Baby makes three...

This week was very busy as I finished law school today! I finally have my life back, after not having one for the past few weeks... so that's good. It was a particularly stressful period as I let myself get very behind on schoolwork what with the nausea and fatigue and so on.

So I finished school and reached the (technical) half way mark of my pregnancy on the same day. I feel like I'm cheating a bit saying we're halfway, since you're not really pregnant for the first two weeks of pregnancy, plus the baby could be late... but whatever, in textbook terms we're halfway.

There were definitely some good moments this week - the little flutters changed more to flicks - a little stronger. I feel them most days, usually in the evening.

Also, another exciting first - a stranger noticed I am pregnant for the first time. That was on Friday and she remarked on my expecting-ness. But on Sunday we went to a store to buy wool for a baby blanket and they didn't seem to realise it was for us, so it's not overly obvious yet (I was wearing a coat). I think I'm still teetering on the "fat or pregnant?" fence, but definitely leaning more towards pregnant.

We had our ultrasound too, which was another fantastic experience. It was very powerful to see a real baby in there, with tiny hands and feet and even a little chin and nose. It's so amazing to think something human has developed from two tiny cells in such a short period of time.

As for next week, apparently the baby starts to recognise voices from this point forward - so that's exciting. I also think I may finally be crossing the finish line into not being completely and utterly tired - but every time I say that I have another "growth spurt" and wind up napping all the time.

Just felt another great flick! And with that, I'm off to bed.

Posted by hilary at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Staring right at the "camera" (head is on the right and baby is on its back - you can see the eye sockets). How cute is that little chin?

Profile with mouth open.

Profile

Itty-bitty baby feet - those two white blobs near the top of the screen are the little feet! It was a lot clearer when we saw it on the big screen, but if you look closely you can see little toes on one of them.

Posted by hilary at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This week has been good - there has been a lot of movement recently. The other night, Julian even felt a kick for the first time - he had to keep his hand on my belly for quite a while, but he did eventually get a kick.

I've had a few headaches, but they're mostly in check, I hope. I also got some really bad heartburn for the first time, which is something I never get. But one of the "19-week" guides on the Internet said this is exactly when it appears. I'm writing it down not to complain about it, but just to remember for posterity when various symptoms kicked in. In any case, I have a great book of home remedies which I finally consulted and it suggested grating some ginger in hot water. Seems counterintuitive that ginger would help with heartburn, but it cleared it up immediately, and it had been lingering for 24 hours - so that really works (or else baby finally stopped pressing against my stomach). Anyhow, I ate an enormous cheeseburger for dinner tonight, and heartburn stayed away, so I credit the ginger.

I'm still doing some running, so that keeps me feeling pretty well. I think we have settled on possible names, but we'll be keeping those under wraps for a bit... every now and then I think it might actually be nice to know the sex so we could give the names a trial run, but Julian is deadset against it - he even tried to cover my eyes today during the ultrasound when the tech was in the legs region! I can tell you, there isn't much danger of me being able to tell - I thought the stomach was the mouth!

While I felt a little anxious before the ultrasound, it was absolutely wonderful. We could see baby's hands curled up in front of his face, could see it open its mouth and wiggle its little toes. Julian got to stay with me the whole time, which was great, because at the private clinic we went to for our early u/s, they only let him in after doing the measurements. Baby wriggled around quite a bit. We had a student tech and she took her time, which was nice as it meant more screen time for baby! S/he loves the camera!

The only thing was kind of annoying was that they ended up doing the nuchal fold measurement tests even though we had not requisitioned that part and had not done the maternal blood test that helps interpret them. The test has a high rate of false positive so we declined to save ourself the worry. I thought about piping up, but then I didn't. After all, I don't have to ask for the results.

But all in all they were extremely lovely, and gave us 5 (!) photos of the little one even though we only paid for 1.

Posted by hilary at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We had our third midwife appointment, which was great. Ha ha, just realised I wrote "we" when it was just me who went... well me and #3!

I thought I hadn't gained enough weight. I feel my face looks very thin. But turns out I've gained 5 pounds in the last month, which is right on target. Yay me.

And of course the best part - hearing the heartbeat. It was 144.

Stay tuned for ultrasound photos - we're having that next week.

