Science Project, Week 20

We're halfway there! 20 weeks or 5 months, and I can't believe this is the halfway mark! I was surprised to realize that full term is really 10 months, not 9 months, the way dates are counted. So much baby development has been invisible before now. My belly is now finally beginning to poke out, though it's hard to tell when I'm fully dressed. Sometimes when I tell people I'm 5 months along, they look incredulous. In fact, if I hadn't seen the ultrasounds and heard the heartbeat and been told development is right on track, I'd wonder if I was fantasizing the whole thing! I guess I'm just lucky and carry it well. I may be slim, but I've got strong abs and pretty good sized hips.

I had another ultrasound at 19 weeks, the last one I'll have for quite awhile. Now that we're over the chancy months, and it's been confirmed development is normal, my midwife says I get to relax and be test free for a while. I don't have another checkup for 6 weeks. Here's the little guy again, not looking much different from 16 weeks, but he is bigger.And yes! We're thinking of names. Real suggestions welcome!

Whither Spring?

Sigh. One of the reasons I don't miss Maine is that Spring comes to Seattle so much earlier. We've had crocuses, daffodils, snowdrops, and primroses for a month or more. But dang it's still cold! I want warm sunshine! And Bijou and JoJo agree:
We should all be out in the yard basking in the sunshine and enjoying the first outside (non-alcoholic) beer of the year. But no, we're snuggled up to heaters and still sleeping on flannel sheets. Cold rain, cold rain, cold rain, and sometimes slush from the sky. Most years I have to really restrain myself from putting my houseplants out before April 1st. This year I think I might even need to wait a few weeks longer. Well, hopefully we'll be repaid by an absolutely fabulous summer.

Whine whine whine

The Science Project

So, yeah, I haven't posted in a long time. I've even had stuff to post about, like how we went to Hawaii at the end of January, but no, I didn't post. I've been a little pre-occupied with what I wanted to post about but couldn't.

Our little Science Project. Michael and I are expecting a baby boy in mid August! Yay, I can finally say it! One reason we waited so long to share the news is that I had a couple of early miscarriages, and then because of my age (41 on 3/28), we wanted to wait until after we had good results from the amnio. The results are in and they're good! No extra or broken chromosomes, and it's a boy!

Aside from the setbacks, I've really enjoyed the Science Project aspect of this. So much cool technology! Charting ovulation temps was kind of fun. Seeing ultrasounds is very cool. Getting pictures of our son's chromosomes is awesome!

I'll try to post pictures and updates more regularly now, but meanwhile, here's a photo roundup. The Bean at 8 weeks. The midwife thought this was so cool, but I was like "Huh? Where is it?" Thus, the helpful arrow I've drawn to the little white splotch. This picture is why I've been calling him The Bean.








The Bean at 11 weeks. Vaguely humanoid, which was very startling! He moved a lot, and we could see his little heart beating.












The Bean at 16 weeks. Definitely a person! The arms aren't visible here, but you can see a face, the spine, a hip bone and a femur. We were amazed at how developed the bones were. Seeing the complex ribcage and spine was especially cool.









My little belly at 17 weeks. Not much to it, but it's bigger even now, just 2 weeks later.










And the coolest of all, the chromosomes!











I'm afraid this blog may now become uninteresting to non parents, but I hope to keep up with more non-baby blogging, too. I need to tell you about Hawaii!