Ultrasound day

Even if I'm not the one with a wiggling baby inside me, it was pretty amazing to see the ultrasound this morning.
There were all Petey's bits and pieces, in the right numbers and in good working order. Hearing that mighty little heart a few weeks back was delightful, but to see it pumping was just spectacular. What purpose and rhythm!
I was surprised at how much he rolled and tumbled. I imagined, when Rhia felt kicks (and I felt one too through her belly last night) that the it was just the baby stretching arms or legs. But this morning he did a lot of rolling with impressive speed.
(And "he" remains a pronoun of convenience--I tried, but I couldn't discern THOSE bits and pieces).
I developed a bit of a cold earlier in the week. No really serious symptoms but it's just sucked all the energy out of me. I stayed home yesterday to get some rest. I headed in to work after the ultrasound this morning but after three hours I was just dead to the world.
So by early afternoon I found myself curled up in a fetal position under the covers and I couldn't help but imagine Petey in his little home.
I was thinking, well, he's a little more squished. But then, I had a 13-pound cat sleeping on top of me.

Tomorrow night, we and Petey are going to a Christmas ball. And Saturday, Neil Young and Wilco!

Ultrasound

Petey:

• Measures 20 weeks 4 days (by last menstrual period math, he was 19w6d)
• Weighs 14oz!
• IS BEAUTIFUL
• Has such cute toes and arms and legs and fingers
• Has a heart that looks just PERFECT
• has a three-strand cord
• and a brain!
• and IS BEAUTIFUL
• and so wiggly.
• hid his little face away from the scanner
• rolled over and over
• kicked and stretched and PEED! (though I have to take the ultrasound tech's word for that one)
• is amazing
• has so many parts - like kidneys and a stomach and a bladder!
• AND IS BEAUTIFUL

I am in love. As though I weren't before.

Anyway, last night he was doing his evening rolling around, and then he started whomping me, so I called John up to put his hand on my tummy -- and John thinks he felt him.

And oh.

Just yes.

Rolls and tumbles

Yep - that's definitely my Petey moving in there! Awesome.

Nesting - or something like it...

Since class is keeping me too busy to do much preparation in the nursery, (December can't come soon enough!) I seem to find myself mostly nesting by shopping the internet (see sidebar.)

Most of the time I can contain my happy fingers and haven't yet had to resort to keeping my credit card in the freezer. Still, in the past couple of weeks, I've made a few key purchases.

One thing we know for sure is that we will be using cloth diapers. Fortunately we have several trailblazing friends who've done most of the research for us, so we know which direction we want to go in terms of styles.

For the beginning, when we'll go through the most, we've decided to go with pre-folds and snazzy covers. A little later, though, I think I'll get a beefed up collection of Fuzzi Bunz.

Of course, once I'd made my decision, that credit card got a workout. Right now, I'm sharing the couch with a double-diapered Stitch doll. (John needed a demonstration.)

Then there are the tiny clothes I can't help myself from picking up if I end up in a thrift store, or the teeny, tiny Robeez that I got off Kijiji...

Anyway, it's fun, and it will tide me over til the full scale rearranging and decorating can begin! Now if only Ikea weren't being total idiots and refusing to ship the crib I have my heart set on...

Ageless Beauty

Last night we took Petey* to his first rock show. We saw Stars at the Marquee. It had been a pretty social weekend, with two Halloween parties on Friday and a Wardroom birthday party at King's earlier that evening.

So being slightly partied out and, hey, pregnant, we hung out way in the back at a table.

We wondered what Petey might think of it all--how did those gut-rumbling bass notes sound and feel in his little pool? He has functioning ears, according to the various sites and books we've been reading.
We didn't get any definitive reaction from Petey. We had a good night though, even if we were out past our bedtimes for the second straight night. The band seemed to hit all our favourite songs from each album including Ageless Beauty right near the middle of the set.
At this stage I sometimes jokingly think of Petey as being, say, -6 months old. But maybe Petey's just ageless, and certainly beautiful.

That's us in our costumes up there. I was an octopus and Rhia the deep ocean. This particular pic (by Jen Laurette) doesn't show them off very well, but I think we look pretty darn good.



*A note on terminology: "Petey" is a long-running in-joke in our household. A name for the goat, budgie, platypus, etc. we have in an imaginary menagerie. (Don't let Rhia know I told you this, but it's after Peter Mansbridge, her newsman crush.) So, it's kind of like the Warner Brothers' monster (a la Steinbeck) who says, "I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George." In thes early weeks of pregnancy, whatever's swimming around in there has seemed pretty imaginary, so it's become Petey too. We often refer to Petey as a "he" but that doesn't mean anything. We don't know and we have no preference. Just shorthand.