It's a...

Nublette! Yes, according to all signs at our ultrasound on Wednesday, Brent and I will be welcoming a little girl into our family in November. It seems that many of our family members predicted a girl (though none of them shared this with us until after the fact - very suspicious, you guys :)) but most of our friends, with one exception, predicted a boy. Regardless, we are excited and it's great to be able to actually say "she" instead of "it"!

Though the appointment was great, it was definitely an adrenaline ride leading up to it! When we got to Brookwood, we herded into the elevator (the THIRD one required to get from the parking deck to the dr's office!) along with several other pregnant women and their husbands -- and the elevator didn't move. After a few mintues, one of the husbands pulled the emergency alarm, and the elevator went up to the 2nd floor and stopped again. He pulled it once more, but not before the elevator repairman met us and we all unloaded. While we were waiting on the other elevator, the fire alarm went off!! No one seemed that concerned so we found the stairs and started hiking up to the 7th floor. We then rushed breathlessly into the ultrasound waiting room...only to be told that the ultrasound tech had left for the day, but that they hadn't cancelled our appointment because I was still due to see the doctor. We were both pretty fuming mad, mostly because no one had told us and we'd taken off work early. As Brent said, "SOMEBODY is going to tell me what's in there, even if it's one of the doctors!!!"

So we went over to the doctor's office and went through the usual rigamarole of weight, blood pressure, and peeing in a cup, then waited on Dr. S for at least 30 minutes before the ultrasound tech poked her head in the door and said to come back around! Of course, we rushed back over and were back in the waiting room with everyone else who was in the same situation, including a family where one set of grandparents, two siblings, and the pregnant woman and her husband were ALL present for the "big reveal." I mean, wow.

Once we got in the room, all was good and we found out that the poor woman had been testifying in court all day! Our scan was probably quicker than normal as she had to get to everyone else too, but she got too pretty good shots that showed that we're having a girl. We asked how sure she really was, and she said: "Well I can't say for sure because the doctors won't let me, but OFF THE RECORD, I would have no problem buying pink for her baby shower and throwing away the receipts." Other good news is that she is either due slightly earlier than expected or going to be on the tall side :)

Anyway, I'm hoping to post a picture of little Nublette sometime soon - you can actually see her head, hands by her head, and little tiny feet (and toes!) Apparently she is about 7 inches long now (the size of a large banana, hard to believe!) and she's definitely active, especially after I eat.

Honey, It's Time...

No, not time to go to the hospital - not yet! Time to undergo that all-important maternity rite of passage: going shopping for maternity clothes. After staring down my dwindling collection of wearable pre-pregnancy clothes (and watching the outside thermostat go up!), I decided it was time to venture out for some comfy summer clothes that I could wear to work. So, I spent a lunch break at Motherhood Maternity in Brookwood Mall - which, despite having occupied the same location since Brookwood remodeled in like 1999, I had never noticed before.

Probably the strangest experience of maternity shopping is trying on clothing with a small, thick pillow thing strapped to your stomach. No, this is not like "the belly" that Bianca Stratford is forced to wear in 10 Things I Hate About You (thanks for the reminder, Kristen!), which is really what I expected. More just like a round pillow thing, so that you can make sure the clothes will still fit later on. All I kept thinking was "I can't believe I'll EVER be that big!" but of course, I will!

Anyway, after carefully going through each piece and weighing what I could wear at work and what would be versatile, I got a couple of skirts, two more gypsy-ish shirts (which I love anyway), and a few basic colored tees that I can wear with pretty much anything. Anyone who knows me well knows I can't live without my denim skirts, so I was glad to find a maternity version that I'm sure I'll wear ALL the time!

Also went through my closet and drawers this weekend to a) make more storage room in the other bedrooms and b) get rid of clothes that should have been gotten rid of a long time ago. It was really sort of shocking what was in there - some things dated from like freshman year of college, possibly earlier. If I was still wearing it (rare), I did keep it, but otherwise it's going to GoodWill. Also boxed up my regular clothes that I won't be wearing until post-baby. Good times :)

On the Move!

I started feeling little twinges a couple of weeks ago that made me think "hmmm, maybe that's the baby...but I'm not sure," but I'm pretty darn sure now that the Nublet is doing somersaults in there. Not so much kicks, more like little taps or squirming - yes, I know that sounds weird. Can't wait till Brent can feel them too!

Nublet was particularly active last night during the NBA Finals when the Lakers were still steamrolling the Celtics - could have been because it loves chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (which I was eating at the time), or maybe we have a future Lakers fan on our hands. Or else Nublet loves the sound of daddy's voice yelling "Starrrrr Baby!," as we are both known to do several times a day. Which makes me wonder - will we end up calling Nublet "Baby Baby"? In any case, this little one seems to still be as active as we saw on the ultrasound at 11 weeks, and loves to swim from one side of my tummy to the other, and back again.

Anyway, today brings us to 19 weeks. Crazy! Almost halfway through the pregnancy - feels like just yesterday we found out we were expecting.

Water Water Everywhere...

And I'm still thirsty! I've been drinking somewhere between 64 and 96 oz of water everyday, and you'd think I was in the Sahara desert. Luckily the constant thirst means that I don't miss not being able to have alcohol as much because that sure as heck doesn't help, but still. It's amazing. I think it has something to do with the increased blood flow, and it being really really really HOT now. But it is a strange feeling, as pre-pregnancy I would drink that much and feel like I was drowning! (And let's face it, just 6 months ago I was the Diet Coke queen and water rarely passed my lips.) I did get sick of plain water today and broke down and mixed a vitamin water in for a little flavor. Mmmmmm!

