Bellies everywhere....

Yesterday I met up with my pregnant cousin Sharon, her son Zac and her mother Cathy for lunch at Warragul. It was great to catch up with them all and to see her so pregnant. Sharon doesn't know what she is having and doesn't want to know but she doesn't have that long to go now until she finds out anyway.

Sharon is also seeing the same OB as me and is having her baby at Warragul Hospital too. In fact she was one of the people that recommended that I go there as well and so far I'm really glad that I made that decision.

It's funny, but who would have thought that when we met for the first time, about 5 years ago at a family reunion, that we would now be pregnant together. Things have changed so much in such a relatively short time. It is nice to know that our children will probably grow up knowing each other and having someone their own age to play with when we get together.

Look at the Belly...

We decided that it was about time that we took some photos of my baby belly... seeing as I sort of have one worth looking at now. What do you think of this?


And a close up - yep I think I'm pregnant.

Next thing you know people I don't know will be rubbing my tummy, or so I've been told. Do they think it is good luck or something?

A cruel and unusual punishment?

Do you think it would be a horribly cruel and unusual punishment to give our daughter a first name, two second names and a hyphenated last name?

I think I've found a name that I quite like that includes all of the above. Jochen thinks it wouldn't be fair to give our daughter five names. I don't really have a problem with it. Jochen is also worried that it sounds a bit pretentious. I don't think it does.

Does anyone have any opinions they are willing to share. I need some outside advice on this one and I think our daughter would appreciate your help.

Another Week Over - Another Week Closer

So today I've reached the 22 week mark and things continue to go well. Our little girl will look something like this at the moment -

As per usual she has had a busy week continuing with her growth and development. Pregnancy. Org tells me that -

• She can now hear our conversations more clearly than before. When we talk, read, or sing, she can hear us. Studies have found that newborns will suck more vigorously when read to from a book they heard frequently in utero. Books she has been hearing include "We're going on a bear hunt" and "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", I hope she is enjoying them.
  
• Her eyelids and eyebrows are fully formed although her eyelids remain closed.
  
• Her fingernails have grown to the end of the fingers. I hope she doesn't start scratching me.
• Her brain has entered a stage of rapid growth, especially in what's called the germinal matrix. This structure deep in the middle of the brain serves as a kind of factory for brain cells and disappears shortly before birth. But the brains amazing expansion program continues until around her fifth birthday.
• With some help from me, her liver is starting to break down bilirubin, a substance produced by red blood cells.
• Her length is about 27.8cm from head to toe and her weight is about 430gm.

Also according to Birth.com by 22 weeks, our baby's nervous system completely 'connects'. The vital link between their brain and spinal cord (the brain stem) now matures and many nerve cells make vigorous connections. When this happens our baby becomes capable of recognising warmth, light, sound and pain. While primitive brain waves have been detected in unborn babies as early as 7 weeks, it is not until 22 weeks that sustained patterns can definitely be recorded. Apparently some women will now notice that their baby 'jumps' with a loud sound- although this hasn't happened to me yet

We do seem to have a very active little girl though, I wonder if that will be any indication of what sort of personality she might have after she is born. This morning I have been coping a major kicking, and even a snakey little feeling - think we may have had an arm, leg or head scrape the uterine wall. It was an extremely weird feeling. Her kicks and punches are also getting more forceful - they even gave me a fright yesterday they were so big and unexpected.

Thursday I did some more maternity wear shopping. Things were getting a little bit desperate especially on the bra front. It is official - I've gone from a C cup to an E cup - I'm beginning to feel like I'm all boobs and belly and it's probably only going to get worse. I also bought some more maternity clothes, a pair of jeans, three tops and a jumper that I can mix and match and get lots of different outfits out of. It is mostly all Ripe stuff but I could only find a couple of the pieces on their site, but you get the idea.

I've been so, so cold as well. I have such trouble warming up at times that I need to have a bath to bring my body temperature back up - oh and that is with the central heating set at 23 degrees. Jochen regularly puts his hand on the tip of my nose to work out if I'm cold or not. The tip of my nose is a great indicator of my body temperature. My nose is also running a bit at the moment and I feel like a have a slight cold. Colds are apparently very normal, the constantly being cold is not - people generally warm up not down.

Generally though things are going well. I'm feeling pretty well and everything is just wonderful. I think those happy hormones have well and truly kicked in. I've virtually forgotten all about the morning sickness and how awful I felt. I'm enjoying being pregnant, having energy and actually feeling like getting out and doing things.

