She's arrived!

Congratulations to Anne & Jake! Their little one arrived last night, just before midnight (or so I hear) weighing in at a whopping 9 lb., 1 oz.. I can't wait to meet little Ella, sure to be Peanut's first friend.

Week 23

Goodness, I’ve nearly lost track of what week I’m in, how long I have left, and how my navel was ever pierced (seriously, you should see it—both sides of my piercing are now visible. It’s weird).

Truth be told, I do have entries, yet to be posted, from the prior couple of weeks. Photos, too. But, at the moment it’s all I can seem to do to fill you all in on the latest week. How did that happen? When did I become this incredibly amotivational person? We’ll chalk it up to this: things have been busy. Since last I updated, I have hosted a silk dyeing party for my belly dance troupe, performed as the Virgin Mary in our Nativity piece, co-planned and hosted a baby shower for dear Anne, BJ nearly completed painting the nursery, and, oh yeah, Turkey Day. We won’t even talk about work. Which, of course, is not to say that I haven’t done a lot of sitting on my (minimally) expanding behind. But, the nice thing about being pregnant is that ass-sitting is actually a requirement of the job. I can’t feel too guilty about it.

For those of you who have gotten to see me recently, the biggest development is my belly. Sometimes when I’m walking, I find myself leading with my stomach—it is quite a strange sensation. One of my coworkers (who wasn’t clued into my news, apparently) saw me in the hall yesterday and said, “You’re pregnant, too?!” At least it was apparent that pregnancy was the issue, not overindulgence on Thanksgiving!

Last night I had a dream that I was shopping for baby items with Peanut, who was about 5 months old. First, I still did not know the gender; it was not clearly a boy or a girl, and this was not a concern of mine in the dream. Stranger still, my little 5 month old could speak in 2-3 word phrases and was nearly walking. Now, this could have been related to BJ’s comment before we went to bed that Peanut is “ahead of the game” because this little one will not leave me alone! Babyzone.com says that about now I should feel like my insides are a jungle gym. I think that’s an understatement. It is totally delightful to feel our baby squirming around, but . . . (medical lesson approaching)

At about 20 weeks, the top of the uterus (fundus) should reach the mother’s belly button. Each week thereafter it climbs roughly another inch until there’s no more room. So, about now Peanut is able to sit directly behind my navel. Have you ever noticed that when you touch/scratch your belly button it feels particularly weird? Imagine getting a baby foot squarely behind that sucker. Now that is a weird feeling. The good news for our dear friends and family is that Peanut is now strong enough to not only be felt by someone other than me (ask BJ!), but can often be seen lashing out at my abdominal wall. Bethie, be glad you’re missing it—you might be inclined to sing and tap-dance to encourage the wee one.

In our non-Peanut lives (this is quickly becoming nonexistent), we had a wonderful Thanksgiving last Thursday. Super-gigantic thanks to Troy and Julie for hosting the drive-thru. And to all the cooks on that day, the food was once again amazing. It makes it really hard to save room for my mom’s dinner. But, Beej and I did enjoy having a little more time to sit and chat with everyone. Then off to mis padres for more delectable treats (one of BJ’s favorite phrases). Davey-O was home from school, looking well, and not jinxing himself regarding some girl in Carbondale. It never ceases to amaze me how random (and probably inappropriate) our dinner conversations are over there. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a holiday without someone crying, so I obliged. Mom, you didn’t really make me cry. But, the silliness of the conversation, and BJ telling me not to cry, and all these hormones . . . I couldn’t help it!

But, Monday it was back to work. BJ had taken the whole holiday week off, so lazy bones had a rough time of it Monday morning. Before getting up Monday, I had a very vivid / real preggo dream that my friend Anne had gone into labor that morning and didn’t come to work. There were other details, the accuracy of which freaked her out, that I won’t go into. She was there that morning, but when I went in this morning and my cell phone immediately starts to ring I knew. “You’re in trouble,” she says. Yup—little EBK is on her way right now! Just waiting for an update on her progress. But, I’ll tell you this: don’t argue with a pregnant woman’s dreams.

Odd

So I'm sitting here (on my day off--woohoo!) updating the crappy broken links I had on this site and I needed to get the URL for our Babies'R'Us registry. Just out of curiosity, I only enter our last name into the search. You know, Lippoldt is not exactly what I'd call a common name. Cunningham--forget about it! But Lippoldt? At least not in this country. There were 3 entries under Lippoldt! 3! And, 2 of them were in Oklahoma City (I just typed "Oklahomo"--Freudian slip?). Isn't that strange?

