurement.  We got to see his little hands waving about.  I keep picturing that, trying to imagine a tiny little baby waving inside my belly.  When Baby Mic wasn't cooperating, after about 10 minutes of the tech trying and pushing on my belly to get him to move, she had me get up and jump around.  When that didn't do the trick, she had me lay back down and pump my tush up and down.  Nice.  Good thing the tech wasn't a guy or I wouldn't have been so willing to comply.  ;)  Every time she had him in the right position for a split second, he wiggled out of position.  Active little guy.  DH kept calling him Skeletor, which I'm sure the tech hears daily since the U/S image looks so skeletal.  Baby Mic's heartrate was 150, which is normal.  He measured 2.5 inches, which is also normal.  She didn't give a dated measurement, like 12 weeks 5 days.  The tech said the neck measurement was in the normal range, although we don't get the true results for the quad screen until the results of the ultrasound and blood test, plus another blood test a month from now, are all combined to come up with a risk factor, which we'll get around 17 weeks.  Hopefully the risk will be low enough where we'd choose to not do amnio.  As comfortable as I am with needles now after 3 IVFs + 1 medicated IUI, I don't really want one getting close to Baby Mic.

We met with a doc for about 10 minutes.  She let us listen to the heartbeat, which was another fun thing.  She commented that I lost 5 pounds in the past month but said it's not a concern unless you lose 10 or more pounds.  I'll post the belly pic I took at 12 weeks.  Part of me is anxious to get a pregnant belly, and part of me is a bit freaked by the prospect.

The clinic scheduled our next u/s -- the one where we get to find out the sex -- for 21 weeks.  Is that super late or what?!!  Now I'm understanding the frustration that all of you who are ahead of me expressed with the stingy u/s appointments.