Workin' It!

Week 23 - Workin it! The bump just keeps expanding like some sorta crazy human water balloon! Except that it's not jiggly. It's hard and taut and oh-so-strange. I thought that tummy rubs from others would drive me nuts, but I'm actually not minding it so much. As long as they don't try to lift my shirt. Yes, someone tried. I threatened to grab her breasts if she tried it again. Sheesh! But I understand, it really is such a curious and fascinating "thing" I can see why people just want to reach out and touch and rub and talk to it. Jay will just grab it and start singing to it and Katie-Oh insists on speaking to the bump in an Irish accent, just to be sure that the baby will know that it's her when they finally do meet.

The body's expansion has me worried about weight gain. Although our doc has reassured me that I'm gaining at a very normal rate, being 5 feet nada has me a bit concerned. The yoga has been great and yesterday I braved the gym where I hit the elliptical and then the pool. Very nice. And tonight I will give this one another go....



Prenatal Fitness Fix with Erin O’Brien is great. She starts off the DVD with her side profile and a Hitchcock imitation. Ah the belly jokes! She's 7 months pregnant so it's amazing to watch her go. She's so energetic and motivational and conscientious. She stops for water breaks, constantly reminds you to breathe and even takes a pee break half way through. too hilarious! There's also a partner workout section where her husband acts as the nautilus machine for weight training. Jay and I have yet to go there.

I feel that, not only am I carrying around another little human that I am completely responsible for (thanks to Jay for all of the delicious and healthy meals) but I'm also training for a marathon aka LABOUR (!!). I intend on being fully prepared!

A Special Note

Jay and I received the most wonderful note today....

from Cousin Ben

We must admit, our nephew Ben was not thrilled with the prospect of us having a girl. Ben had guessed Boy and was pretty adamant about it. But we have recently learned that regardless of the baby's lack of testosterone he is still glad that there will be a brand new cousin for him to play with. Thanks Ben, we're glad too!

Maaaaaaa

We went to our first Baby & Me yoga bellies class on Wednesday. Karen the instructor/child birth education/doula/hypnotherapist lead a wonderful prenatal yoga practice. It felt awesome and I'm sure baby enjoyed all of the movement and breathing. I loved being surrounded by all of these strong women and there bellies of various sizes. And I kept thinking how amazing it was that for each woman there, there was a little human growing inside. At the end of the class, just after meditation (my favourite part) we formed a circle around, Kelly, one of the mom's to be who was at 41(!!!) weeks and we did our final chant of 3 ma's (one for the ma's to be; one for the baby in the belly that may be a ma one day and one for all of the ma's that came before us) and then we each sent Kelly a wish. I have a feeling we all wished her the same thing - that her labour come soon, that it be quick and without complications and that mom & baby stay healthy. Namaste.

I bow to you

Thanks for playing!

Thanks for playing the guess-the-baby game. What a buncha good sports. It was great to watch people guess. Some wouldn't think twice and just blurt it right out, others would make me stand up and check me out from different angles while rubbing the belly and some would get so stressed out it looked as though their heads might explode. We don't have a set tally. Although I think there were more boy guesses than girl. I will not keep you in suspense and longer.....

Love Me Tender

Now, would you like to guess the name!? lol! We're at week 21 and feeling great. Although yesterday I was so exhausted I felt as though I was back in the first trimester. We had a doc appointment this morning and we went over the results of week 19's ultrasound and all is fine. We learned that the baby is currently head down and that the placenta is in front, so baby may have to really jail house rock it in order for papa to feel the kicks.

Guess!

What an awesome holiday! We had a very merry x-mas and an awesome new year's eve spent with family. On Christmas Eve we had our 3rd ultrasound at 19 weeks. We were blessed with the most amazing technician ever. She was so friendly and easy going. She even typed "merry x-mas!" on the ultrasound pic she gave us. The session was quite lengthy. Lotsa measuring of limbs and skull and torso. She had quite a time getting to all of the info with the baby being so active. And her murmurs of "excellent" and "perfect" made me want to lay there all day, staring at our bustling baby. We got a fist and a high five and a flip flop or two. And we also got this...

Ten Little Piggies

Hanging ten! Look at those little feet! Don't you just want to nibble on those tiny toes?! When we first walked in, she asked us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. We had tossed around the idea of having the technician throw the "answer" into a sealed envelope that we could open at Christmas dinner with my family later that evening. But then we kinda wanted to see it "live". So we asked her to let us know, we wanted to "see". We were thrilled. We would have been thrilled no matter what. We still took a sealed envelope to my parents place for dinner that night and we had our 12 year old niece Kassidy do the honours. We passed around the ultrasound pics and let everyone have a look as she took a poll. And once the numbers were in, she ripped open the envelope for the big reveal....

Baby Flores-Holz

It was such a fun way to get the family involved. Everyone was into it. Everyone had their own old wives tale way of determining the sex. Everyone was very happy with the outcome. Care to hazard a guess? So far there have been 13 guesses for a girl and 12 for a boy. What say you?

Just a laff

The Belly

Week 18 and feelin' fine! We got our test results back for the maternal serum screening and to quote nurse Barb, "everything is perfect". We're still having our bi-weekly doppler shows. We thought that the sessions would get shorter now that we've become more accustomed with locating the heart beat, but lately we've been finding mine first and then the baby's will kick in and harmonize. We'll hear both together and then we'll get a quick baby beat solo. It is one of the most amazing sounds ever! I haven't been feeling any real baby movement yet. I get a flutter every now and then but nothing really pronounced, like a good kick! Soon, I'm sure.

I was having a bit of a time with the whole pregnant body image thing. When people would say, "wow, you're really starting to show", I'd hear - "jeeze you're getting fat". And if they'd say "you're not really showing yet", I'd hear - "are you sure that you're pregnant?" Perhaps I was experiencing some sort of the-grass-is-always-greener kinda syndrome. Or something similar. Like, if you have curly hair, you want it to be straight. I am a woman after all! And a pregnant one to boot!

Here's an example of the kinda crap I get to hear. At work, we we're all placing an order for lunch. I choose the small chicken noodle. Buddy* next to me says something like, "you better order the small. you're really starting to pack it on". I say, "I must really get you that list of things NOT to say to a pregnant woman**. As a matter of fact, Bill* has it right now. Maybe you can get it from him". Bill would be the guy who growls "prrrreggggo" every time I walk by. Buddy got the hint and a few minutes later he came around to apologize. Whatever. And then there's the waiter at the local pub, "wow, you sure are gaining weight fast!" "Well, I am almost at 18 weeks now." "Really? Didn't you tell me that you were at 12 weeks?" "uh, ya...that was about 6 weeks ago." Duh!

Please don't get me wrong. I'm more than proud of my ever expanding belly. Just ask Jay! I'm dancing around holding my bump and telling him to look at it and talk to it and sing to it and touch it. There's someone growing inside, isn't that just freaky!!!?

I've always thought that photos of pregnant bellies were kinda , well, strange. I will admit to having perused sites where women post their preggo bumps. I HAD to compare. And it looks as though I measure up! But recently I've actually had some requests from people wanting to see what it looks like, so here you go...

18 weeks

* names have been changed to protect the stoopid.

**why do we say pregnant "woman"? is there such a thing as a pregnant man? or are people just afraid that others might think that they're referring to the pregnant cat or dog or cow or sheep? In Spanish there's just one word for it - embarazada. Which, of course, can be easily confused with avergonzado (embarrassed). So it would be an easy mistake for a person learning Spanish to make: "Pablo esta embarazado". Paul is pregnant!? How embarrassing!