By the way--for those who are interested, I'm working out getting some of the ultrasound video posted this weekend. The files aren't very big, and our server space is massive, so it should be OK. I just gotta remember what that darn FTP address was . . . :-P

Many apologies for the plethora of techie references. I've been with BJ too long. Check out http://www.glossary-tech.com/ for some answers.

20 Weeks

Peanut
Originally uploaded by KLLippoldt.

THE ULTRASOUND!

Wow, where to start? Well, I guess with the fastest water chugging known to man. Before the appointment, I was directed to consume 32 oz. of water within a half hour the half hour prior to the appointment. Didja get that? Between 6 and 6:30 Monday night I downed 4, 8-oz. glasses of water . . . and wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom until 7:15! Oh, the torture. As I was sitting in the waiting room, tapping my foot, eyeballing the clock, I thought I might float away. But, once they got me stretched out on the table, I actually felt better. Apparently though, my bladder was so full the ultrasound tech was surprised I didn’t explode right there.

But, you didn’t want to know about my bladder, did you? It was the contents of that organ a little father north that was the star of the show. And did Peanut ever perform! All last week as I was feeling frequent movement BJ would comment that s/he was stretching and “getting ready for the big show.” If you haven’t gone through this, the first half of the ultrasound is the nuts’n’bolts, medical portion. The tech does rapid-fire pictures and measurements that will go to the physician to be interpreted. Apparently BJ broke a cardinal rule by asking questions during this time. You know, dangerous questions like “What is that?” or “Is that the head?” Granted, I’m sure they have to keep mum to eliminate the potential for legal trouble. Fortunately, she opened up a little, at least pointing out the brain, spinal cord and femur.

Then comes the fun part—I got to go to the bathroom. Ha! OK, I did, but really it was the photo session that was the most fun. Seeing Peanut in all her/his scrunched up glory, opening and closing her/his mouth (holy crap was that neat to watch on the screen), stretching her/his legs, sucking his/her thumb. And the center we had this done at performed 3D ultrasounds, so we got to see some real facial features. If you look closely at the picture, it looks like Peanut got my nose! How wonderful is that? Peanut is also apparently a creature of comfort, much like our four-legged baby, curled up next to the placenta like it’s a pillow. I’ve only included a couple photos here, but we got a whole CD of pictures and video—yes, video! Dad, I guess this baby will come out ready for your incessant filming—to keep forever.

I can’t help but wonder how women got through pregnancy without all these inside glimpses. In a way, I’m probably more anxious now to see Peanut than I was before we had the ultrasound. I have so much to do but still find myself thinking “Hurry up and get here!”

At the same time, I am loving being pregnant. Really and truly. When mom first shared with me how much she loved it, I thought she was crazy. There’s no way it was that wonderful. And, yeah, I’ve still got 20 weeks to go. But, it’s finally clicked—I’m a baby-growing machine. What an accomplishment! And, my body. I love it! Each moment I marvel at how I’ve grown compared to the moment before. And that means Peanut’s grown, too. Of course, the positive side effects don’t hurt either. Like the fact that my skin has totally cleared up, and I seem to have lost the body hair in places I didn’t want it (which, by the way, seems to be opposite of what I’d heard). Oh, don’t be gross. I’m talking about my hands and my feet. My friend Vicki said the other day that I’m really “flaunting” this pregnancy. Flaunting is probably a strong word, but why wouldn’t I show it off? The song says: “When you’re happy and you know it clap your hands!”

19 Weeks, aka "I'm Coming Out!"

Ka-POW! That’s how I’ve felt this week. Between having to shop for new tops in the maternity section and the never-ending nudges from Peanut . . . well, let’s just say it’s hard to ignore being pregnant anymore. I can definitely tell that Peanut is getting bigger and stronger. Some of his/her kicks and punches have been noticeable from the outside, not just my own feelings internally. BJ has yet to attempt to feel anything, though. I think he’s still coming to terms with the fact that I have a living organism growing in my belly. He’s probably watched a few too many sci-fi movies since he keeps describing it as “weird” and “alien”. Truly, hon—this babe is not going to burst through my chest tap dancing and singing “Ragtime Doll”. I swear!

I did have the coolest feeling recently; the other night, it seemed Peanut was doing laps. I felt this sliding movement start really low in my belly, move up my right side and then over to my belly button where s/he hovered for a moment before sliding back down the left side to rest at the bottom. It was as if someone had taken a Matchbox car and driven it in a large circle over my abdomen. (Sentimentality alert!) Every little motion and movement bonds me even more to little Peanut. That saying “It tugs on your heart strings”? I know it has a literal meaning now.