The Challenges of a Name.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
Romeo and Juliet

A few days ago we knew exactly what the baby was going to be called. We were assuming the baby was a boy. We were wrong.

Now I'm very confused. I'm trying out a name at the moment but I don't have that same sense that 'this is the one' though like I did if she had been a boy.

Naming is such an important thing. What if we get it wrong? What if she hates it? What if she later says 'Mum, what on earth were you thinking?'

I'm constantly looking at baby names books but it is just so hard. I don't want to stuff this up. Thank goodness we still have a long way to go - I think we are going to need it.

Arrrh the Shopping....

So once we had finished with the ultrasound on Friday it was time for some serious shopping. We ended up going to Chadstone Shopping Centre first as we were both starving by that time and needed to have some lunch. After eating I bought my first gender specific clothes for Ernie from Pumpkin Patch and visited a number of other baby shops. Yes I'm still calling her Ernie whenever I refer to her to others - Jochen and I are trying out one potential name at the moment - but that's just between us - everyone else will have to wait until she makes her grand entrance into the world.

After Chadstone it was time to head down the road to the wonderful Baby Bunting Superstore. Oh the joy. The stuff. The fun to be had looking at everything. Well at least for me anyway. We decided to look at the huge range of jogger strollers first as this was the thing that we were having the most trouble with. Jochen liked the Beema Q from Babyco as it was light weight and relatively easy to fold up and I liked the Steelcraft Swivilrite Deluxe as it was well thought out and had really great storage areas. Jochen didn't like the Swivilrite as it was very heavy and didn't fold up very nicely and I didn't like the Beema Q as it was quite cheap and nasty and didn't look like the baby would be very comfortable. In addition I wasn't really happy with the colour of either of them - not that that should be very important but boy were some of the colours bad. So we were at a standstill. Until we tried out the Mountain Buggy Urban at Baby Bunting, I had been reading about it in forums where it had very good reviews as well as being equal favourite on Choice with the Beema Q. Oh it was wonderful. Very, very light and super easy to fold, I can see now why a lot of mothers were raving about it. You could drive this thing with your little finger it is that responsive. Although it was quite a bit more than I thought I was willing to pay we are both so happy with it that we got it, a carry cot, rain and sun shade. So check out Ernie's wheels below.

Funnily enough it also fit in the back of the Rex so there will be no trouble in either of the cars. We also picked up the second car seat which I had already bought from them over the phone a few days earlier - whilst it was still on special.

The rest of the time was spent wandering the store and picking up a few bargain blankets and bunny rugs and looking at some of the other things that I will probably buy next time. Even though I would quite happily have spent some more time there I thought it was about time to let Jochen off the hook at 5.00pm when we put all the boxes into the car and headed for home.

I had great fun that night putting the jogger together and it is now sitting ready to go in the newly emptied baby's room.

And in the 21 st Week....

Our little girl is still growing although not as much now.

According to the ever faithful Pregnancy.Org -

• White blood cells are under production. Leukocytes (or white blood cells) form our body's defense system. They help fight infections and diseases.
• Her skin has changed from translucent to become more opaque.
• Her tongue is fully formed.
• Her womb and vagina are formed. Unlike males, females have a limited supply of eggs in their lifetime. At this point our daughter has 6 million eggs. This amount decreases to approximately one million by birth.
• She swallows more this week. When she takes in amniotic fluid, her body absorbs the water in the liquid and moves the rest into the large bowel. This is good practice for her digestive system!
• Wake and sleep periods become more consistent. Some research suggests that baby sets her internal clock to match the outside world's even before birth! My eating and sleeping habits as well levels of light and noise serve as her signals.
• She measures about 26.7cm from top to toe and weighs nearly 360g.

As for me, I'm doing really well. The headaches that were a problem for a while have all but gone and only make the occasional appearance. I've been handling the long trips to Melbourne well, although the next day I seem to pay for it and tend to want to sleep or laze around all day. Generally I'm able to stay up a bit later a night now although I'm still in bed pretty early. I think I have mastered the art of pillow placement to help me be comfortable - this will be an essential skill when I'm really big, as will the ability to roll out of bed to get up.

There are two things I things I seem to be having trouble with. The first is staying warm. For most people, pregnancy seems to make them heat up but I think the opposite has happened with me. I think I'm colder than ever and it wouldn't surprise me if Ernie turns out to be a cold fish like me, she is probably sucking the heat from me even now. The other thing that is a problem is my memory, particularly that related to vocabulary, spelling and what I have just said only seconds beforehand. I lose my train of thought very easily and have a lot of trouble remembering words. For someone who likes to talk this is a bit of a problem but is giving Jochen something to laugh about and tease me with. According to him, and his work colleagues, my memory will never come back. We call it 'placenta brain' as too much blood seems to have been taken from my own brain and is now headed for the placenta. Most of the time I can laugh about it but it can get frustrating at times.

