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:

Just to make myself feel better

I have been noticing that in the morning (pre-bloating), I don't look as pregnant as I would like to. I had my friend Molly (who is a doctor) confirm that she felt my uterus was large enough while I laid on my kitchen floor. She did this while sweetly laughing at me. Her great response was: "Trust your body." I appreciated this response, very soothing and very right for me.

I was emailed this 15 week photo this morning and I thought once I saw it, "Hey, I look like that!" I know it's silly, but the validation was nice. Here is the photo from the internet, along with one of me from yesterday.

Rock climbing: 14 Weeks

Climbing again since coming through the Yuckies of the First Trimester, thanks Katie Wurden for hanging with me!

To Find Out or To Not Find Out!

What a common question one is asked when pregnant! Behind the scenes, the Riss Grandparent's To Be have been gently suggesting the joys of not finding out the gender of the baby until its birth. Dave's Dad has helped deliver many babies in the mountains of New Hampshire and he swears that the best births are those where the parents did not know if the baby was a boy or a girl. He shared that he felt this surprise was a nice reward for all the hard work of the mother. So we have been hanging out on the fence. My friend Allison and Shaun said that they waited out of reverence for one of life's sweet little mysteries. I have other friends who love to plan and so do not look away at the twenty week ultrasound.

Aunt-to-be Danielle has tooted two horns. Initially she pleaded with us not to find out and then as she began doing a little shopping, she called up and said she had changed her mind! Shopping was way to hard without knowing!

Right now, I am leaning towards not finding out. I am having fun with the mystery. I pretend that I am having a boy for awhile and go on pretend adventures in my mind. Then, I switch to a girl and she and I go out on our adventures.

Either way, I will be delighted! A girl would follow right along with all the other 11 girls born on my mom's side of the family and we love girls! A boy would be special because they are so rare.

I just love you little baby, girl or boy!