IT'S A DATE

Alright all you curious aunties (real and surrogate alike), uncles and grandparents... we have a date! The ultrasound is officially scheduled for MONDAY, MAY 4 at 3:00PM. Rich doesn't work on Monday afternoons throughout this rotation and I already have my time off approved, so in just one short week we will see our little child for the very first time. Rich and I will do our best to share the experience and the sex of the baby with everyone as quickly as possible, but we welcome your calls or texts if you start to get impatient.

Another date that is feeling more and more real is MAY 8th, when we expect to close on our first home. Everything is moving along smoothly at this point (lending relations, fix-it projects on the part of the seller, etc) and we have no reason to expect that we won't be signing our names on some outrageously serious documents at the end of next week. But as Rich is always quick to remind me, we can't go around counting our chickens before they hatch... so dear friends and family, please continue to pray for the baby and all our chickens! We don't want to begin taking anything for granted at such an exciting but precarious time.

Well I'm again posting just one day shy of the start of a new week of the baby's development. Tomorrow marks the first day of week 19 for the baby and me. One pretty exciting milestone of this week is the baby's sensory perception. He or she is developing the many different spots of the brain that will categorize sights, sounds, smells and feelings (touch). Some researches say that the baby may already start to hear our voices. Little do they know, this poor child has been listening to me sing in the shower and the car for weeks now (I even felt some groovin' going on in my belly this morning on the drive to work). But I'm not quite sure I want him or her to know that's --ugh!-- mommy's voice. Then again, I suppose there's still plenty of time before the baby can verbally express any complaints. In other news, the baby is also now about 8.5 ounces in weight and should measure roughly 6 inches from head to rump (not including legs outstretched). Quite the little grower in there!

As far as mommy goes, I'm still doing fine. My sources tell me all sorts of akward skin changes are just around the corner, but we won't discuss those here. I am, however, willing to admit an appetite change. In regular life I tend to be one of those people who really looks forward to breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and snack time), but now the desire to eat is unmistakable. I already put Rich on 'junk patrol' so that I have some extra support plugging healthy extras into my diet instead of chocolate, cake, muffins, ice cream, cookies, chips, candy, chocolate... I could go on. And just for the record, if anyone reading this ever decides to commit to any silly, new health-conscious habits in the future, my husband is the man to have on your side (and by your side, I mean completely and utterly against you when you realize it's time to bend your commitment just once). He's a pro... what a stellar doctor I have.

Alright, enough of my babbling! I've got more unwinding to do, away from my computer screen, before Rich gets home from the school function he's at. We love you all, we always appreciate your comments and support, and we're often thinking of you.

BITTERSWEET

Today was my 18 week prenatal appointment, and I have been looking forward to it since Monday. Time off of work on a sunny day, one step closer to securing our ultrasound...I was thrilled. And then while sitting in traffic on my way to see the Obstetrician I got on the phone with a friend who filled me in on the latest news about the 'morning after pill'.

For anyone who had their head in the sand most of the week like I did, the news originates back in March when a federal judge ruled that 17-year-old women should be allowed over-the-counter access to the 'morning after pill', a large dose of contraception, taken within 72 hours of intercourse, that either prevents conception or inhibits an already fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall to grow. Previously this pill was only available to women ages 18 and up. In addition to the ruling, the judge also asked the FDA to weigh in on whether or not it thinks that these age restrictions should be lifted all together. Yesterday the FDA announced that it accepted and will not appeal this legal ruling, and it will investigate age requirements further. You can read the full story here.

So to make my long story short, my mood turned around rather abruptly after hearing this news. Sitting on the crowded highway I realized that in the same week I felt our baby's first kick, governmental bodies (no, individual people) had approved more wide-spread availability of a detrimental drug that will prevent any number of lives from ever beginning. Any number of other individual people from ever stepping into the world to make their imprint. Of course I was no longer just considering this particular event, but rather the many ways our culture acts destructively toward (unborn) life. When I finally arrived at the Obstetrician's office I was agitated at both the traffic and the news. To make matters worse I sat in the examining room for close to a hour with nothing to do but read the posters on the wall again and again. One contraceptive advertisement after another, after another, after another...

