Foodie

Wilson's new favorite food? Plain bread! Needless to say, this is extremely convenient and cost-effective for his mother and father.

14 Weeks (and 2nd Trimester!)

We successfully made it past the most risky portion of fetal development. Which is to say, I can finally drink coffee again, praise the Good Lord. How happy the nearby Starbucks will be to see me back and spending my husband's hard-earned dollars on ooey-gooey eggnog lattes!

I feel the little beastie move around sometimes. It's still just light flutters. I can't wait for the good stuff, when the baby beats me and I can beat it back! (BEAT THE BABY!) I am officially in maternity wear and out of not maternity wear. Depressed as that makes me, it is really fun that my belly-button gets places before I do, and have I mentioned yet this pregnancy how much I love having boobs? Boobs are wonderful. All the trials of pregnancy are worth the 9 months of fantastic rackness. (I shall not yet speak of the sadness that awaits me in my post-nursing days.)

Wee Pea's current status:

• Lanugo, the downy hair keeping it warm until just before birth, starts appearing this week
• Baby practices facial expressions and gestures
• Wee Pea sucks his/her thumb (we saw it on the US!)
• The liver begins producing bile
• Our baby officially has a neck. Sweet.
  

My New Previa.

No, it's not the minivan. (Sadly.) I forgot to mention earlier that the radiologist determined that we have placenta previa, or a low-lying placenta. What does that mean? Well, it means that the baby's placenta is laying across the cervix. How much, we don't know yet. This is troublesome because the cervix is how babies get out! Hmmmm...

The good news is that most of the time, as the uterus grows, the placenta moves away from the cervix and higher up into the uterus. So it may not ever be an issue for us. But there's a 10% or so chance it could be an issue, and worst-case scenario, we have an early-delivery by c-section.

Those of you who've read along with us these past couple years know that a c-section isn't my idea of a dream delivery. However, I'm resolved to not worry about this until much later when it's apparent whether or not it is a serious problem. And if having a c-section is the best way for me to have a healthy baby, then okay. I guess I should be grateful that I have months to get used to the idea. :D

Don't you worry about it either. We'll keep you posted on this issue as we go along!

Bouncing Baby! (13 Weeks)

We had our first ultrasound on Monday morning (day 2 of Week 13). It was so fun! To start, NO, WE DO NOT KNOW THE BABY'S SEX. Sorry, that comes at week 18. BUT...we did see our little person bounce and jump like s/he was trampolining. It was so cute!

The tech did say that it looked like an already "cute" baby. I'm sure she says that to all the parents, but I like to think it means Wee Pea is proportional and healthy. And I'm serious when I said s/he bounced. The tech called it "galloping", but the baby pretty much jumped up and down and up and down. And up and down. The whole time. It was so fun to watch! Wilson was there, so he got to see his little sibling for the first time too.

So, 18 weeks is the week of Christmas. We hope to find out the sex that week, but holidays being what they are, we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we feel good about our bouncing baby!

Holy Cow!

Parenthood is wonderful because you can dress your kid in embarrassing costumes and totally get away with it. (Next year Wilson may catch on...sad.) As you can see, Wilson was a Holstein for Halloween. He only "trick-or-treat"ed on our one street, which mostly consisted of saying hi ("moo") to the neighbors while being tucked inside of Daddy's warm coat. Mommy, sadly, missed the occasion to study statistics and sprain her ankle. It was a memorable night for all.

He may be the cutest cow we've ever seen!

A complete Cow Album can be seen here.

Cheese!

Today I really felt like a parent.

Why? Because I had to get Wilson ready for his first school picture day. Nicole and I got to pick a lettered package of 8x10s and 3x5s and silly wallet pictures and the even sillier (and new, at least to people who are my age but not Nicole's) "Exchange" size, which is 1 inch by 1 1/2 inches or roughly the size of a postage stamp.

I dressed Little Man in his nicest clothes, or a least the nicest ones I could find in the dark in his room, which turned out to be the same type of shirt that everybody's early 70s school pictures--except for the turtleneck one, anyway--are in: Lots of thick fall-color horizontal stripes. I don't know if bebe couture has reached back to 1973 lately or if dressing little boys in horizontal stripes is one of life's constants but he looked nice and I don't think the other 1-year olds will make fun of him. He did have a collar on the shirt, which would've marked his as a baby square in '73 but which seem OK today.

I also felt like I had to find a comb (I don't keep one handy) for this special occasion. The problem is that it is somewhat difficult to control hair that has, to my knowledge, never been combed but the daycare ladies said they'd take a crack at it. And, happily, daycare girlfriend Madelyn had the same hairstyle. Kids these days. I blame Ashton Kutcher.

Now all that is left is for the annoying picture guy, no doubt ruing his decision to get into professional photography, calling kids funny-but-not-offensive names like "banana face" in an attempt to get them to smile. Then, allowing 4 to 6 weeks for handling, and we'll have our school pictures. Which will be the 12,006th picture of him, but still special in a way.

We'll post 'em when we get 'em.

12 Weeks Update.

Today I visited Dr. Chris, and got the 12-week check-up. All cylinders firing, baby growing, heartbeat strong (and fast!) We enjoyed witty banter about egg nog (which the Doc refers to as "mucus" and "slime" -- blasphemy!!), and finished the visit with a blood draw and urine deposit. Yeehaw.

Our 13-week ultrasound is next Monday. They'll measure the "nuchal translucency", a fancy phrase for predicting chromosomal abnormality (such as downs). We doubt they'll be able to tell us much more than that, since we'll head back for a second ultrasound around week 18. Sorry. No boy/girl news until then, most likely.

Surprising news: I lost three (3!) pounds since my last OB visit. I'm telling you, egg nog is superfood.