Pregger on the Beach

This summer Ryan and I have a share in a house on Fire Island. It is a quarter share which means we get to go up every 4 weeks and have a bedroom to ourselves. There are 6 other people in the house on these weekends -- always the same 6. This past weekend was one of our weekends, so we took the opportunity to take some pregger on the beach photots. We took some pictures of Ryan too, but he doesn't seem to reflect 5 months of pregnancy with his poses. I am currently at the end of my 21st week.





Here is a Jessi's eye view of the tummy:

20th week anatomy scan

Yesterday I went for my 20th week ultrasound which is an "anatomy scan". In this visit they want to check to make sure everything is ok from the brain to the liver to the toes. It was quite a long scan -- the technician had the ultrasound on me for 30 minutes. It was pretty interesting though. Its amazing how much they can see in an ultrasound. Everything checked out ok. She checked the brain, measured some bones and looked at the blood flow to some internal organs (wow)!! While she was looking for the ears to check she had a hard time because she said my little girl kept covering her ears with her hands. Poor thing -- probably too loud in there with the ultrasound going. I read somewhere that the sound should be comparable to a helicoptor. Funny.

The only anomaly she found was actually on the mother and not the baby. She said I have two fibroids on my uterus. Which she described as masses of muscle. She said its nothing for concern. When I asked what problems they could cause she said that sometimes they make it hard to conceive and if they are positioned over the cervix it may make vaginal birth difficult. But thats not the case with me and she said they are pretty small. She also said it runs in the family and that my mother probably has them. Interesting.

I have some more ultrasound pics from this visit which I'll post. They aren't that much different from the previous ones but there is a particularly cute one of her feet. :)

I'm halfway at 20 weeks wow! And I feel like I'm growing faster now. The fit of my clothing seems to change each week. The technician said I can expect to gain about 1 pound a week here on out.

I'm already having some difficulty getting and staying comfortable while seated at work -- not to mention while sleeping. So I'm not looking forward to getting bigger and more uncomfortable!

Jess

new doc appt and kicks

Today I had another Doc. Appointment. They are all rather routine. I guess this would be my 4th. The first two appointments he used an ultrasound to detect the baby and measure the growth. The last time and this time he used a fetal heartbeat monitor so we could hear the baby's heartbeat. Its a nice validation that the baby is still healthy in there since there isn't terribly much movement at this stage.

I'm at 19 weeks (next tues will be 20 weeks, 1/2 way!). And I've just started to feel little kicks now and again. To me they feel like a little version of riding on a roller coaster -- when you just come over the edge of the top of a hill and you start to decend, you feel your stomach drop a little. Thats what it feels like, but on a much smaller scale.

We found out last week that the baby will be a girl. This was seen on an ultrasound (the technicion pointed out the labia!) and then verified by the amnio results. Of course the amnio results also told us that we have a healthy baby, which I was much relieved to hear.

Next week I will have a anatomy scan which is another ultrasound that essentially checks that the anatomy is all well and good. It is supposed to get done at 20 weeks.

Ryan I have just started to fill out our registry for the baby showers. I will have one in Kearney and one in Mpls, just two weeks apart in July. Ryan has been very diligent in researching the very best baby stuff we need from strollers to cribs. Its fun to see him getting into it, since up until now the baby's existence has seemed a little surreal.

Now its becoming more real because I'm showing enough to be identified as a noticibly pregnant woman. Last week I was offered a seat on the subway for the first time. That and the kicks make me feel officially pregnant. I also told work last week which is a relief because I can now wear anything I want and not try to hide the growing bulge.

out for now
Jess

The Ultrasounds

We also have a couple close ups of our new e.r.b., originally and affectionately known as the blob:

This first ultrasound was at 8 weeks.

With the second ultrasound we were relieved to see we were actually carrying a more human shaped baby:

This ultrasound was at 17 weeks.

Introducing our East River Baby

We've decided to start a blog to share news and photos with our friends/families regarding our upcoming addition. And since our baby will be growing up on the Lower East Side, close to the ever-changing east river waterway, it is thus named eastriverbaby. We hope you will enjoy. Our first entry should include a current photo of the baby, who is currently just 18 weeks old in utero.