it's Vegas, baby!

I spent most of Friday evening watching t.v. I don't normally tune into (it's a long story) and caught an episode of the show Las Vegas. Delinda, one of the characters on the show, played by Molly Sims, is quite pregnant at this point in the season. Something just didn't seem right as I sat there watching. Maybe it was because I was sitting in an uncomfortable chair and had only had a bag of pretzels for dinner, but finally, about halfway through the show I figured out why I was squirming (those high heels sure looked painful, but that wasn't it). A smoke-filled Las Vegas casino seems like just about the last place I'd want to work while pregnant.

from the mouths of...childless whores?

Planning for a baby is, so far at least, a lot like planning a wedding. When you find out about the "big day", if you're like me at least, you read just about everything you can get your hands on (until you feel exhausted and overwhelmed and you take a break...only to start up again a bit later). Pregnancy's been no different for me; I even have a pregnancy journal and organizer. I don't use it as much as I thought I would (not like my wedding organizer, which I carried around with me everywhere during the nine months it took for that event to gestate), but I love the idea of it. I remember being really disappointed, for example, when I couldn't find an organizer for our cross-country move a few years ago.

Anyway, in addition to the standards, like What To Expect When You're Expecting and it's related website and message boards, lately I've been enjoying antidotes, if you will, to the soft focus, best-thing-ever tone of much of what's written about pregnancy and motherhood. Like Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay, which a friend loaned to me right after Christmas. And today I started going back through some of Heather Havrilesky's writing on the topic of being pregnant and "manufacturing brand new human beings." I have taken the liberty of sorting through and listing here the blog posts specifically about being pregnant, beginning with this confession. When I re-read it just now, I laughed almost as hard as I do when I'm catching up on new LOL cat posts. This post is basically a pointer to this article she wrote for Salon about her impending motherhood, at that time just four weeks away. In this final pre-delivery post, just five days away from her due date, she writes about feeling "dumb and spaced out," and redirects her readers to this article, a review of said book above. And finally, this post, a couple of months after delivery.

I don't think she's lost her "stupid edge" at all.

showing a little skin

Okay, here's the updated bump, about four months along. My due date keeps being revised to somewhere between June 12th and 19th, so I'm either at the beginning of week 18 or week 19. It's not like it's a perfect science or anything. Anyway, once again, the image was taken not long after a meal (but nothing like the feast that preceded the Christmas week image). I came out of the bathroom proclaiming how pregnant I look tonight, and my partner in crime immediately went searching for the camera. Getting a 4-month image was on our to-do list for the weekend, after all. So this is one of the first shots he got.

I then went into the bedroom to inspect the bump a bit closer. Little did I know the camera-man continued snapping away. I don't plan to post exposed belly images all that often, but somehow I feel like this little bit of skin is a lot more pregnant looking than my covered-up pudge, don't you? I think I was actually demonstrating how I feel like the Pillsbury Doughboy right about now, like I'd have a nice, round pregnant belly if it weren't for my belly button, which is nowhere near protruding but instead looks a lot like the spot where somebody just poked the rising dough.

is that a foot?

As noted earlier, the big ultrasound took place this morning. Baby G (that's the nickname that seems to stick) was in a jackknife position throughout most of the scan (legs up, arms wrapped around) so while the technician spotted the proof pretty quickly, it took her awhile to get back to an image that would support her exclamation, "It's a boy!"


Yep, that's their educated guess at this point and I have to say, it's so nice to be able to say, with some confidence, "he" and "him" instead of "it" or stumbling awkwardly over "he or she." We were surprised - the Chinese gender charts dictated otherwise - but not disappointed. Obviously, we're thrilled and this works out well since we've only received one outfit so far that's obviously meant for a girl.

Anyway, the ultrasound is an exciting but odd experience, especially when they're more interested in measuring the bladder and stomach and you just want a good look at your baby's profile and to make sure he's moving around in there. They move that probe around so much and point things out without lingering more than a couple of seconds, I tend to abstain from blinking for awhile so I won't miss anything. I realize the procedure has its purpose, but I just wish they'd give us a few lingering glances now and then. And maybe about a hundred more print-outs. This one, the second of only two, while not that much different from the one above, upon closer inspection is pretty interesting. With the position he was in, I wouldn't be surprised if that thing near his head is actually his foot.


I can't wait to feel that little foot kick!

Oh, and the dreaded weigh-in went surprisingly well. It's amazing what a light breakfast, inappropriately warm-weather clothing, no shoes, and emptying your bladder before stepping on the scale will do for you. Their scale registered no gain since my appointment four weeks ago...before the holidays. I was just hoping for four pounds or less! And I'm pretty sure the actual gain is more like 4, maybe 5 or 6, pounds, according to my scale at home. I guess I should be more consistent, huh?

Anyway, I'll be back this weekend with an updated belly shot, possibly sporting one of my new maternity tops.

where does the pre-existing pudge end and the baby bump begin?

That's a tricky one, especially post-holidays, but I think I'm finally starting to look a tad pregnant and not just extra pudgy. Here's the first pic we've taken specifically of the belly, impromptu during a day-after-Christmas walk.


It should be noted that the walk followed a three-plate excursion to the brunch buffet at the Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, California.

I have a feeling I may have exceeded the ideal pound-per-week and sort of dread the monthly weigh-in at our appointment next Friday. The appointment is also when our big ultrasound takes place, though, and the sex of the baby is magically unveiled. Initially I was hesitant to find out at all, but now that the appointment is nearing, I can hardly wait until January 11th, let alone until our EDD of June 12th. Plus, the way I see it, if you think about it, when it's a surprise, the new mom is really the last to know, the medical team, partner and anyone else in the room getting a good look for themselves a second or so before passing the news along. After nine months of pregnancy and who knows how many hours of delivery, or maybe even surgery, that doesn't seem fair. And I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises over the next 18 years or so.

Other than gaining perhaps a little too much weight during our holiday travels, visiting almost all of my in-laws in less than a week, with the pregnancy only recently announced, was downright exhausting. The attention was not only greater than during past visits, but often kind of uncomfortable. We're still getting used to this news ourselves, to be honest, so I was caught off guard when people asked about when to visit post-delivery and what our plans were next holiday season. We were encouraged to "practice" our baby handling skills on a 2-month-old belonging to the friend of an extended family member (Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic for the arrival of my own baby, and adore the offspring of family and friends, of course, but I'm not the kind of person who asks to hold a stranger's baby.). I had my belly rubbed for the first time. I might have been somewhat asking for it, having worn a maternity top before I could really fill it out, but it still came as a surprise this early on. To get an accurate feel for the baby bump at this stage, you basically have to put your hand right above my crotch and that's just awkward.