The actual time I spent with the doctor, on the other hand, was just fine. She gave me the necessary information to schedule our ultrasound, measured my belly (which is just perfect!) and let me listen to the baby's heartbeat again. It took her a minute to get a good sounding beat, but once she did the baby rolled right over and, "wa-whoosh, wa-whoosh, wa-whoosh!!" He or she laid right up against doppler and immediately grabbed all our attention with an extremely loud heartbeat. "Here I am!" the movement seemed to delcare. The doctor just smiled and said that I've got quite the little ham in there. Nothing wrong with our baby wanting to be center of attention, I thought. I left on a happy note.

Well since I made so much mention of my 'distaste' of contracepting without offering a great deal of explanation, I will do what I can in another post to unveil more of my thoughts on life. Besides, with our baby well on the way what better opportunity could there be to discuss such a beautiful topic?

POW!!

Despite all the praise I'm getting for finally updating the blog, I think I posted a day too soon... because this evening I have more big news to share.

THE BABY KICKED!

As I said yesterday I have felt some suspicious flutterings here and there, but this evening I felt three big kicks that actually moved my belly out. It was literally amazing. Rich left around 6pm for his night shift so I had to share the big news with him in a voicemail, but I was able to call Grandma Tam and share the excitement with her instead. After no 'outward' movement at all I couldn't believe how violent these kicks were... Mom said we must have a future swimmer in there doing flip turns. Wouldn't that be fun (though I think I'd settle for a soccer player too).

Wow. What a fantastic way to start the work week and to end the 17th week of pregnancy. Thank you all for sharing in my excitement.

MOVING & GROOVING (& GROWING)

I've been getting heckled from some of my 'audience' members for not posting frequently enough. So I'll try to make this post worth everyone's while. As most of our friends and family already know, Rich and I have had a lot on our plate lately. During the last month or so we spent several weekends looking for our first home in South Bend... and we found it! (Well, we're still waiting on pending inspections, but we hope to close the first weekend of May). It's a beautifully renovated old, two-story home. It's very cozy, has three bedrooms and two full baths and a double lot. There is just the right amount of room inside and out for mom, dad and the baby. The many arrangements between us, the lender, the seller and our realtor have been very time consuming, but well worth it. We've also been learning a lot (thank goodness for great supportive parents and a very informative realtor). As for work, Rich has been trudging through some long overnight hours in the ER, and I've been fairly busy wrapping up the 7 week program I'm teaching at work. Rich had to work all Easter weekend while I was in Indiana and we haven't seen much of each other lately, but we made up for it with lots of one-on-one time this weekend. What a relief.

Now for the baby. The day after tomorrow marks the beginning of the baby's 18th week of development. He or she is around 5 and a half inches long from head to rump (bell pepper size), and is moving often. In fact I've noticed that every few days, at similar time periods when I'm very still or relaxed, I can feel little 'flutters' inside. It's so exciting to know that what the baby is doing is now measurable by what I'm feeling. It will be even better when the movements get stronger and I can share them with Rich. All that activity our little baby is doing merits a recently formed second layer of skin (now he or she has both an epidermis and a dermis) as well as a slipperly, bruise-proof substance all over. He or she also has padded little fingertips and toes which will soon display a unique set of prints, owned by only one little person in the whole wide world. And (drum roll, please) our baby's sex organs are externally developing! When it's ultrasound-time, in just two weeks, we should have a clear view of the baby in all his or her glory! My impatience has peaked and I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!

Well despite all this action going on inside of my body, I'm personally feeling great. For the last few weeks my body has started to return to normal. I notice that I can once again easily operate on less than 9 to 10 hours of sleep a night (which was unheard of from week 8 to 15) and hardly any foods upset my stomach. I'm sure poor Rich is relieved that I'm no longer shooting down all his dinner suggestions for no apparent reason. My only physical complaint is an increase in dizziness. Inconvenient as it is, Rich explained that this is to be expected since I'm producing a huge amount of blood and my vessels are all dilated, so sometimes my blood 'pools' in the lower half of my body. Finally, the most obvious and exciting development is the size of my belly. As you can see from my photos, the 'bump' is growing. It's certainly no longer in question that I'm sporting a baby on the inside.

With all that big news off my chest, it's time for my to close the laptop. I have just a few more weekend hours to spend with my wonderful husband before he turns into a night owl on thirds and I stay on regular work hours... missing each other almost entirely throughout the week. Rich and I hope everyone reading enjoys a fantastic Spring week, full of lots of meaningful people and work. We look forward to talking with you soon.