The Stork Is on Its Way

As most of my loyal readers now know, Alan and I are expecting our first child in September. I supervised some of Alan's email announcements, so I apologize to any of you who thought we were having twins, triplets or octuplets, only to be informed that we've got a single bun in the oven. We are super excited about impending parenthood, although certain aspects of it are frightening, such as the sleepless nights, constant worry, and one little 10-cm measurement that I'm just ignoring for the moment and pushing far, far out of my mind.

I was bitten by the baby bug a whopping five years ago when this little guy came wriggling into the world. But babies weren't quite on the agenda at that point, as Alan and I hadn't even gotten married yet. Then we had to check a lot of pre-kids items off the to-do list, such as get a dog, travel, enjoy married life, and live somewhere that has more than 500 square feet. But then one day, we were ready. I think it might have been a day when we were talking about being really excited about going home and playing Scrabble on a Friday night and we were like, "We are so lame, we need to have kids to spice up our nights and weekends."

I found out I was pregnant just after Christmas. And although I must have peed on 20 pregnancy tests, it was really hard to believe that anything was really happening in there. Until I saw this, a little blob measuring 1.33 cm:
After that appointment at 8 weeks, Alan became a little more sympathetic to my complaints of gagging, constant hunger, and fatigue. The nausea really wasn't terrible, more of an acquaintance who would flit in and out of my life than a BFF that was by my side day in and day out. I'm not sure how I didn't gain 50 pounds in the first 10 weeks though, because I ate like a horse. Constant munching was the only thing that made me feel better, so that's what I did. "They" say you need only 100 extra calories or so in the first trimester. I must have had about 500 extra a day. Pumpkin muffins (at least five batches), Arby's roast beef sandwiches and Oreos were my friends. Also, Chipotle. So as long as I wasn't running on an empty stomach, I could stave away the gagging episodes. But empty stomach + water? Guaranteed gag city. Water is still bothering me, so I mostly stay hydrated on juice. (Pregnancy does weird things that I never would have believed before.)

So we had our 8-week blob picture, but things became much more real when this little human popped up on our ultrasound at almost 13 weeks.
And because we have a stubborn little baby who wouldn't cooperate during the ultrasound, we got to watch the best show on earth for about 20 minutes.
Even at just 7 cm or so, this little one is in there waving, stretching and reacting to pressure on my belly. It was the coolest thing I've ever experienced. At one point, he/she turned to face us straight on, and it was literally like a mini skeleton in there, dancing on Halloween. Alan and I couldn't pick our jaws up from off the ground. And although our doctor praised the accuracy of the high-tech ultrasound machines used at the hospital that gave us a September 10 due date, he, of course, refuses to budge from his original September 11 prediction. At least it's memorable.

Tune in next time for "If They Mated" style pictures of what our wee baby will look like. It's good stuff.

P.S. Yes, I did find out I was pregnant, lose my job and close on a house within 10 days. I like to do it up right.