Working Hard to Encourage the Pregnancy Glow: No Success Quite Yet

Went to the Baby Doctor today

This morning Dave and I rode down to our baby's doctor and learned that everything is on track! He measured my belly and said its just the size they expect it to be. We also heard the baby's rapid little heart beat. And our doctor is the sweetest man who makes me laugh and feel so at ease. He recommended some doulas that he has worked with so soon I will contact them to set up some meetings. Can't wait to find just the right type of support/ birthing coach to compliment our hospital, our doctor, and of course Dave! Doulas are there for Dad's too!

17 weeks 4 days

Here are some photos from today after I walked the dogs. Just trying to keep people in the loop. Friends love to ask for photos!

17 weeks

During the day, I day dream and believe I am sure the baby is a boy. My waking self would make a bet on this. At night, I have had two vivid dreams where I am with our baby and its a little girl. Last night I dreamed Lindley had another baby and it was a boy the same age as our little girl. We laid them next to each other and they both had green eyes and looked like siblings. The little girl could talk and I told her she was born too soon and could she please go back inside me and get a little bigger. She said, no, its more exciting out here! ha!

The other girl dream I had was about a little girl named Eloise. I have never heard a this name or met anyone with this name, and I am not sure that I particularly love it, but that was her name. April 4th is our date for the 20 week ultra sound, I still think we are going to pass on finding out. Well, I need to see what Dave thinks. But my vote is no. I am having fun with the surprise.

16 Weeks Photos

I KNOW we need to start documenting this more. Here are two photos from in front of the laundry room tonight after work (poor quality due to iphone). Getting bigger!

Sneaking in my greens

Baby, at 15 Weeks, you are the size of an orange:

Hello tricky taste buds! I always envisioned a very healthy pregnancy, and most likely by national standards I am already there. But what I wasn't prepared for was my huge aversion to previously loved foods ..........like broccoli! Well, tonight broccoli I have snuck you into my dinner by combining you with bites of delicious basil thai chicken! You need to hijack the chicken little broccoli or there's no way you are going into my belly.

My favorite foods to eat so far are usually pasta, cereal, cheese, anything with vinegar, all fruit, and black bean burgers with Hot Sauce (Cholula or Frank's).

Today was a land mark day. Today was my first mama-baby massage at the School of Massage here in town. Twenty-eight dollars and student therapist who was very attentive and wonderful all around. I was very happy to send the baby lots of happy relaxation vibes and have my sacrum worked on which needed help even though I am not even carrying that much in the front. I believe its all the ligaments stretching because I CAN feel those. This week I am also noticing that my movements and resting postures are having to find non-traditional positions. No more curling up on the couch and bending over without thinking. It's like there's a talking brick in my pelvic bowl: "Hey, here's some annoying more than painful feedback that you are cramping my style down here, change it up lady!" And so I do, learning along the way that baby's comfort really is my comfort to; there is a solid communication system happening here.

Someone intervene!

Tonight I am home alone. Dave and some friends from residency have set off for Wolf Creek this weekend to quench their thirst on 15 new inches of powder. Knowing that my battery no longer has the charge to keep up with three grown men tearing around a mountain, nor do I want to cram into a hotel room with all of them and step around potential sleeping bodies on the floor to make my bi-nightly treck to the bathroom, I decided to spend the weekend at home.

When I arrived home at six o'clock tonight after work, I was what you would truly call starving. It wasn't my First Trimester nausea that must be tamed with food, it was a new experience. Seeing as I had not eaten in a total of three hours and that the last thing I ate was grilled chicken on a bed of salad greens, my need for carbs was tremendous. Unexplainably urgent beyond belief. I walked into the kitchen and my legs were shaking and weak as I reached to pull out every cereal we had. I finished three boxes that were already opened and put a dent in two more. I killed the milk. I topped if off with our delicious, full fat Greek Yogurt. I took a 15 minute break to see if I was satisfied. But NO! I wasn't! So then I proceeded to eat 7/8' s of an Annie's Organic Cornmeal Pizza I loaded up with spinach. Crazy good!

I write all this in amazement at what I can eat these days. I feel I could enter a contest of some sort and win. So far, only four pounds of weight gain since November. This baby can EAT! Well, and his/her mom!

Off to sleep aided by my food comma! Quite blissful!

Picture of Round One: