A rant about maternity clothes ~ 19 1/2weeks

Now that my belly is getting too big for any of my pants, and the nice Bella Band is losing its effectiveness at hiding the fact that I'm wearing unbuttoned, unzipped regular pants, and it's too cold to wear dresses with no tights but all tights are way too...um...tight...it's time to shop for a few strategic maternity clothing items. Which poses a problem. See, at 5'9" and size 10/12, I'm not a plus-sized woman, but I'm certainly not skinny, and I'm taller than average, with short, thick, muscular legs and a long, thick-ish waist. My style tends to be somewhat tailored, and I learned long ago that most "stylish, trendy" clothes just aren't made for women like me. So I have to pick and choose where I can. Internet shopping is rarely a good solution for me, and I need to visit many shops to find components for a few decent outfits. 

Maternity shopping compounds this problem to a ridiculous degree. Because I'm sorry, but I've never once known an actual pregnant woman who looks like this:

These are maternity clothing models. Wearing maternity clothing. Seriously.

Even if the pregnant women I've known were petite, which I am not, they did NOT wear 4-inch heels and skinny jeans/leggings on a normal day. Because let's face it, 8-10 hour semi-active work days are generally incompatible with 4-inch heels for all but the most heroic of non-pregnant women. Add the healthy 25-30 lb weight gain we're ALL supposed to put on by full term and... skinny jeans and heels??!!  SERIOUSLY!!??

Of course, these models aren't pregnant. They're just wearing the belly thingies that maternity stores have on-hand so we can see how clothes might fit when our tummy gets bigger but no other part of our body gets any bigger, or can be expected to be any bigger than a model's, or a celebrity's body. Because that's totally how we gain baby weight. Right? 

Not I. 

Also, even though we live in one of the biggest US cities, maternity clothing is a very niche market. Plus, because we're a captive market, clothes tend to be both expensive and cheaply made. I know there are places to buy used items online, but I tend to have issues buying that way, too, because I'm so weirdly made. 

Anyway, I've found a few promising places to shop online, which I'll share once I've confirmed that they work for me, but I just had to rant for a moment. 

Next post: Why is everything for baby girls pink?!!

Lady parts! ~ 19 weeks

We have a girl-bun in the oven! Hurrah!

We already know her name, and we'll share it with you when she meets us in July. I described why we decided to do it this way in a previous post which you can read here. I'm so glad that we can share this with you!

So, we went to UCSF this morning for our 2nd trimester ultrasound. The session started with the usual big splurt of warm jelly on my belly so the scanner could get a clear signal and move around easily. We could immediately see images of the baby as the tech, whose name was Tim (the Enchanter?!), swirled the end of the device around my tummy to figure out the position of the baby.

Baby was laying head-down (toward my legs), with her belly facing my belly. Her hands were up over her face, her body was uncurled and her legs were in a relaxed sitting position with her ankles crossed and knees together. She laid very still at first; she didn't move much all morning and was apparently still napping.

19 Weeks!

Of course Doug and I were keen to learn whether our baby was a boy or a girl. But first we had to wait while Tim took various measurements and scanned various parts of my insides to make sure everything was healthy and in its proper place. He's not supposed to make any diagnostic comments, since he's not a doctor, but he told us what we were looking at most of the time.

Tim switched back and forth between the regular and enhanced views, which produce the 2-d and 3-d images. It was so cool to see the image of her face, and to see her moving her fingers and her mouth. Of course at this point we didn't know that she was a "she," yet. Tim finished looking at her brain and spine and heart (finally!) and moved to her legs. We could see her femurs and her lower legs and feet, and we could even see them moving and flexing as she woke up from all the pushing around on my belly, but she stubbornly kept her knees together.

"no no no! I'm sleepy!"

So Tim got cross-sections of her belly for a while and took a few more measurements, and finally moved back to the critical area. He caught her in a moment of indiscretion and voila! We knew we had a daughter!

We're thrilled of course. We probably wanted a girl because we came up with a girl name effortlessly and have had all kinds of conversations about how we would raise a daughter. Having a girl possibly opens us up to having a second baby, too, because Doug didn't want two boys (based on his experience as one of two boys, he thinks it would be harder on us and them). If this one was a boy, we'd probably just stop trying, but wouldn't mind two girls, or a girl and a boy. So we'll see. We are already so blessed!

And now Doug has decreed that our daughter shall be "good at math" and shall go to grad school. I of course have no problem with this decree, and shall encourage her to read and draw and sing and play with animals and to love forests.

So there you have it! Our daughter!

"Phew! All this growing is exhausting."

This is the week! - 18 1/2 weeks

I'm 18 1/2 weeks, which means that on Friday I'll end the 19th week and begin the 20th week of pregnancy, according to our due date. On Friday we'll go into UCSF Hospital for the second trimester ultrasound. That means that if Baby cooperates and doesn't hide its bottom from the camera, we'll learn what sex it is! Which means that we can stop referring to it as "it"! Yay!!

Incidentally, the 20th week is the halfway point through a full-term pregnancy. Hurrah!

What's happening to Baby this week? According to the many baby development sites on the internet, a normal 19-week-old fetus weighs about half a pound and is about 6 inches long from head to bottom. Its arms and legs are finally proportionate, even though it's still skinny compared to a full-term baby, and soon it will be measured from head to toe. It can hear now, and it will soon be able to taste and smell as its brain develops the ability to process olfactory signals, and its eyes will be able to open. It's already able to make breathing movements, swallow and suck, and of course kick, bounce, roll, and punch. I've been feeling it move for several weeks now, and it's getting stronger and more active each day.