I'm not really showing yet. People who don't already know I'm pregnant don't seem to be able to tell that I am.... I wonder how much longer it will be until people will look at me know that I am. It won't be much longer now until I really can't comfortably wear my current clothes.... it's not that I have put on much weight - only about 500g to 1kg so far but the waist is definitely expanding.

Ernie seems to be a very busy little girl. I'm constantly being kicked. In fact I suspect she may have some musical ability even now, as those kicks are really at quite a constant, even rhythm. Jochen thought for a long time that he was feeling his own pulse rate when in actual fact it was Ernie practicing her drumming. It is only now that the kicking has become stronger that Jochen has realised what he was actually feeling.

Finally I'm still having lots of vivid dreams. Not all of them are about the baby but I know I'm dreaming a lot. Normally I don't remember my dreams but at the moment I do. I think it must be hormone related.

The much anticipated Ultrasound

So we arrive at the Women's Imaging Centre and have a 45 minute wait... which was extremely uncomfortable with an ever increasing bladder. Finally I had to ask if it was going to be very long as I just couldn't hold on any longer. The relief of seeing a toilet never ceases to amaze me.

Eventually we are taken into the ultrasound room where we met Dr Debbie Nisbet who was doing the scanning and she is just lovely. I tell her right from the start that we want to know what it is and she said to remind her at the end if she hadn't told us already.

As I'd pretty much expected everything was measured and checked from lengths of specific bones, to chambers of the heart and even the blood supply going through the umbilical cord. It was amazing watching it all on video and through it all Ernie wasn't that active giving us only the occasional wave. I thought this image of Ernie's feet was particularly cute... but then I think I'm probably biased.

I'm worried that the hand in this picture is making a rude gesture.

It wasn't until we were nearly at the end that Debbie zeroed in on the area that we were most interested in and after a close inspection I would like to announce to you all .....

I cried when she told me... just a few little tears but managed to keep it all together until we got out into the car park where the emotion of it all overtook me.

I'm in shock, but a good shock. I was so expecting to be told that we were having a boy that I kind of feel like someone is playing a trick on me. I'm going to have to get used to calling the baby she and not he anymore which is what we have been doing.

We are having a daughter and it is one of the nicest feelings in the world. I haven't been able to wipe the smile off my face. I would have been the same if it had been a boy, it's the knowing part which is so wonderful.

The funny thing is that we knew exactly what the she was going to be called had she been a boy, but we really don't know yet what she will be called now. There will be some extensive consultation occurring with the baby name books over the next little while until we make a decision.

It looks like Jochen had some girl sperm after all.

It was the night before Christmas...

Opps make that Ultrasound. I was so excited that I found it hard to get to sleep. It reminded me a little of when I was a child and it was the night before Christmas. The anticipation, the excitement. The wish to go to sleep early so that it would be morning sooner, but of course all the excitement made it hard to go to sleep. That was me last night. A little girl wondering what she was going to get the next morning.

Okay so I know what we are getting - a baby, but which variety? A boy or a girl? I still have this certainty that it is going to be a boy but every now and then I have a dream where we either have a baby that is a girl or our oldest child is a girl. So I have these occasional doubts. To top it all off I would gain enormous teasing power over Jochen who swears "I don't make girl sperm." Although he really will be happy whatever we have, it is just something that we like to tease each other over.

So today at 11.45am I have an appointment with the Women's Imaging Centre in Berwick where hopefully if Ernie is co-operating we will find out. Just as importantly they do a lot of measuring of arms, legs, every possible thing under the sun to check out if the baby has developed normally. Funnily enough I'm not worried about any of that, I'm more worried that I won't get to find out what Ernie is.

Afterwards I'm torturing Jochen with a visit to the Baby Bunting Superstore in Bentleigh and then a visit to Chadstone. So I'm thinking it will be pretty late when we get home. I'll let you all know how it went and hopefully post a photo when we get home.

Wish me luck that Ernie is in the right position.

Jochen cops an ear bashing......

So today whilst doing my reading up on what Ernie is up to this week I discovered on one site that if someone was to put their ear on my belly they might be able to hear the baby's heart beat. So I told Jochen this afternoon and asked if he wanted to give it a try. Which of course he did. Ernie was very active at the time but I wasn't really thinking too much about that.

