24 & 25 week belly pics

24 weeks

25 weeks (big change)

Seven short years ago...

at this moment I was welcoming one special baby boy into the world & exclaiming, "Oh, my beautiful baby!" I say this every year, but it's hard to believe he's this old already. With every year it becomes harder and harder to remember him as a small, helpless infant, but it never gets easier to accept that he's growing up before my eyes. Happy Birthday to my favorite little boy!

We have a tradition that you get to have a cupcake for breakfast on your birthday, so this was him this morning before digging into his breakfast.

Our lil' Rutabaga...

Don't really know what a rutabaga is, but my newsletter says the baby is about the size of an average one. She's about 13 1/2 inches from head to heel & weighs about a pound & a half. Her hair is recognizable now & is probably the color and texture that it will be at birth (if she has any - Wesley didn't have much & what he did have, he lost within a couple weeks. Poor child was nearly bald for the first year and a half).

I'm not on my home computer so I can't post my 24 week belly pic, but it's on my Flickr account so all you have to do to look at it is click on the small picture at the top, right of this page to look at a larger version. It's fairly obvious that I'm pregnant now, so maybe I won't get any weird looks for parking in the "Expectant Mother" parking spots at the grocery store : )

Man cold...

I usually try to refrain from man-bashing jokes, but this video is just too funny + it's got people with British accents.

Behind on belly pics...

Here's my belly pics for weeks 21-23...

At 24 weeks the baby is about the size of a cob of corn (nearly a foot long)...

Her tastebuds & sense of touch are developing and she is able to swallow now. Her brain is growing rapidly. She is almost constantly moving when I am still & favors my right side. She also likes to kick her mommy in the ribs every now & then (which is not very pleasant).

Two of a kind...

Baby Girl Miller on top -- Wesley on bottom (both with their hand on their forehead)

Looking at these two ultrasound pictures I’m struck with the realization that I now have two babies. Shouldn’t be too much of a shocker, huh? But, it really is. It’s hard for me to grasp that. I’ve been a mom of one for seven years now. Back when Wesley was little and people would ask me if I wanted more kids I would say, “Yeah, but not for a long time.” I expected there to be at least eight years between Wesley and the next one since I was ‘planning’ on going to vet school straight out of undergrad. God had different plans for me (I wouldn’t change a thing now). The older Wesley got the more I wanted another baby. It wasn’t that strong of an urge until Anthony & I got married. Then I dreamed of nothing more than to have a child with him & to feel the weight of my own baby in my arms again. Now, after some very impatient waiting on my part for it to be the right time, it’s coming true. After so much waiting & wanting I keep having these moments where I stop & think, “It’s really happening. We’re really going to have a baby.” Every time Wesley says something about his baby sister, it’s like my mind does a double take. Then I go, “Oh, yeah. We’re having a baby.” Maybe by the time she gets here it will be really real to me. For now I’m enjoying the secret pleasure I get from feeling her kick & flip inside my belly all day + looking at her ultrasound pictures and trying to picture her beautiful face + collecting lots of little pink things.

Lil' Carrot & 20 week belly pic...

Baby is about the size of a carrot (~ 10.5 inches long). Her taste buds are beginning to form.

And, here's a belly picture for 20 weeks...


I found out today that two of the professors in my department actually didn't know I was pregnant. One thought I might be but knew better than to ask a woman if she's pregnant (smart guy), but the other didn't have a clue. One of the other professors was telling me about a conversation she & some others were having at lunch earlier this week talking about the baby pool we have going (see link in post above) & he was like, "What? Mindy's pregnant?" She said they all got a good laugh out of him being totally clueless. I thought it was pretty funny, too. He came by my office today & congratulated me & confessed that he just found out. I was like, "Did you think I was just getting chubby?" He very wisely side-stepped that question. :)

IT'S A GIRL!!!

After what seems like forever waiting to find out, we have finally found out we're having a girl. Here are some ultrasound pictures...

In case you didn't know, babies in utero are verrryyy limber. In the picture below her legs are extended above her head (which doesn't look very comfortable to me). I labeled some of the different parts so you would know what you're looking at.

The one below shows her face really well. She had her hand on her head the whole time the tech was trying to take a profile picture. I have an ultrasound of Wesley doing the exact same thing.

Another profile pic...

And, the one & only time I will post a picture of my daughter's bits on the internet. For those who don't have children, the way they tell the gender is by looking for either boy parts (obviously) or looking for the three lines you can see in the picture below, indicating it's a girl. It's not simply the absence of the boy parts that makes them think it's a girl. And, that's your anatomy lesson for the day. :) (In case you're having a hard time figuring out what you're looking at, her booty is to the right and her legs are pointing to the left, on the top & bottom of the words "Girl").

She was very active the whole time the tech was trying to get the right shots for the measurements she has to have. The doctor said everything looks good.

Grrr.....

My big ultrasound was scheduled for 3:00 this afternoon, but had to be rescheduled due to the ultrasound tech having a family emergency. Sooo, I get to wait some more (not happy about that). It is now scheduled for Monday at 8:30 am.

As for a 20 week update, the baby is about 10" long (head to heel - at twenty weeks they switch from measuring crown to rump to using head to heel) & weighs about 10.5 oz. Newsletter says it's roughly the size of a banana. Its hearing is developed enough now that it can probably hear my heartbeat and the noises my stomach makes. It will be a few weeks before it can make out the sound of mine & others' voices. Right now (and at this time every afternoon) he/she is doing all kinds of acrobatics & karate kicks. I read that it takes a couple hours for nutrients to reach the baby after meals, so the sugar from that slice of hershey's pie I had after lunch is probably kicking in right about now.

Tune in Monday for ultrasound pics & the big announcement, as promised.

Superman & 19 weeks...

Wesley was Superman for Halloween (more specifically Clark Kent). Here's one of the pictures I took of him (minus the glasses that made him look more like a Drew Carey look-alike than a Clark Kent one).
And, my 19 week belly pic...

Grapefruit...

Almost halfway (hard to believe). Newsletter says at 19 weeks the baby is about 6" long & about the size of a grapefruit. Good news: the nausea is almost totally gone. Over the last week I've stopped taking my nausea medicine. I still feel it a little in the mornings, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it was - definitely tolerable now (as long as I don't drink juice or milk in the mornings). I feel like jumping up & down and shouting, "Hallelujah!" I was beginning to think I would be plagued with it for the entire pregnancy.

He/she is really starting to do some acrobats in there, especially after lunch & when I'm laying down to go to sleep at night. Love, love, love feeling the little kicks & flips. Anthony has been in Las Vegas since last Wed. for work - can't wait for him to get home on Monday so he can finally feel the baby move.

Only one more week until the big appt. I will try to post scans of the ultrasounds next Thurs. night for all to see.

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)

Wow!

Saw this link on someone else's blog...not much else to say except, "Wow!"

By the way, I'm officially in my second trimester now. The symptoms that are supposed to magically dissappear after the first trimester haven't said their goodbye's yet, but I'm holding out hope that they'll pack their bags and hit the road any day now.