Posted by hilary at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hilary is doubtful about whether I will show as much affection to our baby as I do to our cat, George. George is pretty cute, if a bit needy and mischievous. Sort of like children, I imagine, so I reckon I'm well trained. The impending expansion of our family of three (previously four prior to the unfortunate passing of Blixie) to four indeed has been a subject of concern for Hilary and me. Will the children - that is, George and Junior - get along? Will George bully Junior? Will she get jealous of our new object of affection? Will she steal Junior's toys? Knowing George, the answer to one or more of these questions is undoubtedly yes. So we've decided Georgie really should be present for the delivery. You know, have her there so she can bond with Junior from the get-go and learn to play nice. Maybe she can operate the video camera. So, yes, my thoughts are very much with the baby and doing all we can to ensure Junior will get along with her big sister!

Posted by julian at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, I'm pretty sure it was the B-complex that did it - but no headaches since last Monday! A whole week - what a coup.

There has been quite a bit of kicking, or some kind of movement anyway. The other day I called Julian over after a nap to show him how my belly was suddenly a bit lopsided and you could actually see the bulge of the uterus under my belly button. That made him a little squeamish for some reason. He is going to need some acclimatising before birth!

Anyway, you'll be relieved to know I am no longer lopsided. I don't have much of a belly yet - sometimes at night I do, but by morning everything's back down again. So I'm still not getting any free bus seats! Come on baby - I'm counting on you! If you could appear by approximately 7:30 that would be most helpful as the 32 can be quite busy at that time.

This weekend we did the Sun Run - my time was really lousy, but apparently baby on bladder + jogging motion = frequent rest stops. There was quite a line at some of those porta-potties. Anyway, next year we hope to be doing it with a jogging stroller.

Also, while I'm still not having that energy burst everyone keeps telling me about, I will say that I am feeling relatively calm. All those hormones seem to be levelling out, and I am not yet completely freaked out about the fact that I haven't done any work all term and have an exam and 65 pages worth of paper to write in the next two weeks.

Posted by hilary at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

At that delightful "fat-or-pregnant"? stage. Definitely made the transition into maternity pants, but strangers aren't rubbing my belly quite yet.

Posted by hilary at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm feeling a lot better these days, more energy et cetera, with one rather major exception. I seem to have a headache every day. And not the back-of-the-mind, you-can-work-through-it ones, but the hurts-to-stand-up ones. I have a lot of headaches in normal life too, though not quite this many. However, in my non-pregnant state they are effectively dealt with by drugs I can't take in my present state.

I'm trying a B-complex and yoga and I may be at the point where I try to cut out refined sugar and other nasties...

Anyway, other than that life is good - I've felt some fluttery kicks a few times - it was only every few days for a while, but yesterday there was a hub of activity. Today's been quiet and I guess regular movement isn't expected for quite a while yet, but it does give me a nice thrill.

Also, I signed us for childbirth classes, which I'm psyched about. Hopefully we will get to meet some other couples having kids at the same time.

Posted by hilary at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Getting up is always hard, but it seems especially hard these days as I long for those extra hours of sleep. Today I was in the middle of a particularly pleasant dream when the alarm went off and I was awakened to the sounds of CBC Radio 2. I had been about to have coffee with Julia Roberts. We were going to catch up and, of course, discuss our pregnancies. She was running a bit late because the paparazzi had been following her, but we were gearing up for a good chat.

So, even though it appears my hopes for a Buffy pregnancy have not panned out, it's almost cooler that Julia is now expecting #3! After all, I was a bit of a fan back in the day - I watched Pretty Woman 23 times by the time I was 13. Yes, somehow I managed to get in to see that movie about the prostitute with the heart of gold at age 12. I think I saw everything she made up until that movie with Mel Gibson (okay, I saw that too... in Bali of all places.)

I also read Julia's unauthorised biography, which was given to me by my younger brother along with, strangely, a biography of Danielle Steele. I don't remember much of it except that she got spinal meningitis soon after the filming of Satisfaction and Liam Neeson stayed by her side the whole time. To this day, whenever I get a flu or fever, which thankfully isn't all that often, I start searching the web for spinal meningitis symptoms.

My interest in Julia declined once I started getting, well, other interests, but these days she's even cooler, acting in NY plays and driving ethanol-fuelled cars, and mostly, laying low. I may have to rent Erin Brokovich this weekend and get a bit of a fix, since believe it or not, I have never seen that movie! Hmm... what do you think of Hazel or Phinneus as names for little JM?

Posted by hilary at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)