Gender Issues

For those of you who are wondering, we decided not to find out the sex of the baby. A healthy baby is the most important thing to us, and not finding out is our way of saying that the gender does not matter. I don't want anybody getting overly excited if it's one gender, and disappointed if it's the other - not that I can control how anybody reacts. But for now we would like to focus on what is important without having to deal with all of that.

Doctor's Visit - 22 Weeks Pregnant

We went back to the doctor yesterday. Everything looked fine. The baby is now 13.5 ounces, and I gained four pounds. It's amazing how squirmy the baby is! As these pictures depict, it went from laying there, to curling up in a ball, to stretching way out with its head back, all within about a minute. It also rolled over, but I have no photographic evidence, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Me - 21 weeks pregnant

I hate pictures of myself, but my mom is emailing this around anyway, so I figured I might as well post it. She took this on March 9 when she was down visiting. You can click on the photo to see it better.

Furniture

Well, we just got back from Thomasville where we bought a crib: http://www.babysdream.com/Products/Infinity/Default.htm
and a mattress to go with it.
The company makes most of their parts in South America (ah, the nebulous "South America" as if it were one place!) and then assembles them in Georgia (the state, not the country), so no made-in-China stuff. And, it is all real wood - no mdf and veneer.
We also bought a glider/ottoman set. It's the padded rocking chair kind that I didn't want at first (preferring instead a fully upholstered chair), but after I sat in it I changed my mind. It is sooo comfortable.
So there goes my spending money for the next couple months! :)

We won't actually get the items for a couple weeks, but I plan to post pictures when we get everything all set up. We are putting new flooring down up there too. I'll try to get a before and after shot, but we've already cleaned it out, so the before shot won't be very realistic. I suppose I could just open a ream of paper and spread it out all over the room to approximate what it looked like with me working on my dissertation. Or maybe I'll just let you imagine. :)

Weight Gain

A couple of people have asked about weight gain. Well, without revealing actual weight numbers, here's how it has gone so far. The day I found out I was pregnant, which was when I was about 5 to 6 weeks along, I weighed my typical weight. At my 10 week doctor's visit for the first ultrasound, I had lost 4 pounds due to morning sickness. By 14 weeks I had gained 1 whole pound. By our 18 week visit two weeks ago I had gained 3 more, bringing me back up to my pre-pregnancy weight.
Since then (in the last two weeks) my belly has embarked upon a rapid expansion campaign. So, I will be very curious to see what I weigh two weeks from now at our March 24 visit. I haven't really been eating that much more as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure, but my belly sure is getting bigger. People commented at work today that I looked like I had grown over the weekend! (How sweet of them to say.) I don't have a scale at home, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Updates

For those of you who have commented that you want more updates, I am going to try. I am not allowed to access this website at work, so I have to do it at home. The problem there is that sometimes by the time I get home, I don't want to fire up my computer. But, I will do my best.

Hat

Take a look at this cute hat sent by my grandmother and my aunt. It made me all teary-eyed when I opened it.

Gestational Diabetes

So - I don't have it. At least not yet anyway. My three hour test came back normal. My original 1 hour glucose test came back elevated, so I had to sit through a three hour test. I know that doesn't sound long, but picture a colorless cinderblock square of a room with aluminum folding chairs and no magazines. Luckily, I had my I-pod and a puzzle book. I felt so non-maternal though. The other mom doing her test on the same day had all these baby books she was reading to pass the time. Guess I'll get around to buying one of those eventually - and maybe I'll even read it. :)

February 25 Visit - 18 weeks pregnant

Here are two ultrasound photos from our visit last Monday. Doesn't that foot make you want to play "this little piggy went to market"? Such a cutey. The baby weighed an estimated 6 ounces in these pictures. I have felt lots of movement for the last two weeks and today it felt like the baby was doing backflips, it moved so much! It'll still be a few weeks before anybody can feel the kicks on the outside though.

Our next visit is March 24, so stay tuned for more pictures.