week 25

Yesterday Alex and I went to see my doctor for my 25-week checkup. All is good. The baby's head is down, his back and body curl up my right side and his feet are curled up at the top of my uterus several inches above my belly button. We could see a good stong heart beating which was amazing! Unfortunately, the baby's legs were closed so my doctor couldn't see to confirm that the technician was correct when determining that our baby is a boy. But the earlier sonograms (from the technician) seem pretty clear! My doctor said he'd give me another sonogram at the next appointment so he could try to see again. I have one more monthly checkup toward the end of August and then the appointments increase to every 2-3 weeks and finally weekly for the last month.

Below are the sonogram pictures from yesterday's appointment. They are fuzzier so I marked them with blue. The first shows the baby's head. Looking from left to right you see the top of his skull, eye sockets, nose and chin. The second picture shows a view of the entire body (or as much as can be seen at one time). The left circle is the head and the right circle is the body.

feeling good

As soon as I announced that I was pregnant I noticed that nearly all conversations started in a new way. Rather than the traditional "How are you?" I now get "How are you feeling?" My response is almost always the same, "Great!" I hate to say that this pregnancy stuff is easy so far because I know that I will be jinxing myself. So I'll simply state that I've been lucky enough to avoid any nausea, sickness, headaches, indigestion, etc. Other than my growing baby bump, some big kicks from the kid and my restricted food choices and physical activities, I'd never know that I was pregnant. I highly doubt I'll be singing the same tune in month 8 and 9!

colors

So, we've not decided on a crib, a glider or even registered, but I've at least made one decision -- the colors for our nursery! We were planning to paint the nursery a light sage green regardless of the sex of the baby. No changes there. But I've added two shades of blue to the mix -- light blue and a turquoise. For those of you who might be color-challenged (any men reading this?) I've attached some swatches.

sixth-month ankles

Yesterday was the start of my 6th month. It was also my first day with swollen ankles! I showed them to everyone at work as a badge of honor!

thump thump

Until this point, I've been the only one who has been able to enjoy the movements of the baby. During the past week the pokes and nudges have turned into shockingly strong kicks. So last night I returned home really late from stamp club and by the time I got into bed, the baby was throwing sturdy punches and kicks my way. Alex put his hand on my belly and was shocked when he felt the kicks! He was surprised by their intensity! And I'm so thrilled that he's finally able to somewhat "share" the physical experience of this baby growing in my belly!

ultrasound pics

So here are a few of our first baby pictures from June 13, 2006. We're so proud of our little Skeletor -- anyone remember that guy from the He-man cartoons? The ultrasound/sonogram machine uses sound waves to get a sketchy picture of what the baby looks like inside my belly. If you look closely you can see his skull, eye sockets, jaw and even his hands curled up against his ears. Follow his arms down and you will faintly see his elbows before the image turns to mush. While watching him, he yawned. How cute?!

The second image shows, as my husband says, our son's "junk," which the sonogram technician diplomatically marked "boy."

daddy-mobile

So our first big purchase in anticipation for the baby was not a crib. For the baby (err, daddy) we purchased a new 2006 Honda Pilot. Alex has had his eye on this car for some time and we finally got a deal we just couldn't pass up. And we ended up choosing a color we had no intention of choosing before we got to the dealership and saw it in person - Amazon Green. It's a little bit of an Army green with some gold/tan metallic flecks. We both love it and it has already proved very worthwhile. We've used the third row seating when driving with a handful of Alex's theater buddies. And the navigation system has already showed that it is worth its weight in gold when we can search for nearest gas stations when we're in unfamiliar territory. Did I mention it has an iPod link and rear-view camera while in reverse? But of course that pales in comparison with its five star safety rating - much comfort when we're toting a little one around.

first blog

Welcome! I really never thought of myself as a blogger. In fact, the thought of doing a blog never occured to me until my friend Stephanie started one for her family and invited me to read hers. Suddenly I realized this would be a great way to document my pregnancy and share photos and information about the pending birth of our first child with our friends and family, especially those living far from home. Hopefully my blog will grow at the same rate as my quickly increasing waistline! So keep checking back.