Interestingly, I also signed up for something called BabyYourself through BlueCross/BlueShield - I wasn't sure what exactly it was but figured hey, free insurance perks! Turns out you get like a gift every trimester (so gifts 1 and 2 are being UPS-ed to our door as we speak), free books, and a dedicated nurse that you can call and ask questions. I find it kind of sad that this nurse was far more helpful and talkative than either my OB or her nurse, but that was also encouraging. I like having another person we can call if we have a question, especially since she doesn't seem to be in the hurry that my OB office is all the time (not to mention she called to finish signing me up within a couple of hours - usually takes at least 3x that long to hear back from my doctor's nurse about something). And she made a point to call me by my name - I know it could be a gimmick to make it feel more personal, but you know what, it worked. My OB nurse surely never does that! (this was not really intended to be a gripe, more of a yay, our insurance rocks :) -- thanks SPC!)

Dream a Little Dream

One of my strangest pregnancy symptoms lately has been very vivid, intense dreams that I often remember the next day (or several days later). In the past couple of weeks, I have dreamed that a) I was one of the LOST survivors, got captured by the Others, and had to eat bugs for nutrition, b) we found out the sex of the baby by giving birth at 20 weeks, examining the baby, then stuffing it back in (lol, what?!), c) I gave birth to a baby that more resembled a cat than anything, and d) got shot in the neck. I've also been having trouble sleeping through the 2nd half of the night, probably as a result of the mental trauma I'm enduring during REM!

During my waking hours, I've become obsessed with baby furniture and daycare. While the furniture issue is a pretty straight-forward thing, daycare is apparently a competitive sport in Birmingham. For instance, when we got on the waiting list for Covenant's Mother's Day Out (which we likely won't use due to it being 3 days a week, 5 hours a day, and only during the school year), the lady told me to go ahead and get on the list for 2-year-old preschool. WHAT? Luckily, a co-worker who had her baby last Nov gave me a list of pretty much every daycare in the metropolitan area, which will be a great help when I take up the proverbial sword again next week and get serious about getting on these lists.

In other news, we're at 18 weeks today - one month into the 2nd trimester and nearly halfway through the pregnancy. Time is FLYING! Though I mentioned last week how many people said I didn't look pregant, one of those same people (Dad) said I was showing on Wed night, and when I picked up Brent's suit from the drycleaners, the lady asked me "when that baby was due." I thought I almost didn't hear her right because I'd never been asked that by a stranger, and flashes of that scene with Hugh Grant from "Two Weeks Notice" must have been flashing through her head. It was awesome and yet disconcerting all at the same time.

Belly Pics :)

Here are a couple of belly pics from the past couple of weeks - the one in the red shirt (which i think looks exaggerated b/c I had just eaten a huge dinner and wasn't drinking enough water) was taken at St. George, while the blue one was taken just before dinner with Kate, Pete, Stephanie, and Sara on Memorial Day.

It's Been Awhile!

Between going on vacation for a week and trying to get back in the swing of things at work, haven't had much of a chance to post about all the goings on!

First off, our vacation was great! We loved having the dogs with us at the beach, and they loved the water and sand and everything! We had a nice, relaxing time and enjoyed having some friends down over Memorial Day weekend as well. Ate lots of yummy seafood and we both managed to get pretty sunburned at times!! Hope to post some pictures down the road - and maybe even a video of Star not only retrieving a ball, but retrieving it out of the OCEAN! She denies it now, but the camera don't lie.

I'm somewhere in between 17 and 18 weeks now -- had an appt on Friday at 17 weeks exactly. Everything looked good, and my doctor found the heartbeat pretty quickly, which was a relief. Though apparently I spoke to soon on the last post when I said I all of a sudden looked pregnant, because no less than THREE people told me on Friday that I didn't look pregnant yet! Oh well - maybe just to me and Brent :) (and thanks to some creative dressing as well). But, the good news is that we got our appointment for the "big" ultrasound! On June 25th we should get to see the Nublet and find out if it's a boy or a girl, assuming he/she cooperates with positioning. Yay!!!

I've been reading a bunch lately as well - pregnancy books don't really interest me much because they all say the same thing and well, it's all going to pretty much take care of itself if nothing out of the ordinary happens. "Sacred Parenting" by Gary Thomas is great - talks about looking at parenting as a way that God sanctifies us, much the way that marriage does (as he talks about in our favorite "Sacred Marriage" book). Ina May Gaskin's "Guide to Childbirth" is also a great book with lots of positive stories and a view that birth is a natural process, not a medical emergency that needs to be helped along by doctors every step of the way or else something will definitely go wrong - a breath of fresh air among all the other books about it. (I recently ran into this attitude again when I tried to reschedule my Fri appt for a couple of weeks later so that we could go ahead and get the "big" ultrasound - the nurse freaked out and told me that was unacceptable to have more than 4 weeks between appts so that they could check on me, and tried to guilt-trip me by saying "you know, I would THINK that your appointments would be a PRIORITY." I mean, of course it's a good idea to make sure everything's ok on a regular basis, but it's not like the doctor does much to keep you pregnant, or can do much if something has gone seriously wrong.)

"Baby Bargains" is another good book, kind of like the Consumer Reports of baby stuff - what you do need, what you don't need, how much you need, when to buy it, which brands are best, etc. I've started researching some of the items and we started reorganizing the house this weekend, so that was exciting! Also got to help a pregnant friend pick out colors for her nursery (she was repainting), which was a lot of fun - and I surprised myself in actually feeling like I contributed something to the process. A couple of years ago I would have had no idea of what to suggest - maybe working in the South's ivory tower of decorating knowledge has rubbed off on me through osmosis or something :)