18 week belly pic

I suppose I'll try to keep up with weekly belly pics from here on out, but I won't promise anything. This one is from Saturday (18 weeks 3 days)...




















I think Wesley feels left out if I take a picture of myself & don't take one of him. :) Here's his impression of a pregnant lady...




















Edited to add: Wesley felt the baby move last week. His eyes got real wide when he felt it & for the rest of the night & several times over the last few days he's been coming over and putting his hand on my belly and saying he wants to feel the baby move again (unfortunately the baby doesn't quite operate on his schedule). For a while he was saying he wanted a baby sister, but now he's saying he wants a baby brother. A little over a week until we know which one it'll be :)

A new family member...

My brother got married today, to a girl who seems to fit perfectly in our family. I hope they have a lifetime of happiness together. They asked me to take some pictures, and here are a couple that I like (haven't had time to edit them yet-they're straight out of the camera-except that I blurred out their last name). I'm going to have to go back and take some more of the two of them when it's not rainy & dark outside, because I had to use such a high ISO on my camera that they are all horribly grainy.

Lil' daisy...

At 18 weeks, the baby is about the size of a gerber daisy. I had to go to the doctor yesterday for some minor issues (that you'd rather not hear about) & they went through the usual checking my weight and blood pressure & listening for the heartbeat. It was 154 (good) and I heard it as soon as she put the doppler wand on my belly. Only two more weeks until my 20 week ultrasound. Can you tell I'm excited?!

17 weeks

To satisfy Sunny's request for a belly pic, here's one from tonight...




















And, because Wesley wanted to be in a picture, too, here's one of the two of us...




















Before you know it, he's going to be taller than me. :)

Lil' onion...

According to the newsletter, the baby is the size of a large onion now (about 5 inches from the top of the head to the bottom of the rump & about 3.5-5 oz.). It also says that its weight will more than quadruple this month. That's some serious growing!

The nausea is not getting any better. The other day as I was losing my breakfast in the toilet I just burst into tears and couldn't stop crying for like 5 minutes. I tell you this because thinking about it now makes me laugh. Anthony looked at me like I was a little off my rocker & asked if I was okay. I just said, "I'm tired of being sick," and got in the shower.

On a less depressing note, I've been feeling more and more of his/her movements over the past couple weeks. And, the other night in bed he/she was really going to town doing some serious gymnastics. I keep laying my hand on my belly when I feel movement to see if I can feel it from outside yet & I actually felt it several times in a row. Very neat!

Rubber ducky, you're the one.

According to the newsletter, the baby is now about the size of a rubber ducky.

Had my 16 week check-up today and everything seems to be going well. I am back to what I weighed at my 8 week appointment, so that's good. Now, I need to shoot for gaining a lb./week. It's so odd to me that I *need* to gain weight. The only times in our life that we are encouraged to grow & get bigger are when we are children or when we are pregnant (for us women, at least). It's weird for me to be able to quiet that little voice that says, "You really shouldn't have another spoonful of those mashed potatoes." Not that I'm planning to eat to my heart's content or to eat a bunch of junk food. I'm trying to consciously choose healthy foods.

Anywho...back to my appointment. The nurse had the little doppler, trying to find the babies heartbeat. We could hear the placenta (it makes a whooshy heartbeat-like noise at the same rate as my heart - from the blood being pumped through it to the baby - pretty cool, huh?) & we could hear the baby moving (which sounds almost like when you have the earpieces of a stethoscope in your ears and you tap on the end of it), but it wouldn't stay still long enough for her to get the heartbeat. I jokingly said, "Looks like we may have to do an ultrasound." She said, "We just might." After a few more minutes of trying to get it, she gave up and took me to the ultrasound room.

So, we got to see the baby. The picture was much clearer than on the machine at work. We could see the baby was all curled up on my right side again. The heart rate was 161 (which is good). I asked very sweetly, "While we're here, would you mind taking a peek to see if you can tell whether it's a boy or a girl?" She said, "You want to know?" I said, "Yes, if you don't mind." So she moved the wand around trying to get a good look, then said, "Well, the baby is still pretty small, but I would say it's probably a *****************, because ******************," (while pointing at the screen). You didn't think I was actually going to tell, did you?! :) Seriously, they usually don't try to figure out the gender this early so she wouldn't say for sure, but after today I'm pretty sure of what it is. And, in a little less than four weeks we should know for certain. Then, I'll definitely let you know. *Insert devilish little grin*

Apples & Oranges & Prizes, Oh My...

Last week my newsletter said the baby was about the size of an apple (I'm guessing they mean a small one) & this week it says it's about the size of an orange (~4" long & ~1.75 oz.). The length is from head to rump so it doesn't count the legs.

I can feel him/her swirling about occasionally when I get really still, like at night when I'm laying in bed. This morning, as I was sitting at my desk working, I felt a very distinct kick. If my hand had been laying on my belly in the right spot I think I could have felt it from the outside, too. But, that's only the second time I've felt anything that strong.

We have a couple portable ultrasound machines here at work (for use in ultrasounding cattle for meat quality, not for obstetrical reasons). This afternoon I got one of the professors who is a friend of mine (and is a vet) to drag one out so we could play around. The machine is probably as old as I am so we weren't expecting much. So, we put a little gel on the wand & put it against my belly and start moving it around trying to find the baby. It took us a few minutes, and then we're both like, "Oh, there's the head...that's definitely a head....Oh, Oh, there's a hand, and a spine.....Oh, you can see his little heart beating." It was very cool. You can go back in my posts and see the last ultrasound I had, the baby just looked like a blob. I can say for sure that he/she now has two arms & two legs & one head. My friend was joking around and she said, "Wouldn't it be neat if we saw two heads." I was like, "No, that wouldn't be neat." I would freak out if I found out that I was having twins when I was just playing around with an old ultrasound machine out on a farm (and without Anthony there), especially since we only saw one at 8 weeks. It had its legs curled up to it, but we could see it moving its hands around above its head and in front of its face. I hope it cooperates at my next ultrasound in Novemeber so I can stop referring to it as he/she & it.

I've started a baby pool on ExpectNet where you can enter a guess as to what the gender, weight, birthdate, etc. will be. I'll have to think of something good to give away as a prize to the person who wins. You don't have to register to enter, just make sure if you want to be eligible for the prize that you put enough information in that I can figure out who you are. Have fun! Click here to play (if it doesn't take you directly to the page where you can guess in our baby pool, then you need to do the following: in the box to the upper left that asks for game name, type: BabyVega, hit enter & it will take you to our page.)

To all the mothers out there...

I found this post via one of the blogs I read. It's a great little story - made me tear up - although these days, the smallest things can make me teary-eyed. For example, the other day I was trying to explain to Wesley that we as Americans have the freedom of speech & as part of that, we are allowed to protest things which we think need to be changed or are unfair, etc. (we saw some people protesting on the way to school that morning). I got so choked up I had to stop talking. Then, last night, watching Private Practice, the new spin-off from Grey’s Anatomy, I was bawling during the scene where two mothers, whose babies were switched at birth, have to give back each other's biological child. I probably would have cried about that even if I wasn’t pregnant, but I’m definitely more emotional these days.

Anyways, I thought the story was something that all mothers will appreciate. We have a tendency to feel neglected & unappreciated for the millions of things we do that go unnoticed. This really puts into perspective what all our hard work is for.


And, because I like posting a picture with every blog post, here's a couple pictures I took of St. Patrick's cathedral in NYC a few years ago - yes, it was snowing. (These will only make sense if you read the linked story)...


not the greatest quality because they are just scans (from before I had my digital)