Anyway just a few seconds after Jochen put his ear to my stomach I felt a great big kick right underneath where his ear was. Before I had a chance to say anything he said he felt a kick under his ear. What timing.

So our child has already given his father an ear bashing. It was pretty funny. Unfortunately Jochen wasn't able to hear the heart beat but we will give it a go another day and it might just work. Worth a try anyway.

Kicks and Dreams - Week Nineteen

This week has been one filled with the kicks and movement of Ernie and very vivid dreams.

Ernie has become a lot more active, either that or I'm getting really good at feeling him move. Jochen has felt him a few times now, but only when they were really decent kicks though. During our quick visit with Kell yesterday, Ernie was really active so I though Kell might be able to feel him too but unfortunately she wasn't able to feel anything. We will just have to wait a little bit longer for other people to be able to feel Ernie doing his thing.

Anyway Ernie should be looking something like this by the end of the week according to Pregnancy.Org.

Pregnacy.Org also tells me that -

• Ernie has the same awake and sleep patterns of a newborn. He has a favorite position for sleep and recognizable active and rest periods.
• Throughout Ernie's body, nerves are being coated with a fatty substance called myelin, which insulates the nerves so that impulses can flow smoothly.
• Scalp hair becomes apparent this week. It has sprouted and continues to grow.
• The milk teeth buds have already developed and over the next few days the buds for the permanent teeth will begin to form behind the milk teeth.
• If Ernie is female the uterus starts to develop and the vagina, uterus, and fallopian tubes are in place.
• If Ernie 's a boy, the genitals are distinct and recognizable.
• Ernie is swallowing amniotic fluid and his kidneys are making urine.
• Ernie's size by the end of this week is around 16.4cm and he will weigh about 300gm.

As for me, I'm almost looking pregnant. Yesterday I wore some maternity pants for the first time during our trip to Melbourne so that I would know that I would be comfortable. I'm finally feeling pretty good most of the time now and I think I handled a pretty big day in Melbourne really well.

Today - Melbourne

Today we had to go to Melbourne to test drive some baby friendly cars as we need to replace our sporty but not very baby friendly WRX.

There is no way known that Rex's boot can handle all the baby stuff, we would be lucky if the jogger that I want would fit in and even if it did there really wouldn't be any room for anything else.

So we tested three different variations as well as manual and automatics. All the cars were put through their paces and Ernie was letting me know that he was not too thrilled with the way some of the roundabouts were taken. We were driving safely but we just needed to know how each car handled differently. Anyway one in particular stood out for us and will more than do the job for many, many years to come. So sometime within the next 4 to 6 weeks we will be getting one that will look something like this. I can't wait.

After the test drives we dropped off my old washing machine at Kell's - it was great to get rid of it out of the dining room. Probably wasn't the best day for Kell who was madly preparing for a house party that night but who knows when she would have gotten it otherwise. From Kell's we went to a couple of shops that deal with hearths, mantles and fireplaces which we need to sort out in the lounge room before Ernie makes his appearance.

Finally after all of this I managed to convince Jochen that we should take a trip to the Baby Bunting store just near Kew and kind of on our way home. Boy did we start to spend some money.

The first thing that I wanted to look at was the jogger strollers. I had been doing my research and thought the Swivilrite Deluxe by Steelcraft could be the way to go over the Beema Q as it could take a baby seat but I really wanted Jochen to have a look at it and see what he thought. Unfortunately Jochen wasn't that happy with it, mainly how heavy it was and how much room it took up when it was folded. But it really is my favourite. I'm becoming very anti Beema Q. Jochen is worried that I will have trouble lifting the Swivilrite and I have to admit it really is quite heavy - I think we may have to take the draws out of the Jackaroo if we get it as the extra height that they add will really make it difficult if I'm having to lift it all by myself. We also had a look at the Valco together but the zips and things are really quite fiddly and I think that would drive me crazy. So I think we will be doing a bit of thinking and a bit more research before we make our final choice.

I bought my Kapoochi Nappy Bag which I was finally able to see in person and which I really liked. It is really well thought out and is very organised, which I like and has plenty of room for everything that I might need - and more probably.

We picked out a SafeCo car seat which was on special but really good quality and highly recommended as being very safe and very comfortable for the baby. I think we got a really good deal - I was very tempted to get two but as I wasn't too sure about how good a deal it was I decided to only get one until I had a chance to do some more research.

Finally, we also bought a gorgeous cot set that will be just fine no matter whether Ernie turns out to be a boy or a girl. Now we just need to order the cot for it to be used in.

In the end I think we had a really good day and achieved a lot.