Happy Halloween!

What's better than being a skeleton for Halloween? Being a pregnant skeleton, of course! And what's better than being a pregnant skeleton all by your lonesome? Being a pregnant skeleton with your skeleton husband and skeleton dog!

It's a shame the cockatiels couldn't be skeletons too :)

Twins, the mammary kind

Something I'm still not used to? Under-boob cleavage. It still doesn't occur when standing or sitting up straight, but if I slouch when seated, the soon-to-be milk jugs rest on my belly. It is such a strange skin-on-skin contact to have never experienced before!

20 week photo

At least my belly will be more tan now as I grow!

Our Florida vacation was wonderful, though it was a bit odd walking around in a bikini in this "in between" belly stage. Is she fat? Pregnant? Well, with my mom by my side, at least everybody we had any casual interaction with knew for sure I was, when my due date is, and that it's a girl :) Think she's excited?

Kicked with love

I'm getting kicked right now from the inside. It's the most amazing feeling to know it so distinctly. She's very much head down, as she was at the ultrasound, and tucked off to my left. Every time I feel her now it's almost involuntary that I stop and experience each motion. I love it. I love her. I love Art. And I love what we're growing together.

Maybe those hormones are kicking in after all :)

The ultrasound!

The whole ultrasound experience was truly unreal. I had NO idea how impressive this technology is until seeing it in real life! We had a student technician that took her time, explained everything we questioned, and took wonderful still shots and printed them for us. As she was traveling through the measurements we all got a clear shot of the baby spread eagle, no penis in sight, and the perfect vertical line between her legs indicating a vagina. By the time the certified technician came in to verify all the measurement, she had politely closed her legs around the cord, so nothing could be seen. We all knew was we saw though, and I promptly went out the next day and bought a handful of adorable little girl outfits that weren't all pink and frills, since I know that oodles of that is bound to get gifted.

I'm still blown away by all the things that could be seen inside there. We saw her swallowing, sucking her thumb, kicking, wriggling, arching her back, and just being incredibly active in there. The checked various measurements, her kidneys, the four chambers of the heart, and different ventricles in the brain. I can't wait to do a 3D one closer to Christmas so we can see her again!

18 week photo

I knew I hit a growth spurt within these past few weeks, but my goodness! I actually look pregnant in street clothes now!

Awaiting, nesting, rocking...

It's October, the month in which I reach half way. I can't believe it's fall, let alone fast approaching the time in which we find out if I'm growing a girl-child or a boy-child (12 days and counting!). I'm feeling the same mysterious feelings down in my uterus, along with a handful of other interesting sensations. I'm still eagerly awaiting to see what they'll turn into.

I have begun some small nesting projects, which makes me feel a bit better about otherwise having prepared nothing so far. I've got extra shelves hung in the closet, a drawer in the nightstand cleared out with the diaper covers moved in, and part of a shelf in the hall closet cleaned off too. While that amounts to really not a whole lot of storage, every little bit helps, and I've also begun researching a toy/book shelf something-or-other to go out in the living room.

Also, I asked my mom if we could borrow her rocking chair. It turns out that the rocking chair was the very first present my dad gave to her as a married couple--given as a Christmas present in 1982. She fed me for the first time in that chair, rocked me every night in that chair, and now we're going to borrow it to rock this peanut in. That chair is going to really hold a lot of memories!