Week 20

What an exciting week of our pregnancy! Beginning around week 18 or so, I began to feel the baby’s movements. I first noticed the little flutters late at night when I was scrunched up at the computer. Apparently Baby needs its space! The next night, like clockwork, I felt it again. As the days progressed, the movement grew a little stronger and more frequent. I never knew when it was going to happen but I anxiously waited for it to tell me it was there. I would be in meetings at work and the flutters would come, making it hard to pay attention! I feel them more regularly now and they are most definitely stronger than before and more noticeable.

Friday was the onset of week 20 and we have already had several momentous occasions. I went shopping and bought my first maternity clothes! My goal was to make it to 20 weeks in my normal clothes and I did…barely. As I was in the fitting room another new mom-to-be was in the room next to me, excitably chatting away with her family about how big she was feeling, bla bla bla. The mother told her, “Get used to it, you have six more months to go!” I thought to myself, she’s only three months along and she’s buying maternity clothes? Wait a minute…Im five months and just now forcing myself into these things… Shortly after that a little toddler lifted the curtain to my fitting room and showed the store just exactly how big I really was at five glorious months!!

Monday night, as I lie in bed, exhausted from a busy holiday weekend, the baby starting moving. The movements were getting strong enough that I was pretty sure they could be felt from the outside of my belly too. I patiently waited and sure enough, it was strong enough to be felt by hand. I called Max in and he lay down, placed his hand on my belly, and waited. I couldn’t help but giggle and when I did, he jumped back, thinking that my belly laugh was the baby! We tried again, and Max was able to feel the baby kick for the first time. I think he was partly astonished, partly freaked out. He could only take a few kicks before resorting back to his cave.

Tuesday morning we had our scheduled ultrasound and check-up appointment. Our first ultrasound at around eight weeks or so, was pretty amazing as we were able to see the first sign of life and hear its thunderous heartbeat. I was excited for our 20 week ultrasound as I knew we should be able to see our first real glimpse of the baby. The instant she plopped that tool on my belly our baby’s image was right before us. Max later said that he couldn’t breathe when he first saw it…he just couldn’t believe it! We were both astonished with the detail that we were able to see, its brain, heart chambers, of course its little fingers and toes. The funniest thing of all was that the little booger’s legs were crossed and stretched clear up over its head! Within the first few moments of the ultrasound, the baby waved at us! It was plain as day, a little wave of the hand to say ‘hey, I’ll see you guys in a few months!’ It later rested its hand on its thigh, then moved it up to its forehead as if to say, ‘gosh, what a day!’ What a little ham!

We didn’t find out the sex of the baby, but it was oh so tempting. Very few things in life can be left as such a surprise, so we’re waiting. Or rather, I told Max we were waiting! But he swears that the technician referred to the baby with male pronouns and he saw…it’s “stuff”. I saw nothing of the sort. Later, with the doctor, she listened to the heart beat and exclaimed “I don’t know, it sounds like a girl…” I guess we’ll all just have to wait until October to see who was right.

Until then though, enjoy the pictures from our 20 week ultrasound.


Notice how Baby's legs reach up to its head!

Im not sure which way is up in this photo but Baby's legs are crossed.

Baby's legs are still up.


Baby's foot!


Baby's mouth is open. Nurse thought it was taking a drink.

So, we think that the baby's big head is from daddy and the chicken legs are from mommy! Poor kid!

Just for kicks

I recall discussions with family and friends about having kids, getting prepared to have kids, when’s the best time to have kids, all sorts of ‘what if’ types of talks. And what I remember from those discussions is one main underlying point; you can never be fully prepared. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of steps that we feel are appropriate to take prior to making such a big commitment, but the truth is, even after you have all those loose ends all tied up, you’re still not totally prepared.

It occurred to me yesterday, as in, really started to resonate, that we will now be responsible for another human being. Fully responsible…for the rest of our lives…there’s no turning back. We don’t get to feed it buckets of sugar and send it back home with its parents after a weekend at Chuck E Cheeses. We cant send it outside when we’re tired of hearing it whine like we do the pets. Well…we could, but that’s probably not a wise choice until its at least 5 years old… What Im getting at is although we waited until we were “ready” to start a family, and although we knew what we were getting into, nothing could really prepare us for the reality of it when it finally hits home.

Same goes for the whole pregnancy experience. Every day I look at my body, part in awe and part…what the heck happened there?! You just cant quite prepare yourself for what you don’t know is physically possible of happening. Prior to being pregnant, I didn’t know that you could feel the baby move at such an early stage. I always assumed it didn’t happen until later, when the baby was much more developed. At 18 weeks people are just now starting to notice that Im pregnant and yet, I felt its first kicks! Now that I know what it is, I anxiously wait for the little flutter that only I can feel at this point. All of the reading about feeling the baby move, all the ways that people have described it, didn’t really prepare me for what I was about to feel. The feeling of joy!