I'll probably post about the ultrasound Friday evening when we get home. See you then!

19 Weeks Pregnant

Hungry Mungry - 18 weeks

I am hungry. All. The. Time.

In honor of my appetite, I think Shel Silverstien's poem Hungy Mungry is quite fittin'.


Hungry Mungry - by Shel Silverstein
Hungry Mungry sat at supper,
Took his knife and spoon and fork,
Ate a bowl of mushroom soup, ate a slice of roasted pork,
Ate a dozen stewed tomatoes, twenty-seven deviled eggs,
Fifteen shrimps, nine bakes potatoes,
Thirty-two fried chicken legs,
A shank of lamb, a boiled ham,
Two bowls of grits, some black-eye peas,
Four chocolate shakes, eight angel cakes,
Nine custard pies with Muenster cheese,
Ten pots of tea, and after he,
Had eaten all that he was able,
He poured some broth on the tablecloth
And ate the kitchen table.

His parents said, "Oh Hungry Mungry, stop these silly jokes."
Mungry opened up his mouth, and "Gulp," he ate his folks.
And then he went and ate his house, all the bricks and wood,
And then he ate up all the people in the neighborhood.
Up came twenty angry policeman shouting, "Stop and cease."
Mungry opened his mouth and "Gulp," he ate the police.
Soldiers came with tanks and guns.
Said Mungry, "They can't harm me."
He just smiled and licked his lips and ate the U.S. Army.

The President sent all his bombers--Mungry still was calm,
Put his head back, gulped the planes, and gobbled up the bomb.
He ate his town and ate the city--ate and ate and--
And then he said, "I think I'll eat the whole United States."

And so he ate Chicago first and munched the Water Tower,
And then he chewed on Pittsburgh but he found it rather sour.
He ate New York and Tennessee, and all of Boston town,
Then drank the Mississippi River just to wash it down.
And when he'd eaten every state, each puppy, boy and girl
He wiped his mouth upon his sleeve and went to eat the world.

He ate the Egypt pyramids and every church in Rome,
And all the grass in Africa and all in ice in Nome.
He ate each hill in green Brazil and then to make things worse
He decided for dessert he'd eat the universe.

He started with the moon and stars and soon as he was done
He gulped the clouds, he sipped the wind and gobbled up the sun.
Then sitting there in the cold dark air,
He started to nibble his feet,
Then his legs, then his hips
Then his neck, then his lips
Till he sat there just gnashin' his teeth
'Cause nothin' was nothin' was
Nothin' was nothin' was
Nothin' was left to eat.

What's in a name? ~ 17 1/2 weeks

I've noticed that some expecting parents have asked friends and family to contribute ideas for baby names, and in some cases don't settle on a name until several days after the child is born. Doug and I have already chosen names, which we'll share with everyone once the baby is born. We'll share the sex as soon as we find out -- about 10 days from now -- but you'll just have to wait on the name.

In case you're feeling unfairly excluded from our naming process, you should know that long before we were married, Doug and I had already decided on a name for a girl child, if we ever had one. It took us a little bit longer to settle on a name for a boy. I had thrown one outrageous boy name out there just to be silly: "Constantine Bob" Puett. Doug was lobbying hard to name a boy something "awesome" out of Beowulf... like Hrothgar. I wasn't too excited about either comforting my poor bullied son or dealing with the results of his warrior-like exploits, should he live up to that name.

In the end we settled on two names which sound "just right" to both of us. Both first names are not uncommon in Scotland and Ireland, but they're fairly rare in the US. They are the names of characters in a story that's dear to both Doug and me, and our story. The girl's middle name was once quite common, and based on a character from a book; the boy's middle name is unusual, historically significant, and actually an obscure family name from Doug's family.

So there you have the story of the names!

In other news, nothing much new is happening. When I'm sitting still I can often feel Baby bouncing and scooting around in there, but it can't be felt on the outside of yet. My belly still isn't pooching out all that much, unless I eat a really big dinner, and I'm just generally thicker than usual through the middle. The books say that Baby is the size of a green Bell Pepper and that the whole pregnancy is about the size of a canteloupe.

That just makes me hungry. I need a snack.

Flutters and Swoops - 16 1/2 weeks

I can definitely feel my little hamster-sized creature moving around in there now. At my first ultrasound at 10.5 weeks I saw Baby wiggle like it was doing the boogie, and it rolled around a bit at my second ultrasound at 12.5 weeks, but it was too early to feel anything. I've been pretty sure I could  feel movement for 10 days or so, but I also accepted that the feeling could have been gas or my own muscle twitches. Nope, it's definitely Baby.

Every now and then I feel a good strong swooping feeling, which I imagine is the baby rolling and twisting. And the muscle-twitch feeling is definitely a thump from a hand or a foot or a head. It's not an uncomfortable or even particularly strong feeling, but I'm sensitive so I'm aware of it most of the time unless I'm walking or moving around. I keep thinking that if Baby is this active at 16 weeks, how bad is it going to be at 30-40?!

I remember when I was something of a "horse midwife" and I'd stand next to a mare and feel the foal bouncing and kicking away at her flank during the last few months. Sometimes the mare would grunt with a particularly well-placed thump. I think I might be in for a foal-like baby. Oh dear.

Forest Photo shoot! - 16 weeks

While everyone else in San Francisco was getting excited about the Super Bowl, Doug and I journeyed to Muir Woods, which is a national monument site a few miles past the Golden Gate bridge, for our first "official" baby photo shoot with Doug's new camera and tripod. The light was short-lived, and it got chilly fast, so we didn't get very many, but it was fun! Here are the best photos from that excursion. Enjoy!