I found this quote the other day and wanted to post it:
“There is no way to truly prepare for the birth of a child, except to expect the unexpected. Expect your heart to explode with emotion in ways you have never anticipated; expect to be more tired than you ever thought humanly possible; expect times of genuine sadness even in the midst of this greatest joy, as one life chapter ends and another begins. Expect to grow and change and be willing to do things for your child you would never do for yourself. Expect it to change every day, every minute, and remember what a huge responsibility and blessing it is all at once.”
Laurel Fay, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist in Washington, DC, and mom to twin girls
Oh — and here’s a photo of me at 21 weeks. I update “The Belly Book” page every other week. You can click on the link or find it in the navigation under “pages.”
Definitely wearing maternity clothes now at 21 weeks. At least on my bottom half. If I wear my pants too tight at the waist, especially if I’m sitting, the baby kicks and it makes me even more uncomfortable! But now, thanks to my sister, my mom, Marcia and Colleen, I have a maternity wardrobe!
A lot of my pre-LA-Weight-Loss clothes have come in handy the last couple months. Especially the long over-sized shirts. They have been mistaken as actual maternity wear, so that works for me. Its been great for the in-between stage.
My last day working at the grocery store was Monday. Everyone assumed I was quitting “because of Tim.” It was my first opportunity to announce it was not because of Tim, but because I was going to be a mom! (And standing in the seafood sink is not healthy for me or baby.) It was fun sharing our good news.
As a last note, I noticed yesterday that my belly sticks out a little more on the right side than the left. Hm. And its still that way today. As far as I can tell, he’s still breeched because I felt 6 or more times yesterday very low kicking. He’s going to be a swimmer.
As of today the votes were 11 for girl and 8 for boy. We had an ultrasound today and saw our very energetic baby BOY!
Yes, its definitely a boy. I have 5 ultrasound photos of the “boy parts” (as the doctor referred to them) to prove it. (You can click on the thumbnails to see larger images.) He started the photo shoot with his legs crossed and his head up by my belly button facing outward. He stretched out his legs and started to move around a bunch - waving his arms every where and kicking his feet. It was just amazing being able to see all the movement. When the doctor tried to get a view of the face he turned around.
It was really neat to see the baby again - oh how he’s grown! And he looks less like a lima bean and more like a human being now! He weighs between 10 and 11 oz and dances on my bladder about 40 minutes after I eat.
We are really looking forward to finding out if our baby is a girl or boy. Andy wants to be able to start referring to the baby by name. We are set on a girl’s name but haven’t quite decided on a boy’s. Hopefully it will be obvious at our sonogram on Wednesday. Andy and I will be happy either way - boy or girl.
I personally have been rooting for a girl. (Have you voted yet?) But based on these photos, I sure hope it looks more like Andy! Such a sweet smile and all that hair! I thought it would be fun to post these and then later we’ll see if the baby resembles one of us more.
I’ve been feeling some little movements the last couple weeks. I told Terri that I have been convincing myself that I can tell the difference between baby movement and gas. Last night though, lying in bed I felt some major moving! I was so excited! I happened to have my hand on my tummy and I am pretty sure I felt it through my abdomen. I tried to get Andy to confirm, but he’s not sure if he felt anything or not. It didn’t help that I kept gasping with delight and exclaiming, “Did you feel that?!”
With the appointment coming up to find out whether our bundle of joy will be a boy…or a girl, we have been thinking a lot about names. For a girl we are definitely set on the name “Ella May Zeidner” after Jocey’s Great Grandmother Belt. The name for a boy however has not been quite as easy. We have a couple of middle names picked out that we really want to use honoring family members. Jay, after Jocey’s father, and Maxwell, after my mom’s father. For some reason Hebrew names have been the most popular for us so far for a first name. Both “Judah Maxwell Zeidner” and “Ari (pr: Ar-ee) Jay Zeidner” are at the top of our list as of right now, but we’re not completely settled on that and are currently looking into other family names as well. I really like the meaning of Judah: One who praises God, and also the symbolism of the Lion of Judah. Ari means “resembling a lion or eagle”. I’m not sure how those two animals are related, but that’s what the baby name book said so it must be true! I guess the name search will continue until we are completely satisfied with a boys name…or we find out we’re having a girl.
We are scheduled for another ultrasound on Wednesday, March 4th where we will hopefully discover the gender of the baby. You can cast a vote below on whether you think it’s a boy or girl. Thanks for participating!
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Trying to eat right and exercise and drink plenty of water! The hardest, I think, is eating right. I do prenatal exercise dvds about 4 times a week. According to my records, I’ve gained 9 pounds so far. I believe this is right at the top of the average recommended weight gain for my starting weight. I keep track at whattoexpect.com about once a week. Starting to show!
Most of the first trimester discomforts have subsided. I no longer feel as tired and nauseated as I did the first 10 weeks or so. I was extra exhausted for a week in December and again in the beginning of January when I caught colds. And it seems that most of the nausea was from the timing of taking my prenatal vitamin.
When I took the vitamin in the morning I would sometimes get so sick I couldn’t keep breakfast down and lost my appetite for the rest of the day. When I took it a night (with a prescribed full glass of water and a trip to the bathroom at 4am) I felt bad in the morning. If I took it really late at night, I couldn’t keep it down at all.
Andy read from a forum of people who take the same vitamin have much of the same side effects. One suggestion on this board was to take it after lunch. I have taken my vitamin after lunch for about a week and have felt much better. Most days I believe it gives me a headache in the afternoon, but to me that’s better than the other side effects I was dealing with.
I really want to have a “Belly Book” that covers the progression of my pregnancy. I read that eventually someone will appreciate it and I would be glad I did. Andy has been kind enough to take some shots of me.
11 Weeks
These photos are taken in the nursery. When we moved into this house three and a half years ago it was already yellow and had John Lennon’s animals hand painted on the walls. We’re keeping the theme for our nursery.
13 Weeks
Below is an interesting shot Andy took from above…I think things seem larger than they really are!
A grand adventure is about to begin.
– Winnie the Pooh
We found out we were pregnant on Saturday, November 15th, 2008. After many $8 negative home pregnancy tests, we were so excited to get a positive. Our first doctor’s appointment was scheduled for December 11th. We saw the little fluttering heartbeat on the monitor. Three of our four printed sonograms are labeled “Twin A” by mistake.
We framed and wrapped up the sonogram and gave one to our parents for Christmas. Their reactions caught on video:
Oh — and here’s a photo of me at 21 weeks. I update “The Belly Book” page every other week. You can click on the link or find it in the navigation under “pages.”
