Baby Boy!

"The big ultrasound" was today! I can't contain my first-time-mom excitement. It doesn't matter that billions of women have done this before me; all that seems to matter is this healthy baby boy.

We had so much fun watching him move around on the screen. One hand up by his head, the other by his side. We saw great views of his face, and he wasn't shy at all about showing his boyish side! Most importantly, the doctor says everything looks great and is right on track. The technician even let us get a few 3-D shots.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at the Cailleteaus' house in Conroe, and are about to head home to Houston.

Just for fun, here are my 18-week and 19-week pictures. (I take them once a week for my pregnancy journal.) I'll post again Monday night! :)

Found my appetite

I stayed home two days this week with a cold. I'm still not feeling great, but you're supposed to feed a cold, right? Regardless, I was STARVING after work today. So on my drive home I started to intensely crave Niko Niko's. I mean, I was super hungry!

I decided, since I'm lazy, to order enough while I was there to bring for lunch tomorrow. So, here's what I ordered. A full order of hummus, a large village salad, two seafood soups and two falafel patties. I then matter-of-factly stated to the cashier that this was a "to-go" order. I guess that was obvious, because he said "Are you sure you don't want to dine-in with all that food?" My response was, "Right. I could actually probably eat all of it right now." His response: "Nah, usually the soup alone is enough for me." Okay, buster, you try keeping your blood sugar stable when there's another person inside you!!

Then, I waited for my order, picked it up at the counter, and drove home. When I got home, there were 5 sets of flatware in the bag. What are they trying to tell me?!

The Future Nursery

Things that start to make me grasp how real this experience is:

1. The future nursery. (I know it's not much to look at yet, but I'll be starting on the decor in about 2 weeks!)



2. Braxton-Hicks contractions. I started by having one on Tuesday, then another yesterday. It just felt like a dull ache/tightening in my mid-back, along with slight tightness around my waist and lower in my abdomen.

3. Baby moving around, which I am feeling more often!

Is she or isn't she?

I have learned, over the past month, that three distinct scientific methods exist for determining whether a woman is pregnant.

1. Ask her if she is pregnant. (I don't recommend this method under any circumstances.)
2. Ask her friend if she is pregnant. (Okay, but sort of the chicken way out.)
3. Ask her a different question. (My favorite! Goes something like this - "Sooooo, anything nnnnnneeeewwwww going on with YOU lately?)

17 Week Appointment

The baby got a checkup today! Everything was normal. Its heartbeat sounded fabulous. A little slower than last time, so maybe it was sleeping. (I tried to upload a sound clip of the heartbeat but it wasn't working.) I'm really looking forward to not having to say "the baby" or "it" anymore. My ultrasound is 3 weeks from today!

Today I had a few questions for my doctor. The first one was whether I need to be sleeping on my side. She said not to worry about it until 30 weeks. Good news for me... I'm a back sleeper.

Also, I have this scary thing happen once in a while... my heart starts spontaneously pounding when I feel stressed or anxious. It used to happen more often, then stopped happening for a long time, and since I've been pregnant it's picked up again. I imagine it's because I have more to stress about. Work has been stressing me out for various reasons, and I've been worried about preparing for the baby. I asked my doctor if it's something to worry about, and she said the pounding heartbeat is a normal response to anxiety (something about adrenaline) and that it's not a problem unless I have frequent anxiety, which I thankfully don't!

I still don't have a huge appetite like I keep hearing I'm supposed to. Don't know what's up there. I'm definitely gaining weight though, so no worries. I've been asked lots of times if I have any strange cravings, and I keep saying no. But I've realized I've been crazy about cheese and milk since I got pregnant. I guess that's not TOO weird.

At the risk of making this post too long, I want to mention how excited I am that the nursery furniture will already be here next Saturday!!!